Meeting your musical idols (for good or bad)

[Brent Hahn]

1997. I’m in Nashville working on a music track for a Pepsi commercial. The ad agency creative director and I are at dinner with our music producer, Ron Chancey. Ron sees someone he knows and calls him over to the table – it’s Steve Cropper. The guy who produced Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett and Sam & Dave and who knows who else, and played guitar on “Soul Man” and “Dock of the Bay” and “Knock on Wood,” and… oh my God!

The two of them start getting into how great the cornbread is at this place, and say we simply have to try it. I decline, saying that cornbread usually has some wheat flour in it while trying not to go into too much detail about celiac disease and the symptoms thereof because it's not the kind of thing you talk about while people are eating. Next thing you know, my hero is getting all insulted and wanting to drag me outside and kick my butt.

Nowadays, I don't think that would happen. Even in the South.

I coulda taken him, by the way. :-)

[rc3797]

A couple years ago, my now-wife and I got a chance to see Hiss Golden Messenger and the Drive-By Truckers at a smaller amphitheater in Wilmington, NC. They’re one of my favorite bands, and the concert was a great experience. We may have been the youngest people there and right up on the stage against the PA, but we hung out with some “veterans” who were very welcoming and kind to us; we had a great time and met some great people. After the show, we hung around and waited for the venue to clear out, and soon the frontman, Patterson Hood, came out and mingled with those of us that were still around. I was playing SGs at the time like he was, and we talked about guitars and amps for 10-15 minutes, before he offered to take a picture and autograph my tour shirt. It was a great experience, and the fact that he took the time after the show to talk to fans made me an even bigger fan.

[Steadfastly]

I was good friends with Red Shea, the lead guitarist for Gordon Lightfoot. We were in the same congregation. I am not big on remembering names and didn't know who he was until we got talking over at his place one night. Definitely not an idol. Just a good friend.

[islandguitar]

A few memorable ones:
-many years ago (many!) my group opened for the Sha Na Na......great guys in all ways.....our set was taped that night and they helped with setting us up with their equipment for our recording guy to plug in.. .....really nice.
Dial it forward: A few years ago before he passed, got to meet Richie Havens....I was emotional!! He couldn't have been nicer.....we had a couple of laughs about his old haunts on the Cape back in the day.
I've met and talked with James Taylor numerous times as he vacations in our town. I work seasonally at the marina where he has his boat (not a huge yacht, by the way)........and he's around with family for at least 2-3 weeks each summer. He's really genuine, talkative and funny....very appreciate of any helping hand offered. Very unassuming......he can be having lunch right on the docks.....folks don't even notice who it is! I think he really likes it that way. It's special to have him back each year.

[Lee Callicutt]

I've met Herb Ellis, Neil Sedaka and Joe Walsh.

Scholars and gentlemen to a man.

[3notes]

Interesting thread.

I'll use my brothers example of who he recently met. My brother attended a wedding party at a friends house. His friend's son had married in Montana a month or so prior to this gathering in Maine. He had a very nice conversation with a man from Montana. They introduced themselves and was talking about grand kids and life in general. My bro said it was a very pleasant conversation and they had some things in common.

When my brother left the party his buddy came up to him and said "when you get home google so and so's name, the man you were talking to earlier, who is playing guitar with the live band" as they were wrapping things up.

A week later my brother called me because I play guitar and asked if I'd ever heard of this man's name. I said yes and I gave him some history. My brother was floored by what I told him. He said "you know, he never mentioned the word guitar.??" And I said, "that's why it was such a pleasant conversation. Every where this man goes people want to talk to him about the guitar. And he nor you even mentioned it. I'm sure he enjoyed your conversation for THAT reason."

Ren Ferguson.

And then there is the Jerry Garcia experience. Poor Jerry. He could not escape people. Everywhere he went someone wanted a piece of his time. Everywhere.!! He withdrew. He isolated. Then, he died. It's very sad that we put these people on pedestals. They are people doing their job because they are the best at doing it. I was a printing pressman for 35 years. I mastered the trade, on some days. Ha.!! But seriously, we need to relax around these people. Star struck I never was. They are just people performing for people. Don't bug them. Say hello and how are you.?? Then move on....

[TBman]

The closest I came to meeting my guitar idol was when Al Petteway "liked" one of my comments on Facebook,

I did walk by Toby Walker though at one of his concerts. I should have stopped to say hello but I'm reserved that way at times.

[EverettWilliams]

Met a number of them, the polar opposites: Neil Young was a first class jerk and Julian Lage was just a wonderful human being. Still love Neil’s music, but made me a lot less inclined to meet idols.

[AgentKooper]

I met Steve Earle after a record store concert last week and got a chance to make a little small talk and get a picture with him. I’m not one to put famous people up on a pedestal at all, or to think that I deserve any of their time, but I’m glad I took the opportunity in this case. I love his music, and he seemed like a nice guy.

I also had a chance once to meet Cindy Crawford and talk to her for a bit. Turned out we had something unexpected in common and she seemed into talking about it with me for a while. Either that or she was captivated by my devastatingly good looks and charming personality. Either way, she was very pleasant.

[FrankHudson]

Heroes? I met Frank Zappa as young man for a little over a hour. Changed my life and my approach to art.

I worked for a radio network for a couple of decades. Lots of musicians, politicians, writers, and other famous people in and out all the time. My job was technology, and the ethos was you didn't bother guests or folks doing their work, which made sense to me. I might imagine it would have been nice to say "I admire or thanks for your work" to musicians I admired, but I'm not great with small talk, and some of them, on some days at least, might be same.

