Dave Murray of Iron Maiden

I was working at a band rehearsal studio in Hawaii and Dave Murray came in with a band that he was working on stuff's with. Not heavy metal or nothin'. I went out and picked up beer and cigarettes (spe?) He signed an autograph for us and I must say I was pretty excited.

A friend of mine called me up on my birthday once and took me out to dinner with the band White Heart. I just loved those guy's when I had been listening to their music around 88-89 and it was a lot of fun to just sit around and hear them talk about football and such. My friend had been produced by the guitarist Brian Wooten???. Fabulous player...

Then there was the time back in 91 that I played at The Jesus Go Fest at the YWAM compound I think in Texas where I got to see Phil Keaggy up close and personal. It was so embarrasing cuz I was playing with a guy named Georgian Banoff who had made a name for himself with a praise band called Silver Wind....and everybody is rolling these small refrigerator rack amps onstage....HUUUGE stage for me....and I go on with my Rockman running into a little Mako amp...I could afford literally nothing at that point...anywho.. the sound guy is like "Can you give me anymore out of the guitar??" and I'm looking at the Rockman and it's toggled full loudness and I'm like "Nope, that's all she's got!" Freakin embarrasing...I wonder if I had it plugged into the Mako or not. It started making that flanging squealing noise...I was so embarrased!!!

Georgian Banoff closed the evening so I alwas like to say that I had Phil Keaggy open up for me.

Then there was one time I ran into Tanya Tucker while working for that studio it was a gig at a hotel. We actually went to two gig's for her..I remeber people handing her napkins while she was playing and I got a glimpse of them while breaking stuff's down and they said things like "It's my wife's birthday today..could you dedicate the song so and so to her?"

As I'm going into the service elevator to take some things down...the door is stopped and she get's in with I guess a manager and somebody else. She has the napkins/notes in her hand and she looks at them...crumples them up and throws them on the floor while saying "trash!".

I don't know what was going on with her that day but I was really shocked that somebody would do that to their fans.Weird!

conga

“...that there’s something wrong with the world, you don’t know what it is, but it’s there...”

Morpheus – The Matrix

http://www.machinesound.com

I hung out with Richie Havens for a few days in Virginia Beach. Richie is the most transcendental person I've ever met and has hands bigger than both of mine put together. We did some radio interviews and burned more than a few. Also had a few encounters with Taj Mahal and David Bromberg.

These days I'm just as content to hang with the rock stars from here and friends at the Planet. Hey, we're all just people - when it comes down to it. All you need is love and faith in who you are. Everything else seems to take care of itself. For me, it's all about the music, positive energies, getting along, and having a real good time.

Peace brothers,
Paul

VS-Planet - Home of the VS-Studio User's Group
Virtual Studio Systems, Inc.

MArtina McBride always gets me a little starstruck...run into her all over.

I once stood in line at the grocery store behind Steve Winwood. Thought he was a homeless man until he turned where I could see him, and opened his wallet revealing hundreds upon hundreds of $$ in cash.

I've met tons of songwriters I admire around town. I don't know if you'd call them famous.

Also sightings:

Allison Moorer
Barbara Mandrell
Sammy Kershaw and Lorrie Morgan

I'm sure there's more, but these stuck out for one reason or another.

I don't run into famous people. ever. and i live in southern california. go figure

The Sweaty Dudes

Hey, I saw one of the Flaming Lips dudes tonight.

--Steve, publisher of Mojo Pie
www.mojopie.com

I was in college in '66 when Jefferson Airplane did a concert on campus. I was working at the college radio station and got to interview Gracie Slick and Jorma Kaukonen. Gracie was quite the babe in those days - long black hair and a beautiful figure - and was wearing a dress that was more like a short black net. Totally see through.
As the interview started, she lit up a huge pink wrapped joint and passed it around. We all got wrecked (yup, I smoked a bit in the old days) and I was so mesmerized by her see through dress I totally blew the interview!
I listened to it afterward and heard myself trying to be profound while blitzed. I was mumbling stuff like "wow" and "far out" So the interview sucked, but I had a great time anyway..

Forever looking for that perfect take...........

I have a cousin who was a bellboy at a fancy hotel in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He said of all the bands that came through that Jefferson Starship (as it was known at the time) was by far the most polite and down to earth.

--Steve, publisher of Mojo Pie
www.mojopie.com

Ok here is the list.

Had a band with Nicolette Larson of the "It's gonna take a lotta love" hit in my younger days. She later married Russ Kunkel of James Taylor's band.

Ate lunch with Keith Knudsen the drummer for the Doobie Brothers

Hung out with John Goodman the actor in college, got drunk with him once.

Met Clint Eastwood in a bar in Idaho, actually physically bumped in to him.

