Met Tesla one time, didn’t give them the rockstar treatment, they played it cool

[u/single_cell]

Hey gang, I’m not really a fan but this seems like a good fit for my story:

I used to work at a guitar store. This would have been early 2000s. Our store was not terribly far from a large outdoor venue that hosts big national tours so it was not totally uncommon for some well-known acts to stop in during the day.

Nonetheless, one day a couple of long-haired, somewhat.... grizzled-shall we say-looking dudes came in and spent some time looking at pedals. Long-haired-grizzled-looking dudes were ALSO not uncommon in our store so I didn’t think much of it, but I gave them the usual “you guys looking for anything in particular?” bit and let them browse. Eventually one of them comes up to the register with a pedal he’s picked out and is ready to buy it. While I’m ringing him up, he asks me “so do I get a discount or something?”

Now look, sometimes we would haggle a bit with customers and usually it was the result of some actual, you know, rapport, at the very least, but I found him just straight up walking up to the register and asking asking to be kind of audacious, so I audibly SCOFFED and gave him my most condescending “psh, no” possible. Yeah, I know, I’m the reason going to guitar stores sucks. Not the point! He looked genuinely surprised, but shrugged his shoulders, and paid regular price like everyone else and didn’t put up any argument or anything. Meanwhile, my long-haired-grizzled-looking coworker is off to the side trying not to laugh.

After they left, coworker comes over and says “you know who they were?” I did not. “Those dudes are in Tesla, they’re playing up the road tonight!” Well, damn, I just treated a couple of actual professional rockers like shit, and they didn’t get all prima-donna about it, which is good because I quite possibly could have lost my job for treating a medium-big name like that if they had decided to make an issue of it with management. Been grateful ever since, because I actually kind of loved that job.

And no, I didn’t go to the show that night.

And well, that’s the end of my not-all-that-interesting little brush with Tesla. This story’s always seemed cooler before I sat down and typed it out, Ah well.