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Irving Azoff
For music business manager Irving Azoff, it all started booking bands in high school in Danville, Illinois. He went on to steer the careers of The Eagles, Dan Fogelberg and others. These days, Azoff now controls the music legacies of Linda Ronstadt, David Crosby and the Beach Boys with his new venture Iconic Artists Group.
We have to go back to his high school days in Danville, Illinois to see how it all started.
In the early ‘60s, the Danville area had a strong industrial manufacturing base. As just west of there is Champaign-Urbana and the Chanute Air Force base in Rantoul, the area offered plenty of opportunities for live music.
A bunch of the Danville High School students started a band called the Shades of Blue. A schoolmate of theirs named Irving Azoff suggested he could help them booking dates in the area. And that was the beginning.
“He was a dynamo,” band member Mike Supp said in an interview in the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette. And the band started making hundreds of dollars a week (in those days, a new car cost less than $2,000, so that was a lot of money).
Upon graduation, Azoff enrolled at the University of Illinois and started booking bands, forming a partnership with Bob Nutt in the creation of Blytham, Ltd.
As Champaign had a vibrant music scene at the time, the agency soon built up a strong roster of acts – REO Speedwagon, One Eyed Jacks, Head East and Slink Rand; just to name a few. That agency became one of the preeminent booking agencies in the Midwest.
Azoff dropped out of college after his freshman year recognizing the life path he was headed on. Booking was just part of it. Azoff knew there was also a need to have some control over the bands to assure their reliability and started managing acts.
First was REO Speedwagon. The most significant addition was Dan Fogelberg. “He came to my office and played for me with just his guitar,” Azoff said in the News-Gazette story. An instant bond, Azoff took Fogelberg, along with some demo tracks he had recorded at Golden Voice Studios in South Pekin, and headed to California hawking Fogelberg’s material to every label out there. He succeeded, inking a deal with Columbia Records, with the debut album Home Free released in 1972.
Remember, we mentioned Azoff’s realization of “control.” That held true, even when working with a major record label. By 1974, Azoff had created Full Moon Records, initially as a subsidiary spin-off of Columbia/Epic. Controlling the music, even when there were major changes at Columbia, Azoff was able to move distribution to Warner Bros. in 1980.
By 1983, Azoff was name chairman of the MCA Entertainment Group. At the time, it was another major label that was floundering near bankruptcy. Within a year, he turned the label around. 1989 saw Azoff leave there to start up his own label Giant Records.
And Azoff continued climbing up the entertainment mogul’s ladder. Again, remember “control.” Azoff started controlling not just the bands, but the concerts. He became chairman of Ticketmaster, the computerized ticket selling agency. He was influential in securing that company’s merger with Live Nation, one of the principal concert promoters in the country. He helped create Global Music Rights, an organization protecting and managing the performance rights and intellectual property of artists. He played a key role in the Music Modernization Act, protecting artists music and residuals from the new consumer listening formats such as streaming radio and internet downloads. He’s produced the films Urban Cowboy and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, among others. In 2013, he became chairman of the MSG Group, controlling performance venues including Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Then he returned to artist management as his focus with Full Stop Management. “I keep going back to (management) because that’s really the power source,” he said in a Billboard Live Summit. “The power all flows from the artists.” Along with his son Jeffery, headed up Full Stop Management, the company handling acts including the Eagles, Bon Jovi, Nine Inch Nails, Kanye West, Gwen Stefani, Meghan Trainor and others. He’s now turned the reins over to Jeff.
As the industry continues to change, Azoff seems to have his finger on the pulse and is always one step ahead of the game. He’s teamed with Oliver Chastan in the formation of a new venture, Iconic Artists Group, an organization with the purpose, “as an entertainment brand management company dedicated to the acquisition, development and management of the intellectual property of iconic artists, creators and their legacy.” The company’s initial acquisitions include the recorded assets of the Beach Boys, David Crosby and Linda Rondstadt.
In a press release with the recent purchase of the Ronstadt catalog Azoff commented, “In 1972 when I arrived in Los Angeles to pursue my dreams in the music business, as fate would have it, I soon thereafter became best friends and manager to Glenn Frey and Don Henley. Without Linda Ronstadt and John Boylan, there would have never been an Eagles. We were friends and family and grew up together, and what a ride it has been. The countless tours together with the Eagles and Linda and their collaborations are the backbone of the history of Southern California music. For Linda and John to entrust us with the honor of furthering her work is one of the most satisfying moments of my career. Linda’s talent is unparalleled, but her courage and commitment to make important music of many genres is her legacy. We will preserve that legacy for her at all costs.”
In the description of the new venture, “Iconic Artists Group is dedicated to acquiring, and actively managing a portfolio of select artists’ assets and preserving the important legacy of these music icons. Iconic fills a void in the music business for legendary artists: a trusted guardian for an artist’s intellectual property with the expertise to maximize the value of assets and maintain their brand. Iconic provides an alternative for artists who value legacy preservation; Iconic is dedicated to exposing the artistry and music of their artists to new generations. Iconic works in direct partnership with artists, their managers, record labels and publishers, and legal heirs to provide a solution that unites the music with the brand to efficiently drive value in both.”
With all those roles, Billboard magazine has named him as the most powerful person in the music industry. And in 2020 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Still, it all goes back to Danville, Illinois. Mike Supp from Shades of Blue saw Azoff a few years back when the Eagles came to Peoria. As reported in the News-Gazette story, Azoff sent him tickets and backstage passes. During their meeting, Supp asked, “Irving, how come you’re being so nice to us?” Supp said Azoff poked a finger in his chest and said, “’Cause you guys made me a … lot of money.”
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