Management
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Los Angeles punk/hardcore band Militarie Gun have signed with Roc Nation for management, Billboard can reveal.
The signing follows the announcement of the group’s debut album, Life Under the Gun, which is due out June 23 on Loma Vista Records. The 12-track project, engineered by Taylor Young at the Pit Recording Studio, will include the band’s previously-released single, “Do It Faster,” as well as its latest single, “Very High.” The album is available for pre-order on vinyl, CD and cassette here.
“When I first heard the demos for Militarie Gun’s forthcoming album, I literally couldn’t stop listening,” says the band’s manager Blaze James. “[Frontman] Ian [Shelton] has a knack for writing pop melodies layered into punk songs with an emotional pull. It was right in my wheelhouse.”
Life Under the Gun follows the release of several EPs by the band, including My Life Is Over and All Roads Lead to the Gun/All Roads Lead to the Gun II. Militarie Gun formed in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic; influences include Guided By Voices, Fugazi and The Jesus Lizard. In addition to frontman Shelton, the current lineup includes guitarists Nick Cogan and William Acuña and drummer Vince Nguyen. The band, which played South by Southwest in March, is slated to kick off a run of North American and European tour dates on Saturday (May 6) in San Pedro, Calif.
Militarie Gun also recently scored a high-profile synch, with the band and Dazy’s single “Pressure Cooker” being featured in Taco Bell’s new “Build Your Own Cravings” commercial; the ad is part of the brand’s “Feed the Beat” program.
Talent manager Brendan Rich has opened the Nashville-based, boutique artist management company Rich MGMT.
New York native Rich began his music industry career with stops at Buddy Lee Attractions and Paradigm before joining United Talent Agency, where he signed Matt Stell, Chris Bandi, Jimmie Allen and Logan Mize. He followed his time at UTA by segueing into artist management and spending five years as a manager at Ash Bowers’s Wide Open Music.
Joining Rich at his new company are former Wide Open Music management clients Stell, George Birge and Bandi, as well as new signee Darren Kiely. Stell has notched two Billboard No. 1 Country Airplay hits with “Everywhere But On” and “Prayed For You.” Meanwhile, Birge’s song “Mind on You” is currently at No. 46 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart.
Also joining Rich from Wide Open Music is Sarah Paravia, who will serve as day-to-day coordinator.
“Since my first days in the music business, I’ve always dreamt of opening my own management company, ” Rich said via a statement. “Those dreams have now come to fruition as we open our doors to manage world class artists, who we are honored to represent and guide in their careers.”
A statement from Rich MGMT notes the company’s mission “is to operate with integrity in every aspect of its business while helping its artists to build successful and long-lasting careers.”
Additionally, former Wide Open Music management client Jimmie Allen recently joined California-based firm The Familie, which also represents Machine Gun Kelly, Avril Lavigne and more. Wide Open Music’s Bowers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CMT and management services company mtheory have revealed the six new candidates selected to take part in the Equal Access Development Program, its yearlong artist and management training program designed to support underrepresented voices and communities in country music, including Black, Native and Indigenous, Latino, LGBTQ+ and women.
This year’s participants are artists Angie K, Camille Parker and Denitia, as well as music industry executives Ahsaki LaFrance-Chachere, Alex Evelyn and Roberto Martinez.
The Equal Access Program launched in April 2022, spearheaded by mtheory CEO Cameo Carlson and Tiffany Provenzano, as well as CMT senior vp of music & talent Leslie Fram. The program provides funding and training, as well as access to industry leaders, with the goal of creating a multifaceted pipeline of diverse talent in country music.
Angie K previously competed with Team Blake on NBC’s The Voice and is part of CMT’s Next Women of Country Class of 2023. Her music often blends country with her Latin roots, such as her bilingual release “Real Talk,” which made her a Highway Find on SiriusXM. Parker, a member of CMT’s Next Women of Country Class of 2022, also recently competed on AppleTV+’s My Kind of Country. Parker is also currently recording her debut EP with producers Chris McClenny and David Phelps. Texas native Denitia is a multi-instrumentalist who has played saxophone, trumpet and guitar and has roots in a myriad of musical genres, including gospel, folk and alternative rock.
LaFrance-Chachere is a Diné (Navajo) tribal member and African-American woman, who aims to demonstrate that Native Americans/Indigenous people are diverse despite stereotypical depictions. Her LaChachere Management & Publishing represents country music artists Dzaki Sukarno, C’ing Jerome and Jay Brown. Evelyn is CEO/founder of management and development company Big Al Management, which includes clients YSA and Khrys Hatch. Evelyn also serves as radio/TV producer/show host at YoCo 96.7 FM in Nashville. Martinez has worked as a songwriter, producer and recording engineer. After a five-year stint at Warner Music Group, Martinez manages artists in multiple genres as CEO of The Exos Group and is partner in Coco’s Backstage.
Carlson, CEO of mtheory, said via a statement, “Research continues to show the enduring racial and gendered hierarchy within the industry, and its ripple effect throughout every facet of the business: radio airplay, songwriting, publishing, streaming, record label signings, artist development, touring and more. Only through deliberate, consistent efforts like Equal Access, will we begin to see stronger representation of underserved groups in the format, and we’re committed to helping this new group of exceptionally talented individuals successfully prepare for careers in country music, particularly in this current legislative environment that has become an increasingly prohibitive place for creativity to grow and flourish. Thank you to all of our supporters for making this program possible, particularly our title sponsors at CMT and across the Paramount companies.”
