I recently had an awkward interaction that reminded of another awkward interaction

This is the very gracious Gregory L. King, President of the University of Mount Union. Or just "Greg" to those of us who are clueless and don't know who he is.

Last month I had the privilege of speaking to business students at the University of Mount Union about my career in corporate communications. I was one of several presenters representing a variety of business disciplines, and we spent the minutes before the start of the program mingling with students, faculty and each other.

At one point, a friendly guy walked up to me, looked at my name tag and said, "Hi Scott, Greg King." We shook hands and made small talk for a few minutes before I asked him what his role was at the school.

"I'm the president," he said very matter-of-factly.

Oh. The president of the university. And I had no idea who he was. Had I known his identity, I'm sure I would have called him "Mr. King" rather than "Greg." And I certainly would have been more deferential than I was.

He was clearly an unpretentious person, though, and dismissed my apology with a wave of his hand.

"No worries, I should have been wearing a name tag!" he laughed.

I have a knack for making these sorts of conversational gaffes, and I'm always grateful to be bailed out by others who – like me, I hope – will talk to anyone at any time about anything and don't take themselves at all seriously.

I was reliving the interaction on my drive home when another famous Scott mistake came to mind.

I think I've related here before how Terry and I have come to be friends with jazz saxophonist Dave Koz. Dave is one of the friendliest (and most talented) people you'll ever meet, and his annual Christmas shows are in the "must see" category for us when he comes to Cleveland.

One of the perks of knowing Dave is that his wonderful assistant, Janice, will unhesitatingly leave us two backstage passes so we can say hello to Dave and his band whenever they come to Playhouse Square.

During one of these post-show meet-and-greets several years ago, I made a point of seeking out Dave's longtime musical director and keyboardist Brian Simpson to tell him how much I enjoyed his musicianship and his arrangements of Dave's songs.

I saw him walking down a backstage corridor and called after him. Only I somehow misremembered his first name, and instead of calling "Brian!" I yelled, "Bill! Bill!"

He of course didn't turn around. Why would he? His name isn't Bill.

It took me a few minutes to realize this. I think I eventually tracked him down, but the damage had been done and I was pretty embarrassed.

This is Brian Simpson. "Brian," mind you, not "Bill."

As with Mr. King, I was reliving (and regretting) what had happened on the car ride home. Terry looked over at me at one point and saw I was making a sour face.

"Are you remembering when you called him Bill instead of Brian?" she asked me.

"Yes," I replied through gritted teeth.

Every once in a while, one of us will yell "Bill! Bill!" Usually for no reason at all.

It still makes me wince.

Famous people I've met who would never remember me in a million years

Many people have a story about an encounter they've had with a famous person, whether it was in an airport or restaurant, at a sporting event, or wherever.

And by the way, I always say you should never judge celebrities based on your one encounter with them, good or bad. You're not always at your best (or worst), and there should be some understanding on our part that in the end, they're people just like us.

Anyway, for whatever reason, I've had the opportunity to encounter a few famous types. I have friends and co-workers who have met far more stars and world-class athletes than me, but I'm going to say I've met more than the average person.

And by "meet," I mean you have to shake their hand and/or have direct conversation with them, no matter how brief.

Here's my list:

Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Sarah Silverman
I met the three of them on the set of a movie in which my company is pretty heavily integrated. The release of the movie, titled "Marry Me," has been pushed back a few times and is now set for February 2022. The photo at the top of this post is Sarah and me. She might actually have a faint memory of me because we talked for a good 10 minutes on the set and she once did a skit about Vitamix on "Saturday Night Live." She was nice. Owen Wilson was also nice, though I didn't get to speak with him for nearly as long. As for J-Lo, she was sitting in a director's chair and I just walked up to her, introduced myself, and quickly said how excited we were to be involved in the film. She was soft-spoken and polite to me, but clearly I wasn't supposed to do this. I think I interrupted her while she was studying her lines or something. I chalk it up to being a hayseed Midwestern PR guy who didn't know any better.

Gerard Butler

Met him a few years ago at the Sundance Film Festival. He drank lemon curd directly from one of our Vitamix containers. That's a true story. He was extremely friendly, in part because he had clearly been imbibing that evening. I asked if I could send him a Vitamix to use and possibly post about on social media. His response was, "You sure can!", only he inserted an extremely bad word in gerund form between "sure" and "can." It was in his Gerard Butler Scottish accent, which made the whole thing even better.

