Flakey Band Members?

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Nov 21, 2023
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Let's hear your flakey band member horror stories...

My drummer decided at one gig, he was above having to set-up his own kit. Luckily, one of his nut-licking friends knew his setup and saved the show.

This particular drummer is internationally recognized and damned near a household-name. He hails from Fontana, CA.

Any guesses?
No Google cheating.
 
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About 30-ish years ago a drummer I played with managed to get himself arrested on a (as you would say) DUI.

This was the night before a gig.

We hadn’t heard from him all day and we really worried as we thought something bad had happened.

He turned up at the venue with about 30 minutes to spare, before curtain up.

I wouldn’t call him flakey, just a pish-head.
 
Back in the 70's I had a gig and managed to get a great session drummer to sit in , I was really looking forward to a special night as it was my bday... the keyboard and bass player show up a lil late and questionably able, after the first couple of songs they couldn't keep time at all and I leaned over and said WTF? Oh dude we ate some shrooms before we came , they are really good.

Luckily a couple of the audience members were fellow musicians and were kind enough to replace them on the spot .

Most thought it was planned humour , those 2 were out of the band after that..
 
Back in the 70's I had a gig and managed to get a great session drummer to sit in , I was really looking forward to a special night as it was my bday... the keyboard and bass player show up a lil late and questionably able, after the first couple of songs they couldn't keep time at all and I leaned over and said WTF? Oh dude we ate some shrooms before we came , they are really good.

Luckily a couple of the audience members were fellow musicians and were kind enough to replace them on the spot .

Most thought it was planned humour , those 2 were out of the band after that..
The last show I played (almost 30 years ago), my GF decided it would be a good idea to give my little brother shrooms.
Poor guy...puked all over himself. 🥴
 
Those were some "Flakey " times 2b sure ..San Francisco in the 70's .... oh the gigs where "chains were required due to the heavy snowstorm backstage" , I remember one I sat in on where I was told " man I love the way you play , but I think everyone else would like it better if you played about 1/4 as many notes " ... man I'll never forget that... and don't anymore
 
I had to miss a gig, gave the band plenty of notice, and they elected to play with a fill-in guitarist one of the guys knew. When I returned, I was told that before the night was over, the keyboardist was yelling at him “here’s a f*ing idea… if you don’t know the song, how about you just stop playing?” It wasn’t pretty. The miss was unavoidable and with time to reschedule (it was a monthly date), but they wanted to play it. I felt appreciated on my return. lol

To be fair to the other guy, fill in dates are the worst. I did one on super-short notice for a club-owner friend and, as the keyboardist said, spent half the night not playing anything! It wasn’t much fun.
 
Had a bass player who forgot to bring his (borrowed) bass to a gig.
The shittiesti thing I've ever done....
I had a friend filling in on bass. He was a guitarist...barely. I wrote all his basslines...
He wanted so desperately to be part of the group. When auditioning his replacement, using his amp rig, he dropped in. Talk about awkward....
 
The shittiesti thing I've ever done....
I had a friend filling in on bass. He was a guitarist...barely. I wrote all his basslines...
He wanted so desperately to be part of the group. When auditioning his replacement, using his amp rig, he dropped in. Talk about awkward....
To be fair, he stole my BBE 442.
I consider it a wash...
 
My first band at the end of high school. The week of our first real gig, lead "singer" got busted for shoplifting a pint of milk (of all things :)). I was not a fan of the guy, and thought his singing sucked. This was 1986, and we were kind of a hybrid of Iron Maiden and The Cure (!!), so in his defense, the poor guy (with his Robert Smith hairdo) really didn't know how to deliver the songs "2 Minutes to Midnight... and Friday I'm in Love". So, I took the opportunity to write a few instrumentals for the gig, since he wasn't around to rehearse, and anything I could do to prevent him from opening his mouth was a good thing for the band. I didn't stick around much longer.
 
Had a bass player who forgot to bring his (borrowed) bass to a gig.
Same thing here! In the late '70s we had driven through a terrible snowstorm from central Wisconsin to Guttenberg, Iowa, and once we got there the bass player realized that he had forgotten his bass. Fortunately, someone in town let him borrow a bass for the night, but due to starting late and the fact that no one showed up due to the lousy weather, the club owner decided not to pay us for the night.

On another gig in the '70s our drummer had the worst case of flatulence ever known to man. It was kind of funny watching the faces of the dancers when they didn't realize where the foul odor was coming from, but still, the odor was ungodly!

On yet another gig our lead singer decided to extend an after-gig party from the night before well into the next day. That evening when he wasn't showing up to play the gig, we became quite concerned of his whereabouts. About five minutes before start time, some sleazy bar chick shows up with our singer passed out in the back seat of her car. We went on to play the gig without him, but it was quite embarrassing, to say the least.

I could probably write a book about all of the flaky musicians I've played with over the years along with the dozens of band blunders that have occurred, and now that I'm 70, I'm still dealing with band BS. Thankfully it isn't nearly as bad as the early days, but I sort of equate playing in a band to being married to four or five other guys while learning to cope with all of their their quirks and idiosyncrasies. I guess it's just a part of the journey..........:cool:
 
I worked up a new trio with a drummer I'd previously worked with, and a new bassist that he brought in. First gig (two nighter) the drummer and I set up and are waiting at the club for the bassist who said he'd be there at a certain time. That time goes way past and we call him - no answer. We keep calling, and eventually he answers and says he can't find the club. It's a small town, and the club is about two miles from his house. We give him exact directions and wait. Eventually we call back and ask where he is. He says he's almost to the next town. WTF! The guy drives almost 30 miles completely the wrong direction. So we give him directions once again, and he doesn't show. Eventually the drummer and I leave and the club owner is pissed...we were too. He actually was a good bassist, but a failure as a person. Ugh!
 
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