Fram added, “CMT, along with Paramount Global and its Content for Change initiative, is proud to partner with mtheory once again and is committed to leading the industry in igniting systemic change. Equal Access accentuates our roster of groundbreaking initiatives including CMT Equal Play and CMT Next Women of Country, and contributes significantly towards leveling the playing field in country music. We look forward to collaborating with this amazing new group of artists and managers to amplify their work to CMT audiences and beyond.”
The inaugural 2022-23 Equal Access cohort included artists Madeline Edwards, Miko Marks and Valerie Ponzio and music management professionals Charlene Bryant, Kadeem Phillips and Marques Vance.
Over the past year, the 2022-23 Equal Access class members have reached numerous goals. Edwards signed a publishing deal with Sony Music Publishing, a recording deal with Warner Music Nashville and has toured with Chris Stapleton and Ingrid Andress. Marks released the album Feel Like Going Home with music reaching the top five on the Americana Radio Albums chart, while her single “One More Night” reached the top 20. Ponzio released her EP Frontera and had her music featured on the Times Square billboard and on CMT. Marks and Edwards both made their Grand Ole Opry debut performances.
Bryant now manages artist Harper Grae and is a consultant for Universal Music Nashville. Vance began a full-time job with a major label and launched a website to feature his work as a manager and marketing consultant. Phillips launched the Empower the Block website to showcase his work as a manager, publisher, distributor and studio owner, and launched a monthly showcase, Spirit of Country, to highlight country artists of color.
Singer-songwriter-actor Tim McGraw is expanding his business ventures with a new entertainment, media and marketing company called Down Home. The Nashville-based firm is a collaborative effort between McGraw, his management company EM.Co and social content studio Shareability.
EM.Co’s Brian Kaplan, also a co-founder of Down Home, will serve as chief strategy officer, while Shareability founder and Down Home co-founder Tim Staples will serve as CEO. The venture is aimed at connecting McGraw’s country music audience with Hollywood and brands by producing film, TV and digital media “that focuses on relatable stories that capture the essence and spirit of everyday Americans,” according to a press release.
Down Home has secured a private investment deal with Nashville-based TriScore Entertainment and The Laurel Group, a boutique merchant bank that continues to advise the company.
At launch, Down Home has an investment and first-look deal in place with Skydance Media. Under the agreement, Skydance will develop film and television projects with Down Home, in addition to channeling IP and other material to the company. Down Home currently has two scripted series in development with Skydance, with plans for additional features and animation. Skydance founder/CEO David Ellison will serve on the Down Home board.
Down Home additionally plans to establish a social content studio to nurture Nashville’s emerging talent, fostering connections across music, sports, entertainment and brands.
“Country music has always been about storytelling,” McGraw said in a statement. “Our stories are honest vignettes of life and family and community. I think there’s a longing for that. For me, that’s Down Home. That’s how I grew up, those are the stories I like to tell, and that’s what I want our company to be about.”
Ellison added, “Tim McGraw is an outstanding artist and entertainer. He is truly gifted at telling stories across mediums that deeply connect with the audience and has built an unmatched community of fans around the world. We are thrilled to partner with him, Tim Staples, Brian Kaplan, and everyone at Down Home as they have created a dedicated infrastructure to tell stories across film, TV, and music, to fulfill a massive demand for authentic, inspiring stories.”
“From 1883 to Friday Night Lights, or songs like ‘Humble and Kind’, Tim McGraw knows how to connect with this audience in a way that can be really powerful for both Hollywood and brands,” said Staples.
“We’re thrilled to be a part of the next chapter in Nashville’s evolution in empowering artists and visionaries to create a new hub for storytelling that combines talent, passion, and innovation,” Kaplan added.
McGraw was represented in the transaction by EM.Co’s Scott Siman and Kelly Clague. He continues his long-time affiliation with CAA.
Pipe Bueno has signed a management deal with Business Manager JB (helmed by artist manager Juan Ballesteros) and OCESA Seitrack, Billboard can exclusively reveal today (April 4).
With the new signing, JB & OCESA will develop Pipe’s career at a musical and commercial level in Mexico with the mission of taking his 15-year-long trajectory to an international level.
“We are sure that we signed the best representative of the genre in Colombia, and as an artist, he can transcend,” Ballesteros, who also manages Mike Bahía, Greeicy and Annasofia, tells Billboard. “I think we have a new ballad, mariachi, and pop star that comes with a lot of music and collaborations. We are happy to have this new challenge with Pipe Bueno and I hope that everyone receives it with the same joy and enthusiasm that we do.”
The artist born Andrés Felipe Giraldo Bueno launched his self-titled debut album in 2008, and has since risen to pioneer “la música popular Colombiana,” a musical genre that fuses traditional folk music from the Paisa Region with Regional Mexican elements, such as mariachi and ranchera. The genre is also locally known as “música de cantina” and is played at every parranda, parties that feature local music and food.
