Liam Payne tragically died last month aged 31 following struggles with his mental health (Image: GETTY)
A leading music manager has suggested that recruiting a mental health professional to tour constantly with high-profile bands should become “mandatory” and “non-negotiable” to avoid future tragedy.
Ex- member fell from a hotel room balcony in Argentina to his death last month, having allegedly shared in the lobby earlier that he was “f***ed up” due to his history of boyband fame. Liam had spoken of experiencing suicidal thoughts after the group took off, and had felt lonely and isolated after struggling to go out on tour due to the sheer number of fans who would mob him.
He’d also suffered from drug and alcohol dependency at times, with “pink cocaine” and other substances detected in his system through a post-mortem. Now former Blue manager Dan Glatman has called for radical overhauls in the industry to ensure no further needless deaths take place.
“The more I hear from other managers about what’s going on behind the scenes with certain artists, the more convinced I am that the music industry is sleepwalking its way into another Liam Payne type tragedy,” Dan exclaimed. “Labels will spend copious amounts of money on entourage – armies of expensive stylists, hair / make-up artists etc to ensure that artists look fantastic. Money is also no object when it comes to hiring expensive producers to make the artist’s music sounds brilliant too.
“So there are huge budgets to enhance how an artist is sounding and looking but bizarrely nothing gets allocated to enhance how an artist is feeling. This needs to change and fast or it’s only a matter of time before another young life is tragically cut short.”
:
Manager Dan Glatman with boyband Blue at the height of their fame (Image: DAN GLATMAN)
He spoke in a lengthy post on LinkedIn about “profit-driven” record labels tearing promising young artists away from their loved ones at home and hurtling them into a fatiguing world of non-stop public appearances.
“To go from no one knowing who you are to everyone knowing who you are with all of the dramas that come with that, can only but have a profound effect on a person’s mental health,” he reasoned.
“In my view, labels have a duty of care to artists to ensure that this transition is managed in a responsible and professional way – and managed throughout the artist’s career.”
Don’t miss… [FUNERAL] [OUTRAGE]
Manager Dan Glatman spoke up about potential music industry reforms (Image: DAN GLATMAN)
He is now calling for all contracts between record labels and artists to “contain a provision that makes it mandatory for labels to pay for a mental health professional to travel with the artist or band at all times once they reach a certain level”.
He added in no uncertain terms: “THIS NEEDS TO BE A CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION AND A NON-RECOUPABLE COST.”
instead of making their relationships with them reciprocal and investing in their mental health.