Hired Gun

Everything in this movie appears to be something unknown to the regular music lover like me. The hired guns were something I didn't even considered in the music industry.

Really good featured musicians, fun stories. Really great job. You must see it, trust me!

A documentary on the nameless musicians behind the stars - the people in the touring and/or studio bands of major stars. Shows the highs and lows, the pros and cons, how some of them got where they are and their lives as hired guns.

An interesting documentary on rock music's unsung heroes. For every famous, successful artist there's dozens of musicians who played on studio albums or performed in the bands of the famous artist, with little to no recognition. This documentary does a good job of empathising with and highlighting the skills, trials and tribulations of the sideman.

Wasn't always that promising though: started off pretty dully, with a heap of (largely metal) musicians trying to out cheerlead each other. The first bit focuses mostly on how they got their big break and while there are some really interesting, even historic moments (e.g. the guitar solo on Steely Dan's 'Peg" and the drum fill on John Cougar Mellencamp's 'Jack and Diane'), involved it just seems pretty conventional. Moreover, you feel like you've seen this before - '20 Feet From Stardom' and 'Standing In The Shadows Of Motown' already covered the life and influence of backing musicians.

However, in the second half it gets really interesting and engaging. Now we see what touring life is like and how expendable these musicians are. It's quite sad how they are treated and how things turn out for some of them.

The latter half also shows why, despite the insecurity and treatment, these guys still do what they do - the love of music. This leaves the ultimate note a positive one.

I have to admit that it took me fifty years to understand that some band players are just 'hired guns', never knew about that, I always thought they just played in different bands as full members. So for that only this documentary was an eye opener for me, and a good reason to watch it. It was very interesting to see the view of those artists on the bands they played with, and how some of those 'celebrities' are just a bunch of egoistic egocentric bastards, like Billy Joel in this documentary. He's a heartless very self-centered egoistic prick that doesn't deserve anybody buying his music. On the other hand you can witness what a wonderful guy his drummer Liberty DeVitto is, still forgiving everything and playing for peanuts. But there are also others than Billy Joel that are just wannabe good people and I guess that once you got a bit of success you just look at other people like they are your possession. In this documentary you also discover nice celebrities, with a golden heart, like Alice Cooper, Ozzy and Pink, not directly people that I would have thought being nice persons in daily life. So never judge a book by it's cover. The documentary is very well made, with tons of relevant interviews of great side artists, guitar and drum virtuoses that made the name of some big bands without ever being recognized. Interviews with hired guns, producers, artists and so on, it all passes the revue and it's very interesting and pleasant to listen to. If you are a music fan you should definitely watch Hired Gun. I will always listen to music in a different way now.

This documentary focuses on what's called "hired guns", especially in the rock and heavy metal genre. Basically a "hired gun" is a super talented musician who can, at a moment's notice, play as a studio musician or actually join a band and tour with them. However, in the often cold and brutal musical world, they will have no tenure, receive low pay, and often get no credit for their contributions.

As one sees in the film, some of the "hired guns" will emerge and prosper from their stints while others will not and even eventually experience tragic consequences. The film, directed by Fran Strine, jumps from one interviewee to another, and initially seemed disjointed, since I really wasn't familiar with most of the musicians and record execs. However, the power of the individual stories overrode all else, in my opinion, and I certainly not only was inspired by these tales but also learned a lot about a genre I knew little about.

As I've read in some reviews this documentary can certainly fall into the category of such other movies as "20 Feet From Stardom", "The Wrecking Crew", and "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", except this doc centers on rock and heavy metal bands and players.

1/11/18. What a cool bunch of professionals. This is a great documentary to watch in which session musicians get to share their love of playing for the sake of playing. Though many have gone nameless, playing in the shadow of big personalities, they are so grateful for the chance just to play in that kind of environment. These are the true artists in the music world! Worth catching.