Who is the nicest musician you ever met at..

[J-Dubya 777]

Everybody at PP was cool, Randy Coven thought maybe it was still 1987, but other than that, everybody's been just awesome. The Gamma Ray guys were great, Dirk making fun of my age, Oliva, The Sy-X guys, damn, just about everyone.

Outside of PP, I met Iron Maiden back in 82, and even though they were on their way to beoming metal kings here in the US, they were just the nicest bunch of guys to hang out with & shoot the shit. Triumph were a bunch of dicks back in that era....

My ALL-TIME Nobel peace prize goes to Mike Keneally (Beer For Dolphins, Steve Vai, Frank Zappa,+) for being possibly the coolest person on the planet. If they ever annoint a patron saint of guitar players, Keneally better be in the running.

 

[jdennis007]

Some cool stories here!

 

[MetalRose]

Shaye, Bryant, Greg, Colleen, Norman... I could go on. EVERYONE I met at PP was cool as shit (except for the Guy who kept grabbing Shaye and I during 'Tage)

Musicians:

Urban, Chris Caffery and Jon Oliva.

-Metal

 

[edgeofthorns]

ALL of the Jag Panzer guys- we've been following them since 1998 and they always make time to hang with us at shows....and Andy Franck- he's so sincere and you can tell by his face! If he smiled any more, his face would crack...

In addition, you can tell Andy has a great time on stage! I'm not too familiar with Symphorce, but I'm looking foward to seeing Andy kick ass again!!!

 

[dargormudshark]

I think most of the PP musicians are just real down to earth...not alot of egos. But one cool thing was when I was 9 or 10 I found out that FW and Savatage was having an autograph signing I jumped at the chance even though I couldn't go to the show. This was the first time I met any "rock stars"...atleast in my eyes they were. Well at that time I had only heard 1 FW song and that was "The Calling" so before they came out to sign shit I bought Night on Brocken not knowing the line-up had changed or any of that or really much about the band but they all signed the cd and Mark Zonder was really really cool. Same goes for the rest of the guys and Savatage...ofcourse they were all freaking out that I was the only 10 year old kid who was getting copies of Hall of the Mountain King and Wake of Magellan signed.

Another thing I can't believe I forgot are the times I hung out with Tony Levin and Pat Mostelotto of King Crimson when I was 12. Both are very cool guys and hung out with quite a bit the times they came. Same goes for the rest of the guys in California Guitar Trio.

 

[Bryant]

That was some classic comedy neither one of us gave that poor guy a break .... well I did buy him a Coca~Cola

I should have bought him a freaking steak, but hey..... he was making money for the gig. I am sure I wasn't the first obnoxious drunk he has ran accross as a professional musician.


Bryant

 

[Bryant]

Shaye, Bryant, Greg, Colleen, Norman... I could go on. EVERYONE I met at PP was cool as shit (except for the Guy who kept grabbing Shaye and I during 'Tage)

Musicians:

Urban, Chris Caffery and Jon Oliva.

-Metal

Ahhh that was really me. I was standing behind the guy ya'll thought it was and paid him $20 to take the fall. Well actually..... I don't even like to joke about stuff like that. That's pretty low. You should have turned around and clobbered the guy in between songs.


Bryant

 

[J-Man]

I forgot Two really great people that all of you will get to met and hang out with this year and i do mean they are fabulous awesome guys, and will do anything for fans. Jonah of Avian, and Rusty Cooley of Outworld. I can't say enought about Jonah, he is really one of the nicest people you will ever met, and the same for Rusty. All the guys in Pyramaze are great, and very down to earth people, not alot of egos to stroke. So hang out with these guys and you will have a blast.

 

[junnie from the east]

Mikey from Evergrey, Gus (Adagio), Mountain King, Urban

Over all....those 3, Mark Zonder,Roger Glover, Ola Frenning, Johnny Lee Middleton, Steve Morse

Hi, i think i know you from the other place , i love your signature!

i'm surprised nobody mentioned Angra guys - Edu and Rafa are the most sweet guys and Aqi is very funny all the time..

Jasun and Troy from Zero Hour,
All the Edguys,
Snowy and Fredrik from Dream Evil
Jukka from Nightwish
Stian from Pagans Mind and Firewind
...

 

[td3253]

Steve Harris of Iron Maiden. It was in Columbus, Ohio in 98. My best friend and I drove up to see the show. We were walking around checking out the area, Maiden were playing a small venue in the middle of a college type of area. Anyway, we were walking around and a guy comes around the corner and says, "Steve Harris, is in that bar watching t.v." My friend and I looked at each other, "yeah right" then this guy shows us the poster he has had signed by Steve. We are like "holly shit" so we walk in and there sat Steve Harris of IRON MAIDEN drinking a coke and watching the World Cup Soccer matches. I walked up to him and excused myself for bothering him and told him we came about 3 hours to see Maiden. He says, "That's great mate. I came 13 hours to see YOU." With a big smile on his face. He shook our hands and made small talk with us. If only I would've had something to sign. UGH!! When we left him, he told to have a safe trip home. Took his time with us and was very down to earth.

