Have you ever been fired from a band?

[ToneMonkey]

Trust me, even your "friend"s let you down in a big way, it's good to know where you stand with people. Good or bad.

Place this info in the "lessons learned about people" area of your brain. Don't take it personal. When I was younger, I thought like you. But I've found out most of my musical relationships are just that. Based on the music only. But that's ok too. No hard feelings when it ends. Time to put your shingle out again and seek your next gig, my friend. Good luck and enjoy!

I firmly believe that every relationship eventually finds it own level. Attempting to prop a relationship up to be something other than what it wants to be, is just not sustainable. It just wears you out and it settles in to be what it always wanted to be. This goes for friends, business relationships, lovers, every relationship.

Also, when people show you who they really are, believe them the first time.

 

[Shalto]

Never fired but was in a band that dissolved. So carrots, I guess.

 

[MichelD]

I was playing in two bands and participating in a start-up bad as well one winter and then March came along and I was employed in the short herring fishery here where I live. Came back three weeks later and I wasn't in any of the projects any more.

Another fishing story: I was in a trio with a shoplifter drummer and pot dealer guitarist. I said I needed the summer off to go salmon fishing. Commercially, a job, not sport fishing.

Fired me because I wasn't a "serious" enough musician.

 

[Bassist4Eris]

I've been fired twice. The first time was almost 20 years ago, for complaining to the BL (in a less than diplomatic fashion) about her being a drunken mess on stage.

More recently, I complained to a BL about the quality of gigs I was being asked to do. Two in particular: an outdoor gig in November in upstate NY, and a 6-hour drive to play for 45 minutes in some tiny bar in Vermont. She ended up sending me an email stating "the gigs you don't want to do are the ones we look forward to the most". Fair enough. Good luck finding a permanent bass player. (I was bassist #4. The rest of the band had been together for 9 years when I joined, so I guess my 2-year tenure was about average for them.)

 

[4001]

Trust me, even your "friend"s let you down in a big way, it's good to know where you stand with people. Good or bad.

I figured that after knowing these two for 25-35 years, that would have been enough time to know where I stood....

 

[MatchFive]

Not yet.

 

[socialleper]

My bands usually disintegrate on their own before I'm "fired." I also tend to be a forming member of my bands, so I am more likely to be the fire-er than the fire-ee.
Metal bass players that are professional, can write, and are reliable aren't easy to come by in LA. I'm not a difficult person to work with, so bands are usually pretty happy to have me around.

 

[PWRL]

Nope. Quit a few but never fired.

 

[Jefenator]

I got unceremoniously dropped from a moderately well known blues singer's lineup for the unpardonable offense of being too busy with other clients. (The last straw was when she wanted to swap dates for a gig and I couldn't.)
Someone else got to experience the next phase of the career launch - where you get to drive 500 miles for gas money or spend 10 days on the opposite coast with no per diem. So basically I was grateful to be spared the stress of quitting. (Except it was the winter of the housing bubble recession and I could have really used those extra few dates we had on the calendar.)
I was in good company. If anyone had anything to say about compensation or scheduling or anything at all - no matter how tactfully - they were out on the curb, just like that. (Not the best way to build ensemble chemistry IMHO but she did manage to make a name for herself.)

 

[Danny O Danny]

Sort of. When I was 19 (my god, that was almost 40 years ago!) the band I had been in for a year broke up. But then I found out that they immediately got back together, but with a different bass player. He was a better player than me, and a better singer. I was hurt but I resolved to get serious about my playing (and singing), so ultimately it was the kick in the pants I needed.

 

[TL23NC]

Got fired ca. 1979 because ( among other things) "bass players shouldn't play chords. I replied "Well, I figured SOMEONE should play the right one once in a while".

Attitude had nothing to do with getting canned.

Funny coincidence, the only time I was fired happened in 1979. I was 19 and in a top 40 band, playing in hotel clubs. I needed to grow up a little...

