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My first near encounter with them was in 1986 when I was getting high with my friends in the alley behind the Retro (the club they played that night) in Seattle and they arrived in their van and almost hit us. Thurston was driving.
Then I went to an in-store signing at Tower Records in Seattle when Dirty was coming out and had them sign my copy of Kill Yr. Idols. The line was totally around the block, so they had no time to talk to anyone and looked bored out of their skulls. Especially since nearly everyone there was having them sign new cd copies of Dirty. When I handed them Kill Yr. Idols, Lee was obviously really jazzed for a moment of old school variety as he signed it "YES! YES! YES!" Steve and I talked about how I wanted him to sign it even though he wasn't on it, so he signed the sleeve rather than the cover (and wrote "On the sleeve, Steve" too!) We were supposed to only give them one item, but I quickly handed Kim a copy of my Ciccone Youth single as well, which she signed "Durty, durty, durty" perhaps for the album coming out, or perhaps for my cheating and asking for more.
I met Thurston in 1995 when he played Rodeo Records in Ellensburg WA at 11 AM and was literally waking up playing his guitar. I was in the process of breaking up with my first wife, and had him sign a copy of Easter by Patti Smith for her. I offered him a copy of my zine DystOpinion, but he had already picked up a copy I'd left in the record store. That was cool.
That same year was the one I put on the first ever Olympia Experimental Music Festival. I'd written about it in the zine he'd grabbed, and secretly was wishing they'd show up to check it out. What's really bizarre is that apparently they were in Olympia to see it, but didn't end up going. They had dinner at King Solomon's Reef and told the waiter that's what they were in town to do. But they never showed, and I know for sure because the Midnight Sun, where we had it then was really tiny, and most of the time I worked the door myself. Apparently when the waiter recognized Lee and said, "Y-your Lee Ranaldo", Lee responded, "Yes, do I know you?" I can only guess they ended up partying with Slim Moon or something instead.
I talked to Thurston briefly last year too in Portland for the Leaves Outside the Academy show. Mostly I asked if he minded me shooting flash photography, because I wasn't sure if it wasn't going to be a really, really mellow acoustic thing, and I didn't want to be an ass. He was totally fine with it of course.
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