Sam Beam (Iron & Wine) and Colin Meloy (Decemberists) at Rudyard's after shows Jeff Van Gundy at Beaver's Ice House Lisa Foronda when we both worked at CenterPoint
"never meet your heroes" TLJ had a spread near us in San Saba...the stories about him were thick. I only "met" him once in Burnet, at the Highlander restaurant. He had a whole little section (with curtains pulled around so nobody could see him) to himself, made his driver stay in the car. I asked what that was that all about, and she said "Well...Tommy Jones is there". Jokingly I say, "cool, can I go say "hi"? Her eyes got huge and said OH NO. So on my way back from the men's room later I made it a point to stick my head in and say "sup, Tommy?" and he told me to **** off. The San Saba Ford Dealership story is the worst one. He spends about 4 hours negotiating on 4-5 ranch new ranch trucks (they're pumped, this is a big sale, right?), he finally says "print all that for me", so they do. Then he says "I've got a friend in Austin so I'll just buy 'em from him" and walks out.
I have a few beers with Dave Abbruzzese (former Pearl Jam drummer) at a dive bar in Denton many years ago. That guy is the real deal, no ego at all even though he was the drummer for one of the biggest bands in the world at the time. He actually wished me happy birthday on FB a few months ago. I met the singer for Rascal Flatts once. They were playing a corporate party my band was also playing at. He wandered into our (much smaller) green room by mistake while looking for his. He stayed and talked for a while. Not a fan of their music, but he was a really nice guy. Same thing happened with RuPaul. We were opening up for him at some corporate party and he came in to our room and took pictures with us. He is just as fun and jolly as he is on TV. That's NOT an act. Opened up for the Pointer Sisters and the O'Jays one time, but they didn't want anything to do with us. We played at the TC for Barack Obama's Houston campaign rally back in 2008. We got a pic with him and he thanked us by name in his opening remarks. Only problem was.....I wasn't there because I had to sub that gig out.....so I could go on my honeymoon....
Cool stories. Too bad about Obama. **** them old pointer b****es. Tangentially related: My wife and I had a phone interview to be on the Ru Paul hosted Lingo, which is like a game show Wordle. Their casting agent found my wife on Instagram and reached out. The agent asked if my wife had any interesting friends and she said me…and the agent was a little against the idea because she said married couples were usually boring. My wife said ‘not this guy’, so we had the phone interview about a week later. It was going pretty well and the agent asks us what we would do with $100k if we won, which is what they ask on the show, and my wife says some typical **** about college money for the kids and traveling. Then the agent asks me the same questions and I say ‘Hookers and blow, of course.’ and we all laughed then I say I would never actually say that on TV (I totally would) and tell her that I would buy some super rare comic books and donate them to charity. I know you guys will be shocked to learn that they never called us back. I felt a little bad about it and told my wife to call the agent back and tell her she has some different friends to bring like one of our PhD pals or one of her librarian friends who spent a year in Africa to adopt some kids. But my wife said she wasn’t interested in going on the show without me so that was it.
These are ones I had some significant interaction with and don't still see on a regular basis. Siouxie Sue. She bought us drinks and judged a drinking contest between friends from CA and friends from Texas. She was fun and funny. Janeane Garofalo - Super cool. Invited me to join her and her friend for drinks. Also watched a show that I was in and gave us notes. Rob Lowe - Super cool and nice. Kristen Davis - Nice, kind of timid. Whit Stillman - very cool and mellow. Powers Booth - nice and helpful but also seemed like he was genuinely kind of tough. Val Kilmer - I've heard others say he's a dick. I thought he was hilarious. Madonna - just putting on a show, wanting attention but wanting to pretend like she was avoiding the attention. Jill Cunniff from Luscious Jackson - She was nice and really cool Plenty of others that I met and just shook hands or said hello to. A few others that I see or come into contact with semi-regularly and it feels awkward talking about them.
I met Val Kilmer at the Denver airport in a bar, he was sitting alone, and I was a bit nervous but went and said hello and we ended up having a drink and he was very cool, not the d bag I had assumed he was from his movies. I read his biography last year and it was spot on to the dude I met.........don't judge a book. I also met Newt Gingrich at the Omaha airport (Epply), he was a D Bag LOL and super short
I had multiple bad experiences with Rodman and all involved him being beyond messed up and women. His representing for marketing is here. That's why he's here a lot. Great experiences- *Kobe (at least 10 times) Loves pool -Ali (he was unfortunately declining at the time) Great person as well as the people around him -Tiger (very cool despite what people say) -Phil Mickelson (always cool) -Shaq (hilarious) Many more. Jessica Alba is super cool. Saw her out in Austin a bunch. Her husband is cool.too Bought drinks. I don't know his last name but remember his first name is Cash. Lebron is a prick and so is his team @Xopher
That's too bad. I actually like that show. My wife LOVES RuPaul. She wakes up early every Saturday morning so she can watch his drag contest show without me or my boys bothering her. I've always heard he is super down to earth. He's been married to the same woman for 33 years, which is always a good indicator.
