I met a handful of famous musicians when I was up and coming in the So Cal scene. I also traveled quite a bit and attached myself to a variety of music scenes throughout the years. Kyuss. Sublime. Offspring. Blink (before they changed to Blink 182). Many that never made it, like Carter Peace Mission, who was friends with Blink. I always liked that new band scene and there were so many coming up in the early 90s that they weren't hard to find. I used to love the band, Tool, and I still like their music and shows... but it's not the same after you meet your heroes. Maynard used to be an Army surveyor; make of that what you will. He's a dick until you get to know him... then he's just too weird. He's older and has kids now, so maybe that's changed, but he named his first kid Devo. He very much acts like he knows more than you and is smarter. And in truth, he actually has way more education than any pop star. He was the first to point out how many perfectly great musicians are paying out of pocket to play. John Frusciante, I also very much admired until I met him. His greasy bisexuality isn't as charming as his guitar playing. Big into heroin at the time so his personality was usually tempered. I never met Jimi Hendrix, but I knew someone who knew him. Also into heroin. Also uneducated. Also beat his girlfriends. The woman I knew who knew him met him under a table at a party in Hawaii. Inside, he was a scared little boy. Back in the 90s, they were all into heroin. This was my primary disconnect because I was simply never going to try it. I was never going to take the plunge. My wife was always a more inviting option than drugged out groupies. I had a nice place to go home to that was way more comfortable than a Beverly Hills mansion. The scene was bad enough that when I was offered my first record deal, I declined. The producer literally asked me to get piercings and tattoos and even had some in mind. Drugs were everywhere. Weird shit was everywhere. And the money wasn't that great. My lawyer looked it over and said I'd owe them money if I didn't do A, B and C and that, ultimately, it amounted to about 5 cents per album sale. He said, if I sold a million albums, I'd make $50k plus $100k bonus and the most money would come from touring. The second album was tiered up, so, if you stick it out, it starts to become real money. But, do the math... a good musician gets bonused tons of nice stuff, but 80 hour work weeks where literally everyone is on drugs, you have to split it all with your band, manager, producer, etc... even if you sell a million albums, one fuck up and you could OWE. You're lucky to do an album a year. Very lucky. You are looking at $200k if you do great but there are no guarantees. If you don't hit benchmarks, you don't get paid, at all. Half the hours at a real job starts to look a lot more appealing. That's why I switched to playing just blues. I became less and less into the alt rock scene because of the people and playing blues pays great. You just stick to the basics and you can make a few hundred a night. You get respect. People aren't trying to cram drugs down you're throat. Nobody is trying to hustle a record deal out of you. The other musicians playing simple slow blues are usually really easy going, too. Eventually, I did find musicians I liked hanging out with. "Outlaw Country" scene. But still, they mostly just get fucked up all the time. It's not really conducive to family life.