Band members you have met that were NOT cool...

I've met tons of bands over the years, many of whom I am a big fan of. Very few have been jerks. I was just talking to a friend of mine who met D.D. Verni. He said he was a "premadonna". I myself have met D.D. twice over the years and he was very cool to me. Signed all the crap I handed him and stood for pictures outside his tour bus.

Have any of you met an artist and he/she rubbed you the wrong way or came off as a jerk?

Eric AK
Dan Lilker

Temple of Blood wrote:

Eric AK
Dan Lilker

I've heard that about Lilker.

Always heard that Eric was a cool cat and that he would regularly frequent local shows on Phoenix. What happened in your case?

My buddy and I walked up to Erik Turner and Jerry Dixon of Warrant while they were sitting at the bar of the nightclub they were playing that night. We tried to talk to 'em, but they pretty much blew us off whenever any girls came up.

At first, we were kinda offended, but shortly afterwards, another friend that was with us put it in perspective. "Who would you rather talk to, 2 dorky fan-boys or hot chicks?". Good point.

The only out-and-out doofus I've ever met was Ace Frehley. I'm pretty sure I've told the story around here before. He was signing autographs at a rock n roll/sci fi/collectibles convention here in Jersey (at a table next to Adam "Batman" West, who was VERY cool by the way). He didn't say hi, didn't shake hands, hell, he didn't even look UP at anybody who came to his table. He just signed whatever you put in front of him and threw it back at you.

ultmetal wrote:

Always heard that Eric was a cool cat and that he would regularly frequent local shows on Phoenix. What happened in your case?

He was very dismissive. It's not like there was a long line of folks wanting to talk to him either.

At an instore appearance at this metal CD store called 'Ace's' which is sadly now closed, Dokken where their to sign autographs and promote 'Dysfunctional'. The entire band was there and Don, Jeff Pilson and Mick Brown were very friendly. George Lynch was not so friendly and barely acknowledged his fans.

I was not too bothered by it , but I did wonder why he bothered showing up.

Robb Reiner from Anvil acted like a tool when we saw him in Minneapolis last month. You'd figure a guy who's finally getting some exposure after 30 years would have been a little more receptive to his fans. In contrast, Lips was pretty personable.

Dale Thompson from Bride was kind of distant, not a jerk just had that vibe that he did'nt want to be bothered, the rest of the band was great, we had a great time hanging out. Kenny Wayne Shepard was pretty cool back in the day, but has turned into a complete D-bag the last few times I saw him.

SpectreFate wrote:

Robb Reiner from Anvil acted like a tool when we saw him in Minneapolis last month. You'd figure a guy who's finally getting some exposure after 30 years would have been a little more receptive to his fans. In contrast, Lips was pretty personable.

Very true.

I've met Dokken a couple times. Don was the only one that came off as a bit pompous, but at least he
was there and signed stuff for people. That's more than I can say for
some other bands. Wild Mick Brown I've met three times, once with Ted Nugent. Spent quite a bit of time with him backstage on that day and he was very cool. Shared all sorts of stories about Dokken and such.

At another gig I won meet and greet passes to meet Poison, Slaughter and Cinderella. Two members each from Cinderella and Slaughter came out to greet fans and sign autographs. I was mostly there to meet Slaughter, as I am a big Vinnie Vincent fan, although I wanted to meet Cinderella too. Mark Slaughter was very cool. I was the only person there that had a Vinnie Vincent CD for him to sign, and he seemed genuinely impressed that I had been a fan for so long. I also had him sign my Revolution CD, which I think is a spectacular CD. Most people there had copies of the "Best of" disc or their debut.

Eric Bittingham from Cinderella was cool as well. Made a joke about his bleach blonde hair, which wasn't blonde at this show and he just laughed and said, "ahhh f**k it. It's not worth it." Tom Keiffer was a not show, which was disappointing, but he may have been sick or something.

Unfortunately, Dana Strum, who I really wanted to meet didn't come out. No members of Poison graced us with their presence. Again, not jerks, they just didn't show up.

