The coolest person you ever met

[Highwall]

I got to sit next to Tony Bennet on a flight from Seattle to Yakima once and I got to meet Charleton Hesston in Kansas City at the NRA convention but the coolest guy I ever met was hands down Roland Orzabal of the music band "Tears for Fears."

We met on a delayed flight to Las Vegas. He was honest, cordial, humble and a pleasant man to talk with despite his rock star status.

Plus he looks really good at 64!

 

Not to mention my brother in law met Elmer Keith on a flight to Chicago back in the day!

 

[J-BAR #18287]

Jane Pitt, Brad Pitt's mother.  She and my wife worked together for several years and they stayed in touch with each other after retirement.  Jane and her husband Bill were both very normal, friendly folks... they didn't advertise their relationship with Brad to promote themselves.  

 

Jane passed away in early August.  She is respectfully remembered.

[Pat Riot]

That’s cool, @Highwall 

 

I have met quite a few very cool people. 
Mel Gibson - at the Lethal Weapon 3 movie shoot. 

Mohammed Ali - Very quickly

A few other musicians and actors, but one of the coolest people I have ever known is Forty Rod. Not kidding. Forty is pretty freakin’ cool. 

 

[Cypress Sun]

Without a doubt, the coolest person I ever met is my Dad.

 

The coolest famous person that I met was David Clayton-Thomas of Blood Sweat and Tears. Met him at a small venue near me where he was playing with his band. Got to drinking after his show. had a right good time for a few hours just me and him. 

 

Next coolest famous person I met was Dale Earnhardt Sr. I was at a Chevy dealership getting a free oil change on my Monte Carlo SS and was sitting in the "executive" waiting room when Earnhardt walked in and sat down next to me on the couch. Although I was a big NASCAR fan at the time, he was far from my favorite driver. He was there for an autograph session scheduled for later in the afternoon. We talked about hunting for about a 1/2 hour, then my car was done and other people had come into the room anyway, all clamoring for his attention. He gave me a red Goodwrench hat and signed it. Nice guy, dirty driver. I was sad when he got killed at Daytona.

 

I've met other famous people but none of them were as personable as those two.

[Highwall]

I saw David Clayton Thomas live back in the day. He was a stellar preformer with a golden voice!

[Yul Lose]

I’ve met a few famous people like Barry Goldwater, George W. Bush long before he was President and a few more. The coolest person I ever met and got to know was bull rider and Rodeo Hall Of Famer Charlie Sampson.

 

I was working as an installer of two way radios and mobile phones at a shop in Casa Grande, Az. One day this short, black guy wearing a big cowboy hat with a little boy trailing behind him shows up in my install area wanting to know about IMTS/direct dial mobile phones. He knew a bunch of the other farmers, ranchers, ag chemical and fertilizer sales people that were using our mobile phone system and had a lot of question. I spent quite a bit of time with him and signed him up for a mobile phone install, this was way before cellular hit that part of Arizona. 
 

He came in for the install with his son again and I showed them where the customer waiting area was and the coffee pot and soda machine. He asked me if it would be alright for him to stay out at the truck and watch. I didn’t mind and the little boy was very well behaved and crawled into the back seat of the truck and slept. Charlie and I talked a lot during the install and really hit it off. I didn’t know a whole lot about him but I did find out that he was starting a bull riding school south of Casa Grande. He told me to stop by and visit sometime when I was down that way and I did many times. 
 

Sadly not too long after that Charlie was backing a livestock trailer into their pens and the little boy ran behind the trailer and was hit and killed. Charlie was absolutely devastated and the surrounding community really came together to support Charlie and his wife after the tragedy. 

[Doc Shapiro]

I've met a lot of famous and interesting people throughout my life.  Politicians, rock stars, professional shooters, skiers, media types.  Including a President (Bush Sr).  All of them were super nice, cordial, respectful.  Harrison Ford bought drinks one night (this was late 80's).  Glen Plake was easily the coolest of the lot, and I doubt he remembers sharing a ski lift ride at what was then Squaw Valley.  He was an absolute hoot.

