Could be, but I will surely have missed that. The impression it makes on me is that he’s written to display a couple traits that are generally associated with high-functioning autism, such as the inability to understand sarcasm.
Which I’ve always found kinda odd. When I was tested, I said “naah, can’t be right… I breathe sarcasm, it’s my mother tongue”, only to be told that insensitivity for sarcasm is not a requirement for autism.
But if you don’t mind, we’re being dragged away from the question posed by the OP-- oh wait.
[edit - removed response to deleted post. We’re all good, @Johnny_StingRay ]
I’d like to leave the DSM V part of the discussion alone – to the point where I am contemplating the pros and cons of removing the entire topic altogether. I don’t mind calling myself out, but I’d rather not be a subject for further study controversy.
Strangely, this ties in with what @Koldunya said about Sheldon: “he’s just Sheldon”, which, when I re-read it, was an eye opener for me.
There must have been someone in that group of writers who understood Sheldon’s character very well.
So, can we now proceed and discuss my glaring inability to interact with other musicians? As I said, I discovered that there may be an external cause; I realised that I cannot remember it affecting me earlier (40+ years ago).
Yeah, but that won’t happen tonight. And I want to start working on it RIGHT NOW.
I was hoping that, as the topic starter, I could delete this topic, but I cannot.
Anyone in the admin or moderation realm who could take care of that for me? @JoshFossgreen ?
I deleted my source of a definition. Some posters were discussing the autism spectrum and, being a retired special education teacher, I thought I’d share some knowledge on the subject. I do hope the OP overcomes his issues with rehearsal and becomes comfortable playing live with a band.
I’ve done this and it helped me 
This may not be exactly what you are asking, especially since you have such a long history of playing with others- but for me the biggest challenge I’ve had transitioning from playing solo at home to playing with others has not been easily solved. In the live band environment, the ears/brain have a lot to absorb and process!
I rehearse once a month with my cover band, but every single time, we get a different “mix” level in the room. So many variables: the position of the PA speakers, all the various levels of each amp, how loud the drummer is playing, etc.
When im at home practicing with the original recordings either through my amp or through headphones, i can easily dial in my level along with the source level. The tempo is locked in, vocals are perfect, so its easy to get in the groove.
In the live environment, i sometimes cannot properly hear myself, or perhaps im hearing one of the guitarists too loudly, or vocals are not clear. Under those conditions, it can feel like overload, and make my concentration difficult. I am getting better each time at finding that “sweet spot,” but i dont think it will ever be perfect unless we move to in ear monitors. (But you also have to deal with inconsistent tempos- depending on the quality of your drummer)
Have not played live yet, but my guess is each environment will be different! Dont have any stage monitors, but those should help even things out.
If you can get a decent mix, hopefully you can find a happy medium.
I always thought you could delete your own thread, but perhaps I’m mistaken. I know you CAN change the name of the topic.
You may be on to something here! I’ll give that some thought…
Hey BassBuzz fam! Just want to chime in and thank you all for navigating an extremely sensitive topic, on an internet forum, without descending into a flame war. You are all amazing people!
@peterhuppertz , am I correctly inferring that it’s okay to leave the thread alive now that you’ve changed the title?
You genius you. 
Seriously, yes. I think the storm has blown over.
Aaaand in other news, there is progress.
Today, I challenged my inner engineer, and decided that the first step to identifying the problem is to be able to replicate it.
So I sat down, figured out the bass part to Peggy Lee’s arrangement of Fever, and played it dry. No problems there.
Then I cranked up the studio recording, and tried to play along.
“Oh fornicate. Why are these people trying to break my concentration?” It almost pissed me off.
So yeah. I think it’s safe to say that it’s a problem of a sensory overload (I really really REALLY like that song). @Gio’s assessment seems to fit. It’s definitely not a problem of the drummer’s timing not being right… but I kinda knew that this has never been a problem – the first band in which I played had a problem with a drummer constantly slowing down until seventeen year old me decided that I would dictate the tempo, and the drummer then managed to lock in with me.
On top of that, this little experiment shows it’s not nerves or performance anxiety. Although if I can’t fix it, performance anxiety may be added to the mix.
But at least I can reproduce it. Now all I have to do is fix it. 
Focus in on the drummer. Stand as close to him (or her) as you can. He/she will be your best friend and you will learn to tune out the other musicians. They get enough attention anyway.
Tom Morello, of Rage Against the Machine as well as other bands, gave advice to an up and coming band, Voice of Baceprot.
Tom said the first time you play in a larger setting your nervous. The first time you play with others, you’re nervous, but you do it a few times, you know what its about. Then you play in front of some friends, and your nervous. Then you do it a few times. Every time you take a step up, you’re nervous. Tom said the people who have played arenas are no different than you, they’ve just done it more. He said we’re all nervous.
Looking forward to seeing where VOB goes. Totally cool.
Well done on identifying the problem element.
You are going to have to relearn how to listen.
The biggest problem is that as casual listeners of music we are trained to hear (in order:)
There is nothing in your listening experience of this song that is preparing you - or anyone - to play bass to it.
If you keep listening and do your best to focus (as @AnotherJosh mentioned) on the rhythm section, things will get better.
If you can hear the melody in relationship to the rhythm section rather than as the essential part of the song, that helps too - when the vocals are your cues rather than the magnet that keeps pulling your ears around.
I’m – like @howard - curious to see how this progresses. Please keep us updated! And good luck.
Problem with this song is that there’s only two cues to keep time: the finger snap by Miss Peggy and the bass.
Now, we know that Miss Peggy could keep time as well as the next guy, so I find myself locking in to her finger snap with no problem whatsoever.
And yes, I will keep you posted on how this is going to pan out!
paging @peterhuppertz
He talks about playing and social anxiety at the time stamp here, and how he deals with it:
