"To the extent that '60s guys own things, yes... but I don't have the publishing, just like most '60s guys, and that was an error, you know... part ownership in publishing was the kind of era that started a little bit later, when real businessmen started to manage artists"

John Sebastian is describing the music industry in the 1960s. He is stating that most artists from that age did not own the publishing rights to their music, which was a mistake. This was because the era of real business people handling artists and having part ownership in publishing rights did not begin until later on. Sebastian is suggesting that if artists from the '60s had taken ownership of their music, they would have been able to gain from the success of their tunes. He is also suggesting that artists today should take ownership of their music in order to ensure that they have the ability to benefit from its success.