Did Cameron Crowe Meet Lester Bangs?

Almost Famous, which is one of Cameron Crowe's most well-known films, is also one of the director's most autobiographical and personally reflective works. Philip Seymour Hoffman's appearance as the eccentric music journalist Lester Bangs, whom Crowe really met when he was a teenager in 1972, is one of the best performances in the film. Crowe actually met Bangs.