My buddies and I were at a concert at Pine Knob in Clarkston MI, there's a local bar/eatery that we hit afterwards. As we walked in, there was one of those Ford GT-500s, the mid-engine thing w the clear back glass so you can see it - my buddy, a Ford engineer, says "Thats like a $250,000 car". We go in and grab a beer, he pokes me and nods to our right, says "I know who owns the car", and Kid Rock and a few other guys are sitting there drinking and eating. I had to use the bathroom later in the night, I finish up, open the door to leave and he was walking in at the same time. I said "Hi, Kid", he says hi, and everyone goes about their business. I didnt even see anyone ask for an autograph - he lives near there and goes there quite often apparently.

Talked to Kevin Dubrow and Carlos Cavasos from Quiet Riot at about 3am in a hotel lobby after a show once.

I'm sure there's some others.

When I was about 8 I was on a train with the buffalo sabres. There was a huge snowstorm going on so their flight was cancelled and they were going to Toronto to play the next day. These were the French Connection sabres, Perrault, Robert, Martin...roger crozier in goal. That team eventually the finals against the broad street bullies! I remember Don Luce being the most friendly of the bunch.

I went to Dean Smith (unc basketball coach) funeral.
Talked to Roy Williams at a gas station.
Met a hung over Rod Stewart at Four Seasons Holiday Inn Cafe.
Got Al Hirts' autograph at a Stameys Barbecue. Saw George Bush Jr. eating there too.
Rubbed shoulders with Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus back in the 70's at a golf tournament.
Think thats it.

I stood behind Wayne Newton at a Starbucks in the Houston airport. I also stood behind members of The Roots at the Subway on my college campus. They were playing a show at my school that night. I also saw a couple of the guys from Sum-41 at the same subway. Again they were also playing a show there.

Most of the notable pinball designers, a large chunk of the World Series winning Yankees in 2000 (I actually got to go out on the field when they won and congratulate Jeter, Clemens, o’Neill, Mariano, and a bunch of other players along side Joe Torre... David Cone was there but I never saw
him), Green Day, ummm, most of the band Rancid, Muse, and a bunch of other somewhat memorable bands from the 90’s. There’s a bunch. These are all people I actually spoke with.

When I was a kid in the 90’s, my family was driving in St. Petersburg Florida and Hulk Hogan was sitting at a stoplight in a Dodge Viper next to us... we waved to him but he was really good at ignoring us.

Also got to talk to David Crane, Gary Kitchen, and Nolan Bushnell for quite a while at the Chi pinball show and other gaming events over the years. I got Crane to autograph Pitfall and Nolan signed Secret Quest for me.

In the past I spent a lot of time every day driving around Los Angeles for work, and saw lots of different stuff. Also was at LAX a lot as I flew all over the place for work. Saw different people there, usually in the AA Executive Club.

Drove by Valerie Bertinelli on the 405 freeway in the 80s. I'm pretty sure she smiled at me. Blue Camaro with a Van Halen sticker on the bumper.

Drove by Herbert Lom, he had a big black car and the license plate said something like PNK PNTR. Subtle.

John Wooden tooled by me in the fast lane, I believe he was driving some sort of Toyota, he was on his way to San Diego for an appearance.

Tiger Woods tooled by me in the fast lane, driving a Buick SUV. Also was heading down to San Diego for one of the Torrey Pines tournaments.

Hung out with David Caruso for a while in the AA club, watching a baseball game. Seemed like a cool, laid back guy. Had a young hot chick with him.

Ed Harris on my plane on a flight to Mexico City, that was way back.

In the 80s, was walking down the plane aisle to my seat, and there was Peter Graves (not Lloyd Bridges as I originally wrote, duh) sitting right there in first class. I was too slow on the uptake, it was just after Airplane came out, and as I walked by I thought dammit, I should have said to him, don't eat the fish.

Some more recent ones:

Bob Eubanks on my plane on a trip from Montana.

Ray Wise on my plane. While we were waiting in the terminal, I was so tempted to walk up to him and say, your murdered her! But he didn't seem happy.

AC Green standing at the airport waiting area. It was long after he played on the Lakers, but he looked like he could still play. Its always a bit shocking when you are right near one of those guys, damn they are big. Super friendly.

