SILVER LINING

With the breakup of Soundgarden, the rock world didn’t just lose one of its most prized bands. It also lost one of its most respected managers. Susan Silver, who in addition to guiding the band’s career for 12 years (as well as handling Alice in Chains and Sponge) is also married to lead singer Chris Cornell, has decided to go into semi-retirement at age 39 in order to enjoy some peace and quiet at home outside Seattle.

“I realized that I was looking at two years of going nonstop,” says Silver, who had Cornell and Alice guitarist Jerry Cantrell both working on their first solo albums and Sponge set to record a new album next year. “I just wasn’t ready to commit to that now. We’d been talking about me taking some time off anyway, and if I didn’t now, I don’t know when I would have been able to.”

Cornell will now be managed by Laguna Beach-based Mark Guerinot, who also manages the Offspring in addition to running the BMG-distributed Time Bomb label. But Cantrell is still looking and is considered a hot property by many top managers. Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis, who once managed Alice in partnership with Silver, is among the candidates.