Star-Sightings

We get famous people in the store from time to time: movie stars, musicians, writers, of course. Everybody on the staff tries to keep it low-key. But I just heard the story of this star-sighting from last October, and I thought it was funny enough to break the rule that says you have to pretend not to recognize celebrities. This is from Scott, our music buyer:

“The day after Robert Plant and Alison Krauss played at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival last year, they stopped by Green Apple. Like anyone else I get a little star struck, but I generally refrain from disturbing famous people while they are trying to go about their business. This time was slightly different though. An album that was in heavy rotation at the time features an interesting cover of 'Stairway to Heaven,' so I decided to put it on to see what would happen.

"A couple minutes into the song, Robert Plant walks up to the counter that I'm standing behind. He's wearing bright Bermuda shorts and sandals and he’s giving me the same look that my dad gave me when I was being a smart-ass teenager. I decide to keep a straight face and do so for long enough that Mr. Plant's expression changes as he starts to wonder if it is possible that I don't know who he is. Could it be a coincidence that this song is playing? I finally crack a smile and his smirk comes back. Robert Plant says in his upright British accent, 'Who is butchering this song?' I tell him that the version is by the Mexican flamenco duo, Rodrigo y Gabriella. I ask if he really doesn't like it and he confirms. I decide not to tell him that lately I‘ve been enjoying it more than the original, a concept that would have amounted to heresy in the eyes of my 12 year old self. I just tell him that I like it and ask if the rain affected his performance the day before, which I had missed. It was a surreal interaction, this comfortable banter with someone who was a god to me in my pre-adolescence. It felt like I was chatting with one of our regulars or maybe an uncle I hadn’t seen in a while.”