Don't Meet Your Heroes?

Kind of snowed under with work (probably not an apt metaphor these days), so time only for a quick post. Respecting Yourself will have to wait.

Haven't you heard the title phrase before? Don't meet your heroes, because they won't ever live up to the pedestal on which you have them. Someone like, oh, I don't know, Mr. Rogers, whom you idolized for his sensitivity and gentleness, might turn out to be a maniacal freak in real life. If you meet your hero, the best that can happen is they're like you would expect. More than likely, you'll find out they're just another person without magic powers or a really cool cape.

That's why the few times I've seen celebrities, I've never tried to meet them. As long-time readers know, I once endured an extremely uncomfortable elevator ride with a falling down drunk Gary Busey and some Hollywood handler-type at the then Loew's Anatole in Dallas. Gary kept looking at me, though I didn't say anything. I kept expecting him to lunge for my throat any second. I also shared an elevator with Burt Bacharach (and my then girlfriend) at the Adolphus Hotel, also in Dallas. Now that was pretty cool, though my girlfriend kept rambling on about something inane, completely unaware we were in the presence of genius (and someone who was married to Angie Dickinson, which perhaps was an even more admirable accomplishment). I saw Dennis Quaid at the Hard Rock Cafe in Austin during the 1980s, but...yawn. A woman in our group, however, made her way over to say hi. And so forth.

Most famous types aren't really the way they're portrayed in the media. Not for nothing is "publicist" a real profession. Many of these people's careers depend on presenting an image that, if not completely divorced from reality, represents an absurdly polished, idealized version of reality. So what's the point of meeting, say, Brad Pitt and finding out he's just as big a tool as you or me? Well, you maybe, not me so much.

But I would like to meet and talk with some famous people. Here's the list, categorized by field.

Criteria? They're people I admire or otherwise find really intriguing either for their accomplishments or their personality. They strike me as being capable of an interesting conversation, or have such tales to tell that would make it worth my while. I didn't list everyone possible, because some people who might otherwise be on the list have a fairly obvious "douche" factor (if you're reading this, I'm thinking of you, Robert Downey, Jr.). Obviously, the list reflects my fairly limited interests.

Oh, and they have to be alive. Otherwise, Jackie Gleason would have made the list. Really!

Music:

Pete Townshend
Jimmy Page
Tina Turner
Keith Richards
Any Beatle
Any Ramone
Brian Wilson
Chuck Berry
Little Richard
Carole King
Ozzy
Fats Domino
BB King
Stevie Wonder

Sports:

Darrell Royal
Earl Campbell
Bum Phillips
Guy V. Lewis
Charles Barkley
Phil Jackson
Angelo Dundee (in lieu of Muhammad Ali)
Yogi Berra
Jim Brown
Bob Gibson
Billy Cannon
Vin Scully
Marvin Miller

Movies:

Bill Murray
Leslie Caron
Stanley Donen
Peter O'Toole
Alec Baldwin
Martin Scorcese
Steve Martin
Quentin Tarantino
Clint Eastwood
Julie Andrews
Kirk Douglas
Jessica Simpson (oh, come on, just give me this one!)

Other:

Any US President
Margaret Thatcher
Hugh Hefner
Henry Kissinger
Sandra Day O'Connor
Neil Armstrong
Bill Gates
Helen Gurley Brown


NEXT: Respect Yourself (hopefully)