Still, it’s worth the risk to tell this story now — fresh from an interview with a jerk.
When Stan came to Springfield in 2006 as part of the dearly departed library speaker series, he was anything but a jerk.
I had interviewed him prior to his visit on the phone — and he was every bit as animated and welcoming as his public persona — but I managed to weasel my way over to actually meet him at the Courtyard by Marriott.
We spoke for a few minutes, and he signed a few comics for myself and our chief photographer, Marshall Gorby.
Then, seeing at how it was about noon, I swung for the fence — I asked Stan Lee, who had a role in creating the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, the X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man and, while we’re at it, Ant-Man, if he’d care to have lunch with us.
For the next two hours, we sat in Mela and Stan acted like we were the only things that mattered.
There probably isn’t a question Stan Lee hasn’t already answered 50 times, but he answered all of mine — hey, Stan, how did you think up Doctor Strange?! — like it was the first time he’d been asked.
Now that, true believers, is a legend.
He didn’t have to be that nice to a reporter and photographer from a newspaper in Springfield. We’re of no benefit to him. His reputation was built long ago — his millions are collecting interest.
But in this job, it doesn’t always go down like that.
I did a phone interview last week with Trent Tomlinson, the country music up-and-comer who plays the Clark County Fair this weekend.
I obviously can’t be a fan of every performer who passes through town, but I do take great pride in preparing in advance for these things.
So I asked what I thought was an OK question of a guy who’s only had two Top 20 singles and is getting ready to drop just his second album — “Do you think you’ve had that breakthrough song yet?”
“Why, hell yes,” he growled at me, citing “One Wing in the Fire,” which made it all the way to No. 11 three years ago.
I realize celebrity status is something that’s bestowed upon people a lot quicker these days, but c’mon, dude.
In reading the All Music Guide about some of the past stars to play the local fair, I learned that, even after her first few No. 1 hits, Reba McEntire was then, and only then, rewarded with the opening slot for the Statler Brothers.
The interview with Tomlinson really didn’t go anywhere after that, and not long after bragging that, of supposedly 1,400 songs he’s written, “100 of those could be hits,” the line went dead.
Did his cell cut out? Did he hang up on me?
I tried calling back several times. No answer.
I was left with eight or nine minutes worth of quotes. You just read the highlights.
Whether Tomlinson becomes the star he thinks he is, I don’t care. He did, however, join my list of bad interviews.
He joins Don McLean, who played Wittenberg University in 2000. The interview went well until I asked about “American Pie” (c’mon, it wasn’t like people were coming to hear “Vincent”). He then started eating his lunch, loudly, over the phone.
He joins Alice Walker, the author of “The Color Purple,” who came here in 2004 to speak on behalf of the library. I asked a few questions about, well, “The Color Purple.”
“Is there anything you know about me that you didn’t just read off the Internet?” she barked at me.
But for what it’s worth, she was a handful even to the people paying her, complaining to library staff that the smell of the shower curtain in her hotel room was throwing off her “biorhythm.”
He joins Chris Cagle, another country guy who absolutely reamed me out for asking, sympathetically, about the loss of his dog. Hey, the publicist told me about the dog. I thought it’d be OK.
On the other hand, I did a phone interview with Maya Angelou before her visit to Kuss Auditorium in 2000 as part of the library series.
I later went to cover the event and was approached by someone — “Are you Andrew McGinn? Dr. Angelou has requested your presence afterward.”
I instantly got all jittery. Did I screw up something?
Turns out she just wanted to say hello.
Legends become legends for a reason.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio. com.
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