That is so cool!

I did have a brush with celebrity. I was working in a toy store in Carmel, CA and David Bowie came in and bought a teddy bear from me. I still tingle!

Wow.....how fun! Too bad he couldn't go to the concert.

Something similar happened to my brother in the 80's. He was on the beach in Mexico and was headed back to his dive motel when he passed a guy sound asleep with his back already burnt to a crisp. He sort of kicked his legs as walked past and said "hey pal, you better wake up you're burning up out here" and continued walking. The guy roused and called out to my brother to wait. He thanked my brother and asked if he could buy him a beer. Off they went and they ended up in my brother's dive hotel room hanging out for a bit. It was Phil Collins. He was waiting for his wife to arrive the next day. My brother said he was a nice guy....down to earth.

DH and I were going to NYC and because we knew we would be late, we guaranteed our hotel room at the Warwick. When we got there, around midnight, we were told that there were no more rooms, except for the five room penthouse. We stayed there for several days at the cost of an ordinary room. But that wasn't the best part. As we were going up to our penthouse suite, we shared the elevator with Cary Grant.

Wow, that is very cool, Oakley. My only random (not concert related) story is that I dated Jim Ibbotson of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in junior high. We went to the same bus stop. Of course back then he was just a kid in school with a lot of musical talent.

I did get to chat with Chuck Berry when he was taking a smoke break from a party at college. Does that count?

Cary Grant? Swoon.

Wow!! I don't get star struck much- but that would do it!

That's a neat story Oakley, how funny! My ex-husband's father was a movie executive so we got to share a limo with Donald Sutherland once after a screening of one of his films. He seemed very nice. We also got to meet Bernardo Bertolucci once many years ago.

I'm nearly 70 and still have a crush on Sir Paul!

I have a sort of reverse story. My husband is a retired journalist who always has a pen and small notebook in his shirt pocket. Always. Still. One day years ago while he was making a note his pen ran dry. He asked to borrow mine. I said sure, but made a joke about my pen being my sentimental favorite. He went to work with my pen.

Later that day hub interviewed Jane Fonda. She asked to borrow the pen and didn't return it! Of all the noive! I bet she didn't even treasure it!

We had lunch at a table next to Eric Clapton once many years ago.

These stories are fantastic, but I must say, hanging out with the Newman's and Steve McQueen wins hand's down so far. lol.

I just now remembered this and I might have told this story here before a long time ago. It's worth repeating since it's the closest I'll ever get to someone famous.

We lived in Norman, OK while in college and a few years afterwards. My best friend M, had a long term relationship with D. I'm not writing D.s name down in case he ever decides to google it and comes here. lol. But with the video below it's easy to look up. The last I heard, D. is with Michael Martin Murphy now, if the band is still together.

ANYWAY, D. was in a local band called Mountain Smoke. He was an original member along with Vince Gill, before VG became famous.

DH and I got married at the court house between semesters. Our wedding party was that evening hosted by D. and my bestie at their house. Guess who was there? Vince Gill. Again, before he was famous.

Here's an old video, D. is playing the fiddle. He and I would jam at my house while I played piano, but I was soooo bad. lol Vince is standing in back. The band is still together but with new members. You only need to watch for 20 seconds or so unless you love bluegrass. :)

Oh my gosh, Sir Paul? Joann Woodward, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and more . . . what great stories!!!

While still living in the suburbs outside Detroit, I dated a few local musicians. Through them I met Bob Seger and Mitch Ryder, some of the guys from Santana and Three Dog Night. I knew Madonna when we both were young, as her aunt was my Brownie Scouts leader. After high school, my friend's dad, who was the head sports writer for a major newspaper in Detroit used to occasionally take us with him to football and hockey games. He had a big motorhome that he drove and parked in the press parking lot. After the games, we'd help him with grilling out steaks, etc. and lots of football and hockey players (Gordie Howe, Alex Karras, Joe Robb, etc., etc.) would stop by to eat and chat. I met many that way.

