I don’t have a lot of idols in my life. There are celebrities I’d be very shy towards, but it’s not like I subscribe to Harrison Ford’s ethos or ponder what Matt Damon would do in a situation. It’s an important distinction – can I take what someone has to teach, and use it to rock out even harder every day of my life, or do I buy their headshot along with Ted Danson’s in a twofer on Hollywood & Highland?
Last week I met someone who falls neatly into the former category, and in a stunning twist I wasn’t shy toward them. That’s because Andrew W.K. is there to throw down. He has literally no time for negativity.
Read more (plus another video) after the jump!
I didn’t get what Andrew W.K. was fighting for until I saw him open for They Might Be Giants in 2004, at USC’s welcome week. The energy was out of control, and the audience was so blindsided by his unbelievable live act that they stormed the stage and hoisted him above their shoulders. You can see me geek out on Andrew about this moment in the video above – and as anyone who’s geeked out can tell you, Andrew’s response is all a geeking-out fan could crave:
A) He remembered this moment, which was so vital to me, even existed in the first place, and
B) He also connected with it and had stuff to share about it other than “Thanks.”
You can see the look on my face at about 1:26 as I realize this is about to happen. It’s pretty much the happiest face I tend to make, unless Maria and I are cartwheeling down a gingerbread mountain while jaybirds sing “Why Do Fools Fall in Love.”
Ever since watching him demolish the crowd’s barriers of folded-arms coolness back in 2004, I’ve been a fan and I’ve bought every album he’s made (Close Calls With Brick Walls was my jam in the summer of ’07). When Maria and I landed in New York for a vacation this past week, I recognized I had one shot at trying to shoot a 5sf with Andrew and I sent his management this 2008 video of me celebrating my graduation from USC with the music that started it all:
There are two types of celebrities: The kind who will respond to that sort of video with a bemused smirk, and the kind who will show up on 38th St. and 10th Ave. to throw down with you. It’s another important distinction. Guess which category Andrew fell into.