The innovative 31-year-old singer-songwriter has laced the genre with urban and pop rhythms by teaming up with artists such as Wisin, Zion, and Darrel, to name a few. Pipe has collaborated twice with his good friend and colleague Maluma on the tracks “La Invitación” (2014) and “Tequila” (2020). The former entered the Billboard Latin Rhythm Airplay chart in 2016.
Agencia Jaque
While working as a partner and manager at Emagen Entertainment Group, Ebonie Ward watched #MeToo gain momentum and #TheShowMustBePaused bring the music industry to a halt in the name of racial justice. In the wake of these movements, “there have been all these indications of putting women of color into leadership positions,” she says, but little in the way of sustained action.
“I’ve seen a lot of Black women, especially in hip-hop and R&B, who are the backbones at many companies. I’ve also seen a lot of women who are actually running these companies, but they’re still not the face,” adds the 2023 Women in Music honoree. “It was time to do something different.
“During COVID-19, I realized that I was limiting myself by not being forward-moving or thinking out of the box,” Ward recalls. So after five years at Emagen, she has opened the doors to her own full-service management firm, 11th & Co (pronounced “co”) — the first management company to be led entirely by women and, specifically, Black women.
In addition to Ward, who’s chairwoman/CEO, 11th & Co’s seven-member executive team includes CFO Alexandria Kindle, chief marketing officer Jenna Magee-Tyson, chief legal advisor Zita Brack, executive vp of lifestyle promotions Imaine Molo, executive vp of tour marketing Krishna Lee and head of A&R operations and administration Asha “DJ Osh” Holland.
“The one thing I love about the women on my team is that they’ve done a multitude of different things: from working in politics, finance, entertainment law and marketing to fashion, DJing, touring and restaurant ownership,” says Ward. “It was important to have a diverse group of experienced people who might not necessarily work with each other traditionally but would be able to come together and bring out the best in each other.”
Based in Atlanta and with plans to open a Los Angeles office, the 11th & Co roster includes Ward’s longtime clients Future, Gunna and Flo Milli, as well as its newest client, NBA player James Harden. “In its own way, sports is very similar to music because a lot of athletes want to get into lifestyle,” she says. “They want marketing.” Ward says she’s also looking forward to working with the Italian fashion house Pucci. (Ward and her executive team are all wearing Pucci in the group photo.)
What was the inspiration for your firm’s name?
My birthday is Sept. 11. And my executive board, staff and client roster now total 11. I’ve always had this synergy around the number 11; it has always felt powerful to me. Plus, I wanted something timeless. Something that would make people ask more about it.
What is your vision for the firm?
I want to do something that is very unorthodox, not one-dimensional. In addition to our music clients, we’ve just added James Harden of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers. James has an agent with whom I work very closely, but I’m more like James’ lifestyle manager. He’s his own brand. I went to him and asked if he’d thought about life after basketball. I wanted to help him understand and realize that he needed to pay attention to how he’s perceived off the court. People don’t know his story. He’s very humble and gracious. He’s a board member and minority investor in Saks Fifth Avenue’s e-commerce business [known simply as Saks] and is doing things in the alcoholic beverage world with wine and tequila. And there are other things that we’re helping him build and navigate.
Future, meanwhile, is touring the rest of this spring with Don Toliver and other artists and has a new album coming in 2023 [teased earlier by the rapper as a collaboration with Metro Boomin]. Flo Milli will be performing at Coachella, with her second album due later this year.
From left: Krishna Lee, Imaine Molo, Jenna Magee-Tyson, Ebonie Ward, Asha “DJ OSH” Holland, Alexandria Kindle, and Zita Brack photographed on February 22, 2023 in Los Angeles.
Yuri Hasegawa
What are the challenges of being a Black, female C-suite executive in the music industry?
The first challenge is to be received and respected. Even working with my previous partner [Emagen founder/CEO Anthony Saleh], I’ve walked into rooms and not been addressed, let alone been respected, for knowing this business inside and out. You don’t want to say you didn’t get a deal because you’re a woman. And you don’t want to use your Black card. That’s something a lot of women in this business have to deal with. At the same time, you have to have a level of stamina to sustain yourself through the joys and pains, to be able to accept the word “no,” which can feel defeating. Many of us women don’t protect or advocate for each other. When someone invites you to something, go; get someone’s phone number and call them. Get real information and learn from it. Please tell me when I’m wrong or I didn’t do enough. And then we must be able to take that information gracefully. More women need to do that for each other, especially Black women, because we can be each other’s harshest critics.
Why are there still so few female managers and C-suite executives — especially those of color — in the industry?
More work needs to be done. Aside from holding other people accountable, we need to hold ourselves accountable. As soon as everything came back after the show was paused, a lot of those efforts stopped. Going back into our offices, we need to still have that same hunger and that same fight to hold the industry accountable for what they said they were championing.
In the wake of Gunna’s plea deal before the Young Stoner Life Records RICO trial, does he have new music projects in the pipeline?
Because of the ongoing trial, I really can’t speak to that. But the time will come. Having been incarcerated for seven months, he’s really just getting acclimated to being out of a cell. Sometimes people need to give people an opportunity just to be human. In the meantime, myself and all of my clients have signed [300 Elektra Entertainment chairman/CEO] Kevin Liles’ “Art on Trial: Protect Black Art” petition. People need to understand that this issue affects not just the people who are dealing with it personally, but all of us. It’s a very serious issue that we need everyone’s support to rally behind.
