Marsha Vlasic

Legendary agent Marsha Vlasic represents Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Norah Jones, Iggy Pop and more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast.
My guest today is Marcia Blosse, legendary agent. Marcia. Good
to have you on the podcast. We keep hearing all
this stuff about blue dot fever. What's the status of
the market today?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Ah, I the new terminology blue dot. I have my
own opinion, and that is that I think a lot
of bands are out there that shouldn't be and everybody
wants to headline and they're doing it and it's causing
a lot of turmoil.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
So you're saying people are playing buildings that they shouldn't
be playing, or there are too many people in the marketplace.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Well, I think it's their playing buildings they shouldn't be playing.
Is more the issue, of course the summer, and we're
not quite in the summer yet, but it's always saturated
and I think the major markets can handle that kind
of volume. But I think it's more that there are
bands that just don't want to support and they want

(01:09):
to be out there and they want a headline.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
So as an agent, how do you pick the appropriate
building for your act?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
I'm pretty conservative and I think that's how I kind
of prided myself and working with the iconic artists that
I do is that I always wanted to leave something
on the table, and I wanted to be careful that
we had somewhere to come back and be able to tour,

(01:37):
And a lot of concern and consideration and planning goes
into picking the buildings.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Okay, do you find it's different. You know, when we
were coming up, bands started in clubs. They've worked their
way up hopefully to arenas. Now they're acts that start
off in arenas. So what do you think about that.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
And they go straight to stadiums. Well, I think it's
a problem. I think it's instead of building careers. See,
I think promoters only remember the last play in the market.
So I think that there should be a progression, whether

(02:18):
you're exploding or you're not exploding. And I think the
consideration should be the market. The consideration should be which
building is the natural progression to grow into. And I
think you could always add multiple days rather than just
going for venues that are too big.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Okay. One of the other issues is the smaller buildings.
The demand far outstrip supply sometimes and there's the secondary
market in pricing. How do you deal with that?

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, look, we all and I hope we're not going
to get into the secondary market situation because we're all
exhausted from it, we're all frustrated from it, and yet
there is no battle we can win unless somebody steps
up and stops it. And when you live in a

(03:15):
city like New York and scalping is legal, it's really
hard to fight it. So, I mean, you can't fight
the secondary market. And I think that if an act
is that much in demand, then okay, then maybe they
should be in a bigger building. But if you're an
act that's growing, I mean, look, there are a few

(03:37):
that it happens with and that should that's a good
problem to have.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Well, when you have an act that you know is
going to sell out, do you think the ticket price
affects the perception of the act? Like in sports they
charge a fortune. Springsteen is on the road, everybody was
bitching about his tickets being in excess one hundred dollars.
Now the tickets are four hundred and five hundred dollars.

(04:04):
They're not major complaints. So do you price what the
ticket is worth or do you think the ticket price
should stay low to satiate the fan and the fans perception.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Well, I don't think you could keep the price low
based on that. I think you have to figure that
the band has to make a profit, and they have
to cover their expenses, and the building has to be paid,
and there has to be money for support, and there
has to be money to market the show. And I
think we go into a lot of trouble figuring out

(04:40):
tickets scaling, and it's not an easy thing to do.
But we usually do comparisons and we try to find
the middle ground where they act should be. The act
needs to make money. The platinum and the VIP people
buy those tickets first. They want the best tickets. They

(05:02):
want the highest price tickets. It's usually the middle price
or the second tier price, or the hardest tickets to sell.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, someone like Neil Young was a legendary artist. You've
represented him for a long time. How do you decide
what the price will be for Neil Young?

Speaker 2 (05:18):
It's not easy, it's you know, you. I take market
for market. I see where we were the last time
in the market. I see what we sold the last
time in the market. Which seats we had trouble selling?
Which seats? You know, when first, a lot of information
goes into those decisions.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Okay, so Neil Young is the superstar. Let's say someone
where the demand is not that clear. How do you
establish price? Then?

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, you kind of work the numbers backwards. You know,
you see where the budget and the the scaling. You
know of what a nact needs to make and what
the building costs, and you know what you're going to
spend on support, and you kind of work the numbers
backwards to see what the profit margin would be. Promoteds

(06:14):
don't want to work for nothing, No.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
That's for sure. So where did you grow up?

Speaker 2 (06:21):
I grew up in the slums of Brooklyn.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Tell me more about that. You say, the slums of Brooklyn.
What was it like.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
I came from a very very poor family with a
lot of health issues and problems, financial problems, and my
childhood was quite rough.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
What did your parents do for a living?

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Well, my father went bankrupt when I was very young,
and my mother at that time had to go out
and work as a salesperson.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
What was your father doing that he went bankrupt? He
was a farrier And did he ever find work after that?

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well he did, but he never recovered and medically he
was very unhealthy, and it wasn't a home of love,
let's put it that way.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
And your mother sold what.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
Well, she started in just a regular local department store,
and actually she became quite successful as she continued to work.
And she sold jewelry on Fifth Avenue in a store
called Marshall Julis. And they used to do the charm

(07:42):
bracelets for the people that would guess and this is
your life, and each charm was significant to that person's hobby, family,
et cetera. She was quite a successful salesperson at that time.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
And did you take any lessons from her success?

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Well, no, because I was already you know, like a
working on my own at that point. But I think
what I learned from my mother was, you know, work
was not a curse, and work was good, and it
was you know, you had to go out there and work.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
And so how many kids in the family.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
I had a sister, just one sister, and.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
She older or younger.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
She was older, she's passed, okay.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
And what did she think about your success in the
music business.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
She wasn't kind about it. Was she was she did well.
Nobody really understood what I did. Then my mother became
very unhealthy and she spent a lot of time in
emergency rooms, and she would tell every emergency room doctor
that her daughter could get them concert tickets. So she

(09:05):
didn't know what I did. And my sister resented my success.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
How would that manifest itself?

Speaker 2 (09:14):
We hardly spoke.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Okay, So you grew up. You're going to school. You
good student, bad student.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
I was a good student, but I went to a
terrible school. I went to a school in the ghetto,
and nobody wanted to learn, and there was so much
disruption through the classrooms, and you know, there was no
focus on teaching at that point.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
And was it safe Not really.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
It was safe to a certain extent that I decided
that my boyfriend would be the leader of the South
Brooklyn Boys, so I was kind of protected.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
What were the South Brooklyn Boys?

Speaker 2 (09:58):
They were gang?

Speaker 1 (10:00):
What did a gang look like in that era?

Speaker 2 (10:03):
It was tough, you know, leather jackets and there were
lots of There were lots of girl gangs and they
were they were They carry knives and it was it
was like West Side story, let's put it that way.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Well, were we involved in any incidents?

Speaker 2 (10:25):
No, not directly.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
So you're going to school, how you perceived were you
the leader of the pack. Were you a bookworm loaner?
If I asked your classmates, oh, what's Marshall like, what
would they say?

Speaker 2 (10:41):
I really don't know. I think I kind of just blended.
I don't know that I had a real identity at
that point.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
And do you have any contact with those people later
in life? No, you just skated beyond that. So you're
in high school, you have this boyfriend. What do you
think your future holds?

Speaker 2 (11:05):
I have no idea, but I have to go to work.
I can't even think about it continuing my education because
the family was in dire need and there were so
many problems. So I had to go get a job.
I graduated like six months early because I took extra

(11:25):
courses just to get out of there and went and
got a job.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
And so you not only had to support yourself, you
had to support the family too well.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
Help. Yeah, it was not a good situation.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
So what did you do? What did you do for work?

