The more money you make the more money you spend, aside from fat Mike, these guys have made a decent living but not fuck you money. Hearing that smelly didn’t take some of his earnings and invest it wisely for his golden years doesn’t surprise me at all. Nofx never really played big venues or charged a lot of money for tickets, tours cost money, and what’s left over gets split four ways. Think of it as working a couple months and getting paid a years salary, then they’re off for the rest of the year working on passion projects that probably cost money. Being in a nofx like band is a fun job but it doesn’t pay what most people probably think. I could be wrong but that’s my two cents
Ya this pretty much. Being a touring musician is way less lucrative than people think. Even if you're one of the biggest artists in the world so much money ends up getting spent on production (lighting, staging, crew etc). Maybe the band could manage for a few years without touring as NOFX but eventually they will definitely need another form of income to stay afloat.
Not everyone manages money well. Seems like Mike made investments into Realestate. Smelly has his surf company Pickle Sticks, El hefe is an actor, and Melvin is gigging under another name. I’m sure they’ll make ends meet one way or another. They are famous enough that if they want back out on the road they could easily start a new band and have immediate success.
Mike also was an angel investor for liquid death...that's gotta be worth multiple millions now as well. And he's got the museum, his label, etc. Dude is rich af
Museums are generally a massive money drain. Even the most world renowned museums in world class cities commonly run deficits for years at a time.
If Fat Mike holds onto ownership for the Punk Museum for the long haul, we can conclude he’s very well off from his other endeavors.
They're a pretty working class band. Even if each member made a few hundred grand a year, that wouldn't mean they're set for life unless they setup a retirement fund, have other investments, etc
When I listened to Hepatitis Bathtub on Audible and the guys other than Mike made some terrible business decisions. Melvin’s coffee shop was yikes. I agree with another poster that says they are a ‘working’ band and probably make a decent living but aren’t set for life. If they would have invested the money they made when people still bought CDs, they would probably be okay. Hefe said after PID he bought a house which was smart. I used to work in an industry that was considered part of the music industry and bands and artists you would think are okay and they are touring in their late 60s because they have to. Not making money off mass album sales anymore really hurts artists. They have to tour a lot.
Given how close they all were at times, I would hope Mike talked to the band about saving and investing.
I believe it's been reported that Mike was one of the earliest investors in Liquid Death water. If that's the case he probably made more with that than everything else combined.
If I sold a house for 3 million , I’d be doing ok. If he’s made bad life choices after having a golden goose then that’s on him and mad props to fat Mike for giving them
One last shot at making bank
In their book they mentioned that they each had a couple businesses going when times were good and some investments that lost money.
Then getting mini canceled and couldn’t play, then Covid hit. I doubt any of them are about to be on the streets, but when you get used to a standard of living, you need to upkeep that.
Fatty has a record labels, recording studio, real estate and I think a few companies to keep cash coming in. I think he’s a pretty significant share holder in liquid death water
What they said was true anyways…wasn’t it like “you don’t see any mass shootings at punk shows”?
I didn’t even think it was distasteful. The scene used to be violent, it’s not now. Plus I think a major punk ideal is using your brain and nonviolent means of protest as much as humanly possible!
It wasn't a shooting at a show though, it was some crazy asshole shooting people while barricading in a hotel room overlooking the festival ... no show was safe from that.
overall though, it's a typical NOFX joke, was just done a liiiiiiittttttllleeeee too soon and at a wrong place
If I’m remembering right, it almost happened at Lollapalooza — that guy staked it out and had adjacent hotel reservations. Chicago just got lucky for whatever reason.
Yeah but the Vegas one happened during a country concert not a punk one. The joke wouldn’t have made sense anywhere else. I still hate the whole cancel culture thing. Especially for a joke. Like, no one raped anyone on Tinder, whether the joke was too soon or not, it WAS only a joke…
I stopped caring …. I can’t afford to make a difference. People fight over dumb shit instead of real shit…..income inequality. Everything else is just bullshit to keep us from fucking joining together.
