For Roddy Bottum, playing keyboards in one of the most influential alternative metal bands of the ’90s was only part of his financial success story. The Faith No More and Imperial Teen musician has revealed that his true fortune didn’t come from record royalties or concert tickets, but from a $12,000 gamble on a then-struggling tech company called Apple.
In a new interview on “The Hustle: Music & Money” podcast, Bottum detailed the origin of his wealth, which he also chronicles in his memoir, “The Royal We.” According to Bottum, his entry into the stock market wasn’t driven by financial savvy, but by a desire to be “uncool” and provocative within the rigid San Francisco punk scene.
When asked how a young musician even knew to track the market over three decades ago, Bottum explained that it started as an act of rebellion against the self-serious nature of his peers.
“Part of the premise of who we were as kids and the buttons that we were pushing and the provocation that we were stewing in in San Francisco at the time was, like… I mean, you’ve gotta sort of, like, wrap your head around what San Francisco was at that time,” Bottum said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “It was bicycle messengers. It was punk rock kids. It was kids who wore black, kids who sort of were really pretty judgmental and stuck to their own lanes in terms of highbrow arts and highbrow punk rock ethics. So us as kids, me and my crew, were about sort of pushing buttons and we were really about doing things that were considered outlandish or that rubbed people the wrong way.”
One of those “outlandish” acts was monitoring Wall Street.
“And one of those things, believe it or not, was, like, yeah, we were watching the stock market, just ’cause it was so uncool and so ridiculous and so over the top. Like, what punk rock, bicycle-messengering, dreadlocked, p*t-smoking kid would follow the stock market? But that’s the kind of provocative kids that we were, particularly this boyfriend that I had at that time, my first boyfriend… He was super smart. He was a little bit older than me and he kind of tutelaged me in that way.”
The turning point came when Bottum received his first significant paycheck from Faith No More after nearly two years of touring.
“I made $12,000 after touring for probably a year and a half straight. And I was at my home in Los Angeles visiting my family for the holidays, and someone delivered that check… It was more money than I’d ever seen, of course. And my dad was super proud. He was, like, ‘Oh my God.’ He couldn’t believe that I was getting a check for $12,000.”
With low overheads and no immediate need for the cash, Bottum listened to his “insane bipolar boyfriend” and put the entire sum into Apple stock at a time when the company was near rock bottom.
“Steve Jobs wasn’t back in the company yet. We were years and years away from the iPhone. And I just bought that stock and I just let it sit.”
Bottum admits that discussing his windfall in his book raised eyebrows, with his publisher and friends asking, “Are you sure you wanna put that in the book?” However, he views the anecdote not as bragging, but as a testament to the value of his unconventional relationships.
“I think the way that I bring it up in the book, too, it’s, like, I have had insane relationships my whole life. I have been connected with and sort of friends with just absolute maniacal people my whole life… I have sort of this talent of seeing the light through the darkness in all kinds of people. And I say in the book, I say, well, oftentimes it bites me in the a** or whatever, but there’s always a payoff.”
In this specific case, the payoff was literal.
“And that is an example of sort of a payoff in terms of this boyfriend I had was unbearable. I loved him. He was amazing and so smart. And I could see that — I could see the light through the darkness in that regard. And in terms of real tangibility, yeah, he made me a millionaire. So there you go.”
While the investment has provided him with a life-changing financial “cushion,” Bottum clarified that it hasn’t dampened his artistic drive. He remains prolific, with new projects from Imperial Teen, Crickets, and Man On Man currently in the works.
“Well, there’s not an urgency to make money, I guess. I have that cushion. You’re right. That’s a luxury. But I make music every day… So it’s not like I am not doing something and I’m resting on my laurels and living off of Apple money. Sure, that’s a cushion and that’s sort of a luxury that I have. But I don’t make music for money.”
