Have you ever met a Rock Star? (and under what circumstance?) [Archive] - Page 3

Tonedef

02-27-2010, 07:31 PM

I met the drummer for Bon Jovi in the bar of the Hard Rock while in Amsterdam. Super nice guy.

Just recently at a music store in So Cal I traded licks with Rich Robinson from the Black Crowes. My wife ran into Rikki Rocket Poison's drummer in the same store while shopping for my Christmas gift.

My last claim to fame is I was an extra on Transformers 2 and spent the entire day hanging with Josh Duhamel (he played the military Major). Really down to earth guy. Introduced him to my wife who acted like a complete giddy little school girl.

Optimus Prime

03-05-2010, 12:53 PM

I met Elvis in the grocery store the other day.

JackButler

03-06-2010, 01:49 PM

Kiss twice, hung with Kulick.
Slaughter, great guys.
Partied with Al Pitrelli
Guys form Dokken, less Don.
Megadeth, Marty Friedman was way cool, Dave was goofy, but cool.
Buddy Guy played my guitar.
Hung with Wes Jeans, monster player!
Amir Derakh Rough Cutt/Orgy
Ray Gillen, briefly
Guys from Kix
Suicidal Tendencies
Tony Macalpine
Ronnie Montrose
Queensryche
Faster *****cat
Who else, I know there's more.

aliensporebomb

03-09-2010, 06:03 AM

I passed Bruce Springsteen coming out of my favorite local pizza shop. This was years ago, on the east coast. He was on his way to do a show at Foxboro stadium.

Recently I stood in line with Andy Summers at a local bakery here in Portland.

Years ago (late `70s) Steve Hillage looked me up and came to visit at my apartment. Miquette Guirady was also there. He had been doing an interview with the Boston alternative newspaper. Someone at the paper knew I was working on a guitar synthesizer. That's what Hillage came to check out. To this day I have no idea who at the newspaper tipped him off or how they knew I was working on a synth. I thought I was *way* below anyone's radar...

I got a chance to talk to and have my picture taken with James Thomas, guitarist for The Mermen, at Burning Man a few years ago. That made my freakin' *year*. The Mermen are one of my favorite bands.

My wife and I met Herschel Yatovitz at Saul Koll's shop. Nice guy. Mrs. TDD nearly peed her pants.

Steve AND Miquette. I was a total Hillage fan for years. What were they like?

sega

03-23-2010, 08:38 AM

This thread I started went a long way, thanks for the attention.

limfac

03-23-2010, 12:05 PM

Dirge

03-23-2010, 12:49 PM

I had nacho's with Alex Chilton once..I guess you could call him a Big Star..get it? ahh, never mind..RIP Alex!

dark_rainbow

03-23-2010, 01:16 PM

Billy Sheehan.

Backstage many years ago when my band was opening for his 2 nights in a row. We had been chatting with other (less well known) members of his band backstage prior to Billy's illustrious entrance and they were all mild mannered and pretty cool. Guess they had to in order to be around that ego-maniac as we would soon discover. Then moments before we go on Billy makes his belated entrance ... tall thin hyper guy who really wasn't interested in making chit chat with us. When asked a question he would provide some kind of blow off answer where he was trying to sound smart (but really sounded like an ass.) He was also into Scientology I think, and it was also made clear to us we needed to respect that ... even though we didn't know what it was. It was also made clear that no drugs were to be allowed backstage with Billy. We had no problem with the no drugs policy since neither myself nor anyone else in my band used them, but it just kind of emphasized the arrogant notion that everything revolded around Billy's wishes.

Anyway, he kind of got into our heads the first night and our playing was terrible. It also didn't help when we were made subtly aware by the promoter that we were supposed to play rather timidly by our standards, so as not to show up Billy's group. 2nd night was a different story ... we said we're not going to let this guy get the better of us anymore and no one will ever tell us again not to put our best foot forward PERIOD. We then proceeded to play the best, most technically advanced stuff we could, with as much energy as we ever had. Stuff his group couldn't match, and they knew it. Even the hostile audience was taken aback and could tell we had stolen the show.

Guitar Dave T

03-23-2010, 01:39 PM

Met Buddy Miles while visiting with Kenny Wayne Shepherd's band on their tour bus in Dallas - was their by invite of friend, Joe Nadeu, who played with Kenny. As my wife and I were introduced to everyone, I stood there like an idiot, "You're Buddy Miles!" Nevertheless, he was a gracious and made us both feel very comfortable

Met Buddy Guy at his club in Chicago. Genuinely gracious, and complemented my playing, though I sucked that night.

Met Greg Allman on the street behind HOB in Dallas after parking to buy tickets. Showed an instant sense of humor and instantly connected on that level.

Met Eric Johnson outside of Nick's Uptown in Dallas back in the 80's.

Met Stevie Ray Vaughan around '79, '80 in East Texas after a club date. He instantly made me feel like I was his oldest friend in the world, and could talk to you like you were the only person in the room.

Met Wolfman Jack at a hotel bar where we were doing a corporate party. Our singer approached him, and Wolfman said, "Whatdya want me to do, Kiss ya?"

Met Allan Holdsworth at the Dallas Guitar Show about 10 years ago. He was very disarming and easy going.

redshark1105

03-23-2010, 02:02 PM

I've met a few. George Lynch when he tried to take lessons at GIT in 1990. Met the late Rhandy Castillo (Ozzy's drummer) in Hollywood in 1990 too. Met Motley Crue minus Vince Neil while they recorded the video for "Don't go away mad" in Hollywood Blvd. Years later I met again Nikki Sixx in Cancun. Met also Steve Stevens in a mall in Arizona around 03 when he came back on tour with Idol.
Met Steve Lukather too in Hollywood at a gear demo with Bob Bradshaw he was playing a rack almost as big as a fridge.

sinner

03-23-2010, 02:53 PM

Keith Emerson came in to my shop and bought a book from me yesterday, while we were talking he was looking around the record bins and found a couple EL&P LPs, asked if I wanted him to sign them--Yes!

Blix

03-23-2010, 03:05 PM

I worked in a huge (well for Norway) music store in the 90's, and we had a Ampeg workshop with Billy Sheehan, super nice guy, Ken Hensley joined us for dinner afterwards, those guys sure had some stories.
Later we had Joey Tafolla there for a Carvin guytar showcase, a really humble sweet guy.

I also acted as a guitar tech for Gary Moore for a gig, he came into the store to borrow a guitar and amp for the gig and after talking and finding a sick 335 and a Fender Vibro King for him, he wanted me to come along for the gig. I couldn't say no to that! :)
Never have I changed strings and set up a guitar so carefully, and making sure it kept in tune, man he does some wicked bending. Luckily it held up and he called into the store a few days after and bought that 335 :)

gguitar55

03-23-2010, 03:13 PM

sega

03-23-2010, 03:31 PM

Keith Emerson came in to my shop and bought a book from me yesterday, while we were talking he was looking around the record bins and found a couple EL&P LPs, asked if I wanted him to sign them--Yes!

You are truly a ''Lucky man''

Bankston

03-23-2010, 04:49 PM

Just met Snake, Scotti and Rachel from Skid Row last Saturday when my band opened for them. All of them were cool. They posed for pics, chatted us up and signed everything that was asked of them.

sinner

03-23-2010, 05:03 PM

I'm Bruce Dickinson. Yeah, THE Bruce Dickinson. But I put my pants on one leg at a time, just like everybody else. The only difference is, once I have my pants on, I make hit records.
Now give me more of that cowbell.

Hi Bruce--Welcome to The Gear Page! (I bet you wrote a tune or two while sitting around the house without your pants on!)

Tonedef

03-23-2010, 08:15 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tonedef http://img.thegearpage.net/board/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?p=7820423#post7820423)
I met the drummer for Bon Jovi in the bar of the Hard Rock while in Amsterdam. Super nice guy.

Just recently at a music store in So Cal I traded licks with Rich Robinson from the Black Crowes. My wife ran into Rikki Rocket Poison's drummer in the same store while shopping for my Christmas gift.

My last claim to fame is I was an extra on Transformers 2 and spent the entire day hanging with Josh Duhamel (he played the military Major). Really down to earth guy. Introduced him to my wife who acted like a complete giddy little school girl.

Were you a part of the AWACS crew by any chance?

No, I was part of the crew sitting in a hangar with computers everywhere. We were supposed to be in N.E.S.T's secret hideout. I was one of the guys in the elevated platform.

steve108819

03-23-2010, 10:11 PM

I met Charley Pride once(I know, not rock) I was working the front desk of a Marriott back in '94ish. I had my head down working on the computer when a somewhat angry sounding voice in front of me asked "Have you seen my lady?" I had no idea who his "lady" was or what she looked like so I replied that no I hadn't. Thrilling story, right?

jjboogie

03-24-2010, 11:18 AM

Just posted this over on the Taj Mahal thread....I guess it would apply here too. I had the opportunity to do a few gigs with Taj and filmed a blues documentary with him as well. This was on the set of the movie.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q108/jjboogie/JJTajMahal1997NorthsideTavern.jpg

6Stringa

05-28-2010, 07:49 PM

I met Warren Haynes in 95or96 in Burlington VT at Club Toast when the Mule was in their early years. A friend and I went to check it out and as he was straggling behind I went to walk in and Warren, who was carrying his guitar, held the door for me. I said thanks and we walked in together chatting. He was so cool and normal and just talked away. I stopped to give me ticket and my lame under 21 ID and Warren said "He's with us." I never felt so cool in my 19 years of life.

They stamped my hand then walked to the side of the stage with him. Allen Woody handed me a beer and I watched the mule standing 3ft from Allen Woody. Every so often the bartender would bring me a beer and all was good.

I've been a Mule fan since the beginning and see them every chance I get. Warren's tone and style inspired me to try really hard to not suck at the guitar. I think it'd be fun to have the chance to meet him again and from what I hear he's still the same dude he was back then.

"Where's my, my, my, my, my mule?!"

piby

05-28-2010, 08:28 PM

I saw Tiny Tim in the grocery store. it was him for sure he moved to the Twin Cities in the early 90's. He was looking at makeup and had a whole bunch of bottled water in his cart.

todd richman

05-28-2010, 09:18 PM

Bruce Dickinson is here at TGP-that's cool! Pretty good pilot too! Can we get a "Scream for me Gear Page!"

Gretsch1972

05-28-2010, 09:22 PM

I played a gig with Wynton Marsalis' band a few years back and we backed up John Mayer, John Legend, Joe Cocker, Natalie Merchant and Tracy Chapman.

Mayer was really humble. Nice cat. Seemed a bit nervous to get in the ring with Wynton, but played great. Cocker was a riot. Super cool, funny. Did his thing. Natalie Merchant was really superb. Even called me for a recording session a few years later. Tracy Chapman, uber-cool as well.

SteveGaines

05-28-2010, 11:50 PM

I was in Strings in Things in 1983...Back then it was fairly common to see some pretty famous Guitar players in there...But this one day I was in there to buy a set of strings, and looked over and there stood ERIC CLAPTON..I walked up to him and asked Mr. Clapton can I have your autograph, I reached down and pulled out a GHS 9 which in those days all strings were individually wrapped...He said.."Let me get my other mates to sign it"..Goes in the back and comes back with Albert Lee and Donald "Duck" Dunn who were in his touring band at the time...They all signed the string packet and at the bottom he put EC WORLD TOUR 83...BE COOL AND PLAY FUNKY!...Still got it in a frame!

Gretsch1972

05-30-2010, 10:44 AM

I loved the old Strings and Things, Steve! Back in the day, they had EC's sunburst Layla Strat on display there. I imagine it's been sold by now...

westex

05-30-2010, 11:00 AM

SteveGaines

05-30-2010, 12:08 PM

I loved the old Strings and Things, Steve! Back in the day, they had EC's sunburst Layla Strat on display there. I imagine it's been sold by now...

Plus the Gibson that was built to look like the State of Texas that Billy G used.. .Remember when you would walk in the door in the early 80's and it would be hanging there among some other guitars.....Chris and Charlie split up...All that is gone now...Last time I was in there, they weren't even a Gibson dealer any longer...Matter of fact don't even know if they are still in business....

PVH5150

05-30-2010, 12:28 PM

Met Tom Scholz last month at a local CVS. Didn't realize how tall he was, I'd say close to 6'6". Nice guy.

Got the meet n greet package for Anvil last winter when they passed through Boston. Very nice guys, all 3 of them.

Storytime...

Went into the guitar store that I frequent (Carlino's in Medford, MA) one weekend afternoon and Eddie (the store owner) asked if I would deliver amps to a local theater for one of his friends bands. I had nothing to do, so I did. When I get to the place (Regent Theater in Arlington, MA), Gary Cherone is there with his Who tribute band, Slip Kid. Gary is one of the nicest people I've had the pleasure of meeting, celebrity or not. Very down to earth. We had a good 45 minute conversation about music in general & he complimented my music knowledge for me being only 19 at the time. And I didn't think he'd do it, but he had no problem signing my Van Halen 3 CD. Awesome night.

rodie

05-30-2010, 05:24 PM

met mike portnoy at a drum clinic, really laid back yet intense dude...signed an ultrasound printout of our 1st daughter that my wife was showing him as we talked about kids, lol...met greg bissonette, dom famularo, and will calhoun at clinics too, and had great conversation with all of them.

met john petrucci, the guys from hinder, and the guys from default in pre and post-gig run-ins...dave wiener was a killer guy to chat with, also met at a clinic. met george lynch, but he must have been having a bad day as i was quite put off by his attitude and demeanor...

wow...met more than i thought i had! have run into others folks too, but not more than a hello, really. for instance, Hulk Hogan at a drift event in atlanta...

sinner

05-30-2010, 08:18 PM

Chatted with Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters) for quite a while here at my bookstore/record store yesterday. Taylor is really a far out dude! He's a walking music encyclopedia, knows an incredible amount about early 60s & 70s music for someone young (younger than me anyway). I mean, I was there so much of the information is just there by experience but Taylor has obviously spent a lot of time and energy researching his passion.

He likes Prog Rock, too! Had a lot of fun talking about bands I doubt most people ever heard of. I have a huge Prog Vinyl Section here at the store and he said he had most of them!

Les Paul Guy

06-02-2010, 03:40 PM

Got to have dinner with Glen Drover at the Hard Rock, that was pretty cool.

toneispower

06-02-2010, 08:37 PM

PVH5150

06-02-2010, 08:53 PM

Met Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Tom Petersson & Bun E Carlos.....twice.

sega

06-10-2010, 05:39 AM

Met Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Tom Petersson & Bun E Carlos.....twice.

How are they?
Specially Rick Nielson, I love is attitude.

PVH5150

06-10-2010, 06:11 AM

How are they?
Specially Rick Nielson, I love is attitude.

