By Kyle Osborne
My first impression of Rob Sheffield was not altogether positive; he was one of the talking heads that would pop up with snarky comments on those VH-1 shows (and now I can’t remember which ones, but it seems he was on the ‘I Love The 80’s’ type shows. Or was it the week in review things? Anyway).
He just seemed like he was all about making fun of things, which is fine, it was the format, but he didn’t come across as an endearing persona.
Later, as I began to read his articles and books, I realized that Sheffield is, in fact, a romantic, a fan, someone with a heart and who isn’t ashamed to access it. He’s also an amazing storyteller.
I spotted Sheffield at a Pavement concert in Brooklyn in September of 2010. I was with my 23 year old daughter at the time and I said to her, “I’m sorry, honey, but that is Rob Sheffield over there and I have to meet him.” He was instantly gracious, and did what the very coolest celebrities do when you meet them: he listened and he asked questions. These are the marks of genuinely decent celebrities-the best a fan can hope for. After finding out that I’d come up from Virginia, he offered that he had lived and gone to school in Charlottesville, told my daughter and me of his fond memories there and just, I don’t know, made us feel like we could be pals with him.
Of course, Brad Pitt (or whoever) might argue that he can’t even walk down a public street, much less have a conversation with everyone who approaches him. But the very best of the bunch (George Clooney is the Alpha-Mensch of all movie stars) know how to make you feel that you’ve made a connection, even with the shake of a hand and a quick smile. I witnessed the same thing with then President Clinton back in the day.
So, all of this is to say that I think Rob Sheffield is a cool guy, a nice man, and a gifted writer. Please buy and read his stuff.
You can find his books here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/rob-sheffield?store=allproducts&keyword=rob+sheffield
Read his Wiki bio here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Sheffield
Read an excerpt from his forthcoming book on Slate.com, it happens to be an essay about how he was once a RUSH hater, but later turned his critic’s frown upside down. Now he’s a fan. It really resonates with a lot of us who made that same transition over the years, although I’m proud to say that I was just uncool enough (and slightly older than Rob) to have begun liking them by High School age.
Now that I think of it, his RUSH story is not unlike my own transition from thinking Sheffield was just a smart-ass, to realizing that he is ten miles deep, yet not the least bit pretentious. Don’t you just love happy endings?
Here’s the link to his excerpt: http://www.salon.com/2013/08/06/rush_how_i_learned_to_forgive_and_even_like_the_most_hated_band_of_all_time/