Post your band splits here!

[vanlatte]

Part II

Back to the band: Things started to slow down to the point that we only gigged about once every 3 or 4 months. The rest of the time was spent either in the studio or working on songs to get them to the point of perfection in order to record. I looked at this point in our "career" as just a low spot, or a dry spell if you will. In fact, I wasn't the only one that was feeling it: there were a few set backs along the way that were bringing us all down. Canceling of the already few and far between gigs due to sickness and schedule conflicts. One thing that irritated this situation was the fact that Pluto was also in a busy cover band that played just about every Saturday night. So we had to book Fridays or make sure he was off on a Saturday. Wouldnt you know it, Pluto is out of town and Mickey books a Friday gig, assuming that Pluto will be available. Well, all Mickey had to do was check Plutos cover band website and he would have seen this, but he failed to do it. So once Mickey tells me the gig is all set, I am browsing around the web and check Plutos site and sure enough, they are set to play the same night. I called Mickey and told him and he starts getting really pissed off about it, to the tune of "It's time for him to start devoting to THIS band instead, we have been bending over for his other band for too long". While I am agreeing with him I also point out that since Pluto is still out of town, he just may be willing to bail on the cover band that night to play with us, so lets not get worked up this until we actually talk to him. He calmed down a little after that. I point this out because one of the reasons that were cited to me was an
"Inablity to deal with gig cancellations" and it refeered directly to this situation. Just one of the many things that came out of left field for these strange people to justify their actions.

I know I wasn't the only one that was down about it because everyone else had the same sort of quiet resolution that I had when it came to talking about recording. In fact, the last time I saw these guys was in Goofys basement. He had just moved to a new house and the practice area was not quite finished. We had been talking for weeks (months even) about getting back in the swing of things but it seemed it was taking forever for him to get the basement ready. A few times the discussion came up about taking care of that and I offered to help but Goofy always said "No, no, it's cool. Pluto and are around to help". This was Goofys nature; I am not sure what the term is but he could be sitting there missing a limb needing medical attention but he would never say anything. Just sit there and smile and when people walk away because they don't realize anything is wrong he will fume.
Passive aggressive? Is that the term? I am not really sure. This was to become much more apparent as time went on.

Back on topic; the last time I saw these guys was in Goofys basement, which I was told a few days prior was ready for practice. "Awesome!" I couldn't wait to get back into the swing of things. The day we decided on was a bit tricky for me, I had to juggle a few commitments around but it was ok. After all, I was 100% devoted to this band so it was ok. Well, I show up for "practice" and Goofy and Pluto are in the basement moving things around and remodeling, hanging foam rubber and such for acoustics. I was a little miffed because I Was ready to start playing again and I was under the impression that we were all set. But Goofy loves to play the "Poor me" card; you know, "I am sick today, didn't sleep well last night, Aunt Betty has a sore toe" type of thing so don't expect too much. Looking back I can see it's a handy way of setting expectations so low that it's impossible to be disappointed. So, while we are moving things around and remodeling this practice space, we are listening to the latest tracks for the new CD. We had all the rough tracks for bass, guitar and drums down and the singer, Mickey, had spent the past few weeks working on the vocals. In fact I talked to him the day before and we were both ecstatic; he said he was DONE with the vocals and everything was sounding great. We also talked about how we all needed a lift in our spirits because of all the recent let downs and we were in total agreement. I should have known things sounded to good to be true...this was 4 days before I was kicked out. Nope, nothing wrong here. Everything is looking great, fellas!

So while we are listening to these tracks, Goofy and Pluto are bitching up a storm about how bad Mickey sounds. Each track is progressively worse and worse. It almost sounds like he did them all consecutively and by the time he got to the end he was either drunk or tired, or both. This went on for about an hour. I was just about at my wits end when Mickey
himself finally shows up. Late. Of course. And I am thinking "All right, maybe we can get stuff together tonight and actually make some music". Aint happening. Why? Mickey has his kids with him and says he can't stay long. Suddenly I am wondering why anyone bothered to tell me that we were having practice in the first place! I mean I would have been glad to come out and help Goofy remodel his house with him but that is not the expectation that I had, because I was lead to believe otherwise. But of course I am the bad guy for getting ticked about it. But I am getting ahead of myself.

