Has anybody ever written a fan letter (or sent an e-mail) to a favorite musician? If so, did you get a response?

I've told this story before, but in 1976, I was so enamored of Patti Smith that I sent her a fawning fan letter. Some time later, I got a personal response from her mother, who ran Patti's fan club at the time. Very sweet, I still have it someplace. She even told me where I could get my hands on the original "Piss Factory" 45!

Aside from being e-mail penpals with a couple of The Weather Channel's OSMs* for awhile in the '90s, that's the only fan letter I've ever written. What's your story?

*OSM = On-Screen Meteorologist

My wife has a letter from a very young Michael J. Fox who appreciated her kind words towards his appearance on (the then new) Family Ties.

In the late 60's/early 70's, I wrote a few letters to DC. The response was a post card thanking me for my comments. I lost the post cards.

i've gotten emails answered.

but i' don't recall ever having written an actual leter.

renny

In the past couple of years, I've asked John Waite a few questions via his website, and he personally wrote back, answering each one of them.

Jeff

One that comes to mind is:

About 20 years ago my wife and I sent a letter to Yoko. She sent back a signed photo of herself and Sean.

In 1977, when I was a freshman in high school, Lita Ford was on Rodney on the Roq. I called up and gushed about what a fan I was and I asked for her address. She actually gave it to me (she lived on Larrabee behind what was then the Pussycat Theater).
Anyhow, I wrote her a letter. A couple of months later I got a Christmas card form her, thanking me for being a fan.

I wrote to Pete Townshend after he asked for reviews from fans concerning the '82 Farewell Tour (I can see my friend Renny chuckling right now as he reads this) who were readers of the now many years gone by long-defunct The Record magazine. I wrote to him concerning the Seattle and Portland shows that I saw. I also told him about my being hearing impaired, comments he made about hearing aids in The Kids Are Alright and advice for him.
Apparently, I touched a chord with him because I got a short response back from him thanking me for getting back to him.
I exchanged a couple of really good letters with Manny Caiati of The Del-Lords over a short period back in the '80s. I even made him a copy of the second night of Springsteen at The Tacoma Dome in 1984 for him.
When I was a kid, my Mom helped me to compose a letter to Mickey Dolenz. I never heard from him. He did, however, visit my Mom and Dad's sports shop across the street from my first house before he was famous. He bought a pair of sneakers from us-probably Converse. I didn't know about any of this until long after the fact.
I have to have written to other musicians, but I can't think of any off hand. I've been in e-mail contact (brief) with Roger McGuinn and I one of The Raspberries. I have actually gotten through and have been able to ask a question and be answered a live response back during an AOL Chat by Keith Richards and Max Weinberg separately.
Of course, all of you guys know about my repeated attempts to get through to Mr. Springsteen and hear my pleas to get a bootleg series started. And yes, I'll admit, that I once sent a letter, a very gushy one, to Patti Scialfa (pre-Tunnel of Love). I threw a picture in there of of me and my dog at the time. I'm pretty sure her looking at me broke every window in her place. LOL!
Offhand, I can't think if I've ever sent a letter to any actors or actresses. I have sent letters to sports figures.

A couple of years ago, I ordered Katrina (Katrina and the Waves) Leskanich's "Turn the Tide" CD from her website and, under "message" or something similar, put a sentence about it being nice to have her recording again. When the disc arrived, she had autographed it and included a note thanking me for my email, telling me how much she liked Atlanta, has friends in Marietta, etc.

Back in th early '80s, I interviewed a young actress named Terri Nunn, who told me about her new "sideline," a Blondie-modeled band called Berlin. She asked if I would send her a copy of the finished article, which I did, and I received a very nice thank you note back from her.

About ten years ago, I stood in line to get actress Mary McCormack's autograph. At the time, she had just appeared in the film "Private Parts", but I mentioned to her that I had been a fan of the show "Murder One", expressing my frustration over the fact that each of the episodes had aired only once, and that none of them (at that time) had ever been rerun. She told me to jot down my address and she'd see if she had any tapes of the episodes I had missed; not more than a couple of days later I recieved a very sweet handwritten note from her in the mail, apologizing for being unable to find them.

It is also worth noting that Mary McCormack is an absolute knockout in person, as well as on the screen.

No fan letters, but I've sold cd's to David Grisman & Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo), briefly corresponded with Roger McGuinn & Patti Rothberg by email; & have corresponded by email quite a bit with Shari Ulrich.

If I remember right, I emailed McGuinn about a Usenet post he did several years ago (& he did write back) & the others were all business related.

All were nice folks.

I also got to meet quite a few late 70's performers when I was a college dj. I'll never forget on my 18th birthday, I got to choose whether to go backstage at Ted Nugent or Wendy Waldman. I picked Wendy Waldman, who was an absolute sweetheart, & after the show was over played waitress by serving us all beer out of a keg (or 3) she had backstage. Needless to say, I got ripped!

