Jim Anderson's Encounters with Famous Musicians

The following post is extracted from an email I received from my good friend, Jim Anderson, of Aquaburg. Hope you don't mind if I post this, Jim, as I found your anecdotes very interesting!

(Note the shit-eating grin in the photo...)

You mentioned concerts, last one I saw was two weeks ago -INXS at the Orpheum Theater, same place you and I saw the Furs on ...let me check....August 1987. They had their new singer and it rocked. I got to meet the band afterwards, all six of them! Can you believe it? I got to meet INXS, one of my all time favorite bands! This is inspiring a list - famous musicians I've met, which coincidentally starts with...

...Kirk Pengilly of INXS - August 1983 - Me and two girls I didn't know snuck aboard their bus after a show, they were warming up for Men at Work. Kirk kicked us off the bus but he was really nice and signed some autographs.

Cheap Trick (whole band) - Fall 1984 - This was another hanging-out-by-the-buses deal. I got to talk to all of them and asked for advice about my band. They were all very accomodating and told me some stuff; cut out the extra weight, play every place you can, etc. They all signed autographs except for Rick Nielson, I guess he doesn't do that.

The Call - August 1987 - When they warmed up for the Furs, we hooked up with Jim Torgeson after the show and went to the hotel they were staying at hoping to meet them. The Furs didn't come down to the lounge, but The Call did, and we played pool. I don't remember who won.

John Ashton of The Psychedelic Furs - March (?) 1992 - After a show in Chicago, Ivy and I were driving off when we saw John standing by the backstage door. We stopped the car and I ran over to say Hi and get an autograph. He was with a couple friends who were consoling him about something, and I found out later that the band broke up after that tour. In retrospect, I think that he had just been told.

Laibach - July 1992 - After the Metro show, at the signing next door. I will never forget the rubber-stamped autograph followed by the Latka-from-Taxi "thank you very much".

Sarah McLaughlin - September 1992 - We had just moved to the Twin Cities and she was doing an in-store appearance near my house. Such a beautiful voice. She told the people in line in front of me a storyabout about signing a couple's butts. They said they were going direectly to a tattoo artist to have them inscribed permanently, and she was sort of aghast at that.

Grant Hart from Husker Du - We see him around the neighborhood once in awhile.

Richard Butler from the Furs - Sometime in 1995, I think - He was touring with his new band, Love Spit Love, and we saw them in a bar called The Rogue. He went to a booth to sign stuff after the show, and walking past me he stopped and said "Hey, I saw you!" to which I responded "I saw YOU!" to which he responded "You looked like you were having fun!" He was right. God, what a stage presence. He signed a woman's breast and she proudly showed me his autograph on her pink, fleshy teat. Richard and I laughed about it.

The Cure - Summer of 1996 - My sister and I were standing at the corner of Lake and Hennepin one night after seeing The Cure in concert downtown. A bus came up and a British man came out and asked for directions. I gave him the directions and asked, "Hey, is The Cure on that bus?" He said yeah, and got back on. As they drove away, I stood there flabbergasted saying "Holy shit, I just gave directions to The Cure...", to which my sister replied, "That means we know where they're going." So we ran to the car and drove to the same place, and got to meet them. Robert Smith was genuinely really, really nice. A great person to meet. He even gave me a hug. No, really.

INXS - September, 1997 - This doesn't really count as meeting them, but it's worth mentioning. Ivy and I saw INXS at the State Theater (similar to the Orpheum and right across the street) on their Elegantly Wasted tour. Michael Hutchence encouraged a lot of rowdiness in the crowd and eventually about thirty of us from the audience got onstage and were dancing with the band. It all happened very fast, Michael came dancing by and gave me a high five. This was two months before he died.

Kirk Johnson, drummer for Prince - 1999, I think - His daughter attended a school I work at, and he brought his drums in one day and played for her class. Nice guy. He was the best man at Prince's first wedding, and the musician who worked with him longer than anyone. And damn, can his daughter dance when her daddy plays the drums.

The Psychedelic Furs (whole band) - April 2001 - They got back together for a tour and played First Avenue. I tried to invite them over for dinner but it didn't work out. But they did sign a beautiful poster for me as well as a setlist I swiped. I finally got to meet my all-time favorite band, all together. And some really nice funeral chick took my picture with Richard Butler and sent it to me.

Dan Wilson from Semisonic - May 2003 - Our kids went to school together for a while and at the carnival they had a silent auction to raise money for the PTO. I donated a sailboat ride which sold for $120 or something like that, Dan donated a guitar lesson which we won for $200. He came to our house and we played guitars for an evening. He didn't teach us to play his Grammy-nominated hit "Closing Time", but he did teach us some chords and tell some stories. I gave him a setlist from the last Trip Shakespeare show in 1993 (Dan was in TS before Semisonic), ten years earlier and I still had it, and he was extremely grateful. He even mentioned it on his website.

INXS - March 2nd, 2006 - One of my all-time favorite bands back on the road after a long and very emotional (for me) absence. I did audition for their reality show "Rock Star INXS" and unfortunately for them didn't make it, but on the way out I stole a poster for the open-call auditions. A year later, I brought the poster to their concert and was very, very lucky to be in the right place at the right time. It is signed by all six members, plus the lead singer from the warm-up band who was the sencond place winner on Rock Star. AND, special bonus, Ivy found a guitar pick which I also put in the frame with the poster. It's enough to inspire a shit-eating grin, let me get my camera! The highlight for me was telling keyboard player (and primary writer of their music) Andrew Farriss that I can, for the first time in eight years, listen to the Shabooh Shoobah album without crying. He just stopped, looked at me with a look of profound understanding on his face, patted me on the shoulder and said "Yeah, you're right, I....thanks".

I still haven't met David Bowie yet.

Jim