For a full year, a bassist played unpaid chauffeur to his band’s prima-donna frontman: door-to-door service, cigarette haze in the car, endless waiting for hair-touch-ups, zero thanks. One night he finally said rehearsal’s over because he had work in the morning, and the singer unloaded a fifteen-minute tantrum about not being anyone’s girlfriend.
The bassist loaded his kit in silence, pulled into the driveway, and dropped the mic: “Find your own ride from now on.” As the car rolled off, the lead singer stood frozen, ghost-white, finally dethroned from the passenger princess throne. Reddit’s cheering like it’s the final encore.
A driver ending free rides to an entitled bandmate after constant ingratitude.
Let’s be honest, giving rides to bandmates is basically a love language in local music scenes. You’re tired, you’re broke, and somehow you still play Uber because “we’re all in this together.” But the second you set a boundary, the claws come out. What we’re witnessing here is classic entitlement dressed up in leather pants.
On one side, the singer probably saw the rides as his due. After all, he’s the face of the band, the guy who makes the crowd scream (or at least politely clap in a half-empty bar on a Tuesday).
On the other side, our driver had been swallowing small indignities for months: the endless primping, the cigarette smoke, the assumption that everyone else’s schedule bends to His Rockness. When he finally said “no more,” it was self-respect with a killer soundtrack.
This tiny drama actually shines a light on a bigger trend. A 2023 study from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people who feel chronically “indispensable” (hello, lead singers) often underestimate how much others sacrifice for them.
Psychologist Steven Stosny has noted, “Entitlement strips relationships of one of their most sublime emotional experiences, appreciation. We appreciate getting what we desire, not what we need.”
In this case, the singer’s unchecked entitlement – treating casual rides like a backstage perk – eroded any sense of thanks, turning a buddy’s generosity into an invisible burden that eventually snapped.
We live in an era where “looking out for number one” has gone mainstream, fueling a cycle of competing expectations that Stosny compares to an arms race: one person’s demand for more sparks defensiveness in the other, until small favors like a quick drive home feel like high-stakes negotiations.
The driver, after months of silent sacrifices, chose to reclaim his time, exposing how entitlement blinds us to the quiet labor holding groups together, be it a garage band or a lifelong friendship.
It’s a reminder that true harmony in creative pursuits (or any collaboration) blooms from mutual nods of “I see you,” not one-sided spotlights.
Healthy bands (and friendships) run on reciprocity, not worship. A simple “thanks for the ride” or the occasional pizza would have kept the peace. Instead, Mr. Rock God learned the hard way that charisma doesn’t pay for gas.
Moral of the story? Kindness isn’t weakness, but boundaries are non-negotiable. If someone mistakes your favor for servitude, feel free to revoke their VIP pass.
See what others had to share with OP:
Some people share stories of immediately ending rides after the ungrateful passenger insulted them or their car.
Some people recount cutting off chronically ungrateful friends who constantly demanded rides without offering gas money or respect.
Some musicians describe dealing with entitled band members who expect special treatment including rides while contributing little effort.
One quiet sentence ended a year-long era of free rides and reminded everyone who actually held the keys, literally and figuratively. So tell us: was the driver savage or simply done being a doormat?
Would you have kept the peace for the sake of the band, or would you have dropped that glorious bomb too? Spill your own “never again” ride stories below, we’re all ears!
