Based on the Weird Al song, (see below), what is your lame claim to fame? I was at work today and spoke to a guy who works for Neil Peart's brother in law. Hopefully this gives me at least some cred...
My mom was friends with the original drummer for Hall & Oates back in the 70s - they went to highschool together.
I was having lunch on the Venice Boardwalk with a woman who was a producer for MTV back in '91. We had just gotten the menus and ordered drinks when suddenly she waved at some dude walking by. The guy came over, and she introduced him as "Steve". We invited him to join us, which he did, and we had a nice conversation about a variety of things; the maturation of Generation X, the changes Los Angeles had seen over the past decade, good authors, and other random stuff. Steve was an articulate and friendly guy, the type of person you quickly feel at ease with and can talk and laugh with. Near the end of the conversation, it came out that he was a musician working on an album, which I wished him good luck on. He didn't talk about it too much, and seemed very modest about the whole thing, but it came out that he had been in a band before, and that the band had broken up, and he was kind of starting from scratch again. I assumed he was a local musician trying to break into the biz, like so many in L.A. He departed for an appointment after lunch, and my friend and I went for a walk along the boardwalk. It was during this walk that my friend mentioned the guy's full name: Steve Wynn, of Dream Syndicate. Dream Syndicate had been one of my favorite bands at the time, although I didn't really know what the members looked like. At first, I was annoyed because she didn't tell me who he was upfront, and I wanted to tell him how great his records were. But then, I thought about it and was glad that she hadn't. It was nice to have had lunch with a quasi-rock star without gushing like a schoolgirl; I think that if I realized it were him, it would have ruined what had been a very pleasant lunch and conversation...
Well, the late Jim Carroll was a fan of my sideband Stambaugh/Wright. Jim and I exchanged numerous emails when I invited him to join an mp3 site that I co-founded. He told me he and Lenny Kaye were driving around and listening to our CD in the car and that right there is my artist career highlight.
When my dad was a resident at a hospital after finishing med school, this would have been in the late 1970s, he was doing an overnight ER shift when in came Steven Tyler. My dad had to treat him, but to this day he won't say what it was for because there's some legal/confidentiality thing he is bound by. But I think we can probably guess what it was!
Charlie Daniels sang at a funeral at my church a couple of years ago. He used the guitar stand that the guy I play guitar with in our praise band uses. I was sooo jealous.
When my wife was at Medical College of Georgia in Augusta sometime around 2003-04, a few couples and us all went out to dinner before their formal for dental school. We ended up at a table next to James Brown. He was very friendly, took a group picture with all of us and then proceeded to sit down behind a piano and play a couple of songs. It was awesome. - Buck
My wife and I had a similar, but different, experience. A friend called us and said "Get your shoes on and meet us at the Heartland Cafe in 15 minutes." We got there, and he and his girlfriend arrived with a guest, singer-songwriter Victoria Williams. We ate dinner with her without ever revealing that we were huge fans. That is the absolutely best way to meet a person you admire, not having the distance caused by the artist/fan relationship between you. It did eventually come out when one of our friends asked about her sister, who we knew of from D.A. Pennebaker's documentary about Victoria Happy Come Home. She was touring opening with a band, the boys all had control of the stereo on the bus and her Walkman had broken. So she came to our home after dinner and we gave her a recording Walkman and some cassette tapes of my wife's radio show which featured female artists. She later wrote us saying that the Walkman had come in so handy, and she was using it to record demo songs. She also sent a watercolor painting by way of thanks. My other lame claim is that Kate Bush called me to thank me for the fan video I made to her song The Infant Kiss. She's really sweet.
I turned down an opportunity to meet Dave Matthews because, frankly, I'd never heard any of his music and didn't know what I'd possibly say to him.
When I was 20 I had a small home studio, a Teas 3340 and a Sound Workshop mixer. One of the bands I worked with had a lead singer from Butler PA who sent someone he knew (also from Butler) up to my studio to record a single. It would become the very first recording I made to get pressed on vinyl! The artist hired local musicians from the Greater Cleveland area he hired from an ad he placed in a local alternitive paper. He had the records pressed here in Cleveland and went back to PA. This was 1975. In 2006, after I posted in another forum about how to find the value of rare records someone from Chicago offered me big bucks for one virgin 45 and an 8-track tape of an album by this same artist that I compiled. This single, and part of the 8-track album has since been released on a 2-CD anthology (warning they brick walled it to death). Anyway here is that first single (taken from the CD). BTW I still have the Mini Moog and Farfisa organ that was used on this record. The Moog was mine and the Farfisa was traded for studio time. So my "lame claim to fame" is that one of my recordings became a sort of "cult classic". BTW: On the original record the artist was "The Stars". Later known as Todd Clark and now Todd Tamanend Clark.
opened for Mike Watt and Grant Hart. Watt told me, "hey there, that was some good bass playing there." i was over the moon. my band (which is going to be defunct after 8/9) is on Get Hip Records. so i can say we're sorta labelmates with Thee Headcoatees and New Bomb Turks. members of the Cynics have been to my house for post-Thanksgiving functions involving records and beer.
Tons of stories, few of which I can talk about. I gave Nick Lowe a ride once. Made Madonna run away - not an isolated incident from a female in my experience.
My friend took guitar lessons from Mission of Burma's Roger Miller. Said he was a nice guy and didn't charge extra if you ran over your allotted time.
My grandmother was friends with a nurse who worked at the hospital when Elvis died (quite a stretch I know). I high fived Ezra Koenig at Bonnaroo this year.
I chatted with the Pepper Tree (of Mr. Pride fame in Canada) at the CNE in 1971. And my mom's maiden name is McCartney.
Jet, the band, collectively asked me if they could borrow a few bucks for hair gel. "None of you guy's have any hair gel?" "No." "The four of you don't have enough money for hair gel?" "No." And this when they were popular.
Here's another one I just remembered. I used a urinal next to Manfred Mann at an after-show party at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee when he was on tour with the Earth Band in the mid-70's. I waited until we were both at the sink to tell him I enjoyed the show.
I lived in the apartment above Trevor Rabin in London during the 90125-Big Generator era. Could hear him playing through the radiator sometimes. Once he came up to let us know our shower was leaking into his flat. Also, the high school rock band I was briefly a member of recorded our demo in the studio while next door Talk Talk was recording Colour Of Spring.
My mom claimed to have gone into Keith Moon's limo (nothing happened, or at least I'm told...). The Limo driver went by the name of "Taco"
