Brushes with Greatness

For some reason, I decided to compile a list of all the famous people I’ve met in my life. The list turned out to be much longer than I thought it would be.

This is my friend Belinda two or three years before I first met her.

Writing a story about my “cousin,” Courteney Cox, who I’ve actually never met, made me start thinking about all of the famous people I have met in my life.

Since I love lists and this might impress my kids one day, I’m going to go ahead and name these people.

I could be wrong, but my “brushes-with-famous-people” list is probably longer than similar lists many people reading this could also compile, which makes me feel my life - perhaps semi well-lived at certain points - might include one somewhat novel feature.

That is, whenever I start to feel a little blue and and might be beating myself up because I never became rich and famous, I remind myself, “Bill, you are friends with the stars; cut yourself some slack …”

I should explain that I met most of these famous or well-known people because, for much of my adult life, I have been a journalist. Even a journalist working for small community newspapers has the opportunity to meet a surprisingly large number of well-known or semi-famous people due to story assignments.

While some of these interactions lasted an hour or longer, other meet-and-greets might have spanned, say, 5 to 30 seconds … but, still, I did talk to these people.

A quick example …

Near the top of my list is my conversation with the lead singer of the Go Go’s - Belinda Carlisle. I met Belinda in the basement of the University of Alabama Sigma Nu house in 1983 (or ’84) after Belinda dropped by after a concert in Tuscaloosa.

At the time, I was a pledge. By rule, “new boys” had to carry a cigarette lighter in our pockets. (The thought was that pledges, as aspiring gentlemen, could light a cigarette for comely co-eds who might appreciate such chivalrous gestures.)

While waiting in the keg line, I looked to my left and, lo and behold, there was Belinda Carlisle, who had just pulled a cigarette out of her purse.

A good New Boy, I quickly lit Miss Carlisle’s fag, adding: “Here you go.”

To which Belinda replied, “Thank you.”

To which I replied, “You’re welcome.”

This event thus qualifies as a legitimate conversation with a person who was definitely famous.

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I also met a a large number of famous former Alabama football greats through my late father, who played football for the Crimson Tide and two famous people because my great aunt was the office manger for a U.S. Congressman.

I also visited with several famous people as Mike Amos’s co-host on “Today in L.A.” (Mike himself is definitely famous in our neck of the woods). I got to meet a couple of well-known people because I publish two Substack newsletters and was, for a year, a fellow of the Brownstone Institute.

Several of my “brushes with greatness” were actually phone conversations and I technically didn’t meet the famous person in person. Some of these celebrities are/were known throughout the country (and world) and others are just Alabama or local celebrities.

I added a few anecdotes to add flavor and memorable details to my list column and, for my “national” newsletter deleted the names of people who might only be famous in Alabama or Pike County.

Musicians:

Belinda Carlisle

Hank Williams, Jr. (Bocephus) - who, I think, still owns a hunting lodge on the border of Pike and Bullock County. I once got to watch my buddy Bocephus record an album at the Almeria Social Club just outside of Pike County.

This is a fantastic album that not enough country fans have probably discovered. I was told Hank didn’t talk to journalists when he was cutting an album, but we talked for 20 minutes during a session lunch break. I got a great story for the original Troy Citizen.

Merle Kilgore, Hank’s manager, who I later learned also co-wrote the classic country song “Ring of Fire.”

Lee Greenwood - Any person who is proud to be an American should certainly be proud of meeting Lee Greenwood.

David Allen Coe - Before DAC’s show at Harvey’s in Troy, his roadies threw me off the stage for taking photos of the crowd from said stage. I was a better athlete back then and, like a cat, landed on my feet.

Rudy Vallée - a crooner, actor and radio personality who was a “teen idol” in my grandparents’ generation. I met a much older Vallée when I was 9 years old at an officer’s club at a military base outside of Washington D.C. on a trip to visit my great aunt, who was office manager for Cong. Bill Nichols (who himself was fairly famous).

I didn’t know who Rudy Vallee was when I met him in 1974. I remember my mother was very excited because Vallee was one of my grandmother’s favorite stars when Kaka Chapman was growing up. The 73-year-old former matinee idol signed an autograph, which we later gave to my grandmother. I don’t know what he was doing at that officer’s club. For that matter, I don’t remember why our family visited this place, but for KaKa’s sake I’m glad we did.

