Band member meltdowns

[spade2you]

Post 'em.

I'll give ya my most recent one. Guitard got sensitive, hurt his own feewings, and burned it all to the ground.

[Brittain]

My drummer disappeared one day, no one heard from him in about a month, then he shows up one day having shaved his head completely bald (his hair was half way down his back) telling tales of how he went to Germany then Ireland, and then quit the band.

[Busker]

We had this gig scheduled for weeks, in a nice club in Kansas City. Our guitarist was was a moody kind of guy, but he was at least pretty reliable. So we all show up a couple of hours early for this gig. P.A. was to be provided. There was no P. A. and I'm not sure how there was a miscommunication on something as important as that, but there was. But the club manager bent over backwards, and went and bought a new P.A. from a music store that was open late, some $2600 worth of stuff, and we helped carry it in and helped with the set up. We would have been just a few minutes late on starting the show.

All this time the guitarist was off sitting by himself, brooding over his beer. I asked him if I could help him carry in his gear, which wasn't a lot, just a guitar, amp and pedalboard mainly. But he was dragging his feet on bringing in the stuff. The rest of us and the P. A. were about ready, it was almost show time. Next time I looked a few minutes later, he was gone. Nowhere to be found. He had left the club and driven home, not a word to any of us.

We all stood around wondering how we could put on a show with no lead guitar, then the manager told us to pack it up and get out.

[fourstringdrums]

There is a classic rock cover band that practices a few houses down from mine and one of their members had a meltdown a few months ago. They were playing a gig that shared the bill with a few other bands. Now even they'll admit they're not the best band but they just play to have fun. Well apparently one of their guitarists (who I always liked and thought of as a good guy) started panicking about the other bands being better than them and how they were going to get showed up etc.. Even after quite some time of "Dude, relax...we're just hear to have fun etc.." the guitarist winds up saying that he's going home. He's not going to play the gig. This pisses the drummer off who decides that if the guitarist isn't playing, neither is he, so he actually leaves and goes home. Right after this happens, the guitarist is unaware of it and untimely comes to his senses and says "Yeah you're right guys I'm sorry, I'll play". Obviously it was too late at this point as his actions caused the drummer to go home. So needless to say the guitarist was booted out.

Oddly enough though, even though the drummer was the one who actually left, they kept him in the band.

[spade2you]

Ok, here's how it started.

My drummer was a no show for practice a few weeks back. I wasn't sure what was up, but talkin' as friends, he was kinda upset that we've been playing for a year and only had 6 songs ready. Granted, these were jam band tunes and some were about 10 minutes long, but there was so much material we had to work with we should have more tunes. He also noted that the guitard in charge probably wasn't picking his guitar up outside of practice with us. Personally, I was getting very fed up with the constant complaining about everything. The guy simply spews negativity. He'd turn down gigs because they didn't seem that good and complained about the phenolic aftertaste of Belgian whit yeast on my damn brews!!!

About a week later, we had practice and the guitarist looked like he was either hung over or his best friend just died. We went through the 6 song setlist and he was sloppy as hell. After we did ran through the tunes, he simply left.

Last week, my drummer was out of town. We were supposed to have practice this week.

Monday I made the comment that a few bands blew us off for gigs. I didn't name the bands, but he was so afraid that one of the bands might see my comment and get offended. I doubt any of them got offended because they didn't get named and if someone gets offended that they spaced off another band....well, don't do it in the first place.

So my guitarist wants to argue about this and I tell him that I don't care. He came back with "you need to think about the other people in the band." I came back with "Nick doesn't care, either. Please drop it." You'd think my indication that this wasn't up for debate would get him to give up.

For about a day he kept picking at me and I continued to tell him to stop it. After an entire day of nastygram e-mails, I finally told him he needed to stop #$%& complaining and focus his efforts on playing guitar, not winning stupid arguments.

On the spot, he quit and told a friend who organized a show in 2 weeks that he wouldn't play it. On top of all that, he nullified the friendship. He picked his stuff up the next day. The following day he deleted the myspace page as a show of power. He kept sending me nasty e-mails because I talked trash about him and how friends wouldn't do that. Well, he ended that a few days prior to that!!! So, even though he was out of the band, he was still annoying me with complaints. I finally told him to NEVER contact me or I would ruin his reputation, which would be kinda easy. It turns out he pulled similar stunts with another band and a prior incarnation of this band. Fortunately for everyone in Omaha, I think he's gonna hang it up for good.

Still, what a douche! As if quitting over a pointless argument wasn't enough, he refused to play one of the only gigs that he didn't initially turn down. Then he ends the friendship and burns it all to the ground.

LOL, a member once suggested that I've never gotten anywhere musically because of my attitude. Nope, bad luck and people like this.

[buzzbass]

PointBass subbed for me a couple of years ago, I think he can tell the story of Dale's meltdown better than me. It did end with him kicking the grill out of his mesa triple rectifier combo though. that was so cool, that guy was an asshat to my friend that night. And I really didn't appreciate it. I left the band soon after, and this was one of the main reasons.

