I’m too old to save money.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a spendthrift, but as far as saving a dollar here and there…I’m giving up on that, or shall I say I’m TRYING to give up on that. I lived hand to mouth for so long it’s very difficult for me to spend a dollar, for fear I won’t make any more, but I was skiing with my old buddy Mini in Sun Valley back in 2019 and…

He said he didn’t know how much longer he would be able to do this. He’s four and a half years older than I am. We were buddies back in Utah in the seventies. He’s a CPA, he ended up moving to the Valley not long thereafter and got involved in some real estate deals and with the mountain being mostly groomers, getting so little snow, he decided to become a ski instructor, just to pass the time, which he had to apologize for, back at Snowbird they were considered the enemy, sell-outs.

That day I was skiing on boards that I got at a discount. Twenty five cents on the dollar. Hard to pass up a deal. And I employed the same deal for the following pair but they weren’t so good, they wouldn’t hold on the ice, so I decided what I hadn’t done in years…

I decided to pay retail.

I’d done this once before, in 2010. I was in this ski shop across from the gondola in Aspen, which has an amazing inventory of clothing. I wasn’t planning on buying anything, but I tried on this Descente jacket and…

My heart sang. And I hadn’t had ski clothing in decades that I liked that much. But it was $700…so, no way.

But then I got to Vail and thought about it and had them ship it to me. And that jacket… I got compliments for YEARS! It was red, with this silver imaging on the shoulders, very subtle, and I’m in the Game Creek Club and someone in the lobby comments on it. And then in the lift line. I’ve still got it, the only problem is red fades in the elements, but I can’t get rid of it, I actually wore it over Christmas, when the conditions were so terrible, it improved my mood.

So the next time I needed new skis, at the end of 2022, I quizzed the store expert ad infinitum. I skied four brands. I ended up buying what I never would have, but… Everybody in the store said as good as the 99s were, the 108s were better. But you don’t need a 108 every day, so I was going to wait to demo those. And as I’m laying down my cash, I ask the guy what I should do, and he says I should just buy them, which I do, at full pop, and they were right, the 108s were even better than the 99s.

So…

I just went to Costco. I don’t want to be cheap, but I hate getting ripped-off. So I go to Costco to buy their Vita Rain Zero, which is an inexpensive imitation of Vitamin Water Zero, in some cases worse, in some cases better, depends on the flavor. I just can’t handle the price of the Vitamin Water Zero, not with how much I drink. But when I’m in Vail, and the Vita Rain Zero is unavailable, I pop for the Vitamin Water Zero.

I mean how long am I gonna live?

Bob Weir died at 78. Not one of my friends believes they’re not going to live that long, no, way beyond that long. But maybe they won’t. The Big C got Bob, it could get you. And then you’d ask yourself…do I have any regrets?

That’s another weird thing about being 70… You’re forced with the choice, assuming you’re awake, and not everybody is…are you going to keep playing the game, compromising, or be who you want to be, do what you want to do? The pressure to conform is amazing.

So I pull up to Costco and there’s no line for gasoline. Which happens never. And I was planning to get gas later tonight at the Chevron in Brentwood, it’s safe there, and I’ll pay extra for safety, but since there was no line…

And I saved seven dollars. My tank is not that big and it wasn’t completely run down and I was feeling good and then I asked myself…what is seven dollars?

And the problem with going to Costco is too much looks too good. But if you haven’t got a family of four+, the portions/sizes are almost always too big. Furthermore, although a deal, not all of the foodstuffs are top drawer. I mean they’re adequate, but they’re not…

Gelson’s.

Gelson’s is the expensive market in L.A. The general market. Erewhon is niche and health-based but I’m talking about a store where you can get everything, the name brands, even if they’ll pollute your system.

I never shopped there in the nineties. I couldn’t rationalize the price. And now it’s still hard, but… They have a raw bar, and I find that seafood incredibly satisfying. As for the soda I drink… I probably could pay less at Smart & Final, but not only would it be an additional, out of the way trip, there’s no guarantee they’d have what I’m looking for. So I pay for what I want at Gelson’s.

Now I have trouble using Instacart, because the prices are such a rip-off, but I will go to Gelson’s. And Whole Foods if there’s something there I want. I mean I’m going to be on my deathbed lamenting that I ate crappy food?

You can stretch it from there…

Do you pay for premium economy, never mind business class. If you’re flying across an ocean, it really makes a difference. It’s hard to rationalize the cost, it seems like lighting your money on fire, but if you sit squeezed in the back it’s going to take you days longer to adjust at your destination.

Now let me be clear. If you ain’t got the money, you have no choice but to watch your pennies and compromise. And I’m not rich, but…exactly how much longer am I gonna live?

Unlike so many of my peers, I’m afraid of running out of money, that’s why I waited until 70 to take Social Security. Sure, if I die soon, I will have lost the bet. But I don’t care. I just don’t want to be on the other end, broke. I’ve got no kids to take me in, take care of me… Two of my parents’ closest friends ran out of money, one even after a reverse mortgage, thank god their kids could keep them alive.

As for travel… Part of me still would like to take the winter to hit every ski area in America or Europe. I can’t rationalize the money, but even if I’m alive… I know people whose parents went on their last trip, even though they were only in their eighties, it was too hard after that.

And a friend promised me a couple pair of new skis. Great, but they need bindings. I could cheap out and buy the Markers, but the Looks are better. But a pair of the top of the line will cost me nearly $600. Most people would buy skis on sale, never mind the bindings, for that price. Right now Powder7 has a sale on 2026 demos near that number.

But the truth is the right tool makes all the difference, and it makes a difference to me.

I was skiing on a pair of skis in Aspen that would not hold on the hard snow. Even though they look pretty good. The same 99s referenced above. Most people would continue to ski on them, I’m going to trash them. Why push the limit and undercut my enjoyment?

