DRUMMER CAFE

Good luck.  I haven't had to deal with many nutjobs.  But I do cross paths with my fair share of whackadoos, wingnuts, and dipschitz. 

Care to elaborate?

Gigs with the mentally unbalanced seem agonizing at the time you are doing them.

But take good notes as the stories you can tell at parties will pay off. LOL! 

I'm only half joking. The majority of players I know have great stories about maniacs or just bizarre circumstances.

Last good one I heard on New Year's Day:

Couple'a buddies of mine, percussionist and drummer and both great players, did a gig together here in Los Angeles at the Kodak Theater for a Greek singer. It was a total lip-sync gig.

NO LIVE PLAYING.

They had a REHEARSAL for the gig (remember ....NO LIVE PLAYING...only faking it while canned stuff played).

After the gig the singer was very pleased with the band. He said that this band sounded better than any band he'd used on the tour.

They hadn't played a note.

They cashed their checks and were able to have 'best story' at the party.

See? Keep your sanity and their will be bennies' 

Jim

 

actually, being bipolar can be a help to being a great musician. it's the manic side that fuels the creativity. of course, they also tend to be arseholes as human beings.
some famed bipolar musicians:
Ludwig van Beethoven, composer
Alohe Jean Burke, musician, vocalist
Rosemary Clooney, singer
DMX Earl Simmons, rapper and actor
Ray Davies
Lenny Dee
Gaetano Donizetti, opera singer
Peter Gabriel
Jimi Hendrix
Kristen Hersh (Throwing Muses)
Phyllis Hyman
Jack Irons
Daniel Johnston
Otto Klemperer, musician, conductor
Oscar Levant, pianist, composer, television
Phil Ochs, musician, political activist, poet
John Ogden, composer, musician
Jaco Pastorius
Charley Pride
Mac Rebennack (Dr. John)
Jeannie C. Riley
Alys Robi, vocalist in Canada
Axl Rose
Nick Traina
Del Shannon
Phil Spector, musician and producer
Sting, Gordon Sumner, musician, composer
Tom Waits, musician, composer
Brian Wilson, musician, composer, arranger
Townes Van Zandt, musician, composer

For a while my band had a cellist who was kinda nuts....

When I first introduced her to my band members as a potential member we were at a party, she'd had a few to drink and started making out with our then-singer's knee. We thought she'd be fun to have around haha, and she was. However on one occasion at a party she nearly mistook me for a toilet. Well, she did, I was just lucky my girlfriend at the time woke up to drag her off me milliseconds from disaster. It wasn't just when she was drunk, it's hard to explain, she was just really intense. All the time. But that's more of a fun story haha. Turned out she was a pretty awesome singer too, but confidence issues got the best of her and she quit.

My psychiatrist says I have multiple personalities.  But we don't believe him.

Anyone who goes to a shrink should have their head examined!   

OK, I didn't mean to derail the thread. . .   

I played with, rehearsed with, endured a jam band a couple of summers ago.  The guy who "ran" the thing is a pro sports photographer/ex-hippie and pretty well off financially.  He had a wing of his house set up for jamming.  Nice stuff: full drum set, PA, recording gear, quality keyboards, gutiars, bass guitars, all sorts of amps - including the obligatory Marshall stack - mint condition Hammond B3. . .

Problem is the guy couldn't play (called himself a "rhythm keyboardist"), couldn't read (music), had the personality of a catcher's mitt, and the attention span of a gnat.  He learned everything by rote and took copious notes, which were always missing at the next get-together.  So, he had to learn all over again.  And when he got frustrated or bored or tired, he would just get up and walk out - leaving the rest of us there alone.  We'd notice he was missing only because the band suddenly sounded better and we would find him on the patio or in the [built-in] pool or hot tub.

Beautiful home.  Nice set up.  Nice gear.

The only good thing to come from it was meeting the bass player, George, who quit the same time I did.  George and I now perform with James Curley and Radio Fade (www.myspace.com/jamesfcurley).

Now if I just knew what bi-polar means, just maybe I would know where I stood in this thread.   

That explains when people say to me, "Your Nuts!"   

My sister suffers from depression. She's what you call uni-polar. She dips way down into depression and never quit makes it back up to "normal". Its taken years but she finally has her meds dialed in just right and is probably the most productive she's ever been. She's also a very talented singer/songwriter/gutarist. For a while we were involved in a project together. It was sort of just a Friday night get together with the two of us and 2 other former bandmates from years ago. She constantly called and cancelled coming to practice, at the time we were frustrated but understood. I don't think it was a priority for any of us to really turn this into a band, but its frustrating to make plans and have someone blow it off. Jokingly, we wrote a song about the disfunctions of our project. I tracked down the lyrics and here is the section about her:

Last Friday night we meant to play
But the singer felt too ill
She had to go to therapy
And she may be there still

She's a good sport about all of it

I honestly believe that our society has put labels on any quirk in ones personality.  It is so easy to take a pill. 100 years ago we had the same type of humanoids on this earth. They didn't have access to all these drugs. Some how they survived and the crime rate was nothing like it is now. As musicians, we tend to use more of one side of the brain than most.  Any creative personality is not really wire the same as everyone else.  This is what makes us so unique. Not necessarily Squirrely. Do we need a pill or is this all just part of our personalities? What is normal anyway ?
Not me, I like being a bit different and not exactly like the perfect mold that society says we have to be.  It is OK to be a little Nutz !!! To the original poster, did you ever think that maybe the stuff that is pissing you off is not the real problem.  Maybe the problem is that you let everything piss you off??  Think about it!!
                                        Nutty
                       

I'm not a moderator here, but this thread seems to have gone from a discussion of squirrley musicians to a discussion of medical issues - some very personal (and I'm sure I helped with that - my apologies). 

Can we get back to the squirrley musician posts?

Sorry if I got under your skin but there is always two sides. It is hard for me not to look at things medically when my father was a doctor. My point is this, some of the things that bother you about people bothers most of us.  As musicians, we have all delt with people being late, drunk, stoned, unable to show up, don't call you to let you know what is going on. This stuff is pretty normal and most don't put up with it forever. Just remember that people do what they want to do and we have no control over that.
                                 Nutty

I think I was pretty much on topic here. By the way, I like your Web site. Your guitar player is a big old fellow. Wouldn't want to piss him off.  Good luck with your project.
                                Nutty