Guitar World Discussion: What’s your greatest guitar hero encounter?

They say never meet your heroes but, while we inevitably hear some horror stories of rude celebrities and ego-tripping rockstars, sometimes meeting your hero is exactly what you’d hope it to be: a once-in-a-lifetime experience that rewards your faith in an artist or player.

The best (and, sometimes, worst) become timeless anecdotes that you can recycle at the bar, at rehearsals, or, er... to complete strangers on the subway. They might even give you some insight into the player, help you develop your own guitar skills, or maybe just leave you feeling like there’s an actual person behind the persona.

So, let’s cut to the chase: we want to hear about your best guitar hero encounters. Maybe John Entwistle lent you his amp, or Stevie Ray Vaughan dropped in to your family store. Heck, have you ever had the chance to chew the fat with one of your favorite music icons at a gig (the Kiss fan who spent $12k to roadie for Gene Simmons, we’re looking at you)?

Perhaps you bumped into Slash while shredding a forbidden riff at a Guitar Center? Or snuck backstage to meet Yngwie Malmsteen?

Weird, wild, wonderful.. we want to know! We’re asking you, the Guitar World readers, to kindly share your guitar hero encounters in our flashy comments section down below.

We’ll be keeping an eye on the action (and may even throw in a few tales of our own) – and if anything especially intriguing catches our eye, we may follow-up with you and dedicate a whole story to it.

So, don’t be shy: get involved and let us know about your favorite guitar hero encounter below...