Once I got my degree and moved to Florida, I worked at North Beach Medical Center, right across the street from the ocean in Ft. Lauderdale. It was a smallish hospital that especially catered to the wealthy. I met a few football players from the Miami Dolphins who came in discretely for some minor injuries. Those were my single days, and I was dating the son of a very famous football coach. Through him, I met and had dinner with Ray Charles, met up with K.C. and the Sunshine Band many times, The Four Tops, too. Jayne Marie Mansfield (daughter of Jayne Mansfield and sister of Mariska Hargitay), etc., etc.

Once I married, DH and I moved out here to New Mexico. Great place to meet and see movie and tv stars. I ran into Lou Diamond Phillips in Santa Fe's iconic La Fonda Hotel's gift shop. Saw Carol Burnett walking down the street on the Plaza in Santa Fe, I've met and had dinner with (in a small group) Charley Pride, Willie Nelson and Neil McCoy. Once when DH and I were spending the weekend at the Santa Fe resort, Bishop's Lodge, we were put into a more isolated bungalow suite there. The next morning, I walked out to our shared (with one other suite) covered portal and Gene Hackman was sitting there smoking a cigarette. His was attached to ours! Such a nice guy, and very handsome IRL. He told me that he was having a home built nearby and stayed at Bishop's Lodge whenever he came back to check on it. Two years in a row, DH and I ran into the author Tony Hillerman and his wife up in Taos. We were all staying at the same place, the Fechin Inn. They actually traded us rooms once, when I was up there with a broken foot and needed a room on the first floor with a private patio. Oh, and one more: Brian Cranston and other cast members of Breaking Bad used to walk up and down in front of my home here while they were filming a few special episodes across the road from us. I have never watched even one episode, but apparently it was one with some drug lord at his luxurious compound. There was/is a gorgeous built-in pool with views of the mountains, guest house, etc. Anyhoo, that's our neighbor's place. They came back to film an episode there for Better Call Saul, too.

Oh, and Keith Richards. Such a charming, fun, bad boy! Met him in a nightclub in Ft. Lauderdale back when I was living there.

This is embarrassing.

Back in 1963/64 I went to the University of Arizona. For a while I dated a guy named Gerry Riviera. Later he turned out to be Geraldo Rivera.

There have been a couple of times where I took in baseball games out of town. Two times by chance it happened that the visiting teams were staying at our hotel. The first time it was in Baltimore vs. the Yankees with Derek Jeter, etc. I did not see Jeter but we saw many of the guys in the hotel and on the elevator. My BIL was in the elevator with Don Zimmer, their manager at the time. Then last year when I was at my conference in Boston with my sister and BIL again we went to the Blue Jays at Red Sox game. Our organization had group tickets available for us to purchase. Just as we walk back to our hotel, here pulls up the bus with all the Blue Jays players on it. So, my sister got some photos with the players. She and BIL are huge baseball fans, so that was great.

A couple years ago my conference was in San Francisco. We checked into the hotel and I went to the convention center to get my registration packet, but DH wanted to check out this independent bookstore near our hotel. He was browsing when the director John Waters came in. So, DH did talk to him briefly because they were near each other. John Waters has a home nearby he said.

Oh gosh, this is maybe 10 years ago before DH and I were married. I was visiting my family in Buffalo and my flight got delayed twice so I was back at the airport in the morning. I see this guy in line and I'm thinking wow, he's hot, and then I realize it's Rick Springfield! He had played a sold out show the night before. We didn't have tickets and I was supposed to have been home so I'd miss the show anyways. So, yes, having been a fan since the 1970's I did have to talk to him and get a photo. He was nice, and I am not sure what happened to the photo. This was pre-smartphone phone.

We've done a couple of meet and greets with bands, and then stayed after shows to get autographs, etc., so I don't know if that counts since those were kind of planned, though after the concerts no guarantee you will actually meet anyone. One of my favorites was from the band Offspring, where the singer Dexter Holland stopped his PhD studies at University of Southern California when the band took off, in the 90's, so we talked a little bit about science, grad school, and our research areas. Dexter did actually recently finish his PhD from USC just this year!