I have friends my age who keep saving money…for what?

Now I can’t rationalize the price of concert tickets, but I’m lucky, I can go for free. And you may needle me for this, but every business has free perks/access. Like if you’re a ski instructor you get a huge discount on your equipment.

Obviously skiing is important to me. I’m not holding back, if I want it, I buy it. I was willing to buy a new jacket at full pop in December, but I didn’t see anything I liked, so I didn’t. But all those exclusive items, if you wait for them to go on sale, they’re gone.

Now my dad always insisted on picking up the dinner check. Everybody was invited. I wish I could do that.

Then again, my father knew where every dollar was.

Then again, we never moved from the house I grew up in. We put on an addition, and then the money saved was put into trips and meals. What they now call “experiences.” I mean you have to make a choice.

Or, you can clip coupons, thinking you’re beating the system…but how much time are you going to waste? And the older you get, the more important your time is to you.

So I didn’t mind saving money on gas at Costco, but if there were a wait I would have passed. Just like I won’t line up for a Black Friday sale. I no longer buy what is on sale, but what I want…which is almost always more expensive.

Kinda like the clothes at Costco… I never give them a look, but I saw an ad on TikTok or Instagram Reels that they had UGG slippers for less than twenty bucks.

I find shopping for clothing overwhelming.

Then again, Lululemon is suing Costco, saying their pants are a rip-off of their design/product. The “Wall Street Journal” compared the two…turns out the Costco product is extremely good at a fraction of the price. But I’m gonna save money on this? It’s like that comic Sheng Wang said…when you buy your clothes at Costco, you’ve given up.

I mean they had Wrangler jeans at twenty bucks. Very tempting, even though in the sixties Wrangler was for kids and girls. But do I need new jeans? I mean how often do I buy jeans? I might as well continue to buy them at the Polo outlet store…like I said, I don’t need to be ripped-off, but I don’t need to wear Costco clothes.

And maybe you do, which is fine. If it’s not important to you, cool. But I still remember all those comments on my red Descente ski jacket, I still get a thrill when I see it in the closet, when I occasionally wear it.

So, inflation has made the value of a dollar incomprehensible. Prices are so high that it makes it that much harder to lay your cash down. However, I don’t want to be like my mother, who had a cheap streak, even though she complained how cheap others were. My mother would just say the price was too high, she’d deny herself, not much, but you could sense her attitude.

But now she’s gone and I’m still here. For how long I’m not sure. So I’m trying to ease up on the reins. Chart my own path. Spend when it’s not easy for me and let it go. Hell, we stayed in a hotel room in Kyoto which was fantastic, but when I saw the bill… I’m embarrassed to tell you how much it was, and Felice ultimately said “I don’t know what I was thinking…” I still haven’t gotten over the amount. I mean the money you spend on lodging is gone, like the money you spend on concert tickets. But then I put it in perspective. Or I utilize the perspective. I’m going to save a dollar here or there? I mean relatively speaking it’s bupkes. Live it up a bit, get exactly what you want.

That’s what I’m trying to do.

It isn’t easy, but I’ve made progress.

Anybody can be famous. Many people can have success on the chart and sell tickets. But can they move the cultural needle? That is the question. That is where music has abdicated its power.

Hip-hop. The sound of the streets. As popular as it was, the true breakthrough moment was the L.A. riots in the wake of the Rodney King verdict. That’s when white people realized everything that N.W.A. and Ice-T were saying about the police was true.

But you don’t have to be political to have impact.

Two examples:

1. Steely Dan’s “Aja.”

It was the same two guys, but the sound was completely different. Nothing on “The Royal Scam” prepared the audience for the jazz-influenced “Aja,” with its extended tunes. On paper, a disastrous career move. In reality, although sounding completely different from everything in the rock marketplace, the audience embraced “Aja,” because it hungered for something new, an alternative to the corporate rock pablum that was being purveyed.

2. Joe Jackson’s “Night and Day”

The rap on Joe was he was an imitation of Elvis Costello, even though his initial album, “Look Sharp,” didn’t sound the same and had unique messages that resonated with the public. Is she really going out with him? We haven’t had that sensibility here since at least the eighties. Today everybody’s a winner, no one’s a nerd…unless they’re embracing nerd culture, which is a joke, it’s just another way of saying “Look, I’m cool!”

Anyway, repeating the same formula to less artistic and commercial success, Jackson put out “Jumpin’ Jive,” which the audience embraced, albeit not to the level of what had come before, but the audience believed acts were artists with something to say, and if they said it listeners should pay attention. Today the script is flipped. The track is oftentimes more important than the act, and how can you believe the singer has something to say when the song is written by committee?

Then Joe jumps even further from the beaten path. “Night and Day” was cool and jazz-influenced, when AOR radio was becoming calcified and MTV was starting to break through with one hit English wonders, which it filtered between bombastic acts from the previous decades who’d made videos to satiate the European market with its tight radio playlists. “Night and Day” sounded like nothing else on the radio, but it resonated with the public which demanded to hear it.

3. “Avalon”

Was a commercial failure in America upon its release in 1982. Roxy Music broke up once again thereafter. There were no singles. It was smooth when music was turning more edgy. It sounded like nothing else. If even confounded Roxy Music fans. But if you gave it a few spins, you entered a world unlike any other. The music set your mind free. When someone came to visit you put it on to spread the word. Instead of going for obvious commercial success, Roxy Music created an album that became a standard, that has lasted forever. It’s just waiting there, like a land mine, ready to be discovered by younger generations.

Today the paradigm is different. The end goals are primary. I.e. fame and money.

