Meeting celebs... share your stories...

mystixboi1

mystixboi1

Kick Henry Jackassowski
I wanted to post this last week, but never got around to it. I wanted to share two funny stories from Namm 2018. One of my favorite things about the whole Namm experience was running into celebrities and sharing a few moments with them… I got to meet a bunch of celebrities and most of them were really cool and were engaged in the conversation. Here’s a few quick stories:

1. Pete Thorn – I kept stalking the Suhr booth on day 1 because I heard Pete Thorn would be there. On my 4th visit to the booth, he was finally there so I walked up to him and to say I’m a big fan of his playing and reviews and I’d love a picture. To my surprise, he said, “Of course man!!! Hold on… come meet John….”. I’m thinking “wut?!?!?’. He then introduced me to John Suhr and said, “John, you have to meet this guy. He’s a monster monster shredder!!!” . John looked at me with a smile and said, “Wow… that’s great!”. Then Pete added, “Yeah, his band (I forget the name he mentioned) used to play shows with my old band in L.A. He is a wizward on the fretboard.

I didn’t have the heard to tell him that he was totally mistaking me for another person. I just smiled and took the selfie. We exchanged a few more pleasantries then I thanked him and high tailed it out of there.

2. Nita Strauss – I was hanging at the Ibanez booth for a bit and I saw Nita showed up. She was immediately surrounded by people. I figured the crowd would die down after a bit so I left and came back later but the crown never died down. She was there for at least an hour or so just taking pics and talking to people. I finally decided to get in line and waited for my chance to meet her. The woman right in front of me asked Nita if she could set up a time for them to meet for a 10 min interview. Nita suggested that they do it right there and then she turned to all of us asking if she could do the interview before taking any other pics.

When I finally got my turn, I planned on saying, “wow, I’ve seen you out here for the last hour or so. You’re so gracious and a really trooper to hang out with your fans for so long” BUUUUUT I got star struck(which never happens). I ended up saying, “hiii… you’re a troooooper”. DERP. She graciously smiled with a quasi confused look on her face and said “Thanks!!!!”. We took our pic and I went on my way. Total dork.

3. Steve Morse – He was hanging in the Music Man booth before a meet and greet. I waited just a few minutes to speak to him and I couldn’t believe how cool he was. I mentioned how I thought the Music Man Y2D was one of my favorite production models ever. He then motioned over to the Y2D he had on stage and told me a whole story about it as a proto and the amp he was using. He went on and on and was just so humble the whole time.

I’d love to hear some other stories you all might have had.
 
I met Burt Ward (Robin from the 1960s Batman TV series) at Walker Scott department store when I was 5. I asked him where Batman was. Apparently he got that... A lot. :)
 
I've never been to a NAMM, as I'm not in the music business. I'll stick with music people for "famous" for the sake of the thread. Most famous people I know are scientists...and they are only famous to other scientists. So, here is the music list that come to mind.

I met Steve Vai at an Ibanez event in Chicago back in the 1990's. He was super nice and hung around and talked to every fan there and signed anything you put in front of him. He talked about gear, music, his history, etc at great length and was super cool. My college roommate's dad worked for Ibanez and was an artist relations guy so I got in with a good pass. Vai was super nice to me, but we was nice to everyone, including the crowd at large.

I met Jeff Beck waiting out by his tour bus in NYC. I had just watched the show and he was hanging around outside waiting to leave. My friend Tom and I talked to him about his vintage cars. He didn't really want to talk about guitars or music, but rather steered conversation back to cars and car racing. He was still very nice and quite pleasant.

I told the Les Paul story here before. My wife got my anniversary tickets to see Les at the Iridium in NY. He spent the night hitting on my wife as part of his live show. It was hilarious. He came over between sets and got us a free round of drinks and we talked about guitars and stuff. A really great guy.

I shook hands with Buddy Guy. He seemed like an asshole, but it was the Chicago Blues Festival and he probably had to meet like 20K people that day. I understand it. He wasn't unpleasant, he just seemed to not want to be there.

Nuno Bettencourt is one of my sister in law's cousins, or second cousins, or something. She has like 50 cousins, and many are named Nuno. I guess it is a Portuguese thing or something. I met him like once or twice, but it wasn't really a rock star meet and greet, but rather a family thing so we never really talked about music or anything like that, or even talked at all other than a quick hello and who was related to who. It never seemed appropriate to nerd out about guitar at a wedding or whatever.

Jason Newstead is a resident of Jupiter, Florida where I used to live. My friends Erik and Michelle run an open mic jam thing around town and Jason is a regular player and participant. I've met him many times and played with him a few times as well. This is in the context of an open mic jam night, so we played songs together in a group and such, but it isn't like we were in a band together or anything like that. He is super cool and really friendly. I've seen him spend time explaining chords and changes to beginners and stuff with great patience and enthusiasm. He seems like he just digs music and sharing music.
 