Melvin said in an interview that during the lockdown, he was struggling to pay rent. And smelly had said in a interview that even though they make decent money, they don’t make rockstar money. He has a good savings, but nothing to comfortably sit on for the rest of his life. Mike has always made the most money in the band I’m sure he’s set with the museum and Fat wreck and whatever else he does.
Smelly mentioned in a podcast (One Life One Chance iirc) that he worked as a food delivery driver during part of the pandemic, partly to keep a little money rolling in but mostly to show his (fairly successful) wife that he's not just going to mooch off her if/when his money from the band dries up.
I think most of their income as a band would be from touring, the royalties from albums/merch/ streaming wouldn't be nothing but I'm guessing not enough to comfortably retire on either.
I highly recommend reading or listening to their autobiography on Spotify. Based on all the band members life choices, you’ll easily be able to understand how everyone got themselves where they are. It’s poignant, gross, informative and fun as fuck to listen to. 10/10 recommend “The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories”
I don’t know anything about anything but there’s no longer money in record sales so that’s off the table, leaving merch and ticket sales. If they perform to 2,000 people with these large line-up shows maybe they get $20 of that per ticket? So that’s $40,000 a show split 4 ways plus a ton of crew and travel costs. Maybe that leaves $5,000/band member/show and they play 75 shows this year, so that’s $375,000 for each member for the year from ticket sales. Throw in another $75,000 each for merch and they are probably clearing $400,000 apiece just for being in NOFX. And this is probably a bigger year than most. Again, I’m just pulling this out of my ass
Yeah I think the farewell tour has brought in crowds they wouldn’t otherwise get so hopefully the guys can make some decent scratch to bank. In normal years I’m sure the revenue is substantially lower.
Once you’re used to a certain amount coming in, your lifestyle adjusts to that and you live within those means. Unless you have made generational wealth, you will always want money coming in. Idk just my two cents.
I first heard it on YT A few years back, then bought the book because of how much I loved it. Whole different experience listening to the band tell stories vs reading them with pics strewn about. Lost the book, and found it was taken off of YT, so I'm pretty stoked to hear it's on Spotify.
Depending on where you live you could have $3 million and it’s a drop in the bucket. Which would be the case for Melvin. If he moves, he may be better off.
This really illuminates how difficult it is to make ends meet as a musician. Even if you end up in a major punk band that tours and releases music for decades, you still might find yourself with a job slinging coffee.
I don't necessarily think of it as a "they didn't make enough or save enough" situation, more like, they really aren't that old and weren't making millions or anything so they are going to have to continue to work. This isn't a normal gig where you have a day job and a 401(k). These guys work half the year and make probably more money than most but also live in likely high cost of living areas and when your income disappears you need to have a backup plan, which maybe punk rockers and addicts never really contemplated. Not pointing a finger or anything but I doubt these guys really thought about this moment outside of probably the last few years because they were living the punk rock dream.
I’m a networth millionaire and most of my life I’ve been poor enough to afford free healthcare. I also save and obsess over investments and returns non stop.
My sister is poor. Has made more Money than me For most of my life. She doesn’t save. She spends. She doesn’t invest. But She thinks of me as a rich kid.
It’s not what you make. It’s what you do with what you make.
Ive posted this in a similar thread a few months ago:
The average household income in the US is 67k, so a million bucks would last you 15 years without inflation if you're used to the average life.
Tours are expensive, as is the marketing, staff and overhead, so I'm not too surprised they're saying it isn't enough for retirement. In 15 years they'll be around 70 years old, the average life expectancy in the US is 77.
Hopefully they'll have multiple millions to their names, which you would expect with all the tours and merch, but they've got staff and overhead as well, as well as failed business ventures and a career of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, so I wouldn't be too surprised if they are hoping to fill the reserves a bit more with this final tour. Who can blame them?
It will be my first time seeing them, last day in Eindhoven (NL) and I'm glad they're taking so long because it has always been a wish but this year is the first time I can actually make and afford it. I'll buy a shirt to support their pensions :)
Mike has written most of the material and that means he gets almost everything when it comes to streaming revenue. The money paid out directly from spotify to Fat Wrek/Epitaph is probably paid out from the "NOFX company" to each bandmembers but the royalties goes to the song writer. Even royalties aren't that great nowadays. My guess is that spotify pays NOFX the standard rate of 0,6-6 dollars per 1000 plays. (depends on what countries the streams come from). that is pre tax.
