If you're a musician or songwriter, your manager and your
attorney should always be two different people, your agent and
your manager should always be two different people, and you,
your manager, and your agent should all have different
attorneys, all of whom should work at different law firms.

But that's not all...

Your manager shouldn't be in your immediate family. In other
words, don't get a parent or spouse to do the job of a
professional. Management is a real job that requires real
skills.

Parents screw things up. They believe the publicist-generated
hype, are too close to the situation, and are often living their
own dreams through their "client."

Worked with a 15-year-old maybe two years ago. She was a very
nice, very attractive, and very talented singers. She was good
and everybody who heard her demo wanted to help her. In fact,
she was so good that a couple of major labels were interested.
Everything looked bright for her.

But her father... That guy was a passive-agressive jerk who
made it very difficult to get anything done. He was extremely
high-maintenance and was constantly taking up valuable resources
that would have been better used on his daughter and her career.

My time is too valuable to deal with idiots, so I stopped
working with her.

A few months later, at SXSW, her name came up in a
conversation. I was talking to an established music attorney who
was interested in her, but had reservations because "her father
is a real asshole."

Obviously, this could happen with somebody you are not related
to, but it's not likely, especially if you're careful about
selecting somebody to work with. Professionals in this business
understand how to work with people and know how to do it in a
way so that things get done.

You wouldn't get your relatives to play on your record, so why
have them do something that is just as important?

This rule also applies to your spouse, by the way. Watch Spinal
Tap and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. While the
movie is a joke, the situation when it happens in real life
isn't nearly as funny.