Not talking about TSO or Jonn. Although our proximity to those two got me ruminating .
I’ve worked in the recording biz, and for NASA. As far military types go my list is also extensive, but not on point.
Our readership MUST have stories?
Have YOU Ever Met Someone Famous?
I’ve met a couple of famous people.
The lead singer of my fav group from the 70’s and no, it’s not Donny Osmond either.
I also have met Mickey Thomas of Jefferson Starship (the 80’s version).
John Levitow.
Really nice guy.
Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Zero Mostel, Etta James, Fleetwood Mac, Greg LeMond.
Joe #3: I met Fleetwood Mac prior to Lindsey Buckingham, but I AM jealous of your meeting Zero Mostel.
I met Arnold Schwarzenegger in Iraq in 2003. I was told that I appeared on the European edition of Stars and Stripes posing with the Govenator.
I sometimes wish I could go back and time and whisper in his ear: “I know about your kid with the Mexican maid. Don’t even think about running for governor.”
And then the Schwarzenegger debacle could have been avoided.
I have also met Ann Coulter, Eddie Vedder, and served as personal security detail for Ralph Nader.
Sorry, go back IN time. Correction.
Living in Los Angeles has given me some interesting encounters with celebrities.
I met Andre 3000 in Logan Airport. It’s when I was coming home for leave from Iraq in 2004. I had my dcus on and he came up to me to shake my hand. He was really cool and thanked me for serving my country. I thanked him and told him that we wore out his cd with the song Bombs over Baghdad. He laughed and we went on our way.
I walked onto an airplane in DFW and Jessica Simpson was sitting in first class. I must have been in a dick mood because I pointed and announced, “Hey look, it’s Ashley Simpson!” She rolled her eyes and told me that Ashley had red hair. Never mind the fact that they look nothing alike.
I saw the Mark Calaway, aka The Undertaker. He looked confused when I walked by him and said, “Hey Mark”.
I met Pam Haplert from the Office in Tujunga Village at a gellato shop. I told her that I thought she looked better in person then on television. She blushed, said thanks and asked what kind of gellato I was getting. The wife had no clue who she was.
I saw Zeus from the movies Immortals, again in Tujunga Village.
I ran into Megan Fox 3 times in a 2 week period. On the third time I told her that if she doesn’t stop stalking me that I was going to file for a restraining order. She smiled nervously. BTW, she looks like utter dogshit in real life. I wouldn’t fuck her with Zero Ponsdorf’s dick. Shows what a horde of make up artists can do.
Met Cuba Gooding Jr. What a douche.
That’s all I can remember for now.
I met Marcus Luttrell at a Goldwater dinner and actually talked to him for about an hour. He shoo’d his handlers away and we just bullshitted. He told me 11Bravos and 03 series have the hardest jobs in the military
Well, at the Saluting Those Who Serve event during the 55th Inauguration, I got to meet Gloria Estefan, Kelsey Grammer, John Michael Montgomery, Darryl Worley, Kerri Turner (of the TV series JAG), and Shandi Finnessey (2004 Miss America). We also had the opportunity to shake hands with Bush 41 and Barbara Bush–I carried the State and Territorial Flag that was behind Bush ’43 during his speech. After snow caused a traffic gridlock, we marched from Fort McNair to the Ellipse in dress blues and combat boots for another event a day or so later. Kenny Chesney was in a nice warm tent and hurried past without even looking at us.
Later, during Spirit of America events in 2005, we got to interact quite a bit with Michael Peterson. Then, while I was at BNCOC, Six Flags Over Georgia had their free admission day for military. Aaron Tippin played a free concert that evening and I stayed after to get his autograph.
Last year, during the Bayou Country Superfest, Brooks and Dunn asked my recruiting company to provide Soldiers to share the stage. Me and three others got backstage passes and our families got to meet the duo. Security hurried us out of the area as soon as B&D went to their dressing rooms. Kenny Chesney was about to come through and “we couldn’t be there”.
On the military side, I have an almost eerie story. I was a young Specialist waiting for a DA Photo for my Old Guard packet (I had one taken a month earlier at Fort Lee but they messed it up) when in walked an older Major sporting both a CIB and CMB. Most significant was the medal he wore around his neck, though. Then-Major Alfred Rascon was getting his official photo for Fort Campbell’s medic training facility which was about to be named for him. We spoke briefly before he was called in for his photo, but the memory sticks.
