Sex Reminds Her of Eating Spaghetti

One of the major advantages of working at the premier radio group in the "Live Music Capitol of the World" is the fact that some pretty heavy-hitters will come strolling through for interviews and publicity shows from time to time. I've met Feist, Willie Nelson, Albert Hammond Jr., Robert Earl Keen, Bob Schneider, Lyle Lovett, Ja-Rule, Spoon, Drive-By-Truckers, the Cowboy Junkies; I saw REM and Pete Yorn in the studio and watched Andrew Bird play in our conference room, which was "fucking-A" sweet. Then there was that time I walked right past Ryan Adams one morning as he was checking out the newest issue of the Onion, and laughing to himself like some weirdo cosmonaut with his guitar strapped to his back.

Today I met Ben Kweller. Aside from the fact that I towered above him, there really was nothing too surprising about him. EXCEPT for the fact that he might have been the most friendly and congenial "person of fame" I have ever met. He was so ridiculously nice. I told him I'd been a fan, blah, blah...the same canned awkward bullshit people like him hear five million times in a week. And I really have...been a fan. I liked his first band Radish when I was in high school, and I've always had a soft-spot for his music. This was the same guy who played an entire ACL show with a nose that was bleeding so profusely, he stuck a tampon in his nostrils to keep going. It looked like someone cracked him on the bridge of his nose with a Louisville Slugger before he took the stage...it was bleeding like a sieve. There was blood (his own blood...not some fake-ass red corn syrup like Wayne Coyne spits on everything in sight) all over his guitar, his pants, it was fucking rock-star. His manager forced him to quit playing because he was getting so light-headed and almost passed out half-way through the show. Don't let his diminutive stature fool you...this guy is a straight-up bad-ass with a heart of gold.

He gave me his parking spot after he left (I met him in the parking lot). He literally said, "Hey man...you want this parking spot? I'm about to leave and you can have it."

Ben Kweller gave me his parking spot.

And I give you four tunes of his that I think are pretty damn swell.