Bertis Edwin Downs, IV (born July 13 1956) originally provided legal counsel (particularly for initial contracts) and then became both counselor and manager for the rock band R.E.M., taking over from the band's long-term manager Jefferson Holt. He is usually credited simply as the band's "Advisor".
It was R.E.M.'s now-retired drummer, Bill Berry, who instigated Downs' connection with the band. Back in 1978, Athens, Georgia-based Berry felt guilty about still being around rock'n'roll, and decided to step into the "real world". When he told his work colleagues of his plans, John Huie, a rep for the booking company Berry worked for at the time, told him to look up Downs, who he knew from Davidson College but was now studying at the University of Georgia.
Downs attended an R.E.M. show at the 11.11 Koffee Club in Athens on April 19, 1980. By that time, Downs also knew Peter Buck from Wuxtry Records, where he would buy Neil Young records. “I thought they were great,” he said, looking back nineteen years later on VH1's Behind the Music. In fact, he was so impressed by what he saw that he proceeded to tell the band that they would one day be bigger than the Beatles. Downs and the band immediately forged a friendship. “They started asking me questions about copyright issues, trademark issues, the first time they had a recording agreement they needed me to have a look at,” Downs explains. “They knew that I was just out of law school and was just getting started as a lawyer, and I certainly didn’t claim any particular expertise. I learned by the seat of my pants. I worked with them as a volunteer, just helping out, and gradually over the next couple of years it became more like a real job, and, all these years later, that’s kind of still what it is.”
At the band's 2007 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Downs -- often referred to by the band as the fifth member of R.E.M. -- was inadvertently omitted from Michael Stipe's lengthy thank you remarks, an error which Mike Mills quickly corrected between songs. Stipe then added that Downs was supposed to be the last thanked.
Downs graduated cum laude from Davidson College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1978. In 1981, he graduated from the University of Georgia Law School, and he is currently an Adjunct Professor in the UGA Law School teaching Entertainment Law and Music Law.
