Tesla’s Brian Wheat thinks young rockers shouldn’t get married if they want to be financially successful.
In a recent conversation with the Travel Addict, the rocker talked about the advice he gives to new bands he works with as their manager or producer. He tries to be honest with them about the current situation of the music scene. Wheat thinks it is rare today to sell millions of records as he said:
“Now, no one sells like that unless it’s Taylor Swift or maybe Harry Styles or something. But in the rock genre like us, I mean, if you sell 200,000 records, you’ve done extremely well. My advice is that you create a brand, that your band or solo project is a brand and you’ve got to go out and you’ve got to play to the people. If you connect and you’re true to what you do, because people have very good bullsh*t detectors, those fans will stick with you. I’m living proof; they’re here 38 years later.”
Wheat Is Against Early Marriage
Then, he spoke about why getting married shouldn’t be a priority for the young rockers:
“And, you know, don’t get married. If you’ve got a million dollars in the bank while you’re a young kid and you get married and your wife gets pregnant, 99.9% chance you ain’t going to make it. Life’s going to kick in and you’re going to have to support that kid and that wife or you’re going to have to make so much money to pay a mortgage or whatever the case is.”
Brian Thinks Rock Is Not On The Top Anymore
According to the bassist, rock isn’t dead but it’s not the top genre like it was in the late ’80s to ’90s. He shared in an earlier interview:
“In 1989, rock was all over the media, it was all over TV, it was all over the 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.”
Wheat has been making music and performing with Tesla for over three decades. The band’s next show is scheduled for May 11 in New Town, North Dakota. They will have more shows at the end of May and also throughout the summer.
