Former Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones Tour Manager Compares Bands

Posted on Sep 3rd 2010 4:00PM by Adam Horne
Comments

gimmecutler.com

As tour manager for some of rock 'n' roll's biggest icons, Sam Cutler has spent years on the road getting to know the human side of elusive rock legends. In an interview with Greta Van Susteren on FOX News, Cutler reminisced about his days with the Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones, noting how different the two bands felt about business, the media, and fame.

The Rolling Stones, Cutler explained, were "super competitive ... want to be number one, want to have huge albums, want to be famous, want to have their pictures everywhere." Meanwhile, he added, "The Grateful dead were a bunch of hippies. They didn't have a clue about business."

"The Grateful Dead ... didn't really care about the media," Cutler told FOX, referring to the band as champions of "the cooperative model." Though obviously very fond of both legendary bands, the 66-year-old veteran tour manager seems to have a special affinity for the Dead's free-wheeling hippie way of life and their effect on '60s counterculture. Waxing poetic with Van Susteren, he went on to explain, "I think the Grateful Dead somehow captured the zeitgeist of the '60s and '70s, of that generation who were looking for fresh version of what constituted liberty and freedom."

Have a look at the interview below, courtesy of our friends at TV Squad.