Phil Jackson is an *******. We were getting dumplings at the little mall across from the 4 Seasons and saw him in the cross walk. Asked h for a picture and he said no but if you send something to my office I'll sign it. I didn't want his autograph just a quick pic. Oh well
I thought of another one - Chevy Chase. He was in Chicago with what I assume was his wife and daughter. They were downtown in a coffee shop. The wife and daughter were there, their card didn’t work so I bought their order. They were very nice but I did know who they were. They offered to mail me money and I declined. A little bit later this fat disheveled, tall man that looked 80 came into the shop and came over to my table and asked why his family was talking to me. I saw him looking at the table with his family and he looked familiar (his eyes) but I didn’t realize he was who he was until he opened his mouth. He was really rude - he was sarcastic and I guess was trying to be a tough guy? Hard to say because he is the ******* from Christmas Vacation… I didn’t feel threatened and he didn’t bother me, I found him funny …. But I don’t think he wanted me to find him funny. Whatever - he backed off when his wife and daughter asked him to. He seemed very nice to them but not anyone else. He left when I asked him if he needed to me to buy his coffee… it did get a snicker from his daughter… was surreal.
Met quite a few folks through work Josh Hamilton - the only person I was genuinely disappointed in - the guy was a straight up Prick. Roger Staubach - Nice guy and very professional. Byron Nelson - the guy was already really old at the time - typical friendly old guy Gordon Wood - (Legendary HS Football coach) He came up to me in the old Texas Stadium press box and began talking to me about their hot chocolate. Such a nice old man. Rocket Ismail - Really friendly and nice guy - he'll talk your ear off if you let him. Stephen Baldwin - meh. Hollywood type who didn't "want any special attention". Dude, I'm treating you like I treat anyone else. He wasn't a jerk or anything, just a little pretentious. Pat Boone - Very nice but professional. Apologized profusely to me for his people not sending everything we needed. Friendly guy. Monty Williams - Very nice guy. He gave me his home and cell # for future work, but then he got the Hornets head coaching job and I knew he'd never have the time after that. Michael McDowell - Nice guy. I still can't believe he walked out of "the wreck" at Texas Motor Speedway with no injuries. Rafer Alston - Quiet and shy, but nice. I think he was just out of his element on a live TV religious broadcast. Jim Caviezel - Shy and nervous - He was very nice, but this was before his descent into Qanon. Calvin Murphy - He's a close friend to some people in my family. Been around him a couple of times. Drew Pearson - Worked with him every week back during the 2000 season. Very nice guy Randy McIlvoy - Does he count as a celebrity? Worked with Randy for a few years in the early 2000's. He's a heck of a great guy. My wife and I were creating a registry at "Baby's 'R' Us" back in the 2006 and I'm looking down scanning items for the list. I hear my wife asking someone "Hey did you go to UNT?" To which they replied, "no sorry". At which point my wife says "I know you from somewhere, you didn't go to UNT?" She replies, "no it must be someone else" and tries to walk away. My wife says "but wait I know you." At this point I look up to see who she's talking to and the lady turns around, points to my wife's stomach and says "by the way congratulations". I then tell my wife "You don't know her, just let her go..that's Renee Zellwegger" Not me, but my wife in NYC - She got into an elevator with her brother and sister and this old man walks in with a younger lady and a baby. My wife proceeds to talk to the lady about her baby for the duration of the long elevator ride up. After whom she assumed was a grandfather/daughter/grandchild left the elevator, her brother informs her that is was Paul Simon and Edie Brickell with their child.
I've heard Chase was a dick. I've never encountered him. I have a few more to add now that I have some free time. Cuttino Mobley is one of the nicest dudes ever. He gave me his jersey at the end of his rookie season. There's a Getty image of him giving it to me walking off the court. He loved cards of himself. To this day I still look for them for him. Francis gave me his jersey too but he a guy beyond help unfortunately. Really nice and loves Houston (I think he's back in Maryland because that's still his main cell phone) but who knows?. He has a bad alcohol problem. Rodrick Rhodes and Emmanuel Davis are awesome people. Worst omission was Charles Woodson. I own his record breaking defensive TD jersey from the Raiders. I'll ultimately give it to him as he's willing to take me and my girl to his winery and give me a SB jersey
From watching it, I think my wife and I would have been competitive. Ah well. Something I learned a long time a go is if I try to not be me things don't work out.
You should have told him she used to drunk dial you for sex and you felt like you owed her a coffee after all the money she gave you, and were also a little curious to see if the girl was your daughter.
That's really disappointing to hear, considering my avatar. I've heard he's very private about his family, but yeah, that still sounds like a weird encounter. As a huge Chevy Chase fan, I would have been so let down if it happened to me.
I will say this - to me he didn't bother me and I didn't think he was threatening. I guess someone else would find it threatening. Then again I kept picturing him talking to Cousin Eddie and cracking up.
Hamilton was a prick? I disheveled a lot of contact with him outside of a friend but he seemed like a nice guy. Gave me a bat. That's shocking to hear. I'm sure you know he had a lot of substance abuse issues. Maybe a bad day
I met Anthony Joshua and took a picture with him (and my son who was only a few weeks old). He was very nice. Same height as me. I was thinking to myself...I think I could take this guy down. Obviously delusional . Edit: Just looked at the photo. I'm a bit taller. Just a little less muscular lol.
I first heard of Josh when I read the big ESPN magazine story on him when he was with the Reds. It was such a inspirational triumph story that I watched and rooted for the guy. Then when The Rangers traded for him, I has excited because they were my AL team (obviously before my beloved Astros were forced into the AL and I abandoned the Rangers for my hometown team). So when he agreed to be on the TV show I produced (to promote his new book), I was ecstatic. But the entire time he as here (this was about 2010 or 2011) he was just an a-hole. Understand that I've dealt with guests on shows for a couple of decades now and this was literally the only person I've ever seen give attitude for no reason. We literally receive a ton of feedback from people about how great they're treated when at our studios and how we treat people so much better than other places. So I have no idea what was going on with him.
