Quite a few different interesting observations here, before the personal invective, er, I mean, misunderstandings, started.

Some folks who are excellent players and/or singers are simply not motivated to "play out." I am reminded of the long ongoing discussion we've had about YouTube personality "fretkillr," a quite-good guitar player with a nice singing voice. So many of us assumed that he simply had to be someone famous, or at the very least, a professional session player accustomed to working with "big names."

I, on the other hand, have always figured that he's just as likely to be a complete unknown, perhaps someone who's been playing mostly alone and among a few close friends, someone who never wanted to go onstage, even in the friendliest small-time local venues, but who found an outlet, perhaps for the first time, by posting anonymous videos.

For those not already familiar, "fretkillr" never shows his face, only his guitar and his hands. Judging by his repertoire of familiar "cover songs," he's probably at least 50-55 years old, and been playing since his teens or early 20s.

It may be that, for years after first taking up his instrument, he truly was minimally competent, "not ready for prime time," and therefore gave up on any ambitions to play in public ~ but after decades of woodshedding on his own, he gradually became a much better musician but did not become any more interested in "playing out."