Alabama football coaches, athletes and administrators …

Paul “Bear” Bryant

Nick Saban

Gene Stallings

Ray Perkins

Mal Moore - former Alabama athletic director and long-time UA assistant coach (teammate of my late father’s).

Bill Battle - another teammate of Dad’s - former Alabama athletic director and former head coach of Tennessee. Founded Collegiate Licensing Company, America’s leading sports licensing company.

Lee Roy Jordan - Alabama and Dallas Cowboys great.

Johnny Musso - Alabama running back in the early 70s who once gave me his chin strap after a game when I was 6-years-old.

Golfer Jerry Pate, U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur champion. Pate later became a golf course architect. I interviewed Jerry while he was driving in a cart around Montgomery Country Club’s course, which he was re-designing.

Basketball coaches …

Wimp Sanderson

C.M. Newton

I’ve also met plenty of Auburn greats:

Coach Pat Dye - My late father actually got Coach Dye his first college coaching job … at Alabama, a random event that might have later changed sports history in our state.

Coach Terry Bowden - who I first met when he was head coach at Samford. (As many will confirm, Coach Bowden will chit-chat … for hours … with anyone.)

Pat Sullivan, former Auburn QB and Heisman Trophy winner.

Tracy Rocker, Outland and Lombardi Trophy winner who was later an assistant coach at Troy.

Chuck Person, NBA great from Brantley who I once interviewed in a night club outside of Troy.

Harvey Glance, gold metal sprinter (4 x 100 relay, 1976 Games) and former track great at Auburn. He visited my 6th grade class in Opelika after he won the gold medal. He brought his gold medal.

Other well-known coaches …

Legendary Coach Bobby Bowden - who held a high school football camp in Troy for about 7 years. (Coach Bowden is probably the most approachable and friendliest celebrity I’ve ever met.)

Coach Chan Gailey - who once lived across the street from my grandmother and later became head coach of America’s team, the Dallas Cowboys.

Indiana Coach Curt Cignetti - As recounted in a recent story, I “met” Coach Cig on the sidelines of an Alabama football game in 2007. I didn’t speak to him, but we had a memorable stare down and he told me, “Get the hell out of here!”

I remember my encounter with Coach Cignetti very well, but I doubt he remembers it.

Miami Hurricane head football coach Larry Coker.

Hall of Fame athletes:

Hank Aaron

Bart Starr

DeMarcus Ware

John Hannah

Mike Ditka

Don Sutton - Major League Baseball Hall of Fame and Braves’ announcer.

Jim Bunning - Hall of Fame pitcher who later served in Congress and Senate from Kentucky. (I met this baseball great when I was 9 through my great aunt on the trip to D.C.)

Phil Neikro - Atlanta Braves great who I met at the Front Porch when Phil was hanging out with his son, who was on the Troy baseball team at the time.

Learn how to throw a knuckle ball and you too can go far in baseball.

Other former star athletes:

Bobby Bonilla, former Major League Baseball great - I was introduced to Bonilla in the clubhouse of the Florida Marlins by his teammate at the time, Troy’s Brian Meadows.

Cornelius Bennet, Alabama and Buffalo Bills great - who I briefly chit-chatted with when he visited a party at the Sigma Nu house. (As the story goes, my brother Rush kept “Biscuit,” who might have over-indulged on free beer, from pulling the “Sigma” letter off the brick wall at the front of the Sigma Nu house.)

Politicians:

Former Alabama Gov. and presidential candidate George Wallace - I spoke to Wallace on the phone when he called my grandmother, Lucy Rice, to express his condolences after the death of my grandfather. FWIW, Wallace was retired from politics at the time so he didn’t make this call to curry favor with future voters. The classy call meant a great deal to Grandmother.

Former Alabama Gov. Fob James, also a former AU football great although his nickname for the Tigers was “Fumbling Fob.” (Trivia: Gov. James’ youngest son was my brother Bobby’s best friend when we lived in Opelika.)