Speaker 2 (11:43):
I got a job. My first job was for Frank Lesser,
the playwriter, and I just worked in the office bookkeeper
secretary they were called at the time. I used to
I was a great and I could take shorthand and
I was a secretary.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
Frank was very successful. How'd you get that gig?

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Well, I didn't work directly for him. I worked into
his accounting department. The woman, I guess I went through
an agency and the woman told me at the time,
I don't know why I'm hiring you. My maiden name
was a very long, complicated name, and she said, you

(12:28):
have a funny last name, you have no experience, and
you're left handed. So I don't really know why I'm
hiring you. But she hired me.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
And how did you learn how to type and do shorthand.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
That I did at school?

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Okay? And so you start to work for Frank Lesser?
Are you nine to five? Are you thinking that in
the back of your mind, well, maybe I can move
my way up the food chain.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
I really didn't think that. I was nine to five
and I lived in Brooklyn and I had to take
trains to get to work, and you know it was
it was nine to five.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
Well, you're painting a pretty depressing picture. Were you depressed? Oh?

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Well, I really I knew other people lived differently, but
my childhood was not a happy childhood. My father then
had a series of heart attacks, mostly in front of us,
then he had a terrible stroke, and you know, there
was lots of battling in the family and it wasn't

(13:36):
a pleasant you know, it was rough.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
Well how did you cope?

Speaker 2 (13:45):
I don't know, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
I mean, you have a reputation as being a very
strong woman. Do you think it's because you grew up
in that environment?

Speaker 2 (13:55):
It could have been. I mean, look, I had friends
that were well to do. You know, I was the
only kid that didn't go to camp in the summer.
I used to go to day camp and the make potholders.
My friends went to sleep away camp. You No, it
wasn't It wasn't a pleasant way to grow up.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
So you work at Frank Lesser. How long do you
work there? And what's the next step?

Speaker 2 (14:20):
Well? I worked at Frank Lesser and I had a
boyfriend who was not the leader of the Pact, and
he was a musician and he used to play in
the lounge at the Copa Cabana and guests were not

(14:42):
allowed to be in the Copa Cabana, so there was
a bar next door and everybody would hang out there
in between the sets, and I got to know some
of the go go dances that were there, and they
were you know, go go dances because they were making
a living. But all of them either one to pay
for their education or become real dancers or pursue other

(15:06):
you know, creative and they were all like great people.
And one of the girls told me that her managers
needed somebody to run their office and would I go
have a meeting with them? I said sure, and I
went up and it was like out of a movie scene.

(15:29):
It really was. I mean, it was like a joke.
They it was. They represented go go dances, they represented bands,
they middle agents, they wheeled, they deal, they were you know,
it was like crazy. And they offered me the job
and they didn't even know from you know, being on

(15:52):
the payroll taxes. You know, it was just all like Actually,
one of the go go dances was gold de Han
and she was leaving to go to La to pursue
her acting career. And so I worked there and I

(16:15):
learned the whole business. There wasn't any part that they
weren't involved in, in good ways and bad ways, and
you know, they were managers, they were they would rob
Peter to pay Paul. It was like craziness. And at
that point then I met Jeff Franklin, who owned ATI

(16:37):
at the time, American Talent International, and I don't quite
remember the details of how I got very friendly with
them and they offered me to go work there.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
Okay, how hard was it to leave Frank for this
new organization.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
It wasn't hard at all. That was like boot camp.
I mean that was like so regimented, and you know,
you I just had a flashback of a memory. There
was a switchboard, like a real switchboard, and so everybody
would have to like put their time in so like

(17:20):
whether I had to cover from three to four or
one to three, and when the frank lesser light would
light up, everybody would just freeze because Frank needed something.
And you know, the amount of anxiety and stress, you
would inevitably either disconnect or put him into the wrong extension.

(17:44):
So the job was you know, it was a job period, Okay.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
And when you went what was the name of this
organization that represented the show girls?

Speaker 2 (17:55):
It was called well, I had a few names. I
think that had to keep changing them to avoid paying
I think it was Oceanic Productions.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
And how many people were working there?

Speaker 2 (18:10):
Oh, it's just me and these two partners.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Oh really, who did your job before you.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
One of the married men's girlfriends.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
So you go in there and you find it's totally
for COCTA, messed up totally, and so on some level
you are probably shocked because they're doing the job here.
How do you tell them how screwed up it is?

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Well, they just didn't. They didn't. They just gave it
to me and just said do it. So it wasn't
where I had to correct them or change things because
they did what they did. I just tried to organize
an office, which I had never done before.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
And then you know organizations like that, sometimes they don't
pay taxes.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
I don't. That's why they kept changing the name of
the company. That's why I had to think about it.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
Okay, So you're there and you realize you're not paying taxes?
Do you roll with the changes or you put up
a red flag and say, hey, we got to do this.
Were you scared that you're going to be in trouble?

Speaker 3 (19:15):
No?

Speaker 2 (19:15):
I just kind of didn't take on that complete role
of responsibility. I don't think where I wanted to change
the world. I figured they're doing what they're doing, It's okay.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
Okay, when you were not working not in the office.
What did your life look like?

Speaker 2 (19:33):
I went to shows with them. I became very close
with the partners, but they had no hours. So we've
worked till nine ten eleven, you know, there were no hours.
So it was completely opposite of what working for Frank
Music was.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
And so what kind of shows would you go to?

Speaker 2 (19:53):
Well, at the time, I went to a lot of
Phil Graham's shows at the Fillmore on Second Avenue. Then
there was the the name of the place that was
on Fourteenth Street, but that changed names so many times, Academy.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
Of Music and Academy.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
Music, and then it went to all those others there,
and then the Ritz opened up and I would go
there a lot. I go all over.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
Okay, did they represent acts that would play the film More?

Speaker 2 (20:28):
No they would, But no they didn't. They represented acts
that really weren't that big. They were bands. They would
book lounges, bowling alleys, you know.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
So when you would go would you go to the
film More with them?

Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yeah, to just check out and act. Or I would
go to a lot of shows in the West Village
on Ninth Street. There were Trudy Heller's was there. They
used to book dances into Truty Hellers. I was there
five years.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Okay. I have a friend who said he knew he
made it when Hilly led him into CBGB's without paying.
You're in this era, this five years to what deg
we are in the outside of the inside.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
I'm definitely on the outside. I have not achieved anything
at this point.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
Well, if you want to go to the fieldboard, you
have to buy a ticket.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
Yeah, pretty much.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
So okay, let's go back. Were you always a music fan?

Speaker 2 (21:50):
I was because I remember going to the Brooklyn Paramount,
which I was really thrilled when it reopened. And I
remember going to ther the K shows and they would
I wouldn't have money to buy a ticket for that show.
This was even before I was working for these guys,

(22:15):
and I would kind of walk around the block and
ask people to help me buy a ticket, and I'd
go in and sit there all day by myself and
watch the axe. It was the Drift Is Johnny Mathers,
the Shyrells.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
So do you remember how much it cost to get in?

Speaker 2 (22:37):
It was under a dollar?

Speaker 1 (22:38):
I think, okay, well you were you know that was
a heyday of New York radio. Were you addicted to
the radio marry the k Yeah, okay, So you go
to work for Jeff Franklin I Redblacka. So how did
you meet him?

Speaker 3 (22:57):
I don't remember. I choose.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
I have a vision of being in a club. I
think it could have been like Roseland or something and
him offering me a job. And basically the job was
working for three agents and it was crazy. That was insane.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
That was.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
Wally Myrowitz. Let him rest in peace. I don't know
if you're familiar with the name.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
No, I'm not.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Great agent, great agent Bruce Payne who went on to
manage Deep Purple and Greg McCutcheon. So I was an
agent to I was a secretary to three agents. And
there were twelve phones, twelve lines. Each one had four no,

(23:53):
each one had three, and then I had a line
and I don't know, but they were ringing all the time,
all the time.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
So did you get spil because we are anxious answering
the phones or you have that skill?

