I was sitting in a restaurant in Midtown last night when an older gentleman walked past our table with his quite young, quite attractive and quite pregnant wife.
I turned to my sister-in-law to remark on what a great scam this guy had going and her eyes were the size of dinner plates. "Do you know who that is???? It's Paul McCartney!"
And, although it took me several beats to suspend my own disbelief, it was.
The source of the music that I've spent thousands of collective hours listening to was sitting less than ten feet from our table. No entourage, no gorilla-like bodyguards, just a couple out for a nice dinner in Manhattan.
I suddenly understood why some people go nuts over celebrity encounters. It took all of my willpower not to stand up and accost the poor guy while he was eating dinner. I felt absolutely convinced that we would get along famously, if only we could get to know each other a little bit better.
Fortunately, common sense prevailed and we finished up our dessert and left the happy pair to finish their meal in peace. As we walked away, it occurred to me that I would probably never again be this close to a former Beatle in my entire life. A melancholy thought, really.
Posted by pmk at July 27, 2003 11:53 PMWell Patrick...it happens to the best of us. I actually got to spend approximately 15 minutes talking to one of my favorite rock stars and it was all by chance. It was June 1970 and Traffic was playing the Fillmore West. I was there with two friends. Back then, bands would play two sets. In between the sets the band would take a break, hang out back stage, what have you. Well, Steve Winwood decided to just walk around in the crowd on the main floor and happened upon me and my two firends. We spent a good 15 minutes talking to him about his career, whether the group Blind Faith was just a business venture and so on. There was something enjoyable being shared in the crowd as well. I further recall when Traffic got up to play their second set, they started playing the same songs from the first set. To this day I am not sure if it was because they were confused about the two set format or whether it was because of things they did during the break and they couldn't remember what they had already played! A very memorable evening nonetheless. Winwood was a very humble pleasant fellow. First class.
Posted by: David Olson at July 30, 2003 1:48 PM