I met Moonsorrow backstage at one of their concerts. They were really nice guys, they signed whatever I wanted. My Denim Jacket, my ticket, the free show promo poster. Oh, and I also got a couple of band photos with them. They were just chilling and having a couple of beers while Swallow the Sun did their set (It was during the Finnish Metal tour in April 2010.)

Haven't met too many musicians yet (I'm a very shy introverted person) but I do remember being at Maryland Death Fest 08 and meeting up with the guys from Waco Jesus. All of them were funny as shit. My wife was with me, and the lead singer said she should give me a "motor-boat" and she obliged. She also had a Victoria's Secret coupon on her with a model laying on her stomach and he drew a arrow to her bum that said something like "Shane Goes Here" lol; we have it in our scape book.

Not metal, but I met the guitarist Jake Casualty from The Casualties and I complimented him on his Antisect shirt and he's like "Hell yeah, dude! I've worn this shirt for all of the tour and not one person has said anything about it." We talked for a little bit with my wife and we got pictures and a signed shirt. Again, I still don't know why people call them sell-outs...


As far as bad experiances...well...

I know I've set my self up for this...ugh...

So I took my wife to an Anal Cunt show (I know, I know) even though she really didn't want to, but I really wanted to see them for some reason and their was supposed to be a friend of ours who would show up but he ditched us to go skateboard with his scene friends . Anyway, we sat through a couple bands...

First was a mexican black metal one w/ cheesy-as-fuck keyboards. Guitar and vocals were fine, but man, those fucking keyboards were so annoyingly bad, like a weird mix between Dragonforce and Burzum.

Second was one of those metalcore bros&jocks band w/ like... 10 members who didn't do anything but hits something with strings to make a chuggah-chuggah sound.

Third was a local grindcore band called Strong Intention. They were really cool, like Black Flag meets Spazz, real chill guys, hung outside and smoke with em. the lead singer looks like fucking Don Vito, but otherwise real cool guy.

Finally, Seth comes on stage. I swear, he still had needles still in his fucking arms . I also heard he slapped his wife before he got on and she's crying in the background why he's doing the set. Complete dick to everyone there, didn't take any pictures or talk to anybody, wore some stupid pseudo-black metal vest with his own side-project band patch stitched into it (lame). During the show though, while he sang some disparaging song about haji's, he looked directly at my wife and gave her a mean look. That pissed me off. I mean seriously, I know you make a living of being "offensive" but keep that shit to the music. When you start acting out your racism, drug use, and misogyny in real life, it make you look like a pathetic junkie prick.

When tons of people see Seth slap his wife and no one does a damn thing, that tells you the nature of his fan base (mostly) as well. Fucked up...

Lord Serpent from Ceremonial Castings is a douchebag. When he isn't busy bragging about his wardrobe, he starts stickin his nose in everyone's face.

Anal Cunt isn't just music, it's a way of life.

I've played a gig with Anal Cunt in my hometown they didn't really please anyone and the singer from Magrudergrind eneded up kicking Seth in the face, the drummer was pretty cool I think he left the band not long after the gig.

I met Attila at a Sunn O))) gig he seems a very down to earth person, he was very quiet and actually took the time speaking to me and my friends.

Hahaha good for the vocalist for Magrudergrind...

Agreed...

Care to back this up or expand at all?

If it quacks like a duck. Seth is all of the above.

I met Death from Mayhem a year back and the guy wouldnt even shake my hand let alone even acknowledging my prescence! What a douche!

That's to be expected. I doubt anybody who would be in his state would acknowlegde anyones prescence.

Are you referring to Dead? that is kind of to be expected, since his entire body would have rotten away years ago.

Was necromancy involved?

