ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: From a managerial standpoint, there must be so many new challenges with the way the business is changing. I'm sure every manager thinks he handles his client in a unique way. But Bruce is so sacred to people, so even more care than usual might be put into not wanting him to do the wrong thing. Yet you do face all these new challenges where record companies want you to do even more, in terms of the web, and with retailers, and so on. Are you doing anything different now than you've done before?
JON LANDAU: Oh, yeah. We did this very quietly, but Bruce has already made a tour of all the retailers in the country. He goes to the headquarters for each one. And, of course, he's made the pilgrimage to Benton, Arkansas [the headquarters of Wal-Mart]. He spent a week down there, just shaking hands and... [long, pregnant pause] Chris, I'm joking.
Okay, I assumed you were, but I was afraid to laugh, just in case you were serious.
You know, we try to acknowledge the changes, when we can fit them in. For example, giving away ''Radio Nowhere'' for a week on iTunes, we didn't have any issues with it, and it seemed like a positive way to create awareness and excitement. On the Sessions tour, we broadcast a different song each night, live, from every U.S. show on AOL. So we have been working in our own way in that area for a while now. The fundamentals of managing Bruce involve three major things, and making sure the conditions that pertain to each are 100% correct: One is writing great songs, two is making the best album he can make, and three, doing the best show he can do. Everything else is a lesser issue. That's the way it was when I met him in 1974, that's the way it is in 2007, and that's the way it's gonna be for as long as we're doing this. And then, with the Internet and [learning] how to use television, which is something we make a lot more use of than we used to, those are extensions. But what I've found is, if you accomplish those three core things, then everything else follows.
You came up with the most famous line of any rock critic of all time. Did you ever imagine that decades later that line would have entered into the lexicon to such a degree?
No, I really didn't. I'd like to be well known for some things in addition to having said that, but that seems to stand out, from 1974. I guess if Bruce's career had been a big flop, my quote about him would have been forgotten by now.
Do people still spoof you with that? Do family members call you in for dinner and say ''I have seen dinner future, and its name is beef stroganoff''?
(laughs) Well, you know where the quote comes from. It's from Lincoln Steffens, the journalist who went to Russia at the revolution and said, ''I have seen the future and it works.'' Now, he was wrong, but I was right.
For more on Magic, read EW.com's interview with producer Brendan O'Brien.
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