4 Lessons in Artist Management: Colonel Parker to Sharon Osbourne

Artist management is one of those professions that can be as much art as it is science and business. The artful manipulation of people on behalf of the artist is one of the key functions of the artist manager. An example is the use of human nature in order to get past gatekeepers in order to keep an artist’s career plan moving. Relying on the science of research can be helpful in planning and keeping plans current. And certainly an understanding of business—specifically the music business—creates an advantage for the successful manager of artists. This chapter draws lessons from the real world experiences of several veteran artist managers that will help build an understanding of this corner of industry.

Tom Parker

Elvis Presley’s life long manager acquired the honorary title of “Colonel” as a gesture by a southern governor, but he carried the label with him until his death in 1997. Parker was born in Holland and immigrated to the United States as a young man, working in carnivals and eventually promoting country music shows. It was during his promotion work that he was introduced to Elvis and was asked by his parents to manage the 17-year-old singer.

The first management contract Parker made with Elvis in 1956 awarded him 25% of the artist’s overall earnings, but he received half of the earnings from things like recordings and merchandise. Twenty-five percent is a higher commission rate than many management compensation packages provide, but for a new artist without an earnings track record, that rate in the short term is reasonable. The artist manager will be investing time into their career for a period of time without measurable compensation, and receiving 25% helps the manager to recover some of that uncompensated time. Several years later Parker renewed his management contract that awarded him 50% of all of Elvis’ earnings and gave him very broad powers of attorney to make contracts on the entertainer’s behalf. Sean O’Neal writes in his book, Elvis, Inc., that research suggests that Elvis did not read contracts of any kind, and he relied on Parker to take care of the details they contained. (O’Neal, 75) It was Elvis’ inattention to contracts and their provisions that created the opportunity for Parker to, among other things, earn commissions totaling $1.3 million US in 1965 which was actually $300,000 more than Elvis earned that year. (O’Neal, 11) There are countless other stories about Elvis and his relationship with “The Colonel,” many detailing similar unconventional business dealings that provided great financial benefits to Parker. Among the best books to recount this history are the O’Neal book and Alanna Nash’s book, The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley. With the death of Presley in 1977, Parker went on to help the estate settle its business, however it was at the continuing rate of 50% commission. Parker died in January 1997 at the age of 87.

Lessons learned: Parker was an adept negotiator. For this era, he was able to get premium rates for Elvis’ appearances on television and in movies. He negotiated an adequate royalty rate for his client’s first contract with RCA, but later, renegotiated contract-tied royalty rates for his recordings to a set amount of money rather than a percentage of the selling price. As the price of recordings increased, Elvis was confined to a set dollar amount for each album sold. This is an example of Parker’s lack of understanding of the sometimes-complicated world of the record business, and it ultimately cost him and his client a lot of money. Another example is Parker’s failure to register Elvis with a performing rights organization (PRO). Songs that an artist writes or helped to write are entitled to regular payments for the performance of those songs on radio, television, concerts, and other places. Elvis and Parker both were paid nothing because of this omission. To put this into context, in 2003, Clear Channel Vice President Mick Anselmo noted that the five-company radio stations in the Minneapolis market paid nearly $2 million US to PROs for the right to broadcast licensed music for the entertainment of their audiences. (Anselmo, 2003) With over 10,000 commercial radio stations in the United States, the value of performance payments is considerable for the estate of an icon-like Elvis. No one knows how much Elvis missed in performance earnings by failing to fill out a simple registrations form with a PRO. The inclusion of a skilled entertainment lawyer in all business matters prevents this and other key mistakes on behalf of an artist manager’s clients. From the beginning, the artist must have an attorney whose style and manner fits the artist, and the artist and the manager must rely on counsel to help guide the business and to negotiate final contract documents that reflect the best possible financial deal based on where the industry currently is.

Rene Angelil: Targeting

When a family member manages an artist, the opportunities for conflicts of interest are constant. This is especially true when parents manage the careers of their child-artists as in the cases of Aaron Carter and LeAnn Rimes who had to sue their parents over issues relating to career management.

