[Rick Lee]

They have to make money on touring now. How can they not, unless they have a totally corrupt manager? $35 for a t-shirt and people line up to buy them. $20 for a tour book, which is basically a magazine with photos from the previous tour, and people line up for them. VH has special packages where you can pay $500 or so and get into the soundcheck, meet them all, get your photo with them.

Neil Peart talks a little about the costs in a few of his books. After his five year hiatus, he realized he didn't have enough money to retire on and so he got back into playing, did an album, tour, another tour leg, concert DVD and 30th anniv. tour and abother concert dvd from that .... all from that one album. I think that helped out their finances a bit. Last tour did pretty well too. He wrote that they have credit cards for the tour and pay for everything on them. His costs are a lot lower than the other guys, since he rides his motorcycle to every show and stays in cheap hotels to keep away from fans. Remember, those guys don't pay a dime for their instruments or supplies. All endorsements and the UPS guy regularly visits the places they play to drop off cases of stick, picks, cymbals, amps, strings, you name it.