Yep, me too, most of the 1980's, PA, NJ, and NY up to the bottom edge of Canada.  Everything from huge rock clubs and outdoor festivals, to the biker bar circuit, roadhouses and medium sized clubs.  Loved every minute of it, but it can really wear you out after a few years!
 
LOL, Randy, if it was Night Owls in Courtland, NY, my band played there back in 1983 and 1984, it was a real zoo back then!
 
Yeah, Danny, when the first Wawa markets started popping up in the Poconos, I remember thinking what a dorky name for a convenient store chain.  LOL, If we were starving hungry after band jobs or on the road and spotted one, we'd start saying we were "hungry for Hendrix" and start talking in the "wawa wawa wa" teacher voice from the Charlie Brown TV specials until we got our crappy microwave burritos and a coffee!   Although, it's a real bummer your Dad didn't go for it when he had the chance!
 
Have a good one, guys!
Bob

Hey, can you guys play Freebird and Brown Eyed Girl?

Sure. Together or one after the other?  What key(s)??

yorolpal
Sure. Together or one after the other?  What key(s)??

Together and all of 'em.
 

1967-1970: First 45 single on Epic Records with The Calliope.  Played drums in jazz clubs in Santa Barbara while in Jr. High.  Santa Barbara Symphony snare drummer.
1970-1972: Studio drummer, casuals, taught drums for a living in Santa Barbara.
1972-1975: Harvest (jazz rock band in Marin County (north of San Francisco) playing in clubs for a living).  
1975-1977: Drummer for Vance or Towers on A&M Records (was in the band in the movie "Carrie").
1978-1979: Parttime gigs working on a publishing deal.
1978-1980: Signed to Warner Brothers Music with a publishing deal that led to an album deal with Sue Saad & The Next (Planet Records) managed by Alex Kochen (John Baruk Management).  Co-produced with Richard Perry.  Second album was not released but I worked with Kiss guitarist Vinny Casano and Paul Stanley.  Had David Foster play piano on a track.  
1981-1989: Built Sound Logic Recording Studios in Atwater, CA. Recorded hundreds of bands and singer/songwriters.  Filmscore composer, engineer, producer for about 16 flims (Kickboxer II, Blue Steel, Alien From L.A., etc).  Beastie Boys took over the studio.  Played drums on albums for Jimmy Messina (with Chas on electric guitar), Tommy Tutone, various artists and TV dates as a studio drummer (Capital Records, Record Plant, Universal).  Gold album for Sheana Easton's Morning Train album (for the song Prisoner).  Uriah Heep cut the song also.  
 
Music no longer full time.
 
1990-2006: Accountant, controller, Director of Finance, Director of Human Resources, IT Manager, publisher (www.jscllc.com), consultant.  BS degress in Business Management.
2007-Present: Started recording songs again in home studio, played drums for California State Fair, become leader of worship team, played acoustic guitar at wineries around Paso Robles.  
 
I am sure I left things out.  Oh well, such is life!
 
Jimmy Saad
 

Batsbrew, this has been a very entertaining thread. Thanks for posting.
 
In my 30+ years of playing guitar, I think I played for 5+ people once. But it was a holiday and my whole immediate family was over. :-)
 
I have to live my rock n roll dreams through you all, so keep them coming! lol

 
Yes, great thread!
 
I never worked music full time. I have never worked anything exclusively. I've always got a foot on the boat and a foot on the dock.
 
I used to work music a LOT, and my official full time gig these days is as a sound technician.
 
I play music for the joy of it. I was late to start playing so I never aspired to play with the likes of the people I have worked for. I've always known where I stood in that respect... mainly because I have been lucky enough to work for killer musicians.
 
I never liked cigarettes and bars so I tended towards festivals and big shows that were outdoors. But I have worked plenty of bars too... it just made me like cigarettes a lot less.
 
I did enough to realize that even the real big names work their ass off and at some point I realized that the richest cats in the music biz were small time in the scale of things. I also realized that small timers weren't going to be able to survive the long road.
 
I have several friends and colleagues with public music studios up in town... we all get along great and share work and gear. I have watched them get great gigs, do great work, and have to subsidize the bills with non music work.
 
I have a building that is dedicated to music production and for over a decade it was very active as a rehearsal space for bands.
 
When I moved over to basic sound production for television I started making a comfortable living and I started living my dream of building a small demo studio in the rehearsal building. My TV sound production work subsidizes my ability to help musicians with demos.
 
Over the years I have gotten to work with many of my musical idols and lots of great musicians; I usually think of working with Miss Ella Fitzgerald as a high point. That was a special thing.
 
The TV work has taken me further. I've met several U.S. Presidents, lots of governors, all manner of celebrities and a bunch of actual V.I.P.s.  I've also been places like "death row" and worked in places where normal people don't go. It's been an adventure.
 
Heck, I got to meet Johnny Unitas one night... a kid meets his football hero. :-) Stuff like that.
 
