# So what's your funniest "Brush with a Musical Celebrity" Story?



## Permanent Waves

This happened in the summer of 1998. I was in New York City with my girlfriend at the time, and doing my usual pilgrimage to the music shops on 48th street - Manny's, Rudy's, Sam Ash... My girlfriend was pretty patient but by the time we got to Sam Ash, she basically said "I'll just wait for you outside."

I go in and do my usual tour of duty over all the instruments. At some point I hear a bit of a commotion at the front cash but think nothing of it and move on to the keyboard section, looking at the amazing selection. I'm not paying too much attention to my surroundings, just focusing on the instruments, and I accidentally brush up against these two black guys. One of them doesn't seem concerned at all but the other is a very large fellow and he starts glaring at me in a way that makes me feel like maybe I should be somewhere else, so I decide to cut my visit short and exit. Being in NYC always makes me feel like a stranger in a strange land. 

I meet up with my girlfriend outside and she comes up to me all excited: "Oh My God, you won't believe this! I almost ran in to tell you! This huge white limousine pulled up and STEVIE WONDER CAME OUT AND WENT INSIDE!!! Did you see him?!?!?!" I said "Ooops, I guess I saw him, but I don't think he saw me. His bodyguard sure did."

Unfortunately, all the music stores have left 48th street because of high rents in such prime real estate. (stories here, here and here). I think Sam Ash relocated to a more affordable location on 34th street. It was really cool to go to these stores back in the day, they had such great instruments and you never knew who you would bump into . 

What's your funniest brush with a musical celebrity?


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## FatStrat2

Mine isn't funny, but I have a bushel of these types of brushes w/ musical greatness (and/or celebrities) over the years:

I once went to see Albert Collins at Barrymores in Ottawa, he dragged in his own gear w/ his band. I went to help him struggling w/ his amp, we started talking as we moved his stuff on the barely lit stage, he actually let me move his guitar which surprised me, he smiled & thanked me when we were all done - that's it.

I've got way more of these, but they're not funny or notable other just regular run-ins like that. And then there's that time I chatted w/ Forest Whitaker while he eyed my girlfriend...


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## blueshores_guy

Um, yeah, I think it's a pretty good bet that Stevie Wonder didn't see you.


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## GuitarT

The funniest has to be when a group of us went to see FM with Nash the Slash at the old Ballangers in Cambridge. At one point between sets Nash was walking through the crowd and passed by our table. My one buddy, who was a big Nash fan and the reason we all went that night, yelled "Hey Nash!" when he was about 20 feet from our table. Nash looked over at him, gave my buddy the finger and kept walking. The look of shock on my buddy's face was priceless as the rest of us were laughing or a$$es off. 😆


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## laristotle

'79, Rolling Stones, Benefit for the Blind show, Oshawa.
In between sets (New Bohemians, Stones) my buddy, sitting by the rail leading down to the change rooms (hockey arena), grabbed my arm saying 'let's go'.
At the bottom of the ramp were M1ck Jagger and John Belushi (MC of the show).
We chatted with them for a bit and my friend asks John 'can we trade hats?'.
He obviously said no and as we walked back to our seats, I slapped my buddy up the side of his head for asking such a stupid question.


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## Mooh

That's funny, Nash The Slash was quite cordial at some campus pub when we stood waiting for drinks between his sets.



GuitarT said:


> The funniest has to be when a group of us went to see FM with Nash the Slash at the old Ballangers in Cambridge. At one point between sets Nash was walking through the crowd and passed by our table. My one buddy, who was a big Nash fan and the reason we all went that night, yelled "Hey Nash!" when he was about 20 feet from our table. Nash looked over at him, gave my buddy the finger and kept walking. The look of shock on my buddy's face was priceless as the rest of us were laughing or a$$es off. 😆


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## Wardo

Maybe 15 or more years ago I was stopped in my truck on a red on Yonge street in Toronto at the street where Massey Hall is. It was about 8 AM and I was going to work. I looked to the left and Ian Anderson is coming across the crosswalk with a coffee in each hand. I look at him, he looked at me and knew that I recognized him, I didn’t bother saying anything and Ian disappeared down the road towards Massie Hall.


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## Permanent Waves

I had another one I almost forgot - I was reminded when I read the one about John Belushi above. I can even get the exact date and location from our gig history. On August 20th, 2003, we played The Cocamo in Kingston. During soundcheck, a guy walks in who basically looks just like Dan Aykroyd and leaves. Once we're done, we walk out for a smoke, marveling at how much that guy looked like Dan Aykroyd. Then we saw the huge and gleaming white Harley Davidson outside and realized it actually was Dan Aykroyd, which is not surprising since he lives near there (duh!). He was there to go see a performance from an R&B Singer at Brandee's next door. Our singer's girlfriend at the time, who was kind of a knockout, had a drink with him next door while we were playing. She had the choice between being subjected to 2 hours of Rush or have a drink with an international movie star, so our singer easily forgave her for choosing the latter. Aykroyd was a perfect gentleman, very nice and entertaining - a class act all the way.


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## tdotrob

I gave head to Penn from Penn and teller.


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## Permanent Waves

tdotrob said:


> I gave head to Penn from Penn and teller.


For those not familiar with the Sopranos:


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## cdntac

An online encounter...

8-9 years ago I had posted a few times on the April Wine FB page.

One day I received a fried request from Myles Goodwyn (his own personal page).

I accepted it, looked at his page and commented on something on his page (iirc, it was about a stolen guitar he was looking for and had just posted about).

Very shortly afterwards I was unfriended. Lol.

I assume he accidentally clicked on the friend request button as he was looking at my page.


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## Guncho

I went to high school with Shania Twain's brothers and started hanging out with one of them. The first time I crashed at his place, we slept in the same bed as he had a queen sized waterbed. I had long blonde hair at the time and in the morning Shania walked in, saw my long blonde hair and yelled, "Mark has a girl in his bed!".

lol


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## GuitarT

Back in the early 80's my buddy and I (the same guy who got the finger from Nash) were hanging out at a place called Ruby's in Waterloo. There was a band playing that did a mix of covers and originals and their female lead singer had quite an awesome voice. During their break my buddy thought it would be a good idea to meet the band since we were cocky young musicians looking to make connections. My buddy ended up saying to the singer, "Hey, you guys are pretty good. That last song you sounded just like the chick on the radio". She responded, "I am the chick on the radio". Turns out it was Mary Lu Zahalan, a somewhat of a one hit wonder who was riding high on the success of a song called "If I Had One Wish".


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## Dave B4

peed next to David Usher of Moist and Fed Hall in Waterloo (probably '94 or '95)

peed next to Mickey Desadist (sp?) of the Forgotten Rebels at the Lyric in Kitchener (similar year)

lap dance from Sean Cullen when he was in Corky and the Juice Pigs at Phil's in Waterloo ('95ish)

was warned against going into the bathroom at the Mod Club in Toronto by Devin Townsend (he had just taken a big dump, apparently) around '08/'09


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## Permanent Waves

Guncho said:


> I went to high school with Shania Twain's brothers and started hanging out with one of them. The first time I crashed at his place, we slept in the same bed as he had a queen sized waterbed. I had long blonde hair at the time and in the morning Shania walked in, saw my long blonde hair and yelled, "Mark has a girl in his bed!".


I don't know what's funnier - the story or the fact that Shania has a brother called Mark Twain .

EDIT - OK, just looked it up and saw she was born Eilleen Regina Edwards. Just goes to show how much I know about Shania Twain!

EDIT 2 - this is more complicated that I thought: From Wikipedia: Twain was born Eilleen Regina Edwards in Windsor, Ontario, on August 28, 1965,[21] to Sharon (_née_ Morrison) and Clarence Edwards. She has two sisters, Jill and Carrie Ann. Her parents divorced when she was two and her mother moved to Timmins, Ontario, with her daughters. Sharon married Jerry Twain, an Ojibwa from the nearby Mattagami First Nation, and they had son Mark together. Jerry adopted the girls and legally changed their surname to Twain. When Mark was a toddler, Jerry and Sharon adopted Jerry's baby nephew Darryl when his mother died.


