Cliff's tale of woe

There was a time when those plans were very much being made by Cliff Hendricks, whose story acts as a dire final warning to anyone still under the impression that being in a signed band is the end of all your problems. In the fall of 2001, Hendricks was just another bass-player dreaming of rock stardom. It was a dream somewhat at odds with the fact that his job as a tech support worker wasn't even paying him enough to allow the 25 year old to move out of his parents house in Florida. Then he successfully auditioned for Course of Nature, an Alabama-based, Creed-ish band who had just recorded their debut for the Lava/Atlantic label. Shortly after joining the band, they had a minor hit with their song Caught In the Sun, and Hendricks found his dream become a reality.

"It was awesome, he tells Blender. It was rags to riches overnight. I spent a lot of money. We all did. All the clothes you thought were cool, all of a sudden you can buy them."

But the band's album never really took off. Something, it seemed, was wrong. And before long the rest of the band had come to the conclusion that that something was Hendricks, whom they fired at a band meeting in May 2002. The split was relatively friendly and Hendricks even agreed to play a couple of more shows while a replacement was found. But, less than a year after leaving his old room at his parents home, Hendricks found himself right back there again.


"That was super-miserable, man," Hendricks says. "I had some money left over, and I just got wasted every night till about 5 in the morning. Then I would just lie in bed and think miserable thoughts. Most of my good friends from school I'm not friends with anymore because they saw you on Carson Daly or saw you play a show and pick up four women at once and they're jealous. That's a shitty, shitty part.

Hendricks eventually moved out of his parents home, but with the money gone, he began looking for work. It hasn't been easy to find. I'm sending out resumes and stuff right now, he says."It's hard, though. When you're on tour, you lose tenure in the workplace."

Hendricks says he doesn't regret the experience, and still dreams about playing music for a living. "But after awhile, you've just got to resign yourself to your fate," he says. "And that fate is, you're basically fucked."