Nicest / most personable musician you've met?

I am absolutely loving this thread! It's high time we had a really pleasant thread in these parts. Kudos to the OP!

Ed

 

John Pizzarelli. He performed at the Winspear Centre during the Edmonton Jazz Festival several years ago. For one of the standards, he had the spotlight on the trumpet and trombone players as they played solos from the balcony. As he signed my copy of "Knowing You", I complimented the memorable moment and suggested it was a nod to Billie Holiday's "Lady in Satin" album. He admitted that's what he was going for, smiled, and told me I was clever for catching that. He was genuine and appreciative. Really nice guy.

 

Jeff Kashiwa - saxophone with the Rippington's for a while and a solo artist now. My wife and I met Jeff one night in 95 or 96 at the original Yoshi's jazz club in Claremont California. We were there to see McCoy Tyner's trio with Michael Brecker on sax. I kind of thought of Michael Brecker as smooth fusion guy before that show...boy...did I come away schooled and a new fan.

Jeff was sharing a tiny cocktail table with my wife and I. He was just a normal guy enjoying the show. My wife makes conversation with everyone, and asked which musicians he liked, did he play an instrument. He mentioned he played sax. My wife asked if for fun, to teach, in a band? He mentioned he was in a band called the Rippingtons. My wife does not follow jazz like I do, but I knew we were sitting with world class musician. Jeff got up for a minute, and I told my wife who the Rippingtons were. It was a nice evening, and great music.

 

One more
Non musician, I met June Hendrix (Jimi Hendrix Japanese step mum) in Seattle at Jimi's grave. She spoke to me for a long time. We exchanged letters for a year or so up to 1997 until I heard she died. Lovely lady, still have all the letters and photos she sent me.

 

Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub) and Paul Westerberg.

 

Paul McCartney : An amazing unforgettable Tuesday early afternoon, while finishing a bike ride at an obscure little park in the Los Angeles area. Just me him and (back then) his little baby girl. Had a lovely short real chat. Very humble for a legend.

 

I used to work in a second hand record shop in Camden in the mid-1990s and quite a few musicians came in on a regular basis. The one who was the nicest and spent time chatting with us and being a real enthusiast for music was Julian Cope.

 

There was also another occasion, not quite met, but talked with David Gilmour for about 5 minutes.
The BBC radio used to have a segment called "talk to a rock star" where they would have a guest musician come in and take calls from the public.
We are 8 hours ahead of London and one night when I had a dose of insomnia, I was listening to the program when David was the guest. I called the talk line number and surprisingly got through. I asked him if we could expect the band to get together for another gig sometime in the future (Rick was still around then). He evaded the question but was very engaging at the same time.

 

Nils Petter Molvaer - great guy. Immensely friendly and humble as well.
Members of Oregon were really nice. Came out to fans to sign everything for anyone who cared after the concert. Ralph Towner I remember especially fondly.

 

Slim Jim Phantom, Devin Townsend, Rob Hirst (Midnight Oil), all of No Means No, probably missing a few more.
I won't mention the jerks , but i will say Joe Satriani seemed like a REALLY weird guy when i briefly met him.

 

Indeed Zander is a great guy and always brings great conversation to the table

 

Alan White (Yes): I met him in 2003 in a Parisian restaurant (with Chris Squire and Rick Wakeman), and he was very friendly, very accessible. We had a drink together (my wife was there too) and we talked a bit. Later that day, he performed a drum clinic with the late Pierre Moerlen (legendary Gong drummer), and again we could see that Alan was one of the nicest persons on earth. Great moments!

Chris Squire (Yes) R.I.P: very impressive man, a true legend, I met him in 2003 (in Paris) and more recently in 2014 (in Brussels). In 2003, I was so shy in front of him that I did not dare to ask for a photograph with him. So, my lovely wife went to talk to him, explaining that I was a big fan and would be very happy if he accepted to be photographed with me. He smiled and then came directly to me, and the picture was taken.

Eddie Jobson (U.K.): I talked to him about 20 minutes during the soundcheck of the U.K. show in Holland last February. Eddie was very nice and happy to talk about music with me. I asked all the questions I had prepared (and even more), and he kindly answered. You can see he is a real passionate about music and likes to talk about it. He was also very funny and had a good sense of humor.