[Trailrider #896]

My boyhood hero, (then) Col. Chuck Yeager, and again many years later; Project Mercury astronauts Alan Shepard (definitely "the commander"), Gus Grissom (just before his flight in Liberty Bell 7); Wally Shirra; Scott Carpenter, Deke Slayton, John Glenn (very friendly to a 19 year-old kid). Gordon Cooper was down in Australia acting as CapCom for the upcoming unmanned Mercury Atlas flight, so never met him. I was working as a summer hire intern for the Navy on the Polaris program, and has the run of the Holiday Inn in Cocoa Beach when not working.  Rode up two floor in an elevator with Dr. Anna Fisher one time.   Several other astronauts in passing, over the years. 

 

One interesting individual was an engineer working on the Polaris Project, name of Pearce Columbus ("P.C.") Toole. He looked and sounded like a hillbilly from the backhills of somewhere down south. But he had a PhD in mathematics and taught me to find the cube-root of numbers...longhand!  

 

More recently, Dr. (to anybody not one of his intimate friends) Buzz Aldrin. 

[Highwall]

My wife's first cousin is sports comentator Verne Lundquist. He attended our wedding and came across as just a regular guy. Later. when we visited him in Dallas we soon found out "the regular guy" would take us to the most expensive and most elegant restaurant in the city. He ordered escargot

for all of us but I opted out and ordered catfish instead. LOL

And my dipping sauce was Heines ketchup! Yea, I'm a rube and proud of it!

 

 

 

 

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Lt Cdr Grace Hopper

[Buckshot Bear]

A young Mel Gibson many times.

Olivia Newton John
Marcia Hines
 

[Texas Jack Black]

 I  saw ELVIS at the local Mall .A real cool dude.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

My parents and my wife, of course (all three now gone, but gifts from God) and Elmer G. Leterman of Leterman-Gortz Insurance.  (Yeah, I know:  an insurance sales man.  Who chooses an insurance salesman?  Taylor must be nuts.)

 

Mister Leterman was a master salesman, a great author, and had one of the most organized minds of anyone I ever knew before or since.  I don't care what business or recreation you are involved in, his books have something for everyone.  My favorite, How Showmanship Sells became a "business bible" from the time I met him in 1965.

Edited September 22 by Forty Rod SASS 3935

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

4 hours ago, Buckshot Bear said:

A young Mel Gibson many times.

Olivia Newton John
Marcia Hines
 

I was almost fifty years old before I found out Olivia, Newt, and John wasn't the name of a trio.

[No Horse Hair, SASS #77464]

BB King,,,Elevator at the Las Vegas airport.  Was just my son and I getting in the elevator and I saw a black man in a wheelchair with another pushing him toward the elevator. Had a guitar case on his lap. I held the elevator till they  got there. As he entered I asked him if he was who I thought he was. He laughed and said" Yes I am and this is Lucille". We talked and I told him I loved his blues and had seen him play a few years back. I didn't want to ask for autograph, but I've always wished I would have asked to touch Lucille.

[Eyesa Horg]

I've met many of the Harley execs from back in the 80s & 90s and shared dinner with them. Also all of the Miss Harley Davidsons from that era. Met Jay Leno in Milwaukee. Paul lynd in Ft. Lauderdale. Fixed a phone for Katherine Hepurn while she was recovering from a car accident at her sister's home in West Hartford CT .  Malcom Forbes at a rally in Lake George, NY where he gave Ellie Phant a patch of his Noah's Ark balloon to her right off his vest!

[Tex Jones, SASS 2263]

The firm I worked for had an annual meeting for international clients in NYC.  Henry Kissinger was a member of the firms' International Advisory Board and attended the main dinner.  I introduced the clients to him, by name, position and organization.  Apparently, he knew every world leader as when an individual was introduced Henry had a story about the current or past leader of the client's country.  The clients were in awe of him.  My wife, when she was a nurse in a NYC hospital, met Katherine Hepburn, Clarence Clemons and Ted Kennedy; all interesting in different ways.

