Nicest / most personable musician you've met?

Freddy King
Albert Collins

 

Jimmy Page. Beyond a shadow of a doubt the nicest, most humble, musician I have met.

 

Paul McCartney (and especially Linda!)
Roger McGuinn
Bert Jansch
Ralph McTell
Tommy & Phil Emmanuel
Bruce Cockburn
Brian Wilson (In Brian's own special way )
Brian Wilson's band (Every member very down to earth and accessible)

 

Dizzy Gillespie (by far the most personable)
Graham Nash
Jackson Browne
Amy Rigby
Chick Corea
Wayne Cochran
Alejandro Escovedo
Mose Allison

YMMV

 

I've mentioned the few times I hung out with Stiv Bator back in the mid 80's in other older threads and sharing a drink at a bar talking Jim Morrison and Iggy Pop with Ian Astbury, but the most genuinely nice, unpretentious musician I got to met even if it was barely a couple minutes was Michael Anthony.

 

Annie Clark alias St Vincent
John Pattitucchi jazz bassist w Wayne Shorter

 

I'm going to add one more, albeit not for a "musician," but for mastering engineer, Greg Calbi. (I figure it appropriate for the Steve Hoffman forums!) I was honored and fortunate to have my band's CD mastered by Greg when he was at Masterdisk in 1998. He was the most patient, generous and friendly guy. He was really good to us with his time and his input, and really gave a hell of a lot of attention to us, this little band of comparative nobodies. You'd walk up and down the halls and see platinum album after platinum album hanging on the walls, and Calbi's name was all over them. Born to Run, Graceland, Blood on the Tracks. But even with all of those iconic albums to his credit, when you walked into Greg's mastering studio, he had only one artifact on his wall: A handwritten letter from John Lennon with mastering instructions for his Rock and Roll album. It ends with, "I trust your ear..." What more endorsement do you need than that? Mr. Calbi is a class act, through and through.

 

*crush*

 

John Davis of Superdrag fame....we even formed an air guitar chord together while I tried to explain a chord voicing to him after a show a few years back.

Tommy Stinson is another real gentleman.

But,hands down the best experience I ever had was with Joe Strummer in 1999 after a show at the TLA in Philly....I asked him what the mysterious lyrics, buried in the mix at the beginning of "Clampdown" were and he proceeded to recite all of them...but in a whisper in my ear so no one else would hear. That is my all time favorite rock'n'roll memory.

 

I've had the chance to have a beer with Ray Wilson of Stiltskin and Genesis after a show.
A very nice and down-to-earth guy.

 

Eric Johnson
Peter Noone
Rick Nielsen
Tom Johnston, Keith Knudsen, Pat Simmons, John Mc Fee (Doobie Brothers) Those guys treat the fans like family.

 

Arlo Guthrie

 

Musician or performers I'd have to say Ringo Starr, Happy Birthday Ringo, and Abdul "Duke" Fakir of The Four Tops. Duke I met backstage at a concert at Jones Beach and Ringo I met at a signing at Tower Records uptown in NYC. It was a signing for "Storytellers on VH1" and "Vertical Man". It was so strange meeting Ringo...I figured I would never meet an actual Beatle and when I did he was so normal. Even complimented me on my Yellow Submarine jacket that I was wearing...but really lit up when he saw the "Listen To This Button" pin I had on the jacket. Just a very down to earth person and something I'll never forget.

As far as other people within the business that I met...George Martin had to have been the BEST experience ever for me. Such a decent and very nice human being. At that same signing I also met Pete Townsend and let's just say Pete was a complete grumpy AHole. Actually sold off my autographed "Tommy Broadway Soundtrack" that he had signed. Never bought another Who CD after that experience. I love the Who's music...but will never buy another CD of theirs again. Also met Phil Ramone at my commencement at Five Towns College. He was receiving an honorary doctorate from the school. Very gracious and even took a tape of my friends band. Another great experience. Only one I can complain about is Townsend.

 

I've met a lot of musicians over the years through my work in video.
Many are very nice people. I'm sure it is partly to do with me being there to do a job, and not just meeting them as a fan.

Adrian Belew
The Connell's
Colin Newman and Graham Lewis of Wire
Rosemary Clooney
Ruth Brown
Joey Ramone
Solomon Burke
Carol Kaye
Van Dyke Parks
Concrete Blonde (all)
Jimmy Zero and Cheetah Chrome of The Dead Boys
Anthony and Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers
Bjork
The Smithereens
John Doe of X
Peter Himmelman
The Innocence Mission
John Wesley Harding
Karl Walllinger of World Party

There were many who weren't so nice, but I won't go there. I would never say something bad about someone I don't really know, who may have been having a bad day.

 

I like hearing that about Zander.

The first time I saw Cheap Trick his vocals blew me away but he also gave off a vibe that was cold and aloof, somewhat like the album cover photos. The last time I saw them a few years ago he was relaxed, funny and very cool.

 

Margo Timmins from the Cowboy Junkies was very nice and gracious autographing CDs after a show
Bob Mould
Cesar Rosas and Conrad Lozano from Los Lobos, both as nice as could be
David Grisman (see Margo Timmins above)
Will Bernard
Charlie Hunter
Scott McCaughey
Jon Fishman
Briefer encounters with Bob Weir. David Byrne, and David Crosby were all very positive as well

 

Ian McLagan was very nice. He hung out after a show and told some great stories. Jimmy Webb was another friendly person.

 

Met Jimmy Page once at Heathrow. He was on his own so I walked over to him to say g'day. We ended up chatting for a good 10 minutes. A nice guy and very interesting to talk with.
Also met Jimmy Barnes on several occasions when Cold Chisel was a young band at Adelaide pub gigs. Another great guy.

 

Melanie Safka

 

Joan Osborne is an absolute doll. I am trying to think of others, but she immediately sprung to mind. Mick Fleetwood was certainly nice, but he wouldn't supplant her at the top of my list. And Slash was always pretty personable, too.

 

Mike Keneally, and Steve Vai have both been extremely lovely with the fans everytime I met them (together or separately).

 

Jerry Cantrell.

 

Britt Walford & Dave Pajo from Slint.
David Berman from Silver Jews.
Eugene Kelly from The Vaselines
Wayne Coyne from Flaming Lips
Victoria Legrand from Beach House

Have met several others but these folks were the standouts. Shared beers with most of them and they were totally friendly and down to earth.

 

I've seen several Tommy Emmanuel interviews and in all of them, he comes across as incredibly gracious and friendly. He's absolutely hilarious too. I'm also fairly certain I've never seen someone so passionate about playing. That's really all he wants to do and he's just incredible at it.

Ed

 

The late Albert Collins - true gentleman, invited me backstage
Carlos Santana, met him in Melbourne, he was very kind