Nicest / most personable musician you've met?

Two years ago I took the opportunity to watch Herbie Hancock give a lecture at Harvard University. Afterwards I went up and shook his hand and said "thank you, it was an honor" and he replied chuckling and saying "I'm glad!" I would like to have talked to him more but man, I was nervous. The guy is a legend!

It was a great experience though. Very engaging, and he's a great public speaker.

 

He kind of smirked and then dutifully signed it. I told him that I owned all of his records and that this was my favorite....

 

my favorite story so far

 

Reggie Houston. He was playing a local gig. Very personable and approachable.

 

I've also met and hung out with Mac. We had the same experience with him. Still can't believe it's been a year since his passing.

Wow. That's a great story. Tom doesn't seem like he'd be that friendly now.

In addition to Ian McLagan, I also met Sonny Landreth. He was friendly, but kinda shy. In September, I met Marty Stuart's guitarist, Kenny Vaughan. We hung out for about an hour and he told me all sorts of cool stories.

 

I remember going to her show at the Regattabar in the early 90s- might have been the same show. That was a great venue from the days when I lived in Boston. I watched a few shows there- Al DiMeola comes to mind. I probably missed a lot of great shows as well from not being as familiar with jazz back then.

 

Seconded on this. I've shot video of him multiple times at Knuckleheads Saloon in Kansas City.

After the show, he's headed out, and I'm packing my cameras up, and he comes over to compliment me on my video work (there are monitors that can be seen from the stage, and in the green room.)

That NEVER happens!

The sound engineer gets thanked. The lighting people get thanked. The wait staff gets thanked. But the video crew never, ever gets thanked. It's like we're furniture. I'm serious, I've shot literally hundreds of concerts, and Alejandro is the first and only performer to compliment me on my video work!

 

GENUINELY surprised at this one.

 

Luther Guitar Junior Johnson and Allen Woody. I sat at a table drinking beer with Luther between sets and asked him about playing with Muddy and Johnny and he was more than happy to oblige. I hung out with Allen after they opened for Big Sugar in Toronto - he was as sweet and nice as his bio reads.

 

Not sure how many people think of him first as a musician (he is a drummer, but his acting work tends to overshadow that) - but hands down, Ted Neeley will likely be the nicest guy I ever meet in my lifetime. It would be very hard to top how genuinely approachable he is - and approaching the lord for a handshake ain't easy!

 

Not sure if I posted to this thread before.
John Hammond, Chris Smither, Roger McGuinn, Johnny Copeland--all friendly and genuine in person.
Barry Mitterhoff of Hot Tuna is a neighbor of mine. A real low-key, ordinary guy.
Rory Block-a talented artist, but a little neurotic off-stage.
Wendy Waldman and Cindy Bullens-never met them personally, but have had multiple email exchanges and got both of them to burn and mail me CD-R's of a couple of their out-of-print albums gratis.

 

Henry Rollins after a spoken word show a couple years ago.

Ryan Roxie and John Bush were also very cool.

 

Indeed...I met him at The Roxy in Atlanta in the early Nineties... Super down to earth cat...got a nice autograph and brief convo....

 

Recently met The Mavericks (after coming close a few times over a 20 year period) and they were all super cool, very down to earth guys.

Sir Bob Geldof was also super approachable and very cool. I met him at the Amnesty Concert at Barclays Center in Brooklyn a few years ago. I asked him why the Boomtown Rats never toured the States any more and he said (in a very "colorful way") that there really wasn't the demand. I told him I did beg to differ especially with all the other bands of the Rats era successfully touring the States these days. We discussed this and a few other things for nearly 10 minutes. Had a whole new level of respect for him after that moment.

 

Holly Johnson walking his dog. He still has that cheeky Body Double expression on his face. A brief chat about his canine wonder.

 

I met him outside a radio station where he had just been interviewed about Imperial Bedroom. A bunch of guys were waiting for him with albums. He chatted and signed everybody's stuff. It was rather chilly outside but he took his time with each fan.

 

Page would come into my Classical record shop often in the late 90s early 2000s, he would come in late and sit at the counter talking for half an hour or more, no side to him, nice man.

 

The Crickets (Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin, and Sonny Curtis) were pretty cool to meet...

 

I've probably posted this story before but it bears repeating. Back in the mid 90s I heard that a colleague was developing a "show" for MSN and had contracted Andy Partridge to write the music. I told him I was going with him to Swindon to assist in the interview with Andy which was to take place at his house. I had always been a fan and while living in NY in the early 90s their albums helped me when I was homesick for Dublin. anyway I digress....

