Why did you quit a band?

[HalfManHalfBass]

In all my years of playing in 20 odd bands I have concluded that the only band members without egos and who are dependable, not interested in hogging the limelight or totally full of egocentric bull$h!t are the bass players.

If I could only form a band of 4 or 5 bassists, I think I'd be sorted!

 

[HalfManHalfBass]

1. Their chosen practice day conflicted with another playing opportunity in front of live audiences
2. Not particularly enamored with the song list
3. Had to pitch in for practice facility
4. No short, nor even intermediate expectations of playing out for money.
Money, music, hang . . . Need 2 of the 3 in order to work for me. Guys are nice enough, although they played louder than necessary imo, and I sensed that there was an underlying tendency toward guitar wankery so I pulled the plug on my participation. Singer was really good though.

Pete Thorn's 2 of the 3 is the ABSOLUTE truth!

 

[lz4005]

#1 - Got tired of playing I IV V behind 50 year old bottom feeder blues guitarists for next to no money at a weekly jam after 6 months.
#2 - Got disgusted herding 20 uke players who had no business playing gigs into being able to play the gigs they kept inexplicitly booking.
#3 - Got tired of the guitar player sending drunken, abusive messages in the middle of the night and then not apologizing after, and the other guitar player inviting him back without consulting the rest of us after we fired him.
#4 - Jealous, armed husband. (who might have had valid reasons to be jealous)

 

[LBS-bass]

I forgot to mention the band where everyone started suing everyone else. We were in the middle of recording our second CD and I was just DONE with the tension and the stress and everyone hated everyone else. One day I made up my mind that I was going to finally quit, after months of stressing over it. I walked into rehearsal that day and two other guys quit before I had the chance, and the band broke up. I never told them I was going to quit that day until many years later.

 

[blowinblue]

Our band leader punched out the bar manager because the manager scolded us for starting late. We were immediately fired, of course. Then he threatened to punch me out as we were breaking down our equipment. He had the brainless audacity to call me a few days later and ask me if I was coming to band rehearsal. Not. Shame of it was is that it was a great and fun band.

M. M.

 

[delta7fred]

Self proclaimed BL (lead guitarist) had to have his way.
His wife had power of veto on all band matters.
She thought she was musical director, wardrobe dictator, sound person. etc, etc. (She was a good booking agent though.)
Guitarist couldn't keep time, every song speeded up.
Drummer followed him.
Rhythm guitarist thought if he could hear himself he was too loud.
Lead guitarist thought if he could hear anybody else they were too loud.
Band was usually too loud for the venue.
It morphed from an ok blues band to a third rate bar rock band.

 

[TheReceder]

Years (and years) back I was told "shut up... you're only the bass player".

This was more or less the cherry on top of a whole lot of attitude from the BL.

The BL should have said... shut up... you're one of only 4 bass players within 30 miles.
I was friends with the other three so that made it interesting for them after I smiled and waved goodbye.

 

[westrock]

Because the guitarist was a total narcissist. Always complaining about others' mistakes but never admitting to his own.

In the end he just became too unreliable live-wise. He stopped playing once due to the drummer hitting a cymbal out of place and just decided on the fly to restart a whole section of the song leaving me with absolutely no idea what was going on.

The time before this he asked the crowd to help me find the correct speed and rhythm to a song that I started in exactly the same way and speed as I had always done. There was no coming back from this little tantrum -and I promptly left!

I feel your pain brother.....Played with the same kind of guitar player for many years.

 

[Ronzo]

1. Got married.
2. Moved from NY to Florida.
3. “Lead Guitarist” had terrible time issues, and a wife who appointed herself “band manager”. She also tried to dictate repertoire.
   
4. “I’m too old for this s—t “

 

[TheDirtyLowDown]

As if music wasn't hard enough on its own... sigh.

My current band's guitar player and I were in a bluegrass band for about 10 years together. I played banjo, and sometimes upright bass if one of our bass players couldn't make a gig. Lots of gigs, we made money, played festivals, country weddings, horse/barn/steeplechase parties, pig pickins, practically anything with a haystack and a keg, we were there. It went well enough; we'd had some skirmishes about the live sound and the stress of getting an acoustic band mic'ed and monitored when sound wasn't provided... but it worked. And then we started recording, doing live 2-track sessions to put together a second album, and that killed us. Why? Because it showed what we all knew from years of standing behind him but never said -- the band leader / lead singer / driving force behind the band was the weak link in terms of musicianship. We got around that doing our first record because it was tracked separately, and he could noodle repeatedly until he got a solo or voice part down that he liked.