All are cool as can be.
Rick's definitely the stand out character, super hilarious.
Tom's the quiet one of the group, but he was super cool. He showed me his collection of 12 string basses.

The first time I met them, I had backstage passes to Cheap Trick, Def Leppard & Poison at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA on June 30th, 2009.

Surprisingly enough, everyone was pretty damn cool. Yes, even Bret & CC.

brikus

06-10-2010, 06:18 AM

I've met:

Billy Joel
Paul Simon
Brian Setzer
Elliot Easton
Dee Snider

All of them are really down to earth and humble guys.

Could you tell me more about Paul Simon plz ? I'm a big fan !

enocaster

06-10-2010, 08:06 AM

Could you tell me more about Paul Simon plz ? I'm a big fan !

My good friend's father worked for his label in the 70's - he said Paul was not a very nice guy.

echoSE7EN

06-10-2010, 08:13 AM

1) My brother and I met Rammstein (he was a big fan - student of German) at a Subway sandwich shop (a few blocks from Clutch Cargo's in Detroit) before their performance.

2) Three of my friends and I went to see the band 32 Leaves. Besides the bartender, we were the only three people in the venue. The band was awesome. Great show. We chatted with them between songs, and wound up hanging out after the show, having some beers and shooting pool.

3) When I was a freshman in college my GF and I met Peter Tork.

bluesdoggg

06-10-2010, 05:43 PM

Played With Freddy Fender--1968--Met Davy Jones, prior to Monkees 1965....played with Fats Domino..1961...met Mike Nesmith, Monkees, 1968...met Steve Stills....1968..and met all the Beach Boys...1968...all of this in New Orleans.

Flinto2002

06-10-2010, 06:03 PM

Played with Warrant, nice guys. Did a showcase gig with the Goo-Goo Dolls, they were dicks...had security lock us in our dressing room until they got on their bus.

Rehearsed next door to Ratt, Warren and Bobby were really nice, Stephen was a tweaker...looked like he needed sleep.

Played the Whiskey with Carlos Cavazo, Jimmy Bain and Vinny Appice (all were very cool), though Jimmy didn't talk much

Met Paul Stanley a bunch of times, nice guy.

George Lynch a bunch of times too, he can either be real cool, or moody..but hey, you could say that about all of us right?

Axemeister

06-10-2010, 06:07 PM

I have met a few rock stars at various times... Probably, the most notable was meeting young Eddie Van Halen and his fiance Valerie Bertinelli. It was 1981 in my former father-in-law's custom tailoring store in Beverly Hills.. My father in law was making Eddie's wedding tuxedo and I just happened by the store to when he was in for a fitting.

Totally random. I said something like..."Wow, I really like your guitar playing, especially your use of tapping and harmonics"... Eddie seemed like he was really touched that I knew who he was..maybe it was a surprise with the setting of a tailor shop on Rodeo Drive...but he and Valerie were just an engaged couple in their mid twenties at that point. We chatted for ten minutes or so while he was doing his fitting on the tux.

Ironically about six months later I met David Lee Roth outside of the Hollywood Athletic Club. I was talking to a friend and he drove into the parking lot in a big S class Mercedes that had painted flames on the hood. We said hi and he chatted with us for a few minutes. He was nicer than I expected.

brikus

06-11-2010, 12:29 AM

My good friend's father worked for his label in the 70's - he said Paul was not a very nice guy.

I heard good and bad stuff about him...seems like it depends on his mood.

kingoftweed

06-11-2010, 03:11 PM

Some wonderful little stories on this thread. I'll throw a couple of mine in the pot.

1984- Met all the Kinks in D.C. I complained to Ray that I was third in line to get tickets for the show and that my seats were in the 20th row! He asked if I had the tickets on me. I did. He asked for them, and then went into the arena. He came out five minutes later and said, "this is the best that I can do" and handed me tickets for the 7th row. Very cool of him.

1986- Spent the afternoon with Dave Davies at his house. Did an hour long interview for a little mag that the Record Store I worked at put out. After the "formal" interview I hung out with him for another couple of hours.

1987- Spoke with all the Bangles (formal interview). Then shot the bull with all of them. Got to spend a couple hours with Vicki Peterson after the show. No one else was backstage but the band, their keyboard player (Debbi's future hubby) and their manager. We talked about music. She wanted to know about the DC punk scene (where I lived) and I wanted to know about the L.A. paisley underground. I fell in love with her that night.....

1988- Played pinball with Dave Roback and Kendra Smith. My band opened for Opal on a college tour.

1989- Hung out at a party with Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, Roger Daltrey, Simon Phillips. Pete and I talked about kids. Karen, his then wife, and my wife were both pregnant at the time. His boy and my girl are now 21.... Some folks at the party brought stuff for the band to sign, but I wanted to be "cool" and just chat. But since the talk turned to babies, I couldn't resist and I asked Pete to sign a sonogram (sp) of my (at the time) unborn daughter. Seeing Pete's signature on the sonogram gives me a chuckle each time I open Pam's "baby book".... Pete was very kind to me. Roger and I talked movies... I just said hello to John. Simon and I talked about D.C. sites to see while he was in town.

Spoke with Robyn Hitchcock on a number of occasions (OK, so he's not a ROCKSTAR in the traditional "recognized everywhere" definition, but he's a critically acclaimed fave of mine). Spoke with the very aloof Peter Buck once or twice.

I am sure that there are others, but I can't remember them right now!

piby

06-11-2010, 03:33 PM

I had Thanksgiving dinner and then sat and watched football with Foghat. Early 90's so it was the old tired Foghat, but they were great guys and totally fun.

vikingrat

06-11-2010, 07:53 PM

A lot just from where i have worked and the locations. Billy Gibbons, Henry Rollins, Eric Clapton, Joey Krammer, Waren Zevon, Wino, Lemmy,Pat Martino, Carol Kaye, Ike Willis, Joe Walsh, Mike Patton, Justin and Adam from Tool, Page Hamilton, Bjork, John Waite, Steve Morse, Eddie Jobson, Trevor Rabin who i talked to for awhile today, Trevor Horn, Keith Moris, Kira!!!, David Coverdale, Dino from Fear Factory, John Sykes, Allan Holdsworth, Joe Lynn Turner, Tony Iommi, Steve Stevens, Scott Henderson and a lot more i cant remember.

enigma

06-11-2010, 08:00 PM

My Art Director and I ran into Sinead O'Connor an her guitarist in an elevator at Omni Hotel in Chigago. I think it was 1990 or so.

We were butt drunk when we ran into her. I swear all I saw was her big eyes with her shaven head. I thought I was seeing a Martian. Then, I politely said, "Hello Sinead."

Frethog

06-11-2010, 10:13 PM

Aside from various meet & greets at record stores I had just witnessed Foghat during their late tour with their original lineup.

Much of the material from that night is featured on “Return of the Boogie Men”.

After the show they just rolled the tour bus in front of the venue (Eli’s Hard Rock) and Lonesome Dave stood on the curb signing autographs and answering questions to a small crowd. Apparently Rod wasn’t feeling great so he was crashed inside the bus already.

But Dave hung out there with a few of us for it seemed a couple hours smoking and joking. He recalled a few stories of tours with many other rockers of the era without divulging too much information. It never became awkward. It was obvious that Dave was comfortable just shooting the breeze with his long-time fans who weren’t too far behind him age-wise.

I recall leaning against the double-headed parking meter while Dave leaned against the other side. He was gonna stay as long as we would have his company. I think it was finally agreed upon that we would let the guys go as it was nearing 3am. He shook hands again with the small crew of us and we dispersed.

Top marks for Lonesome Dave. He made a promotional stop seem like a gathering of old acquaintances. Somehow Dave seemed at home around a small gang of blokes including a couple of typically blathering drunks…

bluesdoggg

06-12-2010, 04:45 PM

I Met Elvis Presley In Biloxi Mississippi In 1956---I Was 10 Years Old--Great Guy--Took Me & My Sister For A Ride In His '56 Yellow Cadillac Convertible........

claudel

06-12-2010, 05:03 PM

I Met Elvis Presley In Biloxi Mississippi In 1956---I Was 10 Years Old--Great Guy--Took Me & My Sister For A Ride In His '56 Yellow Cadillac Convertible........

FTW

Zero G

06-12-2010, 05:10 PM

Joe Satriani several times, Steve Vai, Dave Larue, Lawrence Gowan, Jeff Campitelli, Galen Henson, Guthrie Govan. All nice guys. Met Satch and his bandmates after a couple of shows back in 2006 and 2008. He's just plain cool. Jeff Campitelli and Galen are super nice. Chatted with them for a bit. Met Lawrence Gowan at a Toronto Blue Jays game when i was like 8 years old. Anyone remember the song "You're A Strange Animal"? That guy. Met Steve Vai after a show on his String Theory tour (2008?). I gave him the 'Pick of Destiny' from the Tenacious D movie of the same name. He thought I wanted him to sign it. The Guthrie Govan experience was probably the best one. Just sat and picked his brain and chatted for about half and hour. He played my Suhr guitar, and then I tried his signature Suhr out after the show. He's a real gent with a great sense of humour. Likes to roll his own smokes.

5E3

06-12-2010, 05:12 PM

Joe Satriani several times, Steve Vai, Dave Larue, Lawrence Gowan, Jeff Campitelli, Galen Henson, Guthrie Govan.
People say Satriani is friendly and amiable ... was that your experience?

Zero G

06-12-2010, 05:23 PM

shooter1371

06-12-2010, 05:26 PM

I met Buddy Guy and chatted with him for a few minutes about Fender strats. I was bullshitting at a CG with Hugh McDonald the bass player for Bon Jovi, real cool and down to earth guy. Both times I didn't ask for an autograph or any of that bullshit, just talked like a couple of guys interested in music.

Bobby D

06-12-2010, 05:56 PM

I Met Elvis Presley In Biloxi Mississippi In 1956---I Was 10 Years Old--Great Guy--Took Me & My Sister For A Ride In His '56 Yellow Cadillac Convertible........

that is probably the thread WINNER right there!

my mom jammed with Carl Perkins :phones

chinstrap

06-12-2010, 10:19 PM

that is probably the thread WINNER right there!

my mom jammed with Carl Perkins :phones

That is cool Bobby- I did production for Carl at a charity fundraiser sometime mid nineties, and after soundcheck we ate dinner together, than he gave me a guitar lesson- A highlight for sure, wonderful man.

ToddK

06-12-2010, 10:43 PM

what the hell is a rockstar? No such thing really.

SteveGaines

06-13-2010, 12:06 AM

That is cool Bobby- I did production for Carl at a charity fundraiser sometime mid nineties, and after soundcheck we ate dinner together, than he gave me a guitar lesson- A highlight for sure, wonderful man.

and was born and raised in Tiptonville, Tennessee...I used to see him at CECIL"S BANDSTAND which was a Jackon Music store for several years..I left my Strat in there on day in the mid-80's to get a new 5 way switch put on it...When I came back he was in there with his son, Stan and was playing my guitar...One of the nicest , most down to earth people you would ever meet...:aok

agradywills

06-13-2010, 05:34 AM

Met Ed King at a restaurant/benefit in Cleveland, MS. Our band just happened to play 'Sweet Home Alabama' but that night I let Ed play it. No way was I going to play that song with him in the audience.

Met Greg Martin (Kentucky Headhunters) at King Biscuit Blues Fest in 2004 (?) and the rest of the guys. One of the nicest bunch of people you could ever meet.

67blackcherry

06-13-2010, 06:57 AM

People say Satriani is friendly and amiable ... was that your experience?

I met him at the Ibanez booth at the NAMM show sometime in the early 90's - he was very down to earth.

MBT74

06-13-2010, 07:27 AM

Peter Buck
Bob Mould
Ken Stringfellow
Mark Gardner from Ride
Tim from You Am I
Hoodoo Gurus (several times)
Nash from Urge Overkill
Midnight Oil (several times)
Grant and Robert from The Go Betweens.

I'm sure that there are others over the years.

g-fry195

06-14-2010, 12:47 AM

turbodog

07-30-2010, 12:17 PM

I hung out with U2 and went bar hopping.

MuseCafeChris

07-30-2010, 12:23 PM

what the hell is a rockstar? No such thing really.

LOL! Fantastic input.

thisisajs

07-30-2010, 12:44 PM

Met Dimebag Darrell in Chicago, 2001. This was the Reinventing The Steel tour.

So anyways, my buddy's buddy was Pantera's road manager so we would get hooked up with passes and great tickets for the shows. For this one we were standing in the enclosed soundboard area right next to Tommy Lee and his stable of girls, sweet!

After Pantera's set, my buddy and I walk backstage and are hanging out by the back entrance debating if we wanted to leave or not when Dime and his bodyguard (who was also killed that night) come walking around the corner towards us. I call out and say 'Hey Dime, how bout a quick picture?', innocent enough, right?

No, his bodyguard comes CHARGING at me yelling 'WHO THE F**K DO YOU THINK YOU ARE ASKING DIME QUESTIONS, IM GONNA BEAT YOUR A**!!", at this point we are literally nose to nose and he is hulking over me (and im 6'4 BTW). Needless to say I was about to mess my pants. After a few seconds of fearing for my life, the bodyguard stops and says 'Awww, im just f**king with you, chill out!'

Everyone (except me) had a big laugh at that one... Dime came up to me after and told me he was surprised I didnt back down from his guy. He went to the dressing room and got some beers for us and we shot the s**t for a few minutes. This pic is me doing the approximate look on my face just a few minutes earlier.

Ive met a few other rockstars, but this guy was the coolest. Humble, great sense of humor, and a RIPPING guitar player.

RIP

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs469.ash1/25730_1428450069165_1170221155_31304573_15869_n.jp g

FallenGuitarist

07-30-2010, 12:50 PM

knew Dime growing up when he taught lessons at a little music shop on Cooper st in Arlington...regular guy and super cool...very generous to a fault, which allowed some to take advantage of...met SRV in 1984 when I went over to Charlies Guitar Shop in Dallas to pick up a Fender Strat they had painted for me....real soft spoken and nice....met George Lynch who is cool also.

bopplayer

07-30-2010, 12:51 PM

+1,000,000 Opened for them, Richard was walking by my 65 Vibrolux and bent down like he was taking it, looked back at me and laughed. Great guys!

Met Greg Martin (Kentucky Headhunters) at King Biscuit Blues Fest in 2004 (?) and the rest of the guys. One of the nicest bunch of people you could ever meet.[/QUOTE]

cugel

07-30-2010, 12:54 PM

i urinated next to layne staley

hcole

07-30-2010, 01:08 PM

i urinated next to layne staley

Since the last time you told us??

i was in the urinal next to layne staley once but i didnt talk to him

Funky Chicken

07-30-2010, 02:50 PM

I worked at a jingle production studio in NYC in the mid '80s. We had a house account at Manny's and I ran over there a couple of times per week for supplies. While I was waiting for something to come up I was poking around on an acoustic and someone tapped me on the shoulder and said "nice playing". It was David Gilmour. Made my decade.

