[Jim Guerinot] brought me into his office
and said, “You want to work here? OK.
Want to start Monday?” That was my
interview. The artist relations department
started with the artists, whether they
were new or established, and took them
through all the cycles. You really got to
know the emotional state of the artists.
Was that what inspired you to get
your therapist license?
I just went through so many personal
experiences of overdoses and depression:
people I worked with, people who were
one degree away from [me]. I worked
so closely with Soundgarden and Kurt
Cobain at the beginning. I started to talkto a lot of my colleagues and say, “You
know, I’m really thinking about bridging
these two professions.” Everyone was like,
“Oh, my God. That’s brilliant.”
How common is it for bands now to
be in therapy?
Therapy is becoming increasingly
accepted. I think that bands are starting
to look at that opportunity. I think the
recent suicides are scaring the hell out of
people. If you’re in a state of desperation
and hopelessness, you [might] not
have had suicidal thoughts before and
then, all of a sudden, it’s pretty scary.
Managers are now accepting it. They’re
including the costs for therapy in their
budgets more.
Do labels pay for band therapy?
Usually managers. I had a band come in
because the manager was freaking out
that they wanted to fire him. The manager
called me up, and we brought them in,
talked about what was going on, what they
were upset about, what the manager was
feeling, and we were able to work that out.
I think he’s still with them now.
Do you see a correlation between
the music and the mental health of
a band?
When working with artists, I want them to
maintain that creative edge. We’re not try-
ing to soften them up like, “OK, let’s calm
you down.” It’s about being able to work
through that, but still use it to [maintain]
that edge that an artist still has to project
out into the world. If each person in a band
is taking care of themselves, you’ve got
a lot more opportunity for success than
when it’s all falling apart.1 M i l s t e i n o p t s t o ke e p
most of her industry
memorabilia, such as
VIP passes, out of sight
to send the message:
“Let’s talk about
you.” 2 Her platinum
plaque for working on
Te m p l e o f t h e D o g ’s
1991 self-titled album.
3 John Lennon is the
one prominent artist
in her office, with a
wooden sculpture of
the word “Imagine”
over the fireplace.
4 With the members of
Soundgarden. Milstein
says her music-
industry executive
experience helps her
relate to clients, but she
doesn’t see patients
that she worked with in
her former career.HAIR AND MAKEUP BY ASHLEY HUMPHREYS AT CELESTINE AGENCY.
What are some of the common
problems you see among executives?
I think it’s the angst of the environment,
of the industry. It’s so unknown. There
are people who, when A&M closed, had
been there for 28 years. I think since the
2000s it’s been a revolving door. Part of
it is that angst about what is coming up.
We’ll talk a lot about how to strategize
for their confidence when they go in for
that renegotiation, having a sense of
self and feeling deserving of that high
title, and their value at that label or in
that management role with that artist
that might be having some frustration
because their album didn’t sell or
whatever is going on.“When working with artists, I want
them to maintain that creative edge.”
Any memorable cases you can
talk about?
A band that I work with wanted their
spouses to come in and meet. There were
eight people, just talking about them
going out [on tour] and how is this going
to work and how are they going to get
along. Sometimes the spouses don’t get
along very much. [Fidelity] is an issue that
comes up a lot.
How do you strategize for that?
I have to talk with the couple, because if
this is the dynamic in their relationship
and they’ve decided that they have
an open relationship, then that’s fine.
Whatever works for you. If you have one
person who is like, “No, no, no,” or this
person is saying, “Yes for me, no for you,”
you have to talk about how that’s goingto work. When an artist is on the road,
you’re, like, on a different planet; you
don’t even know sometimes what day it
is because you have everybody taking
care of you. When they come home, they
don’t have someone cleaning up after
them. You’ve got to take the garbage out,
because you’re Joe Schmo at home. Your
spouse married you as a human being.
Hopefully. Not as this person who is going
to be walking around with a microphone
in your hand all the time. Your kids want
you to drive them to school.SEPTEMBER 2, 2017 | WWW.BILLBOARD.COM 231
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