Rock Managers: The Hiring and Firing

What position offers less job security than being coach of the Los Angeles Clippers?

According to entertainment industry execs, no one gets hired--and then fired--as quickly as a rock manager. Consider the events of recent weeks:

Dogged by rumors of impending financial collapse, Prince fired his longtime management team last month, choosing film director Albert (“Purple Rain”) Magnoli as his new manager.

Though the group just had a Top 10 hit, the Bangles have parted company with industry heavyweight Miles Copeland, who had managed the group for several years.

In a move which stunned even top industry insiders last week, Michael Jackson axed Frank Dileo, his colorful, cigar-smoking manager of the past five years. Jackson and Dileo had been so close in recent years that many media accounts likened them to a father-son team. Dileo was prominently featured in Jackson’s “Bad” album jacket (where a picture of Dileo and Jackson was captioned “another great team”) and in Jackson’s lavish concert tour booklet, which devoted a full page of photos to the 41-year-old manager.

Though Jackson’s handlers described the parting as “amicable,” insiders were quick to speculate that the pop superstar was (choose one or more):

1. Unhappy his “Bad” album sales hadn’t neared his “Thriller” pinnacle. . . .

2. Looking for someone with more expertise in film--his next career target or. . . .

3. Peeved that Dileo had such a high media profile. (Describing Dileo’s ego, one exec said: “I’m not saying Frank was turning into some kind of Col. Tom Parker, but he sure blew his tires up pretty big, didn’t he?”)

If there’s more to the story--and some insiders claim there is--the Jackson camp isn’t talking. But what are some of the enormous career--and artistic--pressures that lead to conflict between pop acts and their managers?

Freddy DeMann, who now handles Madonna, co-managed Jackson with Ron Weisner in the early ‘80s. He refused to comment on the Dileo firing, but asked about his own much-publicized split, he told The Times in 1987: “I was devastated and I am not embarrassed or ashamed to tell you. I was walking flat-footed for a month because I thought we had a great relationship. . . . I was crushed.”

Pop Eye spoke to several leading managers who offered intriguing insights into the unsettling conflicts spawned by artists’ ego demands or insecurities.