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No guitar folks other than Rik Emmit and Triumph. Me and a friend combed their hotel looking for them like total jerks, as we were leaving the hotel we saw them eating and just totally went over to their table and poised of their bassist. We apologized and went to a table and ordered a soda. After they finished eating the bassist came over and said that even if it wasn't cool what we did he appreciated the fans and signed an autograph, then told us we could go over. Rik told us to sit down and bullshitted with us for a few. Great guy, we should have told him we didn't have tickets because we were broke.

Met Tom Seaver as a kid at my friends family barbeque. They were related some way. I didn't follow baseball and didn't realise how great that was.

Met Roberto Duran at Toboga island in Panama when I was stationed there. He was nice enough to pose for photos, mostly with the girls we had with us.

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Shared a freight elevator at the Pentagon with Stephen Hawking in 1992. I only knew he was a scientist of some sort and didn't say anything because, I mean really, what do you say when I'm sure its a pain in the ass for him to communicate. The lady pushing the chair said Hi though.
 
In college, I was lucky enough to be in a band with a pretty big local following, so we got asked to open for larger bands bunch. Dave Matthews band, Hootie and the Blowfish, 311 and the Violent Femmes. They were all really nice to us except for Dave Matthews, he was kind of a dick.

My favorite run in, was actually a run in. I took the metro to see the Jayhawks at the 9:30 club. I thought I was going to be late, so I was walking pretty fast to the club and some guy came out of an alley, talking on a cell phone and we kinds crashed into each other. It was Gary Louris. He apologized, and if he wasn't on the phone, I would have tried to strike up a conversation, but I didn't want to interrupt him.

I've also met a ton of former Redskins and used to go over to Joe Gibbs and John Riggins house. I went to school with their kids.
 
Lot's of sports guys, especially baseball. Otherwise as I mentioned earlier, I saw Vanilla Ice at the library! I've actually met him too. He is involved in a holiday event we do so we worked with him on logistics. He seems to be a pretty decent guy aside from the public personality thing. I was on a plane with Billy Idol years ago. I just gave him a head nod as if to say "what's up?" and he did it back. Others here and there but those are the entertaining ones.
 
Chad said:
In college, I was lucky enough to be in a band with a pretty big local following, so we got asked to open for larger bands bunch. Dave Matthews band, Hootie and the Blowfish, 311 and the Violent Femmes. They were all really nice to us except for Dave Matthews, he was kind of a dick.

My favorite run in, was actually a run in. I took the metro to see the Jayhawks at the 9:30 club. I thought I was going to be late, so I was walking pretty fast to the club and some guy came out of an alley, talking on a cell phone and we kinds crashed into each other. It was Gary Louris. He apologized, and if he wasn't on the phone, I would have tried to strike up a conversation, but I didn't want to interrupt him.

I've also met a ton of former Redskins and used to go over to Joe Gibbs and John Riggins house. I went to school with their kids.
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I’ve had my go around which I so t detail with Dave Nathew’s, but I love a chance to punch him in the face?
 
Johnny N. said:
Lot's of sports guys, especially baseball. Otherwise as I mentioned earlier, I saw Vanilla Ice at the library! I've actually met him too. He is involved in a holiday event we do so we worked with him on logistics. He seems to be a pretty decent guy aside from the public personality thing. I was on a plane with Billy Idol years ago. I just gave him a head nod as if to say "what's up?" and he did it back. Others here and there but those are the entertaining ones.
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He (Vanilla Ice) lives in Wellington, Florida. I've seen him around town a few times when I lived in Royal Palm Beach, but never tried to talk to him.
 
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Too many to list, but there were a few stand-out incidents:

- On tour a few months back, Vini Lopez from the E Street band sat in with us. Super nice guy.

- Cliff Richard sits in with us fairly regularly when we're in his local area. Super nice guy, still brings it.

- I was part of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra organization in its early days, so I'm friends with a lot of those guys. We also managed Chumbawamba in the U.S. for a bit. I'll refrain from commenting on them.

- I never got star struck...well, actually ONCE. Me and Chris Caffery from Savatage/TSO had gotten tickets/passes to see Judas Priest in the late 90's. I hadn't eaten, but I'd been drinking heavily. by the time the show was over and we went backstage, I was hammered. Meeting them, it suddenly dawned on me how important they had been to me when I was a kid, and could only manage some slurred babble when talking to them. I was a total idiot, and they obviously felt bad for me, although they were super nice. Caffery laughed his ass off at me the next day. :facepalm:

- Post-college, I worked for an industry big-wig who owned a lot of the publishing on most of the big rock acts that he discovered (and there were many). Many of them would come in for meetings a few times a year. All of them were disgruntled (with good reason -- he'd own half of the publishing, the band had to split the other half 5 ways, very often), so they were often unpleasant to deal with. There were exceptions, though. Ted Nugent, Arthur Kane, and Rudy Schenker were always super cool. Although we had no business dealings with them, the guys from Winger were very cool, especially Kip. Super cool guy.

