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Alanis Morissette Part 2 | Matt Connarton Unleashed

Alanis Morissette, we talked about last week, this really pretty shocking story. And you can find the clip. It's on YouTube. It's at mattconnertonunleashed.com. Alanis Morissette versus tour manager, I believe is what we titled it. Alanis Morissette is suing her former tour manager for, and no, I'm not going to repeat the whole story now. You can go back and listen to it later, or you can look it up. But she is suing her former tour manager for extortion because her former, I almost can't believe I'm saying this, it still just seems so surreal.

Her former tour manager apparently threatened to frame Alanis Morissette for drug trafficking if Alanis Morissette did not offer her former tour manager a 15-year contract at a ridiculous salary and with huge bonuses. A 15-year contract. And the tour manager said, if you don't do this, I am going to frame you for drug trafficking. And as I mentioned last week on the show, I've heard, we've all heard, some crazy stories about people... in the business side of things, screwing over the artists whom they are supposed to represent.

And it's a tale as old as the music industry. You know, I think I referred last week to a couple instances, for example, like Billy Joel, I think it was his own brother-in-law was an accountant or a business manager for Billy Joel and embezzled millions of dollars from him. It happened to sting. It's happened to a lot of people. Yeah. Sometimes it's not even malicious. Sometimes it happens not because someone is trying to steal, but just out of incompetence, too. There's a great book. You know, Kiss is my favorite band, as regular listeners know.

There's a great book called Kiss and Sell, The Making of a Supergroup. It was written by Chris Lent, who worked for an accounting firm called Glicksman Marks in the 80s, or Glickman Marks. And Lent wrote this book, and it talks about a lot of the financial mismanagement that went on behind the scenes with Kiss from probably... what, 81 to 87, 88. And, uh, you know, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons ended up firing the accounting firm that, that they'd been with for a long time. But, um, that's a, that's a wild story.

It's a great book. I recommend it. It's called Kiss and Sell. Uh, C.K. Lent, I think is how he's, he's known in the industry as Chris Lent, but I think he went by C.K. Lent, uh, on the book. And, It's really, even if you're not a Kiss fan, it's just an interesting read. It's a light read, although it does get pretty granular on some things. But anyway, so, you know, sometimes it just happens because people are incompetent. But a lot of times it's someone with malicious intent stealing from the very people they're supposed to be representing.

And... When I was talking last week about the situation with Alanis Morissette and her former tour manager, because that's beyond anything, any kind of weird story like this I've ever heard, where, you know, again, I'll say it again because it just sounds so bizarre. It's hard to believe it's real. But her former tour manager threatened to frame her for drug trafficking if she didn't give her a 15-year contract. with a very high salary. And as I said last week with friends like, you know, with tour managers like that who needs enemies.

But I also referred to, this isn't even the first time that something crazy has happened to Alanis Morissette. But the thing that happened before back in 2017 was a little more, how should I put it? A little more of a traditional somebody on the team screws over the artist they're supposed to be representing type story. shall we say, a little more conventional. Conventional might be the better word because usually these things involve embezzlement. They don't usually involve threatening someone with, you know, trying to blackmail someone with threats of framing them for drug trafficking.

It doesn't usually involve that. It's usually a matter of embezzlement. So Alanis Morissette Apparently in 2017, I looked it up. I was looking for an update on the tour manager situation. Apparently there's no update at the moment. By the way, though, I will just say this. This is something I don't think I mentioned last week. It's interesting to me that it's a civil lawsuit that's been brought against this tour manager. But as far as I'm aware, there's no sort of criminal case pending there. Because what she did, and maybe there will be, maybe she will be charged with something to the store manager, because what she did, not only does it merit certainly a civil lawsuit, but I would think it would merit criminal penalties as well.

Because, I don't know if you all know this, but extortion is illegal. Yeah.

And the store manager, she had her lawyers drafting these letters that went to Alanis Morissette threatening to frame her. It's wild, isn't it? Threatening. You got to go back and listen to the whole clip. I explained the whole thing last week, but these lawyers were drafting these letters threatening to extort, you know, Alanis Morissette and frame her for drug trafficking if she didn't cooperate. Just so. So not only are these things a matter of, again, a civil lawsuit is appropriate, sure, but I think it would also be appropriate if this woman be charged with something, this tour manager, because what she did is clearly illegal and it's clearly fraud.

