ION INDIE MAGAZINE October 2014, Volume 5 | Page 74

Can This Band Be Saved?
Bands, like any relationship, fluctuate and have peaks and valleys. Famously, throughout Rock history, many formidable
bands have either changed members or totally thrown in the towel. When to move on or save your investment is up to you, but
here are some suggestions that are based on 35 years of experience:
1.) What are my goals with my career? Are they compatible with my bandmates? Am I willing to make the requisite sacrifices
to succeed? Are they?
2.) Why do I play music and perform publically? Will I continue beyond age 30? Am I just having fun or am I seriously pursuing
this as a vocation?
3.) Are my bandmate's differences with me able to be overcome through adult discussion? Is there violence or substance
abuse involved in our dynamic?
4.) If I do not consider my bandmates friends, only business associates, can this prevent me from taking anything they do
personally and keep our fragile arrangement going?
As I approach 50 and my enthusiasm for playing onstage for 10,000 people in the hot July sun not only isn't waning, but
increasing, these are questions I ask myself all the time.
***
"Blues is a Chicago DNA component; an urban mecca for African-American music from the South," states CHICAGO SLIM, a
radio personality and A-List musician who came to the United States as an Eastern European immigrant at age 3.