Did a Star Dazzle You – or Not?
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Yesterday, I was having lunch at a vegetarian restaurant on La Cienega in West Hollywood with two friends. One of the guys - the actor who recommended the place - noticed the actress Amy Smart at a nearby table, and struck up a conversation with her about Pilates or diet or an acting coach they both knew. I'm not sure, since I wasn't eavesdropping. Sure, I often admire Ms. Smart's work, and I think she's cute. Still, it was no big deal that she was in conversation with my associate. I went back to my eggplant-on-pita bread sandwich. I mean, c'mon. It's L.A. - and this kind of thing is so L.A.
For instance, a couple of weeks ago, I was at a soiree where I met a lovely young actress - someone who I've been crushing on for years. She shall remain nameless, but she was very nice and very genuine. I was very pleased to meet her - and I did not make a fool of myself. I say this because I took some crap from friends and fellow MOGgers last year when I unexpectedly encountered Aussie movie star Nicole Kidman at a fancy Beverly Hills restaurant and was literally stunned by her beauty. She was friendly, too, but the usually garrulous Mike the Knife was so taken aback that he could only manage the most banal of pleasantries. Which was probably a good thing since she was saved from needless jabber about show business and life in Los Angeles, or pointed remarks about her filmography.
I've not been similarly flummoxed in all my years of covering popular culture and interacting with luminaries of music, film, television, and sports. Being in the media has given me an advantage as far as access to celebrities - for better and for worse. Some have been cool. Some have been standoffish. Some have been assholes.
Among my social contacts with musicians (because that's the relevance here at MOG), I've attended a backyard barbecue and talked hot sauces with David Byrne; and I've hung out in a loft apartment, watched a "Soul Train" rerun, and debated the athletic skills of the show's limber dancers with Brian Eno. I've laid back on a rooftop, observed the night sky, and traded life stories with Rickie Lee Jones. I've sat in a movie theater and handicapped the Best-Song Oscars with the eventual winners of the statue, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. And I've raised a pint at a pub off the Portobello Road and enjoyed the TV broadcast of an F.A. cup semi-final alongside Elvis Costello. All fun and hassle-free.
Brian Eno, "Soul Train" fan.
I'm curious about the rest of you. Any personal (off-stage) interactions with the famous or near-famous in the realm of music? And how did things go?
Comments (23)
Mr. Mike - rubber of elbows with the Hoi Polloi. :-)
I'm generally one not to get star struck, but like I commented on Terry S' post on Randy Newman, I'd probably get kind of tongue-tied around the grizzled composer. I'm sure I'd stammer and drool around Bowie, too.
I've got to say my weirdest celebrity encounter was one night when I went to my usual salon to get my usual cut-n-dye. Seemed kind of crowded for a weeknight. I sat in the lounge and waited for my cutter to come get me. I noticed a large african-american man with loads of dreadlocks sitting on the couch opposite. (This would not be an unusual site at my salon. They specialize in dreadlocks and weaves). I kept thinking "Dang, that guy looks familiar." We exchanged a smile and a nod, and then I was off to the beauty chair. I asked my cutter "So, what's the with all the people here tonight. Seems busy." She said "Oh, that's just cuz George Clinton is in here to get his hair done." D'oh! By the time I was done in the chair, George was ensconced with his stylist and off-limits. Oh well.
I dined and drank many a night with David MacTaggart, the founder of Greenpeace International (the very one who dropped anchor in international waters to protest Frances testing of a nuclear bomb. The very same whom was then boarded by the french military, roughed up to near death, and who's friend/photographer was killed from the beating. He told me stories you almost couldn't believe, but didn't want him to stop, because even if he was lying (which he wasn't) they were so good, they made for great conversation.
Ha mike, I remember the nicole kidman post so well. As for music meets, only have had three but they all were rather cool. First, while downtown here in Minnesota we were walking through the skyways and I actually bumped into Prince. The man is tiny, and I am only 5'10", but I said sorry and he was on his way. Another brush in happened to be with the lead singer of Smashmouth. My friend and I were at a punk show at First Ave. and he happened to be at the bar when we were getting drinks. He looked over at us with that dont you know who I am look in my eyes. Before I could say anything, my friend (who was drunk) said, "Man you are a lot shorter than I imagined." Not the greeting he wanted, so with a fuck you he left. The last one was when I got to put my foot in my mouth, and it happened at the U of M golf course. We were finishing up when I saw John Munson of Trip Shakespear and Semisonic fame walking by. All I could do was yell "Trip Shakespear" and throw up the metal sign in appreciation. He looked at me as if I were crazy, threw up the metal sign as well and that was it.
Amber totally needs to weigh in on this, she's got touching rock stars down to a science. I think she's got a point now, that rock stars want to touch her. Ask her about The Kills the Sunday of, and the Monday after the Monolith Festival. I'm sooooo jel.