The guys from Tankard and Gwar were really nice and down-to-earth when I interviewed them a few years ago, and I chatted to the lead guy from Exhumed last week and he seemed quite chilled out as well.
Also Mitch Harris and Shane Embury from Napalm Death were relaxed and friendly, and trying to talk to Gary Holt from Exodus when all he was (rightfully) interested in was eyeing up the women was quite funny

King? sure, I've met him a couple of times, both being an asshole, but Vortex? hell no. The guy is one of the funniest musicians I know, he's very fan oriented, talk a lot with people, he usually put some funny poses for pictures and he's all in on signing stuff and answering questions (now, excepting the DB related issues).

Nice people? Masvidal and Reinert from Cynic. Some of the nicest and more relaxed dudes I've seen.

Mortuus from Marduk, Piotr from Vader, the whole Immortal crew, Gaahl, Hellhammer, whole Cannibal Corpse and Incantation guys, Chuck from Death and Richard Christy, all very nice guys. I've met Gaahl way before the gay issue and he did look pretty intimitating, but he was very friendly after all. Tyr (ex-bassist from Emperor and Borknagar) is another very nice guy very passionate about bass talking, Ihsahn is cool, although seemed to be in a hurry.

A douche? Shagrath and Silenoz, especially Shaggy was a fucking asshole, he even pushed a girl who politely asked him to sign a cd. Mustis was very nice, although a little bit shy, the same with Satyr.

I love The Casualties! They get called sell-outs? How come?

Runned into Tyrant and Peter "The Drummer" of Nifelheim at a Swedish Airport a few months ago, chatted a bit with Tyrant and took a picture while the rest of the band was exchanging money. I got to say based on the fact that he hadn't slept for two days because of a hard touring schedule he was more nice than I expected. Okay guy.

Muhammad from Necrophagist was really cool. I went backstage and hung out with all of them at the Muse in Nashville when I was really young, probably still in highschool. We got smoked out, and Muhammad kept talking about how short he was, and how he hated his huge nose. He was a really cool and down to earth guy. Sami was probably the coolest out of the band though, he talked for a pretty long while about being on the road in the states, and how different it is from Europe, he talked about touring with Bodom and Alexi Laiho always spooning with his guitar at night.. Like I said, this isn't a new experience, this is an old story I wanted to share. It was probably about five years or so ago.. I'll check and see if I can find a date, I'm curious. I know Hannes was still with them, but I can't remember how long ago he left either..

EDIT: 14 December 2006

I had heard tons of shit about Joey Belladonna being a douchebag.

I opened for Anthrax with John Bush, and years later, Belladonna came over here with his solo band, and I got to play with them too, and honestly, Joey was one down to earth, rad dude. Very humble, very friendly, very low key. I really enjoyed talking to him.

Also, Byron and Corey from God Forbid are quite standoffish, bordering on douchebaggery, although Doc is damn cool.

Randy Blythe and Chris Adler from Lamb of God are also very cool guys, seriously engaged us in conversation, talked a bit and were damn cool.

Also had heard Dave Mustaine was a douche, but I was working backstage at their last concert down here, and he was actually very cool. Talked some over food at the catering lol

Although, I must say, his recent non-music opinions have been super douchey

Talked some shit to Jody Roberts from Brutal Truth/Kill the Client/other shit bands. The reason I did so was because he said Eyehategod was boring and there songs went nowhere. I think he was just upset cause he had to play Eyehategod songs for the EHG tribute album and never got to write real music. Also did not know what Teutonic thrash was and then proceeded to make fun of me for calling it that. If you play death metal and/or black and do not like/know thrash then something must be wrong with you.

i talked just a little with david di santo and erik nelson from vektor,really cool and nice guys
also james paul luna from holy grail is such a cool dude

I met Mikael Åkerfeldt a few years ago at the huge progressive metal tour Dream Theater did a few years back and he was a really cool dude. Not crazy about Opeth, but certainly a good guy. I think we talked about steaks and good Italian places in the area.

Massive bump here, but I just wanted to say that when I met Rose Funeral last week, they were some of the nicest guys there. I guess that's what happens with lineup changes though. Origin were some nice guys too. Got some signatures from them.
Also, I see a lot of the posts here blaming Petri Lindroos' douchebaggery on a language barrier. When I read the experiences though he sounds like a massive dickhead with an ego to match.

