“I had an epiphany”
The Replacements’ first manager Peter Jesperson on taking the wheel for the wayward rockers “They were never built to play the game” PETER JESPERSON
“IDIDN’T know anybody who was more obsessed with music than I was,” says Peter Jesperson, former manager of The Replacements and co-founder of vital American indie label Twin/tone, of his time as a pop-besotted youth growing up in Minneapolis. “It was kind of eerie how songs cast a spell over me. And I was very, very aware that that didn’t happen for everyone.”
Jesperson’s all-encompassing love of music runs through every page of Euphoric Recall, his recently published memoir. Rather than try his hand at songwriting or mastering an instrument, he preferred to stay an evangelist, preaching the rock gospel starting as a teen delivering imported copies of NME to local record shops, and eventually working at one such store, Oar Folkjokeopus. There, he endorsed future classics by Big Star and REM and oversaw in-store appearances by the likes of Blondie and the Ramones. “We did three events with the Ramones, and by the third one, it was so crowded that people were spilling out into the street and down the block, so the police came. That was kind of cool.”
He was also behind the counter one fateful morning in 1980 when a nervous lad named Paul Westerberg handed over a copy of his band’s demo tape. Jesperson was an immediate fan. Having already co-founded Twin/ Tone at that point, he shepherded The Replacements’ first string of records and eventually became the group’s manager.
Whenever the notoriously unruly band tore through town, Jesperson was often the one left cleaning up their mess – quite literally, in the case of a hired RV they ‘decorated’ with stolen paint on the drive between Toronto and Cleveland, breaking all the windows for good measure. Despite Jesperson’s best efforts, the repairs wound up costing $16,000.
He also bore witness to hundreds of live performances, where the band could be at their most incendiary or their most indifferent. “They either went out there and did a ballsto-the-wall thing, or they would throw in what I used to call ‘the Hootenanny set’. They’d do ‘God Damn Job’ country-style, or a Hank Williams song to piss off the punk rockers in the audience. They were never built to play the game. As frustrating as it was, I always thought there was something noble about it.”
Jesperson’s ability to corral The Replacements led to a plum gig serving as a temporary tour manager for REM in the summer of ’83, a stretch that included dates opening for The Police. “It was such a nightand-day difference. I missed the craziness of being with The Replacements. On the other hand, I thought, ‘Touring can really be civilised when you’ve got people to help you with directions and driving!’”
Taking that short-term gig with REM had the unfortunate effect of poisoning his relationship with Westerberg, leading to him being fired in 1986. Devastated, Jesperson started, as he puts it, “a slow, chickenshit attempt to commit suicide by alcohol. It got to the point where, when I woke up, my hands were shaking so bad, I couldn’t light a cigarette without putting a drink or two down my throat.”
After getting sober 32 years ago, Jesperson rededicated himself to music, spending 17 years at New West Records where he worked with Dwight Yoakam and Rickie Lee Jones. These days, he serves in more of a consulting role for up-andcoming artists, advising on their music and their careers and seeking out the same thrill he felt when he bought his first Beatles 45 as a kid. “I had an epiphany. I have epiphanies weekly. Music just does that to me on a regular basis. It always has, and I reckon it always will.”
Euphoric Recall is out now, published by Minnesota Historical Society Press