But live recording is ruthless, and it became very very clear that he was holding everything back. He got angry about it, and blew the band up because of it. What still irks me to this day is that we didn't get officially fired... instead, we just stopped getting invited to gigs, and found out that he had booked a different lineup.

The current band I'm in is, in all ways, better -- we mostly get along, it's a democracy, the level of the music is better, and we cooperate about live sound. But I miss the solace of unplugged acoustic gigs. Oh well.

 

[Dave Warminger]

Our band leader punched out the bar manager because the manager scolded us for starting late. We were immediately fired, of course. Then he threatened to punch me out as we were breaking down our equipment. He had the brainless audacity to call me a few days later and ask me if I was coming to band rehearsal. Not. Shame of it was that it was a great and fun band.
"Woah !"


M. M.

Our band leader punched out the bar manager because the manager scolded us for starting late. We were immediately fired, of course. Then he threatened to punch me out as we were breaking down our equipment. He had the brainless audacity to call me a few days later and ask me if I was coming to band rehearsal. Not. Shame of it was is that it was a great and fun band.

M. M.

 

[vvvmmm]

Interesting question!

1. drugs (their use)
2. another player's whiny girlfriend
3. passive-aggressive BL
4. passive-aggressive BL
5. hated being inna cover band
6. passive-aggressive BL

Now ask why we got kicked out ...

 

[red_rhino]

Basically, it always comes down to being tired of dealing with other people's $h*t. Nothing turns a bunch of adults into whiny teenagers faster than being in a band. People engage in behaviors that would promptly get them fired from a real job.

Last band I quit was due to passive-aggressive behavior from a non-band member, the drummer's husband. He began interfering with performances and working actively against my efforts to modernize the band, to the point of sabotaging gear. Knowing that coming between a band member and their significant other always always always ends badly, I pulled the plug on the whole thing. (I've seen this movie; let me tell you how it ends.)

I play for the joy of playing. I won't play with people who don't (or won't):

• learn their parts
• show up generally on time
• behave like adults
• care about putting on the best performance possible
• refrain from bringing their domestic drama along for the ride

It's stunning how many players fail to meet that criteria.

 

[westrock]

My last two deal breakers for me was extreme volume from guitar/drummer. That and guitar players with so much distortion it just sounded like buzz kill and no note definition.

 

[jpmcbride]

(1) Moved out of state.

(2) Guitar player got together with singer and decided they wanted to fire the drummer. They called me and I said I didn't think that was the right thing to do and we should talk about it first. They agreed not to fire her and get together the next week to talk about it. Next day they fired her. I quit on the spot when they told me. No argument, no hard feelings, no drama, just quit. Always keep things professional, even when the situation is bad. You never know who you're going to run into in the future and what the situation might be. If you always take the high road, you'll have nothing to worry about.

 

[klejst]

Of the one I quit it was basically because we were growing apart and needless to say It was going really no where and becoming a time sink that was more and more becoming unenjoyable.

 

[Nick von Nick]

Some good friends asked me to join them, and since I hadn't had a regular gig in years, I couldn't turn them down. I also couldn't do the jam band thing. After a 20 minute song that cleared the dance floor, I had to leave.
~NvN

 

[TheReceder]

Playing overseas in a band where we were all separated from our spouses for a year. Drummer couldn't keep his hands off the lead singer and was always whining to me about how he felt bad about cheating on his wife. I got sick of the whining and simply said if you feel so guilty... stop... and if he didn't stop screwing her, I was going to quit. I only lasted another week, and got a higher paying gig the next week.

 

[JRA]

Why did you quit a band?
- moved
- 'moved on' (or: it was about to run its course)
- too busy

i don't recall ever quitting because of personnel reasons.

 

[rocmonster]

I quit a band after we found the best singer we’ve ever had, and he shredded on guitar. Had a ton of great equipment that was brand new, had a studio space that had a great back line, amps, other guitars, basses, drums, some synths. It was like we died and went to heaven. The band really took off and we had several showcase type things lined up. We abounded so good and we’re so energized that I was contemplating putting college off for a few years, it seemed that good.

Then that singer/guitarist started to show up late for practice, equipment began missing from the practice space, then we got locked out of the practice space, then the guy started to miss practice in the drummers garage, started to show up late and high, without his guitar. One day after waiting over an hour, we drove around where he lived and saw some dude in a Cadillac holding him by the neck. When we asked him what was up he said “don’t worry about it”...

Long story short: I quit and left for school and they replaced me but never played any showcases, never recorded anything, last I heard the guy was found dead floating in Miami bay a year later.