Spoken to briefly at club gigs, all cool-
Kasim Sulton
Steve Morse
Dave La Rue
Mark Egan

Ran into Robin Zander after a CT show at Foxwoods Casino. He was out in the common area on his way somewhere and stopped to chat with us for a couple of minutes. Nice guy.

I gig a couple of times per year with Vini Lopez (original E Street Band drummer).

Back to the jingle studio. We were doing post-production for a TV special being produced for CBS. The voiceover talent was Kathleen Turner. There were some technical difficulties that day so I sat on the front steps of the Brownstone for about an hour and split a 6 pack of Bud bottles with her while we shot the shit. I was 20. She was 30. Way before the whole faux-english accent nonsense took hold. She couldn't have been cooler, and she was absolutely jaw droppingly beautiful in a blue t-shirt dress and very little makeup.

Oh, yeah-an old girlfriend of mine was working as a lifeguard at a pool in Rockland County, NY and had to pull Eddie Ojeda of Twisted Sister out of a pool and administer CPR. Good times.

tone4days

07-30-2010, 03:01 PM

When I was playing a "Save the Whales" concert in Japan around 1977 as a member of the Paul Winter Consort, I rode in an elevator with John Sebastian and his young son. The weird part was that the kid looked like John, and was dressed almost identically, complete with JS's trademark granny glasses.

Like father, like son I guess....
reminds me of seeing art garfunkel and his mini me son, james, 'sing' the national anthem at the us open once
http://image.pollstar.com/WeblogFiles/pollstar/0811090435481166270_2260_v1.jpg

cugel

07-30-2010, 03:04 PM

Since the last time you told us??

look thats my only claim to fame and i gotta milk it for what i can get out of it.

ChazFromCali

07-30-2010, 08:41 PM

deleted

Carlos Pérez

08-24-2010, 11:23 PM

Just Jimmy Page.
Back on 1995, hours before the show, I just met him on street.
Shaked his hand, got time to tell him how much I´d enjoy his work, told him I´d travel 8 hours the night before just to be on that night show.
Great experience!
Mantra, said someone.

sonvolt

08-25-2010, 08:22 PM

Got to spend some time with Hubert Sumlin a few times......man he has some funny stories ! Met him back stage and he gave me his guitar and wanted me to play a "lick".....so I played him a riff from one of my tunes and he said "you like the country blues, huh ?"

jjboogie

08-25-2010, 08:38 PM

Just hung out with G Love on his tour bus after he opened for Jack Johnson.

Cool dude!

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q108/jjboogie/IMG_0600.jpg

Also I got to hang out with Michael Franti and Spearhead on July 4th. We opened up for them.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q108/jjboogie/Louisville3.jpg

sega

09-16-2010, 03:10 AM

what the hell is a rockstar? No such thing really.

I was just using the term for a well known musician, or someone you admire, and reading the amount of people who shared their experience, I really love it, I'm reading all of em, keep it up!

rodie

09-16-2010, 05:28 AM

let's see, john petrucci, george lynch, dave weiner, will calhoun, gregg bissonette were all quick hello, short chat meetings.

wife and i had a good chat with mike portnoy, and had a great conversation about up and coming young drummers with dom famularo. now there is one cat just happy to be alive, with a passion for teaching and a knack for inspiring!

Flogger59

09-16-2010, 06:36 AM

Scared the shit out of Clapton at BB Kings in Universal City (?). He was on the balcony watching Doyle Bramhall II play (it was around the time Riding With The King was recorded). He was cool after the intitial reaction, stuck his hand out, I shook it. That same night I started my nodding acquiantence with Alan Holdsworth. I must look like someone he knows.

One epic day when I worked in a music store a buddy who was a runner called and said "I'm sending Earl Slick over, he needs an amp for tonight (Bowie's Serious Moonlight tour). In walks Slick with a pudgy middle aged guy wearing polyester pants and a short sleeved plaid shirt. Slick tries amps, the whole time asking the other guy "Is this my sound, Bob?" They finally settle on something, and we proceed to the counter to ring up the sale. "Bob" pulls out his Amex, and I nearly shat on the floor. Robert Ezrin. Jeebus! The producer of The Wall, Billion Dollar Babies, Destroyer, and Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. He asks if i need tickets to the show. "Sure, how many ya got?" "Is 25 enough?" "That'll do it!" Couldn't give them away, my girlfriend and I sat in an empty row.
Anyhoo, they ask me to deliver the amp to the venue, since I was coming anyway. I show up at the artist's entrance, and security goes to get someone to sign for the amp. Back comes this sandy haired round faced guy stinking of cognac. He signs, and I leave. As I'm tucking the receipt in my wallet I glance at the signature. David Gilmour.:bonk

todd richman

09-16-2010, 07:43 AM

That is unreal. Cool story.

DGDGBD

09-16-2010, 08:20 AM

I sat next to Susan Tedeschi on a flight from Philly to Chicago a couple of years ago. She was very friendly and down to earth.

Two-Octave

09-16-2010, 08:24 AM

I saw the Pope on the television once.

pickaguitar

09-16-2010, 08:34 AM

mrmuzikhead

09-16-2010, 12:31 PM

I've met numerous famous musicians over the years.(Too many to list or remember) I used to work in a well-known venue, and just long term concert going has led me to meet all sorts of great individuals, many of whom I'm very proud of meeting.

With few exceptions, everyone I've met has been very real and very pleasant. The deal about "rock stars" and "famous musicians" being rude, obsessed, difficult, concieted I have not found to be true- BUT the upcoming local/regional bands I often dealt with ABSOLUTELY had this attitude. When you are not known outside the city limits, the "we're the new Beatles " thing gets tired quickly. And -if you think you are getting a 10 pack of 9v batteries, organic apricots, and 7 bottles of Diet Strawberry Kiwi Snapple, private dressing rooms,unlimited alcohol,and other stupid shit you can think of on your rider- think again.

I remember seeing a media story on what a horrible bitch/prima donna Jennifer Lopez was, and how insane her rider was. It happened to be posted on the Smoking Gun.com, so I had to look. The list was fairly sane and reasonable...I wished I had kept all my paperwork from back in the day to post - but then again- no one would know who the **** those bands are now, anyway!

I've met so many great musicians. Pretty much all of them have been really great people. I think often people can tend to invade their space and considering that, most handle it well. It's all about ego. The truly great ones 99% of the time are too busy working on their music to have time for ego.

FreekishBluesFX

09-16-2010, 12:37 PM

I met Dweezil Zappa, Ben Thomas, Tim Bluhm and Davy Knowles, many others... all great musicians. Down to Earth and just great people. Forever grateful for their advice with my pedals. All my run-ins so far just fine lads. Saw the whites of Joe Perry's eyes.... but we never chatted. Soon I hope:) Spoke on the phone with alot does that count:)

Schafrocks

09-16-2010, 02:58 PM

I met Jeff Golub (Billy Squire) in a bar the night before a show in Carbondale, IL. Nice guy. Killer guitar player too.

Sat next to Mike Reno of Loverboy when they opened for Cheap Trick. He just came out in the audience and sit down a couple seats down.

I also met Neal Schon, Steve Morse, Albert Lee, Tom Sholtz, Steve Lynch, Vinnie Moore and Tony MacAlpine at Namm in Atlanta in 1988 or 89? Met Tony and Vinnie at the Dregs Concert they had for Namm. Their jaw was sitting on the floor just like mine watching Steve Morse. lol

My Dad was friends with Billy Corgan's uncle and the Pumkins were doing a concert in Carbondale. Billy's uncle is from that area and my Dad happened to be over at his house and Billy was there. He asked him if he knew anybody who needed tickets. He said, my son might. He called and asked and I said hell yes. Got to will call and there were 16th row tickets and back stage passes. I met the band. All the band was very friendly except Billy. They did kick ass though.

Had back stage passes to Styx and REO eaight or nine years ago. Met Kevin Cronin and the guitar player (can't think of his name and don't care because he was very rude). Kevin was very nice though.

I think that's about it.

Schaf

Andrew Spindler

09-16-2010, 03:12 PM

I worked at Warner Brothers back in the 80's and met a ton of Rockstars. The one's that stick out in my mind as being the nicest are Chris Isaak, Marshall Crenshaw, John Fogerty, Al Kooper, and Ronnie James Dio. Kooper let me sit in with him and his partner once while they were scoring the music for the TV show Crime Story. I had the misfortune of meeting Don Henley. Not a nice man. Opened for The Smithereens a couple of times. Pat DiNizio is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet.

Flogger59

09-16-2010, 03:20 PM

One year at NAMM I was in the Gibson booth admiring the Revolution Casino, and a guy said "Hold it up, I want a picture." He used a flash, so I was blinded. I was pointing out some neat stuff, like the Kluson outline under the Grovers as my purple dots faded. I then realized that it was Tony Levin. "I don't need to tell you this stuff, you already have seen the real deal", I said.

That same year (I think, they run together) I spent an hour or two with Lisa Loeb at the Yamaha booth trying guitars, she's a really good player, got a hell of a grip, too. I was by the front door when she walked in, and I said "That looks like Lisa Loeb!" She replied "That's because it is!" She was going out with Dweezil, who was demoing the Peavey Wiggy that year.

shooter1371

09-16-2010, 03:29 PM

My band jammed with Phil Varone of Skid Row and Saigon Kick last Saturday. Phil is a really good dude, very modest and down to earth. Great drummer too.

PeaElAre

09-16-2010, 03:48 PM

Kiss (the 1993 no-makeup version) at KMart in L.A. during an Alive III promo by KNAC.
Ron McGovney (original Metallica bassist)
Sonny from POD
John Mayer
All of the Umphrey's McGee guys at one time or another.
Tim Reynolds (Dave Matthews Band guitarist)
Johnny Vatos (Oingo Boingo drummer)
Zach Lind (Jimmy Eat World drummer)

That's it off the top of my head. I think.

jrjones

09-16-2010, 03:54 PM

A friend of mine has jammed with Eric Johnson, John Mayer and Zakk Wylde (not at the same time, but at different points throughout his career)

huutevar

09-16-2010, 03:57 PM

I met Jimmy Page while he was out window shopping. It was a few months after the LZ box set had come out and we talked for a little bit about the box set. He was really nice. He was my biggest inspiration to play guitar but I didn't want to freak him out by gushing. I think now I probably played it too cool.

That same year I sort of met Lenny Kravitz when he did a CD signing at Tower Records. He gave everyone a hug after he signed their CD.

I have also met Warren Haynes and he was really laid back and nice. A friend of a friend was his girlfriend's cousin, so I got a backstage pass. We didn't talk for very long and I didn't really know who he was at the time.

tedmcardle

09-16-2010, 04:02 PM

The guys from Good Charlotte. Had no idea who they were http://thefreeimagehost.info/images/101

jmp

09-17-2010, 10:47 AM

I park my car every day on a city parking deck that is used by the Civic Center and adjacent hotel. A lot of major acts that come through our city put the performers and road crew up at the hotel.

About two years ago, I was pulling onto the deck one morning and driving to my usual spot. I had my iPod set to shuffle and just as I'm pulling onto the deck it starts to play a Buddy Guy song (one from Sweet Tea, don't recall which one). Suddenly, I see a guy standing at the entrance to the crosswalk to the hotel that is the spitting image of Buddy Guy. He was wearing a hat and a Hawaiian shirt. He looked to be waiting for someone to pick him up. I stared for a brief moment and thought it must be my imagination working simply because I was hearing the song. I parked my car and walked a couple of blocks to my office. When I get there, out of curiosity, I check Buddy's website for concert dates. Sure enough, he had played a show in my town the previous night (I don't get out much and don't keep up with who's coming to town).

I always thought it was a real coincidence that I randomly spotted Buddy Guy right at the moment my iPod (with over 3,000 songs on it) decided to play one of his songs.

Also, back in the 80's, I was working at Sea World in Orlando, FL. They were having an event and Night Ranger was playing. Jeff Watson and Brad Gillis had just been on the cover of Guitar World a few months previously. I saw Brad enjoying the park with his girlfriend (or wife). Didn't have the guts to bug him and spoil his visit.

dewman

09-18-2010, 11:08 AM

Met Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes last night...

Hwoltage

09-18-2010, 11:21 AM

I walked into a music shop one day and headed upstairs to the guitar/bass area. I get up there and there is a guy sitting in the middle of the room just completely slapping the HELL out of this bass... Just mesmerizing.. behind him was a gorilla of a dude in a suit and shades slowly eyeballing the group of about 15 or so people who had gathered around this guy, just beaming. They obviously knew who he was but I didn't!

Also, I used to volunteer for stage duty at a festival called the Oregon Jamboree which brings in some heavy hitters of the Country genre. Lee Ann Womack was playing one year and as my buddy and I were walking from one duty to another across an unpopulated area behind the stage we crossed paths with her headed in opposite directions. Of course we were both :love::love: (I was absolutely smitten with her at the time, even before the show :D). She was with a very large male assistant but looked right at us with a big smile and said, I quote, "Well, hello boys!" in that voice and oh jeebus I just about had to take a knee. :love:

steveRB

09-18-2010, 11:36 AM

KANSAS violin player Robbie Steinhardt worked in a local music store, where I would buy sheet music.

I used to go to the West L.A. Music show almost every year, and there were lots of rock/jazz/film musicians walking around and easily approachable. I met John Fogerty, T Lavitz (Dixie Dregs), Brad Gillis, Allan Holdsworth, Trevor Rabin, Alan White, Jeff Skunk Baxter, Alan Silvestri.

I once gave Blues Sarciano (probably spelled his name wrong) and his manager a ride to the airport when I was working at a Holiday Inn.

Knuckles

09-18-2010, 12:07 PM

Though not a rock star, I sat next to Ron Jeremy on a flight from Portland to Phoenix, Az. last year.

Hank Linderman

09-18-2010, 12:18 PM

When I was quite young, I sang "Happy Birthday" (along with 13 other choir boys) to Igor Stravinsky. This was at the private preview of the opening of the Picasso Wing at the Guggenheim. After we sang for him, he walked around with us, 2 at a time, and commented on some of the pieces, "..I remember when Pablo was working on this...".

I was an average sized 5th grader and I was taller than him.

He's a rock star to me.

