All you players here on the Forum who has done any road work-you've got to have a road story-good or bad-to share. I can kick this off with one story of mine

The band I was with was playing at a bar outside of Des Moines Ia in 1980. We were in the middle of a good night when from the stage I noticed a loud argument coming from the bar area. The bartender/owner was trying to throw out a couple of good old boys, about twice his size, out the door. They finally left, only to come back in thru the front door with shotguns and opened fire on the bartender who just had thrown them out. Needless to say I hit the floor, along with everyone around me. They guys ran out the back door and the bar was in hysteria. The cops showed up, the TV crews showed up, and the guys were caught about two hours later.
I'm sure I can remember more stories later. Anyone else?

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Life is like a sh*t sandwich. The more bread you have, the less sh*t you have to eat.

Wow, had lots of dumb little stories but nothing that can top getting shot at!

I was playing a gig at my 5 year high school reunion, drank WAY to much and when I awoke the next morning I went to the garage and looked in the back of my truck, NO DRUMS! Damn, I'd lost my drum set.....talk about freaked out.

Turned out that it was raining after the gig, and since I had no topper an old friend from high school had offered to haul them for me. Since I didn't have a phone at my house at the time, it took him a couple days to chase me down and return them. Literally, for a couple days I thought I'd lost my entire drum set. No recollection of how things happened.

And truly that is the last time I was ever that drunk.

Whilst playing the rebellion festival, the rhythm guitarist decided he wasnt going to pay for a hotel room. He would camp instead. So he and his missus pick a random field, set up the tiny 2 man tent, and decide to sink a load of ale. Their awoken in the morning by, to quote, 'some very strange noises'. He pokes his head out the tent and theres an outdoor market going on around him.
The sight of his massive girth hopping around a field on one leg trying to pull his jeans on, must have really inspired the shoppers.
Heres a similar shot of him (he sold the underpants after the gig for £2)


Stories? I could write a book about that guy alone, a utter cartoon character. Like the time we played a huge alldayer, an audience of roughly 3000 and where on second to headline. He doesnt turn up for soundcheck, nobody see's him all day. We go on without him. Next thing he wanders on with some tramp that he's been swigging methylated spirits with in the bus station. The time he fell asleep drunk on the bus to a gig and woke up in Wigan bus terminal. The time he puts down his amp and effects to talk to some pretty ladies in the train station bar, gets blotto'd and completely forgets about em. A walking litany of farcical disasters and thoroughly nice bloke. If you meet him, buy him a pint.

Theres lots more, but not for here.

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No no and no

I think that I could write a page full, but one I'll always remember is a good sized club near Virginia Beach we had played at several times from Wednesday thru Saturday nights.

This one Friday night, the owner called us into the backroom after the gig and said that he didn't need us to play tomorrow night (Saturday) and if we could get all of our gear out of the club as fast as possible, he'd make it worth our while.

We had a truck and loaded everything into it and went back to the owner's office and found him very drunk and out of it (on something?). After he came to...kinda....he paid us triple what we usually get for the four-nighter.

The next day we heard that the place had burned to the ground and although nobody was hurt, it was a sad loss because of it's popularity.

After giving our reports to the police, we were told that it looked like the owner had some heavy debts and was threatened by people he owed.

We were just so glad that he gave us the opportunity to clear our stuff out before it was all torched!

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

That was really decent of him. Most club owners I've met would have put off paying you and sold your gear.

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No no and no

Where are all of the other road stories?

Man, you guys should have been around before computers and the internet.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

late summer '67 playing lead guitar with the Ravens, we got a spot on a talent show for a fledgling UHF TV station here in Chi, went in and set up our gear, nice studio 3 camera's small sound check everything seemed fine, we get introduced and the drummer counts off, I notice only the drummer and I are playing, when I look over the singer/ rhythm guitarist, keyboard player and bass player are standing motionless, not playing just staring at the camera's, major stage fright, the drummer and I couldn't keep from laughing and we had to stop playing, we were a lucky bunch though and got a 2nd take, it was awful, so awful in fact we were beaten by 2 twelve year old ballerina's, so much for the power of rock and roll that day, I'm smiling while typing this, the drummer and I ribbed those Bros for a week after that.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Here's another one from my past......

The band gets done playing at a venue in Denver Colorado in 1981. It's 4:00 am on the open highway and all of a sudden theres a line of 3 cops behind us, sirens going and lights flashin'. It seems that theres been a late night robbery at a truck stop outside of Denver and the suspects made their getaway in a green Dodge maxivan That's the same kind and color of van we had. They surround the van, guns pulled and we had to produce ID's and empty the entire van, open up every guitar case, drum case, ATA case, everything so they could search thru it all. 2 and a half hours later, they apologized ane let us go. Geez !!