Hung out with the guys in Cattle Decapitation when they toured with Suffocation earlier this year. Spent a few hours chatting to Travis about shit, he showed me the artwork for Monolith Of Inhumanity (this was before the artwork was released) and spoke about the record etc. He was pretty kool even though he was stressed with the album being released, genuinely a kool guy.

Spoke to Bill Robinson who was filling in for Frank, about Decrepit Birth and Suffocation etc before he started talking about touring in the U.S and some other conspiracy stuff related to that...he was pretty kool and chilled out.

My band went on tour to Finland earlier this year to play some shows with Bob Malmstrom (Spinefarm Records), for the Helsinki show Vreth from Finntroll came to hang out with us as he's good friends with the BM guys. He was pretty kool as well.

Mortiis - Was nice as fuck and totally cool about me yelling 'PLAY SOME EMPEROR SONGS YOU FUCKING MIDGET' about an hour earlier.

Seth Putnam - About the opposite of what I expected. Funny fella. EDIT: To be fair, this was in the mid 00s, when he wasn't on smack 24/7

Dave Cunt/VITRIOL (Anaal Nathrakh) - Spoke via email with him a few times. Funny guy.

Mithras - Met them when Emperor played at the Astoria (they weren't playing, just there to see Emperor!) and again at the Day of Unrest a few years ago. Awesome fucking guys.

Phil Anselmo - I was drunk out of my mind, and so was he. I barely remember what we talked about, Darkthrone, I think.

Sunn O))) - Stephen O'Malley didn't want to have anything to do with us, Greg Anderson was a fucking dude.

Ravn of 1349 - This guy kicks ass.

Atilla Csihar - Cool guy.

Lemmy - Lemmy

I heard that Seth actually gave up this way of life a while ago...

As of now, Septicflesh is the nicest big band I've ever interacted with. (I have friends in local acts but I don't think that really counts) I feel like I've told this story in other threads before but whatever. Last summer I saw them play a headlining show in Providence RI on an off day of their tour with COB; they wanted to play a show in Providence cause its HP Lovecraft's hometown. It was a small show so me and my friends must have stood out cause after the show the guys in the band seemed genuinely thankful to us in particular for coming out to the show. Got to talk to Seth for a little bit, and the other members gave us stuff from the show (guitar picks, drum sticks) I just thought it was pretty cool that they singled out me and my friends like that. And believe me, a 2 hour set from Septicflesh made that the best show I've ever been to in general.

I personally haven't had any direct contact with her, but it seems to me that Emmi Silvennoinen from Ensiferum is pretty awesome. My girlfriend got me a signed Ensiferum shirt for my birthday this year and apparently had a long and very friendly email conversation with Emmi to get it.

Just met Tony Lazaro from Vital Remains at their merch table, he's pretty cool. Last summer slaughter I met Paolo Rossi and Tomasso Riccardi of Fleshgod Apocalypse, really cool guys. Also, a friend of a friend met Dave Mustaine at a hotel once before a big show and he didn't even acknowledge him, just walked away with his arms crossed. But that's not a big suprise considering its Dave Mustaine.

if you guys compliment musicians on being 'down to earth' then you shouldn't be surprised if they're actually in a bad mood once in awhile, you know, like us laymen. Bands on tour especially tend to get a bit claustrophobic and ornery. Doesn't excuse it per se, but it also doesn't mean they're like that all the time.

Plus, you might just be an annoying, gushing fanboy.

