A superfan keeps an autograph forever

It was a Saturday, the first day of March, and Josie DeLeon had just gotten home from a shift at the Caldwell YMCA, where she works in housekeeping. She did a few chores and then picked up her phone around 9:30 p.m. to scroll Facebook.

She couldn’t believe what she saw in her feed: Post Malone was hanging out at Indian Creek Steakhouse, a 10-minute drive away.

She sprung off the sofa, threw on a change of clothes and sprinted for the car with her husband and one of her sons. By then her kids’ friends were calling: Does your mom know Post Malone is in Caldwell?

By the time Josie got there, a crowd had gathered. Post Malone was seated with an entourage upstairs, watching a band play. Josie caught a glimpse of him, but then he disappeared. She thought she’d missed her chance, and then her son spotted the famous musician across the restaurant. Josie skirted a crowd. Suddenly, while already wrapping her arms around him, she was asking Post Malone if she could hug him.

It all happened fast, but there was enough time for Josie’s son to snap a few photos, and for Post Malone to autograph the inside of Josie’s left forearm. In black marker, he scrawled a P and an M and a quick doodle of a flower – Josie’s breathless request, for the title of one of her favorite songs, Sunflower.

She will have the autograph forever. The day after Post Malone penned it, Josie had it made permanent. At 45, it is her first tattoo.

“They say you can’t take anything with you when you go,” says the shy mom of five. “But I’m taking this.”

To know anything about Josie is to know that she loves Post Malone. She owns Post Malone collectibles and saw him in concert in Portland in 2022. She has been to the Utah restaurant that he designed and to see his wax statue in Las Vegas. The only reason she has an Instagram account is so could post photos of herself with Post Malone’s truck to try to score free tickets to one of his shows.

She didn’t win, but when Post Malone performs in Boise this summer, Josie will be there; her sons went in on tickets for her. One of them is an avid online gamer, and friends he plays against have asked more than once why they can always hear Post Malone in the background.

“There’s no one else famous I’ve ever wanted to meet,” Josie says. “This is my bucket list.”

The morning after the autograph, Josie held her arm out of the water while she showered, and then she called tattoo shops until she found one that could see her that day. Her brother’s idea, the tattoo was done by Jesse Jones at Ink Slaves in downtown Boise.

It is more than memorabilia. Josie means it when she says that Post Malone’s music is really all she listens to, often for an entire eight-hour shift at the YMCA. Posty is also vital when she is making elaborate, beautifully decorated special occasion cakes, a side hustle.

“If I’m not listening to him, it won’t come out,” she says. “I’ll get frustrated and I’ll have to start over.”

Post Malone has gotten her through some of the toughest times in her life, which she says have been many.

“Whatever is happening, his music just erases it. Even days I wish I wasn’t here anymore,” she says.

“People have told me that with everything I’ve been through, I should be a sour person by now. But that’s not me.”

In the photos from the night she met Post Malone, her arms are wrapped tightly around his waist, his six feet of height towering above her four feet and nine inches.

“When I hugged him, it felt like my pain was healing.

“I didn’t want to let go.”

Published June 2025

Josie

Jake