You likely heard the saying that goes along the lines of “never meet your heroes” or “meet your heroes and end up disappointed.” None of the variations are that subtle about their meaning – they’re basically warning you to be wary about meeting the people you hold on a pedestal.
So, today, let’s take a look at real-life examples of this saying. Basically, it’s people meeting someone they thought highly of, only to learn that there’s nothing that good about them, at least in certain regards. Let’s jump in, shall we?
More info: Reddit
#1
Secondhand story but my BIL won a contest to hang out with David Lee Roth and be his “assistant” for a day, around the time he had left Van Halen and put out his first solo album. He was pretty excited about it. He said Roth talked nonstop about the stupidest things and by the end of the day he couldn’t wait to get away from him.
Image source: Stinky_Fartface, PowerfulJRE
#2
I met Roger Waters…in a business setting…and *whew boy*…… I understood and appreciated Dave Gilmore, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright even more after that.
Image source: MSTXCAMS70, PowerfulJRE
#3
Ian Rankin was always a grumpy jerk when I served him his morning coffee, my favourite author and it ruined his books for me for a while…
The afternoon worker told him how much I loved his work and when my birthday was, for my 30th I was given an entire set of hardbacks of each of his rebus books signed with an apology letter, completely unexpected, turns out he just isn’t a morning person.
Image source: sientetiamicara
We, people, have a tendency to idolize those who impress us. Perhaps we see them as epitomes of perfection, simply having qualities that we wish to have or doing things we dream about. Depending on person to person, each of us can get star-struck by entertainers, activists, politicians, or anyone else.
Well, when we hear about a person idolizing someone, most often it’s some kind of celebrity. A musician, actor, comedian, or anything of that sort. There are good reasons behind it. One of them is that since these people are well-known, we consider them important and powerful.
#4
Bill Nye very crudely hitting on my mom when I was 12 and very much a fan. I was maybe 80% weirded out and 20% wondering what it would be like to have Bill Nye as a stepdad.
Image source: paraworldblue, StarTalk
#5
My husband had a very high profile job that allowed us to interact with celebrities on the regular. The rudest, ungrateful, and most bored were: Jake Gyllenhall, Joan Collins, Jennifer Lopez. The nicest, most gracious, kind were: Octavia Spencer, Melissa McCarthy, Bradley Cooper, George Clooney, Bob Newhart, Renee Zellweger, and Bette Davis.
Image source: Ill-Investigator4415, The Kelly Clarkson Show
#6
Used to work for Kevin Costner at a restaurant he once owned back in the 90’s. Really high class place and had high class guests, really weird for where it was located. Anyway, he seems approachable and like a nice dude, but he’s just a really really good actor, he got all the acting skills and his brother, Dan, got all the people skills.
Image source: r3l0ad, Jimmy Kimmel Live
Their appearances in the media allow us to peek into their lives, which can seem different and more interesting than ours. And so, we go the route of worshiping them, which sometimes comes from our subconscious. Basically, our brains are wired to idolize anything that seems glamorous, fascinating, or powerful.
It can also be due to the fact that some people simply have a conscious desire to be famous and popular, thus they adore those who have already achieved it. Or maybe they just want a better life than the one they currently have. There can be a lot of reasons why we latch onto worshipping someone, and as long as this idolizing doesn’t go too far, there’s nothing wrong with it.
#7
Keith Hernandez. Met him when I was 18. He signed some things for me. Was very nice- talked baseball with me.
Great Experience.
Met him again at age 47 a year ago. This time it was a paid experience. I paid for an autograph and inscription. He didn’t want to sign the card or write the inscription. He was a jerk (he did it bc his handlers reminded him that’s how he gets paid).
It’s like he was a totally different person.
Image source: sgt_schultz_the_ewok, The Rich Eisen Show
#8
Several years ago, I saw golfer Lee Trevino before a tournament in Texas. I said, “Have a great round, Mr. Trevino.” He took my lanyard ticket in his hand and said, “See this? It’s a ticket to watch me play, not talk to me.” I hope he was just having a bad day. I was so disappointed.
Image source: Bernard1090, No Laying Up
#9
Lou Ferrigno was a jerk in person. Wish I never met the guy.
Waited in line to have him sign something of mine for $80.
He literally scooped the item up, and then threw it back down all while making comments like “another one of these?” And seemed very annoyed but me paying for an autograph.
I will never understand that situation. If you didn’t want to sign stuff, why show up at the convention. I also paid $80 you could have at least been nice.
Didn’t even give me the time of day. Immediately regretted it.
Image source: youdontknowme6, FOX 13 Tampa Bay
In fact, it can even have a positive effect on one’s life. When a person idolizes someone who sets a good example, they might be more motivated to reach their own goals, to make gains in their own life, and improve their mental health.
