Hi guys and gals,
Your tip this week is a taste of reality.
Know what you’re getting into if you want to come to Nashville and work for a star on the road. I have seen so many horror stories in the last 33 years concerning new musicians coming to town.
The latest example is a great steel player just hired by a famous female Nashville road act. He was hired his second day in town, told what a great job he was doing, promised the job would last forever, but when he got back to town from the first trip, they said they weren’t going to use steel anymore … to which he replied “Ok, I’ll get my steel out of the truck.” And they said “Sorry, you shouldn’t have put your steel in the truck … it’s already on the way to the next gig in New York.” The steel player said “I need my steel because I can work several club jobs here in town before that truck gets back.” The star replied “Sorry, maybe you can go rent one somewhere.” After being congratulated by everyone on the Steel Guitar forums, you can imagine how embarassed he feels about this turn of events.
Remember, most of these new stars have no business training, have had no experience dealing with people, most are still in their early twenties and have egos the size of Texas and think everybody should put up with them, do what they say and bow down and kiss their “feet” no matter how they are treated.
Does this happen with every act, you may ask? This happens with probably over 80% of the new acts and there are horror stories with a lot of the older acts too that appoint young band leaders that don’t know anymore than a young star would know.
In 1984, Alan Jackson called me at the store looking for a steel player to take to Vegas for a week. I gave him the name and number of 3 steel players, two very famous great ones and one below average one that just happened to be standing by me when he called. Alan called everyone of them and hired them, told them to be at the bus at midnight. When they all showed up, he walked off the bus and said “I’ll take you” pointing to the least qualified player and told the other two to go home. A week later when Alan got back to town, he called and said he needed some more names of steel players because the one he took was horrible. I said what about the other two. He said I’m afraid to call the other two since I sent them home. At this point, I launched into the most scathing scolding, even using some words I learned in the airforce, letting this green star have it with both barrells. I kept it up hoping he’s finally just hang up on me, but he never did. It must have been a good 8 to 10 minutes letting him know what an idiot employer I thought he was.
How many other stories do I have like this that I’ve seen in Nashville in the last 33 years? Way too many. I blame this on the fact that I pointed out earlier … the stars have no experience running a business because they don’t look at what they do as being the business that it is. It seems to me that a star that makes at least $100,000. a year would look at what they do as being a business and try to run it like one … but unfortunately, fame and fortune has smiled on most of them before they know how to handle what they have been blessed with. We, the steel players that are hired by these new high-school mentality stars, with our many years of experience and professionalism, are the ones who have to suffer the consequences of their juivenile and immature decision making.
The reason I’m saying this to all of you is a warning for any of you that want to come to Nashville with stars in your eyes and expect the stars that hire you to run their show as a business not to be disappointed when things don’t work out the way you expect it. To put it bluntly, I am sick and tired of seeing wonderful young steel players come to town and be treated with such disrespect. So if you’re coming to town, wear a thick skin and remember that you have a friend who understands at Steel Guitar Nashville.
The next time you see a famous road act and you see the steel player sitting there and you think how lucky he is, after a week of trading places you might be happy to go home. All that glitters is not gold.
All my teaching videos are available on a hidden webpage for my mailing list members only. To get the mailing list price, you have to go to this page … www.steelguitar.net/sale.html … do not order from the regular page, you have to order from the hidden page to get the mailing list price.
Your buddy,
Bobbe
P.S. I have been shipping the new Peavey Nashville 112 with the mod for the past couple weeks now. I think it’s only fair to offer our mailing list customers the deal they deserve for being on my mailing list so I’m offering a tremendous discount on these highly sought after, great sounding amps. Power and tone of these amps is beyond belief. If you want a stage 2 model with a Black Widow installed, let me know. I’m not allowed to tell you the price on the internet so you’ll have to call me at 615 822-5555.