However, when that family member is a spouse, the results are often positive. Manager Rene Angelil is Celine Dion’s husband. That is not necessarily extraordinary except that he is 26 years older than his wife, the international singing star. Rene Angelil began his career as an artist manager, following his work as a member of a Canadian group called the Baronets. His group built a reputation performing in Quebec in the 1960s. (Charlebois, 2004) His career transition to artist management ultimately linked him in the early 1980s with twelve-year-old Celine Dion. She had sent an unsolicited recording to Angelil with a request that he consider managing her career. He was slow to respond to her request, but he finally met with her and signed her to a management deal. (Proefrock, 2005) Angelil believed in his new artist enough to mortgage his own personal assets to finance two albums for her, both of which generated considerable attention for the young performer. Angelil signed a new contract with Celine when she became 18, and both agreed his commission would be an unusually high 50%. (Baunoyer, 2004) Commission is a percentage of an artist’s income paid to a manager, and typically falls in the lower part of a range between 10–25%.

As Canadian-born Celine pressed Angelil to make her an international star, he knew an image makeover would be necessary for the French-speaking singer. Among the changes he made: He sent her to school to become more fluent in the English language, he ordered cosmetic dental work for her, and he had her hair restyled. The result was a launch into the lucrative American music market that garnered her Grammy awards, helped her sell millions of albums, and made her one of the biggest acts to ever perform in Las Vegas.

Now in his sixties, Angelil continues to manage his wife’s career despite his battles with heart attacks, cancer, and lawsuits from those who sense his deep pockets.

Lesson learned: An artist manager must have a keen sense of the target market for a recording artist. In its strictest sense, a target market is defined as people who are able to and willing to buy concert tickets, recorded music, and merchandise. Celine’s hopes were to enter the American marketplace and become an international star. Angelil knew that her success in the United States would require that she must have a better command of the English language so she could effectively communicate her art through the American media. Her image makeover and new language skills were among the keys to her commercial success in the United States.

Michael Jeffreys: Conflicts of interest

Conflicts of interest are those business relationships someone has that may cause their decisions to be made on their own behalf rather than for the benefit of the person or company they represent. For example, an artist manager is in a position of trust with the artist, and would have a conflict of interest if he owns a recording studio to which he might direct his client. He has a personal financial interest in a business that may compete with the professional interests of his client. To effectively manage an artist there is a requirement that the business side of the relationship should be unencumbered by agreements that cause outright conflicts of interest. The managers of rock icon Jimi Hendrix had some conflicts of interest, and the result shows the negative impact on the artist’s career.

Michael Jeffreys and Chas Chandler signed a co-management contract with Hendrix in 1966. The London-based company agreed to manage the career of the guitarist for 30% of his earnings, which was considerably higher than the standard 15% charged by many artist managers. Added to that was a 3% product royalty that the managers received on all of the Hendrix recordings, and they earned half of the money generated by a co-owned music publishing company. In all, the Hendrix co-managers’ earnings from the artist became considerably higher than typical management agreements. (Hopkins, 1984)

Two years after Jeffreys and Chandler agreed to manage Hendrix, Chandler wanted out of the arrangement. Jeffreys bought Chandler’s portion of the contract with the result that he began earning as much as 40% of the artist’s income. With Hendrix as Jeffreys’ primary client and only source of income, he began to book shows for the artist on an intense schedule, often using his personal requirements for income rather than making sensible decisions based on Hendrix’ career and the artist’s capacity to deliver top performances at each concert stop. (McDermott, 1992)

In September 1972 Hendrix died, ending a remarkable and short career, and setting to rest an artist-manager relationship that had its difficult times. In 1973, Michael Jeffreys died in a plane crash in France with his artist management assets passing to his father. Michael Jeffrey’s father Frank settled the estate of his son, and it was then that the extent of the conflicts of interest became very public. The publishing and recording contract Jeffreys and Chandler had with Hendrix said, in part, “All recordings made hereunder and all records and reproductions made therefrom, together with the performances embodied therein, shall be entirely our property, free of any claims whatsoever by you or any person deriving any rights or interested from you.” It remains an unusual feature of an artist-manager contract that the manager becomes owner of the artistic creations of those they manage. (Goodman, 2004)

Lesson learned: The artist-manager relationship is built in part on trust, and the expectation is that the manager will make decisions that are best for the artist’s career. In the end, good decisions on behalf of the artist will result in continued long-term financial gain for both the artist and the manager. Said another way, the agenda of the artist must come first. In the case of the Jeffries-Hendrix relationship, from the very beginning the manager was drawing more from the income stream of the artist than is customary. An argument could be made that a high percentage of Hendrix’ income paid to his manager was part of the reason he became a megastar. However, the amount of money generated by the artist’s career perhaps made Jeffries unwilling to develop other acts, and Hendrix was the sole support of his manager’s lifestyle. Decisions by Jeffries became driven by how much money he could make for himself by driving Hendrix’ career at a pace that became physically and emotionally taxing for the artist. Jeffries owned song-publishing, recordings, royalties earned by the recordings, and a recording studio that would be used exclusively by Hendrix. All of those conflicts of interest have the potential to cloud the objectivity of managers to impartially guide the career of an artist in the music business.

