When did you hang up the dream?

[tonemonster]

I don't want some "opera man" metal singer either..it just doesn't fit my style...fuggit.

Rev Bill-Oooooo, Rev. Bill-oooooooo...... no sing-ora......no band-ora.....no fame-ora, sad-ora......Opera man-o, resume-o, in the mail-o........to Rev Bill-o......no auditionosa, rejectionosa, no victory toasta.

[Soap]

Making it? Dream?
There are so many other huge factors that go into that.
Being a good guitarist isn't enough anymore.

Recent and true story:
My grand baby who is almost 4, she is every bit papaw's girl.
I have her looking at her turds when she flushes them down the toliet and telling them
"see ya wouldn't want to be ya."
When she's pooping I ask, are you working on a big turd or a small turd?"
She tells me too.

I'm a big Priest fan, must of seen the band in their earlier days 4 different times I can remember. She goes through the house singing word for word Breaking The Law.
She'll come up to me and say, breaking the what papaw? I respond breaking the law.

Anyhoo, there's a story here.
I have several Priest concerts some bootlegs and some store bought.
I have the "priest live" dvd concert, the show with the opening song Out In The Cold.
She asked, "papaw can watch Priest?"
The opening song Out in the Cold is about half way through sitting beside me she looks up at me and says, "I wish I could play guitar like that."
Extremely happy, I responded, Papaw will show you the Priest stuff Papaw knows alot of Priest tunes."

It was a great moment indeed.
My daughter never took interest in guitar but the grand baby has.
I will enjoy the time when I can sit down and show her how to play.

[Rsmacker]

She'll come up to me and say, breaking the what papaw? I respond breaking the law.

That made me laugh out loud.
Sounds like you already "made it", you'll be someone's favourite guitarist, a true Rock God, long after you've started stinking of piss and sitting around all day in your own drool.

Erm....hang on.......don't you......!

[triplehold]

I always remember the story of Frank Zappa, when asked if he had any advice for someone who wanted to pursue a career as a professional musician, said "don't".

[tonemonster]

I always remember the story of Frank Zappa, when asked if he had any advice for someone who wanted to pursue a career as a professional musician, said "don't".

Yea, I think Dave Mustaine said that too on the Decline of the Western Civilization Part 2: the Metal Years.

[tonemonster]

Bottom line is, no matter how you slice it, if you "make it" in the music biz, its still work. its a job, and society has a very glorified perception of life in the music biz. its not all limos, chicks, parties, booze, and the whole sex, drugs and rock & roll thing. its sitting in airports, hotels, sleeping on tourbuses, or not sleeping at all, or trying to catch sleep back stage. eating at odd times, usually always restaurant foods. doing promotional radio spots, doing appearances, trying to find time to write material, stay in touch with family, talk biz with managers, record companies, agents, accountants, & conflicts with band members, record companies, managers, etc.... its a bizness that is filled with stress and bullshit just like if you worked for a widget factory. Sure, there is the one hour of rock star stage fun, but outside of that, its a grueling biz. not easy by ANY means.

[j4vice]

There's two kinds of people in the world
lawyers business types
artists musicians

[scotty]

46 here and still playing in smoky little bars. I haven't written anything in years. I am playing with a great group of guys. For us it is just a hobby. We love playing music but it doesn't put food on the table. And I really like food!

[wetrx95]

The music and desire never dies. That is the big message I've gotten from this thread and it is true in my life as well. Angus, EVH, Tipton, Iommi, Hammet were all big influences on my playing. I was in two metal bands, one in the late 80's and one in the early 90's. Being modest, I was told by many people that I was very good. This and the crowd pushed me to new heights of desire. However, we were a cover band and did not do any writing. I did come up with music, but I do not have the gift of verse. I was at a community college and intended to leave to pursue musical schooling. My parents freaked, even though I was in my 20's and asked that I get a get regular college education. The band fell apart before I could quit and I started my formal education. During this time I played guitar every day, actually increasing my discipline. I graduated six years later and now have a killer job that has given me everything I need...so far. I stopped playing for about five years, but the call of the guitar came to me and I picked it up again last year. Now I have a different dream, enjoy the ride. Playing guitar is a neverending process of learning something new everyday, which has always been a goal of mine. Music has changed so much since Priest and Dokken, etc. Now there are bands like Disturbed, Slipknot, Godsmack and many others. The power of these bands is just absolutely awesome. I've actually morphed my sound into a kind of 80's presesnt day sound. I love to sit down, throw my headphones on and just enter another realm. It is what keeps me going. Oh, I will be 41 in one day. Cheers.

[Franx]

Very inspiring stories so far ... I'll add mine:

20 years ago I had a band ... we wrote songs, put out a CD, got some air-play, had TV-appearances,
got signed by a local label, immediately started argueing over money that wasn't even earned - and split !

Out of a mix of bad luck and stupidity, I was financially ruined, so I had to sell (almost) all of my gear to pay bills.

Then I met a woman (married to her for 13 years now) and things got better. My son was born (12 years old now)
and I was just happy to pick up a guitar every now and then and play around a bit.

Then 4 years ago, a friend called up and said, 'Hey Franx, I just read a "Guitarist Wanted - Ad" - they are looking for YOU !'
They wanted a 40+ year old guy, who wanted to play 70s and 80s stuff just for fun; no stress - no gigs !
Just meet once a week and have fun.

Well, I got the "job" and it turned out to be the most satisfying musical situation, I could have dreamed of !
Of course, the "no gigs" part was cancelled - but limited to a maximum of 15 gigs per year.

I am far from being a "monster-player" and my writing-skills are even worse, so playing covers is just fine with me.
And we get paid some good money, that bought me many fine Jacksons last year !

So - to answer the question, when did I hang up my dream ? Never !
I just dream another dream !

And to be honest, wouldn't it be really boring, if we all were stars ?

[pagemalicious]

I'm 22 and the 'dream' I had of being in a huge metal band is starting to lose its priority already. I have enough musical experience to know that the music industry is full of broken promises, back stabbers and thieves.

'making it' is about 99% luck and 1% talent. Alot of us on this board could write music like Megadeth or Metallica but chances are your music will never be heard by a big record label.

Even if you do get signed by these labels, you pretty much have to sell your soul but you'll be in huge amounts of debt. You'll be lucky to break even, very very lucky to even have money to pay your rent and eat.


Now, making it for me, would be playing for other bands/artists. Being hired to play sessions. If this doesn't happen for me, then I can only hope that I'll be happy to just play the guitar because I can, that's something alot of people can't do.

[tonemonster]

I have to say that I believe the ratio to make it in the music biz is: 99% ass busting hard work and determination, and 1% luck.

[Big D]

I was 22 when I quit playing music in about 1990. Took a decade off to work on a career in computer software because I was sick of being broke and working shit jobs. Got back into a band in 2001, but purely as a weekend warrior.

[markD]

burn, i am still "chasing the dream". not really, because i don't expect to be signed or make millions of dollars, but my band still gigs a lot, we are still an ALL original band....we are STILL managing to get national rock shows that come through the tampa area. in fact we are going on tour this summer. our winter tour fell through, but the summer tour is 99% booked!!! we are thrilled. we're going out on our own, not as a part of a package or anything and we're just gonna play shows up the east coast. it should be awesome!!!!

don't give up dude, you are still young enough to rock and have fun!!!

[ABSOLUT CHARVEL]

When Jolie married Pitt