I am much the same about Neil Diamond. I won't go out of my way to find his stuff, but will listen if it is playing somewhere. I respect that he was really good at what he did.
Rash, Mango, et. al, There's a famous story involving Neil Diamond and Bob Dylan - it took place during The Last Waltz aka The Band's final concert. The story goes that Neil Diamond performed early on and after he finished, he remarked to Dylan and everybody else backstage something to the effect, "You are going to have to be pretty good to beat that!" To which Dylan supposedly said, "What? Should I just go out there and go to sleep?" (obviously implying that Diamond was boring). Throughout the years, the story was always that no one could understand why Diamond was there compared to the other guests (Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Dylan, Muddy Waters, etc.) however, The Band's lead guitarist Robbie Robertson had been working with Diamond on an album and that was the reason why he got invited. Yet in doing more research - I have discovered that what Dylan said to Diamond was probably in jest and that Bob had always had high praise for Neil Diamond. That's the problem with Dylan - you never know when he is being serious or being sarcastic. My favorite Dylan story was when he was introduced to Led Zeppelin's manager, Peter Grant at a party. Supposedly Grant walked up to him and said, "I'm Peter Grant, manager of Led Zeppelin." Dylan's response was he looked at him and said, "I don't come up to you with my problems!" and then he walked off, LOL!
Inspired by @Mango, the late Paul Butterfield and his Blues Band at Monterey, 1967: Below is an interview of actress Helen Mirren by Conan O'Brien. She tells of her encounter with the Who's Keith Moon backstage while doing a play in the West End of London during the 1960's. Music related!
