The Snowball Gathers Speed

It took us months to convince her to take part in the massive GAP television and print campaign and we actually missed the first run, because she wouldn’t do it until she felt comfortable in finding products of theirs that she liked. You have to applaud that but, it makes your job so difficult and then you have to scurry around the answers and solutions.

We took the single, “Video” to radio and the reception was good, but far from great. A tremendous amount of this business has and will always be based on what we call the “radio story”, how well a record is doing at radio, what size is the listening audience and what type of reaction there is. Radio is the primary driver, but not in this case.

The primary driver was word of mouth, nonetheless, radio helped connect the dots.
You had people finally hearing the artist that they heard “buzz” on, and people remembering her from the samplers an snippet campaign months before; an instant “Oh yeah, I know this song”. The song also personified her position as the anti-star with its lyrical content.

The lyrics became fodder for conversation, “Man, did you hear that song with the girl saying she don’t shave her legs?” and then the pulse of self esteem issues really kicked in and people just started “relating” to her. We were now able to get further in the press due to so many angles.

There was no preconceived agenda on her part, but there was plenty on ours like, positioning her early without genre tagging, the focusing on self esteem issues, down to Kedar’s use of the peacock feathers on her album cover because of the symbolism attached that would be recognized by African American women.

We were finding the angles, she was just being herself, but that drove us to unique arenas. Another thing I feel was a massive boost early on was we toured her in the U.K first, where she was instantly embraced and the media loved her. That very important U.K. press washed back into the U.S, where it becomes a primary driver of hipster consumer base. It lends great validation and far too often is ignored.

It also helped us strategically land the tour in which India would be introduced to the U.S. audience, the Sade tour.
India became a “hot ticket” in London and Stuart Matthewman caught the show, the next night bringing Sade herself and her niece. Without a booking agent, we suddenly had a massive tour presented to us and one with anticipation, as Sade hadn’t toured the U.S in years. I had already somewhat committed to India touring with Maxwell, so I had some untangling to do, as the Sade tour served our purposes much better.

It was time to find a booking agent, which is no easy feat in this business for a new act; however the phones were ringing off the hook from the crème de la crème of agents. We made a decision in a very unconventional manner. The agent we settled on was the least powerful, but he really needed India because at the time his career was in question and his mom was ill. We felt that made sense, because you want to be where you are needed, not just wanted and it made us feel good to do something nice.

The other agents were power hitters and would do just fine without India. It was something of a karma move and she understood that. The competing agents didn’t get that, so I lost a few “new” friends.

There were two phone calls around this time that were significant in different ways. One was from the artist I was managing on Capitol, she simply said to me, “India is taking my slot, but that’s ok, she’s great and I want you to win.” Fucking heartbreaking for me to hear that, because I wish things had been different and the Capitol artist went on to scale those heights, she deserved it and would have been humbled by it.

Instead of turning into a jealous artist, she turned into a cheerleader and I loved her even more for that, but it broke my heart that I couldn’t get it to happen for her.

Riding the Rocket

There are no better hubs of community activity and social gathering than barbershops and beauty parlors in the south; it’s a way of life. That was one of many guerilla activities that was launched for this record, and one that I felt made a tremendous impact to move it towards tipping point. Word of mouth is a powerful tool.

Another process that began early was tacking snippets of India’s songs onto Motown soundtrack CDs, allowing the targeted consumer to hear it months early.
The heat started to build and was palpable but not by standard measure, it was ground swell of people talking about her. She had early support from Creative Loafing, weekly newspaper out of Atlanta that was and is very “tastemaker” and extremely influential.

Much like the Norah Jones phenomenon, a lot of India’s inertia was purely people telling each other about it and that my friends, is the real key. As the first single was readied for radio, press began interest in earnest. I can remember many midnight calls between us and the publicity crew, going over plans and strategy.

That was also an essential cog, everyone around this record felt the build and all worked far beyond the call of duty on a daily basis. You really felt you were part of something magical and that made everyone take far more emotional stock in the project than just “working a record”.

Serena Gallagher, who was head of Motown publicity at the time and our independent publicist, Tracy Miller, were pivotal and worked constantly on trying to find early believers in this artist. We also had a great back story on her, with her dad being an NBA star, her parents’ divorce and her adamant desire to be portrayed as herself and not a made up glamour queen, that central core of India becoming the “face” of a self love, self esteem position.

She was so fierce in her desire to be real, that when the photos came back for the album cover, she was pissed that they were airbrushed and demanded they go back to the original form. Her desire being based in, “I have bad skin and I want my fans to know I have bad skin.” How’s that for honesty in a business where the superficial is paramount? Can you imagine most artists wanting their bad skin to be seen?

