I just rode the subway with Neil Young

Apparently he takes it everywhere, to the point that it's a little strange, really.

93Devil, I'm always up for some Clyde stories.

 

Ok, I get Clyde for the first time and we are headed up north. Over Bear Mountain and up past Middletown. We are just talking away, and I see him fidgeting a little like he is gearing up to ask me something.

"93Devil," said Clyde, "can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure, Clyde, what do you need?" I said.

"Well we are still a little too close to city for me to do this..." he said.

Oh no I thought.

"Can we pull off at McDonald's and you run in and get me some fries?"

"I know I will get recognized. We are just too close to the city. McDonald's fries are my only weakness."

I went pulled off, and Clyde and I then ate some fries.

 

I ran into Haystacks Calhoun at Louisiana buffet.

 

Wow.

Did you pay attention to how much he ate?

 

He got thrown out by a Chinese woman who spoke halting English with a Louisiana accent.

 

Nice!!!

 

The Super Show was a huge trade show that ran in Atlanta for years. Thought maybe that was it.

Obscure one that's kind of different: I met Greg Norton from Husker Du at a restaurant he owned and was the chef at. He since has closed that one and opened another in Wisconsin. Nice guy. Food was good, too.

 

One of my prized pieces of rock & roll memorabilia is a set list I got Neil to sign from the last show of the tour he did with Booker T. and the MGs as his backing band. He's extremely personable and has a very dry sense of humor. He'll likely be the next one of my idols to pass on to the great gig in the sky and I imagine that my reaction to the news will not be pretty. Plus tears will cause my metal to rust. And rust never sleeps.

 

I haven't had any run-ins that weren't work-related. Yet Ragu's initial story reminded me of the time in the 1980s when my older, idiot cousin was convinced Robin Williams was riding on the same ferry to Fire Island as we were.

He insisted it was Williams, even though my parents and his parents told him it wasn't. Well, the idiot goes over to him anyway and asks for the guy's autograph. He comes back and it's signed, "Richard Davis" or some shit like that.

 

Almost forgot this one.
My wife and I were flying to Hawaii and we had to change planes in O'Hare.
My wife has to use the rest room so I sit down at the gate and notice this old guy with the worst rug I've ever seen, coon-skin capesque.
Then he takes out a mini tape recorder and starts talking into it, it was a little weird looking.
So my wife get back, and then they start boarding first class for the flight to LA. The old guy gets up and gets in line.
My wife asks me, "Do you know who that is?"
I say, "Yeah, some old weirdo."
She says, "That was Steve Allen."
I did a double take.
I asked her how she knew.
She said his tape recorder had a sticker on it that said "Steve Allen."