Ever been REALLY disappointed by one of your music heroes?

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

In another thread, Jack Francis told of some friends who went to see Johnny Winter a few years ago, only to find him totally wasted, and they walked out, despite having been huge fans of his.

Reminds me of the time, years ago in my late teens, when I had cousins visiting from Europe who wanted to hear some live music, so I took them to NYC to hear one of my very favorite folk singers, Tim Hardin, in Greenwich Village. He came out, stumbled on to the stage, sang a line here or there, whether it fit or not, bumped into things and just embarrassed the heck out of me. My (older) cousins were trying to be polite in smiling good-naturedly but I'll bet they knew a lot more of what was going on than I did at the time. He later O.D.'d on heroin. Speaking of Tim Hardin, I just heard a jazz rendition of 'Misty Roses' the other day; sounded great.

Anyone else ever have similar situations in which one of your favorites let you down that hard?

Michael Douchette · From: Gallatin, TN (deceased)

I think this needs to move to Stories.
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P Gleespen · From: Toledo, OH USA

Seeing Jaco panhandling on the street was a bit disappointing.

A friend of mine approached him to tell Jaco how much he admired his bass playing and Jaco asked him if he had any spare change. Brutal.
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Chris LeDrew · From: Canada

As a teenager, Randy Bachman (Guess Who, BTO) was one of my big heroes. I learned all of his licks and played his songs in a cover band. I even wanted to get fat so I could look like him. Smile

Anyway, I was 17 and traveling through a Halifax airport. Fate placed him directly in front of me in a line waiting to board the plane. Barely able to breathe, I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "you're Randy Bachman, right?" (I had a guitar stand in my hand.) He didn't even turn around, just mumbled, "ya" and proceeded to actively ignore me. I was just a harmless kid.
If I was a bit older I would have just told him to F off, but I was 17 and very vulnerable. It crushed me. I've been waiting 20 years for my chance to meet him again, and tell him what an "inspiration" he's been. Rolling Eyes

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Dennis Graves · From: Maryville, Tennessee

Went to see Conway once, no steel with him. Might as well stayed home and watched cartoons.

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

I just thought of another one:

For years, I dreamt of becoming Emmylou Harris's steel player. One of my good friends had even given me a money clip engraved, "For Jim, a great steel player, still waiting for Emmylou". Oh, that would have been a dream gig for me!

So I stalked her until I got arrested... no wait! That's was in the DREAM! LOL!

No, what really happened was that, many years later, I finally caught up with her backstage at a festival that she was headlining and my band was also playing. Like a fool, I told her of my dream and showed her my money clip. She just threw her head back and laughed a short, haughty kind of laugh and simply retorted, "... and now I don't even carry a steel!" As if to say, "You're too late, sucker!" She just took this young man's dream, threw it on the ground and squashed it into the dirt with her feet.

To this day, I wonder if things would have been different, if I had put more money in the clip before showing it to her! Whoa!

Stopped buying her recordings that very day.

Chris LeDrew · From: Canada

For the most part, stars are pompous asses unless you're in their "inner circle".

One exception for me was Levon Helm. He was a gracious and friendly as a man in his position can be. He actually made conversation with me. A nicer man I have not met. Same with Rick Danko. Two gentlemen there for sure. Garth Hudson, not so much. Smile

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Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

yes, went to see POCO right after Tim left and just before Richie left, and it was dismal to say the least.

I seem to recall they played one song it seemed for an hour with Rusty playing his BEAR thing. All I could think was that a so called Country sort of band trying to JAM on a ROCK sort of thing..it wasn't happening.

and this coming from the worlds biggest Springfield/POCO/Richie fan...

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

I saw Roy Buchanan once and he was wandering around drunk mostly making random bleating noises. We left when he broke a string on his Telecaster and was too drunk to figure out how to change it. The killer was - the opening band was the first incarnation of Shakti, with John McLaughlin & L. Shankar! What a contrast... mebbe that's why I stopped listening to rock and roll for 15 years. Alien

Howard Tate · From: Leesville, Louisiana, USA, R.I.P.

At a Jerry Reed, concert he was obviously drunk.He still sang well, but his guitar playing was disappointing to me, I had always thought he was a great picker. And his talking between songs made little sense. Fortunately he had two other guitar players with him and they sounded great. Strangely, I seemed to be the only one that thought all that so maybe it was just me.

