Politics: Former (but then) President Jimmy Carter
Actors/Directors: Adam West, Vince Vaughn, Kevin Smith
Sports: Shawn Kemp, Jeff Van Note, Dan Issel, The 1991-92 Kentucky Wildcats and their coach
Music: All or various members of: The Replacements, They Might Be Giants, Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker, The Spin Doctors, Phish, The Jayhawks, Soul Asylum and OkGo plus Matthew Sweet, Mike Peters, Frank Black, Lisa Loeb, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and a few others who are locked in the shallow recesses of my mind.
Sports Entertainment: Lance Russell, Rick Steiner, Jimmy Hart, Demolition, The Big Bossman, Randy Orton
Comics: Kurt Busiek, John Byrne, Bill Willingham, Walt Simonson, George Perez, Peter David, Mark Waid (I love Mid-Ohio-Con), Robert Kirkman
It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them. P. G. Wodehouse (1881 - 1975), The Man Upstairs (1914)
Hacksaw Butch Reed works for the wrestling company I work for. I also have met Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Kevin Nash, and a bunch of other guys during the WCW days.
I also drove Christopher Daniels from a wrestling show to the hotel, a drive of about an hour. I am sure I sounded like a mark the entire way.
Oh and I see Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood now and again. They live in the same town as me in the suburbs of Tulsa.
www.oklafan.com Big Show: Why is he getting the Intercontinental Title shot and not me? RVD: Ahhh...maybe 'cause you're a tool. Big Show: Look. I am 7'2". I am 500 pounds. I'm a giant. RVD: Oh ok. You're a giant tool.
Hrmm. I've given a personal thumbs up to Dave Brockie outside of the 9:30 club before a GWAR show. He seemed a little preoccupied and I didn't want to bug him.
I met a few voice actors, artists, etc. when I worked security at an Anime Convention. I was pretty tanked the entire Con (I'd venture to say beyond DEAN levels), but I remember meeting the dude who does the voice of Piccolo on Dragon Ball Z. He was really, really Canadian.
Hold nothing sacred and you'll never be dissapointed. Especially not this statement.
In my previous job, I was able to attend several conventions, outings and conferences where I got to meet several retired athletes and politicians, including former president Bush.
However, the one that awed me the most was when I was much younger and was travelling to Michigan to visit my dad. My mom had just gotten me my first subscription to Sports Illustrated and I had the latest copy with me on the plane. It had David Robinson (who was playing for Navy at the time) on the cover that read "Top Gun". I was reading on the plane when the guy next to me said "You like that guy?" I said "Sure". The guy took me by the arm and led me up a couple of rows to where Robinson was sitting. He signed the magazine for me and then passed it around to the whole team.
Apparently I had been sitting among the entire team (including the guy next to me) the whole time without noticing anything. Robinson let me sit next to him and we chatted about college basketball the whole time. They were in town to play the Spartans (I believe) that weekend.
Easily my favorite professional basketball player of all time.
When I was working in a Holiday Inn Select east of Orlando, we had the US Soccer Team lodging at my hotel since they trained in the city. This was when Bruce Arena was coaching and Tony Meola and Cobi Jones were the big stars, the latter not being that big of a guy compared to me - and I'm 5'4" in comparison.
As an aside, I also saw Hacksaw Jim Duggan get wasted at a downtown Orlando bar. I didn't approach him, since this was just after DDT Digest stopping doing regular reports and I was never flattering to him during any of my work. Didn't need an ass-beating, heh.
Pro Wrestlers I have met: Hall & Nash DiBiase Macho Man, Ron Simmons Scott STeiner Miss Jackie Sid VIcious (as lord humongous in Memphis) Jerry Lawler Y2J Rock N Roll Xpress Midnite Express Sting Arn Anderson Ole ANderson Bam Bam Bigello El Gigante (giant Gonzales) Teddy Long Big Show Owen Hart Mark Callous (before he became UNDERTAKER)
Others I have met: Bernie Kosar Bruce Smith Doug Flutie Daryl Strawberry Aaron Downey (hockey Player) Patick Lalime (hockey player)
All the members of the band Cinderella Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Tico Torres
Kathryn Jamboretz (St Louis Newscaster) Wayne Hagen (Cardinals Announcer)
Originally posted by StaggerLeeAll the members of the band Cinderella
One of my old highschool buddies met them on myspace. He is now on tour with them. I'm still trying to get the whole story from him, but he's always on the road.
"You want to tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing?" --Toby, West Wing
I met the drummer from Stryper before one of their concerts.
www.oklafan.com Big Show: Why is he getting the Intercontinental Title shot and not me? RVD: Ahhh...maybe 'cause you're a tool. Big Show: Look. I am 7'2". I am 500 pounds. I'm a giant. RVD: Oh ok. You're a giant tool.
Today I went to downtown Cleveland to get a copy of my daughter's birth certificate. When I finally got it, I caught an elevator to go to the parking garage. Who was in the elevator, but Mayor Frank Jackson. That was pretty cool.
Otherwise, I would have to stick with sitting behind Mike Tyson at a showing of Mortal Kombat at the Tower City Cinema.
Originally posted by StaggerLeeAll the members of the band Cinderella
One of my old highschool buddies met them on myspace. He is now on tour with them. I'm still trying to get the whole story from him, but he's always on the road.
