Let’s talk about some famous people I have managed to run across in my rather weird life.
I already mentioned the two Tweets I got from Eric Idle. I was also mentioned in a Tweet by Ricky Gervais. I told my older daughter that I only started Tweeting so that I could get somebody famous to Tweet me back, and then she would have to get on Facebook and admit that I am cool. And to her credit, she did just that. But I have had brushes with the well-known before that.
When I was a kid, growing up in the Bay Area, I used to stop outside of this garage on the way home from elementary school and listen to Creedence Clearwater Revival practice.
Later, I went to high school with the guys in Metallica. Just to set they record straight, I didn’t really like them, but we hung out with the same crowd.
I was in a band for a while with Paul Bayloff who went on to play with Exodus.
Once, when I was a teen, we took a family trip to Long Beach and did a tour of the Queen Mary… that is a ship, in case you aren’t clear on that. They were filming some movie on the Queen Mary, and when we got in an elevator, Michael Constantine held the door open for my mom, and we rode the elevator up, chatting with him. If you don’t recognize that name, he was the guy in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding that thought Windex had medical uses. This was long before that movie was made, but he was also the Principal on a TV show called Room 222, and was in the movie The Hustler.
In my very early twenties, I used to roadie and do security and stage bouncing for a band called Blind Illusion. I loved stage bouncing. People would try to jump on stage, and we would push them back off. We tried not to hurt them as long as they were cool. But sometimes the guys would get carried away and try to grab an instrument or one of the guys in the band. Blind Illusion had a large and loyal following in the Bay Area. They knew that when we gave them a certain signal, they were supposed to move out of the way and not catch the guy who came sailing off the stage. The obnoxious fan would just end up hitting the floor in the middle of a circle of cheering rock and roll lovers.
The bass player in Blind Illusion went on to achieve a certain amount of fame. He is Les Claypool, bass player, singer and frontman for Primus. Primus is a pretty big band, even if you have never heard of them. They are the guys who do the theme song for the TV show South Park. My wife and I have stood on the side of the stage when they play gigs in San Diego. Once, when I was waving goodbye to Les on the way out of a show, he started chant my name into the microphone, and a few thousand people ended up following along. That was sort of fun.
I sat right behind Tommy Chong and Timothy Leary at the premier of one of the Cheech and Chong movies. I kept shouting “Dave’s not here.” Oh, look it up.
I met my wife when we both worked in the Tower Records store in Berkeley. I worked in the art department making the display signs. She worked downstairs in record sales. One day, when we had just started dating, I went down to see if she wanted to go get lunch. She was talking to a lady with some crazy hair, but the lady had her back to me, so it wasn’t until I got closer that I realized that the lady was Whoopi Goldberg. This was back in the 80’s before she was as famous as she is now, but I had seen her on an HBO special and some other stuff, so I had a great conversation with her. The funny thing is that my future wife had no idea who Whoopi even was. But she got back at me soon enough. She sold a Stevie Wonder album to Carlos Santana and didn’t bother to let me know.
I miss working at Tower Records. We got free tickets to all the big rock shows and even some good plays. We saw Anthony Quinn in Zorba The Greek, and even in his 70’s that guy had some energy.
After I got married and we moved to San Diego, I went to an air show. Pappy Boyington was there. If you don’t know who he is, Google it. He was a very famous World War Two pilot, and they made a TV show about his war years called Black Sheep Squadron starring Robert Conrad. Pappy Boyington was one crazy guy in the old days. I wanted his autograph, but I didn’t have enough money to buy his book. But right next to his little stand at the air show was another little stand with an old Japanese gentleman sitting at a folding card table selling his book. I bought a little rising sun decal from him, got Pappy to sign it, and talked for a while with him about his war experiences.
I got curious about the Japanese fellow next to him and asked Pappy if he knew him. He told me that the man was the pilot that shot him down near the end of the war in the South Pacific and caused him to spend the rest of the war in a Japanese prison camp. Now they are friends.
I took a computer arts class at a community college and hung out with a guy named Carl Mesmer. He was the descendant and name sake of the Carl Mesmer who invented hypnotism. That is where the expression ‘mesmerized’ comes from.
Just a few years ago, we went and saw Eddie Izzard, a very funny British comedian. I had a chance to meet and talk briefly with Mr. Izzard after his show, along with a small crowd of other people.
Now this last story is not an actual meeting with greatness so much as a ‘degree of separation’ story, but I think this is cool. I have a friend named Chuck. He goes to my wife’s church, and we hang out now and then. We were at his house for lunch one day and I met his mother. Chuck comes from a German family, and later he told me that when his mom was a young girl during World War Two, Hitler came to her little village on a train.
The teacher at the school picked Chuck’s mom to hand Hitler a bunch of flowers, and Adolf Hitler shook her hand. That’s right. I shook a hand that shook Adolf Hitler’s hand. I don’t even know why I think that is cool. I guess it is because I have studied military history for so long. I certainly don’t think of Hitler as anything other than a world-class asshole, but for whatever reason, this was sort of an interesting highlight to my life.
