RIP Bud Prager

[Rockwriter]

From the front page of MelRock today:

R.I.P. MANAGEMENT LEGEND BUD PRAGER:
It has been another yet of sad loss for the rock world and today yet another legendary name passed on. Mega-manager Bud Prager died earlier today and while his name may not be familiar to some, his influence and legacy lives on. Bud was better known as ESP Management and had under his control such luminaries as Foreigner, Megadeth, Bad Company, Tall Stories, Damn Yankees and Glen Burtnik to name just a few. R.I.P. Bud.
Journalist Bob Lefsetz commented on Bud's passing today:

"Bud told me he cut the Scotti Brothers in on Foreigner, gave them a percentage from record one.
He recited how he rescued the uber-talented Terry Thomas from a life of drudgery by selecting him to produce the reconstituted Bad Company. Bud told me how he convinced Atlantic to let his best friend Felix Pappalardi produce Cream.
Today, Bud Prager was reunited with his old buddy in heaven. A great manager can't work for anybody else, he's sui generis, he cares. Through sheer force of personality, he bends wills, he gets his act a slot, he schemes until his proteges break through.
Conventional wisdom is labels break acts. This is untrue. Behind every legendary performer is a great manager. Bob Dylan would still be little Bobby Zimmerman without Albert Grossman's direction. The Beatles wouldn't have become icons without Brian Epstein. Aerosmith wouldn't have broken through without David Krebs.
Rather than study the label legends, dig deeper and discover the managers, who believed, oftentimes when no one else did, and shepherded their charges to greatness. Bud Prager cared. He was compassionate. He could argue minutiae with you til dawn. No detail was too small for his attention. He may be gone, but the acts and records he brought into the marketplace will live forever.
I can still remember the first time I heard "Feels Like The First Time" on the radio. I drove straight to Music Odyssey on Wilshire and bought the album. Good isn't good enough, we're truly only interested in great. Bud Prager was a great manager. "


I interviewed Bud for my Styx book (he managed Tommy and Glen both at one point, as well as Damn Yankees later), and really enjoyed getting to talk to him. Bud was one of those great no-bullshit characters who would just tell it straight, which is why some of the people he has managed were a bit resentful afterward. He wasn't one to stroke some spoiled musician's giant ego. When he took over managing Bad Company right after the 'Fame and Fortune' record came out, he told them bluntly, "Your record is dead." They said,"What do you mean, it just came out two weeks ago," and he said,"I don't care, it's dead. I'm telling you, radio is resistant to you without Paul, you've got to change your strategy." They were upset with him for saying that, but they listened, and after that he put them with Terry Thomas (whom he had dsicovered when he hired him to produce Tommy's 'Ambition' album) and they had a huge multi-platinum run with Terry.

When Bud first met Tommy, it was right after A&M had dropped him after the 'What If' debacle, and Tommy's attorney, John Branca, called Bud and said Tommy was going to need new management and a fresh approach if he was going to move forward, would Bud be interested in meeting him? Bud was aware of Styx, so he said yes, and he asked Branca to send Tommy's newest record. After listening to 'What If' he called Branca back and said,"I'll give you a thousand dollars right now if you can honestly tell me that this album would ever be on your listening agenda." John laughed and said no, it isn't, and Prager said, 'That's because it's atrocious. Therefore I suggest you not set up this meeting, because it's going to be a very painful meeting for Tommy Shaw." And Branca said,"That's exactly what Tommy needs right now, is the truth, and you're just the man to give it to him." So they met, and Tommy brought along his assistant, and they're chatting, and when the subject of 'What If' came up, Prager said,"I don't understand why someone as well-regarded as you would even make a terrible record like this," and Tommy flipped out and said,"You can't tell me that, you can't insult my album without specifics." So Prager made him sit there while he reached into his pocket for some notes he had taken; he made Tommy sit there while he shredded the album track by track, pointing out all of its obvious weaknesses one by one by one. Finally Tommy, crestfallen, admitted that he had been under the influence for a lot of the writing and production of 'What If', and Prager said,"Well, there's a great excuse. Is that what you want me to tell the radio guys?" Whereupon Tommy's roadie jumped up and said,"You can't talk to Tommy like that. He's down." And Prager - and this is why I loved the guy - said, "Shut up and sit down, or you can leave any time you want, either one of you." LOL. The next day Tommy called him up, having been so humbled, and asked him to be his manager, and he took Tommy from down and out and having been dropped, to a huge comeback with Damn Yankees.

A fond farewell to Bud Prager. There will never be another character like him.


Sterling