Ever Met Any 'Celebrities?' Were They Nice, Mean, What?

[selmaborntidefan]

I recall Dave Justice saying his second year in Atlanta as he was getting a bad rep, "You take the average person on the street and tell them to sign an autograph every time someone asks for one 200 times a day - and it would get old for them, too."

I've heard from multiple sources that Pete Rose is the back end of a horse and Herschel Walker (as jthomas writes) was great.

Richard Carpenter, nowhere near as famous as his sister, said that he had mixed feelings about it because he didn't like getting interrupted at a public eating place but he also didn't like when someone had no idea who he was, either. He also said that Karen never fully accepted that she was such a celebrity. One night they were walking in a park and John Lennon came past and - without introducing himself - said, "Love, I just want you to know you have a beautiful voice," and kept walking while she's gushing, "Did you hear what John Lennon said?"

Oh here's one I heard. Back in the early 90s, big stars would come for July 4 at Columbus AFB, Mississippi. One year Lee Greenwood came and was a class act willing to do anything suggested. The next year Ricky Skaggs came and made the MWR crew so angry they wanted to flatten the tires on his bus - except that would keep him in town even longer.

I also know a guy who met Ric Flair at a gas station after a match in 1986 and Flair was hard to figure out because he was torn between whether folks wanted him or his wrestling persona.

Thx - it's interesting read.

 

[Ledsteplin]

Dennis Homan: From my area in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Great guy!
Sal Mineo: Brief hello in a coffee shop at UNA. Seemed ok.
Peter Breck: The Big Valley. Was with Mineo.
Glenn Frey: Super nice and laid back.
James Taylor: Goofy
Bo Bice: A good friend. Before "Idol" he worked at a pizza shop here. We played at Fizz in the Holiday Inn in Sheffield.
Kenny Stabler: On the beach in front of his house. Seemed in a hurry.
George "Goober" Lindsey: At a UNA ball game. Nice. Shook hands.
George Wallace: Friendly.
Pat Boone: Church. He was ok.

 

[Silverback]

I got to meet Barry Pepper (Sniper from Saving Pvt Ryan) and he was a good dude. We talked at length and he spoke mostly about his family and being away from them.


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[tidefanbeezer]

Best celebrity experience - Warren Spahn. Met him at a baseball card show in the 1990's. As a young buck, he was super nice and very engaging. He quizzed me about what teams I liked, what players I liked etc.

Worst celebrity experience - Hulk Hogan. Ran into him at a restaurant in Clearwater, Florida. He was just loitering outside, didn't appear to be doing anything important. Asked him for a quick picture. Wouldn't even look me in the eye. Just ignored me. I would have at least respected him had he spoken to me and said no.

 

[willie52]

John Wayne
Courtney Cox - very nice person
Vince Gill - one of the nicest people you would want to meet, always had time to chat.
Little Texas
George Strait - very short and arrogant
Crystal Gale
Trisha Yearwood - mmmm!
Alabama - talked to Jeff Cook weekly since he came by my pier fishing all the time
Randy Travis - nice guy
Travis Tritt - Liked to chat and had a hottie for a girlfriend.

 

[Catfish]

...Once I was on a flight with Ray Charles. I waved at him, but he ignored me.

So wrong.

Hell, yeah. I laughed.

 

[Catfish]

Not in the same league as a pro baseball player but I am the best worker at my job and get tired of compliments and start ignoring them because I get so many. It might be even worse for a baseball player.

#Humblebrag

Just kidding. I really do admire your work. :biggrin2:

 

[Catfish]

I have led a boring life.

I have a friend who told me he met Damon Wayans at the Atlanta airport. He got a picture of him and told him what a huge fan he was. He then showed me the picture. It was Jamie Fox.

All comedians look alike.

 

[Jon]

met many over the years, what you find is that like anyone they run the gamut from awesome to awful.

not going to list em all

 

[selmaborntidefan]

I had no idea Ross Perot and Ted Turner ever dated...

It was a menage a TBS

 

[lazlohollyfeld]

I hate to sound like NYBF (still not sure who this is, but it seems like it would fit) but I have run across quite a few "celebrities" in my time. Most of that is due to access, you cannot meet them if you are not near them. In my younger days (92-94) I worked at The Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas. It was, and still is, one of the better hotels in this area. It was extremely common for someone of note to stay there while passing through Dallas. For local "celebs", the Mansion Restaurant and Bar is a fairly happening place. And since I worked security I would often be paired with someone to escort them and keep away the gawkers. Fast forward to just a few years ago and I was in sales for a company whose primary market was high end hospitality. My bigger clients were Starwood (St. Regis, W's, Westin's), the Morgans Hotel Group, Mandarin's, SLS, etc. So again, I was put in close proximity to them, as in Kardashians next to me at the pool at the Delano. A small list of those I recall from those two jobs.

