Very true! Buddy Guy (blues guitarist) owns a club in Chicago and has had many acts play there over the years. He still tours and he's over 80 I think. He says raising the drinking age and stopping people from smoking in bars along with lawsuits against bars for drunk patrons driving has pretty much stopped the club scene and thus less places to play other than bigger halls.
Im bigtime into classic rock,Motown,and mostly the Blues.
True story about Buddy Guy.....he went to Chicago from Mississippi to make some coin playing his guitar....couldn`t get shit for work..........had 5 bucks and a baloney sandwich in his pocket one cold Chicago night and decided to head back down South.
Later that night someone told him Muddy Waters guitarist got sick and they asked Buddy to sit in.....the rest is history.
I know a lot more pretty cool stories about Blues musicians where one guy shot off a piece of his cock sticking up for Muddy in a bar fight,and another famous guy (James Cotton), had a bullet lodged in his head for decades.....stabbings and brawls etc.....those guys were badass.