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I have had only a handful of metal celebrity sightings. Metal celebrity sightings are encounters with metal musicians in “real life” – i.e., outside of shows, interviews, or other contexts in which one would expect to meet them. Musicians one personally knows do not count.
I once walked by Scott Ian of Anthrax in the street in SoHo. He was very short. I did not say anything; I was struck dumb by the fact I had just walked by Scott Ian of Anthrax in the street in SoHo.
At Amoeba Records in Berkeley, I saw Greg Christian of Testament. He was very tall. After he bought a CD, I followed him for half a block like a creepy fanboy. Then I told him, “I’m a big fan,” or something inane like that.
At Amoeba Records in San Francisco, I ran across Andy Galeon of Death Angel. He was wearing a Death Angel hoodie. I said, “Nice hoodie.” He said, “That’s my band.” As if he had to explain. We chatted for a bit about Death Angel.
For some reason, I often see Makoto Mizoguchi (Disembowel, Pyrexia, Hate Eternal (live)) at the post office late at night.
What metal celebrity sightings have you had?
I was in Vegas in early March. It was a Tuesday night I am pretty sure, and the Hard Rock Casino was basically empty. A dude walked towards me, and it took me a few seconds, but it was Vinnie Paul, he was on his way to the bathroom. I didn’t say anything, just looked at him, smiled and sort of acknowledged him with a tilt of my head. He had his signature cowboy hat on, and was with a group of other metal looking dudes. There were also a few gorgeous ladies at their table.
I work in Philly in a building right next door to a high-end hotel. I’ve twice walked out of my office and practically collided with aging metal royalty in Tommy Iommi and Geddy Lee on separate occasions. Each was out for a solitary stroll, sans any hangers-on.
These sightings have been interesting to contrast with the squeals of teenage girls staking out the front of the same hotel for the Jonas Brothers’ and Miley Cyus motorcades.
I’ve seen Away from Voivod in the neighborhood around my apartment a few times. He must live or work around here. I think I’ve seen the other Voivod guys at the bar around the corner, but I’m not sure because I only discovered about a year ago what they look like now (they’re mostly all fat now).
Not very metal, but I served the Queens of the Stone Age guys at a pub I worked at. They seemed nice enough.
I’ve been pursued in a German airport by a close-shaven 20-ish year odl to be asked if I’m the singer of Goregasm. I told him no, but I asked do you mean Goregasm Mexico or Goregasm US? It was US. I don’t think he believed me, based on my metal-archives-nerdoid counterquestion.
Sorry, sorry, Disgorge, there’s two Disgorges, not two Gorgasms (really that wouldn’t make that much sense as it’s a pretty unlikely – and bad – name). All these bands with their gore names.
Way back in 1989 was amazed to witness a stripy spandex wearing and sweaty Bob Catley from the old school band MAGNUM run into my local Woolworths and purchase a pounds worth of pic and mix, before running like a madman back to a white transit van….this was 3 in the afternoon.
Even further back than that ummm…must have been 1979 because they were supporting motorhead on the overkill tour. I walked past a very colorful Kelly Johnson of Girlschool GOD REST HER BEAUTIFUL SOUL!! looking at makeup in a department stall..
Kelly Johnson from Girlschool:
Guitar Player cover
That’s what I’m talking about.
I was about 12 years old walking at the Ralphs supermarket in Canoga Park, CA when I walked past Rob Halford. I said, “are you…?” and he said, “yes, I’m he.” Totally polite. How British of him.
Does seeing metal celebs at shows count? If so, I’ve seen Sahne Embury, Gene Hoglan, Henry Rollins, Joe Payne, and so on about a billion times at L.A. metal shows. Probably doesn’t count, though. I’m mistaken for Kerry King all the time.
Here’s one for you, Cosmo – James Lomenzo (infamously of White Lion, now of Black Label Society, which is arguably just as bad)came up in a show in Dallas that Skullgal performed at with WASP in 2004 and then very awkwardly tried to hit on her. He came on with a really thin attempt at being “smoldering” by kissing her hand and dropping this breathy line like “Do you sound… as good as you look?” (he knew she was the singer of her band but had missed their set). The best part was that he just about blew the stupid line by almost transposing the words and kind of stumbling over it. I was standing right there and laughing my head off. I wasn’t going to intervene unless he became grabby, but SG just remained incredulous and he ultimately slunk away. I always hated that band, and watching that guy failing to work his stale routine was truly amusing.
AVS – you forgot Megadeth in that toxic brew. White Lion was so bad it’s good. BLS is so bad it’s bad. He would have gotten a free pass for pity 25 years ago, but not in 2004. Great story – thanks for sharing.