Speaker 2 (24:09):
I got that. There was so much turmoil going on
in the office that I figured that out really quickly.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
How to do that other than answering the phones? What
did they have you doing everything?

Speaker 2 (24:26):
Everything? That's where I learned how to be an agent?
I mean they were booking tours. They it was sex,
drugs and rock and roll at the time.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
And what were the acts? You remember?

Speaker 2 (24:39):
I do well. At the time there were two agencies
and that was Premier Talent and ATI and we had
like Brad Stewards in Small Faces, Deep Purple. You're a
heap rarer, Earth Wind and Fire.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
Okay, you talk six drugs and rock and roll. Were
you are rock chick particking yourself or you were someone
new keeping it at arm's length?

Speaker 2 (25:10):
I partied quite a bit.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
So how did you graduate from being the secretary?

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Well, Bruce Payne was leaving to go manage Deep Purple,
and he assumed that I would go with him as
his secretary. We use this word secretary, can use it.
It's never used anymore, but I at that time it
was very specific. I was a secretary. I was not

(25:38):
an assistant. But then I was doing their jobs completely anyway.
So at that time when he was leaving, I were
a blacker. Who was the other partner told me that
I could become an agent and stay at the company
and not leave with Bruce. Was amazing.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
Okay, So Bruce leaves, you're an agent, you immediately have clients.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Well, no, because in those days and it still exists,
in some of the agencies, you had a territory. You
booked a territory, so you were given a territory and
you booked the whole roster in that territory.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
And what was your territory?

Speaker 2 (26:30):
Well, they gave me. My first territory was West Coast
and Bill Graham was one of them. And I was
petrified of him, absolutely terrified. And every time I would
call him to try and sell him zez t I
was easy to kiss, was founded and formed at ati,

(26:54):
So every time I would try and call him to
sell him something, he would just yell at me and
yell at me, and I'd wait till the end of
the day to call him. But so the West Coast
I booked a lot, and then I had these as
you moved around, you know, the let's.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
Stay with what kind of numbers were we talking about?
How much were these acts charging?

Speaker 2 (27:21):
Well, Zeezy Top had this festival show that they were
on the road with that the promoter had to provide
the the animals and so trying to tell Bigram that

(27:42):
story about you know, he's got to get some horses
and some pigs and some whatever. I don't remember what
the exact ridea was at the time. It was really
pretty chaotic. They were getting a decent amount of They
were getting a couple of hundred thousand dollars I think
at the time.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
And to what degree would Bill hassle you over the fee?

Speaker 2 (28:04):
Every possible way he could? Let him rest in peace?
And then we became good friends. And I remember when
he first opened Shoreline. He walked me through every inch
of it with such pride and really sad to lose
a man like that.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
So do you think he was one of those people
with you that if you stood up to me, if
you stood up to him, you gained his respect.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
Absolutely?

Speaker 1 (28:36):
So, okay, that was Bill Graham. How about lay I.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Dealt a lot with Brian Murphy right? And what was
his part in his name? SETHEPHO Gary Perkins Right?

Speaker 1 (28:56):
So in those days, how did the deals work? You
just quoted a price, was a guarantee against percentage? How
did it go?

Speaker 2 (29:05):
It was always against percentage, It was always against percentage.
It was a guarantee.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
And how did you make sure you got the percentage?

Speaker 2 (29:16):
Oh? That was pretty easy. That was pretty standard. Getting
the guarantee.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Well, I'm trying to say, is let's just use raw numbers.
You know, twenty five grands.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
You earned the percentage because most of them were net
deals at the time, So it was you had a
chore accountant out there and he would take the expenses
day a show, not the show, and you would split
after that. And so there wasn't you didn't have to
set the split point at that time.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
And to what degree did you have trouble collecting?

Speaker 2 (29:54):
No? I mean I to this day try to sell
two people I trust and know, and I'm not a
big risk taker. The money doesn't phaze me. I'm not
a risk taker when it comes to artists and things
like that.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
And this was the days when it was still cash.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Right, Well, there were a few people that did cash
with a lot of things.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
Okay, so you're selling the West Coast. Your next territory
is where.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
I don't remember in order of I had the East Coast,
I had the South. I dealt with Cecil Corbett and
Jack Boyle. I mean, you know there are people that
are like them in our world. You know, they were
great people, great people, and I would go back forever

(30:56):
with Leslie West from Milwaukee, Rick Franks, I mean, Jules Belcan,
Mike Belcan you know the legendary promoters.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
And to what degree would you go out on the
road and meet those people?

Speaker 2 (31:13):
Well, certainly not as much as you do now. But
when it was a special show, you went, you know,
it was a big kiss show or is he a
top show or you went.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
Okay, So you're booking your territory. What's the perception of
you in the office, like this is the young hot
person or it is just another person working here.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
I think I blended in because I mean I kind
of had grown there and I was like the boss's favorite, Jeff.
We were really good friends. And I was the only
female agent and there were only other two other female agents,

(32:04):
and that was a premier talent and that was Barber
skuy Dell and Jane Garrety. But I didn't think of
it as like, oh wow, I'm a woman and I'm
an agent. I never thought of it that way. I
don't know, you know, it didn't.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
So how many agents were at ATI now when you
were working there.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
Oh it was a lie. I'd say ten or twelve.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Okay, So you're booking regionally, what's the next step for you.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Well, my first act that I got, and I don't
even remember how I got him was Al Stewart. That
was my first goal of record year of the Cat
and his manager, Luke O'Reilly was he was like, he
was tough. He's passed away, so I prefer we don't

(32:54):
use his name. But I learned. I learned how to
be the responsible agent and how to deliver the way
he wanted it delivered and on what days he wanted
to work this or miles or that.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
So you don't remember, were you at that point going
out to clubs talking to other people trying to get acts?

Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yes? Yes, I also represented ac DC.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
How'd you get ac DC? The Brownings were the manager
in Australia.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
Were the manager, and Doug Fayler right is the agent
at ATI was giving it up walking away and they
were worth five hundred dollars a night. And it was
during Highway to Hell the original lead singer was still alive.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Okay, So you're the agent that was the first album
that Mutt Lane did. Did you foresee they would become
what they became? And were you the agent during Back
in Black and for those about to rock us? Okay?
So you hear that the lead singer O d Well,

(34:04):
lead singer whatever, dies and they're going to get a
new lead singer. Are your eyes rolling in the back
of your head like this will never work?

Speaker 2 (34:15):
I think by the time you know Brian Scott was
brought in, now Bond Scott was the original run Johnson.
Brian Johnson was born in I think I think everybody
was really good, fine with it. They were happy that
there was a replacement and they were ready to roll again.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
And you heard that record, did you say to yourself,
holy shit, this is going to blow up? Or you
just figure it was another record I loved.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
I loved, you know, in those days it was I
had a lot of metal, A lot of metal. I
did Metallica early on Anthrax. Bio has a fear factory.
I mean I had a lot of metal music and
a lot of hard rock news.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
Okay, when did you wake up and realize you'd like
that music?

Speaker 2 (35:06):
I think I liked all music. I mean when I
used to sit alone in my room and be miserable,
I would put on Billie Holiday so and then I
had this vision of I was in love with Johnny Mathis,
and you know, then it would be. You know, I'm
trying to think of the early rock that I was into. Well,

(35:30):
I was always in tassi osborn in Black Sabbath.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
Wait wait, wait wait, first Black Sabbath album comes out.
At that time, led Zeppelin was considered metal. First Black
Sabbath album comes out. It's out there. How do you
even hear that that?