The first month or so I'm working there, a guy I worked with and ran into Peter Schickele (P.D.Q. Bach) in the music library. He's looking for some good recorded examples of Conlon Nancarrow. My co-worker knew just which recordings to suggest and helped Schickele find them. Color me impressed.

[BobbyMocha]

This all makes me think of that documentary, 20 Feet From Stardom. For every marquee name there are dozens and dozens of super talented and incredibly hardworking musicians, backup vocalists, and technicians that, without them, the "names" may not be as successful. I'm sure these fine people wouldn't mind a little recognition. Talking to these guys and gals whenever the opportunity arises can be more interesting than meeting the stars.

[Bob Womack]

I work with musical types and so have met many, including some folks I've looked up to. I have to say, I haven't had bad experiences with those whom I had followed before I met them. I've actually had some great experiences with folks I hadn't much liked before I met them. Examples?

Rick Wakeman. I was asked to build the promo package for one of his solo tours and got to entertain him as a perk. He is literally like your next-door neighbor, if your next door neighbor has thousands of hilarious stories to tell.

Johnny Cash. I was assigned to work with him on a videotaped performance. He'd just put out his novel about St. Paul, Man in White. I was a fan of St. Paul as well so we started chatting about it between takes and both got drawn in. When the TV director came out to talk with Johnny helded him off with his hand for a couple of minutes while he finished making a point to me. There is a hierarchy in the biz so I thought he was going to get me fired. (Hehehehe) He was extremely normal and pleasant.

Andrew Powell. I went to a Wishbone Ash concert and hung around the dressing room door afterwards and got to chat. He was unassuming and nice.

Amy Grant. I love to tell this one. I really didn't have much room for her until I worked with her. She seemed privileged and too sweet to be believed. Then I worked with her on the Heart in Motion tour. A colleague asked me to mix her band's performance on live TV. My colleague was also an audio engineer and had gone to high school with Amy fifteen years before but hadn't seen her since. He had become like most middle-aged audio engineers: too many hours immobilized behind the console had left him overweight and average looking. He was balding and had retreated behind glasses. After the performance he said, "Well, let's go out and see if she even remembers me." We walked into the studio where she was signing autographs with a huge crowd. She saw him out of the corner of her eye, coming through the door, fifty feet away. She stopped what she was doing, ran yelling, "Steeeeeeeeeeeeve!!!!" and leaped into his arms. Both of us were absolutely surprised. She took time to talk with him about old times and to catch up. He introduced me and she greeted me warmly and cordially.

A few years later Amy came into my studio to record some stuff. She asked my name right off the bat and thereafter looked me in the eye and referred to me by name every time she addressed me. She was personal. She was pleasant. She was collegial. Oh, and did I mention that I found out later she was in the darkest hours of her divorce at that time? To a person who has worked with all types, this is everything. We are used to being treated as wallpaper, part of the machine, a barely necessary annoyance. Some "artiste" even send in word ahead of themselves that they don't care to be addressed by anyone except their own people. So shut up and work. And get it right. But every time I've worked with Amy she's treated every person around her with respect. She's earned my respect.

Bob

[PHJim]

Folk fans often get to meet their musical heroes, since they will often walk around at festivals.
I have never met John Hartford, a musician I've admired for decades, but my wife once ran into him at a Canadian festival. She asked him if he'd sign a program for her husband (me) since I was a big fan. John said sure, if she'd be his partner for a dance in the Dance Tent. He wrote me a little note saying I should dance with my wife more. I don't know what she told him, but I've never been a dancer.

[KevWind]

My girlfriend and I were running late and at the very back of a line of people going single file into a Tim Weisberg Concert . When we got to the person selling the tickets at the door a voice right behind us said "they are with me" I turned around an was looking at Tim Weisberg (who later on stage apologized that he was late because his taxi had broken down ) So he said to the ticket person "put them in my reserve seats ". We only had a chance to thank him and he was off backstage and we got front row seats for free, Pretty cool (or maybe he was just in a hurry) .


In the airport in Nashville after the week long Tin Pan South Festival I was standing about to get some coffee and sit down to wait for my plane . Jonathan Edwards walked up getting coffee also , saw my guitar case and asked if I had been at the Festival, we sat and talked for about 1/2 hour he was very humble and extremely intelligent and interesting


Not musical BUT.....While getting ready for the " Jackson Hole Old West Days Parade " I saw a friend of mine who was driving the horse and buggy for Harrison Ford. And as we were talking he asked If my daughter about 4- or 5 at the time, and a big Star Wars fan wanted meet Hans Solo... so I got her and he (Ford) was also very personable and low key..

[mtcross]

I met John Lee Hooker years ago, nice enough but I got the feeling he would rather be somewhere else, not rude, just a bit distant.

Charlie Musselwhite, very nice and engaging, I think he asked me more questions than I asked him, and man was he funny. Reminded me of some of my mom's goofy uncles.

John Hammond Jr. was playing a show at a local ski resort and I was working security on the stage access, he and I talked for quite a while, he was very interested in my experiences living in Montana.

I met Bryan Sutton after a Hot Rize show a year or so after I started playing guitar again, I thanked him for the show, and told him that, after seeing him play, if I should burn my guitar or practice more. He laughed and told me to keep practicing.

So most of my experiences have been very positive, but I also realize there are jerks out there in all walks of life, and all people have bad days.

One of you posted about Neil Young, a friend of mine was working for the university here in Missoula when Neil was here for a concert, it was the first show of the tour so he was in town a week or so early. Well my friend was heading up security for Neil, and said Neil could not have been nicer or more fun to be around. They even wound up doing a few hikes into the hills around town together. So bad day, good day kind of thing?