Peter Grant: A shared belief between the artist and the manager

In an industry that is filled with hyped images and exaggerated perceptions spawned by the nature of entertainment industry, a manager of a performing recording artist must genuinely believe in the artist for who they are as an artist. Probably there has been no deeper belief and commitment to an artist than Peter Grant was to Led Zeppelin.

Grant was born in England and became a factory worker, a photographer, a waiter, a professional wrestler, and a stagehand. By his mid-20s, he was driving American bands to London area performances where he became somewhat familiar with the general workings of performing acts. Promoter Don Arden, Sharon Osbourne’s father, hired Grant to become the tour manager for American artists like Little Richard and the Animals. He became adept at tending to the affairs of artists performing on the road because of his experience, and in part because of his large presence. He stood 6′ 6″ tall and weighed well over 250 pounds. His imposing presence and the knowledge that he occasionally carried a gun made him a natural to create order out of the chaos that sometimes accompanies touring. (Davis, 2004)

Grant began a management company with friend Mickie Most and acquired the Yardbirds as one of their acts. Eventually Grant bought out Most’s portion of the Yardbirds management agreement and became their sole manager. The Yardbirds was one of those groups from the 1960s that could boast having had at varying times band members Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. As their manager, Grant’s experience in road management proved to be the key to making the Yardbirds’ concert tours profitable after months of losing money. (Welch, 2002)

When the Yardbirds broke up, Grant formed a new group using Page and some new band members, calling them the New Yardbirds. This group morphed into what became the legendary Led Zeppelin. Under Grant’s guidance, the group signed a contract with Atlantic Records that featured a $200,000 advance (one million dollars US in today’s value) and full control over writing, publishing, and recording. In an era when concert promoters were receiving 40–50% of the earnings from a ticketed performance, Grant negotiated a 90/10 split with promoters, with Led Zeppelin receiving a record-level share of gates from performing. With the huge success of the group as a touring band, he convinced promoters that a 10% cut of the concert was more than adequate given that the group was making (in current dollars) a million dollars US for every show date in 1973. (York, 299–300) Grant’s decision to limit Led Zeppelin’s exposure to the media and to seek album sales rather than the sale of singles were among his nontraditional approaches to artist management in the 1970s. In 1980, the death of a member of the group led to the end of Led Zeppelin. In 1995, Grant himself died at the age of 60 from a heart attack. (Clark-Meads, 1995)

Lesson learned: The most effective manager is one whose belief in the artist is deep enough to be the basis for every decision made on their behalf, whether it is believing in their potential or believing in who they are. Peter Grant was constantly on tour with Led Zeppelin handling most of the tasks associated with tour management and artist management. But when the time came to create the words and music, and to assemble the performance, he left these creative responsibilities in the hands of the group. Likewise, the band left the management decisions—including some very unconventional ones—up to Grant. This shared and deep belief in each other became what many acknowledge as one of the strongest bonds between artists and a manager in the music business.

Herbert Breslin: Promoting your artist

Among the critical skills the manager of an artist in the music business must have is the ability to find all of an artist’s artistic appeal and then know how to promote and sell it to buyers of tickets and music. The most effective managers have the knack to know which opportunities are best for their clients, and then know how to turn them into promotional events to build interest in the artist and add to a developing fan base.

Long before he met the late Luciano Pavarotti, the New York born Herbert Breslin had been introduced to opera as a young boy by his father. He learned to save his money in order to buy tickets to see events at the opera house. Later he joined the US Army, and after leaving the military he earned degrees from City University in New York and Columbia University. Among his continuing interests was the opera, and he accepted a nonpaying job handling press and publicity for the new Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico. He developed his profession with the company and went on to establish his own career as a public relations manager and publicist for classical music.

