The Official Met Your Musical Heroes Thread.

[Randy]

I've got a few of them from back when I was gigging that were pretty fun.

One that stands out as just a guy sitting in the audience, I went with my friends to see Summer Slaughter 2008. Necrophagist headlined and after the show was done, we just hung around while all the bands and merch guys packed up, after the place was totally empty one guy standing in the middle of the room watching the stage alone and it was Muhammed (the guitarist/singer, not the prophet)!

I asked him what he drinks, believe it or not he said he likes Budweiser Anyway it was just him, myself and my buddy and we sat down at the bar for a few and just shooting the shit. Talked about his Xiphos, the new album, etc. My buddy is a drummer and asked him why Marco didn't come back for this tour and he said Marco couldn't play the double bass fast enough

 

[Humbuck]

Holyshit, what tour was that?

Gosh...'03/'04 had to be? It was at Madison Square Garden.

 

[jco5055]

Met Nevermore on their last American tour, everyone was cool, Warrell Dane was definitely the most friendly though. Jeff almost gave off really awkward/shy vibes, to the extent that it was like a "I believe him when he says all he did after school was play guitar, never hung out with a single friend etc".

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I met and actually performed with one of my hero’s, twice.
May 2015, did two dates with Bill Miller,
, been friends since.
Met Michael Wilton and Todd LaTorre/Queensryche, Buck Dharma/Blue Oyster Cult, Lars Ulrich/Metallica, along with a host of much smaller bands that I gigged around with and toured the clubs a couple of decades ago and then some.

 

[Mboogie7]

I’ve met Angel Vivaldi and Gus G before. Both were super friendly.

 

[soul_lip_mike]

I wouldn't call him my hero but I was 17 and went to an In Flames show at phantasmagoria in silver spring, md and met Jesper Stromblad. I talked to him a bit and I could tell he probably didn't really want to talk to me but the crowd was super small so he stuck around and seemed like a nice enough guy but super quiet. That's my story.

 

[Manurack]

I met and actually performed with one of my hero’s, twice.
May 2015, did two dates with Bill Miller,
, been friends since.
Met Michael Wilton and Todd LaTorre/Queensryche, Buck Dharma/Blue Oyster Cult, Lars Ulrich/Metallica, along with a host of much smaller bands that I gigged around with and toured the clubs a couple of decades ago and then some.

That is pretty damn awesome. I'm Inuit myself and watching that video made me miss my aunt Hitkoak Ayalik, a well respected elder from my hometown in the Arctic.

Although Inuit don't beat the drum in the center like that video, we hit the sides of it while we sing. That's a caribou skin drum that she's holding.

 

[Big_taco]

Leaving Sounds of the Underground II early and seeing Robb Flynn and the giant of a man guitarist from Terror in the parking lot.

I was 16 and, typical of the time, leaning into metalcore scene fashion with that day's outfit being a sleeveless "pink ladies" shirt, a Goodwill scored pair of girl jeans, a studded belt with an out of place C.O.C. belt buckle, vans, and devil lock/swoop sweeping over a bandana. I had spent a good amount of the day on the receiving end of various slurs from some of the more drunken, less open minded attendees in the Sauget, Ill crowd.

I approached them and, after the standard "loved your sets!" told Robb how much I admired his guitar playing, Machine Head, and how I held him in a similar regard to James Hetfield for his writing and performing abilities. As I'm rattling this off as quick as I can to try and not be "uncool" he and the giant are just looking me up and down with the facial expression version of a groan . I think the only thing I remember him saying was "so it's us and metallica eh?...awesome" in a real dry tone. After about two minutes my older brother nudged me and told me to get stepping to the car haha.

I've been fortunate to be able to spend some fun evenings with musicians I admire since then and now it feels much more casual and friendly.

 

[StevenC]

I met Steve Vai in 2013 on consecutive nights because he was doing a clinic and then a show. A friend had a connection so got to hang around after and get some stuff signed. Super cool dude, very friendly and chatted with everybody about anything. Only downside was being handed a weird short scale 12 string to try in His presence and forgetting how to play completely.

Monster players if not exactly my heroes, but the most surreal was walking around Messe when Keith Merrow flags down @Lorcan Ward and I to talk to at the Schecter booth when his first signature guitar had just come out. Again, super friendly and chatty but then he yells over to Jeff Loomis to come talk to us. Jeff was great and I mentioned his playing on their album reminded me of Cacophony and I don't think I've ever seen someone receive a comment so graciously and genuinely in my life. Later on when we were leaving somebody yells to us again and it's Keith and Jeff saying that we never got a photo together earlier.

