"also, your opinion of him might change if you read Get in the Van; then again, a lot of people thought that book was crap, so maybe not. I happened to like it."

Mh, glad to hear that I seem to be a little too judgmental; I actually always liked the man and what he had to say.....

Point taken, Get in the Van was interesting but I must say that I found it a little too one-dimensional. But then again: if you Tour hard and play hard there is not much else to think about I guess. Ok, I will give him a second chance....hehehe.

I wrote an article/paper on the emergence of American Hardcore as a reaction against Reaganism last spring and got in touch with some folks at Dischord. I must say that almost all of them were really eager to help and make some interesting and helpful comments. Except one ex-member of Fireparty "couldn't really remember." Funny, no? Jello Biafra's assistant sent me a wonderful 23 page press kit which is fun to read. The beefy, tattooed guy sent me an e-mail too...as expected the man is angry at times.

Late 80's, (early 90's perhaps) I was at Smart Bar with a friend knocking back a few on a week night when GNR (sans Axel) bellys up to the bar. Slash is sitting next to my friend Dave. I get Dave to change seats with me so I can get a napkin signed for a friend. I politely ask Slash if he could sign it for my friend Shelley and he asks me "why should I sign this for you?" My reply, "because I have manners, that's why." He signs it, introduces me to other band members and have them sign it.

These days I'm too chickenshit to say anything for fear of looking like a moron.

whelp.
living in nyc and working in various areas of the entertainment field i'm around "talent" quite often.

most memorable experiences:
having a smoke outside the david letterman studios with biff henderson speculating on the most painful ways to die.
"high fiving" patrick warburton
sitting at a table discussing some work related bullshit with my boss while robin williams AND jerry seinfeld were sitting across from me.
telling various members of wu-tang and ja rule that they weren't allowed to smoke weed in the building. that went over REAL well with 'em.
plenty others too, these are just the ones that come to mind right now.





oh yeah...
anna paquin loves the white shit also.
and jennifer tilly is as dumb as a box of rocks.

Anyone here ever been on a highway clean-up crew with a Star doing community service?

Now that would be brushing with celebrity!

regarding my previous post:

genuflect to my godlike grasp of grammarrrrr.

just when I thought I never had a brush w/ a celeb I remember that when I was in high school Tiny Tim moved into a neighborhood near my parnets house and I would sometimes see him at the grocery store. in fact, I think I saw him there just a few days before he died.

Pirate Man wrote:

At the same time after attempting an interview with a beefy tatooed guy who used to sing for Black Flag I have changed my opinion about him and now think he is a complete asshole.

Since you brought him up:

We played a show at CBGBs in '91 or '92. The Rollins Band had booked the club for a special unannounced early show (apparently they were working in a new bass player). They were wrapping up their sound check as we were loading our gear in. I was carrying an amp past the stage, when Henry turns to his bandmates and asks "Alright, who wants to do some push-ups with me?"

To this day I regret not hopping up on stage and "doing twenty" with Hank.

My Aunt was a teacher in Key West, Florida. She tutored the cast of "Ruskies". Peter Billingsly was one of the actors. He signed a young portrait of himself for my grandparents:

Grandma and Grandpa,
Thanks for taking me fishing.

-Peter Billingsly

Peter Billingsly, that's cool! I was surprised to see him hosting and producing Diner For Five on IFC.

I have met a few drummer celebrities:
Terry Bozzio (famous to drummers)
Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Adrian Young of No doubt, is actually a cool story. The Vandals (a long time favorite of mine) were opening for fellow Orange County residents, No Doubt for a few of their first dates on the big Tragic Kingdom tour. My friends and I wanted to meet The Vandals in the worst way. So we hung out around the tour busses like a bunch of ball-huggers all day. We never saw The Vandals there, but we did meet Adrian as he was playing football in the parking lot. Tons of Gwen wannabes were all on his dick when we approached him and asked about The Vandals. He answered as much as he could before being mobbed. So we resumed our post on a curb well suited for chain smoking, The cool thing was he must have liked the fact that we gave a crap about him, because he ditched the sack-squeezers and came over to the curb we were sitting on, sat down and started talking to us. He eventually let us into the show for free (good because we had no money) were we did end up meeting half of The Vandals.

The only nonmusical celebs I've met were Vlade Divac and that Peja guy from the Sacramento Kings. They came into the Radio Shack I worked at looking for a digital video camera. I said "Go to a REAL store to get that". They left. I'm sure they are only celebrities in Sacramento.

I met Sony Sharrock after one of his shows and he was the nicest guy in the world. He spent 20 minutes talking to me about playing with Pharoah Sanders and seeing Coltrane and Dolphy.
I met Pharoah Sanders once and I told him what an amazing tone he had. He shook my hand and said that he's working on it.
I met Chick Corea (I'm not a fan) and he was kind of a prick.
Fred Schneider of the b-52's came into my store and was kind of a pompous jerk.
Will Oldham came into my store and was a nice feller, and did not seem too hung up on himself.
Most of the free jazz guys I have met like LOl Coxhill, Evan Parker, Byard Lancaster, Fred Anderson all were real nice people.

I was really drunk at a bar in chicago called the matchbox in the mid late 90's and there was a guy that looked really familiar. He looked like the dude with the black hair on the cover of slint's spiderland. I knew it had to be him. So after a few more drinks I saw him leave so I followed him out and said, "dude, arnt you in slint?". He looked at me like the drunken moron i was and said, " I USED to be in a band called slint, now I am in a band called Tortoise." I was real drunk so I walked away.

Which, leads me to my thoughts on meeting celebraties. If I saw someone I really respect like Steve Albini, Brian Eno, Robert Wyatt, Lucien Freud, Anselm Kieffer, or Robert Fripp somewhere I probably wouldn't even walk up and say anything. What would I say "umm, umm, umm, I, um , really like what you do". I got a feeling that they dont give a rats ass, so whats the point. If I had a specific question that seemed relevant that would not be stepping on thier toes, I might find the gumption to ask that. But, just meeting somebody for the sake of meeting somebody always seemed a bit odd. Either celebraties will like it for the ego hand job, or they wont give a shit, or the combination of the two.

Also, the people I mentioned are probably not real "celebraties". But, I think Will Oldham and Sonny Sharrock are a lot more important to me than John Travolta, Nicole Kidman, or Slash. No matter how drunk I was, I still wouldnt walk up to them and say something. I just don't care.