Chip
02-21-2002, 02:59 AM
Anybody who has met Chris or Sara or Sean knows that they are the most incredibly down-to-earth, friendly people who genuinely enjoy talking to their fans.
I've also read posts from people wondering if doing this or that or some other thing is dumb or inappropriate or whatever when meeting an artist. Of course, every artist is different, but here's some thoughts that might be helpful.
I worked as a tour manager for several artists for about 5 years. From my experience, artists genuinely like meeting their fans, and appreciate the comments and thanks they get from them. At the same time, they are human, and need and enjoy a certain amount of personal space and privacy. So the key for the fan is in being sensitive to the situation and figuring out when is and is not appropriate to acknowledge/intrude/say hi/ask questions/whatever.
If I was in a restaurant and saw an artist I admired having a quiet dinner with a friend, I wouldn't intrude... maybe, if I *really* wanted to meet him or her, I might ask the waiter to check if s/he would be OK giving an autograph.
On the other hand, if I saw the same artist browsing in a bookstore or music store or hanging out and not obviously engaged in a conversation, I'd feel a lot more comfortable introducing myself. With a few exceptions, nearly all entertainers are surprisingly approachable if you respect their space and privacy... it's difficult to keep this in mind, but entertainers aren't any different than anyone else... they just happen to have jobs that put them in the public eye and (out of necessity) tend to make them a bit less accessible, because people tend to put artists on pedestals and think of them as different somehow.
Another thing: Artists are multidimensional humans, just like the rest of us. You will probably get a much more enthusiastic conversation talking about a topic of mutual interest that's *unrelated* to, or peripheral to, the artist's own music or tour or latest record, or whatever... because most of the time, it's the only thing that people ever want to talk about, and if *you* had to talk about one thing 24 hours a day, you'd get a little tired of it as well :) Don't fake something, just be genuine, and you'll do fine. Some of the best friendships I've made with artists started out of conversations on topics totally unrelated to the music biz.
Basically, the golden rule applies. Put yourself in the artist's situation, and decide how you'd feel about being approached in the situation in question. If you wouldn't mind, they probably wouldn't either :)
I've also read posts from people wondering if doing this or that or some other thing is dumb or inappropriate or whatever when meeting an artist. Of course, every artist is different, but here's some thoughts that might be helpful.
I worked as a tour manager for several artists for about 5 years. From my experience, artists genuinely like meeting their fans, and appreciate the comments and thanks they get from them. At the same time, they are human, and need and enjoy a certain amount of personal space and privacy. So the key for the fan is in being sensitive to the situation and figuring out when is and is not appropriate to acknowledge/intrude/say hi/ask questions/whatever.
If I was in a restaurant and saw an artist I admired having a quiet dinner with a friend, I wouldn't intrude... maybe, if I *really* wanted to meet him or her, I might ask the waiter to check if s/he would be OK giving an autograph.
On the other hand, if I saw the same artist browsing in a bookstore or music store or hanging out and not obviously engaged in a conversation, I'd feel a lot more comfortable introducing myself. With a few exceptions, nearly all entertainers are surprisingly approachable if you respect their space and privacy... it's difficult to keep this in mind, but entertainers aren't any different than anyone else... they just happen to have jobs that put them in the public eye and (out of necessity) tend to make them a bit less accessible, because people tend to put artists on pedestals and think of them as different somehow.
Another thing: Artists are multidimensional humans, just like the rest of us. You will probably get a much more enthusiastic conversation talking about a topic of mutual interest that's *unrelated* to, or peripheral to, the artist's own music or tour or latest record, or whatever... because most of the time, it's the only thing that people ever want to talk about, and if *you* had to talk about one thing 24 hours a day, you'd get a little tired of it as well :) Don't fake something, just be genuine, and you'll do fine. Some of the best friendships I've made with artists started out of conversations on topics totally unrelated to the music biz.
Basically, the golden rule applies. Put yourself in the artist's situation, and decide how you'd feel about being approached in the situation in question. If you wouldn't mind, they probably wouldn't either :)