Well mine kinda counts. Jeff queen on facebook... And leigh howard stevens (for real) i wanna know who u guys have met thats a famous percussionist.

By meet do you mean meet and greet or good friends with this person? If it's personal meet and greets as in someone introducing me to this person, Ralph Hardimon, Lee Beddis, Delucia, Colin McNutt, Mark Renolds, Rob Ferguson, and Scott Johnson. I can't think of anyone else at the moment. I'm not good friends or anything with these guys, but I can pick em out in a crowd at a show for sure.

I've met myself. I'm kinda famous... or at least infamous...

I've met and hung with Hulka. He da man. I have his digits and stalk him sometimes.

Thanks to my former teacher I've met Sean Vega, Nick Angelis, Carlos Botello, Nick Werth, and Mickey Hartzorg.

Well when you march you kind of meet everyone... Once you march for someone you get on a first name basis with them, even if you weren't all that close they still have that mutual respect because you were one of the guys THEY picked to march on THEIR line. The two that I know very well would be Iain Moyer and Colin McNutt because I was with them through college and both seasons of drum corps.

I've been taught (in some form or another) by these guys: Colin McNutt, Lee Beddis, Tom Aungst, Thom Hannum, Iain Moyer, Jeff Queen, Nick Angelis, Lalo Davila and a lot more that I guess you wouldn't call "famous" but they are VERY good.

I've met (obviously the above) Mike McIntosh, Ralph Hardimon (who judged my students at WGI finals), Bret Khun, Scott Johnson, Bill Bachman, Tim Jackson, and some others that I'm probably forgetting.

That's the truth. I marched under Jim Campbell in college and DCI so over time I met plenty of people through him. Not saying I consider many of them close personal friends or anything but it's nice when you see these people down the road and they remember your face. Not always your name however. Brian Mason was one of my roomates in college so he's also been a little instrumental (no pun intended) in my networking.

Outside of the marching world I sometimes feel like I live in percussion central. Mike Burritt lived a few houses down from me before he left Northwestern for Eastman. Patsy Dash (Chicago Symphony) and her husband Doug Waddell (Chicago Lyric Opera) live two streets over (their mailbox is a an old marching snare) and Mike Balter resides one block down in the biggest house in the neighborhood. Former Pat Matheny drummer Paul Wertico lives in the next town over where he teaches out of his basement. There's nothing like seeing 7-8 Grammy Awards and multiple gold records all collecting dust to realize how insignificant you are in the music world.

Hulka and I also went to college with Glenn Kotche of Wilco fame.

*Lucky*...[/Napoleon Dynamite voice]

Yeah I haven't met nearly as many people as these other cats, but i did meet Tom Aungst at a Spartans camp. And Mike Moore aka Stan Moore (Cadets 2005 center tenor). But Tom Aungst not only thought that i was in college when i was a junior in high school but he also thought that i had marched corps, when i hadn't.

I have some stories to go along with mine...all of which happened at PASIC

I was with a friend of mine who marched Phantom in the 80's. When the Solo contests were finished for the night we headed on over to the Ryman Auditorium (Nashville) to watch a famous marimba artist (name forgotten...somebody help me). On the way, my friend runs into John Wooten and Marty Hurley who taught him at Phantom. So we walk with them the rest of the way. Technically you are supposed to purchase tickets for this event prior to the show, or be a member of PAS (neither of which I had done). We get to the door where they are doing tickets, and because of who I was walking with, I was asked for NOTHING. So, I got in free and sat with Wooten and Hurley and talked drums while watching a ridiculous musician.

In the exhibit hall a few years later, I was messing with some new snare stuff from Pearl. These two hs kids came up and were playing something on one of the drums but couldn't get it quite right. I walked over and started helping them. The next thing I know Thom Hannum comes up behind all of us, watches for a minute, and then starts to give the 2 kids a free lesson in the middle of the exhibit hall. Very nice guy.

Lastly, the same year my son was 2 or 3 at the time and I had bought him a pair of red VF timbale sticks. He liked that they were colored and small enough of a diameter they fit his hand pretty well. So, I walk over to the dynasty booth. Scott Johnson, Al Murray and Sean Vega were standing there. My son proceeds to start banging the crap out of a brand new tympani. Vega gets a "stop him now" look on his face, while Johnson and Murray are laughing like crazy. Then ScoJo handed him a tympani mallet and told him to go for it.
Again, very nice guy.


...oh, and I too have hung out with Hulka, have his digits, and sometimes stalk him.

Ralph Hardimon rode shotgun in my car when he came down to judge my line last year. One of the coolest cats I have ever met, seriously.

And yes, once you've marched and taught at the drumcorps level, it goes without saying the countless "famous" names in drumcorps and indoors I've met.

In 2004 I was stalked by the DLO staff at the Allentown dci show.. They have a picture around here somewhere lol.

At one point it was considered cool to know "Toe" haha.

I've met Scott johnson, sean vega, roger carter, lee beddis, tom aungst, colin mcnutt, dennis delucia, MANY dci judges (in critique), ralph hardimon..and would like to think I'm friends with my homeboys from Infinity and my boston crusaders days rich viano, lee hansen, john campese, tom hurst jared johnson, dan o'neill, as well as the Magic Staff from 2004 - paul richardson, kirk sweet, joel brainard, drew tucker, jeff willis...and so many others...can't forget the DLO staff members I've met throughout the years also.

I think I'm gonna start sending facebook messages to catch up with people...

Truth. You don't even realize it at the time, then you find out that they're kind of a big deal. I will do all of you one better though - Lee Beddis knows my mom by sight, and she brings him food at every show that she goes to. And she's gone up and introduced herself to Nick Angelis because he was "that guy from Blast". It's a little ridiculous, actually.



I was one of your stalkers! Can I add you to my "who I've met list"?