Hired Gun

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.

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.

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!

Really enjoyed watching this and learned a lot about the lives these guys had.

What struck me in the end was nobody was overly bitter (at least in this film) or resentful other than the lack of communication when their time was up.

They seemed to know the precarious edge that chose to live on and what that meant in job security.But happy to have been part of something big and creative.

You'll never look at Billy Joel the same way again, that's for damn sure.

The fact that millionaires regularly treat session musicians so poorly goes to show that the music industry is even sleazier than we ever thought possible.