I have been invited to sit in with/get on stage with, perform with, all for free, BB King, Buddy Guy, Larry Carlton, Eddie "Cleanhead" Venson, Clarance "Gatemouth" Brown, and a hundred other lesser-known friends, to name a few.

Buddy Guy, Larry Carlton, and Gatemouth Brown have set in with my band FOR FREE, to name a few.

Well, I guess if you are such a fantastic player of stratospheric proportions and so important that you can demand that the likes of BB King should be humbled and more than willing to pay you to get on stage with him then there is little reason to have any use for a lowly open mic.

My bass player drove her car to Arizona from Houston, Texas, FOR FREE to get to play with other people we like.

We have gotten well-paying corporate gigs from people seeing us at open mics.

The idea that no one is getting paid at an open mic is not always accurate. Many bands get paid to host open mic nights and have done that for years. Many people play at open mics because it is a fun entertaining thing to do that does not cost them anything other than the price of a couple of beers that they were going to buy anyway.

Many of us like music well enough that money is a very secondary issue. The idea that hard cash is the only acceptable reason for ever playing music is a pretty limited view at best and will most likely be one of the reasons that limit the money that you make.

Billy

“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”