Nationally Famous Locals/Bands etc. Who Hang Out Locally
 

It was hard to think of how to title this.

What I meant was: is there anyone who's famous and lives nearby and the locals see him/her/them around a lot?

I was thinking of this because I just heard "Christmas in Dixie"; the guys in the band Alabama always seems to be passing through in their van or hanging out at the biscuit place. One of the band members from the Christian group Casting Crowns lives in town and they're around sometimes.

The only other celebrity I can think of--Ashley from Teen Mother. We saw her at Cici's last week. Kinda sad.

The band members from the band mewithoutYou are Philadelphia natives and I have friends and friends of friends who have known them personally. They're an indie folk rock band. I've met the lead singer at a small show in State College, he's really interesting.

Back in the day, Bruce Springsteen was in Pittsburgh almost as often as Jersey. My best friend from college is still good friends with his.

And if you ever watch PBS for the various shows about Diners, Roadside Oddities, and such, Rick Seebak lives near me.

Dave Matthews is a regular at a breakfast place I like in Seattle.

I served Bill Gates a couple of times when he came into our local Starbucks several years ago.

Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, Bob Seger.. but primarily our own sports stars: All the Red Wings are all over the place all the time including retired Red Wing, Chris Chelios, who owns a couple restaurants. Tim Allen is around a bit.. and Motown folks like Aretha Franklin.

At one time, everybody I knew who flew to Chicago saw Sinbad at the airport, but that was probably 15 years ago or more.

Ty Stone is a national talent (he sings Downriver that's been played on WRIF a couple times) who is great friends with Kid Rock. Don't know if he would count but he's fro Lincoln Park. He has a local band here with Doop & The Inside Outlaws. I know a couple people in it.

Included in one of the Red Wings is Budd Lynch, the radio voice of the Wings and former player. Nicest guy and I worked with him a bit on a celebrity golf outing he does for The Guidance Center (a psychological/mentoring/etc facility).

That's the cool thing about Detroit. Most native Detroiters stay loyal to the city (except Madonnacoughcough)

We see Pat Green around Fort Worth when he's not touring. He seems to frequent the same burger joints that are popular with the local crowd.

(Then again, I'm used to seeing Pat around since he was on the local Greek scene back when I was in college. To me, he's just another of the Tech fraternity guys!)

John Mellencamp still lives in Bloomington, Indiana. He gets out all over town. He's a regular guy, I used to see him at least once a month when I was a student. Now that he's dating Meg Ryan, there have been several sightings of her lately.

John Michael Montgomery lives in Nicholasville, KY. My dad sold him some liquor at Rite Aid once.

His brother, Eddie Montgomery (of Montgomery Gentry), has a restaurant in Harrodsburg, KY and is often seen there.

Yeah country music!

Nashville is a great town for sightings. Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have a home here and they're out and about all the time. Whole Foods is a good place to see them.

Nashvillians are pretty good about leaving the famous people alone here - so as a result, it's not weird to see country music stars walking around. I saw Porter Wagoner (some years ago) having dinner at the same BBQ joint I was leaving.

Little Jimmy Dickens went to the hockey game the other night, saw him cruising around.

My husband used to be a news photographer - he met Patsy Cline's husband who invited my husband to come hang out any time.

He also met Harry Belafonte, who game him a hard time for wearing shorts to a black-tie, red carpet event. His exact words were, "Hey man, put on some pants". My husband explained he'd been pulled out of the field to cover the event and apologized for his lack of formal attire.

Harry was just giving him a hard time.