Went to see Slayer & Unearth in Providence 2 years ago. Got stuck in downtown Providence rush hour traffic. Some dude carrying styrofoam take out conatiners put his hand on the hood of the car like he was gonna it. Anyway, no sooner did that happen than I (and everyone else is traffic) realized it was Kerry King. Kerry "Fucking" King chants strated from every car stuck on that street.
I was totally dumbstruck last year when I saw Ed Warby (drummer of Hail Of Bullets, Gorefest) walking by at a country festival here in Holland that is mostly visited by 50+ year old geezers. He noticed me looking (and my long hair) and gave me a wry smile. I guess he was just tagging along with his girl or something.
Oh, drummer of Brocas Helm, Jack Hays came up to me after the set of local band Wrathblade to chat about what he had witnessed. We talked about how Wrathblade are in a class of their own and other stuff and he was really a charming, low-key man. Then he tells me it’s their turn to go up to play and then I realized he was in Brocas Helm. I told him their music has been a positive influence in my life and he suggested more drinking and stories after the show, but I had to leave in a hurry after which sucked (also I get really tongue-tied around people whom I respect a lot… I know I shouldn’t and it makes most people that are worthwhile feel uncomfortable. I’m working on it). Still, a nice memory. Perhaps some of your readers will be going ‘bah, Brocas Helm, who cares?’ here and to those misguided souls I can only offer platitudes of grief and distant sorrow.
These things always happen to me during live shows. Another story: I was off to see Agent Steel and Vicious Rumors. I love Agent Steel but I really don’t give a shit about Vicious Rumors. Well perhaps the first record is worth some time because of Vinnie Moore. I went to see them because Steel are a hard-working band still at the top of their game, they do great live shows and I really wanted to hear ‘Agents of Steel’, ‘Mad Locust Rising’, ‘Unstoppable Force’ and ‘Bleed for the Gods’. I would see Rumours until I was bored and then leave.
So we get to the show, it starts late, Agent Steel DESTROY us for 15 minutes (not joking, I think I chipped a tooth) and then Thorpe from Vicious Rumours comes on stage to whisper something to the singer. They played one more song and got off the stage hurriedly. Thorpe comes up to me randomly in the crowd (did I seem like the most disappointed person in there? Perhaps) and says in a megalomaniac smile “now it’s OUR turn”. He pulled the band early because the show had a curfew and he wanted to play their full set. They were co-headlining. What a jerkoff.
They go on stage and play their boring pub power metal, I was out of there. Man, some time I’ll see Agent Steel properly. I might not live to write about it but that doesn’t matter. To the readership going “pfft, Agent Steel, who cares?” again my heart bleeds Byronic prose for your condition.
I saw Jerry Only of the Misfits at one of the camera stores I frequent once. Turns out he goes there with his girlfriend every now and then because apparently she goes to one of the art schools in town. Nice dude in person, just said hi and he nodded back. Pretty cool. Said friend can back up him being a chill guy with no rockstar ego.
I live in Tampa so if you look you’ll see lots of old school death metal dudes around. About three or four years ago I was out jogging and saw this thick dreaded dude driving a Mini Cooper. I think the car was red and the dude’s head was so big he looked like a cartoon character stuffed in a toy car. I rubbed my eyes and noticed it was Chris Barnes, the ex- vocalist of Cannibal Corpse. And oh yeah, Six Feet Under also, but that band doesn’t count.
The image of Chris Barnes driving a Mini Cooper amuses me greatly.
This is as uninteresting a metal celebrity you could run across, but James Hetfield has a house up in the west shore of Lake Tahoe where I used to live and work. I was working at a local bakery and he came in with his wife (who is SMOKING) and kids for lunch, got some shit and sat down, and of course I grabbed the broom and went out there to sweep. I think one other person there noticed who he was, but the people who came in the bakery were either rich housewives or rich dumbshits from the Bay so no one noticed, which I’m sure was a reason he has a house in Tahoe. Anyway, his kids ended up getting more stuff and asking me questions, eventually James and his wife joined in. It was surprising really, I half-expected him to be stand-offish celebrity type but he was low-key and totally personable. We chatted for a good 30 minutes, in the end I gave them some tips on the trails and hikes around. It’s actually pretty common to run across famous folks up in Tahoe so it wasn’t too shocking to me and I didn’t act like I did as a teen, with the fawning and all that. So I didn’t bring up Metallica but he asked if I played anything and was truly stoked to hear I was a musician, and then it was a trip to talk to him about gear and even a show I was playing the next week. He was leaving town but I’m almost certain he would have came to the show if he was around.
