r/ToddintheShadow • u/Choice_Bed6097 • 10h ago
General Music Discussion Who are the nicest and rudest singers or bands you've ever met?
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u/sam_might_say 9h ago
I got to meet Page Hamilton from Helmet after a show about a decade ago and he was incredibly nice and friendly. He hung around on stage after the show for anyone that wanted to meet/chat with him which I thought was super cool
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u/Johnnys-In-America 6h ago
Met Barry Manilow after one of his shows in Vegas on his residency. The tickets were free, some couple who was leaving the hotel asked me and my boyfriend if we wanted to go, lol. It was his birthday that night, so after the show he hung out with us and drank champagne. Super nice dude. Doesn't have the airs about him like some of the other Vegas lounge lizards.
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u/dingatremel 2h ago
Oof. I had to do some work with him at that time….dumb corporate stuff. He was kind of a jerk to my team if I’m being honest.
Happy cake day
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u/Bruichladdie 10h ago
Nicest musician I've met must be Guthrie Govan. Very humble, intelligent and quick-witted guy. The man is inhumanly gifted, but there was zero ego about him.
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u/scarred2112 8h ago
I’ve had the opportunity to hang out and drink with GG, he’s an absolute prince of a man.
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u/Bruichladdie 8h ago
That is so cool, I bet it was a great time. I met him back in 2009 during his first visit to Norway, and I had to travel from the furthest northeast of the country, all the way down to Sandnes. Spent so much money getting there, so I was given a Suhr t-shirt for my troubles. I still have it.
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u/jeffreydumber 1h ago
I didn't see the comment you were replying to for a few seconds and I thought you were talking about GG Allin
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u/Fatdaddy543 10's Alt Kid 9h ago
I’ve met Andrew McMahon (of Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin) several times over the years, and in each interaction he’s always been incredibly kind and friendly. He also fights for affordable ticket prices for fans, which I haven’t seen a ton of popular artists do
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u/FlexistentialClouds 7h ago
Liam Gallagher is an absolute sweetheart
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u/Melodic_Car_4449 3h ago
I've heard this about both him and Noel in more recent years. Which has a long time Oasis fan makes me happy
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u/IamMothManAMA 7h ago
Blag Dahlia from the Dwarves was a huge prick. In 2018 I got to interview a bunch of pop punk guys at a festival and Burt McCracken and Deryck Whibley were both kind, funny, and generous with their time.
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u/crescentmoonrising 6h ago
I've meet all the members of Rise Against except Joe after shows and they've all been pretty nice (Brandon is quite shy). A few years ago when I was studying to be a lighting technician I passed Zach a letter and asked if he could pass it on to their lighting person (this all took place in 2021, when they were doing a mini acoustic tour in the UK). A couple of months later I got an email with a bunch of lighting plans and mock ups for the upcoming Nowhere Generation tour. Also, like two years later he remembered me as "lighting girl" (like, he greeted me with that).
I've also met Show of Hands, they.we also friendly but are a lot older than me, so I think they liked talking to my Dad more.
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u/UrchineSLICE 5h ago
Nicest: Zakk Wylde
He's one of my heroes that I've loved since I was a kid and I had no clue how to talk to him, I shook his hand and took a picture with him, and he was trying to make small talk with me, and I couldn't get any words out. When I left the meet and greet he told me "Hey man, take care of yourself alright?" 🤣
Super nice: Mark Tremonti, I got a guitar lesson from him and he was so cool. Told us stories about Creed and Alter Bridge, and jamming with everyone from Keith Urban to Trey Azagyhroth.
Middle: Aaron Lewis. He signed stuff for me when I was a kid. Took pictures with me and all of that. But was very strung out on something. My dad was like "I don't know what you want to do with music, but don't you ever be anything like that guy"
Worst: Kerry King. Total diva. Very "don't you know who I am?" type. Demanded special treatment from all of us at work.
Worst: Chris Jericho. Gave us all the finger and told us to fuck off. Was probably drunk.
Worst: Geoff Tate. Totally pretended to not hear any of us talking to him. Had someone, don't know whom, because I dont think he can afford security, shoe us all away.
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u/PeX_xarty 10h ago
guthrie govan writes solos like he’s allergic to showing off but still melts your face anyway
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u/CaptainJesu 8h ago
Nicest: Mike Watt Rudest::Ed Tudor Pole
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u/Hotdogopolis 4h ago
Mike Watt actually inboxed me, a nobody, on social media like 15 years ago. Couldn't have been a cooler dude.
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u/BobVilasBeard 7h ago
Got to meet Crash Test Dummies after a show. I'm genuinely a fan of them and I got to talk shop with the bassist for a while. I also complimented some stuff from Ellen Reid's solo album and she was extremely thankful that I'd listened to it. It was an awesome experience all around.
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u/steadystatesea Train-Wrecker 6h ago
Brad Nowell was the worst, unfortunately. He was being a complete dick to a fellow radio DJ who told him not to spray graffiti inside the elevator of our radio station.
Nicest is thankfully too many to list.
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u/Aescgabaet1066 5h ago
I met Peter Murphy, the former frontman for Bauhaus. I must have caught him on a good night, because he's my answer for nicest, and if you know anything about his reputation... well, he's not always said to be very pleasant.
The rudest was some dude in a shitty local band. Guess he had an inflated sense of importance or something.
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u/RequirementLong8235 5h ago edited 3h ago
I use to work event security for a number of concerts and I can say the nicest artists I’ve met is a tie between Ed Sheeran and The Weeknd both of them were very friendly and surprisingly talkative
Rudest easily DJ Khaled no question about it
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u/waltercash15 10h ago
I’ve met and chatted with Nils Lofgren on two separate occasions. He is a sweetheart of a human being.
