really enough to put him on any sort of pedestal?
I know for me, it's not about "pedestal". I just find people interesting, and part of that is how people deal with fame (both coming and going). I'm also interested in how people (and to be fair, the media) distort other people based on non-personal things. Case in point: Gene Simmons. Ask various people and they will tell you "asshole, dick, arrogant, all about the money and the p****" and they've never met the man. I've met him twice - did not pay for either - and both times he was BEYOND what you could or should expect from a celebrity and his time. Personable, comfortable, engaging, polite. In one case, when I met the band at Cutler's Records in New Haven before the Lick It Up show, he ignored two gorgeous women (who were talking to Paul) to talk with me. I shit you not.
Mike prides himself on being a man of the people, fans first, and yet when I met him, he was friendly, but it was like talking to someone waiting for the bus. As soon as the bus comes, you kind of know the conversation is over. Billy Squier? Exactly the opposite. We actually got into a (reasonably) deep conversation about the music business, his catalogue and what makes him happy (he actually said "this makes me happy", the "this" being standing in the lobby of the Ridgefield Playhouse after his gig talking with about twenty fans like it was a tailgate). I was blown away by how smart, engaging, and open he was. I actually left the conversation because I felt like I wanted to end it before it collapsed if that makes sense.
I never met Springsteen, but I was very close to him once in New York City, and I was almost mesmerized by how he conducts himself. He literally walks in poses. Meaning, he is so aware that people are watching him that he will walk a few steps, and even while conducting a conversation will stop and sort of "frame himself" for those taking pictures, then continue walking, then "frame". It's almost impossible to explain without actually seeing it, but it's fascinating.