However, the so-called meet-and-greet allows a few lucky fans to go beyond this and actually interact with those they admire. It’s a planned activity at which a well-known person is introduced to attendees to socialize with them or answer their questions.
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Not to brag, but I got to meet Santa Claus at the mall when I was a kid. Nice fellow, smelled a bit like grandma’s special ‘medicine’.
Back when the Spice Girls were big in the early 2000s, they were in town for a concert. A local radio station was doing a contest where you call in to win “breakfast with the spice girls”. I was a young teenage boy back then, who was at home sick from school that day, so for s*s and giggles I decided to call to try to win. I ended up winning. The radio station asks me my address and says the tour bus will be in front of my house in an hour. I am nervous as st, because the spice girls were about to be at my house, and I’m just here all alone. Mind you I am the shyest person you will ever meet, and a tour bus full of the hottest girl band on the scene was about to be at my house. So the bus finally arrives. Only it wasn’t really the spice girls. It was 4 old ladies who called themselves the spice girls, who were cooks. They ended up making scrambled eggs, pancakes, and toast for me on the tailgate of there bus. It was the strangest, weirdest, most akward thing ever. And no one but me was there to witness it.
I won a Seventeen Magazine contest to meet Sarah McLachlan on her tour bus at Lilith Fair. I was a huuuuuge fan and it was a thrill. She was really kind to me despite my being a nervous, stammering wreck. I gave her my favorite necklace and she wore it on stage that night. It was seriously a teenage dream.
In college, I won a contest to meet Graham Chapman of Monty Python.It was one of the great experiences of my life. He was a really sweet, low key guy. He didn’t act at all like a comedian – he was a bit stiff and formal, almost like a doctor. Very kind and polite, but seemed a bit uncomfortable being a room with a handful of awestruck college kids.I made a silly crack about how sad the hors d’oeuvres were and he laughed out loud. So now, for the rest of my life, I can say I made Graham Chapman laugh.It was barely a year later that he died. I was devastated, but it will always be a deeply treasured memory. I have his autograph framed on my wall.
I won a certificate to have lunch with detective dog. It was pretty dope.
Dwayne Johnson’s cooking smells better than it tastes.
Not myself. My son is autistic so it is very hard to get him to go to concerts or crowded places. About 4 years ago his sister got them tickets to see TSO. He loves music so he decided to go. After the concerts they do these meet and greets with fans. They set up long tables and you can get autographs. Well my daughter tells them how this is his first concert and how much he really enjoyed it. The artists just gushed over him and made him feel like a million bucks. The young woman took pictures with him giving him cheek kisses. The whole nine yards. He was 20 at the time and it made his Christmas. Made him feel so special. It gave him the confidence to start going to concerts and festivals. The next year we went to a music festival and he ran into Nikki Sixx, Dj Ashba, and Michaels after the festival. They were very kind also. I know it must get frustrating to always be in the public eye. So when I hear or see famous people take the time and have patience with fans it really makes me feel like maybe just maybe there is hope for some of mankind ….maybe
Won a meet and greet with Lenny Kravitz backstage, just prior to one of his Australian concerts - was awesome.Tour Manager came and got us just after The Cranberries had finished their set and took as backstage where we waited beside a whole heap of their road cases and also just outside “the Wolf Den” which was Wolfmother’s backstage dressing room.The Wolfmother guys kept us entertained as they regularly paced back and forward to “the Wolf Den” in various states of drug-induced dishevelment.When Lenny appeared from his backstage room, he seemed to have the relaxed demeanor of someone that just had 10 valium - pretty sure he had been meditating or something, though there was a woman who I assume was his make-up artist too.Guy was shorter than I anticipated and smelt really “exotic”. Was super friendly with us, posed for photos, spoke to us and was one of the most humble, laid back people I ever met.He then walked on stage and killed it.
