Rolling Stones silent on backstage secrets

May 08, 2009 12:00am

EVERY day rock world veteran Sam Cutler gets emails and Facebook messages from people congratulating him on his memoirs - except from the Rolling Stones.

His book You Can't Always Get What You Want: My Life with the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and Other Wonderful Reprobates is in its second print run.

But still no feedback from its main subjects The Stones, for whom Cutler was a long-time tour manager, including at that fateful Altamont show.

"I sent them copies of the book but, who knows?" he told Confidential.

"Maybe they've forgotten how to read. Who knows what they're up to nowadays?

"But they got sent copies of it, so we'll see."


So of all the legends Cutler hung with - Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Pink Floyd among them - who was the hardiest partier?

He pauses.

"Hard to say. Well, I guess it would have to be Keith Richards," he says.

But giving the Strolling Bones axeman a run for his quid was Rick Danko of The Band.

"He liked to have fun. Most musicians do, of course."

But the downer award goes to the formerly heroin-addled Clapton, who "used to fall asleep all the time so he wasn't much of a partier, was he?".

As revealing as the memoir is, it seems You Can't Always Get What You Want wasn't quite a tell-all tome.

Cutler has promised to spill more backstage secrets of the stars when he joins a Q&A at next month's Noosa Longweekend festival (June 19-28).

"Lots of stuff didn't go in the book, just because you can't get everything in the book, can you?" he says.

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"Eric Clapton- Falling asleep and putting everyone else in listening proximity to sleep since 1969".

calling him a "long time tour manager" is a bit rich. he was only with them for 6 months!

quote

But the downer award goes to the formerly heroin-addled Clapton, who "used to fall asleep all the time so he wasn't much of a partier, was he?".
unquote

Once went a a live album recoring by Chas and Dave at Abbey Road, When we arrived my mates girlfriend spotted Clapton and as she was a big fan, wanted his autograph, we duely asked but poor old Eric was so pissed he couldn't hold the pen and had to be assisted by Patti Boyd, while Dave Edmunds and his partner looked on embarased.
When we came to leave after the recording Clapton was unconcious on the floor and we and several other people had to step over him to get out.
Anyone else from here attend that recording Chas and Dave were at the time still a good live act , before they got lounched into ''pop'' stardom with Gercha ect.

Interesting story, adotulipson.

I think The Stones wouldn't piss on Cutler if he were on fire. The reason? Altamont...

"Once went a a live album recoring by Chas and Dave at Abbey Road"

Its actually a cracking live album! You want to hear their version of breathless!

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Muppet HiFi
"Eric Clapton- Falling asleep and putting everyone else in listening proximity to sleep since 1969".

His guitar licks are often called "Claptonnizers"..same as Valium..

I love Cutler's remark about maybe they can't read anymore. That's certainly easier for his ego to swallow than admitting "I guess they're not interested in anything I have to say about my having worked with famous people four decades ago."

Cutler never saw Mick Jagger again after Altamont ,did he ?
Gimme Cutler I once read in an article ...



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

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ablett
"Once went a a live album recoring by Chas and Dave at Abbey Road"

Its actually a cracking live album! You want to hear their version of breathless!

Agreed
originally released as a 7' vinyl single given away with first pressings of the album, now on the cd of course

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dcba
I think The Stones wouldn't piss on Cutler if he were on fire. The reason? Altamont...

What a bollocks remark. Cutler didn't do anything more than execute all wishes of the Stones. And Cutler did a hell of a job keeping the crowd quiet.

Mathijs

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Muppet HiFi
"Eric Clapton- Falling asleep and putting everyone else in listening proximity to sleep since 1969".

Ha Ha!

So Rick Danko of The Band liked to have fun did he?
Well, it didn't do him much good in the end. I believe he ended up grossly overweight with massive drug (heroin) problems and not much of a career either.

Quote
Mathijs

Quote
dcba
I think The Stones wouldn't piss on Cutler if he were on fire. The reason? Altamont...

What a bollocks remark. Cutler didn't do anything more than execute all wishes of the Stones. And Cutler did a hell of a job keeping the crowd quiet.

Mathijs

correct...and not only the Stones but the Dead !
He was also one of the rare individuals who showed some balls while the whole festival was in disarray...

Sure you've already read this:
When Sam Cutler reunited with the Rolling Stones four decades after he was dropped as their tour manager, he was warmly greeted by rock and roll standards.

"F*** me, Sam Cutler. Or should I say f*** you?," legendary guitarist Keith Richards said when he saw Culter backstage at a 2003 Australian concert.

Cutler remembers the moment in his new book You Can't Always Get What You Want, a memoir about his time on the road with the Stones and the Grateful Dead.

He hadn't seen the band since 1969, when a man was stabbed and killed by Hells Angels during the Rolling Stones' set at a free concert in the US.

His memoir describes how he was left behind to clear the air with Hells Angels members even after Mick Jagger told him to "split" in the wake of the now notorious Altamont gig.

Despite Cutler's history with the band, reuniting with the Stones in 2003 was a lot like seeing family, he says.

"It was nice, I enjoyed it. It's a bit like meeting your aunt after many years. They were very kind," Cutler said.

"Nice to see that everyone had lived through the experience."

Cutler hopes to clear up any misconceptions about the Rolling Stones' role in the violent concert in his book.

Rock and roll legend has it that the band paid the Hells Angels $US500 ($625) to act as security, which led to the stabbing death of Meredith Hunter, a concert-goer who was carrying a gun.

But Cutler writes that the band felt compelled to play the free concert and were told by Hells Angels members, "Nothing's gonna happen to your band, get 'em to play and it'll all be cool."

"There's a lot of rubbish written about the Rolling Stones, especially the thing at Altamont, that we hired the Hells Angels ... and it was the Rolling Stone's free concert which it wasn't," Cutler says.

"It's kind of enter rock and roll mythology that we organised the concert, which we didn't.

"That we were responsible for what went down, which in part we were, but only in part.

"I wanted to write my version of the truth."

After the terrifying experience at Altamont - which he writes was "the worst violence I had ever seen" - he went on to work with the Grateful Dead.

He has happier memories managing that band, who he describes as "an extended hippy family".

"I still consider myself a member of the Grateful Dead family," he says.

"If you were around the Rolling Stones you were either a friend or a person in the band or Mick or Keith had hired you to work for the band.

"Mick was basically in control of it all.

"In the Grateful Dead it was all very much looser, who knows where half the people came from.

"The Grateful Dead directly kept about 40 people, whereas the Rolling Stones would never dream of doing that."

Cutler considers his stories of rock and roll debauchery - he writes about smoking a joint with Jimi Hendrix and hanging out with Janis Joplin - his own part in contemporary history.

But these days his rockstar lifestyle has been replaced with time spent "writing and daydreaming" in Australia, away from the stresses of the music industry.

"A tour manager is a combination of many things from a psychologist to a friend to an employee a confidant," he said.

"We have to wear multiple hats - a tour manager is the person who handles all the stress."

He jokes his next book will be about "Sex for the over-80s".

As for the Rolling Stones, Cutler predicts they won't stop rocking until they're dead - and even then they may still be playing in heaven.

"Eventually, I think they'll die on the job which is great," he says.

"They can't do anything else other than be musicians, that's what they are.

"So they've embraced that totally and there's no reason you should stop until they're dead.

"And who knows, maybe they'll get a job playing harp for God."

AAP



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