I've gotten to meet a few musicians in my trips down to Seattle for shows. The ones that REALLY stand out that I got to meet:

Helmuth from Belphegor: SUPER cool dude. First time I met him, I had him sign some stuff and got to take a picture with him. Now the bar in the El Corozon is kinda dimly lit, and there was a freak accident earlier in my trip that blew the filiment out of the flash for my camera. Needless to say, it was difficult to get a good shot with him. I told him what had happened, and he was super cool about it. We probably took 6 different pics, trying to find someplace that the lighting would actually allow us to be SEEN in the picture. When my wife finally got the shot he asked to look at it and threw up some horns and said "GOOD!". He asked about my Bound By Entrails shirt, and I told him I was the drummer, what we were all about, and he just smiled and said "GOOD! Black metal GOOD!" in a thick ass Austrian accent. It was awesome. Gave me some nods during other band's sets. Cool experience.
Fast forward a couple years, and I see them open up for Sepultura, and he recognized me, pointed at me with a shit eating grin from the stage and we bumped fists. haha!

Speaking of Sepultura, I got to meet them outside of their tourbus, and Andreas and Derrick were way cool dudes. I told them about me and my buddy rocking 'Schizophrenia' and 'Arise' and such, Derrick was like "he's no poser! Old school fan!". I had asked Andreas if they were going to be playing songs from Schizophrenia or older he just smiled and said yes. So during the set, whenever they were about to go into one of old old songs, he spotted me in the crowd and gave me a big fingerpoint like "this is for you!" Probably helped I mopped house in the pit during those songs too...lol!

Karl of Nile: Dick at first, but I told him my friends and I flew down from Alaska to see them play (this was during the "Annihilation Of The Wicked" tour), he dropped his guard and was SUPER cool. Even after they were done hours later (this was in that same El Corozon bar when I first talked to him) he actually stopped all of us AK people and thanked us for coming down to see them play, and to have a safe flight home. That stuck with me!

Everybody in Bonded By Blood: Nice as hell, are looking to come to Alaska someday to play! The singer and drummer thanked me for getting a pit started! haha!

Keep of Kallesin: Way awesome guys, they all took turns running the merch booth. Vyl gave me one of his sticks after their soundcheck (handed it to me from the stage!), Obsidan C was super cool, gave me props for sticking with that band since the days of Through Times of War. Super cool.

Coven: He gave me a "I'm not worthy" gesture a la Waynes World after telling him I was from Alaska. Signed a tour poster for me (same gig as that Nile show).

IMPALER: Those poor guys set up shop on a Sunday, did the full on stage show for like 10ppl, and were the greatest guys about it. I got pics with all of them. It blew me away they weren't horribly dissappointed about playing to such a small crowd, or at least didn't let it show.

There's been others, but I never really met any dicks. I guess the ones that came into the bar before or after a gig were the nice ones?

I'm friends with David Kinkade from Soulfly. Super nice dude if hard to communicate with on a regular basis since he's been touring for most of the year. Last I talked to him was back in July right after Soulfly came back from Europe. I'm also good with Ron from Nasty Disaster. His day job is a pro wrestler of all things so I've known of him and had seen him perform since like 2006, but it was only last December that I got to talk to him and know him.

The only big band I've met was Watain back when we did a show with them in May. Hakan I talked to the most; he was nice but seemed disinterested a lot of the time. Alvaro I had a few passing words with, as was the same with Pelle. Erik was the only one I didn't talk with, but from what our ex-guitarist says he's a super nice dude.

This is golden.

Also nice bit about Sepultura. Derrick seems like a cool guy, shame Sepultura is bad nowadays(though I prefer everything that Derrick did over the abominations Max shat out in his late years of Sepultura)

The Gates of Slumber and Witch Mountain are super cool dudes, I had the pleasure to meet them. Nate from WM gave me two beer tickets and we talked about 2112!