Also, more recently in Denver for my conference again, LOL, we decided to get tickets to see Roger Waters. We were at this street art festival heading back to our hotel at the Hyatt and saw a line forming at the Four Seasons which we assumed was where he was staying. Just as we were thinking that there's no way he'd come out and sign autographs, there he was! We didn't have anything for him to sign so we did not get in line. I am not a person who has to get a selfie everywhere I go. I got a photo but my phone is not being cooperative.

I worked in a hotel in Dallas in the early '80s and the cast and crew of "Dallas" stayed there for local production. (If you are younger than 50, you don't remember that "Dallas" was a big TV hit.) Charlene Tilton was just a kid, and she'd roller skate through the lobby. Everyone was really nice and low-key, they were working long hours in the summer heat.

I usually worked reservations in the evening, and every Friday at 7 our time, end of the work day in LA, the production assistant would call with the names of people coming in the next week. I talked to this same woman twice a week for 4 months each year, and she never responded to my greeting with "oh, hi, BPath, it's Janice, how are you? I have the names for next week." It was always "Hello, this is Janice from Lorimar Productions. I'd like to make reservations in our room block for arrival on Sunday, June 18" or whatever. Then she'd give the name and EVERY TIME spell it for me. Yeah, I think I know how to spell "Hagman".

My other brush with greatness: Walter Payton came to my parents' door once and asked if he and his kids could fish in their pond. He came several times after that, they just fished quietly. He really was Sweetness!

Just think Linelle, you could have been one of Geraldo's fifty wives! lol.

Interesting Lynn, just this morning N.M. was on my mind and I wondered how many celebrities lived there.

Keep the stories coming, I'm totally enjoying them!

I was traveling for business and entering the Portland, ME Jetport building to check in for my flight, and the late Ed Bradley, of CBS 60 minutes, held the door for me. He was gorgeous in my eyes.

Oh, Linelle!! I don't even know what to say. What was he like? If I'm not mistaken, he was not always conservative?

I've told my celebrity story before, I think. I have always adored Elto John. I knew every word to every song of Madman Across the Water as a 5 yr old. Once when I was 15, I was sulking like a brat on one of the outside benches at the DFW airport. I was sulking because I was being forced to go to cheerleading camp instead of seeing Elton John, who was in Dallas that night. I was waiting to be picked up. A man sat down on the other end of the bench. I threw him a bratty lip curl and then became practically hysterical. It was Elton John. He tried to comfort me while I bawled how much I loved him. A limo pulled up and he was gone.

I just remembered another - Janet Leigh's husband (not Tony Curtis, but her husband after him) and my father were business associates. When my dad was in town (DC) to attend a large business dinner, he took me along as my mother did not come to town with him. We were seated with Ms. Leigh and her husband. I sat next to her and she was so friendly, really very nice. She was telling me about her dogs and her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis' dogs, they are dog lovers, and insisted that the server put all of the leftover steak from our table in a big doggie bag for me to bring home to my pup, so funny. She was incredibly down to earth.

Catty wins!!! That's like real magic. Did you have any trouble getting people to believe you. I do! I do!

What was Geraldo like? He was Gerry from Babylon, Long Island. I thought he was cute. For some reason I never figured out, my roommate from NY couldn't stand him. We dated for a month or two and I don't remember why or how it ended.

I was living in England for a while and when I came back in 1973 Geraldo had a show, Goodnight America I think it was called. Long hair, big 'stache. I did not recognize him or make the connection.

In the early 90s I was reading Parade magazine in the Sunday paper. There's the Q & A portion on page 2. Someone asked a question about Geraldo and the answer gave the info about U of A and being called Gerry Riviera. My jaw dropped a foot. WTF! I walked out to the driveway where my husband was working on the car and said, "Get a load of this..." He ribbed me about it for the rest of his days.

Wow, Linelle! I'm pretty sure now we're going to rib you, too. ;-)

About EJ, no one believed me, haha. Because, why was he outside of the airport, by himself? Well, heck if I knew.