Ron Page · From: Penn Yan, NY USA

John De Maille · From: On a Mountain in Upstate Halcottsville, N.Y.

This happened around 75' or 76'. I went to Scotty's convention, when it was held out by the airport, for my first real taste of "Pro Steel Players". I was totally enthralled by the whole experience. I never heard so many greats, playing like this before. Buddy Emmons, Lloyd Green, Red Rhodes, Jeff Newman, a "young" Tommy White and so many fantastic players, including Curly Chalker. I was on cloud nine seeing and enjoying all this magnificance. The next morning, I happened to be right behind Curly Chalker, while we waited to order our breakfast. I worked up the courage to talk to him and tell him how much I ( little new me ) enjoyed his set and was an admirer. He turned to me and said " Oh yeah, so what! Who the hell are you! ". I was comepletely speechless. He got his food and went off to sit with some people I didn't recognize. It really put a damper on this young steel players perspective. I never cared for him, personally, after that. His music speaks for itself, though.

Ben Lawson · From: Brooksville Florida

Jimbeau, I bumped into Emmylou, literally, in the back hallway of The Barn in Sanford Fl. All I could do was wish we could have "bumped" under more enjoyable circumstances. She was very pretty and pleasant. I saw Jerry Reed twice. Once in Indy at a WIRE radio picnic. When his drummer fell 8-10 feet off the back of the stage into a pile of equipment. I heard that the drummer was OK but I saw Jerry cry because he was so upset. Just before that accident I was in a trailer talking with Steve Wariner and we almost hurt ourselves trying to get out the door because Jerry, Grady Martin and Paul Yandell were playing Eastbound and Down in three part harmony and we wanted to see that.
The next time I saw Jerry was at The Barn and he talked more than he played and even then someone else played most of the lead.
John I had a similar experience with Curley Chalker.
He and Reese Anderson were in Long Island doing a show. He didn't speak to me personally but he came across very crudely. Reese on the other hand was and is always a real Gentleman.

Ben

Keith Cordell · From: San Diego

I seriously doubt Emmylou was trying to be negative, she has always been a fun, gracious person to anyone around her when I or anyone I know has been around her. She would likely have never had Albert Lee or Buddy Miller with her for so long and so loyally if she were inconsiderate.

I've been around a few high level musicians and have observed that the lifestyle can make you distant, even kind of a jerk. Demands on your time and attention become kind of scary, and you never know what people are after. Putting up a defense can be a knee-jerk reaction that isn't intended to be hurtful.

As to drug and alcohol impairment, if you haven't been there, pray thanks; if you have, you already know. In the music industry it isn't always a matter of being disrespectful of your audience, it is just surviving something that isn't normal. Touring, trying to sleep, press interviews, 400 people standing around waiting to tell you how much a song meant or how their dog would've died if it weren't for a song about trains they wrote- it can be a nightmare for someone who isn't ready for it. The easiest way to deal with it is to become surly or get hammered. Don't get mad at them, feel for the fact that it is a really hard life to lead sometimes and that art ain't easy...

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

I'm sure you're right, Keith, but frankly, I'd rather live with my grudge... Oh Well

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Got a little extra time I guess.

Been real lucky that none of my heroes let me down.

Segovia, ET, Hank T when I was lucky enough to be in his pickup band, and many others have always left positive marks on me. Even Mose Allison with Jaco I think it was playing bass They were GREAT. Jimmy Day made me laugh like heck when I met him on ET's bus playing bass. The times I saw Roy B and Danny G, they were GREAT in little clubs in DC/MD. Both killed themselves after that, obviously.

Maybe seeing John Mayall on ACL, but what the hey..

My "Emmylou" thing went better. I always had a mental picture that matched her poster in '77 nine feet tall and deep brown eyes and hair to die for. I would have.

Time passed, and I saw her on a TV show, and though still beautiful, had a totally gray head of hair, and was about 4 feet shorter than the nine feet represented by "the poster". I think I understood that she had married a dentist, or some other rich white mouse.

I shook my head and figured that she had missed a lot of good times living fast, mumbling words in beer joints county fairs, casinos, and critter clubs...