So Mickey shows up and Goofy and Pluto start laying into him about how much his vocals sucked. No, wait, that is not what happened. What actually happened is this: They did an about face and agreed with him when he said "I think they sound pretty good, if I do say so myself!". So here I am, after listening to these two bitch and moan like old ladies for the last hour and they tell Mickey the exact opposite to his face. I was soon to come to realize that there is a pattern here, that things are not really what they seem. Yes means no, no means yes and "It's all good" actually means "Eat {censored} and die!".

At this point I had had enough for the night. I was tired of all the whining, all the two faced dialog unfolding right before my eyes and the apparent lack of drive. I left. Without saying goodbye or anything. I admit it was childish, but I was really bummed and disgusted about the whole thing.

So I didn't hear anything from the guys for a couple of days. In a way I was glad, I was so disgusted with the way things were going that it seemed for the better. I thought some time away would be good and we could pick things up at a later time, all fresh and rejuvenated.

I got a voicemail from Mickey while I was eating dinner. It sounded bad, I knew right away something was up. In fact, based on the events of the past few months I was fully expecting us to break up. So I called him back and he blurts out: "Goofy and Pluto and I have been talking and we feel you no longer fit the direction of this band so you can come pickup your things anytime ok thanks bye".

It's funny how my brain works. One minute I was fully resolved to accept the fact that it's over. Perhaps it's arrogance on my part but the most logical thing at this point in time seemed for us to just hang it all up. I mean, we had a following of about 15 people and 75% of those were family. The music was good, but I just never really got any sort of favorable reaction from people that heard it. I handed out countless demo CDs, numbering in the hundreds. Easilly, maybe more. Not once did anyone ever get back to me. I always had to chase people down and they were always very non commital. I was to find out, once I wasnt in the band, that every one of those who avoided me did so because they didn't want to hurt my feelings. But now that you are out of the band, here goes . And the honest
opinions are not favorable. I struggled a lot with egos in the band; I seemed to be the only one that didn't look down on every other band around us. In fact I was just the opposite; I found myself questioning things. If we are so freaking great, why does the other local band "X" have so many great gigs lined up and why do our CDs not sell and ...well...where is all of this worship coming from? I came to realize it was coming from the rest of the band. They were their own groupies, so to speak. If anyone didnt like any part of the music or the live show, it was just because they "Don't get it". After all, we are better than anything else out there and the people are ready for a change and yada yada yada. Anyway, I digress...where was I? Oh yea...

It's funny how my brain works. One minute I was fully resolved to accept the fact that it's over. But when I found out that it was over only for *ME*, you could have knocked me over with a feather. I couldn't believe it, why am I the one getting booted? Deep down, I knew why. I knew it was my attitude. Even though I gave 100%, always knew my parts, contributed to the music and did everything else right, I just didn't believe in us. To me it would never be more than a local Weekend band. And I guess it showed. So I called up Goofy. We talked. It was very weird. I felt like I was public enemy number one. He actually seemed pissed at me. I tried to get some sense out of him but he was throwing all sorts of old events at me, things that didn't even have anything to do with the band and that happend a long time ago. I drove to his house to get my things, got yelled at some more and drove away in a confused daze. I went out that night with some other friends and got blitzed out of my mind.

[vanlatte]

Part III

It was sort of a knee jerk reaction. After a while I was feeling pretty gushy...I am more of a "I love you man!" type when I drink than anything else. I called Pluto and he was very friendly, in fact he made it sound like he had nothing to do with this, it was all Mickey and Goofy. We talked a bit and and I gushed and apologized and it seemed like it was the best thing all around. Until he mentioned that they already had a replacment lined up. Now that is interesting. This was the beggining of a lot of wierd feelings creeping in. When I got home early the next morning, I whipped off a quick email to all the guys in the band. It was a "Man, what happened? I thought everyone was bummed out but it was just me? When did you guys make this decision, why didn't you tell me I better shape up or ship out?" Boy was *THAT* a mistake.

The response came from Goofy. From this point on, Goofy was the *ONLY* one to talk to me. And his response was brutal. It was a laundry list of "all the things I hate about you". I read in disbelief the accusations that were leveled at me. Not so much because they weren't true, but because EVERY SINGLE one of them, the entire band was guilty of. It was like I was being singled out because I dared to express disappointment in "The Best Band This World Has Never Seen". Of course this has nothing to do with the big nasty fight with Lulu... Not only that, this was the first time I heard or even sensed any of this. I had no idea they were harboring these feelings for so long without letting one clue slip out. Zip. Nada. Nothing.
In fact, just two weeks prior Goofy and I spent a weekend out of town to see a band and had a good ol' time. If anything was wrong I am sure I had no idea. I didnt realize at the time just how firm a hold Lulu actually has on Goofy. Looking back at some of Goofys emails, they look *exactly* like the way Lulu writes. Some of his emails I suspect actually came from on high, cut and pasted, then delivered to me.

