Conference napalm::guitar

    I started back with lessons five years ago with the same teacher I had
    in 1967. My wife couldn't believe it but I still try to pick up the
    guitar for at least 20 minutes a day. If at the age of 60+ I can still
    sit and lay down some nice blues licks...I'll be happy. My inspiration
    for picking it up again? I was fortunate enough to catch Stevie Ray
    Vaughn twice; once with Albert King, and the second time with Jeff
    Beck. I have no delusions of grandeur, but hell you only get one shot
    at this, and I don't want to sit around in old age saying I wish I'd
    started twenty, thirty years ago, or for that matter started at all.
    Oh yea, why didn't I stick with it back in '67? It required practice!
    I wanted to sound like E.C. right away.

Buddy Guy must be about 60 and he can still play a few blues licks.

Jim

I started when I was 8...

I'm gonna be 38 next spring....

Just played out friday night...  The hours are a little tuff once
you get used to a real nights sleep, but once a month or so
isn't too tuff to take.. 

Besides, a three year Hyitas left me itching for someone to play
with...  I missed the interplay with other muscians most of all in
the three years I stopped doing 'bands'

But,  my motto,

	-never stop playing-

    
    I started playing out professionally at age 15 and now 20years
    later, I'm still at it. I sometimes wonder if there will come a time
    that I am too old to play rock'n'roll, but then I just turn up the 
    volume on the stereo and that feeling goes away. The days of gigging
    4-5 nights a week, every week are in my past (I don't think my liver
    or grey matter could handle that lifestyle again!!) but I do still get
    to play out a couple of times a month. I get to go out and rock all
    night, my wife gets the $$$ and everyone is happy...
    
    My Motto for Aging Rockers...
    
    You'll have to pry the bass/guitar/drumsticks from my cold, dead fingers!!!!

    Hmmm... I only started playing out professionally about 6 years ago.
    
    No wonder I'm not burnt out yet.
    
    ;-)

    I played out extensively between the ages of 16 and 25.  Then I took 10
    years off for some reason which I never could figure out... the prime
    of my rock & roll life perhaps, and not a peep.  Now I've been back 
    playing out again for about 5 years and have no thoughts of slowing down.
    We usually play a gig every 2-3 weeks and I look forward to them with
    glee.  I will admit that I'm a little burnt out this month playing 6 gigs 
    in about 3 weeks, but the summer is the only time we get to play outdoors,
    which is a real pleasure.
    
    The other guys in my band are all in their early 30s and sometimes take
    pleasure in calling me "grandfather."
    
    							Pops
    

    re.2
    Buddy wails! Most of the guys I admire are in their 50's to what,
    almost 70 for B.B and the late Albert.

    My personal take on this is that the question of age just shouldn't
    come into it.
    
    Even if you don't perform live to an audience, playing a musical
    instrument is a perfectly respectable academic exercise - comparable to
    learning a foreign language or practising DIY. Playing to an audience
    is better still, in that you get some sort of feedback as to how well
    you're doing.
    
    People always cite blues and jazz as the genres that seem to offer most
    scope for musicians to carry on into their seventies! Pretty naive
    reasoning all in all; both styles had at least 50 years start on rock
    music, so it stands to reason that there are more "old" blues and jazz
    artists around. In my book, there's nothing that says you have to
    mellow out musically as time goes on. Maybe you'd be wise to drop "My
    Generation" from your band's set, though!
    
    Dom
    
      

    
    re .8
    I totally agree you don't haveto mellow out. I just prefer blues and
    jazz. By the way some of the newer guys in these fields absolutely
    smoke.

    Buddy Wales for sure! I am lucky enough to live in Chicago and frequent
    Buddy Guy's Legends (greatest Chicago Blues Bar) and Buddy is
    frequently there checking out acts that are there and of course the
    occasional walk on, he always Wales!
    
    He looks fantastic for his age trim and always has all the lady's
    following him around.
    
    Regards,
    Pat
    

    At 41 I am getting back into it. 
    
    I started playing drums at 14 years old, took the last 10+ years off
   (except for the occasional jam or nostalgic headphone session) and now
    I'm learning 45 blues tunes. I guess you could say that I am acting my 
    age by playing blues, but I would also like to someday have a punk
    cover band of guys over 40...and act my shoe size.
    
    Last year I had a country band in my studio and the bassist, guitarist, 
    and the steel player were all over 65. The rest of the band was under
    20. 
    
    Between the drums and the studio I don't think I'll ever stop.
    
    kpb

    Maybe slightly off tangent, but... in my opinion, there is no business
    where discrimination is more rampant than in the music business.
    Although both racism and sexism are serious problems, it's also a
    business with a serious case of ageism. Chrissie Hynde (sorry if I
    butchered that spelling) is the only over-30 person to *debut* on the
    popular music scene; at least the only one I can think of (please
    correct me with other examples if I'm wrong). There's absolutely
    nothing "subtle" about any of the forms of discrimination in the
    music business.
    
    I can make a living rehashing the music of "my generation" (I'm 35),
    but frankly, I wouldn't want to. I'd rather not play at all (this is
    *not* a knock at those of you who choose this route, however).
    
    Trying to be a post-30 songwriter in the rock market is a severe
    uphill battle. Especially today... where's there's basically two
    types of music: Rap and "Alternative" (which is really a joke; what
    makes it an alternative if it's the only thing you can get?).
    
    What about those of us who want to act neither their age (I write
    fairly high-energy pop/rock) or their shoe size? Here I am, stuck
    writing music that both my parents *and* my kids hate. :-)
    What a dilemna.
    
    I still plug away at it; I'm doing a major recording project this
    month and next... but I can also understand the frustation that
    a lot of musicians my age (and older) go through.
    
    I admire those of you that *can* be happy doing the cover or blues
    thing or whatever. Keep it up! I'm cut from a slightly different
    fabric, which possibly dooms me to a life of frustration. No end in
    sight to my "childness" though... :-)
    
    -b

    I tend to agree with you, Brian, but I think your age based argument
    applies most to the rock music genre.  There are exceptions elsewhere. 
    Much as I dislike him, I believe Michael Bolton was over 30 when he got
    popular.  I believe there's less age discrimination in the Country, 
    Folk, Jazz, Bluegrass, perhaps other genres.
    
    Greg

    Wasn't Eric Johnson >30 when he became better known?  The members of
    Giant were 30+ when they hit the secular mainstream, though they were
    well known studio musicians in the Christian rock world.

    Debbie Harry was slightly over 30 for Blondie's first hit tune.
    
    I agree that discrimination seems to be more rampant in rock music.
    I've seen ads for musicians that state what age range is acceptable.
    
    I wonder if this behavior is actualy driven by the record industry.
    After all if you're not good lookin enough, you have to work harder
    for the almighty record deal.
    
    I was once refused consideration for a band because I had a beard and 
    was somewhat overweight. They liked my chops ok, but they were afraid 
    I would hinder their chances for a contract cause I wasn't pretty enough.
    
    Nowadays I get to be bearded, fat, AND OLD!!!
    
    Does this mean I hafta stop listening to new music? :-)
    
    
    kpb

    re.15 I took lessons for a while at MR. C's in Marlboro, and the
    instructer there was very familier with the Los Angeles music scene. He
    related a story to me, where one of his friends went for a demo at one
    of the recording studios and was shocked at the form they wanted him to
    fill out. Basically they were seemingly more interested in his age,
    height etc than musicianship. Not fitting the bill in terms of that, he
    was never even asked to perform! By this teachers appraisal at least,
    they probably missed out on a future star.