10/20/2025
Excerpt from a March 2025 panel discussion about forming and maintaining bands, and dealing with 'bad seed' band member.
"When Eddie Ray Johnson and I decided to reconstitute The GroovaLottos in 2013, one of the key points we embraced is that a band is a set of philosophical musical values, and the players are those who embrace and generate those values in their performance and interactions.
At one point, this was sorely tested when we brought in a guy who played bass (not sure if I can say bass player). He couldn't read music, didn't know note names, but could find low tones that fit, and if I hit the one on the keys, he could fill in. He had never been in a band before, but Eddie Ray and I had no problem workshopping newbies and gave him a shot along with a lot of passes on screw ups because we've all been new to this.
We kept trying to call band meetings to organize things on the business side. He kept blowing off the meetings and things moved on without him as a part of the organization, and simply as a player. When it was time to go in the studio to record ASK YO MAMA he made it to 2 of the 47 sessions and was so unprepared, 9 of the bass lines on the album credited to him were actually courtesy of some really good software, and didn't want to embarrass him by saying he got subbed out. Our Chief Engineer on the project said it was common practice.
We ended up with other issues including complaints from venues about his harassing female staff and patrons. Against our better judgement, we took him on the road, which resulted in his trying to sneak w**d home in his checked luggage. Luckily, it was a small enough quantity that they just took it. I only found out because, since I bought the tickets, the airline informed me.
He also refused to fill out a W-9 because he didn't want band income to raise his child support. We asked him to meet with us about the W-9 and other issues, which he ignored. So the five of us met and voted to let him go. It was also discovered that he had stolen money from the band during our road gig.
We didn't hear from him until a week later, the morning of a gig, when he called Eddie and was informed that he was out. Three of the venues decided to hire us back when they found out he was no longer in the band. He told Eddie we were wack and would flop without him.
In true malignant narcissist fashion, they have made numerous claims that they are owed money and royalties and have yet to produce a contract or invoice stating such, meanwhile we have cancelled checks that they cashed after each gig. They aren't even owed a Thank you.
Here we are, eight years, four tours, six-Grammy nominations, thousands of shows later...
And the band plays on!"
