Meeting famous people and looking stupid

You see that distorted photo above? (I can't seem to fix it. Sorry about that.) The man in the middle, wearing the black T-shirt, is Sting. The musician, that is, not the wrestler. He looks cool and happy.

Now see the guy just to the right (Sting's left) wearing the goofy round glasses? That's me. I look happy, too, but not especially cool. I look like someone standing in the back of a group of people straining to be seen so that he could later say he had his picture taken with Sting.

Which is exactly what I was.

This photo was taken in July 1996 backstage at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Sting was less than a half hour away from taking the stage for a show in front of 15,000 people in the middle of his "Mercury Falling" tour.

The kid wearing the backwards hat on the far right is my nephew, Mark. He was working security in a retail store and made friends with one of the cosmetic counter girls. That girl happened to be the cousin of Sting's drummer, Vinnie Colaiuta (the other guy in the photo wearing glasses besides me). She got us the backstage passes.

Sting has always been my favorite musician. He's immensely talented and I love his songwriting, his bass-playing, and his singing. I think I have virtually every song he has ever recorded.

Getting the chance to meet him was a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He came over and shook my hand, and I responded by saying to him, "BLAHOODA MUFIGOLOWICH!" Or something like that. All I know is that it was loud and unintelligible, and he responded with a very polite, "I beg your pardon?"

Sting and other famous people are used to this, I'm sure. People get tongue-tied around them, and they learn to be very smooth about it. I was trying to tell Sting how much of a fan I was and to ask him some questions about a couple of his more obscure songs.

But instead, all I could muster was two minutes' worth of variations on "BLAHOODA MUFIGOLOWICH!" Sting did his best to make conversation with me until he had to move on to the others who had snagged backstage passes and were waiting for their opportunity to talk to him.

Sting is easily the most famous person I've met, but in later years when I met other celebrity types (hockey legends Mario Lemieux and Gordie Howe and Men at Work lead singer Colin Hay among them) I got better at calming myself and speaking clearly.

And I'll admit it's silly that I even have to do that. These are just people, after all. Well-known people, but still, just people. And I've invested in them some sort of glorified status that makes me nervous when I get within 10 feet of them. It makes no sense, and they themselves probably find it all a little tiring.

Celebrity worship is an interesting human phenomenon. I admire people who are genuinely nonplussed around stars. I'm embarrassed to admit what a fan boy I am about certain writers, musicians and athletes, but even at the age of 45, it happens.

So I'm interested to know: Who are the most famous people you've met? And were you at all nervous when you met them? Feel free to post in the comments below.