I've met Overkill twice. They are one of my all time favorite bands, so it was an honor for me to meet them. We met them the first time outside their tourbus in Albuquerque. Four guys were very cool, signed our crap, shot the breeze, etc. Derek Tailer was busy on the phone. I didn't really bother him until it got close to show time. I tried to hand him a pen and my CD, but he pushed it away and said he would get with me later. I tried to snag him after the show but he just rushed into the tour bus and never came back out.

The second time I met them was at Gignatour at a CD signing. Again, the other four guys were there, but Derek was no where to be found.

I've met Stryper numerous times and they have always been cool to me. Once Oz came off as a bit of a jerk. This was the first time I had met him when my band was playing at the Anaheim Stryper Expo. He had a really bad attitude that day and even on stage with his other band Sin Dizzy came off really poorly to the crowd. He was ranting about stage sound and took forever to finally get the show going. However, I have met him a couple times since then and he was very personable. The last time I met him he was playing guitar in Bloodgood. I took a picture with him and had him sign my "Reborn" vinyl. Maybe he was just having a bad day at the Expo. Who knows?

I have only met a few guys in metal bands. One or two local bands, and a couple of better known bands. The only "big name" metal band member I've met was Joey Belladonna, who seemed really cool, although I didn't get to speak for very long. He thought it was really cool that I drove a few hours to see him perform.

Oscar Souto of Anonymus was an extremely nice guy, very talkative and would answer pretty much any question you asked. Very good conversationalist.

So far, no musician in the metal scene I've met has been a complete douchebag.

LITA FORD...B#$%@ All 3 time I met her...Also to my friend Brian who was support act for her...She would not sign his album...

I was a big fan,and everytime was back stage at gig she was not playing. SUCKS big time now...

SpectreFate wrote:

Robb Reiner from Anvil acted like a tool when we saw him in Minneapolis last month. You'd figure a guy who's finally getting some exposure after 30 years would have been a little more receptive to his fans. In contrast, Lips was pretty personable.

Yah, Robb is the only one that comes to mind. Well, Eric Peterson from Testament seemed to me to have a touch of the "rockstar" thing going on, but I didn't really talk to him for long. Everybody else I've met was really cool. I thought James Rivera was going to be a bit of a primadonna when I saw Helstar, but he ended up being a pretty cool dude.

Coolest of the lot that I've met so far would probably be Alex Skolnick. He was really friendly and talkative when Greg and I approached him after the Testament show. Jeff Paulick from Lazarus AD was also a super-cool dude.

I never try and meet any of the guys in any bands that I see live. First I really just don't care to and second I just don't wanna ruin that perception/image that I have of how I think they are or should be. To this day I've met one band purposely, 7 Seconds, and thank God they were really cool. I did also meet Collin, singer of G.B.H, but that's just because he was so cool and outgoing that you couldn't help it.

Brad Noah of Disciple. Kevin and Tim are really cool though.

I haven't met many bands. I met Tourniquet at Cornerstone in 01. They were all cool. Unfortunately I didn't have my album covers with me or anything. Did get them to sign a poster they were selling. MAN I wish they'd make a new album. Miss em.

I've met quite a few musicians over the years, had very few bad experiences.

The only one that really pissed me off was Steve Whiteman from KIX...I was leaving the bathroom at Slammers and he was rushing in...I tried to step out of his way but apparently wasn't fast enough for his liking...he shoved me into the wall and hissed "get the f**k out of my way" as he passed by. I'm a mellow dude...but I really wanted to KIX his ass.

I met Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx while waiting in the customs line at Narita Airport in Japan. I'll never forget it. They were both very cool and autographed an envelope for me.

I also met Bruce Kulick, Eric Singer, Bob Kulick and Richie Scarlett at a KISS expo. No complaints, they were all very friendly.

That's about it for me.

I met Alice Cooper at a 98 Rock Promo event, called 'Trash Bash' back in 1989, he was a very cool, down to earth person, and went out his way to say hi to his fans and sign autographs.