My favorite is this one: I had seen Snowden play to a, shall we say, intimite crowd in Oklahoma city, and was standing around waiting for the headliner to hit the stage. Their lead singer, Jordan Jeffares, just came up to me out of the blue, extended his hand, and thanked me for standing in the front row to see his band. I'm sure I murmured something stupid, being completely taken aback. After all, they had just rocked the house bigtime. Anyway, he was asking some locals about where the after-party might be, and he was ralking about how awful the previous show in Kansas City had been. Such a nice, down-to-earth guy. From what I hear from the rest of the Monolith group, he still is. :)
Heh...and here I am. :)
I've a few encounters (Zeroskilz says I have good rock star karma) but as for the best of the them:
The Kills. After being completely wow'd by their Monolith set, several of us were standing in the smoking section and I spied with my little eye...VV and Hotel sitting in the VIP section. The security person nicely went over to ask if VV would come and take a picture with Mike, which she did, and then with all of us, then Hotel came over and did the same. Super nice people and that would be fun enough but then, the next morning I was aboard my plane back from Denver to Seattle via Portland and I was actually listening to The Kills on my ipod waiting for them to close the door and get the plane in the air when I looked up and saw the VV and Hotel walking toward me. VV ended up sitting in the seat right in front of me and Hotel across the aisle at her side. I snuck a couple of pictures..and the best part was watching Hotel write lyrics in a leather bound book with a gold fountain pen. I saw "heartbeat" and "deathbeat" and he crossed out "butterfly"...when his pen leaked, he sucked the ink off his fingers...meeeeow.
and a crappy cellphone stealth shot
whoops...didn't mean to hit post....
Ghostland Observatory: Last October Zeroskilz (maybe he's the one with the rock star karma, now that I think about it) came to Seattle to visit. He and I, plus fellow moggers, Librarianguish and Jaye, caught an amazing GLO show, went to Black Lips show, got tossed out of the Black Lips show and bought the guys of Ghostland breakfast, all withing 6 or so hours. Having been tossed from the BL show, we went to a 24 breakfast place, and were sittting there, waiting for eggs when Aaron and Thomas of GLO walked in. Jaye will never live down her excited cry of "Hello...Mr...Ghostland" and we ended up talking with them and getting put on their guest list for the sold out show the next night. And we picked up their tab.
and my stupidest moment with a star...Nick Harmer from Death Cab. He was standing outside after a Hives concert, all by himself. This was before Narrow Stairs came out but there was some critical acclaim being bandied about and Nick was sporting a new bearded look, so he blended. I recognized him, however and went over to chat him up. Unfortunately I was slightly intoxicated and what I really remember telling him was how great his coat was. And it was a great coat but still...how inane can one be. He was nice enough to take a photo with me.
then there's the time in Chicago that I had breakfast in the airport with the bulk of the guys from The National...but that enough storys for tonight...don't you all think? :)
Haha, my star struck & strewn sis ^, you rawk chica!(could you BEAM any more in that last pic? lol)
*Mike* I've always suspected you hobknobbed with celebrities from the passing comments you've made in your posts but sheesh, I had no idea! Very cool.
I can't believe moggers gave you shit about your Nicole Kidman meet! I'd be willing to bet that the people who gave you shit wouldn't handle your celebrity encounters nearly as well as you've described.
I have a few to slap on the table;
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At a Belly aftershow, I told Tanya Donelly she couldn't eat any food until the band arrived. She said OK, put her plate down and went back to her friends with a drink. (I’m so rude sometimes, more to come…)
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Backstage at a New Order gig in Finsbury Park with my mate chatting to Steve Morris and Hooky about our favourite Joy Division gigs. A really funny 15 minutes.
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Mocking Jonny Greenwood at a Radiohead aftershow at the Town & Country in Kentish Town, who was complaining about bleeding fingers after a 90min show. I told him if it was too much like hard work I could get him a job as a kitchen porter for £3 per hour. (I thought my friend who was Radiohead’s PR was going to cry…..)
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I spent a very boring 2 hours in a club with Richey James out of the Manics and 2 girls. He just would not engage in any sort of conversation. I went to the toilet and when I came back out, all 3 of them had gone, went outside to see them literally running down the street. Was it something I said? (More than likely…) Richey disappeared 4 weeks later; (I’m not claiming responsibility…..)
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Chatting to Noel Gallagher at the Electric Ballroom about our favourite new bands in-between sets. (Can’t remember what bands where playing that night…it wasn’t Oasis)
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Trying to chat up (..and failing) Louise Wener from Sleeper back stage at the Phoenix Festival. I had no idea who she was…just a cute girl standing by herself at the bar.
