Saturday night....
Had a gig booked at a local bar for a “HeeHaw” party. They wanted an all-acoustic show of Bluegrass & Country. No problem....

1:00PM Saturday; I text our rhythm player to tell him not to bring an amp. We’ll just plug his acoustic in to the board. 10min later he calls me...and proceeds on a 15min rant about how he’s just as good as the other two guitarists and doesn’t think it’s right to “degrade” him by “sticking him in a corner and making him play rhythm on an acoustic”. He said he’s played in a lot bigger and better bands and suggested that we get rid of one of the other guitarists...specifically the one that actually sings 50% of the songs, LOL. He then told me that acoustic guitars don’t mix well with electric guitars and we shouldn’t even be playing all-acoustic gigs because they suck, and I need to quit trying to be a “music director” and just concentrate on playing drums. AND....he has a “degree in music” so he thinks he could be booking us in better places for more money.
Well then.....
I calmly and respectfully reminded him of the discussion we had a few months ago when he called me to ask if he could re-join the band again (he’s quit twice before already). I reminded him that he doesn’t sing a lick, and we have NO NEED for 3 lead guitars. All it does is take money out of everyone else’s pocket. We COULD use a rhythm player that sings, if he’s so inclined, but the other guy is NOT going anywhere, because he CAN and DOES sing. And as for the acoustic issue....it’s a “Hee Haw” party...the bar owner requested an acoustic gig.....

After 30 seconds of phone silence, he finally said “Oh.....I guess I must have been looking at the wrong flyer. Sorry about that. I thought you were trying to drive me away by making me play an acoustic. Boy...do I feel like a jerk now. I’ll see ya tonight”.

10 minutes later;
Our mandolin player and ONLY lead singer for the Bluegrass/Country songs calls me. He’s nasty sick and won’t make it.

Soooo......I call our other lead guitar player (Roy) that sings all our Blues. I ask him if we should cancel. He says, “No problem. Let’s do it. We have all the words to the Bluegrass songs wrote down, so I’ll sing them. If I hit a song that goes well, we’ll drag it out. If I have issues with the lyrics, I’ll just do one verse, go to an instrumental and end it. We’ll mix in some of the Blues songs I sing and I’ll tweak them to sound like Bluegrass. You guys are awesome, so just back me up. We’ll be fine.”

We showed up, set up and away we went. Roy had never sang the songs before, but he stuck his harmonica in his neck holder, strapped on his guitar and read hand-written lyrics out of a notebook...while playing rhythm and alternating leads on guitar and harmonica.
He absolutely KILLED it. Some of the songs went even better than when our normal guy sings them. The crowd loved it. The bar owner loved it. We loved doing it.

The best part was seeing the first guitar player (the one that went off on me) get thoroughly SCHOOLED by Roy on what it means to be a real musician.. To his credit, he played acoustic the first couple sets and did a great job. He then got the chance to play some leads on electric and hung right in there with Roy. He was smiling the entire night. At the end, he praised the job Roy did and apologized to me for his behavior the entire night. He knew he had made an entire fool of himself.

Honestly, he’s a good guy and a good guitarist. I DO like him. He does, however, have some issues with self emotional control, which is made worse by medication he takes. I’ll give him a free pass this time....but if and when it happens again, I’m done with him.