I rode the elevator at the Harrah’s casino in Reno with skating star Scott Hamilton once. He was talking to someone who may have been Kurt Browning about going over to Kristi Yamaguchi’s parents’ house for dinner in a little while. I was shoulder-to-shoulder with Scott but I didn’t want to bother him or maybe-Kurt so let them enjoy their conversation in peace.
Back in about 1979, I took a plane to visit my uncle’s family in Phoenix. Turned out the Seattle SuperSonics were on the same plane. They were in First Class. I was not. Of course, they got to deplane first. My uncle saw all these tall guys getting off and went up to one of them and said, “Hey, are you guys the Harlem Globetrotters or something?” I guess the guy didn’t like being compared to the Globetrotters or something and gave my uncle some kind of less-than-cheerful reply. Of course, knowing my uncle, he probably just rubbed him the wrong way.
Back in the late 1970s, I was working in a parking lot in downtown Toronto. The lot was full–there was a big show on nearby. A man pulled up in a rental car, and I told him we were full. “But don’t you have even one spot left?” the man asked. “I’m headlining the show.”
Yeah, right, I thought. I’d heard everything that night, but not that one. Give the guy points for originality. But once again, I apologized, and directed the man to where he might find parking. He was a nice guy, he didn’t protest too much; and he went to where he might find parking.
A couple of weeks later, I was watching the Johnny Carson show, and Tony Bennett was the guest. He told the story of how he was late to his recent show in Toronto because when he pulled up in his rental car, a parking attendant wouldn’t let him park in the event’s lot.
Forward to the mid-1980s. I was in England, and took a tour out of London. We were going to see Stonehenge and Bath. The only other single traveller on the tour was an attractive lady in her early 30s, so we sat next to each other on the train and the coach. Her name was Jean, and she was American. We conversed throughout the day as we saw the sights, we had lunch together, and at the end of the day, we headed back to London together on the train. I said goodbye to her at Paddington station, but I also said I was curious–she had never really told me what her job was. “I’m an actress,” she replied. You might have seen me on “Airwolf.”
Ran into Stevie Ray Vaughn before a show when we had to park behind the venue and he was walking from the tour bus. Very nice guy. Had to be pulled from the fans by the rest of the band or he would have been late. Never heard a bad thing about him.
Met Penn and Teller after a show but that isn’t rare. From what I understand they stay and talk to everyone after their shows.
Met several reasonably famous military figures but won’t go into the particulars at this time.
Joe Piscopo is quite nice. Spoke to him for a while. It is possible we are very distantly related.
Briefly met Gov Corzine and had my picture taken with him.
I had a similar experience at O’Hare in Chicago a few years back.
Several of us from work were on a business trip to San Francisco and had a layover in Chicago, which turned into quite a long delay because of electrical problems on the plane, then they had to find another plane, then the flight crew was over their allotted hours…
Anyway, there was a group of four guys who were obviously musicians (two of them were carrying guitar cases) sitting nearby. One of the guys in our group was a part-time musician so he went over to chat with them. When he came back I asked him who they were and he said it was a band called “Kings of Leon”. I had never heard of them, although my step-son just about freaked when I told him about it later.
If I’d dated Jennifer Sky, I’d mention it in every post.
“What’s the best hamburger? My ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Sky, really liked Wendy’s Baconator.”
“Who played Norm on ‘Cheers’? George Wendt, who once co-starred in a play with my ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Sky.”
“Is it possible that there are multiple universes? Yes, according to many respectable theories, which means that there are probably universes where I am still having sex with my ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Sky.”
Back when my only transportation was a bike, I was riding past the local library, and saw an old man and a woman trying to push a car. I stopped and helped, and they were able to get it started. Then I realized that I had been pushing a car with Jack Elam.
Does it count if the people don’t seek fame? The last time my family and I went to Minnesota, we went to the theme park in the center of the Mall of America. My daughters needed to use the bathroom, so I walked them to it, and waited outside. There was a set of double doors nearby, with a man in a suit guarding it. After a few minutes, some teenagers in “prom” clothes came through the doors to use the bathrooms, including Abigail and Brittany Hensel. My daughters apparently didn’t see them, which is a relief–I cringe when I think of what they might have innocently said.
So I was waiting in the Buffalo airport to catch a flight back to school after a winter break. I was talking to a friend from HS who was catching a flight to a different college from the same general gate. He was carrying LP record of TS Elliot works with him. So there’s a plane at the gate waiting for the last passengers, an here comes Rick James with entourage, and he autographed my friend’s TS Eliot album.
I was an extra in Chuck Norris’ movie Sidekicks and have met him several times since then.
I have also met the late Bong Soo Han, who was Tom Laughlin’s instructor in the Billy Jack movies. He had a co-starring role in the second movie, and also was the evil Doctor in one of the Kentucky Fried Movie segments.
