I always like name-dropping threads. Lots of good reads above!

I'm sure the most famous person I sort-of met was President Bill Clinton. I muscled my way through a bunch of college students and got to shake his hand as he made his way down the line.

Most recently, my 8-year-old son's friend told me that his dad was a rock star. I figured that he was a "rock star" in the same sense that I was, but I Googled Bobby Hewitt and found that he was the drummer for a pretty successful LA band called "Orgy." More impressive for me was that Bobby's lovely and really sweet wife Shannon had quite a career of her own, going by the name "Shane." I'll leave it at that.

An actress named "Samantha Style" comes to see our band sometimes.

I peed next to former Intel Corporation CEO Craig Barrett (at the time he was my boss's boss's boss's boss's boss).

Shook hands with Geoff Emerick at an AES convention.

Met Chick Corea at a meet-n-greet after a concert/clinic he gave at my university.

Accompanied Randy Brecker at a jazz festival at the same university.

Opened for and met lots of bands back in the 80's/90's:
INXS (very stuffy)
Billy Preston (decent fellow, but more interested in getting to whatever he had in his dressing room than most anything else. stage manager was a hottie who got me in trouble with my girlfriend)
Don and Phil Everly (nice guys)
Bad Company (nice guys)
The Guess Who (nice guys)
Three Dog Night (sans Chuck Negron. Nice guys)
Nicollette Larson (nice lady. piano player was a prick. stage manager was a bigger prick)
The Replacements (drunk and obnoxious)
Bob Dylan's son-in-law Peter Himmelman (nice guy)
Wendy O Williams and the Plasmatics (Wendy was very nice. The guys in her band were jerks. The guitar player got kicked out of an after-party, and slipped on the ice and fell flat on his back after flipping everybody off... VERY amusing)

When I was a young teen I competed in a Yamaha organ contest and met several celebrity judges at the national finals (where I lost).
Dick Clark
Jimmy Smith
Marvin Hamlisch
Chuck Mangione
Melissa Manchester

Ooops. Almost forgot that I met my then-idol Keith Emerson at a radio station where he was being interviewed prior to a concert, shortly after ELP's ill-fated tour with the full orchestra.

ORIGINAL: bapu

Melissa Manchester

My ex-wife met her through a friend.

If she was a friend wouldn't it have been more polite to have gone 'round' her?

You see... I like these name-dropping threads so much that I'll tell you about the time this guy I've never met, but who posts on another forum, almost met Tony Bennett at some office building in New York. The guy whom I've never met, but who posts on another forum, had just gotten into an elevator... when up trots Tony Bennett, calling for him to hold the car. So the guy who posts on the other forum (and whom I've never net) went to hit the Open Door button, but missed his mark and pressed the Close Door button instead. The guy... says he'll never forget the "WTF" look on Tony Bennett's face as the door closed in front of him.

Hi,

Compared to the really famous people and literary figures that we met as youngsters, as I said before, a lot of rock music and sports people just didn't cut it with me ... specially when so many of them were just vain and I mean VAIN ... and it was obvious to me that it was an excuse for what they did ... and in at least one situation ... it was a really good excuse to get laid by 2 or 3 girls a night!

To me, it is much more important that I believe in me ... and if I meet A or B, has absolutely no merit in my talent and ability ... I still have to make it on my own, as they are not gonna help me, or you! They are too busy with themselves ... which is the real clue as to how good they are and how professional they are ... they are not afraid of losing their "fame" ... and so many of those I have seen were overly concerned with their People magazine picture ... you'll have to excuse me ... I'm jsut not into that media kissash frenzy! These are all people like you and I!

It's just astonishing to me that no one said ... mom ... or dad ... or my daughter ... or my son ... or my wife ... or my husband ...

I met the late Maynard Jackson, the first African-American Mayor of Atlanta. He served two terms in office her in Atlanta and the airport was renamed to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport after his death.

WHAT!?

Herman Munster and Grandpa at a restaraunt. Nice guys.
Jimmy Smith (he used to buy drugs from my roomate)
Larry Carlton. (I gave him a CD. Does that count?)
Robben Ford. Took a lesson from him.
Chris Frantz (drummer from talking heads. he was my roadie in high school. ouch)
Quincy Jones sort of. (He was behind the glass as I auditioned for him)
Jay Graydon (pitchin a song)
Johnny Paycheck.. Worked with him.
Roger Moore. (in an airport. I said something stupid like 'got a parachute in yer pocket'?) 
Stevie Nicks. Drunk in a limo. her chauffer dated my other roomate.............LOL
Santa Claus. (I lent him a crowbar)

Oh, and Weird Al Yankovic who was out with the most incredibly gorgeous woman Ive ever seen!