Speaker 2 (35:47):
I don't know. Probably in the office, you know, people talking.
And Sharon came to us pretty early on.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
And what did she say?

Speaker 2 (36:00):
Well, I was at one point the guardian to the children,
to Sharon's children, to Amy, Jack and Kelly, So we
got very close. Obviously, how did.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
You end up as the guardian?

Speaker 2 (36:18):
She I guess, you know, respected me as a mother
and if anything happened, we became incredibly close. Families and
stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Okay, so we all know the legend of her father
and everybody knows a legend of sharing in the world.
Now is real, it's the TV show. What was she
like back then?

Speaker 2 (36:41):
Well, you know, Sharon certainly has changed her physical appearance greatly,
but she was as it was her life even way
back then. I mean, she managed Ozzie, she had come.

(37:01):
She was as it was her her purpose. It was
a beautiful love story. It was crazy and insane, and
you know, I spent a lot of time in their
house and with them. I just had lunch with Sharon
this week. But the love that they had for each

(37:25):
other was really, really, really unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
Well, anybody who's dealt with Sharon knows that you never
know which way she's going to come at you, okay,
And it's unpredictable in that way. So what was it
like having her being a manager of your act. It's
not as simple as somebody else saying, oh, give me
this money. I want to play these markets with her.

(37:51):
It's a whole nother thing.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
No, it was we had some rough patches, and I
wasn't always as these agents, so I don't.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
Know what okay, So what would a rough patch look like?

Speaker 2 (38:12):
Well, Sharon was very opinionated, and you know, she wanted
things her way, and if things couldn't go away, it
was difficult to get her to understand that.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
So, I mean, someone like Sharon you were really close to,
But it happens in the business where you represent somebody
and then they move on. How do you cope with that?

Speaker 2 (38:38):
It was hard. It was a heartbreak. She moved on
and I but yet because of the family ties, like
my youngest son and Jack were like best friends, and
my son Franco used to go on the az Fest
every summer with Jack and my son Matthew and Amy

(38:59):
and Kelly were so tight together. I couldn't hold you know,
I couldn't hold a grudge because I couldn't tell the
children they shouldn't.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
Generally speaking, when an act moves on, do you have
any contact or essentially they're dead to you.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
Well, for me, it's when an act moves on and
there's really no specific you know, there wasn't a terrible
fuck up, or you lied, or you cheated, or you
there was a reason or real valid reason. I don't
want to ever know from them again. I mean, they're

(39:45):
not my friend. They don't care about me. Because if
they care about me, and I really didn't do anything
to deserve being fired, I don't. You're not my friend, and.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
What would happen. The nature of the businesses is you
always and into them down the line could be fifteen
twenty years along.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Oh my god, it yes it did. I have several
off stories that I'm a dogget about right now.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
So how uncomfortable for you is it when you run
into these people?

Speaker 2 (40:17):
Well, look, you know, over the years things have quieted down.
And when we went to the Birmingham show, I'm so
thankful I went. I was in Cardiff for the Oasis
show because I represent an All and decided that how

(40:37):
can we miss Birmingham. We're so close, this is such
an event. And I tell you, when we walked in
it was like we were so welcomed with love. And
that was from Ozzie, from Sharon, from the kids, from everybody.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
Okay, so you get Al Stewart, who's your next client?

Speaker 2 (41:06):
After that, there was a band that Charles Koppelman had
called the La Jets that nothing ever happened with them.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
I remember them, nothing did happen.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
Right, But I had them. And then what happened was
Jeff Franklin represented all of Elliott Roberts acts. So it
was Neil, it was the cars, yes, Jonie, so every

(41:41):
Jeff really didn't want to sit and really book a
tour or do deals. Jeff always liked to like kind
of make the introduction and walk away. So he would
give me most of Elliot's stuff to work on.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
And you know, Elliott's no longer with us. But what
was Elliot like as a manager?

Speaker 2 (42:06):
Oh my god, you talk about not knowing wanted again,
and I'm going to get Elliot and I had an
amazing relationship, but my god, we would fight like cats
and dogs. He was crazy, he was insane, and you know,
you never knew what he was actually gonna tell Neil

(42:26):
or you know, translate what was going on. And it
was very challenging. We did the Bridge School together for
thirty years. I mean there wasn't a day that we
didn't speak three, four or five times a day.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
And so how would his insanity manifest? Where would the
points of friction come.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
When it wasn't realistic or it wasn't making any sense
and it couldn't be done. And it wasn't my fault
that those four thousand and seats are in sold. I
didn't tell people not to buy the tickets.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
So you know, if you're in the studio, an engineer
is a yespin. He won't see anything negative. So you're
in the service business to what the gree can you
be honest with these people?

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Well?

Speaker 3 (43:19):
You know I have.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
I think the years and the experience has taught me
or given me the confidence to be able to be honest,
it's you know, I used to say that being welcomed
into a dressing room and not feeling like, oh my god,

(43:44):
I wish it was a hole and I could disappear
right now because I don't belong here, or I feel
so unwelcomed, you know, to be welcomed into a dressing
room and to feel like you belong and you really
had something to do with this all. It's such an accomplishment,

(44:06):
but you don't have you know, you don't have that
in your early days. You're a rookie, and it's different now.
I don't need to ask for a past. I don't
need to have the right path. You know, I've put
in a lifetime. But then you never knew what past

(44:27):
you were going to get, or where you were welcome,
or it was a very uncomfortable feeling when you were
growing up.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
So we've all been there where our name wasn't on
the list and we didn't get the past we thought
we were going to get. Would you scurry away with
your tail between your legs it was before the days
of cell phones whatever, or would you say, go talk
to this person.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Or yeah, it was hard to turn me away, right
even then no, I you know I would, but also
ego wise, I didn't want to be said no to either.

Speaker 1 (45:05):
You know that was well, you just revealed a certain
vulnerability that it doesn't feel good. So how hard was
it to get your gumption up? Or you were from Brooklyn,
no one was going to stop you.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
I kind of learned that.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
So do you remember what year you start booking Neil?

Speaker 2 (45:27):
I don't really.

Speaker 4 (45:28):
Well, the reason is in the eighties, okay, the early
eighties he's had his comeback with you know, Russ Never sleeps,
and by the end of the eighties he is the
hero to the grunge people, the Pearl jam whatever.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
But as the eighties begin, he's making these records for
geth In in all different styles trends. Yes, and Geffen
is ultimately sus him. Yeah, right, So how do you
book him? Then?

Speaker 4 (46:00):
You know?

Speaker 2 (46:01):
Now we didn't have email, but we had something because
he used to write me all the time. He was
called the Lonesome Cowboy on his handle or his address,
and he used to communicate with me. And I used
to have to book the Blue Notes Tour, the trans tour,

(46:24):
the Pink what was it, the Pink something? Oh, there
was a tour. I would have to book all those tours.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
It didn't matter, Okay, but you know acts are out
of touch Bill Young and the Shocking Pinks.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
Shocking Pinks, that was it.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
I mean, famously, before you represented him, Neil had unbelievable
success with Harvest. He went out to Arena's with Crazy
Horse and played with the audience didn't want to hear.
So you know he's a legend. At this point. People
want to see legs whole different category. But this is

(47:04):
the eighties. You tell them, Neily, if you go out
and you play this stuff, the buildings can only be
so big and the tickets can only be so expensive.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
No, I didn't have that kind of communication with him,
so I would have to rely on Elliott, and Elliott
wasn't telling him either.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
Okay, so the rubber meets the road at some point,
did you just manage to pull it off? Or at
some point where you know ticket's unsold and someone's asking questions, Well.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
I think you know, Neil is a Neil is a rebel,
and I think when he's told what you know, you
got to do this or you should do that, that
doesn't work. Neil's very smart and he gets it. He
totally gets it. But he enjoys his own music and

(47:56):
if he is writing new music, he wants to share
that with his audience and he wants them to be
they allowing him to share the music with it. And
he gets very upset when people yell out the songs

(48:17):
and requests. He gets really upset, just knock them straight off.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
Well, there's two types of being upset. There's the type
where you react and say, I'll show you this other
act where it really hurts. Does he actually get wounded
by this?

