Meeting someone famous.

[slagheap]

wow. that is outrageous.
also i can't imagine meeting Phil Woods - that's shaking hands with history.

 

[IMMusicRulz]

wow. that is outrageous.
also i can't imagine meeting Phil Woods - that's shaking hands with history.

I personally think the solo Phil Woods played on Have A Good Time by Paul Simon kicks all sorts of ass.

 

[Michedelic]

Lots of stories here…
Have You Met Any Of Your 'Bass Heroes' And What Was It Like?

 

[ETJ]

In the 90s I once was at Mike Lull’s shop waiting for him to finish with a customer and pickup a bass I had dropped for a setup. He had this little room to the side where he sold guitars and basses and amps he either built or just had (I still have a portaflex sb12 I bought from him). Anyhow, I’m noodling around on a 6 string guitar and this scrawny familiar looking guy comes in and grabs a bass and we start jamming blues for 10 or so minutes when I finally dawns on me that the guy was Eddie Jackson from Queensryche.

 

[RocknRay]

Minneapolis, late winter/early spring of '83. Dr. John was in town to play Friday and Saturday night gigs at The Cabooze, a large and somewhat notorious bar with a big stage. He would always get the premier Twin Cities funk band, Willie and the Bees (also notorious) to play with him when he had a gig in Mpls/St. Paul. Anyway, my friends and I were there for the Friday gig and it was a blast. Saturday afternoon, kinda foggy (me), and chilly, I'm walking in Dinkytown (old funky hipster 'hood near U of Minn...past hangout of Dylan et al) by a record store. I spot a sole bearded figure standing out front in a long heavy coat & scarf & hat and man, did he look cold. I walk up. "Dr. John!" I exclaim. Very friendly, he grins and extends his hand. There is that unmistakable raspy New Orleans voice: "Oh, my name's Mac! That Dr. John stuff is just some record company bull**it!" We chat. I mention the show the night before and he was happy and asked how it was...then he asks, "do you know somewhere I can get some imported tobacco?" Hmmm, curious...I point him toward the street a couple blocks away where there are shops...Why the heck didn't I walk with him? Duh, I must have really had somewhere to go. But he said, just as Southern gentlemanly as can be, "Say, man, you helped me out...how many friends you got?" Uh..."Ah give y'all some tickets!" Uh...five or six? Out from his pocket comes a sheaf of comp tickets for the Saturday show. He counted off seven, handed them to me, thanked me again, said, "I'll see y'all tonight!" and shuffled off in search of imported tobacco.

 

[bass12]

Minneapolis, late winter/early spring of '83. Dr. John was in town to play Friday and Saturday night gigs at The Cabooze, a large and somewhat notorious bar with a big stage. He would always get the premier Twin Cities funk band, Willie and the Bees (also notorious) to play with him when he had a gig in Mpls/St. Paul. Anyway, my friends and I were there for the Friday gig and it was a blast. Saturday afternoon, kinda foggy (me), and chilly, I'm walking in Dinkytown (old funky hipster 'hood near U of Minn...past hangout of Dylan et al) by a record store. I spot a sole bearded figure standing out front in a long heavy coat & scarf & hat and man, did he look cold. I walk up. "Dr. John!" I exclaim. Very friendly, he grins and extends his hand. There is that unmistakable raspy New Orleans voice: "Oh, my name's Mac! That Dr. John stuff is just some record company bull**it!" We chat. I mention the show the night before and he was happy and asked how it was...then he asks, "do you know somewhere I can get some imported tobacco?" Hmmm, curious...I point him toward the street a couple blocks away where there are shops...Why the heck didn't I walk with him? Duh, I must have really had somewhere to go. But he said, just as Southern gentlemanly as can be, "Say, man, you helped me out...how many friends you got?" Uh..."Ah give y'all some tickets!" Uh...five or six? Out from his pocket comes a sheaf of comp tickets for the Saturday show. He counted off seven, handed them to me, thanked me again, said, "I'll see y'all tonight!" and shuffled off in search of imported tobacco.

Great story!

 

[Analogeezer]

Not a musician but my brother and his wife were once at Road Atlanta for some kind of thing. Unknown to them Tom Cruise was there testing some road racing car.

My brother's wife nudges my brother's arm and lo and behold standing next to them about 10 feet away (they were in a building that overlooked the main straight) was none other than Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.

PLN was notoriously unfriendly to fan types but my brother and SiL started talking to the two of them about cars and racing. My brother talked about how he used to race Formula Fords for example there.

THAT started a convo about driving on that track (which PLN had done a lot) and they must have talked for 15 minutes.

My brother and SiL never let on they knew who the couple was, they just talked to them about racing and cars and such and PLN and JW were super nice, probably rather relieved to not be besieged by fans even though my SiL was a total fan of PLN.

In general, slobbering adoration is not a good approach as these people have heard it all before. I've not met many famous people but I just talked to them about subjects of mutual interest and never asked for an autograph (well once, but at the end of the conversation and the item being autographed was by Keith Emerson and he was on the cover of the magazine - Keyboard). He was very chill about doing that. Would have been less so had I shoved a piece of paper in front of him as soon as I met him.

I met him about 10 years later (at a conference thing held at the Smithsonian) and my keyboard buddy friend started going all gaga over him ""I'm your biggest fan!" which caused him to just groan and kind of step away.

I got kinda pissed off at my friend telling him "you're gonna LEAD with that line from Kathy Bates in Misery?"

Met Bob Moog at the same event, that guy was a total trip. Very social and magnanimous, tons of great stories to tell. He also cussed worse than a sailor much worse. Like F bombs and S bombs left and right.

I am not making this up, he actually had a POCKET PROTECTOR with pens in it LOL.

So you had this brilliant engineer/designer/inventor guy who was like a mad scientist who cussed more than a stand up comic, but man was he funny.

Analogeezer