ABC/Lou RoccoTommy Mottola, the record executive who signed Mariah Carey to Columbia in the late ’80s and married her in 1993, says Mariah needs “more seasoned and respected professionals” to steer her career following her New Year’s Rockin’ Eve performance debacle.
In a letter sent to the New York Post‘s Page Six, the former Sony Music chief calls Mariah “arguably the greatest pop voice to come along in the last three decades,” but says, “My only advice is that she should hire more seasoned and respected professionals to surround her and help her with her career!”
Although he dismisses the technical snafu that married Mariah’s New Year’s Eve performance as something that “could’ve happened to anyone,” he slams career decisions like launching the Mariah’s World reality show.
“I don’t get it,” Mottola writes, “That does absolutely nothing for her integrity, her credibility, or her massive talent!!” He also claims such decisions wouldn’t have been made on his watch. “None of these issues or problems ever existed with her in her early days at Sony for the first 10 years,” he writes. “Where absolutely meticulous and methodical attention was paid to every single detail and nuance that went on into her career!”
Meanwhile, one of the professionals currently on Team Mariah, manager Stella Bulochnikov, tells the paper, “Really? Tommy is a relic. Did he give you that statement from a rotary phone?”
Mottola, now 67, and Mariah divorced in 1997. He is currently co-owner of Casablanca Records and producer of the musical adaptation of A Bronx Tale.
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