Sick of it All...

[sully]

Re: Sick of it All...

dude, don't feel bad. it's not like i'm mad or anything. if anything, it was probably good for me to type that. i've felt like this for a very long time, as kevin can attest to.

sully

[sully]

Re: Sick of it All...

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe it was reading Sully's post and realizing that no matter how bad I think I've got it...J/K bro! [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

you fucker!

eh, it's all good, chuck, i still got a kidney for ya if you need it. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

your pal always,
sully

[VitaminG]

Re: Sick of it All...

fukk, you can turn a phrase, sull. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

That was painful to read, particularly as BLS's Won't Find It Here was playing in the background.

sull, I don't know if it's any help, but can I remind you of Zen Guitar? That book really helped me grab some perspective a couple of years ago when I was feeling pretty low. You recommended it to us all here, and it helped me out. Wish I still had it, loaned it to a friend and I guess he liked it. I really could have standed reminding of the lessons it provides over the last year or so.

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: Sick of it All...

Wow... I still don't even know what to say after reading all these posts. This topic really got me thinking. Regardless, all the best to Chuck and Sully and everybody else when they're feeling down. Sharing it is really beneficial and therapeutic. No wonder this place is the JCF Brotherhood. [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

[Boxcar Willie 84]

Re: Sick of it All...

I know how you feel. I come home from working a 13 hour day of hearing kids wank on Metallica and Led Zeppelin, having some douche bag haggle me about the price on a Les Paul, keeping all the guitars and amps straight while my coworkers sit on their asses, calling companies that don't get back to you and losing sales for that and nothing every changing that I wanna throw my guitar out the motherfucking window when I get back home! I'd love to start playing more, I haven't hardly had any time to play but after I get home from work I just don't feel like it. I have to do it to get by for right now, and I feel like I am somehow exploiting one thing I've always loved that, and I can't even remember what I liked about it in the first place. What am I gonna do?!

[tonemonster]

Re: Sick of it All...

Thanks for not being upset with me guys. I have my bad days too and I know how you feel. I often have felt like Ive wasted my life away. I feel your pain, really. Thanks for not holding hard feelings. And yes NOTP, that IS why its the JCF brotherhood. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img] you guys rule, all of you.

[Guest]

Re: Sick of it All...

Well Sully, first, thanx for that! And second, it sounds like youv'e experienced what a lot of us around only (still sometimes)dream of. [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img] But I can understand, I see guys that we used to jam with back in the day and they're still doing the same thing, the only thing that's changed, is the name of the clubs. It's a decent rode I suppose if you have something else when it runs out, and I can only imagine how children have affected that...

Thanx!
Pat

I didn't read the entire thread, I need more time to catch up, maybe in the morning.

[gemini8026]

Re: Sick of it All...

You dont judge a man by his monetary value or his social standing. Youve been helpful to me in the past when I pm'd you and for the that, I respect that.

As for the drought, Im hitting that phase. It's to the point where I sit back and think, Damn I spent a lot of time and money looking at guitars and gear, and I get bored after practicing for 10 minutes. I spent 500$ on a mic and preamp and have barely touched it due to time/lack of interest.

Mebbe find a new hobby or ways to kill the time. Ive foudn myself spending a lot of time workong on computer graphics (3dsmax) and art can be a great time killer and way of keepin u out of trouble.

Either way, good luck and hopefully you can find some enjoyment again in it soon, or up another avenue!

[Drsracing]

Re: Sick of it All...

I always have this feeling of why do I play??? I suck, I'm the worst player here HANDS DOWN, I've played drums for 18 years and that just comes natually to me, I can play anything. I can't even play crazy train the whole way through on guitar. But you know what keeps me reaching for that guitar every night?? Peace and sanity, When I'm just beat to hell from work I can kick back in my chair crank up my favorite music and just slip away from all that's bothering me, no matter how much I suck or anything no one can break that bond between me and my music, I don't even hardly play my drums anymore, I haven't been in a bad in almost 2 years and if this is how my musical career ends, it's fine with me

[mudkicker]

Re: Sick of it All...

Chuck, Sully...... Hate to hear all of this. Other than saying that almost any of us on here will do anything we could to help.
Not the same but similar. After I got out of the Navy my wife and moved back home. She started night school and I got back into the local music scene playing in several cover bands and also got back into racing dirtbikes here in district 13. I did work 9 to 5, but all of that went into my guitars and bike. When I turned 30 I made the mistake in telling my with I was grown up enough to handle fatherhood. She had some female issues and we had to seek infertility help. It worked as ever one knows we have triplets. During her pregnancy I kept on with my carefree lifestyle.

Two days after the boys were born, one was rushed off to UVA medical center. He needed to have a shunt placed in his brain to relieve fluid from a brain bleed. To cover all of the medical bills I sold off my beloved bike, riding gear, and my cherished ESP Kamikaze collection.

It hit me when the 6th and last Kama walked out the front door with its new owner that I had been fooling myself for over a decade. I was never going to make it at music or Racing. As my dreams crashed around a washed up 31 y.o. with nothing to show for his life. I was slapped hard the responsibility of being a father. I remember walking up the stairs and collapsing in the floor in front of my wife and started bawling like a baby. She was blown away, I never show any emotion. But this hit me so hard I could not hold it in. If it had not been for the boys I would have most likely hit the bottle again. I know I came close several times.

The guys came home after two long months in the hospital. For the next year I never opened the door to my music room. I even quit listening to music. I would have the radio or a CD playing but I never really listened to the music like I used to. Then in 2002 I stumbled across the old JCF and started just talking about guitars and music. I slowly started playing guitar with my CDs. Then my wife shocked for the third time in our 15 year marriage. First was when she bought me my ESP Skulls and Snakes when I was over seas, second when she was pregnant, last Nov. she bought me my 83 SD. I'm not where I used to be as a player but I'm OK with it now.