Ironically, a month later I met a vet who had served with LTC Rascon during the time he earned the MoH. My dad talked me into wearing my Class As to the local VFW and a guy honed in on the Rakkasan unit affiliation, telling me he considered himself an Airborne historian. We talked history for a few minutes before he told me of having had the honor of serving beside two MoH recipients in 173rd ABN BDE. He then began describing the actions that earned LTC Rascon his Medal. The funny thing was, the VFW was around 1000 miles from Fort Campbell.
On second thought, maybe “eerie” is not the word. Extremely coincidental, perhaps, all things considered.
Right after Ledgends of the Fall came out, Brad Pitt ran into me on the ski slopes at Deer Valley (actually ran into me, knocked me over, and completly my fault).
I worked on Carie Fisher’s skis as a ski tech at Deer Valley that same year. Hell of a nice lady even if she was scary looking.
Met Robin Williams after his flight was delayed and we kept the airport resturant open for him (mostly the bar) in Salt Lake. He was a lot funnier after he had a few in him.
Bruce Willis at “The Mint” in Sun Valley, he came over to the table my friends and I were at and hung out for almost an hour. I think he made the time because we were all military and talking about preparing for our deployment to Iraq.
Met Gen. Colin Powell when he came to our training site for a 30 second meet and greet. He just walked through and said hello to everyone, looked at the equipment and moved on.
I actually went to the same JR High school as Anissa Jones, who played “Buffy” in The TV show “Family Affair”. Different grades so I never bumped into her much.
Mmmm, had the back of my head on an Army Times photo once. Published in Infantry magazine.
Rob Schneider, Al Frankin, and Jessica Simpson on a USO tours in Bosnia 2002. On the Schneider tour, the celebs were flying from out base at Tuzla to Hungry for the night. The crew and celebs were getting antsy because they were running behind schedule because Schneider said that he was going to stay and sign autographs and take pictures with everyone who was waiting. Schneider told them to piss off, and by God, he stayed until everyone got their pictures.
Frankin couldn’t understand why the drug jokes weren’t making a hit with the all military crowd. I guess he didn’t realize that most of us didn’t share his funny heroin stories.
Simpson was just a moron. Nice, but a moron (and one of those bitching about the flight to Hungry being late).
If you are FB friends with me, you can see that I spent Christmas 2009 with the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. In Baghdad. And they LOVE Gingers. Nuff said…
8 years in Nashville trying to break into country music, so yeah, I met a few.
Gary Allan – got to hang and drink beer with him a few times, nice guy and offstage rather introverted.
Tommy Tutone – Showed up at the bar I used to hang out at one St Patrick’s Day. Evidently he’s now a HS teacher.
Vern Gosdin – Opened for him once, one of his last performances. Really nice, witty guy.
The LeGarde Twins – um, yeah met them a few times. Dicks.
Richard Sterban – Oak Ridge Boys. Another “drinking buddy”, he has a ritual before getting on the bus to go on the road: sipping one shot of JD, chasing it with one beer. Hates the bus, loves to talk sports. A lot.
Gary Rossington – Embarrassed myself one night sitting in at Tootsie’s. I had gotten up and done “Copperhead Road” and was about to get off the stage and unstrapping the acoustic guitar. The band’s lead singer was standing on the bar and told (yelled over the crowd) me to do another song. I asked, “Like what?” and he shrugged and said, “F it, do Sweet Home Alabama.” No problem! I turn around to tell the band what we’re playing and there’s some dude strapping up the lead guitar. He looks vaguely familiar, but I can’t quite place him, so I say to him, “Sweet Home Alabama, you got that one?”. He gives me a funny look and says, “Uh, yeah man.” About halfway through singing the first verse I realize who it is. After we got done about 20 minutes later, he got a good laugh out of it when I explained to him what happened as we were out on the sidewalk smoking. Great, down to earth guy, and honestly plays the music because he loves it.
Hank, Jr – Ran into him at an obscure watering hole. Very polite guy, bought me a beer.
Dierks Bentley – Used to run into him when he was first hitting it big. Really nice, but never could remember my name, only that I was a singer. He’d always ask about my career progress.
Pam Tillis – Smoking hot in real life.
Taylor Swift – A snotty bitch.
John Corbett – Nice guy. And damn he’s tall.
Elvis Costello – “Can I get an autograph?” “Sure, mate. Here, hold my tea for me.”
Riders In The Sky – Awesome set of guys, and as funny offstage as they are on.