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## Permanent Waves

cdntac said:


> An online encounter...
> 
> 8-9 years ago I had posted a few times on the April Wine FB page.
> 
> One day I received a fried request from Myles Goodwyn (his own personal page).
> 
> I accepted it, looked at his page and commented on something on his page (iirc, it was about a stolen guitar he was looking for and had just posted about).
> 
> Very shortly afterwards I was unfriended. Lol.
> 
> I assume he accidentally clicked on the friend request button as he was looking at my page.


This is odd... I am going to venture a guess that maybe it was the unfriending that was more accidental than the friending. Two of my FB friends are FB friends with Myles, and they are regular joes. I remember because I saw something on their feeds about the stolen guitar story, which Myles recovered after 46 years. Goodwin seems pretty down to earth and connected with his fans. 

Story in the National Post about this: Link


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## Guncho

Permanent Waves said:


> I don't know what's funnier - the story or the fact that Shania has a brother called Mark Twain .
> 
> EDIT - OK, just looked it up and saw she was born Eilleen Regina Edwards. Just goes to show how much I know about Shania Twain!
> 
> EDIT 2 - this is more complicated that I thought: From Wikipedia: Twain was born Eilleen Regina Edwards in Windsor, Ontario, on August 28, 1965,[21] to Sharon (_née_ Morrison) and Clarence Edwards. She has two sisters, Jill and Carrie Ann. Her parents divorced when she was two and her mother moved to Timmins, Ontario, with her daughters. Sharon married Jerry Twain, an Ojibwa from the nearby Mattagami First Nation, and they had son Mark together. Jerry adopted the girls and legally changed their surname to Twain. When Mark was a toddler, Jerry and Sharon adopted Jerry's baby nephew Darryl when his mother died.


Yeah she was not Shania Twain when I knew her. She was my buddies older sister Eileen who sang in the Vegas show at Deerhurst. I thought Mark and Daryl were brothers. Guess not. I actually got a ride to BC with them long ago.


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## Always12AM

I was standing in line at Hero burger in 2014 on Bathurst. The people in front of me decided to let Drake and his buddy in front of them and I said “the fuck you are” and walked in front of the whole lot of them.


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## Always12AM

Dave B4 said:


> peed next to David Usher of Moist and Fed Hall in Waterloo (probably '94 or '95)
> 
> peed next to Mickey Desadist (sp?) of the Forgotten Rebels at the Lyric in Kitchener (similar year)
> 
> lap dance from Sean Cullen when he was in Corky and the Juice Pigs at Phil's in Waterloo ('95ish)
> 
> was warned against going into the bathroom at the Mod Club in Toronto by Devin Townsend (he had just taken a big dump, apparently) around '08/'09


I peed next to the black guy from S club 7 in 1998 at Playdium and being a child, I looked at his penis and noticed that mine was bigger than his which to me is funny.


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## CMCRAWFORD

I worked at the Toronto Sun from 90-95 and met all sorts of folks from politicians, actors, athletes and musicians. One encounter that stands out was when a group of guys came in to drop off a demo tape to John Sakamoto and did a quick acoustic song on the sidewalk. The song was about the band and their name Barenaked Ladies.


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## Always12AM

CMCRAWFORD said:


> I worked at the Toronto Sun from 90-95 and met all sorts of folks from politicians, actors, athletes and musicians. One encounter that stands out was when a group of guys came in to drop off a demo tape to John Sakamoto and did a quick acoustic song on the sidewalk. The song was about the band and their name Barenaked Ladies.


Apparently their first band name idea was “3 guys from Barrie” or something similar lol.

I think they went with the better name.


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## tdotrob

Permanent Waves said:


> For those not familiar with the Sopranos:


Holy same thing happened to her, thanks for posting I hadn’t seen that episode.


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## laristotle

CMCRAWFORD said:


> The song was about the band and their name Barenaked Ladies.


To think that a band can become more popular when City Hall bans them from playing (new years eve '91) because of their name. lol


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## Guncho

Speaking of BNL, my buddies brother is the current keyboardist in the band and I've met him a few times.

One year my friend went on the BNL cruise they have and told me a funny story. When he got to his cabin there was a note outside the door that said, "Be on the main deck at 9am. Wear your white bath robe and nothing else". He did as instructed. At 9am, BNL ran out in their white bathrobes and said, "On the count of three, everyone drop their robe". So he did, along with everyone else on the cruise.


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## butterknucket

I was walking along Queen Street in Toronto. I was passing by a vintage clothing store and these two guys and a girl walk out of the store and stop and start talking on the side walk right in front of me. The two guys were the drummer and bass player from Poison. I looked at the drummer with a look that said, 'I know who you are,' and he looked back at me acknowledging it, but I didn't say anything. In hindsight I should have said hi and started talking to them. 

As far as other little things, I ran into Jesse Cook at a L&M attic sale. I met Colin Linden and Songbird once. One time I was at L&M and one of the sales guys appeared to be waiting for someone. A guy walked in and the sales guy whisked him to the back of the store right away. I swear the guy was Tony Levin. I had a lengthy conversation with the guitar player from Shadowy Men on a Shadowy planet at a shop once. 

I've seen Lorne Lofsky play many times and had many conversations with him at the bar between sets.


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## mhammer

Wardo said:


> Maybe 15 or more years ago I was stopped in my truck on a red on Yonge street in Toronto at the street where Massey Hall is. It was about 8 AM and I was going to work. I looked to the left and Ian Anderson is coming across the crosswalk with a coffee in each hand. I look at him, he looked at me and knew that I recognized him, I didn’t bother saying anything and Ian disappeared down the road towards Massie Hall.


Jethro Tull plays a tangential role in this tale.

Summer of 1970, I was writing for a Montreal music tabloid, backed by concert promoter Donald K. Donald. I was sent to cover the rock festival held at the old Autostade, and interview Van Morrison; probably the most uncomfortable experience of my life. I was young, stupid, have a hard time telling when people with a thick Irish accent are being sarcastic, and Morrison is a famously difficult interview at the best of times. We were in the hallway, and it was not going well. Tull had just finished their set and were coming down the hall past us. I looked up at them and said "I guess you're finished now", which Morrison interpreted to be him. He turned around and left, without saying another word.

I covered a concert by The Incredible String Band at Place des Arts. It was a hasty last-minute thing and I scrambled to find a camera. I borrowed a little Instamatic, bought a film cartridge and a flashcube. The interview was pleasant. Nice people. I got them and the entire entourage to pose for a pic in the lobby. It was an arms-over-shoulder lineup of about 20 people wide. I snapped, but the flashcube didn't flash. I turned the camera around to see what I had done wrong and the flash unexpectedly went off in my face. I tried once more to get a pic while everyone was in line and waiting for me. Same thing happened again. Bulb didn't go off until I turned the camera over to see what was the matter. After the 2nd flash in my face, folks gave up and wandered off. None of the pictures came out.


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## blueshores_guy

OK, there's not much humour in this story, but it's my only brush with musical 'celebs'.