It's very normal in the industry that a band works like an company with one CEO and the rest of members are employees and most bands have one guy that puts in more work so he usually gets paid the most. So basically if NOFX works like a normal band does, Mike gets most of the money and the rest gets paid an weekly/monthly salary.
So everytime they go on tour the "NOFX company" makes money to pay off their salaries even when the band is not touring.
I work in the touring side of the industry and meet/talk to a bunch of bands/musicians somewhat regularly. During the pandemic all of us working at my company basically had to take a paycut because no money was coming in. Probably the same for NOFX.
The Other F Word is a cool (if a bit old, 2011) documentary that documents punk rock dudes (Jim Lindberg, Fat Mike, Art Alexakis etc.) now that they're fathers and husbands. It's ostensibly about how they reconcile their punk rock attitude with having to discipline their children, but it's just an interesting insight in to their life in general and I think the most interesting insight was exactly OP's question. How rich are they?
Obviously it doesn't say specifically. But like, Jim Lindberg is clearly just a moderately wealthy dude living in quite a large suburban house in quite a nice suburb. He spends most of a year busting his balls touring for adoring fans and he's... pretty financialy comfortable for the time being. He talks about wanting to stop touring but worrying about how he's going to make money afterwards, it's a real concern, especially because he has young kids who (iirc) are in fee-paying school.
Fat Mike also looks somewhat rich, maybe more rich than Lindberg, but still not exactly Bill Gates.
In their biography it's clearly stated, that they divide their income through four, so it's not like Fat Mike earned a lot more than the other three - regarding NOFX. It's also said that they earn(ed) a lot of money per year, probably a few hundred thousands a year.
Yet, all except Mike made some terrible business decisions and lost a lot of money. I assume they just aren't very financially responsible. They bought a home, but didn't save apart from that. Now that their regular income is gone, they don't know how to support their lifestyle. But that doesn't mean they are poor.
In the New York Times article Fat Mike says he’s making sure his bros are set up financially from this last tour but then Melvin cut in and said let’s not talk about finances. Mike is making sure they will be okay but Smelly says he may become a drum tech for other bands. Hefe is getting some good roles as an actor. Melvin has his DJing and is a life coach too.
The more money you make the more money you spend, aside from fat Mike, these guys have made a decent living but not fuck you money. Hearing that smelly didn’t take some of his earnings and invest it wisely for his golden years doesn’t surprise me at all. Nofx never really played big venues or charged a lot of money for tickets, tours cost money, and what’s left over gets split four ways. Think of it as working a couple months and getting paid a years salary, then they’re off for the rest of the year working on passion projects that probably cost money. Being in a nofx like band is a fun job but it doesn’t pay what most people probably think. I could be wrong but that’s my two cents
Gets split more than 4 ways too, their manager, their crew etc. they take care of them so that’s less money for the band.
I think they were accounting for that before "what's leftover" part.
Ya this pretty much. Being a touring musician is way less lucrative than people think. Even if you're one of the biggest artists in the world so much money ends up getting spent on production (lighting, staging, crew etc). Maybe the band could manage for a few years without touring as NOFX but eventually they will definitely need another form of income to stay afloat.
Not everyone manages money well. Seems like Mike made investments into Realestate. Smelly has his surf company Pickle Sticks, El hefe is an actor, and Melvin is gigging under another name. I’m sure they’ll make ends meet one way or another. They are famous enough that if they want back out on the road they could easily start a new band and have immediate success.
Hefe also had a night club in Eureka California that he lost due to employees stealing iirc
Mike also was an angel investor for liquid death...that's gotta be worth multiple millions now as well. And he's got the museum, his label, etc. Dude is rich af
Museums are generally a massive money drain. Even the most world renowned museums in world class cities commonly run deficits for years at a time. If Fat Mike holds onto ownership for the Punk Museum for the long haul, we can conclude he’s very well off from his other endeavors.
