LOL! By the time you consider that half of the horn section lives in another state, Kentucky, travel costs, food, time away from other work that might pay more, eveyrone is about playing gratis as it is, even by being paid, And when you toss in one tune up rehearsal, you're pretty much in the hole.

It's like that old joke. "Only a musician would cram $3000 worth of gear into a $2000 car, drive 500 miles to pay a gig that paid $100."

Not far from the truth. Now the normal is you still work for food, but you are the one cooking it, serving it to the patrons, cleaning up afterward. Yeah, the music business. Ain't it glamorus. If we could only figure out how to turn it into a pyramid scheme, with the new people coming into the business, being forced to pay for the people who have been there a long time. Hey, they want to get into this. I'd like that one.

The first half of your career you try to figure out who to sleep with to get INTO the music business.
The second half of your career, you're trying to figure out who to sleep with to get OUT of the music business.