Jessi Kamea Recalls Meeting Rick Rubin At NXT Event, Not Knowing Who He Was
Rick Rubin is a known wrestling fan, having hung out with Triple H in the past and explaining how he believes wrestling is an accurate representation of life.
Rubin recently stopped by the NXT tapings in July to take in the action and Jessi Kamea had the pleasure of meeting him.
Once she figured out who he was.
“I remember the day, how everyone was around and figuring out what to do, and I remember this gentleman, lots of hair and facial hair, really chill. I knew he was somebody because of how people were functioning around him. It felt like people were like…you know how a kid approaches their favorite toy and they value it so much? Or it’s a trophy already on the shelf and they are excited, but don’t touch it. I was like, ‘Okay, this guy is great. Who is he?’ I’ll be honest, I didn’t know. Joaquin Wilde came up and was like, ‘Rick Rubin is in the building, I got a picture with him.’ I was like, ‘What does he do?’ I started googling away and he had something to do with producing Beastie Boys and big music,” recalled Kamea on Teasy’s Table.
Kamea continued by saying, “All I needed to read was Beastie Boys because when I first started wrestling, I wanted my music to mirror something like that because it was fun and different and I wanted to create this new image for women. A lot of it is feminine, but I just wanted to dance and I like their style, so I was trying to work with music production to make something similar. It didn’t work out, we can circle back to that, I think it’s still a possibility. I think only a handful of people got to meet him and shake his hand and I got really lucky because I saw him after I had taken care of my business. I was stretching in the gym and I see him start walking towards the door. I was like, ‘Now or never.’ I run up to him, trying not to fangirl and trying to be professional and not overwhelm him, because I’ve done that before. I asked him to take a picture, thanked him, and it was great. I got goosebumps. When someone so accomplished is in front of you, it’s intimidating. You don’t know how they are going to go about it or if they want their space, so you want to be respectful. Luckily, he was super cool with it and I got it. It made my day.”
Kamea said she wished she had summoned the courage to talk to him sooner.
Kamea is currently featured regularly on NXT television as part of Franky Monet’s story with Robert Stone.
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