Why Do You Host Karaoke For A Living

[kedmison]

Played keyboards for years. Never even tried to sing. Turned 40 and wanted to learn to play guitar. Taught myself. Found it easier to learn by singing along. Found out I had a pretty good voice.

Five years later had a friend who did karaoke. Got hooked. Had and have a full-time job as a fire chief. Also had two hobbies. Playing golf and fishing. Nobody ever wanted to pay me to watch me golf or catch fish! Now 52 and still kjing part time.

Kelly

[madjim- with the Lord]

Deleted, wrong thread.

Jim

[madjim- with the Lord]

Thank you everybody for taking this poll. It's nice to see I'm not the only one who likes the drunks.

Jim

[muzicman144]

Madjim....A little off subject, But, I see you are from Valsosta, Ga. Do you happen to know Billy Joe Royal, who i believe is from there also. Got to know him a good while back. One of the true gentlemen of music. Still sounds great. I do some shows with him occasionally.
Muzicman

[madjim- with the Lord]

Originally Posted by muzicman144

Madjim....A little off subject, But, I see you are from Valsosta, Ga. Do you happen to know Billy Joe Royal, who i believe is from there also. Got to know him a good while back. One of the true gentlemen of music. Still sounds great. I do some shows with him occasionally.
Muzicman

OH Yea, he's actually from Lake Park Ga. just down HWY 41 a bit. I played bass for him one night at Rascals in Lake Park. He does an early show at Rascals and my band at the time was booked to play after his.

As I'm getting out of my car to go in the club, I see Billy (didn't know him but knew who he was) and he looks at me and says "Are you my drummer?" See his bus with his band broke down in Atlanta and he thought he was going to have to cancel the gig. Me and the sound man made some calls and got some guys together we knew could handle the job. We went in the dressing room with Billy and he made a songlist that we went over, I still have the songlist.

I remember being on stage when he started singing and it hit, I'M ON STAGE WITH A BILLY JOE ROYAL! His voice was a clear as a bell, he did a great job. I got chills!

We must have done good because he paid us, which he didn't have to do. The next time you see him ask him about his gig at Rascals in Lake Park Ga. when his bus broke down in Atlanta with his band on it. I'm sure the repair bill on the bus will be a good remidinder. He'll remember me as the bass player in the top hat, and tell him I said hello.

A relative of his video taped the show and I trasfered it to DVD and gave everybody that played a copy. The next time Billy was in town I was booked and couldn't see him but my wife took him a copy of the DVD. When she asked him if he remembered me he replied "yea I remember him, he saved my ass".

I had the chance to talk with Billy for quite a while, he's a true entertainer/musician. At the end of the show he went to every table in the club. He is a true star and I'm proud to say I did a gig with him.

Jim

[muzicman144]

madjim....Will do. I'll see him in Ocala, Florida in the fall, and have a show tenatively lined up in Va. in November with him. how could he forget a night like that, much less a bass player with a top hat. He told me he may be in Valdosta on the way to Ocala, so look for him. he truely is one of the nice guys in music.
muzicman

[madjim- with the Lord]

Originally Posted by muzicman144

madjim....Will do. I'll see him in Ocala, Florida in the fall, and have a show tenatively lined up in Va. in November with him. how could he forget a night like that, much less a bass player with a top hat. He told me he may be in Valdosta on the way to Ocala, so look for him. he truely is one of the nice guys in music.
muzicman

No doubt, I enjoyed hanging out with him. I always had a musicain in my band that compained about something so we got to talking about working musicians and he told me a story about Elvis Presleys band members in Vegas. He was doing a show with Elvis and he heard the band members compaining about doing so many shows in one day. He said "These guys were playing with ELVIS PRESLY, THE KING and were still complaining, makes no sense." Billy has his head in the right place.

Billy is a great person, thanks for asking me about him.

Jim

[madjim- with the Lord]

Originally Posted by madjim

compained

COMPLAINED, sorry.

Jim

[bryant]

Originally Posted by madjim

COMPLAINED, sorry.

