This is sort of a re-tread of an old rant I did once upon a time.  It concerns the way musicians are viewed by non-musicians.

I get pretty pissed off once in a while when people say that musicians don't have "real" jobs.  Bullshit!  Musicians spend hours doing things behind the scenes that you don't see.  The being on stage and hanging out with you, the audience member or club owner is just the fun part that you get to see.  Let me tell you about the shit that you don't see.

You don't see the hours of practice.  Hours spent in front of a CD player learning the music that you want to hear.  Musicians don't just walk on stage able to play whatever it is that you want to hear.  That music has to be learned.  So, when I'm sitting at home with a headache from working on new material and then someone has the balls to say that musicians don't do any "real" work, fuck you!

You don't see the amount of time, energy and money spent acquiring the music that you want us to learn.  No matter what you happen to think, we don't own every CD ever made.  We have to spend our own money on gas, oil, tires, vehicles, upkeep etc. to get to the mall or wherever and then we have to spend our own hard earned dollars to buy the CD's that have the music you want to hear.  Just like a plumber. carpenter or construction worker has to buy their own tools.

You don't see the hours spent researching instruments and amplifiers that it takes to make the music you want to hear.  Guitars and amplifiers are an individual preference and it takes many many hours of research and hands on testing in order to find just the right instrument or amplifier or drum kit or whatever.

You don't see the hours of phone calls and visits to clubs that it takes to book just one fucking job.  For the most part, bar owners don't call us.  We have to call them.  And...............club owners or club managers are rarely there when you call.  So, you leave a message and they promise to get back to you, but, they don't.  So, you call again and again and again.  When you finally do reach them, they don't have their schedule book with them and they want you to call back yet again.  On average, one in twenty calls results in a gig.  And who do you think pays for those phone calls?

You don't see the years it took to reach the level of ability we have reached.  It doesn't happen overnight.  We have all been in a lot of bands and spent a lot of time learning our craft.  You don't see the stupid number of garage bands that never took off.  You don't see the collaborations that look good on paper, but, never really work, but had weeks or months spent trying to get them off of the ground.  You don't see the years of lessons and practice and frustration it takes to just learn how to play one of these fucking instruments.

You don't see the scrambling that goes on when a piece of equipment breaks down and we have to replace it five minutes before the gig starts.

You don't see the guy who has to burn practice CD's for the rest of the band.  The guy who sits in front of his computer for hours waiting for five CD's to get done being copied.  Where is his glory?

You don't see the guy who sits in front of his computer for hours on end building the band's web site.

You don't see the guys in the band sitting in front of their computers designing their own business cards.

You don't see the guys in the band spending hours getting their vehicles in shape to get to gigs.  Buying tires.  Changing oil.  Replacing headlights.  Replacing brakes.  All of that has to be done so that we can perform for you.

You don't see drummers changing drum heads.  You don't see guitar players changing strings.  You don't see bass players driving to Chicago to get the frets on their bass replaced.  You don't see us replacing the speakers in amplifiers.

Let's face it.  Musicians work just as hard or harder than the guy with the "real" job.  And when you tell us that we should get a day job or that we make too much money or that what we do isn't a real job, feel lucky that we don't punch you in the fucking mouth.  At least we're out there busting our asses to make you happy.  At least you're enjoying what we do.  You wouldn't be here reading this or at the bar listening to us if you didn't enjoy what we do. 

Musicians don't ask for much.  We ask that we get paid fairly and that you show us the same respect you would want for yourself.  You don't have to worship us.  We don't want that.  We don't want you to tell us how great we are.  We just want you to let us know if you're enjoying what we're doing.  We want you to pay us what we know we're worth.  We want your respect.

End of story.