Famous Friends

[MikeZito]

Every so often I see a post where somebody casually mentions that some 'famous' musician is/was a friend of theirs.

Since the overwhelming majority of us never get to meet or know musicians that we admire, I thought it might be interesting to start a thread where all of those names can be gathered in one place. Perhaps by putting a list like this together, with people who are willing to share stories/information about their famous friends, anyone who has a question about a particular musician can possibly find a primary source to get some answers.

My 'famous' friend was Blue Sky Boys mandolinist Bill Bolick.

[Paul Busman]

My famous friend wasn't a string player. He was Julius Baker, long time flutist with the NY Philharmonic. It's a sort of long story how I met him and became friends. Julie was one of the top flute players ever and taught many of the first chair players of today. At the time I was a pretty serious recorder player and loved ribbing him about how many of the Baroque "flute" pieces were actually written for recorder. His opinion, which I share, was that good music, well played is great no matter what instrument it's played on. I got to play duets with him, and he did me the great honor of asking me to play a Handel recorder sonata for the students at one of his summer master classes with his main accompanist. Talk about a Walter Mitty moment!

[Swimbob]

I got to meet my bass playing idol, Percy Jones several years ago. He was traveling through my home town with his band, Tunnels and another friend of mine managed to get them a booking at a local venue. After the show we met and spent over an hour talking about bass related things and I even got my picture taken with him. It was on their website for a couple of years.

[JeffD]

I have had the pleasure of interacting professionally and developing some real friendships with some of the world's top technologists, real rock stars in their field, though they might be sitting next to you on a bus and you wouldn't even know it.

In music and entertainment I have had the most interaction with Jacob Reuven, which interaction has had a very large effect on my playing and my musical life.

I had an opportunity to meet Marty Stuart, but fanboy nerves got the best of me and I held back.


Some regrets, I never met Alison Stephens. Or Butch Baldassari.

[Randi Gormley]

Alas, the people I know who are professional musicians probably wouldn't be familiar to most people (and pretty much none of them plays mandolin). But a good half dozen are all-Ireland in fiddle or box and the younger ones (like Ned, who plays guitar with Tall County) are probably more regionally known, if known at all. But if anyone wants gossip about, say, John Whelan or Brian Conway or wants an introduction to Mary Coogan, let me know.

[Willie Poole]

Since bluegrass was just about the most popular music in the Washington D.C. area for many years I met and enjoyed friendships with a lot of the "Big Boys", John Duffey, Buzz Busby, Don Reno, RedSmiley, Bill Harrell, Jimmy Dean, Don Stover,most of the Stonemans, Ed Ferris, Cliff Waldron, Bill Emerson, Chris Warner....Those are just a few that my old mind can recall right now...A lot of others I met and shook hands with but never really considered them as good friends...As the old songs says, "I`ve lived a lot in my time"...The question is "How many of them still remember me"?

I also played in bands with some big names, Gary Cooper, Kenny Rogers, and Rick Nelson....Of course those were not the big stars, they just shared a name with them...

Good post....Willie

[Sakamichi]

No famous friends but some interesting interactions:

1. Played on stage with Billy Joel to an empty venue
2. Nearly got into a fight with the vocalist of Faith No More
3. Met the Red Hot Chili Peppers while making a delivery to a customer
4. Had to tell members of NKOTB to keep their motorcycles off the grass
5. P.J. Harvey asked me for a light me in NYC (I don't smoke, but I keep a vintage Zippo as my fidget device)
6. A guitarist from TSO stepped on my foot during a concert—and apologized!
7. Met Joe Negri (Handyman Negri from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood) at a Christmas party (His jazz trio was playing)

#7 was the only time I was visibly star-struck.

[Sakamichi]

I also played in bands with some big names, Gary Cooper, Kenny Rogers, and Rick Nelson.

No matter what you say, you're kind of a big deal.

[FLATROCK HILL]

You know you're a member of a 'niche' community when 99% of the people in the world have never heard of your 'famous' friends.

[sgarrity]

Roland White sends me text messages......

[MikeZito]

Willie: I wish I had seen this post several years ago. For nearly 20 years I produced (and occasionally hosted) a local old-time country and bluegrass music radio show. The regular host of the show was from D.C. You would have been a great guest.

