E to play me 2 new artists for there new company Ruthless Records. I signed them both and JJ Fad and Michel'le sold over a million. Jerry loved music and artists and always fought hard for them He was a great friend and music guy. He will be missed.
Jerry Greenberg
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bob; so glad you wrote about jerry. one of THE examples. i was improved by being in the room with him. i had paws - he had wings very best, o
Andrew Loog Oldham
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I met Jerry back in the Heller-Fishell Agency days with this office on Beverly Drive through Michael Gruber. (Ex-Road manager for the Rolling Stones)
I remember when Irving rented a space in the back of Jerry's office. (1971-ish)
Long ago and far away!
Val Garay
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Thanks for writing about Jerry. He was an amazing Man and I worked with him for years. One thing nobody really knows is what a strong Animal Advocate he was. He wanted all animals to have a happy forever home. I was blessed to be his close friend and to have been able to work with him-the stories were amazing..and so was He. They dont make them like him anymore.. Def larger than life..
He is missed..
Sandy Espinoza
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He was always good to me. Changing of the guard is rough.
James Lee Stanley
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Jerry was good to our pre-record deal group Stepson, booking us as opening act on several concerts in the L.A. area. Those shows gave us enough momentum and enthusiasm/belief to stay together, keep writing and pursuing a record deal. We eventually signed with Windfall Productions/Mountain's managers who paid for recording our LP and they sold it to ABC Records for release.
Bruce Hauser
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There's a whole lot more to the Jerry story Bob. He was a top booking agent with his own agency in the early 70s. He had all the hottest acts. Perhaps his best signing was that young guy named Irving Azoff from Champaign Illinois who he bet on. Gave Irving that job as an agent, and not to some sound trite, the rest is both history and an ongoing tribute to his mentor and friend Jerry.
He prided himself on his relationship with Irving and bearing witness to Irving's exploits. They remained best friends till the end. We knew him in a way that not many others did; we were close to him and really still care about each other. Glad that Jerry, Irving, Gary Stromberg and myself had a wonderful 'boys catch-up dinner' in late April. In a a certain way he viewed us all his kid brothers.
Thanks for making note of his passing Bob.
Bruce Garfield
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I met Jerry in my brief stint as Sr VP of A&R at Virgin records. As a guy who had dj'ed with NWA's 1st 12 inches and later worked for Ice Cubes Street Knowledge I was far from a fan of his. I did of course respect the role he had played in Hip Hop history but being a white guy in the hip hop world I was sensitive of everything that his image was - a white guy ripping off black artists - Also knowing not too believe everything you hear and liking to judge people by my interactions with them, I met with Jerry with an open mind.
At this point Chicano rap was his big new thing. I wasn't into what he was pushing but I was fascinated by the man. We met a few more times and he told
Then I didn't want to sign his bands and didn't return one or two of his phone calls and he flashed on me and wrote me a letter saying how disrespectful I was. I felt bad I hate people not showing respect to those who came before them and I never wanted to upset him like that ( justified or not) but I never ran into him again - we had some small communication on FB but I never got a chance to tell him I was sorry , now I never will. We will never know if Jerry really ripped off Easy E - his dealings with Ice Cube and Dre certainly are questionable and I can't condone that kind of stuff, but the industry has definitely lost a one of a kind in Jerry and they don't make them like him anymore.
Paul Stewart
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I worked - very briefly - as Jerry Heller's receptionist in the mid-'70s and he was a major nut job even then.
During my third week of working for him he returned to the office angry after a business lunch didn't go his way. He paced the office, screaming and cursing at everyone, calling us foul names. He took his golf club and smashed everything on my desk - coffee mug, rolodex, just knocked everything across the room.
When he finally went to his office and slammed the door I grabbed my purse and high-tailed it out of there, never to return.
I didn't even had the nerve to ask for that final week's pay.
Rest in peace, Jerry Heller.
Debra Young Krizman
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It was Eazy's label, and Heller's know how.
Dre walked away from Jerry, Easy and Ruthless to team up with Snoop, 2Pac and Death Row. Suge took control and robbed everything from everyone, and Dre walked away from Death Row with nothing.
Jerry Heller was the best thing that ever happened to Dre and Cube.
Brett S.G.
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He was a good friend of mine.
Thanks for your kind words.
Nick Masters
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Like Trump telling Tony Schwartz, when he asked him how many rooms were really in his Trump Tower apartment, "as many as they'll print."
David Basskin
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Bob:
A flood of stories overcame me when I was informed of Jerry?s death. Some good, most not, all great. No one can ever dispute that he 'got' NWA before anyone else. Everybody passed on them, lucky for me.
Jerry REALLY was a ruthless fucker. He ran his business by the old school Rock?n Roll rules and was dead set in his ways. Cube and Dre, young, new generation, and street smart, weren?t buyin? it. Eazy was, because Jerry told him that?s how the business works, and back in the early days of Rock n Roll, that?s EXACTLY how it worked. Times had changed, Heller hadn?t, this is how everybody ran the show. Besides, I was sending Ruthless Records multi-million dollar checks, so he must have been doing something right. Right?
