Should you not meet your hero's

Met one of my heroes, turned out to be a really cool cat, I get invited over to see whatever his latest project is every few months.

On the flip side, I wrenched on and drove an E-Type and I'm completely over them now.

In reply to ShawnG :

Yes, if we're talking about cars... never ever meet your heroes.

One of my saddest experiences was driving a 440-4sp Road Runner.

Patrick said:

 

can vouch, Travis is awesome.  He comes into the hotel lobby and looks at me and without words being exchanged he offered me a beer.

robbie gordon is awesome too.  
 

I can't remember everyone i've met but I don't recall ever walking away thinking "man that guy's a D"

Seconded. Met him at lspr many moons ago. CE downstairs to the hotel lobby where we were, head nod, grabs a donut, and sits down to tell the kids watching nitro circus on tv all the behind the scenes stuff. Apparently the only thing they never broke was the red dune buggies. 

That's so funny, I met Christopher Reeve once skiing, we were on the lift together, and he was a pretty big jerk. Met Lee Iacocca once and man was he amazing, so gracious and friendly. Same goes for Michael Jordan, who must get bugged to death, but he was totally cool. Best of all was Johnny Cash, we talked for a while, met June Carter, totally open and friendly.

jfryjfry said:

Contrary to the first post, I can vouch that Tanner Foust is a very good guy.  He does indeed love cars as well.  

Came to say this as well. Met Tanner Foust at MSR Cresson last year when One lap was in town. Very nice guy and a car guy.

Gordon Cooper, Wally Schirra, and Gus Grissom were all very nice to me when we met. 

First time I shook a grown man's hand. I was six, and totally blown away. 

About 10 years ago, I had a new client come into my practice. I commented that the only Grissom I ever heard of was the astronaut. He said, "That was my uncle, he died two years before I was born."

I replied, "Shake my hand..."

Floating Doc said:

I replied, "Shake my hand..."

 

That's the coolest thing I've read all month.

In reply to Knurled. :

Yup.

We restored a 1968 GT500 KR. (I've never liked Mustangs)

Took it for a test drive and was completely underwhelmed.

As for the heroes I've met, Paul Brodie is one of them. A legend in the MTB industry, built frames for Rocky Mtn and Kona as well as his own company. Finally managed to track down a 1995 Brodie Expresso in my size a couple years ago and it's an amazing bike, fast and handles incredibly well. Paul also builds replica Excelsior OHC board track racers. Like, builds the engine from raw castings and everything: http://flashbackfab.com/

The other guy is (THE) Tom Mellor: https://driving.ca/triumph/auto-news/news/the-high-road-best-way-to-learn-break-stuff

Very cool guy, I use the term "The" because I don't know anyone else who's gone over 200mph on a motorcycle, let alone a 1970's Triumph triple. He tows the bike to Bonneville behind his 1950s Rolls Royce. He's an incredible mechanic. I usually get to B.S. with him a couple times a year over a beer or two.

Funny you mentioned meeting some of these guys at the airport. I met Dale Earnhadt in the mid 90's because I was working on his airplane. JUst a minor avionics issue while he was on a stopover in Greenville, SC. I actually ran into him in the pisser. :) Guy was one of the most down to earth individuals I have ever met. David Pearson was the same way. We had a standing invitation to his shop any day we wanted. 

I have a friend of mine who is a retired Hollywood photographer. He's buddy buddy with the likes of Jack Nicholson. I asked him one time about Jack being an shiny happy person. He really said that as long as you didn't want to talk Hollywood, he was one of the coolest guys you would ever meet. He said they could sit around and smoke cigars and sip wine and talk cars and cameras all day, but Hollywood was off limits. I kind of get it. Most of those guys just want some "normalcy" I guess as opposed to people shoving a pen in their face all the time. 

pinchvalve said:

That's so funny, I met Christopher Reeve once skiing, we were on the lift together, and he was a pretty big jerk. Met Lee Iacocca once and man was he amazing, so gracious and friendly. Same goes for Michael Jordan, who must get bugged to death, but he was totally cool. Best of all was Johnny Cash, we talked for a while, met June Carter, totally open and friendly.

