Richard Ogden

Richard Ogden was Paul McCartney’s manager from 1987 to 1993.

[Paul] was moving on from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s company, the Really Useful company, and he approached me to say, ‘Would I be interested in taking over from him?’ I loved artist management and I’d wanted to do it again but I don’t think the theatre and Andrew Lloyd Webber [was right for him]. I needed something more rock and roll.

About three weeks later I got a phone call from a guy called John Eastman (Linda McCartney’s brother and Sir Paul’s lawyer). He said to me, ‘I hear you’re interested in going back into artist management, would you be interested in meeting Paul McCartney?’

It was a huge compliment that they’d consider me for that job. The funny thing about it was my boss at Polydor was like, ‘What would you want to do that for? You must be nuts.’

When I started managing Paul, I asked him, ‘What do you want me to do? What’s your idea of what a manager does?’ He was a bit vague about it. I worked out a plan. The first part of the plan was to write with somebody exciting, so that’s why he started writing with Elvis Costello.

The second part of the plan was to put a band together. He said, ‘That sounds great.’ He said, ‘Every Friday I want you to put a band together for me in a rehearsal room in South London.’ I’m having to come up with a drummer, a guitarist and a keyboard player for him to play with. […]

I couldn’t believe my eyes or my ears how good this guy was. I was like, ‘Wow.’ I’d been around musicians at that point for about 15 years. Some top bands. I couldn’t believe how good he was. Just another level than anyone I’d ever seen. Just as a musician, I was amazed.

Richard Odgen – From Liverpool Echo, June 14, 2026

Bigger than The Beatles is what Paul McCartney shouted at me when I was his manager when he came off stage at the Maracana stadium in Rio in April 1990. I met my wife there. She was working for the concert promoter. 

Richard Odgen – From Liverpool Echo, June 14, 2026

It wasn’t all roses and champagne. I can assure you. We fell out. After three years, we fell out. I don’t know why. It’s a mystery to me. I pursue that in the book, trying to understand why it happened. We parted on very bad terms. It was a great shame because I did great work with him. Why it ended the way it did, you’d have to ask him. I’ve never been really sure. I had two, three-year contracts. The second of the three-year contracts ended in May 1993.

You could say that he just didn’t renew my contact. But we had a bit of a to-do. At one point this was the title of my book, but I changed it. I said to him, ‘All you want around you is yes men.’ But he said, ‘I tell you what I don’t want. A no man like you.’ My book for a while was called No Yes Man.

Richard Odgen – From Liverpool Echo, June 14, 2026