The Nix

goo.gl/x8xyiY

This book is fantastic.

The Kindle rekindled my interest in reading books. Before that I was purely a magazine guy, I needed the immediacy, the truth, books were a backwater I'd abandoned way back when.

And now readers have their knickers in a twist.

That's exactly the point. These holier-than-thou supposed intellectuals crippled the e-book. By saying paper was better. By overcharging for digital editions. Now if there's no printing and no shipping, never mind returns, why should an e-book cost as much as a physical book, or close to it, which is now the case? Used to be they were a bargain, every one under ten bucks, Amazon ate the difference, paid pure wholesale to build a business. Why is it we hate that which we love? Like Wal-Mart. No, don't get me wrong, I never frequent the joint. But I do know people love the low prices. If Main Street sold goods for the same amount it would survive. We live in a hypocritical culture. It's those who love cheap electronics who deplore the disappearance of manufacturing in America. The ones who want to halt climate change fly around in private jets. And vinyl is trotted out as the future when the truth is it doesn't make more money than YouTube, but in today's world facts are irrelevant, emotion is everything. So why is our art absent emotion?

The Kindle got me reading books. I've purchased a triple digit number. But I'm part of the problem, not the solution, go figure.

So now I read the book reviews. I triangulate. Try to see what's worth reading. And I'd delineate my criteria, but the truth is it's a gut reaction, I know when a book is for me.

And the reviews are usually worthless. Sans analysis, they just repeat the plot. Which eviscerates the need to read the damn book. So, if something seems appealing, I stop reading, and download the sample chapter. Assuming the book is available. Which usually it's not. Hype always comes in advance. And the urge to check something out evaporates, we're on to something new in our fast-happening, ever-changing culture.

But this is where the usual suspects react again. I can PRE-ORDER! But I don't know if I want to. What sounds good is often not good. I buy and read about a tenth of what I download the sample chapter of. Because most people are bad writers. They think writing is intellectual, when the truth is it's all about soul.

So, the best character in "The Nix" is Periwinkle, a former publisher who gave Samuel his book deal, his business card now says "Interest Maker."

"'I'm in the manufacturing business now,' Periwinkle says, 'I build things.'"

Sound familiar? In an era where everybody's a brand, selling tchotchkes at their pop-up shop?

"'...Mostly I build interest. Attention. Allure. A book is just packaging, just a container. This is what I've realized. The mistake people in the book business make is they think their job is to build good containers. Saying you're in the book business is like a winemaker saying he's in the bottle business. What we're actually building is interest. A book is simply one shape that interest can take when we scale and leverage it.'"

Voila! Truth! Which is nowhere in the "New York Times" but is known to me, it's the view I've been preaching. Kind of like the death of Apple. Have you noticed all the stories trashing Apple since the launch of the iPhone 7? I've been saying the company is toast for years. And every time I write this my inbox fills up with venom. Because you just don't challenge the status quo. Because we're selling optimism. All sunniness and blue skies as the culture tanks.

"'What's the big life lesson in Molly Miller's book?'"

"'Simple: Life Is Great!'"

Hear me ROAR! Isn't that what Katy Perry sang, despite the song being about a breakup? It's a sports anthem, a feel-good ditty, inspiring! Whatever happened to the seamy underbelly, the defeatism and insecurity that art once illuminated?

"'Well, that's pretty easy for her to say. Born into money. Prep schools on the Upper East Side. Billionaire at twenty-two.'"

"'You'd be amazed at the facts people are willing to set aside to believe that life is, indeed, great.'"

Kinda like believing in Gigi Hadid. We don't care if you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, as long as you win. Can you say "Donald Trump"?

Now if I hid behind a pseudonym, if I fictionalized this, you could accept it. But the messenger becomes the enemy so most of America is unwilling to testify. Which is why our greatest truth is in cartoons, from "The Simpsons" to "South Park." And Pixar's "Wall-E" told us more about the human condition than any live action film. You see we're all posing.

Molly Miller is a young singer manipulating the public into making her rich.

That's the American story, how we're all faking it to get ahead. It's everywhere, from entertainment to everyday life. Everybody lies, everybody tells people what they want to hear. Rather than songs written from the heart, we have concoctions created by an old guy from Sweden and twenty assembly-line drones. Get that many people involved and no one is responsible. Volkswagen and Wells Fargo are guilty, those who actually made the decisions skate.

So "The Nix" is a story of a mother and a son. A first novel that is overwritten, with too much unnecessary description. But then come the insights and you sit there and smile, you tingle, BECAUSE SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS YOU!

We all want to be understood, made to feel so not alone. But today art makes you feel inadequate. You're just not connected enough, not rich enough, you can buy some merch but you can never get close.

"This was the price of hope, he realized, this shattering disappointment."

