Zen in the Art of Rock ’n’ Roll Management is a compact, poetic meditation on the hidden figures who shaped the loudest culture on earth. Written by veteran manager Michael Browning (who helped launch AC/DC), the book reframes legendary managers as Zen archetypes - The Enforcer, The Trickster, The Quiet Architect, and distills their hard-won wisdom into short, lyrical chapters paired with koans and “Zen lessons.”

Each portrait is a two-to-three-page parable rather than a biography. The result is a book that reads like a field manual for creative leadership; clear, portable, and emotionally resonant.

Across five decades, the cast includes Brian Epstein (The Beatles), Peter Grant (Led Zeppelin), Malcolm McLaren (Sex Pistols), Kit Lambert (The Who), Robert Stigwood (Bee Gees), Paul McGuinness (U2), Irving Azoff (The Eagles), Shep Gordon (Alice Cooper), Doc McGhee (Mötley Crüe), Rod Smallwood (Iron Maiden), Richard Griffiths (One Direction, with Harry Magee & Simon Cowell), Glenn Wheatley (John Farnham), Colonel Tom Parker (Elvis), Stig Anderson (ABBA), Q Prime: Cliff Burnstein with Peter Mensch (Metallica), Elliot Roberts (Neil Young, Joni Mitchell), Tony Defries (David Bowie), Tony Dimitriades (Tom Petty), Pink Floyd’s managers (Andrew King & Peter Jenner to Steve O’Rourke), and others. Browning himself appears only in the Foreword, grounding the book in lived experience without turning it into a memoir.

Physical Book
Soft Cover

Signed by Michael Browning

Alternatively, purchase the e-book for Kindle here and Kobo here.