Met Dweezil after a show and he was just a gracious dude who was really happy people still appreciated Frank's music. This was from the Choice Cuts tour and I had to admit I'd only listened to Hot Rats but we agreed I had plenty of stuff to look into now.

After buying literally everything available at the Haken booth I decided to run it back to the car so I wasn't carrying so much stuff for the Devin Townsend part of the evening. I exit the venue to Richard Henshall and Conor Green being refused re-entry because they didn't have their passes after just stepping off stage. I stood for a few minutes mouth agape at the sight. Said a quick hello and told Richard he'd copied my Strandberg to which he said I was his idol, he always wanted to be me and that he really liked my Haken Xmas jumper. Then they disappeared because the merch guy had come out with a pass to vouch for them.

 

[p0ke]

Been to a bunch of meet & greets, but generally nothing interesting, tbh.

Except! In 2019 me and a couple of friends traveled to John Smith Rock Festival to see Gloryhammer. Their show was cool and all that, and then we were pondering whether or not to go to their meet and greet OR see Stam1na who were playing at the same time. Since one of the group wasn't really interested in Stam1na and the other two of us had seen them many times, we decided to go and say hi to the Gloryhammer guys. Said meeting turned out to be legendary

A little background: the guys I was traveling with were both my bestmen (yes, I had two of them) at my wedding, and they arranged a bachelor party for me in the summer of 2017. We filmed a tribute video for the video of the song Shotgun in the bum (by asdfgfa, a side project by Chris Bowes, the Alestorm guy), in which the bass player of Gloryhammer is the main character and their singer also participates. Both versions are available on Youtube so check them out if you want.

So when we were approaching the meet & greet area, I noticed the Gloryhammer guys pointing somewhere and checking their phones etc... and when we got close their keyboard player yelled "I told you guys, it is him, it's the guy from the fucking video!" and he had youtube open on his phone with said tribute video We just didn't know wtf to say at that point. I wish we'd filmed the whole thing! They're not exactly my musical heroes but I guess that's a story that fit nicely in here.

A couple of other occurrences I remember:

I was going to see Opeth on their Watershed tour, but Michael had lost his voice completely and the show was canceled. It was rescheduled, and since the guys were already there, they arranged a meet & greet. So I got a Watershed poster signed by everyone except Michael (who was probably in a hospital or something) and talked a bit with Fredrik Åkesson who had just joined the band. Seemed like a pretty cool dude. They were all quite surprised when I talked Swedish.

In 2006 I had crashed my motorcycle and had a cast on my hand and foot, but decided to go to Tuska for 3 days anyway That was the first time I met the Opeth guys at a meet & greet and they signed my cast Michael asked me what'd happened and it was really cool to say I'd crashed with a motorcycle at almost 100km/h. I also had the guys from Norther sign the cast, don't remember if there were others too.

 

[Lorcan Ward]

Years ago I was part of a group guitar lesson with Paul Gilbert before a show. We were all so star struck by the legend himself and his incredible playing just 4 feet from us. He turned to me and asked did I have any questions for him. I completely froze up. Everybody glared at me cause they were stunned into silence too. What followed was an awkward silence broken by one kid saying "emmm ehhh do yooooooooooou.......practice much". Gilbert was really cool about it. He still plays guitar like he's an enthusiastic 15 year old and can't get enough of it. He's also very deaf, he's started using hearing aids now but we had to really raise our voices for him to hear us.

After that I learned to always have questions ready when you meet a famous musician. I've got to meet and have a pint with so many musicians since then and I've made sure to be prepared before coming to the gig lol. It helps that a lot of guys also like to nerd out about gear which is an endless talking point.

Drinking with protest the hero is one of my favourite times. I don't really count meeting my heroes at signings since its not a good atmosphere for talking or having any meaningful conversation.

When I was younger I did meet an idol of mine outside the venue and told him how much I loved his music. He walked off without saying anything then came back after a few minutes, grabbed me in a hug saying thank you, made sure I got a photo and then went back into the venue. Troubled guy.

 

[StevenC]

Totally forgot one!

Also at Messe was at the Randall booth the year they had the Satan, Thrasher and 667 announced talking to Ola Strandberg before Per Nilsson performed. So he plays a couple of songs on a stage they had set up and it's awesome. Then he comes down to chat to Ola and us, lets us play his Singularity (this was the Swedish made prototype) and gets some pictures. Really sweet guy.

