I totally know a rock star.

Her name is Vienna Teng[sup]*[/sup].

My wife and I met up with her at a Saturday show in Saratoga, where 13 years ago we all graduated high school[sup][/sup]. Vienna recognized mrs.gnu first, then me. We talked about the some old times[sup]*[/sup], including a mutual friend, Jim. Jim likes to promote Vienna on his social network pages. They hang out when she’s in LA, where he’s been trying to make it as an actor. Vienna said he’s been nice, and likes to talk about how he knows a rock star. “I’m not quite a rock star, Jim,” she said.

She’s a rock star to us. Hugs all around, and a great show.

*: Not her actual name. She put her real name in parenthesis on the CD she signed.
**: Ms. “Teng” played the piano for the choir, but I never heard her sing.
***: but we did not drink ourselves some beers.

Hey, she was just here! Her website.

star - n. a prominent actor, singer, or the like.

Maybe you have different definition. Never heard of her.

From her bio:
Q: How would you characterize your music?
A: Oh man, I don’t know. I’ve taken to saying “chamber folk” or “singer-songwriter” most of the time. “Somewhere between folk and pop, with a bit of classical and jazz,”
Rock star?

I don’t know why you are picking on the OP’s use of the term “rock star” when he specifically said “not quite a rock star” and “She’s a rock star to us.”

It’s cool to see someone you know up on stage. That was nice of her to give you a signed CD too.

I was friends in high school with a guy who ended up becoming a “rock star” of sorts. He was Joan Jett’s drummer for a while, and is in the movie “Light of Day” with Joan Jett and Michael J. Fox. I think he has one line in the entire movie. It’s kinda weird to watch the movie and go “hey, I know that guy!”

He was a drummer for David Lee Roth for a bit, and he’s done a bit of acting too (besides the Joan Jett movie).

I haven’t really seen him since high school though. I went off to college and he went off to be a rock and roll star and I’ve only spoken to him once since then.

I’ve been listening to Vienna Teng for a couple of years and really like her stuff. Very cool that you know her!

She’s got a million and a quarter plays on her myspace page. My band has 5 thousand. I vote rock star!

My oldest daughter graduated from high school this past summer, and at a party I was in the food line next to a bald guy. We got to talking and ended up sitting at a table and just eating and talking for about a half hour. He said he used to babysit for my daughter’s classmate at who’s house we were at. His name was Isaac.

After a while I got up and moved on and all the teenage girls came up to me and started battering me with questions. It turns out it was Isaac Slade, lead singer for The Fray, who had the #1 album in the country for a few weeks this spring. He grew up around here and still lives here. He was a completely normal and cool guy.

I used to be pals with a woman who, while not exactly a rock “star” in the US yet, is quite the star in England and has been on the cover of various tabloids a few times. And that is weird as hell, to see someone you’re used to knowing as a “regular person” on sale next to the candy bars. I just miss seeing her band play in small venues - they really are very good.

Are you going to share who it is?

I saw her in concert once. I guess it must have been five years ago now. She was pretty good.

Sure, Beth Ditto from the Gossip.

I once had a rap star move into the Cursed House* next door. He planted a line of trees between our properties, had loud parties late at night, and once wished a neighbor on his way to synagogue, “Happy Easter”.** His house was on CRIBS, and they showed the corner of our house for about three seconds, and everybody we knew fowarded the video to us. He moved away after a while. It was very strange.

*So called because in the ten years we’ve been here, no one’s lasted more than two or three years befor moving out.
**Okay, there’s no reason a black rapper would know what a Jew in holiday gear looks like, but it was pretty funny anyway.

I’m totally *related to *a rock star.

Paul Bostaph, formerly of Slayer, currently Testament.

I love her music. :slight_smile: I missed seeing her in concert a few months ago because I didn’t have a way to get there.

She’s rock star enough for me. I forget how I found her, but I have two of her albums.

A couple of my bandmates know Jim Peterik, who was in Survivor and Ides of March and co-wrote hits like Eye of the Tiger and Vehicle. When you perform at open mike nights a lot and you’re pretty good, you meet other musicians, a few of them well-known.

The bassist who beat me in the audition for high-school jazz band performed with a rock band on Conan O’Brien a couple years ago, but they aren’t quite stars. I didn’t really know him, though.

Hehe, my daughter called me out of my room once morning to show me the video to Amistad (You Found Me) which is/was a big hit for them. She was excited because “This guy looks just like ‘The Brain’ from Pink and the Brain’”. Even funnier, I kind of look like him and can sing pretty much exactly like that. So I guess it was a backhanded way of telling me that I look like a cartoon mouse.

  • Shibb, who has also been told he looks like Billy Corgan, James Carville, and “that guy from That 70s Show” (Kurtwood Smith)

Although nobody outside the Bay Area will know the name, I used to share a house with the drummer of The Joe Sharino Band. Their closest brush with real “rock stardom” was as the opening act for one of the US Festivals.

They never hit it big anywhere outside of Silicon Valley–they’re a cover band, afterall. But they gig constantly at clubs, fairs, headline art & wine festivals and do tons of corporate partys for big bucks. I would guess Joe Sharino and Co. are probably the most successful strictly local band in these parts over the last 30 years.