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Have you ever been recognized as a musician?....

At a gas station by an enthusiastic and attractive young lady. It was a little bit surreal because I'm not famous. (Usually when I'm recognized it's by another bass player in the parking lot of the venue I just played or randomly by staff from a venue, etc.)
 
People been asking me all my life when first meeting me if I'm a musician. Mostly because of my unconventional and hella rad style that wouldn't fly in most work environments, let alone the corporate world.

More so when my hair was more blonde, I'd have people stopping what they were doing to say "Hey, Rod Stewart!" more times than I can count.
 
...all the time. Strangers (used to) come up to me, like in a mall, and ask-
1) Are you in a band?
2) Are you British...and in a band?

I admit > Black jeans, haircut, peacoat, & Raybans...I looked like John Lennon in their moptop daze.
 
Back in the day when I used to look like a rocker, people asked me "are you a musician?" all the time. Now that I look like a typical office dweeb, nobody ever asks, and are surprised (and somewhat skeptical) if I tell them I'm a musician.

Have to admit, it always sort of confounded me how fashion is inextricably tied to music in a lot of people's minds. Especially in the rock world. To the point where people I've known for years think I "gave it up" because I'm not wearing some sort of rock garb, don't have a rock haircut, and don't have tattoos.
 
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I've never experienced what the op is talking about. But I'm a field service tech for a copier company, and many times customers will recognize me from seeing me play somewhere.
Way more fun is when they see me on stage and recognize me as their copier repairman! That tends to be a shocker.
 
Although I was (and still am) an arranger/composer by trade, I somehow ended up in two mainstream K-pop bands (yes, bands, not dance groups that sing) in the early 2000s, and was on TV almost everyday for up to 5 months at a time. To put things in context, TV programs and the all-mighty www.naver.com Korean portal site puts all mainstream musicians, actors, models, and celebrities/TV personalities into a single cultural forum, which meant that I became automatically recognizable everywhere I went...on the bus, at school (I did my graduate studies while promoting albums from both groups), and in crowded areas.

Kids would run up and giggle while poking me in the arm, 40 something clerks behind the counter of a store would ask for my autograph, and my name could be heard in murmurings here and there...but by late 2004 the album promotions faded and my media presence was no more, and I breathed a sigh of relief. It's so nice to now be able to work on high-profile projects and not be visible any more :)
 
People think I look like a lot of famous people depending on my hair length
Hair is pretty long now so most everyone asks if I play

reminds me of the SNL skit where I think Chris Kattan asks some famous tall black guy at a party if he plays hoops and the guy asks Chris if he is a jockey (Chris is much shorter)

People then like to ask me 'what I do'. I tell them I design/designed sex toys, specifically, the 12" Jelly Dong in purple, yep, me.

Great convo starter at a party
 
Our singer talks all the time about going in some restaurant or bar somewhere and somebody saying "Hey, dont you play with Hung Jury?".

I have literally gone into a place that we blew the doors off not two nights before and the waitress doesnt remember me at all.

Such is the life of a bass player.

BnB
 
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People think I'm Stephen King.
Did he play an instrument?

I've had people come up to me at gigs and ask to have their picture taken with me, because they think I look like Stephen King. 20 years ago, when I was fat, people thought I looked like Elton John or Garrison Keillor. I don't see it at all, but guess I must be a type.

I have a vivid memory of the first time I met somebody I didn't know but who knew I was a bass player. A party at somebody's house. She was talking to a couple friends, saw me, pointed, and said "Hey, you're one of the guys in Mojomatic." I wanted to hug her. I was working at a wine shop then, and most of the people who didn't know my name but knew where I worked were the ones who walked up to me in the supermarket to ask what they should drink with their pork roast. :D
 
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