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Meet & Greet Experiences

As far as autograph collecting and music fan experiences goes, I find the range of stories I hear about various meet & greets to be pretty fascinating. I've heard of people paying modest fees (or nothing) for wonderful, fun experiences - and other stories of fans shelling out large amounts of money for a massive disappointment. And, of course, everything in between.

I thought we should have a comprehensive thread on the topic. Have you been to a pre-show or post-show meet and greet or know someone who has? Was it a bargain or a ripoff? What was the mood - structured and hurried or casual and fun?

My favorite band does meet and greets at every headline show they perform on this tour, chosen at fandom by fans who sign up for their fanclub and enter the show-specific drawing. There is no charge, and (usually) I don't believe a show ticket is even required. They were asked about this in an interview early this tour, and the response from one of the band members, Martin, was pretty passionate about musicians who charge high prices for meet & greets. FYI: I get that this band isn't quite a household name yet, so there might be a sentiment of "Who are they to say . . ." However they have an interesting perspective as both successful musicians with Top 10 records and huge music fans themselves).

Here's that portion of the interview:

https://youtu.be/l1da-ZW_3OA?t=6m48s

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Permalink Reply by marc e on November 8, 2017 at 1:55pm

if ur seroius ,gene will do anything for money

so if u have enough u can get anything

he selling guitars at 10 k

kiss meet and greats are great if u want to pay way to much.

also paul is selling his stuff for 10k .

not really sure what ur looking for .they will only do what ur paying them for.its all about the money.so its all spelled out ahead of time

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Permalink Reply by Robert on November 9, 2017 at 4:01am

Actually John, I went ahead and booked one of their M&Gs in Europe in the Spring. Ended up getting all the stuff (something like 8 from Paul and 7 from Gene - wish I took more stuff!) - some of them were consignments. KISS are greedy bastards so I didn´t really regret pulling a bit of trick with them, to be honest! Still, M&G is really done properly and give you monies worth if you are a big fan. They really ensure you get everything a KISS fan would hope for - intimate acoustic show, lengthy signing session, photos with and without make-up and best tickets in the house. Had a blast, even though I am not a big fan! Bands like Sabbath, Aerosmith etc. could learn from them how to handle this properly.

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Permalink Reply by Robin McKay on May 26, 2017 at 12:31pm

Meeting Brian May

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Permalink Reply by Travis Aldous on November 8, 2017 at 1:38pm

I’m wondering if JD Souther still signs for free after his shows. I’m going to see him on Friday in Annapolis and I’m hoping so .Some of the meet and greets are fantastic I just had a wonderful experience with the band Toto who signed several items for me but I’ve also heard horror stories that cheap trick was awful as was Pat Benatar and you couldn’t bring anything of your own to get done. Quite frankly for the prices they’re charging they should sign whatever you put in front of them within reason I saw a lot of cases where it seems like the meeting greet get you discounted been a lot of merchandise but sometimes not even an autograph at all

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Permalink Reply by Rich on January 25, 2018 at 9:00am

Haim started doing paid meet and greets for their upcoming tour - for $250. Seems a bit high, but they have just the type of fans who will shell it out without thinking, I suppose.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on November 3, 2018 at 1:20pm

Just saw Conan O'Brien doing meet and greets on his comedy tour. Meet and greet package for my local show (includes front row ticket) is $850, which seems . . . excessive.

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Permalink Reply by Chad B on November 3, 2018 at 7:46pm

I wonder how many will she’ll that out. Not me!

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Permalink Reply by Rich on December 30, 2018 at 6:54pm

I still find it interesting to see what some of these meet & greet packages offer. This one recently popped up, and while I know next to nothing about Lennon Stella (a young talent whose career is still on the rise after a supporting role in Nashville), I have to say this is an especially neat package. I believe the price on this was $160.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Roberts on January 3, 2019 at 3:38pm

Thanks for keeping this thread alive Rich - I went back and read a bunch. Very interesting stuff.

Mark

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Permalink Reply by TQ on January 3, 2019 at 5:28pm

I had a meet and greet with Wayne Newton in Vegas. I paid probably more than double the normal ticket cost and went away with mixed opinions.

there was no autographs, only an official photograph who later charged you an additional usd65 for the photos on top of the experience cost. This was not communicated to us before and we were not allowed to use our phones.

the one redeeming thing was Wayne himself. We all lined up and took turns at getting a photo and basically shaking his hand- very production line. When I was my turn, and being a fair bit younger than the others there, I did the pleasantries, got the photo and then said ‘mr Newton can I ask you a question’. He smiled and said of course. I asked him for a piece of life advice for that point in my life. At this point there was still a large line, the managers etc that could have made it rushed and uncomfortable. Instead, he stopped, looked at me, thought for a really long time and gave me a really personal and thoughtful answer. It was definitely not a brush off thing at all. He spent a really long time and at no point was I rushed, and certainly not by him.

so in the end, like most meet and greets it was a very money orientated cash grab, but mr Newton himself was awesome and genuine so I still cherish the experience.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on January 11, 2019 at 11:53am

If you live in the LA area, Maggie Roger's is doing a free meet and greet to celebrate her album release at the Fonda. https://twitter.com/maggierogers/status/1083812770967998464?s=19