Tim Collins (manager)
Encyclopedia
Tim Collins is a businessman, manager, and mentor most noted for his work as the manager for American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...

 band Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...

 from 1984-1996.

Personal History

Just as the '80s marked the return of Aerosmith -- "one of the most dramatic comebacks ever in rock" -- they also underlined the rise to prominence of the band's personal manger, Tim Collins.

At the age of 14, Tim Collins joined a band called Tax Free. Playing guitar in the band, Collins also took responsibility for booking gigs for the band and handling their finances. While playing in the band and going to school, Collins worked full time at Anderson-Little as a clothing salesman and used the money he earned to buy the band a sound system and a truck with the money he earned. When Tax Free replaced Collins in 1970, they told Collins that "you make a better manager than a guitarist" and asked Collins if he would manage them.

By this point, Collins graduated from Bentley College in Waltham, MA
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, was an early center for the labor movement, and major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning,...

 where he majored in Organizational Behavior and Marketing.

As he continued to manage Tax Free, Collins opened Bands Unlimited Productions, which booked local talent in the Boston area that played all of the local colleges and night clubs. In 1977, he signed The Fools
The Fools
The Fools are a Massachusetts rock band best known for the party atmosphere of their live performances and tongue-in-cheek original songs, covers and parodies.-History:...

, a young rock band with a novel edge. They rose to high regional prominence very quickly. In order to gain the clout to develop them, he moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in 1978 to work for Castle Music Productions Inc., were he brought The Fools
The Fools
The Fools are a Massachusetts rock band best known for the party atmosphere of their live performances and tongue-in-cheek original songs, covers and parodies.-History:...

.

Collins worked for artist manager Peter Casperson, known for his work with some of the great folk-rock artists of the era including Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards was a preacher, theologian, and missionary to Native Americans. Edwards "is widely acknowledged to be America's most important and original philosophical theologian," and one of America's greatest intellectuals...

, Martin Mull
Martin Mull
Martin Mull is an American actor who has starred in his own television sitcom and acted in prominent films. He is also a comedian, painter, and recording artist...

, Orphan, and Duke and the Drivers. While working at Castle Music, Collins had by himself managed to get The Fools
The Fools
The Fools are a Massachusetts rock band best known for the party atmosphere of their live performances and tongue-in-cheek original songs, covers and parodies.-History:...

 signed to EMI Records
EMI Records
EMI Records is the flagship record label founded by the EMI company in 1972 and launched in January 1973 as the successor to its Columbia label. The EMI label was launched worldwide...

 (the record company that also signed the Beatles).

The Fools
The Fools
The Fools are a Massachusetts rock band best known for the party atmosphere of their live performances and tongue-in-cheek original songs, covers and parodies.-History:...

, with the support of the larger organization at Castle Music, experienced success with the hits "Psycho Chicken" and "It’s a Night for Beautiful Girls". In 1979, "Psycho Chicken", an X-rated parody of The Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer", exploded over the airwaves of Boston. The band was so excited that they followed up almost immediately with another hit, "It's a Night for Beautiful Girls". Shortly thereafter, EMI Records
EMI Records
EMI Records is the flagship record label founded by the EMI company in 1972 and launched in January 1973 as the successor to its Columbia label. The EMI label was launched worldwide...

 signed the band and sent them to tour the U.S. with The Knack
The Knack
The Knack was an American New Wave rock quartet based in Los Angeles that rose to fame with their first single, "My Sharona", an international number one hit in 1979.-Founding :...

. "The tour was a smashing success." After the tour, the band headed to Miami to record their debut album Sold Out.

Collins also met Jonathan Edwards, who is known for his million selling hit "Sunshine" and the controversial song "Shanty", banned by the FCC
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

 for referring to smoking marijuana.