Another thing lacking is the basics. As in education. I’m talking book-learning, not learning how to play your instrument. Today college is seen as a glorified trade school, if you don’t get a gig upon graduation, the entire experience wasn’t worth it. But in the days of yore, college was about expanding your mind, so you could put two and two together in a different way.

As for high school… Music and art have been excised and they’re teaching to the text. They’re smoothing off the rough edges in public schools…in private schools, except for the long established elites, coloring outside the borders has never been tolerated.

As for learning your instrument at Berklee… There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but pop music is about the brain, not the fingers. It’s not about rote repetition, but thinking about how to come up with new ideas, or putting the old ones together in a new and different way. Which is why schools like Berklee very rarely produce stars. Because they don’t have what the public is looking for. The public is looking for something different, something inspirational.

So if you’re starting out today…

1. Consume culture voraciously. Read the news, watch TV and TikTok…you can’t reflect life back upon the masses with insight unless you’ve got experience. Which is why youngsters under the age of fifteen make worthless music, they have nothing to say.

2. Read. Songs have lyrics. To make them interesting, you must have a basis in the written word.

3. Attend the best college you can get into. Not for status, because at the elite level it’s not about the material but analyzing the material. You won’t be helped by business and economic classes, probably not the sciences either. Everything the talking heads deride today is the basis of art that impacts and changes the culture. Talking Heads went to the Rhode Island School of Design… Doesn’t this make you a chump, you can’t make a living as a visual artist, right? Same deal with studying art history and English and… These are the students who change the world.

4. Art trumps money. Your job is not to sidle up to money, but to speak truth to it. And that’s when people bond to you, when they can resonate with your position. As soon as you start parading your riches you’ve lost the plot. This was different in the days of yore because musicians were not supposed to have this much wealth and power, and then they achieved it, it was a middle finger to the man.

5. You have to be able to say no. If you say yes to everything, you have no backbone.

6. Credibility. It takes a lifetime to build it, one false move to eviscerate it. If it doesn’t feel right, you shouldn’t do it.

There’s plenty of time to make it, you don’t have to be young anymore…look at Chris Stapleton, and he’s not the only one.

Just because the press gloms on to money, talking about grosses and ticket sale numbers, don’t fall for this trap. They do this because those are quantifiable, cultural impact is not.

You have to go down the road less taken. You have to be willing to fail. Odds are you’re going to fail. But these are the people who change the world.

If you’re complaining you haven’t made it, you probably don’t deserve to. Furthermore, it’s impossible to find a superstar who didn’t have doubts, who didn’t think of quitting. Deep inside you know if you’re truly worthy, this century is about the false front, don’t fall for it. It is called “popular music,” which means if it’s not popular… Yes, the music needs to be popular. So if some academic approves of it and no one else resonates, you’re doing it wrong. 

There is no roadmap. Your goal is not success so much as to change people’s lives, make them think.

It’s too big a challenge for most people making music today.

From: Harvey Goldsmith

Subject: RE: It’s A Google Problem

Date: December 14, 2025 at 9:56:42?AM MST

Dear Bob,

Google has always been the problem.

For years I have been saying this.

Google are paid by every crook in the world as they unscrupulously take money for the placement of ads.

It does not matter whether you are buying a ticket to a concert, a flight or a hotel it is always the crooks ads that are at the top.

Pension scams and general financial scams, even a scam for renewing a passport are easily advertised on Google.

Yet no authority can see it.

Viagogo, Seat Wave and all the ticket scammers would not exist without Google.

Time for Governments to reign Google in.

Harvey Goldsmith

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From: Amanda Palmer

Subject: Re: It’s A Google Problem

Date: December 13, 2025 at 7:52:05?AM MST

Hey Bob

Amen. I got Google-ticket-scammed for the first time in my life last week. I was pre-coffee and half-paying attention to some Lily Allen tickets I wanted to buy. I had already reached out to my agent for some seats but wanted to make sure I had two extra tickets for some also-divorcing mom friends in Boston and I went through her site…then got distracted, clicked on the top google link by accident, and found myself buying two totally bunk tickets for $250 a pop. I realized my mistake minutes later and filed a fraud claim, but my god….I’m a relatively intelligent person who’s been in the music business for 25 years and I couldn’t f*cking believe it.

While I have you here: the new Lily Allen record, while probably not to your musical taste, is the most powerful collection of genuis-ly ordered and produced songs I’ve heard in decades and it lit a creative fire under my songwriting ass that I haven’t felt in years. Go listen. Whatever, Taylor; that’s child’s play. Lily just set a new bar in honest, did-she-actually-just-say-that confessional songwriting….challenge accepted.

Amanda Palmer

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From: Tim Palmer

Subject: Simple Minds

Date: November 30, 2025 at 4:27:00?PM PST

New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84)

Just a bit of background on ‘New Gold Dream’ I thought you might find interesting.

Not only was the album incredible from a musical and songwriting standpoint, but to me the album was so important sonically.

Around that, I had just landed my first job as a tea boy at Utopia Studios in Camden Town, London.

It was an incredible place to learn.

The studio was renowned for its engineers, James Guthrie and Andy Jackson (who were fresh off working on ‘The Wall’ with Pink Floyd), John Mackswith (Dave Clarke Five), Greg Walsh (Tina Turner/Heaven 17) and his brother Pete Walsh.

I was lucky enough to be put on many of Pete Walsh’s sessions as his assistant. He was a fantastic engineer to learn from and I got the chance to assist on a ‘Heatwave’ album produced by the great Rod Temperton and Barry Blue. Pete and I also worked with Spandau Ballet, Landscape and even Donovan.

At that time, “Brit-funk” was regularly flowing through Utopia studios and one drummer who seemed to be playing on everything was Mel Gaynor. He was a powerhouse, rock-solid timing and huge groove.

