Putting Socks On The Octopus

In the summer of l996, I was contracted to manage the European Tour for Coolio, a popular Rap artist who had just won a Grammy and an Oscar nomination. It turned out to be perhaps the most exigent and bizarre assignment of my 32 year career to date. Now, in the following pages, the reader is taken behind the scenes where celebrity maleficence and grotesque foolishness are a daily occurrence. Although rap music had been around for many years, this was the first time it was mainstreamed to the unsuspecting children of Europe. On this tour as a seasoned and cynical veteran of concert touring, who figured he’s seen everything, I realized I had not. But after five weeks on the road with Coolio’s “Gangstas Paradise Tour”, I decided I had seen enough.