I quit the band. Why did you quit?

1 hit wonder

Well-known Member
We did 100 shows this past year, but I'm leaving my current band. Mainly it's for the hope of working with other people in new capacities. There are really a lot of reasons though. 100 was pretty ok. Double that amount would be better, or the same number for more money, even. I hope to be working again soon.

There's gotta be some good reasons why you quit the band.
 
Not enjoying myself anymore is the main reason. I quit a coverband because i was the only one who put some effort into learning the songs (at least that's how i experienced it). Was really demotivating when we agreed to learn a song only to have 2 people show up who didn't bother learning it and that repeated for a few sessions. So i pointed that out, but i guess the rest was content with just spending an afternoon fiddling around and i just quit after that.
Other band i quit was that i didn't enjoy spending my friday/saturday night playing for a handful of people who weren't interested in listening anyway (mainly battle of the bands type of gigs). Band had potential, but again it took dedication to learn songs and felt that there was no progress and we had stalled. It all mounted up, was glad gigs (read: battle of the bands) got cancelled and the final straw was when we got a new BoB lined up and i thought 'i don't wanna do this anymore'. So rather abruptly i quit the band. Should have spoken out sooner, but that was my learning moment to speak up sooner.
 
Have quit a band after securing a job in a busier band if we’re talking about professional bands.

In the originals space I never had much luck. People being dicks, people thinking I was a dick (maybe I was?) or people just sucking at their instrument or failing to make space for other creative minds. It’s sad how they all failed, I’m probably really miserable about it deep down but I’ve suppressed it.

Anyway, the idea is to quit after you secure something new, maybe weasel your way back in and then commence your search?
 
I think I've quit 2 bands by my own choice, and a couple were other people moved away and the activity just naturally fizzled out. Latest was probably the biggest happening (in 2021) as it was a band I had stayed with for 14 years and used to always prioritize over other projects. Even though we had the band going for that long (and a big array of member changes, mainly vocalists and lead guitar players) we were never really a big success, we made some albums (self founded), got some radio play, played some concerts each year (allthough we usually had to work hard to get them) and paid for a spot on some european tours. I always felt the style was very limited for me, a type of melodic death metal (In Flames, At The Gates type) with some groove/thrash elements. But the riffs were usually really stale in my opinion, and usually always the same song structures, it didn't really lend itself to great creative outlet. I don't know, it was a good feel for the first years, then we stuck around mostly because we became good friends and had fun together, in my opinion. But when I had another project which I felt clicked more with my style and gigs with that band really just fell in our lap naturally, basically no work involved, I made the decision to quit (along with the original guitarist who also contemplated doing it), very sad and felt like I just broke up with a girlfriend I stayed with for a long time. But also having children and less time/money available, it was hard balancing two bands that both wanted to gig and record albums, mostly self funded... Not to mention travelling one hour just for practice, in both bands...

Other than that I quit a party cover band as I had 3 bands at that time, and it just became too much to handle.
I never got fired though, *knock on wood*.
 
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I've been in maybe 20 bands, and only quit one of them. All other departures were due to the band dis-banding, or my touring schedule conflicting with a band wanting to move forward, so (understandably) I was replaced.

I'm still a full member in 4 bands - 43, 42, 18 and 12 years respectively - and first-call sub in a few others.

BTW, none of those other bands trying to move forward actually did.
 
For me it was a , previously documented on here, personality clash for want of a better phrase with another band member. Constant 4 letter words onstage over the mic, interrupting the singer between songs, not learning songs ahead of rehearsal, between song banter that took so long I cooled down literally, coming up with work intensive ideas for one off gigs then getting annoyed when everyone else pointed out it wasn't worth doing, coming up with ideas then doing nothing to drive them, playing songs incorrectly because he couldn't pose and play the correct chord at the same time, stealing the attention from other band members, using chatting to drunken punters as an excuse to not help with load out. The list probably goes on, in hindsight I'm surprised I lasted so long.
In fact it does, there was the gig in a city centre pub that none of us wanted to play as it paid at the lower end of the scale but more importantly the parking was next to impossible. We ended up with one car full of PA gear a quarter of a mile away. And a couple of days before that gig he announced that he had something else on that he'd forgotten about so the four people who didn't want to be there did the gig, the one person who wanted to was doing something else somewhere else entirely.

The final straw was being offered a prestigious outdoor biker gig. We needed to hone our 2+hour set down to under an hour, he suggested learning a new song that was biker related and I pushed back strongly because we were being booked for what we did, didn't need to pander, and doing the song justice would have needed a lot of instrumental arrangement and complicated backing vocals that we had never done before. This caused the rift that split the band, the ultimate irony is that in the 4 rehearsal sessions we had between getting booked and the date of the gig he couldn't get to any due to work and his other commitments so deciding on the set and timing it was entirely up to the rest of us. If I had just agreed to learn the song there wouldn't have been the conflict and after a week everyone would have realised there wasn't enough time and everything would have been fine, having said that it would just have been delaying the inevitable when I read this back.
 
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Never quit a band.

Tried to quit smoking many times.

The first band I was in asked me to leave when I couldn't tour with them because I was expecting my first child.

The second band I was in asked me to leave because I had some negative things to say about the keyboard player, who happened to be the lead singer's girlfriend.

The third band I was in asked me to leave because I didn't want to add any more members, 4 was enough and we were doing well.

The 4th band I was in asked me to leave because the lead singer....... called COVID, decided he wanted to go on a rampage and cause global chaos. I disagreed with that idea.
 
