Encounters with Celebrities

I haven't had too many. However, being a radio DJ (with future plans to stay a radio DJ, hopefully move to FM sometime in the future), one of my responsibilities is to interview (famous) musicians. Recently, I interviewed one of my all-time favorite musicians ever, Bob Nanna of the local (yet extremely influential) emotional post-hardcore band Braid. Local to Chicago, Braid made a huge impact on the music scene that sprouted here, and the band has been around since the early 90's. I was super excited to interview Bob, seeing that I've been listening to Braid since high school, before I even knew I was moving to Chicago. Don't get me wrong, I definitely freaked out. But because of the fact that I actually have experience with knowing famous people (I used to date someone who was somewhat famous), I used what I had learned from that experience to better my "fandom" towards Bob and his music. In the experience of dating a famous musician, I learned through him as well as his friends who were also famous musicians, that just because someone IS a 'celebrity,' doesn't mean that they're any different from those of us who aren't famous. Sure, they might have super cool jobs - going on tour, playing music for a living, making albums that reach the ears of thousands of people; however (from what I experienced and what I know), these people are the same as everyone else. Famous people also go have insecurities, family issues, and everything else that us 'normal' people struggle with. They expose their imperfections to the public eye, which is a very difficult struggle that fans and audiences alike don't think about when they think about their favorite bands. Therefore, knowing all of this and knowing that famous musicians strive to be treated as humanly possible as normal human beings, I went into my interview less starstruck than I probably would have if I hadn't had this experience. I also feel that I'm prepared for future interviews, knowing that just because someone is famous - doesn't make them any less of a REAL person.

For those of you who are reading this and know of/like Braid, maybe you'd like to hear my interview. You can check that out under the archive section on my website, http://rockethype.net