 

The guys in Brian Wilson's band are always really friendly. They strike me as a genuinely nice bunch of people who really love what they do and have plenty of time for Brian's fans.
Non-musician but related, Melinda Wilson didn't scream out for security when i met her and was very nice. I met her after one of the US Paul Simon shows Brian did early on in his "live comeback". I think the gist of our conversation was me saying I came from England to see Brian play because he's playing Surf's Up, Heroes and Villains etc.. you have got to get Brian and this band to the UK - they'll go nuts for this show. At that time she said they hadn't had any offers but were hopeful of playing outside the USA at some point.
I hope she was suitably impressed when he did play here.

 

I ate KFC with Chuck D before his show, very nice guy! Autographed my Fear Of A Black Planet CD, the got everyone else to sign it as well!

Michael Stipe bought a pair of sunglasses from me, shy but very pleasant. I was very awkward asking for his autograph but he pleasantly obliged!

 

Cyndi Lauper- she was very kind and generous with her time and managed to carry on a very nice conversation with me after having performed for two solid hours and whilst simultaneously having an argument with her tour promoter rep!

Renee Geyer- an Australian soul singer was incredibly kind and gracious and allowed me to sit side of stage for an entire show and then took the time afterwards to have a long chat.

Suzanne Vega- is a lovely woman, softly spoken but genuinely interested in making you feel as comfortable as possible

Johnette Napolitano from Concrete Blonde- she'd had a few drinks and was funny, warm, genuine and a great person to have a laugh with!

 

I worked for his mail order company for a time which was run at his house. He was a really nice bloke and like you say, absolutely into music. His then manager (ex-Dexy's Midnight Runners drummer Seb) was really nice too.

 

Bill Nelson
Lemmy
Robert John Godfrey (The Enid)

 

Iggy Pop!

And Wayne Coyne, but that was 11 years ago. He hasn't seemed like a very nice guy these last few years...

 

Edward Van Halen

 

Tony Bennett
A man of great humility.
Leonard Cohen
I met him at his hotel after a show. He was exactly as you'd expect or hope him to be. Soft-spoken, courteous, very genuine.
David Crosby
I met him in our hotel the morning after a CSN gig. He was chatting to some other fans, so I just stood aside until he was finished with them (they got a photo with him). We got talking about the show the previous night and the venue, etc.
Marvin Hamlisch
An absolute gentleman. I met him by chance outside the venue before his show that evening. He was obviously staying in the hotel opposite the concert hall and had just walked across the road in his tails.
Ron Mael
I met Sparks at a signing event when they did their series of album shows in London, and Ron in particular was lovely.
Brian May and Roger Taylor from Queen
On a cold night after a TV appearance, both were happy to stop, have a few words and sign albums.
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
I've met Andy and Paul on a couple of occasions and they are the most humble, approachable, lovely people you could ever hope to meet.
Chris Squire
I met four of of Yes (Anderson, Squire, Wakeman, White) after their soundcheck. (I got Mr. Howe after the show). They were all fine, but Chris was very happy to chat. We ended up talking about the use of Yes music in Vincent Gallo's film, Buffalo '66.

A few people who fall into the category of "thought they might be difficult, but were actually fine" were Lou Reed, Jeff Tweedy and Roger Waters.

 

Nick Cave in 1997.

 

All the members of The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, musicians and support people alike.

Talented, hardworking and friendly regular folks from Indiana. I consider them good friends, and I've never heard anyone say a bad word about them.

 

Tony Bennett was a real nice down to earth guy even way way back.
Maybe back years ago it was a normal Italian neighbor thing where they come over for dinner.

 

Nick Simper of Deep Purple Mark I. Very kind, gentle and nice guy.
Chad Smith of The Red Hot Chili Peppers. While you're talking to him you have a feeling that he is your old friend. Very nice guy.

Mike Love from The Beach Boys was always quite adorable when I met him in 2014, but I have a very small dialogue, about 1 minute + an autograph.

 

Wife #1, Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford is also very personable and just a lot of fun to talk with.

Fortunately there are a lot of top musicians that fit the op's description. Since I haven't seen their names yet in this thread I'd like to mention Elvin Jones who seemed to me to be about as nice a person as you could ever hope to meet. also Frank Zappa. I know he has been criticized as difficult by some but I have to wonder if those folks actually met him (or if perhaps they were rock critics). He treated me wonderfully and made me feel like I was important to him. They are both well remembered and missed by me.