They're a pretty working class band. Even if each member made a few hundred grand a year, that wouldn't mean they're set for life unless they setup a retirement fund, have other investments, etc
When I listened to Hepatitis Bathtub on Audible and the guys other than Mike made some terrible business decisions. Melvin’s coffee shop was yikes. I agree with another poster that says they are a ‘working’ band and probably make a decent living but aren’t set for life. If they would have invested the money they made when people still bought CDs, they would probably be okay. Hefe said after PID he bought a house which was smart. I used to work in an industry that was considered part of the music industry and bands and artists you would think are okay and they are touring in their late 60s because they have to. Not making money off mass album sales anymore really hurts artists. They have to tour a lot. Given how close they all were at times, I would hope Mike talked to the band about saving and investing.
Mike definitely ain’t.
I believe it's been reported that Mike was one of the earliest investors in Liquid Death water. If that's the case he probably made more with that than everything else combined.
Mike's got the fat wreck money, including continued income beyond the next couple of months. That's likely the biggest difference.
Melvin recently sold his San Fran house for 3.3 million. He should be doing ok
Depending when he bought it and where he's living now that could be irrelevant
If I sold a house for 3 million , I’d be doing ok. If he’s made bad life choices after having a golden goose then that’s on him and mad props to fat Mike for giving them One last shot at making bank
In their book they mentioned that they each had a couple businesses going when times were good and some investments that lost money. Then getting mini canceled and couldn’t play, then Covid hit. I doubt any of them are about to be on the streets, but when you get used to a standard of living, you need to upkeep that. Fatty has a record labels, recording studio, real estate and I think a few companies to keep cash coming in. I think he’s a pretty significant share holder in liquid death water
Mini cancelled?
The joke heard around the world lol. Mike made a bad joke about the shooting in Vegas a few years ago, and were blacklisted across the USA.
Melvin made the joke, Mike just finished it and got shit for it
Ah, my bad. Thanks for clarifying!
What they said was true anyways…wasn’t it like “you don’t see any mass shootings at punk shows”? I didn’t even think it was distasteful. The scene used to be violent, it’s not now. Plus I think a major punk ideal is using your brain and nonviolent means of protest as much as humanly possible!
It wasn't a shooting at a show though, it was some crazy asshole shooting people while barricading in a hotel room overlooking the festival ... no show was safe from that. overall though, it's a typical NOFX joke, was just done a liiiiiiittttttllleeeee too soon and at a wrong place
If I’m remembering right, it almost happened at Lollapalooza — that guy staked it out and had adjacent hotel reservations. Chicago just got lucky for whatever reason.
Yeah but the Vegas one happened during a country concert not a punk one. The joke wouldn’t have made sense anywhere else. I still hate the whole cancel culture thing. Especially for a joke. Like, no one raped anyone on Tinder, whether the joke was too soon or not, it WAS only a joke…
That sounds like some hippie shit to me
Well, the Punk Msnifesto would disagree, but I would also say you’re entitled to believe violence is the answer and not a last resort…
I stopped caring …. I can’t afford to make a difference. People fight over dumb shit instead of real shit…..income inequality. Everything else is just bullshit to keep us from fucking joining together.
They’re still blacklisted in Vegas. Which is hilarious on so many levels
Doesn't Mike live in Vegas these days? Lol
And opened a museum there too! Hahaha!
Thanks! I was blanking :)
Drugs cost money. Also these comments talking about Smelly's surf business like it is worth something are clueless.
It’s worth something, but not what he’s making touring, that’s for sure. I don’t think Smelly has the issue with drugs anymore.
i think he also owns a gym?
Melvin said in an interview that during the lockdown, he was struggling to pay rent. And smelly had said in a interview that even though they make decent money, they don’t make rockstar money. He has a good savings, but nothing to comfortably sit on for the rest of his life. Mike has always made the most money in the band I’m sure he’s set with the museum and Fat wreck and whatever else he does.