My mom mer Johnny Cash once.  He was on tour, and I guess his jaw was basically falling off or something (non-medical synopsis) and his doctor said don't go on tour, and he said no I'm gonna tour.  But he DID have scheduled check up stops along the way at various clinics to monitor his progress/degradation.  My mom worked in the oral surgery clinic he came to in Cleveland.

He hung out and joked with everyone and took photos with everyone.  One of the other people at the clinic was pregnant, and he got up close to the baby-bump and said "Hi, I'm... Johnny Cash."  One of Mom's favorite stories to tell, something about the way he said it was hilarious.

VegasNick said:

Funny you mentioned meeting some of these guys at the airport. I met Dale Earnhadt in the mid 90's because I was working on his airplane. JUst a minor avionics issue while he was on a stopover in Greenville, SC. I actually ran into him in the pisser. :) Guy was one of the most down to earth individuals I have ever met. David Pearson was the same way. We had a standing invitation to his shop any day we wanted. 

Wonder how much of that is because nobody comes to visit because they assume they are swamped with people clamoring to talk with them?

Kind of like the ultrahot girl in high school who never had a date because all the guys assumed she is "out of their league"...

 

I have a friend of mine who is a retired Hollywood photographer. He's buddy buddy with the likes of Jack Nicholson. I asked him one time about Jack being an shiny happy person. He really said that as long as you didn't want to talk Hollywood, he was one of the coolest guys you would ever meet. He said they could sit around and smoke cigars and sip wine and talk cars and cameras all day, but Hollywood was off limits. I kind of get it. Most of those guys just want some "normalcy" I guess as opposed to people shoving a pen in their face all the time. 

I've met a few cool cats and some down right knobs..

Met Bob Bondurant one day in 93 or 94 as there was a small autocross course set up by the local scca club next to my dorm at Michigan State. Very nice guy and openly could tell if you wanted instruction on being better, he would give it out freely.

Jon Kaase, Ford engine builder and engine masters winner many times over, is very soft spoken, but willingly tells what is going on with whatever we were looking at in his shop. I easily could have spoke to him for days.

Bob Glidden was rather short with conversation so is his son Billy, but only at times.

I can go on about the stars of Street Outlaws as some of them are cool as hell and the others are complete turds.

In reply to Ranger50 :

I've met Tina Pierce who was cool. Buddy of mine knows most of them from working at the same events.

Not only did I get to meet Andy Pilgrim, I get to work with him on driver education thru his Traffic Safety Education Foundation. He flies all over the country doing so much for the DE community. He always remembers everyone at conferences. He even took me and a couple other educators to dinner. Can't say enough good stuff about him. He also is a great speaker/presenter and does a great Alan McNish impersonation.

I also met Randy Pobst at Road Atlanta. We chatted autocross VWs. Totally awesome guy.

Back in the 1980s when we were autocrossing in New Mexico and El Paso I helped Andy find his first road race car, a super nice guy who made it to the big leagues totally on talent.  Also met Rick Mears at Pikes Peak after his retirement, a friendly, regular guy, and Rod Millen at various stage rallies and the Peak, another good guy.  However, there are exceptions.  All top racers have to have big egos, but a few are in a league of their own.  One of my personal heroes is Peter Brock, had the opportunity to just talk cars with him for an hour or so a couple of times at the Peak back when I did the GRM coverage, and enjoyed every miute of it.  Another of the really good guys.

This is going to sound super lame, but I don't have any heros.  That isn't me being blase' or complacent, its just the truth.  The person you see being your hero may or may not be a hero in real life.

One of my "heros" is a former president.  I liked what he did for the country.  He might be a complete douchebag in person.  If I ever meet him, I won't hold him to any standard in terms of personal interaction.  I'll just be like, "thanks for that cool law."

I have met Jeff Lynne twice, both times completely randomly... as in, one time we met at a bar, talked for hours, and he had to tell me who he was.  The only times I had ever seen Jeff were on album covers from the 70s, so I wouldn't have known him by how he looks today.  Musically, I would call him a hero, and (for me) he turned out to be a great guy in person.  But the general consensus of the population who have met him is that he's a shiny happy person.