I’ve also met the late Michael Hedges, the Guitarist From Another Planet. He was appearing at Rockefeller’s in Houston, and I happened to run into him between sets. He and I spent about ten minutes talking guitars. Very nice man.
You’re officially my new hero.
As for the OP… well, mine’s not a celebrity in the sense of an actor or actress, but rather the famous heart surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey.
In the summer of 1991, I was working as a flower delivery guy in Houston, and my normal route included the Texas Medical Center.
For whatever reason, some asshole at Methodist Hospital had ordered his girlfriend/wife 3 dozen roses in a big-ass glass globe full of marbles, and thanks to our crazy designers, icy cold water and a shitload of ice cubes.
So, there I am, on the elevator, hugging a 14" diameter glass fishbowl-globe filled almost to the top with icewater and marbles, with 3 dozen roses smacking me in the face, and on hops this old guy, whose nametag read “Dr. DeBakey”. I recognized him but didn’t say anything.
A few seconds later, he says “That looks heavy!” I replied with “What’s worse, is that it’s filled with icewater!” He says “Good luck with that.” and got off on the next floor.
As this is New York, I’ve wandered past/run into, said vaugely, ‘hey, can I help you?’ to a whole bunch of celebrities. I’ve only noticed one before I walked past them, and that was Paul McCartney.
My next door neighbor was a studio musician, and his New Years parties were legendary. Everyone in NYC working in music wound up there at some point.
I once fixed Martha Stewart’s web server. She was horrid to the techs running it.
But the best story I have is that I used to argue D&D with Vin Diesel back before he was Vin Diesel. Took me ages to figure out why he was familiar, before he came out about D&D, then I asked the store owner, and he agreed.
Ooh. No. That’s not the best story. The best story is 4th grade, and my music teacher, Helen Williams. Her daughter was going to come sing for us at Field Day. We renamed the school paper after her and everything!
Then, suddenly, all the adults got real quiet about it. I still want that Penthouse…
Back in early 2006, Shoot 'Em Upwas being filmed in downtown Toronto. I was walking along Queen street, and noticed a bunch of trailers and people milling about in the park on the other side, but since the cops playing security weren’t holding back traffic or pedestrians, I thought nothing of it and continued walking.
I crossed the street in front of a church, fumbling cigarettes out of my pocket and trying to light one, and then looked up to realise an older (than me, anyways) gentleman with a trenchcoat and briefcase was standing there watching me intently - not in a creepy way, but more in a ‘just waiting for you to get out of my path’ way. I offered him a quick smile, which he returned, and then ambled on my way.
About a block and a half later, I twigged. That was Clive Owen!
I extremely jealous of those that met Christopher Reeve. He would have been my all time favorite. He sounds like he was such a nice guy.
I only have two stories. Some freinds of mine and I were drunkenly wandering down the street in Chicago when we ran into an equally drunk Junior Wells playing harmonicca out of the back of his van. He was developing a crowd and i didn’t want to be a a fanboy so we said hey and left.
The other one is really only partly my interaction but I claim it anyway. When I was aboutr 10, little Ricky Martin called my house looking for my sister. This was back in the day when Ricky Martin was in Menudo and my sister was in the fan club. She also spoke to Roy ?Somebody? who was in the band several times.
I’m a very shy person who now lives in a celebrity-free zone on an island in the middle of Western New York, so I’m surprised by the number of celebrities I’ve interacted with, and almost- or maybe-someday celebrities I’ve known very well.
Let’s see: Sportswise I’ve met Ryne Sandberg, Calvin Murphy, and Hubie Brown. I exchanged letters with Terry Jones while working back at Oxford. Like a lot of people, I met Penn and Teller after a show. I had a great conversation with James Ellroy after a book-signing; he was jealous that I’d studied history and he said that he wanted to try his hand at writing history too. I met P.J. O’Rourke–short guy, very dry humor. I ran into Nick Nolte in an elevator in Toronto, and in the same city I very literally ran into Ron Sexsmith. Best of all I watched Nelson Mandela arrive at our college at Oxford.
Then there’s the almost-famous published authors that I knew a lot better, most of whom I knew before they were known as writers:
“One of the 100 most influential people in the world” Niall Ferguson was my college advisor.
Trinidadian writer Vahni Capildeo was (is) a good friend of my ex-wife. When I knew her she was puzzling out a doctoral dissertation that had something to do with the margin writings in Norse sagas.
Come to think of that, my ex-wife is now something of an authority on Norse sagas, with a number of published works.
Come to think of that, too, a woman I used to date before I met my ex-wife is somewhat of an authority on children’s literature now. I’ve left a trail of success in my wake.
Up-and-coming historian Alec Ryrie was one of our circle at Oxford.