Winter, 1966-67. Barrie, Ontario. Saturday night, Embassy Club, the only place in town for live entertainment.
The band booked for the night was The Left Bank, who had released their hit Walk Away Renee six months or so earlier.
Only problem was the blizzard that dumped a ton of snow on Barrie that day.
The group made it to town, but most of their equipment didn't.
I was in a high-school rock band at the time and about 8 o'clock got a call....can the Embassy Club borrow your amps for tonight?
We didn't have a gig that night, so of course they could. All three of us guitarists had matching Traynor setups, YBA-1 Bassmasters with 2x12 cabs. Pretty impressive stuff in those days. 
So I piled my amp and cab into my decrepit VW bug with no snow tires (amp behind the back seat, cab occupying the entire back seat), and headed out through the snow.
Got to the club without incident, as did my bandmates, and we unloaded and set up on stage.
The Left Bank started performing an hour or so later, and it soon became obvious that they had a fairly serious issue....they only knew a small handful of songs. Walk Away Renee was done about a hundred times that night. Intermission time came, and their gear truck showed up. Three VOX Super Beatles got unloaded and brought onto the stage, but the group decided not to use them, sticking with the Traynor backline we had provided.
I don't recall any of the band members ever talking to us, much less thanking us for our efforts. Just another night in another small town for them, I suppose.
Certainly hoped they learned a few more songs, though.


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## Granny Gremlin

I have a knack for missing chances to meet musicians playing The Phoenix.

First time was like 10-15 years ago. Walking in to the joint and my friends were rushing ahead thru the hallway to the floor. Lagging behind I noticed a hoodied dude come out of a side door and start walking to get past me. It was Tootrs Hibbert. Instead of stopping to say hi or something I was like "dudes hold up it's Toots!" (one friend was a superfan) but they didn't hear me and he just kept going ducking into another door where a reporter was waiting to interview him. That was also the show where Toot's settled a debate between me and that superfan friend's older brother (who I was in a band with) - we had covered 54-46 and, as a punk, I wanted to shorten the bridge to "Give it to me 1 Time... 3 Time," (vs 1, 2, 3, and 4) and he was all like," you can't just skip 2" like some sort of square. That night Toots did 1 time, 2 time, 3 time, 10 time. The band did all 10 stops perfectly and came back in. Felt like he was throwing them a curve ball and picked a different number every nigfht. That was the beginning of the end of that band - dude just couldn't be wrong.

Another time (3-4 years ago) we were walking around the neighborhood waiting for the show to start after having dinner and it was the first time I saw a Lambo SUV, I looked to the parked car and exclaimed "I never new Lamborghini made an SUV" just as the whole band walked by and I bumped shoulders with the bass player. Turned around to apologize and saw Tom Verlaine and the rest of Television walking away. Turned back to my friends to see my bud jaw on the ground aghast stammering about TV just walking by (rabid fan - one time in New York he missed him because he was mid pulling off a sweater when Tom walked by backstage). We ended up getting to the show a bit late for some reason too. That night poor old Tom had his hand cramp up in the middle of his solo during Marquee Moon - felt real bad for him. Excellent show otherwise.

Jim Cuddy lives in the hood and I was in the original location of Ring Audio (forget why) when he came in to pick up 2 stereo systems he'd bought for people as Christmas gifts (what a friend to have, eh). Years later I sat behind him at a studio closing auction somewhere in Liberty Village. He (and some tech/roadie/friend) left less than halfway through the auction, a little ticked to have wasted his time because the phone/online bidders (and a lot of opportunist randos who go to auctions but had no idea about audio gear - people brought toddlers and shit) kept bidding used gear up to above new retail prices. I mean I was all WTF myself. A lot of folks left, but by the end I had scored 3 Sennheisser MD420s for 300 each (not a bad deal at the time) and a leather couch from the control room for 100. When I came to pick up I found the couch was just full of roaches (not the insect) underneath and between the cushions.

I went to the same HS as BNL (they graduated before I got there - transferred halfway) and Steve lives in the area but no stories or run ins with them. Watching the Lovers in a Dangerous Time video is a trip because that's the hydrofield by our highschool.


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## Alex

CMCRAWFORD said:


> I worked at the Toronto Sun from 90-95 and met all sorts of folks from politicians, actors, athletes and musicians. One encounter that stands out was when a group of guys came in to drop off a demo tape to John Sakamoto and did a quick acoustic song on the sidewalk. The song was about the band and their name Barenaked Ladies.


I had a similar experience in the early '90s and worked a brief time for Now Magazine. Some bizarre and wild stories as I used to collect the cash for the Classified ads in the back of the magazine (if anyone remembers those...).

I was at a Now house party and went to grab a beer out of the fridge and the leaders of the Pursuit of Happiness and Men Without Hats were just standing in the kitchen and seemed to be the most introverted people you can meet.

Speaking of Nash the Slash - Also at Now, I worked with this raunchy funny dudette and she was having this long phone conversation with a potential customer to place an ad and she then turns to me (while still on the phone) and asks" Hey Alex, do you know a "Nash the Slash"? He's trying to convince me that he was somebody in the past"....


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## CMCRAWFORD

So many funny encounters working at the Sun. The funniest was a trained bear that was brought in for a photo shoot with a Sunshine girl. Told the handler and photographer to take the first elevator (freight) but they decided to take the passenger one instead that was lined with mirrors. As soon as the doors closed the bear saw it’s reflection and lost it. Pissed all over the place.


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## Granny Gremlin

Guncho said:


> I went to high school with Shania Twain's brothers and started hanging out with one of them. The first time I crashed at his place, we slept in the same bed as he had a queen sized waterbed. I had long blonde hair at the time and in the morning Shania walked in, saw my long blonde hair and yelled, "Mark has a girl in his bed!".
> 
> lol



Wasn't there something about her truck?


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## Tom T

I was playing a gig with Taj Mahal on the ticket in Rossland. Taj and his manager rolled up in a big rented Caddy and Taj proceeded to regale us with stories about working on the farm, while lifting a big hay bale above his head to emphasize how hard it was. He is giant of a man and funny as hell.


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## Guncho

Granny Gremlin said:


> Wasn't there something about her truck?


We used to wait til she fell asleep and then we would roll her Jimmy out of the driveway in neutral and drive around.


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## Okay Player

An acquaintance of mine was working a Billy Idol show at the local arena a few years back. He ends up backstage and Billy Idol said "Hey, wanna do some coke?" Apparently when Billy Idol offers you coke, you do it.


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## Mooh

I took a call on my cell from a friend who had been sent to find a Godin Acousticaster or equivalent for Buffy Sainte-Marie to use as hers had an issue. I had what she needed and then some and it would have been cool except I was way up north.


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## Mooh

I have a drawing of my wife done by Hilary James. 









Hilary James - Wikipedia







en.wikipedia.org


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## Paul Running

I have not got close to any celebrity musicians however, I did bump into Andrea Martin (AKA Edna Boyle of Tex and Edna Boyle's Organ Emporium). This was at Disneyland, Orlando in January, 1991...she is an attractive woman up-close, in reality:









.


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## leftysg

Met the New York Dolls when I was a young kid at a local radio station. It was Halloween and some friends and I snuck up the stairway and there they were in the studio with the DJ. It was my birthday as well so I was given a giant Lou Reed lollipop. Kinda weird now that I look back on it.


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## DaddyDog

Wife and I parked near the Distillery District one day. We stepped on to the sidewalk, and a guy with a double bass says "hey how's it going?" as he walks by. It was Jim Creeggan from Bare Naked Ladies.


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## BGood

We once opened for Mahogany Rush as they were just starting, somewhere early 70's. We made a point of ending our set with Purple Haze or Voodoo Chaild, can't remember which, giving it all we had. We knew they'd rise to the challenge and of course opened with the same song. Of course they just killed us.

We had a good laugh ... and another beer.

Good times


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## Scottone

I met Ron Heathman (RIP) from the Supersuckers at Capsule and had a fairly long conversation with him. Nice guy and a great player.


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## Twisted Metal

I’ve got 2:

The first one: we went to see the Quireboys at the Penguin in Ottawa and we were hanging out in the bar after the show for a while then we decided to go get a sandwich at Subway next door before it closed and ended up sitting with a few guys from the band.

