There’s an old saying that the guy who becomes the manager is the guy that owns the truck, and it’s kind of simplistic, but in a way it’s, there’s no school, there’s no college curse, okay? I would have to say the most important thing that a manager can have is passion. If he can have passion for what he’s doing anybody, nearly, with a brain can be a manager, but it’s the thing you gotta sit there and you gotta be passionate about that act, you gotta eat, breathe, and sleep that act. I wish I could say go to school and take that course, go to school, and take this course; I don’t think that’s the way it works, and now there are guys who have become managers that have gone to work in management firms or have gone to work in agencies and seen how the business works. I understand that and then they step out of that and they go into management; that might be their long-term goal, but you can’t go anywhere to learn the business. You gotta be passionate about the artist, you gotta believe in him, and you gotta work you ass off to make sure that you explore every avenue for him to develop as an artist and that’s what it mostly takes.
I know it sounds simplistic, but I mean all the managers that I know, and the great managers that I know; John Landale was a journalist, Cliff Bernstein at QPrime was like a college booker, okay? Roger Davies with Tina Turner, who is a great manager, he was just a music fan like me. You know, they’re not really skilled guys. I mean I’m sure there are some lawyers out there that maybe became managers for whatever reason I don’t know because it’s really rolling the dice, okay? And that’s another you gotta be, we live on percentages. We’re the only guy out there that’s living on percentages, us and the agencies, but the agencies are loaded with acts, they got 70 of them, 80 of them, 100 of them. They got film people, they got screenwriters, they got everybody in these big agencies. Okay? We got these, this is all we’re living on is a percentage. The lawyer’s billing us time, the record company’s owning the masters, they own everything we do so the manager’s just rolling the dice hoping that his act will hit, and I don’t, maybe I guess the one trait he oughta have is he oughta be passionate, he’s got to be able to be a gambler. You gotta gamble.
When it comes to how hands on one has to be, I’ve made mistakes by tailoring artists. I mean I’ve had, I can speak all about the winners, but I’ve had lots of failures too, and the biggest failures that I’ve had is I tried to see, I took my vision of the artist was more strong, more powerful than his own and I tried to mold him to what I though he should be. That’s wrong, okay, and it’s never worked. The artists have to have the vision, I’ve gotta just expand that and do the best I can. So hands on, listen, I’ve gotta believe in what you’re doing as an artist. I’m not going to pick your music. Will I have an opinion? Of course I’ll have an opinion. Will the guy say do you like this song? Of course I’ll have, do you like this picture? Of course I’ll have an opinion and I a lot of times I’ll fight for my opinion; I think my opinion’s better than his when it comes to marketing. When it comes to music I realize that that guy has to stand up there for the next 20 years of his life singing that song. If I like the song and he can’t stand it, I gotta lose that argument. Okay? I have to lose it. When it comes to other things, like people say, “What do you do for them with do you get involved in their taxes, and do you get involved in their business?” No. My job’s to get them a tax problem it’s their job to go solve it. Okay? Too many, I’m not trained to do that. I’m not an accountant. Okay? My job is to get them to that stage; somebody else can look after that. Too many managers have lost their jobs by thinking I’m going to take care of money and I’m going to invest it in these apartments or I’m going to buy this or I’m going to do this for you and then if those things go horribly wrong and then all of the sudden they’re questioning every decision.
When it comes to how many acts you can have in your roster, if you’re going to be hands on at all and not turn it over to a lackey in the office and say, “I’ll tell you what, we’re going to sign you, I think you’re a great act, but on your day to day work you’re going to talk to Sam over there and if you ever get in a problem with Sam, he can’t deliver, then Sam will come to me and I’ll help you.” If I was an artist sitting there and some manager said to me, some person said to me, a manager said to me that’s the way it’s going to be I would walk out the door because I came to this office to be represented by you, not Sam, not some guy that worked in the office for a year and is a bit of an intern, he’s going to go out there and deal with you on a day to day basis. I don’t believe in that thing. It’s the day to day things that make an artist big; it’s the day to day mistakes that an artist blows his career up. Okay? I believe I can only, I’m right at my max now, I don’t know if I could do any more than four and I’m struggling because I got this new band and if I really, what goes through my head here every day, if I took that one hour out that I had to work on this new band and put it into the guy who’s selling three million records, can I take that hour and move him up that five percent which will generate a lot more money to him and a lot more money to me than this act will if I give them that hour and take them up to $200.00 a night to 250 bucks. And that’s what’s happened to the rock business now is those acts who are out there working for nothing. Music has been devalued so these bands, these young bands, 500 bucks a night, 250 bucks a night, it’s obscene that people work for gas money, but that’s what’s happened to our industry.
[End of Audio]
