Lou Curtiss (Folk music legend): “It wasn't exactly on stage but I was playing country music in a band one summer up in Weed, Ca., up by Mount Shasta. The owner of the club said to us when he hired us, "Now I don't want you boys to get involved in the fight". He took it for granted there would be one. And there was. It was the only time I ever played behind a cage.”

Paul Shaffer (Private Domain / Bratz): “One Saturday morning in the 80's, after a late gig at the Belly Up, I was awakened by a super loud guitar solo from a neighbor playing the stereo. In my anger and haste I went to the window and suddenly recognized the song. It was a Jack Butler guitar solo and then my voice came screaming at me from down the street. They were playing our record and partying! Nice, but a strange feeling.”

Thea Tochihara (Social Club) : “ The whole saying "you can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friends nose" is apparently something that I'm determined to prove as a fallacy once I've had a cocktail or two. A few years ago I was playing in a small wine bar, Jake's on Sixth, with a little blues project I used to play in called Ray Mo. It was actually pretty crowded that night so that the small PA we brought didn't quite cut over the buzz. I was approached by a drunk man in fancy button up black shirt complete with teetering wine glass, spilling on each sway. Excuse my inability to remember this very important detail, but he said something like "play Freebird!," or some equivalent, we've all had that guy. My feelings were mixed...on the one hand, obscenely drunk and obnoxious, on the other hand, lack of inhibitions made him a fun fan who cheered and boogied with the best of em...but give em an inch and they'll take your mic. He got past me a time or two...he would not give up no matter what I threatened. So, third and final time, Thea's finger up drunk mans nose. Drunk man loses. Thea wins.”

Joe Mendoza (The Spring Collection): “I had a guy ask to feel my fingers as I was setting up. He wanted to know if I was real guitar player. As I stood in front of him holding a guitar, on stage. I told him, "uh no, you'll find out in a couple of minutes".

Sppike Mike Muellenberg (League of Liars): “I hang an air freshener from the neck of all the basses I play. This is how that practice, which has become a trademark for me, came to be. I've always been a fan of the cult movie Repo Man from the 80's and every car always had one of the "little tree" air fresheners in it. I started putting them in my car back in the early 80's as a tribute to the film. One day while at band practice in our hot and sweaty studio, my drummer, who at the time was a body builder and consumed tremendous amounts of protein, had terrible gas. This day he was unbelievably foul and kept letting them rip! So in an attempt to buffer his foulness, I always played to his right, slightly downwind. But finally, I ran out to my car and grabbed the little tree off the rear view mirror and put it on my bass guitar head. It's stuck ever since.”