It is illegal to, I mean, unless I misunderstand, look, I'm not a legal expert of any kind. I don't have a background in law, but I'm pretty sure that it's illegal to threaten to extort someone for something that They didn't even do like, if, if I say to you, you give me this, you do what I want, or I'm going to frame you for a crime. Isn't that illegal? Am I wrong? Maybe I'm wrong. I would think that would be a criminal act, right? So anyway, but apparently no, it's all civil at this point, but so I found something.

So I'm looking for an update. I found this, and this further explains what happened to Alanis Morissette previously back in 2017. This is from Entertainment Weekly, and I didn't get a chance to pre-read this, so I'll be learning a lot along with all of you. It says, Alanis Morissette says a woman's intuition led her to suspect former business manager of stealing from her. The ironic singer shared that she had a suspicion something was off about her books after she switched business managers. So this just went up a couple days ago.

So key points first, and then we'll look at the actual article. It says, Alanis Morissette recalled the moment she realized her former business manager was likely stealing from her, noting her suspicions were a woman's intuition. Jonathan Todd Schwartz was sentenced to six years in federal prison in 2017 for stealing $ 7. 2 million from his clients, including $ 4. 8 million from Alanis Morissette.

Now Morissette is once again in a legal battle with a team member and as she is suing her former tour manager over claims of extortion. Okay, so it says here, Again, this is from Entertainment Weekly. Amid her most recent legal battle, Alanis Morissette is opening up about another time she felt betrayed by a member of her team. Morissette recently recalled the moment she realized that her former business manager was embezzling money from her, certified public accountant Jonathan Todd Schwartz, who previously managed the finances of celebrities like Beyonce and Gwyneth Paltrow.

was sentenced to six years in federal prison in 2017 after pleading guilty to wire fraud and tax fraud charges. He was accused of stealing $ 7. 2 million from his clients, including $ 4. 8 million from Morissette. Something felt weird, the singer said on the Wednesday episode of Call Her Daddy. A woman's intuition, she said. Going off her gut feeling, Morissette who at that point had changed accountants, went to her new business manager with her suspicions. She and her husband, Mario Treadway, had seen some inaccurate calculations when looking at her finances.

She recalled, quote, I just kept going into the new business manager's office over and over and saying, I need more information because something's up and I don't know what. And I kept coming in to the point where, God bless, they said, why are you here in this boardroom? And I said, I still don't have the answer yet, unquote. After she brought some papers with inconsistencies in for her team's review, they reviewed the documents and asked her if she spent a lot of cash. Although the experience was frustrating, Morissette emphasized that she stayed the course and kept showing up to get answers.

When Schwartz was sentenced, Morissette spoke at his hearing and was relieved that the case was presided over by a woman, United District Court Judge Dolly M. Gee. The ironic singer had been concerned that the system had, quote, bias against wealth, bias against women, bias against women knowing. I just looked right at her. It was really actually quite corrective for me, unquote. Following his prison sentence, Schwartz has spoken publicly. about stealing from his clients, apologizing for his actions, and sharing his attempts to make amends as part of his sobriety journey.

In a recent interview on Chatter That Matters podcast, published on August 13, he noted that he has not spoken to Morissette since his sentencing as he believes it would cause her more harm than good.

He said on the podcast, quote, none of those people deserve my behavior and Alanis certainly did not. I mean, she was an incredibly wonderful client and I violated my fiduciary responsibility, unquote. However, he does have a message for the you ought to know artist in the event that the two do ever cross paths. Quote, I would say, may I please speak to you for a moment and hope she says yes. I would cry and tell her how much pain and suffering I caused her. and I'm very sorry, and I hope she can forgive me, but I understand if she cannot, unquote.