The second one: In my younger years I worked as a shuttle driver while I went to university; one night I was picking someone up at the airport but there was a huge snow storm so the guy I was to pick up got stuck in TO. The roads were equally bad in Ottawa but I had a 4x4 Surburban so I was good… I went to get a coffee before leaving and a guy I know at the Airport asked if I was driving the Suburban today; I said yes…he said I have someone that needs to go to Montreal. I said sure why not…..I pull up the vehicle and the guy jumps in…..its Corey Hart. LOL. There wasn’t a ton of conversation as it was after midnight…but that’s hey my story


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## Guncho

Twisted Metal said:


> I’ve got 2:
> 
> The first one: we went to see the Quireboys at the Penguin in Ottawa and we were hanging out in the bar after the show for a while then we decided to go get a sandwich at Subway next door before it closed and ended up sitting with a few guys from the band.
> 
> The second one: In my younger years I worked as a shuttle driver while I went to university; one night I was picking someone up at the airport but there was a huge snow storm so the guy I was to pick up got stuck in TO. The roads were equally bad in Ottawa but I had a 4x4 Surburban so I was good… I went to get a coffee before leaving and a guy I know at the Airport asked if I was driving the Suburban today; I said yes…he said I have someone that needs to go to Montreal. I said sure why not…..I pull up the vehicle and the guy jumps in…..its Corey Hart. LOL. There wasn’t a ton of conversation as it was after midnight…but that’s hey my story


So, did he wear sunglasses at night?


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## Twisted Metal

LOL...he did not


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## Milkman

I don't have any funny ones, but I met Eddie Van Halen at a MIAC show along with Sammy Hagar. Eddie was reeking of booze and loaded at 10:00 AM.

The one I think I was most star struck by was meeting and chatting with Steve Cropper in the Nashville airport. He was humble, friendly and seemed surprised to be recognized.

We ended up on the same flight and as I was a frequent flier, I ended up being upgraded to first class. He sat in coach.


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## telle-tom

I ran into Johnny Marr on King Street in Toronto a few years back. He was doing a show at the Phoenix. Ended up walking a few blocks and talking. He was looking for a place to grab a bite. 

Also spent 4 hours on a flight to Netherlands with the late Larry Coryell. That was a great experience.


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## LanceT

I got drunk with Doug and The Slugs after a show at the Commodore sometime in the 90"s.


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## Guitar101

GuitarT said:


> Back in the early 80's my buddy and I (the same guy who got the finger from Nash) were hanging out at a place called Ruby's in Waterloo. There was a band playing that did a mix of covers and originals and their female lead singer had quite an awesome voice. During their break my buddy thought it would be a good idea to meet the band since we were cocky young musicians looking to make connections. My buddy ended up saying to the singer, "Hey, you guys are pretty good. That last song you sounded just like the chick on the radio". She responded, "I am the chick on the radio". Turns out it was Mary Lu Zahalan, a somewhat of a one hit wonder who was riding high on the success of a song called "If I Had One Wish".


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## Acoustic Tom

Well I was working midnights and woke up after 4 hours sleep and decided to order a pizza from a local pizza shop. I walk in to pick up my pie and notice these 3 guys sitting at a table eating. At first I thought "hey that guy looks familiar " then it becomes clear, it was kim mitchell and 2 members of his band. I walked over , kindly interrupted, and asked if I could get an autograph for my music room. I'm telling you, that guy was a class act all the way. Pulled out a pen and signed a paper bag that my garlic bread was in. He may not be super famous or big outside of canada but brother, I grew up listening to him and max webster many a night with a few molson exports and a couple dubes!


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## laristotle

Acoustic Tom said:


> it was kim mitchell


If you go downtown T.O. in the eighties, everyone eventually bumps into Kim. lol


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## Zebjo

Jody Porter from Fountains of Wayne called me up on Facetime once at like 2 in the morning. I friended him on FB, and apparently he saw a post with my '53 tweed Deluxe, decided he had to have it, and tracked me down. He was sitting on the floor, guitars laying all over the place, and he was chugging beers like crazy - obviously pretty well lit. He tried his ass off to get me to trade my amp for a guitar, offering up a bunch of stuff. Eventually he got frustrated because I told him that "only because it's you" I will sell you the amp for $2500, even though I'd rather keep it. He thought my price was too high, and lost interest. But overall, it was a very entertaining encounter, and I seriously LOVE the guy's work on those FOW records. But damn.... go find someone else's amp, fella!


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## Zebjo

tdotrob said:


> I gave head to Penn from Penn and teller.


Did you swallow?


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## tdotrob

Zebjo said:


> Did you swallow?


It magically disappeared


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## fretzel

Worked security a few times for MuchMusic/City TV. Didn't necessarily meet any celebs per sè but it was a fun gig. Did crowd control for a street party Electric Circus. Two MMVA's. One I was stationed beside a podium where a majority of the awards were presented. And I did an open house. Anne Rohmer was quite friendly and chatted with me for a little.

At the first MMVA I was to stop people from exiting through the rear parking lot. This well dressed woman approached me and I told her she wasn't allowed to exit. She tore a strip off me. Telling me who she is blah, blah, blah! Next some huge CFL player goes to leave, when I told he couldn't he was thankfully more polite and exited where he was allowed to.


----------



## TJSilljer

I have some REALLY great stories and run ins with Gene Simmons over the years. I also have a couple good David Lee Roth ones, including telling him to back off when he called his guitar tech a "Pussy piss-ant" or something to that end. But my favorite is seeing Sebastian Bach tossed out of a gig because he was drunk and being an asshole. Two security guards one on each arm literally dragging him kicking and screaming.


----------



## laristotle

TJSilljer said:


> David Lee Roth ones, including telling him to back off when he called his guitar tech a "Pussy piss-ant" or something to that end.


He has a guitar tech for the one song that he plays?! lol


----------



## Peel Ferrari

mhammer said:


> Jethro Tull plays a tangential role in this tale.
> 
> Summer of 1970, I was writing for a Montreal music tabloid, backed by concert promoter Donald K. Donald. I was sent to cover the rock festival held at the old Autostade, and interview Van Morrison; probably the most uncomfortable experience of my life. I was young, stupid, have a hard time telling when people with a thick Irish accent are being sarcastic, and Morrison is a famously difficult interview at the best of times. We were in the hallway, and it was not going well. Tull had just finished their set and were coming down the hall past us. I looked up at them and said "I guess you're finished now", which Morrison interpreted to be him. He turned around and left, without saying another word.
> 
> I covered a concert by The Incredible String Band at Place des Arts. It was a hasty last-minute thing and I scrambled to find a camera. I borrowed a little Instamatic, bought a film cartridge and a flashcube. The interview was pleasant. Nice people. I got them and the entire entourage to pose for a pic in the lobby. It was an arms-over-shoulder lineup of about 20 people wide. I snapped, but the flashcube didn't flash. I turned the camera around to see what I had done wrong and the flash unexpectedly went off in my face. I tried once more to get a pic while everyone was in line and waiting for me. Same thing happened again. Bulb didn't go off until I turned the camera over to see what was the matter. After the 2nd flash in my face, folks gave up and wandered off. None of the pictures came out.



This is similar to my Eric Clapton story. I was on set as a visitor for Blues Bros 2000 which featured a musical celebrity allstar band - EC, BB King, Bo Diddly, Booker T, Billy Preston, Jimmie Vaughan, and more (my sig photo if from that day, showing me with Steve Winwood) which was in itself, mind-blowing. The stones were in town, and they had Inputs for Mick and Keith but they didnt show. Anyway - EC was all over the set, and I finally got to ask him for a photo and he brushed me off. He was not having a good day, despite everyone's effort to get him to lighten up - John Landau and Paul Shaffer included. Finally, at the very end of the day, i cornered him, sitting alone behind the set, where his tech was working on the guitars. There were about 20 vintage guitars there. I asked the tech to take a photo with my camera, a 35mm (1997) and I sat beside EC (who signed my Crade CD btw) and told the tech, "theres not my shots left" and the replied " I never used a 35mm camera" before...and at that exact moment - the one my face said "WTF?" - he snapped the pic. Then the camera roll wound up (remember those days??.) So my only pic with Eric Clapton from that day, is me looking like an idiot with a look of utter disbelief and EC looking fully bored with it. No lie.