Early on I got interested in tube guitar amps because I liked their tone and no one in my community was fixing them. I do that as a side job too but I make sure I am really really hard to find because working on guitars amps isn't profitable... it is just rewarding... especially when the guitarist takes the tone and shares it with their audience.
 
 
It's great to learn about the experiences of so many of you. I have been familiar with the idea that so many of you are lifers and it is nice to reflect on some of the details.
 
all the best,
mike
 
 
 
 

Late 70's I was a full time musician. No other income and playing 4 to 7 nights a week. I was jumping bands on occasion. One would break up or I would leave and the following week be in another working band. I was blessed to live in a town which, at the time, had a minimum of a dozen working bands, (most were full time) playing the various clubs that were in that town. Plus we had a huge club scene on the military base there. A tourist beach area with more clubs was just 20 miles up the road as well.  Even crappy bands could find weekend gigs somewhere.
 
One band I helped to start was gigging every weekend after just a few weeks to practice. I ended up almost from the start as the booking agent for the band. If my phone bill wasn't over $200 (at the time) we weren't working. I started booking us into the big regional nightclubs. The ones that had bands which were regional attractions. We were naive enough to not know that we had no business being there, but we went, and with the stage show we had, and the diverse repertoire of music, we managed to impress most of the clubs.  This band lasted around 1.5 years before the drummer quit/got fired, as a result of a disastrous gig related to a personal problem.  So began the rapid decline.
 
This full time playing went on for the better part of 3 years. Toward the end of the full time era, (with the band mentioned above) the last band I had finally broke up and I continued to play full time as a solo act for another 6 months.  The traveling and constant running to do all the work, booking, roadie, musician, truck driver, accountant, was getting old. I needed a break before I burned out. I was playing in NC, SC, and VA mostly. 
 
After the solo act ended, I put the guitars away.  A phone call a year or so later held the promise of a house band gig. The club owner was agreeing to buy lights and a sound system of OUR choosing.... basically a blank check. He held good to his promise and we had a nice PA and light set up. The holy grail for many musicians. With 12 rehearsals, and never playing through a complete song, we started the first weekend after the New Year. The club owner was apprehensive since he listened to our rehearsals and we had to play him a complete song just to show we could do it. That band lasted two and a half years. Drama got the better of that band  around the 2 yr point and it was a downhill slide. Since I didn't need the PA I still had in the shed.... I sold the PA I owned to a band who just won a national talent show and had $50,000 burning a hole in their pockets, and started working a "real job" for a time. ( that band crashed and burned hard with in the year...all that glitters is not gold)
 
About the time I started to see the classic symptoms of a band about to crash and burn, AGAIN, I started to buy up some gear to start a small home studio. This was before digital.
 
It was fun while it lasted. In most of the full time bands, we had a home base of operation and were able to be home quite a bit. The money made was enough to pay the bills (most of the time) and allow us to buy more gear, fix the truck, and party.
 
Since the demise of the house band, I did stop live gigging from that point till this. I can count on one hand the times I have played live and got paid. Maybe a dozen free jam sessions in front of an audience in that time.
 
Now days, it's studio stuff.

At work and have some time to eliborate and it is an interesting thread...
 
In '62 I started learning from a teacher. So "full-time" was when I got out of school and it was that way until I graduated and still managed to letter in football and basketball.
In '68 at 13 I joined my first rock group with much older guys. Most were privately schooled so it was a very tight band and not to hard to learn or play the hit music through those years.
In '70 at 15 a local band (of grownups) hired me to play. It was country/rock and a set down gig at a big local nightclub -weekends and did that for 7 years.
During that seven years I also played in a rock band with a few of the members from the first band I was in. Took lessons and gave lessons.
In '72 at 18 I went to work. When I wasn't at work I was playing or recording with one of those two bands and still taking and giving private lessons.
At the end of '75 I got married. Played in the bands. Took and gave lessons and did session work when it came around. Also taught at the local college one class a week.
 
By '86 after 18 years of every bit of my time (when I wasn't working, if I had a job) being with a guitar in hand...I fried. My son was seven and we really didn't know each other...my daughter was five and their mom would tell me about how things went...I had missed more than...I can imagine.
 
Full-time? I saw part of a movie the other night...I was walking through the house back to my shop so don't know what it was but there were these young kids in this Vegas style nightclub and the servants kept feeding them some kind of lotus flowers?  What it was kept them in that place while time flew by...I walked out knowing the feeling.
 
 
Oh...good times?...no doubt, I wouldn't have been doing all that if it hadn't been.

Haven't ever done it full time, but I will be doing just that in 29 weeks and two days.  It's called retirement.  Music will get top priority, but it will be competing a bit with woodworking, cooking, reading and exercise (not necessarily in that order).
 
But to keep things simple, I'm going to have a daily to-do list with exactly a single entry for each day: "Abide".