I have heard of Phish, but again.........who the heck is Jon Fishman (rhetorical) and how could he have made 60 million playing in a band like Phish? Can somebody out there enlighten me on this?:p

Bill, no Joey hate here.....if anything quite the opposite. A friend of mine was house sitting his place so I didn't get to meet him. But I did speak to him over the phone a bit and talked drums for a good 10+ min or so. Really nice guy and quite humble. So your quite right not everyone is into cars and glitz. ;)

Westport is a pretty rich town so the house itself had to be close to or over a million at the time.

Bill Ward U$65 million? wow! Ive read stories of him pretty much living on the streets of LA during their "Seventh Star" fiasco...

I always thought most of these guys would be worth more that this... Even Ringo at $300,000,000 just isn't the number I would have expected to see.

Just a note: I was sitting in the stands at my son's soccer game and heard the fellow and his wife next to me talking about this article... I had to be little a nosy and ask if he was a drummer... he was and we had a nice conversation. He and his wife had been in a band together since high school... close to 35 years.

His first kit was Rogers and his current kit is a Roland.

Through album sales, royalties for writting, merchandising and touring. Their fanbase is pretty hardcore in a Greatful Dead sort of way with fans that follow them from state to state or travel great lengths to see them. They also have sold out just about every show that they have played in the last 20 years as well as hosting their own music festival. TOuring durring warmer months for them it would be unlikely to see them playing to crowds smaller than 40,000 - 50,000 people in outdoor stadium sized venues.

[QUOTE=Jim;207166]I always thought most of these guys would be worth more that this... Even Ringo at $300,000,000 just isn't the number I would have expected to see.

There are a lot of factors involved here. Songwriting and publishing residuals are where the really big money comes from. Before the fall of the record companies, many bands (specifically the larger acts) toured as an advertising expense to sell albums. That has certainly changed now. There is a lot of credit that would have to go to business / portfolio managers and artists that chose to be fiscally responsible as opposed to the more typical attitude of many musicians that simply blow their cash as soon as they get it. If you ever watched VH1's "Behind the Music" there was almost always a scene where the artist talked about "losing it all". (By the way, Weird Al's episode was especially good as he parodied that scene in his interview...brilliant) Some artists are finding other avenues inside the industry to become profitable hence the advent of artist sponsored festivals such as the aforementioned Phish scenario. All of that to say, musical talent is only one part of the equation.

Indeed...Ringo was a part of something WAY more than the music. It's much more akin to the crap spitting out of the radio today MARKETING WISE. Lots of marketing, lots of money invested up front for huge potential gains despite musical talent or lack thereof. It just so happened that the Beatles made some good music along the way (my opinion). I suppose someone could say the same of Justin Bieber...however I pity the fool. Mister T

(For those questioning if I really just did that...yes I compared the Beatles to Justin Bieber)

Anymore it's all about marketing and getting your name out there. They have different online sites for that to help, but it's not enough. You really need to flood an area with your band to gain good exposure prior to a show and generate some interest...or in the Beatles case (and the case with most modern pop-crap), they flood the whole darn country with it and generate demand. No big secret...just gotta fork out the capitol to start the machine and you too could be at the top of that list.

Sorry for the tirade. It really yanks my chain when people down on Ringo. All they did was show that you only need a few decent musicians, some good writing ability, and a boat load of money to become famous. In fact, most of the newly formed "supergroups" are yet to achieve the same level of fame that their old groups held individually for the most part. It's all in marketing.

Sorry...off my soap box I go.