When a bandmate is a dick...

[wro]

... he feels he is a rock star, a god, a prophet...

 

let me hear your stories.

[fatcatinahat]

You tell him to get his {censored} straight, start showing up on time to all practices, and help load and unload the gear.

Don't care that he is a singer, go help with the drumset or something. Doesn't listen.

 

When he misses 2 practices in a row (because rock stars singers, don't need to practice) without telling us anything. He shows up the third practice like nothing happened. Then you tell him, that's strike 1.

 

When he lies to cancel one show, and later we found out that he just didn't like the joint (it could hurt his reputation -it was a hardcore band FFS), that's strike 2.

 

When he shows at a gig with his hair green in a cheesy shinny outfit trying to be Steven Tyler (this is an old school hardcore band) two hours late for sound check and then forgets the lyrics of a half the songs, you tell him:

"That's it dude. You are out".

 

Then some drama ensues, because he comes with a couple of goons to pick up his gear (and a fight).

Then more drama because all the badmouthing about us.

Then more drama because he tells everyone that he was the band. That he kicked the rest of us out.

Then more drama because we betrayed him, and boo hoo, butthurts, etc.

Then because he was the one with the "connections", we start getting a lof of the media's doors shot down. No more radio play, no more newspapers interviews.

 

Then we shift our "harcorness" up to 110%, and get sucked into the "underground-punk-anarchist-whatever" circuit.

 

Then we start getting way more gigs and recognition from the crowds than we ever did, and all went uphill from there until we decided to hang it up 8 years later.

[tinker925]

One wise member here said that bands usually have one or two members who stand out while the other members ride off their coat tail.... is that the case here? Is he really that good? If so, its hard replaicing those kind of musicians. Joke with him about his rock star' pretense attitude, make him know he looks like an ass. If he really sucks though or is mediocre - start putting a stop to his bad attitude.

 

I think I am a pretty good singer but our lead guitarist is shockingly good. Chick can solo' Zeppelin like nobodys business and play the keyboards at the same time! Unbelievable fast fingers! AND she is humble and gracious.

 

Meanwhile we just got rid of our rythym guitarist who shared guitar solo's and lead vocals AND IS A FLAT SINGER (hitting the notes rarely) and was way to technical and machine like on her guitar (usually missing notes) and her ONLY TONE was distortion!!!! I mean BAD, but she really thought she was fantastic and was an ass about getting leads when she was horrid.

 

My point - evaluate this cat's skills "realistically".

[jeff42]

our vocalist is the first guy I have worked with that did not develop Lead Singer Disease, and he is the best singer I have ever worked with.

 

I worked with guys who thought they would choose all our material or write all our songs.

 

also guys who didn't think they needed to show up for practice.

 

everything that has been mentioned has happened to me.

[flemtone]

I've never played with someone who's a dick for anything other than a one-off or extremely limited run. For regular bandmates, if someone starts acting like a dick, he/she just gets laughed at until they see how ridiculous they appear.

 

 

You can get angry at someone like that, or just laugh at them. Laughing works best.

[Dancebass]

 

I've never played with someone who's a dick for anything other than a one-off or extremely limited run. For regular bandmates, if someone starts acting like a dick, he/she just gets laughed at until they see how ridiculous they appear. You can get angry at someone like that, or just laugh at them. Laughing works best.

 

 

 

Agreed, ridicule is a beautiful weapon.

[Kramerguy]

 

When he misses 2 practices in a row (because rock stars singers, don't need to practice) without telling us anything. He shows up the third practice like nothing happened. Then you tell him, that's strike 1.

 

 

No.. that's strike 3. You already know at that point that strike 2 and 3 are inevitable, so why delay the end result?

 

I stopped wasting my time with these losers. Disrespect the band, flake out, whatever, you are gone. Period.

[jeff42]

laughing and calling him "rockstar" guy is alot of fun. especially when you play in a bar band.

 

hell we do that to each other now! In a nice way.

[3shiftgtr]

This story comes from a good friend, Dennis. And it has been verified.

 

Dennis was on the road in the early 80's's with a popular "outlaw" country singer who is as famous for his racist 'dirty' album as his 'legit' discs, (who mighta been drunk the night his mama got out of prison).....

 

Anyway, they are on the bus going thru the flatlands in Texas, and they are all sitting around doin' coke and getting high. Everyone is in a good mood and laughing. This is about the 2nd month of the tour. The singer tells everyone a story about how he screwed over an unsrcupulous promoter, and Dennis says "(singer), ha ha, you are about an arrogant son of a bitch! That's great!" Everyone laughs as it is said with good nature.

 

(singer) laughs and says, "Arrogant? You wanna see arrogant? C'mere."

 

He goes to the front of the bus, and tells the driver to pull the bus over. (singer) goes under the bus, takes Dennis' drums and bags out and chucks them in the in the dirt.

 

"I'll show you arrogant! You're fuckin' FIRED! Hahahahahaha!!! How's that for arrogant? Hahahaha!" and laughs while he gets back in the bus, with everybody looking on, and off they went!

