The Analog Grownup, on 14 September 2013 - 09:19 AM, said:
HalfwayToGone, on 14 September 2013 - 09:10 AM, said:
Having met Alex and Geddy already, I would be happy to meet them again, especially Geddy, because the interaction with him might have been memorable to him. That said, it was a much more relaxed situation back then than the meet and greets they have now, so I probably would rather run into them somewhere unexpectedly than be herded through with a line of people.
Now you can't just type that kind of thing, and then not elaborate!
I've posted about it before at least twice, but here we go again. Counterparts tour, MSG first night of two, Atlantic records after show party—3/4 of my band went (singer's girlfriend was a former Atlantic employee, and worked with RUSH during Presto). The bass player and I were talking to Geddy together. I started out by saying I didn't want an autograph or picture, I just wanted to shake his hand, and I thanked him and told him that RUSH were the band that led to me becoming a musician, and that because of that, my life took a major turn, I had many amazing experiences that I would never have had otherwise, and (at least at the time) I might even have a career as a musician. My friend/bandmate said something very similar, and Geddy's reply was, "wow, you guys are laying some pretty heavy shit on me!" We all laughed, and continued chatting a bit, and at one point as my buddy was excitedly talking he gestured with the hand holding his cocktail. The tiny little straw fell out of the glass and bounced off Geddy's perfectly polished black leather shoe, causing my buddy to choke on his words in mid sentence, and stop speaking. Geddy reached out and put his hand on my friend's shoulder and said, "hey, it's OK. It's OK." More laughing, we said thanks again, and off we went.
It's very possible Geddy would never remember any of this, and I'm just making more of it than it really was, but I think the whole drink straw/shoe thing is probably not something that happens often, if ever. So I suspect that if I had a chance to say hello, and reminded him, he might be able to recall at least that part of it. Really, I'd love to update him about everything that went down with my music career since then—it's way too long to go into here, and way too long to go into at one of those meet and greets, but it would be nice to let him know how ironic the whole thing turned out (short version—I gave up the music career, went to med school and became a psychiatrist, and then started playing on the side with my brother' s band, and achieved more success in music as a doctor than I ever did when I was trying to be a full time drummer. Ironically millions of people have probably heard my band's music without even realizing it, from being in most of the episodes of viva la bam on MTV, on some very popular video game soundtracks, in the soundtrack to the movie "Waitress" which was critically acclaimed, and other places).