Eric Greif

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Eric Greif is a lawyer and entertainment personality known first for a management career within the heavy metal musical genre in the 1980s and later within the legal profession. Greif worked with Mötley Crüe in their early career and managed Chuck Schuldiner, inspiration behind the death metal sub-genre, and his band Death. Both relationships ended in well-known lawsuits. In recent years Greif co-wrote a text on offshore taxation, Choosing an Offshore: Cybertax in the New Millennium, with lawyer Michael Grosh. Nephew of American author and publisher Martin Greif.

[edit] Entertainment career

various papers related to Greif's organization of '82 Mötley Crüe tour of Canada

1970s teen columnist with Southam Newspapers Calgary Herald daily, at 18 Greif studied recording and production at Hollywood's University of Sound Arts with mentor Ron Fair. At 19, Greif was the assistant manager of Los Angeles hard rock act Mötley Crüe, being introduced to band manager Allan Coffman by friend and musician Greg Leon, who had formerly played with drummer Tommy Lee. Greif organized the group's first international tour, the infamous Canadian jaunt of June 1982, which included their arrest and subsequent release at Edmonton International Airport for wearing dangerous spiked stage gear on the plane and on attempting to clear Canadian Immigration and Customs, as well as orchestrating a spurious bomb threat against the band at a gig that made national headlines in a PR coup. When the band left Coffman the following year for new management, on the cusp of the band's international fame and success, Greif sued all parties (Coffman, band members, new manager Doc McGhee, and label Elektra Records) in Los Angeles Superior Court and the suit lasted several years. Interestingly, Greif later managed Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx's former band London towards the end of their career in the early 1990s.

Eric Greif is at right, pictured with engineer Mike Frazier

In the mid-80s, Greif used his contacts Alan Niven and Steve Brownlee at Greenworld Distribution, who had been responsible for the marketing of the first Mötley Crüe album Too Fast For Love, to release several American heavy metal acts that he was both producing and managing, including Kansas City's Vyper. Greenworld's bankruptcy in 1986, which aborted at least a half dozen of Greif's album projects, was one of several controversial clouds that followed Greif's career, magnified by his mercurial personality, according to contemporary accounts; Swiss heavy metal website schwermetall.ch refers to Greif's claim that in the late 1980s he was an "egomaniacal idiot".

By 1988, Greif was found within the heavier death metal sub-genre, co-promoting the annual Milwaukee Metalfest, arranging concert tours of Mexico by international genre acts, and managing sub-genre founder Chuck Schuldiner and his Florida act Death. Schuldiner fired Greif after working together over the course of two albums, but re-hired him as an out of court settlement after Greif took legal action. Two years later, the pair parted ways again amid allegations of breach of contract against Greif, resulting in suit and counter-suit settled mutually in 1994. Schuldiner, countering a journalist referring to Chuck's up & down "gruesome collaboration" with Greif, stated "it was stupid just fighting all the time, taking each other to court". During this period, Greif produced several minor releases within the genre, including Morbid Saint, Invocator, Num Skull, Viogression, Acrophet and Jackal. Despite submersion professionally in heavy music, Greif cited his favorite band as The Church and appeared in metal magazine photos wearing Morrissey and The Smiths t-shirts.

More recent work within the industry has been on the legal side, focusing on contracts, licensing and IP, as well as assisting the careers of Los Angeles band Æon Spoke, featuring former Death guitarist Paul Masvidal, and London's Sugarmonkey.

Eric Greif is to the left of center, front row. Others in the photos include members of the metal bands Death (US), Pestillence (Netherlands), Cannibal Corpse (US), Napalm Death (UK) and Dismember (Sweden)

[edit] Legal career

Eric Greif's book, "Choosing an Offshore: Cybertax in the New Millennium"

Greif went to university in the 90s and became a lawyer, continuing to dabble in entertainment ventures but leaning towards academics. Co-wrote Choosing an Offshore: Cybertax in the New Millennium with fellow U of C Faculty of Law alumnus Michael Grosh, a book considered a standard within the area of international offshore taxation. Links indicate Greif did directed study with human rights legal advocate Prof Kathleen Mahoney and a tutorial fellowship with international humanitarian law expert Prof Peter Rowe.

Based in Britain, Greif also continued involvement in the restorative justice movement within criminal justice, and in 2003 was sent by the UK Government to train the Czech Probation Service in victim-offender mediation, as part of the EU PHARE expansion project. Links illustrate international involvement in that field.

A juvenile insulin-dependent diabetic, Greif fought blindness and kidney failure and had multiple surgeries. Opposed to the abuse of hard drugs, he was also known for joking about his own diabetic needle use.