Tell me about your encounter with the giants

Cafe Society
41

Not a giant, really, but it’s the closest I’ve got.

There’s a guy named Wally Pleasant who sings and plays guitar. (Sort of humorous novelty-act-like stuff, though when I was going to his shows he was clearly completely strung out on some chemical the whole time so kind of and edgy family-friendly musician/comedian.) Anyway, once he asked me to show him how to play the harmonica. I obliged, he made a mess of it, said “Sorry, guess I can’t get the hang of it.” Then at the show, he took his harmonica out and wailed.

I was somewhat humiliated at the time, but now I think it was hilarious.

-FrL-

42

She has just about the sexiest voice in the world. :: happy shudder:: Great movie, too.

43

I met Kip Winger* from Winger. Sort of. This was when they were huge.

I was in a Carrows resturant in Albuquerque one night and in walks Rod Morgenstein, who is a monster drummer. I knew Rod from his work with Steve Morse. So I went over to the table and introduced myself and talked to him for a couple minutes. Told him I loved his work with the Steve Morse Band. Very nice guy. He was with a couple of guys who I said Hi to but otherwise ignored.

A couple days later I was in a music store looking through posters. I happened upon a Winger poster and realized that the other guys sitting at the table were the rest of Winger. I pretty much totally ignored them. I wish I would have talked to Reb Beach a bit, he is a talented guitarist but I didn’t know who the heck he was.

Speaking of Steve Morse, I went to a clinic he did in Albuquerque way back. As I was walking into the music store I bumped into him. He was warming up by running scales at insane speeds. I talked to him for a bit while he kept on warming up. Insanely good guitarist and a hell of a nice guy.

I also met Ozzy. My girlfriend at the time worked as a bartender at a hotel. She served drinks to Ozzys band and got us back stage passes. We went to the show and met Ozzy. Very nice guy. This was really neat because the album Blizzard of Ozz was what inspired me to play guitar.

Back in 1987 my band opened a couple shows for some big bands. We opened for Joe Satriani, which was stressful for me since I am a guitarist. I jus said Hi to him and I don’t think he was around to hear us play. I also met Megadeth and Sanctuary. Same kind of deal.

On the non-artist side, I met Harrison Schmitt back in the 70’s. My Dad managed somehow to get us invited to his house. I believe it might have been a fund raiser or something for his politcal career.

I also met Stephen Hawkings at a science meeting once before he was famous. I was a kid at the time.

Slee

*I am not sure if Winger would be considered a ‘giant’, but Rod Morgenstein is in the drum world. He is just a badass.

44

The only ones I can think of are:

Wayne Gretzky: On a plane from Edmonton to Toronto, c. 1983 (which would have made me about 12). I was sitting in the seat directly behind him. In coach! When the plane landed, and everybody was standing up waiting to get off, I asked him for his autograph. He was kind of a grouch, although he had just woken up.

Albert Collins and Buddy Guy: Separate incidents, but nearly identical circumstances. A friend of mine was the opening act for both of their shows here maybe around 1989 or 1990. I got to go backstage afterward and meet them. No exciting stories, but they were my heroes at the time.

45

She’s amazing in person. Every time she’d walk into the room it was like someone had turned on a klieg light. She just had this tremendous infectuous energy. I’ve worked with a variety of actors and she was the only one who had the power to transform a room like that. In an alternate universe where Broadway was more important than Hollywood she’d be a huge star.

46

I’m surprised. He always seemed so friendly in those KFC commericals.

47

When I was a very young child, I met Mr. McFeeley from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. And Franco Harris. (Not at the same time)

48

Pshaw. Being “publicly insulted and capped” by Harlan is, from what I understand, relatively common.

Now if he had been publicly humiliated and kicked in the groin by Fred Rogers, then I’d be impressed … :cool:
As for being close to famous people. Well, I was once within about twenty yards of Prince Charles … for a fraction of a second while his motorcade sped by at about 90 miles an hour. Does that count? No? :frowning:

49

Jacko?

50

One indisputable fact about my brother: he is the absolute master of the Jedi Mind Trick. He’s settled down now, but years ago he could go to any event, anywhere in the world, and go wherever he felt like. Backstage at any concert (hell, onstage a time or two, for no reason other than he felt like it), the locker room of any sporting event, anything, anywhere. He just has this air about him that he can project that tells people “that place, over there? That’s where I’m supposed to me, so you I’m going to go there now, ok? Thanks.”

It’s because of this that I spent an evening in my early teens playing poker in my mother’s basement with my brother and a couple of his friends. Two of them were guys I’d never met before…big guys…huge. It wasn’t until many years later that I realized they were Phil Sims and Mark Bavaro (at the time, I could have given a crap less about football).

In retrospect, of course, holy crap – I played poker with Phil Sims and Mark Bavaro! :slight_smile:

There was also the time Harry Blackstone kicked my ass.

And let me just note that my story most closely follows the thread title. :stuck_out_tongue:

51

I once walked up to a man who had, just a couple hours earlier, been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. I said “Congratulations, Martin” and he said “Thanks, Karen”.

He was my boss at the time…

52

I served Daniel Day Lewis a coffee when I worked at the Bristol Watershed café in 1985. He was attending a special screening of My Beautiful Laundrette.
I had dinner with - or more precisely, was sat next to - HRH Prince Andrew during the main course of a formal dinner, in 1989 or 1990.
I chatted to Susannah York who was the guest on a radio show a friend was presenting.
I was Chris Martin’s interpreter when he visited the DR in 2001.

