one of my favorite hours

Back in the mid-late 1990’s I was working at a record label in Hollywood. I won’t say the name, but the offices were in a giant round building that looked like a stack of records. I really liked working there at first because I got a lot of free records and I naively thought I was making connections for my band.

Stuck in the finance department, most my days turned out to be not very exciting. Occasionally some famous people did make there way through the building though. The basement held two of the most famous recording studios in Los Angeles, so they were always busy making records down there. I rode the elevator with Dave Navarro one time. Another ride was with Art Alexakis. Both seemed to be very polite and genuine guys. Better than the average day gig moments for me for sure.

Mostly though, it was a grind. Tons of paperwork and errand boy shit. A lot of the people were pretty cool, and I did learn quite a bit about the record business, but I didn’t enjoy the job all that much. I really wanted to be making the music myself and not crunching numbers for the big machine and their roster of other artists.

One day I had an especially bad row with my boss. I guess I messed up something and she was pretty pissed. Looking back on it I’m sure it was my fault, but at the time I felt attacked and unappreciated. So I went down to the lunch room on the second floor to grab a coffee and smoke a cigarette on the patio. You know, cool myself off a little bit before I went back to my desk.

After a couple of smokes I headed back inside and asked for a refill. There were only a few people in the lunchroom milling around and looking at the snack selection. It was around eleven so the real lunch rush was still an hour or so away. I noticed a small, dark haired guy sitting at one of the back tables drinking some tea by himself. A flash of recognition ran through my head as I turned back to thank the lunch lady for my coffee. I knew who that guy was! I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, but I just had to introduce myself.

I walked over to his table and sheepishly cleared my throat. “Um…Hi.” I said.

“Hello.” He looked up from his magazine and smiled quizzically.

“I don’t want to bother you, but I’m a huge fan.” I shuffled my feet glad for the styrofoam coffee cup in my hands. I wouldn’t have known what to do with them otherwise.

“Oh, thanks man.” He smiled and seemed truly grateful.

“Are you in one of the studios downstairs?”

“Yeah. We’re working on the new record in A.” He said.

“Cool.” Of course I couldn’t come up with anything more impressive to say.

“Have a seat.” Three more impactful words had never been spoken to me. Well maybe my girlfriend sating “I love you” was pretty close, but this was AWESOME!

“Wow. Thanks!” The chair squeaked on the linoleum as I pulled it out and sat down.

I didn’t care that I was going to get into more trouble with my boss for being away from my desk for so long. I didn’t care that I might even get fired. I was going to hang out as long as I could. We talked for close to an hour and it was one of the best conversations of my life.

He was very grateful that at least one person at the label connected with his music. He felt at odds with the whole major label corporate thing and was worried he was going to get lost in the shuffle. I was worried for him too, but I chose not to tell him and make him regret his decision to sign with the label even more than he already did.

I mentioned before that I have been extremely fortunate to meet a number of my “heroes”. This was perhaps one of the most fortunate of those encounters I have ever had. He was kind and even funny despite his reputation. We didn’t only talk about music either. He was just as interested in me and what I was up to as I was in him. I kicked myself subsequently for not telling him about my band, but it felt like it would have been rude and self serving at the time.

Honestly I wish I could remember more specifics of what we talked about, but it’s all buried somewhere in my brain behind the whoosh of the adrenaline fandom rush I was in the middle of the entire time.

He mentioned that he was going to get another cup of tea when a voice came from the elevator in the hall, “Hey Elliott, we’re ready to get started again.”

“Okay.” He replied quietly and stood up. “It was really nice talking to you. You should come down to the studio and hang out for a while.”

“I would love to!” Needless to say I was blown away. But the dark shroud of responsibility reared its ugly head over me. “I should get back to work though.”

“Okay. Well, nice to meet you.” We shook hands and he headed off for the elevator down to continue recording what has since become one of my favorite albums.

Unfortunately I didn’t get down there to any of the session that day, or any over the next couple of days either. When I got back to my desk, my boss slammed her door loudly to prove a point and there was a pile of punishment work stacked up for me to finish ASAP. I didn’t mind though. I got to it and started to mow through all the paper with a smile on my face.

I never really told anyone about my cup of coffee with him that day. I kept it too myself. I guess because I selfishly thought I had made a new friend and if I told people about it I would appear to be bragging or showing off. I just got lucky. I was in the right place at the right time and had an hour that I will never forget.

A couple of years later he died and it broke my heart apart. Fortunately I can still listen to his music and be inspired by him. I don’t know if he remembered the time we spent talking that day, or if he even remembered meeting me at all. But I certainly do and it is one of the fondest memories that I have.

/>