 

[Barking Pumpkin]

Dan Mongrain was really nice when I met him after seeing Cryptopsy in Atlanta this year. The whole band was pretty awesome because they were out in the back of the concert room hanging out after the show. Devin Townsend was really nice too when I saw him, but he was kind of surrounded by people and had to leave relatively quickly.

 

[rrhoadsfan1]

Andy Kuntz.
Jon Oliva...
Can't wait to have vanden plaz back... Shouldda been this year.. They are awesome! all of them...

 

[Met-Al]

I have to agree with the general consensus about the musicians that play at ProgPower. With very few exceptions, there are really no egos to be had at by the musicians. The absolute standouts for me were Jasun and Troy Tipton (Zero Hour), Dan Swano (Nightingale), Dirk Thurisch (Angel Dust), Edu Falaschi (Angra), Thorstein Aaby (Pagan's Mind), Andy Kuntz (Vanden Plas), Gus Montano (Adagio), and Andy B. Franck (Brainstorm). Outside of ProgPower, the coolest musician to meet would have to be Tony MacAlpine. If you didn't see him on stage before you met him, you would think he was just a guy hanging out at a show. He always makes sure that he's around to sign items and shoot the shit with anybody and everybody who cares to meet him. If you can reccommend a good Italian place near the venue, he'll really be your friend.


Stay metal. Never rust.
Met-Al

 

[Pellaz]

I went to the show with a couple of friends from the old CompuServe RockNet forum (!!!), one of whom knew all three bands (esp. FNM). She was a writer for a SanFran music mag (forget the mag, but her name was Sadie O. MacFarlane, for anyone who might recognize the name), and since Sadie knew them, we got to hang out with them after the show, which was cool.

Woah, yeah, I recognized the name instantly. I knew Sadie ages ago, must've been via the Net somehow although I can't remember from where. She sent me some really cool 'behind-the-scenes' and rare pics, but eventually we lost contact. Hope she's still out there and doing well.

 

[Bryant]

Shaye, Bryant, Greg, Colleen, Norman... I could go on. EVERYONE I met at PP was cool as shit (except for the Guy who kept grabbing Shaye and I during 'Tage)

Musicians:

Urban, Chris Caffery and Jon Oliva.

-Metal

Though I made a joke of it just before... that is a great reply and it holds so true. I keep meeting more and more cool people every year. Many of the musicians at PP are just "one of the guys/gals" and that is a great thing because though there is a few assholes and people entirely too drunk (and I have been guilty of the latter) at the event every year, I have been completely blown away by the fun and comraderie.... though be it grueling fun. You are a great gal and I can't wait to give you a noogie this year !!

Bryant

 

[rottingflesh]

well, i feel the same about you... miss approachable...

Shaye, Bryant, Greg, Colleen, Norman... I could go on. EVERYONE I met at PP was cool as shit (except for the Guy who kept grabbing Shaye and I during 'Tage)

Musicians:

Urban, Chris Caffery and Jon Oliva.

-Metal

 

[sccaldwell]

i'm surprised nobody mentioned Angra guys - Edu and Rafa are the most sweet guys and Aqi is very funny all the time..

Very true...didn't talk to Rafael, but you're right...Edu was really cool. I also just remembered that I failed to mention Khan, from Kamelot.....and this year, with freakin' CONCEPTION!!!! I'm still in awe over that one, Glenn...

 

[sccaldwell]

Woah, yeah, I recognized the name instantly. I knew Sadie ages ago, must've been via the Net somehow although I can't remember from where. She sent me some really cool 'behind-the-scenes' and rare pics, but eventually we lost contact. Hope she's still out there and doing well.

I figured *someone* on here would remember her. She was really cool, and one of the more active people on CompuServe's RockNet. I haven't talked to her in years, though.

She was actually in a really, really bad car accident in probably 1991 or so. It was actually shortly after the show I was talking about. She'd flown to Columbus, Ohio, and drove out with another RockNet girl (Chris Kuhn...might have the name spelled wrong), and hit four or five VV/SG/FNM shows on that tour (I only went with them to the DC show, and they stayed at my place after).

I think they were back in Columbus a week or so later, and someone ran a red light (I forget if it was Chris or the other driver). Chris died from her injuries that night, and Sadie was in the hospital for over a month. I remember that she was back on RockNet within like an hour of when she finally got home from the hospital. She still had a long way to go to recover, and her posts were even funnier than usual, 'cause she was majorly doped up on percocets. Last I heard she had recovered pretty well, which is good.

As a side-note, Adam Curry (of MTV and now podcasting fame, oddly enough) was also a regular on RockNet... I'd always figured that he was a stuck-up pretty boy, but it turns out that he's a super cool, down-to-earth guy. Surprise, surprise!

 

[7thSaviour]

any of the progpower events or any show/concert?

The nicest musician at the ProgPower events so far that I've met was Zach Stevens back at IV. Cool dude!

 

[7thSaviour]

Ben Huggins is a really nice guy. Very down to Earth and unassuming. He witnesses his Faith by example. Jerry Gaskill is cool, as well.