Why did you quit a band?

[Rip Van Dan]

This is an offshoot of the "have you ever been fired" thread.

So why did you quit?

I've only quit three bands in all the years I've been playing. One was the first band I played in - "The Warlocks" in 1966, one in California that I've forgotten the name of, and the other one was the last band I played with in Virginia, "Other People's Kids".

I quite the Warlocks because I was asked to come play bass for an already well established high-school band that had gigs lined up (high school dances). I quit the memory deficient California Band (can't remember the name!) when I was transferred to Vermont. I quit "The Other People's Kid's" in Virginia because I moved about 3,000 miles away to Washington state.

So, I'm a pretty, "stick with it" kind of player. It takes time for groups to get good and get in sync and when they do, it was well worth the wait. Of course the problem can be that some people never get into sync or just as it's happening one or more of them leave.

 

[Hambone70]

Hated playing music I detested, especially for the mindless imbeciles in the crowd.

 

[stringthrough]

1. Got tired of the music (Springsteen cover) and replacement of good musicians (they quit for various reasons) for inferior ones over the course of a year.
2. Drummer/ BL insisted (I eventually gave in) that his friend sit in on a number of tunes at a gig. It was the first time my wife heard the band and I wasn't in the mood to be upstaged. (Yup, I was childish and selfish, but sometimes it's OK to give in to those emotions.)

In both cases I left as a "gentleman", committing to stay on until a replacement was found.

 

[Jeff Hughes]

I quit a band once because the other guys were four or five years younger, and I was about to start my career as a teacher. I think they wanted to take things further, and I just didn’t have that in me. We also had very different musical interests, and for them to progress, I had to leave.

In addition, all of the gigs were at rented halls where the order was decided when all of the bands showed up. Sitting around for two or three hours and playing for 25 minutes was not really doing it for me. Luckily, it was all amicable, and there were no hard feelings. In the end, I made the right choice.

On another note, I never cease to be dumbfounded by how people in cover bands and wedding bands treat the organization like it is some kind of multi-million dollar Vegas production where one song played too slow or fast or the wrong outfit sinks the ship. I am all about being professional, but there is a lot of that “lets decide on a band name, logo, first album title, touring schedule, etc. before we have any songs written or rehearsed” mentality out there.

 

[singlemalt]

So many reasons to quit, let me count the ways...

We’d be here all night.

Highlights? Singer runs off with guitar player (who had been, up till then, married to the drummer).

Member falling over drunk on stage....but who hasn’t been there?

I don’t consider more pedestrian reasons like job changes, relocations, children to be “quits”, just reasons to not continue.

A good quit needs some rage inducing spice.

 

[Billoney]

This is an offshoot of the "have you ever been fired" thread.

So why did you quit?

Health--bad back.

 

[rtav]

Other band members stopped progressing, seemed lazy and unmotivated.

buh bye

 

[40Hz]

Whenever I found myself experiencing prolonged exposure to one or more of the following:

• Bad music
• Bad attitude(s)
• Bad manners/behavior
• Bad business sense and/or practices

- Or - dishonesty on the part of the band leader. This one only needs a single occurrence to get me packing.

 

[dkelley]

I normally play with a band until it disappears on me.

In one case the main members moved away - I went to their house (to which I had a key), unlocked, went in front door, place was evacuated, furniture gone, my gear gone.

Yea... so I think maybe I don't always get the gist of "breakup" conversations...

Actually, I think I had some ex girlfriends who would say the same thing about me, come to think of it!

 

[roller]

The most memorable exit I experienced took place four or five years ago when I was playing with an informal group (4 of us total = 2 guitars, drums and me). We would get together once a week, mostly to have freeform jams along the lines of Dire Straits, Steely Dan and Primus. We had assembled some solid players and it was a lotta fun. We were playing in one of the guitarist's home studios and it was fantastic... wall-to-ceiling carpet... I never had to bring an amp as I got to plug into a nice Avalon preamp we ran through a big PA along with the mics... and there was a fully function digital workstation that we'd regularly use to lay stuff down.

Eventually, we took time to record three original tunes. We were meticulous in the process (as you should be). We even brought in some friends to play mandolin and fiddle. Everyone was proud, excited and were ready to hear the mixed tracks.

And then... nothing.

Our guitarist who owned the studio simply chose to not finish the project and never mixed down the tracks.

Why? He and the other guitarist who were also playing in a (wait for it) Jimmy Buffet cover band (yes, you can puke now) and that group went belly up... so these two guys wanted to take our all-original, super-fun project and replace it with a bunch of crummy covers and try to start playing out with what would be their new Buffet band.

This wasn't what I was interested in doing, so I politely bailed. I sent a quick, personal e-mail to each of the guys... didn't raise a stink or point fingers... told them I enjoyed the time but I was moving on.

The drummer soon followed... and that was that.

The end.