And the legal battles continue with Morissette, who recently sued, so this will catch us up on that, who recently sued her ex-tour manager on claims of civil extortion fraud and negligent misrepresentation. She is seeking compensatory damages in excess of $ 75, 000. The Grammy winner accused Karen Uranoff, whom she hired temporarily to work on her 2025 world tour of a calculated blackmail campaign. In a lawsuit obtained by Entertainment Weekly, she alleged that Yurinov threatened to report her for drug trafficking, quote, unless Morissette agrees to employ her as a tour director for 15 years and pay her massive compensation, unquote.

In a statement, Uranov's London-based attorney told EW, Entertainment Weekly, that his client, quote, is only aware that defensive proceedings in the U.S. have been issued against her from contacts by the media. No proceedings have been served on her, nor ever threatened. Ms. Uranov totally rejects any allegation of blackmail, unquote. attorney Mark Lewis continued, quote, rather than being paid off, Ms. Uranoff has sought to have her name cleared and will adduce the evidence, I don't know that word, adduce the evidence that shows the truth about Ms. Morissette's actions.

Ms. Uranoff has no issue with the trial judge determining the truth. We are content to let the court determine what happened rather than trying to concoct a false narrative. So, there you have it. That kind of gets us a little bit caught up on that. So I guess there was a little bit of an update on the story we were talking about last week because, um, her attorneys have spoken, Karen Uranoff's attorneys have spoken. That's the tour manager who allegedly, uh, tried to extort, uh, a 15 year contract out of Alanis Morissette.

So there's a, there's the update for you. But again, it's such, that's the thing, you know, Being a famous musician and a very wealthy and successful musician obviously is a wonderful thing, but it's kind of like that Notorious B.I.G. song, Mo' Money, Mo' Problems. There are problems that come with it, and one of the problems is it seems like everyone tries to steal from you. you can't trust anybody. I mean, it's, it's just amazing. And look, I don't mean to, as, as someone who, uh, is a part of the music industry, uh, I don't mean to disparage anybody, uh, in a broad sense, but I'm just saying these stories are not unusual.

Like I'm sure, I'm sure there's nobody listening to me talk about this stuff and saying to themselves, wow, this is shocking. I didn't know this kind of thing went on, you know, the, no, everybody knows. Um, You know, it could be a business manager. It could be an accountant. In Alanis Morissette's case, it could be a tour manager this recent time. It's very often a record label. There is no shortage of stories of artists suing record labels for unpaid royalties. That happens a lot. There's all kinds of things that go on where, you know, it sounds great, and I'm sure, generally speaking, it is great to be rich and famous.

But... you are vulnerable to people trying to steal from you. Hey, at least when you're broke, nobody can steal from you because you have nothing for them to take, right? So there is that. But money does bring a set of problems that you might not have anticipated. Granted, if you're rich enough, you can weather any of it too. Like I remember when it happened to Sting, And I think in Sting's case, just like with Billy Joel, I think in Sting's case, it was a family member who stole from him, who was on his team and a business manager or an accountant or somebody.

But I remember him saying in an interview something like, you know, it hasn't affected my life at all because even though he took a lot of money, I have so much money. I mean, he didn't put it quite so brashly, but basically he said, I have so much money that I almost... It's no wonder that I didn't notice. And it hasn't impacted my life at all, not having that money. It doesn't make it okay for someone to steal it from me, but it hasn't affected me at all. But it does make sense if you think about it.

Somebody who's super wealthy, if you have $ 100 million... and somebody steals $ 5 million from you, they manage to embezzle $ 5 million, obviously that's a tremendous amount of money. But if you have $ 100 million and someone embezzles $ 5 million, you still have $ 95 million, right? So when somebody like Sting says, well, yeah, this happened to me, but don't cry for me. I was fine. Yeah, he was more than fine. By the way, I'm not excusing that. It doesn't make it okay to steal $ 5 million from somebody just because they have $ 100 million and they're still going to have $ 95 after you steal that $ 5.

I don't want anyone to misunderstand. I'm not justifying that. or shrugging that off. That's terrible. You shouldn't do that. The other thing that I always find a little bit fascinating about this is, like, why do people think they're even going to get away with it? Like, you know, look what happened to the guy. What's his name? Jonathan Todd Schwartz? You know, he probably, he was already the former business manager for Alanis Morissette at this point when he was found out, so he probably thought he was in the clear, but No, he was not.