Jim

I just hope the drunks like us, Jim. For the most part I'm sure, but sometimes they don't though, do they?.

[madjim- with the Lord]

Originally Posted by bryant

I just hope the drunks like us, Jim. For the most part I'm sure, but sometimes they don't though, do they?.

The only time they don't like me is when they get out of hand and I have to straighten them out. They'll bitch and complain but always apologize down the raod.

Jim

[bryant]

Originally Posted by madjim

The only time they don't like me is when they get out of hand and I have to straighten them out. They'll bitch and complain but always apologize down the raod.

Jim

yup.

[goonie227]

Sorry Mad Jim but My Wife & I both have day jobs we only play on weekends. The poll needs to have an I don't so I can vote too.
Dick

[madjim- with the Lord]

Originally Posted by goonie227

Sorry Mad Jim but My Wife & I both have day jobs we only play on weekends. The poll needs to have an I don't so I can vote too.
Dick

Dick,
I would add it if I could.

If you would answer "I Don't, So I Can" please do as Dick did and just post your vote.

I'll keep a running count. So far:

"I Don't So I Can" = 1 vote.


Jim

[dan matney]

This past new years eve was my 42nd year in a row to play music of some kind, it has been a blast, but got into karaoke about 9 years ago now, was the best thing I ever done, I work by myself, when I get paid I keep all the money, and dont have to worry about musicians getting drunck or not showing up, but the money has been great, the only thing I worry about now is system failor, and currently trying to get up to speed with back up stuff, should have done this a long time ago, but still miss the band thing, Ive done some guitaroke lately and that was fun.
kowboys

[dan matney]

Oh yea and by the way dont make the mistake of letting some idiot get your guitar, while you are doing a show, you will go out the back door and shoot yourself if you do.......L

kowboys

[madjim- with the Lord]

Originally Posted by dan matney

Oh yea and by the way dont make the mistake of letting some idiot get your guitar, while you are doing a show, you will go out the back door and shoot yourself if you do.......L

kowboys

One night while using the karaoke tracks as backgraound tracks, the owner brings up this guy who wanted to play guitar and sing "You Never Even Called Me By My Name", with the track. They said he was good enough. Needless to say his timing was so far off from the track (not to mention missing a bunch of chords) that I had to step in.

NEVER AGAIN!

Jim

[dan matney]

Mr Jim sir:
I know thisis wayoff the track here, but I down loaded a test version of hoster yesterday, it is really different than Im sued too. What I need to know is can the test version take flies from the external hard drive, I cant get it to do it but there is a lot there I dont know about. and also can anything read kma files other than hoster?
kowboys

[madjim- with the Lord]

Originally Posted by dan matney

Mr Jim sir:
I know thisis wayoff the track here, but I down loaded a test version of hoster yesterday, it is really different than Im sued too. What I need to know is can the test version take flies from the external hard drive, I cant get it to do it but there is a lot there I dont know about. and also can anything read kma files other than hoster?
kowboys

Hey Dan,
I have not had the time to test any demo versions so I'm not familiar with the restrictions, others have. I'll do what I can to help.

What do you mean when you say "take files from the external external drive"? Please eaplain this in more detail.

Thanks

Jim

[dan matney]

I ahve all of my karaoke stuff loaded onto a external hard drive, 500gb, I use this on my home puter that I dont have hoster on. I down loaded the current version of hoster trial yesterday, to just see if I want to use it in my shows, or stay with my old version. I was able to get the trial version to take the songs from a cdg, but could not get it to take files from my external hard drive that I have for back up. to tell you the truth I have never accesed any of the files on the external hard drive since I down loaded everything on to it ,I did check to make sure they are there and they are on it but could get the trial version to take anything from it.

kowboys

[madjim- with the Lord]

Originally Posted by dan matney

but could not get it to take files from my external hard drive that I have for back up.

kowboys

So you are trying to import the files on your external drive into Hoster 4.03 through the "Import Hard Drive Files" section of the program, correct?

Are the files on your external drive marked as read-only?

Jim