The friendly and approachable - Sally Field, Hal Holbrook, Kevin Costner
Steven Spielberg - he visited the Mansion several times through 93-94. ran into him again in 2004 at Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica and he remembered me
Tom Hanks - very affable and genuine
Cindy Crawford -early riser and I had to open up the Fitness Center for her every morning around 5AM
Jerry Jones- when you get down to it he is simply an Arkansas country boy who really loves Johnny Walker
Tim Allen - just talk cars with him
Tommy Lee Jones - he is interesting, if you approach him and talk movies he is gruff and noncommittal. If you talk about horses, dogs, ranching, hunting he is the nicest guy
T Boone Pickens - country boy with oil money
Lamar Hunt - nicest man I've ever met
Dave Chappelle - sat on the patio of Starbucks in Addison, TX with him for 10-15 minutes and talked about traffic and planes, had no idea who he was until after he left and a group of ladies asked how I knew Dave Chappelle. then I looked back his way and saw him walking into the Improv the overhead sign with his name
Seth Green - Stood in line with him at Pinks Hotdogs in Hollywood and talked about Monty Python
George Dubya - Was playing in a foursome at Brookhollow Country Club in Dallas about ayear ago and we let him and his parter play through. The man does not dawdle over the ball, he steps up and hits it.

Not so nice :
Prince and his entire entourage - although to be fair I never got anywhere close to Prince himself, that was not allowed
Dustin Hoffman - arrogant
Robert De Niro - distant
Val Kilmer - he thinks highely of himself
Oliver Stone -this man has demons
Steven Seagal -the most arrogant, bat crap crazy person I have ever been around
Mary J Blige - She seemed very upset that I had no idea who she was.

Due to my current job I have met with most of the Dallas Mavericks (and their D league team the Texas Legends) and Dallas Stars as my company has business dealings with both teams. Everyone I have met so far has been nice although that was probably because I was standing with higher ups from the front office. I will say that Dirk Nowitzki seems like he would have been just as affable if I was not standing there with his boss.

Donnie Nelson is the GM of the Mavericks and he could not be a nicer guy. He is the type that wears cowboy boots with suits. If you hang out with him long enough you can meet a lot of people in Dallas. But in particular there is his Dad, Don Nelson who was a longtime NBA head coach (Mavs, Knicks, Bucks, Golden State) and his boss, Mark Cuban. Both have always been nice to me

 

[dayhiker]

I was flying home to Bham from Dallas back in 1996 or so; I was sitting at the age in the DFW airport when Herschel Walker walks up and sits down across from me. As it turns out, he was on his way to Bham for an appt w/ Dr. Andrews at HealthSouth. He chatted with me and the other passengers, talked about the new coach the Cowboys had just hired. Simply could not have nicer or more down to earth.

Back in 1988 or so I played basketball with Wynton Marsalis when he was playing a concert in Morgan Auditorium in T-town. i was working tech crew, and he and his band liked to shoot hoops after sound checks. Nice guy, gave me tips on defending the baseline. The funny part is that the High Tide administrator was on pins and needles the entire time, afraid that Marsalis would catch an elbow in the mouth.

The retired baseball pitcher Todd Jones lives here in Pell City. He used to play church league basketball in the offseason. He had a breakaway one time in a game and a guy on our team took him out. The guy on our team had been a walk-on on the Auburn football team and later made team captain, so that gives some insight into his personality. Everyone was ....ed about the take down. His comment, "Nobody is dunking against my team, I don't care who you are." It was not cool.

 

[ccc2259]

Keith Jackson; nice enough but didn't want to be bothered. Tom Cruise; surprising very polite. Russel Crowe; seemed a bit shy. Richard Simmons (yeah, I know); exactly like his character. Willie from Duck Dynasty; what you see is what you get.


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[Hoot30]

I've only met a few. I've seen several from just living here in Nashville. Whole Foods is the place to see some from the music industry. I've seen Zac Brown, Steven Tyler, and The Black Keys. I've seen Amy Grant up close at a dance recital a few years ago. She looked really young for a 50 year-old woman. I'm just not the kind of person to approach celebrities in these types of settings because I just don't want to bother them.

The longest interaction I had was with Jon Foreman of Switchfoot. I met him in a hotel bar in Marietta after the UA-VT game in 2013. My BIL and I approached him and he was very friendly. We talked with him for a few minutes, and he even posed with my BIL for a picture.

I've spoken to Phil Vassar a couple of times outside the same restaurant. He is actually the one that initiated the interaction.

LeAnn Rimes bumped her shopping cart into mine at a local Kroger. She giggled and apologized. It was a funny interaction.

Lee Greenwood - just crossed paths with him last Sunday walking the trails at Radnor Lake Park. He was friendly.

I will play in a charity golf scramble next week and will get to meet Charlie Daniels. I'm looking forward to that, but will probably meet Phil Fulmer too since he is the co-host of the tournament.

