So, today was the last day of school for my kids. It was an odd kind of day; school let out at 11:30. Trillian had a birthday party to go to, so she rode with her best friend’s mom. I picked up Zaphod and took him back to work with me. (I wasn’t the only one with a kid at work this week).
Trillian’s best friend (I need to give her a blog name because she’s quite a character) is spending the night here with us tonight, so I headed to her dad’s studio to make “the trade”. Her dad has a studio on 17th, only a few minutes away from where I work.
So anyway, I go in the back door quietly (you never know when they’re “hot” up in the studio), and Trillian’s friend says “There’s somebody famous up there, although I’ve never heard of him”. I heard the playback coming from the console, it sounded vaguely familiar. Not the usual country – this was up my alley. It was definitely old-style R&B.
The girls walked up the stairs to the actual studio, so I sheepishly followed. There was Jay (Trillian’s friend’s dad) dancing in front of the mixing board. He hollered over the playback: you’re just in time to see Delbert McClinton sing!
Well, they weren’t recording, they were filming something. An interview, a video, a documentary, I have no idea. There was a beautiful woman singing with him (go figure), and they were doing a rockin’ number I’d never heard before.
I stood there gawking like a fanboy.
We Nashvillians pride ourselves in our non-gawkiness. We give celebrities their space, usually. But I just stood there, awestruck. Then, they finished whatever they were doing in the vocal booth, just as Jay and I were making the kid exchange. So, out walks Delbert McClinton, singer babe, and a cameraman into the midst of running children, the engineer & his wife, a couple of other people, and a gawking computer programmer. It was probably quite a scene.
As Mr McClinton passed by to go outside to take some photographs, he looked at me and gave me a friendly “How ya doin’?” I was trying to keep my daughter from running into the drum booth, so I just nodded and said something to the effect of “plubuhmerdosh”. Or something like that.
I know Ford Prefect is also a big Delbert McClinton fan, so he’ll probably punch me when I see him next. Me? I’m still on a kind of high, even though I’ve got three kids to look after and a kitchen to clean.
I love living in this town.
Shoot The Moose 
May 31, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Delbert is not a tall feller, is he? I was shocked the first time I saw him up close. A voice like that…bigger than life.
June 1, 2007 at 6:09 am
Yep – I noticed that sista. Very rarely do I run into someone “in the business” that’s shorter than me.
But he was nice; I mean, it had to be annoying, all these children running around the studio, and some kind of suburban swap going on, interrupting the filming. But, it didn’t seem to bother him at all.
It was just a surreal, but cool moment. You probably get those kinds of moments all the time. Do you ever stop and think to yourself, “I can’t believe I’m sitting here talking to xxxx!” ? Or are you past that now?