Fame
& Fortune: Rick Springfield
Rocker puts his money where his voice
is |
| |
| Bankrate:
What turned it around for you?
Rick Springfield:
The cold hard facts. I realized that no one's going to care about
my finances like I do. So I fired everybody and took it over myself,
and my wife and I started to grow it ourselves. Thanks to computers
it's easy. I handle 12 different accounts, and I love doing it.
It's a great feeling of power to know you have awareness. I met
a bunch of wealthy guys after I'd made some money, and I got some
great advice. One of them said, "Always cash your own check,
and always sign your own checks, so you know what's coming in and
what's going out."
Bankrate:
When you release your own records, what's involved for you? Rick
Springfield: Basically, putting your money where your mouth is. You have
to get a distribution company who believes in it, and we have the best one, R.E.D.
(Relativity Entertainment Distribution), which is part of Sony. But then you have
to pay for everything. You become the bank. And for a guy who grew up walking
the studios for free -- or thinking it was free, but you were really paying for
it through the record company -- it was a bit of a shock. But I probably got paid
more and spent less than I was doing with a regular record company. They're all
padded. Bankrate: What does
it cost you to make and put a record out into the market? Rick
Springfield: It depends. Both of these have been anywhere from half a million
down to $200,000 to $250,000. It's an expensive proposition. Bankrate:
Wow. I assumed it would be more of an indie endeavor, but those sound closer
to major label costs. Rick Springfield:
I probably spent more than I should have on the first record. But I really
believe in it. I wouldn't say I lost money, but it was a lot more of an investment
than I thought it was. I probably broke even. Bankrate:
You also own your own publishing and merchandising, don't you? Rick
Springfield: And my own recording studio, which is one of the best things
I've done. Bankrate: How does
the fact that you control all of this affect your personal financial situation?
Rick Springfield: It's
very positive, because when you control more, you have a better
understanding of the figures. We cut ourselves better deals. Overall,
it's been a much smarter way to do it. I wish I'd thought of it
originally. The thing with musicians is that you struggle for years,
and when it hits, it hits really fast, and you're just trying to
assimilate everything that's going on. It's not a steady build.
Bankrate: Out of all
the separate aspects of your career -- touring revenue, CD sales,
publishing, merchandising, movie licensing -- which are the most
lucrative?
Rick
Springfield: Probably touring and publishing, because the songs get played.
"Jessie's Girl" has kind of become a symbol of the '80s, and the record
gets played a lot. I was stunned when I found out how many '80s radio stations
there are.
Bankrate: How do you
invest? Are you a big real estate guy, or more in the market?
Rick Springfield: I
have a great guy I've been with for a long time. I was with his
father before that. He said to me, you have this amount of money
just sitting in a bank CD. Do you want to do something with it?
And I started to get into the whole investment thing, which I had
never done before. Mainly stocks and private deals. I have been
very lucky. Apart from that one thing in the '80s, I've been pretty
lucky real-estatewise, just from buying and selling at the right
time with no knowledge, just pure luck.
Larry
Getlen is a freelance writer based in New York. | 