 

[Lorcan Ward]

I forgot about that!

After a small club show I went up to say high to him. My mate went to take a photo and I told Per don't get to close cause I came straight from a long day at work and didn't have time to shower. He then wrapped me in a hug soaking me in his sweat. Cool guy!

 

[thrashinbatman]

in 2015 my band opened for Exodus. they're my favorite band and Lee, Gary, and Kragen are all my favorite guitarists. we just happened to hang at the bar long enough for them to all trickle back out of the bus and into the venue after most people had left. ended up getting to hang out with them all, and they were super cool. i made it about 10 minutes into hanging out with Lee before i fanboyed to him, but thankfully my friend bailed me out by drunkenly fanboying harder to him. said friend's girlfriend had a really cool conversation with Tom about old country music. legitimately one of the coolest nights of my life.

 

[Shawn]

I got to meet Alexi on the Are You Dead Yet? tour with a buddy of mine after their show, I may still have the signed poster framed in storage. The band was super cool and that was the last album of theirs I bought when it came out, nothing personal against them, just getting older and tastes were changing. I can't seem to find the pic I have of me and my buddy with him, but it's still vivid in my mind.

I had Petrucci sign my Jackson RR back during the Prog Nation tour, and I didn't realize how easily it'd wipe off on the body vs back of the headstock. As they were walking away he told me to keep practicing and playing and I was in such a rush to catch the train (last train out of the city) I didn't realize who said it and was just like, "I sure will!" I'm not even a Dream Theater fan but the opportunity to meet them seemed worth it.

Got to hang with Matt and Michael from Bullet for My Valentine after their set when they toured with Lacuna Coil and Rob Zombie. I was there with a buddy at the Palladium, ended up also hanging with these other kids, followed them outside for a smoke and recognized them and it was like 'oh shit, it's you guys!" They were super nice and we're willing to sign some stuff we had (I got my ticket stub signed).

Satriani did a meet and greet at the GC in Boston shortly after his pedal came out, so me and my dad went and I had him sign my Planet Waves strap that I still use. My dad got a photo with him and I still have that to this day, one of the last big things we got to do together before he passed.

I met Buzz at a show they played in my hometown, in the basement of a record store. My buddy/neighbor's brother played on the bill with them, and given the New England hardcore scene, Unearth playing locally drew a big turnout at the time (2007). It was WILD. Got to grab a pic with him after, and saw the infamous PWH he bought off our very own @Shawn (I had never seen one before and he told me he bought it off some dude on here, and I realized how small a world it was being a member myself).

Grabbed a hoodie from Windhand after their set with Russian Circles, thanked em for the tunes and just try to support them any time they are in town.

Biggest one that sucks is missing the pre-show meet and greet with Symphony X as I've never had one BEFORE a show, only after.

If I had a 'to meet' list, I'd love to meet Mark Morton, as the Killadelphia DVD is what got me playing. He seems like a real cool and humble dude, and especially because the songs of his that do make the albums are bangers. All of Coheed, as I practice both their guitar and base lines, but it's a shame what happened with Mic. Mastodon as well, been spinning them forever and always love to see what they put out.

Awesome stories! Thanks for the mention too. As far as I know, he still has it.

I got to meet and hang out with the Deftones in Portland, Maine in the winter of 1998....they invited us on their bus (Chi was nowhere to be found because he was resting, they said). They were really cool guys.

Got to meet and hang out with David Silveria from Korn when they played in Lewiston, Maine. They dined at a restaurant I was working at. A bunch of us went to go meet them and he was the only one there to sign our stuff and shoot the breeze.

Got to hang out with Terrance Hobbs and Derek Boyer from Suffocation when they played at the Paladium in Worcester in 2009. That was pretty cool.

 

[vilk]

I met Lord Worm outside the pisser when Cryptosy was touring Once Was Not. I saw him coming out when I was going in and I just thought to myself... I was gonna say hi but I really had to go and also I felt it was like weird to meet people in the bathroom (Is it?). But anyway, when I got out he was just hanging out there for some reason (it was kinda near an staff only door to somewhere). So then I said hi and told him he was always my favorite Cryptosy singer, he gave a little lecture about the different styles of death metal vocals. I told him that I always imagined the band having a strong Quebecois accent, to which he explained that he didn't was because he is an English teacher.

Then during Defenestration, he started punching his own nuts.