----------



## mhammer

Peel Ferrari said:


> This is similar to my Eric Clapton story. I was on set as a visitor for Blues Bros 2000 which featured a musical celebrity allstar band - EC, BB King, Bo Diddly, Booker T, Billy Preston, Jimmie Vaughan, and more (my sig photo if from that day, showing me with Steve Winwood) which was in itself, mind-blowing. The stones were in town, and they had Inputs for **** and Keith but they didnt show. Anyway - EC was all over the set, and I finally got to ask him for a photo and he brushed me off. He was not having a good day, despite everyone's effort to get him to lighten up - John Landau and Paul Shaffer included. Finally, at the very end of the day, i cornered him, sitting alone behind the set, where his tech was working on the guitars. There were about 20 vintage guitars there. I asked the tech to take a photo with my camera, a 35mm (1997) and I sat beside EC (who signed my Crade CD btw) and told the tech, "theres not my shots left" and the replied " I never used a 35mm camera" before...and at that exact moment - the one my face said "WTF?" - he snapped the pic. Then the camera roll wound up (remember those days??.) So my only pic with Eric Clapton from that day, is me looking like an idiot with a look of utter disbelief and EC looking fully bored with it. No lie.


And the irony is you have to *pay* to have that picture developed so you can see what a godawful pic it was, adding insult to injury. LOL Would not have recognized Stevie Winwood in that pic.

I did get to meet a variety of musical greats in my time, but they rarely resulted in humorous stories, with the exception of those I told. Although maybe this one counts. I spent about 45 minutes interviewing James Brown in his hotel room, back in '82. One of the questions I asked him was what musicians he hadn't yet worked with that he might like to, and why. His response might bring a smile *or* a WTF confused look, but it floored me. Barbara Streisand. "Why her?", I asked. Because he thought he could teach her a thing or two about "soul". Go figure.

I interviewed David Wilcox around the same time, and while it might not be funny to others, it was to us at the time. There was a lot of "tribute" bands passing through Edmonton, and Wilcox came up with the idea of a band that would be called "Coverboy".


----------



## TJSilljer

laristotle said:


> He has a guitar tech for the one song that he plays?! lol
> View attachment 389007


Nah, on the tour I was on DLR freaked out on the tech that was taking care of the other 2 guitar players. Al and Jake. Both great players, the tech at the time was Vai's tech Tomas Nordegg.


----------



## Permanent Waves

Acoustic Tom said:


> Well I was working midnights and woke up after 4 hours sleep and decided to order a pizza from a local pizza shop. I walk in to pick up my pie and notice these 3 guys sitting at a table eating. At first I thought "hey that guy looks familiar " then it becomes clear, it was kim mitchell and 2 members of his band. I walked over , kindly interrupted, and asked if I could get an autograph for my music room. I'm telling you, that guy was a class act all the way. Pulled out a pen and signed a paper bag that my garlic bread was in. He may not be super famous or big outside of canada but brother, I grew up listening to him and max webster many a night with a few molson exports and a couple dubes!


The Rush tribute band I was with at the time opened for Kim Mitchell at the Russell Fair in September 1999, and I concur he is a class act - never heard different from anybody. They made sure we had proper stage space and sound check. Kim was walking around in front of the stage during our sound check - it was weird playing Rush songs in front of a guy who knows them and used to open for them. During their set, Kim said "We used to open for Rush for years, it's funny having them open for us!" before breaking into "Battlescar" (Rush/Max Webster collab). I just about lost it. We went to their dressing room after the show and he was very gracious and friendly. A great guy, and probably the most underrated guitar player ever.


----------



## 2manyGuitars

cdntac said:


> An online encounter...
> 
> 8-9 years ago I had posted a few times on the April Wine FB page.
> 
> One day I received a fried request from Myles Goodwyn (his own personal page).
> 
> I accepted it, looked at his page and commented on something on his page (iirc, it was about a stolen guitar he was looking for and had just posted about).
> 
> Very shortly afterwards I was unfriended. Lol.
> 
> I assume he accidentally clicked on the friend request button as he was looking at my page.





Permanent Waves said:


> This is odd... I am going to venture a guess that maybe it was the unfriending that was more accidental than the friending. Two of my FB friends are FB friends with Myles, and they are regular joes. I remember because I saw something on their feeds about the stolen guitar story, which Myles recovered after 46 years. Goodwin seems pretty down to earth and connected with his fans.
> 
> Story in the National Post about this: Link


Myles Goodwyn can eat a bag of dicks.
I’ll give you the bullet points because it’s a long one...

Part 1

About 15 years ago, selling an Epiphone Les Paul (a pretty unusual one) on kijiji for around $350
Guy contacts me from Montreal area, I’m in Ottawa, we agree to meet in Hawkesbury
I stop at Cdn Tire on the way and spend 75 bucks on one of those cigarette lighter power inverters so I could plug in the little amp I brought
Meet up eventually (after he goes to the wrong Timmies) and after asking MANY times, he insisted he didn’t need to plug it in
Asked “Do you know who I am?” and said yeah, I thought I recognized him
While chatting about guitars for 30 minutes or so, he was checking out the guitar
Pays and leaves

Part 2

A few days later, I get an email saying “the neck pickup sounded weird so while my tech was pulling the cover off, it fell apart”
After much, MUCH back and forth, he tells me the specific model of Seymour Duncan pickup he would like to replace it with
Darwin at Retrotown has a Gibson ‘57 Classic he’s willing to cut me a deal on. Myles deems this acceptable. I tell him I can ship him the pickup or the $135 dollars and he can have his tech take care of it. He opts for the cash.
I spend another $15 to buy a money order and overnight it (this was before EMTs)
A couple days later, he contacts me and he’s pissed because he was expecting $135 PLUS tax.
I’m eventually able to appease him. Keep in mind, I’m giving him $135 because the Epiphone pickup in his $350 guitar broke while he was trying to pry the cover off. I told him that basically, he can keep the $135 or he can meet me back in Hawkesbury and I’ll happily refund the full purchase price.

Part 3

A week or two later, I get ANOTHER email saying that his tech now thinks the neck might be twisted and he wants a refund.
After telling him that after 3 weeks, I wasn’t willing to take it back, he threatened legal action and added “I’d hate to see what your wife and kids would think if they found out that this is how you do business...”
That’s when I finally lost my shit. I said “Perfect, and I’ll tell the court you’ve had the guitar for 3 weeks, you checked it out for a half-hour before buying it, I went out of my way to make sure you could plug it in (you declined multiple times), your tech took it apart, has worked on it several times by now and has had MORE than enough time to have spotted this earlier, you also told me about the “many hundreds of guitars you’ve bought” so I would think the courts would consider you to maybe even be “an expert”. I’ll also tell them how I gave you $135 on a $350 guitar so you could buy your choice of “professional grade” pickup to replace the $40 one that YOUR tech broke. So I look forward to seeing you in court. And how dare you threaten to contact my wife and kids.”

I’m sure I didn’t tell him to go Fuck himself at this point (because I was trying to keep this professional) but I certainly would have been forgiven if I had.

And Myles, if you happen to stumble across this and get that litigious feeling again, I have EVERY email documenting every word exchanged. And even if I didn’t, I could still probably argue in court that my memory is probably a LOT better than yours since I didn’t spend decades “living the rock star life” if you catch my drift.