I also met her a second time when I interviewed her at a double bill with Al Stewart (who I unfortunately didn't meet).

That show was about 70 miles away from home. I'll never forget the drive home with my friend Jim : Intense fog (the weather, not our brains.... well maybe both!) caused peak freeway speeds of 35 miles per hour at 3:30 AM, & then running out of gas.... This was after a rather odd 2 hour long breakfast with a couple groupies who wanted us to come to Canada with them & we wanted them to come to Seattle with us........

Personally, the only celebrities I've ever written to are the New Orleans band, the Neville Brothers. I maintain a website about their music, so I have occasional contact with them (but, more often than not, I am in touch with their production company or managers.) Their management takes good care of me, although I rarely ask any favors of them.

About 5 years ago, my younger sister was on a misson to get autographs from every celebrity she, her kids or anyone else she knew liked. She wrote letters to dozens (if not hundreds) of people and most responded in kind and sent autographed photos. Her kids' walls are lined with autographed photos of a variety of singers and actors (including one from John Ritter, just a few weeks before he passed away.)

She got me one from Kurtwood Smith (from "That 70s Show") on which he (or his representative) wrote, "To Jon. Best to ya, dumbass."

Fan letters that elicited responses -- Mickey Dolenz and Sally Field

When I worked for an airline in the Bay Area I met and had warm conversations with:

Richie Furay (autographed a boarding pass for me)
Daniel Ellsburg (ok, not a rock star, but pretty damn cool)
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Angela Bofil (who was tired, sleepy, and cranky but still cool)
Greg Khin (we lost the band's piano . . . found it the next day)
Mike Love (lost his suitcase but he was also very cool about it -- probably due to all the TM)
Pat Paulsen
Senator John Glenn

On my flights but I didn't get to meet them:

Jethro Tull
Pretenders

Hanging out in the airport but I didnt' get to meet them:

Donna Summer
Billie Jean King
Lots of guys with Hells Angels jackets

I think I posted this before but just in case...

I have never written anyone but did run into and get autographs from Greg Allman, Mark Hamill and Elton John.

Also spoke to Steve Miller, Elton and George Harrison on the show Rockline and received a signed copy of Cloud Nine. It is my jewel.

When you order a cd from Joe Grushecky's web site, he includes a handwritten note thanking you for the order.

On that note I got several autographed Cd's from Leon Russell (and a thank you note) , one from Dave Edmunds, a couple from each of Sun Legends (the minor stars) Billy Lee Riley and Sonny Burgess.

A note from Steve Vai (I sent him a note - 20 years ago telling him that Cutlers - the biggest record store in New Haven (Yale) wanted to carry his then - mail order only LP Flexable.

Also got autographed releases (and emails) from former Mothers - Don Preston and several from Jimmy Carl Black.

Also have the cancelled checks with their autographs on back.

I have been holding off on this because I keep hoping that the memory will go away but, although I have never written a fan letter, I was involved in transmitting one.

Some years ago a friend of mine had a huge crush on Lyle Lovett. We had tickets to see him at the Bottom Line and she wanted to get a note to him telling him how much she enjoyed his music and how much fun it was doing her workout to the Large Band album. We knew the artists had to pass through the crowd at the Bottom Line so we figured we would pass it to him then. She asked me to hold it for her so for some reason lost to the mists of time I stuck it in my shirt.

The moment arrived and as he passed she started urging, give it to him, give it to him. The letter must have gotten lodged on a button or something because for the life of me I could not pull it out. Desperate she grabbed at his arm and yes, tried to make him meet the letter half way by attempting to put his hand down my shirt.

I managed to free the letter and get it in his hand without excessive groping but I am sure it looked and felt like she was trying to get his hand down my shirt. For some reason she never got a response to the note.

To this day I am not sure which of us he thinks is the big fan who works out to the Large Band album.

You know Lyle is in my current top 10 but that was just plain disturbing. It is probably going to take a while to clean my brain out on that one. Thanks a lot. We all could have done w/o that one.

Yer banned!
LOL

Federico,
Thanks for sharing that - it's one of the most amusing stories I've heard in a long time. At least you can be grateful for the fact that no tabloid photographers were present at the time. Can you imagine how they could have run with a photo like that?

Tee Hee.

I used to play in bar bands. I met one girlfriend with a somewhat similar story. I was playing one night & a female in the audience kept smiling at me. I noticed her & also noticed the guy she was with. Later HE handed me a note that she was interested in me. At the time I was involved with someone else, but I kept the note & called her a few months later & we did get together for a few months. If i remember right the person who handed me the note was one of her ex's, or possibly a friend of her's.