I can personally verify this story.
My husband and I were at dinner in NYC and had been talking about how Joan Baez was performing at a club at the time and wouldn’t it be neat to go. A few minutes later, my husband commented, “Oh, there she is now,” and sure enough JB, her sister and two guests were being seated at a nearby table. We sent over a round of drinks on us. As we left we paused to thank her for all the great music and asked if there were still tix left for any of the performances. No, sorry, all sold out.
The following day when I got home from work there was a message on our answering machine, Joan herself, telling us that we could have two spaces at her table that night! So, we went, saw the show, and I still have the tape with her voice on it.
I also have an autograph from Christopher Reeve on a Fifth of July program.
I’ve spoken with Isaac Asimov in person, but have no keepsakes.
My big sister was sorority sisters with Ashley Judd at UK. She spent one Christmas with us at our house (I might have been 10 or 11), because her mom and sister were on tour. She seemed like a pretty regular college kid to me, and I was much to focused on my christmas presents to really care. I would love to talk to her now, though.
I once wrote up a work ticket to have Karen Grassle’s toaster fixed. (She played Ma on Little House on the Prairie.) I didn’t recognize her but that’s not surprising as I seem to have some form of facial agnosia.
A friend of mine once claimed he chatted with Jimmy Page in a bar and that when the bartender confronted them about bringing underage girls in, Page yelled “I don’t care about the law!”, punched the bartender, and then ran off with the girls.
When the Memphis Redbirds (our minor-league baseball team) opened their new stadium a decade or so ago, I was living a trivial walking distance away. I didn’t care, of course, as I am not a sports fan by any means. Anywho, they played their first game in the stadium against the major league team with whom they are affiliated, which I think is the St. Louis Cardinals. On the morning of the game I was walking out of my apartment building and to a nearby restaurant, and I chanced to meet a large redheaded fellow at the door. We chatted amiably for a bit, then I went in. Later the girl I was brunching with told me I had just met the current home-run king; she was annoyed with me because she felt the opportunity had been completely wasted.
I honestly cannot remember his name. Big forearms, and I think he had some steroid or other scandal later. Not Barry Bonds.
Mark McGwire.
I run the Visitors Center in my hometown and I’ve have several people come in to get information because they were “writing a book.”
So one day, in came a fellow who was also writing a book. He sat down and spent a few minutes talking to me and asking questions about the town. During the course of the conversation, I got the idea that this was not going to be his first book and when I found out there was a mystery in the plot, I asked his name and if I might be familiar with his other work. “My name is Rick Boyer,” he said. “I write the Doc Adams books.”
Turns out I was an avid reader of mysteries, especially of series set in Massachusetts and I’d read all of his books.
He settled in and spent about twenty minutes talking to me about the town. He returned later in the day to ask a couple more questions, at which time he took my contact information. A few days later he called for more details. I mailed him additional information and maps. The book, The Man Who Whispered, came out in November 1998. For the most part it is set in my town and I was thanked in the introduction. It was so cool to reading the parts that included stuff he and I had talked about.
When I was a geeky thirteen-year-old, I sat next to Ted Nugent on a cheap Southwest flight to Vegas. He signed my boarding pass and we talked about Led Zeppelin 
A gay friend of mine has the most massive crush on songwriter Jim Steinman. I was having dinner at a restaurant with gay guy, who went to use the men’s room and walked in on said crush using the urinal. He was too astonished to approach Steinman which, consaidering the circumstances, was probably for the best.
That’s it! All I could remember was that my friend was wishing it had been Junior something or other because she wanted to sleep with him.
I was an extra in the Chuck Norris movie “Sidekicks”. I’ve also run into him at a couple of martial arts events.
And when I was 15, my brother-in-law had just finished a guest role on Bewitched. We went out to L.A. to visit him and my sister and he took us backstage. I got to meet Elizabeth Montgomery, who was incredibly charming (not to mention hawwwttttt) and gracious to a 15 year old dork kid. I’m still in love with her after all these years.
Now that I think on it, Al Green sometimes shops at the WalMart nearest my home (at least he used to) and I met Cybill Shepherd twice while working the second-to-last retail job.
