Star Struck In America
Meeting Famous Folks For Fun And Profit

Like every other celebrity obsessed American, I’ve got my list of famous people I would like to meet. Over the years I’ve actually managed to meet a few of the writers, musicians, sports legends, politicians and film stars that I admire, so I’ve learned a few things about brief brushes with fame.

When I was in college I stood in line at the UNC Bookstore for about an hour to meet writer, philosopher and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller. I was the last person in line so I had the privilege of talking with “Bucky,” as he was known, and his wife Anne for about ten minutes. I remember asking him if he came up with the idea for the geodesic dome while teaching in western North Carolina at Black Mountain College. He assured me that he had. I told him about the geodesic dome music club called P.B. Scotts in Blowing Rock and asked him to autograph my dog-eared copy of his book Utopia or Oblivion: The Prospects for Humanity. He said I was the only person that day to get him to autograph a book that wasn’t purchased just minutes before at the UNC Bookstore.

I never could tell if he said that because he was glad I had read the book or if he wished I’d bought a new one so he could pocket a little more royalty money.

Buckminster Fuller died about a year after that. His ideas, however, live on in his poetry, essays and inventions. I feel lucky to have met him.

My job as entertainment editor for The Mountain Times has afforded me the opportunity to meet and/or interview a number of famous people. And I’m here to tell you that they are just like everybody else in that some of them are very cool, down to earth people that you could share an order of onion rings with at Boone Drug, while others are a bunch of jerks.

I had been entertainment editor for only a month or two when I had the chance to interview Willie Nelson at Kidd Brewer Stadium in Boone. After his Appalachian Summer-closing concert, about a half-dozen members of the local media were herded into Willie’s tour bus to wait for the country music superstar. I remember looking at the interior of the Willie Nelson bus and thinking, “If these walls could talk…I bet there would be a lot roadies and musicians who would pay good money to shut them up.”

Willie arrived and went through the mesmerizing post-show tradition of unbraiding his long salt and pepper braids. He made all of us feel welcome on the bus and answered all of our questions politely, even when the questions themselves had little to do with the man and his music. Without mentioning names, there was one so-called TV journalist present on the bus who insisted that Willie autograph about a dozen items including some golf balls. Have you ever tried to write on a golf ball? Even with a Sharpie, it’s not the easiest thing to do. It was so unprofessional and impolite to Mr. Nelson and the rest of us waiting to ask questions that I decided right there and then that no matter who I interviewed from that moment forward, I would never ask for their autograph.

It’s a pledge that I’ve been true to for about a decade now.

Over the years I’ve had the privilege of interviewing a bunch of folks with familiar names and now I’ll tell you who the nicest ones were.

At MerleFest about five or six years ago, I was part of a press conference with Dolly Parton. I had been to several of these types of events before so I knew the drill: The artist comes in and gives a prepared speech, the point of which often is to buy their new album, answers two or three questions, and then skedaddles out the door.

Not Dolly. She stayed there and answered every question we had until no one could think of anything else to ask. She talked about movies, music, riding around in the car with the top down, how much she loved Doc Watson. With every answer she was funny, honest and generally pleased to be there. We all left the room knowing we had been in the presence of someone truly special.

Some of the other celebrities who made the interview process a joy include Arlo Guthrie (the man is interested in virtually everything), mandolin superstar Sam Bush, Robert Kennedy Jr., and Darrell Scott (he might not be a household name, but I think he’s the best American songwriter working today).

I’ve found the key to a good interview is to come in with some decent background info, some open-ended questions that will get them on a roll, and a willingness to let the conversation go where it will.

I was thinking about how the press treats celebrities this week because of Brian Williams’ excellent interview on NBC with English princes Harry and William. They were giving a rare interview to help promote their pet project, the Concert for Diana, held last Sunday at Wembley Stadium in England. The concert raised money for a number of Diana’s favorite charities including battling HIV/AIDS and the horrible scourge of landmines in Third World Countries.

With tact and respect, Williams got the brothers to talk about their mother, her values, and their lives growing up under the media microscope. You could tell that it hasn’t been easy, particularly since neither young man chose their unique route to fame. With every public step Harry and William take, they are followed by ravaging hordes of paparazzi, that hyena-like hybrid of journalist who hounds celebrities and sells their photos to trashy tabloid publications. Sure, the boys have been caught partying a time or two, but other than that they seem to lead exemplary, if somewhat dull lives. Good for them.

Whenever I see a photo of Harry or William on the cover of a tabloid at the checkout stand, I can’t help but wonder if the paparazzi who took the photo was one of the many who were chasing the car that Diana was in when it crashed in the tunnel all those years ago.