My Dream Dinner Party - With Famous Musicians

What if you could invite any four famous musicians, deceased or alive, to your dream dinner party? Who would you invite, and what would happen when these musicians all showed up to spend an evening with you? Here’s what my dream dinner party with famous musicians would look like!

I haven’t actually met many famous musicians, although I have had a few “brushes with fame” over the years and always in the airport or on airplanes. For example, on a flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles many, many years ago I saw Eddie Van Halen sitting in first class. Even more interesting, Valerie Bertinelli, his wife at the time and somewhat famous actress, was trying to open the bathroom door and couldn’t figure out how to do it, so I got up and helped her into the bathroom with her infant, Wolfgang. She was grateful and said thanks, but I would have preferred that she offer to take a picture with me, or with Eddie in return for my very kind gesture!

I also sat next to Jonathan Cain – singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and guitarist – for the rock group Journey on a flight from DC to Los Angeles. I left him alone and didn’t get up the courage to introduce myself, primarily because I assumed that would annoy him and we were going to be stuck next to each other (in business class but still, …) for 5 ½ hours. I regret not at least telling him I was a fan. Pete Yorn is also an indie rock star who some of you might have heard of. I ended up behind him going through TSA security a few years ago and recognized him because his guitar was on the scanner belt and it had his name on it. I told him I was a fan and loved his music – he was very kind and said thanks while shaking my hand.

But none of those musicians are the ones I would really like to meet in person or have dinner with in my fantasy world. So, here’s another installment of my dream dinner party blog series, featuring famous musicians!

If you could invite any four famous musicians – deceased or alive – to your dream dinner party, who would they be?

I’d invite Paul McCartney and John Lennon because, well, do I even need to say why? The Beatles! Greatest! Band! Ever! Next up would be Alice Cooper, who is a fantastic musician and is also known to be one of the nicest guys in the music business as well! And who better to liven up a dinner party than the person who strokes large snakes on stage and purportedly bites the head off of live chickens as well (spoiler alert – he never did that!)?! Finally, I’d invite Freddy Mercury, lead singer and songwriter for the great band Queen. In addition to loving his music, Mercury was a classic “tortured artist” who was amazingly successful as a musician but struggled with many demons throughout his too short life. I think he would have some amazing stories to tell and some lessons to teach us all as well.

OK, what a weird and eccentric choice of dinner guests! How would you break the ice and what would you talk about?

I’d serve some creative non-alcoholic mocktails to break the ice since Alice Cooper is a teetotaler having sworn off alcohol for over 37 years. Before that, he was drinking a bottle of whiskey a day and throwing up blood on a regular basis when he did, which apparently “set his alarm bells off”!

I would ask Lennon and McCartney to talk about their five favorite Beatles songs and share the real story of why they finally decided to break up as a band and go solo. I’d ask Freddy Mercury about Queen’s Live Aid performance at Wembley Stadium in 1985 in front of 72,000 fans in the stadium and an estimated 1.9 billion (yes, BILLION!) fans watching on television world-wide. Their performance is recognized as one of the greatest live concerts of all time, so I’d want to ask him how they selected the 5-song set list they performed, and what it was like to play with billions of people watching.

Finally, I’d ask Alice to regale us with his tales of his wild days on stage and what led him to use things such as electric chairs, fake blood, reptiles, baby dolls, and other horror-related props during his shows. I would also ask him about the time he spent in a NY asylum due to his alcoholism, and the people he met there that formed the basis for his songs on his amazing album From the Inside which was released in the late 70’s.

Where would you host this esteemed group of musicians for your dinner party?

Abbey Road, the Beatle’s recording studio in London. It would be a shameless effort on my part to hopefully inspire everyone to pick up an instrument after dinner and start jamming together. Both Alice’s and Freddy’s music was inspired by the Beatles in a number of ways, so it would be great to hear this group play some of their favorite Beatles songs together, or to hear Lennon and McCartney play some of their favorite Cooper and Queen songs!

And what would be the vibe?

Come as you are! I’d imagine Freddy would arrive in a garish skin-tight body suit which he was prone to wear on stage during concerts. Lennon and McCartney would arrive in worn out suits with t-shirts and sandals (or perhaps barefoot). No telling about Alice, but I’m guessing he’d be wearing leather pants, a top hat, and tails! The vibe would be decidedly casual – we might even eat dinner sitting on pillows on the floor for all I care!

What would you serve them for dinner?

I’m guessing there are a number of vegetarians in the group, along with some meat eaters as well. So, I’d go international and serve vegetarian and beef versions of Moussaka, the classic Greek casserole filled with eggplant, potatoes, Mediterranean-spiced sauce, and bechamel sauce. Keeping with the Greek theme, I’d serve a nice salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, feta cheese, and olives dressed with salt, Greek oregano, and olive oil. And for desert, baklava!

How would you end the evening?

We’d go outside the studio and recreate the classic cover for the Beatle’s Abbey Road album by walking across the Abbey Road crosswalk, single file of course and capture it on film! John and Paul would probably be annoyed, but hey, it’s my dinner party and they agreed to come!

So, if you could do the same, what famous musicians would you invite to your dinner party, and why? Let me know!