One day I overheard Pete mentioning that The Simple Minds were interested in him doing a remix, and possibly an album. I couldn’t help myself and I told him how much I loved the band and how many times I’d already seen them live (Haha, I’m not claiming to have influenced his decision) but anyway he went ahead with the project and we worked on remixes for ‘Sweat in Bullet’ from the ‘Sons and Facination’ album.

Pete went on to produce the next album ‘New Gold Dream’, sadly for me at The Manor studios and not Utopia,  but what a record they made! That sound of that album was a game changer so powerful, yet so magnificently clean and painterly.

One of the key ingredients Pete brought to New Gold Dream was bringing in Mel Gaynor on drums. That was a huge part of why the record sounded and felt so different from other albums of the period. Built on a rock solid groove, funky yet still staying alternative!

Later in my career when I was mixing for U2, Bono was talking about how important that album was to him and how incredible the music felt.  I told Bono that one of the reasons was Mel, and explained his history as a funk drummer..

On top of the songs and incredible musicianship on the record, Pete Walsh’s sound, plus the fact that he brought in Mel, was in my opinion a game changer. One of the best sounding rock records ever.

Tim Palmer

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From: Jay Blakesberg

Subject: Re: New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84)

I was shooting the band at a meet and greet type event for A&M in 1991. I was talking to Charlie Burchill the guitar player and listening as hard as I could because his Scottish accent was so thick Im pretty sure he was speaking in tongues. Jim Kerr rolls up to us  – I had been with him earlier that day with my old A&M Records local promo pal Randy Spendlove, who you must know? – at a radio station visit at KFOG in SF, and Jim says, “you don’t understand anything Charlie is saying, do you”?  I nodded and said “that was correct”, and Kerr said “don’t worry about it, I’ve known him since we are 8 years old and I can barely understand what he is saying”! Simple Minds dominated Live 105 our Modern Rock Station in SF, and eventually KFOG.

Jay Blakesberg

San Francisco

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Subject: RE: The Boston Book

Date: December 24, 2025 at 5:07:49?PM MST

Hi Bob,

I completely agree that Brendan has done a service to the industry. His book is short, to the point, and well-researched. His interview of me was very thorough and I also lent him some of my archival paperwork about Boston – he is the only journalist I’ve shown those to.

I have one major correction: you wrote: “… the complete story is told in this book, “Power Soak,” which was the name of the original incarnation of the Rockman.”

This is not completely accurate. The Power Soak was actually a variable attenuator that Tom inserted in between the head of his Marshall amp and the speaker cabinet. The original version, which I saw in his basement, was just an off-the-shelf variable resistor which he used to control the current running to the speakers. Later, Tom marketed a commercial version of it, a separate product from the Rockman. This is the AI description of how it worked: 

“The Scholz Power Soak is a pioneering guitar amp attenuator, developed by Tom Scholz of the band Boston, designed to reduce a tube amp’s volume without sacrificing its cranked, saturated tone by placing it between the amp head and speaker. It works by absorbing excess power and converting it to heat, allowing guitarists to achieve loud, distorted sounds at manageable volumes, and was a key part of the iconic Boston sound, noted for its reliability and included master volume control.”

The original Rockman was a Walkman-sized device that duplicated Scholz’s entire guitar recording signal path, including effects. It has been sold in many different variations, and was certainly one of the most innovative ideas of the 80s.  ZZ Top even used one to record with.

Best,

John Boylan

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From: Paul Rappaport

Subject: Re: Derek Shulman’s Book

Date: December 1, 2025 at 8:53:20?PM PST

I have two stories to tell. The first is funny, the second historical.

I met Derek when Gentle Giant was on Columbia Records in 1972. I was the Los Angeles local album promotion man then.The three brothers, Derek, Ray, and Phil were still together in that most amazing band. I took them to lunch on a Saturday at the Continental Hyatt House, better known as the “Riot House” on the Sunset Strip where most artists and bands stayed at that time. Hell, my bachelor party was at the Riot House.

Ray looked at the menu quizzically and said, in his very thick English accent, “I’ll have the matt-sa boll soup.” Accustomed to first-time to America English bands not being familiar with American food and not wanting him to be surprised, I asked, “Do you know what that is?”

He looked at me like I was nuts and replied “OF COURSE, I know what that is, I’m Jewish.” I was flabbergasted and also very naive. At the time I thought rock music was something that a Jewish person would never get into professionally. So, in my surprise I blurted out, “YOU’RE JEWISH??” Again, he looked at me like I was nuts and and incredulously got in my face, “SHULMAN?” Hello!” We all had a good laugh.

But here’s something I’ll never forget. Gentle Giant played the Santa Monica Civic to a sold out show of rabid fans, of which I was one. The energy and progressive musicality of Gentle Giant along with the incredible sophistication of the musicians was something I had never witnessed before, and I suspect it was a first for many of the 3,000 concert goers.

At the end of the show the band left the stage to thunderous applause. The thing is, it never stopped! I went backstage to congratulate the band. 5 minutes went by and the applause was as loud as it was at the show’s end. It kept going at ear splitting volume. I remember talking to Derek and the drummer (who was amazing btw) telling them they had to go out there again for an encore. They looked at me like they were pretty done. I was excited for them and yelled, “Listen to that! They’re not leaving. You HAVE to go out there again and play one more piece of music.” They were kind of shocked, couldn’t believe it. They waited another couple minutes and then succumbed as the audience was still shouting for more.

That applause, at full volume of clapping and cheers, only stopped when the band finally came out again. It had lasted a full 10 minutes!

I have seen them all, Dylan, The Stones, Bruce, The Who, Pink Floyd, you name them. But in all my years I have never seen an audience this wound, NON-STOP, for that amount of time. It’s one of the most amazing things I have ever witnessed.

Cheers Derek, and good luck with the book. As fate would have it, we share the same publisher!

