Famous People You Have Met

[Telebubba]

Let's see, I've met a few

Richard Nixon - in high school, my HS choir sang for him and met him afterwards. He doesn't know crap about guitars :).

Dale Murphy - former Atlanta Brave, very quiet and subdued, didn't say much

Nazareth - met the band, they were having breakfast next to me in Capitola, CA. They were having a very good time, seemed like a fun bunch.

Dickey Betts - my brother in law went to high school with him, introduced me to him one day. He was very nice to me, and gave me a beer :).

Kenny Stabler - former Raiders and Alabama QB. Met him in a bar in Destin Fla. Funny guy, has lots of interesting stories about his days in the NFL. Also bought me a beer :).

[Telesavalis]

I worked in major market radio for 30 yrs, starting out in the old AOR album rock format and evolving with it to Classic Rock. The list of meetings is too long to mention and I've forgotten more then I can remember. But there are a few standouts who really impressed me with their down to earth - guy next door personalities: Gene Wilder, Kenny Loggins, Justin Hayward, Don McClean, Peter Frampton.
And RoboCop of course. That suit was cool.

[doublee]

Great thread! Fascinating....

[Pointmonger]

Back in the 80's, when I was in high school, my neighbor was a member of Junior Medlow and the Bad Boys. They opened for the Fabulous Thunderbirds one Saturday at the old Austin Opera House. My neighbor had asked me to set up his keyboard for him at the show and I ended up helping carry Jimmy Vaughan's guitars out on stage and setting them on their stands. Also sat backstage and drank beers with the T-Birds. Such a great moment for a kid of 17.

This really wasn't me meeting anyone, but my mom chased Waylon Jennings out of our house when I was too small too remember much more than her screaming to my dad to "Get your long-haired drinking buddies outta my house you SOB." Still a great story. That would have been early '70's.

[kelnet]

I just met Jim Byrnes. He's famous around here.

[Larry F]

Originally Posted by PraiseCaster

A Quark?

Nope, the Monster Group.

[photoweborama]

I must say, not many..

Gary Hoey, of course...
Barbara Mandrell
Oh, and Tommy Castro
And that's about it..

I've been close to some of them.

I was close to Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. Covered a concert and was taking photos. Same with the Gatlin Brothers and Quarterflash...

Oh, and I covered an event where Heather Locklear attended. Very easy to take good photos of her...

[Jeff_K]

Dinner with Hakeem Olajuwon a number of times. He was still "Akeem" back then. Friends with my girlfriend's family. Sweet guy and much smarter than his weak English made it seem. Drank huge amounts of Margarita but he was so big it never seemed to affect him.

Hung in the dressing room with Collective Soul and Third Eye Blind in Mexico City. They were making up for the fact that a piece of the stage fell and hit me square in the head. I was dead center front row and a lighting gel fell off and cut my head open. They were probabaly worried that I would sue but how to you beat a story like that? I was president of my company's Mexico office at the time and you can imagine me telling the story the next day at work about the rock concert and the big bandage on my head. They were very gracious and funny guys.

Mac Davis's dressing room after Broadway show (with Marla Maples). Mac was friend of a friend. Very nice to us.

Used to bump into Dusty Hill and Frank Beard in Houston. Dusty lived in a house one street from mine and Frank's house was on the first street. They built a studio on back of Frank's house...don't know how they got around the deed restrictions. It's bigger than the house. Still there today, though I doubt Frank still lives there. This was back in "Tejas" days, '77 or so. I remember one of them drove a real junker, like a POS Dodge Duster or something. Cool.

Earl Slick, guitarist for Bowie, sat next to me at a wedding reception. Bride knew I was a musician and put us next to each other. Earl (not his real name, natch) was super nice, very down to earth guy, humble. It was a great time for me. Then a week or two later a signed CD shows up in my mailbox from him. Very cool thing to do. He was in a band called Little Caesar at the time but they didn't go too far, though popular regional band. Of course, his girlfriend was a major babe, actress who we was on some nighttime soap later. Glad to see he's back with Bowie--he was a great guy.

Shook hands with Jack Weston, famous character actor, much to my wife's embarrassment.

[BiggerJohn]

Hollywood types:
Film directors Gary Goldman and Alexander Payne at a funeral wake for Czech director Jiri Weiss. My wife knew all these guys quite well when she was working with them. All were exceptionally nice guys, Jiri was a crackup.