That’s about it, I was amazed to find he was such a regular dude, especially hearing all this rock star syndrome stuff from my friends
I was in Atlanta for New Years and was invited to hang out at a bar in which later I heard that the guys from Mastodon used to work at. I ended up going back the next day for lunch by myself (the burritos are awesome, PBR was frigging cheap) and Bill Keillher walked in, sat at the bar and was chatting to the regulars – people seemed to spend quite a strange amount of their lives in there. This was a couple of months after he had gotten out of the hospital in England (I believe) and I was shocked at how skinny and frail he looked.
So I ended up chatting with this old-school punk dude with a mouthful of rotting teeth, who told me that it is a regular occourence to the the guys in there. Actually he was saying that back in the day, it was pretty common for the punk dudes to hang out with Hip-Hop artists in the area. We are the world……
After getting quite inebriated with said punk dude, Troy Sander’s brother came in (I was too afraid and too drunk to talk to Bill and was later chastised for this) and this woman – a complete stranger – ended up introducing us – the whole situation, being a Canadian and all, was quite surreal. We ended up having a drink and chatting for awhile. What I thought was cool is that Sander’s brother gave me some info about the band’s plans and such, all which came to light soon after. Awesome guy who seems to love his brother very much but isn’t hanging on to his coatails.
What was really cool, though is that I went to see Zoroaster later that night and realized that the band was hanging out with the same people I was getting drunk with. since I didn’t know who they were I missed a great interview opportunity. Oh well.
Mini Coopers are br00tal.
Well, one day some mates and I hit up a pub and as we’re sitting around, a shaggy-haired, rotund dude makes his way into the bar. “That looks like Shane fucking Embury,” I mutter. My friend squints. “Is that a Repulsion patch?” he asks. Now we HAVE to know. So another friend and I get up and briefly converse with Shane, who was there with Mitch Harris. Apparently Napalm was shooting a video with a friend that weekend.
^Whoops, should’ve noted I’ve been studying abroad in Norwich, UK this semester and it’s not really a happening or metal part of Britain.
That’s a great story, Asa. Thanks for sharing. I once saw a tree in San Francisco’s Western Addition that looked exactly like Shane Embury’s hair. Too bad I lost the only photo I had of it.
It was 2000 and I was staying in copenhagen for about a month. I was on the bus toward university when a tall guy with military pants, long hair and eyeglasses got in.
It was Dave Ingram, at the time in bolt thrower. He had moved to denmark around ‘98-’00.
Funny you mentioned Greg Christian of Testament. He used to hang out at my high school’s smoking section. He’d visit this stoner girl he was then dating. I only knew him as “that guy with the Legacy backpatch”. (This was about a 2 years before they became Testament).
I also spotted Chuck Billy at a Mercyful Fate show in Palo Alto, CA. Testament was supposed to be the opener but cancelled for some reason. Instead we got some horrid “boogie rock” band with the guitarist of Faith No More called Jim Martin’s Behemoth.
I’ve spotted King Buzzo walking around Los Angeles a couple times. Once at Amoeba (not so surprising — it’s like The Ivy for the semi-famous rockstar set) and once at the sushi counter at a small supermarket.
His hair is still huge. I bet there are plenty of astronauts that report King Buzzo sightings.
A friend in Dallas once told me he saw King Diamond shopping at a Home Depot. He must’ve been shopping for coffin wood or something…
I hope King Diamond goes shopping for necessaries in full metal regalia.
I saw Rob Trujillo in the Southwest terminal at Oakland Airport a couple years ago. I was holding my 2yo daughter and when he walked by I blurted out, "Rob Trujillo?". He looked at me and I smiled and said in a starstruck fanboy kind of way, "Hey!", at which point he grinned and flashed me the peace sign. And then I thought, Finally, a rock star who appreciates budget air travel.
Bumped into Devin Townsend at Brentwood Mall in Burnaby, on my lunch break, a few years ago. I was on my way in, he, out.
He was wearing a too-big cable-knit sweater, and a navy beret on his head, and his glasses. He looked befuddled as I approached to say hello and shake his hand.
A long ago, after midnight, i was with some friends at a chinese restaurant at the edge of waikiki, when some 4-5 metal looking dudes came in and sat behind us. I figured they were in some band.
The next night, i went to a concert for a brand new band that just released a new album and were in hawaii for the 1st time – they were called Pantera. Same guys i saw at the restaurant.