Playwright Peter Morris (“Guardians,” “The Age of Consent”) was a colleague of ours at Somerville. He asked my ex-wife and me to come to the first performance of his play “The Square Root of Minus One” because he was concerned it wouldn’t look good if there were empty seats (he shouldn’t have been worried, the place was packed).
So all these people I used to know are published authors and I’m still mucking about looking for a plot. Ah well, good memories though.
The Dope has heard most of my stories, but I’ll toss in one more: We were at a Jimmy Buffett concert in SoCal back in the 80s, before they closed the Pacific Ampitheater in Costa Mesa. We got there early, and as we walked in I heard Jimmy finishing an interview with KMET radio. I glanced around and saw Jimmy walking out of a door from backstage. He had just shaved his mustache, so nobody recognized him. Nobody but me, that is. He was walking right by me, so I said hi and mentioned a mutual acquaintance from the Key West days. Jimmy stopped, asked about Bill, and we stood there and chatted like normal people for about 5 minutes. Then he shook my hand and wandered off to find the rest of the band. The second he left I was hit by a dozen people, all wanting to know if that was really Jimmy and what we were talking about. Nobody had wanted to disturb our conversation. (Good people!)
I worked in a hotel across from the state fairgrounds where a lot of the musicians stayed.
I drove Jeff Cook (fiddle player for Alabama) to the airport. Really nice guy but he didn’t tip.
I drove Kix Brooks (of Brooks and Dunn fame) to the YMCA, he gave me ten bucks.
Charlie Pride stayed there every year and I talked to him a couple of times. Super nice guy but you get the impression he is in his own little world. Not crazy, just quirky.
I brought room service to the suite the Goo Goo Dolls were in before I even knew who the hell they were. They didn’t tip either. I suppose that doesn’t really count though because the couple of guys that came to the door I couldn’t tell you if they were band members or not.
Back in 94/95 my then-wife and I went to see Warren Zevon at The Rockin’ Horse in Scottsdale. After he did the, “Hey, I gotta go. My ride’s here. Thanks for coming,” the lights came up and most people headed for the door.
I saw he was in the curtained off area behind the stage taking apart and stowing his gear; so we decided to wait around for a bit. After all, the bar was open until 1 and it was only 10:30 or so.
Sure enough, about 15 minutes later there were five or six of us still left and he came back out, walked up the bar and said, “I’m off the wagon tonight, guys. If you don’t mind, I wouldn’t mind having a drink with you.”
My wife caught the look in my eye and said, “I’ve to get up early for work. If you don’t mind taking a cab home, by all means stay. When will you ever have the chance to get drunk with Warren fucking Zevon?”
He started out a little shy but loosened up nicely by the time his second drink arrived. He didn’t really share any road stories, and none of us asked, but he was a great conversationalist, quick witted and one of the single funniest people I’ve ever shared a glass with.
I know that pre-scheduled autograph sessions and record releases at music stores probably don’t count, but I’ve got a few of my own.
One: I used to work in a wine/liquor store in San Antonio, TX during college. This huge honkin’ pink truck rolls up and out steps Dennis Rodman. All by his lonesome. This was during his heyday of wacky behavior and acting out in public while playing with the San Antonio Spurs. He walks up to the counter and says in a quiet whisper (and very sheepishly) that he has just met a woman and wanted to impress her, but he didn’t know much about wine. I (think) I said, “Well, Mr. Rodman, let me show you what we have. What does she like?” We proceeded to the wine section and I was blessed to spend about 20 minutes helping him make a selection.
The whole time he was very polite and quiet. I don’t care what people say about Dennis Rodman, but I think he was a great guy.
I would like to think, in my own grandiose fashion, that my wine suggestion, along with his magical charm and unique personality, helped Dennis sling some heat that night. … and I’m hoping it was with Carmen Electra.
Why, yes - I do live most of my life vicariously… what of it?
My encounter may not be huge but it was this morning. Got a call at 6:30 a.m. from Cowboy Poet Waddie Mitchell.
He was calling me at work in Oregon from his place near Elko, Nevada because he’s going to be appearing in our town Saturday and I’m a reporter at the local newspaper. We did a 15-minute interview, and he’s a real pro who gave great down-to-earth answers that occasionally drifted into the philisophical. It was such a good interview that we’ll probably run it in our Friday edition as a straight Q&A, rather than refashioning it as a story with occasional quotes.
Did a similar phoner with B.B. King the year he turned 80.
Had a chance to shake Emmylou Harris’ hand.
Had a great e-mail interview with Leo Kottke. Had to write out all the questions in advance and send them all at once. He filled in each answer and was great. When he got to town for the performance, I got to meet him and get an autographed CD.
All of them were very approachable and nice, I’m pleased to report.
… and I’m hoping it was with Carmen Electra.