Close Encounters of The Not So Friendly Kind

[guitarweasel]

I would guess with all the members here some of you have had encounters with "FAMOUS ROCK STARS" I have on to share.

Once upon a time we were opening for a "FAMOUS' British band who were very popular in the 70's and 80's I won't give out name's cause I don't wanna get sued.....anyway........ It's getting time for sound check and the guitarist is sitting there with his rented Marshall head, but no cabs. He's pissin and moaning, so I go up to him and say (insert name here_______) Hey! if your cabs don't show up, you can use mine, I've got some old Marshall's and Hiwatt's, just take your pick. So ( insert name here__________) looks at me and Say's " I don't need your bloody f***ing cabinets!" WOW!...I was stunned! I've shared the stage with a lot of bands and have had great times with the majority of them, but this guy was a total dick! My response? I looked at him and said ... "OK...well, if your cabs don't show up you can still use mine ........for a hundred bucks" Too bad his cab's showed up.

Goes to show you, the guys that think their too cool for school turn out to be the biggest A Holes! And believe me, their show wasn't all that hot either.

Anybody else have any war stories? .............Share with the class !

 

[wjbiii]

[quote author=guitarweasel link=topic=6600.msg83027#msg83027 date=1139060818]

[...]

Goes to show you, the guys that think their too cool for school turn out to be the biggest A Holes! And believe me, their show wasn't all that hot either.[/quote]

On the flip side of that principle:

Stevie Ray Vaughan used to let me play his guitars. He was one of the naturally sweetest cats I ever met. Running with him through Texas in 1984, I was doing lights for a New York state band called "Duke Jupiter", and we had a little crew band to amuse ourselves out there. Stevie would drop by our dressing room now & then; he never sat in, but he would cheer and applaud. (We weren't bad.)

The first words he ever spoke to me were, "Can I stand here?" That was at the Geneva Theater in Geneva, New York, in late '83. He'd opened for The Band -- and just about tore the house down -- and then had come back out to the stage-left wing to watch the show. He'd tapped me on the shoulder to ask if he could stand in front of my dimmer racks. It was a pretty crowded space, and he was standing on some of my cables. (So was I, but I was the master electrician and knew what I was doing.) It was about the third time I saw him, but we hadn't met yet. I told him, "Man, you tell me where you want to stand and I'll move my gear." He laughed, and we had a good time.

I wish I could tell you the last thing he ever said to me, but I was falling-down drunk at a bar in Austin called "Chuy's", and I just walked away from him while I was greying out, right in the middle of the conversation, and barely made it to my bunk on the bus.

I hadn't meant to be such a bloody twit, but there you go. It was the 222's and the Wild Turkey that got me.

Stevie was really swell.

 

[guitarweasel]

WJ........I got to meet Stevie too. I was playing with Bonnie Raitt at the time. Very cool guy, he was just like like one of us......I was at the last show he did at Alpine Valley, for some weird reason I swiped the poster from the show........maybe subconsciously I knew what was gonna happen........very weird! :o

 

[wjbiii]

[quote author=guitarweasel link=topic=6600.msg83034#msg83034 date=1139064597]
WJ........I got to meet Stevie too. I was playing with Bonnie Raitt at the time.

[/quote]

Christ. Bonnie. When did you play with her?

I got a call to do her lights when I was on a break from rigging Hank Williams, Jr. I went out with her for a couple of weeks when her LD got jammed up in the UK and couldn't make it home. (He was an idiot.) Bonnie is serious about her production. I've worked with people who wouldn't know a spotlight if you hit 'em in the head with one, but she knows what's going on. We first met at a place in Atlanta (I don't recall the name of it, but it was on West Peachtree Street). I was in the control booth, and she walked onstage for the sound check, looked me in the eye from about a hundred feet away and said, "Hi, Billy." I was on the team, right then and there.

It was a short run, and I went back to Hank. She went back out shortly afterward, and they went through the first two names on their list, and then she said, "Well, call Billy and see what he's up to." I took the call and let 'em know that I was committed. A couple of days later, Jim Chapman (now doing lights for Aerosmith) heard the story and told me, "You idiot. We can find someone else to rig Hank. You get a call like that, you drop what you're doing."

Very shortly after that, "Nick Of Time" won the Grammy.

That was a notable mistake, I think.

Very cool guy, he was just like like one of us......I was at the last show he did at Alpine Valley, for some weird reason I swiped the poster from the show........maybe subconsciously I knew what was gonna happen........very weird!

That's a weird place. I was there once (with Duke, on that '84 tour, opening for Bon Jovi and The Scorpions) when the crowd went nuts and tore up the whole lawn, throwing it in huge clods at the stage, for no reason at all.

Yes, sir: Stevie was somethin'.

 

[vic108]

Well, I've only come close to... CLOSE ENCOUNTERS but....
(and this ain't a bad one)

Bass player extrodinare Tim Drummond is a friend of mine.
I'd tell you some stories but the statutes of limitations ain't up yet.....

He's played with James Brown, CS&N, Neil Young, Dylan, Clapton, Buffett, Jewel
(1st album - Tim and Jim Keltner did the session for free to "help the kid out&quot,
JJ Cale, Ry Cooder, Bette Midler, Beach Boys, John Mayall, MIck Taylor, SRV,
Roy Buchanan , Mark Knopfler, Levon Helm, Lonnie Mack, Ben Keith, Mac Gayden,
Jim Keltner, Spooner Oldham, Jack Nitzsche, Captain Beefheart, etc...

well, he has lived at my house off and on over the years and I answer the phone
and someone asks for Tim. I kinda screen his call... OK, "who's this?".

"Keltner" (Jim Keltner just happens to be my favorite drummer in the world).