Sold computer disks to Germaine, Latoya and Janet Jackson.

Sold software to Chuck Berry. Asked him if he was really Chuck B. and he said "All day long"

Sold a computer to the girl who plays Tom Cruise's girl friend in Risky Business.

Tried and failed to pick up Kathleen Turner, (Romancing the Stone) at a party.

Was stage manager in college for Heart and met the Wilson sisters and band. Actuaally picked them up at their hotel.

Had dinner with John Dean of Watergate fame. My wife and I were his student escorts in college.

Shook hands with President Gerald Ford at a company seminar

Shooks hands and had my picture taken with Bill Gates.

Had a conversation with Pat Reilly when he was the Lakers coach.

Met the current Vice President Dick Cheney at a dinner.

Spent the evening with Leo Kotke in a bar in college.

But the greatest man I ever met was a Farmer from Southern Missouri who ran a Farm and worked a night job to feed his family. He was the most impressive of the bunch for his honesty, integrety and strength of character in the face of adversity.

Something like this came up on another forum awhile ago, and I'd always been wanting to make a list of famous people I'd met or had some kind of run-in. Here's the post:

[ I always thought it would be fun to put a list like this together, anyway. ]


Name dropping...

My mother was good friends with Hugh Kenner and Daniel Keyes. They'd come
over for lunch when I was a kid. My grandfather was one of the inventors of the original
Jeep at The Bantam Car Company in Butler, Pa. I met Evel Kneivel and was
even invited into his trailer just months before he made his Snake River Canyon attempt. I went to
the same elementary school as Traci Lords.

I worked on a Kiss tour in '80. I was in jail w/ the road manager from Head East – got him
out, and roadied on 3 dates w/ the band. I worked on a commercial w/ Bill Bixby. Also
other ones w/ Larry "Bud" Melman, and Harry Anderson, who was the biggest
dick I ever met. I took a pee in a stall next to David Carradine. I've jammed on trombone
several times w/ Lenny Pickett and Tower of Power. Also jammed several times at Synanon in San Francisco with the jazz trombonist Frank Rosolino. One of my best friends is Bill Ungerman of Royal Crown Revue fame. At a club called I-Beam in San Francisco, I used to dance and do drugs w/ Fred "Rerun" Berry from What's Happening. I worked on the movie, Rumblefish w/ Matt Dillon,
and have run into him several times in bars in three different cities.

I was hired by the Dallas Times Herald to photograph BB King. I wired up Rudolph
Gulliani w/ a microphone. I sat right next to Darryl Hannah [ her skin was yellow ] and
Jackson Browne at an Abby Hoffman speech in NYC. I sat right next to Christie
Brinkley and Billy Joel at a Bryan Adam's concert in Amsterdam [ before people knew
they were going out].

I worked w/ the Talking Heads on the movie, True Stories. I've met and been an
audio engineer for Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians, Butthole Surfers, Flaming Lips, The Ramones [ afterwhich I sat right next to Joey Ramone all night at the bar. He
was slumped over and never said a word. ], Run DMC [ man, those guys could put away
some Chinese food ], Manola Badrena of Weather Report, Chaka Khan, Cynthia
[for you Spanish Hip-Hop fans], Brenda K Starr, Roy Ayers. I worked on a Hetch Hetchy album w/
Michael Stipe's sister, Lynda Stipe for several weeks, and spoke w/ Michael on the phone several times as
well as met him on a few occasions when he visited the studio. I've also worked on projects
with Denise Rich, and been in her penthouse apartment and recording studio overlooking
Central Park. I worked w/ Yoko Ono on the John Lennon Digital Archiving Project. Also met
and played video games w/ Sean Lennon. I lived in, and worked on music, for a week in Anthony Michael
Hall's penthouse apartment in NYC. I was friends with his mother, Mercedes Hall and his
father-in-law, Tom, who is his manager. Hung out lots w/ "the whole family". I worked w/ Todd
Rundgren and Roger Powell [ of Utopia ] on the software for Texture software [ an
IBM-based MIDI sequencer]. I wrote a song called The Space Between Us Melts, on which
the bass player was Tony Levin, of King Krimson and Peter Gabriel. I worked w/ and
co-wrote a song for Southside Johnny. I jammed on bass all night long w/ Chris
Barron of the Spin Doctors on New Year's Eve '98. I had no idea who he was until several
months later. Just before he died, I jammed w/ Jaco Pastorius of Weather Report
in Washington Square Park in NYC.


I used to live down the street from Keith Richards, and would regularly run into him in the local deli. I rented an apartment/recording studio in NYC where Madonna had slept on
the floor before she made it big. She's still friends w/ the owner.

