'This Rhetoric Is Unhealthy for Young Musicians' - Fit For a King Bassist Calls Out Periphery Guitarist Over Gloomy Financial Band Predictions

Fit for a King bassist Ryan "Tuck" O'Leary has taken exception to recent comments made by Periphery guitarist Misha Mansoor on the financial state of touring for aspiring young bands and called out the musician for the bleak projection he shared.

Specifically, O'Leary disputed Mansoor's claims that bands need to have other means of support in order to keep their musical pursuits going.

What Did Misha Mansoor Say About the Financial Concerns for Young Bands?

While guesting on Nik Nocturnal's podcast, Mansoor addressed the challenges faced by young bands and emphasized how pertinent it is for bands to be aware of the current financial landscape.

“I’d say it’s probably more relevant than ever," Mansoor said (as transcribed by ThePRP). "People always got the wrong message from what I was saying because I did this interview with Rick Beato and that was my point, like, hey, you’re going to need side hustles. You’re going to need income streams and those take a while. … Those take a while to build and to bear fruit, if they’re going to bear any at all. So start early."

The guitarist added: "This is stuff that we did from the beginning, and any band would benefit from knowing this information from the beginning, rather than believing like, ‘Ah, man, if you just believe it hard enough, you just have to want it more than the next guy, you’re going to make it. The music will be enough.’ Being just a musician is just not enough for most people to make [it]. If it is, it’s great."

Mansoor emphasized that he wasn't complaining about his financial status or Periphery's success. "People always took away from it, ‘Oh, Misha‘s complaining he doesn’t make money with Periphery.’ It’s like, no, I don’t care that I don’t make money with Periphery, because I use it as the nucleus for all my other stuff that does make me money so that I can have a life," he said.

"I did this because I started these things very, very early on," he continued. "And if I hadn’t done that, I probably would have quit the band by now, because I wouldn’t have been able to afford to continue being in a band. I think nowadays, dude, I don’t know how bands who rely just on the band are going to survive the next few years."

Mansor then listed several specific challenges for actively touring bands trying to make ends meet, including the skyrocketing costs of buses, a shortage of crew members, higher guarantees for opening bands on a tour package and more. Even when headliners fetch higher guarantees, their money doesn't go as far.

"So now, on all ends, there’s just not enough money to go around, and basically as anyone who’s in a band knows, you’re the last one to get paid," Mansoor explained. "Your crew gets paid. Your manager, your business manager, your booking agent, they all get paid. ... If your business manager is smart, he’ll do a 40 percent tax hold back on whatever money that you get after it’s split five, six ways."

Based on Mansoor's examples, it's easy to see how a band's earnings quickly dwindle. "What’s left over for the band is usually little to nothing and everyone else will get paid — and they should get paid, because they’re working very hard," he said. "There’s very little to go around. So I don’t really know how bands are going to survive this without something changing. And I don’t really know what that is. I think the next few years are going to be pretty tough for a lot of bands that don’t have side hustles or ... ancillary income to help justify the the little to no money they’ll make on tour."

What Does Misha Mansoor Think Bands Should Be Doing?

Elsewhere in the chat, Nocturnal addressed Mansoor's concerns and discussed some creative ways for bands to supplement their income, such as Patreon exclusives, tablature books and giving music lessons.

"That’s exactly what they should be doing," Mansoor said. "And that’s what I was trying to say all along. Just like, ‘Hey, your band’s not going to make any money. Do the other stuff.’ And who knows where it may lead? Yeah, maybe at first it’s just lessons. Maybe at first it’s just this. Maybe at first it’s just YouTube. Who knows where that leads? Now you’re opening a door to other possibilities.

"But you know what? What won’t help is just sitting there and being like, ‘Well, I hope the band makes enough to survive.’ Because even if it did five years ago, it doesn’t anymore. Because you are earning maybe 10 to 20 percent more and the costs of everything are doubled. And there is no business model that would survive that."

Mansoor concluded: "Imagine that you’re running a business and your cost of goods and services doubles. That just ruins most businesses. That makes them insolvent, you know? So what is the answer to that? The answer is you have to do other stuff, whether you like it or not.”

Periphery's Misha Mansoor Guests on the Nik Nocturnal Podcast

What Did Ryan 'Tuck' O'Leary Dispute About Misha Mansoor's Comments?

The Fit for a King bassist shared his thoughts about Mansoor's interview on social media, accusing the guitarist of delivering a doom-laden narrative.

“Rich guy in a band said you need a side hustle because he doesn’t understand how budgets work," O'Leary wrote on X on Monday. "@NikNocturnal talk to someone that’s not a f---ing idiot and actually makes a living touring. This rhetoric is unhealthy for young musicians."

When one fan challenged O'Leary on his comment, suggesting that Mansoor was trying to point out how inflation has killed the margins, O'Leary countered: "Bands are also charging double for shirts and are getting paid a lot more. I would fully disagree with you on the 'can’t play 500 caps and survive.' Doesn’t mean you’re 'roughing' it in a van either."

Responding to another user who argued that it's harder than ever to make ends meet while pursuing artistic endeavors, O'Leary said: "It’s always been hard. People have always had to hustle. Not a weird take, just speaking from my experience as a player, manager, etc."

In the same thread, others accused O'Leary of simply being jealous and noted the irony that, as a member of multiple bands and a manager, O'Leary is, in fact, diversifying his income stream — which is exactly what Mansoor suggested in his podcast appearance.

Fit for a King released their most recent album, Lonely God, in 2025. Periphery will return with A Pale White Dot on Friday.

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