"Every year, we [traveling musicians] would converge at South by Southwest. And, every year, the thing that we would be scared of was seeing which band didn't make it that year, either through some sort of sickness or some crazy car accident," Ayers said. "There's this constant fear deep down in every band, where we can't believe we stayed healthy."
"Ayers, a musician from Burlington, Vermont, moved to Oakland in 1997 and, in the early 2000s, formed the band The Lovemakers under the stage name Scott Blonde alongside bandmate Lisa Light. In 2016, Ayers purchased the bar in Rockridge alongside record producer and music lawyer Jeff Saltzman, best known for representing bands such as Green Day, The Offspring, Primus, Testament, Papa Roach, Rancid, Mudhoney, and Filter."
Scott Ayers experienced the insecurity of touring musicians lacking steady pay and health insurance. Ayers moved from Burlington, Vermont to Oakland in 1997 and formed The Lovemakers in the early 2000s under the stage name Scott Blonde. In 2016 Ayers purchased a bar in Rockridge with record producer and music lawyer Jeff Saltzman. Ayers met Kirk Crenshaw when a rainstorm forced a Tommy Stinson show to move from a backyard to the bar, creating an unexpected partnership. Crenshaw proposed hosting private benefit shows at the bar to raise proceeds for musicians' healthcare subsidies. Sofaburn Inc. launched in 2020 to provide health subsidies after pandemic lockdowns devastated musicians' incomes.
Read at The Oaklandside
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