Who is the nicest musician you ever met at..

[dargormudshark]

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

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

 

[nightwish58]

when was Jamie at ProgPower? I somehow missed him! And Exhibition is about my favorite ProgPower band. dammit! .

~Hoyt.

He never was at PP although I wish I got the chance to see Eternity X live as they were one of my all time favs!

 

[BlindPanzer]

Ronnie James Dio.

 

[sccaldwell]

any of the progpower events or any show/concert?

Wow. That's a really good question, and a really tough one (for me, at least). Here's a few:

- Jasun and Troy Tipton (Zero Hour). Can't believe no one else has mentioned them already....extraordinarily nice guys. I stil don't understand why most people can't tell them apart (?), but to me they *are* identical in "coolness."

- Dave Gallegos (Power of Omens). Super nice guy, easy to talk to, and modest to a fault.

- Ray Alder (Fates Warning). I first met Ray at a FW show in Springfield, VA (Jaxx), and after the show he hung out with about 10 of us outside the venue for what seemed like 2 or 3 hours, signing autographs, etc, but mostly just talking and hanging out with us. The rest of the band eventually came out (briefly), signed autographs, then got back on the bus, but Ray continued chatting. I was especially impressed 'cause it was damn cold that night!

- Nick van Dyk (Redemption). First met Nick at PP1, and technically I guess he wasn't a "band member" at that point, but he obviously is in Redemption now, and still a really nice guy, though.

- Mike (Evergrey). Super nice guy, and absolutely hysterical.

- Jens Ludwig (Edguy) The master of Beer pong!!

 

[Bryan316]

Hmm.... just ProgPower?


I'll have to say Eggi Exel from Edguy, cuz he and I shared Budweisers while talking bass guitar jibberish! He was thrilled to discuss the differences between 'picks' and 'plectrums'! HAH! And he and I talked about why we decided to play either fingers (me) or picks (Eggi) and how we started playing and sounds we wanted to capture. Damn fun talk.

And the guys from Into MUTHAFUCKIN Eternity, cuz they were watching the rest of the shows in front of us, and I was basically suckin up to the royally! HAH! And they play here in Detroit tomorrow night! I dunno if they'll remember me from sitting behind them, but they'll surely remember my PPV shirt! FOWKING METAL!1!11!!!one1!!!


Outside of Progpower.... James Labrie. Telling us his story of doing shows around Canada in his cover band days of just hopping from bar gig to bar gig, and the guys in Windsor always demanding him to, (and I seriously wish you all could see his facial expressions when he described it all... fuckin classic comedy and had a dozen people rolling on the floor) "Hey! PLAY SOME FUCKIN JUDAS FUCKIN PRIEST!!!!" He was loving the chance to reminisce on the old days of metal in Canada. Hi-fuckin-larious.

Honorable mention: Lars Larsen from Manticora as he was helping out the guys from Prototype and banging his head off his shoulders while they played.... and then talked about how my brother emailed him personally for a copy of their old old demo cd!

 

[Tess]

Joey Vera

 

[control-denied777]

Michael Batio Angelo

 

[Bryant]

Hard to pick one guy. Stephan, Gunther and Andy from Vanden Plas were all very nice. Urban Breed and all of the TM guys (though Daniel seemed a little shy) were very nice. The Pagans Mind guys (especially Steiner.) The poor bass player from Kamelot who tolerated my drunk shenanigans is a trooper. Jon Oliva. The guys from Spiral Architect (though I didn't meet them) seemed to really enjoy being with theuir fans. Dirk Thurich of Angel Dust was also very cool to hang around. The evergrey guys were also pretty cool, though drunker than I was, and that takes serious work.

Honorable mentions.... Non-PP "cool guys":

Ronnie Dio - This guy really appreciates his fans and is easy to talk to as was his drummer Simon Wright.
Damon Johnson - (Brother Cane vocalist/guitarist) Though BC wasn't quite super big-time, Damon is a great humble home (Alabama) boy. Huge talent and small ego.
Vinnie Paul - Losing your brother couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. He is a good guy.


Bryant

 

[Pellaz]

Shit, it'd be easier to list muzos who WEREN'T cool at PP...and I can't think of any anyway, so there.

Some do stand out..... The Evergreys, the Into Eternitys, the guys from PoS, Gus and all from Adagio, Devin Townsend, Nightwish, Jasun and Troy Tipton, Jon Oliva, Timo "Aki's not really from Finland, he's just faking it" Kotipelto.... And damn near everyone else. As many people have said, the overall atmosphere of PPUSA is just amazingly convivial.

 

[Bryant]

Shit, it'd be easier to list muzos who WEREN'T cool at PP...and I can't think of any anyway, so there.

I agree 100%. However, Jorn Viggo Lofstat is one of the most talented guitarists to ever play PP, but he knew it. He was far from unfriendly, but he was damned sure a bit arrogant. He may have been that way to just me though. I'm not the type that is star struck at all, but I am a guitarist and JVL is one of my top ten players. I felt a little intimidated by him (and trust me that is rare) and he might have picked up on that.


Bryant

 

[am_ash2]

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...

 

[JonnyD]

The poor bass player from Kamelot who tolerated my drunk shenanigans is a trooper.

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

 

[General Zod]

Yeah, Jasun and Troy are super laid back, and incredibly approachable. They're not bad musicians either.

Zod

 

[Creeps]

the Mountain King and the entire Circle II Circle band (not Zak cos he wasn't there at the pre-party) and Chris form JOP/CIIC is the nicest mofo this side of the mountain king.

 

[kittybeast]

Ronnie James Dio.

The Ultimate nicest rocker!! Never in hurry, always willing to talk with fans, super, super sweet and kind!!! A true gentle person!

 

[JonnyD]

Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth of Overkill! hes a hell of a nice guy and Truely loves his fans and always has time to stop and Talk, Shake hands, Take pictures, sign autographs .. just a great person in general ... infact I'm kinda surprised I'm the only one to mention him ...

 

[Walter_Langkowski]

Rich Ward- Stuck Mojo, Sick Speed, Fozzy.

Every musician should treat his/her fans like Rich does.

 

[jaimek]

I'd be echoing a lot of people already, so here's one that's off the wall:

Ben Huggins, from Galactic Cowboys. Silly personified.

 

[JonnyD]

Ben Huggins, from Galactic Cowboys. Silly personified.

He is a pretty cool guy! I have had some good Email convos with the guy Very cool!

 

[sccaldwell]

I forgot one...

Mike Patton from Faith No More/Mr. Bungle. Great musician, hysterical, really cool, and nice as hell. I met him at a Faith No More/Soundgarden/Voivod concert at the now-defunct Bayou in D.C.....wow, probably 15 years ago now, I think it was mid-1990 (showing my age, I know!).

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.

It before FNM and SG released their first "big" CD that would get widespread attention, before they'd "made it," so they were still pretty unknown. Patton was awesome, but on the flip side, Chris Cornell (SG) was a complete ass, and was as cocky and arrogant as if SG were *already* mega-platinum superstars, but they weren't. The guys from Voivod were all pretty cool, too, BTW.

Anyway, Mike Patton rocked, both on the stage and off. Cool dude.