When Economists, Rock Stars IntersectMARCH 3, 2011
By Conor Dougherty
There are at least two Tom Stinsons from Minnesota. One of them is Thomas Stinson, the state?s economist. The other, more famous Stinson, goes by Tommy, and was the bassist for The Replacements, the seminal ?80s punk band from Minneapolis. While the two men could not have more different occupations, over the years Tom Stinson, the economist, has endured numerous phone calls from Replacements fans looking to chat with Tommy Stinson, the rocker.
?We would get phone calls at two or three or even four o?clock in the morning from people who had been heavily indulging in recreational chemicals and they were wanting to talk to ?the greatest bass player in the world? and when I would tell them I wasn?t that person they would get upset,? reports Mr. Stinson, the economist, who has a slow, careful speech that is much more economist than rock star.
The Replacements, for the uninitiated, were formed in Minneapolis in the late ?70s by Mr. Stinson (the bassist, not the economist) along with his brother Bob, frontman Paul Westerberg and drummer Chris Mars. Some of their early shows were at now-closed Jay?s Longhorn Bar, which, like Tommy Stinson, also shared a tenuous economics connection: The downtown Minneapolis venue was just a few blocks from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve bank.
The Replacements were never a huge success, but today are considered one of rock?s most influential acts, known for their heavily inebriated performances and a punk-pop sound with earnest (sometimes painfully earnest) lyrics. Without The Replacements, there is no Nirvana. But the band never quite reached its potential, a fact often attributed to their inability to stay (or play) sober. The Replacements were banned from Saturday Night Live after playing the show drunk and screaming profanity at the audience.
Mr. Stinson, the economist, is originally from Washington state but has been in Minnesota since the 1970s. He became the state economist in 1987 (the same year The Replacements released ?Pleased to Meet Me?), and started getting fan calls a year or so later.
?After a number of calls waking my wife and me up in the middle of the night I began to hope that what was happening is journalists were calling Tommy the guitar player up at 10 or 11 in the morning asking him his opinion of the latest economic data,? Mr. Stinson says.
Thomas Stinson remembers one late night phone call in which he told the caller: ?Only an idiot from California would call at this time of night.? The caller replied: ?This is so f? weird. First off, you have the same name as Tommy Stinson and second, you knew I was from California,? the economist Stinson remembers.
For the record, Thomas Stinson isn?t a Replacements fan and never had the pleasure of attending one of the band?s notorious shows (?But, then, I suspect Tommy Stinson has never been to a forecast release?).
Calls to Thomas Stinson?s house stopped shortly after The Replacements broke up in the early 1990s. Tommy Stinson joined Guns ?N Roses and moved to Los Angeles. There was another flurry of calls ? many from journalists ? a few years later when Bob Stinson died after years of drug and alcohol abuse. Today, Thomas Stinson?s phone is mostly quiet.
UPDATE: When asked for a comment, a spokesman for Tommy Stinson said, ?Tommy is too busy today to make a quote, but he?d already heard about [this post] and thought the whole thing was funny.?
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/03/03/when-economists-rock-stars-intersect/
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