Not long ago, I was going through security and I looked at the next aisle over, and there was Dolph Lundgren, plain as day. You couldn't miss him. He ended up sitting in the AA club not too far away from me. A bunch of people came over to say hi and take pics, he seemed like a cool guy.

Not me, but one of my co-workers: He was in first class in the front row aisle. The window seat next to him is empty. Everyone loads onto the plane, and then they sit there and wait and wait and wait, with no word from the front. Finally, in walks Angelina Jolie and sits next to him. He was kind of a wise-acre, so the first thing he says to her is, really? We have been sitting here waiting for you all this time? He said she laughed, and was actually pretty cool. Just traveling by herself.

A few more I remembered. Luke Perry at the airport, wheeling his luggage by himself. Nick Nolte pulled up next to me at a light in a old Mercedes in Santa Monica.

Oh yeah. A few years back at LAX, we walked right by Bruce Jenner outside the terminal. He was a man then.

And way back in the 80s, at Orange County/John Wayne Airport, I was right by Reggie Jackson outside. He was in the middle of trying to convince a cop not to write him a ticket for a big Rolls Royce he had parked in the loading zone.

Was it the place with the famous Mac n Cheese in Clarkston? If so, you were at Clarkston Union Bar & Kitchen. Kid Rock's favorite place.

I worked in the science field, so here's some geek stuff for science types.

I was walking down the hall in a biology building at UC San Diego, and saw the name Stanley Miller on a door. I thought, THE Stanley Miller?? This guy was in every biology textbook back in the day and his experiment was a key study point in every biology class (not sure if that is still so). Sure enough, it was him. He was up there in years then. I went right in his office and introduced myself and talked to him for a while. He was very nice.

For a while, Francis Crick was president of Salk Institute. I would always park there for work and you could easily spot his car as it was parked in the spot designated for the President, and his license plate was ACGT or something similar. I was determined to meet him, so I managed to time it right one day and I ran up as he got out of his car and got to talk to him for a few minutes. He was cordial. That is big time right there.

I also met Leroy Hood while he was at Cal Tech, before he went up and joined up with Microsoft and became big time. We used to work in his lab a lot.

I saw Hulk Hogan with his family in Hollywood Studios at Disney World once. They were standing near the exit of the Little Mermaid show, waiting for their VIP tour guide to let them in. This was probably in the early 2000's -- long enough ago that the picture I inconspicuously snapped is an actual paper photo.

Come to think of it, we've actually bumped into several famous people at Disney. We met Ashley Eckstein (the voice of Ahsoka Tano) at Hollywood Studios. A few years ago we were eating breakfast on a Disney cruise when we realized that the guy sitting a couple tables away was Casper Crump, who played Vandal Savage in the Arrowverse shows. Hell of a nice guy, and apparently a huge Disney nut. He took a photo with my daughter, who was bigtime into the CW DC shows at the time.

First time I went to LA in the mid-90s, our first day there my friend and I went to Jerry's Famous Deli for dinner.

Waiting for the table, my friend says to me "Hey, there's Jerry Seinfeld. I'm looking right at him."

I thought he was screwing with me, because this was the peak of Seinfeld and it was my favorite show and I couldn't believe we'd spot him within hours of arriving in LA. I refused to look.

The waitress comes and takes us to our table, and sure enough I walk past Jerry Seinfeld, who was seated with his 17-year-old girlfriend, Shoshannah, who had an NBC hoodie on.

I chose not to bother him, and to this day I'm glad I didn't. My story wouldn't be any better having bothered him at dinner.

al pacino - sat table next to me at restaurant
dave chapelle - used urinal next to me
adam sandler - walked by me on street
cindy crawford - we were in the same store
mila kunis - i was walking by as she opened her trailer door and she bumped into me
jay z - got autograph going into knicks game
rajon rondo - restaurant next to me
gary payton - watched him get in a screaming match at a super market
tom brady - walked by me in the park
jay cutler - waited to board plane
gregory peck - waiting for takeout at same restuarant

i think there are a lot more but thats all i remember off the top of my head

Well, Peter Forsberg and Markus Naslund, for those who know their hockeyplayers. I used to work with Peters brother for 20 years ago.

In 1996 I went to a Skid Rowe concert. After the concert I was sitting on the curb outside with a friend.