Paul Rappaport

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From: Greg Stroh

Subject: Re: Derek Shulman’s Book

Date: December 2, 2025 at 4:19:15?AM PST

Good on you Bob for sticking up for Nickelback. They have some great songs.

Little known fact about Chad.

Every year he stars in a Nativity play for charity. So far he has played all the roles except one.

He’s never made it as a wise man.

Greg

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From: BERTON AVERRE

Subject: Re: Jerry Kasenetz

Date: December 26, 2025 at 8:17:32?AM MST

We borrowed the melody from “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'” for “Rocket of Love”, off our anonymous “Serious Fun”. Because it was a great hook.

This subject is an excuse for me to repeat my dictum: Good beats Hip every time.

A great ABBA song and a great Sex Pistols song coexist very well, thank you. I can love a great obscure 60s garage song and love a great Debussy piece. Political camps in music are tiresome, antithetical to the spirit of music, and damaging. Imagine an art lover spitting on the work of Monet or Da Vinci because modernism like Jackson Pollack was the only designated hip style of painting.

Good beats Hip.

All the best, Berton

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From: IRVING BERNER

Subject: Re: Jerry Kasenetz

Date: December 26, 2025 at 3:19:08?PM MST

In 1968, when “Yummy Yummy Yummy” came out, I was turning thirteen and absolutely hated it. That same year I bought my first issue of Rolling Stone, and through an ad in it I discovered WNEW-FM. I’d never listened to FM radio before, but I realized we had an FM tuner buried in an old console in our den. I tuned it in, and it might as well have been an acid trip—it was a completely different world. That moment changed everything.

Fast-forward to 1975. I leave college and move back home determined to be a musician. I answer an ad for a band looking for a lead guitarist, audition, and get the gig. The band is The Ohio Express, or at least this version of it. Long story short, Kasenetz & Katz were building a studio in Glen Cove and needed cash. One of the guys in the band was cleaning houses; Jerry Kasenetz was one of his clients. The kid sees gold records on the wall, starts asking questions, and suddenly K&K offer these young guys a record deal. They can be The Ohio Express for only $3,500. They scrape together the money and sign the contracts.

I join the band, bring in a keyboard-playing friend of mine, and we start rehearsing the Ohio Express “greatest hits” plus a bunch of covers. I begin booking gigs around Long Island. Eventually, K&K bring us into the studio and spend thirty or forty minutes telling us how we’re going to be stars, how they’ve got a manager lined up, how we’ll be taking publicity photos the following week—blah, blah, blah. A week later they call us in to record, and this time they tear us apart, criticizing us relentlessly. A few weeks after that, we’re back again, and it’s the same old love-bomb routine: how great we are, how big this is going to be. It was a manic-depressive joyride.

When it came time for publicity photos, they brought us up into a filthy attic at the studio. Our “manager” shot a roll of 35mm with the single flash on his camera. The photos were terrible yet they printed them up anyway and handed them out. After about six months, the writing was clearly on the wall. My keyboard-playing friend and I bailed, and that was that.

These young, nice,  naive guys had been taken for $3,500 and had their heads fu$#@cked by two assholes.  I thank Jerry for a great lesson and education on the music business early on.  That being said, I won’t miss him.

Irv Berner

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From: Matthew Aitchison

Subject: Re: 2025-The Year In Music

Date: January 1, 2026 at 12:46:13?PM MST

Hi Bob, good point re:Spotify. I am a bit of a lone wolf amongst my musician peers in being a bold proponent of Spotify. Spotify pays me alright, after 100s of songs released across many acts. I remind my friends they were broke before Spotify came along. We musicians can act a tad entitled sometimes.

Matt (Australia)

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From: Phil Johnson

Subject: Re: Crowd Work

Date: December 5, 2025 at 7:40:56?PM MST

Hey Bob – I’m reading this just as I’m starting a weekend of work at a club where my contract specifies keeping crowd work to a minimum because patrons have been complaining about too much “talking to the crowd instead of doing material”.

I totally get your connected thought to music and authenticity.  But the comedy community is getting over its steamy affair with crowdwork after these last couple years.  We now have audience members coming into the club going “Please don’t call on me!” like it’s a pop quiz in 3rd grade.

Also the flipside of attracting people that won’t shut up during a show because they don’t know the comic is supposed to talk to them first before they decide “to help”.

It started as a way to create content more often without burning the written material that will appear in a special later.  And people are drawn to the immediacy and “danger” of it so the algorithms started rewarding it.  Then for every solid crowd interaction you also had a dude yelling “Who’s f*ckin’?” and getting a shock laugh and a half million views.

The current trend seems to favor showing the entire process behind a joke from a nascent premise delivered at an open mic to a finished product in a flashy special.

But that also is authenticity at work I suppose.  We just don’t have to talk to the drunk in the front row to do it. 🙂

Phil Johnson

https://philjohnsoncomedy.com/

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From: Stephen Chilton

Subject: Re: Crowd Work

Date: December 6, 2025 at 2:46:30?AM MST

Hey Bob,

Thanks for the kind words.

Want to make a small correction to what I said. Doesn’t really change your point. I said “I couldn’t tell you the label of a single act I booked this year.”

I am sure some are probably on majors, but I have no interaction with the labels at the club level. And it isn’t really something I take into account when booking or working on a deal. I look at the management team and obviously the agent(s). Tour history when there is some. Any stats/data I can find. Talk to lots of other buyers or venues (one of the many great things about Aspen Live). And obviously the music. Always still comes down to the music being great. Do we like it and importantly do we understand it?

But the label? Not something I really pay attention to. And who is “signed” to a given label, vs some distro deal, vs a licensing deal, I have no idea, those things just don’t come into my workflow when promoting an artist.

See you tomorrow.