The last time I saw him in Vegas, it was for my birthday and part of my gift was a VIP package. I had my brother's album (from when I was 5 years old) for him to sign. My son and his dad ASKED him if he remembered sitting on the regular old bench by himself outside of DFW and meeting me. I nearly died. It had been 33 years. Then, he asked if I had been really, really upset and crying when it happened. And then I was crying again and nodding. He signed my album, and wrote a thank you to my brother, who died in 1996, for teaching me to love good music and gave me a big, really sincere hug. My son and ex both cried, too. And now I'm crying, of course.

Oh Catty, what a wonderful story. Damp eyes here. I love stories like this, and I've always loved Elton John's music, esp. Rocket Man.

Catty, what a really wonderful story!!!!

Linelle, your is, too!

And Gail's!

Gsciencechick, I didn't initially tell about meeting EJ as part of my VIP package for the same reason. I had been given a chance to meet him (legitimate stalking) for my bday. But it ties in with the chance meeting and really, he was so kind that I love to tell it.

He had some not so flattering news out about him around that time, too.

....another 'meeting' (or maybe not) was when our family went skiing in Colorado. Being a Florida girl, I was not very accomplished but could take the black diamonds at a slow pace.

One morning at Copper Mountain, I was last in the group, Fell, hit hard. Hard enough to see stars. The person who skied up and helped me was John Denver. I am sure it was him. He stayed with me till I got back up on my skis and cleared my head. Once I was ok he disappeared.

NO ONE in our group BELIEVED MY STORY.

I've heard lots of Rocky Mountain High comments when sharing my tale. I am still convinced it was him.

I believe you maddielee! I totally understand.

My daughter used to live in Santa Monica and we liked taking walks through the neighborhood. One day we went to a For Sale open house. It was a nice neighborhood (Santa Monica, after all) but nothing over the top. Just a nice Spanish style house. Lots of photos on the wall. Looked like someone was friends with or had a thing for Oliver Stone, the director. Then the lightbulb goes on, it's Oliver Stone's house! Lots of on-location photos of cast and crew, esp. Platoon. Very nice, very lived in. The dining room walls were lined with bookcases all filled with VHS tapes.

My mom's neighbor was the business partner of John B Kelly, Grace's father. One time "Gracie and the Prince" were coming over to visit so we watched from next door with binoculars.

Paul Newman! I would have died a happy girl right then and there!

Love these stories!

I've had celebrity sightings up close, but never talked to any of them.

Because I grew up in So Cal and lived there till I was nearly 30, I saw and met and had random encounters with celebrities all the time. Some of my favorites were when I worked for a catering company that did the wrap party for a movie Bill Murray was in in the late 70's. He ended up hanging out with a bunch of us young people and telling jokes.

One night while out for dinner at a thai restaurant, my boyfriend and his friend, who were in a band, started singing a Doobie Brothers song, and then the bass player for the Doobies came over and sat with us, he was laughing at the guys and decided to join us.

I was a mail carrier in the area near Universal Studios and I had many celebs on my route-Robert Blake once invited me in for breakfast; the guy who played Gary on Knotts Landing always greeted me very pleasantly. I saw Mark Harmon at McDonalds (Swoon), Ed Asner was nice to me, and he lived in a simple suburban cottage! But the one who really bothered me was Eric Estrada. EVERY TIME I'd deliver his mail, he'd be standing at his mail box and would try to flirt with me. I once yelled at him because his dog jumped in my jeep and he coudln't apologize enough. I'd see him at the grocery store all the time too. He's just as smarmy as you can imagine.

My personal fave is when I was standing on line at a deli and started chatting with a tall, skinny blonde guy. We chatted about random stuff for about 10 minutes and I kept thinking "I know him from some where" but I wasn't going to ask who he was. Later, when I got home I realized it was Tom Petty!

My family has a long history of theater, music and working in Hollywood. My uncle has a special effects company and he specializes in explosions. He's won an Emmy and is very good friends with a famous director. He works on several TV shows currently.

But my biggest claim to fame-my Great-great Aunt was the Italian lady who Lucy Ricardo stomped grapes with in the famous I Love Lucy episode. Her son, my father's cousin, was in the band Climax-their most famous song was Precious and Few. Aunt Teresa was actually an opera singer!

