The Name Dropping Thread

[Prime Time]

Ever meet anyone famous?

Got to thinking about this while reading an article about Muhammad Ali recently. I got to shake hands and have a brief conversation with him while I was a journalism student at San Jose State and he was giving a speech. This was around 1970 if my memory is correct.

He was gracious and extremely funny. There was a drunk in the audience who came forward and challenged him to a fight. As he staggered up to him, Ali did his usual bobbing and weaving and said "That's one crazy white boy" while the crowd laughed.

I took a night class in songwriting from Paul Simon while at San Jose State. He was a guest lecturer that night and I got to spend some time with him afterwards.

Most of you will not know who Bob Gaudio is but he was a member of the Four Seasons and wrote "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like A Man," "Dawn," "Rag Doll," and "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You." He was my substitute teacher for a while in grammar school."

 

[Angry Ram]

I met Steven Jackson, Donnie Jones, and Josh Brown.

Also Troy Aikman, but it was from afar. I still saw him in person though!

 

[SierraRam]

PT - my brother has signed Muhammad Ali boxing gloves. He got them at a signing event. Very cool!

I met George Carlin in 1981 at the "Old Spaghetti Factory" restaruant in San Jose. We just saw him perform at the Civic Center earlier in the evening. Best stand-up I ever saw - nice guy too.

 

[Selassie I]

I've got the Ultimate Quadfecta. Nobody's topping this...

From this very board,,, in this order,,, Ramhusker, Sum1, -X-, and Les.

Dropping mic and walking off stage now. :heh:

 

[Rams and Gators]

Went to school with former England soccer international Dean Ashton (only played one game due to a career ending ankle injury caused by a team mate the night before his England debut but still my favourite soccer player of all time).

Went to school (or at least I think I did he could have started the year after I finished) and used to frequent a shop where Harry Styles of One Direction (who? exactly) worked.

 

[Tron]

Saw Gene Simmons with his family at a hotel in Israel.

Met Dicky Betts after one of his shows cause a friend of mine did the cover art for his albums and he took me.

 

[Stranger]

I think the closest I ever got to a real celebrity is when I tried to get @-X- to autograph a photo for my kids at a signing event. :coffee:

 

[RamFan503]

Saw Gene Simmons with his family at a hotel in Israel.

Met Dicky Betts after one of his shows cause a friend of mine did the cover art for his albums and he took me.

My wife and I met Betts after a concert in Solana Beach. Pretty funny character. And yes.... my wife and I met Dickey. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

I have met many celebrities in my life. My mom is a Western Artist and good friends with many western actors and musicians. We also got to be good friends with the Brolins. I actually used to babysit Jess and Josh Brolin when our parents would hit the town. Jess was a little punk and Josh was just simply a good kid. Holy crap! I just googled Jess and he apparently is homeless and 300+ pounds. Hate to say it but it really doesn't surprise me much.

One of the funniest times in meeting someone famous was when we went out to the airport to with a group to pick up Mel Tillis, Glen Campbell, and Tanya Tucker. They were the music acts at a Rodeo and art show in Nebraska. Mel's plane was called the Stutter 2. Anyway, he go off the plane and was shaking his head. Right behind him came Glen Campbell and then Tanya yelling at Glen. Mel looked at an artist friend of my mom's and said, "th-th-th-they've b-b-been doing that the whole d-d-d-damn flight!" Funnier than hell.

The funniest person I have ever met hands down was Slim Pickens. The guy seemed to never stop telling hilarious yarns about his time as a cowboy and actor. My sides hurt listening to him and I don't think anyone said a word for about the hour and a half we were sitting around the table.

The most intimidating - oddly enough - was Ben Johnson. I never really thought about how huge that guy was. He reached out to shake my hand and it looked like the guy was wearing a baseball mitt. Super nice man but you felt like you best be on your best behavior while he was around. He'd just squish you.

 

[Mister Sin]

Don't know if this counts as famous, but I went to school with a Playmate. Jillian Grace, who went by Jill Harper in high school. She now has a child with David Spade.

 

[RamFan503]

Don't know if this counts as famous, but I went to school with a Playmate. Jillian Grace, who went by Jill Harper in high school. She now has a child with David Spade.

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Hell yes it counts. Although she effed David Spade so that has to cost her some points.

 

[Mister Sin]

She also used to bang Paulie Shore and acted like it was awesome. She was a pretty cool chick to party with back in the day, but after she got a little fame she turned bitch pretty quick. We all just kind of laughed at her. She ended up just moving to Cali cause she made herself pretty well hated.

