Doc McGhee

Harold “Doc” McGhee (* 1950) is an American executive who has worked with Kiss , Bon Jovi , Mink DeVille , Night Ranger , James Brown , Diana Ross , Hootie & the Blowfish , Scorpions , Mötley Crüe and Skid Row , among others has or is still working. He was transferred in the late 1980s, a drug ring in the illegal importation of marijuana to have supported in the US, but was unexpectedly not to a long prison term, but social services with parole convicted. He was the founder of the "Make a Difference Foundation" and in 1989 organized the Moscow Music Peace Festival in the Lenin Stadium (today: Luzhniki Olympic Stadium ) in Moscow. McGhee runs "McGhee Entertainment" with his brother Scott McGhee, based in Los Angeles with offices in New York City , Nashville , and London . Doc McGhee is co-owner of the arena football team “ LA Kiss ,” which started its first season in 2014.

Career

McGhee grew up in the south of Chicago ( Illinois on). He attended Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park , which he graduated in 1969. At the age of 17 he was a member of the high school group Rising Four , which received a recording deal from Mercury Records and released the single Shapes Of Things in 1967 , a cover version of a song by The Yardbirds . The band existed for four years and broke up when McGhee was drafted into military service.

After completing military service, McGhee couldn't find work. In the mid-1970s he worked with Pat Travers and moved to Florida , where he achieved initial success. In 1979, Rick Stevens, formerly Vice President of the Artists and Repertoire division at PolyGram, became his partner at Stevens-McGhee Entertainment . The first artists McGhee represented were the Average White Band , Phyllis Hyman , the Brecker Brothers , David Sanborn , and Nightflyte; Stevens-McGhee Entertainment signed Mink DeVille, and McGhee soon took on James Brown and Isaac Hayes .

From 1982 McGhee worked with Doug Thaler, who had come to him from the management company Leber & Krebs. In the same year McGhee got the tip from a lawyer friend of hers to check out the band Mötley Crüe . Thaler had also heard of the band and they both attended the band 's New Year's Evil concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica. In his own words, McGhee didn't understand anything about what the band was playing, but he saw that the 500 people who attended the concert were all delighted. He offered the band to take over its management and brought them as opening act for Kiss on the Creatures of the Night - tour under.

McGhee founded the company "McGhee Entertainment" with Thaler in 1983 in New York. In the following years McGhee signed contracts with numerous new bands of the Glam Metal genre, including Bon Jovi and Skid Row, and took over the management for the Scorpions and Night Ranger.

In 1986, McGhee had committed a criminal offense when he helped a smugglers' ring linked to Panama's dictator Manuel Noriega bring large quantities of marijuana from Colombia to the United States. On January 19, 1987, he had to answer for the first time before the North Carolina Federal Court , where he pleaded guilty. The possible sentence for the act was 20 years imprisonment . Instead of the originally imposed five-year prison sentence McGhee was sentenced to a fine in the amount of $ 15,000, the adhesion became the parole suspended. McGhee had to organize an anti-drug campaign in addition to the fine .

To this end, he set up the Make A Difference Foundation, a foundation that was supposed to raise money for various anti-drug programs. In the course of this engagement McGhee organized the " Moscow Music Peace Festival ", at which Bon Jovi, Cinderella , the Russian rock band Gorky Park , Mötley Crüe, Ozzy Osbourne, Scorpions and Skid Row performed. In addition, drummer Jason Bonham joined in for the finale, where musicians from the participating bands jammed . The festival took place exactly 20 years after the legendary Woodstock Festival in the USA. A music sampler was also released , entitled Stairway to Heaven / Highway to Hell .

In order to make the festival, which took place on August 12th and 13th, 1989 possible, McGhee had to solve all logistical problems. He brought 641 people and 64 transport vehicles with two aircraft of type Boeing 757 to Moscow, without even holding a license for it. He also produced the television broadcast of the event and took care of the broadcast to 51 countries around the world. McGhee today denies that the organization of the festival was related to his punishment.

