Jump to content

Who were GN'R's Greatest Managers?


ITG

Recommended Posts

I have to go with Azoff at the top of the list. I mean he did broker that Best Buy deal with Chinese Democracy. Can't imagine how that affected him professionally given how the album fared. What are some managers in GN'R's history and how would you rate them?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep, Doug was a good manager, Slash said a lot of shit about him, but he was a great manager.

Alan Niven was the best GN'R manager, he made all of this possible. He had a great eye to when it came to tours,

he knew exactly were to put ads for Guns shows and he got them to play in Europe before America, wich I still

think was really really important for the band to be shown in Europe before America.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alan and Doug, definitely. Honorable mention to Merck - I didn't like him at the time, but looking back he really was alright. Not his fault Axl is difficult to work with, and he communicated with the fanbase better than any other manager I can think of.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The best GN'R manager in the Nu era was easily Merck. He booked a successful European & US tour which put the band back on the map after the years of silence after 2002. He also booked studio time and hassled Axl to complete Chinese Democracy. Which I believe made it possible for Azoff to push the release through in 2008. He also publicity stood up for Axl when he got arrested in Sweden in 2006, and was a great guy who tried to do his best for the band.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It depends what your allegiance is. Taking out allegiances, and considering which managers actually accomplished their goals:

1. Team Brazil - total control of Axl Rose, irrespective of what they've done with GNR

2. Alan Niven - brokered that crucial renegotiation with a notoriously difficult David Geffen

3. Irving Azoff - hatched the deal that directly led to the release of "Chinese Democracy"

4. Merck Mercuriadis - strengthened relations with the fanbase, oversaw a strong 2006

5. Doug Goldstein - drove a wedge between the key personalities in old GNR

6. Doc McGhee - abysmally short tenure

Edited by NGOG
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doug didn't "drive a wedge" between anyone in GNR. He was the ONLY manager who didn't cower before the tantrums of Miss Diva Axl, and that's why he was fired by the Diva.

Without Doug corralling early GNR and ignoring Axl's bullshit, the band would never have taken off, and we wouldn't be having this discussion, because fan forums wouldn't exist.

People here tend to ignore just how pathetically unproductive Axl is when he's on his own. Which is why the band went downhill once he had control and undisputed power. Axl needs to be held in check by someone who knows what they're doing, not coddled by sycophants who want his money.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can't really compare management of the old band to the nu-thing. or the early productive years of the nu-thing when Axl still had the fire in his belly and was on a mission.

What I'm saying is that you put any manager at the controls past 2010, everything stays the same, the fire inside axl has died out and he just wants to wind down his career. maybe different plays would have been available 1999-2007, but somehow creatively and musically, the band really needed to assert themselves and make plays, release something, on top of their stellar performances on tour. maybe if you got to axl at that point, reversed energies somehow, there might have been more music, recordings... it falls on management, it falls on all of axl's yes-men circle, and of course on axl personally. that the things went as they did, and the band now is basically a dead duck with 0 expectations and hopes on it. more nostalgia tours of course.

maybe it was a hot issue or impossibility to axl, or his personal management team of beta and co. we all know that already by 2005, you had to deal with axl through his protective circle of yes men. To be the manager of a rock n roll band you need to feel in control. the band is centered on a perfectionist egotistic guy with insecurity issues, intolerable "working hours" and heavy mood swings, with zero humility, who is furthermore protected by people who reinforce whatever his views on anything are. how can a manager work through a setting like that, for real? it's an equation that simply doesn't work.

the framework is poisoned and impossible enough, it's hard to fault the manager.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doug didn't "drive a wedge" between anyone in GNR. He was the ONLY manager who didn't cower before the tantrums of Miss Diva Axl, and that's why he was fired by the Diva.

Without Doug corralling early GNR and ignoring Axl's bullshit, the band would never have taken off, and we wouldn't be having this discussion, because fan forums wouldn't exist.

People here tend to ignore just how pathetically unproductive Axl is when he's on his own. Which is why the band went downhill once he had control and undisputed power. Axl needs to be held in check by someone who knows what they're doing, not coddled by sycophants who want his money.

Doug didn't drive a wedge between anyone in GnR? come on mate Doug was Axl's lackey and would do anything he could to keep him happy, get him on stage and from having a meltdown......unless you think Slash, Duff and others were lying about their dealings with Doug.................

Edited by classicrawker
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doug didn't "drive a wedge" between anyone in GNR. He was the ONLY manager who didn't cower before the tantrums of Miss Diva Axl, and that's why he was fired by the Diva.

Without Doug corralling early GNR and ignoring Axl's bullshit, the band would never have taken off, and we wouldn't be having this discussion, because fan forums wouldn't exist.

People here tend to ignore just how pathetically unproductive Axl is when he's on his own. Which is why the band went downhill once he had control and undisputed power. Axl needs to be held in check by someone who knows what they're doing, not coddled by sycophants who want his money.

Do you mean Alan Niven instead of Doug Goldstein?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...