Doesn't sound like such a great idea since that Celebrity Apprentice thing, does it? But that's what we got the other night in St. Pete. Or rather, that's what my 10-year-old grandson David got.

On Friday night, Grand Prix Eve, we were on the verge of getting a table for six at St. Pete hotspot Parkshore Grill when the hostess told us, “I’m so sorry. Gene Simmons just took your table.” It was kind of an honor, in a perverse way, to have your table swiped out from under you by a quasi-celebrity, and since Gene Simmons was apparently the only quasi-celebrity other than the drivers to show up for race weekend (no Dempsey, no Letterman), this qualified as a brush with semi-greatness.

But David, the grandson, wanted more than just a brush. An aspiring rock star, he took it upon himself to ask the long-tongued one for some gen-yoo-wine rock-star counsel.

After we’d been seated at our own table for six, David went in search of Simmons’ table and proceeded to interview him.

“Excuse me, Mr. Simmons, I don’t mean to interrupt your dinner, but I just got my first electric guitar and I have my own band called Lack of Focus, and do you have any tips?”

Simmons, in his sans-KISS-makeup, bushy-black-hair, reality-TV persona, paused for a few seconds and answered, politely, “First off, change the name of the band to L.O.F., because Lack of Focus is really kind of long, and when you’re signing papers, you don’t want it to be long.” Then he asked, “How many people are in your band?” David told him four, not including himself.

“OK,” he said. “That’s a good amount. What kind of music are you going to play?”

“Kind of like your kind of music,” David replied.

“Aerosmith…. Classic rock,” Simmons offered.

“Yeah, yeah.”

And then Simmons said, “Remember this: It doesn’t matter how many bad choices or good choices that you make because you have so much time ahead of you to make up for it.”

Then he autographed David’s napkin.

Autograph? $XX on EBay. Career advice from a man who knows how to stretch out a career beyond all reason? Priceless.

This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2008.