Sunny’s Funny Celebrity Encounters

Meeting celebrities can sometimes be absolutely amazing and other times it can be almost downright embarrassing or disappointing. Luckily none of mine were disappointing, but I was definitely star-struck. These are my three best celebrity encounters:

1) Gerard Way
Gerard Way was the lead singer of the very popular group My Chemical Romance when I briefly met him in 2006. A group of my friends had heard he was a few blocks from the venue and went out looking for him. My boyfriend at the time and I decided to wait for our friends to come back behind the concert venue. After a few minutes of standing there alone, a small entourage of people came walking past us. At the time, I had no idea what the band even looked like - I only listened to their music. As they walked past, a man in the middle of the group waved and said, "Hi." So, I waved and said hello back. We both smiled and they walked inside and my boyfriend and I stayed there waiting. Within a few minutes, our friends had returned and were bummed because they didn't find him. I explained what had happened and one of the girls pulled up a picture of the band so I could see what they looked like. I pointed out the lead singer, Gerard Way, as the man I spoke to. They were absolutely furious that all I said was, "hello". To be honest, though, he looked perfectly content to just say hello, smile and continue on his way, as was I. We all watched the concert shortly after and it was a pretty amazing experience - especially since I had just semi-met the guy who was now center stage.

2) Sammy Hagar
If you're not familiar with Sammy Hagar, he was the lead singer of Van Halen for many years after David Lee Roth left. When I met Sammy Hagar in 2011, I went to a book signing of his in St. Louis. I waited 4 hours in line while 17 weeks pregnant. The organizers of the event were adamant that in order to get everyone seen, you could not speak for longer than a 'short hello' when he signed your book. When it was finally my turn, he smiled and asked me how I was. I said fine, but pregnant and laughed. I told him that my mother and I were big fans of his and he stopped. The organizers were trying to get me to move along but he indicated to them to stop. He asked if he could touch my baby bump and of course, I obliged. He stood up and rubbed my stomach and camera flashes went off everywhere. It was crazy! We had a conversation for about a minute and a half about pregnancy and kids and he wished me the best. I remember telling him that if I had a son, I'd name him after him to which he replied, "Oh no, don't do that to him!" We both laughed as I thanked him and he waved goodbye to me and my mother. To this day, he is still my favorite celebrity encounter due to his kindness, humor, and overall demeanor.

3) Roseanne Barr
I went to Nashville to see Roseanne perform a stand-up act back in 2015 and got lucky enough to meet her. I went backstage and had a five-minute conversation with her. She was tired from working so much and was going to leave the venue right after talking with me. I remember this as being my most embarrassing in person celebrity encounter because I love Roseanne. I wanted to tell her about how ground-breaking she was in the 80's and how she changed the game for female comics and working mothers. I wanted to tell her how much I admired her. Instead, I could barely speak because I was so star-struck. So, we talked mainly about how my phone's camera sucked, dogs, and my kids. That's it. While it was still an awesome meeting, I hope I get to actually say what I wanted to say to her someday in the future.

I also saw Gavin DeGraw right before he got hugely popular and walked right past him and a crowd of screaming girls in Chicago. I had no idea who he was so I just kept going. I've also had interactions with multiple celebrities on social media including Roseanne Barr, David Draiman, Andy Lassner, Michael Rosenbaum, Kaitlin Olson, Montel Williams, many Young & The Restless actors, and a ton of others I'm forgetting. Overall, I've had some pretty cool celebrity encounters. What about you? Have you ever met a celebrity?