I had my last final a couple days ago so of course I went out. To make a long story short, these guys started hitting on the girls who we had originally gone out with for the night. We looked over and suddenly realized that Brandon Chillar, Nick Barnett, and Jarrett Bush were hitting on the girls we had gone out with. Now, given that I live a mile from the Metrodome when I'm not at school, I'm a die hard Vikings fan. However, holy shit were they cool. I mentioned to Chillar just how close to the Metrodome that I live and my team allegiance and he poked me in the chest (with the tenderness that only a 240 pound NFL linebacker can) and told me that "Everyone's entitled to their opinion." They bought us tons of drinks and were some of the most down to earth people I have ever met. Truthfully. Them being incredibly nice was one of the last things I expected from them, given that they start in the NFL. Focus: What pro athlete, celebrity, etc. have you randomly met? Were they what you expected? Alt-Focus: Any good stories involving said person? This isn't supposed to be a "Well fuck you, I've met someone two tiers higher than you." No one gives a shit. This is more of a "Is Kate Gosselin or however it's spelled because I refuse to look it up really the evil bitch that we all know she is?" And hopefully some good stories.
George Rogers-Possibly one of the greatest human beings I have ever met. Pay attention to him at the Heisman ceremony every year. He's always wearing that smile you see him with (and a velor track suit). Spoiler Chris Draft- Decent dude, did the usual hey how are you, blah blah blah. But, he was raising money for the kids so it was cool. Spoiler Doug Flutie- A LOT cooler than he's given credit for. Douche nozzle on the right was a Pats fan (cool dude regardless), but I'm a Bills fan. Flutie was awesome about talking Bills and how much he enjoyed his time there etc. Spoiler Do wrestlers count? X-Pac- How cool was this guy? Went back to the locker room and brought me a autographed DVD post match he made out to me. THEN, talked to my mom on the phone (she liked him back when he was the 1-2-3 Kid... long story) when I told him how her and I used to watch him on Raw back in the day. He's huge, as you can see. Spoiler These pictures are years old, hence I look skinny and AIDs ravaged. With the exception of the first I am pretty drunk in all of them as well. Guys I've met with no picture with include Jermaine Wiggins and David Pollack. Both were exceptionally down to earth good dudes. I gave Dominique Wilkins a personal crash course in how to paint your walls, which brushes were better and latex paints in general while working at Lowes. I didn't realize it at the time so he got the general rundown, and he acted like any other person that needed some help would. Looking back, that was probably the most memorable of all of them because of the fact our interaction was on the regular Joes level, I was talking to him like I would anyone as he was me. AND I was dropping some knowledge on the man.
Randy Johnson came out up to one of my bars 2 years ago at the Barrett Jackson car auction, he was with his brother in law, dressed very casually and just checking things out, he had a bidders pass so his drinks were comped, he was suprised he did not have to pay so he tipped 20 bucks. It was a beers of the world bar so we had 10-15 kinds and of course he opted for budwieser. There was no one around so he talked to myself and the bartender for a few minutes, the bartender wanted a picture with him, which he was not real excited about doing but posed with her while I took a pic on her phone. He said, it would not suprise me if the picture ends up on the internet, then was on his way. Very nice guy. Jason Giambi on the other hand, entourage of 10, stoned out of his gourd and not approachable. No pics, I like my job.
And that's considering that X-Pac was one of the 'smaller' ones back in the day. It's really hard to appreciate how fucking huge these guys are until you see them up close. Triple H is from my hometown, and his parents still live there (at least, they did a few years ago). I worked at a Dunkin Donuts when I was 14-16 (sidenote: that job is even shittier than you think). His parents lived nearby and were the neighbors of one of my coworkers, so they came in all the time. One time Triple H must have been visiting home, because he stopped by w/ his parents. Dude is fucking HUGE. Their 'roided-out giantness is even more bizarre than in looks on TV. Clearly we all know that 6'4", 255 pounds is gigantic, but in person, the guy looks the size of a small sedan. I'm met a few of my school's basketball players because it's a small campus. I literally only came up to Roy Hibbert's mid-chest. What made that even funnier was that his girlfriend was normal height. No more than 5'6" or so. Quiet guy, soft-spoken, but approachable. Pat Ewing Jr. is a lot of fun. Was at a party with him. Gregarious, life-of-the-party type. Same for Jessie Sapp. Both really likeable guys. In 2008-09, I lived across the hall from the freshmen (Greg Monroe, Henry Sims, Jason Clark). Clark and Sims are really nice guys. Friendly, outgoing, etc. Monroe struck me as kind of standoffish. Not dickish per se, just seems like he's really tired of people bothering him when he's trying to go about his business. Sorta comes with the territory of being a high-profile recruit I suppose.
