First things first - we’re only 11 subscribers away from 1000, which has been the goal for a while. Let’s make that happen and maybe we celebrate with some treats or something. Thanks so much for being here!
I thought we’d do something different this week.
I’m a regular Reddit lurker and posts I always find myself getting pulled into are the ones where people talk about celebrity encounters. I love hearing about celebrities who are nice and ones who are assholes. I’m guessing most people do. So with that in mind, I thought I’d share my stories of celebrity encounters. I’ve had a lot of them - mostly due to the jobs I’ve had. I won’t mention them all because they’re not all interesting stories. I’ve encountered and met a lot of famous musicians through the years, in particular. Too many to name. So I’ll only mention the special/stand-out cases here today. Let’s do this!
Gary Carter - baseball hall of famer. He was the first famous person I ever met. I was 12 years old at the time and he was my hero. And he was beyond nice. He signed stuff for me and invited me out onto the field at Olympic Stadium in Montreal to play catch. That same day, I met Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Pete Rose, Duke Snider (!) and a bunch of other guys.
Kirk Douglas - Hollywood legend. This was my second-ever celebrity encounter. Me and my old friend Robert (who I bought my first sampler from) were hired to DJ the wrap party for a TV movie called The Secret. I didn’t have much interaction with Mr. Douglas himself but his people (manager/agent/publicist/I don’t know) were friggin’ dicks. One guy threatened to kill me if I didn’t play Elvis songs. “MR. DOUGLAS WANTS ELVIS!”
The Amazing Kreskin - mentalist. This is a long story. Maybe you’ve heard me tell it before. Kreskin had a TV show in Canada when I was a kid and I loved it. One day in the late 90s, he came into the place where I worked (a newsstand called Blowers Street Paper Chase). He was alone and was the only customer in the store. Long story short, we spoke for a little while. He was very, very kind. And - I shit you not - he read my mind. Maybe I’ll re-tell the full story again here one day.
Barack Obama - president of the United States. I didn’t exactly meet him. For reasons I may never know, I received an invitation to his address to Parliament in Ottawa in 2016. Seeing him speak in person - up close - was an incredible experience. I’ll never forget it.
Pamela Anderson - actor/sex symbol. Another story that’s been told many times. She and I hosted the Juno Awards (Canadian music awards) together in 2006. She couldn’t have been a sweeter, nicer or more impressive person. I think she’s awesome.
Kirsten Dunst - actor. Strangely, her and I have crossed paths many times. I’ve seen her in four or five different cities around the world. I was living in Paris when the Marie Antoinette movie was being filmed. The cast members all lived in my neighborhood during filming, so I’d see them around all the time. Claire - my ex - and I were in line to see a movie one night and Sophia Coppola and Jason Schwartzman in line right in front of us. They sat in the row in front of us too. I forget what movie it was now. Anyway. The last time I saw Kirsten Dunst, it was where I work now. I entered a quiet hallway near where my desk is and she was standing there, all alone. This was something like my tenth time seeing her, which is weird, right? So I thought I’d say hello and say something about how strange it was. So it’s just me and her. Face to face. I said hello and she just stared at me blankly. I made no effort to finish my thought and walked away instead.
Kiefer Sutherland - actor. He used to date a friend of mine. He came to one of my shows in LA a few years back. We chatted. Seemed like a regular dude. He was super-drunk by the end of the night. Smashed.
Juliette Lewis - actor. She’s a friend of my friend who dated Kiefer Sutherland. She came to a show I played somewhere in the UK once. I was psyched to meet her because I was/am a big fan and I had to make an effort to keep cool. But she was awesome. Again - she just seemed like a normal person. I have a photo of us together somewhere but I can’t find it. I spent all day Sunday looking for it.
Rappin’ 4-Tay - rapper. It came as a total shock when he followed me on social media years ago. Who would have ever imagined that Rappin’ 4-Tay would mess with Buck 65? I also met his homie, the legendary Too Short in Austin, TX years ago. Ran into him on the street and chatted for a bit. He was cool. I seem to remember that Silkk The Shocker also followed me on one of my social media accounts once. That’s arguably much weirder than Rappin’ 4-Tay. Silkk is Master P’s brother! The south has love for Buck 65 too!
Neil Young - music legend. I had dinner with him and the producer Daniel Lanois once. A lot of laughs were had. My ex wife was with me and she charmed everyone. I love Neil Young. Legit cool person.
Scottie Pippen - basketball hall of famer. My first job was in a hotel and he stayed there for a few days in the summer of 1990. I met him one morning. I shook his hand. He shook my entire arm. The Bulls had been good for a few years at that point but had fallen short of a championship. That morning, I looked him dead in the eye and said, “Hey! This is the year the Bulls do it!”. He chuckled and said, “Alright, alright.” The Bulls won their first of three in a row that season. You’re welcome.
