Musical Chairs part 2

I’m calling this Musical Chairs because all my life I’ve been in bands that break up. Members are constantly coming and going like a game of musical chairs. In particular, I have played with a Spinal Tap-like succession of drummers. Drummers have been the bane of my existence. They are a different breed alright. That’s why there’s all those drummer jokes.

Q. What do you call a drummer without a girlfriend?

A. homeless!

Q. How can you tell when a drummer’s knocking at your door?

A. it speeds up!

Q. What do you call a guy that hangs out with musicians?

A. a drummer!

I’ve had played with some really good drummers over the years. In rock’n’roll, the drummer are the ones that tend to go first and I too have lost some of them in very tragic ways. My drummer back in high school who was my best friend, hung himself after getting hooked on drugs. Then another drummer quit the band to work with K.C. and the Sunshine Band. Yeah I know so sad…Disco Sucks! That brings me to current drummer who just quit. I had been working with Flip ( the name says it all ) for the last two years. The reason being was he said he could get us a gig at the Hard Rock cause his neighbor was a big wig there and while we never did play there, we did play at some of the seedier local dives for peanuts…occassionally actually getting paid. Flip was a trip. He was never less than 3 hours late. He’d show up on his scooter and then need gas money to get home. That was one thing but when he played he would either a. speed up or b. space out! I swear there were tunes that no matter how much we practiced, we would get to that one part and he’d choke. I mean it’s not like he couldn’t play, he was just a flake. That band never went anywhere and it was a real drag. I hung in there every once in while making $100 playing a party. But the final straw came when we we’re supposed to play a Halloween gig he had set up at a Moose Lodge. I promoted it all month and had alot of people coming. Then the day of the show I get a text from the bass player that the gig was cancelled. I was furious. WTF? I never did find out why. Flip never returned any of my phone calls. Sayonara! I moved on and am now playing with the drummer from Molly Hatchet.