 

[RamFan503]

She also used to bang Paulie Shore and acted like it was awesome. She was a pretty cool chick to party with back in the day, but after she got a little fame she turned bitch pretty quick. We all just kind of laughed at her. She ended up just moving to Cali cause she made herself pretty well hated.

Paulie Shore AND David Spade? Disqualified!

 

[Selassie I]

I've got some real ones too.

Back when the Magic drafted Shaq I was invited to his introductory press conference. I used to do a bunch of advertising on the TV station that carried the Magic, so my rep made sure to get me in. Anyway, Pat Williams (he was the Magic president or some shit back then... NBA front office legend really) came out before Shaq was brought out to give everyone the instructions/rules of the event. He was telling everybody that he absolutely did NOT want anyone to try and approach Shaq for any handshakes or contact of any kind. Told us a few things he didn't want talked about etc. He asked if anyone besides the usual media crew would like to ask him anything... my hand went up and Pat liked my question.

So after most of the media had asked a few... Pat calls on me to ask mine. I start off by telling Shaq that I had attended Cole HS in Fort Sam Houston TX just like he did (he's a few years younger than me). Shaq's eyes bug out and he jumps out from behind the table... he then grabs me in a giant bear hug. We started bs'ing right there about it... we didn't know each other back then, but he turned out to become best friends with one of my good friend's little brother and he was his hired assistant for years (small world). Pat had to ask us to share with everyone else as he was giving me the eye to like back away or something. LOL

Shaq is a giant giant man... it was a fun intro.


I later got into refereeing basketball pretty heavy. High School and some small College games here in Florida. I even got to ref some NBA summer league games one year. I got to meet shit loads of NBA players as a result. None was ever quite like when I got to meet Shaq though.

 

[Boffo97]

Don't know if this counts as famous, but I went to school with a Playmate. Jillian Grace, who went by Jill Harper in high school. She now has a child with David Spade.

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Does your blood run cold? Has your memory just been sold? Your angel is the centerfold!

 

[RhodyRams]

sat next to Dr. J on a flight home from Florida golf trip...took up all my leg room

have played in a charity golf tourney put together by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. We were right behind Seth MacFarland and Alex Borstein ..couldn't stop laughing the whole round..waited on the tee enough times with them there to have both the worst round of golf I ever played AND one of the best times of my life

 

[Mister Sin]

I once met Diamond Dallas Page....as a kid that was bad ass.

 

[Boffo97]

I went to school with former Raiders RB Napoleon Kaufman. The most we ever interacted was when I got into a fight in 7th grade and Napoleon congratulated me in K-Mart later, saying the kid had it coming.

He's still a big local hero.

 

[Mister Sin]

When I played high school football, we were state contenders. We lost at state to a school called Webb City. That year, Jackie Smith came to one of our practices and gave us a speach about hard work and taking your opportunities. When we were practicing for state, they let us practice at the rams facility. We knocked on the door and Grant Wistrom opened the door, he asked who we were and we told him, not realizing, he went to Webb City. He said, "oh you guys are the ones gonna get your butts whooped" then he shut the door and walked away. He came back laughing and let us in. They showed us around the facility. I remember Torry Holts pads were pads in name only, they didn't have much to them. Ricky Proehl had a 6 pack of Bud Light in his locker room. They gave us all turf shoes for $1.(it wasn't allowed to give them for free for some reason). It was pretty epic, they called our names over the PA, I remember we got to run out of the tunnel and one at a time run from the goal post to the 50 yard emblem and then cut to the sidelines as we were introduced. And that wasn't the end. Before we got to state, we were playing Hannibal in the semi-finals. During the game one of our players dad was a supplement salesman and had some connections, Dick Vermeil himself called us and gave us a half time pep talk. That's was one of the coolest things ever. We spanked Hannibal. Lol so that, to me is probably the top set of memories I have that had to do with "famous" peopl.

 

[ozarkram]

Mel Tillis and his wife. She was a flirt he didn't seem to like it much, both nice people. Doug Kershaw seemed dirty like he hadn't had a bath in quite a while. Johnny Lee and Charley Pride. Went to the same high school as Larry Brooks. Met him several times. Some older Rams fans may remember him.

 

[RamFan503]

I went to school with former Raiders RB Napoleon Kaufman. The most we ever interacted was when I got into a fight in 7th grade and Napoleon congratulated me in K-Mart later, saying the kid had it coming.

He's still a big local hero.

Lompoc High? I graduated Atascadero High and lived in San Luis Obispo County for many years. I met my wife when she was living in Shell Beach.