Sting
I wrote about the encounter my nephew Mark and I had with the Sting-ster a few years ago. It was July 1996 and we met him before a concert. I have seen Sting play live 10 times in the past 33 years, but this was the only time I actually got to shake his hand and briefly converse with him. He was a little distracted in that he was about to go out and play a show in front of a big crowd, but he was also used to these little meet-and-greets and was very nice about the whole thing.

Octavia Spencer
Had my picture taken with this wonderful actress a few years ago after she gave a speech in Cleveland. I was one of maybe a hundred people with whom she shared a handshake, a moment of small talk, and a quick photo. And then I moved on. And so, I'm guessing, did she.

Colin Hay
My roster of truly famous people gets really thin really fast, but I enjoyed meeting Mr. Hay, the former lead singer of Men at Work and someone whose solo work I've followed and listened to regularly for three-plus decades. This also happened with Nephew Mark, and it was after a show Colin played at the Winchester in Lakewood, Ohio. Terry always makes fun of the fact that in the photo I took with Colin, he has a sour expression on his face, while in the photo of Colin with Mark, he was smiling broadly. I choose to think he was just overwhelmed meeting his #1 fan (me).

Bob Barker and Meredith Vieira
This was when I was a contestant on The Price Is Right and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, respectively. I will not go into detail here, since Terry will once again accuse me of bringing these experiences up at every possible opportunity. I will only include links to The Price Is Right video here and the Millionaire video here. And that's it. Really, I won't say anything else about this.

Dave Koz
Dave is a big deal in the smooth jazz world. A supremely talented saxophonist. You either know him or, as in most cases, you don't. But I think he led Arsenio Hall's house band for a while. And he used to appear regularly on "General Hospital." And Terry and I have become friends with him, so he counts. He's the only person on this list who definitely does know who I am.

Bernie Kosar
My Cleveland friends certainly know who Bernie is, as do football fans from around the country. He was the face of the Browns' franchise in the 80s and early 90s, and he is a big fan of Vitamix. In fact, if you saw Bernie five years ago and then looked at the photo on the right, you almost wouldn't believe it's the same person. He has really slimmed down and now works to help others understand the value of proper nutrition.

Hockey Players You May or May Not Know
Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux, and Marty McSorley. This was when I was sports writing. All very nice gentlemen. The first two are famous as two of the greatest hockey players of all time. The third was famous for punching people. Covering hockey taught me that in 95% of cases, the fighters are the nicest guys you'll ever want to me. Off the ice, that is. On the ice, they are likely to cause you permanent facial damage. I met Marty off the ice and he was a delight to talk to.

Other Athletes That, Again, You May Not Know
And again, this was from my sports journalism days. Carlos Baerga, Kenny Lofton, Dennis Eckersley, Johnny Damon, and Warren Sapp are on the list. There were probably others, but we're really starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel now, so let's stop.

The point is, almost none of these people would (or could) ever remember who I am, but I remember all of them. Such is the nature of fame.

That time I mistakenly called a guy Bill...over and over

We all have things we've said or done in our lives that make us wince when we recall them.

And they're not even necessarily "bad" things, just embarrassing for one reason or another.

I have many of these things. One is the "Bill" incident.

Some background: Terry and I have, for many years, been fans of jazz saxophonist Dave Koz. It's a long story, but we have gotten to know Dave well and always avail ourselves of the two backstage passes he leaves for us every time he plays in Cleveland.

For many years, Dave's keyboardist and musical arranger has been a guy named Brian Simpson. Brian is very talented, and I always enjoy his arrangements of Dave's songs and how he holds the band together.

Some years ago after one of Dave's shows, we went backstage and I wanted to tell Brian how much I appreciate his work. I caught a glimpse of him as he was walking away and called after him.

Except, for some reason, I suddenly thought his name was Bill.

"BILL! BILL!" I yelled as he, inexplicably to me, just kept walking down the hallway, not turning around. "BILL!"

Very quietly, Terry leaned over to me and said, "I think his name is Brian."

It was, of course. And still is.

It was embarrassing. And Brian never did hear/see me that night.