I have left more bands than I can count.
If it doesn't feel right any more, quit. It's not fair on the other band members to trundle on.
I tend to leave a project whether I have something else to go to or not. Being hired for a project while working on a previous one feels like cheating on a partner.
 
I've only ever quit 3 bands. 2 original and 1 covers. Everything else sort of ran its course and petered out.

The originals bands were both the same, I jumped before I was pushed. Dealing with massive egos that talk a good game isn't my thing and I have a habit of calling a spade a f*cking shovel. I don't play rock star well and I've got that much exposure to spend when it becomes legal tender I don't need to do original stuff any more ;).

With the covers band I got sick of travelling stupid distances for crap money and the bassist was a weapon that should have been banned under the Geneva convention.
 
I’ve either quit bands or they have naturally fizzled out but a couple that spring to mind.

First was an originals folk/indie band and the songwriter just stopped writing new material as he’d fallen in love, was happy and no longer had a ‘muse’ (very much his thing)

We were all happy for him and there were no ill feelings but the band just played the same material for about a year and a half, going through the motions.

The final straw came when he suggested we changed our style and player latin versions of our songs, which for the London music scene was very random.

The night I quit the bass player got in there before me, so I had to follow up with an awkward “errr I’m quitting too” message.

Another band I left as the singer just become even more of an ego maniac, would lie and cheat through everything (and I mean everything) and everyone.

He would scam people out of money and it came to a point where I was doubting everything he said and kept him at arms length which is a bit difficult being in a band with someone. Sometimes we had to cancel shows as he’d pawned his guitar or amp (having them on a buy back arrangement) and sometimes the band had to loan him money to get them back early.

The night I quit I was in a bar after a gig and he was telling me I needed to sell my house, leave Mrs Juniper, move 200miles away in order to “prove my loyalty to the band” as he had doubts I was committed as I had joined another project that was doing very well.

I laughed, put down my pint, grabbed my bags and walked out the pub and went home.

I helped out that same band a handful of years later for one final show as their latest drummer had quit and the guy in question hadn’t changed one bit.

It later transpired that he had created an email address pretending to be someone well known in the music industry and had been committing identity fraud, contacting others to get other industry people to the final show in question.

I did the show, said my goodbyes (almost checked my pockets on the way home).

Not seen or spoken to him in 8 years since.
I’m sure he’s out there right now scamming some other poor souls.
 
This thread comes at a coincidental time as I recently made a list of all the bands I've been in that I can remember. So far I'm up to 34 bands since 1987. Most of them I quit, but I was fired from at least 4 of them. I started only 2 myself and the others were all me joining as a drummer and 1 as me joining as a back up singer.
Usually I quit because someone was being unreasonable, or because there was not enough work/work ethic.
Separate note kind of, I've noticed that the worst, most difficult people I've worked with were usually the best musicians.
Also, I find it fascinating that so many of you guys have been able to stay with only a few bands for such long periods of time.
I wish I had that same story.
Maybe I'm the one that's difficult to work with. 🤷‍♂️
 
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(Weekend warrior perspective) The scant few times I've left a band were all due to scheduling conflicts or commitments that I could not fulfill.
Except once......
A few years ago, I quit a band because the politics of one member was spilling over into band rehearsals. Yes, politics. I am normally very cool about such things and have played with many folks over the years from all sorts of political persuasions. I also feel it's best to leave politics at the band room door. When I quit, I told him it was certainly his right to support and believe in whatever he wanted. It was also my right to not be around him anymore because it made me uncomfortable - and I never went back.
 
I quit my band because I grew tired of it. Its that simple.

I am an antisocial homebody. I love playing drums. I love creating music. I dont love all the other things that go along with being a working musician.

At the end of the day, I want to curl up in my bed with my wife. That's it. Not sleep in a car, laundry room, basement, attic, floor, couch with 6 other dudes, etc.

I like anonymity. Being the first and only metal band here (at the time), folks recognized me. I started to reorganize my life to avoid this. I would grocery shop at 3am, do my laundry at the hispanic laundromat at 6am, etc.

Travel isn't my thing. All cities look the same. I've said this before, they are all like Walmarts. Each one looks similar, but you cant find anything except at your local store. I get lost easy. I also want to drive. This makes for lots of frustration.

I dont like to party. When the show is over, I don't wanna stay up all night and get loaded. I dont do that anyhow. I'm certainly not going to allow myself to be mentally/physically compromised around people I dont know or trust. And why do folks think we all wanna do a big pile of drugs anyhow? WARNING: You dont know these people. They might not have your best interests at hand.

At some point I realized I wasnt gonna make a living playing death metal. I was gonna play mostly bars and small clubs, occasionally a festival. I would still require some other form of income to survive.

Playing music was fun at first. It was exciting. Then it started to grow and take itself too seriously. Then it just became another job and really started to lose its enjoyment. All I wanted to do was play drums, that's it. I get to do that now.
 
Bands I quit:

The bass player would show up to practice and gigs drunk/high. At the time, I was in the Army Reserves and had a security clearance that frowned upon my association with folks with any sort of illegal drug use. I explained this to him and he promised "it would never happen again." Just a couple weeks later, he let it slip that he was doing drugs again. I quit.

I was in a 4-piece band that was sounding pretty good. Then one day, I realized we would never be able to gig unless I'd be willing to do all the heavy lifting. Why's that? Because the three other members were physically unable/unwilling to move their equipment. All three were obese and had medical conditions related to their obesity. All three were lazy. Sorry; I wasn't interested in being the band's roadie.
 
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