Music manager legend Bruce Allen will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Departure Festival and Conference, a music industry event taking place in Toronto from May 4 to 10. Last fall, he stepped down as president of Bruce Allen Talent, a company he founded in the early 1970s, and moved into the role of chairman.
The 80-year-old Allen, nicknamed the Bear (and not for his hugs), spoke from Vancouver, where he lives, about managing Randy Bachman, splitting with Bryan Adams and getting in Bob Seger’s face.
There’s a story from 1975 about your client Randy Bachman monkeying around on stage after a Bachman-Turner Overdrive soundcheck in New Brunswick for so long that the opening act, Bob Seger, didn’t get his own soundcheck. Seger said he was leaving the tour, but you picked him up so he was eye level with you and told him he could leave when you told him he could leave. True story?
Canadian music manager Bruce Allen.Katy Ann Davidson/Supplied
Well, Bob ain’t that tiny. But it was definitely a face-to-face showdown. And, yeah, I told Bob he wasn’t going anywhere. But Randy was out of line as well. Randy Bachman sometimes forgets when he was a warm-up act himself.
Randy was at a low point in his career when you began managing him in the early 1970s, was he not?
Randy came out to Vancouver because he felt he wasn’t getting the attention in Winnipeg because of Burton Cummings. Randy had left The Guess Who, and it wasn’t a good split. He asked if I would work with him in Vancouver. I put him and the band to work in the clubs.
Wasn’t that a bit of a come down for him?
He didn’t want to play the clubs, but he also didn’t want his band to just hang around while he was trying to come up with songs.
Were you even an artist manager at all at that point in your career?
No. I was a booking agent at the time. When Randy asked me to be his manager, I said, “How can I be your manager when you’ve been all around the world?” He told me not to worry about it, that we could do this. I said, “Okay, let’s try it.”
What were the early BTO days like?
I drove the car. You had these huge guys and me driving all around the United States, from town to town. It got bigger. That’s where it all started for me. I learned. I never missed a BTO show, ever, up until when the band fell apart later in the decade.
Allen began managing Randy Bachman, pictured in Vancouver in 2024, after the musician's departure from The Guess Who in the early 1970s.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Did you still have the booking agency?
Yes. I brought in Sam Feldman to handle the booking. I made sure I kept my Vancouver bands, because the city had a lot of places to play. Also, if anyone wanted to come into the city to play, they had to go through me and Sam.
When did you start managing Bryan Adams?
When he was working in bars in the late 1970s. By that time, I wasn’t booking bars myself any longer. I preferred the bigger-time business of being a manager. I still do − I really enjoy it.
A lot of the artists you’ve worked with, including Bachman, Adams, Jann Arden and Michael Bublé, are very driven. Do you ever have to light a fire under a client?
If I ever needed to light a fire, it wasn’t going to work. For example, with the Payolas, I knew I couldn’t work with the singer [Paul Hyde]. Eventually, I went to Bob Rock [of the Payolas and, later, Rock and Hyde] and told him he could make more money recording bands as a producer and an engineer. And he did, and he still is. We’re still together.
Allen poses with Michael Bublé at a 2007 press conference in Vancouver.JOHN LEHMANN/The Globe and Mail
You managed Susan Jacks in the 1980s, after she left the Poppy Family and her husband, Terry Jacks. She said you brought out a strength in her no one else had realized she had. Is that kind of coaching part of the job?
With the Poppy Family, Terry was very good at writing songs. Susan was under his thumb, and I could see that. She hadn’t had the chance to step out on her own. I didn’t think I did a great job with her, honestly. But I’m glad she took that out of our relationship, because she was a great talent. You know, some people thought I wouldn’t be able to manage female artists. But I feel the women I have managed are strong as strong can be.
Like Jann Arden?
Jann knows what she wants and she works hard. I came along too late to spring her in the United States. I’m a bit ashamed of that. It wasn’t for us, but we have a very solid career here. She’s happy and lovely and a lot of fun to be around.
Impresario Donald Tarlton brought the world’s biggest acts to Montreal
You and Bryan Adams parted ways in 2023. Why?
Why? I don’t want to talk about that too much. I’ve left artists. Randy and I split. It’s just something that happens. Bryan and I had a discussion that was no longer than three minutes. And that was that. What am I going to do, have a brawl with a guy who I worked with for 40 years? No. It was time. What Bryan and I accomplished, I think we’re both pretty proud.
Did you two start with a handshake agreement?
I’ve never had a written contract in my life – ever. People might say that’s stupid. But I’m 80 years old and I haven’t been screwed over yet.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Departure Festival and Conference, May 4 to 10, various venues, Toronto.