Had Jerry been less old school, and more 'let?s sit down and figure out how to make this work?, there might have been more NWA records, but by then the money and fame had already attracted the wrong influences. As it is, it all worked out for most of us.
In his book, he accused ME of being the influence who broke up the group. Jerry Heller will forever be the guy who discovered Eazy E and NWA, but he?ll also forever be ?the Jew who broke up the crew?.
The music world has lost a true visionary who saw things in a way that most will never understand even in success. Jerry Heller will be mourned and missed, and can again sit with Eazy and reminisce. They never got the chance to do that in life.
Best,
Bryan Turner
P.S. I loved your line about about being uptight whenever Heller
called, so true.
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Very sad to hear of this. I first met Jerry in 1988 while a young promotion executive at Atlantic Records' sub label, Atco Records. He quickly became a friend and mentor and I spent a very memorable vacation with him in Key West Florida Christmas break 1988 where I learned more about the music business than I ever had up to that time. Jerry at the time was overseeing Ruthless Records, a hard core LA based street label that was just starting to mainstream a new music form, "hip hop". We had success right out of the gate with a project that Atco President Jerry Greenberg brought in from Heller, JJ Fad ("Supersonic"). Jerry and Ruthless principle Erik EAZY E Wright would regularly come up and visit us in the offices. EAZY was smallish in physical stature but made up for it with a VERY intimidating inner personality even though he appeared to be quite shy outside of his comfort zones. During our vacation together (which wasn't planned, we literally ran into each other on the beach. Remember I was just starting out in the music business and a guy like Jerry would generally just give me a quick hello when he'd visit the offices generally to meet with Atco leaders like Margo Knesz, Michael Prince and Bruce Tenenbaum) Jerry was SO EXCITED about Eazys new group that he promised was going to absolutely change the world! He was fond of saying that soon every teen in America would soon know what the initials NWA stood for! As a young 25 year old music executive I had started to become immune to hype but there was something about Jerrys passion that definitely reached me. After our trip he sent me an advance cassette (remember those?) of "Straight Outta Compton" and I remember being floored by the raw energy and power that screamed out of my speakers back in the staid Time Warner/Atlantic Records/Atco offices. Shortly thereafter we ran into each other in LA for dinner and he was sad to tell me that the original label that he had made a deal with for NWA was now backing out as the record was too hot for them (swearing, anti-police, etc.) but he was dedicated to the band and was confident that he was going to get this music out to the world.
I must admit that I haven't seen the Universal film "Straight Out Of Compton" as I heard the film was not kind to my old friend. (My 17 year old enjoyed it on DVD though). I won't get into what his relationship was with the rest of the band all I know was that Jerry very much was enamored with Eazy and was extremely protective of him as any good manager such as a Peter Grant, Brian Epstein was of his charges. If the other members of NWA had issues with him causing the breakup I wouldn't find that unusual as Jerry was first and foremost protective of Eazy and what they had created together. He'd tell me stories of having to go to banks with Eazy and fight with bank managers who didn't believe who Eazy was and would deny him access to his accounts, being in the office early in the morning and answering the phones from random callers saying they'd wanted to make a record with Eazy and that "money was no object". Jerry would laugh and say "money is ALWAYS an object! Come to the office studios this afternoon with fifty thousand dollars in a paper bag and we will make that record with you". He would laugh and say they never came!
Jerry was definitely "old school" and I am sure he followed standard music and artist manager accounting practices at the time that didn't go over well with the other members of the band. I think Jerry was struggling at the end of his life and he didn't have expensive tastes from what I recall so its arguable as to how much he made with the band and Ruthless. Whatever it was, it wasn't enough considering the genre he helped found. You could closely compare him with rock n roll legend Alan Freed who helped create the genre but died in ignominy and penniless.
Aside from Jerrys work with Eazy and Ruthless he was the first agent/promoter to bring to the US a college psychedelic band from London for their first US tour, Pink Floyd. Promoted the Average White Band, worked with John Fogerty, had agent battles with David Geffen and more.
Final funny story, while on that vacation in Key West Jerry and I went to visit Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville Restaurant (then the first and ONLY location) where we ran into Jimmy at a table. There was a big planned New Year's Eve party that night with Jimmy, Steve Inwood and more. Jerry was disappointed that Jimmy didn't invite us to attend (Jerry and Jimmy had a long time relationship) so when we left he immediately went back to his hotel (this is pre cell phone days) and somehow got ahold of Irving Azoff during Christmas break and got us in to a party and performance that is still talked about today.
Sail on Jerry.....will miss you old friend!
Warmest Regards,
Frederic Traube
Pro Sports Music Marketing LLC
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Jerry Heller...
