Tyler Joseph Quotes

We had gone out on the road in 94 and 95 for a three month American tour, and we realised, as did our manager and booking agent at the time, that we have really exhausted it, and we can't make money at this anymore.

Traditionally, tours were a means of promoting a record. Today, the record promotes the tour.

So I've had lots of different bands over the years who have stayed with me for certain tours.

In our early period we pretty much survived or perished on our capacity to reach people, and on getting into the pattern of having no money and playing lots of shows.

I'm not financially insecure anymore either so I don't have to sit there and get on the latest Poison tour just to make money, which is what a lot of them are doing.

You open up a lot of tours making nothing just for the fact that you need to start somewhere and get some exposure. When you start to headline your tours, all the money is in headlining, but there's no money in headlining small rooms.

For us, if you're a rock band, there's no way around it. You have to tour. You have to tour a whole lot.

Playing live, you can't survive, certainly not in England. We used to work daytime jobs and play gigs at night. It was very exhausting.

Nine Inch Nails is like building an army to go conquer. We build it, then we play, and we have to play so much to validate building it, financially. It leads to getting burn-out because a tour that would be fun if it lasted three weeks has to last 15 weeks.

I do probably 60 concerts a year in the States. And I go out to clubs in the week. I'm doing new stuff all the time.

It's kinda weird sometimes going on tour with bands because you never really know what to expect.

When you grow up in life and you're poor, and because you're an athlete or you got rich overnight in music, unless you have access to financial advice or for the transition or matriculation of that process, then of course, you're going to go broke.

See, I have to do my best because I am not as glamorous or as well-equipped like a Beyonce Knowles or Michael Jackson, where their band members are close to 100-150 people. They even have great equipment which is flown along with the artists. They have a budget of around $5 million pumped in to make their concerts a hit.

Touring is a tough business.

I've asked these guys in rock bands with all the 18-wheelers driving to the venue how they make money. I just don't understand it. But I don't understand a lot of things.

As a rock fan, you read of the big labels and the multinationals and the big tours with road crews and semi-trailers full of gear, and playing stadiums. In the '90s, that's what we did.

We're playing small clubs and doing it all in a van. I have management, and they've done a good job of getting our tour plan together, but we're still having to go and rent the vehicles and all the little things you need to do. You really have to watch your budget.

I have a coach and I have a chiropractor, who works to keep me healthy. I pay their salaries. I pay for their flights as we travel around the world on a weekly basis, and I pay for their hotels and meals while we're on tour.

I've been a signed artist, but it's only been a full year-and-a-half. I'm still kind of new to money and this kind of lifestyle, so me being in a messed up predicament wasn't too long ago.

One of the things I've heard musicians say that's true is, 'I would play for free. I would play music forever, but you have to pay me to travel.' I know we're always going to make music. The traveling part - that is the most wear and tear on any human.

Well that's probably what'll end up happening: a load of really good musicians who can't afford to be in bands, who have to have day jobs, you know what I mean? And then that's when you start losing a lot of the live touring bands.

When I bought my first house I had all these red flags on my credit report because I bounced a bunch of checks to places like Pizza Hut and stuff like that for $13 or $15 because I was trying to feed my O-linemen.

I watched my own father, he went bankrupt and had problems with the IRS. He was living beyond his means, and I guess I was doing the same thing and not even realizing it.

There's really no money per se to be made on records. We used to make a lot of money on records. Now, all of our money is made on touring.

We [The Replacements] never made any money on tour. None of us came out of the school of economics. We took it for granted that a rock and roll band gets ripped off. We've tried to shake that tree a couple of times, but what can we do? You look back, when you're sort of idle in your middle years, and think, we should have made some money.