Apropos of nothing at all ….
When I lived in Southern California and traveled through LAX, I’d usually see a celebrity of one sort or another on every pass through the airport. Living in Minneapolis and traveling mostly to DC or Orange County, though, I haven’t seen any that I recall. So I was a little surprised to see Steve Tyler of Aerosmith coming through the security checkpoint with me here in Reno. It took me a couple of moments to be sure of it, but it’s pretty difficult to confuse him with anyone else.
Many of the women in the terminal were also pleasantly surprised to see him as well. They called out greetings to him, ignoring the woman with whom he was traveling. After a few minutes of that, I can imagine it gets old for both Tyler and his companion. He’s still somewhere in my terminal as I write this, but people have returned to the slot machines and have left the pair alone.
My last airport celeb sighting before had been Fred Willard. Which do you think was cooler?
UPDATE: Chuck Ziegenfuss claims that he’s a bigger celebrity than Steve Tyler, and that I didn’t even realize it when I met him. I’d say Chuck qualifies as a hero, not a celebrity, and I’m more honored to meet him than anyone else in the airport. Heroes are much cooler than celebs. I wish I’d known he was a blogger when we chatted. Chuck also got his picture taken with Tyler in the airport.
28 thoughts on “Oh, The Things You’ll See”
Comments are closed.
Which one would most likely engage in conversation with you?
Toss-up in my opinion.
Very cool, running into Stephen Tyler, but I would have to vote for Fred Willard!
Ed, great meeting you at CLC, and congrats on the award.
charles
I’d say Willard is a cooler sighting. But then again, I’m a bigger fan of Christopher Guest’s movies than Aerosmith.
Both, however, are better than a Larry Craig sighting. (sorry, couldn’t resist).
I saw Willard about 20 years ago in the Nashville airport. I didn’t bother him by asking for an autograph or anything like that but he was traveling alone and seemed like a regular person to me and was very amiable looking to the few that were staring at him.
OMG, Ed is starting to sound like a Hollywood fanboy…
Fred Willard, hands down. While Stephen Tyler is a good rock musician with a remarkable talent for the blues, Willard is, for my money, one of the sharpest people in the world of entertainment whose improv skills are unbelievable.
You’ll find a lot more people with Tyler’s talents than you’ll find with Willard’s – he’s a truly rare commodity.
I’m gonna vote for Steve Tyler. He’d be more fun to watch out of the corner of your eye.
Funny…we saw Steven Tyler and his female companion getting preferential treatment at security going into terminal 3 at LAX this past Friday (10/12). The TSA let him and his entourage cut in line in front of about 100 people.
By the way, Mr. Tyler sure like he has done some truly hard living.
I saw Charles Nelson Reilly at a convenience store in Jupiter, Florida.
He had a red Porsche.
Not in the store, of course, he got out and walked in just like any regular person.
I waited in the lost luggage line last year in Washington Dulles Airport with Ben Stein.
You would be for me Cap’n Ed cuz I don’t know either of those fellows-when it comes to current stars I’m way out of the loop but then I always preferred brains over looks. (My husband had both and you too Ed…boy did I almost put my foot in my mouth there.)
My biggest celebrity sightings so far are Tom Smothers, and Eric Idle I’m pretty sure. He looked like Idle, his British voice was spot on, and he acted like he was used to being recognized in public, and appreciative of it. That was in Northern California.
Ed, the funny thing is, you were talking to a celebrity right before the plane boarded… ME!
I dinna make the connection until later. I was the guy who pulled up a piece of carpet, checked mail and took a brief snoozybear whilst you cooked in the sun. (Grey cap, white shirt.)
Well, pleased to meet you, albeit unawares.
Chuck
http://tcoverride.blogspot.com
(PS I posted a pic of me and Steve right after TSA gave us the once over. I’m the pretty one.)
Here in D.C. you run into celebs all the time. One of the more enjoyable was waiting for BBQ at the Red, Hot, and Blue take-out counter and this still very attractive woman keeps trying to give her name to pick-up her order, “Donahues. . . . Donahues . . . No, it’s Donna (pause) Hughes” (aka Donna Rice).
She was certainly nicer to run into than sullen (former Senator) George Mitchell, who is as dour in person as on TV. On the other hand, Brian Lamb was as nice running into him at Borders as he is on TV.
Best airport for celebrities is Aspen, hands down. Last time I was there, I spent several minutes trying to work up my courage to fight a duel to the death with Ric Ocasek for the hand of Paulina Porizkova.
Fred cracks me up…remember the “History of White People in America”???? Was he not in the scene where his heart monitor goes off the scale on the golf course???
His friend Martin Mull has the best line in “Serial”, a movie, Sally Kellerman is getting married and her vows are “Me’ness, you’ness, us’ness , we’ness..and Martin Mull turns to his wife and say’s “Sickness”…Classic!!!!
Gotta be the Rock and Roller, Captain.
You’re right about DC, though. Only “somebody” I ran into at the airport was James Carville. He was just as much a foul creature in person…but maybe that was because I was in uniform.
Coolest person I saw was Danny Devito at Jackson Hole. It was cool not because of who he was, but because of the fact that he had a group of 5 or 6 star-struck kids surrounding him (8-10 year olds). He was chatting with them for at least 20 minutes before I walked by…and that was in spite of the tired and bored look on his female companion’s face (she was holding both sets of skis/poles).
When he made eye contact with me, I couldn’t help myself when I threw the ol’ “You look taller on TV” comment. My wife’s still mad at me for that one. She’s right as usual. I regret saying it to this day.