I conceded. It was obvious things were beyond repair. All I said in response was "You are right. I'm sorry. I hope things work out for you guys".

The weeks following my departure were sort of a blur to me. I didn't mind so much being out of the band, and with all of the incidents piling up it was actuallly a relief to be out. But the loss of friendship really stung. I mean we did just about everything together. Suddenly I was on the outside, and it hurt. I tried to make amends, making it clear that I know the band was over, for me at least. Goofy and I exchanged a few emails and the tone of mine were "This hurts, I miss you guys and I am sorry". While his were "Yes, it sucks but this band is a job". Um, excuse me. A job? This is where I noticed the delusions of granduer taking hold of these guys, they were taking themselves WAY too seriously. Not only was there no income, I had to *PAY* to be in this band. None of us ever saw a penny out of it. At that point I realized exactly where we diverged: I saw the band as a sort of brotherhood. We got together, made some good music and felt that connection that only musicians feel. The rest of the guys saw it as the big ticket out of that awful nine to five job. I never saw that happening, although if it would have come along I am sure I would have given it my all and taken a shot. But honestly, we are all pushing 40, have families and full time jobs. What did they think was going to happen? Some big shot is going to hear our CD, give us a mound of cash and pamper us while we
tour the globe? Wake up fellas...

Anyway, the tone of Goofys emails were constantly knocking me back. I tried calling a couple of times, because I know email can come across the wrong way. He never responded. None of them did. I left a few voicemails, you know, innocent ones like "Hey man, what's up? Lets chat when you get a chance". Nothing argumentative or looking to debate. Part of me just wanted someone, ANYONE, to acknowledge the fact that we were friends for years and hey, why can't we still be friends even if I am not in the band? I am still the same person you know? Who are you? I don't even know you. (well I didn't say that, but I was thinking it and felt this overwhelming urge to be proven wrong)

Well that went nowhere. Not only did nobody return my calls, I finally caught Pluto one day and he didn't recognize the number. Once the realization dawned on me that he removed my number from his phone, I actually didn't have anything to say. I was just speechless. That was a pretty painful 45 seconds of silence, let me tell you.

So this weirdness went on for a few more weeks but I wasn't in the clear just yet. I owned the band web site. I created it, I paid for it and maintained it. And it was still up and running. I kicked around ideas trying to figure out what to do with it. I had a feeling if I just shut it down that the already angry band members would come down on me. I didn't want to cause any more trouble so I started seeking advice. That was a big mistake. The advice I got was "You spent two years working on it, and paid for all of it? Simple:
charge them for your time and expense and give it to them". At the time I found myself thinking "Yes, he's right. After all, I did shell out the money and time to do this and these guys have treated me less than civil so why not"? I put together a proposal for them that gave them two choices: buy the site and all content from me for the insanely low rate of $10/hour, or I remove all content, shut it down and turn over the domain name to you. The response I got knocked me off my chair:

"Your updates are useless to us because we have to replace all of your pictures. There was no contract in place and you made the web site on your own. Remove it or there will be legal action. Thank you for confirming our decision to remove you."

I am reminded of the story of the lady who finds a crippled snake and takes it in and nurses it back to health. When the snake is healthy and bites the woman, of course she asks "Why"? The snake says "Lady, you knew I was a snake. That is what snakes do". I saw these guys put down other people, talk in circles, keep secrets from each other and a myriad of other things. I should have known that it could just as easilly happen to me.

After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I tried to call again. This can't be for real, can it? This is a joke, right? Well, per usual nobody would talk to me. All I had to go on was this ludicrous email threatening legal action. By the way, this email had "Lulu" written all over it. Not that I was afraid they would actually follow up on it, I mean they wouldn't even pay for a web site, where would they get money for "legal action"? So I conceded again, removed all the content and shut it down. I was feeling beat up and confused. I was slowly coming to the realization that I never really knew these people. I would have taken a bullet for any of them, anytime, anywhere. But after these correspondences I just felt betrayed and crushed. I sort of stumbled around for a while, alternating between anger and hurt and never really knowing just how to feel about all this. I tried out half heartedly for some other bands but nothing really panned out. I finally found one that fit, and we are now in the process of working up a set list so we can start playing out.

