The Cars debut album came out 45 years ago today. I could post one of the many classic songs but instead I'm going to give you this story from Elliot Easton about how he met Neil Diamond while Easton was in junior high. Maybe my favorite celebrity encounter storie ever.
In the same interview, Easton also recalls the time he borrowed a guitar string from a bathing-suit clad Neil Diamond, after learning the songwriter’s parents lived opposite his junior high school band’s rehearsal space, in Massapequa, New York.
“We could see this yellow Lincoln Continental [in the drive opposite] so we knew Neil was there visiting his parents. So this was a Sunday, I broke a string on my guitar, ‘Where are we going to get a string?’ ‘Oh, Neil’s home!’ His parents lived directly across the street, so I crossed the street and knocked on the door and Neil answers in a bathing suit! I’ll never forget it.
“We were like, ‘Uh, Mr. Diamond, you wouldn’t happen to have a guitar string? We broke a string and we’re having our band practice…’ He goes, ‘Sure I do!’ He goes over to the trunk of his car, opens up his guitar case and gives me a Gibson Sonamatic string. I kept the envelope. I kept it forever.”