Steve Chilton

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From: Dave Schools

Subject: Re: Bob Weir

Date: January 11, 2026 at 7:34:25?PM PST

Dammit Bob – when you’re right you are 100% right. Especially these words:

“And he aged in public (…..) but otherwise it was still the same Bob underneath. And no one with this amount of fame is a regular person, but Weir never evidenced an edge, he was always open and friendly. He’d come from a family band and treated you like family.”

The one thought that’s been circling in my head since Weir’s passing was that he was one of the few big influences on me as a young late 70’s fan who I met and later worked with whose true personality and kindness far exceeded anything I could have imagined. He was enthusiastic, open, funny as hell – goofy even, and boy he sure loved to play music. Searching always for that unexpected jolt – that elusive X factor that only comes with improvisation based music. The lessons I learned from playing with him (and Mickey Hart and Billy Kreutzman) can only be passed on in performance. It’s like a group of sonic alchemists and the stage is the alembic (see what I did there), the inflection point where the reaction of lead becoming gold happens.

I am grateful to have known him and played music with him….you bet.

Cheers,

das

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From: paul clegg

Subject: Re: Blue Lights-Season 3

Date: January 16, 2026 at 8:08:29?PM PST

Bob

Thank you for always showing Belfast a lot of love! It’s obvious to us dear readers that your visit there moved you in poignant ways. Blue Lights is a revelation of television. The writer / director Declan Lawn is from a market town called Ballymena (same spot that Liam Neeson was born and raised in) and was a highly respected investigative journalist for years. Dude is the real deal. The greater Ballymena countywide is also home to Ireland’s largest music company, a tour bus and production company  that myself and another guy founded in 2006 that now  employs over 50 people. It always cracks me up that some of the most famous drums, guitars and amps that were ever played in the history of Rock and Roll enjoy a humble care free existence in the thick green landscapes of the Irish countryside between tours. I always imagine that people drive through a little sleepy village listening to songs on the radio, completely unaware that the instruments that created that very tune are asleep on the other side of the (heavily secured) fence they are passing by.

The show really captures the spirit and tenacity of ‘Norn Iron’ people to a tee. I love that it didn’t just sensationalise the world famous sectarianism  of Belfast but rather dug in deep in on the actual people.

Last year a pretty prominent NY music lawyer did us a big favor where he went beyond the pale. We had no idea what to gift him as a thank you. What do you get the man who has everything etc etc haha! I bought him a subscription to Britbox and told him to watch a show called Blue Lights. Post watching the show he was delighted with his present and LOVED the show so much. On a visit to my brothers house soon thereafter I told him the story about the Blue Lights reciprocation and little bro said that he was going to text Declan and tell him the story. Within minutes Declan texted him back and was like ‘amazing’ That’s the great thing about Northern Ireland – despite wanting to kill each other sometimes, we are a deeply connected people and Blue Lights captures that perfectly!

Best tv show ever!

Paul

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From: Craig Anderton

Subject: Re: The Live Business

Date: December 29, 2025 at 6:53:07?PM MST

You’re probably tired of hearing me say this but new hit acts will not be created when there is *zero* incentive to pursue a career in music. Well, okay, not quite. You can pursue a musical career if you come from a rich family (Lana Del Ray, Taylor Swift, Steve Aoki, Billie Eilish, Clairo, etc.). Of course, money doesn’t create talent. But it does buys time, gear, less risk, connections, and the ability to fail safely.

This isn’t sour grapes on behalf of those trying to “make it.” A study by the Sutton Trust found that 30% of top pop musicians were privately educated (and 44% of top actors, FWIW). This is a huge over?representation compared to the general population. A major study by economist Karol Jan Borowiecki found that with each $10,000 increase in family income, the likelihood a child becomes a creative professional (musician, actor, artist) rises by about 2%. That’s a *measurable* structural advantage.

This isn’t new. Historically, many classical and fine?arts figures (Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Manet, Cézanne) came from comfortable or wealthy families, or had wealthy patrons. Y’know, like how Apple invests $1 billion a year to develop new music for Apple music (kidding), sort of like how it invests $6 billion a year in Apple TV (not kidding).

The music industry is a classic predator-prey relationship. The predator eating all the prey eventually means the predator runs out of hit acts to eat.

Being a really great artist who writes incredible music is a full-time job. Period. If your full-time job pays 10 cents an hour, you’re better off doing literally anything else. My advice to those who want to beat the odds is to make sure you win the sperm lottery. The odds are still against you, but by not as much.

Craig

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From: Michael Jaworek

Subject: Re: The Live Business

Date: December 30, 2025 at 11:16:41?AM MST

Hi Bob-Many thanks for this. Suffice to say you were reading my email, and those of many other promoters, from multinationals to locals. What’s even stranger is how erratic sales are in addition to the shrinkage of sales. Some artists that always sell out and in advance  are falling short, and some, for no explicable reason are selling out way in advance. 

I do see the growth of a number of Artists who have built strong followings on the road;and many are not Pop/top 40.

Michael Jaworek

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From: Eddie Owen

Subject: Re: The Live Business

Date: December 30, 2025 at 7:22:22?AM MST

Thanx Bob. I’m a 70 year old promoter / venue owner. Since 1986. Sure, there’s been tons of changes, in every single corner of our industry. One thing hasn’t, fans want to say “I was there when…”  Some actually were!  I know that my 1st John Mayer show, 1st Civil Wars show, 1st Jennifer Nettles show, 1st Indigo Girls show, 1st Zac Brown show, and more like that, all happened in a room that seats 150.  I WAS there, and none were sold out. It’s a build, a steep climb. More don’t than do. But without the small rooms, there will be fewer “dos”. I’m gonna work till I die. I need the $, but I also love what I do. It’s much harder breaking new acts. A large group that buys tix these days just want tribute acts. I give them some, but will never stop following my passion for the song and songwriter. Please keep reminding folks “Life is in the Song”. And there still tons of clubs and rooms to find it.