Best...H

PeaElAre

09-24-2010, 02:51 PM

Though not a rock star, I sat next to Ron Jeremy on a flight from Portland to Phoenix, Az. last year.
I hope you disinfected anything of yours that was within a yard of him afterward.

ssites

10-06-2010, 12:13 PM

Met my idol Steve Lukather a few years ago when Toto did their american tour. After the show we were all staying in the same hotel. I was with 3 other guys who love Luke and we happened to all be in the hotel bar. We were all in the bag drunk and acting like a bunch of school girls saying "there he is", "what do we do" etc. My sister called us all a bunch of sissies and went over and asked him if he would come over and meet us. Luke came over and hung with us for about 20 minutes. Cool as HELL. Although in hindsight he probably couldn't wait to get away from us.

We were asking all the important questions he probably never heard before like "what scale was that in the Rosanna solo" and "you should hear some of my original stuff it is awesome"

Oh God how embarrassing. But we got a bunch of pics with him and he was super cool

mototpsychel

10-09-2010, 01:06 PM

From what I can remember.

Met briefly: David Bowie & Marc Bolan together. Others in the "met briefly" category include Leslie West, Ted Nugent, & J. Geils Band.

Partied, drank with The Ramones, The Dead Boys, Johnny Thunders, misc NYC punk bands - got high with Warhols Factory crew at one Lou's early solo shows.

Cheetah Chrome of the Dead Boys was the most fun.

johnnyguitar

10-17-2010, 01:50 PM

Ed VAn Halen..he was warming up back stage on a little Peavey, Danny Gatton repaired his furnace, Vince Gill bought him a soft drink, one of Motley Crue..he was pukin in a toilet next to me, Ricky Medlocke, Ed King jammed with him at a Music store in Delaware, Dickie Betts had a beer with him in my drinkin days, Larry Carlton in a recording studio when he was very young best guitarist I think I've ever heard..and a few more and a female who shall remain nameless..I had no idea who she was at the time:love:

bseamus

10-17-2010, 02:14 PM

freedom's door

10-17-2010, 04:52 PM

As much as i love guitar, this is best of them all.

Gotta agree...

Hunterdog

10-17-2010, 06:24 PM

I was backstage when Buddy played at the Monterey Blues Festival a few years ago. His guitars were all setting in a rack. I saw the polka dots on a strat and told the girl I was with, "Wow, Buddy Guy's guitars." She said something about checking them out, and I told her, "No. You don't just handle a guy's guitars. Especially if that guy is Buddy Guy." She walked up the the strat and held her finger a couple of inches away, saying, "I'm going to touch it." I was waiving my hands, but she just stood there like she had a gun to the head of a hostage. She kept inching her finger closer, and I kept waving my hands more frantically.

She touched it. I couldn't believe it. I crack up whenever I think about it.

Was at the opening of the St. Louis Hard Rock [I think] that featured an outdoor show with, among others, Kenny Wayne Shepard and Buddy Guy.

KWS opened.

Buddy came on, and in 30 seconds you knew he was having a good night. Later, as he did his patented-walk-through-the-crowd-while-soloing routine, complete with a 350 lb. plus dude unraveling his cord and parting the crowd like an elephant amongst a herd of goats........Buddy manages to stop right in front of where I'm standing. We make eye contact, he's obviously having a good time, and at that time Buddy was darn near my favorite guitar player, so I'm rather stunned, and in the middle of a crazy, only-Buddy-can-get-away-with bend, he's acting like he's trying to hand me his guitar........Now, I know that this is obviously all for show, so I'm laughing my ass off, but I did manage to reach out and touch the B string [that he had bent up to the top of the neck].......Took my wife a long time to get me to wash that finger........

Tonezilla

10-17-2010, 07:12 PM

Powerslave214

10-17-2010, 07:44 PM

I've met Joe Satriani a few times, both at meet and greets, and also at the tour bus. Nicest fellow you could ever meet, no rock star ego there at all.
Also got to meet Stu Hamm.

I also met all the guys from Dream Theater, John Petrucci was particularly cool and I got John Myung to say more words at one time then I've ever heard him say before.

And all the guys in King's X. They're very approachable after shows and hang out and do signings. Great musicians!

ChampReverb

10-17-2010, 10:01 PM

In my high school band, our bassist Tony, always raved about his other friend Drew Zingg (Steely Dan) but I never met him. I used to work with Wayne Krantz (Steely Dan) in the '80's selling vinyl LP's at the Harvard Coop in Cambridge, MA. Back then, many of us in the record dept were musicians but he was way beyond the rest of us when we jammed a few times at parties. Six Steely degrees...

My best friend Kevin was a huge Iggy Pop fan. So was his girlfriend. After an Iggy Pop show his girlfriend disappeared for 24 hours. When she showed up a day later she confessed to having spent the night with Iggy. Kevin was torn but forgave her.

While at the Harvard Coop, Ric Ocasek of The Cars came in a lot shopping for the latest English indie releases. He was friendly and polite but a bit shy. One of my current bandmates currently coordinates local school benefit concerts a few times a year and Greg Hawkes (Cars) sometimes comes down to play a few tunes on ukelele.

For my first wedding, in the '70's, we had the rehearsal dinner at small but fancy off-the-beaten track restaurant in VT. Shortly after we arrived, in walk Mick Jagger and Jeri Hall who hurry off to a small back corner booth. We were all really curious and tried to eavesdrop but basically left them alone and he signed cards for everyone at the restaurant.

Around 2000-2002, I was unemployed so I used to hit the local clubs (Cambridge, MA) frequently mid-week. I got to know Duke Levine well enough to chat and Peter Wolf (J. Geils) sat at my table a few times at some of Duke's gigs. Peter was nice enough but a bit quiet and I felt a bit awkward too. I saw Gerry Leaonard (Spooky Ghost, David Bowie) sit in with Club D'Elf and he was very friendly and showed me some of his old pedals (Boss Super Feedbacker?).

In my teens, I spent a few summers round Sunapee, NH and my folks knew Tom Hamilton's (Aerosmith) folks pretty well. Tom picked me up a few times when I was hitching around town and seemed like a really nice guy. When I was stocking shelves at the local supermarket, Steve Tyler used to straggle through periodically with some pretty babe in tow and he'd usually say a brief hello or wink although at other times he seemed to be pretty well stoned on something.

My brother-in-law is friends with Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul and Mary) and I met him at a bar-mitzvah. Very nice guy.

-bEn r.

DC1

10-17-2010, 10:14 PM

My best friend Kevin was a huge Iggy Pop fan. So was his girlfriend. After an Iggy Pop show his girlfriend disappeared for 24 hours. When she showed up a day later she confessed to having spent the night with Iggy. Kevin was torn but forgave her.

http://img.youtube.com/vi/DJnKm6ftPu0/0.jpg

I pity the fool...

dc

richpjr

10-17-2010, 11:34 PM

I snagged a backstage passes to a Joe Bonamassa concert from a buddy who is a DJ and got to chat with him for about 15 minutes after the concert. What a totally cool, down to earth, unpretentious guy he is!

eisrael37

02-03-2011, 11:28 PM

I met Tommy Emmanuel after a show last summer. Incredible guy, had a blast talking with him.

tommyg

02-04-2011, 06:15 AM

I met Danny Gatton at the end of his last Pittsburgh show at Graffitti's in the early 90's.

Anyway, it's the end of the show and me and a bunch of other people are awaiting for Danny to come up the steps back to the stage. After he was told by a stage hand that there was bunch of people waiting for him he slowly walks up the steps and starts meeting people and signing a few items. As I was third in line I noticed something peculiar: he was holding his Coors Light in his right hand and signing autographs with his left hand. I immediately thought WOW - this is pretty impressive! When it came my turn I thanked him for a great show and asked if he could sign my concert bill. Just like the others before me, he signed the concert bill with his left hand, writing "To Tom - Danny Gatton". So I then asked if he wouldn't mind autographing my concert ticket, he said sure - then said to me "here - hold my beer". I took his beer and he then took the Sharpie and signed my concert tickets (one for me and one for my buddy) with his right hand - each in the IDENTICAL SCRIPT that he signed my concert bill! I handed him back my beer - stunned at what I just saw - thanked him and politely went my way. I will never forget that moment! That concert bill, ticket stub, and an obituary from the local City Paper 9-months later talking about his last Pittsburgh show are proudly framed and displayed in my game room.

I also met Robben Ford, Roscoe Beck, and Tom Brechtlein at the end of show at Graffitti's (Pittsburgh) in the early 90's too (Mystic Mile tour). Very soft spoken and humble guyl Roscoe and Tom were great too. They all signed my concert bill that I took down from a wall (Robben signed "to Tom - keep playin' them blues!") as well as some cassette covers (I didn't feel like converting to CDs back then).

Lastly, I met BB King after a show in 1998 at Heinz Hall. He was certainly tired and would only autograph one item; either something you brought or one of his 8 x 10's. I chose the 8 x10 pic in which he inscribed "To Tom...BB King" and give me a BBKing guitar pin. These items, like the other mentioned above, are proudly displayed in my game room.

tapeworm

02-04-2011, 06:18 AM

Met Joe Bonamassa after one of his shows, cool guy, real down to earth, just how I expected.

RupertB

02-04-2011, 06:42 AM

At 18 years old, my first "bar band" experience included seeing a young Audley Freed on guitar. A friend who was playing bass introduced me.

dangeroso

02-04-2011, 06:48 AM

I met all the guys in Pantera at a Rangers baseball game before they were big. We were all sitting in the cheap seats at the old Arlington Stadium.

I also met Kip Winger and Reb Beach at a multi-band all day concert. They were signing autographs, so I waited through a long line, and when I got to the end I walked right past the outstretched hand of Kip Winger to go talk to Reb.

Tom Gross

02-04-2011, 07:03 AM

Huh?

.... Not that there's anything wrong with that, but this place is for musicians not fans.

Says who?
I've been here since before the begining, and it has always been an evolving, enjoyable board with room for everybody - cover bands, hobbyists, collectors, lawayers, 'rock stars', out of work Berklee grads, grammy winning composers, nice folks interested in gear, church band players, young folks who can't afford nice gear but are interested, etc etc etc......
I ignore threads I am not interested in.

Flogger59

02-04-2011, 08:06 AM

Flying back from Halifax, I noticed Rita MacNeil on the plane. As I walked by her seat I caught her eye and said "You're famous!" She put her finger to her lips, wide eyed. I then said "You've been on Trailer Park Boys!" She laughed.

ljdsam

02-04-2011, 10:16 AM

Met all of GPS after a show. Ryo was just saying hi, but the rest of them were very chatty, especially Guthrie, who was very nice. And John Payne was suprisingly cool about the whole Asia thing. Complemented Jay on his drumming, and he seemed pleased.
Spent half of Vixen's set on the Lords & Ladies tour talking to Jimi Bell, who was very laid back, and really opened up when we discovered that he's from the same area as the guy I'd come to the show with.
A few years ago I discovered that my Mother's cousin used to be Jimmy Page's PA in the '70's, and was still in touch. Never occurred to "Mom" that I might be interested...

arem

02-04-2011, 02:42 PM

I used to manage the studio of a very famous photographer, so I met or spoke on the phone regularly with a ton of celebs, including loads of 70' and 80's rock stars. The cool thing was it was almost all people visiting as friends, not for work. It was always funny to me that I was on first name basis with some of these people, especially some of the, shall we say, less prestigious, clients. As an example, we did a CD cover and all the promos for the new-age musician Yanni, and he would call me up a few times a week to check on progress and then end up BS'ing about sports and crap until I would tell him I had to get back to the work I was doing to get him off the phone.

A couple of good quick stories:

I was hurrying into the building one day and caught the elevator in the lobby just as the door was closing. I yelled at the person inside (some dude with obnoxious sunglasses with a blonde who was obviously hot at one time but was past her prime) to keep it open for me but he let the door close as he said with an english accent "better luck next time mate". I was pissed off to the highest of pisstivity and yelled "Dick!" as the elevator went up. When I finally made it up to the studio, sitting there with my boss was the dude and chick. It was Ian Hunter. I felt fully justified for never having liked Mott The Hoople anyway.

We were shooting Paul Simon for a CD cover and he hates sitting for portraits, so he sat in the studio with his unplugged electric and played and sang his songs while we set things up and then shot the photos. I can't say I'm a big fan of his music, but it was very cool. There are people who would probably pay 1000's of dollars to get the performance he put on for the photographer, me and his brother/manager for 30 minutes.

Les Paul Guy

02-04-2011, 03:53 PM

Joe Perry - After a JPP show in 09. He stopped to talk to a bunch of us and sign some stuff. Got a pic with him. Pretty mellow guy but obviously wanted to get back on the road.

Glen Drover (Megadeth)- Had dinner with him and others at the Hard Rock Cafe before a Megadeth show on the United Abominations tour. Great guy. Dave was supposed to meet up with us after the show (my friend worked on the record) but he blew him off.

Josh Todd (Buckcherry) - Ran into him outside before a show. Talked for a second and stopped to snap a picture. Great guy.

Stevie D (Buckcherry) - Met him the same way, before a different show. No time for a picture but he recognized me later at the show and threw me a few picks.

Lajon (Sevendust) - Got to talk to him and the guys from Cycle of Pain for about half an hour before one of their shows. All great, hilarious guys.

Black Label Society - Met at a meet and greet. Everyone (Especially Zakk) made sure everyone had a great time and felt like family. The extra money for the meet and greet all went to St. Jude's as well.

Joe Morris (Drummer- Whitney Houston, Rascal Flats, Steve Vai, many more) - Recorded him a couple times in the studio. AMAZING player, has kits for every sound, and one interesting fellow. Some notable quotes:
"I went to my doctor and he said I have the body of a greek god"
"One of my drums was ****ed up, and I called (endorsement company) to get another one and they asked me to send the old one back. I said, 'How about I send you my dick?'"

I know there are more but this is all I can think of...I'll update when I remember

Maltese Fan

02-04-2011, 04:19 PM

Did some work filming a documentary of the '99 Ozzfest with Black Sabbath headlining. Met them, Slayer, Godsmack, Buckethead, Fear Factory, Slipknot, Rob Zombie, Static X and some other bands I have forgotten. It was during the tour, so none of them would remember me by now.

84superchamp

02-04-2011, 05:15 PM

andy gomes. backstage in a small-town blues fest. he was talking to his crew after the show was cancelled due to weather (outdoors). from a distance , i said "real bummer. i really wanted to see you play". he said "thanks".

edwarddavis

02-05-2011, 05:35 AM

Frank Sinatra, great guy

Marcfordsfuzz513

02-05-2011, 05:48 AM

The closest i've come is my uncle.. He is the singer in Damiera... They got kinda famous, made it on mtv, i think they broke up... He's in Chicago now, writing new music for a new band.