If either one of you guys ever want to talk PM me.

Brian

[TheUntalentedOne]

Re: Sick of it All...

Guys all I can say after reading all this is God Bless !! Really moving thread

[Ace]

Re: Sick of it All...

Chuck, Sully, whatever you do, don't leave this board. You guys are only as old as you feel. You guys have both lived your dreams and I am sure that there are many many fond moments you have from your guitar playing days. Sully, if your son and his friends(or at least his friends) look up to you as a source of inspiration, you've just started a new generation of musicians on their way. Chuck, you have set a whole new generation of musicians on their way just by posting on this message board.

Someone once said that you don't go into the music business because you want to, you do it because you have to. There is something in some people, myself included, that drives us towards music and making music. I am making something of a career in music for myself. I live in Los Angeles, where everyone moves to to make it. I have decent connections, a great(if new) band, and dream that we share of "making it". I don't have any kids, wives(current or former), school or much of a career doing anything besides guitar teching. I am willing to accept a pretty low standard of living, and my goals for the band are to make enough money to pay my rent while I am out on the road. I am pretty sure that I'll never be signed to Capitol Records, but I think if we work hard enough my band can make a difference. If I have to work construction or something between tours, that's fine. My goal is simply to take my music and travel the world with it.

If you guys aren't feeling the guitar right now, STOP. Put it in the corner. Find something you ARE excited about now and go with that. Don't force your dreams until you are sick of looking at the guitar. Music is inside both of you, it's not going away. When the time comes, it will come back. In the mean time, put your guitars in the garage, cover them with a sheet and don't look at them for six months. Go ahead and try something new. Just don't sell anything off that you KNOW you'll be kickin' yourself in the a$$ for in five years. And don't stop posting on this board, you have a family here and you know that.

With Love,
-Ace

[markb]

Re: Sick of it All...

[quote
i'm right there with ya. actually, i've been there for a good 9 months now. sucks ass. i'm this close to looking at the time i spent devoting my life to music and the like as wasted time.

sully

[/ QUOTE ]

It passes.

Although, maybe it does need to be re-fit into your life. I had this problem...now I practice much less, don't listen to music all that much, rarely surf guitars online, because I replaced that time with other things. Now I enjoy it more, and my playing hasn't suffered as much as I thought it would. Anything could seem like a waste of time after a while if it was all you did, all you thought about, your whole ego was pinned on it, obssess obssess obssess ie. if you ask too much of it to fill up your life. You ask more than it can provide, that is the problem, and it slowly grows over time, to a resentment or a feeling of loss etc. Your perspective will become distorted, and you will hit a brick wall with it. I'd seriously recommend: give your mind a break, go goof off, get into a few other activities.

[shreddermon]

Re: Sick of it All...

I put the guitar down for a few years. Pretty much all through college and a few years thereafter. Close to ten years or so.

Probably five or six years ago, I decided to pick it back up again. And enjoyed the hell out of it! Maybe I am "that guy". Guitar isn't the focus of my life. It almost was, but I made "that critical decision" at "that critical time", and things turned out different. It's more of a hobby now. I have a career, house, wife & kids. And I'm very thankful for all of that. I'm not rich or anything, but comfortable enough.

I used to be very good, and miss that. I long for it again, sometimes hard. But now I'm just a hobbyist hack. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] ...You know what, though? I'm cool with that. Mostly. [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img] Sometimes it hurts. But mostly, when I can enjoy guitar on my own terms, that is when I enjoy it the most.

I bailed on my band a few months ago because I didn't have time for it. The pressure of learning new songs each week, trying to find time to practice at home AND with the band - it was all stressing me out. And I already don't have enough time and have more than enough stress with my career, kids, etc. And I was holding them back, so it was the fair thing to do. (...Despite the ground rules I had established with the other members before even starting with them.)

I've gone soft. I've lowered my expectations. I'm a wuss. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] And I'm mostly cool with it. Because I think that has a lot to do with why I enjoy it again. Because I can do it on my own terms. It doesn't feel like an obligation, like something I "have" to do. It's something I "want" to do, when I can. And that's OK.

Chuck and Sully, maybe it WOULD help if you put it down a bit. For a litle while - not completely nor permanently. But enough so that you can come back to it on your own terms, at whatever level that means for each of you. [img]/images/graemlins/band.gif[/img]

[Chuckracer]

Re: Sick of it All...

I've walked away from it before, in '1992, when Nirvana came out and pretty much single handidly killed the scene. I was playing 5 to 6 nights a week and had been for 10 years prior to that. Overnight the gigs were gone. I tried to wear flannel and act like a druggie, bit it just didn't feel right, so overnight I sold all my gear except for one guitar, and that went under the bed. I went off and raced motorcycles for 8 years instead.
In that time I'd pull the guitar out from under the bed once every 3 or 4 months and strum a few chords, remember, and put it back.
Then in 2000, a friend of mine wanted to learn to play, and pushed me into getting the guitar back out. Things steam rolled from there (thanks Choppercopper!!).
I guess a break would do me good, but a break from what? I've played professionally almost my entire time I've had a guitar strapped on, so to just stand here playing "Gimmee Three Steps*"...hmm...whatever. I don't know HOW to not be in a band. I don't understand what the big deal is playing "Gimmee Three Steps*" all by myself is.


*Gimmee Three Steps is being used only to illustrate the audacity of the situation in my eyes. Although I actually DO play it...that's what position two is FOR on a Stratocaster, isn't it?