The exact opposite results in daily blow ups with most artists, screaming about bad photos, but India wanted it all to be real and that started to connect with people who also wanted music to be real. This is not something new, as it is the core of many artists like Bruce Springsteen; it was very new in the world on R&B at the time, when glamour and opulence ruled.

It could also prove to be a detriment as she would decline doing things that could have spread the word even further or made her tremendous amounts of money. I had to respect her beliefs and support them, but at the same time try to build a career and expand her profile.

I remember one time having to turn down a massive synch license fee because she didn’t use the product (soap) and had no desire to even try the product out to see if she liked it and would switch brands. Things like that were daunting.

This rocket ride wasn’t all peaches and cream, but we’ll save the negative for later.

DNA and Stretching the Restraint

There is not enough space to go through the details of this set up, and some things are better left for private consumption (and future use!). One of the first pieces of any puzzle is identifying the potential consumer; doing something I call the “police sketch”.

You take what you assume to be the targeted consumer and just give it some thought; what do they do, what do they read, what do they watch, what do they eat, where do they go?

Now of course, that generalization is silly and you can’t possibly predict or know for certain the life style habits of someone, but at the very least you can broaden your own horizons of not thinking a restrictive or assuming fashion.

It’s just as effective as all of the high technology methods in use today, with the exception of not being able to trace Internet habits, which indeed give a bigger clue.

I always say one of the most important things I have ever learned in business came from a quote of Mike Tyson. He said when asked why he jogs at 4 a.m., “Because I know my opponents are home sleeping.” Brilliant!

Even in the case of something like print advertising (an archaic, dinosaur thing), when you have a multitude of records being advertised in groovy colored ads, all sparkly and shit, in a magazine where that type of advertising is the norm, it all becomes one giant blur and regardless of how snappy your ad is, it blends into the landscape and its effect is diminished by the competitions ad on the next page.

One time we did a survey of our data base, and found a high percentage of them read a certain magazine that had nothing to do with music, as well as reading the usual suspects.

When we looked at that magazine, we found no music related advertising, but yet we had a huge number of music fans reading it.

It didn’t take a genius to realize that by advertising there, it would stand out more than it would in the music magazine, and we would reach the bulk of the same demographic with no competition. We were jogging at four a.m.!

Not that I am saying print advertising works, it is merely one of many repeated impressions needed to connect the dots. I am saying you need to think out of the box, always.
It’s an unfortunate trait of human nature to tag, assume, profile and compartmentalize in general.

It’s not only the basis for prejudice; it eliminates discovery and our ability to broaden our horizons. Same can be said when assuming an artist’s fans.

You have to minimize the constriction of the moniker and assumption. I have a dear friend who did a masterful job of managing a new, up and coming metal band. I would play devil’s advocate and my constant argument was to lose the tag metal.

Bring it into a wider thought frame, how about just rock? The common denominator is rock, regardless of how the DNA splintered, the core nucleus is rock and if you take further into fragmenting, the commonality is guitars.

Even if you can get only .5% of “rock” fans to like the band, you have escaped the restriction of being tagged “metal” and have cast the wider net. You look deeper into the commonality and lose the blinders of assumption.

Eminem has the same DNA as Bob Dylan. Why? Because both are masterful lyricists and though they have completely different impetus to draw from, and “speak” to different lifestyles, they share the commonality of a poet.

A big reach, but that is an idea of not isolating the artist to boundaries.
From day one with India, when I was asked to describe her music, I always answered with, “It sounds like India.Arie and its good music.” I encouraged everyone to use that answer. Simple; it is good music.

That was my intention from the start, to make sure she wasn’t typecast into restriction. One of the first components of this almost year long set up, was CD samplers sent to a vast number of beauty salons and barber shops in the south.

The 4 a.m. ideology again as the point was to ship them to where it mattered most, and where the competition was not.

Set Up and Lift Off

Setting up India’s record was a long and well executed plan. Far too often records are released prematurely with no demand or consumer awareness, a lot of time is this done simply for a label to meet numbers and have something to ship, to feed the distribution pipeline.

Sometimes it’s at the behest of a manager thinking they have the next Beatles and people are salivating for the product. In today’s climate, the tea leaves are even more blurred by false readings of indicators on the Internet, such as “plays”, “hits” and “friends” on the myriad social sites, all of which can be easily manipulated to show excitement and growth.

