Or blame Frank Sinatra for sending his stooges...

Everything in existence can be summarized to its fundamental equations, it's just that as mortals, we're not capable of doing that.  Not that we don't try though.  I do think that applies to everything but I suspect that's one reason every individual looks at different things in different ways.  Whatever we happen to be interested in would go back to the same basics if we were capable of perceiving it.

I don't know if examining famous people actually does a better job compared to some random person you saw once and never knew anything about, but it's obviously more interesting and has more information to consider.  There's more media to go through, more individuals who know them or share their own perceptions.  It's something I realized when I wondered why I had been going after Axl Rose all this time.  At least back when he was productive there could be understandable, but now?

Anyway, I'm writing this just to ponder how much wealth it requires to actually make a change.  I also cite the example of Joe Biden's son getting a $2 million advance for a book that I doubt will bring that much in.  If I got $2 million for a book, it would be enough to maintain the rest of my small cozy life.  I wouldn't stop working for a paycheck just because I don't think that way but I have no one else to pay for and my expenses are minimal.  I would probably invest in other people or businesses but nothing that would give up that huge pile of money.

So how do rock stars do it?  A hit song or album would bring in money but it's tough to imagine how it would be that much and even if it is, they have a lot more expenses.  They've got mansions and employees, they have expensive travel, I hear some of them even take drugs or chase women.  The women themselves would probably be pretty cheap but not the chase.  Then there's all the subordinates who probably wouldn't stay around for free.

An album can sell ten million copies and we can just assume that's profitable for everyone involved, but how much is it really?  Say it costs $15, that's $15,000,000.  The record store is going to take a big chunk of it, the record company would take an even bigger chunk.  They each have their own expenses, employees, promotion...  The rock stars would have their own accountants and lawyers who cost money, servants, maintainers of their home and equipment, bodyguards...  Everybody has to pay taxes.  Even if they get $2 out of every album sale - and I highly doubt more than a handful of any rock stars had ever gotten that high a percentage - that's still a lot of it going out, and that's only if they live sensibly.

Hopefully they get there at some point but almost nobody does that when they reach the big time and that's probably when they're having their biggest income.  Tours would be even more profitable but there would also be bigger expenses, lights and sound systems and large numbers of employees and transportation.  Then there's sharing the money with the other bandmates and manager, who each have their own staff being paid from what's coming in.

That's where I have to think investment comes in.  Sammy Hagar never expected to be as successful as he would be so as soon as he started bringing in money, he invested in businesses that didn't all hinge on a famous rock star because everything would be lost if he stopped having hits.  Despite his percentage of his Van Halen-era, he made his massive fortune by investing in a party-area down by the border and paying locals to produce tequila which became a big seller and eventually the rights were bought by a huge liquor corporation.

They're probably all doing stuff like that, at least if they have sensible managers and accountants.  So I guess that's what I'm trying to work out, what would they be investing in?  Sports and movies would probably be the most obvious options but not the only ones.  Whatever industry they go for, I have no clue how many failures there would be but I assume there'd be quite a few.

I do think the industries would turn inwards on the rockstars to focus on them.  If nothing else, that's human nature.  If you know you're working with a rich and famous person in a business, that's who you're going to pay attention to even if it has nothing to do with their record sales.  There would be internal organization to take advantage of secrets that others don't have access to and undoubtedly purging dissent from the process.

This would also apply to movie and tv stars.  There would be more, producers and directors, but this gets more into imposing their viewpoints on the world and less about making them fabulously rich.  That's where I'd like to think about as I do this.  I think we've seen this with the stolen election and the last four years of leftists pretending the election was stolen.  In a sense we've seen the media come in together to advance their power and now they're eager to shut down anyone who doesn't stay in line.  Is it conspiracies overlaid one over another or is there a main conspiracy controlling all the rest?

No way to know.  I have no expectation of ever figuring it out and probably wouldn't understand a bit of it if I did.  But I do think it's worth getting into.  If nothing else, we'll just blame Axl Rose.  He's one in a million, and there's a lot of millions out there.