Memorable brushes with greatness?

[roller]

This very well may have been discussed here before... but I'm curious if anyone's had any fun brushes with greatness (i.e., celebrities and well-known folks from various fields, not just music).

Any memorable tales to tell from your personal celebrity encounters?

 

[dreamadream99]

Only two.

In the late 80’s and early 90’s, I had a regular church gig in San Antonio, Texas, on Lackland Airforce Base, the basic training hub for the entire U.S. Airforce. One weekend, then President Bush (senior), was in San Antonio, and scheduled a surprise visit to our contemporary and Baptist services. We had metal detectors, secret service, and he came back into the ante room prior to the service, and met the entire worship team.

In the early 90’s, Bill Lee was Dean of Fine Arts at the University of Texas in San Antonio. As a fundraiser, he asked his famous bassist son Will Lee to perform a concert with the jazz band, and host a paid meet and greet. I’d been a long time fan of his work on the Letterman show, and was able to tell him so when I met him.

 

[Son of Wobble]

"The time I rattled Mike Tyson" comes to mind.
I was parked at a light and glanced over to the lane beside me, where a big bicep suddenly loomed.
I immediately recognized the tattoo on the shoulder, one of Chairman Mao, as belonging to Mike Tyson,
and I tilted my head up to see Iron Mike glowering down at me from beneath a Germanic motorcycle helmet.

I refocused to see that Tyson was sitting astride a three-wheel motorbike.
I glanced back at his face and our eyes locked again. Uncomfortably. He was expecting me to say something, I guess,
and his look was defensive, and slightly aggressive.

Suddenly, a car behind Tyson honked loudly, and he sort of fumbled on the clutch and almost stalled his trike.
He quickly corrected, fumbled into gear and gunned off.

Some might blame the horn for Tyson's throttle-fumble, but I knew in my heart I had rattled the champ.

 

[MJ5150]

I knocked over Phil Collins once when he was in my way as I was running to report for work as concert security.

-Mike

 

[S-Bigbottom]

This TalkBass guy (I think is a man, may be wrong) named @Fat Freddy responded to a post I posted.

 

[blastoff99]

I had a bunch, mostly because I was on the student tech crew at a college that got a LOT of faith leaders, politicians, and serious musical people. I can say that the Canadian Brass, Christopher Parkening, Michael Card, Joni Earickson Tada, Ken Medema, Yo-Yo Ma, Sylvia McNair, and many others were unfailingly polite, gracious, and kind. I was humbled to work with them.

 

[Son of Wobble]

NYC '89-ish, I was hanging out with a nightclub booker pal named Vito, and getting in his hair in the office. So he told me, "Kid go down the block and hang out on the corner there, and you'll see John Gotti come by on the sidewalk. The Feds are bugging his Ravenite Social Club so he's doing his meetings on the street."
I was dubious, but Uncle Vito had never steered me wrong. And I wasn't down the corner five minutes -- still on the first cigarette -- when a couple of GUNSELS (!) come around the corner on point, followed by John Gotti, deep in convo with some Joe Pesci-type dude.
I was within eight feet of him as he passed, two guys bringing up the rear.

That same weekend in NYC, at one of Vito's clubs, I met a very drunk Joey Ramone,, who was amused that I stopped to ask not about his band but about talk show host Morton Downey Jr, whose program I dug ironically and who had just hosted Joey.

 

[Pbassmanca]

I met Francis Rocco Prestia after a TOP show in Lindsay Ontario. Super nice guy.

 

[JMacBass65]

Met Tommy Stinson this May when his band Bash and Pop came through Washington. He was pretty chill.

 

[Fat Freddy]

This TalkBass guy (I think is a man, may be wrong) named @Fat Freddy responded to a post I posted.

You silver tongued flatterer you.....

 

[DirtDog]

This TalkBass guy (I think is a man, may be wrong) named @Fat Freddy responded to a post I posted.

Lucky!