You moved into artist management after meeting Future while operating your own men’s boutique. And you were featured in Emilio Pucci’s recent collection celebration in Switzerland. Will 11th & Co be collaborating with Pucci on other projects?
I have built an amazing relationship with fashion house Emilio Pucci’s new designer, Camille Miceli. I was so honored to be a part of their collection celebration in Switzerland and look forward to us continuing our relationship. 11th & Co will be working with Emilio Pucci to integrate new life to the brand, and I cannot wait to share more once everything is finalized.
Warner Music Group’s chief financial officer Eric Levin told staff on Tuesday that after a “transformative decade” for the company, he will retire at the end of the year, according to an internal memo viewed by Billboard.
Levin said he decided to announce his retirement early in the year to allow the company to move forward with a public search for his successor, similar to WMG’s handling of the successor search for former WMG CEO Stephen Cooper, who stepped down Feb. 1.
Levin joined WMG in 2014, overseeing the company’s global financial operations at a time when piracy and streaming were overhauling the fortunes of companies across the music industry.
“He helped WMG return to growth and profitability, making important contributions to its long-term strategy and the funding of its global expansion and major acquisitions,” WMG CEO Robert Kyncl wrote in a staff memo about Levin’s planned retirement. “Eric will be leaving WMG in a much better place than when he joined it.”
Prior to WMG, Levin was based in China as the North Asia CFO and regional controller for Ecolab, a leading maker of disinfectants, and prior to that he was the CFO of the Hong Kong-based English language newspaper the South China Morning Post.
Levin saw WMG through its 2020 initial public offering, which valued the company at around $12.5 billion, and managed through the leadership transition from Cooper to Kyncl. On Tuesday, Levin wrote that he is “ready to pass the baton to a new CFO.”
“It’s going to be a natural progression, at a natural time,” Levin wrote. “Whoever takes this role will be very fortunate. I’m looking forward to helping set them up for another successful decade of growth.”
Early in Journey’s 2022 arena tour, lead guitarist Neal Schon became convinced people were out to get him. So he stationed two off-duty police officers outside his dressing room, according to sources familiar with the tour. And at a Florida show last spring, Schon and his wife, Michaele, sent an assistant into keyboardist Jonathan Cain’s dressing room to snoop around — to find what, the sources have no idea.
Cain caught the assistant red-handed, and then hired an off-duty officer to guard his own dressing room, the sources say. So for much of the tour — which sold 296,000 tickets and grossed $31.9 million, according to Billboard Boxscore — two of the three musicians who wrote “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” and performed it every night for decades squabbled over whether one guard outranked the other in the event of a dispute between Schon and Cain. “That’s just the level of pettiness and control and conspiracy they came to believe in,” a source says of the Schons.
From the outside, Journey’s business might seem easy — perform hits like “Wheel in the Sky,” “Any Way You Want It” and “Who’s Crying Now” in arenas and watch the money roll in. Most of those guitar-piano-and-whoa-oh-oh classics are from the ’80s, when Journey dominated rock radio and MTV, scoring eight multiplatinum albums and six top 10 Billboard Hot 100 singles, and becoming a bridge between ’70s regular-guy bands like Boston, Styx and Kansas and the more dangerous-looking Bon Jovis and Mötley Crües of subsequent years.
Journey has sold more than 75 million albums worldwide, according to a recent lawsuit involving the band, and Billboard Boxscore reports a career gross of more than $352.5 million on sales of 7.6 million tickets. Journey has also cleaned up on synch licensing for decades — the iconic final scene of The Sopranos in 2007 famously used “Don’t Stop Believin,’ ” and the band’s songs have appeared in Caddyshack (“Any Way You Want It”), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (“Faithfully”) and last year’s season of Stranger Things (“Separate Ways [Worlds Apart]”). And the group’s 2022 tour was one of its biggest ever, nearly doubling the pace of its previous standalone tour in 2017, which took 67 shows to gross $31.7 million.
Recently, though, simmering, passive-aggressive, behind-the-scenes tension between Schon and Cain has blown up into dueling lawsuits and cease-and-desist letters, including one over Cain’s performance at Mar-a-Lago. Journey is hardly the only group to tour and make albums amid acrimony between band members; examples include Sam & Dave, The Kinks and Van Halen. But Journey’s personality conflicts have spread to its business far more than most, and sources say the Schons have run off business and road managers, accountants and longtime band members. In February, Journey’s longtime bank, City National, cut ties with the band, according to sources, hampering the group’s ability to easily pay its day-to-day touring expenses. Even Journey’s official webpage abruptly stopped operating for several weeks in early February before it recently reappeared.
Courtesy Photo
At the Jan. 27 opening show of Journey’s 2023 arena tour, which runs through April, Cain and Schon stood at least 20 yards apart at all times, on opposite sides of the stage at the Choctaw Grand Theatre in Durant, Okla. The 3,000 fans singing along to hit after hit clearly energized the band, especially frontman Arnel Pineda, who sprinted and twirled around the stage. But Cain and Schon barely looked at each other, even when Cain sang these lines from “Faithfully,” the 1983 hit he wrote: “Circus life under the big-top world/ We all need the clowns to make us smile/ Through space and time, always another show.” Another show: Check. Circus life: Check. Shared smiles: Absent.
