Ever REALLY Meet A Celebrity?

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Doc Manhattan":537vi714 said:
I met Rahm Emmanuel at my graduation last year... he shook hands with the back aisle as he was coming up, and my last name put me in the back aisle.
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I probably wouldn't have admitted to that one! :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
JP, he's a fellow alumnus--the address was amazingly non-political, more reminiscing about family and college days. (He went to SLC to study ballet... talk about an easy target for jokes.)

But he is still very much the slick politician. When Rahm shakes your hand, you count your fingers when you get it back.
 
I've only met a few and seems always in elevators. Red Fox, Jean Claude Van Dam, Kevin Bacon. Shook Eric Clapton's hand at his first Crossroads Guitar Festival when they had the outdoor "concert in the park" on the 1st day. Chatted with Al Waxman (Canadian actor) in the Air Canada lounge at LAX when we were both flying back to Toronto.

My son used to do protection details for the old Marshall Fields store in Chicago when they had celebrity events. Said the hardest he guarded was Pierce Bronsman, he wouldn't come in off the street shaking hands and kissing the ladies. He also hung all one night with Uncle Kracker after the strong arms at the front door wouldn't let him in without an invitation and my son fixed the situation. Didn't care much about Uncle Kracker but Pam Anderson was in the group that he was with and that was the real attraction.
 
Mostly drag racers, John Force, big daddy Don Garlits, Grumpy Jenkins,(shook his hand then he growled at me to get out of his g-damn way), Don Prudhome, Shirley Muldowney, Connie Kalitta, Ron Capps,,,
Worked as a volunteer roadie once unloading The James Gang semis and had a great talk with Joe Walsh,
I met Derek Trucks at the Dinosaur BBQ after he played a gig up the road, bought each other beers and had a good conversation, down to earth guy,,,
 
I met Bob Hope.
I asked him how much his autograph was worth on the open market.
He said that ten of his were worth one Dobie Gilis.
 
Doc Manhattan":nqahcyjs said:
JP, he's a fellow alumnus--the address was amazingly non-political, more reminiscing about family and college days. (He went to SLC to study ballet... talk about an easy target for jokes.)

But he is still very much the slick politician. When Rahm shakes your hand, you count your fingers when you get it back.
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Literally right!
:lol!:
 
mark":zp3w40iy said:
Worked as a volunteer roadie once unloading The James Gang semis and had a great talk with Joe Walsh
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Any Hams (amateur radio) in the group. Joe Walsh is supposed to be a regular on the airwaves but I don't do enough HF to try and find him? He has shopped at my local radio store in KC but never when I was there.
 
NASCAR is big around these parts, so I've met a few drivers over the years. Don't know if they're considered celebs though. I also met Hank Williams and Charlie Daniels (the fiddle king) back in the 80's. Down to earth guys that never got too big for their britches, unlike most celebs today.
 
While I was doing radio news, I got to meet and interview quite a few, mainly in the political realm but some entertainers.

My favorite: Roy Rogers.

Other favorites: Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo) and Walter Cronkite.

I sat at a dinner table once, at a benefit dinner/auction, with Boomer Esiason. Very pleasant guy, actually.

My wife and I had a nice chat with Jay Leno in a hotel lobby in Knoxville. This was back in the 80s. He was in town to do a show, and the radio station I worked at was doing some sort of event at the hotel. We walked from the hotel to the auditorium with him, talking mainly about motorcycles.

Mike
 
I met Bobby Allison and Harry Gant on the same day at Pocono Raceway quite a few years ago. I think it was the year after Harry retired from NASCAR.

Talked for quite a while 30 min. or so with the Teutuls (Paul Sr. & Jr.) at Daytona Bike Week. It was the year that American Choppers first aired on TV and we went into their tent to get out of the rain. The following year to even see them, people waited in line for hours.

Probably the most unusual meeting I had was when I lived in PA and Roger Waters from Pink Floyd came into a tavern I frequented. It seems he was on his way to NYC and missed his exit, so he came in to get directions, and ended up staying most of the afternoon well into the evening. He didn't sing or play any songs, but did some original drawings on paper place mats for the owner.
 
Hammer8":934tzavs said:
I met Bobby Allison and Harry Gant on the same day at Pocono Raceway quite a few years ago. I think it was the year after Harry retired from NASCAR.

Talked for quite a while 30 min. or so with the Teutuls (Paul Sr. & Jr.) at Daytona Bike Week. It was the year that American Choppers first aired on TV and we went into their tent to get out of the rain. The following year to even see them, people waited in line for hours.

Probably the most unusual meeting I had was when I lived in PA and Roger Waters from Pink Floyd came into a tavern I frequented. It seems he was on his way to NYC and missed his exit, so he came in to get directions, and ended up staying most of the afternoon well into the evening. He didn't sing or play any songs, but did some original drawings on paper place mats for the owner.
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HOLY CRAP! Harry Gant!!!!!!!!! My childhood hero! He's an amazing man! After a win he'd go right on back to building houses! I'd give my right hand to get the chance to shake his!
 
This is going back a ways but I once spent about an hour talking with Paul Stookey, Peter Yarrow and Mary Travers aka Peter, Paul and Mary. Very nice folks.
 
Doc Manhattan":xgwzty0c said:
My mother's an established (but strictly midlist) science fiction & fantasy author; consquently I've met and dined/hung out with some big authorial names within the genre. Most just to shake hands or exchange a few words, but all quite nice.

I had dinner with Terry Pratchett once... wonderful and gracious fellow.

Those of you Civil War buffs may appreciate this one: I've spent lots of time with Harry Turtledove. Our families went to Knotts Berry Farm together.
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Pratchett and Turtledove, two of my favorite authors. Never met either of them, but I love their books.

Never met any celebrities, per se, but I've served with a couple of holders of the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star. They're the real celebrities in my eyes.
Terry
 
Here's a few off-the-wall I've met that you may or may not have heard of depending on where you're from. Lester Maddox, "Fats" Everette, Bill Boner, Grandpa and Ramona Jones, Bashful Brother Oswald, and Buck Belue. And a few you've probably heard of - Bill Clinton (before he was elected gov. of AR), Wilbur Mills, Roger Miller, Chet Atkins, Eddie Arnold, Minnie Pearl, and Nature Boy (R. Flair) to name a few.

Jim
 
Doc Manhattan":s72nl8xh said:
My mother's an established (but strictly midlist) science fiction & fantasy author; consquently I've met and dined/hung out with some big authorial names within the genre. Most just to shake hands or exchange a few words, but all quite nice.
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Doc, you reminded me that when I was a teenager I went to a couple of Sci-fi World-Cons. Surprising who you can sit down and chat with in the hotel coffee shop at 4:30am. Also pretty surprising the conversations you may have. Anyways, I guess I could add a couple of well-known authors to the list. Frank Herbert, Harlan Ellison (he was a pipe smoker and not very tall, his pipe only came up to mid-chest level on me), Bob Silverberg, and Isaac Asimov but only in passing. That was the year when Asimov and Ellison had their "F--- You!!" dialog across the ballroom during one of the discussion periods. Good times!
 
I played high school basketball against Kareem Abdul Jabar when he was still Lew Alcindor. I met most of the old Yankees... Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra etc when I worked at Yankee Stadium before I went into the Marine Corps. Met Jimmi Hendrik at a small club in Greenwich Village before he became really famous.
 
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