Ravindave_3600

02-05-2011, 10:37 PM

We were shooting Paul Simon for a CD cover and he hates sitting for portraits, so he sat in the studio with his unplugged electric and played and sang his songs while we set things up and then shot the photos. I can't say I'm a big fan of his music, but it was very cool. There are people who would probably pay 1000's of dollars to get the performance he put on for the photographer, me and his brother/manager for 30 minutes.

I was listening to some Graceland today. Totally envious right now!

AJ Love

02-06-2011, 02:03 AM

My old guitar teacher Willie Higgins was good friends with Buddy Miles. Willie brought Buddy over to my apartment in Chicago in the spring of '94 and we hung out and partied for an hour or two. That night Buddy brought along a Stratocaster that Jimi Hendrix had given him. I got to play it...pretty cool. I dunno if it was my imagination running away but I could swear that guitar had a certain "vibe" to it...Buddy was very kind hearted, great sense of humor, cool cat. After that I hung out with Buddy a few more times and even played an impromtu pick up gig with him later that spring

Met Buddy Guy a bunch of times at his club in Chicago. Great person, big smile, big Chicago sports fan (Bears, Bulls, White Sox)

Also met Albert Collins, Otis Rush, Hubert Sumlin, and Lonnie Brooks briefly at various Blues clubs. Saw Albert Collins just destroy both Buddy Guy & Otis Rush onstage when the 3 of them got into a "cutting heads" duel all 3 of them jamming onstage at Legends in Chicago in 1990

Got a guitar lesson from Lefty Dizz. Now THAT was cool

Met Wynton Marsalis backstage after one of his shows in Madison. He was a very gracious, intelligent person to talk to. I was extremely impressed with how much time he took that night talking to a bunch of kids who were in line to meet him and they all got brief little mini-music lessons from him. I'm talking like 35-40 kids and Wynton treated them all like family.I have a signed and framed 8.5x11 photo of Wynton sitting here at my desk

Met Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds way back in 1987. I snuck backstage during their soundcheck and listened to them rehearse part of a set. Jimmie Vaughan wasn't there though for soundcheck, he was back at the hotel and the guitarist from Jason & The Scorchers sat in for him at soundcheck. Kim was cool and took the time to give me some advice about the music biz when I asked...

I met Daryl Jones at a show in Madison. An extremely kind-hearted person. He was very patient answering my dumb-ass questions about what it was like to tour with Miles Davis and the Rolling Stones. Probably questions he's heard thousands of times but he was very gracious

stompboy

02-06-2011, 02:10 AM

I have met a few in my time. The best for me was Richie Sambora on a Taylor meet and greet and while I was waiting to meet Paul Gilbert I got to meet Brian May who just happened to hanging around! That was very cool.

Zero G

02-06-2011, 02:16 AM

I have a buddy who hung out with Steve Morse at his house. He says he was the nicest guy ever, but he was obsessed with eating cereal.

Nickstrtcstr

02-06-2011, 11:55 AM

I met Warren DeMartini at Guitar Trader music store in San Diego in 1984 when Ratt was at their peak. I was standing at the counter buying some strings and he was right next to me. We talked for a few minutes and he was really nice.

I have hung out with Jim Yester of The Association a few times in the past couple of years at a local bar here in Northern NJ.

Howard Stern has rock star status. I met him once at the K-ROC (WXRK) studios in Manhattan.

ericjohnschwab

02-06-2011, 12:06 PM

One of my greatest memories ever was going to The Viper Room on Sunset Blvd back in 2002 (famous for River Phoenix O.D.'ing in front of it). I went to go see Duff McKagan's band Loaded. I was a huge Guns fan back in the old days and I brought my Appetite CD cover to get it signed by Duff. As Faster *****cat was playing (Taime Downe was a total prima donna!) I looked to my left and saw Tom Morello sitting in a booth. He saw me and I smiled and gave him a thumbs up. I wanted to walk over to tell him what an influence he was on me as a musician. As I walked over there I saw Gene Simmons. That's when I started to freak. He was holding court with a couple of young girls and I didn't dare bother him. I was waiting patiently for Gene to finish up so I could go over to Tom and talk to him. As I looked down, right there in front of me was Slash - one of the main reasons I play. He was talking to some blonde so I didn't say anything. When he was done he looked up to me and I said "Slash, you are such a huge inspiration to me on the guitar. Thank you so much." He gave me a big smile and extended his hand to shake mine. He signed my copy of Appetite. I went over to the guitarist who played in the Zep tribute band that opened up and I literally started weeping. I will never forget that night.

Omega

02-06-2011, 01:10 PM

Met Kiss in 1990 after a soundcheck prior to a rare club show that they were playing. Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ. All 4 came out and met and signed things for people. Gene was showing pictures of then-toddler Nick. Eric Carr came out holding a slice of Sicilian pizza and having nowhere to put it, asked someone to hold it. All 4 couldn't have been nicer or more gracious. Later, they crushed at this very small club with a great setlist, including one of only 2 live performances of Betrayed.

About a year later, I met Eric Carr again at WDHA in NJ. We hung out for about 45 minutes and he was very friendly, encouraging me to ask all sorts of questions. Great, great guy and what a loss.

oneidabow1

02-06-2011, 01:51 PM

Ted Nugent-met him at his hunting store years back on a couple occasions in Jackson, Michigan. Also seen him a couple times at archery trade shows. Nice guy but you can barely get a word in.

hawkeye17

02-06-2011, 02:48 PM

I met Tommy Shaw when I went outside to smoke a cig at a hotel I was staying at outside of Chicago. I lit up and out comes this dude in shorts and flip flops and he lights up too. I'm like...you look familiar man....Tommy Shaw?? We talked about gear for about 10 minutes and that was it. Very nice guy and he's totally one of us gear-hounds lol. I was impressed with how down to earth and normal that guy was. Very cool.

67blackcherry

02-07-2011, 07:07 AM

I have a buddy who hung out with Steve Morse at his house. He says he was the nicest guy ever, but he was obsessed with eating cereal.

Maybe he had the munchies?

bigboy

02-07-2011, 08:05 AM

I have met soooooo many celebs in my life that it would be hard to remember them all. But I wanted to share this one from a week ago. I was sitting next to Tommy Shannon at the Saxon Pub talkin' poo like I've known him forever, which I haven't. Then he got up and played. That's how it is here. That barrier between celebs and common folk is almost non-existant. Celebs go out too, and when the do they're just one of us.

strangec

02-08-2011, 07:24 AM

Met Brad Whitford and NAMM 2011. Very nice guy, chatted a bit and posed for pictures then and introduced me to his Experience guitar tech to talk gear.

imastratoholic

02-08-2011, 08:09 AM

I hit as many shows as I can at The Rhythm Room here in Phoenix. Everybody I've seen there hangs out after the show and shakes hands, signs stuff, etc. Some of the guys have been: Jimmie Vaughan, Sonny Landreth, John Hammond, Tab Benoit, Anders Osborne, Cyril Neville, Walter Trout, Leon Russell....

BobPoomba

02-08-2011, 08:22 AM

Used to be a journalist and met a whole whole bunch of metal bands. Not really TGP bands but groups like Gamma Ray, Iced Earth, Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, stuff like that.

What I've learned with all of them is that if you treat them like a normal human and don't lose your shit, they will be cool. I've never not told a musician I admired that I enjoy their work and think they're good players but I've never "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OMIGOD!!!!!"

One time after a show and interview with Sonata Arctica I was shooting the breeze with the singer and main songwriter Tony Kakko when this crazy girl came up with tears streaming down here face "Tony! Tony! Your music is my life! It means the world to me! Oh I love you oh oh oh oh Tony! Oh oh!"

Dude, he looked at me like "help... please."

So I had to go "Heyyyy check this out man, let me show you that cd I was talking about, it's in my car."

He told the girl "I'll be right back!" and then we escaped to the headliner's bus.
______________________________--

One time a friend of mine was in NYC and in line for something. I can't remember if it was for the Colbert Report taping or a play or something but behind him was Jerry Seinfield. His sister told him, "Dude Seinfield is behind you." and he turned around and he I guess did a double take, enough for Jerry to see that he was recognized, and my friend said that Jerry actually flinched and recoiled... So my friend just smiled and waved and turned back around.

I can only imagine hearing the same "Is Kramer really like dat?" questions and quotes from the show every day day in and out.

Tyger

02-08-2011, 09:16 AM

My friend was in Amsterdam smoking tweeds in a coffee shop, and met Dave Mustaine. he asked for a hug, was denied, and got a hand shake and small conversation about what Dave was doing there.

My friend Dave has hung out with Umphrey's Mcgee, and gotten intoxicated with them a COUPLE of times. Apparently they're friends or something I wouldn't have believed him, but when my other friends got to come along...GRRR!!!

Timmy63

02-08-2011, 09:46 AM

I met Ian Anderson and Martin Barre in Columbus, Ohio I believe in 1989, and they were really nice guys, Martin asked me to play the air guitar with a tennis racquet during the show for 30 seconds, and gave me a backstage pass to do so. Very memorable moment in my life.

Bloomfield fan

02-08-2011, 10:27 AM

one of Motley Crue..he was pukin in a toilet next to me,

I absolutely love this one.

Ed VAn Halen..he was warming up back stage on a little Peavey, Danny Gatton repaired his furnace, Vince Gill bought him a soft drink, one of Motley Crue..he was pukin in a toilet next to me, Ricky Medlocke, Ed King jammed with him at a Music store in Delaware, Dickie Betts had a beer with him in my drinkin days, Larry Carlton in a recording studio when he was very young best guitarist I think I've ever heard..and a few more and a female who shall remain nameless..I had no idea who she was at the time:love:

aliensporebomb

02-08-2011, 09:17 PM

I love the idea of Danny Gatton repairing Ed Van Halen's furnace.

It's so off the wall it's not even in the room!

I've got some interesting stories but not so interesting that they are "must hears".

Some funny ones: Scott Henderson talking about how hard it was to get a dog sitter that would stay on the job during the long time he was on tour.
Those albums about dogs weren't fake: he's really a avid dog lover and the songs on those records were really about his dogs.

bigboy

02-08-2011, 10:07 PM

Rotten

02-09-2011, 06:51 AM

I met David Lee Roth right before he did a surprise appearance at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, by San Diego. Van Halen had just broken up and my friends and I had just graduated from college. We were drunk and one of my friend had his graduation robe on. Dave asked us where we graduated from, "Penn State or State Pen?" He was funny and cool.

Omega

02-09-2011, 07:19 AM

Was seeing Kiss play the Ritz in NYC in 1992. While leaving after the show, I moved to an area that didn't have lots of people to wait for some friends and was surprised to find myself right next to Jannick Gers of Iron Maiden. I said a quick hello, told him I really love I.M. and he was very friendly. He then told me that in a couple of weeks there would be an announcement that I.M. would be playing the same club. Very nice person and appreciative.

BadgerEE

02-09-2011, 12:48 PM

True Story: Summer of 1994 I was visiting my brother in Colorado and he lined up a show for us to go see with a friend of his, Mr. Rocky Mountain High, John Denver. John hooked us up with the tickets and passes and even picked us up at a nearby hotel. The show was the Eagles at Fiddler’s Green. My brother and me, John and his brother (Ron) scooted in the back gate, grabbed a drink and made for the seats. A few people recognized him and he was cool about it. The Eagles’s had an intermission and John says “Let’s go see what these guys are up to”. He has passes for us and we went backstage and immediately run in Frey and Henley. This is how cool JD was, the first words out of his mouth were “Don, I’d like you to meet my good friend Rich”. I was shocked and could only muster a” good to meet you Don”. The whole scene was great and it was cool to see supremely talented artists talk shop. Later he stops back at the hotel with us where the brothers squared off in a ping pong doubles match. Next morning he picks us up and flies us back to Aspen in his jet. JD was pilot and had a co-pilot with him as I guess was always the case when he was flying a Lear-type plane. He was gone 3 years later doing what he loved. I went to his memorial service at the Aspen Music Tent. Lyle Lovett played, friends and family spoke. His first wife had an amazing eulogy for him. They released balloons that floated up valley and that was it. Tough day. Great artist that did so much.

ealward

03-18-2011, 11:45 AM

i've met
Derek Trucks in the seattle airport
Jake Cinninger (umphrey's mcgee) at Summer Camp Music Fest
Walter Trout in a bar
Devon Allman in a bar
and...........Tommy Tutone!!! hahaha

Kentano2000

03-18-2011, 12:18 PM

marcher5877

03-18-2011, 01:24 PM

My brother met Bob Weir (Grateful Dead) in a book store in Boson. Bobby was there for his book signing and my brother was there buying books. My brother asked this guy "Do you know why all these people are here?" and Bobby, "Well, I think they are here for me"
My brother asks "Well, who are you?"
And Bobby says "I'm Bob Weir, I am the guitar player in the Grateful Dead, its nice to meet ya!"

There are other stories, but I like this one the best.

Kooshball

03-18-2011, 01:42 PM

i've met
Derek Trucks in the seattle airport
Jake Cinninger (umphrey's mcgee) at Summer Camp Music Fest
Walter Trout in a bar
Devon Allman in a bar
and...........Tommy Tutone!!! hahaha

what was it like meeting jake? he's my favorite guitar player

seems like a nice guy

travesty

03-19-2011, 05:09 AM

I have met a couple of guitar gods.... Steve Morse, Frank Gambale, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Stanley Jordan, Johnny A and Neal Schon.

fieldsroyal

03-19-2011, 05:52 AM

BB King outside Festival Hall in Brisbane - I was just walking past - he was post gig - really sweet guy
Chatted with Nick Cave at a Dirty Three show at The Zoo in Brisbane - he was just out front enjoying the show - pretty intense guy but friendly enough

Telebluze

03-19-2011, 11:55 AM

I met.....
Phil Lynot at The Municipal Auditorium (home of the orig Louisiana Hayride in my home town, Shreveport, La).....Lizzy opened for Nazareth on the Expect No Mercy tour. I was in the hall between sets, he came out from backstage and me and my buddy talked to him for about 5-10 mins....he was a very cool guy.

Stood in the security line with Carmine Appice in Cancun, talked to he and his wife for about an hour. He was trying to get his band "Slamm" off the ground. I've got his business card in my pocket right now.

Hung out with Rick Derringer for like 5 nights in a row at The Hollywood Casino in Shreveport.

Hung out with Johnny Winter after one of his shows at The Granada Theater in Dallas.

Hung out with Lonesome Dave for a long while one afternoon before a show at one of the local bars in Shreveport.

Hung out backstage with Doyle Bramhall II and Charlie Sexton after an Arc Angels show at Stubbs in Austin.

Hung out with and sold merch for Ian Moore at one of his shows at a bar in Shreveport.

That's all I can remember right now.....