[Rye Miles #13621]

 I met Buddy Rich at a gig I was playing drums at. Our trio was in the lounge in the hotel his band was staying at for a show at a nearby venue in Cleveland. I talked to him in the lobby a while before we started. I told him he was my idol and I took lessons from his book, Buddy Rich Snare Drum Rudiments. He was really cool and very nice. Later that evening he peeked his head in the lounge which was adjacent to the restaurant. We were playing a ballad and I was playing very soft. He gave me a thumbs up. We asked on the mike if he wanted to sit in, he shook his head NO. I think he was kinda tipsy. 

 

I met Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue at a play . The effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds. They were attending the play and writing autographs in the lobby afterwards. I didn't get an autograph but shook their hands and said hello.

 

I also met Redd Foxx at a casino in Vegas. Cool dude!

 

As a kid I met Rocky Colavito and Herb Score of the Cleveland Indians. What a thrill that was!

 

Edited September 22 by Rye Miles #13621

[Windy City Kid]

The Chicago Art Institute has a beautiful courtyard you could eat lunch at. My ex-wife and I were sitting there and a striking couple sat next to us. She said they looked familiar. I told her that was Barack and Michelle Obama, and that he was thought to be a candidate for the next POTUS. That night, we went to a restaurant called Japonais. Shortly after seating, another couple sat next to us. Yep, Barack and Michelle. He looked like "where do I know you??" We all laughed at the coincidence and had some small talk before dinner. I may not have agreed with his politics, but he and Michelle were very cordial and down to earth. 

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

I used to work in hotel AV, so between that and my current job, I've gotten to meet, speak and hook up microphones for a lot of interesting people.

Off the top of my head...

Robert Ballard (The guy who found the Titanic.
Gene Kranz  (The guy in charge of Mission Control for Apollo 13)

Hilary Clinton

Newt Gingrich

Mitt Romney
Wayne Lapierre
Sam Cathy (The guy who founded Chick-Fil-A)

Kelly Ayote 
Charlie Baker
Arnold Schwarzenegger (Well, I was in the same room with him)
Tim Wakefield
Rico Petrocelli 
George W Bush.  (Well, again, same room, and while I did CONTROL his microphone, I never got close enough to say hello.)

[Blackwater 53393]

I’ve been around the entertainment industry and particularly the music industry for most of my life and I have met and worked with and for many “artists” over the years.

 

I was also lucky enough to be involved in auto racing, off and on for most of my life!

 

I think first of Tennessee Ernie Ford. I was working on a TV crew, filming a special for the old Opryland theme park. I mostly did lighting and set preparation, but I got to interact with most of the “guest stars”, including Danny Thomas, Robert Goulett, and Leslie Uggams!

 

At the wrap party, I was seated across the table from Ernie Ford and he was “holding court” with the folks, carrying on and joking.

 

He already knew my first name because I had been there for several of his scenes and he asked what my last name was. When I told him, he grinned real big and said “I bet I know your mother!” He went on to explain that he was often in and around the National Life and Accident Insurance Company building and had met my mom several times in the twenty plus years that she had worked there. We talked for the rest of the evening. I’d see him around town for several years after that and he would always wave and call me by name!  I found out later that he had a knack for remembering names and faces and seldom forgot anyone!

 

I also met a lot of racing celebrities. The coolest was John Force!  We first met at an NHRA points race in Gulfport Mississippi where he was making a sponsorship appearance for Castrol and my team was competing. That was back in the late eighties.

 

Bill Barney was driving the Castrol Top Alcohol Dragster and they were pitted right next to us. Bill bottomed out the dragster on a bump at the end of the track and cracked the oil pan. 
 

They were short on parts and didn’t have another pan, so we had a welder on our trailer and they went to town and bought some welding rod and a big torch and we stick welded their pan up so they could make the program the next morning. Force thanked us and bought supper.