Collins left Castle Music on April 1, 1979 and started Collins/Barrasso Agency. Steve Barrasso, his new partner, was a local Boston musician whose musical career with a band called Calamity Jayne was cut short by a lung condition. Thankfully, though, the two met and Steve convinced Tim to leave Castle and start their own business. The Collins/Barrasso Agency established its headquarters in Allston, MA.

The Collins/Barrasso Agency became the place to be for New England-based regional recording artists. Some of the many talented musicians who were on the roster included Jonathan Edwards, Aztec Two-Step
Aztec Two-Step
Aztec Two-Step is an American folk-rock band formed by Rex Fowler and Neal Shulman at a chance meeting on open stage at a Boston coffee house, the Stone Phoenix, in 1971. The band was named after a line from a poem that appeared in A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti...

, The James Montgomery Blues Band, Duke and the Drivers, Orleans
Orleans (band)
Orleans is an American pop-rock band best known for its hits "Dance with Me" , "Still the One", from the album Waking and Dreaming and "Love Takes Time" . The group's name evolved from the music it was playing at the time of their formation, which was inspired by Louisiana artists such as Allen...

, and many others. They also produced and procured talent from the major agencies for college shows and larger concert venues throughout New England.

History with Aerosmith

In the early 1980s, Tim Collins worked as the manager for The Joe Perry Project
The Joe Perry Project
The Joe Perry Project is an American rock band formed by Aerosmith lead guitarist Joe Perry. Perry started working on forming the band shortly before his departure from Aerosmith in 1979...

, the solo project created by guitarist Joe Perry
Joe Perry (musician)
Anthony Joseph "Joe" Perry is the lead guitarist, backing and occasional lead vocalist, and contributing songwriter for the rock band Aerosmith. He is influenced by many rock artists especially The Rolling Stones and The Beatles...

 who had left Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...

 in 1979. In 1984
1984 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1984.-Janury-March:*January 21 – "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood reaches number one in the UK singles chart, despite being banned by the BBC; it spends a total of forty-two weeks in the Top 40.*January 27 – Michael Jackson's...

, Collins orchestrated the reformation of the original Aerosmith. He succeeded when guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford
Brad Whitford
Bradford Ernest Whitford is the rhythm guitarist for the hard rock band Aerosmith. He graduated Reading Memorial High School in 1970.-Career:...

 rejoined the band in April 1984. He believed he could make Aerosmith the biggest band in the world by 1990
1990 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1990.-Events:*January 21 – MTV's Unplugged premieres on cable television with British band Squeeze...

, if he reformed the original band and got them clean and sober. Aerosmith officially reformed in May of 1984 and hired Collins as their manager. After every major record label passed on signing Aerosmith to a recording contract in the summer of 1984, Collins, with the help of the infamous music attorney Brian Rohan, inspired legendary A&R man John Kalodner
John Kalodner
John David Kalodner is a retired American A&R executive. His achievements included signing Foreigner, AC/DC, Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins to Atlantic Records in the seventies....

 to sign Aerosmith to Geffen Records
Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:...

. The band toured extensively and created their first album after the reunion of the classic lineup in 1985
1985 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1985.-January–March:*January 1 - The newest music video channel, VH-1, debuts on American cable. It is aimed at an older demographic than its sister station, MTV...

, titled Done with Mirrors
Done with Mirrors
Done with Mirrors is the eighth studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released November 9, 1985. The release marked the return to the band of Joe Perry, who had left the group in 1979, and Brad Whitford, who had left the band in 1981. It was also the band's first album released by Geffen...

. However, the album wasn't the success they had hoped for, the band wasn't receiving mainstream publicity, and the drug addictions of the band members and their attempts to quit drugs on their own weren't working. Collins and his team, with the help of Dr. Louis Cox, orchestrated a drug and alcohol intervention on lead singer Steven Tyler
Steven Tyler
Steven Tyler is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the frontman and lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, and occasional piano and percussion. He is known as the "Demon of Screamin'", due to his high screams...

