I grew up poor, so, expectations always low. With that said, as a kid, my favorite group was The Partridge Family. They were coming in concert and I wanted to see them, so, right after the commercial about their appearance aired I asked my mom if we could go. I knew the answer would be no, but I had to ask anyway.
It was when I got to the military that I could afford, finally, to go see concerts and I sure did go and see concerts. However, it also sparked a need in me.
I went to college after the military. My college had an "activity fund", where you would get a onetime grant of 450 bucks if the school, and the students, would benefit from the activity. It clicked when I was "downtown" and saw that a music store offered, either a (small) set of drums, OR, concert lighting for 450 bucks.
I hustled back to school and wrote up two grant requests. I handed one to the secretary of the Dean of Student Life. She said "We have a set of drums that the school will loan to you." She wrote "REFUSED" and the reason why on the grant request. I handed her the second grant request (the lighting) and that was approved.
A week later I gathered a group of musicians that I had scouted. I told them I had drums and concert lighting and wanted to put together a group. They were all in. The next morning, at breakfast, the school PIO tracked me down and said "I hear you have a rock band." I replied, "Correction, I met some musicians yesterday and we agreed to be a band." He made an offer "I need a warm up band, tonight, to play five songs for another band we're bringing in. There's fifty bucks in it."
"Fifty for each, right?"
"Yeah, yeah."
I hustled through breakfast, then went after the musicians. We met at three that afternoon and put together a five song set.
We hit the stage at seven, and to our great surprise, we went over well. Seconds after finishing, the PIO hired us for exactly the same thing a week later. That went over well and seconds after finishing, the PIO introduced us to a middle aged man and a teenage boy. The offer was made for six thousand bucks, with the gig being two weeks away. The boy specified that we had to play RUSH.
For the next two years, we crisscrossed southeast Texas playing RUSH for anywhere from 3k to 6k a night. We sold out every venue we played in.
I wish I could say it was all fun and games, but the group hated that we could only play RUSH as each member had their own tastes and there was SO much arguing. Also, I had stolen three of the musicians from the school marching band and the school's music director took it personally, making it difficult for us to find places to rehearse.
Finally, the band was from different parts of the country and after graduation, we all went our separate ways.