As we were driving home, Terry looked over at me and saw a grimace on my face.

"Are you thinking about the fact that you called him Bill?" she asked.

"Yes," I said through clenched teeth.

A couple of years ago we again found ourselves backstage after a Dave Koz show, and this time I did get a chance to meet Brian. I even called him by his actual name. And I told him the story of the time I yelled "BILL!" when trying to track him down.

I now think the story is hilarious. Brian seemed a bit confused and honestly not especially amused by it.

No matter. Any time Terry and I encounter someone named Bill now, one of us will inevitably say, "BILL!"

No one else gets it, but we think it's hilarious.

That's marriage for you.

Let's do the iPod Shuffle

A couple of years ago, there was a Facebook meme that instructed people to put their iPods on shuffle and list the first five songs that came up. I thought that might be fun to do, especially since my iPod is filled with all kinds of strange music.

And I do mean all kinds. I have reggae and rock, classical and country, ska and salsa (OK, I don't actually have any salsa music, but I needed a musical genre that began with "s" to complete the pattern of alliteration).

Anyway, as I type this, I haven't yet pressed the "shuffle" button, so I don't know what five songs will pop up first. But I'm predicting that Sting and Colin Hay will both be in there, since I have just about everything those two artists have ever recorded. And there's a good chance some Dave Matthews Band and Billy Joel will make the cut, too. Let's see what happens:

(1) "Murder by Numbers" - The Police
OK, this pretty much qualifies as a Sting song since he co-wrote and recorded it as the frontman for The Police in 1983. I love Sting. I have been obsessed with his music for nearly 30 years. I actually met him, too. It was July 1996 and I managed to score a backstage pass with my nephew Mark when Sting was performing at Blossom Music Center. We met him before the show, and he was as nice as anyone can be when they're getting ready to perform in front of 12,000 people in about 15 minutes. He never calls, though...

(2) "Genus Rockus" - SRO
Who? What? There are only about five people in this world who would hear that song title and know what it is. It's a song written by my good buddy Nathan Woods and recorded by SRO, the two-man band that consisted of me, Nathan, and an old IBM personal computer. We recorded one album, titled "Sandlot Tunes," in the summer of 1990. And I'm just vain enough to have my own music on my iPod. Hey, I like listening to it, OK? And I have to say, I turn in a particularly nice tenor sax performance on this song, which we always used as our closer when playing live.

(3) "Moondance" - Van Morrison
I was stunningly ignorant of Van Morrison and his music until I joined a band called Tooney Loons about 13 years ago. I was by far the youngest guy in the group, which played a lot of Eagles, Beatles and Van Morrison stuff. This is one of Van's most popular songs. If I knew how to play the flute, I would join a band again just to play this. What a great tune.

(4) "Cuban Highway" - Dave Koz
Dave Koz is the king of smooth jazz. I realize that's an almost meaningless designation to most of you, but trust me when I say that when it comes to smooth jazz, Dave is The Man. Strangely enough, he's also a good acquaintance of Terry and me. We met him at a benefit concert in 2000, and since then he has always graciously left us tickets to his shows and backstage passes whenever he plays in Cleveland. He's also my favorite Jewish saxophone player, in that he's the only Jewish saxophone player I know.

By the way, I mentioned that I have a lot of different kinds of music on my iPod, but so far we've had three rock-pop songs and a smooth jazz tune. Let's hope we pull off another genre with song #5...

(5) Movement #4 ("Presto") from Beethoven's 9th Symphony - Cleveland Orchestra
Yes! I know it totally seems like I staged that, but this really is the fifth song that came up in my random iPod shuffle.  I have just enough knowledge of classical music to be dangerous, and Beethoven's 9th is definitely my favorite of his symphonies. Powerful, emotional, almost mind-bending stuff. Just incredible music from one of the few people in history who truly deserves the title of "musical genius." Give it a listen if you haven't already.


So in the end we have three musical genres and no sign of the predicted Colin Hay, Dave Matthews and Billy Joel sightings. Which is fine. I was scared to death Barry Manilow, Pet Shop Boys or Cyndi Lauper would come up and make you all think less of me...

(Hey, feel free to do the "Top 5 Shuffle" with your iPod and report the results below in the comments!)