Dr. O' Nothing wrote:I played Little League with/against future Hall of Famer
Jim Thome.

Reminds me. I played Little League against Troy Aikman for one year when he lived in Southern California. Oh, and my dad invented the Tiger's Milk bar at his first job after college in Arizona. That will be in his obituary.

Many a year ago, my old band (yes, yes, another "my old band" story) was playing in Berlin at a club that was split up between a small room (where we were to play) and a much, much larger hall (where Brian May was playing). The smaller club was used as the backstage area for the larger hall, so we couldn't soundcheck, or do anything until the show in the larger room was over. We were pretty much stuck there waiting for the great man to finish up, so we sat around drinking and getting pissed off at Brian May. There was a narrow hallway to restroom, and a guy from our band was heading back from the pisser while Brian May was heading towards it. From a distance, we just see Brian May hold up and flatten himself against the wall to let our guy pass. My band mate sits down, takes a swig of his beer and mutters, "Out of my WAY, Brian May."

Stipe held a door open for me once as I exited a record store in Athens, GA. DEFININITELY not 6.4".

Spilled an orange juice all over the table at a diner just over the Canadian/US border in Washington State (US side), much the amusement of Brian Denehy who was sitting at the counter by himself chowing down. He had a big caddy parked outside.

walked past judge judy at breakfast once, and cleaned up jeremy iron's breakfast dishes once.

i played sega saturn with bill paxton while my neighbor was sticking fake tattoos on his arm. when he walked in i said "hey chip" and he responded with "chet. my name is chet!" that ruled.

tom green used to frequent the record shop i worked in. he kept that facial hair to hide the fact that he has no chin whatsoever.

i played soccer on a team with martin gore of depeche mode. he would also stop in the record shop. he is a piss talker.

while working in the record shop i answered the phone. the conversation went thus: hi mate. is a_____ there?" "no, can i take a message?" "will you tell him joe strummer called?" "sure." then my jaw dropped.

i was at a movie premier and i walked up to walter murch and told him how much i admired his skill. he thanked me.

I met a few people in my taxi who might be considered "famous". I once picked up Dustin Hoffman at Rosebud on Taylor and drove him to the Four Seasons Hotel. He was a really nice guy. One of his take-home packages leaked a little marinara sauce onto my front seat and he was apologizing all over the place about it. He gave me an almost 100% tip. Very nice guy. I also had Oliver Stone in my taxi once. I remember him being kind of an arrogant dick. We were stopped at a light and he made a racial slur about some pedestrian crossing the street. This was back in the early '90s when he was the real hot-shit movie director.

I've also met some athletes. Sox coach Jackie Brown and another baseball player whom I didn't recognize. They were going from a sports bar in Streeterville to the Hancock building. I drove Jim Harbaugh (Chicago Bears QB) from a condo building (in I believe, River West) to some place in Wrigleyville. I picked up Chris Chelios (of the Blackhawks) once at his bar/restaurant in Greektown and drove him to the old Chicago Stadium.

I had a lot of musicians in my taxi as well. Peter Zeremba from the Fleshtones (and former MTV VJ for the show 120 Minutes) was a real nice guy. He paid me $40 to drive some wasted chick home from the Metro. Turned out she lived right in Wrigleyville, only about a quarter-mile away. He rode along and when we got to her place, we both had to physically carry her to her front door and open her apartment door to let her in. Then I drove Peter back to the Metro. At first I refused to accept the money, considering it a good deed. But Zeremba insisted, so I ended up taking it.

I've also driven Reverend Horton Heat and his band. Those guys are a bunch of cut-ups, real funny. One night I drove White Zombie from the Metro to their hotel. They were playing a gig with some friends of mine, so we ended up hanging out and partying for a couple hours.

Geez I dunno, what's a threshold level of fame for consideration here?

I crank-called Laurie Anderson one time when I was a kid. I felt guilty immediately because she answered the phone with That Voice so I just said 'Happy Easter'. she said "Thank you". totally classy. I'm sorry Laurie Anderson.

me and my best friend brought our modded Teiscos to a show where Sonic Youth and Firehose and Saccharine Trust signed them. dorky as hell but we were like 15. Mike Watt seemed sort of weirded out and later we wondered if it was because my friend strongly resembles D. Boon. Kim Gordon complimented my substitution of a rubber hi-bounce ball for the vibrato bar spring. we gave the guitars to a radio station later so they could auction them.

my mom and I were in Musée Gustave Moreau in Paris and Charlie Watts was in there looking at paintings. my mom's boyfriend was despondent afterward because he declined to go and is a huge Rolling Stones fan.

one time I was walking down the street and it was my birthday and Tad said hi to me for no reason. same thing happened with Dave Grohl except that it wasn't my birthday. I think I look like somebody else.

Peter Buck has some kids that are about the same age as my daughter and we would always be pushing them on the baby swings at the same time. I never talked to him about anything but kids but he seemed like a nice enough guy.

Kim Gordon complimented my substitution of a rubber hi-bounce ball for the vibrato bar spring.

Fuck, don't think I'm not doing that on my Vox tonight.

iembalm wrote:

Kim Gordon complimented my substitution of a rubber hi-bounce ball for the vibrato bar spring.

Fuck, don't think I'm not doing that on my Vox tonight.

That's a keen idea.

How does doing that effect that likelihood of the guitar going out of tune?

Oh yeah, almost forgot. I also drove Gene Siskel (the movie critic) in my taxi a bunch of times. So often in fact, that we got to know each other on a first-name basis. I took him to and from work, I took him to pick up his dry-cleaning, etc. This was never arranged, it just so happened that I ran into him a lot on the streets. I guess maybe he took a lot of cabs.

When I first met him, he was the kind of back-seat driver that cabbies hate to get, the guy who micro-manages your driving down to the very second. One evening, the second time I had met him, we were traveling up Lakeshore Drive and he was ordering me, "Get over to the left. Quick, pass this guy! Now get over into that lane... OK now switch to the right lane cuz we're getting off at the next exit..." Finally I had to say, "Listen. You're paying me to drive, right? Just sit back and let me drive, okay? Please. You're making me very nervous here." After which, he kinda relaxed and started telling me a story about how he took a shortcut through Lincoln Park once--actually drove right through the park, on the grass and everything--and got pulled over by a cop. When the cop recognized him, he actually managed to talk his way out of the ticket. I replied, "Yeah, it must be nice to be famous."

On the whole, I'd say I had him as a passenger maybe 7 or 8 times. We talked about movies a few of those times. I remember telling him that I like his column and his show, I appreciate his selective and rather sophisticated take on film, but sometimes you go to the movies and just want to hear a raunchy joke or see shit explode on the big screen. He agreed but told me that film criticism, like anything else in show business, is to some degree a role you have to play. I gained a lot of respect for him after that conversation.

I always preferred Siskel over Ebert when it came to reviews. The jokes he made about Ebert's weight when they'd be on the Tonight show seemed a bit mean-spirited tho.