Not a day goes by that I don't think "What the heck happened!? How did we get to this point?" How did we go from being best buddies to being threatened with legal action? It was so Twighlight Zone, or like I was talking to pod people; people that looked and talked like those I knew but were not REALLY the people I thought they were. What bugs me the most, I think, is the fact that almost three years of good memories have been robbed from me. I can't look back on any of the great times we had without wondering what they were REALLY thinking. That part angers me. There are also times when I just genuinly miss them; even after all of the crap, I really miss the people that I thought I knew.

Well, that's my story. For now, it's over. Unless of course one of them discovers this post and decides to start screaming about it. But that is ok too, because everything I have said is the truth.

[JacieFB]

Vanlatte,
I think you were sacrificed in a deal with Satan. You were the only thing that could turn a mirror on those guys so that they could see how mediocre they were musically and horrible they were as people. They had to completely irradicate you and make you feel like you were the only source of their troubles, else their illusion would fail.
Best of luck with your new band.

Rock on!

[vanlatte]

Originally posted by JacieFB Vanlatte, I think you were sacrificed in a deal with Satan. You were the only thing that could turn a mirror on those guys so that they could see how mediocre they were musically and horrible they were as people. They had to completely irradicate you and make you feel like you were the only source of their troubles, else their illusion would fail. Best of luck with your new band. Rock on!

 

 

My God, this brought a tear to my eye.

 

I believe you are right. You have managed to put in words what has been evading me for months...

 

Thank you!

[JacieFB]

Originally posted by vanlatte My God, this brought a tear to my eye. I believe you are right. You have managed to put in words what has been evading me for months... Thank you!

 

 

You're welcome. Thanks for sharing your story.

[elbow]

Whoa.. I am amazed.

I had this as a sig very briefly but took it off because it seemed a little dark.... but it is sometime appropriate.

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."

[vanlatte]

Originally posted by elbow Whoa.. I am amazed. I had this as a sig very briefly but took it off because it seemed a little dark.... but it is sometime appropriate. "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."

[gtrbass]

Originally posted by vanlatte Not a day goes by that I don't think "What the heck happened!?

 

 

You sound like you're sitting there wondering what YOU did wrong. Nothing you did was wrong except you broke the cardinal rule of being in a band. You attempted to keep one foot in reality. By doing this you were a constant reminder of it. Personally I congratulate you for being honest with yourself.

 

The story you tell isn't so unusual. A bunch of kids go in the garage and form a band. They think it's the sh*t and everyone will love it because they love it so much. In the "big leagues" like LA, Nashville, New York, etc. where people are dead set on landing record deals, etc. it gets even weirder. Absolutely horrible sh*t goes on every day for no reason other than this: FEAR. Oh my God, I might not make it!!! Well, chances are you won't, so at least try to enjoy the ride and be sensible. If all you ever get out of being in a band is some fun and great memories, then that's just fine.

 

There are what, 300 million people in the US? Just a wild guess, but out of that there are at least 100,000 "bands" of some form or another. Out of that number 50,000 are actually capable of performing to an audience, be it at some talent night or a local club. 10,000 are capable of doing it on a semi-regular basis, 5,000 can make some money from it, 1,000 can scrape out a living from it, 100 will make a decent living from it, and maybe 20 will become wealthy from it. This is all forms of bands and music, be it cover bands, or recording artists in every genre. The bottom line? Every one of those 100,000 bands thinks they have (or eventually will have) what it takes to be in that 20 that will become wealthy.

 

Being a musician is a lifelong pursuit. It used to actually be a profession, or a good part time side job. Today it has rapidly eroded into a shadow of itself. It's now something you do because you love it and/or are good at it. If you want to make a decent living, you have to butter your bread doing something else unless you're OK with still living like a starving college student when you're 50. There is no middle class for musicians.

 

There are three classes of musicians.

Group A) People no matter what their talent or level of success who support themselves by other means. This is the biggest group.

 

Group B) People who are "professionals" who just get by, or are supported by someone else. You'd be surprised how many famous people I know who have sold lots of records and are making way less than you think there success would have you assume.

 

Group C) The handful of stars that are making piles of cash. This is the smallest group and most of the people in Group C eventually wind up back in Group B or even Group A.

