Although I knew him before, I discovered the real John in 1969 when we travelled together to South America as the two representative British artists in the São Paulo Biennale.
But those plans changed when, the night before, I discovered online that Turkish baths, out of my reach on the touristy European side, were actually affordable if I stayed on the Asian side.
But after talking to many survivors of Warhol's circle in New York, including his relatives as well as an associate who was close to the artist for many years but has never spoken at length before, I discovered a very different version of the man, a long way from the dead-eyed Martian of legend.
But that was before I discovered their secrets.
"Before I discovered film, I wanted to be Ralph Lauren," he said.
I had never heard a counter-tenor before I discovered a record of Deller's among my girlfriend's collection.
Before I discovered her on Twitter, Hinton had, like the Motorcyle Boy, been a figure of awesome mystery for me.
That was before I discovered the crates of dew-fresh baby arugula, radicchio, bok choy and zucchini flowers.
Preadolescence, O'Dowd wistfully remembers, was an "incredibly spongy" time that he recalls "very vividly… I was very open to the world, before I discovered drinking.
We're Tramming Riding the bike that the club gave me lasted about three weeks before I discovered the tram system.
