Can anyone imagine the Rolling Stones or U2 having their housekeeper as a manager?

[rockerman]

When you complain about "the housekeeper" managing the band don't forget the Jackson 5 and The Osmonds were managed by their fathers.

Probably not the best examples to be used in trying to state your case. Just sayin'.

And why not? Just because they weren't rock n roll artists makes no difference in management does it? Plus in fans on this board's opinion they were managed by a 'parent'

Agreed.

As far as the music industry goes, you could do A LOT worse for managers than GN'R has. At least Axl has a group of people that he trusts taking care of him. Whether or not any of us approve of them isn't really relevant. Axl completely trusts them and that's something that almost nobody in the industry can claim.

Next time you run into Elvis ask him about Col Parker... now there was a guy who drove Elvis career into a brick wall. Elvis was a singer not an actor and most of the 60's were spent with Elvis singing in movies because that was where the easy quick money was. So history has early Elvis, Elvis in the military and movie Elvis and then a 1968 "comeback" Elvis and 70's Fat Elvis dying on the toilet.

Just saying... turning your career over to someone who doesnt have the same vision or POV has cost bands/artists millions and millions of $ and time and in some intances their very lives. I read somewhere where that 1/2 of what Elvis made went to Col Parker...and its speculated that the easy money made him recklessly wealthy at the cost of Elvis and his career. In the 70's he toured Elvis to death ..literly.... to keep up the overhead and the entourage going. Theres a documentary on youtube where the close personal friends of Elvis speak about the killing of Elvis through endless tours, pills and exhaustion.

[Guest cbgnr666]

The last three or four professional manger's seemed to attract very little attention and definetly weren't the subject of multiple, for the most part critical threads per week.

What lessons do you think current management could take from these prior manager's?What are they doing wrong that the rest were doing right, and is causing so much critisism and backlash?

Edited August 11, 2013 by cbgnr666

[rockerman]

5 to 10 years of effective connections had tanked when the GNR ship went into hiding. managers are about connections and knowing the places to be and what to do and not do to gain the edge for the band. They are there to attend the small details of life that get overlooked or ignored by the band. They are there to negotiate the ultimate best deal in the interests of the band. They cooridinate the schedules and oversee the bands wishes and needs both behind the scenes and on the roads. They secure the places and promotors and work to secure the venues that the band/artists play at. The more insightful and aggressive managers push thier bands along and know when to reign them in or let them loose. They act as intermediates between lables, studios and artists and become the mouth piece that speaks for the band in business matters. They coordinate and babysit the band so the band does not have to think on such matters. THey take the vision of the band and help it materialize...Some managers mitigate the minutia of even the personal finances of the individual in the band and keep an eye out for ways to promote them in any and all ways. Ideally.

IN the period of 95 on - the pressure and the very presence of a manager could of been and probably was a very hostile contentious place to be. Managers get %'s of every business deal that a band makes. If there is no production or source of revenue coming in and massive amounts going out with no definative end in sight... i can only speculate that there was some major head butting going on at camp GNR. With Axl signing off on something one minute and then changing his mind the next or not likeing or trusting that the BEST deal had been made to his highest interest... the work of a manager probably was meager and or irrelevant for most of the period of time.

Some bands show up at the office and the manager has the next 5 years of thier life scheduled out for them. Tour, promote, tour..record..hiatus tour..etc...but being a manager for Axl probably was hell on earth.