I used to work at the New York Jazz Museum, just yards from the old Studio 54. The museum is long gone, but it had put the teenage me in a place not only to refine a pre-existing interest in jazz but also to learn how to navigate celebrity. Essentially, don't be a pain in the ass, and make yourself useful. Good life lessons that have withstood the test of time.So while meeting a dozen or so members of jazz royalty had prepared me a lot, it hadn't prepared me in 1999 when one of my writers called me.