CS #15: Not as extensive here. Luckily I only dealt with the engineers and producer types. Sorry to hear about Swift.
Zero, I know a ton of sidemen/band members, which is mostly how I wound up meeting a lot of these people. In Taylor’s case, she was at my hangout. Oddly, her parents are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.
I used to work at Rockefeller Center. Had Howard Stern in my workshop in the sub basement shooting the shit with us. Imus wanted you to stay away from him. Soupy Sales when they all were at WMNBC radio, David Letterman, and his band leader (who’s Hetero believe it or not-he was always trying to pick up teenies), Al Sharpton (surprisingly civil and talkative), Princess Michael of the royals, Various SNL cast. Waited in line behind AL Roker as he ordered hash, bacon, sausage, 6 eggs, toast, pancakes, hashbrowns. Watched Tom Brokaw trying to eat a burger and all the goop splattered into his white shirt, Chris Farley eating an entire Pizza at Sbarros while on line waiting for another one. and finally, and the most strange oddball ever, Tony Randall who when he realized I recognized him starting making faces like a 6 year old.
Met Arnold at a bodybuilding thing years ago..nice guy. Met up with him again on the ski slopes in NH…he detonated on a fan so I didn’t go up to him. Met or talked to alot of the folks at Fox News…everybody is pretty cool. Met Kid Rock and his USO tour. He’s kinda a little guy, but pretty nice. Toby Kieth…dick. We had Taylor Swifts’s cousin in our unit..she was ok, no word on the Taylor. Carlos Mencia – good guy. Also on that tour was Jesse James the county music star. We went out to meet the aircraft and the AF guys mobbed Kid Rock – James was all by herself with her hot manager/aide chick. We all got pics with her and the aide. It said alot about the AF dudes.
Well, I don’t have as extensive of stories as you guys. Political side: Have been on an airplane with Mrs. Jimmy Carter (it’s a long story so I won’t go into details). Have talked with former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty a few times (nice guy).
Military side: My daughters had their picture taken with Frank Borman, astronaut and all around very nice guy, plus funny as hell. My division Commander, at one time, was H. Norman and he was the one who actually pinned on my AAM.
I have talked with many biggies in the aviation world, including pilots from the Battle of Britain (both sides), met several of the guys who flew the SR-71. Met Robert Ginty who played TJ Wiley on the tv show Black Sheep Squadron (very nice guy and a pilot in real life). Tuskegee Airman, etc.
Man – you know you are getting old when you don’t recognize half the names on this list!
Oh, yeah – Tennessee Ernie Ford sang at my wedding.
Richard Nixon
Yogi Berra. Signed a book for my son. What a great gentleman. He took the time to talk to my son.
I worked in the Wall St area in the 90s and saw Gorbachev at a distance
Ronnie Milsap, Martina McBride, Kid Rock. And I met, and got to talk to Ronald and Nancy Reagan.
Ran over Colin Powell trying to exit a Warfighter training exercise at Polk, when he was the TRADOC CG. I was a young officer trying to get through the entrance control point after my shift, and there was just a ton of old guys in the way. I literally chest-to-chest bumped him, then looked up at about 9 stars in the retinue. Took a long time to get that smell out of my BDUs.
Also go to meet SecDef Gates, HASC Chairman McKeown, and a few others during tours of my facility.
Had a wonderful dinner one night with MOH recipient Mike Novosel. True aviator, spent the night staring at my wife’s cleavage.
OJ and Nichole Simpson. My section standing in formation at LAX airport coming back from annual training at Twenty Nine Palms. He came up to us and shook all our hands and told us how he loved Marines how one of his best friends was a Marine. She stood in the background smiling. Seemed like a genuinely nice guy. Little did we know.
Never met the guy but I have heard that Alec Baldwin is a huge dickhead….badoomsha!
Other than assorted Royals and Chiefs I haven’t really met anyone I can remember, George Brett is a nice guy but a bit of a lush. My mom has waited on Brad Pitt and various members of his family when he was in Springfield.
Oh yeah, and when I was a kid, and Dad was still in the Marine Corps, I met General Charles Krulak when he was the 2nd MAR DIV Commander when I was three, and Colonel John Ripley when Dad was promoted to Major, and Ripley promoted him!