Speaker 2 (48:40):
No, I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
I don't think so either.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
He's a very sensitive guy. I think very caring. I mean,
I just I don't know if you've heard the new
recag yet, but you probably haven't. I was fortunate enough
to hear it a few weeks ago at lou Adler's
and I expected it to be not what it was.

(49:07):
And it's all these beautiful, beautiful love songs.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
Okay. In the eighties, Neil occasionally plays with Crosbie Stills
in Nash. Needless to say, the number of tickets they
can sell when Neil is there is much greater than
the number when he is not there. So how does
that work as an agent.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Well, I don't really these okay, yeah, but they don't
commit to just doing it because it's going to sell.
So when Neil was with C. S. N Y, that
was where he was at the time with his music,

(49:56):
and that didn't mean that that's how he was going
to con tinue. And then there was Crazy Horse who
he loved and loved playing with the Horse. So I
mean Neil, Neil had many chapters and it wasn't only
about where he got the big check from.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
Well, I guess what I'm saying is when it's decided
the four of them are going to go out, who
does the booking? I did, and everybody just deferred to
Neil and you, yeah, oh.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
Well Nil's the boss. Neil is the boss and any configuration.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
Okay. And so you're representing Elliott's acts and does that
include because it's got Billy Gerber working for him.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
And there's Antony Dimitriana.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Yeah, that's Tom Petty, it's Devo, it's heaven Sev.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
I'll tell you a funny story about Tom Petty. The
original manager I believe was Redglock, and he asked me
to come see this band. I think it was over
a July fourth weekend and like two o'clock in the
afternoon at CBGB's and it was Tom Petty and the
Heartbreakers and the place was there was nobody there. It

(51:14):
smelled from horrible roach spray, and there was this band
and I didn't feel it and I really didn't and
I didn't take it.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
Okay, But then they managed by Tony and they're part
of Elliot's organization. Are you involved? Then?

Speaker 2 (51:36):
No, they were Premier talent.

Speaker 1 (51:38):
Okay, so you represented?

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Yes, I did, yes, and I did the cars okay.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Yes, had ups and downs.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
You know, it was so down you have no idea, right, and.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
Then Johnny Anderson came back and was an arena.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
Tour again, but then it was and then did very right.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
So as the agent, how do you decide where to
I mean, it's one thing in nine o two one, oh,
I think it was whatever was one thing at that's selling,
but John's out of that. How do you know how
big a than you to play and how much to charge?

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Well, at that point management was making those decisions, okay.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
And so if management calls you and you don't agree,
you're going to say.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
What, Well, it's different what I would say in the
eighties and different what I would say today?

Speaker 1 (52:36):
What would you say today?

Speaker 2 (52:38):
I would say how I really felt, And I would
say it's career suicide putting an act in an arena
that doesn't belong in an arena. Okay, So, but I
wouldn't have said that in the eighties.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
So you have Elliott's acts, what other acts do you get? Well?

Speaker 2 (53:00):
Then I started working with all of the Stiff records, well,
Dave Robinson who was here in New York, and I
don't remember how I actually met him. My husband could
have been doing his office through Alan Fry. Alan Fry

(53:20):
was managing all of those acts. And I started representing
Elvis Costello, who I still represent, I in Jury, Reckless,
Eric Rock Partel, Nick Lowe. I had all of the

(53:47):
Stiff records, you know, punk rock bands. I loved it.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
And did you get them at the beginning or they
were even talking.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
At the beginning. I did Elvis costell first show ever
in the US.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
Well, I remember seeing the first tour at the Whiskey
where he got in a fight with the people in
the audience.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
He got in the fight with everybody in those days,
and the manager do too.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
Right, Okay, you're the agent with the famous incident with
Delaney and Bonnie in the bar. What do you think
about that? And in retrospect what do you think of it?

Speaker 2 (54:24):
I'm not clear on the question.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
He made a racist remark Bonnie brom Bonnie Bramlett taunted him.
It wasn't completely unsolicited, but he said something completely off color. Well,
let me change the let me change the question. You've
been doing it long enough. These acts step in it

(54:48):
at where every once in a while. Yeah, and so
how do you deal with that?

Speaker 2 (54:54):
Well, look, my feeling is you live and let live,
and I try not to get involved in political conversations
with my artists, religious conversations with my artists. And I'm
allowed to believe in what I believe in, and they're
allowed to believe in what they believe in. I just
I can't judge a person because of that.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
Well, you know, there's the famous Billy Squire video where
he's in pink and then he couldn't sell another ticket
after that. Have you had any experiences like that where
somebody does something that really hurts their business.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
Fortunately, I think it might have for a moment, but
they recovered. But certainly I've seen damage done and It's
funny you mentioned Billy Squire. That's when I represented def
Leppard and that was their first tour of the US

(55:57):
and their record just I mean number one, and we
were renegotiating their deal with on the Billy Squire tour.
Every single day they were blowing up like raising.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
Okay, so the opening act, to what degree is the
agent involved in switching order on the bill?

Speaker 2 (56:20):
Oh no, well, we weren't doing that. We were just
trying to get paid more.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
Okay. So to what degree do you deal with the
acts as opposed to the managers.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
In those days? Hardly at all. And as time goes
on and people start to trust and managers trust, then
you become very much more involved. And I fortunately have
personal relationships with almost all of my artists that I

(56:54):
really cherish, and I don't overstep the manager's role.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
And if you ever had people try to poach your axe, oh.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
Yeah, oh yeah, so, but I don't do that because
I if an act is going to leave and taking meetings,
I'll be the first to throw my hat and dring.
But I do not proach acts. I find it like
somebody who's worked so hard in an act. No, I

(57:26):
would never do that, but I know lots of people
that do.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
So how about you must have you know, caught wind
that one of your acts is shopping. What do you do? Then?

Speaker 2 (57:36):
I resign? I resign?

Speaker 1 (57:40):
Do you ever resign? And they say, well, whoa wait
a minute, wait a minute, we were just you know,
testing the waters whatever.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
Yeah, but then I said, you know, I think it's time.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
Okay, So you're representing Elliott's acts, You're representing the stiff acts.
You're like totally hot at that point. And so do
you feel you're the perception of you in the business.
This is a power business, and so you will.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
But I didn't know that then. I didn't know that then.
I seriously didn't realize that.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
Okay, so what were the next steps for you?

Speaker 2 (58:19):
Well, then I I'm an agent at ATI and I
have a big fight with Wally. Myoits and he fires me.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
And just to be clear, is this one of these
things you go in the office and all of a
sudden it becomes a conflagration. Where had this been building?

Speaker 2 (58:42):
No? No, it wasn't building at all, because I was
best friends with his wife. No. No, it was a
confrontation about going to cover a show that I had
wanted to cover and he wouldn't let me. And then
now he was assigning me to go to a for
an act and a different place where it really wasn't

(59:02):
as important as the one he refused to let me
go to. So it became a bit of a tiff
and he told me I was fired.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
Do you think he realized that he was firing you
or it was just the heat of the moment.