When I was 10 years old, I was a huuuuge Star Wars fan. My mom happened to be dating a dude who was pretty into the convention circuit at the time, and so he took me to a Star Wars convention. This was ‘96, Cons weren’t a huge thing, but the lineup of cast was actually pretty good. Among them were Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Kenny Baker(R2-D2), David Prowse (Darth Vader) and Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett). I’ll never know if we actually won this contest or if Mom’s boyfriend pulled some strings, but he disappears for a minute and comes back saying we won a dinner with the cast! At the Spaghetti Factory (my favorite restaurant at the time!) As we were leaving, we see Jeremy Bulloch walking through the parking lot. We pull over and ask what’s up, and he says he missed the bus to the restaurant, so he’s going to skip it. HELL NO, we gave Boba Fett a ride to dinner. There I am crammed in a bench seat of a pickup with my goddamn idol, and he is this totally weird old British dude. He keeps whistling softly and then saying “I think I hear a bird!” and then like, looking for the bird? I guess he was trying to entertain me but I was too starstruck to understand what the hell was going on. Dinner was awesome. I sat across from Kenny Baker and I remember being amazed at how tall and beautiful his wife was. Peter Mayhew was the coolest. He was wearing a tie-dye Chewbacca shirt, and went out of his way to come and joke around with me. I haven’t seen it in years, but I used to have a picture of him giving me noogies. Just the friendliest dude. Everyone was super cool, but at 10, I spent most of it being quiet and shy and not understanding most of the grown-up talk. It was still one of the greatest experiences of my life. EDIT: Almost forgot the ending! Mom’s boyfriend wrote letters back and forth with Jeremy Bulloch for a while after that (he did that kind of thing. He showed me a bunch of letters between him and Jeri Ryan too). One of them said “make sure you say hi to [bloodfist].” I don’t know if it was prompted, but I’ve always really appreciated it. And /u/PeterMayhew , if you see this: I’m sure you don’t remember it, but thanks for making young me’s day. I’ll never forget it, and I’ll never stop telling this story.
Not me, but my mom got to meet Robert Downey Jr and he ended up asking to crash at her apartment to avoid crazy fans and traffic before his flight the next morning.Edit: I realize how sketch this sounds so I should add that they met through my uncle who was a co-star on the movie being made at the time (idk what) and they met when my parents went to the viewing.He asked to stay with them because my mom worked at the airport and had a shift the next morning and I guess he figured it would be easier to get to the airport lmao.
Quite late, but I met the Red Hot chili Peppers backstage before their live in Paris. They were very sweet and joking around. Anthony is actually really small. Flea is the coolest. I got to talk with him about California as I told him that I dreamt of going there. He started to explain some Californian flora and fauna peculiarities to me, as well as the different sub cultures that you could find there. Josh was just playing guitar as he was walking around the room, standing on the couch and on the table. Chad was more like chill and calm. Amazing human beings!!
So I have been a big fan of Reba since I was 5. As a member of the Fan Club I had a chance for backstage passes, and I got them when I was 8. So my parents take my sister and I to her concert with John Michael Montgomery, and because I’m 8, I fell asleep before the end.So next thing I know I wake up on the way home, find out they didn’t wake me, and my sister and mother got to meet Reba.They weren’t even fans!!! I’m still pissed they didn’t wake me!!
Won a meet and greet with zztop. When I got to the venue before the show me and about 30 other “winners” waited in the designated area for about 3 hours. When the time finally came zztop walked out of one door into the room and without stopping to say a word walked through the room and into another door. All we got was a wave and a brief enough look to maybe snap one blurry picture.The tour manager embrassed as hell handed out some merch and told us to enjoy the show. We all thought he was kidding but we were quickly pushed out from backstage and back into the general area.
