Guy Oseary Gets To Call The Tune For U2

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If all goes according to plan, Oseary will be handling the day-to-day management of the Irish supergroup as part of major reorganization at the top level in the music business.

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 Madonna and her manager Guy Oseary / Getty

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Guy Oseary’s already brimming schedule will be getting even fuller very soon when he steps into the shoes of U2’s veteran manager Paul McGuinness, who has announced his retirement.

After a few months of speculation McGuinness has finally confirmed that his plans to step down and hand over the headaches of managing the band’s busy schedule to the young and dynamic Guy Oseary.

The deal will be part of a major reshuffle with the strings being pulled by Michael Rapino at Live Nation. Live Nation have agreed to take over both McGuinness’ and Oseary’s management firms, as part of a agreement reported to be worth around $30 million.

Paul McGuinness has been the manager of U2’s manager since the mid-80s, masterminding their rise to the top and the longevity that they achieved.

Announcing his stepping down McGuinness praised the abilities of Guy Oseary stating that he has long been regarded as the best manager of his generation.  “There is no one else I would have considered taking over the day-to-day running of our business.” Summed up Paul McGuinness.

According to reports in the music industry Live Nation’s deal to acquire McGuinness’ Principle Management and Oseary’s Maverick management is in the final stages of negotiation but is yet to be completely finalized.

Oseary’s Maverick management handles a number of the music industry’s top recording artists with the jewel in the crown being Madonna with other prominent music stars on his roster being Prodigy, Alanis Morissette and Michelle Branch among a number of others.

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U2 : Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen, Jr.

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Once the deal is completed Principle and Maverick would be integrated into Live Nation’s Artist Nation management division, which, according to industry commentators, maybe need of a pickup having failed to return a profit for the first three quarters of 2013.

Paul McGuinness and U2 began to form association with Live Nation back in 2008 when they signed up on a 12-year deal that covered all aspects of their touring and merchandising activities as well as managing the affairs of the U2.com website. However McGuinness, Bono and the other members of U2 have held onto their recording and music publishing rights .

Guy Oseary was born and raised in Jerusalem, moving to the United States in his early teens with his parents. Guy began his musical career with the  fledgling music company called Maverick Records when he was just 20 in 1992.

Maverick Records was a joint venture formed by pop icon Madonna, in partnership with Time Warner. Guy’s talent and enthusiasm were enough to drive him rapidly through the ranks eventually going on to be given complete control of the recording company getting them to sales of over 100 million albums worldwide, with a reputation of the one of the recording industry’s leading record labels.

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U2 In Concert

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In May of 2004 Oseary left Maverick to form a partnership with Jason Weinberg and Stephanie Simon in an entertainment management company that they called Untitled Entertainment, which operated on both the East and West Coast of the United States.

Untitled succeeded him rapidly building up an impressive client base that included Ashton Kutcher, Penélope Cruz, Naomi Watts, Demi Moore and Marisa Tomei. The following year Oseary reformed his association with business partner Madonna helping her to handle both her 2006 Confessions Tour, and are Sticky & Sweet Tour of 2008, both both listed among the top-grossing tours of all time.

In between the two tours Guy also found the time to negotiate a partnership arrangement between Madonna and Live Nation, which takes in the marketing and promotion all aspects of Madonna’s music.

In addition to his musical management talents, Guy Oseary has also published four books. His debut novel was entitled “On the Record” which he published in 2004 and was basically a personal reflection on how to break into the music industry, with input from the some of the most successful artists, producers and executives involved in the music recording industry business.

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Friends and business partners:  Guy Oseary and Ashton Kutcher

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Guy’s next two publications featured his own behind-the-scenes photography from Madonna’s 2006 and 2008 sell out tours.

Following up his success, down recently released an interesting novel relating to Jewish influences in the music industry, aptly entitled “Jews Who Rock”.

In recent years Guy Oseary has become an active investor a number of successful high-tech companies through his venture capital company A-Grade which he formed in conjunction with TV and movie star Ashton Kutcher. Among the companies that A-Grade have invested in are Airbnb and Spotify.

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