So how are you not famous

[Mooh]

Met Red Kelly at a Penguins pre-season practice. He was nice and signed my hockey stick which I thereafter used for road hockey. Wish I still had the stick.

Met a few Canadian political and labour types, Bob White, Bob Rae, Stephen Lewis, back when it was a thing for me. Nice guys, all of them.

Met Bruce Cockburn on his way to perform at a rally. He was cool.

When I met John Till I didn't know it was him. I was watching him from a distance play some licks in a music store and he noticed. To my young (14-ish) ears he sounded amazing and he showed me what he was doing. It wasn't until I returned to the store a couple of weeks later that the clerk asked how I knew John Till and I said I didn't only to be told then who I had been with. He was a local legend.

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by Mooh

Met Red Kelly at a Penguins pre-season practice. He was nice and signed my hockey stick which I thereafter used for road hockey. Wish I still had the stick.

Met a few Canadian political and labour types, Bob White, Bob Rae, Stephen Lewis, back when it was a thing for me. Nice guys, all of them.

Met Bruce Cockburn on his way to perform at a rally. He was cool.

When I met John Till I didn't know it was him. I was watching him from a distance play some licks in a music store and he noticed. To my young (14-ish) ears he sounded amazing and he showed me what he was doing. It wasn't until I returned to the store a couple of weeks later that the clerk asked how I knew John Till and I said I didn't only to be told then who I had been with. He was a local legend.

When I was around 10 y/o, the man that raised my father through his teens gave me a hockey stick and NHL puck from the original Ottawa Senators going back to the 1920s. I still have the puck, but like you mooh, I ended-up using the stick for road hockey after I’d broken my usual stick and didn’t have another on-hand when I needed it. The stick was one-piece and broke almost immediately. What a mistake!

[fumei]

Originally Posted by Mooh

A friend and I got rather inebriated with John Renbourn in 2001. He was very gracious. Great fun.

Have hung with Tony McManus, Simon Mayor, and Valdy, but never played with them. Shot the breeze with and held the door for Natalie MacMaster. She was very nice.

Isn't Tony a great guy? I got to play a bit with him at the one (and only) Mendocino Guitar Festival. Introduced him to armagnac (I had a bottle of 1970 armagnac with me). Ed Gerhard was there too; a fantastic guy who helped me a lot with a song I wrote.

I lived on Salts Spring Island when Valdy also lived there, so I saw him a number of times on the ferry and we used to noodle on the hour so trip to the island.

[Brent Hahn]

Two Mick Fleetwood sightings. Once jaywalking in front of the Remo Outlet. I swerved and honked before I realized who it was. Second time in an elevator. I was going to say hey Mick, I'm the guy who almost crushed you like a bug on Coldwater, but he was having a conversation with Fabio, the romance-novel cover model. I expected Fleetwood to be tall, of course, but Fabio was at least 6'1" which surprised me.

[The Bard Rocks]

Almost everyone here is talking about encounters they have had with famous folks. These are really neat stories and I love the insights they bring. Mostly musical folks, which is no surprise as after all, we are musicians here. But no famous politicians (does that incur the ban on discussions over politics?), few sports stars, few moguls of the business world, no one military?

And we've strayed from the original question of "Why aren't you famous?". I know there re some well-known musicians among us and they are avoiding that kind of spotlight, which is commendable, I suppose. But aren't we all supposed to get 15 minutes of fame in our lifetimes?

Lets hear some of those stories.

I'll give you mine. When I was young and a dairy farmer, there were several feature articles on us in national and regional media. And any time there was a reporter present at a farmers meeting, they seemed to always talk to me and use me to quote (no, they didn't recognize me from those articles; my "fame" was limited to a small puddle). After 15-20 years, that seemed to peter out - maybe because by then I was no longer young and seemed like every other old farmer to them?

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by The Bard Rocks

But no famous politicians (does that incur the ban on discussions over politics?), few sports stars

Allrighty!

Politician: Spring of 1972, it's a Saturday on the Quad at the University of Illinois and they're setting up for some sort of political rally. I head into the men's room at the Student Union. In the middle of doing my business, I inadvertently make eye contact with the older gent two urinals over. Without interrupting his own business, he flings out his right hand and says, "Hi! Ed Muskie! Can I count on your vote?"

Sports: I'm engineering an interview session with Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Magic Johnson. We're waiting for the producer, and the the two of them start yakking about a swanky Beverly Hills party they had both been at the previous weekend, thrown by some Saudi prince or someone. Kareem says, "You ever notice that no matter how rich someone is, they still can't clean the top of their fridge?"

[Pura Vida]

Originally Posted by The Bard Rocks

..But no famous politicians (does that incur the ban on discussions over politics?), few sports stars, few moguls of the business world, no one military?

Tons of sports stories, since I grew up in the small town, where the Pittsburgh Steelers training camp is located during their late 70s dynasty. Hall of fame player Mel Blount broke my sofa, when I was a kid and put a spin move on him, while playing around with a football in our house. My mom, who would normally be furious at the broken sofa, not to mention playing sports in the house, was surprisingly dismissive b/c one of the Steelers was involved. I'm guessing he offered to help pay for the repair or replacement b/c she never brought it up with me later on.

[KevWind]

Chance encounters not withstanding I wonder as far as personal fame,,,,,,, while it no doubt is often a factor of unrelenting dedication and talent. But I wonder also how might this factor in as well ?

[grayback]

I'd be famous if it weren't for my utter lack of talent and good looks.

As far as famous people I've met, I went to high school with Kirk Hammett and Les Claypool. My younger brother briefly played bass in a garage band with Kirk.

[Brent Hahn]

Speaking of high school... I went to high school with Kirk Sand, who's somewhat famous around the AGF, at least. Was in a band with him briefly, too, but we never got out of the basement.