Sigh.

What was it the President said a couple years ago? “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, won’t get fooled again.” Something like that. People that religiously read the comments of this site will no doubt recall that I briefly mentioned in a post a couple months ago that I caught my manager of 14 years skimming from the register. I thought I had taken all steps necessary to prevent this from happening in the future, but I just discovered this morning that he managed to overdraft the SMG checking account by a grand, via the judicious method of using the ATM card (which I had turned off) on a cruise ship. Apparently ship-to-shore banking transactions still use semaphores and flags or something.

In any event, the actual instance noted above is beside the point. I want you to learn from my pain, if you’re just starting out. The lesson is thus: if you get to the point where you need a “team,” (in professional terms: a lawyer, a personal manager, a business manager, and a booking agent) watch those motherfuckers like a hawk. Don’t just say “he worries about the business so I don’t have to.” The music business is, first and foremost, a business, and the music is definitely a tertiary part of that operation.

You should pay close attention to what comes in, what goes out, where it goes, and why. It isn’t easy for even a medium sized band, because you’d be amazed at how much money can run through a bank account of a touring band. (To put this in perspective, in 1996 SMG was burning about $75K a month while on tour, and maybe half that while in the studio, and SMG was by no means large, a theatre band at our height.) I didn’t pay attention, and the combined percentage of my manager and lawyer, which should be 20% of my gross income was, in 2007, 63%. I didn’t do all that work so they could go to titty bars and gamble.

As an aside, if you’re in the Chicago metro area, and you’re approached by Michael D. Ryan of 21st Century Management, you’d do well to briskly walk the other way.