And General Christmas, Carlos Hathcock’s commanding officer from Vietnam, and General Abizaid, Ambassador Kalilizahd, and a host of others my first tour…
OK, one name, John Wayne. Landed at Norton AFB after returning from my last tour In Vietnam and Okinawa. A friend from high school picked me up at Norton and the next night I took her to dinner at Trader Vics in Hollywood (the Navy Grog is to kill for) I was in my “Greens” and we were in there for about 3hrs. I was busy drinking and eating real food to pay any attention to other patrons…not to mention I’d been trying get into those skivvies my Jr and Sr yrs. Someone put their hand on my shoulder from behind and I about came unglued and ready to jump nasty when this familiar voice tells me he just wanted to tell me how much he appreciated my service and how much he tought of Marines. I look up see who it is a damn near fell out of my chair. All I could do was mumble thanks and didn’t even think to ask for an autograph. When we finally asked for the check the waiter said it had already been taken care of by Mr. Wayne. I drank a lot of rum and ate two courses that night so I know it wasn’t cheap. And no not one umbrella in any of those drinks.
Me and my friend met R Lee Ermy in Kuwait when we were loading up on the flight back to Iraq. He’s freaking tall or maybe that just how awesome people are either way he’s a really great guy and he autographed my ACH cover.
Is anyone going to admit to meeting G. Gordon Liddy?
Not sure if this counts as famous or infamous, but we met Ron Jeremy at the Bennigan’s on Dale Mabry in Tampa. We just finished running a JM MTT and were killing time waiting to go the the airport. Shot the shit with him a for little while, got our picture taken…which still resides on one of the many wall o’plaques at the JM schoolhouse at Benning.
Geraldo and Lara Logan in Baghdad [mmmmm…Lara….]. Tommy Franks and several lesser luminaries of the .mil world.
Hah! It seems I may be the only one to have known Crazy Sally Slobodnik. Man, was she famous, at least with all of the 15-17 year old guys in my neighborhood!
Does almost knocking out the head of Naval Reactors count?
Country Singer, Pam Tillis is a friend of a very good friend, I will pass along the comment. I lived in Nashville for quite some time and met a lot of country singers (Garth, Vince Gill, Pam Tillis – obviously, K.T. Oslin was my neighbor, T-Bone Burnett). Also had a buddy who played MLB for 18 or so years, so I got to meet a bunch of those guys – Jim Leyritz really is an ASS, Kevin Brown is much nicer than the press implies – and smoking hot, A-Rod is what you would expect, Luis Gonzolez is incredibly nice, and Mark Grace smokes like a stack.
@11. Good story. I’m glad you mentioned an MOH winner. It reminded me of what Harry S. Truman said as he placed the MOH around the neck of Army Medic Desmond T. Doss: “I would rather have one of these than be president.”
I live in LA and have family in “the industry”, so I have met many well known names. The ones that I really cherish are:
Harold Sakata, better known as Odd Job. He was working on a production with my father, came over to the house for dinner a couple of times (I was a teenager). He was about 5’4″, ~200 lbs and EXTREMELY strong (he had a bronze medal in olympic weight lifting). He was a very nice and gracious man.
John Wooden: he was 93 and doing a book signing at the local Borders. Even at 93 he was sharp as a tack and was genuinely happy to see the crowd and interact with people. He took the time to talk with my 10 year old son and give him some basketball tips. That short meeting was one that I will always cherish.
When I was 17 or 18, I worked as a busboy at a country club here in S.E. Michigan. We had a St. Jude Celebrity Golf outing and there were 30 or 40 very famous people there. Some names were Harvey Korman, McClean Stevenson, Ron Ely, Evel Knievel, Peter Graves, Danny Thomas, and many more. I remember Harvey Korman and McClean Stevenson the best as they acted like regular guys and kept us in stitches all day long.
Some meets and misses. When I was a kid I went to see the first Pittsburgh Pirates game in Three Rivers Stadium and sat about 4 rows behind Bing Crosby (who was a part owner of the Pirates at the time). Miss
Met David Copperfield in Milwaukee. He had just done a show at the Pabst Theater and went to a. At in town called “The Safe House”. It used to be a speakeasy in the 20’s and had a secret entrance and a “magician’s bar”. Coperfield came to the magic bar to catch the bartender’s act and he was nice enough to bring his smokin hot assistants with him. The funny part is those girls, who were working for the number one magician at the time, “ooo’d” and “ahh’d” over Sneaky Pete’s. Lose up magic like little girls. Meet
Met Dick Machenko at a couple of his book signings, knew a few of the Jacksonville Jags, met “Mr Baseball” Bob Uecker (BINGO! I must be sittin in the front row!) and I took care of Larry Munson (voice of the UGA Bulldawgs) when he was in my hospital, and have shaken hands and said “hi” to Coach Richt here in Athens.