So, if it doesn’t turn into a celebrity worship syndrome – an obsessive level of interest in a public figure going beyond social norms and impacting one’s functioning – celebrity worship is a rather good thing.
#10
Not me but my mom loved Rosie O’Donnell growing up and won tickets to fly out, get a free hotel, see her show, and quickly meet her. She came back saying she was a nasty jerk and never watched her show again. Heh.
Image source: tinyhorsesinmytea, Ireland AM
#11
Brent Spiner broke my heart and John de Lancie. Star Trek: TNG was our favourite show to watch together; Data was my fav character and Q was hers.
I lost my mom suddenly; that same year I got the opportunity to meet them both at a convention, paid for a photo op and autograph each with them. Just teared up waiting in line, from grief and wishing I could be having this moment with my mom. Not squealing fab-girl crying; I was composed I just couldn’t stop the tears.
I was wiping my tears when I stepped up to Mr. Spiner and they just wouldn’t stop falling. I apologized to him and told him I wished my mom was here to meet him too. He sighed, rolled his eyes and asked if I “pull myself together” to take the picture.
Now. I know he doesn’t owe me anything but that stung. It felt like he didn’t see me as a person. So I got my picture and moved on to Mr. de Lancie, still trying to get the tears under control.
Mr. de Lancie greeted me with a hug, asked if I was ok. I explained mom was gone and he was her fav character on the show and I wished like heck she was here to meet him. He asked if I had a picture of her on my iPhone and said pull up my favourite one of her so she could be in the picture with us. The autograph he wrote was ‘Remember, mom is waiting for you in the stars’. He took maybe 2 more minutes than Brent to treat me like a person.
Image source: AeronLord, Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum
#12
I’m a decades-long con rat. I have STORIES.
But this one stands out as amongst the absolute worst, and I was just a bystander.
Setting: AggieCon (the Texas A&M campus geek-fest) circa 1995.
John Byrne was the lead celeb. Had a booth.
I was standing at an adjacent table talking to a dealer.
Dad and his little kid approached Byrne. Kid had some drawings of his own to show off and some X-Men comics to get signed.
Kid was nervous as hell, but dad encouraged him and was gentle and sweet.
Byrne takes one look at the drawings, and loudly—so the entire conference room could hear—proclaimed how much the drawings sucked. And then he complained that he was sick of X-Men, and did big, scrawling signatures across the kid’s comics and essentially ruined them.
Kid was terrified and shrank. Dad was pissed and snatched the kid away in silent fury.
Byrne leaned back, put his hands behind his head, and smirked like Alfred E Neumann just swallowed a canary.
The ENTIRE ROOM stared daggers.
I called him a jerk and he laughed.
Never read another book with him attached again.
Image source: DoctorDepravo, SYFY
Yet, idolizing someone from afar and meeting them are two different things. You see, when you do that from a distance, it’s rather easy not to notice negative things, as celebrities tend to hide them, or even project certain ideas onto them. But when you meet them, this bubble can burst very easily.
Today’s list proves just that – in it, you will find a whole plethora of stories about people meeting someone they idolized and realizing that they were no one worthy of worship.
#13
Grew up watching king of queens because my parents loved it, would always do my homework while my dad watched it after school or would sit and watch it with my mom at night if they were playing it. Fast forward to 17-18 I was valeting one day Kevin James pulls up cuts the line of I wanna say atleast 30 cars maybe more my manager went up to him said you can’t do that go to the back of the line, he throws the biggest hissy fit “do you know who I’m” “I promise I will get you fired and ruin this company” my manager stood his ground he cursed my manager out peeled out kicking dirt up to wait at the end of the line I watched the whole thing from my spot where I was waiting for cars so I could park them. I will give it to him that when he did leave he tipped us $150 bucks and apologized but I mean he showed his true colors there broke my inner child’s heart lmao.
Image source: polocc96, CBS Sunday Morning
#14
Tom Savini, I had a Day of the Dead poster I had George Romero autographed, and brought it to get him to sign.
As a big fan of old school practical effects, I tried to compliment him on his works as he signed it and he just seemed pissed off that I was even attempting to talk to him.
But George Romero was awesome, super friendly and happy to talk to you, shook my hand and was all smiles to hear Day of the Dead was one of my favorite zombie movie.
Image source: mezz7778, Grolsch Global
#15
Met Hilary Swank. I was her uber driver. We were driving for about an hour and a half through deep LA traffic on their way to see a Bruce Springsteen show who happens to be their friend(they explained). She and her significant other were a bit intoxicated and in good spirits.
