Your first star interview

[budcrew08]

I've done phoners with NASCAR crew chief Ryan Pemberton and Kyle Petty. The coolest was a one-on-one at a charity event with The King, Richard Petty.

Pemberton and Kyle Petty was very nice to a small-town reporter and I think it was terrific to give me some of their time for the interview. Richard Petty has all the substance that even non-racing fans know: the big cowboy hat and belt buckle, the 300-watt smile, the omnipotent sunglasses, but he's also a very down-to-earth nice guy.
It was a great experience.

Kyle Petty is great. He did a meet and greet at one of our local casinos. We had a nice little run with these things a while back, with Pete Rose, Petty, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. when he was in the Busch Series.
Anyway, I got to sit down in the casino's restaurant with him for about 15 minutes. Answered every question, including a couple about Adam's death, without hesitation. And, toward the end of the interview, he even told a TV guy to hold on so I could sneak in that "one last question."
That, right there, earns him extra points in my book

Kyle did that at the Charity Ride event I covered as well. His "handlers" were telling him that he had to go, but Kyle told them to wait so he could finish interviews and get pictures with people. A great experience.

Only things wrong with it was a TV guy screaming at him after their interview to stay so he could get an autograph and a picture.

But that's another thread for another time.

 

[Chad Conant]

Donald Trump also traipsed around looking for exposure, too.

You don't say. The Donald, a publicity wart?

My first year or so out of college, Pete Rose was doing a meet and greet at a local casino and we managed to arrange a one-on-one interview.
It didn't go too well.
I only had 5 or 10 minutes with him, so I tried to do more of a news angle. Hall of Fame weekend was the following week, so I asked him what it was like seeing guys he played with like Schmidt and Nolan Ryan go into the hall while he's left out. Later, I asked him something about the gambling allegations.
He didn't snap or anything, but his answers were a little testy. I don't think he liked some young punk from Podunk throwing things like that at him. And, to be fair, my questions were probably as subtle as a sledgehammer to the face.
After the interview, I followed him and the casino PR guy upstairs for the meet and greet. It was around a blackjack table, and all of Pete's small talk with the PR guy -- for the entire hour -- was centered around gambling. Not on sports, but just playing blackjack, poker, whatever. It was kind of creepy. If I had had more experience, it's pretty obvious what my lede should've been. Instead, the story was pretty shirtty.
At some point, I asked my editor if it was OK to get an autograph and he said sure. My dad was a huge Phillies fan and I thought it'd make a great birthday gift. The card I brought with me was a pretty worthless card from one of those Toys R Us Fleer sets from the late 80s, but Pete kept saying how the autograph was going to decrease its value. He did sign it. But I'm not sure I earned a place on his Christmas card list.

what the fork did Pete expect? "Hey, Pete, do you think the line on the Reds game tonight is fair?"

 

[Ace]

Donald Trump also traipsed around looking for exposure, too.

You don't say. The Donald, a publicity wart?

I got that impression. May have been wrong.

 

[ChrisYandek]

My first really big story interview Randy Moss. He was very insightful, intellegent, and he answered every question with good responses.

Chris

 

[Mayfly]

My first really big story interview Randy Moss. He was very insightful, intellegent, and he answered every question with good responses.

Chris

Outing alert: ChrisYandek is Ricky Williams.

 

[Jones]

I can't remember the first "celebrity" I interviewed. I do remember that when I worked at the bureau for Southam News (my first job in journalism), I had a day where I got calls returned from Ed Asner, Bruce Cockburn, and Rikki Rocket -- not exactly your ordinary trifecta. It was actually pretty strange.

First athlete I can remember interviewing was Jose Canseco. He'd hit a one-handed home run off a curveball in the dirt. I asked him how he did it. Steroids wasn't part of his answer.

First movie star was Naomi Watts. You might think it's hard to sustain a boner for an eight-hour interview, but I pulled the trick.

And later, in my spare white room at the Mondrian, my pud.

 

[Ace]

First movie star was Naomi Watts. You might think it's hard to sustain a boner for an eight-hour interview, but I pulled the trick.

Did the little reporter's notebook cover the situation?

 

[friend of a friend]

I can't remember the first "celebrity" I interviewed. I do remember that when I worked at the bureau for Southam News (my first job in journalism), I had a day where I got calls returned from Ed Asner, Bruce Cockburn, and Rikki Rocket -- not exactly your ordinary trifecta. It was actually pretty strange.

First athlete I can remember interviewing was Jose Canseco. He'd hit a one-handed home run off a curveball in the dirt. I asked him how he did it. Steroids wasn't part of his answer.

First movie star was Naomi Watts. You might think it's hard to sustain a boner for an eight-hour interview, but I pulled the trick.

And later, in my spare white room at the Mondrian, my pud.

No boner for Ed Asner?

 

[funky_mountain]

I can't remember the first "celebrity" I interviewed. I do remember that when I worked at the bureau for Southam News (my first job in journalism), I had a day where I got calls returned from Ed Asner, Bruce Cockburn, and Rikki Rocket -- not exactly your ordinary trifecta. It was actually pretty strange.

First athlete I can remember interviewing was Jose Canseco. He'd hit a one-handed home run off a curveball in the dirt. I asked him how he did it. Steroids wasn't part of his answer.

First movie star was Naomi Watts. You might think it's hard to sustain a boner for an eight-hour interview, but I pulled the trick.

And later, in my spare white room at the Mondrian, my pud.

i know how he pronounces his name, i like his music but i always take notice of the spelling of his name ... somehow this segues into cockburn.

 

[Huggy]

No boner for Ed Asner?

Potentially the most disturbing sentence I have ever read on SportsJournalists.com.

 

[Jones]

It would make a good T-shirt, though.

 

[MertWindu]

No boner for Ed Asner!

Potentially The most disturbing sentence I have ever read on SportsJournalists.com.

I think that takes care of that.

As for me, this is a little lame, but frankly, I haven't interviewed many important people. Might have been in a gaggle around a few big names, but nothing I'd bother sharing here. But I've had a big man/fantasy owner-crush on Jabar Gaffney since he got drafted, so interviewing him a few weeks ago was kind of neat.