Speaker 2 (59:17):
No, because everybody was pretty drugged at the time, so no,
he didn't. But I don't remember how Tom Ross got
in touch with me. He had just gone to ICM
or he was at ICM, I don't remember, and West

(59:37):
Coast and he called me and I interviewed and they
hired me, which was unheard of because that was really
a men's club there at the time.

Speaker 1 (59:50):
Was it such a big step.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
Because they didn't have any women at all, So it
was a big step and I was very hot and
all my acts went with me and I was there
for I think five years.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
Okay, so when everything calmed down at your old place
and they say, well, well wait a minute, wait a minute,
you shouldn't go.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
Yeah, this happened. I went back, though. Actually I was
there for three years. I was there for one contract
and then I went back. At that point, Wally was gone.
He went to William Morris and Bill Elson took over
and I was named vice president.

Speaker 1 (01:00:50):
So how was it different working at ICM?

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
It was not in it. It wasn't a good experience
for me because, yes, the culture was different, you know,
I really it wasn't a good experience at all. I
lived out my three year contract and Tom was gone
and he was a real ally of mine, and the

(01:01:19):
people that were there really didn't want me there.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
To what degree have you encountered sexism in your career.

Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
I've kept that very private.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
Well, without talking about specific experiences, can you say how
much of a factory it is.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
Well, again, it's just like if I walked in and
I was wearing an outfit and one of the guys said, wow,
you are really hot today, I wouldn't have been offended
to me. I wouldn't have thought that was sexist. It

(01:02:01):
just you know, it's different times.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
Well, it's different times in terms of what you can say,
but it's also there's another avenue where someone says you're
a woman, I'm giving the job to a guide, or
you're a woman, you don't know what you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
No, no, no, I did not. I was fortunate enough
not to have that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
So now you're working for bill Elson in this interim,
are you going out signing new acts or people coming
to you? How does it work?

Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
I was representing Stix Rush.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
My roster was pretty amazing, Okay, but how did you
get Stixon Rush?

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Each one came from a different Like I remember Rush.
There was this agent, Jimmy Opner, who died and he
was very close with the manager at the time, and
I think that's how Rush came and sticks. I don't remember.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
And Q Prime is now the manager for the new
Rush tour. Who's booking the new Rush tour? Dennis Dennis? Okay,
I know from the Rush camp, but from your perspective,
although I should ask, Dennis's supposed to you? You know,
the demand was through the roof. Did you foresee that?

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
I think they did.

Speaker 3 (01:03:33):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
I think there was such a need for that band.
They hadn't reached their potential, and you know, I think
I think everybody kind of felt it was there.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
Okay, So now you're working for Bill Elson, what's the
next step.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
I think I stayed there a long time and then
I went to William Morris, And how was that?

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
I was ver.

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
At the time Peter gross Light let him rest in peace.
He ran the department and it was really dysfunctional, and
every two minutes he had me. I didn't realize when
I agreed to go to William Morris that I was
the satellite office in New York.

Speaker 3 (01:04:31):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
I didn't do it on me. And they were all
in LA. So every two minutes I was finding out
to LA because there was this situation or that situation
or all sorts of.

Speaker 1 (01:04:42):
Stuff going on, and from William Morris.

Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
From William Morris, I did mvoh my very own.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
Okay, I can understand why you would want to do
your own. How was the experience of doing your own?

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
Well, I was afraid to do it my own because
I just didn't know what to do. I didn't know
how to go rent an offer, not that I didn't
know how, I didn't have it experience sold to do it.
You know, the thought of choosing a Xerox machine made
me sick. But it was actually Ron Stone at Gold

(01:05:20):
Mountain who said to me, with Johnsover, we have an
office on forty fourth Street. You could rent one of
the offices and start from there, you know, do it
from there. And I did. And how many they gave me?

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
How many people were in the office for you?

Speaker 2 (01:05:40):
Oh, for me, just one person. And I did all
the booking on my own. I just needed somebody to
do the paperwork.

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
Okay, But that sounds like a lot of work. Do
you have a lot of clients? You know?

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
People say to me, how many clients do you have?
Do you know? I never counted them. I've never counted
my clients. And people don't all work at the same time.
I had no problem booking. I like booking okay today.

Speaker 1 (01:06:15):
And then you're running your own organization. How do you
move on from there?

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
I was lonely and I had moved out of forty
fourth Street. I got my own office and it was
just me and an assistant, and I had an accounting
company that did all the accounting. But I kind of

(01:06:41):
felt lonely, and I two agents approached me and wanted
to do a joint deal, and I agreed to do it,
and whatever happened, they kind of left me at the altar,
and all the time ICM was after me again to

(01:07:06):
come back, because now the whole music department had changed,
and I finally agreed to go back to ICM.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
Okay, everything changed, but it really didn't right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
Well, what happened was the whole concept was like I
could really build a department, but at that point they
had just brought out their investors, so it wasn't like
I could really just build into department. So it was
me and my roster at ICM.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
And how long were you there?

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
Five years?

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
And then what.

Speaker 2 (01:07:50):
I came here. Dennis had been chasing me for a
long time, and I just felt that we kind of
worked the same way we worked twenty four to seven,
and we don't need to be really accountable to anybody.

(01:08:12):
I didn't have to show up, I didn't have to
I could go cover whatever I needed to cover. It
just seemed to be a betefit.

Speaker 1 (01:08:25):
And to what degree does Berkele have a hand in it?

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
Really not. He's always you know, he's very friendly, and
he's reachable and if I needed him, I could text
him and he'd be there in a minute. But he's
not involved in any of our day to day stuff
or so weird anything like that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:53):
We're in this story to meet your husband.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
Oh that was at Ati.

Speaker 1 (01:09:01):
So how do you meet him?

Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
I've been married a very long time.

Speaker 1 (01:09:05):
How'd you meet him?

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
I actually met him. It's a funny story. I met
him in a plant store in New York. I had
just moved into my own studio apartment, and I had
broken up a relationship that I had lived with a person.
And I was actually on my way to a deep
purple concert at Nassau Coliseene and I stopped in this

(01:09:31):
plant store to get some plants for my apartment, and
he was visiting his friend who owned the plant store.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
So what happened? Where was the clique?

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
The clique was? He offered to take the plants back
to my apartment, but he was very much taller than me,
and he had this very thick accent, and I didn't
even know where the country was, and I look at
him at where he was from. And he brought the
plants back to the apartment. But then I went on

(01:10:04):
to the purple concert, and then he started calling and
we started seeing each other, and one thing led to
another two children later.

Speaker 1 (01:10:16):
And so what does he do all day when you're
being an agent?

Speaker 2 (01:10:21):
He's a contractor. He's a contractor, designer, contractor.

Speaker 1 (01:10:26):
And how many kids you have.

Speaker 2 (01:10:29):
I have two sons and two grandchildren.

Speaker 1 (01:10:34):
So what do the sons do?

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
My son Matthew ran Bravado merch company for Universal to
a pandemic. He really was the major part of changing
black rock and roll t shirts to fashion, was very
instrumental in growing that whole world of fashion. And my

(01:11:01):
son Franco onto restaurant to pandemic and now is probably
reopening a restaurant and doing other stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
Restaurants, that's a very difficult business.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
You are horrible.

Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
So you helped them out with a restaurant.

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
No where do you get there?

Speaker 1 (01:11:24):
Do you get the money? Where do you get the
money for the restaurant?

Speaker 2 (01:11:27):
They raised money, they have investors. No, no, I no,
I would not invest in the restaurant. I'll invest in
my son, but not the restaurant.

Speaker 1 (01:11:35):
So what was it like balancing family life with your
work when your kids were still in the house.