It was funny because my breaks were making a loud scratching noise (ready to be replaced) so I asked what they wanted to listen to in order to hide the noise. Obviously she picked Springsteen. She was a fun drunk. Every other Springsteen song she would go “ugh, this one’s my favorite”.
Image source: jin370, CBS Sunday Morning
For some of these folks, the interaction was simply underwhelming, while for others it was so disappointing or nearly insulting that their whole world came crashing down. Well, apparently, when they say “don’t meet your heroes”, they might be onto something.
Do you have any similar stories like that to share? If yes, please do so in the comments.
#16
A friend of mine ran into Keanu Reeves while he was taking a break just outside a movie set. Said he was happy to talk to them, was super down to Earth and was genuinely interested in talking with them, not just at them.
I know this isnt the question, but in a thread like this, I just love Keanu for what a great contrast he is to all these jerks, lol.
Image source: Curlaub, Netflix Is A Joke
#17
I was there when SpaceX successfully recovered/landed the two Falcon Heavy boosters for the first time. It was an amazing experience, a huge event, tons of people, lots of cameras, space celebs, guest speakers, whole shebang. Extremely cool thing to witness.
So I’m loitering near some guy with a fancy camera on a tripod, as a lot of folks had. And suddenly he stands up straight, looking upset, and says, dumbfounded, “I…I have to tell someone what I just saw…I’m sorry…I just…Buzz Aldrin is, right now, clipping his fingernails on a balcony above the crowd.”
And I was like, I beg your finest pardon? And he shows me and a few other folks who heard him his footage, and sure enough, there’s Buzz Aldrin, clear as crystal, standing alone on a balcony above where people were eating food and generally mingling, leaning over the railing and…just clipping his fingernails. Directly over all those people.
So. I didn’t meet him, I suppose, and I knew my space history and that of all of them, Buzz could absolutely be a bit much. But man. Really, dude? Really?!
I’ve never gotten over it.
Image source: Chelibel, Conan O’Brien
#18
I had the (mis)fortune of knowing a fair amount about retired NFL “legend” John Elway through multiple means. He is a total piece of garbage. He beat his ex wife just about every loss, he would get drunk and was a mean drunk at that. The Broncos would lose a game and we’d say ‘his wife better stay in a hotel after that one.”
His son, Jack, pushed his ex girlfriend out of a moving car as well, and we all know that behavior was learned from his father. He hired a prominent criminal defense lawyer in Denver who is the guy you hire when you get in some deep mess.
And people loved him because he threw a ball well in the NFL
Image source: BigFloppyDonkyDick69, Club Shay Shay
#19
Not me but my Grandpa. He took all my aunts and uncles, when they were little kids, to go see John Wayne give a speech at the Golden Spike National Historic site back in the 70’s.
The Duke was drunk as a skunk and rambled incoherently.
I heard a similar story about Hunter Thomspon from a college professor when Thompson was invited to come do a Q&A at the school back in the 80’s.
My grandpa also met Steve Martin when they were staying at the same Detroit hotel waaaay back in the 60’s. He had the room next door and could hear Martin working on his standup routine through the wall.
They were neighbors for about a week and it got to the point that they started greeting one another in the hall and even shared a table at breakfast. Martin was polite and courteous to everyone according to Grandpa.
Image source: MorningPotential5214, UGA Brown Media Archives
#20
Bob Dylan came out of a thrift shop in Kalamazoo, MI as I was walking down the sidewalk. This was late 90’s. He was playing a show downtown that night, which I knew about but couldn’t attend, or I probably wouldn’t have realized who it was. Just said, “love ya, Bob” as we were about to pass each other. He stopped and looked at me and said, “do you know me?” I stammered something like, “no but I love your songs.” He nodded and said, “I thought you thought I was someone else,” and then kept walking. It was kind of perfect, in contrast to the theme of this post and comment section.
Image source: KwisatzHaderach38, 60 Minutes
#21
Where is the person on Reddit who met William Shatner when they were a kid, asks for his autograph, and Shatner said “Let me go find a pen!” Then took off in his limo. 😆☠️.
Image source: Historical_Bass8937, Jimmy Kimmel Live
#22
I met John Cleese in an airport lounge. He was friendly and encouraged me to sit and chat. After a few minutes conversation turned to him living in the British Virgin Islands. He said it was paradise and there weren’t any Muslims there.
Image source: coffeeroaster8868, Team Coco
#23
My sister, when she was a little tween, was super into P!ATD. Well who should she see while leaving hospital but Brendan Urie! They were playing close to the hospital and she couldn’t get tickets since she was sick, but she caught a glimpse of him while waiting at the junction. A dream come true. She called out to him from the window, just wanting a wave. He pretended not to hear her, and the man he was with gestured to my sister, alerting him to the fact. He shook his head and still blanked her, and when he reached the corner he glanced back and caught sight of her crumpled and despondent face, and they both had a very good laugh at her.