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Neal Schon has been litigious for years. In 2007, he sued his ex-wife’s mother-in-law for blogging that he didn’t pay child support. (The mother-in-law, who has since died, said she didn’t say that and the case was eventually dismissed.) In 2019, he sued Live Nation, then-promoter for the band. And in 2020, along with Cain, he sued then-Journey drummer Steve Smith and bassist Ross Valory.
That lawsuit settled in April 2021, for undisclosed terms, and Smith and Valory soon left the band, leaving Schon and Cain to publicly turn on each other in the months that followed. In October, Schon sued Cain in Superior Court in Contra Costa County, Calif., for “improperly” refusing him access to a corporate American Express account representing “millions in Journey funds.” In Cain’s Jan. 13 response, he accused Schon of “completely out-of-control” spending, charging the band’s American Express card for what Cain said were $1 million in personal expenses, including — in a single month last spring — $104,000 for jewelry and clothes, $31,000 to the Bergdorf Goodman department store and $54,000 toward his insurance premiums.
The dispute between Schon and Cain even involves Trump. Cain is married to the ex-president’s spiritual advisor, Paula White-Cain, and he performed “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” at Mar-a-Lago. He also appeared at a Las Vegas “Evangelicals for Trump” event three months before the 2020 presidential election. In December, Schon sent a cease-and-desist letter that called Cain’s Mar-a-Lago performance “deleterious to the Journey brand as it polarizes the band’s fans and outreach.” (Cain declined to comment and Pineda did not respond to interview requests.)
This combative back-and-forth might suggest the central tension in Journey is between Schon and Cain, the remaining members of the group’s megastar era. But numerous music sources who have worked with the band over the years say the lead guitarist is obsessed with controlling the band with Michaele, a fan since childhood, who took an interest in Journey’s affairs soon after their 2013 wedding. The actual conflict, they say, isn’t Schon vs. Cain, but rather Schon vs. everyone. “He’s just an impossible human being,” says an industry source, who has worked with the band. “Jonathan, he’s a good guy: ‘I wrote “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” and I’m blessed.’ Neil’s just ‘I’m a superstar.’ ”
The source refers to a 2018 Tampa Bay Times concert review in which critic Jay Cridlin praised the band’s onstage tribute to the late Aretha Franklin. Schon directly emailed Cridlin afterwards, demanding he change the review — it was Schon who orchestrated the Franklin tribute, not the entire band, as Cridlin had reported. In a Times story he published later about his exchange with Schon, Cridlin wrote, “It seemed odd that Schon would go out of his way to make sure readers knew his bandmates had nothing to do with it.”
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The son of a professional singer and a jazz saxophonist and composer, Schon was a teenage guitar hotshot in the early ’70s, when Eric Clapton invited him to jam with Derek and the Dominos onstage at Berkeley Community Theatre, near his home in the Bay Area. Word got around, and both Clapton and Carlos Santana made offers to Schon to join their bands. At 17, Schon picked Santana, then in its post-Woodstock prime, before forming Journey in 1973.
Four years later, frontman Steve Perry ushered Journey into its FM-radio golden age. Perry became the face of the band as Cain underpinned the songwriting with Broadway-style piano and melancholy verses, and Schon electrified the earworms, matching every catchy chorus and Perry high note with a melodic guitar solo.
Over the years, as happens with many successful rock bands, Journey’s business grew into a jigsaw puzzle of financial deals worked out over decades of negotiation. Perry, who quit for good in 1997, landed a deal in which he still makes 1/41 of the band’s net income from recording royalties and touring, after management fees and other expenses. Which means he pocketed roughly $400,000 in 2022 from Journey’s tour alone, according to sources, while sitting at home making TikToks about how much he loves Harry Styles. The remainder is then split among Schon, Cain and Pineda, a cover band singer from the Philippines, whom Schon discovered on YouTube in 2007.
Jonathan Cain, Todd Jensen, Deen Castronovo, Arnel Pineda, Jason Derlatka, and Journey founder Neal Schon perform during the Journey 50th Anniversary Tour at Moody Center on Feb. 22, 2023 in Austin, Texas.
Brian Ach/GI for Journey
In the early 2010s, according to sources, Schon became more litigious and started spending more money, when he became serious with the former Michaele Ann Holt, whose Oakton, Va., high school friends in the ’80s called her Rock Chic Miss, according to Washingtonian. A Journey superfan and once a Real Housewives of D.C. cast member, Michaele first became famous with her ex-husband, Tareq Salahi, as the White House gate-crashers who joined former President Barack Obama’s 2009 state dinner without an invitation. Two years after that, Salahi reported his wife missing to the police and appeared on TV, begging for her return. “I swear to God, I’m missing my wife,” he said through tears. “This is not a joke.”
It came out later, in Salahi’s divorce filings, that when he made that plea, he neglected to mention that he had already received a call about his wife’s whereabouts. It came from Neal Schon. As Washingtonian reported, Schon told Salahi, “This is Neal. I am fucking your wife.”