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
Very difficult, I must say. I look at girls now
that are having children and working, and they don't they
have no idea how easy they have it in terms
of the lack of structure. Sure that our business has
these days, you know, since pandemic especially, but and the

(01:12:09):
maternity leave. I mean I never had the maternity leave
that by law you get now. It was very difficult
because I didn't have family that could help me take
care of my children, and so it was always hiring
somebody and then they wouldn't show up. They did show up,
and they had attitude, and I was afraid to leave him,

(01:12:29):
and my husband was busy, and it was a juggle.
Then I moved to New Jersey because we needed more space,
and that was a nightmare because the George Washington Bridge
was like going to Siberia. I couldn't get the day
help and the night help, it was like. And shows

(01:12:51):
were so much later that I mean, you would have
to go to a show with the Riots at midday
one o'clock and then get kids up from school in
the morning. And it was hard trying to go to
you know, the soccer game, the lacrosse game, football game,
and be a parent because that's what I wanted.

Speaker 1 (01:13:13):
So did you stay in New Jersey while your kids
were still home?

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
No? I lasted a year and three months.

Speaker 1 (01:13:18):
And moving back to where the city Witchborough.

Speaker 2 (01:13:25):
New York, Manhattan, Manhattan.

Speaker 1 (01:13:27):
But you were a Brooklyn girl originally. Once you get
out of Brooklyn region.

Speaker 2 (01:13:31):
I was never going back, but now everybody goes to.

Speaker 1 (01:13:34):
Yeah, isn't that sort of amazing having seen the transformation?

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
Well, what growing up in like the slums is now
like beautiful considered high end areas.

Speaker 1 (01:13:48):
So at this point in time, if someone came along
with a new act, would you sign them? As absolutely?
How often you're not out combing for new acts? I
wouldn't think.

Speaker 2 (01:14:03):
If somebody asked me to go see somebody, I would go.
If somebody wanted me to take a meeting with somebody,
I would go.

Speaker 1 (01:14:12):
And when was the last time you signed a new act?

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
Well, I guess that's a good question. Well, I guess
Nola Gallagher was one of my latest when John Titmar
was retiring, I had I had known Marcus Russell and

(01:14:39):
got in touch with him right away. New no I signed.
I just took on this girl Kiki through Jordan Shure,
who used to run many labels. I have people on
my team that could book, but I oversee everything.

Speaker 1 (01:15:05):
You said you'd like to book. Tell me more about that.
I don't tell me more about that.

Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
I find the challenge. Actually, you know who taught me
how to route a tour was basically Malcolm Young from
ACDCENT because when I them, I would have to sit
and talk to and show the routing and talk about
the routing the tour. And there was no way that
you could con vince Malcolm to go from Philadelphia to

(01:15:33):
Boston to New York. You always had to go in
the straight line. You could not go back down the
same highway.

Speaker 1 (01:15:43):
The highway to hell. Why do you think that was exactly?

Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
I don't know. He was like obsessed with that, and
it didn't matter about availability, it didn't matter that, nothing mattered.
It had to be straight line.

Speaker 1 (01:16:02):
So let's assume I'm an act today and I want
to go on the road. How far in advance you
start planning?

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
I mean you should like right now, I'm booking Cage
the Elephant for April of twenty twenty seven. But that's
not every act. You know, the Strokes we just finished
routing very close because we never knew day to day
when the music was coming, so we kept you know,
it really depends. It's lovely to have the lead time.

(01:16:36):
Elvis Costello, I book ahead of time. I usually have
an idea of what he wants to do. You know,
every act is kind of different.

Speaker 1 (01:16:46):
And how about building availability?

Speaker 2 (01:16:50):
It's tough and the hardest part is, you know, seeing
a building and on the date it says nine holes
and okay, So don't give me a calendar like that.
Tell me what's clearable before you give it to me.
I won't take calendars like that.

Speaker 1 (01:17:10):
So let's say the nuts and bolts. Give us the
nuts and bolts of the booking a tour. Someone says
they want to work, let's just say, for the sake
of discussion, their arenas. What's your next step?

Speaker 2 (01:17:21):
I go to New York and LA first, and those
are my anchors. And based on those availabilities is how
I build a tour?

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
And to what degree? In both those markets there are
multiple buildings, I mean Madison Square gardens of status. Play
you can't make as much money, but you can play
in Brooklyn, you can play on the Island. In LA
you can play Staples, you can play the Forum, you
can play the new building. How do you decide where
to go?

Speaker 2 (01:17:53):
So all about the act, you know it's where the
act belongs.

Speaker 1 (01:17:58):
Well, let's talk about New York City. Where there's the Island,
there's Brooklyn, and there's Manhattan. Where would it act belong.

Speaker 2 (01:18:06):
Well, you have a problem in New York because, especially
with rock music, there's no radio. I mean you in
La have k Roc still in CACRW and all that stuff.
We have no radio and it's really a problem. So
you know, if an act hasn't one hundred broken and

(01:18:28):
they still want to grow into an arena, it's really
hard to get them there successfully. So you just got
to really I mean like unless they've totally broken, you
wouldn't go to the suburbs.

Speaker 1 (01:18:44):
And what will make them bigger if radio is not
a factor.

Speaker 2 (01:18:51):
You know, I hate to use the word streaming. Some
of those streaming numbers matter, some of them don't. Socials,
prior shows, promotion, marketing.

Speaker 1 (01:19:19):
In the old days before YouTube, you would see a
show and you tell all your friends you got to
see this act and you would bring them back. Whereas
now there's nothing fresh one hundred percent. So it's what degree.
Is delivering on stage a factor in growing your business?
I mean you always want to be good.

Speaker 2 (01:19:41):
Well, for me, the live show was always the most important.
People would tell me, you know, go see this band tonight, please,
You're not gonna believe it. It's a clash meet Siggy pomp.
It's you got You're gonna love it. So I would
go and the band Kids takes the stage, and I'm

(01:20:02):
watching this band and I'm like checking my phone to
see am I in the right place? Because it was nothing,
but was you know, described to me the live show.
I am not an A and R agent. For me,
it's about what the live show was about, or what

(01:20:23):
the voice is about. And for me, it's instinct and
the live show, to me, is the most important thing.
To what degree your people trustworthy? People are telling me
it's the latest and greatest my inbox all day long,
and either they're full of shit where they're selling what

(01:20:44):
they have, they're both.

Speaker 1 (01:20:49):
And do you have certain people that you trust or
you just find this is the nature of the business.

Speaker 2 (01:20:55):
Well, for me, it's about who the team is. Yeah,
and there are people I trust, and there's teams I
want to work with. I don't want to work with
people that point the finger out. We need the tour.
You got to deliver the tour. Well, what are you
delivering in order for me to get the tour? You know,
it's it's not a one sided thing. It's a puzzle

(01:21:17):
that has to be put together. The pieces have to fit.
You know this thing we got to get on the road.
We got Why why do you have to get on
the road to play to who? I say? I could
book any show in any market. All I gotta do
is pick up the part. I can't book the audience.
So if you go out there and you work, and

(01:21:39):
you play to ten people at nine, what a waste
of money?

Speaker 1 (01:21:46):
So once again, how do you decide the right time
and the right building.

Speaker 2 (01:21:54):
It's really not rocket science. It's I don't know how
to describe it to you. I mean, it's a progression
from selling out ballrooms? What sized ballrooms? Festivals? Festivals are
so important. The perception of the XT name on that

(01:22:15):
festival is like a magnet to other promoters, and so
that builds an act. I don't know. You just take
a look. I cag the elephant. Where are we going
to play in New York? So I have an idea.
Where am I going to play here? It's really per market.

Speaker 1 (01:22:38):
So let's just go back to your paradigm. If you
start New York in LA let's assume you've locked those
two dates in. Where do you go from there?

