Not sure if anyone outside of my Bruce buddies know this story, but it's pretty funny. A few years ago in Detroit, we spent the night of a concert in the same hotel as Bruce and the gang - on purpose. We had one mission other than the show and that was stalking. Not psycho stalking but hoping to meet the band stalking. We got to meet the guitar player from REM (I have a picture of it somewhere), but before the show our stalking was pretty much a bust. We flew back at the end of the show - an amazing show by the way - REM and Bruce. Stipe watched the Bruce portion of the show from less than 5 feet in front of me, and watching him dance and show Bruce some serious man love was almost as good as seeing Bruce. Anywhooo. We flew back at the end of the show, and as we were outside a tour bus pulled in. Outside a few of us, Cliffy the lone Canadian included, tried to see who was inside. The desk clerk came out after a bit and asked us if we were waiting for Nils (or so we thought) and we heartily said yes, we can't wait to meet him. He gave us a talking to about how we could say hello, but then once inside had to basically ignore him because once he was through his doors would be like us disturbing him in his living room. We all kind of looked at each other and said "OK"... Thinking that from what we've heard, Nils is a pretty laid back guy, but hey we'll go with it.
So Cliffy, Cecelia and I wait. And we see this old guy coming off the bus, holding some baked goods covered in blue saran wrap. We were more concerned with the what was under the saran wrap than the guy, because of course - it wasn't Nils that we could see. He got off the bus and stood in front of us, waiting. We were like HUH? It was Neil Young. Cliffy, being the good Canadian, had him sign his Maple Leafs shirt that he happened to be wearing. He (Neil) then looks at me, and I really don't want his autograph and while it's cool that it's Neil Young, it's NOT Nils Lofgren like I was expecting. I just raise my hand, give a little wave and say "Hi". I think Neil was a bit disappointed that I wasn't gushing over him. LOL
And that, dear people, was my close encounter of the Neil variety.
6 comments:
I love him. That's a cool encounter.
I'm totally jealous, I would have been gushing!
hey... I skated over here from my nieces blogs and see that you are a Bruce fanatic...as am I. Do I know you ? I always assume I know every Bruce freak online (vbg) but ...huh...maybe not. I have posted on a usenet Bruce group in the past (actually make that for the past ten years- I have no life) although I am currently taking a big break.
Anyhow...Hi.
crone - thunder-rd.com is where I usually hang out, I'm still a member at Greasy Lake though. Have you heard of them? I've been taking a break too, but only because it sucked to read about all the shows my friends were going to and this was the first leg of a tour that I couldn't go to. My last show was Danny's last "official" show in Boston. What an amazing night that was. :)
I love Neil Young and think had I known you I would have asked you to get an autograph for me. Very cool story.
I would have gotten one for you, too! I think I was just pissed that it wasn't Nils. And THEN, it was all about what the hell were the baked goods in the blue saran wrap. LOL
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