Musician types:
Joan Baez - met her crossing the street in downtown Palo Alto, she sneered at me.
Jay Graydon - Been to his house, super nice guy, smart as all heck, can play anything.
Steve Lukather - Jay introduced me to him, Very funny nice guy and practical joker.
Steve Morse - He was eating lunch and didn't have much to say.
Sterling "Biff" Ball, President of Ernie Ball/Music Man, one of Jay's buddies. Watch out, mondo practical joker, nice guy.
Aspin Pittman, former CEO of Groove Tubes. Nice guy.
Rick Estrin - Real nice guy, way low key off stage
Little Charlie Baty - Pretty business like, not real talkative
Mark Hummel - nice guy
Kid Ramos - accidently bumped into him at a NAMM show. I said sorry excuse me and got a cold look in return.
Sam Myers - He was sitting in at a Hash Brown jam in Dallas, was kind of drunk.

[kec!]

Where to start...


Brian Setzer - Met him several times. One of the coolest, down to earth guys.
Buddy Guy - Very humble man.
Joe Satriani - Bumped into him (literally) at the Ibanez booth. Wasn't well known at the time, but I knew who he was.
Michael Anthony (VH) - At the Kramer booth waiting for Eddie.
EVH - Waited and waited at the Kramer booth. Was totally wasted when he arrived!
Debbie Reynolds - Sweet lady.
Lemmy Kilmister - Funny guy.
Flea - Nice guy.
Leslie West - Right after he lost a ton of weight. I didn't even recognize him at first.
Alan Holdsworth
Albert Lee
Steve Morse
Tony Levin
George Lynch
Adrian Legg
Leo Fender
Craig Chaquico
Joe Pass
Herb Ellis
Carmine Appice
Tim Bogart
Neil Schon
Bill Lawrence
Dweezil
Ace Frehley
Gene Simmons - Cool guy.
The Hellcasters

Frank Darabont (Director) - Autographed Shawshank & Green Mile DVDs.
Kevin Smith - Filmed Clerks II a few blocks from my house.
Stan Lee - Autographed some DVDs.
Spike Lee - Autographed DVDs.
Gary Busey - Autographed my Buddy Holly DVD.
Don Stroud - Autographed the same DVD ^

[KBing]

Close enough...

Went to see Keef w/Expensive Winos at the Tower in Philly some years back. sat in the 3d row.

About half-way thru the show Keef threw his sweat soaked towel into the audience. It landed in my lap.

I almost OD'd and had a contact high for a week.

[shandraster]

Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo August of 2008. I have connections, so I was able to meet both of them. It was awesome. They're both extremely nice. And the whole band signed one of my acoustics.

Martina McBride June of 2009 at her Fan Club party/concert. So gracious and humble. And freaking hilarious, too.

[chet]

I met Maurice Lucas of the Portland Trailblazers at an airport while I was on leave in the Army in the '80s. A nice guy.

[Brad Miller]

I met Bret

[FiddlinJim]

I finally just met Bill Kirchen!! He's super famous in my book. He played in Seattle and within a minute of meeting him, he asked if I knew where he might get his reverb fixed on his amp before leaving town the next morning. I said: "... well, I can probably do that", so he came over to my humble abode the next morning and I got'em fixed up. Fine gentleman, Bill K.

[chet]

Oh yeah, Redd signed me and my buddy's CDs and DVDs a few years ago in Austin.

Shoulda had a pic taken, huh?

[chet]

Originally Posted by Fred Garvin

I met the guy who did that thing with other people. It was awesome.

Fred...WOW! Really?

[davidge1]

My wife and I met Robert Plant in the Levi's Store in Seattle. We were on vacation, and it was late Sun. morning. It was a huge store and there was hardly anyone in there, so of course he noticed that we were sort of stalking him! He gave me a broad smile and said "You're following me!" He was VERY nice to us, stuck out his hand and shook both our hands. It made our day.

For the record: Robert Plant 6'1"

No way is he 6'1"... Im 5,9 and he was about my height or slightly shorter.

[archtopPDX]

I once shouted at some bloke to sit down who was standing up blocking my view of the Rolling Stones and when he turned around it was Jack Nicholson. He apologized and sat down. We got on just fine after that :)

[pdxjoel]

Bill Gates Attended a send-off lunch at the end of my internship at Microsoft where he was in attendance. He was very gracious with his time, standing in the center of a circle of interns for over an hour, regaling us with stories and answering questions. He struck me as highly intelligent and more genuine than I would have expected given his reputation.

The Wailin' Jennys Ok, not super-celebrities, but known at least nationally in some circles. The kindest, most talented, most beautiful musicians I've ever met. Just awesome people.