Current Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey. Gov. Ivey became somewhat famous nationally when she berated all the “unvaccinated folks” in our state.

Sen. Howell Heflin - I’ll never forget that I almost had to do the Heimlich maneuver on Sen. Heflin during an interview at Mr. J’s restaurant in Troy after he experienced a violent, 10-minute coughing fit. When Sen. Heflin finally stopped coughing, he picked up on his answer like nothing had happened. (See humorous Bonus story about Sen. Heflin in today’s Reader Comments).

Sen. Jeff Sessions - was also, for a couple of months, President Trump’s attorney general.

Sen. Richard Shelby

Cong. John Lewis - also an icon of the Civil Rights Movement. The late Mr. Lewis grew up in rural Pike County.

Judge Roy Moore - The “10 Commandment’s Judge.” This future chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court later became the first Republican in decades to lose a senate race to a Democrat. Judge Moore once spoke at the Troy Exchange Club’s Prayer Breakfast and I interviewed him after his talk … What I remember about this interview is that this person gave me an acute case of the heebie jeebies.

Cong. Ron Paul - I interviewed Dr. Paul, one of my political heroes, for 30 minutes via phone for a story on “shrinkflation” that I wrote for The American Conservative.

Cong. Barry Moore - I met this native of Enterprise on “Today in L.A.” … Since he has President Trump’s all-important endorsement, Barry will soon be Senator Barry Moore (joining Katie Britt, also from Enterprise. It’s note-worthy that a little town in south Alabama will have produced two U.S. senators who will be serving at the same time.)

Community organizers civil rights leaders/cable TV pundits …

Al Sharpton - This back story is too bizarre to tell in a few sentences. I might circle back to it later.

Out of the blue, this celebrity walked right up to me when I was working at charity fund-raiser in Montgomery. I must say this kind of freaked me out.

Miscellaneous:

Dan Rather - My claim to fame with the long-time CBS News TV anchor is that I once subscribed to his Substack newsletter, then made a couple of posts Rather didn’t like and he promptly banned me from his site.

Dr. James Andrews - orthopedic surgeon to the stars. (Dr. Andrews operated on my left knee two times. Absent these two injuries, I would have become a famous football player … Not.)

Richard Scrushy, founder of Health South who later spent several years in prison for one alleged scandal I think was bogus charges. However, Scrushy was acquitted of accounting/share-holder fraud, when he was probably guilty so prosecutions can sometimes balance out.

Jimmy Rane, “The Yellow Fellow” and Alabama’s only billionaire. (Trivia: A fraternity brother of mine, Slats Slayton, came up with the “Yellow Fellow” advertising campaign which is well-known throughout the South.)

Mary Harmon Bryant - Coach Bryant’s wife.

Paul Bryant, Jr. - Coach Bryant’s son and a very successful businessman.

Deidre Downs, former Miss America who later became a physician. (Deidre, a very nice lady, later achieved more publicity for becoming the first Miss America to marry another female).

Dorothy (Doro) Bush Koch, daughter of President George H. W. Bush and sister of President George W. Bush. I interviewed this famous sibling/daughter when she was promoting a book on her father.

Mrs. Lewis Grizzard, widow of syndicated humor columnist Lewis Grizzard.

Richard Hirschman - The world’s most famous (and significant) embalmer and the person who made the embalmers’ clots a potential thermo-nuclear, world-changing story. As it turns out, Richard lives 35 miles south of me in Ozark. A trade embalmer, one of the funeral homes Richard works for is in my hometown of Troy. Richard and I enjoyed a five hour visit in my house a couple of years ago, which gave me a wonderful feature story.

Dr./Lt. Col. Theresa Long - Now retired, Lt. Col. Long is the most significant Covid whistleblower in the the U.S. military. I once interviewed her on the phone and then spent more time with her and her family at a Freedom Symposium in Huntsville.

Tom Haviland - Creator (with Laura Kasner) of the very significant embalmers surveys. While we’ve never met in person, we have exchanged several emails.

“Citizen Kane” - The owner/editor of Citizen Free Press, which replaced the Drudge Report as the go-to news aggregator for many conservatives after Drudge sold out and vanished from the face of the earth. CFP once ran dozens of my articles and I shared several emails with Kane. However, he no longer runs any of my stories and quit replying to my emails, causing me to conclude I did or wrote something that put me out of favor with this very influential influencer.