 

A couple of years later, I was at the Performance and Racing Industry show in Indianapolis, walking down an aisle in the early morning on my way to a manufacturer’s booth where I was working. I was in a hurry and had my head down, moving quickly. I slammed into John Force, him going the opposite direction, chest to chest!

 

We both backed up a step and began apologizing and that big ol’ grin you always see on his face spread out all over the place! He grabbed my hand and shook it, called me by name, and thanked me again for the help back at Gulfport! We talked for a minute and then he said he was late for a meeting, shook my hand again, and headed off.

 

Don Garlits is another racer that I got to meet and talk with. I spent half a day with him at his museum and he gave me and Schoolmarm a personal guided tour of the place!

[Dirty Dan Dawkins]

I have never met or engaged with any person of notoriety or fame.
But some SASS shooters  come to mind though...
Dirt Merchant and Lincoln Hawk (RIP) are on up there.

Buffalo Brady was a charismatic individual. 

Edited September 22 by Dirty Dan Dawkins

[Texas Maverick]

I was with my boss one time and we went to a karate tournament that his friend sponsored. I met Bill Wallace and Chuck Norris. They were there promoting the tournament. Both great guys and down to earth. Spent part of the day with them explaining things as they went along.

 

TM

Edited September 22 by Texas Maverick

[Dantankerous]

I met the members of the swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy before a concert in New Orleans at a VIP meet and greet. All were super cordial. They got even more cool and conversive when I told them I was a trumpet player and had been instructing young trumpet players for years. 

[TN Mongo, SASS #61450]

I asked Clayton Moore for a silver bullet when I met him at a public appearance when I was a young child. He politely refused and told me to listen to my parents and teachers. At college the Milwaukee Bucks refurbished one of our gyms, so they had a practice facility. I got to know Oscar Robertson on a first name basis (very nice guy), and I spoke to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar several times.  Other NBA teams also used our gym for practice, so we got to see all the top NBA stars from 1972 and 1973. 

 

But the coolest person I've ever known was Ray Purvis. Ray was an All-American football player for Middle Tennessee University. He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in their first draft class in 1960. Ray had to call Tom Landry and tell him that he couldn't come to training camp because someone else had drafted him. Landry "lost his mind" on the phone stating it was illegal for any other to team to draft him. Ray had to explain that it was "Uncle Sam" that had drafted him, not another NFL team. Ray flew Huey Cobra gunships in Vietnam and then was a member of "Air America" (CIA) when we "weren't" in Cambodia and Laos later in the war.

 

Ray and I coached high school football together for three years in the early 1980s.  He taught me to hunt deer and tutored me on basic shooting. Ray used to do wind sprints with the football players just to tease them; he had run sub-10 second hundred-yard dashes in college and was still very fast. Ray was the most laid-back guy I have ever known. I was always fretting about something that was happening at school or with the football team. Nothing ever ruffled Ray. I asked him one time how he always stayed so calm. He smiled and said, "Jeff, for over 20 years people tried to kill me almost every day; the stuff you're worrying about is nothing."  

[Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life]

Working in the aerospace industry for 40 I got to meet lots of interesting people. The Apollo and Space Shuttle were 2 that wanted lots of positive publicity and lots of celebs toured the plant. Chuck Yeager was a really great guy....if he liked you. Used to talk to him about hunting and fishing, especially when he was a guest at our management club meetings. 

 

John Wayne was probably the friendliest celeb I ever met. I was working on the Saturn 5 program in Seal Beach, Ca and was on my way to the bank at lunchtime. I noticed a big Pontiac station wagon next to me at a traffic signal. It had a funny looking plastic bubble in the roof over the driver. I looked at the driver and John Wayne was driving. The roof had been modified so he could wear a cowboy hat in his car. He went to the same bank and I commented about his roof in the car. We talked for a minute and he said he was on his way to take his mother to lunch. She was in a retirement community nearby and he took her to lunch every Wednesday when he was in town. We left together and I said glad to meet you and we shook hands. Several months later I was in the Balboa Bay Club for a business meeting. I was at the bar having a beer when it was over and I felt a tap on my shoulder and it was John Wayne. He remembered our discussion at the bank. We talked fishing for a few minutes and he left. He was a pretty friendly guy, at least to me.

