Meeting Celebrities

What I mean is encountering famous people but not because you were autograph hunting. Here is an example. In 1967, my friend and I(we were around 16 yrs. old at the time) attended small concert venue at the CNE in Toronto. We wanted to get some photos of the event so we parked ourselves between the dressing room and the stage.I had my back to the dressing room exit . Suddenly, I was hit(not hard) on the back of my shoulder. I turned around ready to punch somebody out and there stood a tall black man with a Gibson Flying V in one hand and a white Fender Stratocaster in the other. He said,"Sorry man...didn't mean to hit you...are you OK?" I replied, "Huh?Duh." It was Jimi Hendrix if you had not already guessed. So...do you have an EXPERINCE(pardon the pun)to tell us? I have a few more to tell about in further posts.

Gee. Hasn't anyone met a celebrity?

hi itchy i,ve met american football players while living in wisconsin including coach Bartt star, and also race car drivers mario and michael andretti al unser jr., janet guthrie, rock musician ted nugent who comes to this area to deer hunt, and tim allen the actor.

Cool. Was Tim Allen a chance meeting? For instance I was busking at a liquor store near the beach in Vancouver and COUSINS was filming a block away. A tall skinny guy ran into the store and as I did for anyone coming out with a load, I would open the door for them. Out comes this tall skinny guy,throws $ in my case and says "Thank you very much". That was Ted Danson. 10 minuites later in comes David Sole(Starsky Hutch). A half hour later there is Lloyd Bridges and Loni Anderson. Holy smokes,what a day. In Toronto, I shook the hand of Don Rickles after his show and told him I nearly wet myself watching him. He said that's the nicest,though most disturbing compliment he ever had.

hi itchy i met tim allen at elkhart lake wisc. he was racing ford mustangs at the race track there.

Hi Itchy: how the hell do you top Jimy Hendrix,man that had to be a treat.
Anyway one day I got a call from a restaurant owner to discuss new menus and as I walked into the restaurant I see this gentleman all dressed in white, quite an apparation, and when the restaurant owner introduced us it was none other than The Colonel Harland Sanders, and we had a little chat and he said he'd be over to the plant shortly. When he was shown into the back part of the plant he said fairly loudly, Hey Ed, and everybody looks at us and wondered how this man knew me, for a few days I had a lot of fun bullshitting how we were old friends and finally after I had run the course on that I finally told the truth to the rest of the staff. But I gotta say old Harland was a true gentleman, Ed

Which reminds me of another occasion when I was called to the Glebe House (where priests Live) to discuss a job and there I was introduced to about six White Fatherts Of Africa, of course they were all black and very friendly and we chatted for quite a while. Later on that day they showed up at the plant and they all headed for me, which severely pissed of some people who went to church on an almost daily basis and knew I was an agnostic so you can imagine their chagrin when all these gentlemen in their white robes picked me out and started chatting again and I gave them a tour and introduced them to the staff, still some of the religious ones were still pissed of. Ah, such is life.
Still no Jimmy Hendrix, ED

Ya. These religious people get weird sometimes, but yes, Hendrix was quite a shock. The best thing was I got to watch him play the entire ARE YOU EXPERIENCED album from 3ft. away.

Itchy, I think you might be interested in the first picture in Lets Talk, (Oldies but Goodies) check it out, Ed

Hello itchy,

Many years ago I used to meet a lot of entertainers when I employed live bands at the youth clubs that I ran.  Personally I have never followed the trends in music so I probably wouldn't recognise a celebrity if they were shaking me by the hand! On one occasion I was taking money at the door when this really tall guy bent over and said he was "with the band". This was a regular ruse by people who wanted to get into the venue for nothing and it was well after the band had started their routine, so I said he would would still have to pay.  He duly paid for his entry and I continued with collecting money from others in the queue.  Some time later a very irate club member came into the office berating me for charging this guy and he could not believe that I didn't recognise who he was. Apparently, it was Long-John Baldry who had, prior to singing with the band, announced himself with the statement that this was the first time he had ever had to pay in order to perform on stage.  After the Gig he was most affable and understanding of my ignorance and refused to take a refund on the grounds that I had provided him with an experience that was 'priceless'.  It was largely down to his good-nature that the members of the club eventually saw the funny side and forgave me for being so out of touch with 'their' world of music.

Best wishes

Bill