Earlier in the month the Otago Daily Times (ODT) ran a story stating that Dunedin City Councillor Neil Collins is “in a class of his own” when it comes to knowing big names in the entertainment industry. We liked the story so much we decided to write our own.
The esteemed publication detailed Collins’ very memorable meetings with music legend Johnny Cash and included a “prized photo” provided by Collins of one such occasion. The photo in question bears more than a passing resemblance to the album cover of The Best of Johnny Cash, Volume 2, Millennium Edition, with the addition of Councillor Collins to the right of the star. Either that, or the picture with Collins was so fantastic that Cash decided to use it for the album cover and our own Councillor didn’t quite make the cut…
Critic got in touch with Collins, who says he has “a hundred stories like that” and “a lot of them concern driving people back and forward from the airport.”
Collins told the ODT that he was introduced to Cash as “a deejay from Noo Zealand”, and that the experience made him think of how most people must feel when “meeting the Queen or the President”. In an amazing coincidence this reporter has her own ‘prized photo’ of a meeting with the Queen and the President, see opposite.
Critic isn’t sure whether Collins has a “prized photo” of each of the “hundreds” of celebrities he has met during his career as a radio and television broadcaster, but would at least like to commend him on his photoshopping skills.
Neil Collins: the man, the myth, the legend