In 1967 he met Pavarotti, which began a thirty-six year professional relationship between the artist and his manager. Initially, Breslin was employed by the opera singer to handle publicity and public relations for him, but later Breslin began to handle most of the traditional management duties of a performing artist. For his work, Breslin was paid 10% of Pavarotti’s earnings, and according to the manager he worked for the singer without a contract. (Breslin, 2003)

Breslin’s ability to connect his opera star with the media is fabled. Writer Norman Lebrecht says, “Breslin in his prime would play the media and the music business like a fairground accordionist, simultaneously squeezing and stroking to pump out hullabaloo.” (Lebrecht, 2004) He would choose to create six or seven events within a short period of time to highlight a tour or to promote a new album. While Breslin has his critics, few denied his ability to understand his clients and to know what it would take to promote and manage their careers. He is now retired from management.

Lesson learned: An artist manager should draw from the strengths of an artist and use them to add as many dimensions as possible to their persona and their commercial appeal. The phenomenal caliber of Pavarotti’s voice is undeniable; it was Breslin’s work using his singer’s voice and warm personality that broadened his commercial appeal beyond the opera stage. An important talent of a manager is to understand career promotion and have access to the tools to make it happen. In the case of Breslin and Pavarotti, the manager says of his former client that he has “a great face, a wonderful smile, and a wonderful sense of humor. He charmed everybody.” (Breslin, 65) And it was Breslin’s exploitation of these assets that helped to greatly expand the career appeal of his most famous client.

Joe Simpson: Manage by the Boy Scout motto

Joe Simpson has been a psychologist, a youth minister, a record producer, a television producer, and is the father of Ashlee and Jessica Simpson. (MTV, 2006) It is perhaps his experience as a psychologist that did the most to prepare him to manage and promote two young women in the music business.

Simpson had tried to help Jessica launch a career in Christian music in the mid-1990s, but her music never connected with a public that buys recorded music. In 1997, Sony received a demo of her music and signed her to a recording contract that resulted in a very successful first album, and her career was well underway under the guidance of her father. Her music continued for two more albums, but her popularity as a recording artist was beginning to fade. Simpson the manager decided he would try to sell the idea of a reality show featuring newlyweds Jessica and Nick Lachey. The show reignited interest in Jessica, and Simpson was able to leverage it to get his daughter a major role in the movie version of The Dukes of Hazard, followed by work in television commercials and more movies.

Meanwhile, Joe Simpson planned and launched the career of his younger daughter, Ashlee. She, too, has had very successful albums, and now includes a reality television show as part of her resume as an entertainer, for which Ashlee acknowledges that her manager-father was very helpful.

With music performance as the foundation for the careers of Simpson’s two daughters and with him as advisor for opportunities to advance their careers, both women fell into circumstances that held them out for criticism as artists. Daughter Ashlee was caught on live television, Saturday Night Live, beginning to perform with tracks of her voice, and she walked off the stage. In late 2006, daughter Jessica performed a song at a taped television salute to the career of Dolly Parton, but her performance was so bad that it had to be cut from the version that was broadcast. (Moras, 2006) Both of these two very public gaffes made their talent the subject of jokes on television, and headlines in the tabloids.

Lesson learned: A manager cannot over-prepare an artist for a public appearance. Mistakes like those made by the Simpson sisters can erode their images as professionals and can make their fans uneasy about telling others that they are admirers, and that can be fatal for a career. Be sure the artist is comfortable with performance opportunities, and then be sure they are prepared.

Jon Landau: Keeping a business focus

Jon Landau’s relationship with Bruce Springsteen spans more than 30 years. His background in the music business has included being an editor for a major music industry publication, a film critic, a music producer, and most famously as an artist manager.

His connection with Springsteen began when he attended one of his shows in 1974 in New York City. The two became friends and Landau became a valued influence on Springsteen’s work in the recording studio. The closeness of the relationship created conflict with Springsteen’s current manager, and Landau ultimately became his manager and has guided his career since then.

Springsteen had always considered himself an artist and shied away from the commercial aspects of performing music. Part of this was attributed to the mistakes made early in his career at selling merchandise at performance venues. However, Landau was able to show his client over the years that a career is based on the continued success of the business it generates, and Springsteen began to accept that. Landau has a style of communication that is able to make his client comfortable with the idea that his music can speak for working people, yet still have a complementary commercial aspect. Springsteen continues to sell platinum albums, and his 2005 tour grossed over $33 million US from 65 shows. (Cohen, 2006)

Lessons learned: Many artists launch their careers with a vow not to “sell out,” meaning that they will shun any attempt by those around them to convince them to become commercial. They say that they want to be true to their art and true to their fans. Commercial music, they say, is cookie cutter and they are unwilling to become something they are not. An effective artist manager can guide the artist in the business side of their craft yet show them the way to reach a larger fan base. When an artist says it is time to have a manager, they are also saying that they are at a point in their career where they want their artistry to begin building a financial future for them. It’s not necessary to compromise values to reach commercial markets that buy music and performance tickets. Rather, it takes the guidance of a manager who knows how to expose those creative features of an artist that appeal to a larger audience. Jon Landau had the industry background to understand the business and he had the human relations savvy to work with his artist to show that you don’t need to sell out your artistry in order to have financial success.

