Pearl Jam have confirmed that longtime manager Kelly Curtis has retired after 30 years of managing the band. Curtis also managed Mother Love Bone, featuring Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament, from 1988 to 1990. Mark Smith is Pearl Jam’s new manager. Pearl Jam just reacted to fans booing Eddie Vedder.
Curtis said in the 2011 book Pearl Jam 20, “They didn’t know anybody that had any kind of connections in L.A. with lawyers, managers or record companies. I’d come from the Heart background, which didn’t seem to make obvious sense to any of us, other than that I’d had some experience in the music business. The deal was, would I help them meet some people? I said, ‘Sure.’ So we took a trip to L.A. to set up some meetings with lawyers and labels. I’m not sure if we met with managers or not, but it kind of just revealed itself over time that I should just be doing it. We were getting along well enough to just keep it going. It just kind of naturally evolved.”
Sobelberg8 posted on the Ten Club board, “This apparently happened in August and in true Kelly Curtis fashion it stayed low key. He was a great manager, will be missed!
Smitty takes over now. I’m trying to figure out because I don’t know the answer to this, has Smitty been with them since pre-Ten?”
Spiritual Chaos chimed in, “Should have had taken that Guns N Roses/U2/Pearl Jam tour offer while he had the chance.
Other than that, he seems pretty cool. Hope the ‘new’ guy comes in with new energy, straightens up the problems with the Ten Club and realizes Gothenburg is where it’s at when it comes to European concerts.”
