We all had idols when we were young – actors, singers, writers. We collected cards, shirts and tapes, and wrote fan letters hoping for a reply or an autograph. Sometimes, if you were lucky, chance would have it that you met your idol. Sometimes while enthralled…and sometimes 18 years later.
Here are a few favourite meetings with my childhood idols. Some good and some…er…well:
NKOTB (1/5): Let’s start at the beginning. New Kids on the Block was the first band that I was actually a “fan” of. I had the pillowcases, whole set of cards, shirts, cassettes, videos and a Jon doll. Know what happens when your career starts to drag 15 years after your prime? You end up playing at the Trasheteria in Peterborough. Lucky for me: Probably not so lucky for Jordan Knight. Not only did I go, but I told him it was my birthday as he was walking on stage. Halfway through the set, he sang me Happy Birthday. Not technically a meeting, but that’s enough for me.
Moxy Fruvous (2/4): As fun and fantastic meeting a hero may be, it can go south really quickly. I met Jian Ghomeshi at an industry event. I finally got the guts up to talk to him and ask him what he was up to these days. He said, “Managing lights”. I thought that was a bit weird, but maybe I knew someone who needed lights managed. I said, “Do you have a card?” He obviously did not give me his card. Then I asked where he managed lights. He said all over the world. She’s an international artist.
Oh.
“LIGHTS”. The singer.
Being horrifically embarrassed, I could only shake his hand and say, “Good luck with that”.
Murray Foster was a bit better. After a few glasses of wine, a friend and I wrote “Murray: I’ve Loved You Since I Was 11! Hug Me Please!” on the back of a pizza box for a Great Big Sea concert. I got called up on stage. I got a hug. And there were rumours on the forum the next day about how I got into the after party. I didn’t, but that’s kind of awesome.
Robert Sean Leonard. I was a huge Swing Kids fan – even had a pair of two-tone wingtips. I had tickets to see him in a play in NY. While standing in the rush line, Mr. Leonard walked by. He looked down at my feet and said, “Nice shoes”. And that was that.
Michael Showalter: This is the newest of the bunch. I can still remember my brother and I watching the very first episode of The State, since we loved sketch comedy. The State quickly became one of my favourite shows, and Michael one of my favourite actors. Recently, he performed at the Horseshoe Tavern. It was one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever seen. Apparently I had good taste even at 13. Afterwards, I got him to sign a book and was able to tell him that my brother and I used to watch The State, and that I was a huge fan. He said, “Thanks” and nodded. Simple, but really quite lovely.
Duneedon (Sean Hewitt): This one may not be an “idol”, so to speak. In fact, his character scared the bejeezers out of me. I met Duneedon Mr. Hewitt in a pub in Port Hope. A few friends and I were talking about childhood TV shows and I mentioned Read All About It. Someone walking by said something along the lines of “Duneedon? He’s sitting in that booth”. So, I walked over and – yup. A childhood nightmare right in front of me. I introduced myself and we actually chatted for about 10 or 15 minutes. Since putting a real person to a silver floating head, the nightmares have ceased.
What about you? Have you ever met an idol? How’d it go?
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March 17, 2011 at 11:20 pm
Jesse
Hi Lindy!
I’ve been lucky enough to meet three of my Hall of Fame music idols. 1) Damon from Blur (pros: he signed my shirt. cons: Alex from Blur was with him and I totally didn’t even notice) 2) Liam from Oasis (pros: it was their 12th ever show, so i could walk up and chat with him. cons: i should’ve/could’ve totally bought him a beer and shot the shit for a while)
And I met Johnny Marr of the Smiths, which I still can barely believe. We talked for a long time, but I said something very stupid and I think he may have referred to the meeting (and thousands like it, I’m sure) in a interview in Spin magazine.
You win some you lose some!
love the blog!
March 18, 2011 at 9:00 am
Lindy
Thanks, Jesse!
I have to say I’m a little (a lot) jealous of you meeting Damon! And yeah – it’s always been a bit of a nightmare of mine for something stupid I’ve said to end up in an interview. I wouldn’t be surprised AT ALL if that Jian Ghomeshi story was floating around. It was tragic.
March 21, 2011 at 8:37 am
Terri Favro
I met Geddy Lee (and the rest of Rush) when they played at my high school. In order to preserve some shred of self-esteem, I won’t tell you the year. It was for the filming of a TV show (believe it or not called “Canadian Bandstand”). Probably because the drummer was from St. Catharines they taped at tiny Laura Secord Secondary School at Niagara and Carlton. I was a “Collegiate Corner” reporter for the city daily paper at the time (paid by the inch of copy, which they kept cutting down on me), so I went backstage and talked to Geddy ( extremely sweet and unbelievably skinny) and wrote a massive article about Rush for the St. Catharines Standard that I figured would set me up for life. My editor cut out almost everything in the article except the basketball scores for the Laura Secord Loyalists. I don’t think he knew who Rush was. Ergo this did not launch my career in rock journalism at age 15, as in “Almost Famous”. Geddy did, however, give me a “Rush” sticker for my guitar case. I was a Saturday evening Mass folk-guitarist at the time with a large Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar repetoire. Geddy’s sticker at least gave me some street cred, especially as it had come from his own emaciated hand.
On an unrelated note, I once told Margaret Laurence where to catch the GO Bus to Hamilton. (Elizabeth Street terminal if you’re interested.) She was shorter than I expected. I kept worrying afterwards that I had sent her to Thunder Bay or something, so nervous was I while talking to her.