On the Road

If the celebrity you want is a musical artist or an entire band, your chances of a face-to-face encounter are much better at a live show, just as long as you’re prepared to do some waiting around, fast-talking, or advance planning.

There are three good options when you’re staking out a live show:

1. Waiting at the stage door and grabbing a quick word as they move through, either in or out.

2. Talk your way backstage, where you can mingle with the special people.

3. Call ahead and spin a tale that you’re a special person, and to have your backstage passes waiting.

Option 1: The Stage Door

This is the preferred method for cheapskates everywhere, because you don’t need a ticket to wait at the stage door. You simply find out where the artist or group you’re interested in is playing, find out where the stage door is, then wait… and wait… and wait. Sweet-talking a security guard or two (if you can pull it off) won’t hurt either.

Every concert venue has a back door where the talent enters and leaves. Understand that you’re probably not the only one who will be waiting, and that quite often the talent will stay backstage for an hour or longer after a show, hanging out with VIPs, getting drunk (or worse), showering, and recuperating while you’re outside waiting in the cold for them to appear for three seconds on the way out to the tour bus. But if you can handle the wait, you’re likely to find success using this method.

When they do come out, if there’s any sort of a crowd waiting, there will likely be a surge to get their attention. A nice musician will deal with that well, stopping to talk to everyone and giving you their time, but most musicians simply aren’t "that nice." They’re busy people, tired people, annoyed people, and temperamental people who just want to get back to their hotel room, the after-party, or the house where someone has a huge supply of cocaine. I’m just saying.

In most celebrity contact situations, it pays to be the nice guy with a good conversation intro and a patient sensibility, but you’re competing for space with a crowd of adoring fans, all desperate to touch their idol. You really need to throw conventional behavior out the window and start pushing your way out to the front.

Be prepared, have something to sign and a way for them to sign it, and most importantly, accept it with a smile. If they only have time to wave and move out…that’s life.

Option 2: Talking Your Way Backstage

It may seem a little sexist to say so, but if you’re a guy, you’ve got next to no chance of getting backstage for a concert (unless you’re a member of the media or industry or just so damn cool that people can’t say no to you). Women, especially attractive women, find it much easier to convince security guards, roadies, and venue staff that they should be allowed backstage, simply because rock stars like attractive women. They usually like many attractive women at once, but that’s a whole other book.

There’s really no great secret to making this method work. You’re either physically equipped for it or you’re not. Sure, someone with a real gift of the gab can possibly come up with some reason to get backstage, but that’s a BIG if.

However, you might as well give it a try--everyone else will--and if you do manage to get access backstage, you must remember three golden rules:

1. Don’t stare. Move around and mingle, first with the employees (roadies and the like), then the backup band, and then once you’ve made "friends" with people, you have a reason to be there and can actually approach the star.

2. Don’t gush. A single, "Oh wow, it’s him!" can kill your routine in a second and see you escorted out.

3. Don’t get in the way. If you annoy a roadie, he’ll generally not hold back in demonstrating that annoyance 

Option 3: Advance Groundwork.

The fact is, the media gets access to celebrities that common people will never have. If a journalist calls up a venue and says they’re coming to the Celine Dion concert that night, they can expect seat upgrades, access to the press area, access to the talent, and much more depending on the level of fame of the person in the show. Some bands are totally happy to have the press around and will invite a journalist backstage, to the after party, whatever they want. Others could care less.

So if you have any media connections, it doesn’t hurt to use them in this situation. Alternately, some smart people have even invented a media outlet for the sole purpose of using that outlet to open doors. A film critic named Paul Fischer is infamous for getting himself invited to film sets all the time to speak with famous actors on the pretense that he will publish the ensuing stories in newspapers, but Fischer was not a regularly employed newspaper journalist. This is the kind of routine many people in the music industry use to get free CDs, concert tickets and invitations to parties--they pull a Paul Fischer and either piggyback on small outlets that need free content, or create their very own Web site they will use to open doors--even if nobody actually goes there.

If you’re going to go to that extent, you have to do a little work up front. You have to get letterhead printed, invest in a fax machine, change your answering machine or voicemail message to include your company name, and look like you’re running a professional business overall. But in today’s world of blogs and the Internet, it’s easier than ever to create your own media outlet and use that to score press passes. Start looking over concert listings in your local paper and online, choose your favorite option above and push forward.

Away from the Tour

If you need more from a celebrity than a handshake, quick conversation, or a backstage share of their recreational drug supply, then you might want to figure out a way to track them down during their time away from the tour. Generally, most famous bands or musicians have the same set up that actors do--a fan club, an assistant who fields their mail, and an agent, manager, or publicist who deals with their business matters.

If you want to offer a celebrity an actual business proposition, such as a charity appearance, a television commercial or a TV show booking, then you’re better off going directly to the agent or record label that handles the artist. This often entails a long line of phone calls that get transferred to other people in the company, who will transfer you to someone else, who will eventually say, "He’s not in today." That’s fine, get a fax number and send your proposal that way. Most of the time you’ll get a lot more attention if they think your request is official and not some crazy fan calling up with a pseudo story, so a faxed request on official letterhead is best.

If you are a crazy fan who simply wants to get in touch with the celebrity, then it’s best going through the fan club or fan mail address. Sometimes you can find this listed in the liner notes of the musician’s CD. You won’t get some sort of magical insight into the celebrity by doing that, but you’ll probably get something--a signed photo or, at the very least, details of how to get a signed photo. From there, simply work your way up, learn all you can about the celebrity and where he or she is appearing, and hope that they fall head over heels in love with you from the third row.

Do take caution with musicians, because they tend to pick up a lot of crazed fans when they reach a certain height of fame. They also tend to take a lot of female fans back to the hotel with them. This may seem like a good idea at the time, but almost always ends up with an early morning shove out the door.