In 1978, keyboardist Ed Volker started the Radiators in his garage in New Orleans, La.

For the past 33 years, the band guitarist Camile Baudoin, bassist Reggie Scanlan, drummer/percussionist Frank Bua and guitarist Dave Malone have toured, played and recorded music for their fans and themselves.

Late last year, Volker announced the band was calling it quits.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time and the stress of the road and the planes have taken their toll,” Volker said in an interview with The Park Record. “Since the aftermath of (Hurricane) Katrina, I’ve been debating whether it is time for me to stop.”

Looking back, Volker has no regrets.

“While I can’t speak for everybody, I can say I wanted to be signed on a major label and live a more high falutin’ rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle than just getting my brother-in-law to rent a van and hitting the road,” he said with a laugh. “We did get to do that.”

During the early 1980s, the Radiators were signed to Epic Records, then home of Michael Jackson, Molly Hatchet and Ted Nugent.

The band recorded three albums during its five-year tenure with the label.

“We got to live the high life for awhile, but never got the opportunity to grab that brass ring again,” Volker said.

The main reason was a shift in the music-business paradigm.

“Sony bought Epic and CBS and began dropping the roots-music and Texas bands,” Volker said. “When we first signed, if a band sold 75,000 copies of an album, it was a respectable number, but when Sony came in and that figure wasn’t respectable any more. They wanted million-selling albums. So they flushed out most of the roots people.

“Even other labels like Warner Bros. Records, which everyone looked up to in the ’70s, dropped people like Van Morrison and Dr. John. These were people who we thought were the top guns of the music scene.

“My regrets are more for the so-called industry itself, rather than any of my personal decisions.”

Still, Volker considers himself lucky to have “maintained a somewhat decent existence” as a professional musician.

“It was struggle before, but it’s getting even harder for older musicians like me to make a living,” he said.

Throughout the years, Volker’s perspective of is career has changed.

“We got what we wanted, but couldn’t hold onto it long enough,” he said. “All of us would have liked to have had another shot at a major label. But now, looking back, a lot of the real highlights were in the early days when we got to play with Professor Longhair, Earl King, Eddie Brown, Jesse Hill and James Booker.

“A lot of these guys aren’t around anymore,” Volker said. “We’re some of the old dudes now and it’s weird. All of a sudden, I’m the grandpa in the room.”

One thing he will miss is the idle discussions about the music.

“I got to play with my favorite musicians for 33 years,” Volker said. “There were a whole lot of intimate musical conversations we had that we took for granted that won’t be there again. But I am able to remember all those nights, and I’m grateful for that.”

There are a few things Volker will be happy never to experience again, he said.

“I won’t miss being frisked like a criminal suspect at the airports,” he laughed. “I won’t have to sleep in a bed at a Red Roof Inn and I won’t have to cram into a van and drive up and down the highways on the East Coast.

“We did it too much for too long. And I need to get away from it.”

Volker is looking forward to making music his hobby, instead of career, again.

“I want to sit down at the piano and reintroduce ourselves,” he said.

The Radiators will perform Harry O’s on Monday, Feb. 14, at 9 p.m. Tickets are $25 and available at www.24tix.com.