I returned from a long, detailed, intriguing and exhausting interview with Ivan Kral, Jim’s major collaborator on the Party album, who ironically now lives in Ypsilanti, to find this sad email. Art Collins has been Jim’s manager since the mid ‘80s, and was always a pleasure to deal with.
The email is a tribute to Art, by Arthur Levy:
Good morning. Earlier tonight, I received a phone call from Nikki McGee with the incomprehensible news that my best friend Art Collins passed away this afternoon. There are few details to tell right now, he slumped over in a chair at his desk, at home, and was gone. A heart attack or a brain aneurism, we may know more today.
There was no one in this world that I was closer to than Art, perennially young, vibrant, spirited, ready to go go go. When Iggy stage-dived into the crowd at Roseland, Art was on his heels every step of the way. We met in spring 1975, during the end of Art's senior year at Curry College (outside Boston). He lucked into the job at Atlantic Records Publicity in New York, and was traveling back and forth to hold onto the gig. We were working for Earl McGrath. At first I couldn't abide another Arthur in the dept. so he immediately became "A.C." and then Ace, even Earl called him Ace. I think Jerry Greenberg might've called him Ace, too. I don't recall Ahmet ever calling him Ace, though!
I was six years or so older than Art, but we had so many adventures together in our three fast years at Atlantic -- commuting back & forth from Yonkers everyday, going to shows 3-4 nights a week, getting into every club & concert hall in the city through the side door -- that became a bond for life. Can't tell you how many envelopes of LPs we slipped to Stu back on 13th Street to pass us into the Palladium. Gigs like Frank Zappa's Halloween show there were like mantra events for the two of us. What can you say about a friend who drank a little too much green beer on one St. Pat's Day, and i had to hold him by his belt while he puked on the subway tracks? That's rock and roll.
In his many years with the Rolling Stones -- on the road and in the front office -- he saw more than any of us will ever be able to imagine -- and he told me every story, I wish I could remember them all. Later on, when he got into the management business, working with Iggy Pop, Joe Jackson, Marianne Faithfull, Marshall Crenshaw and others, he kept his sense of humor and perspective intact. I always liked to think his breezy attitude had its roots in our apprenticeship together at Atlantic.
Art's relationship with Jim all these years, by the way -- well, I don't think there is another artist-manager relationship like it anywhere in the world. Raw power. When Art plucked Zoe out of our seats at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame opening concert in 1995, to go meet Iggy Pop backstage, it was a life-altering moment for Zoe. She has dropped in on Jim several times since then, and even taken Jake along once. I will always feel bad that we weren't able to get Iggy and the Stooges inducted into the RRHOF in Art's lifetime.
I begged Art for the past ten years to start writing his memoirs, but there are so many stories that we will never get to hear. I truly regarded Art as my brother, and I know he felt the same about me – but because I had a little head start on him in the Atlantic days there was always a slight paternal edge there too. I know that Art and I both thought of ourselves as David Gahr's surrogate sons, David was and is a father figure of life.
Art. After he married Nikki in the '80s, he did such a miraculous job of raising Kieran (who is about four months younger than Zoe) and Travis. The boys were lucky to have two fathers who cared so deeply about instilling the important values of life in them, and if you think I'm not only talking about music, you're right. I was thrilled for Nikki and the boys when I heard about their trip to Japan last year, when Jim played some shows there.
I am inconsolably sad right now, because I am thinking about a world without my friend. I am thinking about my 50th birthday party in Nyack and the spiel that Art delivered about the twenty-something years we had known each other at that point.
I was just telling Andrea about when Art & I went to Woodstock '94/Sunday. She remembered that i came home splattered with mud, in fact, Art & I slogged all day through mud that was over our ankles most of the time, and watched the human mud bowling where we got splattered even more. There was something holy about being with Art when he saw Bob Dylan live for the first time in his life that night, closing out the festival; there are few things more holy than being with your friend and your children to see Bob Dylan for the first time, no matter when in life that happens.
And so it goes, and so it goes. Oh, Art, I thought we had so much more time to horse around together. Only the good die young.
(I wish I had more email addresses, because there are so many more people who I'd like to reach ... Ann Carli, Barry Taylor, Marcy Weber, Marianne, Jane Rose, Lisa Robinson, Shelly Lazar, Liz at Town Hall, Alan Pepper, Jim Dunbar, Mike Watt, many people at Atlantic, many at Iggy's labels A&M and Virgin, Premier Talent, Rolling Stone ... )
Arthur Levy