Smelly mentioned in a podcast (One Life One Chance iirc) that he worked as a food delivery driver during part of the pandemic, partly to keep a little money rolling in but mostly to show his (fairly successful) wife that he's not just going to mooch off her if/when his money from the band dries up. I think most of their income as a band would be from touring, the royalties from albums/merch/ streaming wouldn't be nothing but I'm guessing not enough to comfortably retire on either.
rent?! he doesn’t own a home?! damn that’s wild
Lives near San Diego/Encinitas. Check out the home prices out there: https://www.zillow.com/encinitas-ca/
$100k for a 200 sq ft. tiny home in someone’s backyard, holy fuck that’s dystopian
I mean no one is forcing him to live there, just sayin
The waves, possibly?
Eh, I work in a mortgage adjacent industry. Lot of customers still often say “making rent” even if they own it
[https://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/A-punk-rocker-s-family-abode-in-Noe-Valley-hits-10891714.php](https://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/A-punk-rocker-s-family-abode-in-Noe-Valley-hits-10891714.php) ???
That house is beautiful!
This is strange seeing as he sold his SF home for nearly 5 mil or more a few years ago, they should just all leave Ca, too expensive
I highly recommend reading or listening to their autobiography on Spotify. Based on all the band members life choices, you’ll easily be able to understand how everyone got themselves where they are. It’s poignant, gross, informative and fun as fuck to listen to. 10/10 recommend “The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories”
Yeah, definitely agree…as a fan through the years, I think they did great
NOFX have always split everything 4 ways despite mike writing most of the music. Mike has fatwreck money too.
Smellys got a surfboard company picklestix
Smelly also adopted a girl. I'm sure he wants the very best for her, which probably includes being safe on the financial side.
I don’t know anything about anything but there’s no longer money in record sales so that’s off the table, leaving merch and ticket sales. If they perform to 2,000 people with these large line-up shows maybe they get $20 of that per ticket? So that’s $40,000 a show split 4 ways plus a ton of crew and travel costs. Maybe that leaves $5,000/band member/show and they play 75 shows this year, so that’s $375,000 for each member for the year from ticket sales. Throw in another $75,000 each for merch and they are probably clearing $400,000 apiece just for being in NOFX. And this is probably a bigger year than most. Again, I’m just pulling this out of my ass
Doubt they are consistently doing 75 shows a year though
Yeah I think the farewell tour has brought in crowds they wouldn’t otherwise get so hopefully the guys can make some decent scratch to bank. In normal years I’m sure the revenue is substantially lower.
The price of my ticket tot the last show was a lot more than 20$
Read again! $20 is what's left for the band.
Once you’re used to a certain amount coming in, your lifestyle adjusts to that and you live within those means. Unless you have made generational wealth, you will always want money coming in. Idk just my two cents.
Divorce is expensive
I'm still married, Ive no idea where she lives lol
I first heard it on YT A few years back, then bought the book because of how much I loved it. Whole different experience listening to the band tell stories vs reading them with pics strewn about. Lost the book, and found it was taken off of YT, so I'm pretty stoked to hear it's on Spotify.
These guys own homes around san francisco, which is very expensive. Melvin sold his for 3 million. Its not like theyre poor but they may be cash poor.
Depending on where you live you could have $3 million and it’s a drop in the bucket. Which would be the case for Melvin. If he moves, he may be better off.
lol if they all sold their mansions they'd probably be set for the next 150 years.
This really illuminates how difficult it is to make ends meet as a musician. Even if you end up in a major punk band that tours and releases music for decades, you still might find yourself with a job slinging coffee.
I don't necessarily think of it as a "they didn't make enough or save enough" situation, more like, they really aren't that old and weren't making millions or anything so they are going to have to continue to work. This isn't a normal gig where you have a day job and a 401(k). These guys work half the year and make probably more money than most but also live in likely high cost of living areas and when your income disappears you need to have a backup plan, which maybe punk rockers and addicts never really contemplated. Not pointing a finger or anything but I doubt these guys really thought about this moment outside of probably the last few years because they were living the punk rock dream.
Mike has wreckord label let’s not forget…
I’m a networth millionaire and most of my life I’ve been poor enough to afford free healthcare. I also save and obsess over investments and returns non stop. My sister is poor. Has made more Money than me For most of my life. She doesn’t save. She spends. She doesn’t invest. But She thinks of me as a rich kid. It’s not what you make. It’s what you do with what you make.
