Snapshots

So, I'm on the red carpet for the Academy Awards and I hear a voice say, "Hi Mark."

I turn and it's Mariah Carey.

"Hi Mariah."

Let's go back a few months...

I was in a recording studio with a camera crew getting set to interview Mariah. This would be the first time I would ever meet her and didn't know quite what to expect. There were rumors that she was tough to talk to, rumors that she was a diva. I'm here to tell you, they were all wrong. She couldn't have been more accommodating, couldn't have been nicer.

Cut ahead to that red carpet and hugs were in order. That's right, I hugged Mariah Carey.

A sweet person. A great hugger. And an underrated writer. Go back and listen to her. A lot of those songs? She wrote.

Before CBS, I was a rock and roll deejay. I worked in a number of cities and the first station I worked at in New York was WAPP.

We had an album we put out called Homegrown that featured local talent. The band that won that first contest was called Bon Jovi with a song called "Runaway."A record company heard that song and signed them to a contract and the rest, as they say, is history.

Jon Bon Jovi never forgot.

I was at a Prince concert years later at Madison Square Garden and Jon walked by, stopped, and came back to shake my hand and to talk to me. We talked about the concert, his tour, and once again he thanked me for having a hand in helping him.

Made me feel very special.

One last thing.

One year Jon was at the MTV Awards, and he and his guitarist Ritchie Sambora did an acoustic version of their song"Wanted Dead or Alive." THAT performance gave us MTV Unplugged.

Thank you Jon.

The late Joan Rivers had her own talk show. Before I get to that, Joan was once the center square on Hollywood Squares. A fledgeling weatherman was on that show and Joan, who was a big star, was very kind to him. That weatherman has always been deeply grateful.

On to her show with a story I mentioned before...

I was a guest along with the great Aretha Franklin. Joan tried to hook us up. Although Aretha and I were good friends, that hooking us up thing went by like a summer rainstorm and never happened. I've never been turned down so graciously.

More Aretha...

It was January in Washington and I was covering Clinton's first Inauguration for 48 Hours. It was cold...January, right?  I was coming around the corner of the Lincoln Memorial when I thought I heard Aretha singing.

Turns out I was right.

There she was in a mink coat, clutching her handbag singing, "R-E-S-P-E-C-T, (she saw me) Hi Mark, find out what it means to me."

Needless to say, later on, she was a highlight of the celebration.

Last but not least Laurence Fishburne.

One day I was standing at the corner of Eighth Avenue and 57th Street waiting for the light to change.

A guy on a moter scooter, with a helmet, goes by and says, "Hey Mark."

Laurence Fishburne.

Next time I saw him was on the show, to talk about a movie he wrote, directed, and starred in called Once in a Life. I say, "Before we talk about that do you remember the last time we saw each other?"

"No."

I tell him the story and he laughed. "I remember now!" He continued, "It's easier to get around the city that way. And by the time people recognize me, I'm gone... Ciao!"

Sometimes you just have to say Ciao.

#MarkMcEwen
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