 

[kesslari]

Played frisbee with Jackson Brown.
My buddy and I went from Santa Barbara down to LA to visit a high school friend (who, ironically, was a huge Jackson Brown fan). She had exams and had to study for a few hours, and wouldn't be persuaded to come hang with us until later. So we looked at a map (remember maps?) and found a nearby park to hang out in.
There was a big picnic/party happening - youngish parent folks with young kids. We wound up playing a little frisbee with them. My friend Bart says to me "hey, isn't that dude Jackson Brown?" I said "nah, he looks too much like Jackson Brown to be Jackson Brown, must just be a lookalike". Frisbee game ended, we went back to hanging out.
And we hear the little kids yelling "Jackson, Jackson!" as they brought out the cake. It was Ethan Browh's (Jackson's son) 6th birthday party.

 

[Crusher47]

Had a couple of comic books signed by Kevin Smith and Peter David. Both were really cool. Met Brent Spiner at a comic-con and had him sign a couple of pics. Was at a comedy club in Boston and Dave Attel was walking down the aisle and tripped over my foot, didn't fall though. We both apologized and shook hands, then I watched his show.

 

[Pilgrim]

Had a kind of meeting with then US Vice President Walter Mondale. I was a reserve deputy and he made a visit to Washington State University for a speaking engagement. I was on crowd security in the area between his limo and the entrance to the auditorium where he spoke.

So we were advised to watch the crowd for motions or threatening objects, and to discretely move between him and the crowd to minimize contact. There were tons of students there, and of course many wanted to shake his hand or say hello as he walked in.

So - what do I see in front of me? A guy of student age - in a wheelchair - with a lap blanket across his lap! He could have had anything from a handgun to a sawed-off shotgun under it. And I'm 18 inches from the guy. All I could do was watch him - but of course, glance away at others at least occasionally - and then Mondale decides, of course, to shake HIS hand.

Predictable.

Mondale reached around me (you can only block so much) and then shook the guy's hand and moved on. All was OK.

And I have a rather vivid memory of a time when things went right and could have gone very wrong.

 

[ONYX]

I took a vacation to New York City, just to do some sight seeing and check out "the scene". On one of these days, I was in Central park and I sat down for smoke. About a minute later, I was approached by a man who asked me if I had an extra cigarette---I recognized the voice before the face---and the adrenaline rush was almost overwhelming. I did what I could to keep it cool, but finally had to blurt it out: "Aren't you Al Pacino?" His only response was a quick, "Shhhhhhh....".

But he hung around for a while and talked ( and smoked) ---he told me about some places to check out in NYC, and basically just miscellaneous small talk. All in all, a really cool out of the ordinary afternoon.

And Al, if you're reading this, you still owe me a pack of smokes.

 

[Son of Wobble]

Had a couple of comic books signed by Kevin Smith and Peter David. Both were really cool. Met Brent Spiner at a comic-con and had him sign a couple of pics. Was at a comedy club in Boston and Dave Attel was walking down the aisle and tripped over my foot, didn't fall though. We both apologized and shook hands, then I watched his show.

Kevin Smith Hospitalized After Suffering 'Massive' Heart Attack

 

[ptg]

 

[Passinwind]

Any memorable tales to tell from your personal celebrity encounters?

That one time I walked into a concert venue during setup to look for my friend who was the tech director for the well known Southern Rock band playing that night. No security in sight, so I walk right up on stage with my bass that I had with me. I'm looking around, trying to figure out where to go next. Finally some guy with a heavy Brit accent walks up and asks: "what's in the case mate?" I look up, it's Jack Bruce. He checked out my bass and we talked for a while, really nice guy. Turned out he was in the opening band, so I had the added bonus of seeing him play from the monitor board position on stage. Good times.

 

[bassguppy]

Not sure if being in the same restaurant counts but my wife took this pic 2 weeks ago.

 

[slobake]

My favorite was a one and a half inch natural fiber with a nice angle at the end. It was great for cutting in. But, alas my wife used it and didn't clean it afterwards. Now it is a useless board.