Many years ago on local Tv there was a weatherman who combined piano playing and giving the weather. I watched him on the news every evening. One day a man waited for me to get close to the door of a hotel I was staying at and then he held the door open for me. I looked at him and thought I know that guy and I wanted to say something but I just stood there with my mouth open as he looked at me as if expecting a comment. All I could come up with was a thank-you. When I got inside and met my husband who had watched the whole thing with amusement, he said “you know who that man was don’t you?” “No” “He’s your weatherguy” However, in my defense I have met Senator (now VP) Cheney and other very prominent politicians and would recognize them anywhere.
I was in the bathroom at Hartsfield (Atlanta) airport a few years ago, just standing at the urinal doing my thing, when I looked over and there was Jon Waters (Hairspray, Pink Flamingos) standing next to me. I had to say “Fancy meeting you here”! He laughed and was very cool.
Captain,
I had a friend who used to work years ago at Knott’s Camp Snoopy down in the Megamall in Bloomington. She was surprised to see Aerosmith entering the amusement park (nobody had yet noticed them, remarkably). I have to say she was pretty excited, and offered to go get them free day passes to the park, if they would follow her to the main office. During the walk up to the office, one of the bodyguards got snippy about how long it was taking to get the passes, to which guitarist Joe Perry told him, “Give the girl a break, she is just following the rules”.
Aerosmith was very gracious and friendly throughout, even if the same can’t be said of their underlings. All of the group are very kind to the fans, as you probably noticed.
Steve Tyler. Aerosmith puts on one heck of a show. Tyler is non stop,on the go from the first note until the last one. He has the energy of a teenager. Their show is not as good as KISS used to put on,but the music is much better. Aerosmith comes in a close second behind my all time favorite group,Pink Floyd. Haven’t met many celebs. Does Billy Carter count?
“OMG, Ed is starting to sound like a Hollywood fanboy…” – bayam
Incorrect. Ed is showing us that he has a lighter side, something VASTLY appreciated in an otherwise somewhat droll and colorless right-wing blogosphere.
P.S. Your “OMG” makes you sound like a 16-year-old Valley Girl.
On the question, I’m with Tom on this one. Any fan (or “fanboy”, as Valley Girls call them) of Christopher Guest has got to put Willard over some ancient rock star. I go back to the “Mary Hartman”, “Fernwood 2-Nite” days, so Willard and Mull will always be faves.
As a small BTW, if you’re not into Christopher Guest’s movies, by all means try a few. “A Mighty Wind” is probably his best, but “Waiting For Guffman” and “Best In Show” are also terrific. These are ‘mockumentaries’, and are unscripted for the most part. The actors (usually the same bunch, which keeps a fun continuity going through the movies) are handed an outline of the scene and allowed to ad lib their lines. As such, the movies come across as very real, very spontaneous, and, of course, very mockish.
Didn’t Ed live in SoCal for a long time before going to MN?
No surprise there. My sister and aunt live in the San Fernando valley, and they have seen several celebs. I really don’t care who, but…
This reminds me of the day that I realized I was really getting old:
As my daughter and I were watching television, Steve Tyler was featured in a commercial (I think it was for a digital camera). My daughter asked, “Who’s that?”
Me: “He’s a rock star.”
Daughter: “Never heard of him.”
Me: “He’s, um, Liv Tyler’s dad.”
Daughter: “Oh, cool!”
Coming back from LaGuardia we saw Wallace Shawn, from Princess Bride “Inconceivable!!”, at one of the shops past the security area. Nice fellow.
At O’Hare I was waiting for my wife at baggage claim and Bob Costas, who was on the same plane, walked right up to me and thinking I was his limo driver. Hilarity ensued.
Fun to read!
Hmmm. I’d say it’s a toss up. Aerosmith’s Toys in the Attic was one of my first albums along with Ted Nugent/Free For All and Led Zeppelin II. Never watched Willard on Fernwood but have to say I didn’t like his Roseanne days but I do like his new show.
When I was little Lloyd Bridges sat down next to me and said hi while we both put our ski boots on.
Willie Nelson came up to me three times and grabbed by hand during his first performance at Harrah in Tahoe. I ended up with the scarf from his head around my neck and all these old ladies tried ripping it off me.
Waylon Jennings and his crew visited my work and even though he hung back in the shadows I spied him right off. When his manager started to sign in I interrupted and said I knew who they were. He seemed surprised and asked how (since it wasn’t a scheduled visit) I said, “There’s only one Waylon!” to which everybody laughed. Waylon stepped right up and gave me his autograph even though I hadn’t asked.
I’ve got ya’ll beat:
Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones at the Charlottesville, VA airport.
Both very classy and “real”; no snootiness at all.
I am going to give a partial list…you may not believe them all…but true…I am old and I have traveled a lot…
Barry Goldwater, Sean Connery, Suzanne Pleshette, Barbara Walters(voice in person like a harpy), Claudine Longet, OJ Simpson, Kenny Rogers and The First Edition, Linda Ronstadt and The Stone Ponys, Candace Bergen, Bobby Morse, Tony Roberts, Dudley Moore with Susan Anton, Andy Garcia, Steven Spielberg and wife..Kate., Scott Hamilton, Brian McKnight, Rhea Perlman, Lee Ann Rimes,Renee Russo, Dave Thomas, Stevie Wonder, N’Sync boys group..Rob Schneider, there are more, but my mind has gone blank….