Britney Spears’ Longtime Manager Larry Rudolph Resigns, But Leaves Door Open For The Future

Larry Rudolph and Britney Spears
Kevin Mazur / WireImage –
Britney Spears and Larry Rudolph in the audience at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards at Paramount Pictures Studios on September 7, 2008 in Los Angeles.

Larry Rudolph, who has managed Britney Spears for the last 25 years, submitted a letter of resignation from those duties to the conservators of her estate, saying he believes the move is in her best interest given indications she intends to retire.

Though no official word of Spears’ retirement is forthcoming, the Princess of Pop hasn’t performed in two and a half years since announcing she would take a “hiatus” from her “Britney Domination” Las Vegas residency. Since then, the singer has been embroiled in a dispute over the status of the conservatorship of her estate, which has been in the hands of her father, Jamie. Spears termed the conservatorship, which has been court ordered since 2008, “abusive” in a June 23 hearing in Los Angeles. 
While Rudolph, who joined Maverick Management in 2014, steps away from managing Spears during a period of turmoil for the pop superstar, he makes it clear that he remains available to her should she request his services in the future.
Rudolph addressed the letter to co-conservators James P. Spears and his attorney, Jodi Montgomery. Pollstar has confirmed the contents of the letter with Rudolph, who declined to speak further on the subject.
James P. Spears and Jodi Montgomery, as co-executors of the estate of Britney Spears:

It has been over 2 1/2 years since Britney and I last communicated, at which time she informed me she wanted to take an indefinite work hiatus. Earlier today, I became aware that Britney had been voicing her intention to officially retire.

As you know, I have never been a part of the conservatorship nor its operations, so I am not privy to many of these details. I was originally hired at Britney’s request to help manage and assist her with her career. And as her manager, I believe it is in Britney’s best interest for me to resign from her team as my professional services are no longer needed.

Please accept this letter as my formal resignation.

I will always be incredibly proud of what we accomplished over our 25 years together. I wish Britney all the health and happiness in the world, and I’ll be there for her if she ever needs me again, just as I always have been.

Larry Rudolph
It surely was a difficult decision; Rudolph first met Spears when she was 13 years old and a star on the Disney’s “The Mickey Mouse Club,” along with superstars-to-be Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilara. He helped her secure her first record deal two years later and guided her career as the first of a crop of young, new solo pop stars. Rudolph managed Spears from 1998 to 2004 and again from 2008 until his resignation.
“She walked into my office with her family when she was 13 years old,” Rudolph told Pollstar in 2018, just before the launch of “Britney Domination.” 
“They played me some VHS tapes, which shows how long ago it was, of her on the new ‘Mickey Mouse Club.’ I didn’t know really anything about it – I’m not talking about Annette Funicello. I thought she had a lot of talent and showed a lot of promise, but she was 13 years old. And if you go back and look at the charts from 1995, you’ll see they were dominated at the time by urban pop. There weren’t any young white females on the pop charts. That had kind of ended a few years earlier with Tiffany.”
A few years later, according to Rudolph, with a pop surge on the charts from the likes of Spice Girls, Hanson and Backstreet Boys in full swing, he felt “the door was wide open for a solo artist.” Rudolph, then a lawyer, brought Spears, who was now 15, to New York with a demo of her singing over a Whitney Houston track along with a leftover Toni Braxton song. He pitched her to the heads of four different record labels, three of which passed, but Jive Records, which was run by Clive Calder – who Rudolph calls “the singular most successful human being who’s ever lived in the music business” and a “business genius” – said yes.
Rudolph continues to manage a healthy roster of artists including Aerosmith, Steven Tyler, Jessie J, DJ Pauly D, Kim Petras, Loren Gray and more. He also serves as an advisor to Pitbull.