Juliette Lewis - I spent 30 minutes chatting to her backstage at The Apollo, UK while she was taking off her make-up after a play she did. She's fascinated with African music and that's what we talked about.

Harvey Mason (Drummer) - Recorded him last Thursday on a roof in Johannesburg for a Jazz TV show. He did the interview and then played a drum solo whilst calling members from the audience on to stage to do scats, clap along and chant stuff. Amazing.

Jenna Elfmann - she heard my band and bought a CD a a gig!

Richard Branson - he was out in SA to promote some Virgin company (the gyms, I think). He met everyone at the door and I tried to talk music to him, but he was all "Oh, I don't do that anymore.." Sad.

Kristin Bauer (True Blood) - she's now married to my lead singer (The Lemmings) so that's unfair, I suppose. We spent two days together two weeks ago in Cape Town.

David Campbell (String arranger) - not famous, but IMO THE arranger in rock music, and Beck's dad. I went to his daughter's showcase in a little venue in LA, and he came over to us (I knew a friend of his) and said "Hi, I'm David".  I told him I was a fan of his work, and he was very humble and almost shy, actually.

I once jammed with an Indian percussionist called Sivamani. Ravi Shankar rates him as the best living perc player on earth. I must say, he wasn't bad :O)

Hmmm interesting reads and lotsa names and I s'pose I should add my own...

1972 - I was a late-teener pestering the local radio station for a part time dj job. Hometown station type. I did psa's and some promo stuff. Taped some commercials, etc. I was in the recording room one day when in walks the local (only) black dj. Windel did a 4 hour Motown show every Saturday. Behind him comes this other fellow. At the time my voice was such that I could do a near perfect imitation of Flip Wilson "Geraldine" character, and I'd done many promos for Windel. Windel turns to the fellow and says, "Rufus, I'd like you to meet my man Drue. Drue, this is Rufus Thomas." That was pretty special. We did several promos together for a live gig Windel was producing.

1974 (I think) - I was the bass singer in a country gospel group made up of kids I graduated with. One of the local churches organized a gospel concert at the local high school auditorium. The feature was the Stamps Quartet. We were a part of the show and a perk was meeting the Stamps. I got to spend some time with J. D. Sumner. The was pretty special.

Mid `90s (not sure of the year. it was recent, I'm older, memory gone to hell) My wife worked for the county Chamber of Commerce. I never went to the annual banquet except this year. The company I worked for carried the staff and I went. Guest speaker that night was George Bush (II). I dang near ran over him going in the front door, shook his hand and excused myself. After the show I got to meet, speak and shake the hand of the president while he was Governor of the Great State of Texas.

Me?

I've not met Mooch (yet).

I've talked with someone on the phone who claims to be Mooch.

But with all the identity theft going on today, Mooch may well really be DKNY (or Plummy).

eikelbijter


Played "Tide Is High" with Debbie Harry, with Melissa Etheridge/Lisa Marie Presley/Jenna Elfman singing backup, at Kirstie Alley's house!

R

You mean you were among this company and all you came up with was playing 'The Tide is High'?

You could have at least tried having a dizzy spell and fainted to see if they'd all gather around fussing and trying to revive you!...

Sounds like a good night anyway though.

Influential English folk singer Martin Carthy, he was running a song "workshop" in a pub during the Wadebridge folk festival in Cornwall in the 1970's. There were a couple of dozen of us there at most. A couple of weeks before I was part of a much bigger audience watching him in Steeleye Span.
 
I had dinner once with one of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia's sons. He could not have been that famous though because I can't remember his name, except it seemed to go on for ever and had Bin Abdul Aziz and Bin Saud in it. - Nice guy, we had just move our oil exploration camp into the area and he sent his people across to invite us to dinner.

I got knocked over by Ed 'Stewpot' Stewart once. I was only 11.

Shared a lift with Professor Heinz Wollf. He didn't acknowledge me.

Served a hot-dog to Peter Scudamore. He walked off without paying.


Celebs eh? Bunch o' ******* ****-****** *******

I shook Scott Glenn's hand once.  I don't think he really wanted to though  :-)   Actually he was pretty cool, and happened to be my favorite actor at the time (Silverado).
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001277/

I'm from Utah and you can't go anywhere without running into an Osmond or two. I also ran into the 'Joe Isuzu' guy on the street in Park City.

Vernon