I am now able to think that it just might have been her loss..

I guess Jimbo, we or others here can only be glad that we, or at least I, didn't get "famous" and let anybody down.

There are times when I would have, and I have no excuse.

Wink

EJL

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Bobby Caldwell · From: St. Louis, Missouri, USA * R.I.P.

My hero has always been Dewitt "Scotty" Scott, and no he has never disappointed me. My other hero is the "Herbster" Herb Stiener, and he has not disappointed me either. Maybe you guys need a new hero. HA HA. Love to all, Bobby BTW Jim Cohen hasn't either but he may have come close. Just kidding Jim

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Hah! Well, I'll tell ya, Bobby, Scotty disappointed me once! For years, I've been going around telling folks that he was my very first steel teacher (which, as you will recall, is true!) Well! Scotty never said anything in response to that claim, so one day I up and asked him, "Scotty, do you remember giving me lessons back in the early '70s?" and God's-honest man that he is, he looked back and just said "Nope"! Aaaugh! I coulda died right there! Aw, he coulda made up a teeny, weeny, white lie about how he remembered me clear as day and knew all along I would someday amount to something or other, but 'Nope!' Well, I'll tell ya this: Scotty has never disappointed me in his honesty! LOL! (Oh, and if my memory when I get to be his age turns out to be as good as his is now, I'll be a lucky man) Smile

scott murray · From: Asheville, NC

George Jones is one that disappointed me on more than one occasion, and this was well after his no-show days. Both times I saw him he made a real stink about the monitors, and used it as an excuse for cutting his set short. It also bugs me when singers go into "medley mode" and you're lucky to hear 20 seconds of your favorite song.

I've never had a bad experience with my steel heroes, and that's a LOT. Buddy, Lloyd, Ralph, Jay Dee, Jimmy, Doug, Russ... all class acts. I have heard similar stories about Curly and even John Hughey which surprised me. I just have to laugh.

There was that one time Jeff Newman freaked out on me for recording a steel show on my video camera... with the lens cap on! Awkward.
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Clyde Mattocks · From: Kinston, North Carolina, USA

The stories about Curly Chalker ring true, because I have been in his presence when I knew not to approach him. However, the last time I saw him, I mustered up the nerve to go up and talk to him. There was no one else around and he was very gracious and we had a good conversation in which he shared many personal insights on how he mentally prepared himself to play. For all his alleged
faults, the man took his music extremely seriously.
An original.

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Clyde, I'd love to hear more about how Curly mentally prepared himself to play. That could be very valuable stuff you're sittin' on!

Tom Olson · From: Spokane, WA

I loved the Stones when I was a kid and wanted to play just like Keith Richard.

I finally got a chance to see them in concert in the early 70's.

Keith vomited on stage. Shocked

steve takacs · From: beijing, china via pittsburgh (deceased)

Some of this reminds me of the saying that I attempt to follow, but don't always succeed at doing: "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." Talked to Sneaky Pete once when I lived for a while in the Netherlands in the early 1970s. Very nice individual who did take the time to answer some of my questions. With regard to music I remember him saying to have fun and practice, in that order.

Also met Elgin Baylor in 1967 (Lakers forward) who was warming up with the team for a game against Philadelphia. Pittsburgh had no NBA team, so the 76ers played 10 games in Pittsburgh that year. Asked him if I could get a quick photo with him and his answer was: "Sure, why not, I'm only doing layups." Still have that photo & it still means a lot to me. When you're a kid, heroes are larger than life. steve t

Charles Davidson · From: Phenix City Alabama, USA

Over the years have met a few of the name stars,either by playing in house bands and having to back them up when they were booked as a single in the club,And have played in bands that were opening acts at concerts,Most of them I got to spend a little time with were so nice and down to earth,Can remember only two -ss --les,won't name them they are both gone,The main one I did,nt meet was my boyhood hero[the one that made me want to play music]was the great Hank Snow,Twice I was in bands that opened for him,Was in the backstage area with him,I was in awe of him,he was my favorite country artist since I was ten years old,It may seem strange but I did'nt try to talk to him,for fear if he WAS an SOB and snubbed me,I would have never felt the same about him.DYKBC.
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