. Tyler entered a drug rehabilitation program at the Carron Foundation in Pennsylvania that was extremely successful for him. The rest of the band members followed suit shortly thereafter.

One of the major things Collins had Aerosmith agree to was the appearance of Tyler and Perry on Run-DMC's cover of Aerosmith's song "Walk This Way
Walk This Way
"Walk This Way" is a song by American hard rock group Aerosmith. Written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, the song was originally released as the second single from the 1975 album Toys in the Attic. It peaked at Number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1977, part of a string of successful hit...

". The collaboration and subsequent video made Aerosmith a household name again and opened the band up to a new generation.

By the time their next album, Permanent Vacation
Permanent Vacation (album)
Permanent Vacation is the ninth studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released in August 1987 by Geffen Records.The album marks a turning point in the band's career. It is their first album to employ professional songwriters, instead of featuring material solely composed by members of the...

, was released in 1987
1987 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1987.See also:Record labels established in 1987-January-February:*January 3 – Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...

, all of the band members had gotten clean, and Collins was now working hard to make sure the band won their fame back, through his namesake "Collins Management". By this point in time, Kalodner and Collins had forged a creative partnership that was a winning combination. They enlisted the help of top-notch outside songwriters and producers to work with the band in recording their albums, had the band touring the world extensively with up-and-coming acts opening for the band, enlisted the help of top-notch music video directors, and was now having the band make numerous appearances in television, movies, video games, major festivals, and the like, helping to win over a new generation of fans, while retaining their old fanbase.

Between 1987 and 1994, Aerosmith released three albums and a compilation album (Permanent Vacation
Permanent Vacation (album)
Permanent Vacation is the ninth studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released in August 1987 by Geffen Records.The album marks a turning point in the band's career. It is their first album to employ professional songwriters, instead of featuring material solely composed by members of the...

, Pump
Pump (album)
*After the end of "What It Takes" there is a brief, untitled, instrumental hidden track composed and performed by Randy Raine-Reusch. This was not included on all the releases in all countries.-Bonus track :-Lawsuit:...

, Get a Grip
Get a Grip
Get a Grip is the 11th studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released in April 1993 by Geffen Records. Get a Grip was the band's last studio album to be released by Geffen before they returned to Columbia Records....

, and Big Ones
Big Ones
Big Ones is one of the many compilation albums by the American rock band Aerosmith, released on November 1, 1994 by Geffen Records...

) which sold a combined 23 million copies in the United States alone, won the band three Grammy awards, and numerous Video Music Awards.

When the 18-month Get a Grip Tour
Get a Grip Tour
The Get a Grip Tour was a concert tour by American hard rock band Aerosmith that lasted over eighteen months, from early June 1993 to mid-December 1994...

 concluded at the end of 1994, the band wanted to take an extensive break and take their time in recording their next album (Nine Lives
Nine Lives (Aerosmith album)
-Bonus track :-Bonus tracks :-Bonus tracks :-Bonus tracks :-Artwork:...

), this one for Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

. However, Collins wanted the band to have more structure and kept pressuring the band to do more appearances and record the album more quickly. The band took extensive vacations and Tyler and Perry were working with producer/songwriter Glen Ballard
Glen Ballard
Glen Ballard is an American songwriter and record producer, best known for co-writing and producing Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill , which won Grammy Award for "Best Rock Album", and "Album of the Year" amongst others, and is ranked by the Rolling Stone amongst The 500 Greatest Albums of...

 in the mid-1990s, writing, recording, and rehearsing songs, including productive sessions in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

. Collins felt that since Tyler and Perry were working independently with Ballard in penning songs and that the entire band would not be working together for months at a time, that the band was breaking up. However Tyler and Perry were noted for writing songs together and then having the band record the songs during recording sessions. Additionally, drummer Joey Kramer was sidelined during pre-production due to health problems. Collins felt that he was losing control of the band, as Aerosmith seemed to have now been able to work independently of their manager and were clean for almost a decade at that point.