As in the case of India, it was a well thought out marketing plan and executed flawlessly, but keep in mind one thing; it all begins and ends with the artist and this artist had talent way above the bar, she was truly special in her gift and our job was to simply expose people to it and hope it would convert, and convert it did.

Without getting all Malcolm Gladwell on you, there has to be a tipping point where all the dots connect and the record takes on a life on its own, driven by organic inertia. That very salient and valuable word of mouth is ultimately decides the fate of virtually everything thrust on the public.

You are more likely to try a new restaurant based on friend recommendations, than just stopping in there because you like the looks of it. Word of mouth can destroy a multimillion dollar Hollywood ad campaign for a new film in an instant. It drives us to buy books, see film, watch TV, and try a new store, recipe or cold remedy. It is the ultimate marketing tool.

You can create the initial inertia using a variety of life support systems, but in the end, it either catches or it doesn’t, and truly the public decides.
Far too often labels use a “cookie cutter” approach to a marketing plan and even more damaging, do not read the signs along the way of what is working and what is not. There has to be a constant flow of data and assessment as to what is working and where to go next.

With India, there were a multitude of “tipping points”, each one added massive steam to the engine and expanding her demographics along the way. Also with India, this was a true and real artist, who would not do anything she felt was a compromise to her art and self beliefs, which actually made it difficult at times.

One time she told me “I never wanted to be a star.” And I even think she was angry that she was getting so big. She truly played music for the pure love of it and her mission was to spread that joy, not earn millions of dollars. Somehow we were able to do both.

In the beginning I told her, “Just listen to me for one year and I promise you will have not just a hit record, but a career.” During many disagreements and arguments, she would only back down because of that deal and she is fiercely protective of her word and her honesty. She would also ask me, “Why are you so mean to people?” and I would have to explain that I was because I was protecting her and that was my job sometimes.

Yes, this was a very unique artist and a very unique situation. Coupled with me and Kedar at each other constantly, it was a real interesting ride for everyone.

I don’t think there has been enough credit given to Reen Nalli for India’s career, and I want to make mention of that now. Reen found her in Atlanta and set up the meetings to bring India to the attention of Universal and ultimately Kedar “getting it” and signing her.

I don’t think anyone but Kedar would have signed her because she truly fit no standard mold, which was also the reason why her success was enormous.

It’s always the act “against the grain” of current trend, that rises to the top and sets off an explosion. We are too busy chasing the current trend to ever find a way to start a new one. A real epidemic of the music business.

Building Steam and Butting Heads

We all have our own ways, our own beliefs and most of us can be considered outside of the norm, though I never really understood who set the foundation for norm. My biggest fear is those who seem so quaint and perfect, you know the white picket fence, 3.5 kids and mini-van. Those types typically have the most skeletons dancing away in their closets. I have always surrounded myself with people deemed by society as eccentric and I have been deemed the king of eccentricity. Fortunately I have never had a mini-van.

So India asked me to speak with a woman she referred to as her “godmother”. I had no problem doing that and I thought she was being cautious. The godmother turned out to be one of the many psychics and spiritual advisors I met along the way of managing India. I guess my vibe, stars and aura was good, because I got the job.

With my mojo intact and my stars aligned, I set out to manage who I felt was one of the most extraordinary natural talents I have ever seen or heard on my life. I knew everyone at Universal from my years working closely with Atlantic, I did not however, know Kedar Massenberg and he didn’t know anything about me. It began adversarial and remained that way for a very long time.

I think Kedar is brilliant and is skilled at finding, supporting and breaking talent. He had no idea who I was and knew nothing of my background, but saw me as an interloper and perhaps assumed I was a “manager” like all the other managers’ labels had to deal with, with is essentially the roadie is a suit.

It was major head butting time from day one. He had very clear ideas on what to do with India, and I did as well. Sometimes those ideas overlapped and supported each other; sometimes they were diametric in opposition. In hindsight, I think this tension with Kedar forced both of us to try to outdo each other, and oddly enough, that benefitted the record and the artist. Kedar and I secretly admired each other but we were cut of the same cloth and both very aggressive.

It got to the point where our conversations were delivered via his assistant talking to my assistant. Its funny thinking back, but we were like two high school kids, neither willing to give in.

Most people I knew in the business had no idea what I saw in India and would question that. They were so used to cookie cutter and fitting things into boxes. They said, “She’s not really urban, not really pop, and not really rock. You’re going to have a hard time breaking her.” I would respond with, “It’s good music and that is all that matters.”

My focus from day one was to avoid India being typecast into any genre or any mold, no preconceived notions and no parameters to hold her back. My thoughts then and my thoughts now are the same; if the music is good you then need to find people who agree with that.

