Your experience was much like my own, Peter B. I always operated from a "friendly but not familiar" stance. I wouldn't have presumed to have acted like I was these older musicians' new best friend. I would say, too, in my experience, the better I came to know musicians, the more I was interested in them as people and the less I was interested in them as repositories of music. After my first meeting with Sam Chatmon, I don't know if I ever discussed music with him again. We talked about life stuff, family, jobs, dogs he had had, and stuff like that. He was very grandfatherly to me, with life advice and so on.
All best,
Johnm
