A great show in Asheville, NC, halloween 2018 my 65th birthday!.
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Was that one of the Zappa plays Zappa(or whatever they were called) show?
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It was the 33 Choice Cuts tour, where the band played 33 of Franks tunes. After the show the whole band was out in the lobby and took their time to speak with everyone there, I hung around last so I could have as much time to chat with them. They all signed a tour shirt and wrote happy birthday greetings to me. A very talented bunch of folks.
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You know how when you listen to music on YouTube they’ll pull up a bunch of additional artists they think are related? I was listening to some progressive rock and the next thing up was Heterotopia by Lainey Schooltree. I’d never heard of her but gave it a listen. Liked it so much I thought I’d buy my own copy and support her. To my surprise the disc came with a hand signed, hand written, thank you letter. It was a very unexpected, nice touch.
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Didn’t meet him, but I went to a Dweezil concert, “Zappa by Zappa”. He spoke to the audience before they started and was warm and friendly. He asked for the house lights and noticed many kids in the audience. He then offered to, and did have ear plugs passed out for the kids. Nice.
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I met McKinley Morganfield—Muddy Waters a couple times.
He was one sweet guy.
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I would say Joe Lovano. I got to have a nice conversation with him at Tower Records in Austin and though I liked his playing before, his very open and warm nature inspired me to buy a few more of his cds and I have bought every release since. He is one of the nicest, most intelligent musicians I have met.
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I was just listening to one of Joe’s records yesterday - I do like his stuff.
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I once had the occasion to curse out Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame, though I was totally unaware of who he was at the time.
It happened at the 1985 Live Aid show in Philly. I was climbing the very steep and very high access steps that led to the backstage area. These steps had handrails to help maintain one’s balance and stability on the 20 foot, straight up, stairway.
I was following in close formation behind two rather tall fellows who had just gotten on before me. The guy directly in front of me appeared be to having some trouble maintaining his balance and footing. Before I knew it, he had slipped and fallen backwards onto me. I had to grip the handrails for dear life as we were about 12 feet above the ground and he was scrambling to regain his footing. I voiced a few curses in response to this as we climbed the remaining ten feet to the top, to which he turned around and said he was terribly sorry for the incident. It was then that I realized it was Jimmy Page and the fellow in front of him was Robert Plant.
They were going on next to perform their set and were talking to all the other artists assembled who were hanging out to watch the act. Needless to say, I was a bit stunned but pleasantly surprised at the same time. It was all fun.
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Oh man… you so win with this story 
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That’s just one story from that event. I was working there for three days and two nights straight, no sleep. All caffeine. The things one can do when young and crazy.
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I bumped into Gwyneth Paltrow walking her dog in Crouch End and not long after Chris Martin in a corner shop, buying a pint of milk in Tufnell Park. Neither encounter changed my perspective on music or life.
My father sat next to Charlie Watts for 12 hours London to LA and they got on famously. My father found out he was a drummer in a band. His knowledge and appreciation of The Rolling Stones’s music was unaffected.
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not all meetings are life-changing 
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Based on the music people here post in the What Are You Listening To thread, I doubt if anyone remember The Four Preps (“26 Miles,” “Down By The Station,” “Got A Girl”), but I was a fan back in the ‘50s. They played several summers at an amusement park called Springlake in Oklahoma City. One summer between concerts I got to talk with one of the members, the bass singer, Ed Cobb. I can’t remember how I got to talk with him, but what I do remember is that we talked for the whole break until it was time for the second concert. He was so nice and was just as down to earth as anyone could be. I got to sit close to the stage (on the grass!) and he waved to me from the stage. I never will forget that night and how nice he was to a young guy that was a total stranger. I was a Four Preps fan from that time on and followed them until they broke up. I was very sad to learn that he died in 1999.
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I love it!
I think one of the Four Preps wrote the song “Tainted Love” in the 60s for Gloria Jones which then became a fairly big hit in the 80s for Soft Cell. Was it your guy Ed?
That’s an awesome story 
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Yes, that’s the guy.
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Thanks. That means a lot.
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Thank goodness no one was hurt – it could have been tragic – possibly even a stairway to Heaven.
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Music: Joe Lovano . . . I met him in a music store and had a brief conversation and he was one of the very nicest musicians I’ve ever met. I had heard his sideman appearances before but paid more attention to his leader work after that and learned to really love his music.
Literature: I met Allen Ginsberg at a “sherry hour” in college when he and William Burroughs were visiting the University of Chicago and talking briefly with him and hearing him perform “Howl” led me to seek out his poems and learn more about him in the years that followed.
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