I spent most of my teens and early twenties far more interested in forming bands and DJing than business, although at the time I didn’t realise that they were the same thing. That only slapped me in the face like a wet lettuce years later. Fuck! How could I have wasted almost 20 years without noticing?
It turns out that you can learn lots about business by playing records and looking at how someone with an idea for a song turned it into a hit record, formed a band or dragged a song out into a 50-year career. I’ll show you how people with a little talent and a small idea made it stretch a very long way, while other highly talented artists made decisions that nosedived their career—in some cases literally. I’ll also explain how you need more than just raw talent to avoid getting ripped off by managers, advisors, and investors.
Sure, you can prepare for setting up a business by spending the next few years reading back issues of the Harvard Business Review or working your way through the airport business book best-seller lists of the seven habits of effective CEOs and all the others that advocate rising at 4 a.m. every morning for an ice bath and an hour’s mindfulness and some longhand journalling. If you have the wherewithal or the time you can even pay $100,000 for an executive MBA at a top business school. While any or all of these things might allow you to carve out a career in the innovation department of some dinosaur company ignoring climate change or AI, they won’t rewrite the future, which is what every entrepreneur sets out to do.
If you don’t want to do that, then stop reading, hop on LinkedIn and start applying for jobs right now. If you do, then read on and I’ll do my best to distil 40 years of a twin-track life in business and rock and roll and what I’ve learned from both. It’s not a lot and it’s not obvious, so some of the experiences and tips in this book might save you time and effort, as well as depriving a few senior partners at law firms from future bonuses, so buckle up.
The Crossroads of Rock and Business
It all started when a man met the devil at a crossroads in Rosedale, Mississippi, at midnight, and a hundred years later, another guy woke up at midnight yelling Eureka! and got told to “shut the fuck up.” That’s when Robert Johnson sold his soul, started preaching the blues, and when you first thought about starting a business.
From Desperation to Swagger: The Startup Journey
“Via Bo Diddley, John Lennon, Keith Richards, Johnny Thunders, Noel Gallagher, and Jack White, we have rock and roll. And via the horrible, tortuous route of continual self-debasement and rejection from investors, you will go from being a little puppy dog, eager to please and desperate to get funded, surviving on the shittiest terms a VC can dream up, to swaggering out of the room with an ‘it’s your fucking loss, buddy.’”
Bands, Boards, and Startups: The Uncanny Parallels
“Whether being a rock star, an entrepreneur, being in a band, on a board or even being the lawyers hired to clean up the eventual mess, the parallels between the rock world and business are uncanny.”
• Replacing a drummer with a drum machine is like replacing a CFO with an app—cutting inefficiencies but changing the dynamic.
• The frustration of trying to get others to understand a simple idea is universal.
Egos and Solo Careers: The Rise and Fall of Founders
“With lead singers and chief executives flouncing out to start solo careers, guitarists and managers feeling undervalued and craving the spotlight, there’s nothing closer to a startup company than a band. The chances of success are about the same too, so pay heed and try to get it right.”
The one undeniable truth?
“Real life is nothing like the book, whether it’s this one or the Bible, so get used to your best-laid plans crumbling to dust on first contact with reality and make sure that you have a backup, or preferably a dozen.”
The Power Duo: Cofounders and Their Musical Equivalents
“The relationship between business cofounders is often the same as the singer and lead guitarist. Someone has to come up with the ideas and it’s those two.”
Think:
• Joe Strummer & Mick Jones (The Clash)
• David Johansen & Johnny Thunders (New York Dolls)
• Mick Jagger & Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones)
• Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak (Apple)
“It’s the same from the Beatles to the Pet Shop Boys or Abba, and even ‘solo’ artists from Bruce Springsteen to Taylor Swift rarely do everything all on their own—I’ll make an exception for Springsteen’s Nebraska, recorded in his kitchen and hotel rooms on a four-track.”
The Unsung Heroes: Rhythm Sections and COOs
“The rhythm section of bass and drums is what keeps the business running while the guys at the front deal with the audience.”
• John Paul Jones & John Bonham (Led Zeppelin)
• Bill Wyman & Charlie Watts (The Rolling Stones)
• COOs and CFOs ensuring the company doesn’t crash and burn
“But someone has to watch the shillings and pence while the singer and CEO work the audience and their egos.”
Boards and Bands: Drama, Disputes, and Departures
“A dispute between cofounders can result in one leaving to pursue a solo career, like Beyoncé from Destiny’s Child or Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls, or even produce the pitiful solo albums of Mick Jagger (compared to what he achieved with the Rolling Stones) or the patchy offerings of Steven Tyler (compared to his success with Aerosmith).”
The Founder’s Dilemma: The Face of the Company
“Many good entrepreneurs are the key drivers of the business through their single-minded determination and are inseparable from the business. Think Apple and Steve Jobs.”
“But this is a great thing from the entrepreneur’s ego perspective, but bad from an investor’s, raising the inevitable question about what happens to the company if they get hit by a bus?”
Replacing the Frontman: Do or Die?
“The loss of a key member can result in the band calling it a day—for example, the deaths of drummers John Bonham from Led Zeppelin or Razzle from one of my personal all-time favourite bands, Hanoi Rocks.”
Alternatively, you can do what AC/DC did—“replace your singer or CEO with someone who sounds almost identical, carry on as if nothing happened, and scale even higher heights.”
The Ride Ahead: Reading the Room and Riding the Storm
“Now that we’ve rattled through the basics, it’s time to step on the gas and see how you can really shake things up, whether you’re plugging in your first guitar or launching your latest app.”
“The chapters ahead will show you how to read the room like a seasoned DJ, how to handle the squabbles and breakdowns like you’re arguing over setlists in a grimy rehearsal studio, and how to keep the lights on with nothing more than a three-chord riff and a never-say-die attitude.”
Hold On Tight: The Rock and Roll of Startups Begins
“So, if you’re still with me and haven’t bolted for the safe confines of LinkedIn job ads, buckle up.”
“We’re about to dive headfirst into a world where the only thing louder than a rock star’s ego is a startup founder’s pitch, and where the sweet smell of success shares the stage with stale beer and dodgy legal documents.”
So, if you’re still with me and haven’t bolted for the safe confines of LinkedIn job ads, buckle up. We’re about to dive headfirst into a world where the only thing louder than a rock star’s ego is a startup founder’s pitch, and where the sweet smell of success shares the stage with stale beer and dodgy legal documents. Hold onto your hats: it’s only rock and roll, but the ride is about to get very real indeed.
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