Celeb Shot
Finding Truth and Facing Change with Business and Creativity
Hootie & the Blowfish drummer Jim Sonefeld shares the key principles — resilience, honest feedback, and business discipline — that helped his band build a strong foundation and sustain success for over 35 years in a constantly evolving industry.
How do you face an ever-changing market when you are not gifted with the perfect combination of creative skills and business acumen?
I’ve been a professional musician for over thirty-five years, as drummer/songwriter for the 1990s musical group Hootie & the Blowfish. We started playing together in college without much of a guidebook for success, but after working our tails off for five years, we were signed by Atlantic Records and saw massive multi-platinum success with our debut album, “Cracked Rear View” in 1994. We’ve been through a host of financial challenges, creative differences, and cultural shifts, but our ability to have sustained such a long career is what I am most proud of, because one of the biggest challenges of “being a band” is “staying a band”!
Endurance for a ride like ours has required the right combination of persistence, patience, skill, and yes, luck too. But there are two practices that I must give credit to for pulling us forward on this rollercoaster ride in rock-n-roll:
- Our ability to balance the artistic practice of songwriting with the business side that comes less naturally to us creative types
- Our willingness to ask tough questions and face truthful answers
Like most start-up bands, we had dreamy aspirations of hearing our songs on the radio and playing in front of big crowds, but what we lacked most was knowledge of the truth. Having a good product and a strong work ethic wasn’t enough for us. We needed to know where we really stood in our careers when we were rookies; we needed to know what resources we lacked, and we needed to find a sustainable path to get to the next level. We were entrepreneurs in the truest sense of the word; we just happened to be holding musical instruments. It would take more than just rhymes and melodies to maintain our creative business.
So, we became intentional in seeking accurate answers and advice during our pre-fame years.
- We found a trusting lawyer who was willing to give us free advice so we didn’t sign our lives away with a greedy publisher.
- We paid for an accountant who helped us stay out of financial and tax trouble by balancing what little money we had made.
- We sought counsel with an experienced producer who gave us an honest opinion of our status in the music industry, so we wouldn’t waste time with unhelpful delusions of grandeur.
Though we didn’t like all of the answers they gave us, we faced them squarely and made adjustments so our little business could move forward securely. But, thank goodness, it wasn’t only about business for the four members of Hootie & the Blowfish, because we wouldn’t have lasted a year just obsessing over business principles! The MUSIC was, and still IS at the core for us.
It’s our songs, those catchy 4-minute earworms that connect us with our audience, and that honest and emotional link that nourished our fan base and us well before radio stations began bringing our music to a giant audience. I’ve been experiencing the special power music and performance hold for almost four decades.
Hootie & the Blowfish finally did get lucky, but luck was not some random act that accidentally happened. Luck, as written on the wall in my high school gym, is what happens when “preparation meets opportunity”! TV host David Letterman heard our song “Hold My Hand” on the radio one night in September of 1994 and invited us to play it on his Late Night show, putting us on an incredible path to fame. We had prepared for that moment for years, but the timing finally became right — the opportunity finally presented itself.
So, to connect with my audiences, I combine the music and the message. They both tell the story of how to build on a dream, using not only self-driven creativity but also the knowledge and experience of others. I give them a glimpse backstage to show how my band and I triumphed while facing adversity, and adapted to the one constant we all face: change.
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