That time I asked Bruce Fairbairn how having Bruce Allen as his manager made him more successful

By Steve Newton

Back in 1998 I interviewed Vancouver record-producer Bruce Fairbairn, who at the time was one of the most in-demand knob-twiddlers in the business.

He’d produced multi-platinum discs for the likes of Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, and AC/DC, and no doubt made himself very wealthy in the process.

Some of that financial windfall may have been the result of having big-time Vancouver music mogul Bruce Allen as his manager.

At one point during the interview–which took place at Armoury Studios, the lavish facility Fairbairn had bought from his local songwriter-friend Jim Vallance four years earlier–I asked him how having Allen manage his affairs had made him more successful.

Have a listen (you’ll need to crank the volume a bit, as the acoustics at Armoury Studio weren’t designed for recording voices on a cheap portable cassette player):