Speaker 2 (01:22:47):
Well, then you're wrap. Then you figure out where what
are the markets? Well, you used to look at a
SoundScan to look at it, you know, to see what
your sells in the market are. That doesn't exist anymore.
The streaming, it's so hard to There are acts that

(01:23:07):
are streaming the craziest numbers and are selling tickets, or
there's acts that are streaming the craziest numbers and they're
not selling tickets. And is it a one song thing?
Is it a whole record? Is a career And it's
just you have to pick the markets and look at
where they've had the best exposure, like an act that

(01:23:31):
played Lollapoos or in Chicago, how well did they do
in Chicago? What was the fan reaction? I mean a
lot goes into deciding where to play.

Speaker 1 (01:23:43):
So how about Spotify? They slice and dice their data,
so you know, we could talk about assuming you can
sell tickets, but you might say they're big in Saint Louis,
they're bad in Phoenix. Does Spotify help you or you're not?
Don't even bother?

Speaker 2 (01:24:01):
Well, No, the information that you get from Spotify you
have to use. Whether it's really helpful in terms of
ticket sales and how it can be is questionable, And
you know, you talk to the promoters locally and see
what's happening with them in local radio.

Speaker 1 (01:24:24):
So let's say Cage the Elephant you mentioned, how do
you decide what to charge for Cage the Elephant.

Speaker 2 (01:24:33):
We have a big discussion between management promoters what the
scaling should be, making sure you have a good amount
of tickets that every price point somebody could afford. Because
you want to appeal to a younger audience.

Speaker 1 (01:24:54):
And to what degree do you negotiate fees a lot
and what you're what's your experience there?

Speaker 2 (01:25:04):
Well, it depends on who the promoter is whether you
get resistance, and sometimes they use the wrong comparisons what
this act charges versus what your acts should charge, and
you know, depending on the demographic. You don't want to
outprice yourself. You don't want to be sitting there flexing
these tickets because you can't sell them.

Speaker 1 (01:25:29):
So, you know, rock used to drive the market. It's
sort of a step sister now, but some acts with
bad streaming numbers, no radio players selling a shit ton
of tickets. What's the status of rock in the marketplace.

Speaker 2 (01:25:44):
I'm hoping it's coming back. I mean, Boom has it.
It's you know, starting to do well again, the Strokes
are doing great. I think that's a great example.

Speaker 1 (01:25:58):
The stroke has been around for twenty ideas.

Speaker 2 (01:26:02):
Yeah, but they've had a lot of cold times.

Speaker 1 (01:26:05):
Well, how about in terms of new acts developing acts?

Speaker 2 (01:26:08):
Rock well, I think you have a lot of them.
You have. I mean I'm working on a list of
possible support bands or packaging ideas. I mean, you've got
that Joe that's really doing well.

Speaker 1 (01:26:22):
You have.

Speaker 2 (01:26:25):
Geese Somber. I think all of them fit into that
vein and they're doing well.

Speaker 1 (01:26:39):
So how much long are you going to do this
till you drop? Or do you see a side?

Speaker 2 (01:26:44):
Don't you? No? No, I have no reason to stop working.
I have time to do everything. What would I do?
Wake up in the morning and say what would I do?
I would not. I enjoy working.

Speaker 1 (01:26:56):
And what about going on the road. What you're feeling
about that now?

Speaker 2 (01:27:00):
I don't mind doing that. All my friends say to me,
I don't know how you do it. My only problem
is packing. I hate packing. I wish I could hire
somebody to pack for me and to carry me, you know,
to put my suitcase up. But I don't really see
a reason to stop working.

Speaker 1 (01:27:21):
And to what degree do you travel personally on vacation.

Speaker 2 (01:27:28):
I combine a lot of stuff with work, which I
don't have a problem with my family doing. We do
visit my husband's country once a year. I'm not one
for spas. I don't enjoy going to spas. I love

(01:27:50):
traveling in Europe and I don't feel deprived. Besides, I
could be anywhere. Nobody has to know where I am.

Speaker 1 (01:28:03):
Oh yeah, I love that. My own life Okay, used
to be a ten percent business. Now it's all negotiable.
What are your feelings about that?

Speaker 2 (01:28:15):
The first thing I say is I don't give a
reduced service. I do. I fight really hard for it
when we think it sucks.

Speaker 1 (01:28:26):
When will you give reduction.

Speaker 2 (01:28:29):
When I don't have a fucking choice. I'm not going
to lose an act over it, so you'll.

Speaker 1 (01:28:37):
Give a reduction to make sure you don't lose an act.

Speaker 2 (01:28:42):
It's not as black and white as that. Okay, No,
it really isn't. You know if an act is earning
big time and working, and it's a fair ask. But
I would not on an act that isn't a major act.

Speaker 1 (01:29:03):
And what's you're feeling on tour deals?

Speaker 2 (01:29:08):
If you can't find them? Join them.

Speaker 1 (01:29:13):
I mean in your world, have you seen that more
and more tour deals are being part of the equation?

Speaker 2 (01:29:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:29:23):
And to what degree is you, as an agent been
involved in a tour deal?

Speaker 2 (01:29:28):
On all my acts, I will not allow the tour
to be booked by anybody or routed by anybody except
for myself. So that's even with a tour deal.

Speaker 1 (01:29:43):
Okay. And how often does someone come in and say,
I want to go on tour. When we're done, I
need to walk away with X figure it out.

Speaker 2 (01:29:53):
I think maybe they talk to a manager like that
to an agent, and you.

Speaker 1 (01:30:00):
Talk about you're not a spa person. What are some
of the personal luxuries that you have with the success
you've had. How do you spend your money?

Speaker 2 (01:30:12):
Shopping? I like shopping a lot. Yeah, No, I don't
want to spend I have no patience for spats. But
I love traveling, and I like traveling first class and
you know, stay it nice hotels, and I don't want
to sacrifice. I'm very generous with my family.

Speaker 1 (01:30:39):
Okay. So has there ever been any tension that you
made more money, assuming you do, than your husband.

Speaker 2 (01:30:47):
No, my husband respects what I do tremendously. I'm very
supportive of it.

Speaker 1 (01:30:55):
That's a change from your family. So that's good. Yeah,
So this is a business you've been around long enough.
Prior to the Beatles, there were some good acts, but
certainly right before the Beatles we have Bobby right Dell,
we had Baby In etc. Beatles come, Beatles trans then
it becomes FM radio album rock things crash at the

(01:31:17):
end of the seventies. Then we have MTV. So today,
you know, it's kind of shocking for people of our
vintage to see all these pop acts getting this press
and these sales. You know, these these were acts that
we wouldn't even listen to back in the day. Also,

(01:31:38):
there was a thought by people who were your contemporaries
that myself included, that oh and the old acts die,
it's going to become a theater business. But now there's
more stadium shows than ever before. So where is the
business at large going?

Speaker 2 (01:31:56):
Well, look, I think when you take a look at
the shows that Taylor Swift does or Sabrina Carpenter. I
haven't seen the Harry Styles show yet, you know, a
lot of work and money go into these shows. And
I do respect it. I totally respect it. I think
Madonna started it all, I think that there's always going

(01:32:21):
to be you know, where things go around comes around,
and you know we're going to get back into some
rock music and singer songwriters. I mean, look at the
string of singer songwriters from Dylan and Young, Neil Young,
et cetera. I mean, they'll be more singer songwriters. I

(01:32:44):
just think it's all, you know, timing, Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:32:49):
Marsha, I want to thank you so much for speaking
with my audience, taking the time.

Speaker 2 (01:32:54):
I appreciate. I told Jared this is all his fault, Okay,
came up with this idea until next time.

Speaker 1 (01:33:04):
This is Bob left set