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. Another failure...(I had my own condoms, and everything!)
Lady Miss Ian: Priceless. The old Atomic Dawg hisself, getting his 'do done. Now, that's a cut above.
contrabandwidth: I'd say yours is probably the meet with the most gravitas. By comparison, my escapades seem puny and inconsequential.
Rawkkiddoh: Yeah. I'm still stinging from the abuse, Kev. ;-) Pretty rad interactions, and pretty diverse. The Purple One, the Smashmouth yahoo, and Munson? Sounds like a weird buddy picture...
Dale: Refreshing behavior from a performer. Wish they were all so unpretentious. (Hint: They're not.)
amber: Ah. What we were waiting for - complete with photographic evidence! (I have a shot of Costello and me in the pub's garden, but it's a pre-digital thing that I couldn't easily find in my drawers, let alone scan.) The Kills? Top-drawer stuff, including ink-sucking! Plus, crazy postcards from Ghostland, fashion criticism for Harmer, and the most important meal of the day with The National! You're on fire!
August: amber really gets the goods, doesn't she? Again, my gigs put me in fame's way, and you sort of get used to it. (I'm holding back the deets about Wednesday's star-strewn ramble through the Warner Bros. lot. Can't spill all the beans. Enough is enough.)
Neill: What a trickster! You get the nod for most chicanery with the most renowned. Awe-inspiring. (And sorry about Louise. You deserve another chance.)
The best one of mine was when I met the Indigo Girls a few times. The 2nd time I was trying to get my friend who was w/me their autographs but couldn't get to them or their bus after the concert(the bus was fenced in behind the stage) But as we headed back to the car we saw their bus go by but then heard a woman screaming from a nearby house. We did the right thing & went to a neighbors house & called the police. Then on our way home we saw the bus again so we followed it(payback for our good deed)to their hotel & when they got out of the bus we jumped out, said hello & got their autographs! It truly was a 'comedy' of errors.
In my music biz days I had a few moments with the great and near great. Spending a lot of time with George Duke (an incredibly nice guy) prior to an in store (a slightly tipsy S. Epatha Merkersen (?) showed up)..Driving around in a van to Long Island Record Stores with Fear Factory (funny guys, looking but not talking metal), chilling at Judy Collins (very business oriented, very nice) upper west side appt...Helping to carry gear for John Corbett ( a pretty decent dude..but hey, he hasn't had a lot of bad things happen to him in life lately),frequenting the tour bus and sitting in on a meeting he had with a major music retailer when he made his country record...Hanging out at a private chef's table dinner with Wicked Wisdom, the Jada Pinckett-Smith fronted metal band (man she is short). Playing poker at a record company event with Nicholas Payton..and many more, inclusing some Artie Pufkin-esque in stores.
Whenever business is involved, it gets a little weird (or at least it did for me). I was never comfortable with the meet + greet scene.
I wouldn't say I have lots of star encounters but I did forget to mention Lizzie and my rubbing elbows with the Snowden folk. Dale is 100% right in that they are super nice, although they didn't come out to talk us...we chased them down. (In fact, when Jordan walked by, Lizzie didn't see him and I said "Snowden guy! GRAB HIM!--fortunately we were cool by the time she did)
And yes, there is photographic proof of this too.
Lizzie with Corrine Lee. Our Green-eyed siren admited her girl-crush on Corrine, who laughed, asked our names, and told us what we said meant the world to her.
And the grab...note, his head leaning on mine...sigh.
A photo with Costello? I would have that puppy framed and hung in a well lit area..."this, oh yeah. that's when Elvis and I hung out. He was cool. We talked music..."
I encounter celebs all the time because of my work past and present. I also grew up in NYC around a lot of actors who went on to become well known so I'm fairly jaded. I guess one of my favorites was meeting N'Dea Davenport after she released her first solo album. I'm a big fan of Brand New Heavies. She was very nice and seemed geniunely surprised i could list her catalog(dorky I know). I also have a 'thing' for obscure British actors so when I encountered one i literally turned into a 12 year old groupie. He's not famous but I had seen him do a few plays in London and think he's a great actor.
I didn't meet him the one true LA STAR moment I had was seeing Gerard Butler buzzing down Melrose in a BMW roadster before he cut his hair(and before they announced the new Bond) Trust me if the casting director had seen him in that moment He'd be in Quantum of Solace, not Daniel Craig!. Like I said I'm pretty jaded when it comes to these things but that just FLOORED me.
My mother had a great encounter with James Taylor once at a wedding - she got stranded on the dancefloor and he came to her rescue but she had no idea who he was til she looked up from her hustle and said "OH! James Taylor! Very nice to meet you!"
Terrible at recognizing people, I met a few stars while unaware of who they were until people came up to me afterwards to inform me.