- In my early 20's...I was late to a rehearsal at SIR. The way it's set up is that there is an unlocked outer door, a small vestibule with a window that they check you in at, and then an electrically locked interior door. I knew a lot of the guys working there at the time, one of whom saw me running toward the door from the street. In a full run, I fling open the outer door...he buzzes me through the interior door...still running, I wave "thanks" at him to my left, not looking where I was going, and tackled some guy -- just a full on open field tackle. I get up quickly, and as I'm apologizing profusely to and helping up whomever it was, I realized it was STING. He was not pleased, although he said nothing. He leaves the building, and then my friend comes out and said, smiling, "You just tackled freaking STING!...Hey, wanna go check out his stage setup?"...He was rehearsing for a tour in the big lock-out room, so he gave me a tour of the stage. :grin:
 
I lived in L.A. and looked like Paul Giamatti...I had people trying to tell me how much they loved me in Sideways while I was at a urinal...tell me how they loved me in Big Momma's House while waiting for food...and drive by several times before sticking a cellphone their out and taking my photo (while Iw as with my kid). I even signed his autograph a few times.

As for me meeting celebs (and politicos), too many to list (growing up around DC, living in L.A., and going to school at USC helped).
 
mystixboi1 said:
1. Pete Thorn –

2. Nita Strauss –

3. Steve Morse –
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1 - Never met Pete and I too dig his reviews.
2 - Nita was on the escalator and we were separated by her boyfriend/manager. She seemed to be in trouble so I left her alone.
3 - Steve is awesome. Met him a few times at the Music Man both.

For me though, the greatest player that I met was:

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The guy was phenomenal. So sad that he took his life.

The most helpful was:

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Asked him about his tendonitis and he was so happy to talk about something other than guitar.

One more but don't have an electronic copy is Robben Ford who my son is named after.
 
Tiltsta said:
He (Vanilla Ice) lives in Wellington, Florida. I've seen him around town a few times when I lived in Royal Palm Beach, but never tried to talk to him.
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I think I remembered you lived in RPB. I work for Wellington.
 
Most of the time when I try to recall people I've met, I come up blank until the next day when I'm doing something else, especially with actors.
I never go geek mode and never interrupt their day, but sometimes you just have to say, "Hey, how's it goin'? Love your music/movies/etc."

Astronauts:
Alan Shepherd in the MCC restroom during the 20th Anniversary of the Lunar Landing. Arrogant but funny, and no, I didn't shake his hand!

Deke Slayton while he was fiddling with his yellow Stearman he kept next to the drop zone hanger in League City. His facial expression was intimidating and serious, but start talking aircraft and he warmed up. Sadly, he died a few years later.

Jim Lovell (Gemini 7, Apollo 8 and 13) was a neighbor when I was in high school, and we didn't even know he was a former astronaut at first. Really nice, unassuming guy. I think he was going through a divorce. He loved his old Mustang.

Rusty Schweickart (Apollo 9 and Skylab 2) was a quiet but kind hearted guy. We met during the 20th Anniversary of the Lunar Landing.

Dr. William Fisher (STS 51-I) was working in the Clear Lake Hospital ER when I was a student doing clinicals there. He was nuts, but in a funny way.

Sam Gemar (STS-38, STS-48, STS-62) was in the Nassau Bay VFD with me and active when not assigned to a mission. He was really fun to hang out with and definitely one of the guys!

Mike Massimino (STS-109, STS-125) was at a community swap meet at the Gilruth Center. He was one of the people who repaired the Hubble. He started giving me shit about the Bruins jersey I was wearing, threatening to double the price of something my wife was buying! He's an Islander fan. Funny, but intense guy. After the sell, I let him know my wife is a Flyers fan and he laughed while threatened to take everything back.

Christa McAuliffe (51-L) had an office in the building I first worked in at JSC, since the astronaut office building ran out of room for the "tourist" astronauts. She was really sweet. We mostly talking about teaching and kids since my sister was also a teacher.

Story Musgrave flew 6 shuttle missions and is likely the most intelligent person I've ever met. I knew his son, Scott, but never made the connection until Story showed up at one of his gigs. He had earplugs in! I remember him listening to classical music while we were performing his EVA suit bends prevention training and testing.
 
i've met a few or so.
probably the coolist/most humble was SRV. he came into a bar i was at, after his show and i had the only open seat left in the place.
his 'security' guy came over and asked if his 'boss' could sit with me. i said yes, of course. we chatted for about a half hour and he was off.

biggest twats.....Bo Diddley and Robert Conrad.
 
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I had coffee with Pete Seeger after a concert he did in Baltimore; he was friendly, but I found he tended to tell the same stories to people. I don't think he liked that aspect of being a performer.

I also talked with Tom Paxton in Baltimore.

Probably not a "celeb", but my friend Gary Green was a Folkways recording artist. We spent a lot of time together in the early 80s, running the Bread and Roses coffeehouse.

Last September I got to meet Mackenzie Phillips. She seems to finally have herself together at this point.
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