Peace,
Ken

cmnyc

03-19-2011, 12:15 PM

I met Bono after a show at a small club in Albany, NY called JB Scotts. It was U2s first full tour of the States. After the show I was hanging out with a friend and Bono came up to us and asked if many bands came to town. We were telling him that many did when a very drunk person of indeterminate gender came by and tried to horn into the conversation. Bono was out of there in a flash.

We found him to be genuinely interested in connecting to the fans. Very nice guy and, of course, very young at the time.

Also met the band Ultravox and Robert Fripp. I gave Fripp a Brian Eno album to sign and he did not sign his name but Enos. Very funny.

rbnum1fan

03-19-2011, 12:45 PM

i have hung out with Jeff Beck three times. He is as nice a guy as you'll ever meet. He gets bored very quickly talking guitar,but if you get him talking cars he'll talk your ears off. He is a VERY nice guy, and funny as well.

Jennifer Batten was on tour with Jeff Beck in 99 and in 01,and she was very nice as well. I had tons of questions for her about Michael Jackson and she was really cool about answering them. She even sent me a copy of the video she made backstage in 2001

Steve Morse used to live a couple of towns away,and it was very very common to see him in the local guitar shops in Griffin,Mcdonough and Jonesboro in the late 70's early 80's . noone wanted to try put guitars or amps when he came in the store .In the early 90's he actually quit music for awhile and was a pilot for the regional Atlanta airline ASA. I saw him quite a few times in Hartsfield. ( i'm sure he is happy everyday Blackers quit Deep Purple!!)

I was good friends for many years with Paul Peek until his death in 2001. He played in Gene Vincent and the Bluecaps ( Jeff Beck's favorite band ) and i'd always play for free with him, it was an honor just being onstage with him. He was a great man who was there when rock first started and i feel very lucky to have known him

Former Heavyweight Champion Evander Holyfield lives on my old delivery route,and i met MC Hammer and Evander at the local bowling alley.
I wanted to yell HAMMERTIME when MC would bowl a strike

I literally knocked Rick Derringer on his ass in Vegas . we both rounded a corner at the Mens Room in Caesers Palace and he went ass over tit. I had no idea who it was until he got up screaming "do you know who i am? I'm Rick EFFING Derringer!"

guitarpedaladdict

03-21-2011, 05:00 PM

Ran into Meatloaf and Dan Marino years ago at a bar. Dan has the biggest head (literally) that I have ever seen on a human body. Meatloaf was enjoying groupie love and expecting it from all the women at the bar. I actually told him off for being rude to a couple of girls I was with. While telling him I didn't care who he was or thought he was, his jaw dropped, he asked my name, shook my hand, apologized, bowed his head and walked away. Earned me some groupie love from my own company... lol...

Onioner

03-21-2011, 05:15 PM

Blixa bargeld once thanked me. I make salami, and he's a big fan of our stuff. I'm a big bad seeds fan, so that was pretty cool.

chrisr777

03-21-2011, 05:29 PM

Couldn't even remember the list if I tried.

But the first one was Billy Preston back in the early seventies. I went to school with his nephew, who lived with him, and the school was doing a production of Bye-Bye Birdy. I was in the band and his nephew was in the cast. I got to talk to him and was thrilled. Goats Head Soup had just come out and he had played the keys on Heartbreaker, not to mention the organ on Let It Be and his own solo stuff that had just come out. It was like royalty had shown up for our school play.

Shark21

03-21-2011, 09:46 PM

Robert Plant at Disney World in Orlando. I was entertaining my son while my daughter and wife were on the Splash Mountain ride. I look around and see Robert Plant eating a turkey drumstick. I walk over and politely say hello. He was on vacation. He asked me where the best restaurant in Orlando might be. I told him about La Coq Au Vin. I called them a few weeks later to ask if he showed up. He had. He told them that "Dave" sent him. They were confused until I called. Everyone knows Robert Plant is a legendary star. It's "The Coq (pronounced coke)" they should experience. Mr. Plant was regal. It's the word that comes to mind.

Tonekat

03-22-2011, 07:47 AM

I gave Fripp a Brian Eno album to sign and he did not sign his name but Enos. Very funny.

Years ago, when King Crimson was recording at Bearsville Studios, a friend of mine met Adrian Belew and Fripp outside the studio, and they signed his KC album with each other's name.

mcknigs

03-22-2011, 08:40 AM

Years ago, when King Crimson was recording at Bearsville Studios, a friend of mine met Adrian Belew and Fripp outside the studio, and they signed his KC album with each other's name.

(can't recall whether I mentioned this in this thread, and don't feel like looking back through all the posts)

Years ago some I was doing sound for some friends playing at Max's On Broadway in Baltimore. They were opening for Peter Case, who I met. Then Adrian Belew showed up and started hanging out with the band. He was playing there the next night and wanted to check out the venue. When he found out I was running sound he told me to stay away from the "suck button."

-Scott

Flinto2002

03-25-2011, 04:17 PM

Last month, on 3 different occasions I met up with George Lynch to loan him my amp for the new Lynch Mob record. Real nice. George subsequently had Dave Friedman build him his own Naked.

Then 2 weeks after that Jeff Pilson calls me and says George in on tour with his Friedman Naked and needed to borrow mine for some more tracks. So Mr Pilson drives over to my pad to pick the rig up. Jeff is a REALLY NICE guy, about the friendliest mother****er on the planet.

evermore

04-20-2011, 02:39 PM

I was lucky to meet Stu Hamm twice...in the same week!

http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac21/evermore828/stu1.jpg

http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac21/evermore828/stu.jpg

thedroid

04-20-2011, 03:00 PM

I met Modern English after a concert when I was a teen. They were very sweaty and very British.

Bodhisattva

04-20-2011, 03:59 PM

Don't know if they are rock stars or not but i got to go to a hendrix tribute here in Nashville probably 10 years go and hang out backstage with Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell. Was so cool seeing the guys who played Woodstock with Hendrix. Mitch was a really small guy in round glasses, really nice, not overly talkative but personable enough.

George Lynch was there too. Dude was built. But for me seeing Mitch was the coolest part.

coralreefer

04-20-2011, 11:08 PM

Sat across from Charlie Pride on a flight to DFW...95% of the plane didn't recognize him, but people were whispering during the short flight...as we were deplaning, single file down the aisle and out the door, he breaks into "Kiss an Angel Good Morning" just as he is exiting the door, as if to say, "Yup, it's me!!" The whole plane cracks up!!

Spoke at length with Chris Isaak after a show, including short question/answer period on why his dog keeps getting these skin growths (I'm a vet)...really nice guy...as interested about us as we were about him.

Conversed at length after a show with Kathleen Edwards, autographed pic. One of the smallest people, size wise, I have ever met in my life.

Steve Miller threw me his guitar pick, which flew like a paper plate (death spiral)...landed and slid UNDER my foot...visual inspection took 2 minutes before I found it.

Sat next to Leon Russell @3:00am in North Carolina at a Sambos restaurant...neither of us were in any kind of shape to speak much.

guitarmook

04-21-2011, 07:14 AM

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/guitarmook/Jamesburton.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/guitarmook/DSC00031.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/guitarmook/BillyJeff.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/guitarmook/DSCF0297.jpg

lowbrow

04-21-2011, 08:32 AM

I had the opportunity to hang and chat with Jack Lawrence at length during a recent Greenhornes show. A very cool guy.

CharlyG

04-21-2011, 08:51 AM

I met talked to, and got pix snapped with Chris Squire, Paul Kanter, and Skunk Baxter at Rickenbacker's 75th anni shindig a few years ago.

Brooks

04-21-2011, 10:48 AM

great thread!

never met charlie pride, but heard a good story;
in dallas where i grew up there's a upscale area called highland park.
charlie bought a big house there and was mowing his own lawn, when a new neighbor flagged him down and asked him if he could mow his yard.
charlie did it!

my old guitarist installed tommy aldridge's dishwasher in highland park, said he was cool.

when i was 12, my grandma took me to see joe pass solo in a fla club.
after the AMAZING set, she marched me backstage and said
"mr pass, my grandson is a guitarist and wants your autograph" (wish i still had it). he was nice but kinda quiet.

i am about the same age as darrell from pantera, and saw them dozens of times when they did 1/2 covers 1/2 originals in area clubs. talked to darrell several times, even smoked a bowl with him. one time ran into him at wet n wild (waterpark), he had on a king diamond shirt (he was pale and prolly didn't want to sunburn). he always was super approachable and cool.

pitbull45

04-21-2011, 02:24 PM

I meet Courtney Taylor of the Dandy Warhol's at Maxwell's in Hoboken NJ. Sat at the bar and listened to him bitch about touring in a crappy van and playing small clubs in the States after a season of festivals in Europe

I also meet rockstar from Mars Charlie Sheen - he stole my table at McSorelys in NYC - fu*ker didn't even buy us a round after getting us kicked out from our table

soulohio

04-21-2011, 02:44 PM

if you have a table and a woman- they are both really Charlie's.....you are only keeping the seat warm until he has the time.

Cody

04-21-2011, 02:48 PM

Unless Charlie owns McSorely's: he didn't get you kicked out - McSorely's kicked you out to make room for a celeb.

The house should have bought you a round.

coralreefer

04-21-2011, 07:25 PM

Should have added this to my above post...

Went to school @ Oklahoma State University in the 80's...Vet school....We basically had like one night "free" every 6-8 weeks, so it was usually a real blow out...we used to rent the upstairs of the Grey Fox on the strip and would occasionally hire a country band to play...local guys, someone looking to make a few bucks...there was a guy who had friends that he would play gigs with...very local...could make a couple hundred bucks, and we thought he sounded OK so we'd hire him to play these parties. We'd play pool, drink and talk with his music in the background...people would come and go...no one paid much attention and often I'd be the only clapping after a song finished... I thought he sounded pretty good...spoke with him a few times...he said he'd occasionally make the trip to Nashville to give it another try and I wished him luck...guess he made it....

Garth Brooks

DrMerle

jekylmeister

04-21-2011, 08:22 PM

I saw Steven Tyler in the parking lot of the Ft Lauderdale Harley dealership while leaving. I pointed him out out my son, who was driving, and he pulled over. He charged right up to Tyler and said hi and Steven shook his hand and was nice to him. The boy smiled all the way home. I watched from the car. Does that count?

Magic-Sam

05-13-2011, 08:26 AM

Tyson Ritter and Nick Wheeler from The All-American Rejects come into the store I work at...not a huge fan of their music but they are nice guys.

bigboy

05-13-2011, 08:57 AM

Met David Grissom at the Continental Club just last night.

ItJustRocks

05-14-2011, 12:01 AM

Bryan Adams. Small guy, huge hands. Super cool to chat with!

tkozal

05-17-2011, 10:52 AM

Sting
Andy Summers
Stewart Copland
Jack Bruce
Clem Clempson
The guys in Ultravox
Greg Lake
Joey Ramone
Steve Morse
Peter Buck
Mike Mills

Lotsa Jazz guys Metheny, Burton, Heath Bros, Larry Coryell, Abercrombie, Towner, Billy Cobham, etc

Mysterionn

07-24-2011, 10:21 PM

Got backstage at a Band Of Joy concert because my friend/drummer knew their drummer through trading Rogers gear and got to meet Robert Plant!!! :D

ronedee

07-25-2011, 10:33 PM

Issac Hayes - Great human being. RIP

Leslie West - Signed my Goldtop, very funny and personable

John Mayall - Total DICK

Leon Russell - Civil, not very friendly

ELP - they were at the arrival gate @ TF Green airport in RI going over charts in a grassy area. They wanted, and bid on a well faded, railroad conductors hat I was wearing! I wouldn't sell.

Dave Mason - A great guitarist, and person

Kim Simmons - Fantastic guy! Spent much more time with my band talking than I would!!

Nancy Wilson - She was interested in a custom guitar I had. She was great! Her G-tech thought he was her bodyguard! A real dickhead. Didn't sell it because of him.

Oh yeah! When I was 15 years old...Shared a smoke w/ Ian Anderson @ RI College back stage door! Great, GREAT person!!

Gigbag

07-25-2011, 10:44 PM

Rick Nielsen - met at adjacent urinals before his show. I didn't bother to strike up a conversation.

Alan Holdsworth - bought him a beer during a break in his show and chatted with him. Really cool and humble guy.

Johnny A - was introduced to him before his show. Also a nice guy.

Kenny Wayne Sheppard - bumped into him as he was prepping for his show.

n8cjohn

07-26-2011, 06:40 AM

Met Rob Fahey at The Horse You Came In On - Fells Point, Baltimore last year. Wandered in off the street because the solo acoustic performer inside was tearing up a neat version of Elenor Rigby. Turned out to be Rob. Realized who he was when he played this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wan0VPBTxy0

Anybody who was a fan of Fast Times at Ridgemont High will recognize the Rayvens song that is playing as Brad is washing his car.

I spoke with him after his set - and bought his latest CD. He wanted $10 - I gave him $20. All good stuff. He is a great songwriter. Very nice fellow. He was thrilled when I expressed that I would like to get my cover band to cover Raised on the Radio.

turbolx5oh

07-26-2011, 07:14 AM

Although I didn't sit down and have tea with the guy or anything, I met Freddy Mercury back in 1981 when Queen came through Memphis for a show. Several of us hung around in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel where they were staying and Freddy came down to go shopping for some white gloves for the show that night. He was very happy to talk to 4-5 teenage boys and sign autographs for a few minutes! I eventually got he and all of the band members of Queen to sign my album cover. Not sure whatever happened to that album cover.

stellablue

07-26-2011, 07:22 AM

I saw Scofield standing on the corner next to a club as I was parking my car. I was getting my tickets from will call. After I got the tickets, he was still there. I talked with him for a few minutes about the show, and shows gone by, and other frivolous stuff. He was waiting on a cab to take him to his hotel. I grabbed a quick drink from a nearby bar and then headed out. Scofield was still waiting on his cab. We joked for a minute about the crappy service and I offered him a ride.

Gnarlly

07-26-2011, 07:53 AM

Got to hang out backstage with these guys over 10 years ago. (I'm second from the right, somewhat crouching down a little; long hair and sandals). That one famous guy with the striped sneakers is kind of short, but he has huge hands and is not too bad on the guitar ;)

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa178/gabrielgnall/VanHalenBen.jpg

soulohio

07-26-2011, 08:18 AM

I recognize Eddie Van Halen and that's it.

jetydosa

07-26-2011, 08:29 AM

I recognize Eddie Van Halen and that's it.

Alex, Gary and Mike are on the back row.

Gnarlly

07-26-2011, 09:01 AM

Alex, Gary and Mike are on the back row.

