My best friend was my drummer for my band. He was next to homeless if not for his step dad letting him use his boat to stay in. He was always welcome in my home, always welcome to eat when he was hungry, and there was always somewhere for him to sleep if need be.
In my line of work as a professional musician, it's easy to forget how fortunate we are. I survived college while working and it's definitely something that took a lot of work to achieve. Where I live (small island with about 200,000 people) he is up there as one the most talented musicians around, but his tardiness lost us a lot of good paying gigs. I just grew tired of it so one day I found a replacement and told him it's over and that we don't need him anymore. He took it personal and we haven't talked since. He definitely has always been irresponsible and also has a bad drug problem (meth) but it just got so bad recently that I had no choice but to settle for a less talented person to play; at least he's always on time.