----------



## Permanent Waves

Holy cr*p, what a story. I stand corrected. You had me at "Do you know who I am?". Any celebrity playing that card is pretty pathetic. 
For anyone to cause so many problems for such a modest guitar purchase is ridiculous, but even more so a well known musician. 
Guess Rock'n'Roll is a more vicious game than I thought. That part 3 is unbelievable. Oowatadick. "Bag of dicks" is being very kind .


----------



## 2manyGuitars

Permanent Waves said:


> You had me at "Do you know who I am?". Any celebrity playing that card is pretty pathetic.


I refer to that as “Pulling a Bobby Big-Wheel”.

And again, this is the condensed version. This played out over 3-4 weeks and a LOT of emails. I was at the top of my customer service game until the last threat.


----------



## bentwire17

Back in the day on a Yonge st street corner sat The Millwheel . I think Drago was the proprietor, who was managing a stable of J. Larrivee and the apprentices (Wren, De-jong , manzer etc) acoustic guitars all in a row. Shwing! While taking all this in , low and behold Bruce Cockburn walks in and sits down to run through the stable, I leaned off to the side watching this delight. Bruce was looking for the one that spoke to him the most . With eyes closed , he was working it. After some time he started to settle on one in particular. Gave me a wink and a smile .
I told him “I usually pay to see this” . He laughed.


----------



## mhammer

2manyGuitars said:


> Myles Goldwyn can eat a bag of dicks.
> I’ll give you the bullet points because it’s a long one...
> 
> Part 1
> 
> About 15 years ago, selling an Epiphone Les Paul (a pretty unusual one) on kijiji for around $350
> Guy contacts me from Montreal area, I’m in Ottawa, we agree to meet in Hawkesbury
> I stop at Cdn Tire on the way and spend 75 bucks on one of those cigarette lighter power inverters so I could plug in the little amp I brought
> Meet up eventually (after he goes to the wrong Timmies) and after asking MANY times, he insisted he didn’t need to plug it in
> Asked “Do you know who I am?” and said yeah, I thought I recognized him
> While chatting about guitars for 30 minutes or so, he was checking out the guitar
> Pays and leaves
> 
> Part 2
> 
> A few days later, I get an email saying “the neck pickup sounded weird so while my tech was pulling the cover off, it fell apart”
> After much, MUCH back and forth, he tells me the specific model of Seymour Duncan pickup he would like to replace it with
> Darwin at Retrotown has a Gibson ‘57 Classic he’s willing to cut me a deal on. Myles deems this acceptable. I tell him I can ship him the pickup or the $135 dollars and he can have his tech take care of it. He opts for the cash.
> I spend another $15 to buy a money order and overnight it (this was before EMTs)
> A couple days later, he contacts me and he’s pissed because he was expecting $135 PLUS tax.
> I’m eventually able to appease him. Keep in mind, I’m giving him $135 because the Epiphone pickup in his $350 guitar broke while he was trying to pry the cover off. I told him that basically, he can keep the $135 or he can meet me back in Hawkesbury and I’ll happily refund the full purchase price.
> 
> Part 3
> 
> A week or two later, I get ANOTHER email saying that his tech now thinks the neck might be twisted and he wants a refund.
> After telling him that after 3 weeks, I wasn’t willing to take it back, he threatened legal action and added “I’d hate to see what your wife and kids would think if they found out that this is how you do business...”
> That’s when I finally lost my shit. I said “Perfect, and I’ll tell the court you’ve had the guitar for 3 weeks, you checked it out for a half-hour before buying it, I went out of my way to make sure you could plug it in (you declined multiple times), your tech took it apart, has worked on it several times by now and has had MORE than enough time to have spotted this earlier, you also told me about the “many hundreds of guitars you’ve bought” so I would think the courts would consider you to maybe even be “an expert”. I’ll also tell them how I gave you $135 on a $350 guitar so you could buy your choice of “professional grade” pickup to replace the $40 one that YOUR tech broke. So I look forward to seeing you in court. And how dare you threaten to contact my wife and kids.”
> 
> I’m sure I didn’t tell him to go Fuck himself at this point (because I was trying to keep this professional) but I certainly would have been forgiven if I had.
> 
> And Myles, if you happen to stumble across this and get that litigious feeling again, I have EVERY email documenting every word exchanged. And even if I didn’t, I could still probably argue in court that my memory is probably a LOT better than yours since I didn’t spend decades “living the rock star life” if you catch my drift.


I've met plenty of notables in the music world and beyond, who were absolute sweethearts. But there's a reason why we often hear the warning "Never meet your heroes". And I think you stumbled onto one of the textbook examples.

In complete contrast, as I've recounted here several times, I was sent to interview Ted Nugent in 1970. It had been a disappointing gig the night before, but he was nothing less than gentlemanly. I witnessed him calling up his mom from the hotel room (it was Mother's Day), and asking his sister to dig out his bow and arrows from the garage that ended up adorning the cover of a subsequent album ("Survival of the Fittest"). He was all please-and-thank-you-ma'am with the servers when we went down to the hotel restaurant for him to have a bite. He let me play his blonde Byrdland, and introduced me to light gauge strings, making up a few custom sets for me from his stash when I asked how it was so easy to bend them. He was a generally nice guy. What the hell happened to him _*after*_ that, I have no idea.

Incidentally, stick the right wig on Pete Davidson and he absolutely nails what Nugent looked like back in the day. I'm surprised SNL hasn't had him play Nugent for anything yet.


----------



## TJSilljer

April Wine tours with 3 crew members. For the iteration I was in it was Myself as backline. Monitor tech/TM and a FOH tech. I worked with the band on and off for about 3 years 2013-2016ish. Myles is a bit of a nutcase still but MUCH better than he was previous. He has leveled out, maybe got on the proper meds, when I last worked with him anyway. He has since spent a lot more time on Facebook and that kind of echo chamber is not good for a fella like that.

I guess I consider myself lucky that I knew him post-asshole and pre-facebook. He was a fairly nice old fella. Like a crazy grumpy uncle, but one you could tell to fuck off if he started being a diva. He didnt really peacock much after being told that every couple months.


----------



## SWLABR

I was making a delivery at the condo tower in SW Toronto. Someone pulled in and parked in the back parking lot (the one meant for deliveries, not residents) as I was trying to leave. They thought I cut in front of them and decided I needed a talking to. Chased my truck through the windy driveway. I really couldn’t pull over, so I crept along till it widened. At one point the car tried to pass me and nearly had a head on collision with an SUV, but tucked back in time. The driveway finally got wide enough for me to slow right down, and the car to pass. 
A woman got out and went up one side, and down the other of how I almost clipped her car (I didn’t) and how she was just in an accident (ya, I’m not surprised) and this is a new car… and the whole time I just kept thinking, “Holy crap!! It’s Alana Myles!”


----------



## Thunderboy1975

SWLABR said:


> I was making a delivery at the condo tower in SW Toronto. Someone pulled in and parked in the back parking lot (the one meant for deliveries, not residents) as I was trying to leave. They thought I cut in front of them and decided I needed a talking to. Chased my truck through the windy driveway. I really couldn’t pull over, so I crept along till it widened. At one point the car tried to pass me and nearly had a head on collision with an SUV, but tucked back in time. The driveway finally got wide enough for me to slow right down, and the car to pass.
> A woman got out and went up one side, and down the other of how I almost clipped her car (I didn’t) and how she was just in an accident (ya, I’m not surprised) and this is a new car… and the whole time I just kept thinking, “Holy crap!! It’s Alana Myles!”


She lays in a bed all day long in Bobcaygeon now. Claims a chiropractor for wrecked her back.


----------



## laristotle

Thunderboy1975 said:


> Blames a chiropractor for wrecking her back.


I don't trust them either.


----------



## SWLABR

Thunderboy1975 said:


> She lays in a bed all day long in Bobcaygeon now. Blames a chiropractor for wrecking her back.