It begins and ends with the music and as much as we can sustain and create false perception using life support, in the end it will crash and burn if the music sucks. That theory is obviously not applicable to “celebrity” and sometimes celebrity alone is enough of a driver/connector to rise above mediocre talent.

There is probably no one better at setting up an artist in urban than Kedar was, and his marketing skills are second to none. The biggest conflict between me and him was, he saw her as an urban artist and I saw her as an artist. Again, that worked to our advantage, as we both did what we did best and blurred the lines in the process. I always look for the “hook”, not just in the song but in the image, the package.

Sometimes that’s impossible to find and I think plays a lot into what is wrong with the business today, too many faceless artists that don’t connect on any level except a song or two.

With India, the hook to me, was her anti-star posture in an era of sexy and bling. Her emotional connection was far greater, she was all about being real and loving yourself regardless of being or not being, picture perfect. That was the thing that set her apart for me, besides her devastating talent and amazing voice.

Here was a girl who sang, “I’m not the average girl in the video, I ain’t built like a super model, but I learned to love myself unconditionally, because I am a queen.” The first line of that song being, “Sometimes I shave my legs, sometime I don’t.” That mantra and persona was right in the middle of the most opulent and superficial time in music. India “spoke” to the masses with her message of self esteem and self love.

That was the key for me, connecting that portion of her to everyone, not just fans of urban music, but everyone. Every single human being on this planet has or at one had self esteem issues. By focusing in on that “sell point” with India, we were able to cast a very wide net and blow past any restrictions of genre.

We had two amazing publicists on the project, our internal Motown one and an outsourced on we added to the team, leaving the ability to go after not only traditional music press but life style and human interest. Again, the net was cast wide and when that happens, you are dealing with math. If an artist is exposed to ten people and ten percent connect you have one new fan.

The bigger sea you throw the bait in, the bigger potential fan. Very simple, but forgotten far too often in a business that immediately puts monikers and genre specific tags on an artist, thereby eliminating the possibility to find new fans along the way. Keeping a core fanbase happy while expanding demographics is a tricky task, but can be done and should be done with every artist.

The Path To The Grammys

I had gotten into the habit of never going into the city. After decades of that commute and seeing the Sun rise far too many times (and almost crashing many cars due to be tired), I avoided meetings like the plague. I would usually have my staff, partners and lawyers take the meeting and I would appear on speaker box. Donnie referred to it as “Charlie”, like in “Charlie’s Angels.

Plus, for me to take meetings meant losing a whole day and with the size of our roster, I couldn’t lose an hour let alone a day. I was once the life of every party, first to show up and last to leave, now I cultivated a question across the entire industry, “did you ever meet Jack in person? It went so far as to this rapper giving me a shout out in a song, with the lyrics, “You can’t see me just like Jack Ponti.”

I heard there were bets on me showing up at Madison Square Garden when India played there. I went and a lot of people must have lost money. So now we are doing this deal with Sony but there is this independent label attached to it.

I am a pit-bull for independent labels and I have a real respect for them, especially knowing the history of this business and how virtually every major label was once an indie. They were our ears and eyes back in the day, and truly remain our ears and eyes today. In my opinion, they are the only hope for moving forward in the current climate. However, some independent labels can be a noose and harm the artist. In the case of this artist, it was somewhere in between.

Needless to say a deal was made (not cutting them out) and we moved forward with the record, executive produced by Eminem himself and Marshall cool enough to be in the video and appear on the first single. You’d think that was a slam dunk, having the most influential rapper of that time so deeply entrenched in the record. Nothing is for certain in this crazy fucking business.

Lots of label politics ensue to get an artist to guest appear on a record, lots of issues to come to terms with. The consumer sees collaboration and thinks how nice and cool and warm and fuzzy that is, but sometimes it’s like moving a mountain to clear the legal issues to get that to happen. The premise is simple, as in the dilemma; why should we give you a performance of our artist for your label to earn you money? Makes sense, right? So lawyers, business affairs, managers, Humpty and even fucking Dumpty, have to come to terms and agreements.

That usually comes in the form of a trade or barter; “we get to use one of your artists on one of our records and videos in return”. It also comes with points and profit participation, known as an over ride. It should also come with a case of Preparation H and some Vaseline.

This appearance of Eminem in the both the single and video was made easier by Marshall himself being cool enough to talk to his label and get it cleared. It helped me down the line on some other things. During this era it was common for producers to “sell” tracks that featured a famous singer, singing the hook or a famous rapper doing a few bars. The labels would stumble all over themselves to buy the track, pay the producer, pay the guest artist and then find out that the other label wouldn’t allow that performance, they wouldn’t grant clearance at all. Tough shit, but they never learned and still fell for it years later.

