Ahead of February 2’s official bestowal in Cannes, McGuinness took part in an in-depth Q+A with the American music industry bible in which he admits, “The only reason I wanted to manage a band at all was because I wanted to manage a very big band. I certainly wasn’t doing it philanthropically.”
He goes on to note: “We always realised that there were two parallel careers: one live and one on record. We felt instinctively in the early days that it was important to be a great live band so that we were not dependent upon the success of the records.”
As for his decision to hand over the managerial reins, Paul reflects that, “I’m 62, and I did not feel like doing the next tour. I’ve been to pretty well every show U2 have ever performed, and I just did not want to continue doing that into my 60s. The rights to U2’s music, their masters and their copyrights, have been, with difficulty and at some costs, completely retrieved. I had some equity participation in that, but the right people to sell that equity to were the band. That’s really what has happened in this transaction: U2 have acquired the remaining rights, and they now own 100% of their masters and their copyrights.”
Read the full fascinating piece at [link]www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/legal-and-management/5876780/billboards-2014-industry-icon-paul-mcguinness-on-35[/link]