My Encounter with a celebrity....

[TimothyBFan]

We were talking about this in another thread and I suggested we start a thread like this. Please tell us about any encounter you have had with a celebrity, musician, sports star, actor, actress or whatever.

I've had a couple, one I'm pretty sure I've told before somewhere but I will post it again later. This one is one I've never told before I think because it's just silly but I was just in Eva's Springsteen album and I thought I'd start us off with this story.

My encounter with Steven Van Zandt was in New York City in the mid 80's? This is when he had left the E Street band for awhile and was Little Steven And The Disciples Of Soul. I had won a trip for 2 to NYC so my best friend and I went in August of either 85 or 86. One night after leaving an event at MSG, we were walking around (not the wisest this to do in NYC, but hey, we were young!) and I ran smack into him on the street. We both stopped and I said "Little Steven?" and he said "Hi honey, are you alright?" I told him I was fine and off he went. My friend looked at me and asked why I called him "Little Steven". Well duh!! I had to explain he was part of the E Street Band and The Disciples etc.... That's my encounter with Little Steven.

[Freypower]

The one I like telling is about when I was in London in 1980 and Rod Stewart was playing Wembley Stadium. I was walking through St Paul's Cathedral when a man passed by me wearing a heavy overcoat which he had pulled up around his eyes, but you could see his blonde spiky hair. I looked at him and he looked back with big doe eyes - it was Rod Stewart. I kept walking after making a slight reaction to show that I recognised him. He was entitled to his privacy after all, especially in the Cathedral.

The other encounters I have had with celebrities have really only been at book signings. I became a huge Monty Python fan during the two years where I tried to give up Glenn. Michael Palin was my favourite. I went to get his autograph but made a bit of a fool of myself by hanging around the whole time and staring. Afterwards I thought 'why did I behave like that' and that's when I think I started moving back, as it were. But on several occasions when Palin has been here to sign his travel books I went to see him again. The last time was in London and I said to him 'you once signed a book for me in Sydney' so he signed it 'from London and Sydney'. So I doubt he remembered the first occasion.

A couple of years ago I was in Sydney's Queen Victoria Building which has three flights of escalators. I was going down one and John Cleese (who I knew was in Sydney at the time) was just ahead of me. Because he's so tall he has a peculiar way of standing with his shoulders arched back.

Other people whose autographs I have are Bill Bryson (I love his work), Nick Hornby and art critic Robert Hughes ('what's your favourite museum?' 'The Prada') and one of my heroes, former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.

[eaglesvet]

I'm impressed, Willie, that your reactions were lightning fast to recognize him at night and after bumping into him. (Unless you're more of a fan than I realize...which is great!) I'm wondering if even I would've been able to recover quickly enough to realize it was him! Was it the bandanna that gave him away??

[sodascouts]

I have been lucky enough to meet all my musical heroes at one time or another, so I'll detail the time I met Fleetwood Mac!

In 2003, Fleetwood Mac was touring to promote their Say You Will album. Every year, it had been Stevie Nicks' practice to hold a benefit in Phoenix for the Arizona Heart Institute. You could get a "donor package" where you gave money to the charity and got to go backstage and meet Stevie Nicks. She would have special guests like Don appear. That year, since the Mac were on tour, the event became a Fleetwood Mac show and meet'n'greet. There would be no extra celebrities, but who needed 'em? It was FLEETWOOD MAC!

Some friends and I decided to do it. We all donated the money, and we all got to go. We got seats up front and we stood right at the stage, at Lindsey's feet - and then afterwards, got to go to the "after party" meet'n'greet.

It was a snazzy deal at a nice place near the venue. It was a small place, though, and we were packed in tight with a couple hundred other donors. There was complimentary champagne, wine, chocolate-covered strawberries - the works! But we weren't interested in that. We just wanted to see the BAND.

We were told there would be no autographs. We would get our photo taken with the band in groups of six - whether you knew the other five people or not. My friends and I made a group of five, though, so we only had one person in the photo with us that we didn't know. Since there were so many people there, you couldn't blame 'em for wanting to work us through in a hurry. You had little more than the time it took them to arrange you for the photo to talk to the band - about two minutes.

The band came out to our cheers, then we all obediently lined up. My friends and I were towards the back of the line, so we had plenty of time to try to figure out how we were going to use our two minutes. I had it all planned out. The band was lined up as follows: John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood. Each group was herded in front of them for the photo, so I knew I would need to work quickly. I would greet each of them politely, tell Lindsey how highly I thought of him, tell Stevie how much her music meant to me... I rehearsed what I would say again and again in my head as we crept closer and closer to my heroes.