Gary (and Van Halen III in general) took a lot of flack for his short stint in VH, but I thought he did a fantastic job singing with VH when I saw them. Seemed like a cool guy too. Oh, and Eddie was on fire that night, and sounded great from the 2nd row :) (I think this was at Starlake in Pittsburgh; most of the guys I was with worked at Pianos and Stuff).

monwobobbo

07-26-2011, 12:34 PM

met a bunch of people over the years

Ozzy twice at in store signings at the HOG

Randy Rhoads now this was kinda different. i met him at the first ozzy signing but didn't realize it was him till way later. the only pic i'd seen at this point wa sthe crappy one on the back cover of the LP (rochester was his first US tour stop) so i really didn't know what he looked like. was standing around with afriend waiting and we started to talk to this guy about some guitar he was looking at and just general stuff. turned out it was randy.

Steve Vai another signing

Rob Halford yet another signing when he was with Fight.

Dickie Peterson (Blue Cheer) met him at the club the revamped lineup was playing (drummer also) they signed my originalcopy of Vinibus Eruptum (and were impressedi had an original). ran into Dickie a couple of days later at an Aerosmith concert.

King Diamond and the rest of the original members of Mercyful Fate. they did an instore at a small shop that specialized in import metal. i had them sign an original (500 copies pressed) cpy of their 1st EP. they were amazed that a guy in the States had one (actually several people there also did)

Metallica (cliff burton era) they recorded the 1st album here in rochester and hung out with a friend of mine. at the time they were nobodies except on the underground scene. very nice guys.

Anvil partied with the band after the show they had some umm... potential contraband they didn't want to take over the border. Lips was a really cool guy and had some enetertaining tales from the road.

Robin Zander he was at the HOG (house of guitars) with Bun E Carlos and tripped over something landed face first on my feet.

Carmine Appice he did a drum clinic, don't play drums but showed up and got to talk to him before the clinic.

GWAR the record store my brother worked at sold tickets to the shwo in buffalo so we went to bring the money for tickets sold. went back stage and suprise there was no real dressing room,saw more of some of the band members than we bargained for. they were total dicks as well.

PVH5150

07-26-2011, 01:12 PM

Tom Scholz at a CVS in Saugus, MA, sometime a couple winters ago.

Mike Portnoy twice at Daddy's Junky Music in Dedham, MA & Portsmouth, NH., both times a few months ago.

All of the members of Cheap Trick, Def Leppard & Poison at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA....June 30th, 2009. Got backstage for free because one of my friends built 2 guitars for Rick Nielsen.

Sully Erna at Daddy's Junky Music in Dedham, MA.

Barry Goudreau at a Papa Ginos in Saugus, MA.

Sib Hashian is my friend's uncle, so I've met him on more than one occasion.

Gary & Mark Cherone at the Regent Theater in Arlington, MA a couple years ago. I delivered the amps they used at a show that night (they have a Who tribute band called Slip Kid)

aliensporebomb

07-26-2011, 02:15 PM

Hey...he ain't good lookin' but he shore can play!! Now there's NC boy that did that there song. So many people don't know Charlie Daniels can just rip a guitar!!

Dude...if I ever get a little money I need to check out one of your amps. Ain't heard nothin' but good things. Have you heard any of Scott Splawn's stuff? His shop is about 10 minutes from my house.

jeffhef

As an aside when I was a beginning guitarist I bought an LP record "Charlie Daniels Teaches you Guitar" and it's actually really quite good for anyone who is a beginner. Comes with a little booklet with some chords and how to play and contains some great advice. He has a jam at the end where you can trade fours and eights with him. He does one little thing of advice saying "don't worry about playing fast" (then he tears up the neck like he's on fire) pauses and says "I don't mean anything to anybody..." Great!

chrisr777

07-28-2011, 04:48 PM

I will be meeting George Thorogood on Sunday. I'll tell him TGP says "Hi".

pickaguitar

07-28-2011, 04:49 PM

I will be meeting George Thorogood on Sunday. I'll tell him TGP says "Hi".

I'd try to trick him into saying 'baaaaaad' :)

Louthunder

07-28-2011, 08:21 PM

Like many here,I've been fortunate enough to meet many stars etc. Not going to mention all of them but two of them stand out as really great folks. The first one was Porter Waggoner. We opened a show for him about 24 years ago. What a warm personable man he was. Possibly one of the nicest people I have ever met period! The second one I''ll mention was the rock band Chicago. I was playing in a blues,funk band about ten years ago and we opened the show for them.Again,just a great bunch of guys to hang with. A few of the guys in my band stayed in touch w/a few of those guys.Overall, most of the people I've met have been really nice with just a few exceptions. I think there are more(weenies)in everyday life,than the (stars) I have met! Just my observation!

sega

07-29-2011, 04:28 AM

Overall, most of the people I've met have been really nice with just a few exceptions. I think there are more(weenies)in everyday life,than the (stars) I have met! Just my observation!

I agree

Doug's Tubes

08-14-2011, 04:01 PM

I hung out with 'Fuel' in their tour bus after a show in Mulchay's in Wantagh with the two good looking ladies I was with(how else do you think this happened?) Brett Scallions lit up a fattie and partied with my friends, Carl Bell and I drank some beer and listened to Jay-Z.

saneff

09-08-2011, 06:07 PM

Several years ago, like in the early 90's, I was in Key West. My girlfriend and I stroll into Fat Tuesdays there because a fraternity brother owned it. Anyway, he is out for a while so we order some drinks. Behind me in line I hear an accent. So we start talking to the guy and his girl and they are friendly.

We get our drinks and sit down. There are no more open tables so the accent dude and his gal ask if they can join us. We sit and talk and they're so nice, and I ask him what he does for a living. He says I am in a rock band. I said oh, anyone I might have heard if? He says maybe I am the singer for AC/DC. It was Brian Johnson. Such a cool guy.

Also, I met Steven Tyler in a Sunglass Hut in South Beach. And Elton John. I used to live in the same building as Elton in Atlanta.

DC1

09-08-2011, 07:30 PM

tsar nicholas

09-08-2011, 07:38 PM

Dexter Romweber and sister Sara after their Duo show here a couple months ago

All three original members of Guitar Wolf under the same circumstance

Got autographs from both

This is, for me, essentially the equivalent of a classic rock fan getting to meet, like, Led Zep

Zero G

09-08-2011, 08:01 PM

Lawrence Gowan at a Toronto Blue Jays game with my Dad when I was like 8 years old. Had no idea who he was at the time or why he signed the autograph "You're a strange animal!" :bonk

jwny72

09-08-2011, 08:26 PM

I went to Jr. High School in Ithaca, NY with Buck Dharma's kid, who was a few years younger than me. Buck (not that we called him that; he was Don or Donald to us) created a backing track for me to perform to at a school talent show. The talent show was directed by his wife Sandy. I was to sing and play lead guitar to a song I'd chosen: "The Spider and The Fly" by the Rolling Stones. Alas, I got the flu and couldn't perform. This all happened when I was 12 or 13 (1984 or 85). I think I still have the cassette in a box somewhere.

Later, when I was in my early 20's, (1992-96) I was a regular at a local blues jam Buck/Donald was a semi-regular. I shared the stage with him at the Blues Jam several times over those years. He's a very nice, pretty quiet man. Great guitar player who didn't show off much but played very tasty leads. I really only knew him to say hello to and he probably wouldn't remember me.

Rockledge

09-08-2011, 08:47 PM

HAHAHAHAHA!! You're right that is REALLY funny!! What can I say, I'm an ass!! I still don't see the big deal or interest in meeting someone "famous".

I hope you don't mind me jumping in on this, but a thought about it occurs to me.
In my area there are musicians who since I was a kid had a bit of an urban legend kind of status. Or for that matter, just guys in general.
You hear about them from friends, you know "Hey, you ever met **** that does those great paint jobs on vans?" or like that.
Then you meet them, and next time you are with your friends you say "hey, yknow I finally ran into ****, down at the piggly wiggly, nice guy".

I kinda view this is being no different. It doesn't have to be a big deal or treated like one, but it is interesting conversation.
I know I am certainly finding reading guys encounters with some of these fellows to be interesting.

saneff

09-09-2011, 01:08 PM

Chicken_feed

09-09-2011, 01:12 PM

I met all the members of Mr. Big after a gig at a small music club in New Orleans. This was '89 and they weren't quit big yet.

Paul Gilbert and Billy Sheehan are some tall dudes. I would say they're 6' 3" or better. The singer and drummer are some short dudes, but they were all cool dudes.

They took the time to sign autographs and I even got to talk guitar with Paul. He's a real likeable fellow. That personality that he puts out on those instructional videos, that's genuine.

murkat

09-09-2011, 01:24 PM

I have met a plenty during my stay at the Gibson Custom shop, Pro shop department.
most memorable~
Billy Gibbons, totally cool. Defines cool.
Steve Miller, total gear junkie! Very inquisitive.
Robby Krieger, wow. and we jammed a bit! Blew my mind.
Jack Pearson, always a pleasure.
Ricky Medlocke and Gary Rossington, more gear heads!
Tommy Thayer and Paul Stanley, very serious about there gear.
Lenny Kravits, demanding, but cool.

There's so many, but their the ones that stick out.

bassame

09-09-2011, 02:02 PM

Jack Bruce in 1967 when I was an usher at the Carnegie Hall Cinema. He was coming to see "You are what you eat" by Peter Yarrow (http://theband.hiof.no/albums/you_are_what_you_eat.html) and as I took the tickets, I promised to let him in for free if he would chat with me afterwards, and he did.

Pete Townshend and Keith Moon in 1967 backstage at the RKO 58th Street when they were doing that incredibly exhausting "Murray the K" show with Cream and others.

67blackcherry

09-10-2011, 06:22 AM

I forgot to add that Brad Whitford of Aerosmith is a neighbor of mine (near Charlotte NC)and I see him quite a bit. In fact, I have bumped into him at the Guitar Center in Charlotte. He goes there fairly often.

So ask him what's up with the new Aerosmith album.
It's only been 10 years since their last studio effort.

philipag

09-10-2011, 07:38 AM

Rock Stars? Well, I've met quite a few "musicians". Whether or not they qualify as Rock Stars is, I suppose, a personal judgment....

Without question, the nicest musician.....possibly one of the nicest people!....I've ever met is Bill Kirchen. He's got this way of making a total stranger feel like a long-lost friend in about 30 seconds. As a player, he's a monster.....

On the other end of the spectrum is Dickey Betts. In our brief conversation (backstage, Duke University, 1980) I told him [among other things] that I was learning how to play Jessica. He countered, "do I F&%k with your songs? Don't F&%k with mine..." Mean? Like a rattlesnake. As a huge ABB fan all through the 70's, I have to say that meeting him was devastating. An enormous letdown. OTOH, Gregg & Butch
were wonderful, nice & engaging.

Hmmm...then I guess it probably wasn't a good time to ask Dickey why Les Dudek never got co-writing credit for "Jessica". ;)

I guess the most famous player I met was Albert King. Back when I was in college my buddy booked shows for the school and knew I liked AK - so he got a chance to book him and did. This was the late 80's on Long Island and AK was not a household name among the suburban college crowd. So there were maybe 20 people at the show - and it was in a very small auditorium so I sat right in front of AK about 10 feet away - it was like a private lesson in the blues!

After the show my buddy brought me backstage and I met Albert. BIG guy, soft handshake - was very nice as we exchanged hello's. My feeling was, I like the blues - he IS the blues!

ransacker

09-10-2011, 03:33 PM

I've seen a few folks and nodded in their direction. I wouldn't say meet. The longest conversation I've ever had with someone who could be considered famous was Bob Hewson, Bono's Dad. I realize that a fair percentage of TGP considers U2 a bunch of DB's. But Mr. Hewson was really nice and was funny about his famous kid. He reminded me of my uncles.

kd2024

11-29-2011, 02:42 PM

I met and hung out with Billy Gibbons in Austin many times - he would always sit and have a beer if you were buying! Really cool guy.

Also met Neil Schon - same as the Dickey Betts story - an absolute prick!

Used to live across the street from a mid-sized venue in Dallas and had chances to meet a lot of bands through that:

Weezer - were locked out and came and hung out in my warehouse and drank a few beers. Really nice, humble guys.

Deftones - very, very cool guys.

Collective Soul - Ed and Dean were cool, the guitarist (name escapes me) was aloof.

Veruca Salt - had a chance to hand out with Elizabeth Post.... extremely hot! very nice too... got to be VERY good friends for a short period of time...

Also met the members of Live when my band opened for them in Dallas once. They were all very grounded and very cool guys.

fretless

11-29-2011, 07:26 PM

Hmmm...then I guess it probably wasn't a good time to ask Dickey why Les Dudek never got co-writing credit for "Jessica". ;)

I guess the most famous player I met was Albert King. Back when I was in college my buddy booked shows for the school and knew I liked AK - so he got a chance to book him and did. This was the late 80's on Long Island and AK was not a household name among the suburban college crowd. So there were maybe 20 people at the show - and it was in a very small auditorium so I sat right in front of AK about 10 feet away - it was like a private lesson in the blues!

After the show my buddy brought me backstage and I met Albert. BIG guy, soft handshake - was very nice as we exchanged hello's. My feeling was, I like the blues - he IS the blues!

It's funny, my buddy Nick was at that very same Albert King show in Long Island. He said it was great, but felt bad for AK that no one was there.

Funky54

11-29-2011, 08:06 PM

Veruca Salt - had a chance to hand out with Elizabeth Post.... extremely hot! very nice too... got to be VERY good friends for a short period of time...

Her name is Louise Post. You should know your friends better.

Dumb Bell

11-29-2011, 09:03 PM

I was playing a club with some friends, just having fun and in walked Paul Rodgers with a girl from my hometown. What a good person, didn't seem to have a huge ego. He got up with some locals and sang the blues, i chatted with him a bit.

gearhound17

11-30-2011, 12:23 AM

My wife grew up in L.A. and her older brother went to school with the drummer from Jane's Addiction Steven Perkins.
Jane's played at her 16th birthday party in L.A. as well. That was in '86.
My wife also was lucky enough to go to a meet and greet with Michael Jackson back in the day too.
My sister in law was at the show where they filmed the Pepsi commercial when Michael's hair caught on fire.

yoyoyoseph

11-30-2011, 12:25 AM

Met Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains while waiting in line for a port-o-potty at Super Bowl XXL

tnvol

11-30-2011, 12:38 AM

I sat behind Jerry Douglas on a plane a year or so ago. While we were waiting for our luggage I said hello and shook his hand. He had someone with him so I didn't hang around to talk. He was a very nice guy.

jbbusybee

11-30-2011, 01:04 AM

Not cool in the TGP stakes, but I was on a flight from London to Miami with the Spice Girls at the height of their fame. They were in 1st but came back to coach to see people they were traveling with, Scary and Sporty were great fun and very friendly chatted with everyone happy for photos great with the kids. When we arrived in Miami there was a huge delay with the baggage again Scary and Sporty just couldn't have been friendlier to everyone. Posh and Baby much more aloof didn't talk to anyone!!!!

swartzfeger

11-30-2011, 01:36 AM

Jello Biafra, back in 1993 or so. No ego but a little out there.