Neetsie, I love it! lol. Some of these stories pull at my heart strings. John Denver, I was thinking about him the other day and how much I missed his songs.

What great stories, Neetsie!

Neet, that is so cool! LOL on your great-aunt!!

On another thread some of you mentioned you like John Prine. He was at the Roger Waters show, and they let him backstage behind the barricade right in front of us. You can look for photos on both Roger and John's Twitter feed from early June. I'll try to copy it and see if it works.

https://twitter.com/rogerwaters/status/871487322503561216

My husband was (and is) a dive volunteer for the marine national park in our area and was once asked to take Vice President Al Gore and his son out diving while they were on a private visit to South Florida. I instantly became a park volunteer for the day too LOL.

So I got to spend the day boating with Mr. Gore and his son who was a teenager at the time. The VP was very nice, actually in private he was pretty much like his public persona, a bit pedantic but interested and engaged all day long. Fun fact-there are indeed SCUBA diving Secret Service officers who swam around underwater at every spot we went.

And someday if I ever speak to Mr. Gore I can tell him I didn't recognize him with his clothes on!

I've got several stories. My first experience was with someone who hadn't become famous yet. In the early 70s, I dated a tall, sultry, sexy guy from the community college I attended in the Catskills. He was in a band and I went on a couple of gigs with him. He and his band members were all very gentlemanly towards me and I very much enjoyed the experience. He soon lost interest in me, though, when I wouldn't jump in the sack with him.

I never gave him another thought until many years later, when the members of KISS finally decided to ditch their makeup in public. I about fainted....Gene Simmons didn't go by that name back then.

I served a pastrami sandwich to Neil Sedaka when I was a waitress at Kaplan's Deli.

Finally, I almost flattened Nick Nolte who was riding his bike very carelessly in and out of traffic during the making of Prince of Tides in Beaufort, SC. I scolded him soundly after I took my foot off the brakes. He shouted after me, "Let's go to dinner!" Even tried to catch up to me, egads.

rhizo, LOL! Not too many women have turned him down. Was that Rainbow or Wicked Lester, or even before that?

Right before Dirty Dancing was released, we were at the lake eating at one of the "nicer" restaurants-and at the table next to us (I was with then boyfriend at the time) was Mathew Broderick and Jennifer Grey. They struck up a conversation with us-probably because he was so drunk-he was giving us his autograph before he left and could hardly write his name. Not too long after, is when we heard about his accident in Ireland(?) that killed someone-can't remember now the details, it's been so long. I just remember how cute Jennifer Grey was and looked like a little girl.

Toby Keith-not his real name-and his dad came to my parent's house/ranch years back to buy a tractor. My dad does not get star stuck AT ALL-and treated him like he was just a neighbor down the street. He was VERY popular at the time-and isn't such a big deal to us now since he lives in our town now.

My family was eating in a restaurant and my sister was having a conversation with Val Kilmer as we walked out-he actually looked horrible-he was very pale, sloppy and was smoking-but then got back in shape for the next movie we saw him in.

Saw LOTS of celebrities when I went to the Grammy's with my girlfriend about 4 years ago! The thing that surprised me the most were a lot of the women celebrities were so skinny that their heads looked so big- like "bobble-heads"-guess that the look Hollywood wants. Couldn't believe how short Joan Rivers was.

Neetsie, this is so funny, I too worked for the post office on the same route!

I was subbing for the regular carrier and Erik Estrada stopped me to flirt! After a few minutes, I had to tell him I had to get back to work. Lol.

I ran into Mark Harmon at the flea market, he nodded and said hello. His wife Pam was in the booth buying stuff.

A lot of celebrities in Studio City.

ETA... I just remembered, I met Jennifer Convy at the flea market. She was filming her show Find and Design (does anyone remember that show?). She asked me to be in the show when the seller in the booth did not want to be on camera. So, I'm in one of the episodes pretending I was the seller.

Tom Pynchon taught me labor songs.