Use socket.io without having to use 'connection'

This is the code that works:

 io.sockets.on('connection', function (socket) {
   socket.on('event', function(data) {
       //This listens for 'event', but also listens for 'connection'
    });   
 });

I want to remove the .on('connection') because it messes with the rest of my server.

I would imagine that this would work:

    io.sockets.on('event', function(data) {
       //This even should work, right?
    });

My main goal is to listen for the event called event, without having to listen for connection