Sakamichi: Playing to an empty house with Billy Joel sounds very familiar . . . the biggest audience I ever had at one of my solo gigs was ONE person - and he he only stayed for half the show.
I was only 'star stuck' once - and it wasn't even a normal 'star struck'. I met Crystal Gayle after a show back in in 1983, and she was 100-times better looking in person than when you saw her on television, album covers, magazines, etc. I was so floored at how good looking she was, for a couple of seconds I couldn't speak!
I also met George Carlin one time, and was amazed at how humble and soft-spoken he was . . . definitely not what I expected.

[allenhopkins]

I've been around a bunch of well-known musicians, opening for people like David Bromberg, Doc Watson, et. al. (it was my function to make the main act look even better by comparison), but the only musician I've hung out with at all, that Cafe members might know, is Paul Prestopino, he of the super-Strad-O-Lin.

[Jim Hilburn]

My famous friend is Jordan Ramsey. And he's getting famouser and famouser.

[Steve Ostrander]

I can't say I'm friends, but I've met Jeff Daniels, Josh Davis, Don Julin, and Billy Strings.

Josh White Jr. invited me on stage to sing with him. Danny Gatton invited me backstage at a gig. I played Stevie Wonder's piano. I shined Tom Selleck's shoes. I've held Ted Nugent's loin cloth. I took Aretha Franklin's dress to the dry cleaners. I delivered Gerald Ford's official portrait. I sat at a table next to Tim Allen. I played Brian Setzer's guitar.

I'm not making this up...

[bdpeters]

not a friend but an encounter. ran into,(almost literally) Rosanne Cash when i was working at a Holiday Inn. I knew she was there because of the bus. I was shoveling snow from the walks and came around the corner and almost tripped her. I cannot for the life of me remember what she said to me though.

[Sakamichi]

I was only 'star stuck' once - and it wasn't even a normal 'star struck'. I met Crystal Gayle after a show back in in 1983, and she was 100-times better looking in person than when you saw her on television, album covers, magazines, etc. I was so floored at how good looking she was, for a couple of seconds I couldn't speak!

That happened to me when I saw Leeza Gibbons a handful of years back when I auditioned for Who Wants to be a Millionare? She literally took my breath away. A couple years after that, I met her in Columbia, SC, but I was able to remain (somewhat) composed that time.

[Sakamichi]

I can't say I'm friends, but I've met Jeff Daniels, Josh Davis, Don Julin, and Billy Strings.

Josh White Jr. invited me on stage to sing with him. Danny Gatton invited me backstage at a gig. I played Stevie Wonder's piano. I shined Tom Selleck's shoes. I've held Ted Nugent's loin cloth. I took Aretha Franklin's dress to the dry cleaners. I delivered Gerald Ford's official portrait. I sat at a table next to Tim Allen. I played Brian Setzer's guitar.

I'm not making this up...

There's some good stories there, I'll bet.

[William Smith]

Well I have a few family members who/have played in well known bands, My gramps "RIP", Big William Smith, his brother Great Uncle Dick Smith, my other Uncle Gene Johnson, other Uncle Mike Smith, I partied hard core with Jack Lawrence a long time ago and played at a festival with my old band and Jack was playing there also. I've kept in contact with him every now and then. I've got to meet way to many Country and Bluegrass STARS to list. Some know me from trading/buying instruments like the Dawg.
Oh and my best friend from high school, his stepdad wrote a few movies-Wild Things-Traffic and maybe more I don't know of? Juan Wilson, I think he wrote under a pen name..

Oh and I forgot I cooked Ted Nugent breakfast at my old restaurant I owned years ago...He had MEAT..No joke

[foldedpath]

Alas, the people I know who are professional musicians probably wouldn't be familiar to most people (and pretty much none of them plays mandolin). But a good half dozen are all-Ireland in fiddle or box and the younger ones (like Ned, who plays guitar with Tall County) are probably more regionally known, if known at all. But if anyone wants gossip about, say, John Whelan or Brian Conway or wants an introduction to Mary Coogan, let me know.

Yeah, some of us are in niche areas like this where nobody outside the niche will recognize any names.

My fiddler S.O. hangs out with pipers and Scottish/Cape Breton fiddlers at local workshops, so I've met pipers like Fred Morrison, and a slew of Cape Breton fiddlers who make it out this way for concerts and workshops, like Troy MacGillivray, Andrea Beaton, Wendy MacIsaac. I've had Dave MacIsaac over to my house during a break from the local Fiddle Tunes festival, where he was more interested in my guitar collection than anything else.

We're house-hosting New England fiddler Katie McNally and friends for one stop of her concert and workshop tour this summer. She plays an amazing mix of Scottish/Cape Breton and jazz-influenced progressive music. It's part of her tour hitting Mt. Vernon WA, Port Townsend, WA, Portland OR and then down to Berkely CA.

