I just got off the phone with “one man jam band” Keller Williams, and was struck by how nice the guy was. It got me started thinking about the famous people I’ve interviewed over the years, and which ones I most enjoyed speaking with, and which ones I didn’t.
Here’s my quick list:
Henry Rollins: Talked to me for like an hour about Thomas Wolfe. He was exactly as you’d imagine, and managed to talk me into reading “Look Homeward, Angel,” which was actually as good as he said it was.
Keller Williams: Was super nice.
Slug from Atmosphere: Kind of hard to follow at times, but said some really interesting things about performing on the road and its toll on his personal life.
Phil Anselmo: Was probably drunk, and started talking about the Confederacy. It was not a fun conversation.
DJ Spooky: Was like talking to random-reference machine. He hadn’t slept recently, though.
OK, that’s enough name dropping from me. It’s your turn. Tell me about your encounters with famous musicians, and your impressions of them.
Tommy Shaw guitarist from Styxx. He was in Vincent’s Ear getting coffee...Impression was that he still looked really young and not quite the rock opera type, save for his intentional hair(highlights and mousse).
I guess it’s not all that surprising that he’d look young, at least for a metal guy. When I think about what little I know about Styx, nothing comes to mind about wild partying or anything. I mostly think “Mr. Roboto.”
I worked on Music Row for about two years and met a lot of popular artists at that time. Billy Ray Cyrus is actually a nice guy. I also drove Col. Bruce Hampton around in my car one day.
I’m also friends with the former bass player for a popular 90s indie band, and have had many conversations with him about it. Insightful stuff.
I’m not surprised that Billy Ray Cyrus is nice. It seems like country stars tend to be a bit less snobbish about the fame thing. Some seem very approachable. There’s a story—kind of a legend, I guess—that one time someone at the Xpress A&E;office, perhaps Marsha Barber, was trying to get in touch with Willie Nelson. She kept running into problems setting up an interview for a show he was doing, and the wires kept getting crossed. It looked like it wasn’t going to happen, so it was kind of given up on.
The next day, the writer is paged with a phone call. She answers, and on the other end of the phone the guy says, “Hi, this is Willie Nelson. I heard you wanted to talk to me, so I thought I’d give you a call.” Class act, that guy.
Was Bruce Hampton as ... er ... eccentric in person as he seems on stage?
...I also met Steven Tyler and Lenny Kravitz while doing a catering gig for their show at the Greensboro Coliseum. They were both very courteous and seemed “road worn”. At another of these catering gigs I was in Atlanta for Wide Spread Panic’s two night New Years stay. Those guys were all really nice, particularly the bassist. After they had their midnight toast, they bequeathed the rest of the champagne (about a case) to the catering crew. needless to say, we all ended up cross eyed. Widespread aren’t my cup of tea musically, but the fact they had a two night stay at the Omni Center says to me they’re famous to many.
I interviewed Dead Prez at the Republican National Convention last month. They were super friendly and, as evidenced by their replies to my questions, extremely thoughtful and well spoken.
You can check out the interview here: Dead Prez Interview
If you don’t feel like watching the whole video (although you should), the Dead Prez interview starts at 5:43.....
Dick was arranger and bassist with the John Denver Band and last I knew was playing with Peter Paul and Mary. Back in 1978 a banjo pickin friend of mine, took Dick on as bassist on an album. Just so happened, Dick lived within miles of us in the foothills of the Catskills. His dog had eight pups, all Shepherd/Husky mix, we took one, named him Willie. The dog lived 13 years. The week Willie died in Sedona, AZ, I called Dick to tell him how much we had loved the dog. It was a strange event, in a way, because who even remembers who they got a pup from. Dick told me I was the seventh person to call about their dogs out of a litter of 8. At that time Peter Paul and Mary were about to play in Phoenix and Dick invited me to come back stage. Sadly we could neither afford the tickets nor the four hour round trip junket to the Valley of the Sun. That’s my story and I’m stickin to it.
I was having drinks at the Ritz in Chicago on the top bar. Went into the elevator to go home and ended up chatting with Gene Simmons. No Make-up, just a nice guy in a flannel.
I met Billy Gibbons at a boat show in Canada up in the Georgian bay when I was 14. I yelled out “Hey Billy! What d’ya say?” He showed me his boat he had entered there. I think it was an old Chris Craft wooden boat and it had the funny little ZZ Top logo painted on it.
I was sittin in Morgan’s Mango restaurant and here came Kenny Chesney. He sat two seats over and we ended up chatting. he was very nice and understated. Other folks in the rest kept coming up and asking him to sign stuff, he did with a smile...when i went to pay my bill, it was taken care of. He was just another guy.....with $$$
I’ve been fortunate enough to meet a lot of great preformers over the years, some famous and some less so but here are some of the bigger names. Some I got to hang out with at length and some were brief interactions but all left a lasting impression to say the least.
Albert King, James Cotton, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Doc Watson, Chuck Berry, Johnny Winter and Taj Mahal.
I’ve left out a lot of people I’ve spent time with who are lesser known but no less powerful as preformers who have touched me in some way. It’s great to meet your heroes :)