In 2013, Neal married Michaele, in a pay-per-view wedding that cost viewers $14.95. One of the three dresses Michaele wore was by Oscar de la Renta. Neal wore a long black coat without a tie. Sammy Hagar and Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir attended. So did Omarosa Manigault, the Apprentice villain who later worked in — and still later turned against — the Trump Administration. The San Francisco wedding, held in a white tent, had a winter-wonderland theme, with 36 crystal chandeliers and a four-foot-tall, berry-and-custard white cake. Paying customers could watch for up to 12 hours — more than six times the length of a typical Journey concert. Journey performed, of course, and a portion of the pay-per-view gross went to typhoon relief, a cause Pineda favored. The wedding cost between $1 million and $3 million, according to music-industry sources familiar with the band’s finances.
After Michaele left Salahi for Schon, the couple began getting Journey’s publicists to work for them. Emails from the time show Neal and Michaele calling and emailing a publicist late at night, to tweak language and order photos for press releases about Michaele’s divorce. When a publicist responded to an 11:30 p.m. email by saying his business hours were 9 to 5, Neal responded, “sorry we didn’t fit into your biz hours. Lol.” At one point, the publicist emailed, “I rarely answer calls from numbers I don’t have saved. Michaele’s 12:28 a.m response: “Are you still up?”
After she married Schon, Michaele gradually became more involved in various aspects of Journey’s business: She asked to be copied on all band-related emails, according to multiple sources, and sometimes responded by CC’ing as many as 15 other addresses, including those of attorneys and other band employees.
In early 2021, after Smith and Valory settled their lawsuits and left the band, Schon became Journey’s manager.
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By the time Schon started managing Journey, he and Michaele had spent six years scrutinizing trademarks and merchandise and ticket sales. And they came to one conclusion: Journey was getting screwed. That meant everyone had to go, so Schon fired or sued managers, accountants, bandmates and promoters, some of whom had worked with the group for decades. John Baruck, who managed the band for 20 years and oversaw its 2017 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the hiring of Pineda as lead singer and the band’s post-Sopranos renaissance? Gone. Peter Mensch, also one of Metallica’s managers at Q Prime? Gone. Smith and Valory? Gone, when Schon and Cain jointly sued them for $10 million, claiming the two “launched a coup” to take control of the Journey name and “set themselves up for retirement.”
“I took the bull by the horns and started cleaning things up,” says Schon, 68, with matter-of-fact rock star charm on Zoom audio last summer, throwing in a “ha!” or two to illustrate the absurdity of the music business. “It was a mess, I have to tell you, business-wise. It was set up to be chaotic, so you would never be able to have a clue of how messed up it was.”
Schon and Cain took over as Journey’s co-managers in early 2021, splitting the standard 15% fee. (Cain shared some of his 7.5% with Pineda, according to sources.) The idea was to bring order to the business chaos. “I believe the government calls it ‘chaos merchants,’ ” Schon says, in a charming non sequitur, with a soft-spoken laugh. But Schon also created chaos of his own, sources say.
Jonathan Cain, Todd Jensen, Arnel Pineda, Jason Derlatka, Journey founder Neal Schon, Journey co-founder Gregg Rolie, and Deen Castronovo perform during the Journey 50th Anniversary Tour at Moody Center on Feb. 22, 2023 in Austin, Texas.
Brian Ach/GI for Journey
In 2019, the Schons filed a lawsuit against Live Nation, which promoted Journey’s tours, after Michaele alleged that a security employee at the band’s show at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Ind., “violently assaulted” her and threw her into a PA system while she was taking photos near the stage. (Video on YouTube that seems to show the incident includes no evidence of violence, but it’s blurry, distant and missing several crucial seconds of the alleged confrontation.)
The Schons fired three different law firms that represented them in that case, including one that cited an “irretrievable breakdown of the attorney-client relationship.” They also stopped responding to discovery requests and court orders, prompting an Allen County Superior Court judge to mandate a court appearance. When they didn’t show up, the judge held the Schons in contempt and dismissed the suit last March.
In early 2020, Schon and Cain filed their California Superior Court lawsuit against Valory and Smith, claiming the duo’s “coup” to take over one of the band’s business entities, Nightmare Productions Inc., “placed their own greed before the interests of the band, sowing discontent and discord, jeopardizing the future of Journey.” In a counter-complaint, Valory said Schon and Cain were “deceptive, misleading and false,” and that he and Smith tried to protect Journey from their bandmates’ attempts to trademark logos and song titles to use on merchandise for Schon’s side project, Neal Schon Journey Through Time, which toured briefly in 2019. (Valory, who is no longer in the band, did not respond to interview requests; reached on his cellphone, Smith said, “No, I won’t do a phone interview on or off the record, and if you don’t mind, I have to go.”)
After Schon’s enthusiastic Zoom interview last summer, he declined all further requests to comment. Skip Miller, his attorney, responded to an email list of questions by saying, “Please be advised that your email, and the questions and matters therein, are largely incorrect.” He would not specify which parts were incorrect, but said: “As the band’s founder and leader, Mr. Schon puts Journey above all else. Unlike another band member, he doesn’t think Journey should be involved in politics on any side, red, blue or whatever.” Later, he added, “For Neal Schon, it’s all about making great music for Journey’s fans.”