My mom won a lunch for four with Delilah Renee, who is a radio DJ syndicated all over the U.S. but based in Seattle. Her show is very heartfelt, romantic, and positive with many feel-good stories and tales of love. She is a gorgeous and tall, Junoesque blonde, and we didn’t know what to expect–would she make us hold hands and sing Kum-bay-ah? Would we have to tell our marriage stories or about the best day of our lives?That is not how it went. She cursed like a sailor and had a wicked sense of humor. She was honest about her several failed marriages, and she had her latest boyfriend with her who was just as funny as she was. She has adopted many children from around the world and lives on a farm across the Puget Sound. It was most enjoyable and surprising, plus the lunch was a brunch buffet at Salty’s, a popular local restaurant, and the food was amazing!Our favorite story she told was how over the years, when she has been going through divorces or other heartache, she has been taking calls from listeners who are gushing about their charmed love stories. She has to put them on mute or hold sometimes to sob her eyes out, swear a bracing stream of obscenities, then get back to the caller, all serene and encouraging. Great lady!
Parents won a competition to fly with the Black Eyed Peas to their concert. They had a good time, briefly held the world record for highest altitude karaoke.But here’s the best bit. Not only did they meet up and hang out with the BEP, but Redfoo was also on the flight (before he got famous), and even refilled my Mum’s champagne.
Not a date as such, more a phone call. I saw on the singer Hozier’s twitter he was doing a ‘ring this number’ and I’ll answer. Saw some people tried literally 100s of times. So I thought why not… got through first time, conversation lasted a minute, spent half the time asking if it was really him then just said so… how’s things? Briefly answered me then hung up.
Probably gonna get lost in here somewhere but my uncle used to be pretty close with one of the members of the band Rammstein, which are hugely popular in Germany. He owns a lighting business so he often helped make and create some of the special effects for their shows. I’ve met one of them a few times, a rhythm guitarist named Paul Landers. For their noteworthy heavy music he is actually extremely friendly and said he suffers from anxiety so it’s hard sometimes to have a tough persona when he goes on stage.
Won backstage passes and a meet-and-greet with Korn, Disturbed, and Trustcompany back in 2002. There were about a half-dozen of us in total in the group, so it wasn’t a total mob, which was nice. All the bands put on great shows individually, and the meet-and-greets were sincere enough - a handshake, a thanks-for-coming-out, and a picture with the band. What was most memorable was a couple of the guys from Trustcompany hanging out with us after their set and meet-and-greet was done and watching Disturbed and Korn’s sets - fans just like us, which was pretty cool. Never really followed their music after the first album, but it’s a good memory.
Wow finally something I can contribute you. I was about 11 and it was one of those send in contests. (really showing my age) Anyway I was a huge wrestling fan, we didn’t have the internet and I was young so I KNEW wrestling was real. There was a contest where you could send in and meet with your favorite wrestler, mine of course was Kane since he was a total bad a*s. I never win anything so I was super surprised when I heard back and I won. I was the happiest little kid ever. The day I got to meet him I was so excited, I wore his mask to the event and I remember asking young kid questions like “how did you survive getting hit with weapons” and stuff like that. He was a great guy, I asked him to chokeslam me through a table but he respectively decline. Thinking back he was very nice to my mom, who was single at the time. Makes me wonder…..
This wasn’t like a contest, but I my old manager at Lush told me that once a dude in a suit came into the store 5 min before closing and told them to lock the doors. Once they did and everybody was out, Beyoncé walked in and started shopping. She bought 3 of the most expensive gift boxes ($400 box sets) and was apparently really down to earth and nice.
Friend of mine was ‘won’ a spend the day / ‘asked’ to sing with Shania Twain at a concert. She was the lead in a big play in the area, why she won.She was picked up in a limo, brought to the venue & given instructions, saw Shania for about a minute, and then ended up singing with her onstage where Shania was quite the actress encouraging her to sing.Then after the show they drove her home. So like a minute with Shania.
