Meet Cliff Burnstein, the newest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominating Committee member. [Although the Rock Hall doesn’t publicize the members of the committee, Tom Lane recently learned from Dave Marsh that Burnstein had become a member this year.]

A few facts about Mr. Burnstein:

• He was born in ~1948.
• He co-founded Q Prime Management with Peter Mensch in 1982.
• He is most well known for being the longtime manager of Metallica. [Lars Ulrich tells the story of meeting Cliff Burnstein here.]
• One of his current clients are the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who happen to be a 2012 nominee. [Don’t forget it was Flea who inducted Metallica in 2009.]
• Others on his current client list include Muse, Silversun Pickups, The Mars Volta, Gillian Welch, Josh Groban and Cage The Elephant.
• He used to manage snubbed artists Rush and Def Leppard (among many others).
• Q Prime is associated with Mom + Pop Records, an independent label with artists such as Metric, Neon Indian and Sleigh Bells.
• He is a generous philanthropist.
• According to Dave Marsh, Burnstein nominated The Spinners for the Rock Hall this year.
• He is allegedly being impersonated by criminals who scam female escorts out of thousands of dollars (?!!?!)

Cliff Burnstein is unquestionably qualified to help shape the Rock Hall and he should be a positive addition to the Nominating Committee.