Oh man, they were so good live, and since they had Lord Worm the set was all from BMF and NSV.

 

[youngthrasher9]

I got to shake Alex Webster’s hand before a CC headlined show in Spokane, WA. He was watching the opening bands, I almost walked up to him probably 12 times before finally doing in between songs. He was super super cool.

I am not a bassist, but if I was, he’d be my bass hero.

 

[Screwhead]

I've met a ton of them.. Any time a band would play I'd hang out and try to find the band members afterwards for an autograph or just to hang out and talk. One of the funniest ones was a concert I'd not even gone to, or known the opening band at the time.. I was working at an Internet cafe (remember those?), and before my shift I'd found a BC Rich Warlock at a pawn shop, so I bought it. On my way home from the night shift, I stopped off at a local Burger King, bought some food and went upstairs. There were a ton of people upstairs eating and talking, and one of them came up to me and asked me about my guitar. Told him I'd just gotten it at a pawn shop, not had a chance to play it or anything yet, and pulled it out and let him see it. Turns out that was Mick Thomson from Slipknot, back before their first album came out and they were opening for Coal Chamber. A few months later I saw the video for Surfacing and was like "Wait.. Slipknot.. isn't that the band that guy from Burger King was a part of???" and instantly became a fan.

I hung out with Sheri Moon and Blasko after a Rob Zombie gig, spent an hour talking about horror movies. Got drunk with Jerry Only, Dez and Marky Ramone on one of the Misfits tours; a friend had a press pass and got the bunch of us on the tour bus for an interview, and we just hung out drinking beer and smoking weed afterwards. Met Mushroomhead and spent some time talking to the drummer about hardcore gabber and drum and bass. On the first Music as a Weapon tour, after the show was over, the guitar player and singer from Drowning Pool came out to the bar to drink, so we did some shots and hung out, talking about music.. That was maybe a month before the singer died.. He was a REALLY nice guy and a ton of fun to hang out with!

As a Drum and Bass DJ, I've gotten to open for and hang out with a bunch of my favorite DJ/Producers; Ed Rush, The Upbeats, Camo and Krooked, Lenny Dee, The Horrorist, a whole bunch of the artists on Industrial Strength Recordings (played at the wedding party of Satronica in 2006; huge 3-room party with a ton of locals and ISR members). Never met him, but I still occasionally keep in touch with Zardonic; I was one of the few DJs that used to play all his metal bootlegs he started uploading to Dogs on Acid in 2004.

 

[Manurack]

I've met a ton of them.. Any time a band would play I'd hang out and try to find the band members afterwards for an autograph or just to hang out and talk. One of the funniest ones was a concert I'd not even gone to, or known the opening band at the time.. I was working at an Internet cafe (remember those?), and before my shift I'd found a BC Rich Warlock at a pawn shop, so I bought it. On my way home from the night shift, I stopped off at a local Burger King, bought some food and went upstairs. There were a ton of people upstairs eating and talking, and one of them came up to me and asked me about my guitar. Told him I'd just gotten it at a pawn shop, not had a chance to play it or anything yet, and pulled it out and let him see it. Turns out that was Mick Thomson from Slipknot, back before their first album came out and they were opening for Coal Chamber. A few months later I saw the video for Surfacing and was like "Wait.. Slipknot.. isn't that the band that guy from Burger King was a part of???" and instantly became a fan.

That's a cool way to meet Mick Thomson! Especially knowing that he played a few BC Rich guitars, the Warlock being one of them back then.

 

[ibenhad]

Kotzen and crew at The Chance Theatre in Poughkeepsie and getting them all to sign my Kotzen Tele. Richie also came to the bar and had a drink with me. Great night.

Shooter Jennings - NYC he was very gracious.

Sascha Konietzko (KMFDM)- Signed but ticket but wasn't very welcoming.

Tim Skold - He was awesome. Totally cool and wasn't at all bothered to chat.

Klayton Scott (Celldweller) - Met him 3 times and dude was totally cool.

Doug Aldrich and John Corabi - Had Corabi sing a verse of Father Mother Son from the Scream and had a shot of Jager.

Richard Patrick (Filter) - Cool guy and took some awesome photos.

Ernie C (Body Count) - Signed a 20$ bill for me.

Stevie Ray Vaughn - I was a kid and tried to get on his tour bus, they stopped me but he signed an Autograph to me and came off the bus to chat with me.

Tons more. Somehow I almost always get lucky and met the bands.