Dolly Parton - country music legend. I interviewed her for my radio show back in 2008. It was as amazing as you’d imagine. Holy mackerel. After we introduced ourselves, I said, “Dolly, this isn’t going to be easy for me because when I was a kid I was completely in love with you.” She said, “well, I hope you still love me!” I said, “oh my god, I sure do!”. She laughed. I was put completely at ease. We had a great, great conversation after that. When the interview was over, she said something along the lines of “if your girlfriend ever starts treatin’ you wrong, you call me” or something like that. I was on cloud friggin’ 9.
Oscar the Grouch - muppet. Caroll Spinney - who played Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird on Sesame Street - came into my work once. He had Oscar with him. This is the weirdest thing but I’ve heard other people who had the privilege say the same thing: I spoke to Oscar for a minute or two. I didn’t say a word to Caroll Spinney. Just Oscar. It was magic. I felt like I was 4 years old all over again.
Sean Penn - actor. Another situation where I was hired to DJ the wrap party for a movie. In this case, the movie was The Weight Of Water. Before the party started, some manager or agent-lady came up to me and said “do not look at Sean Penn”. You hear about this kind of thing from time-to-time. What the entire hell? He ended up sitting right next to where I was set up with my turntables and he seemed to have a great time. He especially loved it when I played dub reggae records.
Helena Christenesen - supermodel. Back in 1995 or 1996 I went to New York and stayed at a hotel called The Royalton. I wanted to stay there specifically because I knew that a lot of people from the fashion industry stayed there. I hoped to see a supermodel. Helena Christensen was my favorite and wouldn’t you know it - as I was checking in, she walked by. It felt like the world stood still. We made eye contact and smiled at each other and our arms brushed as she walked by. I almost fainted. She was even more beautiful in real life. I said to the front desk clerk, “that was Helena Christensen!”. He said, “Yeah, she stays here all the time. She’s really nice.” That felt like a magic moment. It’s one of my favorite memories of my whole life.
Drew Barrymore - actor. She might be the most famous person I’ve ever met. One summer in the early 2000s, I played a lot of European festivals and it just so happened that The Strokes were playing all the same ones on the same days. So I’d see them at the airport. I’d see them in hotels. We’d get picked up by the same shuttle. It seemed like I saw them every day and so we’d chat. I spoke to Albert Hammond Jr. most. He was nice and we’re both big Charles Bukowski fans. So we’d talk about Bukowski. Anyway. The drummer from The Strokes was dating Drew Barrymore at the time and one day we were introduced. I think it was at an airport. She was very nice. Despite her being massively famous, she didn’t give off that vibe at all. She was just normal and nice.
Kevin Spacey - disgraced actor. He used to come into the newsstand where I worked every day to buy the New York Times when he was in Halifax filming a movie called The Shipping News. He was nice enough. But one day he threatened to beat me up because he thought I gave gossip to one of the local newspapers, which I didn’t. We later smoothed things over. Julianne Moore is also in that movie. I saw her in the shop a few times too. I didn’t pick up a vibration from her one way or the other. She was like a ghost.
Quentin Tarantino - filmmaker. I was up on the second floor of Amoeba in LA years ago. That’s where the movies are. I went to the desk to ask about a very obscure movie I was looking for. The clerk-guy had never heard of it. When I turned around to walk away, QT was standing there. Without thinking, I said, “You probably know the movie I’m looking for.” He kinda lit up a little, I guess because his film nerdery was going to be tested. He said, “oh, what one?!” I told him and of course, he knew all about it. We chatted about it for a minute, agreeing that it’s a little-known classic.
Danny DeVito - actor. I played Coachella in 2005. Believe it or not, I played the main stage! I was the first person to go on that day and the place was far from full so it’s not that big of a deal. Anyway, the artist treatment at Coachella is top notch. In the backstage area, every artist gets their own neatly-decorated camper! It’s so nice. Of course I saw lots of famous people back there. Chloë Sevigny was hanging out with The Kills. Danny DeVito hung out all day and for some reason, he set up shop on a lawn chair right outside my camper. So we chatted a bit throughout the day. Oh, and guess whose camper was right next to mine… MF Doom! He had his wife and kid with him so we didn’t talk much.
Chris Martin - musician. Coldplay performed at the Juno awards the year I hosted with Pam Anderson. Hours before the show, Chris Martin went around to introduce himself and say hello to EVERYONE. Nicest guy in the world - genuinely.
Lindsey Buckingham - musician (Fleetwood Mac). He came into where I work one day and was one of the nicest famous people I ever met. I was standing in a hallway with one of my co-workers and he walked over to us and said, “how are you guys doing?” He initiated a conversation! We chatted for five or ten minutes. He couldn’t have been cooler. I got to watch him perform up close a short time later and his guitar playing blew my mind.
Cripes. This is already really long and I’m realizing I’m only halfway through my list. We could be here forever. Maybe I’ll stop here and if this post gets a few likes, I’ll know y’all enjoy this kind of thing too and I’ll do a part 2. How’s that sound?