[Billy Boots, # 20282 LTG-Regulator]

10 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

I’ve been around the entertainment industry and particularly the music industry for most of my life and I have met and worked with and for many “artists” over the years.

 

I was also lucky enough to be involved in auto racing, off and on for most of my life!

 

I think first of Tennessee Ernie Ford. I was working on a TV crew, filming a special for the old Opryland theme park. I mostly did lighting and set preparation, but I got to interact with most of the “guest stars”, including Danny Thomas, Robert Goulett, and Leslie Uggams!

 

At the wrap party, I was seated across the table from Ernie Ford and he was “holding court” with the folks, carrying on and joking.

 

He already knew my first name because I had been there for several of his scenes and he asked what my last name was. When I told him, he grinned real big and said “I bet I know your mother!” He went on to explain that he was often in and around the National Life and Accident Insurance Company building and had met my mom several times in the twenty plus years that she had worked there. We talked for the rest of the evening. I’d see him around town for several years after that and he would always wave and call me by name!  I found out later that he had a knack for remembering names and faces and seldom forgot anyone!

 

I also met a lot of racing celebrities. The coolest was John Force!  We first met at an NHRA points race in Gulfport Mississippi where he was making a sponsorship appearance for Castrol and my team was competing. That was back in the late eighties.

 

Bill Barney was driving the Castrol Top Alcohol Dragster and they were pitted right next to us. Bill bottomed out the dragster on a bump at the end of the track and cracked the oil pan. 
 

They were short on parts and didn’t have another pan, so we had a welder on our trailer and they went to town and bought some welding rod and a big torch and we stick welded their pan up so they could make the program the next morning. Force thanked us and bought supper.

 

A couple of years later, I was at the Performance and Racing Industry show in Indianapolis, walking down an aisle in the early morning on my way to a manufacturer’s booth where I was working. I was in a hurry and had my head down, moving quickly. I slammed into John Force, him going the opposite direction, chest to chest!

 

We both backed up a step and began apologizing and that big ol’ grin you always see on his face spread out all over the place! He grabbed my hand and shook it, called me by name, and thanked me again for the help back at Gulfport! We talked for a minute and then he said he was late for a meeting, shook my hand again, and headed off.

 

Don Garlits is another racer that I got to meet and talk with. I spent half a day with him at his museum and he gave me and Schoolmarm a personal guided tour of the place!

And we both have met our share of fine musicians.

[Blackwater 53393]

26 minutes ago, Billy Boots, # 20282 LTG-Regulator said:

And we both have met our share of fine musicians.

I was doing some custom work on a new bus for Marty Stewart about twenty years ago.  I was building a custom captain’s chair that would fold out over stairwell so he could ride up front with the driver. 
 

The seat had to retract so that people could get in and out and it had to be big and comfortable when it was in use.  Marty came in three or four times so that I could make it fit him and still have it be able to fold away. I ended up making it fold away into a couch arm in the front lounge, using a couple of pneumatic cylinders.

 

I was constantly tacking small pieces of steel together with a MiG welder and he would fuss at me for not wearing a welding helmet.  I tried repeatedly to explain to him that I was in no danger and that I didn’t look at the flash when I used the welder.

 

About the third time he came to help me with the fitting, he handed me a brand new lightweight helmet and half a dozen different shades of glass lenses.

 

I always thought that was pretty cool!  I kept that helmet for several years until some cretin decided that I didn’t need it as bad as he did!

