A Hanford resident who attended the Bruce Willis blues concert at the Tachi Palace and Casino Thursday night got a thrill when the actor/singer gave him the harmonica he was playing.

"I'm not going to sell this, Donald Trump can't buy it from me," said Jimmy Ables, 46.

Ables was at the Palace with his brother-in-law, Tom Lundgren, when a woman walked up to the two and asked them if they wanted tickets to the concert.

"I looked at the tickets, and they were $75," he said.

Ables, who is paralyzed from the waist down, said another woman saw him and told him she would fight to get him up to the front of the stage.

"And she did fight, I got right up front to where I could slap the stage," he said.

He said he handed his ticket to Willis hoping he would sign it, but the actor didn't get a chance to return it, as he was almost pulled into the crowd when he shook Ables' hand.

"I'm more of a rock-and-roller and country person myself. I've been to many concerts, ZZ Top, The Scorpions, but this was the best concert I've been to," he said.

"Tears of the Sun," the 2003 Bruce Willis war flick, played on Ables' television as he recalled the event.

He said he wouldn't play the harmonica, and that he planned on keeping it in a safe and some day handing it down to his grandchildren.

"I blew in it once, and my brother-in-law said 'It's got his DNA on it, Jimmy!' So I said, 'Yeah, I better not blow on it.' It's got his DNA on it, that can be proved right there."

The reporter can be reached at 582-0471, ext. 3043.

(July 29, 2007)