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Won a trip to NY fashion week in 2006 from doing a quiz sent to me in email from glam.com.I got to take a guest (took my little sister) and we were flown to NYC, driven around in a Lincoln towncar,We were taken to Diane con furstenburgs shop and picked dresses off the rack for free to wear to her fashion show. Went to bergdorf Goodman’s and got mani/pedi/brows/makeup done. Went to the fashion show and I ended up walking down to floor level and meeting / taking a photo with Susan Sarandon.We went to the DVF after party at her loft and met her at the afterparty. I’ll never forget it was super bowl Sunday and a bunch of people were watching the super bowl during the party.It was neat :)Also won an Xbox one x from Taco Bell but that’s not a celebrity so for a different thread I guess :)
I had a popular cover of a Wyclef song over ten years ago and they asked me to come play the song and open up for Wyclef. That was cool. Then wyclef threw a hell of a show. Afterwords, they brought me up to his VIP room to meet him. He was already in the hot tub. So I stripped down and got in the tub with him.Just kidding, I thanked him and said he had an awesome show and then I left. He seemed like a nice dude though.
My mom won Everclear tickets that landed on my sisters 18nth Birthday. Everclear used to be a pretty famous band from Portland OR, local for us. they didn’t realize that it was backstage passes, they thought it was just like an after party. And they wouldn’t see the band. Cue them crowded around the free food. When my sister sees the band walk in. Everyone was super nice, and my mom hit it off with the guitarist. She had her walker with her. Apparently they both have chronic illnesses, and she got his actual Facebook page. they still talk every now and again.
Won a bid for tickets to have dinner with a member of a japanese pop/rock band my sister and I were fans of. We got picked up in a van with the other 3 winners (we all joked we were being kidnapped) before getting to a thai restaurant. Told us to eat before he got there, so we did. Then he showed up and was super kind and courteous, even speaking through a translator. Middle of dinner a friend/bandmate of his just drops into dinner like “yo what’s up”. Very cool. Ended with pictures and poses and just overall a great time.
When I was in the first grade I got to eat with the author of Hank the Cowdog, John R. Erickson, for lunch one time. I competed in a writing contest, for first graders. It’s all a little fuzzy now but he brought one of his dogs from the ranch and we had a nice lunch with my first grade teacher helping to keep a conversation going between us. I also had to write down questions on a paper to promote conversation as well, my mom had to help with that.Mr. Erikson was a kind grandfather of a man based off my memories. It gave me bragging rights and I got a collection of his favorite books. I also remember crying cause they had someone wear a mascot suit based off Hank and I was terrified of those things. They wanted all of us to take a picture with the mascot, Mr. Erikson, my teacher, and me. I don’t think if happened.He actually lost his house to the two years ago to the Perryton Fire. He then published a Hank the Cowdog about the fire. Oh yeah it was easy for my little rural school to meet him cause we lived within like 40 miles of the man or something like that.I’m sure all the elementary schools had hus books because he donated them. I’m not sure how famous he is outside the Texas Panhandle areas though. Anyone know about him I’m other states?
Not sure if this counts, but I got to meet and hang out with the local pro hockey team (Ottawa Senators) after winning a contest where we had to guess where the alumni players were and then go find/high five them at a bank. It happened to be down the street, so I ran down there, had my photo taken with Denis Potvin, and won a new (at the time) black heritage jersey.Out of all the winners of that contest, they picked a few of us to go down to ice level and chat with the players before a playoff game (I think it was against Pittsburgh.) My friend and I were already going to the game, so I gave the pair of tickets I won to his parents.Overall it was a really cool experience. I chatted with a few of the players before they went on the ice, they were asking us about the contest and who we cheered for and then we were allowed to high five them after warm up.
Back when I was a motorsport journalist, I scored an interview with Formula 1 driver Ricardo Zonta as part of a Red Bull press hospitality thing on a boat. He was very down to earth, surprisingly shy, and diplomatically avoided giving a clear answer to every single one of my questions with the altitude of a politician. It was a great day though!