 

Dennis thought it was a gag, but after sitting there with his drums, on a 2 lane in the middle of Texas dirt country for 2 hours, he realizes what happened. He got a ride into the nearest 1 horse town, got some money wired to him, stashed his drums in the back of a gas station, and hitched to a nearby town with a bus depot, and came back to Nashville. Left his drums in Texas and never played drums again.

 

Switched to bass....a verified true story!

[New Trail]

Our guy isn't a dick, but actually a nice guy who, as a bass player, overplays to the point that the guitar players have to change their parts, and also vetoed the additional of either a male or female lead singer, cause he wants to be the front man. In our case two strikes and he's out. We didn't fire him, and we didn't quit. We started a new band without him. He'll figure it out.

[toneforhire]

We used to have a young hot chick singer who thought she was the coolest most soulful cover band singer there ever was...it was almost funny...she had a great voice and was attractive but her stage presence was SO CONTRIVED that it was ridiculous...smokey lounge singer-esque...we had issues and she finally quit and we replaced her with another chick singer who is our age, cute, great voice, but a diva...refuses to carry ANy equipment (she has NO equipment, mics, mic stand, pa...all ours)

She plays guitar but refuses to play it while she sings...her stage presence is also VERY CONTRIVED...she is on thin ice...but she is reliable and makes all the gigs/practices...so its hard to justify giving her the boot...her issues dont really affect the show or audience, just us

[jeff42]

I once worked with a female vocalist that:

 

 

 

oh and she sang in the key of "L" most of the time.

[Tele-vania65000]

This story comes from a good friend, Dennis. And it has been verified. Dennis was on the road in the early 80's's with a popular "outlaw" country singer who is as famous for his racist 'dirty' album as his 'legit' discs, (who mighta been drunk the night his mama got out of prison)..... Anyway, they are on the bus going thru the flatlands in Texas, and they are all sitting around doin' coke and getting high. Everyone is in a good mood and laughing. This is about the 2nd month of the tour. The singer tells everyone a story about how he screwed over an unsrcupulous promoter, and Dennis says "(singer), ha ha, you are about an arrogant son of a bitch! That's great!" Everyone laughs as it is said with good nature. (singer) laughs and says, "Arrogant? You wanna see arrogant? C'mere." He goes to the front of the bus, and tells the driver to pull the bus over. (singer) goes under the bus, takes Dennis' drums and bags out and chucks them in the in the dirt. "I'll show you arrogant! You're fuckin' FIRED! Hahahahahaha!!! How's that for arrogant? Hahahaha!" and laughs while he gets back in the bus, with everybody looking on, and off they went! Dennis thought it was a gag, but after sitting there with his drums, on a 2 lane in the middle of Texas dirt country for 2 hours, he realizes what happened. He got a ride into the nearest 1 horse town, got some money wired to him, stashed his drums in the back of a gas station, and hitched to a nearby town with a bus depot, and came back to Nashville. Left his drums in Texas and never played drums again. Switched to bass....a verified true story!

 

 

DAC's a great story right there!

[fatcatinahat]

 

No.. that's strike 3. You already know at that point that strike 2 and 3 are inevitable, so why delay the end result? I stopped wasting my time with these losers. Disrespect the band, flake out, whatever, you are gone. Period.

 

 

You are right, nowadays, that would not happen. I'm a better judge of character, and would note be in a band with a guy like that to begin with.

 

But we where young, and this dude was my best friend since we were kids, and there was this really "Important" gig (the one where he forgot the lyrics).

 

The funny part for me now, is how surprised he was. I mean he really didn't even see it coming. Years later we where talking and he still told me that he's not sure why he was fired. That we overreacted, and that it was too harsh of us, that he was never a dick, bla bla.

 

WTF??? What about the day we told you: "Get your {censored} straight or we will continue without you"?

 

Denial is powerful.

[Electric Catfish]

This story comes from a good friend, Dennis. And it has been verified. Dennis was on the road in the early 80's's with a popular "outlaw" country singer who is as famous for his racist 'dirty' album as his 'legit' discs, (who mighta been drunk the night his mama got out of prison)..... Anyway, they are on the bus going thru the flatlands in Texas, and they are all sitting around doin' coke and getting high. Everyone is in a good mood and laughing. This is about the 2nd month of the tour. The singer tells everyone a story about how he screwed over an unsrcupulous promoter, and Dennis says "(singer), ha ha, you are about an arrogant son of a bitch! That's great!" Everyone laughs as it is said with good nature. (singer) laughs and says, "Arrogant? You wanna see arrogant? C'mere." He goes to the front of the bus, and tells the driver to pull the bus over. (singer) goes under the bus, takes Dennis' drums and bags out and chucks them in the in the dirt. "I'll show you arrogant! You're fuckin' FIRED! Hahahahahaha!!! How's that for arrogant? Hahahaha!" and laughs while he gets back in the bus, with everybody looking on, and off they went! Dennis thought it was a gag, but after sitting there with his drums, on a 2 lane in the middle of Texas dirt country for 2 hours, he realizes what happened. He got a ride into the nearest 1 horse town, got some money wired to him, stashed his drums in the back of a gas station, and hitched to a nearby town with a bus depot, and came back to Nashville. Left his drums in Texas and never played drums again. Switched to bass....a verified true story!