[Zomb13]

My drummer was a recovering alcoholic, but none of us knew how bad his addiction was since he was 9 months sober when he joined the band. This guy is/was talented. One of the best I had ever had the pleasure of being in a band with. We played alot of shows around the area, made alot of new friends and fans, and were really starting to make a name for ourselves. Then it happened....

The gig from hell.

Our drummer shows up to a gig where we always had a good crowd. He was a bit late but nothing to worry about. I hadn't talked to him yet, but I thought it was weird when I saw him sit down at a nearby table with a pitcher of beer. I figured it was for the people he arrived with and not for him. WRONG! Our drummer was completely stinking drunk and obnoxious. Despite my efforts to get him to sober up a bit, he wasn't having any of it. He downed 3 pitchers by himself over the next hour. By the time we hit the stage, he could barely play his parts. I for the most part helped him set up his kit even though I wanted to cancel the show right then and there. However, he assured me he'd be "fine". After 2 songs, I wanted to walk off the stage. We struggled through another 8.

After the show, our drummer began throwing pieces of his kit into the street. He blamed his equipment, not his inebriated state, for his awful "performance". This was the beginning of the end.

Over the next few months, he would show up late for practice or not at all. He was in and out of detox at the hospital, and sometimes he'd just go m.i.a. for a few days until someone saw him falling off a barstool somewhere. After months of empty reassurances and broken promises, we decided to disband. Good drummers in this area are hard to come by, and great ones even more so.

I've started a new project since then, but I still get the occasional drunken call from him asking when we're getting the band back together. I simply tell him that there is no band anymore because in less than a year's time he managed to destroy our reputation and make it impossible to work with him. This is usually met with a 3 minute whining session about how I don't know how hard it is to be him, a resounding "F**K YOU!", and then he hangs up on me.

Oh well, here's to a brighter future!

[derwood]

I once had the priviledge of watching a double meltdown.

The singer was excited because he had managed to borrow a wireless mic system. The night of the gig, he shows up with it and tries to hook it up. I think something was broken on it but he spends a good half hour trying to get some kind of sound out of it. Finally he gets sound out of it; all feedback. He gets a bit frustrated and goes to the bathroom to cool off.

The bass player says "If we use that, we're going to look like total tools. I'm out of here." and he stomps off. He just leaves all his gear, we just stand there watching him through the window as he drives off. The singer comes back, unaware of what happened and said "So, what did I miss?". Someone starts off "We're running out of time and..."
Then the singer loses it. "If we're not using the wireless, I'm out of here." He leaves.

Serves us right for having two prima donnas in one band.

[ggunn]

I saw the Doors' meltdown on stage in New Orleans in December of 1970. It was spectacular.

Morrisson was dead drunk, staggering and slurring, and he looked like Charles Manson. Manzarek kept looking at his watch. During an instrumental break, Morrisson staggered off backstage and did not come back for the rest of the song, so Krieger, Densmore, and Manzarek improvised for a while and then ended it. They stood around and looked at each other for an awkward minute or so, and then someone threw Morrisson bodily onto the stage. The band started up and Morrisson stumbled over to the mic and began singing the lyrics to the previous song, the one where he left during the break.

Densmore hurled his sticks onto the middle of the stage and stalked off the stage, yelling something. End of show, no encore. I found out later that that was the last time the four of them were ever in the same room.

It was the worst concert I ever attended, but the most historically significant.

[Lazylion]

Originally Posted by ggunn

Manzarek kept looking at his watch.

He was probably trying to make sure they played long enough to get the money.

[JehuJava]

Our band did a mini tour and our final show before heading home to NYC was Philly. The guitarist's, the drummer's, and my girlfriend decided to drive down to represent. My girlfriend actually asked a ton of her friends from Philly to come to the show, which they did. Anyway, the girlfriends decided to find us a room...so we can drink after the show and not drive two hours back to NYC...which was our singer's plan anyway. They got us a sweet room. The singer was so darn pissed!! All pre-show she ignored us, eating and drinking in a dark corner not wanting to meet the guests to the show. She played the show and beat feet to a dark corner of the bar. Meanwhile, all the guests were like what the ****?? So our guitar player was like "[singer], Al's girlfriend brought a ton of people." She was like, "who cares?" in front of the guests!! They were like "Peace out!" The next day she ignored us all...even though she only paid like $20, slept in a sweet room, etc...etc.

Her excuse...the band finds the room...not the girlfriends.

Al

[mrjim123]

Fortunately this didn't happen when I played with the guy. He was the type that's OK until he gets a few drinks in him, then watch out. Anyways, after our band broke up he was playing in a different band. One Friday night between sets in a packed bar the cops came in and arrested him because he had been beating on his wife. What an encore!

[f'nar f'nar]

My old drummer was a good guy I suppose but I had two problems with him. First of all he was going out with my ex which put some strain on the relationship and secondly he couldn't play without smashing the crap out of the kit. We weren'y playing hard rock we where playing sort of rock with a latin twist. No need to smash the kit, in fact most of our songs could be playing on bongo's and other assorted percussion.

We always told him to calm down and eventually he quit because he didn't like the style of drumming we wanted him to do which isn't true, he just couldn't play it. We told him
that if he couldn't just play softer then clearly he isn't a very good drummer.

He used to be a good mate. No longer.