As I looked at your suggested scenarios, I also could tell a few tall tales to each of those. Here's a couple. We had booked a weekend gig in Sarasota. We get to the club early to set up and do a sound check. Just as we were about to start the lead singer looks over and says Hey Tom check this out. Through the front door we see a van and matching trailer pull up and out gets five guys in matching western shirts and cowboy hats. The singer goes By God it's the Good Ol Boys. Exactly like the movie The Blues Brothers. They walk up to the bandstand and demand we tear down because they were booked there that night and had driven a long way. We also had driven a long way and the club owner informed them they had the wrong weekend. When they turned to leave I yelled out OK Boys Rawhide in A. We actually played a pretty respectable version for the sound check and it became a story that we laughed about for years.

Back in the Nineties we had won the Reginal Finals for the Colgate Country Showdown. We had to travel to the Florida Panhandle for the state final. We played the contest in the afternoon at this huge festival. 50,000 people was the crowd estimate. We ended up coming in second behind a really cute blond girl who sang to a karaoke backing track. That's the Music biz. Anyway we're packing up when I overheard the promoters saying that they were in big trouble. The headliners that night were The Mark Wills Band followed by Lonestar. Turns out the opening band Clifton Chenier, a zydeco band from Louisiana were stuck on the road with a broken down bus. I butt into their conversation and tell them we can fill the slot. They asked if we could fill an hour and I said we play 4 sets a night 4 nights a week. No Problem. The singer had the flu and had to be talked into it. It went great and it paid for the trip. So instead of being bummed about the loss we were pumped about the gig. Backstage later I got into it with John Rich after I told him to quit whining about the caterer, but that's one better left untold. I played in bands for fifty years so I've got more than a few.