 

[Ric5]

This is an offshoot of the "have you ever been fired" thread.

So why did you quit?

some of the best moments in my life were quitting bands

 

[Ostie]

1. We all quit when the guitar player/ BL ripped us off. He borrowed some pieces of equipment from all of us a couple of days before he moved out of state and took the gear with him. He set us up. I guess we would have disbanded anyway, with him moving, but then he had to go and screw us over. A real class act.

2. I was recruited into a band of fellow employees to play a work gig. After the first practice I knew it was a train wreck, but I gave it one more rehearsal before I pulled the plug. Totally disorganized and way too loud. The drummer quit when I did. Apparently the two guitar players played the gig without us. Unbelievable.

 

[Ric5]

The most memorable exit I experienced took place four or five years ago when I was playing with an informal group (4 of us total = 2 guitars, drums and me). We would get together once a week, mostly to have freeform jams along the lines of Dire Straits, Steely Dan and Primus. We had assembled some solid players and it was a lotta fun. We were playing in one of the guitarist's home studios and it was fantastic... wall-to-ceiling carpet... I never had to bring an amp as I got to plug into a nice Avalon preamp we ran through a big PA along with the mics... and there was a fully function digital workstation that we'd regularly use to lay stuff down.

Eventually, we took time to record three original tunes. We were meticulous in the process (as you should be). We even brought in some friends to play mandolin and fiddle. Everyone was proud, excited and were ready to hear the mixed tracks.

And then... nothing.

Our guitarist who owned the studio simply chose to not finish the project and never mixed down the tracks.

Why? He and the other guitarist who were playing in a (wait for it) Jimmy Buffet cover band (yes, you can puke now) had that band go belly up... so these two guys wanted to take our all-original, super-fun project and replace it with a bunch of crummy covers and try to start playing out with what would be their new Buffet band.

This wasn't what I was interested in doing, so I politely bailed. I sent a quick, personal e-mail to each of the guys... didn't raise a stink or point fingers... told them I enjoyed the time but I was moving on.

The drummer soon followed... and that was that.

The end.

A band like that you don't have to quit … just stay a member and 10 years from now you can pick up where you left off

 

[logdrum]

Yeah I could join the blame, holier than them bandwagon - but some bands I quit, humbly I say because the music was too hard. I couldn't cut it.

 

[Ric5]

I played in this band here 20 years ago … The drummer was way too loud, the lead singer was always drunk, and the 2 guitars would zombie out when they played … you can see I look totally bored on stage … I really enjoyed leaving that band … they kept going thru bass players and they kept making the same mistakes in the same songs for years

 

[CenTexThumper]

In the past several years I've left two very good bands to move off to new geography. I left one working country band to play rock and roll for a few years. When that one burned out I went back to the working and paying country project. That's been three years ago and I'm now being recruited for a Texas rock and blues band that's being reformed for the future post-corona bar reopenings. I'm seriously considering moving on to it.

 

[2112]

My first project was when I was in college. We were all too lazy to really get it up off the ground.

My second project ended because the drummer preferred to be a shut in and the guitarist was unreliable.

My third project ended because the keyboardist/vocalist turned out to bipolar and violent. The rest of us put together my fourth project.

My fourth project ended because the drummer was an arrogant ahole and everybody finally had enough of him.

My current project, well... I guess we've all grown up enough where everybody does their homework and there's very little, if any, drama. We have the guitarist from my 3rd and 4th projects, he's one of my best friends.

 

[delta7fred]

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

Twice I've been referred to as "only the bass player".

First time by a guest guitarist who was going to play 3 instrumentals with us, he wouldn't give me a copy of the songs (pre internet when everything was done by cassette) and at the one rehearsal he had with us he blamed his lousy playing on me. When I mentioned that he hadn't given me a copy he said "your just the bass player, follow the rhythm guitarist's chords".

I got my own back at the gig. As our guitarist was giving him a big build up I put my bass down and quietly slipped off stage and into the crowd, the keys player didn't like his attitude and did the same. The 3 songs were a complete train wreck and I felt sorry for our drummer and guitarist.

The other was a new guitarist that we enlisted at his first rehearsal when I told him he was playing a riff wrong. I saw our old guitarist smile because he knew what was coming. I picked up an acoustic guitar and showed him exactly how it should be played. The new guitarist didn't know that I'd had a 12 year stint playing lead before seeing the error of my ways and going back to bass. We are now good friends.

 

[steelbed45]

I quit the last band for two reasons - the lead singer and drummer were both stage drunks, and the BL/lead singer kept "forgetting" to pay me. Easy come, easy go.

 

[lbbc]

The only band I ever quit, in 45+ years of playing, was a band that had great musicians, great song list, decent PA and lights but they only wanted to be a "house party" band. We played 2 gigs and most of the band was more intoxicated than the audience...I packed up, told them I was done and left...never returned. My reputation was more important than that!