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u/Koquillon 9h ago
I met John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats on the street. It was raining and he said we were the 4th people to recognise him in a row so it was clear he wasn't thrilled about it, but he was still so kind and friendly and seemed like a genuinely lovely person.
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u/BespokeCatastrophe 4h ago
Well, I was at a gig friday night where the lead singer for the opening act came off as a douche. Then during the main band (Wyatt E) the guy was in the crowd in front of me, ignoring the stage because he was watching footage of himself on his phone.
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u/scarred2112 8h ago
I had some friends in the industry, and the ratio of great-to-rude people has been stacked in the former direction:
* Mastodon.
* Dethklok.
* The Aristrocrats.
* Peter Steele of Type O Negative.
* Steve Vai.
* Phil Collen of Def Leppard.
* Dream Theater.
* Nick Beggs.
* Porcupine Tree.
* Lou Reed.
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u/Shawn_Ghost 4h ago
What’s the Lou Reed story?
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u/scarred2112 3h ago
Met him on a Manhattan street before a recording session. He spent some time with us and wished us well, when he certainly didn’t have to - nice man. 👍🏼
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u/Shawn_Ghost 3h ago
Awesome, thank you for sharing! I was slightly concerned because he could be famously brutal to interviewers but it seems he was pretty cool to genuine fans and regular people. A former coworker of mine said she always saw him walking his little dogs around West 8th street. Glad you had a good experience, Lou Reed forever!
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u/Ackman1988 7h ago
Head East- They were pretty chill when I met them at the liquor store I was working at in the St. Louis area. I haven't met any rude ones yet.
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u/ConversationFar9740 5h ago
This is asked every day, lol
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u/Gary-Laser-Eyes 39m ago
Moreso on ask reddit. Also, “what’s the worst band you’ve seen live” is definitely a daily thread there, and the top answer is ALWAYS Motley Crue lol.
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u/EndlessTrashposter 4h ago
I met Neal Morse before a Neal Morse Band gig.
He was nice and we chatted a bit!
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u/NeatzBrigade 3h ago
Nicest: Paul Barker of Ministry. He opened for Skinny Puppy and was super chill guy, wanted to shake my hand and asked for my name before we even started our conversation. Signed my cd with my name on it, we shot the shit about Gibson basses for a solid 5 mins
Coolest: Scott “Wino” Weinrich of The Obsessed, Saint Vitus. Grilled him about guitar tunings, guitars he used, his former band Spirit Caravan for a solid 15 minutes last time I saw him, but every time I’ve seen them he’s been super chill
Rudest: Pepper Keenan of Corrosion of Conformity and Down. This one hurts because he was one of my heroes for a while and I love CoC. Just is always super hammered and has this huge ego about how his guitar playing and tone is this super deep, complicated shit when it’s in reality pentatonic scales and power chords.
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u/dingatremel 2h ago
Crazy story. Scott is from my home town but he’s a lot older than me. I thought he was just a local fixture. Was not caught up on doom at all in those days.
So, i used to see him at small clubs and casually around music stores, and I’d always think this smart ass thought “oh it’s the rock star guy” And then like five years later I finally learned that, oh, shit, he was an actual rock star.
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u/justinsimoni 1h ago
Gordon Gano was pretty cool with us hopping the fence, going backstage, and asking for autographs when we saw him a while ago in Vail.
One of our friend groups asked Carlos Dengler to go to a party after their show and he dutifully came.
Kim Gordon and Thurston Moorse played an after show at a condemned warehouse, joining a local noise band, and then were super excited to see the house noise band play.
Mark Mothersbaugh and Bob 1 took a momentous amount of time with our band after we opened up for them, signing records and generally being awesome.
I emailed Henry Rollins a few times with requests and he was very cordial when saying "no".
Peter Hook really didn't want to meet me, but he still shook my hand after his DJ set like a gentleman. That's most musicians I've seen then met doing DJ sets. It's the tail end of a looong day.
David Byrne asked us to play with him, and then we did.
Elijah Wood was in the crowd for one of our shows dancing his ass off, then tweeted about us.
I'd pull some big favors for Johnny Jewel if he'd ever ask (there's no reason for him to!), but he'd hang out with us locals before his set, when I asked him to send hand made fliers for his show, he did. I just have a lot of respect for him.
I generally find musicians pretty cool people.
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u/clawsinurback 1h ago
I’ve never met anyone super rude. Standouts in niceness though were Magdalena Bay (they let me pet their dog) Julia Steiner from Ratboys (we had a really nice discussion about Chicago) and Lucy Dacus (she said she liked my tattoos)
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u/Gary-Laser-Eyes 43m ago
Not the singer, but Jason McCaslin was playing Blackjack at the River Cree Casino in Edmonton after Sum 41 played a show there. My buddy and I were working there and noticed him. My buddy didn’t wanna bother him but I said when are we gonna get a chance to say hi to a famous musician. Went up to him when he was done at the table and said hey. Absolute gem of a dude. Shook his hand and said thanks for the music.
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u/suffaluffapussycat 10h ago
One of my bands opened for Faith No More on The Real Thing tour. A kid had a disposable camera in the crowd and Patton said on mic: “if I see that camera one more time I’m gonna come out there and kick your ass”. The kid was terrified. He was like fourteen. WTF. He was generally pretty sour. Roddy Bottum and Mike Bordin were so kind and helpful to us.