It’s no secret that my teenage fangirl crush on a certain Mr Grohl knows no bounds. I’ll happily drop everything to rush to London to see him play, 12th April 2011 is marked with a red star in my diary (new album release date for those of you not in the know!) + I’m currently fretting because the new Foo Fighters movie is being released while I’m in Australia and what if it’s not released there and what if everyone else sees it before I do and….
But I draw the line somewhere.
I don’t want to meet him.**
I don’t want to meet any of those people I hold in high esteem because I might just find out they’re only human.
To illustrate this point I will tell you a story. It’s not really my story, it’s the story of a man known as Tony Reptile and was told to me whilst I was having a possum tattoed on my back so forgive me if I have the details wrong.
Tony Reptile, like me, is a huge fan of a little band called New Model Army. We’ve both followed this band obsessively since we were 14 years old (yeah, I have an obsessive personality, what can I do?). And after many years Tony Reptile got to do something I have never done (and don’t want to). He got to meet Justin Sullivan.
If, like me, Tony had great dreams of sitting down with his hero to discuss politics, philosophy, music + literature those dreams were short-lived….
….because Mr Sullivan was holding forth about soft furnishings. Cushions and sofas and the like.
I guess even rock stars need to sit down somewhere comfy from time to time.
But it’s not quite the dream you know. I don’t want to talk about fabric patterns, I can do that with my mother. I don’t want to look at pictures of your kids – I can do that with my friends. I want to talk philosophy, music + literature.
I want rock’n'roll.
But failing that my imagination will suffice. So Mr Grohl, Mr Sullivan (along with Andrew McCarthy, Johnny Depp, Ian Astbury et al) stay up there on your pedestals where you belong. Don’t shatter my childish dreams. My heroes aren’t ordinary.
When I last saw him, Tony Reptile was debating an opportunity to meet David Attenborough. I wonder if he took it, despite the fear of soft furnishings?
** There was a time back in Nirvana, when I nearly kind of did. But that is a long time ago now and a whole other story.
There’s a song called Heavenly Bodies by a band called Lush about that very point. They agree with you, and so do I. If they were a let down I would never be able to admire them again.
As you know, I did meet my rock-star-hero-crush (Jeff Martin from The Tea Party) and it was far from ordinary. He was down to earth and lovely, but also still had an aura of “otherness” that worked for me.
Of course, we didn’t talk about soft furnishings so much. It was more like: “Oh-wow-I’ve-totally-been-your-fan-for-about-15-years-and-I-love-your-music-so-much!!!”. And him being very gracious about my gushing. And him posing for a photo with me and PUTTING HIS ARM AROUND MY WAIST. And letting me kiss him on the cheek. *sigh*
The whole thing was awesome and I’ll never ever forget meeting him.
hah- i agree 100%. There are competitions like ‘who in the world would you like to have a conversation with?” and mine would be David Suzuki…
but then- what if he was obnoxious? a bad conversation partner? A cranky old man?
naw- he’ll just remain my hero
Don’t know if you know that your Man and His Band have just played a gig in Auckland to raise funds for Christchurch earthquake victims. I didn’t get to go (sold out really fast)..but they interviewed him on tv and I have a feeling he’s not a soft furnishings sort of a guy
Definitely someone with a big heart who loves playing music for a good cause.
You see, my hero is Michael Stipe, and I’m pretty sure that I’d never ever in a gabillion zillion years be able to string a couple of words together if I ever met him, never mind discuss anything as intelligent as literature and philosophy. I could possible handle soft furnishings, on a good day.
I feel the same as you though when they release a new album, as REM just have: terrified that they’ll let me down after all these years! Believe it or not, I haven’t listened to any of the new REM record yet, bar the one track that I heard on the radio, which I didn’t particularly like. Such a conundrum!
One of my best pals was his personal assistant when he was in Nirvana. Will get the scoop on the soft furnishings preference or not and any other tidbits you’d love.
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