Midway through the interview I started to ask questions. My role was really to operate the DAT (I still have the raw tapes).
Andy quickly picked up that I was a fan. He asked if I wanted to go out to the infamous shed studio and listen to some demos. We chatted for what seemed like an age and he ran upstairs to get some stuff for me which included a long ream of faxes used to approve artwork on the new compilation Virgin were releasing.
I had brought all my CD covers with me and he signed them all without hesitation...stopping mod- doodle to ask if I minded him drawing cartoon figures in the sleeves (as if!). One of the sleeves was stolen at a fan convention (may you rot in hell *******). I mentioned that the only album I hadn't picked up yet was a BBC live CD... he stopped... ran upstairs and brought a copy down for me and signed it.

There was subsequently a small trivial misunderstanding for which Andy apologised and we kept in touch on and off. I was recording a version of "Rook" for fun and called to ask if he could tell me the chords. He said he had forgotten how it was played and that Dave Gregory was the guy to contact. He gave me Dave's email address.... within minutes Dave emailed me back having scanned the original arrangement for me.

About two years later I knew another fan was visiting and called Andy to ask of it would be ok for him to visit Andy. He said no because he wasn't going to be home on that day. But... if we wanted to we were welcome to meet him and Colin Moulding in London.... they were recording the orchestra for Apple Venus in Abbey Road.

Of course I said yes.

A wonderful day was spent in their company. I recorded hours of video while they worked and got to chat with them about the music I was making and life in general. They shared hilarious and unrepeatable stories about their only Irish tour and Colin played with my video camera while Andy mugged for it.
Colin signed all the CDs that Andy had signed a couple of years previously.

I think in terms of being cool with their fans this was pretty generous..... subsequently I introduced Dave and Andy to PUGWASH and well the rest is history !

I finally met Dave when he came over to Dublin. A sweet and personable gentleman. Met him again in Abbey Road when we went over with Pugwash to record The Section strings for a 2004 album. I was supposed to play piano on a track I had had a tiny input into forming but Thomas naturally wanted one of his musical heroes to play on it and he asked me to teach Dave the piano part. Now naturally I was a tiny bit miffed because it had been a dream of mine to be recorded in Abbey Road and this was after all Studio Two. I said nothing because let's face it it was Thomas's album and his hero so I understood completely. Midway through the piano lesson Dave turns to me and says "... Peter I'm really sorry... I'm stealing your gig..are you sure this is ok?"
That's the mark of a gentleman right there.

The only others I can think of are Alan White who I met through some colleagues. We met socially whenever I visited Seattle and got to know him and his darling wife Gigi. Lovely, honest, down to earth people. We hosted one of their kids when they visited Ireland and Alan always ensured we got VIP tickets when Yes came to Dublin. On one visit Gigi joined him and we went out on the town in Dublin and had a rare old time of it. Alan shared stories of working with George and John. He had nothing but kind words to say about George. Got to hang out with Chris Squire after one of the shows and he was good fun and had his own following of fans who went to every gig.

 

Met Jackson Browne by freak circumstance thru a window at back of venue when he was touring Lawyers In Love,can't remember what year that was...late 70's maybe? He was just being a regular guy,invited us backstage before the show and asked us to stay for eats. We talked about 30 minutes mostly about old Martin and Gurian guitars although he was using Takamines at that show. Gave us backstage passes for after the show. Seemed like a neighbor asking you over for a cookout.

Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch at a bar before they became big. I think it was between the fist and second album. We just hung for awhile and he told the story about his Epiphone Olympic guitar which has become a legendary tale retold many times in print and online. She didn't say much but kinda stared at me..felt kinda weird but she was much more talkative after the show and signed a lot of stuff for us,took a few pics together. I was wearing a Martin guitar shirt,where were the Gibson and Epiphone ones when I needed them

 

Same show!

 

My first Sax teacher toured and recorded with Tom and he only ever spoke very fondly about him. He also had a picture of him with Tom in his living room. The guy had played with everybody from Woody Herman to James Brown to John Lennon, and he was completely about the music not the celebrity. So I figure Tom is a good guy.

Interestingly he also loved Leslie West and spoke highly of him as a musician and human being.

 

I recently attended a performance of "The Lindisfarne Story", presented by Ray Laidlaw and Billy Mitchell.

These guys are the "real-deal" and it was a wonderful evening full of great music, jokes and fascinating insights into their 5 decades in the music business.

Best of all, they were great to chat with, with absolutely no affectation.

 

Simon Nicol of Fairport Convention.

 

Here are the sleeves (minus the Oranges & Lemons sleeve that was stolen).