[watab kid]

all mine are more friends in low places , but at my college roomates wedding i gotr to sit and have dinner with his two brothers , they were green berets' on leave for the occasion from VN , one ended up the general of the army and the pother ended up the surgeon general of the army , we had a very nice evening together , his father was in comand of a base in germany at the time but he was with the head table folks , 

 

i did grow up with the "author of the bridges of maddison county" - bob was a family friend and at the house often - that film that clint eastwood and meryle streep , the bridges are all scattered around winterset iowa , childhood home of  JW -''the duke' as well as the set for dick van dykes movie cold turkey ,its a picturesque town square that is every town midwest image , i was working for the architect that did extensive retro-remodeling to the city square there back just before the bicentennial , im now 3/4 of a century old and look back on those a bit different than i saw them then , and this next year we celebrate 250 years , that adds perspective as well , 

 

my wife and i are taking a trip this week - i think we need to take these in even tho its out of the way , i havent been there since then 

 

came back to add that ive had other encounters - these were the ones that left best impressions , did run into jack lemon, , walter matheau and ann margret in the hotel lobby when they were filming grumpy old men here in st paul back when , breif but cordial couple minutes talk , 

 

met one of the survivors of the sinking of the indianapolis and spent a couple hours talking with him at a sporting clays shoot - they delivered the atomic bombs to tinian that ended the war , they also suffered a lot , my dad was next door on saipan , 

at that same shoot shot trap with irene mandrel and got to talk with her sisters louise and barbara at dinner , this was in nashville , my friend gimp and i shot it a few years running before they quit having it , it was a sporting clays shoot for handicapped people and vets   

 

ive had other things happen just cant recall them all right now , but i have lots of friends in low places 

Edited September 23 by watab kid

[Happy Jack, SASS #20451]

Depends on your definition of cool I guess, But the most interesting time was sitting in his house in the 70's and chatting about Viet Nam with Carlos  Hatchcock ( yes, White Feather). He was humble and A pleasure to be with. We chatted about missions we has both been on.

[Rip Snorter]

Carlos Hathcock - never met - spelling above.

Edited September 23 by Rip Snorter
Clarity

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

My Mom and Dad! 

[Billy Boots, # 20282 LTG-Regulator]

1 hour ago, Rip Snorter said:

Carlos Hathcock - never met - spelling above.

He is one of several great "snipers" I have met.  It was my honor to meet him.. He was very humble.

[Billy Boots, # 20282 LTG-Regulator]

15 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

I was doing some custom work on a new bus for Marty Stewart about twenty years ago.  I was building a custom captain’s chair that would fold out over stairwell so he could ride up front with the driver. 
 

The seat had to retract so that people could get in and out and it had to be big and comfortable when it was in use.  Marty came in three or four times so that I could make it fit him and still have it be able to fold away. I ended up making it fold away into a couch arm in the front lounge, using a couple of pneumatic cylinders.

 

I was constantly tacking small pieces of steel together with a MiG welder and he would fuss at me for not wearing a welding helmet.  I tried repeatedly to explain to him that I was in no danger and that I didn’t look at the flash when I used the welder.

 

About the third time he came to help me with the fitting, he handed me a brand new lightweight helmet and half a dozen different shades of glass lenses.

 

I always thought that was pretty cool!  I kept that helmet for several years until some cretin decided that I didn’t need it as bad as he did!

That is cool.  You and I also know another Nashville bus builder.  And, he was bass player for Sonny James. Gene Watson used to leave his bus at a friend of mine's shop.  The steel player for over 70 years.  Think I first played with him when I was around 16.  Gene's bus now sets in fancy storage building in Paris.

We getting old ya know.

Edited September 23 by Billy Boots, # 20282 LTG-Regulator

[Blackwater 53393]

24 minutes ago, Billy Boots, # 20282 LTG-Regulator said:

That is cool.  You and I also know another Nashville bus builder.  And, he was bass player for Sonny James. Gene Watson used to leave his bus at a friend of mine's shop.  The steel player for over 70 years.  Think I first played with him when I was around 16.  Gene's bus now sets in fancy storage building in Paris.

We getting old ya know.

Ain’t heard from Milo in years!!  If I can find Randy Burnett, (he used to work for Loretta Lynn) he was tight with Milo and might could give us some info.

 

Yeah! I’m not really getting old!  I’m accruing historical value!! 🤣