I asw them about 30 times before thier first album came out, and the last of those times, was at a roller rink in Jameson PA. After the show, thier van was broke down, and they were just sitting around hanging out waiting for a ride. Got to hang with them and drink a few beers. VERY nice guys, and totally thankful to the 100 or so people who had shown up for the gig.
Bumped into Max Calavara (sepultara singer) at ozzfest 98, Big Boss Man at a meet and greet. Kenny Lofton held a door open for me at a Cavs game, I honestly didn't know it was him til a bunch of kids ran up to him and asked for autographs.
When I was going to Akron U, and LeBron James was still in highschool, I used to see his hummer on the Akron Y-Bridge everyday. Right after he signed his first endorsement deal, I was walking to get some burgers and I saw him at a car audio store down the road from me. I started to head the way to get an autograph, but this huge black guy, who could have passed Viscera, popped out of the hummer and gave me a menacing glare. I got the hell out of dodge.
"A guy from Ohio can make it in life if he works hard enough."--Woody Hayes
Originally posted by LeroyMartin Gore, Marcia Clark, and Juliette Lewis. One is more famous than the other two depending on who you talk.
RZA was my personal favorite.
Arg, you got to meet RZA?! Im a big Wu-Tang Clan fan.
As for me, Ive met Jeb Bush (governor of Florida) and uh lets see... my uncle met Hulk Hogan and got his autograph while he worked in the airport, I got a friend that has pictures with Shaq, Sean Paul and miami rapper Pitbull.
I guess my personal list is pretty weak :(
"...He eats what he wants, and if he wants to eat Rey Mysterio- he will!" -JBL on Mark Henry
I don't know why I thought of this this morning, but when Mrs. JJD was a checker at Larry's Market I went in there one night around 11:00 pm to pick her up and she was just finishing up with her last customer of the evening, who would have been Dave Grohl, post-Cobain-suicide but pre-Foo Fighters.
"You know what you need? Some new quotes in your sig. Yeah, I said it." -- DJFrostyFreeze
I've got some strange ones, but they're actually pretty typical from living in Florida.
The Rock: We actually have common friends. I ended up at his house for like four hours once. Super nice guy.
Dave Wannstedt: I used to live near the Dolphins' training complex. I was jogging westbound, he was jogging eastbound. I screamed at him about ruining the Bears. He gave me the finger, and told me to go F myself.
Dennis "Mideon" Knight: Lived upstairs from me in Tampa. Weird guy. Didn't drive a car, so he had his wife/girlfriend/whatever drive him around.
Macho Man: We worked out at the same Gold's in Tampa (Pinellas Park, actually). Actually does the lame "Oh, yeah!" gimmick in real life.
Will Smith: Doesn't like when you exclaim, "Hey, it's the guy who did 'Parents Just Don't Understand'!!!"
Ricky Williams: Asked me if I knew what time it was. I didn't. He asked me to guess. I did. He thanked me profusely.
Some chick from the Real World - Chicago: I didn't watch the show, so I don't know much about her, other than that I made out with her for like 10 minutes at Mardi Gras 2002.
Originally posted by sweetrollSome chick from the Real World - Chicago: I didn't watch the show, so I don't know much about her, other than that I made out with her for like 10 minutes at Mardi Gras 2002.
You were probably on her list for that day.
"Oh it's on like Donkey Kong." - Stifler, American Wedding
This just came to me today, but I met David Crosby once.
Without a doubt, one of the biggest jerks I have ever met.
"Those of you who think you know everything are annoying to those of us who do." David Brent, The Office
"Oedipus ruined a great sex life by asking too many questions." Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report
Because the United States is allegedly classless, we use other markers to tell people apart, such as race, jobs or income. Roger Ebert, Review for Kicking and Screaming (1995)
When Trivium played near my town earlier this year, they pulled someone out of the crowd to sing a cover of "Master Of Puppets" by Metallica with them. Needless to say, that someone was me, so I guess that counts as meeting someone famous.
I also met the guitarist from Drowning Pool at a festival a couple of years back also, but that wasn't as much "meeting someone famous" as it was "yelling drunkenly, running up and shaking the hand of someone in a band whilst slurring my way through the sentence 'Dude, you rock!'".
Back in the 1980s, my friends and I used to rent a van and travel around to minor league baseball games and collect autographs of future major leaguers. We saw and met lots and lots of players before they hit the majors. The biggest such players that we talked to and got autographs for were:
Bernie Williams in Albanie-Colonie and he still had braces. We thought the bigger stars were going to be Hensley Meulens and Brien Taylor from that squad.
Mike Mussina in the brief time he was in the minors.
Mo Vaughn and Jeff Bagwell as teammates in New Britain, Connecticut, managed by Butch Hobson.
Tino Martinez as a Mariners farmhand.
Tony Clark was super nice in short season A-Ball.
For managers, Larry Parrish and Jerry Koosman stood out as the most personable guys to talk to.
Yes. US Army from 1988 to 1991. My term was extended due to Operation Desert Storm. I arrived in Saudi Arabia 3 days before my term was up. I spent my 21st birthday standing on top of a bunker in the middle of Saudi Arabia. PARTYYYYYYYYYYYYY!