Famous musicians you've met

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TheGreatGreen said:
I met Andy Wood in a Guitar Center in the early 2000's. Super chill and nice dude. He even invited me to play on stage with him and his old band at a local bar he used to play at a couple times. I've seen him around a few times over the years and I always try to say hello. Let me tell you... however good of a player you think Andy Wood is, he's better than that. He is one of the best guitar players alive today.

I also met Bjorn Gelotte of In Flames after a show back in the mid 2000's. Also a cool dude. I asked him how he got his sound and he said "Les Pauls, EMG pickups, 5150's. A lot of wood." lol.

Oh and when I worked in a music store a long time ago I helped Brent Mason pick out a pedalboard. He was still using it even as recently as a few years ago last I saw.
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Dude, if Andy invited me onstage I don’t even know if I could say yes. I would just because it’d be dumb not to, but fuckin’ hell, man. That’s a situation that it doesn’t matter what tricks I could pull out of my back pocket, how well I was playing that day, if I warmed up for a week, all Andy has to do is tap the gas pedal and the floor has been wiped.
 
PeteLaramee said:
I've met a handful. These are the ones that come to mind...

Lynch (three times)
Jon Oliva
Steve Morse
Rod Morgenstein
Derek Sherinian (actually had a few phone conversations with him)
Tony MacAlpine
Dennis Chambers
All the guys in Phish
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Actually, Rod was maybe my first celebrity meeting. My dad and I were taking an Amtrack from Boston to NY around ’97, my dad’s a talker and noticed the guy across the aisle had a bunch of Berklee paperwork in his hands, he struck up a conversation and the guy said he was an instructor at Berklee. I think after 45 minutes of them shooting the shit I remember hearing Rod say “Well maybe you know my band, The Dixie Dregs” and my dad saying ”Wait, that would make you….Rrr…” as Rod extended his hand over and said his name. (Dad is a drummer)

He told us pretty funny story- there was some festival show down here in South Florida that Winger was playing at, a bunch of bands were using a rehearsal warehouse with a bunch of rooms in it, Winger is in between songs and all of a sudden they hear this ripping shredding guitar blaring in the hallway, like someone opened the door to a practice space, but the amps are REALLY fucking loud. A couple seconds later the door to their space gets kicked open and in walks Yngwie, still shredding away, shreds while walking up to Reb, gets down on one knee and holds his guitar up to him like it’s Excalibur, to which Reb looked down and slowly clapped while shaking his head. :ROFLMAO:
 
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And this was kinda like meeting a celebrity……
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(My best friend totally doesn’t work there and we absolutely didn’t go in when it was closed and I’m absolutely not really playing that kit)
 
RevDrucifer said:
Dude, if Andy invited me onstage I don’t even know if I could say yes. I would just because it’d be dumb not to, but fuckin’ hell, man. That’s a situation that it doesn’t matter what tricks I could pull out of my back pocket, how well I was playing that day, if I warmed up for a week, all Andy has to do is tap the gas pedal and the floor has been wiped.
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Hah, so just between us girls I like to think of myself as somebody who more or less knows their way around the fretboard, like I think I can pretty much play whatever I want to play. I don't think I'm amazing, and I hear people all the time who can do stuff I've never learned to do, but overall I have confidence in my own abilities to express myself I think.

That said, yep, you're exactly right. I had a great time sitting in with the band and they were all super cool but holy shit playing next to Andy is like the most humbling thing as a guitar player. Despite there being good vibes all around and zero "competition" or anything like that, the guy was just in a different universe. Listening to somebody improvise with that kind of total command of the instrument and then having to improvise myself right after that, I felt like I may as well have just banged around on the strings with my own forehead lol.

As for me agreeing to share a stage with him in the first place, I guess it helped that he wasn’t famous back then. To me he was just some guy I knew who lived in the same town as me and just so happened to be the best guitar player I’d ever heard in person up until that point.
 
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TheGreatGreen said:
Hah, so just between us girls I like to think of myself as somebody who more or less knows their way around the fretboard, like I think I can pretty much play whatever I want to play. I don't think I'm amazing, and I hear people all the time who can do stuff I've never learned to do, but overall I have confidence in my own abilities to express myself I think.

