From promoting rock stars to rock bottom
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Andrew McManus is looking forward to a fresh start in the business that made his name. Picture: Norm Oorloff
Source: News Corp Australia
PROMOTER Andrew McManus has broken his silence on three years of personal and professional hell that saw him lose his family and his multi-million dollar fortune and seek solace in booze and prescription drugs.
“I lost my credibility and I lost my character,” said McManus, 52, the once high-flying organiser of blockbuster tours by Fleetwood Mac, Kiss, Luciano Pavarotti, Lenny Kravitz and others.
“I was destroyed and I found life at the end of a bottle,” he said.
“It wasn’t one drink a day, it was bottle of vodka a day, which led to pills and painkillers. I would lay in bed and lose days. I lost my self-composure and self-respect.
“But I don’t blame anyone. I got myself into that mess, and I needed to get out.”
His woes began in 2011 after a string of dud deals and failed tours cost him more than $ 4.2 million.
Then the ATO called in a tax debt of $ 2.4 million, forcing him to liquidate Andrew McManus Presents International Pty Ltd.
Soon after, wife Jacqueline left him after five years together, returning to Perth with her son from a previous relationship.
“It wasn’t so much losing the marriage, it was losing the little boy,” he said. “That crushed me.”
Those lows were compounded by health issues including burst stomach ulcers and a broken back.
The former Toorak home of Andrew McManus.
McManus also fell into a deep depression and was twice committed to suicide-watch institutions after friends feared for him.
“I ended up in two different facilities,” he says.
“I’m not proud of it, but it was the shock I needed. My depression was a place where I didn’t fear death, I actually wanted to speed that process up.”
To pay his debts and tax bill he sold six properties, including a Toorak mansion and homes in Byron Bay and Burleigh Heads.
He then sold off six luxury cars, including a Bentley, a Mercedes and a Range Rover. He explains: “It was the year I was drinking, and I needed to fund my habits and to live.”
But he also sought professional help, checking into rehab in Currumbin, Queensland, for six weeks.
“It was time away from my vices with people from all walks of life,” he says. “I was bonding with everyone from garbologists to mailmen.”
Today, McManus owns a humble fixer-upper on the Mornington Peninsula and a 30-year-old Rolls-Royce given to him by US comedy legend Jerry Lewis. He doesn’t care about the lost wealth, homes and cars.
“Don’t get me wrong, I still like the fine things in life. But I thought I was a big shot,” McManus says.
“I had all those houses, all this money coming in, but it didn’t make me a better man. What did was clearing my debts, getting myself together, and having a stress-free life. All I want now is an opportunity, a fair go.”
McManus made headlines last week in a report about an NSW police probe into $ 702,200 in cash, found in a briefcase when officers stopped a US businessman at a Sydney hotel in August 2011.
In April 2012, McManus told investigators the cash came from him, and was used to repay the businessman who had loaned him a huge deposit to bring Texas rock veterans ZZ Top to Australia.
But a newspaper said McManus had claimed to have $ 600,000 stashed at his home, and had suggested how to smuggle tour money into Australia. It also hinted that he had withheld funds from Kravitz and Fleetwood Mac.
McManus now says he talked to police at the height of his binges: “I was on a lot of morphine, I was drinking, and I was not in a good place.”
He denied withholding money from Fleetwood Mac and Lenny Kravitz. “That is a lie,” McManus says. “Fleetwood Mac know they got paid in full, my accountant knows, and the ATO knows they were paid in full. Exactly the same with Lenny.”
McManus denied smuggling in tour money, saying he was merely suggesting ways a promoter might do that.
“I regret what I said. I was not a lucid man at that stage,” he said.
Things are a little clearer now. He credits “good friends” with bringing him back from the brink. He also has a new relationship.
A phone call from country music superstar Kris Kristofferson, asking for McManus to do his farewell tour, rejuvenated the promoter too.
He is also in talks to tour Kiss, and other projects are emerging
“I’ve found the confidence to return to the business I love, with a new attitude,” McManus says. “I’ve paid my taxes, I’ve paid my bands, and I’ve paid my dues.”
Originally published as From promoting rock stars to rock bottom
www.news.com.au/entertainment/music