A long time before the rap wars or any of the subsequent madness Jerry Heller and his partner Don Fischel ran a boutique booking agency Heller-Fischel Agency in Los Angeles. This was way back in 1968, the old school days to me. I was 22 and getting my club The Rockville off the ground in Toronto. We were one of a very few clubs trying to bring name artists to our city on a weekly basis. Jerry took my first phone call and did me one better. He invited me down to LA to have lunch. I sprung for the plane and he sprung for lunch...a great feast at Hamburger Hamlet which back then was his fav and right down the street at the head of the Strip. He seemed quite surprised at my age and youth, (I looked about 16 at the time) but he spoke to me and we conversed as if I was every bit as entitled to his wisdom and guidance as Bill Graham might have been, (had Bill ever needed any). I never forgot how he made me feel a real part of the industry, which in Canada was hard to imagine back then, and how he never failed to call me when he had a hot act or a cautionary tale about one that was bombing and being pitched as the next big thing by someone. We remained friends and over the years I watched as he went on to break new ground, create entire genres and guide the careers of artists, many of whom will surely acknowledge that without him they may never have gotten their start and been launched with such brilliance and insight as that which Jerry possessed and gifted to them.
I remember sitting with he and Shel Safran, another of Jerry's dear friends, in Las Vegas after Shel and I had just launched Boxingland.com with Rory Holloway. Jerry said he didn't understand the whole internet thing yet but was interested. I guess he was a bit distracted that night as he had just settled his long legal tangles with Ruthless/DeathRow and been awarded just under thirty mill. Yes he was a happy camper and spared no expense in taking his two buddies out for the best of the best. I still have the photo from the girl and her big camera.
Aside from business Jerry was a friend when and where he could, despite the fact that sometimes those friendships went the way of business and never returned. He was also a showman, an impresario if you will, and I hope he is remembered for those qualities first, and that the vile and selfish innuendos slung at him by lesser men will be overshadowed at the times he is recalled.
John Brower
Toronto
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Jerry Heller...
I met him in a pool in Miami. He was surrounded by beautiful women and I was like, how is this old guy so engrossed in attention? Well, after some further investigation and some eavesdropping on my part, I came to learn that the guy I was about to meet was a LEGEND in the music business. He discovered CCR, he brought Elton John and Pink Floyd to the US to do their first shows in the States. He managed Marvin Gaye. He managed Otis Redding. The whole NWA thing. The list goes on (google this man). In that first meeting, shirtless in Miami at the pool eating french fries (his fav) wearing a hat LL Cool J had given to him for his birthday, we began to talk. Hours and hours. I kept sneaking away to call the band who was in NYC doing studio work exclaiming my excitement as if I had struck gold. "Get him to manage us!" they cried. And I did. Jerry Heller blew my mind telling me about an industry I wanted so badly to be a part of. He told me about The Band, and the time he stopped Richard Manuel from strangling someone with a piano wire. He told me about Charles Manson and how he always thought he was a shady weirdo, and his songs weren't that good. He told me about the hundreds of times he saw Jimi Hendrix perform and how not a single soul could play like that. He told me about so many incredible moments in history that he was a part of. I fell in love with his spirit and knew, that I could not leave Miami without him hearing some of my music. He listened to "Call me Up" and called me the next week saying he wanted to be my manager and show the world what 28 North was made of. A blessing from a man like that was all we needed to move out of our house in Pittsburgh, and drive the tour bus across the US to live near him in LA. Living out there was interesting to say the least. Jerry invited us into his home daily for years to get us out of the tour bus. We would go from living in a trailer park at 8am to hanging at his mansion in Calabasas by 10 am (beating the traffic) until it was time for us to go to the gig. If we didnt have a concert, he had a radio set up for us. If it wasn't radio, it was a dinner with some producers, action as he called it. We always found action together. And I don't think it was the NWA type of action, we didnt get the FBI involved, but we showed him a good time and he showed us a good time and we all knew we were LIVING. He loved the whole band, but I would always ride shotgun in his Jaguar and they would follow us in the van. He and I just understood each other. I felt like i knew him my whole life because we both had so many interests and loved talking about the beauty in the minutia. He came to every show we had in LA, and he always brought a crew. Safe to say so many of the friends I have in this world are directly due to him introducing us. He showed me so much in this world. I'd call him at any hour of the day, and after a grizzled hello, he was all business, ready to talk shop with me. The negative things people have said about Jerry are absolutely ridiculous to me, and I've said it for years. If he were here, which dammit I wish he was, he'd call me and thank me for this post because he appreciated so much his ambassadors to the haters, those who stood up for him. Jerry was charming, brilliant, sometimes quirky, sometimes inappropriate, FUNNY AS HELL, and he stood by me until his dying day. I will forever be better because of our friendship, and his belief in me, well, that's where my belief in me really began. I miss you already boss.
Michael H. Lindner
28 North
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