Phil Taylor remembers Barry Hearn becoming his manager in unique fashion, telling rather than asking the Power about the subject.
The most successful player in the history of darts, Taylor won 16 World Championship titles and dominated the sport for years.
He won his first world title in the British Darts Organisation (BDO) in 1990 and his final one in 2013 in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).
Hearn would become PDC chairman in 2001 and lead the organisation for nearly 20 years in that position, while he also acted as Taylor’s manager.
The Power spoke to Stephen Hendry on his Cue Tips YouTube channel about how Hearn informed him of becoming his manager, in hilarious fashion.
‘I got a phone call, a strange number,’ said Taylor. ‘I went, “Hello?” He went, “Phil. Barry Hearn.
‘I said, “How are you Bazza? Alright, mate?” He said, “Yeah, I’m going to be your manager.” ‘I went, “Are you? When?”
‘He says, “Now.” I said, “What do you mean? I’ve already got a manager.”
‘He said, “No, I’ve give him some money, he’s gone. I’m your manager now.”
‘He asked if I wanted a contract and I said not really. I’ll be dead straight with him. If I did an exhibition for 50 quid down the road I’d tell him that I owe him a tenner.
‘He was good as gold for me. He likes his penny’s worth out of you and he’s a workaholic.’
Taylor illustrated how integral he was to Hearn and the PDC’s success when he explained his playing plans back in 2013.
‘Last year Barry Hearn asked me to do another five years because Sky gave him £20m on the condition I’d stick around,’ Taylor told the BBC in December 2013. ‘So I’ll keep going, if I can.
‘I do feel a responsibility, to keep the sponsorship coming in and the interest up. Every interview, every article in the newspaper is based on me.
‘And it’s a lovely feeling when you’re up there and everyone is cheering you on. It’s something you get used to. It’s like love, ever so weird.’
Hearn picked out managing Taylor as one of his proudest achievements in an epic career in sports promotion, which is still ongoing at 77 years old, along with hitting heights in snooker and boxing.
‘1981 Steve Davis winning the World Snooker Championship, without doubt, changed my life,’ Hearn told Metro.co.uk of his proudest achievement in December 2020.
‘There’s been a few that have come close. [Nigel] Benn vs [Chris] Eubank in 1990, when I had Eubank as my first real world champion and changing my leverage in the boxing world.
‘Managing Phil Taylor in the darts and changing darts from a pub game to a global sport has been one of the most rewarding things in my life and Phil Taylor deserves credit for that because he was a legend.’