I'm just the mandolin hanger-on in that scene, surrounded by fiddlers and pipers. These names won't mean anything to anyone who isn't in this narrow niche of music.

[jaycat]

. . . . Danny Gatton invited me backstage at a gig. . . .

You win!

[jim simpson]

Since bluegrass was just about the most popular music in the Washington D.C. area for many years I met and enjoyed friendships with a lot of the "Big Boys", John Duffey, Buzz Busby, Don Reno, RedSmiley, Bill Harrell, Jimmy Dean, Don Stover,most of the Stonemans, Ed Ferris, Cliff Waldron, Bill Emerson, Chris Warner....Those are just a few that my old mind can recall right now...A lot of others I met and shook hands with but never really considered them as good friends...As the old songs says, "I`ve lived a lot in my time"...The question is "How many of them still remember me"?

I also played in bands with some big names, Gary Cooper, Kenny Rogers, and Rick Nelson....Of course those were not the big stars, they just shared a name with them...

Good post....Willie

Willie,
I believe I've met and played with the same Rick Nelson that you have. I met him through Bill Breazeale of Kensington, Md. I took a small class from Roland White. I played in a private jam with Alan Munde.
Just a few magic moments.

[Swimbob]

Once I was knocked over by Chubby Checker as he bounded out of a hotel in Myrtle Beach to jump on a band stand to sing a couple of songs.

I also got Stevie Ray Vaughn's autograph in Washington DC after the Red Hot Blues Jam that Lee Atwater put on for the HW Bush inauguration. One of the nicest and most humble people I think I've ever met.

[Willie Poole]

Jim, Yes that is the same Rick Nelson, I also think that I have met you somewhere on the circuit...

I might also add that the biggest star I ever met was Zaza Gabor, my band was hired to do a show in Middleburg Va. where they were having a giant party and a steeple chase (fox hunt) and Zaza walked up and took my hat and placed it on her head and danced around a bit, the hat was sweaty but she didn`t mind, I put that hat on a shelf in my house and still have it to this day and have never worn it since then....What memories...

Willie

[MikeZito]

- Produced a weekly radio show for a man who was once offered a job as Bill Monroe's manager.

- Almost got hit by David Bowie's limousine after a show in 1983.

- Had moderate ongoing contact with WWVA Wheeling stars Doc Williams and Lee Moore (later opened a show for Lee Moore), rockabilly pioneer Bill Flagg, and my Bass-playing hero, George McArdle of the Little River Band

- Met Gordon Lightfoot in the mid-1980's.

- Back when the internet was still fairly new, I got a couple of e-mail's from Roger McGuinn.

- Met Rick Derringer at a record store in Hartford, CT in 1979. The meet-and-greet was sponsored by a local radio station who sent their morning disc-jockey to the event to promote the radio station. The largely-ignored disc jockey was some younger guy named Howard Stern.

- Met 70's pop star (and one of my music idols) Andrew Gold at a Linda Ronstadt concert in the 1980's - and many years later drove to his private recording studio to by a Taylor acoustic guitar from him . . . the same guitar that he was photographed with for a profile in People magazine, and was played by Karla Bonoff on a television show from the Ryman.

- Got to play a Loar F5 that once belonged to New England bluegrass legend Joe Val.

- Taylor Swift sometimes eats at my cousin's pizza restaurant.

What does all of this mean? Not a damn thing . . . but it's fun to reminisce . . .

[JEStanek]

I have met and shared a few words with Dawg, Del and Ronnie McCoury, Frank Sollivan, Uncle Earl, Sarah Jarozs, Marty Stuart, Mike Compton, The Chieftains, and even stood right next to Arlo Guthrie for about 10 minutes but didn't have anything to say to him. I've driven Jake Shimabokuro to his hotel and he bought my young daughter an ice cream. I got to see and strum Steve Martin's Loar on loan to Mike Guggino of the Steep Canyon Rangers. I can't say any of them are friends but every one is friendly. A great benefit of volunteering for the Philadelphia Folk Festival is getting to meet and help these folks out (schlepping instruments to stages or CDs to the merch tent. You'll find out they are just folks doing a job they really love. Sometimes they are stressed by traffic and other junk but when your job is to help them out and you do it cheerfully you get to see the kind of people they are.

Even the famous players I've met haven't been pissy about this or that... they have managers for that

Jamie