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From: Chris B.

Subject: Re: The Live Business

Date: December 30, 2025 at 4:28:17?AM MST

Hi Bob,

Longtime reader and fan here — your post really struck a chord. You’re absolutely right that we need systems that actively promote and nurture quality new acts, and new ways for people to actually discover them, not just hope something breaks organically.

That’s exactly what we’ve been trying to do for over 20 years in Hong Kong with The Underground HK, a live music platform dedicated to championing original, independent artists. By curating original bands and putting them in front of curious music fans, we’ve seen that the desire to discover new music is still there — it just needs the right spaces and signals.

We also review the bands and document the scene through show reviews, interviews, and online content, so Hong Kong’s indie stories don’t just disappear into the ether but become part of a living archive of the city’s music history. We curate exciting lineups around unique themes and host shows at different venues across the city — nearly 300 events showcasing over 700 bands so far. It’s our small, local answer to the question you raised: who is talking about and championing those quality new acts without traction?

I’ve often thought this model could be replicated anywhere — local versions of The Underground could become trusted hubs where fans go specifically to find new music in small venues, long before it hits the charts.

Thanks for continuing to speak truth about the state of music — your words remind those of us in the trenches why we started in the first place.

Chris B

Co-founder, The Underground HK

https://undergroundhk.com

Championing Original Music in Hong Kong Since 2004

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From: Zach Ziskin

Subject: Re: Suno Demos

Date: January 15, 2026 at 1:00:35?PM PST

Bob,

Suno is amazing. As a producer I use it as a tool both for creation and ideas. I just produced a track for an artist where I uploaded the basic skeleton of the song (drums, bass, scratch guitar and vocal) and told it to create electric guitars in the vein of a well known indie pop band.

The guitar parts it spit out were so good I was just laughing out loud. And it came up with ideas and tones I never would have thought to come up with that helped elevate the song. I ended up recreating some of it myself, but I also kept some, and the artist raved about it.

I’ve had a similar experience multiple times now with Suno in other productions I’ve done. Ryan Tedder talked about using it for his demos these days himself. If you’re in the biz and not using it as a weapon in your arsenal you’re missing out big time.

-Z

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From: Jeff Middleton

Subject: Re: Suno Demos

Date: January 15, 2026 at 2:41:35?PM PST

Hi Bob….I’ve been a writer for 25+ years in Nashville.  It’s a completely different world since I got here and these days I use Suno to do demos pretty much all the time now.  Hated it at first because it was hard to control and screwed with what we would write but it’s gotten better and I also built a prompt generator that has helped refine and gain a little more control over Suno.  Suno can still be a bit of a rogue employee sometimes but the results are crazy good for demo/pitching purposes.

www.songscriptai.com if you want to check out the prompt generator.

https://s.disco.ac/fgwiutwlqwsz if you want to hear a few original work tapes and resulting demos from Suno.

Best,

Jeff Middleton

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From: Beki Brindle-Scala

Subject: Re: Suno Demos

Hi Bob,

Loved the AI radio show episode!

I have to say, Suno (Pro version) has helped me flesh out my latest batch of songs. Seriously, I have a small fan base who buy my albums, and I have not put anything out since 2018. I was starting to feel lame! I LIKE making albums because I was raised on ALBUMS. Singles are great, but as soon as I started getting a good allowance and making some babysitting money + a couple of acoustic gigs per week as a teen, I was buying a couple of albums a week! Great ones in the 70s, and some were not new. Some were classics, of course. Albums that I loved the most were concept albums where one song ran right into the next… everything went together.. the album was an experience.

I swear what I am writing is about AI.

So now, off the road during COVID. I wrote a bunch of songs but had no real band to record with, AND I wasn’t making much money, either! Recently, I bought Suno Pro for a year and realized just what you and your callers were saying during the radio show, especially by the guy who is a toy designer! You prompt the thing (in my case, Suno Pro), using terms, words, styles, lyrics, instrumentation, arrangement instructions, etc. You upload the acoustic demo of your song and hit “GO.” Amazingly, you get 2 versions each time. You get a singer who sounds a bit like yourself, and you get the instruments you asked for!  You can hit “GO” as many times as you want, tweaking your prompts until you get the version you want. It takes some time, but it’s worth it.

The learning curve is ‘grade school’ level!  I was shocked!

The trick is to make sure you have what you want in the tracks because ultimately, to retain full copyright, you have to re-sing the vocal and re-play the guitar parts. The other stuff is slightly negotiable. You DO have full rights with the Pro version, but unless you really don’t care about monetization or ownership, the program can make a hum-dinger of a song for you… which is a tad annoying, knowing some people with zero musical ability or experience will and are doing this! Oh well.

sh sake,

I do wrestle a lot with the program because I have specific melodies, bass lines, drum sounds, etc. that I want to hear, and, I can say that each “demo” I have uploaded takes about 8 hours of work with Suno to get the string section the way I want it; The drums to play half-time or add some snare-paradiddles and for gosh sake, stay away from the crash cymbals, etc., in this or that section!

BUT… what I get out of it is beautiful instrumentation that I love and want but can’t afford! I can’t hire a small orchestra to hang around on call, but I have an AI string section that isn’t on the clock, and these ‘players’ show up on several songs! A horn section and a bunch of great AI players are backing me up! It’s bizarre. In the old days, I had the real players, but some moved away, some live overseas, and some are dead now, so Suno is a big help this time around!

