I once drove to Columbus, Ohio to catch Tom Waits for the Glitter and Doom tour. After the show, both alone and with a very long drive ahead of me, I thought I would meander around the back and join the small crowd gathered near the tour bus.
Several times, a security person let us know that Tom’s bus had already gone, and there was no need to hang around. Still, in no hurry, I chose to hang around anyway. There were maybe a handful of fans, a diverse group, probably about 20. Again, we heard the story of the bus being gone.
All of a sudden, we caught a glimpse of none other than Steve Buscemi exiting the bus with his wife. No kidding! Steve Buscemi!! It was hard to tell because he was quite dapper in real life. Being one of those overenthusiastic Jim Jarmusch, John Lurie-type deep fans, this was really cool to see. Waits’ son emerged with a soccer ball and started to kick it around. “He’s gone, y’all,” said the security guard. “So he left his son here?” Haha.
Finally, a small, seemingly dusty man covered from head to toe in denim exited the bus. He looked way up to my 6’3″ self. I got a little hug and handshake and a “how ya doing” in that scratchy, jazz-beat sorta way.
On the way home, I got turned around toward Lodi, which was about 2 hours out of my way. I didn’t care. I had that Lodi song from CCR stuck in my head for weeks.