Writers/journalists of some acclaim:

Paul Finebaum - I once called his sports talk show and we, of course, both got into it on the air. (I would have won our debate, but he cut my call off).

Allen Barra

Warren St. John

Judy Woodruff, PBS, CNN and NBC News correspondent.

***

(For the first 16 or so months of my history as a Substack content creator, I thought I had an outside chance to break through to semi-famedome, at least in the niche category of “Covid Contrarian” (a term I might have coined). Alas, my momentum fizzled and then suddenly reversed. Kind of like John Travolta, I’m now working on my comeback and thus appreciate people who use this “share” button.)

Through my work on Substack or affiliation with the Brownstone Institute ..

Mary Holland, executive director of Children’s Health Defense. Through Mary’s close relationship to RFK, Jr. I am just three degrees of separation from President Trump - a connection I might exploit one day to go ahead and save the world.

Jeffrey Tucker, founder of the Brownstone Institute and a widely-read and very influential columnist. (Trivia: For many years Jeffrey lived in Auburn, where he worked with Lew Rockwell at the Mises Institute, which is based in Auburn.)

Toby Rogers - Brownstone writer who I met at a Brownstone retreat.

Dr. Meryl Nass - Substack author and regular on CHD and other alternative media podcasts. Dr. Nass and I have exchanged several emails.

Sasha Latypova - A very well-known “Covid Contrarian” I used to exchange friendly emails with. However, we got sideways with each other after I made some posts in her Reader Comments section that made her mad, which made me mad and, before you know it, we had a robust Substack Cage Match - which happens sometimes.

Mark O’Shinskie - One of my favorite Substack authors who has become a good buddy. Mark loves making friends with his readers, which counters all the friends he lost because of his views on the “Scamdemic.”

Jenna McCarthy - Substack author who always makes you laugh.

Jeff Childers - A Covid Contrarian star (219K subscribers!) who I met at a “Freedom Symposium” in Huntsville, where he was one of the keynote speakers.

Local or regional celebrities:

The late Dr.. Ralph Adams - President of Troy State for 25 years. (Also, probably George Wallace’s best friend. Trivia: Dr. Adams can be seen in the movie “Forrest Gump.”)

Bobby Jon Drinkard - Troy native and contestant on “Survivor” in two different seasons.

For a couple of weeks - 2 times - Bobby Jon Drinkard might have been the most famous citizen Troy ever produced. Bobby Jon had “15 minutes of fame” twice (which equals 30 minutes of fame).

“Sister Schubert” Barnes - Founder of Sister Schubert’s famous home-made rolls. (Carrie just bought us some!)

Sister’s real name is Patricia. She grew up around the corner from my house.

Scott Cross - Ultra-successful coach at Troy who is now the new basketball coach at Georgia Tech.

Skylar Meade - Baseball coach of the Troy Trojans who is now our town’s favorite citizen after leading our team to this year’s College World Series in Omaha. (Troy finished 6th in the entire nation!)

Note: For some reason, I never met Jon Sumrall, the former Troy coach and new head football coach at Florida who is getting ready to become much more famous.

Finally, I am quite close to my son Jack Rice, better known to everybody as “Pickle Jack McCoy” and our mischievous little dog, Annie who we don’t consider a canine.

Annie is famous for being the copy editor of this newsletter and for yapping at people who walk in our neighborhood. Lately she’s battling bouts of jealousy because she can smell dogs and cats when Carrie returns from her pet-sitting visits. (My wife is now Troy’s most famous pet sitter).

In summary …

… Per a quick count, including people not listed in this “national column,” I have met more than 90 famous people. If I can hang on a few more years, I might increase this list to an even 100. If this happens, at my eulogy my pastor can say “… and in his always-interesting life, Bill became close friends with 100 famous people … one of whom (Pickle Jack McCoy) is with us today.”

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See more Bonus Content in today’s Reader Comments. Readers are also invited to share some of their own “brush with greatness” stories.

Writer gratuities via Ko-Fi.