I was also amused to see a trend of writers getting paid for a song. Now a writer gets paid royalties and if they have a publishing deal, they have an advance as well. Somehow it became the norm to also pay them for the use of a song, which is actually wrong and if that deal is struck, then the money should go to the publisher to pay back the advance, however that never happened. I really tried to make sure our writing clients stopped that practice, but let me tell you, it was a bitch to make them stop.

So back to Eminem, what should have been a herculean effort was pretty easy, thanks to a superstar artist who cared about an old friend and had enough clout to smooth the waters.

Around this time we took on a great group, Az Yet and also the solo career of R.L. from the multi-platinum band; Next. The company grew far beyond what I thought could happen. Fortunately we had some great people in the firm. My sister, Daren Hall and a few others covered all the bases, all day and night. So at this time, one of my producers, Six July started hounding me about this girl in Atlanta and he made the introduction to India.Arie.

She was and is, a truly natural talent, who with just acoustic guitar and her mighty voice, can just slay you. Carlos was working with her on what would become her first single, “Video”. At that point I was using Mike Shipley to mix everything for us. Now for those who don’t know who Shipley is, he has been Mutt Lange’s right hand/engineer for decades. An unbelievable talent and one of the nicest guys you could ever meet.

My logic in using Mike on urban records was to set a different sonic blueprint, something that would stand out. Far too often, especially today, records “sound” the same. By that I mean sonically. You listen to acts like The Cars, The Police, Prince, Van Halen, you know exactly who it is before a vocal is sung, because those records have a sound. I figured Mike could bring something new and fresh to urban and he did.

That was the first of my many, many fights with India’s label. Their logic was Mike never mixed urban before (but he did) and my logic was before Shania Twain, he had never mixed country before and that did OK.

I had some testing to go through before India chose us as management.
Some very interesting testing.

A Whole Lotta (Head) Shakin’ Goin’ On

So now I had two artists signed and the roster of our producers and writers continued to grow. I was deeply involved with the new artist at Capitol and I will say they bent over backwards and committed to this record times ten. Again, I think their machine wasn’t ready to knock one out; they had nothing to trade and again, the wrong single and bad luck. I will not blame the label, because they truly tried and did everything they could.

Once again it did ok, but not the homerun. The homerun was around the corner and waiting in Atlanta and when that hit, everything I had learned, and every skill set I cultivated, had to be put into motion to knock it out of the ballpark, but we did and this time, all four tires were spinning like a motherfucker and we not only got traction but we built speed, and fast.

So in the midst of trying to ignite these artists at Capitol, the regime changes and let me tell you, that is a manager’s biggest fear. My first phone call with the new president, Andy Slater, was him asking “Why did you ask Ken Berry to release your artist? I haven’t even started yet, you don’t even know me.” He was right on all counts. I had grown a good relationship with Ken and as soon as Roy told me he was leaving, I asked Ken for a release, as a new regime change means sudden death.

Andy told me to give him a chance and trust that he wouldn’t do that. He didn’t lie and I will say that is one of the few times I’ve seen someone keep a promise. Andy embraced the artist and committed. I actually liked Andy very much. He caught a lot of heat but, he was smart, passionate guy, well rounded in all aspects of the business. I think his downfall was he didn’t take off his manager hat and switch it to his label honcho hat. With that, he micro-managed an already demoralized staff into the ground.

Add that to a real roster problem (not his fault) and it’s easy to see what happened. I too made that transition, but I tried to keep a real eye on not being a manager. That’s tough, especially when you have it so deeply imbedded in your make up. Andy and I got along fine. A funny story on how we met in person for the first time.

I was backstage at a John Mellencamp show, and spotted Andy and his brother. I waited until Andy was walking alone in the load in bay. I snuck up behind him and in my gruff vocal tone said, “Hey Slater, do you know who I am?” He looked like he was sacred out of his mind. I repeated, “Do you know who I am motherfucker?” Poor guy must have thought he was about to be jumped. I saw the relief as soon as I told him my name. We hugged, made some small talk and went back to the concert.

I really have to repeat that I thought Andy was great and he tried hard to help us. It’s real hard to right a ship taking on water and that was the real issue at hand. We still continued to work hard on breaking this record and we kept seeing real bright lights flickering on and off. I had a tremendous amount of passion for that project and it kills me to this day that it didn’t connect properly.