AI has allowed me to create the music I hear in my head, which lives in my heart and soul, without the time and money it would have taken to hire all of these people. My next job is opening the stems, singing the leads with my actual voice, and playing the guitar parts. I may get a very cool (and famous) friend to replace some bass because he’s so awesome & I truly would prefer REAL instruments and players, but other than that, I’ve never recorded anything so meaningful, so quickly in my life!

My biggest takeaway is this: For real musicians, Suno AI is a very helpful tool.

Excellent letter from Jack T., as well as your radio show!

🙂

Beki Brindle-Scala

Chester, NY

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From: Matthew Aitchison

Subject: Re: 2025-The Year In Music

Date: January 1, 2026 at 12:46:13?PM MST

Hi Bob, good point re:Spotify. I am a bit of a lone wolf amongst my musician peers in being a bold proponent of Spotify. Spotify pays me alright, after 100s of songs released across many acts. I remind my friends they were broke before Spotify came along. We musicians can act a tad entitled sometimes.

Matt (Australia)

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From: Riza Pacalioglu

Subject: Re: The Live Business

Date: December 30, 2025 at 6:42:56?AM MST

I went to a Celine Dion concert back in the 90s purely because Mike & The Mechanics was opening her show. 

Riza

Southampton, UK

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From: Desmond Child

Subject: Re: Tips

Date: December 28, 2025 at 6:46:45?PM MST

Bob… this is truly great and I agree 100% with everything you are saying except for the part that says, “YOU’RE ONLY IN COMPETITION WITH YOURSELF.” That is definitely not true for me… I’m in competition with Diane Warren… who is always a threat. 

Desmond Child

It’s like an Elizabeth Strout novel.

That’s what someone e-mailed me when I was halfway through “The Correspondent” and the similarity resonated, as in you’ve got normal women, not famous, not setting the world on fire, and their lives, opinions, personalities.

Not that Virginia Evans is in the league of Elizabeth Strout. If you’ve never read any Strout, start there, and I’d recommend you read the books in order of publication, because sometimes the same characters are featured and… Like I said once before, don’t equate the books with the highly-regarded HBO version of “Olive Kitteridge.” You can’t get the vibe of the state of mind of living in Maine from a TV show. Maine is a surprisingly large state, and except for the Portland area, it’s mostly rural and nearly off the grid. Sure, some people retire to Maine, but usually they want to be closer to the big city. No, many Mainers have been there for generations. They’re hardy, the environment demands it, and they’re not looking for a handout, they know you regard them as less than, and they don’t care, Maine is its own private universe, and Strout does an incredible job of delineating that.

As for “The Correspondent,” I refrained from reading it. I’m wary of these little engine that could books, that build momentum months from release. Too often they’re tomes that pull on the heart, that are mostly feel-good, I was wary of both lowbrow and chick lit.

And I can’t say that I was hooked from the beginning. I’d say I had to get about a third in to be riveted, and then I was. You don’t really get the heart and soul of the book until you make headway.

Sybil is a correspondent, as in she writes letters, occasionally the e-mail kind, but almost always on special paper ordered from England and… Once you get the cast of players, the people she’s writing to, once you can see the entire universe, then it all starts to become clear…before that it just seems like an old woman writing letters.

Then again, how old is seventies? Today most people consider that positively young. But Sybil considers herself an old woman, she’s retired and her eyesight is failing and…

Her life is complicated. Although she has a family, she dedicated her years to her job. And that leaves her alone in her old age, where she convinces herself she’s happy, but is she?

And then events start to unfold.

Like Olive Kitteridge, Sybil can be a curmudgeon. She’s not all queasy nice. She can stand up for herself, get into arguments, can display an edge ignorantly, all the while feeling alone…

Maybe that’s what brings readers of fiction together, what draws them to books, their aloneness, they’re looking to connect. They know they exist, but they don’t feel like they quite fit in, haven’t for their entire lives, reading is more than looking for comfort, it’s connection… Maybe explanation, a few lessons. Does anybody else feel this way? Especially in a world where people hold their true feelings close to their vest.

So Sybil can be oblivious. Can’t see when men are interested in her. Feels she’s past all that anyway. That’s the difference between men and women, men always believe there’s a mate lurking around the corner, that there’s still time left, they have hope. Women? They don’t even see it that way. They envision living alone, they’re content, with their friends and…

Sybil corresponds with all kinds of people. Her brother in France, her best friend from growing up who lives in Connecticut… She even goes back and forth with tech help in California. She establishes a relationship with a Syrian immigrant working below his station and… Deep down Sybil wants connection, she wants more, but she won’t admit it to herself… She’s cobbled together a life and she doesn’t want to look at herself, for fear of falling apart. And she’s not the only one. When you see a Boomer baked in their ways, wondering why they can’t see things from a different perspective, why they can’t change, it’s because they’re afraid of crumbling. They’re afraid if holes are revealed they’ll be seen as less than from not only those on the outside, but themselves too. They’ll have to re-evaluate all their choices of the past. It’s easier just to stay the course, even though oftentimes they’re their own worst enemies. Like Sybil.

But Sybil has a heart, and she can connect with other square pegs who can’t relate, like the bullied teenage boy Harry.

As much as Sybil is writing, at times she is paralyzed. And unlike with iMessage/text and e-mail… When you write a letter, you think, you contemplate, you take time…it could be months between missives, whereas if you don’t hear from a friend in a matter of days electronically, you’re worried something happened to them, that they got into an accident, that they died.

Now the plot does hook you. What happens and what doesn’t happen. You wince and your heart breaks, but you don’t feel manipulated.

All the while, you’re looking at your own life, especially if you’re on the back nine… Your own choices, your own behavior.

There are certain things that happen in this book that I’d love to talk to you about, but to write about them would ruin the reading experience.

“The Correspondent” is not highbrow, but it’s not lowbrow either. Ultimately it’s very satisfying, because it’s about life, and no matter how long you’ve lived, it’s still a mystery.