As for those I truly admire, I'd be willing to do a lot for them, but I hope I never meet them in person; the little girl inside me wants to maintain some magic in her life.
That said, when I unexpectedly came face to face with Patti Smith, I was so utterly star-struck and speechless that, had there even been the opportunity to engage in conversation with her, I would not have been able to do so, and, thankfully, she was so beyond charismatic that my magic bubble didn't burst.
Besides that, I met a number of people whose work I had little or no admiration for, yet who awakened my admiration for them because of the positive impression they made on me in the flesh; it was surprising how much better, nicer, more beautiful etc. they came across in real life than they did in the media - has anyone else had that experience?
I've met a few mostly at the radio station I used to work for. The stories I have from those few are either ones that are not really worth sharing, or ones that are best left unshared, so....
Have never been dazzled though. I'm saving myself for Turner ;)
Thank you, Mike, and everybody else for sharing your experiences :)
August: Indigo Stalker! Hilarious. And kindness and diligence are rewarded. It's about time!
Cody: Yeah. The meet-and-greets can be kind of creepy. Those rare one-on-ones or genuine social gatherings with mutual friends are the times to remember.
amber: You're a star magnet! Side note: In the role of journalist, I think I've spent more time with E.C. than with any other musician. After a brackish start to our first interview, I've come to really like him. In addition to his immense talent, he's smart man, and I get the sense that he's a good man too.
Misstee: Jaded? You too? Loved the Heavies w/ N'Dea. Wish they'd kept going. As for Butler: Yes, he's a fine actor, and no disrespect intended, but Craig has so revitalized the Bond franchise that I'd be shocked if Gerard could have had the same effect. BTW, it sounds like your mom is as unflappable as her daughter.
Jo: Interesting about artists reconsidered. I've met a few rock lifers (one being a member of Metallica) who were so unlike what I expected them to be that I came away liking them much more than I ever expected.
Anna: Turner awaits, even now preparing for the moment when you lock eyes. And I'm really enjoying the thread, too. There must be so many stories of this nature that could be culled from across the MOG-O-Sphere...
I don't think I have ever really interacted, I usualy found myself in close proximity to celebrity during productions. Hanging in the grid over Springstein while working a spot light, standing behind Steven Tyler with another bit of stage lighting, waiting for Elton John to clear the stage before I take down his band's back line, setting mics and monitors for the likes of Los Lobos, Steve Earl and even acting as an impromptu PA announcer to kick off a set by Mavis Staples. But mostly they don't rank high in the spectrum of impressario stories and I might as well have been a piece of furniture. But it was fun.
In the few times I have been in a social backstage situation I can say that I also did not gt much of a sense of anyone's personality. All I can say is that Wyclef Jean is very energetic and possibly crazy, Ali Shaheed Mohammed seemed quite shy, Mos Def was short and a bit taken aback by the attention.
I did ride my bike past James Carville the other day. He was waiting on the street car with the family. Does that count?
Oatmeal: It would have only counted if you (or he) had pushed his harpy of a wife Mary Matalin in front of the onrushng streetcar. ;-)
I didn't, for the sake of the two girls who were there.
You, my friend, are a humanitarian.
Well Mike, since you asked...back in the day when I was an animal rights activist with a newly errupting PETA, we had a fundraiser called Rock Against Fur. I shared an elevator with all The B52s, Bjork (and her tiny son) and the Psychedelic Furs. Then after many drinks (remember I am MUCH more mature and chaste now) I had an "interlude" with the key-boardist from Jane Weidlin's band who I later learned was also moon-lighting as a pianist at Nordstoms in an SF suburb. He was fun...knocked the face off my watch in his enthusiasm. Then there were those Iggy and Kip Winger smooches. Not too long ago I heard the strains of "Satisfaction" blaring out of an acid green VW Bug in the grocery store parking lot and who should get out, but Keith Richards. Such a suburban cutie, that one.
Like you Mr. Mike, I met far too many stars back in my days as a journalist, but a few stick out:
Running into Eno at Heathrow and discussing the virtues of men's cologne. (Indeed, he's a renaissance man)
Sitting in a club with Johnny Rotten when he was tripping.
A weekend in Berlin with Steve Marriott and Alexis Korner. There were 2 tv appearances in there somewhere but mostly it was recreation. A lot of tequila was involved. And Lynsey De Paul. (Just testing your knowledge of lesser pop stars from the 70s).
ongoingly: Wild, provocative stuff! And clearly, that wasn't Rock Against Psychedelic Fur. But Keith in an acid green VW bug? I'm thinking that acid was involved, but not in an auto's paint job. ;-)
Jonh: Impressive escapades. And Johnny Rotten tripping? Priceless! (As for the piffle of Lynsey De Paul, I seem to recall a liasion with Ringo, and the rest is a blur...)