A bunch. Some, but not all, that I can think of off the top of my head;
Wilt Chamberlin. My friend stupidly offered him coke. He replied, "Naw, I don't do that stuff."
Ringo Starr, John Lennon, Carly Simon, Bill Cosby, others.
Jackson Brown once thought he knew me.
Tom Waits gave me ride home to Hollywood from the Venice Poetry Workshop the three times he came. He wanted to go out to a bar once but I didn't want to.
My friend and I showed up at Charles Bukowski's apartment with a sixpack (we were told you could do this), and he let us in and consumed it with us.
My Dad had a girlfriend who was a long time close friend of Phyllis Diller. Phyllis used to pay her way on cruises and tours, just for the company, so I got to meet her.
Dave Dye (World Café) and I were in the same small college class. Freshman year, he had the dorm room just under me. I was one of about 7 people who actually listened to his college radio show. We shared a love of Van Morrison. Our paths cross from time to time, and we always stop and shoot the shit.
Sally Ride was in our same small class, but she left early on.
Oh, and Sylvia Seegrist.
Sixty minutes wanted me to be on their show. I firmly declined, but did testify at her trial.
Ahhhh, I knew I'd keep remembering others. A group of us had a vegetarian restaurant back in the day, and we had a booth at some new age concert in Philly, featuring the Paul Winter Consort. I was manning the booth, and he came over and we had a longish convo.
Also, during a presidential election year, I saw Alan Ginsburg at the old Main Point. He was backing Jerry Brown, so he mingled after the show and I asked him several pointed questions about the viability of Brown as a candidate, which visibly pissed him off!
Even more: Marianne Willamson. I went to a free appearance she made upstairs at a Philly bookstore. It was full of adulatory fans, and she didn't like the questions I asked her, either, and her new age mask kind of slipped.
I was auditing a class at the Quaker retreat Pendle Hill. I was the prof's star pupil, so he sent me to pick up (and take back) Howard Zinn from the airport. We had some amazing convos.
Yet another: James L. Buckley (William Buckley's brother and former Senator from NY as a member of the Conservative Party.) I attended a lecture he gave, and during the Q&A asked him a detailed foreign policy question. Afterwards, I hung around and he spied me and came over and actually congratulated me on the depth of my question.
Sharon Olds (poet.) Her response to my obvious adulation was, "I'm still not taking you home with me."
Richard Alpert (Ram Dass). After a lecture my then girl friend got him to come over and give me a hug.
Charles Barkley. During my time as a PI, I found myself stopped at a light at 6am on City Line Ave going into Philly when Charles Barkley pulled up next to me. He looked over, I made a "heart you" gesture and said, "thanks for everything" and he smiled back.
Another: Red Rudi Dutschke. I partied with him and bunch of others in Berlin. He got stupid drunk, and just kept shouting, "Null tariff," which was the cry of the swartzfahrers who rode the public transit without paying.
Aaaand, a long time close friend of mine is
Bill Bloom, who
still gets royalty checks for writing Double Dutch Bus.
Another long time, pretty close friend is poet
Bill Erhart.
Facebook
Twitter