In a new interview with Reno’s rock radio station Rock 104.5, Doug “Dug” Pinnick was asked if KING’S X has finally become a profitable venture for him and his bandmates, more than four decades after the group’s inception. The 71-year-old bassist/vocalist responded: “No, it’s never been profitable. We’ve never recouped all the (funds) that the record companies put into us. Even our current label InsideOut, we owe them a couple of hundred thousand dollars, ’cause they haven’t recouped from the last couple of records. Our former label Atlantic Records we owe five million or four million to — something like that… Three — I’m not sure. It’s in the millions somewhere they spent on us. Everybody that’s ever signed us has always lost money, and so we’ve never made any money off of record sales. The only way we make a living is going on tour, and hopefully when people come to see us play we’ll get a paycheck for that and merchandise. And KING’S X fans love to buy our merch ’cause they know that that’s what supports us. But other than that, sometimes — well, not sometimes. We all have to do outside things to make ends meet.”

He continued: “I just do side projects. I go get a record deal and pay the bills for a couple of months. Ty (Tabor, guitar) masters things; Jerry (Gaskill, drums) does stuff. None of us go to nine-to-five jobs; we don’t do that. But something about what we can do. We have value in the marketplace, so we can do clinics, we can do things like that. Or I do handwritten lyrics — KING’S X lyrics that I wrote, I’ll write ’em out on black paper in silver ink, sign it and put a date on it. I’ve written hundreds of them. … So it all works out. And at my age now, I get social security. And when I started getting social security about three years ago, that’s when I stopped worrying because my social security will pay my rent. The rest of it I can do. I can get on a street corner and play guitar and I can get five dollars. I can call a friend up and say, ‘Hey, I ain’t got no money. Can you feed me today?’ And they’ll say, ‘Yeah, let’s eat.’ But paying your rent — you want your rent paid; you don’t want to depend on other people. And also I have a dUg signature pedal and I have a signature bass and a 12-string bass, and people buy ’em. And so every now and then I get that six-month check, which helps. So it’s all good.”