This was posted on Facebook by Guitarist Janet Robin.
One of my all time favs- Rickie Lee Jones- a pioneer in women singer-songwriters, a cross-genre bending force of nature, musical genius, is in “dire financial need”… like many of us musicians, we can’t tour, we can release new music, but that doesn’t pay us much anymore. And if we can’t tour it’s tough to promote the new music. We can do streaming shows- but again, we can’t perform in a multi-city tour across the country or overseas. I am grateful for teaching guitar, doing sessions, playing streaming shows and doing whatever I can to keep paying bills and move forward. We are all doing the best we can under these crazy circumstances.
What gets me is that this is Rickie…multi-platinum 2 time Grammy winner Rickie Lee Jones. Maybe she made some bad financial and personal decisions in the past? Maybe she didn’t save her money? Maybe she got screwed by management and record labels (probably that), but seriously, where is our music industry??? WHERE ARE YOU??? You’ve taken all our royalties away, you’ve taken all of our merch away, (can’t sell cd’s anymore because no one can play them), and now you pay us 1 cent or 1/2 cent on every stream.
I guess I’m not shocked that someone like Rickie Lee Jones is asking for donations and tips on Venmo and Paypal. All of us musicians are doing the same, but I guess I thought, well, given her past accolades, accomplishments, and wealth of work, she would be ok in a situation like this. Indeed, I was wrong.
I know we are all hurting and we are all trying to get through this. Please WEAR A DAMN MASK so we can beat this Pandenmic and ALL go back to work. And, so us musicians can get back out on the road and bring music to you live, and in person.