 

I've been in Group A and Group B. I have three good freinds who spent time in Group C. One is still there and one is in group A, and one is in Group B.

 

While all that sounds sorta off topic, it's not. Most bands break up for totally stupid reasons because someone's head goes off into the clouds thinking they deserve to be the next Elvis. Elvis was a fluke and if he were still around he'd tell ya so.

[FlogRock]

Originally posted by elbow Whoa.. I am amazed. I had this as a sig very briefly but took it off because it seemed a little dark.... but it is sometime appropriate. "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."

[FlogRock]

vanlatte, thanks for sharing that story. Finally we hear the full story behind 'face down in the dirt'.

It's of course horrible when everything suddenly blows up in your face like this. Losing your band, friends, and even getting all these nasty accusations. But in the end you should be happy you got out of that. Now that you found out how two-faced and delusional they are, would you want to go back to how things were, if you had the choice? I don't think so. And from what I read, I don't think this band is going anywhere now, especially without you. Is their website up again, did they have many gigs again, did they record the new album? My guess is no...

What pissed me off most in your story is this Yoko Ono type.
Why do guys let their girlfriend/wife manipulate them and their band like that?!

Just remember that you're the sane guy in this story...

[vanlatte]

Originally posted by FlogRock vanlatte, thanks for sharing that story. Finally we hear the full story behind 'face down in the dirt'.

Indeed Maybe I need to work on changing that...

Originally posted by FlogRock It's of course horrible when everything suddenly blows up in your face like this. Losing your band, friends, and even getting all these nasty accusations. But in the end you should be happy you got out of that. Now that you found out how two-faced and delusional they are, would you want to go back to how things were, if you had the choice? I don't think so. And from what I read, I don't think this band is going anywhere now, especially without you. Is their website up again, did they have many gigs again, did they record the new album? My guess is no...

Your right, I would never want to go back. For a while I thought I did but now there can be no doubt. For the same reason that life is too short to play music we don't like, it's also too short to spend time in the company of people you just can't trust.

Originally posted by FlogRock What pissed me off most in your story is this Yoko Ono type. Why do guys let their girlfriend/wife manipulate them and their band like that?!

It's interesting the name you choose; the last time I told this story several people came to the same conclusion. In fact, Lulu even found it on the internet and confronted me about it. At first I pretty much told her to take a long walk off a short peir, but eventually I relented and even apologized (why did I keep doing that???). Oddly enough, I caught her and Goofy in a similar situation later on, where they were both saying one thing to my face and the opposite behind my back. That was the final nail in the coffin that made it amazingly simple to say goodbye forever. Good freaking riddance!

Originally posted by FlogRock Just remember that you're the sane guy in this story...

That's debatable It took me a while to realize that I was caught up in some sort of werid, abusive codependant relationship with these people. I am doing my best to put it all behind me but we have mutual friends so occasionally it crops back up, but as time goes on I find it easier to just shrug it off and change the subject.

[becomingfinal]

when i kick people out i usually just change the locks to the rehearsal space. easy enough gets the point across.

[srsfallriver]

I was once part of a group that seemed to be in a downward spiral from the day I joined them to the day I quit a year or so later. It started with the guitarist. He had a side project that he wanted to make his only band. No problem there, he gave his notice and was to be gone a month after I joined. The problem came when I had my first gig with them two weeks before he was supposed to leave. He accidently double-booked (he had booked with us first) and basically gave us the finger and skipped out on us.

We soon found a replacement but then the keyboardist gave his notice. He didn't set a date but said to find someone ASAP. Another problem: we practiced in the keyboardist's mother's basement so we needed to find another place to rehearse as well.

We found a filler key player but nobody permanent. We continued to rehearse in the keyboardist's mom's basement without him there (extremely uncomfortable). The original key player did the gigs that the other filler didn't want so it was like we had two fillers and no real key player in the band.

This went on for a few months. Then our new guitarist informed us that he only wanted to gig once a month (we were doing maybe 3 or 4 per month at the time). So the other members of the band talked the original guitarist (who had screwed us over in the past) to come back because his other project had imploded by that point anyway.

Now I had hardly gotten to know that guy because he left so abruptly while I was new to the group. I just took their word that this guy was a real good player and bringing him back would be good for the band. Later I found that their main motivation came from the fact that he had another place that we could practice at.