The next one did, big time. Millions of records sold and an unheard of seven Grammy nominations for a debut artist. Yup, it connected and every tire on that car was spinning; artist, label, management and luck. That one was India.Arie. Before we get to India, at the same time we took on even more clients, so when one of our producers was telling me to check out India, my gut said we couldn’t handle any more.
Fortunately for us, Motown and her, we did take her on.

It was actually starting to get funny when people I had known forever (when I was writing and producing) suddenly got very confused that I was here again, this time as a manager. Not only did I make the transition from the creative side of the desk to the business end, I went from hard rock to hip hop. It sometimes made people say out loud, “Huh? You’re managing him (her, them)?” or “How the Hell did you wind up doing this?” I would just laugh and say, “It’s a long story.”’ and indeed, it was.

There was a lot of head shaking and grinning, for both of us. I was always a student, always; I just wanted to learn everything I could. I was never afraid to look stupid and was never concerned if people thought I was. I had a real hunger to learn and even when I was writing and producing, studying this business and learning how that machine rumbled, was a major priority for me. My dad told me once, “You are getting into a very complicated business, learn everything you can about it.” Don’t worry dad, I did and I also made up some rules of my own as I went along. My father was awesome and taught me not to give a shit about what anyone thought of me, just go my own path and make it work. My parents were the best parents, especially for someone like me.

We then began co-managing a rapper from Detroit who was an early part of Eminem’s circle. He was signed to a little indie label and after Eminem hit it big, the major labels came calling. One day Donnie Ienner calls me. Donnie’s older brother, Jimmy, had been a dear and close mentor to me since I was about fifteen and I met Donnie years before through his brother. Donnie was also bewildered that I was managing. Donnie wanted the act and basically said, “This is my deal, let’s do it.” So, do it, we did.

Odd how there was once a time I couldn’t get an intern at a label to respond and now we were doing deals in a fraction of a second with the chairman. I think Donnie is great, and the business today needs more characters like him. Donnie was always intimidating, but I knew him before his “Big Boss” era and I remembered him from those days and the visual was more like a kid just like me, trying to make it.

During that call, he was probably visualizing me as the rock kid with the crazy hair and jewelry and nail polish, and I was visualizing him in a satin basketball jacket with “Millennium Records” on the back, and “Donnie” on the front. He always had much better hair than me, still does. So here we are, fleshing out a deal for a rapper from Detroit.

Times had changed for both of us.

Hiding Behind the Dumpster and Losing Friends

So the record comes and gets some action. The artist then goes on a promo tour. A few cities he was trying not to play. I was a bit confused and just forced the hand, explaining we needed him there for radio promotion and, did he want his record to stiff? Get on the road champ.

So late one night my phones go off and there is nothing better than to be reachable twenty four, seven. The tour manager was on line one, the artist was on line two. The tour manager couldn’t find the artist. No problem, he was calling me from behind a dumpster in an alley. Now I understand why he was hesitant on playing that city; there was a warrant out for his arrest and there is no better way to alert the police than radio, press and advertising. He took the stage, saw the cops and ran right off of the stage, right out the backdoor and kept running.

I explain to him, he has to turn himself in and he was not about to hear that. I then conference in the Sr.VP of the label and together we talk him into surrender and arrange to pay his bail and bring him home. That took hours of convincing and it was a very sleepless night, the first of many for me in new role as artist manager.

So I go, “Dude why the fuck didn’t you tell me there was a warrant for you arrest and that’s why you were trying to blow out those tour dates?” He says, “I didn’t want you to think badly of me.” Well, I appreciate that and everything but we could have avoided this problem, one; by dealing with the legal issue or two; just avoiding the city. I guess logic is not an option. It did make for great water cooler fodder and a nice addition to this story, but I hate to getting woken up by the phone late at night. It scares the shit out of me and you always expect the worse, plus once I am awake, I am awake and that really sucks.

That happens all too often when you are managing and you know what? It is supposed to happen because management is like a marriage and I took guarding the dreams and hopes of people as very serious business. Too often it’s based on what is there to commission and yes, we do need to get paid, but it should be based on passion and belief. Money comes when the intent is right.

I will admit the toll management takes on your personal life is enormous and it even creates friction with your romantic partners. My girlfriends used to sometimes fume when I would jump to a phone call during dinner, a movie or anything else, if you catch my drift, so be it, it was my obligation and I was fine with that, especially because I remembered how much my first managers sucked.

