The rules of playing music with Neko Case are few, but inviolate: "Don't sleep with anyone in your band, and always be nice to waitresses and tip them," Case -- who just released her new album, 'The Middle Cyclone' -- tells Spinner.

In other words, don't act like a jerk. "If people are rude to waitresses, see ya later," she says. "You can't be in the band no matter how good you are. You will tip and you will say please and you will say thank you."

As Case has discovered, a musician can be amazing onstage, but if he or she isn't nice the other 22 hours of the day, they're out. "I get sick of the tantrum-throwing, drug addict stories," Case says. "Like what kind of entitlement do you have to have to act like that toward people? It doesn't take that much effort to be nice to people, you know. It takes a lot more effort to just act like a douche."

Guess Ike Turner would've never lasted.