Journey’s blockbuster 2022 ended with Schon suing Cain, his final remaining bandmate from the “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” years. Schon v. Cain, the legal dispute over the band’s American Express account, is pending in California Superior Court, and representatives for both sides would not comment. By early December, Def Leppard manager Mike Kobayashi confirmed Journey had hired him to take over management from Schon and Cain.
By early February, sources say, Kobayashi was no longer manager.
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Over Zoom last summer, Schon says he became suspicious of the people handling Journey’s affairs before he started doing it himself. At one point — he won’t give the date or context — he asked band accountants how many fans attended each amphitheater show he played. “You did OK,” came the response, according to Schon. “You didn’t do as well as two years ago, when you had 19,000. You had 18,500, or 17,000.” His conclusion: The band’s representatives were lowballing him.
So, Schon says, “I would pay guys in the parking lot and say, ‘How many cars are here tonight?’ And they’d say ‘Dude, they’re plus-five miles out’ — that means about 23,000. With a band like Journey, that has hits like Journey has, you can’t just try to squash them down in a box and make them believe that they’re no longer big.”
During Journey’s business purge of the last few years, one of the managers Schon fired was Irving Azoff, the uber-manager who represents the Eagles, John Mayer, Jon Bon Jovi, Gwen Stefani and others. Azoff wouldn’t comment for this story, but in his lawsuit against Live Nation, Schon says he developed a “medical condition” and criticizes Azoff for nixing “continued off-duty law enforcement protection” for the Schons during the band’s tour. In exchange for forgoing personal security, Azoff agreed to provide the Schons with private-jet transportation, according to the lawsuit. (Neither Azoff nor Baruck — Azoff’s former college roommate, who worked at his management company for years — would comment.)
Azoff’s team, Schon says on Zoom, “ended up doing some great things,” but frustratingly kept the band in amphitheaters when he insisted to managers for years that Journey should be headlining arenas. “What I did was follow my gut instinct, and it was just time to move on,” he says. “We tried Q Prime for a second, and it seemed like it was going to be alright, but, you know, politics come into play.” (A rep for Q Prime declined to discuss Journey.)
By then, Schon thought, “We don’t need these guys, man,” as he remembers telling Cain. “I swear to God, I’m mostly doing everything, anyway.”
Over the last few years, as Schon and Cain managed Journey, they had help from CAA agent Jeff Frasco and AEG Live CEO Jay Marciano. (Neither would comment for this story.) On Zoom, Schon lists Journey’s switch from sheds to arenas as his top accomplishment as manager, and some in the concert business agree. “It’s a much bigger statement for a band to headline an arena than a single day at an amphitheater,” says New York promoter John Scher, who booked the band in the ’80s. “Could they be doing better with a different manager? They seem to be doing OK now.”
Schon’s other business priority is Journey trademarks. He says he was amazed to learn that since 1973, Journey hadn’t trademarked its name or logo, despite selling T-shirts for years at venues, as well as retailers from Walmart to Neiman Marcus. After the Schons realized this, in 2019, Neal and Cain registered 20 of the band’s song titles with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, for use on T-shirts, caps and hoodies. (Since Journey’s songs and the recordings are already protected by copyright, this would only cover the song titles for use on merchandise.)
“I’d introduce myself to the CEO and I’d say, ‘I’m Neal Schon, the founding member of Journey, and I now own the trademark for all Journey material. And you guys have kind of gotten yourself in a weird position here, because you’ve been selling tons of Journey merchandise for decades, and we’re seeing peanuts, and I’d like to have an electronic audit,’ ” Schon recalls. “Then a legal team would get on the phone with myself and my wife and they’d say, ‘Well, you know, we weren’t really selling it under the name Journey.’ And I’d go, ‘Well, that’s kind of laughable. I have boxes and cases of stuff in my living room and it’s just from your store and it all says Journey on it.’ ” (A Walmart spokesperson said the company was “not aware of any unlicensed Journey-branded products being sold by Walmart.” A Neiman Marcus spokesperson said he would “need to look into” Schon’s claims, then didn’t respond to follow-up inquiries.)
In fact, the Journey “mark” has been the subject of many years of negotiation among past and present band members. In 1985, the band’s company Nightmare Productions licensed it to a separate partnership, Elmo Partners — Perry, Schon and Cain — according to the complaint in Schon v. Valory.
In a September filing to cancel the trademarks with the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office’s trial and appeal board, Perry declared that Schon and Cain sold the rights to the songs they co-wrote and once owned. As of 2019, according to Merck Mercuriadis, CEO and managing partner of U.K. song-investment firm Hipgnosis, his company owns all recording royalties and publishing that previously belonged to Schon, Cain, Valory, Smith and Herbie Herbert, an early longtime manager who died in 2021. Perry argued that Schon and Cain no longer retained the standing to trademark the songs. Plus, the trio’s 1985 Elmo agreement requires “unanimous agreement and consent” among Schon, Cain and Perry to use a trademarked song for T-shirts or other products.
In his filing to cancel the Schon-Cain song trademark action, which cost him $12,000 in fees, Perry accused the duo of making knowingly “false or misleading” statements. In January, Perry abruptly dropped the motion to cancel the trademarks. Schon used the occasion to rip his current bandmate — Cain — on Twitter: “So much for [Cain] trying to throw me under the bus as he claimed I was blatantly trying to rip off [Perry] while collecting the checks for the very diligent work my wife and I did to protect our Merch.”
