Why the last thing you ever want to do is meet your favorite famous person, according to a famous person
Moby has a strict "don't meet your heroes" policy, which he reinforces in particular when it comes to meeting fellow musicians.
"I was at a party in Los Angeles a little while ago, and Neil Young was there," Moby told INSIDER. "I'm sure that Neil Young is a very nice man, but I said, 'No, I don't want to meet Neil Young.' Because what if I catch him on a bad day, and what if he's a d--k?"
For Moby, a bad encounter with Neil Young might mean he'd "lose 20 of my favorite songs of all time." So by that logic, it's better to just stay away.
Before becoming famous, Moby evaded celebs for a different reason. In his memoir, "Porcelain," he writes about his early days, spotting then-legends of the electronic music scene like Frankie Knuckles, David Morales, and Junior Vasquez. He seldom tried to talk to them.
"I met Frankie Knuckles a few times and he was polite," Moby said. "But he was also the man who had invented house music. It never felt like it was my place to try to put on airs and pretend to have familiarity with this legend."
It helps that Moby often doesn't have the same interests as other musicians. He's a teetotaler and he's middle-aged. Most of his friends, he says, are writers, or involved in the world of public policy. He's friends with David Lynch and the Clintons, and was friendly with David Bowie.
But when it comes to most celebrities, he'd "rather just listen to their records and buy their books and watch their movies."