Bruce Dickinson during his Accident of Birth tour, he came to Graffiti (sadly now closed) and got to meet him briefly. He was very cool, but he is egotistical (which I think most people know that about him). He was kind and happy to be out and about, but he seemed bothered that he used to play in front of 25,000 and his solo career there was if 1500 people there. He complained about cigarette smokers and he also came off as a germaphobe. He was very distant (space wise not uninterested in talking to us) when talking to us, and would not shake anyone's hands, he wasn't being rude but he acted as if he was scared to catch anything. Outside of that he honestly was gracious to his fans and seemed cool, the rest of the band (I think which is basically Tribe of Gypsies, could be wrong) also were very cool!

One thing you got from all of them, Bruce as well, was they appreciated the fans.

mez wrote:

Bruce Dickinson during his Accident of Birth tour, he came to Graffiti (sadly now closed) and got to meet him briefly. He was very cool, but he is egotistical (which I think most people know that about him). He was kind and happy to be out and about, but he seemed bothered that he used to play in front of 25,000 and his solo career there was if 1500 people there. He complained about cigarette smokers and he also came off as a germaphobe. He was very distant (space wise not uninterested in talking to us) when talking to us, and would not shake anyone's hands, he wasn't being rude but he acted as if he was scared to catch anything. Outside of that he honestly was gracious to his fans and seemed cool, the rest of the band (I think which is basically Tribe of Gypsies, could be wrong) also were very cool!

One thing you got from all of them, Bruce as well, was they appreciated the fans.

The smoke thing is a common complaint from vocalists. It's dries out the vocal cords and makes it harder to sing. The germaphobe stuff could just be a personality quirk but I can see how that would effect your meeting of him. The ego thing seems to be a common trait among vocalists from metal's heyday.

I met Leaves' Eyes and the entire band was very friendly especially Liv Kristine and her husband Alexander Krull (unfortunatly I didn't have my camera and wasn't able to get a picture with them. I also briefly met the members of Into Eternity but I had a very bad migrane and was in a small hurry to leave, but for that brief meeting they seemed like very cool guys. At my last concert I briefly met the lead guitarist of Lazarus A.D. who came off the stage and high fived us at the front. I congratualted him on a great performance (one hell of a thash soloist) he thanked me and seemed to be a cool guy. Same thing with the guitarist of Unearth (much better performer than a guitarist) and he also seemed cool. Picked up a little kid for a picture and gave him a shirt then left with some young girl he had frenched earlier in the performance (I'm not sure what for ).

That's the only meetings I've had so nobody of great acclaim.

Quote :

Eric AK

I met Eric a couple of times and he is laid back and nice enough... he always let me have a picture with him and listened to what i had to say. I know he used to have a substance abuse problem and luckily i didn't meet him then. Ed, Craig and Mark from Flotsam are always nice but the bass player Jason Ward is a little bit hyper and a attention clown sometimes. The singer from the german band Angel Dust is a complete a-hole! He brushed me and my friend off when we were trying to talk to him and went over to some female fans instead.
I met the Crucified's singer again at the reunion show and he wasn't a complete jerk but at the same time he wasn't really attentive to me when i was speaking to him... he would cut me off whenever a new person would start talking to him and just tell me to hold on even though i waited my turn to speak to him. Btw (he now gives autographs) I mainly wanted to meet Jim the drummer and Greg the guitarist but they had too many people waiting to talk with them and i got tired of waiting for a turn.

Only national band I have ever met is Ultimatium and htey are all always cool.

Met lots of Christian artists - the coolest was Tony P from Guardian - very friendly. He even acted like he remembered me when I say him on the Michael W. Smith/Amy Grant tour.

Robert Sweet was kind of a loof when I met him after - he was at a taping of 700 club and the "extended" show, premiering the Always There For You video - he seemed like he didn't want to be there.

I did also meet Tommy Lee in New Orleans - he was staying at the same hotel I was at and got on the elevator I was in. Motley Crue was doing a theater tour and even though they weren't packing arenas, he was still cool to me, took a picture with me (can't find it anywhere!!! Must have lost it in a move!!!)