Agent Strategies for Controversial Artists

Let's say you're an agent and you got a big music star, and his

opening act goes out-

... and says things that... And you're, you're the kind of music star that's just

out there like, "I wear dungarees with your picture on

it." Like that kind of shit.

How would you as an agent... And then stadiums start to cancel.

Mm.

And they say, "You gotta get rid of these guys."

If you're representing Ed Sheeran-

Mm

...

what do you do? We'll go through it.

I'll have you represent Macklemore, I'll have you represent Ed Sheeran- ...

and I'll have you represent Bob Kraft.

Well, I'll just do the Macklemore for you.

Do, do the Macklemore for me.

So I, as I would say to you, is the following.

Um, I do not believe

what is happening in the West Bank is fair and right and just.

But if you're talking about, and I had this conversation with a client

recently,

um, and we can all... The great thing is I'm okay to f- have a

discussion, disagree and have a, and get better.

Absolutely.

But I don't believe the word genocide is the proper word for what happened

in the West Bank.

You don't?

I do not.

So that's, so that would be your complaint about

Macklemore.

And I would have, I would, I would have this conversation-

It's a bad choice

... with him-

Right

... where we can sit down as human beings.

I don't wanna live in a country that is a cult, or in a, in,

in a kinda echo chamber. I wanna have a conversation with him-

Understand

... where we can all, like, sit there and say, "Okay,

here's the one argument and

here's the other, and let's get to a point where we can have

a conversation."

But even if it's not the proper word...

Do I think, do I think what, do I think it needed to go to the extent

it needed to

go to?

That, right.

The-

That, that they would literally have a guy say,

"You're not coming into my stadium,

because that's dangerous." That's my question.

Right. Well, that's a conversation I would have with

Bob Kraft and

those people about their f- opinions about those things.

Right. Who would you say-

This is, this is, this is a lot of gray.

Right.

And-

Who would you say you to first?

I say you to a lot of people first.

Well, no. I meant in this, in this situ-

I, I wouldn't-

Would you, would you-

In this, in, in this situation it's too delicate to say

F you.

Would you have encouraged Bob Kraft not to have canceled, not to have

threatened to pull those guys?

Bob Kraft, I don't know if you know, he does, you know, the blue square.

I don't know what that means.

He, he does a, he does a, he has given a lot of money to a

movement to stop hate.

And-

How's that going?

Well, you know something? We need more of that.

Yeah.

We need more people talking about, "Let's not hate each other,

let's talk to each

other, and let's not talk about things that

are really kind of,

um, I think... Let, let's all get on the same page about

what we're discussing. We can disagree, but let's not be disagreeable." I think

people have said that. And Bob Kraft is doing an incredible job with,

with the blue

square to try and combat hate, and I don't like hate anywhere in the

world,

and I don't like Jews committing hate on, on West Bank

Palestinians. I don't like any of it, and I think there's a way to, to

kinda, we have to keep on having this

conversation.

Do you believe what he said on stage was hate?

I don't think it was completely understanding the facts,

and I think it was

belittling to Jewish people too.

So if someone got on stage and said, like, Happy Hanukkah or something like that-

Well, as I said in the book, Don-

Yeah

... there's certain people that have said things that I think

are hateful.

Right.

And I've written about Mel Gibson and Kanye that I didn't think were right.

How do you... Do, you know, it's so interesting because it is,

the people in

this book, like, you're in with very powerful people

and there are

bodies and they are buried. And, like, you have relationships that are severed,

people that you came up with.

Yeah.

And it's been difficult.

Yeah.

And you write about Mel Gibson and how upset you were, and Kanye

and all that, but

Elon escapes. You know, he's still a very good friend of yours

but-

Yeah

... he's very clearly mo- I don't know if you get his Twitter feed

but I can't s- I can't stop it somehow.

Here's what I would say. I think he's

done incredible things for the human race, and continues to do hu-

great and hu- unbelievable things.

And when I get, when I, when-

So you hold Macklemore to the higher standard

... when, when I, when I, wh- no, listen.

You hold-

When I, when I disagree with him-

Yeah

... when I disagree with him, he and I have a conversation

where we have a very intense conversation and hopefully-

Right

... I have moved him. In this situation I would have the

conversation

and-

Do you still do that?

Oh, yeah.

Like, can you call him up and go like, "Hey, what's with the Rhodesia nostalgia

pictures?"

I, I, I, I, I te- I, I text him all the time about stuff, yeah.

And he accepts that?

Oh, yeah. We get into very good conversations about

it, and, and heated,

and I think that's a good thing. Again, I do not wanna live in a cult,

I wanna live

in a society.

Right, right, right.

In society you have to talk.

You're a complicated individual.

But I, I, listen, but I enjoy you very much. I en-

I enjoy talking to you.