Famous Musicians you have emailed and got a response

Spoke to Graham Nash online a few years back. Was nice to hear that he is genuinely proud of the work he did with The Hollies. Also found out he supports Manchester United. Still, nobody's perfect.

 

I wonder if Our Host has any of these kinds of stories and if he does, if he'd be willing to share them!

 

sheila chandra. who?

 

I once received a very inspiring message from Brett Gurewitz (on-off guitarist with Bad Religion and head of Epitaph Records) about how to manage a talent promotion label I co-founded a few years back, then later I was sent a truly amazing merchandise package with a handwritten note from The Delgados in their more recent guise as executives of the Chemikal Underground imprint they founded. If I looked hard enough in my old e-mail account then I'm sure to find countless exchanges with my tutor at Leeds College Of Art And Design, known to the greater world today as Ricky Wilson of the Kaiser Chiefs. Also, at the moment I'm in discussions with engineer Bill Bottrell and former ELO member Dave Morgan, who are kindly answering questions for a book on the band's Secret Messages album that I am in the process of developing for a release hopefully this June...

 

I e-mailed Van Dyke Parks once - some question about Smile, I can't remember, and got a rather unsettling response back; something like "Instead of that, why don't you tell me a little more about YOU?"

No thanks, VDP.

 

Van Dyke Parks too.

 

I've received a few PM replys from some mastering guy named Hoffman.

 

Chris Cutler. Nice guy.

 

Way, way back in 1979 The Who were just about to do their first show with Kenny Jones and in the NME I read that it was going to be "somewhere in Europe in a secret location". I had plans to travel in Europe and wrote to Pete care of the record company asking him where the gig was. He wrote back - a hand written letter! (Which I still have) - saying "sorry mate - gigs a secret - somewhere in the south of France" as it turned out they did that first gig at The Rainbow in London in May 1979 and I was working in London at the time and read about it in the Evening Standard on the way home from work. Got off the tube, turned back, headed to the Rainbow and manged to get a tout ticket - brilliant show!

 

Not sure about famous but had some good conversations/feedback via email/myspace with
punk/related artists with connections to The Clash re a Strummer/Clash fanzine I was doing.
Attila the Stockbroker was lovely re reprinting & fangirl cluelessness about some of his poems.
So was Anderson Toone, (fka Annie from The Bloods).
Spotted & picked up a reunion album by a band I'd seen mentioned on a Clash forum (they had links to Topper), read one of the band need money for medical treatment, I'd liked the album so donated a fiver. Got a personal thank you note from them, surprised somebody they didn't know even cared.

Pre email I sent Yoko a letter (mostly about what John meant to me, and Imagine getting a lot of airplay soon after Diana died) - got a printed thank you letter from her assistant & one of these cards signed.
(not mine but it's pretty much the same).

 

I asked Branford Marsalis a question about Berklee and he wrote a thoughtful response.

 

Didn't know she was married, but I took a test as soon as I found out the name of the dude.

 

W.G. Snuffy Walden is a guitarist and composer who has done soundtrack work for the TV shows thirtysomething and Once and Again. He released a CD on the Windham Hill label in the early 2000's and I e-mailed him to let him know how much I enjoyed it. I received a reply from him within a few hours that thanked me for buying his album and how much he appreciated the compliments. A very cool moment for me.

 

I wrote Kevin Bowe, Westerberg's guitarist on his 2005 tour, asking if Paul intended to tour anytime soon and got a very nice email back. I've written to Mitch Easter a few times and got nice replies. I wrote Chris Mars back in the fall and told him as far as I was concerned he was as good as Charlie Watts. I got a very nice reply back. Craig Finn of the Hold Steady has favorited one of my tweets. I received a tweet from Michael Penn when commenting about how he really deserved to have more hits if there were any justice in this world.

 

I once had an exchange of e-mails with Andrew Gold about 8 years ago. Very nice guy. May he rest in piece. One of the all time underapreciated and unheralded musical talents of our generation. His solo work, his work as part of Bryndle and as part of Wax not to mention his producer credits was incredible and few of us have really any exposure to him.

 

Karine Polwart is a fantastic Scottish folk singer. She had written an article about playing guitar in some magazine when I had just started playing guitar. I dropped her an email never expecting a response, but she sent a long and thoughtful email back to me. I was impressed since my question was very basic and I didn't think she'd waste her time on it. Very kind and much appreciated!

 

When Odessey and Oracle was released in England with no US issue, I got it by mail order. Blown away by it, I wrote a letter (ask your parents) to the group c/o British CBS, raving about it and asking why, particularly with all the less meritorious releases here, it didn't come out in the US, hoping my sentiments might find their way to Columbia in New York City. A couple of weeks later, I received a thoughtful, handwritten letter from Rod Argent thanking me for my letter, advising that the Zombies were no more, but expressing his optimism for his new group Argent. In a tragedy of epic proportions, after I had left for college, my mother threw the letter away, along with my letter from Parlophone describing the upcoming Beatles album that became Revolver, listing some of the tracks by their still provisional, working names.
Tragic.

 

Well most of those that I've spoken to online I've spoken to in person as well so, off the top of my head--
Ian Hunter, Roger Hodgson, Clive Gregson, Andy Summers, Bill Nelson, members of Gentle Giant (also got to interview three of them), members of Foreigner (ditto although this is the current line up).

 

Many years ago I got an answer to an e-mail from Geoff Downes (Buggles, Yes, Asia). It's been so long ago that I don't remember what I asked him about.

 

Not quite the same, but in the discussion on this forum about Ken Scott's book, I posted that when it came out I was reading Keef's book but will put it down and read Ken's. He replied to my post saying something like "Keith's is better!" ... I was pretty chuffed at that and did a screenshot to save the moment

 

I used to read his forum in those days and I remember very well, how it ended.
There were some nice people posting and exchanging "knowledge" with him about the band. But at one point one or two characters appeared starting to insult him in a very bad way. And that made him close the site after running quite well for quite a while. So whatever you may have read on the Andy Scott website may have had it's origin from the people who insulted him. After closing his site he even emailed me privately thanking for support.

Being new in the internet world at that time it was a very interesting experience and the first sighting of what later was called "trolls".....

 

Graham Nash responded to me as well as Tony Poole of Starry Eyed & Laughing.

 

I used to be regular email pen pals with Roger Fisher of Heart and Billy Zoom of X.

 

Billy Sheehan
He wanted bootlegs from his side project Niacin that i had.
In return he send me autographed dvd's and a backstage ticket for his show with Vai.

 

Not a musician, I know, but Lily Tomlin. Had to toss it in there somewhere.