53

Rusty Dornin filmed a CNN story in my garage back in 2002. I had just been to the dentist and half my jaw was still numb. Her cameraman said “Don’t worry, we’ll film you from the other side”. They were both fun folks.

Had dinner with Bruce Jenner and Kris Kardashian last year (buddy’s wedding rehearsal dinner was at their house); very friendly and great hosts.

Some people I went to high school with went on to become famous so “I knew them when…” but they were FOAFs.

54

Ray Bradbury once wrote a poem for me, and sent me the typed and signed original.

55

Well…
The former keyboardist from The Cars , Greg Hawkes, is apparently now an avid ukulele player. I performed at the Mid Atlantic Ukulele Invitational (MAUI) with a teacher from my middle school and a few classmates. After the show, my teacher introduced me to Greg, and we got to talk for a little bit before he had to leave.

 That, and I shook hands with Buckethead and was about five feet away from Bootsy Collins at a camp I went to.
56

I met Alec Guinness and Edward Hermann at the backstage door after a performance of A Walk in the Woods in London in late 1989. Both were very pleasant and signed my program with a smile, although Sir Alec got quite testy with a German guy who then presented him with a sheaf of Obi-Wan publicity photos and asked for his autograph on them. “You’re just going to sell these, aren’t you?” Guinness asked. The German guy said no, which Guinness clearly doubted, but he signed anyway.

57

I just walked past a restaurant today, and saw Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman sitting inside.

58

I worked at the world’s most popular museum for 12 years and was fortunate enough to meet quite a few famous people in that time, including:

Astronauts/aviators:
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, on the 20th anniversary of the moon landing. (Got their autographs on a book they wrote.)
Alan Shepard (first American in space)
Jim Lovell (Apollo 13 astronaut)
Chuck Yeager (he spoke at NASM every year. He’s a jerk.)
Scott Crossfield (first man to reach Mach 2: very nice guy)
Patty Wagstaff (World Aerobatic Champion)
Hans von Ohain (inventor of the first German jet engine)

Actors/entertainers:
Jack Nicholson
John Denver
Ron Silver

Others:
Walter Cronkite. I gave him an impromtu tour of the Enola Gay exhibit.
Al Gore, before he was nominated for the VP. I gave him a close up tour of the Spirit of St. Louis, which at the time had been taken down for repair work.
Larry King. Gave him a tour of the museum.
Philip Morrison (Manhattan project physicist and author)
Carl Sagan
Kurt Vonnegut

Since leaving the museum about 11 years ago, I’ve had the opportunity to meet a number of other interesting people:
James Cameron
Harrison Ford: I attended a recording session for an IMAX film he narrated. Very nice, unassuming, and shy.
Director Brett Leonard (The Lawnmower Man, Virtuosity)
Producer Frank Marshall (Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, and dozens of other extremely popular films): I interviewed him about an IMAX film he produced.
Writer/Director Steve Oedekerk (Ace Ventura)
Penn and Teller
James Randi (I applied for a job as director of JREF. Didn’t get it.)

I’ve also met the directors and producers of virtually every IMAX film ever made, and I’m good friends with many of them.

Met briefly at book signings over the years:
Mario Andretti
Isaac Asimov
Daniel Dennett
Murray Gell-Mann
Milton Glaser
Thor Heyerdahl
Garrison Keillor
Mark Okrand (inventor of Klingon language)
Phil Plait (Bad Astronomer)
Richard Rhodes

There are probably a few I’ve forgotten.

But all of this pales in significance to the evening I spent in Las Vegas two years ago, having drinks with Mythbusters’ Adam Savage and Kari Byron.

[Ah, lovely Kari.]

I love showing off that picture!

59

I met John Stockton while I was attending Gonzaga in 1999. That was the year the NBA was locked out, and he was spending time at Jack and Dan’s. (It’s a close to campus bar owned by his father.) After much goading by my friends, I went up to him and in my biggest village idiot smile asked, “So what’cha doing here John”. He said “I live here” :dubious: and then went back to talking to some friends about “It’s Something About Mary”.
I nearly met Ice-T, Too Short, and Sir Mix-a-Lot in of all places Sunnyside, WA. There was a club in 1988 that often hosted rap acts. Me and my mom (I was only 12) would wait for my sister in the car. I often saw them pass by our car but would only wave at them. If I’d been older and known who they were I would undoubtedly made more of an effort.

60

I’ve had breakfast with Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, lunch with Mariel Hemingway, and dinner with Aaron Copeland. And I lived in the same dorm with Christopher Reeve.

In 1979 I was working at a Smithsonian Institution research station in Panama. Collins at the time was on the board of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and came to visit the station. He joined us for breakfast one morning.

Mariel was in Panama to host some nature program with the Smithsonian several years ago, and I was invited to a lunch with her hosted by the mayor of Panama City. I didn’t get to sit at her table, though.

During my undergraduate days at Cornell I lived in a dorm for people in the arts that often invited special guests to stay overnight. Copeland was one, and I did get sit at his table for dinner. I didn’t have a chance to say much to him though. This was about 1972.

Reeve was in the same dorm. I knew him to talk to, but didn’t hang out with him.

I’ve also met Al Gore, Jane Fonda and Ted Turner, and two presidents of Panama, but those were just handshakes.