My "Fight" with a Singer

It's true, sometimes I do get myself into sticky situations.

So this story is about how I had a conversation with a famous singer that turned sour.

It was 1986, I believe. A friend and I went to see Adam Ant at a small theater about an hour away. We got there early and were wandering around town, idly shopping and what not. We decided to check out the theater, and lo and behold, the backstage door was standing open. We looked at each other and then went in.

The backstage are was a maze of hallways with doors. We had no idea what to do. After a minute or two of wandering around backstage (not unlike how we had wandered around town) some guy was like, "Hey, you're not supposed to be here," or something like that. I explained that I worked for my college radio station (I did, I wasn't making that up) and that I wanted to get a station ID from Adam. A station ID is when they say, "Hi, this is Adam Ant, and you're listening to (call letters, station numbers, location)." The guy led us outside and down the alley behind the theater where he shut and locked a gate. He told us to wait and he'd have him come out. Okay... didn't think he would, but we waited. We didn't have to wait long. He came out about 5 minutes later. I remember he was wearing a cowboy hat and sunglasses. I held the tape recorder and gave him the info... and he couldn't repeat it back. He just couldn't remember it. He tried twice and then said, "You should have written it down. That would have been SMART." Well. I felt my indignation rise, here I was, a huge fan, and he was being snarky! So I said in a sort of obnoxious tone, "Oh... Do you want me to write it down NOW?" at which point the guy who brought him out there jumped in and said, "No, that won't be necessary. He'll do it right this time." And he did. And I had the whole thing on tape.

I did end up transferring the station ID to the proper format for use at the station. I did remain a fan. However I must say that my ardor faded quite a bit. I guess that's to be expected. I think that was when I decided that in the future I was never going to try to meet musicians that I liked because it had great potential of breaking the spell. Obviously I learned something from that experience, then conveniently forgot it 20 years later as I ran around for photo opportunities with ng and jdf. Ah well at least I amuse myself with these silly adventures. I wonder what the next 20 years will bring?