I mean he’s a horrible person anyway, but this was before that was common knowledge.
Image source: jaspotron, SiriusXM
#24
Met Dianne Feinstein and found she was way less than brilliant. Jerry Brown, on the other hand, wowed me. He knew his work and came prepared with informed questions and astute answers and follow-up questions.
Image source: rockandrolldoctor67, KQED
#25
Mark Recchi is a Hall of Fame hockey player from my hometown of Kamloops, BC. For those unfamiliar, he was a big star, put up tons of points, won multiple Stanley Cups, the whole bit. He is easily our favourite son and was named the top Kamloops athlete of the 20th century and has a street named after him. When I was a shy, hockey loving 13 year old he came home to sign autographs. He was extremely rude and dismissive and made fun of me for being nervous and fumbling with the notebook I brought to get his autograph. 25 years later and it still pisses me off.
Image source: Ham__Kitten, Off Set with Larry and The Big Man
#26
My Grandma loved the Kansas City Royals in the 70s. So much so that she got a job at the stadium in the 80s when she didn’t need to work. She just wanted to be there. One day, she was carrying a box down a hallway and George Brett was walking with a few of his teammates down the same hall in the other direction. He walked right up to her and stood in front of her to where she couldn’t easily walk around and said “you’re in my way.” She moved over to the wall and they all kept walking down the hall and laughing. She quit shortly after that and didn’t watch them again until like 30 years later.
Image source: CMengel90, Diggin’ Deep Shows
#27
I studied genetics at university.
Two of the most famous men in the field were James Watson and Francis Crick, who were awarded a 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for elucidating the double helix structure of DNA. (And, yes, they heavily relied on the research of Rosalind Franklin who they did not credit.)
I was more than a bit excited as a freshman to attend a lecture by Watson. And that was enough for me to learn what was widely known in the field, James Watson was a right jerk.
He has a long history of making racist, sexist, and discriminatory comments and attempting to justify in as a genetic truth in his version of eugenics that features himself as a sort of exemplar of all that is good and right.
Image source: que_he_hecho, Charlie Rose
#28
Burt Reynolds. I worked at a restaurant in Palm Beach in early 00’s and he was a friend of the owner. He sat in my section and I casually commented that Cannonball Run was one of my favorite movies, before I took his order. He rolled his eyes and said “great”, whatever the hell that meant. He was rude to not only me, but every employee that was even slightly near his table. Total doucebag, and even worse tipper.
Image source: Tlistar, Team Coco
#29
In the early aughts I used to work in the Special Events department of a New England-based independent bookstore that’s known for hosting authors (some of whom were also pop culture figures such as celebrities, athletes, radio personalities, etc). One time Tina Louise, who was arguably best known for playing Ginger in the ‘60s sitcom “Gilligan’s Island”, did a meet and greet at the store because she had written a children’s book. In my capacity as the author “wrangler” for the event, I was standing close by when an elderly gentleman approached the table where Tina – presumably in her 70s at the time – was sitting. The man claimed that Tina had been his date at a high school prom and brought photos of the two of them in their prom finery. Not only did Tina refuse to look at the photos – or the gentleman himself – she then mumbled something about “not living in the past”. The poor guy looked utterly dejected. If Tina had been his heroine up to that point, I suspect she no longer was following that encounter.
Image source: Quiet_Crew_4328, PIX11 News
#30
My friend had one with Jack White. His band opened for him like ten or so years ago. When equipment was being loaded in for the show my friend stepped out for a cigarette by the loading dock and Jack White saw him standing around smoking and started yelling at him to get off his back and move equipment. When he said he was in the opening band Jack had kind of an “oh…” reaction and asked if he would give his crew a hand since he wasn’t busy. My friend was pretty disgusted that he would talk to his road crew like that.
Image source: Ootguitarist2, Team Coco
#31
Meeting one of my favorite authors and realizing they were rude, dismissive, and… honestly kind of boring. All the magic I felt in their books completely vanished in real life. Made me appreciate their work even more, just separate from the person.
Image source: Organic_Ambassador81
#32
When I was about 6 years old I met the Sandiego Chicken at a baseball game. I stopped him for a high five, not even to take a picture or anything. He says “get outta my way you little weiner “. Ruined the game for me, and gave me a strong distrust of chickens ):.
Image source: tobibeacher
#33
Bill Nye lectured at my university and somehow made an interesting scientific topic all about himself. Huge egotistical jerk.
Image source: GeneralBooty_10
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