I enjoyed the responses to Don's April Fools joke but it kind of fell into my thinking lately. Things have been going pretty well here in SC but as I said I didn't move here for gigs. This July I'll hit 50 years in the business and its been a great ride. I just passed up an opprotunity to join a working band here. I prefer solo but band stuff is fun too. The reason is I really want to manage my own schedule and be free to take off when I want. Also I'm getting tired of the same music. I know you have to play what they want but its getting boring to me. Someone asked for "Leroy Brown" recently and it did get some dancers going but I was thinking how much I hated it while playing. I'm not a musical snob but I know some of you must feel the same way about some of the stuff you have to do. Playing some jazzy stuff on a real piano at a house party recently was so much more fun.
Fran said something interesting about missing events. I've missed a lot because of music and regret missing some of them. Back then when bookings were by the month if you took off one Sat. you lost the whole month so you didn't have much choice.
I remember back in the day a musician who played Hammond organ 6 nights a week told me he was quitting and going to Fla. I said "why your doing great !' He said "I'm tired of being in a bar every night " Another very , very successful guy ( at one place he played the owner bought him a Cadillac for Xmas ! ) had his gigantic keyboard setup go down in a susipious restaurant fire. He said "thats it for me " and never played again. Burnt out in more ways than one.

I don't think I'll ever quit altogether but lets hear your thoughts ?