You must see the doco "Beware of Mr Baker" , yes he IS a nutter. Brilliant drummer. Completely dysfunctional as a human being. Like most drummers hehe
I saw that documentary over the weekend, very well done and yes he is a nutter for sure.
Some famous people that I have met:
Jack Blades – Met him twice, the first time at a Round Table Pizza in Santa Rosa (I was working there), pretty sure it was 1990, maybe 1991. Anyway, he was there with his son after a baseball game. My co-workers dared me to say Hi, so I did. Really nice guy, and he beamed when I told him that I saw Damn Yankees open for Bad Company and that they sounded awesome. The second time was at a musicians flea market, he stopped by my little spot and was trying out a bass I was selling, but he wasn’t interested.
Jeff Watson – Another Night Ranger dude, this time at a Steve Morse Band gig at the Omni in Oakland, around 1991 or so. Jeff was on one of the tracks of Steve Morse’s new album at the time, so he was there to play the song. He was watching the opening act, I saw him and shared pleasantries, and that was that.
Steve Morse – Same show as above, just briefly as my roommate was chatting him up after the gig. Great guy. Sadly, Dave LaRue was nowhere to be found.
Buck Dharma – After a BOC gig, also at the Omni but I think it was 1990. He was leaving the venue and I said “Hey Buck! Great gig!” or something like that. He said “F(*k You!”, and I replied “F&*k You too Buck!”
Gene Roddenberry, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, James Doohan, Majel Barrett – At a Star Trek convention in Boston just before the release of Star Trek IV. Me and my two friends were waiting for the elevator, it opens and there they all are. They must have seen the looks on our faces, they were all smiles, very personable.
Lars Ulrich – Just about ran into him at the Warfield in SF, during an Ozzy gig. He was wearing a trench coat and doing his best not to be seen. I said “Lars?”, not very loudly, and he bolted out the door. This was around the time the black album was making them money hand over fist, so I guess it’s understandable.
Jerry Seinfeld and Wayne Knight – This was a day or two before Thanksgiving, 1994. They were filming a Super Bowl episode of Seinfeld, where Jerry winds up having to sit next to Newman at the big game. My friend and I were walking Hollywood Blvd the day before, and there was someone giving out free tickets to the taping of Seinfeld, so we got them and were told to show up at the studio the next morning at some early hour. We get there, they let us in and lead us to bleachers with about 100 other people. We were part of the SB audience, they gave us a soda cup with water in it and stale popcorn. We had to pretend that we were watching the halftime show while Jerry and Wayne did their bit. As it happens, I was one row back and a couple of seats down from where they were going to sit. I got to say hi to both of them, and Jerry did a few jokes to warm everyone up, and then 10 takes or so of a 30 second scene. Unfortunately, I wasn’t close enough to make much of an appearance on camera, only my leather jacket-clad right arm and my long hair made it into the frame, and my friend was on my left so he was out of frame entirely. It was a fun day, though. The episode in question is called “The Label Maker” and it’s from the sixth season.
Shirley and Eddie just started cracking up at Nicks enthusiasm and spoke to us for a good 45 minutes. All three were the nicest people ever. The next year at Sonoma as we were walking through the pits Shirley called out to Nick, by name, from across the way from her pit. I was astounded. She was as nice as the first time a year before.