Missed meeting Jane Fonda when her step-daughter had a baby in my hospital. (still sigh with relief at that… It would have sucked to get fired).
Best one I met was John Walsh from “America’s Most Wanted” when he was the grand marshall of a Memorial ride for a fallen Decalb detective who was killed in the line of duty. A genuinely nice guy who really feels he’s on a mission. When I approached him at the halfway point of the ride he looked up and asked if I had a camera so we could get a picture. I said that it was OK, I just wanted to shake his hand. He seemed genuinely touched and was the personification of politeness.
Have passed several other celebs, recognized them, but didn’t bother them because it must suck to be pestered all the time
Sorry… Typing on the friggin iPhone while drinking wine is apparently more difficult than it looks.
Clint Eastwood, Reggie Jackson (ugh…), and Michael Keaton. Mr. Eastwood and Mr Keaton were awesome. Jackson was an ass.
Bob Howard… Everyone else doesn’t cut Bob’s stature… Except for Bill Bezich, Doc Masterson and Bill Fraker…
Here it goes and not a damn handshake and glad to me you BS…
Wayne Newton ( drank all of his beer in his backstage numerous occasions!).
Chevy Case… Said I was a friend of Wayne’s!
b-52s and Mothers Finest! Private party
KC and the Sunshine Band -private party
George Benson
GW Bush
Cheryl Crowe
Numerous athletes- Hank Aaron, Fernando V etc…
Hanoi Jane and her daughter and brother (Peter)
Ted
Sam Nunn
Richard Carmona
Dean Phillips
Many other politicians and others…
Bob Howard was the greatest of them all!
John Kemp
Should have said Jack Kemp … 2 X mas parties and making mistakes
Last year in November, got to meet President George W. Bush at a book signing. Told him, “Thank you for having the balls so few have!” His face lit up, big smile across his face. Got the regular hand shake and the overhand handshake. Like we have been doing it for years.
One of the proudest moments of my life.
Magic Johnson, Michael Cooper, & Bob McAdoo
Watched a movie with them, In a Boston theatre.
Issac Asimov – sat next to him at a play in NYC.
Had breakfast with Walter Altson[sp?] (great manager NY & LA Dodgers)
Help Bobby Cox shop for an air filter.
Met Adm. Trost, 4 times while he served as CNO.
But the topper was my former barber: Rodolfo Hernandez, MoH.
He was worried about which floor his room would be on at a veterans convention, his wife didn’t like to be above the 5th floor.
Cpl Hernandez had a busy day in Korea.
Every day I look in the mirror!
I got a good one. When My old man was a Grunt PL in the 101st back in vietnam he had gotten back from humping the Au Shau for 3 weeks and reggie jackson was at camp eagle on a USO Tour. So my dad walks into the TOC and and sees the other brass talking to Mr. October (mind you my dad’s in a filthy uniform with a beard)… My pops walks up and says something to the effect of “who you are you?” Jackson was offended and said “What you don’t know who I am little man?” Needless to say my old man threatened to kill him and needed to be restrained.
I met this blogger named Zero Ponsdorf and we hung out with the drummer of Saving Abel. Zero gave him pointers on the music for their new album that Eric played for us over his iPhone…. 😀
In 1975 I met Carroll Shelby at a chili cookoff. Met Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland while working as a bus boy in Lancaster,CA. The best was when I got to meet Neil Armstrong, my mother was working for NASA at Edwards Air Base.All of them were class acts
I meet President George H. Bush when he was a keynote speaker at a conference in Philly and I was a member of the Color Guard presenting the Colors.
Before the ceremony they took us in a room to meet him and get a photo. I stood to his left and was afraid to get too close. He put his arm around my shoulder and pull me to him and said, “There is one thing I’ve learned about taking these photos and it is you have to get in real close to each other.”
After the photo was taken I grabbed the Certificate for an AAM that I received for service during the Gulf War. I brought it in the hopes I could get it signed by him. He saw me holding it in my hand and he asked if I wanted an autograph. I brought it to him and explained what it was. He asked me where did I want him to sign it and I said, “Sir you can sign it anywhere you want.” He said, “Turn around and let me use your back.” I turned around and he signed it using my back to support it.
He was a supper nice guy.