I am a newbie here, but not a newbie to rock.

[Ira.Blacker]

Hi, and thank you for having me here. I am going to post a story that goes way back to when I first potentially entered the music business and how. Future posts will cover my rock and roll carereer as the guy who brought in half the UK bands in the 60s-70s, managed Rush and Kraftwerk, and more. I share insights and original stories behind the rockers that only can tell from the perspective of being with the groups, whether on the road or at my home for dinner.

In 1966 I had just graduated Hofstra University, and was "made an offer I couldn't refuse" by Joe Glazer, a former mobster in the capone gang, who left chicago with 2 million bucks, worth probably 200 million today, and founded Associated Booking Corporation. He was also the manager of Louis Armstrong and Billy Holliday. One of his favorote stories was about Louis playing the "Chitlin' Circuit." Louis would play these barn dances/shows and as the cash was taken in at the door it went into a barrel to be divied up at the end of the night, with Louie getting a percentage. At the time of splitting the intake, Glazer realized that the promoters were illitterate. They could not read. Thus at the divvy up, he would pass a bill to the promoter and another to Louie's road manager.

The punchline to the story was that the promoter was given all of the one dollar bills, and Louie wound up with the 5, 10 and 20 dollar bills. There are many stories to be told about this time, and some are in my memoir, Once A King, Now A Prince, and others in my posts that are on my website of the same name as well as some very prominant music magazines. My first two singings at ABC, were Rod Stewart and the Faces, and Savoy Brown. From there I would go on to found my own major agency, taking them with me, as well as signing others such as Deep Purple, ZZ Top, The Eagles and Rush, who I also managed.