And they’re only LOCAL celebrities, but I have occasion to run into our former mayor, Willie Herenton, and the current major, Wharton, on a regular basis. The former is an asshole whom I go out of my way not to interact with. The latter is a gentleman who always says hello and occasionally buys people coffee at Starbucks if they’re remotely inconvenienced by his presence.
I have a couple myself, having worked with a few bands over the years:
[ol]
[li]Once spoke to Phil Collins on the phone[/li][li]Shook hands, spoke with and watched Carlton Morales play guitar (guitarist for Julian Lennon on Valotte)[/li][/ol]
I also got to sit 2nd row at our local university graduation to see Bill Cosby give the graduation speech.
Also, in the guitar store where I used to work, Kyle Petty (the racer) used to come in all the time.
My parents knew Jack Nicklaus pretty well.
I have a few:
“Hello, Microsoft Word support, this is tdn, may I have your first name please?”
“Julia Child.”
That happened twice in 6 months.
…
On my first day of high school, I was in a new town and didn’t know anyone. I was sort of wondering how soon it would be before I made any new friends. Late morning or early afternoon I went to chorus. I was standing there looking a little bewildered when the most stunning girl I’d ever seen gave me big friendly hello.
We did some musical work together including writing a song and taking it into the studio, and forming a band.
She, Karen Mistal, ended up starring in a number of B movies about a decade later.
…
When I was growing up, my best friend was Gordy Hoffman. We had infinite fun torturing his little brother, Phillip Seymour.
Funny. I was friends with his son when I was very little. When he wrote a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, my parents went around to various bookstores asking if they carried it. (Hoping that doing so would spur interest and by extension, sales.)
I’ve got a bunch more but this one is worth sharing.
I was once an usher/cashier at a movie theatre. It was my last night there before becoming a manager at a different theatre. Things were crazy. We were packing people in. I was selling ticket after ticket and I had no time to even breathe.
I got a phone call, like I had time to chat. It was a cop, and he told me that Mayor Ray Flynn was coming to see the movie, and could I let him in for free. Yeah, dude, whatever.
Business was starting to fall off when some old dude and two teenage boys came in. I sold them tickets. After they left the counter, one of my coworkers whispered “Dude, that was Ray Flynn! You charged him?” Oops.
Not only did I charge him, but I oversold seats. We had to put him in a chair from the manager’s office in an aisle. And the theatre was roasting. And no AC because it was in December.
FWIW, the movie was The Killing Fields.
I answered an incoming call at work once and then transferred the Rob Halford call to my boss.
Oh, another: Dizzy Gillespie came into our record store one night, no real reason. My buddy asked him if he could make his cheeks blow up. I was embarassed at this request, but he made his hand into a trumpet substitute and inflated those bad boys big time!
Thought of another one. When I was an inside sales rep for FedEx, I had as a client in my territory Nancy Stafford, formerly an actress who had starred on Matlock, then a Christian author and motivational speaker, and still hot either way. She shouldn’t actually have been assigned a rep, as she was not shipping in enough volume to need one, but she was very pleasant to talk to, so I let her stay in my calling cycle for the rest of the half, until the system reassigned her automatically, rather than do it my ownself.
Chick Hearn: At Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas (late 80’s); wife and I were at a table, playing blackjack and heard someone behind us, riffling his chips and when I turned I was staring straight at him (I’m tall and he’s short) and instantly recognized him. Not only was he the voice for the Los Angeles Lakers, but he also did UNLV basketball games during that time too. Talked a few minutes with me and another guy who was a Pacer fan when Reggie Miller was a rookie and did a rundown of the lineup of the Pacers and how they will do for the season. I’ve seen or heard this man since “Bowling for Dollars” in the late 60’s…most of my life. RIP Chick.
Luc Robitaille: Our two sons played against each other in a hockey tournament back in the late 90’s. Very nice and personable guy…shook his hand and wished him well towards reaching the 500 goal mark (he got it later that season), and he signed my son’s hockey stick.
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans…saw them over the years since we live in Apple Valley untill they passed away a few years back. Very happy and loving couple.