Rebecca Warfield is your backstage pass to success.
She grew up in a log cabin in Montana knowing she’d work in entertainment. It wasn’t a dream. It was a given. So she studied film and TV at Montana State, broke into award shows with Dick Clark Productions, and worked her way up from talent coordinator to talent producer. Then the writer’s strike happened. Shows got canceled. Someone told her she should be in artist management. She listened.
Nearly two decades later, she’s built a career managing some of music’s biggest names. Her real education came from Larry Rudolph, the man who discovered Britney Spears. She worked on his team during the Circus era, learning what artist management actually looks like when you do it right, how to operate with integrity, and how to make the call that’s best for your client every single time. He taught her strategy, and she’s been applying those lessons ever since.
She went on to manage Steven Tyler for five years while co-managing Aerosmith, launching his solo career and his first ever solo album. She created his charitable organization Janie’s Fund, which raised over seven million dollars in its first three years for vulnerable girls. She’s currently the manager and business partner of Julian Lennon, guiding him through a record deal with BMG for his first commercial album in twenty years while amplifying his work as a photographer, filmmaker, author, and entrepreneur.
In 2012, she founded the Chicane Group, an artist management and consulting firm where she served as CEO. She was also the Global Head of Strategic Partnerships at Looped, helping build the tech company into a preferred virtual venue platform. She operates at the intersection of music and technology, always looking ahead to where the industry is going rather than where it’s been.
What makes Rebecca different is how she moves. She makes decisions fast, stays calm when everyone else is spiraling, reads the room, and trusts her gut. It’s a skill set that comes from experience, from knowing you’re making the right call in the moment when everyone’s depending on you to do exactly that.
She’s navigated bias by putting herself in the right rooms with the right teams, by staying confident in her strengths, and by refusing to let it drag her down. In our chat, Rebecca offers a peek into the strategies and insights that have made her a force in the industry.
Her Agenda: So how did you end up going into this field or getting this job?
Rebecca Warfield: So I grew up in a little log cabin in the middle of the woods in Montana, and even as a little girl, I always knew that I was going to be working in entertainment in some way. I [always knew] that. So I think it was really about finding the path to how to make that happen and how to move to Los Angeles. I just always knew that that’s what I was going to do. So I went to college at Montana State University. I studied film and TV there, and that kind of opened a door for me to start working on award shows when I was still in college. I started with Dick Clark Productions on the Academy of Country Music Awards, and I broke in that way. I didn’t know anyone at all. That story is kind of an interesting story of how that came together, but I wound up working on many, many award shows as a freelance talent coordinator and then talent producer, and then during the writer’s strike one year, all the shows were getting canceled, and someone said to me, ‘You should really be in artist management.’ And so I wound up pursuing that, and making the shift into management, which I’ve been doing for about 13 years now. So it’s kind of just been one thing leading to the next.
Her Agenda: Who or what is your biggest influence in your journey as a manager?
Rebecca Warfield: I think my biggest influence has been the person who really taught me how management was to be carried out, or what the relationship with your clients should look like, and how to operate with integrity on a day to day basis, and do the best thing for your clients, and the strategy around that. The first person that I worked for when I was in management, when I made that shift, was Larry Rudolph, who is very well known for discovering Britney Spears. I wound up working on that team back in the Circus era, which was 2009 to 2012. He really mentored me and taught me artist management on the highest level. So I think that would be probably the most influential person.
Her Agenda: How does working with female and male clients differ?
Rebecca Warfield: It’s so different. It is so, so different. I have always found myself working more so with male clients, and male artists, I think that there is a real complimenting relationship there with sort of the feminine and masculine energy, and creativity, and carrying out the business around executing marketing campaigns and creative projects, and I think with the male-female balance, you can really lean on each other’s natural strengths and abilities to achieve different levels of success. With female clients, there’s just a lot of different things that they have to think about where, even just coming down to glam, and timing, and scheduling, and motherhood, and there’s all of these other things that come into play with female clients versus male clients. So it is very, very different, I would say.
Her Agenda: What’s a skill you need in your job people wouldn’t expect is necessary?
Rebecca Warfield: I think everyone expects that managers should have some level of psychological skill set in well-being and being able to use a higher level of intuition and making decisions very quickly. That would be my best answer is making decisions very quickly, very confidently, and that comes from experience, that comes from knowing that you are making the right decision in that given moment for your client, and everyone is depending on you to make the right decision.
Her Agenda: How do you deal with bias against women?
Rebecca Warfield: You deal with it on a daily basis, you deal with it every time you start with a client, you deal with it with different relationships on the team. I think, first off, the best way to deal with it is putting yourself into the right rooms and the right teams to work with. Be confident in your own strengths and your own abilities and don’t let that drag you down.
Her Agenda: How do you handle things under crisis?
Rebecca Warfield: Don’t react. Be very non reactive, and always be calm. Think about things before you respond. And if you have to respond really quickly, make sure that you have insights from the whole team before you make the decision.
Her Agenda: What’s one aspect of the music industry that you really want to change, and one that you hope never does?
Rebecca Warfield: One aspect of the music industry that I would like to see change would be [that] I would love a simpler process in licensing music and artists’ music being discovered to license for films, TV, movies…it would be great to be able to do that in a simpler manner, than it’s done today. I think it’s a very cumbersome process, and it takes a lot of back and forth with different team members to license music. So I’d love to see that simplified. One thing I hope doesn’t change, obviously, we’re dealing with such a revolution right now, with AI and AI music production and AI artists. There’s no stopping that, but I hope that the connection with humans and that ability to connect and be relatable, I hope that doesn’t lose value. I hope the human creation will keep its value.
Her Agenda: Can you give advice to girls looking into this industry?
Rebecca Warfield: Yes, I would say really spend some time getting to know yourself and what your true, unique skill sets and natural gifts are, and lean into those and don’t look around at what everyone else is doing. Pave your own way, pave your own path, and diversify your strengths into different areas that you really are passionate about and that will lead to your success in your career.
Her Agenda: What are your future goals?
Rebecca Warfield: My future goals would be to continue doing what I’m doing, always finding projects and clients that inspire me and that motivate me. I am excited to expand my team and expand the level of knowledge of my team and just diversify there as well.
[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
