Michael Lippman, Manager and Lawyer for George Michael, David Bowie, Rob Thomas and Other Music Stars, Dies at 79

Michael Lippman, who worked with David Bowie, George Michael, Matchbox Twenty and other top stars as a manager, lawyer or label executive, died Monday at age 79. No cause of death was immediately given.

In later years Lippman was best known for serving as a manager to Michael, first at the peak of his fame during the “Faith” era in the late 1980s, and then again, after a 17-year gap, beginning in the mid-2000s.

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But his first major notoriety came in his stint as attorney and, briefly, manager for Bowie from 1971 through 1975, with the rock star even living at Lippman’s home during the “Station to Station” period before an abrupt split.

After his experience with Bowie, Lippman switched gears and took a label role as VP of west coast operations for Arista Records for three years into the late ’70s, after having become friendly with the imprint’s founder while making a deal for Patti Smith to join the label. “Clive Davis was the boss and I always thought my job was to take people to lunch and dinner for a living, and I did it very well,” he quipped. More seriously, perhaps, Lippman said Davis “really made an impact on me. I never saw a man work that hard and that long every day. He’d be in the office until nine or 10 o’clock and then would have ­dinner. He inspired me to put in the time.”

At Arista, Lippman worked closely with artists like Melissa Manchester. He took credit for forcing the Oscars to allow Manchester to sing two best-song-nominated numbers on the Academy Awards telecast in 1980, a first (the songs being “Through the Eyes of Love” from “Ice Castles” and “I’ll Never Say Goodbye” from “The Promise,” both of which she had sung on the original soundtracks).

Lippman was an innovator in seeing a need for producers and songwriters to have managers just as recording artists did.

“What I saw was that record producers and songwriters were really treated like low men on the totem pole and represented by a lawyer but never a manager,” he recalled in a 2010 interview. “I realized they’re artists in their own right and need to make sure their deals are done properly and their records they make are worked. That’s what I did and started a company representing producers and songwriters.”

In 1980, he began managing producer Ron Nevison, and soon took on Elton John’s writing collaborator, Bernie Taupin, in a professional partnership that lasted for 37 years.

Lippman saw the advent of so-called 360 deals as a natural extension of the cross-platform interest he had always taken in developing artists as a manager.

“That’s what I’ve always done, taking are of all aspects of my artists’ career from touring to merchandising to selling records to making videos,” he said. “I’m a unique breed when it comes to managers who have the experience on the business and the creative/marketing side. In the old days record companies would tell (managers) ‘Don’t talk to radio stations or TV stations!’ That was their control. I built these incredible relationships with TV and radio around the world. Now a manager’s role is more important than ever in marketing an artist. Our motto is always to try to do something that no one’s ever done before. I’ve always been an international manager and it was always important for us to sell records worldwide, tour worldwide and market our artists worldwide. I still think you have to go to all of those territories, but it’s easier to do it on a worldwide basis with the internet.”

Lippman began working with his son, Nick, in an official partnership in 2004, under the name Lippman Entertainment.

“I believe I’m the luckiest guy in the world to have been able to work with my two sons and my brother in the same business,” he said in a Billboard profile in 2016. “At the same time, I wasn’t the greatest father because I was always on the road. So now that I have the opportunity to see them every day and work side by side, it’s been incredible. Nicholas is my best friend today.”

Lippman is survived by his wife, Nancy, and two sons, Nick and Josh.

His sons offered respective statements to Rolling Stone. “Michael was my mentor and the greatest teacher,” said Nick Lippman. “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’s sentences. Our relationship was shaped by the work we did side by side, and a bond of love, trust and mutual respect.”

Said Josh Lippman, “Dad was a relentless advocate for his clients, his friends and his family. He 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’t solve.”