Peter Katsis, Smashing Pumpkins and Backstreet Boys Manager, Dead at 69

Peter Katsis, who helped helm the careers to major artists like the Backstreet Boys, Limp Bizkit, and the Smashing Pumpkins, died on Thursday of complications due to congestive heart failure. He was 69.

Mark Beaven, co-founder of Advanced Alternative Media, confirmed the news to Rolling Stone on Thursday. “Sharing the sad news that OG legendary manager, Peter Katsis, passed this AM,” he wrote on social media. “He was a gentleman, knew his music properly, cared, and showed up for what and who mattered. He made things better. He will be much missed.”

At 23, Katsis discovered and managed his first group, the industrial rock band Ministry, according to MUBU TV. In the mid-Eighties, he acted as an agent for young Chicago house artists including Marshall Jefferson and Adonis, organizing some of their first gigs in New York and London. During this time, he remained closely involved with the birth of house music, while working as an A&R executive at Trax Precision Records.

He would later move to Los Angeles and become a partner at entertainment agency the Firm, where he helped guide a slew of artists including the Backstreet Boys, Enrique Iglesias, Korn, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Snoop Dogg, One Direction, Audioslave, Limp Bizkit, and others.

Katsis helped developed key touring strategies that took the Backstreet Boys from arenas to stadiums — in 1999 the launch of the group’s Into the Millennium Tour set a Ticketmaster record at the time by selling out 735,000 tickets in just one hour. The achievement earned Katsis a Pollstar Award for Most Creative Stage Design for the tour run.

Since 2015, Katsis continued his work with the Smashing Pumpkins, Jane’s Addiction, Morrissey, Liz Phair, Bush, 311, Pentatonix, Fever 333, and 5 Seconds of Summer. Under his management, Smashing Pumpkins were returned as arena headliners in 2014 for their The End Times Tour.

In a tribute from Billy Corgan, the frontman said, “I’ll always cherish his intense candor and deep love of great music; which was infectious. And he deserves immense credit for helping to usher in the alternative revolution of the 80’s and 90’s and beyond. He was truly one of a kind. One of us. And Chicago royalty through and through.”

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A 2002 article in Vanity Fair delared Katsis as “The Best Music Manager In The Business, period.”

During an interview with Barrett Media, Katsis was asked what was part of his job that nobody sees but that took the biggest toll. “The key lies in staying true to the music. All your work and creative ideas should stem from the art itself,” Katsis replied. “The other thing that is required is total dedication to pursue the inspiration of both your client and their audience. No one ‘sees you’ inspiring your artist, and it is probably somewhat thankless and best done one-on-one anyway. But you can really get physically and emotionally drained over pursuing these goals for them.”