“Look in their eyes, stand in their shoes. Put ‘em on the ground right next to you. So many jerks and so many fools. Oh, it will make you laugh when you meet your heroes.”
The above epigraph from a song by one of my favorite hometown bands suggests that it’s often disappointing when you meet your heroes. No doubt it is often true, especially if your heroes are celebrities or wealthy public figures with publicists and others who help them to carefully cultivate and maintain idealized public personas. That song echoes in my mind when I have the good fortune to meet someone I admire. Fortunately, it is not always thus!
A few weeks ago, I had the good fortune to be able to meet one of my heroes, B.J. Barham of American Aquarium . The band was playing at The Sinclair in Cambridge, MA, and I’d signed up for a meet and greet pre-show thing that ended up being canceled. Nonetheless, when I arrived at the venue, I was taken backstage to meet Mr. Barham, a gifted singer-songwriter who’s not afraid to speak his mind. In fact, it the band’s 2018 sing “ The ‘World is On Fire ” that first brought this Raleigh, NC based band to my at