People are people.  Some folks you'll interact with well, others you won't.  The level of their hero-ness for you shouldn't be mistaken for what you should expect if you meet them.

On a sidenote... I have a friend who is a lobbyist in DC.  She mentioned that Mitch McConnell is a pretty chill and funny guy who always makes people laugh.  I don't care what your political affiliation is, did you ever picture McConnell as a life-of-the-party kind of dude?  She calls him Mr. Deadpan.

Ever hear that story about Xuxa?  She was the host of a popular Brazilian kids TV show.  Rumor had it that they cut to commercial, but before her mic was off she shouted something like "get these berkeleying kids away from me!"  She might have been a kid's hero, but in real life she hated kids.  She went on to do porn, including a movie about seducing and sleeping with a 12 year old.  Hmmm... smells like irony.

One of my heros for a while was Jesse James.  I was in the hotrodding world, and he had a hotrodding TV show and some serious cred.

Then I worked for him... for a week...  Yikes.  Also worked for Troy Ladd... for 4  hours.  I will have to say that the times I hung out with Mercury Charlie he was really cool.  I met Troy Trepanier (nice guy), Carroll Shelby (hard to tell since he was not himself by the time I met him), and Robert Plant (too brief to really get a bead on him.)

Ever hear of Wil Sakowski?  Probably not.  He had all the skill and then some compared to Ladd and James, but working for him was a joy.

Only celebrity I knowingly met was Brett "The Hitman" Hart back in the 90s when I was a kid. Seems pretty cool from what I remember.

Other than that, I don't really care about celeberities or celebrity-status. If they're a dick, they're a dick no matter what.

I interviewed Brian Johnson years ago, he was absolutely a treat to talk to and be around.

Dee Snyder - talked to me like a person, had a great time chatting.

Jason Mewes - Quieter than his on-screen persona, very nice guy.

GWAR - as fun as you would imagine, gave me the foam off their backs (temporarily).

Met a ton of music folks over the years thanks to having friends in radio, but only one or two were total jerks. I was usually backstage hanging out in the production areas, so it more business than fan meet-n-greet. Billy Corgan and Courtney Love don't want you to look at them, but it is hard to ignore the circus when it walks by you.

Interviewing Barry Meguiar changed my life and how I viewed my contributions to the greater automotive industry.

Curtis said:

This is going to sound super lame, but I don't have any heros.  That isn't me being blase' or complacent, its just the truth.  

This is me as well. Celebrities are just people doing their jobs. There is nothing heroic about that to me. I can admire their skill but that's as far as it goes for me. I've never been one to seek them out or want to shake their hands. 

Henry Winkler is so nice and genuine too.  I had breakfast with him for a couple hours once, when carli was about 7 months pregnant with Colin.  He did the old Fonzie jukebox fist tap on her belly and said the kid was guaranteed to come out cool, and he's a pretty cool kid so i guess it worked.

I had a drink with Meg Ryan once - but I had no idea who she was.

I was a partner in a tourist venture in Ocho Rios Jamaica and she was there filming 'Prelude to a Kiss'.  We had a circular, thatch roof bar on-site and she came down with a driver, but no-one else.  She ended up sitting at the bar, so I introduced myself and we sat and chatted for a while.  She never disclosed who she was or why she was there - and I never clicked as to who she was.

The next day she returned with a bunch of her film crew in tow.  It was only then that I realized who she was.  I've always thought it was kinda cool that she didn't feel the need to announce who she was.

I acted as Anne Heche's bodyguard in ATL recently, not knowing who she was. She was very appreciative and sweet.

Tanner's always been nice and professional with the magazine staff, too. 

Toyman01 said:

Curtis said:

This is going to sound super lame, but I don't have any heros.  That isn't me being blase' or complacent, its just the truth.  

This is me as well. Celebrities are just people doing their jobs. There is nothing heroic about that to me. I can admire their skill but that's as far as it goes for me. I've never been one to seek them out or want to shake their hands. 

 

Truth.  I view my "heros" for what they do in society, but I never translate that to a hope that we would get along if we met in person.  That's just setting me up for disappointment.

Ghandi might have been a prick.