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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 Paul on December 16, 2015 at 5:06pm

Zac brown, bbq's for his concert goers before the show.

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Permalink Reply by Ian Baldock on December 16, 2015 at 5:45pm

That makes me a Zac Brown fan! For gods sakes lighten up. Its just a thread, why cant I just hear about people signing!

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Permalink Reply by Barry S on December 16, 2015 at 6:46pm

He has played at the bar I work a couple of times. Met him once, he is very nice. Blackberry Smoke does a decent M&G. $75 most if not all goes to charity.

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Permalink Reply by Coachgd on December 16, 2015 at 8:14pm

A paid meet and greet reminds me of lyrics by Tom Petty from the Last DJ:

"How much you will pay, for what you used to get for free"

Do you really think that being back stage or a private room is any different then meeting an artist at the merch booth? They will shake your hand, say hello, smile and take a photo with you and sign a couple of items.... next.... same thing for the following person.

Maybe they will have a nice background for the photo, and perhaps fewer people, but overall I believe it is the same experience except actually going backstage.

There has never been more than 50 people at a meet and greet that I have been to after a show. I have only done one paid meet and greet but the tickets to the show were free, so why not? Not saying I wouldn't pay again, especially for one of the bigger named artists. If Van Halen ever did one, I would pay up in a heart beat-- depending on how much it was.

In my opinion, KISS and Motley Crue can keep it! $1500 is outrageous! That's just a money grab and unnecessary. But hey, if people are willing to pay, I guess they will continue to charge that much.

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Permalink Reply by Adam Halloran on December 17, 2015 at 4:22am

Front row packages for McCartney are upward to 2k and all that includes is a tour bag, SoundCheck, I believe a small meal, and front row (not center)tickets and of course no guarantee of meeting or greeting him.

It all depends on the individual. I can't fault Motley Crue or KISS if the market is there. If the 2K for McCartney involved meeting him I would pay it in a heart beat. I can understand how long time fans will pay this much irrationally.

There are only a handful of artists alive I would pay over $500 or more to meet if given the opportunity.

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Permalink Reply by RobO on December 17, 2015 at 6:16am

I paid for the KISS meet & greet a few years back at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin. It turned out to be worth every penny for a long time rock and roll fan. I have been going to concerts there for 35 years and to have the ability to stroll backstage multiple times during the day was worth it alone.

A few highlights

Attending a unplugged mini-show (No makeup) in the afternoon with only 20 people backstage in a open tent. It was laid back and you could request songs, sing with them, joke with them and snag lots of memrobilia for free. Picks, drum sticks, etc...

Having the ability to talk to each member, get lots of signitures, and chill with the band. It was not rushed. Gene Simmons turned out to be the nice one! He spent time with everyone and seemed to truely enjoy the conversations. Side note: One guy brought a huge board with at least 10 items taped to it with arrows pointing to where he wanted things signed. He got everything signed! Smart. He made it easy and the band appreciated it!

Going backstage once again at night (during Def Leppard) to get your photo with KISS in full makeup before they took the stage.

All in all a great event that is expensive but worth it for the right people.

A few other things.

1. I have made my money back from selling some of the items I received. I still have plenty of special items from the day.

2. The Milwukee Journal did a piece on Meet and Greets and I was interviewed. Since then I have had people actually mad at me for paying that much! Some family members give me attitude about it! I guess I should have gone to the Super Bowl instead! They could justify dropping $1200 on that.

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Permalink Reply by Terry G. on December 17, 2015 at 1:00pm

RobO's post is exactly the difference between a private M&G and signing at the merch stand. If you read that and still think they are both the same thing....and again, I think this thread can accommodate both "styles" of M&G, as that information would be beneficial to those of us who collect autographs at the venue- as I stated before- signing outside the venue is not a M&G and shouldn't be included in this thread, IMO.

That said, you can include Alan Parsons as one who signs at the merch stand. last tour, he signed anything you wanted, with no limits. He was selling his remastered CDs at his table, so I bought 4 of those and had brought 6 albums, and he signed them all and commented about the Black Crowes shirt I was wearing. John Hiatt also did so at a recent show, signed 3 albums and was very nice to everyone.

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Permalink Reply by Coachgd on December 17, 2015 at 3:05pm

No question, Rob's experience was great and well worth it to him. However, I think that is the exception rather than the rule when it comes to meet and greets. Having the chance to hear a mini acoustic set as well as the opportunity to get guitar pics and sticks and your personal items signed would be awesome!

From what I have experienced and from what others have told me about other artists meet and greets that isn't the case. However, I too enjoy hearing about those "special" experiences just in case I may want to do the same. Most of the time it is spelled out on the artists web site as to what exactly you are getting for your money.

I also agree with you that artists signing out by the bus isn't a meet and greet. Even though you may get a photo with the artist and they sign your items, you never know if or when an artist may stop. I've had a lot of success waiting out by the bus, but I've also been ignored several times as well. Even a few time, I've gotten an item taken to the bus, and it's has come back signed, but I never actually met the person (Bret Michaels, Brian Setzer, Kenny Rogers, Debbie Harry) and that hardly constitutes a meet and greet.

Anyway, I missed Alan Parsons when he came to town but I heard he was great here too.

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Permalink Reply by Robin McKay on December 17, 2015 at 3:22pm

Quite simply put, an M&G is where you meet the celebrity, free or otherwise, for a photo/autograph. Buying at a merchandise table isn't the same thing, though technically you could class it as thus.

I've no objection paying big money to meet big names as I probably wouldn't get that chance again - an example is meeting Michael J. Fox last July at L.F.C.C. I will say I paid £445 to meet him - that included a lifelong photograph, an autograph, the talks and other interesting merchandise. You would NEVER get such a personal moment like that in the street and is something to treasure forever and in this day and age, £445 is a modest amount of money.

Also, you could meet the big guns at L.F.C.C. at a starting price of around £100 and for Fox and Sigourney Weaver, that is reasonable, but I wanted to ensure I met Fox as he was one of the deal breakers for me for going to L.F.C.C. last July and with an autograph included and a once-in-a-lifetime cast reunion, the opportunity was too tempting to resist and now that is a lifelong memento.

I'm also not stupid - I know the celebrity in question will never remember you for the most part and also for the most part, are in it for the money more than likely too, but the celebrity and the fan both get what they want, so there's no harm there and the rates to meet the celebrity were reasonable - the diamond packages were only if you wanted to go the extra mile. Michael and Sigourney seemed like reasonable individuals - not rude but not, I would say, overly forthcoming, but then I caught Sigourney in a photo shoot and by the time I said "Thank You," she had her eyes fixed on the next individual, but at least I got to meet her. When I said hello to Michael at the shoot, he didn't look, he just nodded his head, what seemed almost dismissive, but I can't blame him, taking his situation into account and he did give eye contact when he signed a BTTF 8x10 - it wasn't exactly a warm look, just an expressionless one, but he probably had enough long before I had my photo shoot or autograph signed and since I had about 10 seconds with each, if that, with each of them, its not fair to make a judgment based on such a short amount of time.