I was working very closely with the other artist Capitol had signed and through this signing, lost a very close friend. The guy who turned me on to her had done some great demos with her and after we signed with Capitol called me and asked if he could produce. I was fine with that but the label was not. The artist was good with it as well, but the label wouldn’t budge beyond maybe letting him do a song or two, but not the album. He was pissed and I understand why, I went through the same thing when I was a writer.

He then called me and said he wanted her to sign a production agreement with, giving him “points” on the record as his demos got her the deal. Now that was true in part, his demo got some initial attention but it was her subsequent demos with other writers and producers that actually got the label off of the fence and into signing mode. He then said that she had to sign this production deal and they had discussed it during the demos.

I asked her about it and she flipped and said no such deal was ever discussed. She was not prone to lying and she was fiercely loyal as well, so I believed her.
I called him back and explained her position and the further position that if he cut a few more songs, maybe the label would swing to his side. He refused to and went ape shit. He told me, “You’re my friend and I brought her to you, you have to make her sign this deal with me.”

It was true that he was my friend and introduced us, but now he was asking to roll over and make her do something that was not in her best interests and morally wrong. I wouldn’t budge and said flat out, no. Our friendship was over but as much as he wanted me to validate our friendship by not acting in the best interest of my client, he should have validated our friendship by not asking me to do that.

Years later, he anonymously attacked me on a public Internet message board, clearly not over his anger. Had he just done those few more songs, the artist and I would have fought hard for his involvement. I am the most loyal friend in the world, but when that loyalty requires me to step over moral and honesty boundaries, well, then, I’m out.

That was sad, as he was a good friend and a great talent and great things could have happened for him.

Arista West and Football

With this deal done at Capitol, I then played for Roy the artist me friend turned me on to. She had something very special and after more demos and a performance at the label, they signed her as well.

Roy was building the company and we had two of his first acts signed. There were some great people there and some not so great, but that is true of everywhere and not just the music business. The first artist was close to releasing his first record. It was interesting as this was a nebulous Capitol staff and having the honcho sign the artist personally made it a very walk on egg shells event for the new staff. I’m more like a rumbling elephant crashing through the china doors to dance with the bull, so it made for interesting dynamics.

I made friends with a lot of that staff and remain so to this day. Some should have never been hired. I think Roy was trying to replicate Arista and put far too much faith in some staff he shouldn’t have. It’s natural to design something in the likeness you know best and also natural for feel confident coming off of success. Roy was terrific and I think very highly of him, his only downfall was keeping people around too long and also eventually hiring his own assassin.

This record of my first artist managed did ok, but not great. Like I said it takes four tires to make it all happen. Our four tires were working but slightly deflated, hence the doing ok and not great. I hate when managers blame labels and artists blame managers and labels blame them both. Success happens in many ways and so does failure.

I can analyze in retrospect in precise hindsight; the record was a little dated (just a touch) and in the realm of R&B, that is a death knell. I, as manager, should have held off the release knowing that the label was just getting up to steam, having been rebuilt, I should have also sent the artist back into the studio to cut more tracks and have some current mixes, the label should not been so anxious to fill the pipeline with product and they certainly should not have allowed the head of promotion to pick the first (and wrong) single.

Plus we had little luck. So you see why the record sold well and not terrific? The tires were a little flat, all the way around. All of us came up a drop short.

Much of this business revolves around barter and trade and explains why labels, managers, publicists, etc. get on hot streaks. I’ll trade you an interview with our superstar A, in exchange for coverage of our developing star B. Superstar A will play the event, if rising star B is given air time. On and on, and in ways you can’t imagine. Capitol at the time had nothing to trade, maybe some Beatles catalog or Beach Boys, but nothing current and that is a big problem.

You factor in a lot of the executive staff were recently at Arista and that machine was explosive. When a label gets on a roll like Arista did, and you have an icon running it, it’s not hard to piggy back success. In any successful enterprise, even mediocre employees shine, all moving and glowing off of the inertia of the beast.

However take them out of the machine and remove the power of that machine and they don’t glow so much. Maybe a faint flicker on the horizon, but not the super nova they once were. That is an epidemic in the business. It’s like removing a great front line on a football team and then you see the running back isn’t so great.

Lots of analogies between a label and pro sports. You have the owner, administration, head coach, coaching staff, down to equipment managers resembling the hierarchy at a label. You have the players as the artist. You have the franchsie player and the rookie. You have the depth chart and the draft. You have the playbook and thegame plan. If you have a great group of players and bad coaching, it’s a problem. If you have great coaching and bad players, you have a problem.