My wife, on the other hand, has met and worked with numerous people here in the music industry. But, she is a licensed marriage therapist and will not divulge any names because that would be against the State's ethics requirements.

 

[RedStar]

Steve Harvey: Played roulette with him in Tunica back in maybe 2005 or 2006. Super nice guy. Dressed like a million bucks. He didn't mind standing out.

Carlos Mencia: I walked into the men's bathroom at another casino in Tunica around the same time as I met Harvey, maybe a month or two apart. I didn't say hey but my friend was drunk and decided to pee in the urinal next to him just so he could say he did. He started talking to him and Mencia just kept looking at him like he couldn't wait to get out of the bathroom. Didn't wash his hands. Not sure I blame him.

Gene Stallings: I met him in maybe 1995 when I was 11. Just as nice as all the stories you've ever heard about him. Great guy.

Ben Kenney: Bassist for Incubus, former bassist for The Roots (Jimmy Fallon's house band). Met him at a mall in Atlanta in 2003 when he had just switched from The Roots to Incubus. We (four of us) were in town for Lollapalooza and were starstruck. We walked up to talk to him and were so starstruck we could barely talk. We tried to leave him alone because we didn't want to be "those fans," but honestly, I think he was so surprised someone recognized him that he could have talked to us all day.

Joe Girardi: Chicago in 2002. Super nice, only reason I could stomach the Yankees being any good these days is because he's the manager.

Levi Randolph's mom: Hear me out. In the Spring of 2014 my less than one month old daughter spent 2 weeks in Huntsville Hospital. My wife and I thought we were going to lose her. Our nurse was as nice as she could be. She kept going out of her way to make us comfortable. One day while we were sitting in the room passing the time until we got out (our daughter was in the clear at this point. We just had to wait for her to finish her round of antibiotics.) I was wearing an Alabama shirt and when she walked in she asked if I kept up with Alabama basketball. She told me Levi was her son and I was floored. She told me that there was a chance he was going to be in town that Saturday and if he was, she was going to make sure he would come by and say hello. She never told me who her son was until that moment. It wasn't a brag worthy thing for her, it was really her way of finding out if I wanted my day brightened by him coming by. He didn't end up in Huntsville that weekend, and we were back at home by that next Tuesday afternoon, but just the fact that she wanted to make our stay a little better by getting her son to swing by left an impact. Levi will always be one of my favorite Alabama players.

 

[92tide]

Keith Jackson; nice enough but didn't want to be bothered. Tom Cruise; surprising very polite. Russel Crowe; seemed a bit shy. Richard Simmons (yeah, I know); exactly like his character. Willie from Duck Dynasty; what you see is what you get.


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did you meet the duck dynasty dude pre or post beard

 

[ccc2259]

did you meet the duck dynasty dude pre or post beard

Yes, he had full beard, bandana, etc

 

[DzynKingRTR]

All comedians look alike.

The weird thing is that Jamie Fox did not correct them and even posed for the pictures and joked with my idiot friend.

 

[Catfish]

The weird thing is that Jamie Fox did not correct them and even posed for the pictures and joked with my idiot friend.

That's class. Props to Jamie for not making your idiot friend feel like an idiot in public. He probably figured he had enough problems as it was.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I've only met a few. I've seen several from just living here in Nashville. Whole Foods is the place to see some from the music industry. I've seen Zac Brown, Steven Tyler, and The Black Keys. I've seen Amy Grant up close at a dance recital a few years ago. She looked really young for a 50 year-old woman. I'm just not the kind of person to approach celebrities in these types of settings because I just don't want to bother them.

The longest interaction I had was with Jon Foreman of Switchfoot. I met him in a hotel bar in Marietta after the UA-VT game in 2013. My BIL and I approached him and he was very friendly. We talked with him for a few minutes, and he even posed with my BIL for a picture.

I've spoken to Phil Vassar a couple of times outside the same restaurant. He is actually the one that initiated the interaction.

LeAnn Rimes bumped her shopping cart into mine at a local Kroger. She giggled and apologized. It was a funny interaction.

Lee Greenwood - just crossed paths with him last Sunday walking the trails at Radnor Lake Park. He was friendly.

I will play in a charity golf scramble next week and will get to meet Charlie Daniels. I'm looking forward to that, but will probably meet Phil Fulmer too since he is the co-host of the tournament.

My wife, on the other hand, has met and worked with numerous people here in the music industry. But, she is a licensed marriage therapist and will not divulge any names because that would be against the State's ethics requirements.

My stepson is the Black Keys' accountant. He's with Flood,Bumstead. I could tell some hilarious calls they've made to him while I was there when the calls came in. He also has Mary Chapin Carpenter and my wife, who worships here, got to go backstage and meet her, the last time she played Nashville. They had Taylor Swift also, but let's just say no one was sorry to see her take her business and depart...