While federal trademark registration can be important, Journey already had other ways to assert its rights to logos or song titles associated with the band that appear on merchandise. The band could have protected its holdings through “common-law rights,” says Michael N. Cohen, a Beverly Hills, Calif., an intellectual-property lawyer who specializes in trademarks and represents classic rock bands: “Just by virtue of using the mark, you’ve acquired some degree of rights, but those rights are limited.” In other words, Journey has always had the right to make merchandise deals — just by being Journey.
With Kobayashi gone, Schon seems to have taken over again as manager — with the help of Michaele, whom he recently praised on Instagram for serving as the band’s road manager in 2022, even though the band employed experienced road managers throughout the tour. (Kobayashi didn’t respond to requests for comment.)
By February, Journey may have also lost its bank, and with it the ability to easily pay employees and cover expenses on the road. (A representative from City National declined to comment.) As manager, though, Schon understands an important thing about Journey: If the band puts out a new album every now and then — like last year’s Freedom, which didn’t do nearly as well as its classic ’80s material — the arena dates will keep rolling in.
“Let’s be honest: There’s no new Journey fans,” says Brock Jones, a veteran Nashville and Philadelphia promoter and consultant. “It’s about playing the right markets, playing the right rooms, pricing the right tickets and making sure the package is correct.”
At the Choctaw Grand Theatre, before boisterous fans singing along to every “na-na,” Cain manned his red piano at stage right, while Schon soloed constantly at stage left. After the finale, “Any Way You Want It,” the six band members lined up and group-hugged and fist-bumped, happy to perform again after several months off for the holidays. But Cain and Schon stood at opposite ends of the line. They did not hug each other. They did not bump fists with each other. Finally, Schon bounded off-stage — by himself.
Veteran executive Yvette Medina has been appointed head of Latin music at YMU, the global management company tells Billboard.
Medina joins YMU’s Los Angeles office after launching her own artist management company, Creative Management Firm (CMF), in 2018 with clients such as Paloma Mami and Ecko. According to an announcement, she will continue to manage her current roster (Ecko, De La Cruz and Latenightjiggy) alongside the global YMU team, across all divisions, while overseeing the company’s activities for Latin America and with the wider Latin music community.
“YMU’s global resources and commitment to continue driving Latin music forward on a global scale aligned with my vision and passion, making them a perfect partner,” Medina said in a statement.
With over 18 years of experience in the music industry, Medina has held senior level positions at companies such as CAA, WME and Sony Music Latin. Before launching her own management firm, she was appointed general manager of Roc Nation Latin in 2016.
“Yvette’s experience and reputation speaks for itself. We have been looking for the right partner to establish our presence in the Latin music space for some time as it has exploded in popularity and mainstream visibility,” added Matt Colon, global president at YMU, which represents clients in music, entertainment, sports, publishing and business management. “Yvette’s combination of experience at a talent agency, and as a manager and label executive, has given her a unique skill set perfectly suited to the YMU Music management approach, offering marquee clients a full set of services from a global perspective.”
Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Nancy Wilson has launched a new management company, Roadcase Management, with first client, Portland, Oregon-based singer/songwriter Madisenxoxo.
The Heart co-founder and guitarist tells Billboard that she isn’t worried about balancing her music and her new management role, adding she feels a passion to extend a hand to those coming after her. “I believe rock music still has such a meaningful place in the world and I’m ready to go to bat for the new generation of inspired talent,” she says. “I want to do this because in today’s world new music needs more of a fighting chance to get through to the fans despite the compartmentalized markets.”
Wilson, who holds the titles of Roadcase founder/president and CEO, instantly connected with Madisenxoxo’s sound. “I fell in love with Madisenxoxos music the first time I heard it,” she says. “There is something really competent and surprising in both her writing, production and delivery. For me it feels like a whole new sound we’ve all been waiting to hear. It borrows from a few classic sound genres that evoke a new cultural context at a time when, I think, the culture is ready for it.”
Wilson’s husband and former label executive Geoff Bywater serves as co-founder/president and CEO, while Julia Bywater is vp/chief marketing officer.
Geoffrey Bywater, Bywater’s son who serves as the company’s head of A&R and management, became aware of Madisenxoxo through another artist, McCall, he worked with. “The first demo Madisen sent over was ‘You’re So Pretty.’ Man, the song knocked me out. The blend of genres and storytelling is something I’ve only seen true innovative artists do, and the fact that it’s only been her and her partner [producer] Josh [Horine] is wild.”
“You’re So Pretty,” which comes out later this week, is featured on Madisenoxo’s EP, Mothership, to be released through a distribution deal with Pack Music on April 21. “When we were making all these songs, we were exploring different genres and ideas,” Madisenxoxo said in a statement. “We weren’t limited by any certain sounds. Somehow it ended up being cohesive together in a really cool way that I didn’t expect. I think it was really good for me to branch out and lose focus—in a good way. It enabled us to find sounds that we wouldn’t have been able to find otherwise.”
Wilson says she plans to add more acts to Roadcase’s roster but is in no rush: “Developing a roster will take time as we intend to stick to quality over quantity and seek only the right artists for the right reasons.”