Tesla bassist Brian Wheat thinks a musician selling over 150.000 copies is a miracle, as long as you are not a pop singer like Miley Cyrus.
In the new episode of ‘Words Of Power With Joey DeMaio’ podcast, the bassist recently discussed the significance of openly sharing information with young musicians regarding the different aspects of the music industry. While blasting streaming services such as Spotify for their unfair payment system, he highlighted that only a few artists were selling physical copies of their music: Pop singers. Wheat said:
“I mean, vinyl sales are up — yeah, great — but no one’s selling those kind of records, unless you’re Taylor Swift or Miley Cyrus or something. But a rock record selling 150,000 copies physically is miraculous. I mean, there’s maybe three artists that can do that.”
Wheat Thinks Rock Is ‘Selective’
During the beginning stages of their career, Tesla embarked on tours alongside influential acts like Alice Cooper, Def Leppard, and David Lee Roth. Subsequently, tracks such as ‘Love Song’ and ‘Hang Tough’ from their second album, ‘The Great Radio Controversy,’ achieved success as hit singles. In 1990, they released the live album ‘Five Man Acoustical Jam,’ featuring acoustic renditions of popular songs like ‘Gettin’ Better’ and ‘Love Song.’ Despite their popularity, the ‘rock is dead’ claim might make them seem like an unpopular band.
While some think that rock and roll is already dead, the bassist thinks otherwise. In fact, he thinks that some of the genre’s biggest artists continue to attract large audiences at concerts despite the rise in the popularity of hip-hop, pop, and EDM. Addressing the whole ‘rock is dead’ debate, Wheat discussed in an earlier interview:
“In 1989, rock was all over the media, it was all over TV, it was all over radio, and now it’s become more of a selective thing that was similar to maybe the early ’70s when rock wasn’t — you had these waves of hard rock. […] It’s not dead; it’s just not number one on everyone’s list. Especially when you look at that 10-year run we had from about ’87 to ’97, with rock and grunge, whatever you wanna call it; it was still rock music to me. And it was everywhere.”
You can watch the interview below.