I don’t judge people with chronic back pain anymore. A real hack of a chiropractor herniated my wife’s disc. In hindsight he basically admitted he was over his head in thinking he could treat her ailment. But he “gave it a shot”.
Two back surgeries later the area back surgeon said “I don’t think all chiropractors are bad, but a good one is had to find, and you can find a butcher who will land you in my office around every corner.” 
My wife’s a trooper though. She never complains about it.


----------



## Midnight Rider

2005 at the John Labatt Centre, London. My 15 year son asked me if I would take him to see Deep Purple,(what?,...I know), so I dished out for a couple main floor tickets four rows from the front. After the show we landed up backstage in the green room,... long story. We chatted with all the band members with Roger Glover being the last.

We spent a good twenty minutes together with most of that time spent laughing almost to the point of tears as Mr. Glover was in stand up comic mode,... this man is funny as hell and along with that British accent,... well, forget about it. It was like listening to John Cleese.


----------



## Dorian2

VH 1984 Tour at Northlands Coliseum. Us 15 and 16 year old were drunk walking home and stopped at a 7-11. This is a good 45 minute walk so far. Bus pulls up when we got there and we noticed the VH symbol on the bus. We were excited thinking that we might meet the3 band. Instead, a woman comes out and asks us if we can direct them to the Coliseum. Said they got lost and needed to pick up the band.

Wonder if VH were pissed?


----------



## Sneaky

I met Bo Diddley in a pawnshop on Church St in Toronto once. Also met Hani Naser in a pawnshop in Calgary. Seemed like a cool guy, said he was just visiting from California. I didn’t know who he was until I went to see David Lindley that night and there he was on stage.

Todd Rundgren high fived me at a club in Calgary.


----------



## Sneaky

I had a few beers with the Legendary Blues Band and Sugar Blue in Montreal one time in the early 80’s. It was a Monday night and the place was nearly empty when I first got there. I was all ga ga sitting next to Sugar and listening to a few of his stories of touring Europe with the Stones on the Some Girls tour. I didn’t realize that all these old guys I was sitting with we’re Muddy Waters old band. I stumbled back to my hotel half in the bag around 1:00am, they got up to play one more set.


----------



## 2manyGuitars

Dorian2 said:


> Instead, a woman comes out and asks us if we can direct them to the Coliseum. Said they got lost and needed to pick up the band.
> 
> Wonder if VH were pissed?


I would have said “Yeah, we just came from there. We’ll hop in and show you the way.”
Then, when she gets there, you tell the band “Yeah, this idiot was lost but luckily, we showed her how to get here.”

Then, instead of telling us about that time you were drunk at a 7-11 and saw a bus, you’d be showing us pics of a Franken-Strat and telling us about the time you partied with Ed and he gave you his guitar. 😆


----------



## TJ Ontario

I smoked weed with Ronnie Hawkins at his house on Stoney Lake about 5 years ago

An older friend of mine knew Ronnie from being childhood neighbours and brought me along for a visit. Ronnie didn't remember him 🤣 but said his memory wasn't very good and invited us in. He did remember a few events from their childhood my friend asked him about.

Ronnie was relaxing in his back room getting high and listening to music. We offered to share a joint with him but he said his lungs weren't strong enough for joints anymore and smoked his vaporizer while we chatted.

A friend of Ronnies was also there - a guy who had been one of his tour managers for a period. He reminisced about his touring days and talked about selling his farm since his age was catching up with him. A year or two later he sectioned off part of his property and sold the farmhouse, moving into one of the smaller homes on the property

I guess it's not a funny story but it's all I have, outside of getting drunk with Three Days Grace


----------



## Alan Small

Owen Sound farm field 2005???ish
Raining cats n dogs at this outdoor music festival...fairly big musicians tent side stage a few local musicians all standing around waiting for the stage to dry enough for the next act to go on...Kim Mitchell present...from the other side of the tent comes a loud request.." hey!, any of you know where I can find Kim Mitchell? He owes me some money!" then the guy walks right past us and out of the tent...none of us say a word😝

So funny, the guy was Joe Walsh


----------



## mhammer

I have an old album, on Roulette, of Ronnie Hawkins "Greatest HIts". The cover is a shark-skin suited Ronnie, twistin' the night away, with plenty of young Robbie Robertson scronks included. It was enough for me to persuade my old band that we should do Ronnie's cover of Huey "Piano" Smith's "High Blood Pressure".


----------



## BlueRocker

Not a direct brush with celebrity, but around 1987 I went dancing with a woman whose husband didn't happen to be aware of my presence. Went to see Doug and the Slugs at the Misty Moon on Barrington Street in Halifax. When we got there, the upper balcony was closed off. After an hour of dancing and partying, I realized the balcony was closed because they were shooting a music video or something. Left quickly after that.


----------



## zontar

Maybe not funny--but at a music store meet & greet Ian Paice liked my brother's beard--and said "Now that's a beard"--excpeet with his accent my brother had no idea what he said--I understood it so was kind of amusing.

I'm sure there are non musical ones I could come up with if I thought about it--but my brain hurts.


----------



## zontar




----------



## Steadfastly

I was friends with Gordon Lightfoot's lead guitar player, Red Shea, and never knew it for months after I met him. On of the other ex band members from our congregation mentioned to me who he was. Red was a real nice humble guy with a very nice family.


----------



## Guncho

Got drunk with Jean Larivee and ate fava beans at a Portuguese bar. 

Friend worked at the shop and gave me a tour.


----------



## Doctor Cheese

was buying shots for Foreskin 500 after a show they did at Satyricon in PDX back in the 90s. Diggie Diamond was commenting on how weird Portland was - how last time they played there a big "leather daddy" with a huge beard was front & center at their show doing poppers and knew all their songs lyric for lyric.

Then I had to explain to Diggie that was me.


----------



## wraub

I used to work at a recording studio in NYC so I have met a few celebs...most were pretty cool, a few less so.

Some moments- I got weed for Burning Spear once- he said it was good. I was tasked to take Jack Bruce's basses (Gibson and Warwick) to his hotel, in a cab, by myself... that was interesting. I was repeatedly asked by the lead singer of The Strokes to play backgammon, but I refused. James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem invited me to a party, but I couldn't go. from Saw a guy from a Japanese band called Nananine wake up from a nap, have a cigarette, and go back to sleep. Watched Jack Black and another guy planning a music video shoot, after seeing JB at a Tenacious D record signing earlier that week-he saw my bass case and asked if it was a snowboard. Fred Schneider was very picky about having his specific coffee and accessories in the studio. Others...

Fun times.


----------



## Diablo

Always12AM said:


> I peed next to the black guy from S club 7 in 1998 at Playdium and being a child, I looked at his penis and noticed that mine was bigger than his which to me is funny.
> 
> View attachment 387541


I was at a urinal beside Sebastian Bach at the Molson Ampitheatre at a show about 10 years ago. neither of us looked.


My only funny story, wasnt that funny.
Was on an escalator going up in the Eaton centre with a couple friends (we were all about 14, mid 1980's). Coming down on the other side I saw Kim Mitchell with a pretty bleach blonde gal. Before I could say anything, my friend exclaimed "Look, Its Daryl Hannah!" It wasnt. But it was funny to me that he didnt notice actual Kim Mitchell standing right beside "Daryl". He was kinda, err unique looking.


----------



## Always12AM

Diablo said:


> I was at a urinal beside Sebastian Bach at the Molson Ampitheatre at a show about 10 years ago. neither of us looked.
> 
> 
> My only funny story, wasnt that funny.
> Was on an escalator going up in the Eaton centre with a couple friends (we were all about 14, mid 1980's). Coming down on the other side I saw Kim Mitchell with a pretty bleach blonde gal. Before I could say anything, my friend exclaimed "Look, Its Daryl Hannah!" It wasnt. But it was funny to me that he didnt notice actual Kim Mitchell standing right beside "Daryl". He was kinda, err unique looking.


