Golfers

Jack Nicklaus - father drew him in a Pro-Am. Walked the 18 and got to chat with him for about 1/2 hour afterwards

Bruce Lietzke - friend of the pro at my home course in WV. Met him and talked during the event he came to 3 years running.

Nick Price - Nicest man you'll ever want to meet. Another pro-am draw.

Dean Beeman - former PGA Commish - senior pga player. Turned golf into the money machine it is today.

Arnold Palmer - Senior tour event. Talked to him for about 5 minutes over the ropes at the practice green. Very gracious.

A few others...but those are tbe most notable.

===

Football players

Garo Yepremian - played golf with him twice in a NFL Charities tourney. Lots of fun. He does public speaking now. Daughter is very ill...sad but lovely story of love there.

Jim McMahon - This dude is out of control. Drinks beer like water..shows no effects at all. Plays golf in bare feet and a flowered shirt...regardless of whether its warm enough to do so. Lots of fun.

Mike Quick - pro bowl receiver for the eagles. (more golf).

Jack Ham - Hall of Fame linebacker - Steelers. Met him at a Boy Scouts function.

Sterling Sharp - Another celeb golf event. Nice guy. Shorter than I thought he would be.

Ron Jaworski - Super Bowl QB Eagles - A little standoffish until he gets to know you better. I've met him on several occassions at several events in Philly.

John Stallworth - HOF receiver Pittsburgh. Really great guy. Runs an engineering and contracting firm in Alabama?? now.

David Akers - Pro Bowl kicker eagles. Really good guy.

Chad Lewis - Pro Bowl TE Philly. Speaks fluent chinese...signed his name in chinese on the football he autographed for me.

======

Musicians

Justin Hayward, Graeme Edge, John Lodge - Moody Blues ... backstage passes to a meet the band event that I won from the local radio station. Got to spend about a half hour with them prior to the show.

Frank Zappa - This was truly a brush with greatness. Shook his hand through the limo window and got him to autograph the ticket.

Scorpions - shook their hands as they were coming into the show and I was getting kicked out of the place after sneaking into sound checks. Klaus Mein signed the ticket.

Huey Lewis - Went to an industry event where he played with "the news". Then he came out after the show and talked to a few select folks for about an hour. Really down to earth..realizes how lucky he and the guys were to have such success...plays now cause he digs it...which is cool.

Carlos Santana - Imric should remember this brush with greatness...after seeing a show in AC, we were wandering the boardwalk when he came walking by. We told him what a great show it was...which generated a thank you and a slight bow as he wandered by.

KIX - all of them...but mostly Steve Whiteman - came into the radio station I worked at in WV (their home...though they went to CA to get famous). Nice guy. Lisp...you can hear it if you know its there. Also met former member Brad Divens who left cause he wanted to sing (he's on 2nd album and has 2 discs out with a band called Wrathchild America...and I know all those guys...partied with them quite a bit...mostly with Shannon the drummer...another story and they never "made it" so not a famous person)

=====

Hollywood types.

David Morse - Hack, Green Mile, Hearts in Atlantis et al... - met and chatted at the Morris Arboretum in Philly. Chatted in the Rose Garden of all places. Dude is really tall.

Jerry Orbach - Old new york cop on Law and Order - met at a dinner event. Really nice ...chatted about nothing really for several minutes.

==========

Someone else mentioned Abby Hoffman. Met him at a speaking engagement at WVU while I was there. He wasn't very friendly..but it was understandable due to the fact he was obviously not feeling well.

I'm probably forgetting some folks...and purposefully leaving out some others that I met in passing...like father George Bush...shook his hand in a greeting line is all. It was cool..like Scott said...only a handful of folks have actually been President...so agree with politics or not...being greeted by one of them is pretty cool.

Thats enough for now.

...problem is that most of them never made it or were has beens by the time I met them.

The coolest was [link|http://www.thegodz.net/|Eric Moore] and the GODZ. (The GODZ are rock and roll MACHINES!)

I bought their debut LP in 70's and thought it was great. They had all sorts of issues with record companies and only had 2 out on Casablanca and one out on an independent label.

Eric was rock and roll incarnate. A wild man's wild man. I was no slouch at partying at this point in my life and I wasn't even remotely in his league...lets say it was t-ball to major leage baseball. (I tried to keep up)

I had them in the studio for 2 hours prior to their gig...I think I may still have the original reel tape floating around somewhere if it didn't get pitched. Edited that 2 hours into a 1/2 hour special I ran the following night (about 10 minutes of full on dialogue and 20 minutes of tunes).

The other favorite musician was a guitarist, Billy Toth. Billy played for a band called Assassin. These guys were a local tour (Md, WV, OH, PA) and were a really good band. They cut a disk but were mostly a cover band. Billy played a natural Gibson Explorer that he had custom chopped to insert a tremolo bar...this axe was like playing butter. He cut his chops playing southern rock and was best playing Purple covers. He played a mean Highway Star.

Got to know him really well over a couple year period...kept in touch for a while after the band called it quits...but finally lost touch.

...when shotmakers were common. The game is different now...favoring the bombers and wedge players. Guys like Harmon and later Ballesteros, who could chip it from a parking lot have it hop twice and stop within 5 feet are relics...distant memories of when the hardest game invented was even harder.