Nicest / most personable musician you've met?

Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding.
Jon Anderson.
Gary Green (guitarist of Gentle Giant)
Tony Levin
Richard Thompson

Least friendly:
Glenn Frey
Elvis Costello

 

Lenny Kaye

 

Ray Brown - jazz double bassist
Benny Green - jazz pianist

I met them when I saw the Ray Brown Trio perform. Great show. Very personable, intelligent, and considerate. I was amazed that they would even speak to anyone, just after finishing a set.

 

Donovan in the 80s. He was very humble and thankful anybody cared. When I told him I loved his work, including then rare and forgotten albums like Open Road, he gave me a big hug and thanked me profusely.

 

This happened about 10 years ago. I knew a young guy who was a Huge XTC fan. He was a month or two away from his 21st birthday. I have another friend who has a tenuous (friend of a friend) connection to Andy Partridge. On a lark, he put the word out to his buddy in the UK that he knew a young man in America who was about to become 21 and would be blown away by receiving a birthday card from Andy Partridge.

About two weeks later, a neatly wrapped square envelope arrived, addressed in a lavish script, as if from a fountain pen. Inside it was a hand written certificate, complete with hand drawn sketches and numerous witty asides, all created by Andy Partridge. The certificate welcomed our young friend into adulthood.

Needless to say, we had to scrape the kid off the floor. Sheer class, that was.

 

Branford Marsalis was also very nice. Met him at Blues Alley in DC years ago and he was pretty friendly too. He took pics with my friend and signed an album of his. You kind of almost have to be friendly to get away with being at that venue and he absolutely was. My friend met Maynard Ferguson there as well and he was even nicer.

Ed

 

Steve Wynn and Chuck Prophet are a couple that come to mind. Wynn in particular has always been maybe the most down to earth gracious guy since the earliest days with the Dream Syndicate.

 

Richard Thompson was as humble, funny and charming as you'd hope he'd be.

 

Rick Nielsen (although he was wonderfully eccentric).

 

I met Paul in NYC 10 years ago and it is just the most amazing thing to (a) meet someone for the first time who has literally shaped your entire life and (b) have them turn out to be even nicer and more personable than you imagined. I greeted him with a friendly "Hello, sir," and a handshake, to which he stood up and enthusiastically responded at twice my volume, "HELLO, SIR!!!!" We only got to chat for a few moments (mostly about Jeff Buckley - "Tremendous loss, that. So great, man..."), but it was an absolute dream come true. Only guy that ever had me starstruck, but he put me totally at ease.

Denny was backstage at a show at which we were both performing (me warming up the crowd as part of an acoustic trio, Denny as a featured performer with the main band). I had met him in passing once or twice before, and I didn't think that he'd recognize me, but prior to the show, just outside the green room, he walked right up to me and my son and asked how we were doing tonight. After a few minutes of friendly chatting, I asked if my son could take a photo with him, and assumed I'd let him go after the picture. My son then asked Denny a question about if he still had his double neck SG from the Wings Over America tour (he does, as I recall). With that, he sat with us in the green room for a good half hour over dinner. He was incredibly gracious and charming, and I honestly walked away feeling he had as nice a time as we did.

Bill Janovitz is a brilliant, funny guy I've come to know from playing in bands over the years. One of my favorite writers, music or otherwise, and just an all-around great guy. Even let me play bass on "Sodajerk" one night (which I still screwed up!)

 

Bootsy Collins was super nice and seemed genuinely gracious to his fans. I chatted with him and his wife Patti at Amoeba in San Francisco a few years ago and had some pictures taken. He was great.

Honorable mentions go to David Hidalgo (friends and I had dinner with him before a gig in Denver), George Clinton and Junior Wells. Junior was super cool when I met him but I heard he could also be prickly at times.

I almost forgot...blues guitarist Melvin Taylor. I met him at Rosa's in Chicago several times when I used to go pretty regularly for work. He was always cool; happy to hang out and tell some stories (like when he was pier fishing with B.B. King).

 

Dave Stewart, Clem Burke and Joniece Jamison - they were touring with the Eurythmics in 1987 - all lovely and friendly and invited me nightclubbing to Bennies in Sydney after their show. Annie Lennox - not at all friendly.

 

Michael Anthony (Van Halen)
Joni Mitchell

 

Joey Molland - I know he doesn't have the greatest reputation on here, but the guy was super nice when I met him after a show. Signed autographs, chatted with fans, etc. Very personable and friendly.

Chris Dreja - Came out after the show (with Jim McCarty) and signed autographs, chatted with fans, etc, I asked him if at any point was he going to be in Jimmy Page's 'new' band after the demise of the Yardbirds, and if he went with Page to see Robert Plant for the first time. He said he was never going to be in Zeppelin, and that he wanted to pursue photography (he did the pic on the back cover of Zep 1, for example). He also said he in fact did go with Jimmy and Peter Grant to scout out Robert Plant for the first time, not because he was going to be in the band, but he because Jimmy was his friend.

Jim McCarty - Was very cool of him to come out after the show to hang out and sign autographs

Robby Krieger. Kind of a soft spoken, low key guy, but is really good about signing autographs for fans after his shows.

 

I'm good friends with the guy who put out the records by a (great) band called The Shazam, and he relays this story:

The Shazam are in Abbey Road studios in 1999 or 2000, and they finish the rough mix of a version of Revolution #9. Their engineer grabs the lead guy of the band, Hans, and tells him "Come with me, I have some people who need to hear this." Hans follows him and walks into a studio where he finds Paul, Ringo and George having tea (they were doing something related to the DVD release of Anthology). The engineer tells them "Fellas, I have something you might like to hear" and proceeds to queue up the Shazam's rough mix of Revolution #9.

Hans says that he's paralyzed in fear. He can't move a muscle and all he can do is stand there and grin, mortified that the three remaining Beatles are about to hear his fairly out-there take on Rev 9. This goes on for a full 6 minutes while the whole thing plays. At the end, McCartney says "delightful!". George and Ringo agree. They give him a cup of tea,slap him on his back and off he goes, still not sure what exactly just happened to him.

By the way, here's the rough mix they heard that day:

 

Don is the hidden giant of 1960s music. I hope he gets his full due in his lifetime. What an extraordinary and utterly one-of-a-kind talent. Really, what the term genius is intended to be used for.

 

Alice Cooper. So down to earth, friendly, and super-funny!

 

Neil Young, BB King, Sandy Denny, Beck

 

McCoy Tyner, the pianist. Sat down next to me at the bar at Blues Alley in Georgetown and told me a long story about lending his car to Sonny Rollins. Or maybe he borrowed Sonny's car. Can't remember, but I just know he was probably the nicest guy I ever met.

 

Yoko Ono
Southside Johnny
Donovan
Laurie Anderson
Chick Corea
David Sanborn
Tico Torres
Cecilia Bartoli
Bryn Terfel
Ray Davies
Patti Smith
Sean Lennon



Pat Boone (nice guy, it was a little awkward talking to him though. But he was nice). He was awkward.

 

I had a friend tell me the same thing about him

 

Hung out with Bob Mould for a bit before a show in Pittsburgh in the 90s. Down to earth guy. We talked baseball.

 

Billy Bragg offered a free "chat" to anyone who wanted to meet him after the show.

Johnny Marr was super nice even at 4:30 am.

The guys from James especially Larry Gott and Tim Booth.

 

That doesn't surprise me in the least.

 

Pat Mastelotto, Devin Townsend and 05Ric for starters. Gavin Harrison and Damian Wilson too for that matter.