Sabastian Bach lead singer of Skid Rowe came outside with a bottle of Jack Daniels. He sat with me and my friend and we all drank the bottle of Jack. Was pretty awesome. Great guy.

Vince Vaughn - twice at two different clubs in Chicago , pretty friendly will greet you and Shake ur hand. I was too drunk to remember but I think we did a round of shots

Robin Williams - California randomly

Magic Johnson - at my gym

Billie Jean king - my tennis class

Saw Jennifer Aniston - not friendly, don’t approach

Bubba Smith - msu football game

Rosamund pike - same hotel elevator , I had no idea who she was

Jack kavorkian - before he went to jail

Gotten matarazzo - from stranger things at my
Local Best Buy - extremely
Friendly

Tons of stuck up Bollywood stars . No need to name them here

There are usually local sports team members shopping around here(the San Francisco East Bay area). Since I don't follow sports at all, I just go by the reaction other people have to seeing them.

I work with actors all day long. Currently working with J Brolin

If u by chance happen to be working with Cher tell her I said she’s stupid .. thanks

Damn, that sounds like a good time.

I ate breakfast with Steve Richie and Tim Sexton - does that count?

You have my word

Thanks man !

My wife and I had dinner at a restaurant in Vegas and were seated a few tables away from Tone Loc.

Dan Fogler was at my Brothers wedding.
Didn't get to talk to him mutch.

Pretty sure I had a few drinks with that creepy smile.

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He, Alexander Graham Bell, and I share a birthday. It's a pretty important day.

I don’t know who half these people are

Sid Haig - Was friends with my father. They used to have breakfast all the time and talk screenplays and stuff.
James Hong - Met in an elevator and he commented on my top 10 Chuck Norris facts t-shirt.
Mark Slaughter - Sold him an answering machine.
Mario Lopez - Came to say high to everyone on the tram at Universal Studios.

Your not missing much.

I was talking to Jerry Stiller at a baggage claim in Newark NJ years ago. I shook George W Bush’s hand. I was stuck in traffic next to Tino Martinez for like 30 minutes, thought that was funny. Bobby Flay was at my uncle’s funeral. Met Neil Patrick Harris twice. Once was after a play we was in on Broadway and the other time was when I was trying to hail a cab in the Upper West Side and he jumped out of nowhere and stole my cab! I also met a bunch of the 1990 Super Bowl winning Giants team. Lawrence Taylor, Dave Meggett, Stephen Baker, Pepper Johnson, and Leonard Marshall at a charity basketball game.

I made my own pit pass one time with a piece of colored construction paper and an old go kart racing license and made my way into the pits at Daytona with it. It payed off I got to meet Dale Earnhardt as he was ending a conversation with AJ Foyt !

Buddy Ebsen at the airport in 1979 in Maui where he was filming a movie.

Rode the elevator at a hotel with MC Hammer in around 1990.

Robert Redford when we went skiing at Sundance back in 2003 at the top of the ski lift.

Gary Stern and most of the topranked pinball players.

I have met many famous drummers at clinics and shows. Carl Palmer, Steve Gadd, Steve Ferrone, Billy Ward, John Tempesta, Mike Mangini, Vinny Appice, Carmine Appice, Greg Bissonette, Simon Phillips, Terry Bozzio, Bill Bruford, Matt Halpern, Chad Wackerman, Virgil Donati, Derek Roddy, Horacio Hernandez, Dave Weckl, Steve Smith, Danny Seraphine, Jason Bittner, Kofi Baker and Kenny Aronoff. I can't remember some others. I have autographs from some of my favorites.

They were all great to talk to and were friendly and informative. Except Kenny Aronoff, not a very nice guy.

Pretty sure that nobody will ever believe me, but I swear that I saw Cassandra Peterson at Pinball Expo 2019 last year.

Pictures?

Elton John held a door open for me when I had my hands full a few years ago, I said thanks and he said you're welcome.

Not sure if this counts, but I was personally insulted by Don Rickles at an 80s show in Las Vegas (was sitting in the front row). I consider that to be a personal honor to this day.

I forgot about this one. This was about 6-7 years ago, in Santa Cruz, CA. I was with my wife and son and his girlfriend, and we had just finished eating at this vegetarian place called Saturn Cafe. Everyone gets up and files out the door, and I stop at the counter to pay for dinner. I look to the side, and who is standing literally right next to me? Robert F-ing Trujillo. I about peed my pants and fainted at the same time.