That said, yep, you're exactly right. I had a great time sitting in with the band and they were all super cool but holy shit playing next to Andy is like the most humbling thing as a guitar player. Despite there being good vibes all around and zero "competition" or anything like that, the guy was just in a different universe. Listening to somebody improvise with that kind of total command of the instrument and then having to improvise myself right after that, I felt like I may as well have just banged around on the strings with my own forehead lol.
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Hahahah I can do the things I want on a guitar, after I’ve decided I want to do them and worked them out. I have a safe zone I can improvise in and come out ok, but not fuckin’ next to Andy Wood. Totally know that guy is the sweetest dude with the biggest talent and would never overshadow someone for the sake of it, but he’s different level good. And yeah, that command. I’m practically the same age as him, he started playing after me but I feel like that dude has played every damn note 1,000,000 more times than I have.
 
Zakk- hungout backstage
George lynch- twice at music stores
Satch- music store
Yngwie- music store
vinnie vincent- kiss convention
Dan spitz- music store
Stephen pearcy- after a show
Mike schleibaum- put a roof on his house
Stevie wonder- music store
Vince neil- at a strip club
Jani lane- airport
Kevin dubrow- bar
Flava flav- in jail
Skid row- at a show
Kse- before a show
Maynard james keenan- bianco eating lunch
Peter steele- music store
Kittie- walking around the mall before a show
 
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The whole bunch from Mastodon. Great lads.

And all from Metallica. James twice in Denmark. Lars a couple of times including at a party in copenhagen with him. Nothing but good times with them.
 
Les Zombie said:
Zakk- hungout backstage
George lynch- twice at music stores
Satch- music store
Yngwie- music store
vinnie vincent- kiss convention
Dan spitz- music store
Stephen pearcy- after a show
Mike schleibaum- put a roof on his house
Stevie wonder- music store
Vince neil- at a strip club
Jani lane- airport
Kevin dubrow- bar
Flava flav- in jail
Skid row- at a show
Kse- before a show
Maynard james keenan- bianco eating lunch
Peter steele- music store
Kittie- walking around the mall before a show
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Yeah Boy!
 
My best friend’s cousin is Joe Walsh. Normal dude, at least he has been for the last 30 years. “Cocaine is a hell of a drug”. Responds to texts and answers appropriately. Normal people like most of us.
 
I'm waiting for a funny Steve Lukather encounter. Nobody? Never met him but seems like there'd be an lol moment for sure.
 
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Racerxrated said:
We got tix/meet/greet passes for Mr Big; they played a small club called the Cabooze if I remember right
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You remember the name right but that was a pretty good size club with a nice house system and an upper level, at least in the late 90's/early 2000's. I remember paying $5 for a Budweiser there. I didn't pay $5 for a Budweiser again until like 2019, lol.
 
studio289 said:
Nuno and Gary. They did a meet-and-greet at our local radio station.
They performed "Hole Hearted" and "More Than Words", then met with the unwashed masses.
Nuno signed my Guitar World magazine. (Which featured him, of course.)
They were chill. It was cool.

...

Eddie Rabbit played our county fair, and my friend and I saw the guitarist smoking a cigarette on the field behind the stage, after the show.
We approached him and started talking about guitars and tone.
He mentioned his feet were killing him, and asked if it was okay if we continued the conversation on the tour bus.
Considering my friend and I had never seen the inside of a professional tour bus, we said "Hell yeah."

He talked about his rig, and incorporating sweep arpeggios into the songs.
Dude was so cool, and seemed kind of flattered somone wanted to talk to him.
We chatted for about 15 minutes, thanked him for his time, and left.
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“Pour me another tequila” is such a great tune
 
I forgot I met Jeff "Skunk" Baxter in the cafeteria at my work. I was standing there and look over and he was waiting for his food. I went over and just said hi and told him I play guitar. Total nerd moment.
 
The list is extremely long. I guess I’ve been fortunate in that regard.

The highlight was meeting John Petrucci, bringing a guitar for him to sign, and also bringing a guitar for him to play that I built from scratch.

Marty, the owner of MotorCity helped facilitate this. John is such a class act. It was a Sunday night clinic. Midnight, I’m the last guy in the store with a couple employees, I’m thinking John probably wants to get out of there after signing autographs for a couple hours, and he was totally geeked to ask questions and play this thing for 10 minutes. It was really special.

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Layne Staley and Trey azagoth. Not super famous….ohhh shit I forgot about my buddy earl…..here he is-
 
Have a bud that met Hetfield at a Dwight Yoakam show in Vail, CO. James was there watching the show.
 
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