Bob Doyle: Using your network

Bob Doyle is a product of the Nashville side of the music business. He worked for Warner Bros. Records in the A&R department, at ASCAP in Nashville overseeing member relations, and then in 1988 he left the performance rights organization to open the doors of his new music publishing business, Major Bob Music. One of his first clients was a singer-songwriter named Garth Brooks.

He used his connections to try to find Brooks a manager, but no one was willing to take on a new client. So Doyle decided to do it himself. He recruited a new partner, publicist Pam Lewis, to help him manage his new client. The backgrounds of Doyle and Lewis provided them a number of connections necessary to get Brooks’s career moving. Doyle put Brooks with producer Jerry Kennedy to create a music demo. Then, Kennedy was able to connect the artist with booking agent Joe Harris of Buddy Lee Attractions. Doyle used his contacts to pitch Brooks to every label in Nashville but failed to get any interest in his client. (Morris, 1993) In May 1988, Brooks was scheduled to appear at the legendary Blue Bird Café in Nashville to showcase some of his songs. The lineup for the show was changed at the last minute, and he found himself performing before several record label chiefs with the result that he was signed by Capitol Records. (Mitchell, 1993)

The career of Garth Brooks continued to be managed by Doyle through the best of times an artist can experience. Along the way Doyle and Lewis parted ways, but Doyle continues to manage the career of one of the most commercially successful artists in history. His company is now known as Bob Doyle & Associates and his firm manages other artists including the “retired” Garth Brooks.

Lessons learned: Bob Doyle was able to move Garth Brooks through the maze of the music business, in part, because he knew the key gatekeepers—or, he knew those who knew them. Inexperienced artist managers find it difficult to make contact with key people in the music business because they don’t have a network of relationships. The industry is one that is filled with talented individuals with lofty dreams of stardom, and all are trying to connect with those who can make a career happen. Because of that, offices of music industry executives from Los Angeles to Nashville, and from New York to London are bombarded daily by those who need help in becoming a star. An artist manager new to the music business doesn’t have the connections—or network—to get telephone calls returned. Bob Doyle and Pam Lewis already had access to key people in the music business, which added to their effectiveness working on behalf of Garth Brook’s career.

Andrew Loog Oldham: Exploit your artist’s talents

It was a 19-year-old Andrew Loog Oldham who recruited and signed the Rolling Stones as his first act to manage. His background was limited but impressive. He had been an assistant to Brian Epstein, the manager of the Beatles.

His business savvy was quick to show. He signed his management deal with the Stones on May 1, 1963. Nine days later the group was recording its first session for Decca Records. (Cannon, 1992) Oldham tells journalist Sean Egan that he approached the head of Decca A&R, Dick Rowe, and pitched the Rolling Stones, knowing that Rowe had been offered the Beatles but had declined to sign them. Oldham knew that Rowe didn’t want to be known as the guy who passed on the Rolling Stones, too, so he got his deal. (Egan, 2001)

Oldham knew that singing other’s songs would not set the group apart as much as it would if they were to write their own material for their album projects. He pressed Keith Richards and Mick Jagger to begin writing songs, though Jagger wasn’t a musician and Richards had done little songwriting. The result was that some of the most remembered music of the l960s was penned by the two Rolling Stones, including “Satisfaction.”

Lessons learned: One of the roles of an artist manager is to exploit all of the talent they have. If an artist hasn’t written songs, the manager should begin developing that side of the artist. While it is possible the artist will never become a prolific writer, it will give them some insight into the creative processes of others who bring their songs to the studio. If the artist has the creative side that permits them to write commercially viable songs, the manager has done his or her job by stimulating a creative revenue source for the artist.