My first wife was the personal trainer for John F Kennedy, Jr., Cindy Crawford [ I still have a sweatshirt of hers ] , Bianca Jagger, Calvin Klein [ he personally gave me a bottle of Eternity
] , Sandy Pittman [ she invited us to come to her villa in France, but we couldn't swing it ], Bob Pittman of MTV and Faye Dunaway at Radu's in NYC. I met all of them several times at parties and at the gym, except for Ms. Jagger – who was the biggest bitch I ever saw.

I was a producer for the US media blitz for Teletubbies. At various other events I worked for, spoke with, and spent entire evenings in close proximity to; Ivana Trump, Hugh Grant, Janet Jackson, Elizabeth Talylor [ I served champagne to her. ], Peter Jenning's wedding reception done by Harry Cipriani, who I've also met
several times. Lemme see, who else. Paula Cole, Barbara Walters, Alan
Alda, Bjork, Bette Midler, Mick Fleetwood, Cindy Lauper. I
was a personal attendent to the Dalai Lama for an evening. I saw MTV VJ
Jesse Camp in Washington Square Park right after he was voted as a VJ. I talked w/ him
for a few minutes and got his autograph for my wife, Karen. I've emailed a few times back-and-forth on bid'ness w/ Jamie
Murray from MTV's Real World - New Orleans. I recently saw
Mohammed Ali from ten feet away at LaGuardia – and he threw some punches in the air
at me. Still the biggest celebrity thrill for me so far.

I've probably I missed some.

Dan Richards
Digital Pro Sound
The Listening Sessions

[This message was edited by Dot on 12-20-03 at 02:19 AM.]

Yeah, so what Dot. I slept in a hotel in the same hall as the "Orgy" camp from the band Orgy. Saw Amir the guitarist (I think), and saw/heard some crazy shit going on all night and the next morning.

I've been blessed with the balls and the mouth to have met dozens of artists after shows, and have a small collection of autographed tickets.

But my coolest experience was standing in a group of about 8-10 people talking to Billy Corgan in the Smashing Pumpkins hay-days. Unfortuatly I was shaking to much to say anything.

So I guess that makes me the most "in" dude here when it comes to knowing celebs.

-Dusty

are you guys serious??

I've worked along side some famous people and after awhile it makes you realize how crazy our society is...we make a big deal about people who are confused as to why we make a big deal about them...

I don't make a big deal out of anybody. And I don't ask for autographs either. : )

Dan Richards
Digital Pro Sound
The Listening Sessions

When I was in Austin, I had a couple of "Slacker" sightings, which is a low level of celebrity, but a few are interesting. I was at an in-store at Tower durring SXSW and after a friend noticed they had the Madona "Sex" book in the book section, my other friend spotted the girl selling Madonna's pap smear on the streat in the movie. Weird coincidince on the theme of selling access to the artist as a commodity.

I've had a few friends signed to majors, one dropped, one seemingly in limbo right now, and one having his songs played on WB programming. Does any of that count?

Bear

All while working in a music store in Miami -

I met Don Johnson, who came in with Chas Sandford, his producer. Chas and I had done some long distance deals in the past, and came in to meet me face to face, and introduce me to Don. Little by little, Don got nervous when people started to come over and ask for his autograph, so he went out to the parking lot and laid face down on the floor in the back of his TransAm. Who says stars are paranoid?

The late Maurice Gibb came in all the time. I especially remember his excitement to show us when he bought one of the first Hummers in the US. He was a really nice, polite and very generous man. At his recent funeral a number of very scary looking individuals (gang members, mafia, street people) came forward to tell of how Maurice would meet with them for lunch as part of his AA affiliation. Some stars are not paranoid.

As I shook hands with Stanley Clorke, I looked down at his massive paw and said, "I was going to ask you how you played the way you do, now I see". He smiled and said, "They help".

A sad story. Jaco, sleeping on park benches and street corners, was picked up by one of the other salesmen who saw him literally lying in the gutter. He brought him into the store, where Jaco proceeded to play every guitar and bass in the place, making some of the most incredible music I've ever heard from one person. He then proceeded to go to the 7-11 across the street, guzzling down a beer, and then began yelling at the store manager (who was asking for the $1.75 for the beer) "Don't you know who I am? I'm the greatest bass player in the world." The manager humbly responded that he didn't care if he was Jesus, and called the cops. Jaco came back to the music store in a hurry, hiding in the offices where he promptly ate my hot lunch with his bare hands, telling me it's the least we could do for all the great music he'd been playing all morning. I told him someone should punch him to death, and unfortunately one month later, someone did. I'm sorry I said that.

I installed a Sound Tools system in Nassau at Compass Point Studios for Julio Iglesias and his producer Ramon Arcusa. When we were finished, I was expecting some remuneration for my time and service. They fulfilled my expectations by offering me a chicken sandwich. I sat across the table from Julio and ate my commission quietly.

