Ron Weisner – HuffPost 6.25.14

Mike Ragogna: Ron, what advice do you have for new artists?

Ron Weisner: You still have to be persistent. What’s made most people successful is they have a feeling inside them that expresses their music, their words, whatever, and you just have to put a blinder on and keep pounding and pounding and pounding away. There are things that will come through. A couple of years ago, there was an artist who wasn’t the most attractive person so she couldn’t compete with the anorexic-looking girls from flavor of the month music. But Adele came along, a brilliant singer, great songs, and for a two-year period she owned the music world. She wasn’t doing what everybody else was doing. That’s why I’m a big proponent of, “Just because it hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean you can’t do it.” If you can’t get in the front door, find a way to get in the back door or the side window or whatever. You’ve got to be persistent and do what you do best and use your gift and find the best people you can to help you bring that gift to a different level. There’s no slam dunk anymore. A couple of people have asked me, “Who out there today would you want to be involved with?” As I said before, Michael Jackson, in my opinion, was the greatest entertainer of my generation. Somebody asked me a couple months ago, “Who else is out there today that you would think that of?” In all honesty, not just because I like her and I’ve worked with her a number of times, but the only artist that’s out there and has that mass appeal is Beyoncé. She is beyond professional and committed. She basically doesn’t compromise her work. She hones in on what she sees and what she feels and that’s what she works on. Rarely do you ever see any controversy with her, it’s not Madonna stuff. She is a dedicated gifted musician and performer. She does it all. In my opinion, she is the closest and the only one out there today that I would put in his league.

MR: You’ve talked with a lot of affection about a number of artists you’ve managed and matter-of-factly about others. Which is the best kind of artist to work with? The “real” artist versus, I guess, the career-minded?

RW: It’s not really in all honesty making that kind of decision. There are two parts to that answer. Michael Jackson and Steve Winwood had success very early on in life, and then nothing. There was a big lull. I find it’s much more difficult to get involved with an artist who had a career and had a big lull than signing a brand new artist and being obsessive and compassionate about them. Each one was different. When I got involved with the Jacksons, there was nothing going on with them. Nothing whatsoever. It was an even bigger challenge. Today, people say, “Wow, you got lucky with Michael!” But it was basically going to square one and beyond to make that happen. Bill Withers was a labor of love in a different way, you know what I’m saying? He used to make toilets for a company called Weber Aircraft in LA. That’s what he did, and then he came in with some demos of some great songs. Slab Fork, West Virginia, it’s a coal mining town. This guy knew nothing about the music business, never really had any hopes and aspirations of being in the public limelight, he just loved making music, and again, he also had a gift. It becomes challenging in different kinds of ways, so it becomes difficult to lay one against the other, because each is a different thing.