G.O.T. has left the building.

[Pilgrim]

I recommend building a shed... 

(bummer... but better out than in if that's the situ)

Scott, how do you feel about squirrels....? 

[Highlander]

You get lots of different types over there... we just have sciurus carolinensis or vulgaris...

[patman]

Keep playing until you can't do it well...Play what you love....Find people of a like mind...Find people who are drug free, find people who are positive and well educated...

Move on until you find a real good spot. It's out there. Never lose that working class edge, it's your heritage...Peace...

My best friends are in my band.  Even the one that occasionally pisses me off, is a really good person...

[Hörnisse]

I'm sure something bigger and better will come along Scott.  I stopped playing last year just because I was burned out.  It also worried me driving home at 3 or 4 a.m. with lots of (obvious) drunks on the highway.  I honestly don't know how I did it for all those years.  I'm in bed on the weekends by midnight at the latest nowadays. 

[Chris P.]

A pity but a good decision. I did the same last week. More about that later. For similar reasons btw.

[Highlander]

La La Bye-byes...?

[Barklessdog]

Wow Scott, I am shocked. Still it sounds like it was intolerable. Life is too short to be dealing with crap you don't need. Moving on will probably be the best in the end for you.

[leftybass]

I was in a band in the mid-90s, a 3-piece with me on Hamer 12-string. We had professional management, booking agent, lawyer, steady gigs across the Southwest, a nice van, and a distribution deal with Blockbuster. We were selling lots of CDs in Japan and a tour there was being discussed. But, we also had a guitarist/lead singer who was a total loudmouth d-bag. He was everything one imagines when thinking of a "right-wing wacko", he was very proud of his politics and never shut up about it. The only upside was he was very lazy and slept most of the time we were on the road in the van. The drummer and I got to where we hated the guy and forced our poor soundman to share hotel rooms with him. It finally got to be too much for me, and even though I was doing exactly what I wanted to in life, and making a living at it too, I left the band. At first I was sad for the obvious reasons but my sanity was better off for doing it.

For a pro such as yourself something will come along, it always does.

[gweimer]

The really sad part is that the longer you are around musicians, the more stories like this you collect.   

[uwe]

Time for that Slade tribute, Scott!!! It's been in you waiting to get out ...

[drbassman]

Time for that Slade tribute, Scott!!! It's been in you waiting to get out ...

Slade???  I think it's time someone put together a serious anthological tribute show to Tommy James!  Just kidding! 

[Dave W]

Don't go knocking Tommy James now! He was seriously popular for quite a while. Always wondered what a Shondell was, though.

[gearHed289]

Ah, sorry Scott. That was a long run though, it's not like you didn't "see it through". When things become unbearably frustrating and unprofessional, it's time to make a change. Something appropriate will come along before too long, I'm sure of that!

[the mojo hobo]

Don't go knocking Tommy James now! He was seriously popular for quite a while. Always wondered what a Shondell was, though.

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/troy-shondell-mn0000495508

In 1961, Troy Shondell's "This Time (We're Really Breaking Up)" rode the charts for four months. Within the first week of the single's release, lovers of his swamp pop sound snatched up 10,000 copies of the record. In a single year, sales rose to more than three million copies. Shondell's influence rippled through the young rock & roll community. Up-and-coming bands named themselves after him. Tommy James, at the time a guitarist in Michigan who would later score with "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Mony Mony," had the Shondells. In Illinois, Jim Peterik, later known for Survivor and the Ides of March, dubbed his group the same. Recording for La Louisianne, Warren Storm and Rod Bernard also tipped their hat to Shondell when they named their act after him. But the million-seller was not Shondell's first shot at stardom. An earlier attempt was cut short in 1960 on Halloween when a heart attack killed his father and brought Shondell home to help his mother run the family business. Until then, he'd been making steady headway on a musical career that started while he was still a teenager in Fort Wayne, IN. The label Smash released his first single, "My Hero," which he recorded as Gary Shelton, his real name. The Mercury Records release "Kissin' at the Drive-In" came out the following year.

[gweimer]

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/troy-shondell-mn0000495508

In 1961, Troy Shondell's "This Time (We're Really Breaking Up)" rode the charts for four months. Within the first week of the single's release, lovers of his swamp pop sound snatched up 10,000 copies of the record. In a single year, sales rose to more than three million copies. Shondell's influence rippled through the young rock & roll community. Up-and-coming bands named themselves after him. Tommy James, at the time a guitarist in Michigan who would later score with "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Mony Mony," had the Shondells. In Illinois, Jim Peterik, later known for Survivor and the Ides of March, dubbed his group the same. Recording for La Louisianne, Warren Storm and Rod Bernard also tipped their hat to Shondell when they named their act after him. But the million-seller was not Shondell's first shot at stardom. An earlier attempt was cut short in 1960 on Halloween when a heart attack killed his father and brought Shondell home to help his mother run the family business. Until then, he'd been making steady headway on a musical career that started while he was still a teenager in Fort Wayne, IN. The label Smash released his first single, "My Hero," which he recorded as Gary Shelton, his real name. The Mercury Records release "Kissin' at the Drive-In" came out the following year.

Let's not forget that Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley first met and worked together doing background vocals for Tommy James.