My boyfriend’s mom had a friend who was obsessed with competing in sweepstakes. So she’d just sign up for stuff she didn’t want. And one day she won one of those Danimals sweepstakes to see the Naked Brothers Band. She didn’t want it so she gave it to my boyfriend. He went and said it was so weird. They were just in this weird hotel ballroom with a few other kids and the youngest member of the band was just running around and acting crazy and other members were just awkward, considering they were kids. He said it was pretty bizarre and boring.
I had a Meet and greet with Kenny Chesney when no shirt no shoes no problem album came out. He was shorter than I expected. He was very nice to everyone but I never got a chance to introduce myself or get a picture or anything. I won a contest along with fifteen or twenty others, they were mostly women, and the lady with Kenny organizing the introductions and I’m guessing she ran the meet and greet in general pulled me out of line with no context and left me hanging there. I was 14 and didn’t know what to do so I waited and after everyone else got through the line we were shown out of the room. It broke my heart because i just wanted an opportunity to tell him he recorded my favorite song ever. It’s still my favorite to this day. I really regret not standing up for myself.
My mom and I won tickets to have lunch with the band Casting Crowns quite a few years ago. We were really excited about it, but we won them months before the lunch was supposed to take place, so we wound up forgetting all about it. I found the tickets a few months after the lunch had passed and realized that we stood up one of our favorite bands.
Back in 1989 I was in grade 8 in Australia and NKOTB were huge. A girl on grade 10 at my school won a trip to the US to meet them and go to a concert. The whole school was jealous. When she came back we found out that while the concert was good, most of them were a**es who barely spent any time talking to her. I think Jon was the only one who spent a significant amount of time with her. We were all bummed, but not as much as she was.
Got to meet with a Utah Jazz player (Royce O’Neale) and then get to shoot a basket on the Jazz court in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was literally just a 45 minute line, not even a minute to see him, got to have something signed, and then leave. So literally just get to say hi, have something signed, and get a picture. Then next person. Taking a shot on the court was cool though. Most people couldn’t make it. I somehow did. (note I am not good at basketball for the life of me)
My cousin married Sam Beam from Iron and Wine. We’ve had Thanksgiving together for the last few years. He’s really cool, not conceited or anything at all. Always have some good conversations.
Spouse and I met the Trailer Park Boys at a meet-and-greet after one of their live performances. Really funny/chill guys; they seemed more like they were just having fun and in the moment than stars. Very cool.
IDK, kind of related. I worked security for a venue that did music shows and got to meet a few of my favorite bands. On one occaision my all time favorite lead singer pointed at me and said “get me a f*n water bh” and genuineley treated everyone including his band mates like total s**t. That night I threw out or deleted all of the albums I had of him. Most of the time they were total bros and were just really chill and fun to work with. I definiteley got my share of “never meet your heros” situations though.
I didn’t win but my high school won a raffle for Ariane Grande to perform at the school. This was back in 2013 where she was barely starting her music and not has big as she is now. I was in middle school at the time but both my sisters were there.
I had a meet and greet with Palaye Royale. They were funny, sweet, and chill.
I met the whole team for the Columbus Blue Jackets. It wasn’t a prize or anything, but one of the players was getting married where i used to work.They were all really nice, but I felt bad for them cause the people they hired to cater the wedding kept asking for pictures. Every time they obliged but I think they were tired of taking pictures with fans instead of enjoying the wedding.Also the bride was gorgeous~
I’ve certainly never won one. I did know someone who won a day out at Old Trafford (Manchester United) and had a meet and greet with certain players. He had a great time, and even got to take a penalty against the great Peter Schmeichel on the pitch.
Won lunch with Oscar Pistorious. Both drank too much booze and got legless.
I had tea with Orlando Bloom…s mother! She’s a very nice lady, down to earth, enjoyable, has some kids books out, which you should buy.
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