Pouring My Art Out 
ok, skipping all the replys, i will go back and read them. The degree thing. My grandpa sat on Abraham Lincoln’s lap and was told he was a fine young man, shook his hand and got a pat on the head and a penny (or so I recall hearing the story) My dad liked to say he shook the hand that shook the hand of Abraham Lincoln. My grandpa was gone before I was born so I can only say “I shook the hand that shook the hand that shook the hand of Abraham Lincoln.
Greg Philbin lived on the street I grew up on. (R.E.O Speedwagon)
I knew my dad personally. I win. HA!
I once yelled so loud at an REO Speedwagon concert that the guys in the band looked up at me… I was way in the back… and I shook hands with a lady who shook hands with Adolf Hitler
I saw that. I read the post. I thought it funny that I was thinking about my Abe Lincoln story and then I get to the end of yours and there’s your Hitler one. I win that one too cause Lincoln was much less of a jerk than Hitler. And I was about 6 when Greg was in the band. And I bet he didn’t live on the street anymore, probably not his parents either.
Plus, I still got my dad so I win.
Ohohohohohohohohoh! Now I can add you to my collection too! GAME AND MATCH MF!
and if you think about repremanding me for MF it stands for My Friend! HA!
when do I ever reprimand anybody?
oh man
yes you do
win some, lose some
I’ve never met anyone important. But I did see Bill Gates at the airport once. All by himself and in a big hurry. I guess I’ll have to live vicariously through the rest of you.
What? Are you done living already? Go out and stalk someone!
I’ve had Steve Byrne retweet something, and Tim Minchin favorite something. That’s about it.
You know famous people, because you’re somebody. Also, you live in California, which is just busting with famous people. I live in Dayton Ohio, which has Rob Lowe, the chick who does the voice of Bart Simpson, and Phil Donahue. I went to school with Jackie Warner, that Bravo workout reality show star, and I went to college at the same time as Nicole Scherzinger, though I don’t think I ever talked to her, because back then, she wasn’t famous. Just hot. She hadn’t even done backup vocals for Days of the New’s second album yet.
You carry your own fame around with you like a cloud of nuclear fallout.
Toxic and killing everyone, rendering the landscape uninhabitable for 1000 years?
I may have been overstating my case a little.
500 years?
That’s more like it.
I’m Toxic? Like that Brit Kneespears song?
Like that Brit Kneespears person you mean? No. Not you. Never you.
Yeah,.
No.
But I still want to know what you think about what I did to your face.
It was as least as good as anything else you’ve ever done.
That’s all you have to say?
It was the best godddamnnn thing I’ve ever seen on the entire internet?
Then why wont you comment on the actual post with all the funny pictures of you on it???
I dodn’t? on nohn
Are you typing with snow gloves on or making fun of my spelling???
Some typos.
Is that an anagram?
almost
almost is almost an anagram of molest… almost.
You really want it to be, don’t you.
um… not really… that wasn’t nearly as clever as I thought it would be.
Why just yesterday I was chatting to Vanilla Ice on twitter. I have screen shots to prove it. Cool factor = a gazillion!
I have mixed feelings about that, but if you say so…
There I was just rollin in my 5.0, rag top down so my hair can blow…
Okay, then it really was cool.
damn straight! and he does home decor!
I thought he sold ice cream from a truck now?
can i have your autograph…lol
Send me a copy of my book and a self addressed envelope…
pft
oh yeah
Very cool indeed!
awwww… shucks.
😎
Whoopi Goldberg used to be in San Diego all the time. I used to see her shopping at Horton Plaza in disguise in the 80s she used to wink at me because she knew I was in on the incognito bit. I used to work at the Omni and on one of the carts at HP. She worked at the Lyceum before it was nice and did some work at the Globe theater too I think.
She is a nice person.
I have had no meetings but my friend is mates with Chrissie Hynde and Shane McGowan. Shane MacGowan stole my drink. I’ve pushed PJ Harvey out of the way as I had to run to the toilet backstage at her gig, Kate Moss was there too. I walked by Jerry Sadowitz in Camden, great comedian/magician, and Amy Winehouse used to always be hanging around. I get a few gay celebs in my pub, Guy from Pet Shop Boys, Erasure and also Julian Clary go there as well as some D list soap stars, Kelly Osbourne was in once. I used to live in West London which was less rock n roll and more TV actors/presenters so used to see them all the time and in my gym, I won’t bore you with who they were, mediocre.
Used to see the singer from Placebo backstage at tons of gigs, he used to stare at me, must have been thinking who I was to always be around. I only knew the chef on tour so he got me in free.
I must see more but rarely notice them in London, I’m never wearing my glasses.
I always find they are shorter than you’d think, shorter than I and I’m not tall.
You should do a post.
I’d just copy and paste what I wrote there
Good point.
I love the Pet Shop Boys!
Ha…
They are not there that often, I’ll try and get them to photobomb me if I see them again
Yay!
I could just photoshop them into a picture of you.
You could!
I could just have them dancing on your giant eyeball.
You could.
As soon as I am done stealing your face maybe…
Well, I won’t be going out without my face, no one will know who I am.
Eye have some eye-deas about how eye am going to mess with you.
Eye can’t wit to see it!
I am on it. Give me an hour or so.
You are a good guy, PMAO.
I did it… didn’t have a lot to work with… I was going to put your eye on the planet earth and say you mean the world to me, but the resolution just wasn’t good enough.
You two should chat more… you are both nice.