Whenever a star came in, I would mess with them to see if they had a sense of humor. Like when "save the manatees" Jimmy Buffet came in one day, and I ran up to him with a handful of guitar picks and told him that we had made them specially in his honor... out of manatee hides. He didn't laugh.

Or when Peter Frampton came in during a particularly long lull in his career. I asked him what he was doing these days. He replied that the band was rehearsing and thinking about going back out on the road. I said, "Oh, too bad. I was going to ask you if you wanted to put a 60's band together with me." He didn't laugh, but gaped at me with his mouth wide open as if I just said something about his mother.

Famous latin singer Willie Chirino also came in with his band to show off a bit at the top of his popularity. When one of them asked me if I knew Willie for a long time I pointed to his new blonde-dyed hair and said, "Hell, I knew Willie when he was young and a brunette". Willie didn't laugh, as he glared at me.

Stevie B was just some really annoying guy that used to hang around the store, until one day he made a record that went gold. Then he became a really annoying rich and famous guy that would hang around the store. After doing a tour, he came in with his whole band to get some stuff and show everyone how important he'd become. While dickering with me over the price of some keyboard and telling his band to "watch this", he said to me, "What's the matter, Cruz, don't you like me anymore?" He took out a stack of cash and rolled his eyes to show the band that he who has the gold, rules. My reply was, "No Stevie, it's not that I don't like you anymore. I NEVER LIKED YOU". His band laughed, Stevie didn't.

Phillp Michael Thomas (also of Miami Vice) was a pleasant exception when he came in for stuff for a studio he built in N. Miami. He needed some advice on technical stuff, so the manager who was helping him introduced him to me (I was the technical sales adviser for recording and midi stuff). As they approched me I pretended to get all excited and said, "Oo, oo, aren't you... Phillip Michael Jackson?" He laughed. 2 weeks later I was paged to answer the phone. When I picked it up I heard a familiar voice say, "Hey Cruz, this is Phillip Michael Jackson".

S. Cruz
Florida

I ran in to Ronnie Montrose at a pancake house in Pueblo, Co. As fate would have it they were headed to Montrose Colorado that night. He was touring with Edgar Winter at the time. My buddy was hilarious he actually said " wow your a pretty good guitar player, how long have you been playing?"

One night I got to hang out with Smokin' Joe Frazier in a bar in (Chelsea) Manhatten. My brother arm wrestled him on the piano bar and beat him. They wrestled right handed but smokin' Joe is a south paw. It was pretty funny we were doing shots when they decided to arm wrestle. I was the ref " all right limber up no cheating" it was hilarious. For the record the shots were old Bushmills and smokin' Joe topped each shot with a little bear.

Rocky

Don't sweat the petty things - Pet the sweaty things - Richard Wawock

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dot:
I don't make a big deal out of anybody. And I don't ask for autographs either. : )

Dan Richards

---

I wasn't implying that you were.

It's just kind of weird to me..."famous" people for the most part don't see themselves as "famous" people, unless they're assholes...

I was introduced to Anthony Hopkins after he had done Silence of the Lambs and he just said "Hi, I'm Tony."

I've only got two autographs. One is Leon McAulife. The other is some guy who was an incredible college running back named Bill Burnett.

--Steve, publisher of Mojo Pie
www.mojopie.com

I'm related to some "famous" people. Does that count?

God Bless America

My great uncle was an advisor to President Nixon and ran his first election campaign. He quit before Watergate, and was not allowed to run the reelection campaign because he was "too much of a Boy Scout". He moved on, and later became Billy Graham's right hand man.

His son (second cousin? what the hell does that make us?) owns his own island in Puerto Rico. He makes $96,000 a day speaking at corporate events and has best selling books about the economy. I've never met him. Does anyone care?

My dad always told me we were related to Bucky Dent and Ron Guidry. I think he's lying.

I once spent time in the can with a guy who helped Jeffrey Dahmer rape and kill a few guys. I also hugged Mick Jagger while David Bowie was watching. He looked jealous. I once rented a Bronco to Al Cowlings, he owed us a bunch of money on late fees for some reason. I was the surgeon who transplanted Tom Brokaw's upper lip to Doug Llewelyn, and the nose from the Elf on Rudolph's TV special to Michael Jackson. I was Sandra Bullocks dietician which went horribly wrong.



OK, the last parts are just terrible jokes.

Warren

www.frontendaudio.com
Home of the Safe Sound Audio P1

If we're going to count related people. Joe Walsh is my brother.

Rocky Walsh

Don't sweat the petty things - Pet the sweaty things - Richard Wawock