The music career scene has been changed so much by the shift in technology. 30 years ago a guy could make a pretty good living gigging 3-4 nights a week. I, having started a family felt the need to do both the night work and a day career. Oh, many times I lamented how much further I could have been in my music career had I not had a family to take care of. In fact, many of my cronies chose not to be responsible. The marriages and children all became victims of a dream perceived. In those days we called it welfare, and food stamps. If you played the system right, worked a part time job, hopefully under the table and played the gig, you were living in HIGH COTTON. Then came the change. The venues started drying up, shrinking. A person could now watch the greatest concerts on their 70" LCD stereo max, HiDef TV, drink, party, carouse in their own home without worry of DUI, DWI, and since morals were no longer an issue, you could all cheat together in the safety of your own home or even online I now have many musician friends , the best of the best, that can't make ends meet. They are nearing retirement age, have little social security and no daytime skills since they chose to bypass the system , however corrupt. No one cares who you opened for or filled in for. They are now working part time jobs, playing gigs for a half or a third of what they made 20 years ago, and those are few and far between. Oh no! Not tooting my horn. I am just warning the next generation. We all thought we would live forever. Dean Martin said," If I had know I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself." I would like to interject: "If I had know I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of those around me."
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From @rogerdeaton