The best part is that all of those guys went home and told their friends that they met Turtle from Entourage. Spoiler
I went to high school in a coastal community along the southern California coast in an area known for a lot of celebrities living there, so I have had a lot of run ins with celebrities ( and was once nearly run over by Mel Gibson when he was dropping his kids off at school) I held hands with Brooke Shields in church, and watched her breast feed her child in church. Well, didn't watch but glanced and felt uncomfortable. However most of my encounters with celebrities happened while I was working in a photo lab during college. We were an independently owned store in Santa Monica, and celebrities love that shit. Nia Vardarlos from My Big Fat Greek Wedding came in a lot and always complained about the prices. Sam Elliott was in all the time, and he was the nicest son of a bitch you could imagine. I have the honor of having taken Christian Bale's passport picture. I honestly had no idea who he was while I was doing it. I just thought he was some random British guy, and we were having a good time shooting the shit while waiting for the picture to come out. After he left my co-worker grabbed his credit card receipt from the cash register and trimmed the signature line and put it in her wallet. I asked why she did that. She said "That is Christian Bale! The actor!" I asked who the hell that was. Funny thing was I had just seen Batman Begins a couple of days before. Another time, I had been jerking it to a softcore porn on cinemax one night, and then the next day one of the women from the movie, Monique Parent walked into the store. I have never felt so guilty. However the classic story was the time James Early Jones came in to drop off some film. He is providing his information to my boss for contact information. When it gets to the name my boss says: "I got it. James Earl Ray". Yeah, that didn't go over so well. Additional encounters: Pissed next to Marilyn Manson Had Michael Douglas behind me at dinner. Spent a dinner with John Cusak and John C. McGinley across from me Helped Arnold buy a Christmas tree. Ditto for Dylan McDermott.
I met Nick Lachey when I worked at Cadillac Ranch in downtown Cincy. He drank all day with some buddies and a big black body guard. He was pretty nice and him and his dudes put down quite a few drinks. Later on a cute waitress on her first night ended up making out with him and I saw him copping a good feel of her ass. She was fired the next day when the other servers complained. A few days later on one of my days off he came in with Vanessa Minnillo and one of my coworkers got to throw her around on the mechanical bull we had. I also met Chad Ochocinco (still only Johnson at the time) at the same bar. It was a dead ass weekday morning and he was out with some girl eating. I went up and shook his hand. He was very very quiet and really didn't want to be bothered at all. The waitress snapped a picture of his Black American Express card but I never got it off her. I saw him a while later at the second bar I worked at downtown. I was out with a few friends while him and some Bengals players were in the ViP section drinking. This was after his whole "I want to be traded phase" and after he strained one of his legs because he was on crutches. My buddy was dead set on talking mad shit to him like every fan thinks they have a right too.
Speaking of Ochocinco... I visited my brother in Florida last year for spring break, and as luck would have it, we wound up crashing on pool lounge chairs at a hotel our friends stayed at in Miami. It was our last day, and we didn't want to spring for a room so we got drunk and passed out instead. The next morning, we went to some breakfast place (the name had something to do with the news, or news papers), and there's some lanky black dude leaning on a rolls royce. "Dayyyum", I thought to myself. He then threw a $50 at a homeless guy who was doing shitty magic tricks. Then, he proceeded to hit on 2 fairly unattractive white women one table over. It was only when he got close that we realized it was none other than Chad Ochocinco. Didn't talk to him, but he seemed like a genuinely nice dude who perpetuated the stereotype that black dudes like chunky white chicks. I also live and work very close to Wrigley Field. Talked to Giovani Soto upon them crushing the pirates last year, while he had his daughter on one of those kiddy leashes. I've helped Jeff Samardija (sp?) several times as well, and shot the shit about video games and such. Super nice guy, with a smoking hot girlfriend. We've also had several Bears players come into our place of business and subsequently drop 10K+ on fancy shit but only Julius Peppers comes to mind. Apparently I met Matt Damon in the late 90's, before he did anything too big. He had a light blue 60's mustang and worked on cars with my neighbor. However, it could have also been some dude who looks like Damon and had one of those souvenir drivers licenses. He was nice and conversational guy, answering my dumb questions (I must have been 12 or 13 at the time). Other than that, I played beer pong against a Chicago Fire player who I've known prior to him getting signed, so I can't comment much on that. He did sneak me a bunch of drinks at an open bar that I didn't buy into, so he's good in my book. I also know/have met a lot of musicians from Fueled By Ramen, and a couple dudes from Island records. Most of these guys I knew in high school, though, and before they struck it big.
