Revive the thread - Name Dropping

[Mudcloth]

Speaking of Steve Cropper, I was at O'Hare airport sometime around 1992 and over the loudspeaker I heard "Paging passenger Steve Cropper to a white courtesy phone.". I looked around and there he was walking toward a white courtesy phone. After he was done talking he started to walk away. Now, I never bug celebrities but shit, Steve Cropper! I walked up to him and asked "Excuse me, aren't you Steve Cropper?" and he said "Yeah, but I'm in a hurry, kid." and kept walking. Ouch.
I wasn't even going to mention the Blues Brothers. I was going to be all hip and compliment him on his playing with Sam and Dave or Eddie Floyd or Mable Johns. Oh well.
Another time when I was like 16 I was at La Guardia I saw Brian Setzer at baggage claim. I walked up to him and said "Aren't you Brian Setzer?" . He said yes and all I could say was "Cool" and walked away. He laughed.

[vvv]

I took a piss next to the Edge.

At the time, I was writing for a little college weekly in Cham-Bana and was comp'd to see this unknown band that was touring the US for the first time on their just-released second album, October. They had had a college radio hit with "I Will Follow" and had just had a couple of videos hit the then-new MTV.

I introduced myself in the Auditorium's downstairs "backstage"" can, but courteously did not offer to shake hands. They played a great set (I think The Rave opened) and Bono did his Christ-falling-into-the-crowd stage dive and we all thought it was cool. Remember, that was over twenty years ago.


I also met Westerberg and Bob Stinson at a place called "The Dairy" in Rockford, IL about '84 or '85 on the Let It Be tour. The bar had a cool gimmick of giving away milk, chocolate or regular; my girlfriend (who had won the night's tickets on the college -NIU- radio station contest) and I promptly began to order shots of brandy to put in the chocolate milk.

Anyway, after a rockin' set, as the place cleared out, the boys came back to start packing up their stuff and I walked up to ask them about their JCM 800's, which were the first Marshall combos (other than the Bluesbreakers thing) that I had seen. They were funny, fucked-up, and very cool.

I used to see Stinson at Phyllis' Musical Inn some years later in a pretty cool band called something like "Dog 999". Sometimes he played well, sometimes not, and I think I recall him being pretty wasted; I was.


Having played Lounge Axe, I knew Sue Miller; a tough but nice club owner. I actually met Tweedy in Cham-Bana drinking in a bar a couple years before Uncle Tupelo.

Joan Jett, David Johannsen, Motorhead, the Romantics and the like all played clubs I worked in, and I talked/drank/partied with them to varying degrees.

I used to drink in the same bar with Urge Overkill, and laughed with/at them a lot.

Kevin Junior of the Chamber Strings borrowed my guitar and amp for a set when he was in the Mystery Girls.

Fred Armisen (SNL) played in a band my band opened for a few times (Trenchmouth) and I was friendly with Wayne Montana.

I jammed with John Herndon (Johnny Machine) of Precious Wax Drippings, Poster Children, Tortoise, 5iveStyle, The Eternals fame; freekin' awesome drummer.

Had a drink with Jack Brickhouse and his wife once in Ditka's.

Screaming Rachel has been a client.

Met Doug McComb (got a bass string for him one night when he broke his last), Rick Rizzo and Janet Bean a few times (11th Dream Day), and fell in love with her over and over.

Dio was a mouthy, mean little dick in a bar I was in one time, but I have no other bad experiences to report other than the singer from Scratch Acid whipping a beercan into the audience and hitting me in the thigh; we might have had a few words later.

UTSF for my Slash and Corgan and Wesley Willis stories.

I am such a has-been.

[tunesbybill]

Brian Johnson of AC/DC once bought me a pint of Guinness.

Winner.

[willowhaus]

Had Angelo from Fishbone here the other night for some saxophone, vocal and theremin tracking. He was a consummate professional. First take keepers all the way on fresh, written on the spot material for a client of mine's project. Harmonies and everything.

It was a good night.

I hung with him and Norwood after a Fishbone show in Norfolk, VA, and they were both tremendously amazing people. Angelo brought out a didgeridoo and played it while Norwood just talked and told jokes. Really, really great people.

I was just remembering Angelo the other day! Back in the 90s, I did sound for a poetry festival at Bimbo's 365 in San Francisco. Angelo was the emcee, and read some of his stuff between the others. He came up to me & asked if I had any effects - I said yeah, and he told me to "go nuts with 'em". So, of course I did... and he liked it. Great guy!

Did a gig there with Nina Hagen around the same time, too...that was fun, she's a bit nuts.

I have so many names I could drop I've forgotten at least half...but it seems a lot less exciting, in a way, when you're just telling gig stories, unless something peculiar happened. I don't mean to sound like I'm awesome or anything - it's just that, as a sound company guy, I've worked with a lot of people, many of whom probably wouldn't remember me in particular.

I did ride in an elevator once with Ronald Reagan and 3 Secret Service agents. That was weird - he was telling them stories about how California used to be, like your grandpa reminiscing or something.

One of the few times I actually got really star-struck was when I met Steve Martin. I was a big fan of his back in his early days (SNL, Wild & Crazy Guy LP), so when I met him some years later I didn't know what to say to him, because I didn't want to come off like some douchebag "OH, YOU'RE SO GREAT I LOVE ALL YOUR STUFF WILL YOU SIGN THIS NAPKIN FOR ME???" - so I just said hello & sorta clammed up.

[KungFuLio]

i'm fairly established, so i've had too many encounters to list here. My favorite is the fact I played guitar on a track that two of my guitar heroes, Bill Frisell and David Torn, played on.

Torn did ambient loops, Frisell played, well, like only Frisell does and me, the simple strummy stuff.

Those guys are downright scary players and excellent gentlemen!



Even better was mixing that track!

[mjau]

Not a huge name or anything, but I once watched a John Frusciante set while chatting with a fantastic guitarist named Arik Marshall, who had briefly replaced Frusicante in the Chili Peppers. That was pretty cool...we talked a bunch about Flea.

[stereopathetic_banjo]

Scott, that's awesome! Was it a solo Frusciante gig, or? I remember the Arik Marshall days- seemed like a reserved guy, so I can relate.

My big story as of late is meeting J Mascis at a Dino Jr. show about a month ago in Ia City. My friend Shane and I went and were up front right of the stage, and I look over and shane is talking to J. Instant nervousness... but I went up to J and shook his hand and thanked him for making it to the show (there'd been a heavy ice storm the night before). Talked to him for maybe a few minutes, and let him be on his way. No huge deal, and I don't think I got the akward starstruck thing, so all was well I'd seen J three times prior, but never wanted to bother him, but hey- sometimes you gotta step out...

[mjau]

That's very cool...I've heard J. can be, uh, cantankerous at times. Sounds like you got him at a good moment. I'd make a fool of myself in front of him..."You know how you played Maggot Brain with Mike Watt? Man, that was AWESOME!"

Yeah, Arik Marshall was a cool dude. It was during a solo Frusicante show, back during the heroine days. Short, crazy set.