And he did get caught and ended up serving six years in federal prison for it. So is it worth the risk? Because here's the thing. If you're in his position and you're already managing the finances of all these very wealthy and famous people, you're already probably pretty rich yourself, right? You're already probably earning tremendous sums of money. But people get greedy. They get greedy. They're already making millions of dollars and they say, well, I could even make more millions of dollars if I just steal some of it.

You know, but I don't know. But it's like I said, it's a tale as old as the music industry. There's nothing unusual about any of it. Jeez. What was it? It was at least more than a year ago now. But we were talking on the show about and I don't even know what the status. I don't even know what ended up happening with this. But Limp Bizkit. was suing Universal Music Group, or Fred Durst brought a lawsuit against Universal Music Group because they were not paying... They owed Limp Bizkit, allegedly, millions of dollars in unpaid royalties.

And Limp Bizkit hadn't been paid anything in royalties in... like ever almost. Right. And, um, and when we were talking about that story and you get into the details of it too, part of the, part of the reason record labels get away with it so often is they use a, and I, I learned this term, uh, spaghetti accounting where, where they make everything so complicated and so convoluted and it's done intentionally and that it's hard to even... You have to hire a forensic accountant to even figure out what's going on here to get to the bottom of it and figure out what you're actually owed because they just make it so complicated that it becomes really easy to hide the money, I guess is what I'm saying.

If you're a record label like UMG and you're allegedly... I don't want to get in trouble. Allegedly, but intentionally... hiding money, or you've created a system that makes it easy to hide money from an artist on your label to whom you owe huge sums of money, allegedly. You know, it's all by design. It's not, but it even happens with small independent labels. You know, there's stories of artists, you know, they sign a contract with a label and they think they're owed money and they're not paid it, or they think they're owed money and it turns out they're not owed money because sometimes people sign contracts that aren't necessarily good.

Somebody might get excited. I don't think this happens nearly as much as it used to, but somebody gets offered a record contract, whether it's by a major label or whether it's by a small independent label, and they're like, oh, I'm going to get signed. I'm going to be a signed artist. And they sign the contract without having an entertainment lawyer look at it first. And then they end up in a situation where they're selling a lot of units. They're doing very well. Lots of downloads online. They think they're doing great.

They're making all this money, but they're not getting paid anything. And then it turns out the way their contract is structured, and this is a standard thing, they don't get to make any money until... whatever money the record label spent marketing them has been recouped. That word recoupment, that can be a very ugly word in the music industry because, you know, and there's no, a lot of you, if you're old enough to remember, you might remember TLC when the album Crazy Sexy Cool came out. This was back in the 90s.

That's why I say if you're old enough to remember. Yeah. Crazy Sexy Cool came out. It was hugely successful. Triple Platinum sold over 3 million albums and they were broke. They were broke. Literally. They weren't seeing any of that money because the way the contract was structured, the label had spent all this money on music videos and everything to make sure these songs were big hits, you know, like Creep and Waterfalls. Was Waterfalls on that one or was Waterfalls on the next one? Because I feel like that's their biggest hit.

I love Creep and No Scrubs. Those were my two favorite TLC songs. No Scrubs was definitely on the second one. I can't remember which album Waterfalls is on. But anyway, you know, and the label showed them the contract and said, look, this is why you're broke. This is the deal you signed. And somehow they got something renegotiated or they got a, I think they got a very high power, high profile attorney involved because things can be renegotiated. but this kind of thing goes on this kind of thing goes on you know I mentioned KISS earlier KISS is my favorite band this is even covered in Chris Lentz's book that I referred to earlier KISS and Sell KISS actually had to sue their label over some unpaid royalties back in the early 80s and that actually didn't go that well for KISS in their case they did get something but they didn't get the settlement they were expecting to get out of it but that's in that book I wonder if I can get him on the show.

He'd be a fascinating person to talk to. I don't think he does a lot of interviews, though, Chris Lent.