So we rehired this guy and we begin practicing at someone's garage (some relative of his or something). At the first rehearsal with him, I began seeing where it was all leading. He started by cutting every song with more than four chords in it. He then asks me about chord changes in the other tunes. He struggles to play anything beyond a triad and insists on not really learning the songs but playing "what's in his soul". In short he sucked and had no intentions of getting better.

Then one day the original key player, who at this point had given his notice a year earlier, agreed to come down and help this guitarist out with some tunes. Well, something came up and he couldn't make it. That's when the name calling began. I stood speechless as everyone around me at the practice bad-mouthed the key player for not showing. For some reason I hadn't the guts to say anything but I was thinking the whole time that this keyboardist helped us out with gigs and a practice spot for an entire year after saying that he wanted out. Meanwhile this other guy that can't play and had scewed us over was now leading the trashing.

I gave my month's notice later that week. The only one I ever see now is that original key player. We've become good friends and have had a few side projects together (he also plays drums and has picked up some real good guitar chops since those dark days). So the experience wasn't a total loss. We sometimes get together for beers and have a good laugh as we reminess.

[mr3lions]

Guitar Player: We need a female back up singer.
Me: She'll {censored} someone and break up the band.

2 weeks later.

Me: ermmm I {censored}ed her.
Drummer: Me too.

Band over.

[vanlatte]

Originally posted by gtrbass You sound like you're sitting there wondering what YOU did wrong. Nothing you did was wrong except you broke the cardinal rule of being in a band. You attempted to keep one foot in reality. By doing this you were a constant reminder of it. Personally I congratulate you for being honest with yourself.

Thanks for the congratulations...but I don't want to come off as the innocent victim here: I am no saint and I had my share of drama and distractions going on. I know I can be dificult to work with, even if I always had the bands best interests in mind.

But I see what you mean...the fact that I always had my feet on the ground prevented me from believing in this project as much as the rest of the band did. I chalk it up to experience; I never really got a clear picture of what we wanted to accomplish when I joined. That's a mistake I won't make again any time soon.

[Tele-vania65000]

Thanks for sharing the story, it was an interesting look into the bizarre soul of the deluded musician.

You mentioned "Where the band is going" and how this is important to understand upfront. I agree entirely.

The problem is that a lot of guys aren't happy with the truth that playing dive bars (which I happen to enjoy) IS AS FAR AS IT WILL EVER GO and there's not a damn thing wrong with that.

I've heard some of the guys I play with refer to "Paying their dues" and I just wanted to yell "IT'S ALL DUES!"

[vanlatte]

Originally posted by Tele-vania65000 Thanks for sharing the story, it was an interesting look into the bizarre soul of the deluded musician. You mentioned "Where the band is going" and how this is important to understand upfront. I agree entirely. The problem is that a lot of guys aren't happy with the truth that playing dive bars (which I happen to enjoy) IS AS FAR AS IT WILL EVER GO and there's not a damn thing wrong with that. I've heard some of the guys I play with refer to "Paying their dues" and I just wanted to yell "IT'S ALL DUES!"

Well said. I am pretty sure I fall into the same category as you; if I never get beyond the corner pub or festival I will not lose a minute of sleep over it.

[Nighthawkdude]

I played in a really busy country band back in the 90s. In fact, we were doing 2-3 gigs a week, year-round, which is pretty good for a cover band. Anyway, according to the band calendar posted in the rehearsal space, we had a free weekend coming up due to a cancellation. My mother-in-law, who travels a lot with her job, was needing help moving into one of those corporate apartments in New Orleans, where she was going to be working for the next 6 months, so I agreed to help her that weekend. I even asked if there was anything coming up that weekend and was told that "if a gig's not on the calendar, it's not happening."

 

Well, I get back the following Monday and Scooter, the guy who runs the band and is the "keeper of the calendar", calls me up at work all pissed off. Apparently, they had a big street dance gig booked that Saturday I was gone, but it wasn't on the calendar and he didn't mention it when I asked him. In fact, he even denied that I spoke to him about the weekend and said that I just blew off the gig without telling anyone. Apparently, they really sucked when they tried to do it without me, which is pretty funny because Scooter was always claiming to be a much more superior musician than me. In the course of his rant over the phone, he gives me this "it better never happen again" crap.

 

I hung up the phone, thought about the situation for about 30 seconds, then called him back and told him I was too old for this kind of crap and to "stick it." They hired some hack to take my place and the band imploded about 3 months later, after going through a half-dozen guitar players.