ROCKOBIT: Art Collins

The death has been announced of Art Collins, for the last twenty years the man behind Iggy Pop's career.

Collins started out doing promotional work for Atlantic Records in 1975. A move to Rolling Stones Records provided his career with enough impetus for him to become president until a 1982 path-change led him to management. Besides overseeing Iggy's late-period blossoming from edgy body-slasher to Queen Mother of Punk, Collins roster included Joe Jackson, Marianne Faithfull and Marshall Crenshaw.

Iggy remembered his manager in an official statement:

"Art was a big sweetheart. He was a marshmallow. This very down-to-earth guy was a kind of tonic for everyone he met, and he really loved rock and roll. He was immensely proud of his tenure with Atlantic Records, his work with the Rolling Stones, and I hope with me as well. He was my best friend."

In May 2000, Art and guitartist Pete Marshall came to the resude of a Warsaw-New York flight when a woman started to threaten passengers and stewards with a bottle - Marshall and Collins struggled against her and eventually restrained her in a backseat with the demonstration seatbelts.

Collins - who was 52 - died at his home in Pine Bush, New York. The cause of death is unknown, waiting on an autopsy report.

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