Kenny G, who has earned big bucks for his stint as a jazz musician, wakes up every morning to Starbucks… but not to drink coffee. Instead, the man whose real name is Kenny Gorelick, keeps tabs on the company’s stock price.
In fact, the saxophonist, who once played at former US president Bill Clinton’s inaugural ball, was one of the first investors in the Seattle-based chain. He was introduced to Starbucks chief Howard Schultz through an uncle before the company went public, and soon bought a stake. Shares are up more than 12,000 per cent since beginning public trade.
That success helped spark a stockpicking habit that consumes his attention as his music-earning potential is slowly being eaten away by online piracy and digital music, which pays less than physical album sales.
The Grammy Award-winning artiste spends his mornings in front of his computer screen, trading blocs of shares of the companies listed on his portfolio. Over the last decade, he has earned about as much money from stock trading as from music. As far as stock performance goes, “I have a good batting average but I’m definitely not perfect,” he said.
The musician topped the contemporary jazz sales charts for several years running in the 1990s and his 2010 album hit jazz’s top 10. “
Kenny still has “a fair amount” of his original shares in Starbucks Corp and watches the stock price every day. Yet, he tries to keep himself from getting caught up in every change of the ticker. “I can get emotional in my music, but try to make more sense when it comes to trading,” he commented.
