“To eat good food is to be close to God.”
- From the movie Big Night
Yesterday I mentioned the musician Patty Griffin and what I big fan I am of hers. The subject of Patty reminds me of a rock-n-roll brush with greatness story, albiet it, once removed. Here it is.
My good friend Roderick once owned and operated a stellar little restaurant in East Nashville for a few years called The Silly Goose. This was in the late 2000s to the early 2000-teens. The Goose served all kinds of interesting and flavorful fare. Anytime we were in town, we always made sure we got by there for a visit. Roderick served some of the best food I've ever had and I've had a lot of good food in my life. I know whereof I speak.
This being Nashville, it was not uncommon for musicians and music industry people of some notoriety to dine there. It was not a big deal. People don't tend to be starstruck there. If I'm not mistaken, Taylor Swift and her mother came in for a bite once. This was before she became a deity, but she was certainly well known. Nobody made a fuss.
The Goose was on a corner and the building it was in had some apartments above it. The stairwell to them was right outside the restaurant's door. Patty Griffin lived in one of them for a time. Roderick said she would occasionally come in to get some food to go. He said she was, as I alluded to yesterday, quiet and reserved.
It was during this time that Patty was dating a very significant rock-n-roll luminary. And so it happened one day that Roderick was there at work going about his business when he looked up and saw Robert Plant coming through the door. Robert Plant…Led Zeppelin Robert Plant…Okay.
He walked across the room to Roderick and asked if he could perhaps borrow a hammer; he was putting up some drapes for Patty. I'm sure Roderick was like, “Sure, Robert Plant, you can borrow a hammer.” He found one for him and walked out with him and they hung out in the stairwell and chatted for a bit while Robert smoked a cigarette. Even for Nashville, it was a unique encounter.
Sometimes when I'm doing a handyman job around the house, I think of Robert Plant just hanging some drapes like a regular Joe. As I've thought about it, maybe there's some kind of weird connection in the story. After all, there is a well-known, controversial biography written about Led Zeppelin. What's it called? — Hammer of the Gods.
- I don't remember Roderick mentioning if he got the hammer back. I assume he did. Either way, it would make a great song title: “Robert Plant's Got My Hammer.”
Birthdays in Music: Brad Paisley (1972) Country Singer/Guitar Slinger
Name That Movie: “Are you trying to say Jesus Christ can't hit a curve ball?”
RP