Being from Barrie I have seen Kim Mitchell more than my own dad lol. I was bartending at one of his shows one time, I gotta say, he plays dead nuts to his recordings and is one of the better players I’ve seen.


----------



## SmoggyTwinkles

I went to an album release line-up thing for Dinosaur Jr's Out There at Sunrise Records on Yonge when I was in grade 10.

I guess the funny part is that my grade 10 English teacher's (Mrs. Jay) class was so overrun with misfits and bullies that she had us doing spelling tests. 

I got a 9/10 on the latest one we had done. 

It was in my pocket. And when I got up to J Mascis I presented him with my spelling test (everyone else has CD's, merch etc for him to sign) 

He looks at it and says "You spelled Cuckoo wrong?" in his lazy crackled voice. Then put a J on there in sharpie, like anyone could have made that J. 

I think I just said "Yeah, huhuh" and moved on. 

This dude was my idol at the time, the reason I picked up a guitar. 

Seemed like a pretty perfect interaction.


----------



## Mooh

Sue Foley spotted my Canadian Guitar Festival t-shirt. She was lovely and gracious.


----------



## Wootang

telle-tom said:


> I ran into Johnny Marr on King Street in Toronto a few years back. He was doing a show at the Phoenix. Ended up walking a few blocks and talking. He was looking for a place to grab a bite.
> 
> Also spent 4 hours on a flight to Netherlands with the late Larry Coryell. That was a great experience.


I was at this show probably


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## Eric Reesor

Christmas time in my great uncle Cliff McKay's basement studio in 1957 at the age of 5.

Cliff sent me down to the basement and told me to play the piano and nothing else because I was driving the family nuts by singing Christmas carols and whistling some Mozart tunes from my then favourite piece of music, symphony 35. Cliff told me that he would come down with a friend who played the piano in a while, but only if I behaved myself. Otherwise he would lock me up because I was behaving like a monkey on steroids, as I was want to do when I was that age and excited about being somewhere that music was constantly happening.

So I messed a little with the drum set and got into shit for it. Cliff yelled down the stairs at me to get the hell off the drums or he would indeed lock me up, so I concentrated on the baby grand as instructed to do in the first place and started to behave myself because I knew I was pushing the envelope a little too much.

I tried to play a little bit of the tunes that were running around in my head when a big dark man sat down beside me and took over and improvised like mad around the tunes that I was singing and whistling and trying to find on the keyboard with limited success. He startled the hell out of me but I quickly realized that I was in the presence of greatness even though I did not know who was messing so incredibly with a melody that I was trying to find on the piano that I could so easily either whistle or sing.

It was only much later that I realized exactly who the big dark man was. 

My earliest instruction and encouragement to play music came from none other than Oscar.

Cliff came down and sang along with Oscar, who when he sings sounds allot like Nat King Cole even though he tried not to. Cliff was going over some of the up coming tunes for Holiday Ranch and was getting ready to play in Hamilton next week for new years. 

Much later on when I got over being a little monkey, I found out from my mother that Cliff's tv show Holiday Ranch was being replaced the next year with shows aimed more at the up and coming rock era. And Oscar was there helping Cliff make the transition to becoming a hired gun session player. Cliff didn't want to take a chair in a symphony orchestra but did want to keep his musical options open now that Holliday Ranch was going away,


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## Mooh

@Eric Reesor 

This Cliff McKay?






Cliff McKay


Cliff (John Clifford) McKay. Clarinetist, saxophonist, danceband leader, b Seaforth, near Stratford, Ont, 1909, d Niksic, Yugoslavia, 26 Mar 1987. His father, A...




www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca


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## RonzoRif

Late 90s and me and my girlfriend at the time (wife now) were at a bicycle store called Spokes. My girlfriend was heading down the stairs and literally bumped into Geddy Lee almost knocking him down (he is a rather small fellow). They kinda grabbed each other to prevent falling, laughed, apologized and went on our ways.


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## Wootang

Today I learned what holiday ranch was









The most baffling show on television | Maclean's | JUNE 9 1956


It costs peanuts; it doesn’t use fancy camera angles, flossy sets or big name guest stars; its chief stock in trade is western music played by easterners. Yet Holiday Ranch is TV’s most popular Canadian show




archive.macleans.ca


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## Eric Reesor

Mooh said:


> @Eric Reesor
> 
> This Cliff McKay?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Cliff McKay
> 
> 
> Cliff (John Clifford) McKay. Clarinetist, saxophonist, danceband leader, b Seaforth, near Stratford, Ont, 1909, d Niksic, Yugoslavia, 26 Mar 1987. His father, A...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca


Yup the same character that hosted this tv show. Cliff could never afford to have Oscar on his show and the execs would have had fits if he did. Cliff made his money catering the Canadian hickville audiences and Oscar just didn't fit in with that crowd. So Cliff had to play endless campy music and some swing in the style of Goodman to keep the ratings up.


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## Speck_WFTR

[my brother-from-another-mother Shayne, as a "local crew" dude, used to get me into all the shows around Ottawa back in the day. I'd show up. He'd hand me a wrench or something, and a pass. Woohoo!]

... so at the Civic Centre (late '80s) we come trapsing around a corner in a hallway one time, about to walk into another hall way ... when a huge bang went off several feet right IN FRONT of us ... then smoke started billowing out ... Shayne and I are standing there like tools, sorta disoriented ...

And then a line of what musta been a couple o' dozen ZZTop junkyard girls walk right by & between us, and then we hear the crowd go NUTS ...

Ummm ... didn't realize until after where we were headed for %#$* sake ...

Yeah, and then just earlier that evening I walked RIGHT BY Nuno strolling along by himself in the underground at the venue. Couldn't even manage to squeeze out a frickin' "hello" ... and i got Shayne tellin' me to close my mouth & keep walkin' man, keep walkin', don't be a shithead ...

... so i just let Shayne do the talkin' when we were standing yakkin' with Dusty Hill, (forget his name) the bass player from Extreme, and some other person i forget this second who it was ... haha oh yeah, The Rev Willy G ... he moved over to get some food as Shayne and I walked up to the other two ...

Too much man.

[Edit: the "Recycler Tour", with Extreme as the opener"]


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## mhammer

Steadfastly said:


> I was friends with Gordon Lightfoot's lead guitar player, Red Shea, and never knew it for months after I met him. On of the other ex band members from our congregation mentioned to me who he was. Red was a real nice humble guy with a very nice family.


If I'm not mistaken, Red also used to be part of the house band on the Thursday-Toronto episode of "Music Hop" on CBC, back in the '60s. Lenny Breau was part of the house band on the Wednesday episode from Winnipeg.


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## Milkman

Dang


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## Steadfastly

Milkman said:


> Dang


Yes, he could play a bit, couldn't he.


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## elburnando

Me and a work buddy just finished doing a side job and were going to go for beers in Mississauga. We were in the truck in the parking lot at the AMC by the QEW, and he went to back out, then slammed on his brakes. He gets out, and there's Jeff Healey on the back of a golf cart, with a trumpet. My buddy recognized him and says "oh man, Jeff Healey! I cant believe I almost ran over Jeff Healey!!" Then starts rambling on about how he loves his music. Then Jeff goes "You almost ran me over?". It was hard not to laugh at that. But he was a great guy and talked to us for a bit, we went to the bar he was at, not sure if he owned it or not, but it was cool. 

I also saw Dolly Parton leaving the airport once.


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## _Azrael

I used to live in Kingston, ON, so I’d run into Rob Baker on a semi-regular basis.

Ran into Steven Tyler in the Subway at the bottom of Princess. Didn’t think it was actually him until I heard about it on K-Rock the next day.

I didn’t know who Alexisonfire was and made fun of them for wearing matching clothes (“You guys in a band or something?”)


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