Tim Jorstad Summary

The Agony and the Ecstasy was an Academy Award nominee in 1965.  Its title could be the synopsis of our speaker Tim Jorstad, Accountant to many Bay Area Rock Band legends.

Music pioneers the like of Jefferson’s Airplane & Starship, Grateful Dead, Journey, Doobie Brothers to name a few have been served by Tim.

Tim credits his career survival partly on his sense of humor:  Mental illness is hereditary; you get it from your rock group clients.  Describing his strategy as akin to setting up a home/family office, Tim handles all the stuff in the best and worst of times.  Buying cars and boats and planes, then selling cars and boats and planes.  He was even asked to tell a client’s wife that he wanted to divorce her.  Not all issues were obviously untoward.  After having to tote equipment and guide musicians through a 20C Washington DC eve for an Inaugural booking, sometime later Tim and crew were invited to the Oval Office and relished a 30 minute sit down with President Obama for a private FAQ session.  Rumor has it Tipper Gore even got to play drums with the Grateful Dead.

Concert touring musicians have a grueling schedule.  Sleep between 4 AM and noon.  2 PM at the venue, 3 PM sound check, then a 90-120 minute show.  As many as 100 technicians set up each show and the cast usually do not leave until 2 AM.  Some sleep is on the bus/coaches, along with other extra-curricular activities.  Tim described his role early on as a patriarch.  “If you are earning 5 million for 6 weeks work, you owe it to your fans to perform at your best and not pass out or throw up on them.”  In turn, Tim learned from his master music mentor Walter “Herbie” Herbert, himself taught by legendary Bill Graham, Herbie helped Tim advocate for poorly managed and under-compensated gifted performers.   Digitalization of music transformed the industry.  The onset of Napster and pirated music has resulted in reducing the revenue from the physical sale of music 67%.  Live concerts now account for much more, and necessitate extensive accounting and tax filings both in the United States and abroad.  Fees are best negotiated on an hourly basis, as too frequently a fixed percent of net (5%) is never realized during struggling years when net is $-0-.  Artists object to a % later when their earnings are well into 7 figures.

Fame and success have cost rock stars dearly.  All have had SA (Substance Abuse) cycles.  Most are Hepatitis C positive, while most are now clean and sober.  The fallout from these highflying lifestyles are well known to many regions.  Just ask the dinner boat cruisers whose meal was rained on by a well known male musician’s coach driver who decided to purge the holding tanks while slowed on a river bridge!!  Now those are really troubled waters.