So since I wrote the last post about the guitarist that abandoned the band I’m trying to build, we actually found a guitar player. Things are going well for the most part, but he’s not that strong on playing solos or at faithfully reproducing some of the high screeching notes that some of our songs require. We decided to keep him around because he definitely has great timing for someone who has never regularly played with a band, and shows a lot of promise, and would make a very solid rhythm guitarist alongside a good lead player.So, we still want to have 2 guitarists in our band, and thus we continued our search, putting an ad on craigslist for a lead guitarist who can play solos.
So after a few days, I get a response from a guy in State College who said he has plenty of experience, can make the guitar scream, can provide backing vocals, and will be moving down to our area very soon. He even sent a video of himself playing Iron Maiden’s The Trooper, and it was impressive. So over the following days we exchange more messages, with me giving him what we have of a set list so far, which is only about 10 songs, with most of them being songs that the drummer and I chose a couple years ago when we were working with Kunt. I checked with the other guys and he was clear to come to our next practice.
Then I wake on on Sunday morning to a bombshell of an email, where the potential new guitarist is questioning our choice of songs, complaining about having 2 songs by the same band in 2 instances (Danzig and Black Sabbath songs), and also stating that we’re all over the place and don’t know what kind of band we want to be. The worst thing was when he pointed out 2 of our songs as more or less Satanic, saying that he refuses to play “Do You Wear The Mark?” by Danzig, and suggesting I change the one line in Black Sabbath’s N.I.B. to say “My name’s NOT Lucifer, please take my hand.” stating that’s what they always did in his past bands that played that song. What? He also started suggesting replacements for some of the songs we had already chosen, pointing out that “Be My Lover” should be replaced with “No More Mr. Nice Guy” for an Alice Cooper song. Yeah, like that song isn’t just played to fucking death on classic rock radio.
I explained our position, reinstating what we said in our ad about playing songs that other bands won’t, about how we aim for more obscure stuff, and how this first group of songs was us getting our favorites out of our system before adding some more common stuff. I also said that not only will we not drop the Danzig song, but that I will not change the words to N.I.B. and how that’s just fucking silly. I told him sorry, this isn’t going to work out.
The whole time communicating with this guy, though he seemed kind of decent, I couldn’t help but detect a bit of arrogance in his tone at times. His opening line, “I’m probably your guy” and going on to list all of these famous bands he played, kind of screamed that. And his final reply kind of spelled that out even more clearly, telling me that it’s our loss, how he’ll find someone else to play with when he moves down our way, and “they’ll be the lucky ones.” I especially liked his comment where he said “religious or not, I’m not in to being on stage & someone singing about the Devil, wearing a mark,etc”. He also told me that I sound like I’m closed minded and not willing to compromise. Who’s the guy that has a big hangup about “devil songs”? And, excuse me, but, when you’re joining a band that already has a set of songs laid out and has been practicing them for a long time, I would think it’s common courtesy to know that you are not in a position to make demands on changing the existing set list.
Gee, I wonder why this guy hasn’t played in any bands for a few years? As much as a good lead player would get our band moving along quickly, I’m not letting someone come in and try to impose a “formula” on us. That’s a lot of the fucking point in this band, going against what most musicians think goes over and what doesn’t, because I seen with my own eyes the good reaction a band gets when they go against the grain when it comes to cover songs.