 

Was that when Warren Haynes was in the mystery singer's band?

[wades_keys]

 

Was that when Warren Haynes was in the mystery singer's band?

 

I was wonderin' that too.

[3shiftgtr]

 

Was that when Warren Haynes was in the mystery singer's band?

 

 

Doubt it...Dennis never mentioned Warren...

[cooterbrown]

I helped run sound at a local "popular outlaw country singer" concert.

He has all these little {censored}picking things in his rider - the venue cannot have the air conditioner on for at least two hours prior to the show, because if it's under 75 degrees in the venue, he won't play...things like that.

 

Anyway, his guitarist has a bad wireless, and he's picking up RF noise. It was intermittent during soundcheck, but seemed to be okay...it went haywire again, about only two songs in.

"Popular outlaw country singer" (who of course doesn't attend soundchecks) thinks he's hearing feedback through the monitor, and he starts making pissed off hand gestures at the monitor and pointing to us.

 

Then he gets on the mic and calls my buddy (who has literally been all over the world as a pro FOH man) a fool, and to fix the feedback or the show's over.

My buddy is a real big dude, and he calmly walks up to the stage, and gets his nose about two inches from "popular outlaw country singer's" nose and explains the situation.

 

"Popular outlaw country singer" then tell his guitarist, in a threatening manner, to get a cord and unplug his wireless.

 

I had heard all the stories about the guy, and they were displayed in full force, that night.

So, I'm pretty indignant, by this point, and I downed a quit two shots of Cuervo, then chased it with a quart of Gatorade. A half hour later, I needed to go relieve myself...which I did about 90% of.

 

Since I was a regular musician at this venue, nobody thought twice to see me walk to the backstage area.

 

I found the Harley jacket worn in by the "popular outlaw country singer", and opened the pockets, a bit, and put the remaining 10% of my Cuervo/Gatorade mixture inside the pockets of his nice Harley jacket.

[rebelwoapplause]

 

Our guy isn't a dick, but actually a nice guy who, as a bass player, overplays to the point that the guitar players have to change their parts, and also vetoed the additional of either a male or female lead singer, cause he wants to be the front man. In our case two strikes and he's out. We didn't fire him, and we didn't quit. We started a new band without him. He'll figure it out.

 

 

Gee, New Trail, how many bands do you have? And all of them seem to have a major problem (singer who wants to play guitar, bass player who is a diva, people splitting of in secret to form side projects without telling others). I did say "seem," just from this vantage point. Are we starting to see the "hidden" meaning of your name? And, is it, take the New Trail, same as the Old Trail?

 

Rebel

[mstreck]

... he feels he is a rock star, a god, a prophet... let me hear your stories.

 

For me, it's a call to say bye-bye!

 

It's funny... SO MANY musicians I've met fall into the above categories. Most of them aren't that good to begin with (not that I am, either). And it seems that the ones who are can never seem to keep a spot in a project for very long. You'd think they'd catch on after finding themselves sitting at home when everyone else is gigging.

[twostone]

As the old TV realtiy show by Donald Trumph's famed words

YOUR FIRED

[ido1957]

A singer/keyboard player/leader who fired my friend after he just bought a new guitar with all his savings. They had a few words when the guitar was acting up on the first night. But the underlying reason was the band was a four piece and the singer just sold his bus for a pickup and a trailer that week. Only allowed three in the cab of a truck so someone had to go. Wrong time to buy a new guitar and mouth off the band leader who wasn't the nicest guy to begin with.

[faileddrummer]

All I have to say:

 

"There's no bass drum in that song."

 

Followed by:

 

"I learned to play drums from Rock Band."

 

[lovegun]

Every band I have been in has had the lead singer with the disease. They all started out as down to earth dudes. And then overnight they think they are local heroes. And none of them had any real talent. It seems that no amount of talking will sink in either. You know its bad when some of the audience is saying they cant stomach him and just want to punch the dude in the face because he is so arrogant. I quit every band Ive been in because of lead singer disease. I wish I knew how to nip it in the butt before it got out of hand. I tried but nothing seem to work.

[Wolfgang2049]

 

No.. that's strike 3. You already know at that point that strike 2 and 3 are inevitable, so why delay the end result? I stopped wasting my time with these losers. Disrespect the band, flake out, whatever, you are gone. Period.

 

 

Agreed. Same here. You know exactly where it is going at that point. Same thing happens if they haven't practiced at home for two weeks but for some reason show up to rehearsal anyway (not being able to play jack) and waste everyone's time.