{"id":257933,"date":"2025-12-30T11:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T11:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/257933\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T11:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T11:26:09","slug":"michael-lippman-longtime-george-michael-manager-dead-at-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/257933\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Lippman, Longtime George Michael Manager, Dead at 79"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tProminent artist manager Michael Lippman, who helped guide the careers of Matchbox Twenty<\/a> and Rob Thomas, George Michael<\/a> and Elton John\u2019s writing partner Bernie Taupin, died at his home on Monday, Rolling Stone can confirm. He was 79 years old.<\/p>\n

\n\tFamily gathered at Lippman\u2019s longtime residence in Santa Ynez, Calif., including his wife of 57 years, Nancy, and two sons, Nick and Josh, to say goodbye on Dec. 29. A cause of death has not been revealed.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDad was a relentless advocate for his clients, his friends, and his family,\u201d said Josh Lippman. \u201cHe was the person you wanted in your corner in any situation. He transitioned from bulldog to effortless charmer on a dime, often multiple times in a conversation, and never met a challenge he couldn\u2019t solve.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdded Nick Lippman: \u201cMichael was my mentor and the greatest teacher. For over twenty years, we traveled the world and shared a bond that grew deeper with time. We spoke every day and often finished each other\u2019s sentences. Our relationship was shaped by the work we did side by side, and a bond of love, trust, and mutual respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA towering figure in the music industry, Lippman\u2019s credits include representing David Bowie in the Seventies during the artist\u2019s Ziggy Stardust era, Melissa Manchester in the Eighties, George Michael from his post-Wham! launch as a solo artist until his 2016 death, and Matchbox Twenty (along with frontman Rob Thomas), for the entirety of their career.<\/p>\n

\n\tLippman started his career working for legendary lawyer Marvin Mitchelson, a position that would lead to a role in the soundtracks department at Columbia Pictures. He later ran west coast operations for Arista Records in the mid-Seventies, working under mentor Clive Davis.<\/p>\n

\n\tLippman\u2019s fruitful relationship with Bowie began around the same time. The two worked together on the 1976 sci-fi film The Man Who Fell to Earth and shared in several milestones, including Bowie\u2019s performance on Soul Train<\/a> and a Number One single with 1975\u2019s \u201cFame.\u201d They remained friends, with Lippman describing Bowie as \u201cincredible to talk to. He taught me a lot about fashion, art and \u00adphotography. All I wanted to do was learn from and help him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tLippman was instrumental in Melissa Manchester\u2019s history-making turn at the 1980 Oscars, when she was nominated for two best original songs \u2014 \u201cThrough the Eyes of Love\u201d from Ice Castles and \u201cI\u2019ll Never Say Goodbye\u201d from The Promise. At Lippman\u2019s insistence, Oscars producers allowed her to perform both on the telecast.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe next two decades were Lippman\u2019s busiest as a manager as George Michael took center stage. After \u201cfalling in love\u201d with George Michael\u2019s 1987 breakout album, Faith, Lippman was determined to \u201cto make him the biggest thing in the world,\u201d he said in 2016. \u201cAnd that\u2019s how it turned out.\u201d (George Michael would die on Christmas day that year.)<\/p>\n

\n\tEven when Michael wasn\u2019t touring or recording, Lippman\u2019s hands were full with sync requests (just this year, \u201cFather Figure\u201d would make its way onto Taylor Swift\u2019s Life of a Showgirl) as the appetite for his music never waned.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRob Thomas, Carlos Santana and Michael Lippman in 2004.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tL. Cohen\/WireImage<\/p>\n

\n\tWith his firm growing, Lippman began taking on producers and songwriters as clients, including Elton John\u2019s writing partner Bernie Taupin, who lived on a neighboring property in Santa Ynez. Known as an innovator in negotiating entertainment contracts, Lippman did just that for Matchbox Twenty, an act that spent decades at Atlantic Records. Both the group and lead singer and songwriter Rob Thomas notched multiple Number One hits, including \u201cSmooth,\u201d Thomas\u2019 end-of-the-century smash that, with Lippman\u2019s help, paired Thomas with Carlos Santana. (Thomas left Atlantic earlier this year<\/a> for Universal.)<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe music industry was a family business for Lippman, whose late younger brother Terry worked alongside him for many years.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Lippman\u2019s own career advanced, he developed a reputation for being intimidating \u2014 beyond his hefty 6\u20191\u201d build. In fact, it was an air Lippman confessed to cultivating, telling Billboard<\/a> in 2016, \u201cYou\u2019re fighting 10 other managers. I want more time, attention and money spent on my artists than the nine other guys. So I created this persona that people respected and slightly feared and hopefully, if things went the right way, I got what I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the last two decades, Lippman and his son Nick have partnered on management clients and other businesses under the banner Lippman Entertainment. In 2016, Lippman told Billboard, \u201cI believe I\u2019m the luckiest guy in the world to have been able to work with my two sons and my brother in the same business.\u201d Though he conceded, \u201cAt the same time, I wasn\u2019t the greatest father because I was always on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLippman looked to Clive Davis as an example. \u201cI never saw a man work that hard and that long every day,\u201d said Lippman. \u201cHe\u2019d be in the office until nine or 10 o\u2019clock and then would have dinner. He inspired me to put in the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tStill, a time was had by Lippman, who, along with his wife Nancy, was known to entertain the likes of Harry Nilsson, Ringo Starr, Quincy Jones, Dick Clark, Little Richard, George Harrison, and Tom Petty, at parties they hosted.<\/p>\n

\n\tA passionate lover of horses, Lippman\u2019s Santa Barbara County ranch was home to several champion breeds. He rode as often as possible. He is survived by his wife Nancy; sons Josh and Nick; daughter-in-law Lauren; granddaughters Olivia and Jordan; and grandsons Zachary and Tucker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prominent artist manager Michael Lippman, who helped guide the careers of Matchbox Twenty and Rob Thomas, George Michael…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[18,117,44445,19,17,133445,337,13241,5769],"class_list":{"0":"post-257933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-george-michael","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-matchbox-twenty","14":"tag-music","15":"tag-obit","16":"tag-obituary"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115808278262258699","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}