This is Metallica we are talking about. Metallica, only my favorite band ever. Maybe the greatest band ever. I am standing next to a member of the band Metallica. Holy shit.

He was with his kids, just waiting to sit down for dinner. I didn't say anything, it just didn't seem right to bug him. I just kind of nodded at him, and I think he did the same. So, I head out the door and catch up to the others, and I'm white as a ghost, and I'm like, did you SEE that!?! Did you see who was there? Standing RIGHT NEXT TO ME? And they are looking at me like I'm crazy. I said, that was the bass player from Metallica! F-ing Metallica! What is wrong with you people? And they say, no, that's silly it was not. So I bring up a picture of him on the phone, and they were like...oh, yeah, that was him.

Blue Oyster Cult. Used to travel to their gigs in the mid-atlantic states back in the 90s and they would let me hangout with them after the shows.

Bill Clinton, twice. The first time was at an AR vs. TX football game (was governor of AR at that time), the second time was during his visit to OKC following the bombing. His demeanor was of course quite different on each of these occasions, but the common thread was that he came across as truly genuine; at the football game he was genuinely having fun meeting people, and following the bombing it was obvious his heart had been broken and that his expression of shared grief with the people meeting him was absolutely sincere.

Met Johnny Cash when I was unfortunately too young to appreciate it. Was on a fam' vacation to Nashville, and we found one of those cheesy celebrity home maps that used to be sold (maybe they still are, this would have been in about '80-81). Happened to walk by Cash's place just as he was pulling in (in a glorious boat of a Cadillac); my brother and I waved (we were 7 and 10 yo) and he stopped the car and got out to greet us. Very cool gesture on his part! Also met Hoyt Axton and Conway Twitty (at Twitty City, anyone remember that place?) on that trip.

Once encountered Robert Plant at a record store in Austin. I made eye contact and gave a sort of knowing nod and smile, but didn't say anything, and he returned the smile/nod; he then left and got into a Mini Cooper with the young female accompanying him. (This was around the time he was working with Alison Krauss.) I regret not saying anything, as I later learned that he has a reputation of being quite a nice guy.

Once stood at a urinal adjacent to none other than Lou Reed; of course nothing was said nor was any eye contact made, for obvious social reasons. (Not to be graphic, but he finished first, and I wasn't about to try to chase him down!)

That's about it for "household name" people, but I have also been lucky enough to meet some of my favorite musicians, all of whom are a tier or two below these celebrity-level folks and wouldn't be nearly as widely recognized.

So, was Bruford as funny in-person as he is in writing and interviews?

Just to make you and me both jealous, my mother (not a Jazz fan at all) met AND interviewed Buddy Rich when he played her high school in about 1965! How's this for irony: possibly the best drummer of all time (Billy Cobham and Tony Williams also in the running) plays a medium-sized high school in a small college town during his musical peak period, and the girl who gets to interview him for the school paper doesn't even care about his music! (Though she does admit that he was "very good"!)

Quite a few encounters, but not the Hollywood or sports types. Mostly well-known scientists or space people at conferences or launches, and science fiction writers at conventions. Plus some guy named Nimoy in front of me at a cetacean panel at a science meeting back in the mid ‘80’s. (“I can’t wait to see how this ties in to your next movie.” Smiles, winks, no comment, of course.) Scientists and authors are all a lot easier to share a meal or drink with than traditional “celebs”; you can meet and talk to them, not just observe them.

For someone more people would recognize, there’s this:

Many years ago, I was at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, doing a lot of hiking and photography. Late one morning, after I’d been out hiking since sunrise, the light was getting flat, so I headed back to my car. I thought I’d take a quick drive around the park loop to see if there was anything interesting despite the now-blah light before heading to town for lunch. I came around a curve between the dunes and saw a bunch of large commercial trucks off to one side, and a lot of equipment and wiring set up nearby. Around the next curve were a white stretch limo, several state trooper cars and some park ranger vehicles. As I expected when I first saw the trucks, it was a film crew (I'd run into film crews during my travels before). It was not a movie or a TV commercial, though; “Puff Daddy” was here to shoot a music video out on the dunes. I parked, climbed a nearby dune to get a good view but be out of their way, and waited. They were ready to film after fifteen minutes or so more of preparation, and I watched and listened to them do three takes of the song “Best Friend.” They had a full-size white piano out on the dunes for the video, too; I think Mario Winans was at the keyboard. Puff would wrap his head in a wet towel to keep cool between takes. One of the crew would broom-sweep and air-hose-blow the sand around Puff’s feet before each take to smooth away any stray footprints. Various other people worked the light reflectors, boom cameras, sound equipment and other gear. The soundtrack was being played from their studio session for them to lip-synch out here in the desert (terrible acoustics here, you know). I’m sure they cut off access to the area for people just arriving, but for those of us already there, we got to see it if we wanted.

Donald Trump. Tavern on the Green.
He made a waitress cry.

Terry Bollea, 1975. I was probably the first person he ever threw over a fence! Gooney Golf, Maitland Fl. I was 14.

My friend and I set-up Ernie Hudston's Ghostbusters pinball. Nice guy.

Ran into Flava Flav at a music fest, I said "Hey! What's up!?" and he ignored me, and I awkwardly shuffled off.

I've met all the surviving Beach Boys. Some a few times.

I paid money with my sister to get a Christmas-themed photo with William Shatner to make weird Christmas cards.

I met Adam West at Expo. You had to be on the preorder list for Batman '66, a friend let me go in his place. One of the kindest gifts you can give, West was on my bucket list to meet and he passed away not long after.

I've met many of my favorite musicians/songwriters but I think they're more niche famous in the late 1990s/early 2000s indie music scene, and this probably isn't the right crowd - Andrew Bird, The Mountain Goats, Justin Vernon from Bon Iver, Neutral Milk Hotel, Belle & Sebastian, Jeff Tweedy from Wilco, Joanna Newsom, etc.
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I spent around 2 hours one time with Prince on the tarmac of a private airport. Just me and him and his bodyguards. It was a strange evening.

We went to an event celebrating Apollo 8 at the San Diego Air and Space Museum in 2008. Met several astronauts. Buzz Aldrin was walking around but was pretty much surrounded all the time. But somehow my wife got to gabbing with his wife, and they were hitting it off. Next thing you know, she asks if she can help us to get a picture of my son with Buzz, which he did at her prompting.

Neil Armstrong was there, but they kept him away from everyone inside the ropes. No way to get anywhere close. He gave a great talk.

Here's Buzz with his wife before I took the other pic. I think she was getting pretty snockered on that wine.

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George W Bush, Donald Trump, Charleton Heston, gary stern, steve ritchie, barry oursler, Todd Tuckey, Elvira, Eugene Jarvis, Svengoolie, george Foreman, John Cleese

Met alot of cool people.

Here’s my very random list of personal celebrity encounters/sitings.

Ron Jeremy using a pay phone in Santa Monica.

Arnold Schwarzenegger on set of Jingle all the Way at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Rob Lowe at sneak preview of crappy 80s film Grandview USA staring C. Thomas Howell

Robert Duvall at a hotel in Austin.

Little Richard gave me a bible from the window of his limo on Sunset Blvd. in 1991

Steve Wozniak at Boston Logan airport.

I jammed with the bassist of Oingo Boingo (John Avila) and a mutual friend’s house.

I ate lunch with Ray Bradbury (with several others at at poetry event) and he signed my copy of the Martian Chronicles. Also met him another time at Griffith Observatory.

I joined Peter Yarrow on stage and sang along with Puff the Magic Dragon with several others from audience at concert at local art house.

Taylor Swift and the Kennedy kid she was dating at the time sat next to wife and I at a very small restaurant in North End of Boston. They rudely left a lot personal garbage in the booth for the waitress to clean up and also foolishly asked where they could get good donuts near by (donuts in Boston are terrible) when they were surrounded by famous Italian pastry shops.

My favorite was meeting Matt Groening at Heidi Ho comics in Santa Monica 1991. He happened to be there buying some comics and I saw his name on his credit card as he was paying. I was a fan of Life in Hell and Simpsons. He spent a few minutes nerding out with me about comics and then drew me a picture of my favorite character from Life in Hell (Bongo the one-eared rabbit). Still have and hangs next to my TSPP.