So, I have two sides to this coin.
I've met Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley each twice. The first time I met Gene was with the whole band, at Cutler's Records in New Haven, before the Lick It Up show; I had never even seen them before, let alone met them. I snuck in (one of my finest hours, if truth be told) and was behind three girls of indeterminate age and not-so-modest clothing. Gene was first, and he was gracious, and signed whatever they offered (I couldn't see if it was anything fun), but they knew Paul, so they started talking to him. Which left me in front of my hero. I had the Lick It Up album, Killers, and the booklets from the two live records with me. He stood there and talked through the booklets. "I remember that picture; we tried to take it during the show and it didn't come out right, so we staged this the next day before sound check!" He was amazing. Paul and Eric were too (Vinnie was a dick). The second time I met Paul was at one of his painting exhibits, and my then-wife, my daughter and I got about five minutes with him. He got down on one knee and talked to my daughter like she was a real person, asking her about her earrings and shit (she was five, maybe?). She didn't know him from Adam, just as the "Beth guy from Kiss" (yes, I know that was Peter; that's the point) which I used to sing to her at night, and someone who her daddy really liked. To this day, she's a Kiss fan, and when we finally saw them together live, she posted in Instagram "Greatest night of my life!"
Contrast that with meeting Fish. He was on the 13th Star tour, was bleeding money, and was meeting people in local Irish Bars to avoid paying the merch fees. The bar in Philly was four blocks from my house, so we went. We had gone to a street fair in the morning and my kid had her face painted up; we got up to Fish and I said something along the lines of "remind you of the early days?" and pointed to her makeup and he said something like "Look, I don't have time to make small talk, I've got to get through this line." Fair enough, though on the forum, there was some talk about how he went back to another bar a couple doors down from the venue and had a couple before the show, so there's that. I later understood that period to be a very, very dark time for him, and I don't hold it against him but my daughter still calls him the "mean guy". (Funny coincidence, she's actually in Edinborough as I write this, and I suggested she go to East Lothian, Haddington, and look up the "mean guy". She remembered, 15 years later).
Me, I'm sort of in the El Barto camp; I got to meet Gary Barden - my favorite MSG singer - outside the gig in NYC on the Fest tour, and he actually came out of his bus and had a cigarette with me (I didn't smoke, he did) and we just shot the shit for 10 minutes about nothing at all. It was funny, because he was signing stuff for others while talking to me - no, it wasn't me not taking the hint; he kept asking me questions about Philly, their next stop - and at the end, he actually insisted on the picture (it was part of the conversation, more or less). Those guys - Chris Glen, Ted McKenna, too - were all a hoot. The band was holding court on sidewalk and it was fun. I don't think Barden wanted to be in the middle of things, which is why I was sort of his excuse. Fine with me.
Topic: Meeting your heroes… (Read 2183 times)