The members of Aerosmith, while grateful for all the help Collins had given them in helping the band resurrect and rise back to mainstream popularity and acceptance, fired Collins in July 1996. Within hours of his firing, Collins suggested in interviews that the band may have no longer been sober.

Life After Aerosmith

Tim Collins has been active in many capacities in the music, recovery, and business community.

Some of his activities include:
  • Member of the Board of Trustees of Berklee College of Music
    Berklee College of Music
    Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...

  • Board of Advisors Caron Foundation (Alcohol Recovery Treatment Center)
  • A member of the Board of Advisors of Musicians Assistance Program (MAP)
    MusiCares
    The MusiCares Foundation, Inc., was established in 1989 by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Meant for musicians to have a place to turn, in times of financial, personal, or medical crisis, its primary purpose is to focus the resources and attention of the music industry on human...

     (now called MusiCares
    MusiCares
    The MusiCares Foundation, Inc., was established in 1989 by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Meant for musicians to have a place to turn, in times of financial, personal, or medical crisis, its primary purpose is to focus the resources and attention of the music industry on human...

    ), a part of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
    National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
    The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc., known variously as The Recording Academy or NARAS, is a U.S. organization of musicians, producers, recording engineers and other recording professionals dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for music and its...

    .
  • Through his namesake Collins Management, Tim is well known for his work as a "turn-around" consultant, and is in high-demand by artists, corporations, and non-profits around the globe.
  • A frequent lecturer and guest speaker at many colleges.
  • He resides in Arizona, where he is very active in environmental activities, dog training (for disabilities and rescue), writing, and photography.


In 2009, Tim Collins did an interview for the Biography Channel, which later appeared on the A&E Network
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...

. An article in the Boston Globe mentioned that Collins' interview on Biography's Aerosmith special was a "real surprise" since it was his first interview since being fired, thirteen years prior..

"I've never done an interview like this, but time heals all wounds," Collins told the Boston Herald
Boston Herald
The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...

. "They said Steven
Steven Tyler
Steven Tyler is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the frontman and lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, and occasional piano and percussion. He is known as the "Demon of Screamin'", due to his high screams...

 (Tyler) wasn't going to participate and had squelched a lot of people. I just think they're America's greatest rock band, and I wanted to set the record straight. I was only supposed to do 30 minutes, but I let them keep me on tape for 4.5 hours." Collins mentioned that his participation in the rock doc prompted Aerosmith guitarists Joe Perry
Joe Perry (musician)
Anthony Joseph "Joe" Perry is the lead guitarist, backing and occasional lead vocalist, and contributing songwriter for the rock band Aerosmith. He is influenced by many rock artists especially The Rolling Stones and The Beatles...

 and Brad Whitford
Brad Whitford
Bradford Ernest Whitford is the rhythm guitarist for the hard rock band Aerosmith. He graduated Reading Memorial High School in 1970.-Career:...

 to talk after seeing a raw cut of Collins' footage.

Collins was asked by the Herald directly if he would consider coming back to manage the band. "I haven't spoken to them. I really couldn't imagine it," Collins said. "Life moves on."

In the summer of 2009, by total coincidence, Collins and Tyler literally bumped into each other in the lobby at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Denver, CO
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

, where there was an exchange of deep feelings, reminiscent of days gone by. Regarding the incident, Collins said "It's always nice to have a situation come full circle, and to be friends (once again) with someone who was so important in your earlier life."

Further reading

  • Walk This Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith
    Walk This Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith
    Walk This Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith was written by Stephen Davis, published by HarperCollins and released in October 1997. The book was co-written with the members of Aerosmith themselves. This biography contains the story of the band's life, legends, women, drugs and partying that...

    by Stephen Davis
    Stephen Davis (music journalist)
    Stephen Davis is an American music journalist and historian.Davis was born in New York City and attended Boston University. He began his career writing for the Boston Phoenix in 1970...

    and Aerosmith
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