The Name Dropper Meme

This meme was started by konagod and I decided to play.

Make a list of famous people you have randomly seen in public, people you have heard of but don't know. If you want to play along, do it (and let me know in comments so I can see your list).

Rules: It has to be something random and unexpected. You can't list Madonna if you paid money to see her in concert! However, if she invited you up on stage, then you can list her.


Early 1950s, when I was a baby or perhaps a toddler, our family went to see the now legendary Marty Robbins and Marty picked me up and carried me around on the stage for awhile. I don't imagine that I have ever been cuter than that in my entire life. This was before Marty had released any records. When I was a teenager my mother and I met him again, and she embarrassed me by asking him if he remembered this little girl (pointing to me) and carrying her around on stage. He politely replied that he remembered it. The video is from close to that time, a little later, and features his first hit song.

In late 1967 my mother and I took a bus trip to LA/Hollywood, Sunset Strip. I was a fangirl (teenybopper was the term in use at the time). We went to the Whisky a Go Go where I saw Stephen Stills (then of Buffalo Springfield, one of my favorite bands) in the crowd. The bands playing in the club were Steppenwolf and Iron Butterfly (pre- In-a-gadda-da-vida). Later that night we saw the now-late Gene Clark from the Byrds sitting in a diner.

In 1970 or 1971 when I was a bleached blonde teenager, Chuck Berry was playing a free concert on a big green space at SIU-C'dale IL. He was late showing up and some a-hole audience members started chanting his first name along with another word that rhymed with it. OK, that part is irrelevent... but not this. I was standing close to the stage (as I am known to do even to this day) and when he got there, he put one arm around me and another around another young girl - and he grabbed a handful of my teenaged ass cheek before letting go. In honor of that, I give you Sweet Little Sixteen from a 1972 show.
I was never a groupie or anything, so this was just a novelty occurence. Several years later, it is entirely possible that I could have been featured in Chuck Berry's Home Movies, otherwise known as the spy cameras he had installed in the women's bathroom at his Wentzville restaurant, the Southern Air, because I visited it during that time time. [second paragraph] Within the last 10 years, Austin: I don't really seek out sightings here, but star-spotting is certainly something you could engage in. We were at the Continental Club around the time "The Alamo" was being filmed down the road, and there, standing in the reasonably uncrowded room watching James Hand was Dennis Quaid. He had a beard for his role, but the grin is unmistakable. Nobody was pestering him and we didn't either. He is a fan of James Hand. We were at the SW Austin Costco one day, and one of our 2 Republican Senators, John "box turtle" Cornyn walked right past us. My fun one is from the Bruce Willis / Del Castillo / Chingón show, a.k.a Robert Rodriguez' concert at Antone's while filming for Sin City was going on. I was up next to the stage when Willis jumped down into the audience, so there we were... all pressed up against Bruce Willis. I did put my arm around him and hugged his waist, but did not pull a Chuck Berry! Rodriguez was filming the whole thing so I'm sure he's got that somewhere in his home movies (which I would vastly prefer to see rather than Chuck Berry's!!).