It made me recall the two times I was actually fired from a band.
The first time I was fired from a band was in the mid 70s. I was traveling in Canada with a trio that was backing a lounge singer. It was New Year's Eve, and we were playing the Banff Springs Hotel. The piano player and I decided to drive to Calgary (about 100 miles away) for the day, and drive back in time for the gig. Well, winter being what it is, the drive that took about two hours on the way to Calgary in the morning, turned into a five-hour slog through a blizzard in the afternoon (and evening). We showed up about an hour and a half late, to find the singer doing his best to entertain the audience with just drums for accompaniment. We were both fired the next morning.
The second time, it was such a bizarre scene that I sometimes wonder if I remember it accurately. I was touring in a band that was backing a singer who had been famous at one time. We had been booked into a lounge in Vegas, and I was kind of looking forward to it -- I was going to get a Vegas union card and everything. However, the lounge manager came to hear us rehearse, and she minced no words. I was too tall and too "funny looking" to play in her lounge.
So, fired twice -- once my fault, once due to genetics.
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