My Brushes with Celebrity

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I was an avid concertgoer in my teens and 20s. The last show I spent big money to see was The Eagles for the Millennium Tour in Los Angeles at the Staples Center. They played for over 3 hours, with all 5 living and current members, before anyone had been sent away or died. Those were the days...for me.

Here are some faces you may recognize. During my flight attendant and limousine days, I met many more, but just didn't capture the moment on camera or video.

Below: Brad Delp, legendary vocalist from the rock band Boston & RTZ, from May 4 1992.


I also got all the members of Pearl Jam to autograph my cassette version of Ten, in 1992. I met all of them EXCEPT Eddie Vedder. I also have a 1st generation copy of the same April 23, 1992 concert I attended at the Cameo Theater on Miami Beach, and I remember carrying Vedder in the mosh pit when he jumped in to "crowd surf".

I met comedian Jackie Mason one time. He was waiting at Midway Airport in Chicago while I was working at Southwest Airlines.

I met Eddie Money one day, walking side by side with him in the Denver Airport, while I was working at United Airlines.

I drove Mira Sorvino once.

If you look really, really carefully, you might catch me in an Iggy Pop video called Little Know-it-all, circa 2004, filmed at the grungy Churchill's English Pub "strategically" located in the middle of a Haitian neighborhood in Miami. As logical as ordering pizza from a sushi chef.

Below: Thom Yorke, lead vocalist of Radiohead, from September 23, 1993. I have pictures with all the members of Radiohead, actually.

I served Jose Canseco once in my teens when working at a movie theater. But weirder still, about 5 or 6 years later I worked a catering job at his house in Weston, at the time.

I met Gladys Knight in person while waiting tables in a fine dining establishment. But 2 even more curious circumstances made it more interesting: first, the black chef who swore he'd recognize her anywhere was in denial, and second, I'd paused the song "Midnight Train to Georgia" on my iPod before getting out of my car to report to work. The 3 white women who surrounded her were stunned that I recognized her.

I got to see Wham in 1985 because I won tickets over the radio. I invited a good friend of mine at the time. Later, he won a school raffle for Bruce Springsteen tickets and he invited me in return. The shows were just 3 days apart that September.

I won tickets over the radio again to see Chicago in 1988.

I met comedian Harvey Korman of Mel Brooks and Carol Burnett fame and association on a United Airlines flight one day.

Below: Colin Hay, lengendary vocalist and songwriter of Men at Work, from April 28 2005.

I met Orville Redenbacher, popcorn king, at the basement restaurant in a building in downtown Jacksonville while waiting for a friend to get off work. He gave me a round vinyl-ish sticker that said, "I met Orville Redenbacher!"

I was first in line to wait for tickets for the Rolling Stones show at the Orange Bowl in Miami in 1989. I wound up getting 6th row, center, directly in front of the stage. Those were the days when you could still do that...

I crossed paths once with Ron Jeremy on Miami Beach...just paths.

I was working a flight back to Chicago very disappointed that, because of flight delays, I'd be arriving too late to make it to a Pet Shop Boys concert in downtown Chicago. But some passenger dude with FIVE extra tickets to the show but no way of getting there simply offered me one in exchange for transportation. It was an easy deal and the rest worked out so perfectly the show hadn't even started when we got there in that mad rush.

Below: Steven Tyler, legendary lead singer of the band Aerosmith, from January 20, 2006.

I told a group of 3 guys on a Southwest Airlines flight that I was working that they looked exactly like the guys from the band Better Than Ezra. They replied, "That's 'cause we are."

A friend and I managed to get a wink and a nod from Benjamin Orr, co-lead singer of The Cars when we attended their last tour in 1987. We had 3rd row, center.

I made my "pilgrimage" to 1st Avenue in Minneapolis to see for myself where the movie Purple Rain was filmed. I was a huge Prince fan. I got to see him twice at Glam Slam on Miami Beach in 1996 when he played every night of his birthday week that June for just $20 if you could get tickets.

My first concert ever was The Police, with opening acts The Fixx and The Animals, in October 1983.

I had a picture with Marilyn Martin, co lead singer with Phil Collins of Separate Lives and later a backup singer for Don Henley during his End of the Innocence Tour circa 1990...but I lost it.

And I already showed 2 of the 3 times I met Ron Paul in another post. Hopefully you saw those too.