Finally, it was time... only it didn't quite go down like I thought it would. The people in charge of arranging us were trying to hustle us down the line - I was hustled past John - but nobody was gonna hustle me past Lindsey. I stopped and turned to him. His big blue-gray eyes met mine and my mouth went dry, but I struggled to keep my cool. What was I gonna say to him again? I couldn't remember. I had to improvise. "Um, you guys put on a great show tonight. I was in the front row."

"I know," he smiled. "I saw you."

"You saw me? Wow!" I said, delighted that he remembered me. I was focused on him and didn't realize there was someone reaching out to take my hand....

Stevie Nicks. The woman I adored. The woman whose music had changed my life... Stevie Nicks took my hand. And since I hadn't seen it coming, I was completely unprepared.

So I freaked out.

"OH MY GOSH! YOU TOOK MY HAND! I DIDN'T KNOW YOU WOULD DO THAT! THAT'S SO COOL!!!!" Yes, people. I am not exaggerating. THAT IS WHAT I SAID, VERBATIM. The moment of infamous dorkitude is burned into my brain. As soon as I said it, I thought Could I seem like a bigger loser??? She was thanking me for coming and donating to the charity, but all I could process was how idiotic I was acting. "Um, I'm sorry Stevie, I know I sound stupid...."

"Turn around!" The photographer cried. I dropped Stevie's hand, flustered. Everyone was gathering around - where should I stand? I plopped to the ground and sat at their feet, fighting off the waves of mortification coursing through me as best I could so I could give the camera a big smile.

As they started to hustle us off, though, I managed to do one more thing... I went over to Mick Fleetwood. I put my hand on his chest right over his heart and said, "Thanks for keeping the band together all these years."

"What, sweetheart?" He asked, leaning towards me. I tried to repeat what I'd said, but the handler hollered behind me "MOVE ALONG, TIME FOR THE NEXT GROUP!" I managed a "Thanks" as I was hurried away.

As my friends and I walked away, it hit me how much of a fool I had made of myself. I was horrified, but then I heard someone crying. I turned around and saw that the woman in the group behind me was sobbing "STEVIE YOU ARE A GODDESS! I LOVE YOU! THIS IS THE BEST MOMENT OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!" I felt a little better about myself after that. At least I wasn't bawling my eyes out! And Stevie was so kind to her. She didn't act weirded out or treat the lady like she was crazy (which would have devastated her). Instead, Stevie was smiling at her warmly. She took the lady's hands in hers and though I couldn't hear what she said, it looked like Stevie was saying "thank you." You could tell it meant the world to this lady.

While that made me feel a little better at the time, to this day when I think of how I acted when Stevie took my hand... :: CRINGE ::

Two years later, I met Stevie again (that was the meet'n'greet with Don), and I was able to redeem myself, thank goodness. I didn't want THAT to go down as my only meeting with Stevie Nicks.

P.S. The woman has the softest hands I have ever felt in my life.

The photographic evidence:

[eaglesvet]

Beautiful picture...you all look gorgeous! and another story that had me LOL!

[Brooke]

What cool stories!

Soda, what a great picture! Imagine that-a picture with your favorite band! I can't even fathom it.

Btw, what is going on with Lindsey's hair? Is he wearing a headband?

[Prettymaid]

Great stories so far. Soda, where have you been hiding that picture? (BTW, your hair looks gorgeous).

[TimothyBFan]

I'm impressed, Willie, that your reactions were lightning fast to recognize him at night and after bumping into him. (Unless you're more of a fan than I realize...which is great!) I'm wondering if even I would've been able to recover quickly enough to realize it was him! Was it the bandanna that gave him away??

Remember this was the mid 80's and every time you turned on MTV they were playing a Springsteen or Disciples video and then the bandana also gave it away. I was right on it!

[eaglesvet]

Ah yes, the glory days of Born in the USA...very true!!

[Glennsallnighter]

Great stories everybody. Of course you all know who I would LOVE to be writing about meeting, but alas, not yet.......

So I'll recount meeting one of my 80's music idols 'Chris de Burgh'. Myself and my friend Sabina were about 18 at the time and we had gone to see him playing in Dublin. I had really loved his music through the early to mid 80's and it was now 17 November 1986. We had managed to make it to the front row and we were screaming the songs out. I had brought his latest album 'Into the Light' on tape and at the end of the gig I tried my luck at getting one of the security guys to bring the inlay card backstage and get it signed. Well he said he'd try. We waited and we waited. Just as we were about to give up a woman came out. She had an 'Admit 2' card with her and asked if we were fans. We said we were and she handed us the card. In we went! We actually got to meet Chris, chatted to him for a few minutes and he signed my t-shirt!! Totally unexpected!!

Mind you I never saw the inlay card again!!!!!!