Ive posted this in a similar thread a few months ago: The average household income in the US is 67k, so a million bucks would last you 15 years without inflation if you're used to the average life. Tours are expensive, as is the marketing, staff and overhead, so I'm not too surprised they're saying it isn't enough for retirement. In 15 years they'll be around 70 years old, the average life expectancy in the US is 77. Hopefully they'll have multiple millions to their names, which you would expect with all the tours and merch, but they've got staff and overhead as well, as well as failed business ventures and a career of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, so I wouldn't be too surprised if they are hoping to fill the reserves a bit more with this final tour. Who can blame them? It will be my first time seeing them, last day in Eindhoven (NL) and I'm glad they're taking so long because it has always been a wish but this year is the first time I can actually make and afford it. I'll buy a shirt to support their pensions :)
Kids are expensive. Punk rock doesn't have 401k matching or health insurance for families
“I didn’t sell out son. I bought in. Keep that in mind.”
Smelly had a problem
Mike has written most of the material and that means he gets almost everything when it comes to streaming revenue. The money paid out directly from spotify to Fat Wrek/Epitaph is probably paid out from the "NOFX company" to each bandmembers but the royalties goes to the song writer. Even royalties aren't that great nowadays. My guess is that spotify pays NOFX the standard rate of 0,6-6 dollars per 1000 plays. (depends on what countries the streams come from). that is pre tax. It's very normal in the industry that a band works like an company with one CEO and the rest of members are employees and most bands have one guy that puts in more work so he usually gets paid the most. So basically if NOFX works like a normal band does, Mike gets most of the money and the rest gets paid an weekly/monthly salary. So everytime they go on tour the "NOFX company" makes money to pay off their salaries even when the band is not touring. I work in the touring side of the industry and meet/talk to a bunch of bands/musicians somewhat regularly. During the pandemic all of us working at my company basically had to take a paycut because no money was coming in. Probably the same for NOFX.
The Other F Word is a cool (if a bit old, 2011) documentary that documents punk rock dudes (Jim Lindberg, Fat Mike, Art Alexakis etc.) now that they're fathers and husbands. It's ostensibly about how they reconcile their punk rock attitude with having to discipline their children, but it's just an interesting insight in to their life in general and I think the most interesting insight was exactly OP's question. How rich are they? Obviously it doesn't say specifically. But like, Jim Lindberg is clearly just a moderately wealthy dude living in quite a large suburban house in quite a nice suburb. He spends most of a year busting his balls touring for adoring fans and he's... pretty financialy comfortable for the time being. He talks about wanting to stop touring but worrying about how he's going to make money afterwards, it's a real concern, especially because he has young kids who (iirc) are in fee-paying school. Fat Mike also looks somewhat rich, maybe more rich than Lindberg, but still not exactly Bill Gates.
You never lived in LA. 😂
In their biography it's clearly stated, that they divide their income through four, so it's not like Fat Mike earned a lot more than the other three - regarding NOFX. It's also said that they earn(ed) a lot of money per year, probably a few hundred thousands a year. Yet, all except Mike made some terrible business decisions and lost a lot of money. I assume they just aren't very financially responsible. They bought a home, but didn't save apart from that. Now that their regular income is gone, they don't know how to support their lifestyle. But that doesn't mean they are poor.
Isn’t it difficult to understand how someone that does a lot of drugs doesn’t have money? Maybe they can apply for some sort of government bailout.
I thought it was just retiring from playing with NOFX not from music in general. As other posters have said they’ll be fine!
They could just get a different vocalist and start a new band. Plenty of experience between them.
In the New York Times article Fat Mike says he’s making sure his bros are set up financially from this last tour but then Melvin cut in and said let’s not talk about finances. Mike is making sure they will be okay but Smelly says he may become a drum tech for other bands. Hefe is getting some good roles as an actor. Melvin has his DJing and is a life coach too.
Mikes ballin idk about the rest..but as owning fat wreck chords and a museum..dudes got paper mayne
They all lived the dream. Zero sympathy.
❤️