Why didn't YOU make it big?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chubtone
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V-Killer":3p6bbr6l said:
BlackRose":3p6bbr6l said:
After I was able to hear and see first hand what the experiences of a musicians life is really like, and the realities of being on the road, no thanks.
I was lucky enough to spend part of my youth touring and helping my friends, bay area players Ronnie Montrose (Gamma) and Dave Meniketti (Y&T) in the late 70's.
I then met and spent time with Uli Roth and Michael Schenker, way too much drama.
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Drama with UJR? Really?
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Hah, do you really think the 60s peace hippie look excludes him from drama ?
There are way too many bizarre stories, I can't type that much.
 
Touring sucks.
Being broke, filthy, shit food, poor sleep and on the road constantly.
I'd much rather have a kickass wife, awesome kids, steady job that I love, and play in a band with great guys a few times a month in my home city and work on recordings with a decent budget.
 
I went into the Air Force once I realized that trying to make it big would mean a path of struggle and MOST resistance. :)

The great thing was that I was in a band at every assignment I ever had and I think people in the military clubs, at work, etc. had an even greater appreciation of musicians than you would get trying to make it. I've had people ask for autographs in Korea playing at the club on base! :) Of course everyone was hammered on Soju. :)
 
I never envied that lifestyle.

I just want more free time in my life to vacation wherever I want.
 
Too lazy and I thought everything would just fall into my lap, but my biggest failure was letting drugs and alcohol rule my life. It was a bad combo doomed to fail. I thought I had the look, songs and ability and could have fit in the 80's and early 90's scene. I lost all desire to do music as a career when Grunge hit and music was no longer fun to me. I should have sobered up and put in much more effort. I wish I could go back in time and do things over. Maybe I will buy a used DeLorean and work on building a time machine someday. :)
 
Band mates were preoccupied putting powder up their noses... Things fell apart and I gave up.

I did get a taste of "big" later on though doing a stint on Bass for Full Blown Chaos... I can consider my musical life complete from that lol Fun times
 
Lack of determination and perseverance is what it boils down to for me. In retrospect it wouldn't have been a life I'd have wanted for an extended period of time anyhow.
 
My band and I just weren't professional and mature enough at the time we were active.
We were lazy as fuck and thought the world would come to us.
we were kind of elitist/haters too. Rolling into shows with our Boogie C+'s, and vintage Les Pauls cause we're livin' at home with mom, while playing with these working class dudes, rocking shit gear and bad songs, but still headlining and doing better than us.
I didn't know how to be as motiviated and networky as you need to be in a band.
I'd show up for gigs, drink, play, go home. I never talked to anyone unless they came up to me, so i never made connections or gained those foot holes you need to get to the next level. The only one in the band that really did that, would get smoozed by these shitty, amateur promoters, and we'd play these bunk ass gigs with no one there, and not get paid. That wore on me.
I drank like a fish back in those days. gigs, studio time, practice, just being around each other... booze and weed 100% of the time for really everyone in the band. That can work in moderation, but we liked doing everything fucked up for some reason. made it more interesting i guess... maybe we thought that was just the way musicians worked. again...very immature. Everyone ended up kinda burning out on each other and the band because we weren't progressing. just playing the same dozen songs and the same dead end gigs.

We did play some decent shows...opened for In Flames in 04, and those guys were all watching my band from the side of the stage, and watched almost the whole gig. They were my favorite band at the time, so that was a pretty proud moment.
we had to sell 130 tickets for the gig too, and we actually did, which was a major accomplishment for our lazy asses.

Playing out, being around "real" bands, seeing the lifestyle of a professional touring guitaris first hand, made me realize pretty fast, that i was just not cut out for that life. I need the stability, and comfort of family life, other wise i'd self destruct on the road.
 
Interesting question - if you were in your early 20s again and could tour in the current musical climate, would you? For most of us on here I'm assuming our 20's were a few moons ago and the musical landscape was different. Seems like there used to be more money in it even for smaller touring\regional acts. I may be completely off on that, but damn music seems tough now. Throw in the fact that most of the guys I know that ever did anything are divorced alcoholics or had too much love for the booger sugar, sure doesn't have as much appeal in hindsight.
 
And for the sake of complete disclosure, I was probably never good enough and definitely not creative enough to put together great tunes and make it happen. I just really love guitars :)
 
I lacked confidence. I was also very academically inclined. I decided to get my degree in pharmacy and work on music on my own time.

In my 30s I started taking lessons from Neil Zaza and sorted out some technique issues I never knew I had ( mainly vibrato). More importantly I got to see first hand what someone has to go through to make it as a guitarist. Neil is a studio wizard and has a temperament I lack. I may have some guitar skills but I realized all the other skills I lacked to do what Neil does. It was a reality check big time.

These days I'm chronically ill but I still play at church and I'm getting my home recording back on track. I'm happy just to play along to columns in Guitar Techniques Magazine and noodle in the house at 44 years old. I can't gig anymore but I gigged plenty for years and realized that I did not like the scene and did not care for being around unemployed musicians who thought they were professionals. I saw in Neil what a real pro was. No one I knew including myself were close to that level.
 
I had the idea I could do all the writing and production and the rest of the band would be employees, so there was never any real chemistry. Plus, I was impatient. Got written up in Guitar World and so on but then grunge came in. But I wasn't willing to do the true "band" thing since I didn't drink much less do drugs and it was pretty insane back in the late 80s. But, I did get sorta close. Got to meet a lot of *big names* and so on. Worked for Van Halen for a bit, and got to know all those guys, and realized that most (not all) of the industry was existing on an 8th grade level.
 
Rdodson":36b7i89b said:
I had the idea I could do all the writing and production and the rest of the band would be employees, so there was never any real chemistry. Plus, I was impatient. Got written up in Guitar World and so on but then grunge came in. But I wasn't willing to do the true "band" thing since I didn't drink much less do drugs and it was pretty insane back in the late 80s. But, I did get sorta close. Got to meet a lot of *big names* and so on. Worked for Van Halen for a bit, and got to know all those guys, and realized that most (not all) of the industry was existing on an 8th grade level.
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You did get to have some really great experiences and get to see things I always wished I could though. I would kill to have worked for VH and see it all, good or bad. I would also love to be able to get away with operating on an 8th grade level my entire life. I don't really want to do that, but to be able to GET AWAY WITH IT would be pretty sweet. lol.
 
I was born in the wrong country to play rock... also one day I got Paul Gilbert VHS tape and I started to get obsessed in picking and technique... fast forward almost 30 years, all those hours that I put and I still put didn't turn me into a really fast picker sadly.

I also had an hard time with look, I loved and love '80s hard rock but hated the look, the long hair, the stupid pants and so on... I'd just show up with jeans and tshirt.. .I guess I was grunge before grunge even existed :P

When DT's Images And Words came out it was the final nail in the coffin, in a world that wanted Nirvana I started to write songs with parts in 11/8 but without the technical ability to go with it and create the shock and awe effect.
I should have stuck with pop/rock songs... and even then, it would have been an impossible task in that place.
 
Business":2qrdl4rn said:
The answer for a lot of people on here is:
"Because I don't have a time machine to travel back to the 80's"
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You are exactly right,thats where I need to be and stay!
 
I was always working,drinking,partying,smoking, F'ing and every other reason!! That's my excuse anyway!
 
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