I spoke to some of the members of Svartsot after they played a show at Gimle in Roskilde in '09, I think it was. (It was the "new" Svartsot, not the original line-up but they still only had material from Ravnenes Saga to play.) They were sitting outside having a beer and a smoke as we were leaving, so my friends and I approached them and said hi. Had a little chat about growling techniques and such.
Actually it wasn't my only interaction with the band that night - during one of songs the vocalist jumped into the crowd and everybody came up to toast him, including me. Well, my glass was empty, so I got a swig of his beer instead. So I have an overall positive impression of that band, even if I find them a little too silly nowadays. (That concert was also memorable because at the door they wanted to know if I was indeed 18...I was two weeks away from turning 25! )

At Copenhell this summer I ran into most of Korpiklaani. First Jonne, the vocalist, who was very drunk, very friendly, and very huggy and touchy-feely. (I suppose this is the part where I mention I'm female.) As I was rummaging through my backpack, trying to find my camera, other fans approached him and I remember I was so afraid that once they'd had their picture taken he'd continue on his merry, drunken way and forget about me and my photo. (Of course he didn't forget me and I got my photo.)
Not five minutes after that encounter I ran into Cane, Jarkko and Matson (the guitarist, bassist and drummer repectively). They were slightly more sober and less chatty. Whether it was because their English wasn't too good or because they're Finnish I don't know. Still, they all seemed genuinely happy over the way their Danish fans had responded earlier at their concert. (This summer was the first time Korpiklaani ever played in Denmark.)

A few hours later I ran into Apollyon from Immortal/Aura Noir inside the beer tent. Korpiklaani were very nice, but he actually beats them.
Because after I'd delivered my carefully planned "awesome show today and I'm really looking forward to seeing Aura Noir at Wacken later this summer"-speech, he decided to start asking me what I otherwise thought about this year's Copenhell etc.
I mean, had he said something like "thanks for the nice words" and left after I got my photo it would still have been a great experience for me. Now I ended up chatting with him for about an hour, and helped him locate the nicest toilets, haha.

Granted, the music inside the tent was very loud so it's not like we had the world's deepest conversation - and as someone once posted here, he's a pretty quiet fellow and I'm also pretty shy, so some of the time we just stood there, not saying a word.
So now I've been asked by a Norwegian black metal musician a) why I wasn't up there dancing on the tables and b) if I'd seen the NKotB/BSB-reunion concerts...(and it seemed like a genuine question, not mocking or anything.) And been told, completely out of the blue, that "Pentagram is a really great band!"
Also watching someone playing air drums to Slayer's Angel of Death is a bit more awesome when the person in question actually knows how to play the drums.
Did I think of getting anything signed? Nope. Also, I didn't have anything apart from my kutte he could have signed...had it not been soaking wet because of the rain.
But I did get a handshake when he left. Though it's not like I had a choice, he went up to me and stuck his hand out, kind of expecting a handshake - which is more than what I expected. I thought I'd get a wave and "bye" at the most, instead I got an almost apologetic explanation that he had to leave to get up early in the morning.
I wonder if the reason he stayed in my corner of the beer tent for an hour was that I mentioned the magic words "Aura Noir" and didn't just gush about Immortal. (And wasn't decked out in corpse paint, spikes and inverted crosses from head to toe, and didn't ask where the rest of Immortal was hiding.)

Over the years I've talked to many underground muscians in messageboards, e-mail ect...Never met any real assholes online or in person. I did find members of Opeth to be total wanna-be rock stars, I had a few very ineteresting e-mail conversations with Mikael back in the day, but when I met him in person I thought he was a total D-bag, but this was when they started to get big and get fanboys.

So this March when Deicide came to Chicago, my buddy came up to me after the set and told me that people had seen Necrobutcher walking around. I obviously thought this was bullshit but when we left Reggie's he was hanging out outside of the venue. We ran to my car to get some stuff really quickly and when we got back everyone that had formed a crowd were starting to leave so me and a few friends just went up and started talking to him. I wouldn't have been surprised if he was an asshole but that wasn't the case at all. He was by far the coolest famous metal musician I have ever met. We spent a good 20 minutes just chatting with him about metal and other assorted random shit. Apparently he was visiting some friends he had in the city so he decided to swing by Reggie's. It was quite an unexpected end to the night for sure.

