MovieChat Forums > The Wrecking Crew! (2015) Discussion > Why did Hal Blaine go broke?

Why did Hal Blaine go broke?

posted 9 years ago by famourt
3 replies | jump to latest

So, the part of the movie where Hal Blaine is talking about how he was living in a mansion, and then suddenly he was a security guard in Arizona... he never says WHY, nor does the movie tell us.

Later on (quite a bit after this scene), they talk about how the industry changed and session work dried up. But it doesn't seem like THAT is what happened to him.

Does anybody know any background info on Hal Blaine, that incredible drummer, and why he hit such hard times after his divorce? I can see the wife taking him for half, but it doesn't really tell why he had to go find work as a security guard or why he went bankrupt.

Thanks in advance.

[–] oxblood 9 years ago

His wife asked for a divorce and he had to sell everything. This was before pre-nups became popular. Very sad. He even had to sell his gold records. Only got a third of what his mansion cost.

[–] Maxamillionmovies 9 years ago

oxblood is correct. The other major blow to his income was his firing from the John Denver band. After that Blaine took much lower profile work and his bills quickly overwhelmed his income. It's sketchy after that and Hal doesn't seem to like to talk about that period of his life very much. I assume that since he was much older at this point (50's/60's), the phone simply stopped ringing. So, at his lowest point Hal took a job as a security guard to make ends meet. Many of us have been there.

[–] Brennan-8 9 years ago

It seems he was talking about a long stretch of time, and he condensed events. For example, his first divorce and first house would presumably be in the mid-1960s. Then he mentions that 1975's "Love Will Keep Us Together" by the Captain & Tenille was the last record of the year that he played on.

He also mentioned he's been married a number of times - 5 or 6? So he could have been cleaned out more than once.