Career kink

In 1989, McGhee was fired from Mötley Crüe. The reason was the fact that the band felt betrayed by McGhee. According to Tommy Lee , McGhee had persuaded the band to participate in the "Moscow Music Peace Festival" by assuring that all groups involved would only play about 50 minutes each and that there would be no headlining . In Moscow it turned out that Bon Jovi had got the headlining role, was the only band able to play 90 minutes and was also the only group allowed to use pyrotechnics . McGhee was released by Nikki Sixx on the first evening of the festival in Moscow . Mötley Crüe played again on the second day and then left the Soviet Union immediately . Doug Thaler then ended his collaboration with McGhee and started his own management company, Top Rock Development.

In 1991, McGhee was also fired from Bon Jovi's service. As the band reported on the VH1 TV show "Behind the Music", Doc McGhee was the one who dragged the New Jersey tour out, causing total exhaustion for the band. After the Video Music Awards in 1991, at which Bon Jovi received the Vanguard Award , there was an argument between Jon Bon Jovi and Doc McGhee. In the course of this it had become clear that a further collaboration would not make sense, which is why McGhee was fired by band leader Jon Bon Jovi.

McGhee had lost two bands within a short time, which he had helped to achieve world fame with his company. Skid Row stayed with him and only separated from him in 2003 when it became clear that the respective visions about the further development of the band no longer matched each other.

Current clients

In 1996, McGhee took over management of the comeback of the original Kiss cast. Instead of carefully organizing a small tour (suggested by the band) to test the interest of the fans, McGhee let it come down to it. He booked the aircraft carrier "USS Intrepid" for a press conference and organized the "Alive / World Wide" tour, which began on June 28, 1996 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit , lasted 11 months, included 192 concerts, and generated revenue for the group of $ 43.6 million. McGhee has looked after Kiss continuously since then.

In 2005, McGhee founded an office in Nashville with his brother Scott; he himself also moved to the vicinity of the country stronghold privately. In 2010 there was irritation when Axl Rose announced via Twitter on February 16 that McGhee was the new manager of Guns N 'Roses . Paul Stanley , singer and guitarist of Kiss, stated in an interview for Classic Rock Magazine that he had asked McGhee about it and that McGhee knew nothing about it. Guns N 'Roses were never listed as a client on the McGhee Entertainment website.

In addition to Kiss, McGhee Entertainment also takes care of Darius Rucker , Steve Lukather , Ted Nugent , Down , Night Ranger , Rodney Atkins , Chris Cagle , Cheyenne Kimball , Adam Brand , Hootie & The Blowfish , Vintage Trouble, The Dirty Guv'nahs, Jeremy Lister , The Willis Clan, Drew Davis, Heidi Newfeld, and Sacha Edwards.

Web links

• Doc McGhee website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Doc McGhee website , accessed November 25, 2013
2. ↑ Arena Football League, KISS Bring Pro Football Back to Los Angeles . Arena Football League . August 15, 2013. Archived from the original on February 9, 2017. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 27, 2013. 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} In the Hot Seat with Larry LeBlanc ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Interview on celebrityaccess.com  
4. ^ Doc McGhee: Full Contact Management - Interview on chronologicalcrue.com, April 5, 2011
5. ↑ Bon Jovi's Secret Letter To Judge That Saved Band Manager From 20 Ton Pot Bust - radaronline.com, accessed July 22, 2011
6. ↑ Make a difference? ; newsobserver.com  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ ^{a b c} Tommy Lee, Mick Mars, Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Neil Straus: The Dirt - Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rockband ; Harper Collins, USA, 2001. ISBN 0-06-039288-6
8. ^ Crue, Bon Jovi Managers Part Ways Following Feud : sun-sentinel.com
9. ↑ PAUL STANLEY: DOC MCGHEE Is Not Managing GUNS N 'ROSES ( Memento of the original from November 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Blabbermouth.net, March 26, 2010