Hung with Michael Hedges and Michael Manring after a show in 94/95. I actually hung with Manring all day and he was absolutely gracious, great all-around guy.

Hedges had constructed this aura of... how do I describe it... antagonistic aloofness about him. It didn't feel mean spirited but almost playful (it made the interview agonizingly difficult). This guy was in his own orbit, his own space. Unusual and unique guy.

The Fixx -- have hung with them multiple times. Jamie West-Oram is almost pathologically shy but very nice. Dan Brown (ex bassist) was also a great guy. I think Dan plays professional Tuba (!) now.

A friend/ex-bandmate here on TGP has mixed a ton of shows and has probably met more stars than you could shake a stick at.

Jack_TheGuitarMan

11-30-2011, 03:03 PM

I met warren haynes at the tabernacle in georgia! i convinced my dad to stay about and hour and a half to meet him (im 13)

I also met Jack White, Brendan Benson, Jack Lawrence at the tabernacle and convinced my dad to stay about 3 hours after the raconteurs

winstabull

11-30-2011, 03:12 PM

I 'met' Phil Lesh (bassist, Grateful Dead) about a month ago in Vegas the morning after the Furthur show in line to get some coffee. He looked like he just woke up and people started chatting him up and posing for pictures so rather than contribute to what was probably his regretting not sending someone down for coffee, I just smiled at him and went about my business.

Alka-Delics

11-30-2011, 05:15 PM

Been to winter NAMM in Aneheim twice, 2003 and 2007.

In both visits, I met :

Dimebag Darrell (2003, appearing for Dean) - one of the highlights of my life. Of all the stars I met, he was easily the nicest one. He was killed about a year later

Paul Stanley (2003, appearing for Sammick lol) - waited 2.5 hours in line to meet him and he didn't even look at me twice.

Satch (2003, Ibanez) - truly all round nice bloke. Apologized to me for not touring Aus more often.

Steve Vai (2003, Ibanez) - too cool for school, this guy, really.

Andy Timmons (2003) - I was younger then and didn't really know who he was. He was just walking around. Nice guy though, told me he was looking forward to coming to Aus and working with Olivia Newton John.

Gene Simmons (2003) - managed to walk past him and give him a friendly nod and a g'day... not too close though, as he was surrounded by bitches and bodyguards.

Michael Anthony (2007, peavy) - I think he was drunk?

Dave Mustaine (2007, Dean) - absolute wanker. Totally didn't want to be there.

Jorma Koukonen (2007, Martin) - I was on the Martin stand and I picked up his signature M-30JK guitar when he came over to me to ask what I thought of it. A remarkable experience.

Also Laurence Juber on the Martin stand both times.

21stcenturykid

11-30-2011, 05:26 PM

Met Mike Stern this easter at a gig and workshop at our music school, crazy guy, totally cool and very funny! Dave Weckl was with him too and also did a great masterclass. He's so much shorter than you realise!

They're about as rocky as jazzers get I think!

Oh and Sting did a gig at school for us too (our organ tutor was his old bandleader as a teenager) Dominic Miller was with him. Both seem very aloof and like they couldn't really give a shit. Dom Miller was awesome to watch from all of 10 foot away though, great player.

Hwoltage

11-30-2011, 05:37 PM

Met Charlie Hunter before a show in Eugene.. I was invited to the show by Ralph Novak who built Charlie's eight strings. We were chilling out front with some people and Charlie jaywalks the street out front with an assistant. He chilled for about 40 minutes until his assistant nagged him enough to go inside and get ready for the show. Cool as hell, super nice guy.

Ravindave_3600

11-30-2011, 06:48 PM

he was surrounded by bitches and bodyguards.

:rolleyes:

Fatherflot

11-30-2011, 10:04 PM

I found myself waiting standing next to Tom Jones in Newark Airport. He was alone, waiting for a limo and I was waiting for my brother to pick me up.

He was short (almost as short as me) and had that showbiz-old-guy-trying-to-look-20-years-younger look: the wig, the tan, the dyed eyebrows, some sort of man girdle around the middle I think. No one else in the area seemed to have realized it was him. I gave him a nod and he knew I knew and said hi. Seemed nice enough.

My cousin and I had a great night where we jammed on the Stooges "Search and Destroy" in his basement and then went into lower Manahattan to bar hop and 5 minutes after we get off the subway, in the rain, here comes another short man with a very long face and long hair, holding hands with a hot asian chick, huddling under an umbrella. It was Iggy right on the corner of Houston and Mott. I wanted to say "Hey man, we just played 'Search and Destroy' for two hours and we killed it!" But I thought better and just kept walking.

Oh and Mo Tucker of the Velvet Underground played a gig in Bloomington Indiana in the mid 90s with a band called Magnet, I think. I got her to sign my copy of "loaded." She was the shortest of all looked a lot like my mother!

Dick Dale gave me an autograph that I taped to my Jazzmaster.

I interviewed Los Straitjackets on my radio show and Eddie Angel was really nice. Danny Amis got into a bit of an argument with me about mainstream Nashville music. He said it was "not the best" and I said it was "overproduced pseduo-country" and he shot back "I didn't say that, man."

kasperjensen

12-01-2011, 03:02 AM

I had a pass to a Metallica show at Roskilde Festival. Got to meet them and actually talk to them. Nice guys.

I got chatting to Kirks tech too who showed me around the rig, and let me peek out at the crowd. Wow... Spectacular.

dogbone94

01-20-2012, 09:09 PM

i had a beer with warren haynes in a little dive govt mule was playing here in valdosta.....

jekylmeister

01-20-2012, 09:13 PM

i had a beer with warren haynes in a little dive govt mule was playing here in valdosta.....

That's it? Was he nice? Cool? What? Having a beer with him without any comment at all is worthless. :-)
:mob

dogbone94

01-21-2012, 07:17 AM

alright then, not much to it....
this is when govt mule just released their first cd....
being a huge ab fan, i knew exactly who warren was and what he meant to the world of music....
they had just finished their 1st set, he walked up to the bar, i complimented him on how good the set/cd was and offered to buy the first round, he abliged and sat down on a stool beside me.... it was just idle chitchat from there... very down to earth southerner.....

another brush with greatest was in a hospital in jacksonville fl....
back in 85-86 my dad was in an accident that left him paralysed.... while in rehab there he became friends with allen collins[skynyrd].... allen had just beed in a wreck that killed his girlfriend and was also rehabing.... allen was miserable... we talked on many occassions, his favorite guitar was his 59 strat..... at the same time, other skynyrd members trickled in and out[bring him stuff] along with charle daniels.... nothing more than a handshake from the rest..... allen signed a skynyrd mirror that i still have...

in 1987 i met randy piper from wasp, backstage in tallahasse, he signed a pack of guitar strings for me.... then he took me on their tour bus... it was filled with girls, booze and more girls.... i have never seen so much spandex in my life.... the chicks were wearing spandx to.... the rest of the band greeted me and i exited shortly after... everyone was laughing and having a good time......

Gretsch47

01-21-2012, 07:47 AM

I saw The Ventures play a fantastic show in Milwaukee in 1981 when I was in the Navy. I didn't know they were staying in the hotel room next door till the morning when My buddy and I went down to breakfast and saw the band there eating. I said hello, etc and they invited us to join them for breakfast at their table. All super nice: Nokie Edwards, Bob Vogle, Don Wilson, Mel Taylor. We talked about my hometown Laguna Beach and the surf scene back in the day. Now I play a Jazzmaster..thanks Nokie!

supergenius365

01-21-2012, 07:47 AM

Met the guys from Soul Asylum getting out of a cab in front of the theatre where they were opening for Keef.

Met Wilco (version 1) when I saw Max the multi-instrumentalist pounding on the door, locked out of the gig. Walked over, passed security (who wouldn't let him in) and said "He's with the band. So am I". Sat with Jay Bennett and told him we had the same name. He wasn't impressed :(

mediocreplayer

01-21-2012, 09:43 AM

bjjp2

01-21-2012, 09:47 AM

Met Joe Perry when my band played his son's wedding. Here's a pic of him playing my R8:

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c319/bjjp2/IMG_7613.jpg

RanaldoNecro

01-21-2012, 09:49 AM

I met Bono in Chicago once. It was his birthday and the day they filmed their Live in Chicago DVD. IT was fantastic, a super personable man.

opdev

01-21-2012, 09:51 AM

I did Fur Peace Ranch with Jorma.. Awesome

We are also friends with the sister of Adam Gardner from Guster. Got to hang out at Thanksgiving Dinner, back stage etc.

I met Sammy Hagar once in LA at a fish & chips place near Zuma. He was very nice.

Met Joe Bonamassa at the vintage room in Hollywood. In hindsight, he was really nice although the conversation started off rocky..

also.. Taj Mahal and got to hand out backstage with Charlie Musselwhite.

marko

01-21-2012, 09:53 AM

Bob Margolin...but very anoying whistling into the mic testing levels pre show

jonsimeral

01-21-2012, 10:01 AM

I've met a bunch of Christian musicians while working for a Christian radio station.

Met Boz Scaggs one time in a truck stop in Raton, New Mexico. I had never heard of him until that point haha!

67blackcherry

01-21-2012, 10:59 AM

Met Joe Perry when my band played his son's wedding. Here's a pic of him playing my R8:

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c319/bjjp2/IMG_7613.jpg

That's pretty effing cool - you win!!!

fjblair

01-21-2012, 01:16 PM

Greg Allman in my apartment when I was in college, circa 1982.

aceinet

01-21-2012, 06:27 PM

Talked to Alice Cooper at the Phoenix airport. I was leaving to go back home to San Antonio for work and he was booked for a show in France he said. Just a quick hello, how are you doing and where are you going kind of talk you get at an airport. But still it was cool just seeing Alice walking through the airport by himself and him taking a second to talk.

LarryN

01-22-2012, 02:54 AM

I'll play along. Most of these people were gracious and down to earth; a few, not so much.

Frank Zappa
Huey Lewis
Sly Stone
Derek Trucks
Santana
Buddy Miles
Larry Coryell
John Abercrombie
Pat Metheny
John Cippolina
Steve Kimock
Captain Beefheart
Tom Waits
Rick Derringer
Jerry Garcia
George Duke
Mickey Hart
Sammy Hagar
Bob Weir
Boz Scaggs
Herbie Hancock
Bobby Blue Bland
Jimmie Vaughan
Freddie Roulette
Kenny Blue Ray
Robert Cray
John Lee Hooker
Todd Rundgren
Mike Bloomfield
Jerry Miller
Keith (98.6)
Allan Holdsworth
Robben Ford
Chris Cain
David LaFlamme
Taj Mahal
Joe Satriani
Harvey Mandel
Nick Gravenites
Joe Louis Walker
Joni Mitchell
Darius Milhaud (French composer)

Not all rockstars, but most you've heard of. The only one I exerted some effort to meet was Zappa, by walking past a weakly attended security checkpoint. I had my future wife in tow and we looked around until I found his area. I approached him (I'd met him in Phila. years before) and he invited us to have a seat. I told him I could play "King Kong" and he hands me his maroon SG Special. I play it and he says "you play that better than I do". After that, I was able to go backstage whenever he came to the Bay Area. He always took time with me and showed me musical ideas and we'd sometimes play together during his warmup. This was around 1971. He had me operate some tape machines a few times onstage, which was an amazing vantage point to experience his band and music from. He had George Duke, The Turtles, Aynsley Dunbar and others at the time. I was with him the day he found out he was getting $200,000 to do the movie "200 Motels". He was very kind to me and anyone that approached him unless he sensed you were full of yourself. Then he was merciless. He had a way with words and one of the most intelligent people I've met. A lot of the others I've met were pretty random meetings.

strathumper5150

02-11-2012, 10:47 PM

Opened for srv and partied all day with him and also had the original 2 crickets show up at a hotel gig in ama tx they were with thier wifes on thier way to clovis, cool guys!

TimSt.L

02-15-2012, 11:25 AM

donnievaz

02-15-2012, 11:29 AM

The most memorable was meeting Dimebag at a Nine inch Nails concert on Valentine's day of all days in 97 I believe. He was a really cool guy. He was on the floor where I was and had a six pack in one hand. He gave me two while we talked about Jim rose, the opener for the night.

Too cool, I've yet to hear a single bad thing about him. All the asshole rock stars out there and we have to lose that one :FM

louderock

02-15-2012, 11:34 AM

Met Katy Perry on Monday. She was nice and smelled good.

Was supposed to work in the studio with Joe Perry TODAY but it's getting postponed. Hope it works out.

guitarz1972

02-15-2012, 11:41 AM

Greg Allman in my apartment when I was in college, circa 1982.

Apartment, college, Greg Allman. Did the cops show up? (jk :) )

TimSt.L

02-15-2012, 11:49 AM

My band played with a whole crapload of rock and metal bands. Most memorable would be Gwar. Those guys are some serious partiers. Biggest would be Slipknot, fear factory, kid rock, coal chamber, powerman 5000, sevendust, avenged7fold, crowbar, propain, machinehead, devil driver. All I can remember off the top of my head.

It's funny how the metalheads are usually the nicest and down to earth while pop bands who sing about happy stuff are always the douchebags.

drwiddly

02-15-2012, 02:12 PM

As previous posters have said (some not too graciously!), if you've been playing in bands for a while it's likely that you've bumped into a few rock stars or at least well known musicians. I've met a fair few over the years and most have been really nice people.

Phil Lynott - Such an incredibly cool guy - charisma overload!
Rory Gallagher - Met him in the Marquee club in London and bought him a beer. A lovely man.
Andy Powell from Wishbone Ash - Very friendly when my band supported them (the road crew were dicks though!)
Gary Moore - Nice guy and one of my all time heroes.
Adrian Smith from Iron Maiden is an old friend so I see him fairly often.

Bar-B-Kill

02-15-2012, 05:20 PM

Just finished this thread, great posts from everyone! All I have to offer is I used to go camping at Ludington, MI every summer with my Dad. One year Dave Gilbert of the Rockets was shacking up with the daughter of a regular at our yearly camping/party fest. He was cool, he wore an eye patch on one eye because he was in a celeb softball game with Detroit's 101 the Riff (WRIF Baby!) and the pitcher nailed him while wearing sunglasses. He jammed an acoustic and sang at the camp fire every night with some dude that came with him. Plenty of beers and weed to go around, great times were had during our visits to Ludington state park! :drink :bong