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Life is like a sh*t sandwich. The more bread you have, the less sh*t you have to eat.

I have a few. Great thread idea!

One I've told before here is when I lived in New York, our gig got canceled thanks to the big blackout of 2003 and we were already behind on the rent cos we kept drinking it. After being rendered homeless on the mean streets of Manhattan we slept in the bushes in Strawberry Fields in Central Park (just off 72nd where John Lennon lived and died for those who dont know) cos we figured John's ghost would keep our instruments safe for us. It was almost a week before we had another booking. Thank god it was summer or we would have froze to death!

Another is again in NYC, we were playing DUMBO (a music scene that stood for Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass). Our drummer had clearly had too much and decided to sleep it off in the back of another bands van..................he woke up the next day on his way to Philadelphia!

CC

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Fender Stratocaster (parts build)
Fender Telecaster 72 Custom RI
Fender Telecoustic Deluxe
Gretsch Electromatic Pro-Jet
Gibson Les Paul Standard Plus
Gibson ES-135
Zenith Type-17
Marshall 70's JMP Superbass 100w
Blackstar HT-5

I got a few more........

The band is playing at a bar/supper club in Missuoula Montana in 1978. The bar owner has a TIME CLOCK mounted on the wall by the stairs leading up to the stage. We had to punch in when we started a set and punch out when we ended a set, all night, every night for the 2 weeks we were there. He would dock us for every minute we were late starting or if we would quit a minute or two early. Our keyboard player finally put an alarm clock on his Rhoads 88 and when it would go off we would start, and when it would go off again, we would stop-even in the middle of a song! That didn't go over to well with the owner. He called our agent and got us fired.

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Life is like a sh*t sandwich. The more bread you have, the less sh*t you have to eat.

Here's another...

In the early 80's somehow we got booked into a hick bar in Okeechobee with a band specializing in psych/garage 60's stuff, Electric Prunes, Blues Magoos, Love, etc. We came in the back door to load in and there was an American flag and, no lie, a 16x10' picture of John Wayne hanging behind the bandstand. We stumbled through the 2 emergency Hank Sr. country standards we knew back then to total silence, and then, shrugging, went to work playing a set of back-to-back fuzztone/Farfisa freakouts.

When we took a break, a huge guy with a John Deere cap and about 4 teeth came up to me and with a menacing glare, slurred....

"Ya'll boys are perty dang good. Howbout a little "Purple Haze All In Mah Brain??"


Oh, there were also a couple of gigs at a "clothing optional" resort.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Love the stories.

Here's another oldie from when I was playing drums.

We were new in town and there weren't many drummers in the town at the time so for awhile I made some ok $$ filling in.

So I get call from one band to fill in at this annual biker club summer party. Seems the other drummer had moved away over the winter or something. So we had two practices beforehand, the rythm player/singer and bassist were old pals that had played together forever and were in their 40's. The lead player was a few years older than me, mid 20's. And at both practices the lead player had more gear for the PA or whatever. His guitars were two nice shiny new looking Gibson's, 1 LP and 1 SG.

So gig night comes and we're doing pretty well, it's a very large party, we were set up in a barn, the big side doors open over a grassy area with an indoor and outdoor bar, very nice on a summer night.

Than the cops come, like 4 or 5 sheriff's cars, and all hell breaks loose. This is a biker party remember so the attitude went up right away that the cops were just messing with them. After the initial hoopla died down they arrest the lead player... Seems he and his brothers had a nice grow operation going on the home front. The cops had picked up his brother that night on a stolen motorcycle, when they checked the house they found more stolen goods, asked where the brother was and that led them to us.

So they confiscated the whole PA that we thought belonged to him, all confirmed as stolen including the two gutiars.

We finished playing with a mic plugged into an extra amp the rythm player had and did lots of instrumentals. Very wierd night.

bump - - for the night crew.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Bumping this thread because I'm enjoying the tales from you all!

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"There is more to life than increasing its speed." Mahatma Gandhi

Owner of:
-2008 American Standard Strat in Candy Cola Red
-Vibro-Champ XD
-Fender CD-60 Acoustic (Sunburst)

I have none to tell......Actually heres one:
Me and my mate went out to the dirt roads of benalla where no one lives, and I played electric guitar unplugged and he play air drum with some sticks......

Dunno if thats a road story but it'll do.

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riley