I'll second the guys from The Gates of Slumber being excellent since they are based here in Indianapolis and I do see them rather often at shows. I've had some nice chats with Karl in particular and see a lot of Bob since he has at least five different bands going on at once and does a lot of booking/recording.

I haven't really met any of the bigger name but a fair amount of the NSW/Aus guys who are always really cool. I had a bit of a chat with Lord Tim at a gig once, and he was really nice guy. Dave Tice from Buffalo is another of the bigger Sydney names (not sure how well known he would be around here) I've met when I did an interview with him, and he was an absolutely gent. Also briefly met Dianno at a signing, who seemed a bit rough, but was really cool. He was pretty nice to everyone who showed up.

Not exactly metal, but the guys from Pretty Boy Floyd are absolute badarses, really cool guys who like to party and are more than happy to do so with their fans.

Dave Davidson (Revocation): Chill, down-to-earth, and funny as hell. Just an all-around fun guy to talk to.

Mallika Sundaramurthy and Jay Blaisdell (Abnormality): Mallika is fucking hilarious and a total bro, while Jay is more or less the same, just slightly toned-down.

Peter "Blue" Spinazola (Sexcrement): Once again, funny as hell and a total bro. Went on a rant about how much he hated CoD kiddies who were trying out Battlefield 3 with the same "k/d ratio is all that matters, fuck teamwork" mentality of their home series.

Blake Anderson and Frank Chin (Vektor): Ridiculously nice guys, just a ton of fun to chill with before the show. Frank and I talked for a good bit about Vektor's near and distant future plans, and also wound up telling me a story about how much of a manchild asshole Jeff Tandy is. I also spoke to Dave very briefly and got to shake Erik's hand, but I didn't actually get to say much of anything to either of them, especially because it was two in the morning by then and I had a three-hour drive back home.

Sven de Caluwe (Aborted): Kind of quiet, but incredibly nice and down-to-earth. Complimented me on my Exhumed shirt; we spent a bit of time talking about old-school splatter movies and the Phantasm series until he left to take a leak. Just a good guy overall.

Bill Robinson (Decrepit Birth): Everything that everyone has ever said about the dude is correct. Bill is indeed one hell of a character and always has some sort of story to tell about experiences on the road. Just a ton of fun to chill with. He wasn't baked, however; he said that he's been trying to avoid toking down before going on stage because it kills his throat.

Travis Ryan and Josh Elmore (Cattle Decapitation): Both of them were chill as hell; I ragged on Travis for being a hipster due to the large Interpol sticker on his laptop, which he just laughed off, and then we started talking shit about Rings of Saturn. Josh, meanwhile, was bitching about how much of a pain it was to find vegetarian fare on the road that wasn't either stupidly expensive or disgusting (he mentioned getting a salad from a convenience store and finding that the lettuce was little more than slime), so I gave him the locations of multiple restaurants around that he and Travis could find something decent and affordable at. Seemed to make him pretty happy.

Jason Keyser and John Longstreth (Origin): Jason was fucking hilarious and a ton of fun to talk to; we spent a good deal of time quoting Chappelle's Show after I noticed that the donation cup had "COCAINE IS A HELL OF A DRUG" written on it. John, meanwhile, was actually really quiet and kind of antisocial. That isn't to say that he wasn't a nice guy (he was), just that he didn't seem like much of a people person.

As for douchebags, I personally haven't met any, but I was told that Ian Bearer (Rings of Saturn) was being a rude little bitch to everyone that night and had managed to piss off almost all the women there by way of trying to hit on them in the most douchebag bro-y manner possible. Hell, he even managed to get on the bad side of the STAFF. He did get his comeuppance, however, when my friend (a tiny little blond girl who had told him to fuck off earlier that night and whose boyfriend was pretty damn pissed at him himself) went straight for him in the Aborted pit and shoulder-checked him with enough force to send him flying on his ass. He was apparently very quiet for the rest of the night after that.