If you draft the wrong players or pay them more than they are worth, you have a problem. If you surround the quaterback with mediocre players, no touchdowns. Some game plans inch along, gaining a few yards at a time. Sometimes you have to throw the Hail Mary. Sometimes you rely on the star too much and don’t develop the new talent and your roster gets very weak, very fast.

Sometimes you have a dynasty and sometimes it’s just one good season.
At the end of the day, you need luck to win.

The music business could learn a thing or two from football, especially in drafting and coaching.
They can also learn that every play is not going for a touchdown and sometimes you have to improvise the game plan, when it’s not working.

It would awesome if they had to wear uniforms! Oh yeah, WB demanded that back in the day, oh well.

Cutting Through the Steel Doors

Another nice event was the wedding of Lauren Davis, who was a dear and close friend of mine during that time. Big problem here, I had to wear a tuxedo. Now, people can tell you I am fashion unconscious, fashion lost. My wife rants at me sometimes and my daughter just laughs. Me in a tuxedo is like Divine in a G string, or worse. So off to the NY, and the wedding. I go, in my tuxedo no less (rented of course). My daughter was my date and it was great fun.

I spent a lot of time watching the band (who were actually good) give it their all, knowing exactly who they were playing to. I kept thinking how utterly crazy that must have been for any singer or musician, playing in front of the upper echelon of the music business and Clive himself.

I am sure they wished upon many a star, but alas, it was a wedding and they were just background music. It actually made me sad and again reflects how lucky I was.

Showing more absurdity in my existence, Boys II Men were playing a free concert in Philadelphia on the fourth of July no less. I wanted no part of the estimated million people who attended. My daughter and sister went with one of our security people and as a special moment of ridiculous, took with them, Jesse Camp. The blurring of that line is even hard to digest. Jesse was instantly recognized and though that created some problems, it also made for some humor.

Somehow in my world you can inter-mingle all sorts and types and it just works (most of the time).

The management company continued on its way and we were knee deep in writers and producers. It was time to expand into artist management. That again happened by chance.

A friend of mine from back in the rock writing days had an artist he was developing. He had exhausted all of his connections in getting her a record deal and asked me to try to help. She and I became very close, more like brother and sister than manager and client. Also at this time, Teddy Riley had an artist and a finished master. Teddy asked me to shop it and manage the artist.

Teddy’s artist was originally part of a three man production team, all friends from school and living in Virginia. In fact, one of the guys produced this record with Teddy. The artist chose to leave the production team and begin on his own as a singer. Maybe not the best move, because that production team, a few years later, would be known as The Neptunes, and Pharrell and Chad had a stranglehold on the charts that was incredible.

I began shopping that artist as well. Around this time, Roy Lott was put in as President of North America for EMI. Now, Roy was an old friend and we started communicating often. He soon added to his duties, president and CEO of Capitol Records, or as we liked to call it; Arista West. Roy was the GM of Arista and Clive’s right hand for many years and the restructuring of Capitol was largely based around ex-Arista employees.

They needed roster and content, especially urban content. I played Roy the Teddy Riley artist and he was sold immediately. There then had to be a master purchase agreement worked out between Capitol and Interscope as this was an artist signed to Teddy’s now defunct, joint venture with them. Deal done and boom, we were now deep in the thick of managing artists, Now, we always ran the management company like a record label, and today we run the record label, like a management company.

I preach daily; there are four tires on the car: the artist, the label, management and luck. You need three of those tires to be inflated and working, four will get you flying down the highway, only two, well then you hobble home and maybe crash on the way there. Only one tire, you don’t even leave the driveway.

There are different opinions on my management style. We integrated deeply into every facet of the machine. Some say pain in the ass, some say aggressive, some say psycho, I say diligent and forceful. You couldn’t get anything past us. The word manager is much like the word producer, and it means many things and has come to mean many things.

I have met managers who were brilliant and the epitome of that word. Unfortunately I have also met managers who were glorified road managers and had no right at all wearing that title. You need a complete and absolute understanding of everything to manage properly. You can’t possibly spot the mistakes or problems if you have no idea what you are looking for.

I have met managers who have never seen a Soundscan or BDS report. I was more perplexed to see most had zero access to these tools and others, like Media Base or R&R. Half of the fight is the constant analysis of data and connecting all of the dots. That needs to be daily. I have also seen managers who were actually just the artist’s girlfriend, boyfriend, cousin or neighbor, and you wonder why things fail.

It is not always the labels fault, not by a long shot. Improper management is a plague that has caused major career damage, time and time again. The four tires need to rotate with synergy, not opposition, to make things work.

Of course it all begins with the artist. The artist is the industry lifeblood, but that crucial concept, is far too often ignored.