Life's a Bish
Yacht rock legend Stephen Bishop on admiring Steely Dan, befriending Phil Collins, and eating Todd Rundgren’s cruise-ship risotto
One evening some years ago, Stephen Bishop was dining in a New York City restaurant when, from across the room, he spotted one of his musical heroes, Donald Fagen. The maestro was sitting at a table with his wife, Libby Titus, with whom Bishop had been acquainted during their days as upstart singer-songwriters in the 1970s.
He walked over to say hello to Titus and pay his respects to Fagen. The scene, Bishop recalls, quickly became awkward. “He wasn’t real thrilled that I had interrupted his dinner. I told him I was influenced by his music, and he was not that impressed. It was a brief encounter.”