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Please email in your accounts and pics of any sightings of, or meets you've been lucky enough to have with Keith. I'm sure it is a dream for the most of us and we'll enjoy reading of these adventures.
Hotel Palais de la Mediterranee
(Pino Colacicco from rollingstonesitalia.com)
August 8, 2006
'Flying the flag' the day of the Stones gig at Nikaia Stadium, Nice. Keith at one point called across to his next door neighbour, Ronnie, who also made an appearance on his balcony.
Redlands
(Roger Young)
August 23, 2006
John Young with Keith at Redlands. It was getting dark and looking like rain. Keith walked the 100 metres down his driveway to the outside of the property and greeted John with "It's getting grim, I can't have you getting wet. What can I do for you?" An unforgettable five minutes was spent chatting and laughing, ending with an autograph and some pictures. (Tip: Be courteous and respect private property.)
(John Young)
(John Young)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Starry Eyes
A Rambling by Tom Knapp - October 1992
They are all out there somewhere. But, for us common folk of the world, it is always a bit startling and just a bit exhilarating to bump into someone who is Somebody.
Take our recent visit to New York City, where we had tickets to see Les Miserables at Broadway's Imperial Theatre. While returning to our hotel to prepare for the show, a familiar figure strode briskly from the hotel lounge and headed for the elevators.
I turned to my companion and asked, "Did a Rolling Stone just cut in front of us?" She grinned and nodded. A few moments later, we were riding in close quarters with famed guitarist Keith Richards, who stared fixedly at the elevator door.
We didn't talk -- celebrities probably tire quickly of "I love your stuff!" Instead, we exchanged smiles and settled for knowing we were inches from a Very Important Person.
Another, obviously star-blinded young man couldn't contain himself. After a few silent floors passed, he attempted a casual smile and asked, "So, what brings you to town?" Richards smiled politely and said he had a gig on Halloween. The young man practically drooled.
"There're still some tickets available," Richards added. Freebies, apparently, were out of the question. Richards' eyes returned to the door. The young man wilted. He disembarked at the ninth floor; we got off on 12. Richards, the only person left on the car, was going to 17, two floors shy of the top.
"New York City You're Talking A Lot, Let's Have A Look At Ya"
Tower Records, Manhattan
Back in October of 1992, one of my friends called me up on a Sunday night telling me they heard on the radio Keith Richards was doing a record signing at Tower Records in Manhattan the next day. I then faked having the flu and called sick into work so I can make my lifelong dream of meeting Keith Richards come true. I mean any job is worth the risk of losing to meet Keith.
I took the train into the city with an ex-boyfriend of mine, who also worshipped Keith and called into work sick. By the time we showed up to Tower Records, which was about 2:00 PM, there had to be at least 200 other Keith worshippers on line waiting patiently for 'Mr. Unhealth' to arrive. By 7:00 PM that night, the line was city blocks long but luckily we had a decent position in the queue.
So what to do while waiting for Keef you ask? Get drunk of course. I had the idea of buying him a gift as Keith and the Stones gave me and millions of others the gift of their music. I walked down to the liquor store and bought a bottle of Rebel Yell. While in the liquor store, I run into a childhood friend, also a fellow disciple of Keith. She, too, was heading to Tower Records to stand in line. With liquor and close to a case of beer in tow, we took our places back in line and proceeded to get pissed and have a great time.
Keith was fashionably late, I think arriving at about 8:00 PM (he was supposed to show up I think at 5:00 or 6:00 PM). At almost 9:00 PM we were ushered into the store to finally meet him. I walk up to the table where he was seated and proudly hand him the bottle of Rebel Yell in a brown paper bag. He then handed it to some guy who placed it with all of the other bottles in brown paper bags. And I thought I was so clever. I then say to him, "Hey, you're not even going to open the bag." Keith said, "I can tell by the shape of the bottle baby, I know what it is, thank you luv."
I then told him I've been waiting to meet him my whole life. Keith then replied, "Well you've not been waiting a long time now have you?" The guards were then getting petulant with me, as I did not want to leave, and was politely shown to the front of the store.
He shook our hands, signed our stuff and was extremely cool and gracious.
Keith lived up to all of my expectations of meeting him and then some.
