How old is too old...

[MBreinin]

Here's the flipside, though, and maybe the way you should think about it. The social life of most of my friends my age seems to consist entirely of standing around somebody's back patio drinking a beer and yacking about their lawnmower, kitchen remodeling project, or their kid's soccer team. Would you rather be doing that or be out there onstage carrying the metal flag!!

Yeah, man..I hear you. I have two kids...but I am divorced. I will NOT hang out with my old friends who are married with kids, because this kind of shit not only bores me to absolute tears, but makes me feel like a total loser!!

I mean, I am always like....damn, why aren't I buying a boat, or adding an extension to my house?? Shit, why don't I have a retirement account?? And my buddies from law school...forget it. They make me suicidal.

Mike

[L]

the next time a bar owner tells you that your friends left early and didn't drink much, tell him that next you'll just let them know to stay home so that the owner can lose another 100 bucks in profit. Is the club so packed that their turning the alcoholics away because your buddies are taking up space?

I think you need to be part of a house band for a bar that promotes old school heavy metal night bi-weekly or monthly or whatever. As long as you're good at what you do then it seems silly to let younger people make you feel goofy while playing older songs. I would think the right bar would bring in a good mix of all age groups. I can think of a couple of places in Chicago that do something similar w/ different genres of music....the members of their house band are all older than 44 and the crowd is an even mix of people from 21 - 50.

[Shawn Lutz]

The primary reason for doing originals in the first place was you want people in the audience to be there to see you and your band be yourselves musically. I played in my share of cover bands and its a lot of un but I always thought to myself the audience would rather see Randy Rhoads, Dio, Black Sabbath, Dokken, Yngwie etc than a bunch of dudes pretending and covering their material

As for being too old to do 80's covers I'm not sure its a matter of age or not, if your not having fun and enjoying it then why do it? Since I haven't gigged in years I would think its fun to do cover tunes and to just jam, whether there were 300 teenagers or 3 old goats in the audience it wouldn't matter much to me if I still had fun doing it

[horns666]

Ahhh..Don't sweat it John bro..METAL is what WE do..

until we fuggin' die!!

when you ever see ME playin' the blues..do me a favor and shoot me!!:ROTF:

[atomic charvel guy]

play what you wanna fukkin' play, it's for you, not for anyone else.

[Inazone]

If the bar is booking your cover band, and they know the age range of the audience, then they don't have anything to complain about. Not that it would be a good thing for you, but if they're worried that you aren't drawing a "profitable" crowd, then they should book a band that will draw younger fans.

Ultimately, club owners always have something to complain about. The young customers are more likely to get rowdy, the older customers leave too early, there are too many men and too few women coming in, blah blah blah.

[JACKS0NESP]

Never! I want to see Dave Mustaine on stage 30 years from now.. ROFL.
Actually that would be awesome...

[stevieb91]

You're too old when Donald Trump's comb over start looking like a good idea and your walker interferes with your wireless...

[pro-fusion]

Never! I want to see Dave Mustaine on stage 30 years from now.. ROFL.
Actually that would be awesome...

Well, since he already bitches and whines like an old codger, I'm not sure it'll be that much different 30 years from now.

[pro-fusion]

I mean, I am always like....damn, why aren't I buying a boat, or adding an extension to my house?? Shit, why don't I have a retirement account?? And my buddies from law school...forget it. They make me suicidal.

I know what you mean there. My wife and I also went to law school, but ended up with mediocre-paying jobs and a mountain of student loan debt. So, no boats or vacation homes for us, either. In fact, our debt has turned us into perpetual renters now that housing costs have gone skyward, but I consider that a plus on those summer weekends when I'm jammin' away on the guitar and I can look out my window at all my neighbors pushing a lawnmower around. Sucks at tax time, though.

When I hang out with my non-musician buds, I always feel like I live in some parallel universe. I guess that universe could be called Arrested Adolescence.

[followthereaper]

When it's too loud...

[Shawn Lutz]

when you start looking and acting like this


:ROTF:

[El_Kabong]

If you felt comfortable and the music and situation still felt natural, you would have no issues.

A change is part of the evollution. Just hope that it doesn't lead you into free-form jazz.

As most of us on this board are into hard rock and metal, personally, the guitars themselves have been an issue. I am 36 and about the size of an NFL defensive lineman. I caught my reflection while playing a Hamer Californian Elite. Man, did I look like I was forcing an issue with that axe. It went up for sale shortly afterwards. -Just my 2 cents.

[thetroy]

I say you only need to look at Ronnie James Dio. He's what 63 now and still doing it. It was mostly young people both times I've seen him and they were great shows. Nobody cares how old you are if you put on a good show.

I'm 20 fyi

[horns666]

Ronnie D, Sammy Hagar, Halford..still kickin' ass..especially Halford..he's the assmaster!!:ROTF:

I was just listening to Tenacious D..Jack Black singing about Dio passing the torch to him!!

If you can still go up there and shred your ass off like no ones biz..then your fresh as you ever was..

I will DIE shredding!