No but seriously... I met Elvira at the hotel where I bartend. We hosted a horror movie convention back in October and she was one of the celebrity guests signing autographs. It was early in the day so the bar wasn't busy yet, and she hurried in and ordered a Grey Goose and cranberry. She asked me to put it in one of our Starbucks-style paper coffee cups because "I need a drink, but the kids can't know that I'm drinking." She tipped well and blew me a kiss on her way out. For pushing 60, she is still banging.
I was at a chain restaurant here in Georgia about a month ago with some buddies a little later on a Tuesday night. Three tables down from us was Roddy White (Pro Bowl WR, Atlanta Falcons). We live relatively close to the Falcons training complex just north of Atlanta and the restaurants around here are frequented by a lot of the Falcons. I have actually seen Roddy a couple times around town. He is a good ole country boy from South Carolina. This particular time just happened to be right around the time of the NFL draft and there were a few drunken NFL fans arguing loudly back and forth about the upcoming season. The loudest of all of them was a New Orleans Saints fan still gloating about their recent Super Bowl win. Of course, there was a lot of shit talking about our beloved Falcons. "The defense is terrible", "the offense is overrated", "no depth", blah, blah, blah. All while this was going on while Roddy was a section over with his family out of their drunken view. He didn't really react to any of it. Every now and then I would catch him smirk at something, but nothing major. Eventually the drunk got around to mentioning something about Roddy. It was along the lines of over-payed, afraid to cross the middle of the field, and that he was a prima-donna (which I don't see). This was right about the time Roddy and his family were leaving. He walks by the drunks, calmly introduces himself, and asks the drunken Saints' fan, "You know a lot about me, but I don't know you. What team do you play for?". He waited a second for a response (which there was nothing but stuttering) and then just walked away. I'm not exactly sure why, because it seems like kind of a dick thing for a pro athlete to do, but I thought it was an absolutely fucking awesome line. I'm obviously biased. Fuck the Saints.
In my late teens I worked at this shit hole diner in a suburb about 60 miles inland from Los Angeles. I was waiting tables but happened to be at the front when on two separate days of the same week walks in Rodney King and later Todd Bridges. Weirdest thing ever. Fast forward a couple of years and I'm working in a brewery in Camarillo, CA. Every Sunday Jim Caviezel (Played Jesus Christ) and his father would come in and watch football all day. Really cool down to earth guy. Good tipper, just having a good time with his old man. Wayne Gretzky came in a couple of times. Cool, chill guy. The place made a sort of unwritten policy to just not make a huge deal of stuff. One of the waitresses was married to Dizzy from Guns N Roses. Why was she working there? I have no idea. I didn't believe her until one day he came in and sat in her section with her two girls and I sat down to talk to the guy about music for half an hour. Really humble, quiet guy. On to my worst/best celebrity interaction. This chicklet toothed goat fucker known as Jake Busey came in and got drunk. He started mouthing off and being disrespectful to one of the cocktail waitresses. I went over to his table and told him to knock it off or we could go outside with the manager's blessing and discuss it. He was cool after that. Only pictures I have are of Danny and Justin from Tool that I've posted before, but in case you've not seen them here they are: Two of the coolest guys I have ever had the pleasure of drinking a beer with Spoiler Spoiler
I spent a few years as a young pup in New Jersey and lived in the same town as Tito Santana. I was classmates with one of his kids and would go over an play at their house every once in a while, he actually took his son, me and some other friends to the opening day of the first Ninja Turtles movie. Guy was super nice, humble and really smart. He was one of the only wrestlers that understood he wouldn't be making big paydays for the rest of his life and banked most of his money. Other than that my aunt and uncle used to run a film festival and usually had at least one A or B list celebrity. Most of them were nice, but that's kind of expected at a film festival. The only guys that really stood out to me as being genuinely great people were Christopher Reeve (still broken up over what happened to him) and Jeff Bridges.
I interviewed Christopher Hitchens when I was probably 19. I was godawful, nervous and out of my element but he was incredibly gracious, patient and gave wonderful answers to my inane questions. He also gave me an autographed copy of his book "God Is Not Great", with an inscription. I'm not an atheist but I'll be damned if that isn't one of my most treasured possessions.
When I was a valet Floyd Mayweather used to come in regularly. He came in with an 8-car entourage of bodyguards and coaches ranging from beat-up Kias (muscle) to new Denalis (coaches/gear). He is always the first car in the convoy. I have seen him in every type of high-end car, Phantom to Ferrari, all with his last name attached to the back. He is low maintenance and generous. His gopher's wristwatch looked about 30 Gs. He typically tips $100 but liked me for some reason and would drop $300 so I would get dispatched to any VP he visited.