Tim gets it and after awhile he hangs up and says that was Keltner calling from
George Harrison's house - he's been over there doing some recording.

Neil Young has called here. I've talked to Lonnie Mack a few times too...

Back in '76 King Harvest ("Dancing in the moonlight&quot borrowed my '73 LP Standard
for a session when I bumped into them in the Catskills on a retreat...does that count?

 

[guitarweasel]

LOL!!.........Absof******lutely!!

 

[guitarweasel]

wj....I met her through Buddy Guy.........who, BTW gave me the nickname "Guitar Weasel" I did a couple fill in's with her. I love that women ! That was back in the 80's. :)

 

[wjbiii]

I love that women !

Me, too. I remember an outdoor show with her where I didn't have to direct lights, so I stood stage-left and watched. It was quite charming to see her sneak a look over at her guitar guy and give him a tiny little thumb-up, which meant that he should crank up the voltage on her Variac, a hair.

She's a handful, and sweet as they come.

 

[barbas23]

I met her through Buddy Guy.........who, BTW gave me the nickname "Guitar Weasel"

weas thats something!!! :coolsmiley: :coolsmiley: :coolsmiley: :coolsmiley: :coolsmiley: :coolsmiley: :coolsmiley: :coolsmiley:

 

[pingdum]

My stories pale in comparison to you guys, but I did play pool with Joan Jett once backstage at an L7 show. She is very cool.

 

[If You Want Blood]

im with ping, uh one time i went to AZ for my friends gig and he got to support twisted sister? i met Dee. hes really cool.

 

[wjbiii]

[quote author=pingdum link=topic=6600.msg83407#msg83407 date=1139170085]
My stories pale in comparison to you guys,...
[/quote]

[shrug] You know what? I'm sort of cheating in this thread. Working with these people is a little different. Believe me: that can scrape off a bit of the magic. I could tell stories that would make your hair stand up, about some of them being just gold-plated sh*ts. I don't care to do that, but saying nice things about the ones who deserve it is okay, I think. At the same time, when you've slogged through the mud at RFK Stadium with EVH and he was bitching just as loud as you were, or played softball with David Gilmour, you kinda see them as just regular guys, you know?

It's a really curious thing: in some ways, they're bigger than life, but in lots of other ways, they're no different from you or me.

 

[guitarweasel]

[quote author=wjbiii link=topic=6600.msg83415#msg83415 date=1139174689]
[quote author=pingdum link=topic=6600.msg83407#msg83407 date=1139170085]
My stories pale in comparison to you guys,...
[/quote]

[shrug]  You know what?  I'm sort of cheating in this thread.  Working with these people is a little different.  Believe me: that can scrape off a bit of the magic.  I could tell stories that would make your hair stand up, about some of them being just gold-plated sh*ts.  I don't care to do that, but saying nice things about the ones who deserve it is okay, I think.  At the same time, when you've slogged through the mud at RFK Stadium with EVH and he was bitching just as loud as you were, or played softball with David Gilmour, you kinda see them as just regular guys, you know?

It's a really curious thing: in some ways, they're bigger than life, but in lots of other ways, they're no different from you or me.

[/quote]

That's my point......THEY ARE REGULAR GUYS!.........you just have to remind them once in a while ! ;D

 

[drmrby]

In my day job I work as the manager of the "executive terminal" at a major international airport. I had the pleasure of working a Rolling Stones charter flight for the 2002 tour. The Stones are notorious for being high maintenance and this flight was no exception.

The aircraft arrived several hours late. When it finally did arrive I went to great lengths to have all the vehicles etc. in place and was not doing a very good job of making friends since it was now approx 2am.

Keith Richards was the first one off the aircraft. In classic Stones fashion the first thing he did was light up a cigarette. As much as I love the Stones and Keith Richards it was my duty to tell him that he had just deplaned an aircraft that was in the process of being fueled and smoking was not permitted. I explained to him I was just doing my job by informing him. He reached in his pocket, handed me a pick (which holds a place of distinction in a frame in my basement and my heart) and told me in no uncertain terms to EFF-OFF!

 

[guitarweasel]

I like that one ! ;D Gotta love the Keefster !!

 

[pingdum]

That rminds me of what happened once to my mom at the airport. She was waiting for her ride and saw this criminal looking guy that she thought was eyeing up her bags. She was getting worried and about to call security when a limo pulled up and the guy got in. Only then did she realize that it was Kieth Richards.

 

[lazybones]

- when my wife was 13, her and some friends hung around a hotel hoping to meet the Cult and get an autograph. There was no Cult to be found, but apparently Jason Bonham likes 'em young. Eewww....

- my father's cousin's sister-in-law was Michael Bolton's 1st wife. *hangs head in shame*

 

[Bogart]

I still think the Joan Jett story was the best.

 

[pingdum]

[quote author=lazybones link=topic=6600.msg83588#msg83588 date=1139245288]


- when my wife was 13, her and some friends hung around a hotel hoping to meet the Cult and get an autograph. There was no Cult to be found, but apparently Jason Bonham likes 'em young. Eewww....
[/quote]
He needs to watch that. A friend of mine who was Mettalica's drum roadie is in jail in Utah right now for picking up a 14 y/o at a show.

 

[guitarweasel]

[quote author=lazybones link=topic=6600.msg83588#msg83588 date=1139245288]


- when my wife was 13, her and some friends hung around a hotel hoping to meet the Cult and get an autograph.  There was no Cult to be found, but apparently Jason Bonham likes 'em young.   Eewww....

- my father's cousin's sister-in-law was Michael Bolton's 1st wife.  *hangs head in shame*


[/quote]

:o :o :o :o :o