Johnny Wright: A matter of timing

Johnny Wright is an artist manager who has also been part of the management teams of some of the most commercially successful pop music acts in history. His resume includes work with Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, the New Kids On the Block, Boyz II Men, Justin Timberlake, and P. Diddy. He began his association with the music industry as a radio DJ, and was recruited to travel with the New Kids for over four years. During those years Wright learned a considerable amount about artist management and the challenges that go with managing artists.

Being on the road with a performing act exposes tour managers and aspiring artist managers to most of the issues one will face in the profession. Any tour, whether it is one that takes the artist and crew out for six weeks, or whether it is one that hubs (returning home after each performance date), includes continuous contact with tour promoters, radio stations, venues and venue management, talent bookers, lighting companies, video companies, sound companies, production coordinators, the entertainment press, musician and stagehand unions, sponsors, fans, security companies, local/city governments, hotels, caterers, airlines and other transportation companies, and many others we will discuss later in this book. All of these entities can create a necessary corrective course of action, and being on the road and participating in solutions is among the best ways to learn how to manage issues.

Lessons learned: Johnny Wright was able to develop his expertise in artist management for the music business early in his career, in part, because he was able to place himself into the role of problem solver where many of the problems occurred. Because most issues are related to people and how they handle their responsibilities, they all have a human element, meaning each situation is as different as the people who are part of the circumstance. Learning how to motivate people to assure the success of a performing artist is a critical component of the profession of artist management.

Lou Pearlman: A matter of trust

Lou Pearlman was another artist manager who began one career, but ultimately became a successful career manager for the Backstreet Boys and N’Sync. Pearlman was raised in Flushing, New York. Among the things he did in his youth was to be a musician in a local band. He eventually found his way into the aviation industry where he became a very successful entrepreneur owning a helicopter and aircraft charter service. His charters provided services to several key music industry people, and this—coupled with the fact that his cousin is Art Garfunkle—opened a network of contacts that helped him become a major player in the music business. He put together the elements that resulted in the creation of the Backstreet Boys, and he later signed N’Sync to a management contract.

One of the continuing truths of nearly any industry is that the wealthiest are always prone to being sued. In some cases, it is because the wealthy have “deep pockets” and people sue for some of what they have. In other cases, the wealthy have left themselves exposed to being sued. The latter was the case between Pearlman and the Backstreet Boys. The group had signed a management contract with Pearlman when some of the group members were barely teenagers, and court documents said that among the things Pearlman was accused of by the five Backstreet Boys were:

These issues were settled out of court.

Lessons learned: Among the key elements of the artist manager relationship is trust, and it is often compared to marriage. Looking at both, some marriages begin with a prenuptial agreement, and likewise, an artist-manager agreement begins with a contract; marriages include the earning of income shared by the partners and, an artist shares income with a manager; managers are often given power of attorney which lets them act on behalf of the artist under certain circumstances, and likewise, marriage partners frequently and unilaterally obligate the partnership. So, by contemporary standards it could appear that Pearlman took advantage of the Backstreet Boys. However, it is unclear how much of his personal resources was invested into the group and it is equally unclear what the group understood would be the basis for repayment of Pearlman’s investment and his continued earnings. When the Backstreet Boys—now, young men—realized what the costs were for Pearlman’s management, they felt they had been taken advantage of and sued him. When the relationship loses its foundation of trust, it is all but impossible to recover from it.

Sharon Osbourne

Sharon Rachel Arden is daughter to the original manager of the rock group Black Sabbath. Ozzy Osbourne began the major part of his career as part of the group until he was fired and began to work solo. During these early years, Sharon worked for her father in his management company gaining the experience necessary to later launch her own career as manager of Ozzy. Sharon sought to be Ozzy’s manager as part of the Arden management company, but her father refused. So, she bought the management contract from him, began to manage Ozzy, and along the way became Mrs. Osbourne. Sharon negotiated Ozzy’s solo recording contract with Epic in 1981, they signed him, and his first solo album sold over 4 million albums. (Rosen, 2003) She continues to manage all aspects of his career.

Lessons learned: Among the best lessons artist managers can take from Sharon Osbourne are those she shared from her experience in Fortune magazine. In the May 13, 2002 edition of Fortune, Alynda Wheat writes an article about Sharon Osbourne’s philosophy on artist management based on her experiences with Ozzy Osbourne. Her major points are:

She uses these points as a basis to briefly discuss, in classic Sharon Osbourne style, her career experiences managing Ozzy Osbourne. I would urge the interested reader to seek a copy of the issue for the complete article.

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