I've met Bruce Smith a bunch of times around town. One time in particular me and a friend were out on a random week night at the same place Bruce was, and since there wasn't a lot going on we bullshitted with him all night. He LOVES to get fucked up (and drive home). He is a funny guy and cool to hang out with. Extremely cocky though, but not in a dickhead way. Except that he doesn't tip...at all. I've dated two girls who waitress at a restaurant/bar that he frequents, and they both told me he doesn't tip at all. Not mine, but my cousins story. If I heard this from anyone else, I probably wouldn't believe it, but with him I have no doubt that it's true. He's 25, and kills it as an investment banker in NYC. After work one day, Peyton Manning, his wife, and a couple friends walked into the spot where my cousin was, and posted up at the bar. He's really outgoing, so he just walked up and introduced himself, and talked for a few seconds, and said Peyton was really chill and didn't appear bothered by him. My cousin and his friends then just stayed up at the bar, next to Peyton, and carried on amongst themselves. They started taking shots, and offered Peyton one, which he declined. Eventually my cousin took a bourbon shot, which he hates, and realized that he was going to puke. He said the bar was way too crowded for him to escape, so he puked in his mouth and held it in for a second. In a state of panic, he grabbed an empty beer bottle that Peyton has just finished, and spit a mouthful of vomit into it. Peyton's back was to him, and the bar was so crowded that nobody except his friends noticed it.
I'm friends with a few MLS players, so every time I go watch them play, I usually end up going to get drinks afterwards with the other players on the team. Usually we just shoot the shit, talk about wild college stories, and the strangest things we've seen on the field. I've also met a few musicians and athletes at the bar I work at, including Dwight Yoakam and Corey Smith one night. I saw on the credit card that it was Corey Smith Tour Inc. and made a comment about seeing that I was in the presence of a popular musician. Turns out they thought I was talking about Dwight, and then I told them I was talking about Corey Smith, whom my sister is a big fan of, but it wasn't my style. He appreciated that and they tipped really well that night. I also saw Matthew Stafford strike out with a pretty blonde one night while I was working the door.
For the last 10 years (until I was laid off) I have worked at a couple high end antique stores so I met and ran into a lot of people. Judge Judy a few times and she is just like she is on T.V. Matha Stewart who is just a bitch. Also Bryant Gumbel, Chloe Sevigny, Jill Goodacre (used to be a Victoria Secret model, still hot in her 40's), Bobby Valentine, Mary Travers (from Peter, Paul and Mary), and Chris Elliot a few times who is really nice. There are more but I can't remember right now. The best one was around 7 years ago. I got stoned everyday at work back then and was standing in the middle of the store when a woman my age came around the corner so I had to look attentive. It is then I notice she looks really familiar and I am staring at her trying to figure out where I know her from. I am about 4-5 feet away from her when I look to my right and a black woman dressed in a suit is glaring at me in a really aggressive manner. It is then my stoned brain catches up and realizes I am staring like a retard at Chelsea Clinton and the Secret Service I don't think liked it.
I was neighbors with an NHL hockey player until he got traded, now he has a big-money contract and a bunch of highlight reel plays. A complete natural athlete I tell you, could play one handed on his backhand and still school the entire neighborhood.
A few years ago I was in NYC visiting for my cousin's graduation and my uncle invited my family to join them for a celebratory dinner at Spark's Steakhouse (the place where the Gambino crime family boss Paul Castellano was gunned down). On the way out after dinner I went to hold the door for my very elderly grandparents when Lewis Black and some young blond just barge right through ignoring my grandparents and giving me a look because he must have assumed I was holding the door for him. At the time I had no idea who it was and figured it was some rich asshole. Shortly after my uncle informed me that it was in fact a famous rich asshole.
Long story short, my brother has a friend who has some serious connections with a lot of rock and roll bands. For this reason, we got to see Velvet Revolver in 2004 when they came through Atlanta. The day was quite eventful, actually, but I only got to briefly meet Matt Sorum in the hotel lobby. As a rock music junkie and Guns N Roses fan from day one, standing there shaking hands with Matt Sorum reduced me to a nervous little school girl. Still, though, there were 8 of us there talking to him, and he made it a point to be nice and cordial to each one of us. He is a very cool, very down to earth guy. We talked for a bit and he made a few jokes. His assistant even cracked on us for our thick southern accents. It was awesome. I kick myself in the ass every time I remember for not getting an autograph or at least a pic with him. And I was in the VIP* after the show when Duff McKagan walked in for a brief minute. Quite honestly, I was too fucking scared to go up and talk to him. I'm such a fucking pussy. *Don't be fooled-VIP doesn't mean shit unless you have tits. Usually it's a room with some food, beer, and a bunch of average joes who have the delusion that the band is actually going to come in. It usually doesn't happen.