 

[JRA]

It doesn't necessarily say any more about the one being fired than the ones doing the firing.

sure.

but being fired is good when you deserve it (my example) because it's something to build upon (as a life lesson or a music lesson, etc.). and if you think about it: you'd probably rather be fired by good people, doing a good job, who know their stuff! who wants to be fired by an idiot...what does that say about the cat who's fired?

if you're in a band that's led by an idiot = that's on you!*


* i've been in a couple of bands that were led by idiots.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I was fired once after just one show. It was a blessing in disguise as the band went through 100 other members after that.

'Once when I was 13 playing in a band with 5 guitarists (including me) and drummer. You don't need 5 guitarists to play Hanky Panky. Everyone else was at least 5 years older. I was replaced by what became a very good keyboard player which I worked with in another band years later. So my replacement made a lot of sense. I also later played with the drummer, who also played guitar, in a folk trio that was fairly respected. They rest of the guys stopped playing after high school.

Lesson learned? If fired, handle it with class and professionalism as bands are not lifetime commitments. You never know, but you may be working which these same guys somewhere down the line, either by choice or circumstance.

 

[musicman7722]

yup - a good humbling exp.

 

[funk generator]

I did some work with a band for awhile and things seemed to be going smoothly. In the year I was there they went through 3 singers.

we had a few evening gigs. None of them really drank. I saw no harm in having a beer after our set was done and all our gear was torn down and packed up. I even offered to help the other members with their gear. Then I grabbed a single beer.
This happened at two gigs, then I got fired for being an alcoholic.

In hind sight I did talk about alcohol a fair amount. I have a large whisky collection and my best friend runs a brewery, but I still never have more than a few glasses a week.

 

[Flatwound]

Yeah, twice. In my early 20's, I was a founding member of a band that was going to do "all originals." None of us were decent songwriters, but we had delusions of adequacy. After a couple of years, the other guys decided that our problem was that we weren't practicing enough. I balked, and they cut me loose. Then they broke up because they couldn't find a bass player.

I was playing in a band a few years ago with some Marines. It was good, but they ended up going to Iraq for a while. I didn't know what would happen, so I hooked up with some other guys whose bass player, they said, was unreliable and had quit. I learned their set list, agreed to sing lead on a song or two, and we scheduled our first gig. Then, two days before the gig, the knucklehead band leader calls me and says their bass player came back and they don't need me now. But, he says, let's keep in touch, maybe we'll play together again someday. I made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that that wouldn't be happening. He wanted to use the word "gigolos" in the band name, so it's just as well.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Firing would imply it was run like a business. Businesses exist to make money. The band I was dismissed from/quit existed to bleed money. In 2004, the guitar player made the super reasonable decision to book a Midwest tour(from Baltimore) in Jan/Feb/March—snow anyone?—without really consulting the rest of the band. Mind you, we had no proper releases, any merch beyond our own basement made shirts, and barely a following in our own town. I had a baby on the way, so the idea of more than likely spending money to tour held no appeal. I said it would be a hard pass for me. He said he figured and had already found a tour replacement for me, and he could use my gear. Fine, you found a tour sub, great, but my gear going without me? Um, no. But he doesn't have the right gear! Well, then I guess he's not the tour sub after all. We went in circles for about an hour at the practice space before I just packed up my stuff and loaded out for the last time, while everyone tried not to make eye contact with me. Didn't talk to those guys for more than 2 years. And of course the tour never happened anyway.

RE: Winter Tours;

Remind me to tell you about a winter tour cir 1976 heading to 'Rochester New York in an Ice Storm, a week later heading to Flint Michigan when the roof of Our 20' moving van blew off...lol!!! Talk about young and dumb.... you made the right call, for sure.

 

[klejst]

No so much as fired...but "let go." Long story short they completely folded a month later so oh well on that one.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Cant be fired from one if youve never been in one!

But look at all the fun you're missing out on!

 

[cheapbasslovin]

Once after 3 years because of changing circumstances and I couldn't make the time the band wanted, and once before the first gig because I struggled to learn songs quickly enough (because I couldn't make the time the band wanted).

Make sure you have the time to stay ahead of the game.