What is your claim to fame?

[SouthernLion]

I always thought this was a fun topic to talk about. What is your claim to fame? It seems everyone has some kind of connection to someone or something famous or huge, either closely or a few parts removed. I mean, yes, celebrities are just human beings like the rest of us. But it's still kind of cool to think about, in scale. I'm curious what cool things/stories you guys have to share.

For me, my cousin is an art director in California, and he actually was a large part of the art direction (go figure) and logo design of the first two Rob Zombie movies. He was actually going to sue Rob Zombie, because he gave him no credit at all (the logo is just credited under the "Rob Zombie" brand), but he didn't want to be known as the "guy who sued Rob Zombie" and never get work again in Hollywood. Plus, he did get paid for the job. So he just kind of let it go.

On the music side, the former drummer for Dope (which if you aren't familiar with them, they are a main stage Ozzfest band that would play with Marilyn Manson and Black Sabbath etc.) has done a music video for my little brother's band, and actually did a cover of one of my brother's band's songs in his new music group. (My brother's band actually opened for Taproot once, too. That was a pretty cool thing to happen.) The drummer and his wife are actually really great people, they do a lot of charity work from their local music store here, and him and his wife shared and donated on my GoFundMe with a lot of nice things to say when my wife was physically killed from this world a few years ago. Litefoot, who is a Native American rapper, (more famously known as Little Bear in Indian in the Cupboard and Nightwolf in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation), wrote me like 5 paragraphs of kind words about my grief for my wife. Ever since then, we have brief exchanges online every few weeks about life. It's so weird to think "Dope's drummer's wife sends me Farmville requests on Facebook" or "I talk about life with Little Bear from one of my favorite movies growing up." lmao

My wife and I, when she was still physically here, got to meet Kim Coates and Theo Rossi (Tig Trager and Juice Ortiz) from Sons of Anarchy. We got to drink beers with them (well, I did. My wife was the designated driver), eat dinner with them, and watch the series finale together with them. They said they've never seen the episode, so we were watching it new, together. I mean, obviously they knew what happened, but they never saw the final cut. It was a pretty surreal experience. I've never talked to them outside of that dinner, though. TELL ME YOUR STORIES!

EDIT: Oh, and I don't know if this counts, but I've had a good conversation about cars with the professional race car driver that used to test drive John Carmack's Ferraris for him. (I confirmed it was legit, check mark, with his racing company etc. and John Carmack's old messages.)

[Rachael]

I have one but I really think if I were to discuss it publicly too much, my connection would get very angry with me.

But there is a certain musician that, if I ever wanted to go to a concert for free, I can get VIP backstage pass.

I am not much into his genre of music though - but I will say the stuff I've listened to of his is really good.

[Redneckerz]

I am friends with several dance artists of a particular German based dance genre. We meet every year and they are a whole friendly lot.

That's about it.

[SouthernLion]

I have one but I really think if I were to discuss it publicly too much, my connection would get very angry with me.

But there is a certain musician that, if I ever wanted to go to a concert for free, I can get VIP backstage pass.

I am not much into his genre of music though - but I will say the stuff I've listened to of his is really good.

I am so curious now. lmao. But I respect your privacy/situation.

[NiGHTMARE]

Not sure if you can call it a "claim to fame", but I was once sat about 15 foot away from Prince William when he walked through my office.

One of my great great grandfathers was Henry Frederick Swann, who designed the first ocean-going tanker. (He spent eight years living in St. Petersburg, Russia which by sheer coincidence is where my brother's wife comes from!)

A more distant ancestor was a first cousin of William Sancroft, the Archbishop of Canterbury who crowned King James II and was later imprisoned in the Tower of London by him.

Going even further back, I'm a direct descendant of William the Conquerer via my grandmother's side of the family. An estimated 67 million other people share this distinction, though.

[Viscra Maelstrom]

not personally about me, but my brother was able to get a job a long time ago writing scores for Robert Wells of Rhapsody in Rock fame. i believe he still works for him, but his current studies is taking priority right now. it's given him some notable work, such as playing in the concert at the royal castle of Sweden last year i believe.

he also made friends at the senior high school he went with the sons of another famous Swedish musician, though i'll withhold what their names were. they formed a band, and was able to get a song into the Swedish event Melodifestivalen (lit. "Melody Festival", the event in which it's decided who in Sweden goes to the Eurovision Song Contest) that was written and produced almost entirely by themselves, whereas most of the contest entries are big, flashy pop acts written by various other song writers and not the artists themselves. it didn't get far though, and the band is dissolved now, but they're still good friends.

personally, i'd rather not get much fame or notoriety of any sort. i'd prefer a more humble life away from such things. though, i guess it doesn't gel well with the fact i write music myself.

[SanyaWaffles]

Joel of Vinesauce referenced Daytime Drama on one of his videos. I dunno if that counts.

Outside of the modding scene? Not much. My grandfather worked at NASA though, something I wish I had asked him more about. Some of his designs might have been expanded on by others. He couldn't say much about specific projects, but he did work on power sources for long term spacecraft, sort of like what ended up in say the Voyager... I dunno if his designs ever made it there.

[Nash]

I was shortlisted for Mick Gordon's DOOM Heavy Metal Choir and was personally contacted by him, asking me if I could participate. We exchanged a couple of e-mails but ultimately I couldn't join because I needed to obtain an American work visa, which was impossible at the time due to the government shut down. I was gutted as fuck.

Your ZDoom homeboy almost got to be a part of DOOM Eternal's soundtrack!

[Apeirogon]

Mick Gordon's DOOM Heavy Metal Choir

Judging by his BOIII DOOM soundtrack it would be something meshhuga-like, which is not something bad. But constant meshhuga-likenes in BOIII DOOM, mmmmmmm.....it sounds like single song in one key in one rhythm in one etc/etc/etc.
In other words, my accustomed to extreme (death, doom(genre), grindcore and other emo-cyber-nazi-arachno punk genres that appear in recent years) music ears could hear difference between songs only when I listened them, not when I play BOII DOOM. While music itself 7-8/10 its definitely not a music for a game, by my super important opinion of a no name from the internet.

So I dont think you lost that much, dont upset.