"Connections"

[newtonbassist]

I was going to post this in Band Management but after saying it out loud I realized this is a more appropriate forum.

About 20 years ago I auditioned for a band in some guy's basement (remember that band from the movie 'Sling Blade'?) The BL/LG told me he had a connection because his wife, a hairdresser, worked at the same salon as Steve Tyler's (I am in Boston) cousin. Or something along those lines... it was a while ago.
Has Anyone else had some skepticism about someone's claim to having "connections?"

 

[Oddly]

That's a very tenuous connection, for sure!
I've got a built-in cynic gene, and even in my younger and dumber days, never believed any such claims until definitive proof was produced...which never happened.

 

[iamoldschool]

Our last gig I met a moonshiner that claims to be good friends with Hank III. He really enjoyed our band (most drunk folks do) and said he was going to tell H3 about us. Not holding my breath on that but looking forward to being at the same venue on the 26th of this month. His product was pretty good.

 

[dadglasser]

My only "connection" or potential claim to fame is that, had my parents not moved our family from Hicksville, New York to California when I was ten years old, I would have gone to the same high school that Billy Joel dropped out of.

(I bet you can't top that!)

 

[-Asdfgh-]

My late uncle knew Eric Clapton in the mid-60s so I'm in, right?

 

[-Asdfgh-]

My only "connection" or potential claim to fame is that, had my parents not moved our family from Hicksville, New York to California when I was ten years old, I would have gone to the same high school that Billy Joel dropped out of.

(I bet you can't top that!)

I went to the same school as one of the members of a shoe gazing band with an overlap of a year. A solid connection, yes?

 

[el murdoque]

"I know a guy" is connections.
"I know a guy who knows a guy" is potential at best.

 

[dadglasser]

I went to the same school as one of the members of a shoe gazing band with an overlap of a year. A solid connection, yes?

That should earn you a discount to buy one of these:

 

[Jefus]

One of the most non-sensical "I have a connection" stories I ever heard didn't even make sense for the band i was in. But then, a month later, we were backstage at a Bret Michaels show talking to his guitar player about tracking demos at his house, so it turned out to be true.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

My only "connection" or potential claim to fame is that, had my parents not moved our family from Hicksville, New York to California when I was ten years old, I would have gone to the same high school that Billy Joel dropped out of.

(I bet you can't top that!)

I grew up in Plainview. I never thought there was anything funny about the name "Hicksville" until I moved to Massachusetts. I did see Joel's old band, The Hassles, at the Esquire Bar, which, if memory serves, was on South Oyster Bay Road. They weren't exactly The Young Rascals, but they were pretty good.

I did have a connection, for a while, with a promoter in Amsterdam who had seen a video of me backing Chuck Beattie, an actual African-American blues singer and thought that meant..I don't know what he thought it meant. I was planning a vacation in Europe, and ended up at the Bourbon Street bar for a few nights, backing the American blues singer Lamar Chase. I just now went looking for the promoter's e-mail, but it's long gone, as is that connection!

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

My #1 Connection lives in a Bottle and smokes in Pink.

Y'all top 'at...

Back in my Nashville crash-diet days though, it was all about these often silly "connections"... and some of them -you never knew- might be legitimate. If you were hungry though, and wanted to work, you kinda' had to take at least a few of the knuckleheads seriously. Most of time, yeah, it was just razzle-dazzle BS, to get you to play an "Artist Showcase" aka: Free Show for Tourists, or some interview for a magazine that about 10 people read while waiting for a taxi to take them to see somebody who actually has a gig in that nut-house. But once in a long while in some hole-in-the-wall joint, you'd actually meet somebody who would get you to the next thing. Then another thing, then another. Then... the bottom would fall out, and you would start over again. Make another "connection"... and... rinse/repeat.
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Me, I came back home to Virginia in 1998 and reconnected with what I already knew. Just turned in (electronic) papers registered for my retirement pension Wednesday. 30 years of Public Service are up here pretty soon, so maybe I'll go try to make some connections and get me another gig.

I ain't talked to Jeannie about it yet...

 

[Spidey2112]

Y'all top 'at...

I'd settle for whatever I got.

 

[Killing Floor]

My mom’s husband after my dad passed said he knew Colonel Tom Parker.
I was not able to capitalize on that assuredly fake connection.

 

[Das Jugghead]

We get a lot of people coming at us with every line in the book. From being able to book us into such-and-such venue and guarantee this minimum to getting us in front of so-and-so who was the "tour manager" for <make up any name here> and everything in between. "I can see your name in lights", "You should be on tour with <again make up some important sounding band name>" and the list goes on and on.

Most of these people are talking garbage or the alcohol is doing the talking. We treat all of them with respect, get email addresses (or sometimes business cards), and follow up under the premise that everything is legit. Guess what? We are still a local band giving our fans the best experience we can. After the last drummer spontaneously combusted on stage (I JEST!!!) we stopped holding our breath. We do continue to try and do every step right so that in the unlikely event a legitimate opportunity does present itself we will be qualified to seize it. In the meantime we just keep grinding it out.

 

[Zooberwerx]

Proof in my top-pocket: contact list on my phone includes the (ex) chief of police, a local newscaster, and the guy who owns the local deli.

Riis

 

[Bajo Clarkko]

In 2001, I bought an American Strat Standard at Guitar Center, from a guy who is the grandson of The Ventures drummer, Mel Taylor. (As he was writing up the sale, he asked me what bands I was into. I rattled off several names, including The Ventures. He nonchalantly told me Mel was his Grandfather.)

I have no reason to doubt the story, and other employees told me it was true. It’s a great guitar, and I still have it.

 

[Johnny StingRay]

The parents of my younger brother’s ex-fiancee used to play cards with Jaco’s parents…..don’t know if I trust her believing that is true; she borrowed a backgammon book from me and never returned it.

 

[foolforthecity]

I’ve got a connection to Nashville via my brother Jeff Stevens, Luke Brian’s producer and long-standing successful songwriter to boot.

Jeff Stevens

I love to talk music with him and we do that a lot by phone (South Texas to Tennessee) but I have no desire to squeeze our relationship for gain… just not right. The stories are fun to hear, though

 

[Shepsdad]

In a former career, I had the sheriff of a county in Kentucky hand me his card and say “you ever need anything in this county, call me”. I don’t know if it’s good or bad that I never needed anything in that county.

I ran around with a guy in high school that was always saying his stepdad was one of Elvis’s bodyguards. I eventually met the stepdad and sure enough, he had an entire wall in the house with photos of him and Elvis over the years.

 

[REV]

I worked for a guy who's brother was friends with Jaco's brother Gregory. This guy told me that he attended Jaco's wedding.