That's life in a nutshell. If you risk, you could lose. All the winners say you need to fail to succeed. But they won, we don't hear from those who risked everything and now have nothing, whose names we don't know, who owe a hundred grand on their credit cards and no longer have a roof over their heads. We're taught to play it safe. Because there is no safety net! Everybody who requires one is a wanker! Get a job, pay for your own health insurance. And while you're at it, be an entrepreneur, build a business. Huh? At least in Canada you can pursue your passion, switch jobs without worrying about losing your health insurance. Whereas in America... You can' take that risk.

"He wondered why adults felt they needed to be at their most uncomfortable for their most cherished events."

You put on the tux, pull up the Spanx, all to look good at the important life events. Shouldn't you be the most relaxed then, instead of angsting that your shoes have set your feet on fire?

"In his imagination of her, Bethany seemed elevated beyond stupid earthly concerns."

My mother always told us there was someone better, someone smarter, more capable, who deserved the job. Forget that this leaves me feeling inadequate, the truth is I put everybody on a pedestal. It's only recently that I've become aware of their foibles, realized they're no different from me. And you.

"'You know, there used to be a difference between authentic music and sellout music. I'm talking about when I was young, in the sixties? Back then we knew there was a soullessness to the sellouts, and we wanted to be on the side of the artists. But now? BEING A SELLOUT IS THE MOST AUTHENTIC THING."

BINGO! You brag about your endorsements, you list your cowriters, it's all about hoovering up cash, no matter how you do it. How come this writer far from the music business has nailed it in a way that a decade worth of "Billboard" magazines has not?

"At Willow Glen, all life aimed at avoiding litigation."

"She cared more about documenting the injury than the injury itself."

This is the nursing home ethos. It's America. There's a deep pocket for every infraction, anybody scathed must be compensated, even if it's their own damn fault! Forget the right wing anti-tort blathering, that's just about fattening the wallet of corporations. The truth is in America today, everybody's playing the lottery. A car accident is a way of making money! So, those with anything to lose play it safe, take less risk, because they're a target.

"Because she loves the clarity that school brings: the single-minded purpose, the obvious expectations, how everyone knows you're a good person if you study hard and score well on exams. The rest of your life, however, is not judged in this manner."

I went to a college of grinds. People who could jump through hoops but could not think for themselves. I peruse the alumni magazine, do I see ground-breaking winners? OF COURSE NOT! These students don't know how to play the game of life, they just know how to get an "A" in the class. Whereas real life is more amorphous. Which is why oftentimes it's the uneducated who win, the college dropouts, like David Geffen and Irving Azoff, while those with degrees sit at home in judgment, feeling superior.

"It's no secret that the great American pastime is no longer baseball. Now it's sanctimony."

I've never seen this in the mainstream media. Never a comment about where people are coming from, how they're offended. That's one place Trump won, he showed us that the unsayable is not. That we can no longer pretend we don't swear and don't have prejudices. I'm far to the left of Hillary Clinton, but when I read about trigger warnings on campus my head explodes. What next, your mommy holding your hand through life? Actually, this happens. If one more baby boomer Facetimes with their adult child instead of talking to me after I've come to their house... Life is tough, you have to solve your own damn problems. I didn't call my mother to find out how to use the washing machine on campus, I figured it out!

"Somewhere along the way, you missed your chance."

There's life in a nutshell, no one wants to miss their chance. But if you're not paying attention, if you're not working real hard, you're gonna. Are you gonna have regrets?

I've got more than a few.

But when I read "The Nix" I feel that someone understands me, comes from the same place. If it was a memoir, the author would be excoriated for being too dark, only by speaking through characters can he evidence the truth.

And despite the hype, right now "The Nix" only has 33 reviews on Amazon. Because it's 640 pages long, and you're not entitled to an opinion unless you've read it. And right now, most have not.

They review a zillion records every week. Most are never listened to. But they're available online for free. The fiction is they count, when they don't.

And it's easy to watch a half hour TV show. As many as there are, there are many fewer than records, and if you actually make it to the tube, your show has something going for it, someone believed in it besides your parents. Whereas the barrier to entry in music is nonexistent.

So, I don't expect you to buy this book.

After all, you only read hardcovers, and that would require a trip to the bookstore. Because you support your local indie because Amazon is the enemy even though you've got a Prime membership for the free shipping of your vitamins and toilet paper.

But it's too expensive at the indie store, and it's a pain in the ass to get there, so despite the lip service you're helping no one, you've just been distracted by that link-bait online, my story of "The Nix" is in the rearview mirror.

But the world we live in is one where everything's instantly available, just a click away.

Assuming you can slow down your life enough to immerse yourself in art.

But you can't. We've all got this problem. It's not only fear of missing out, but fear of being left behind. Like if we're not paying attention 24/7, the joke will be on us.

Unless you're one of those people who e-mail me that they don't have a smartphone, Uber is an abomination and Spotify ruined the record business. Tell me how you feel when transportation is suddenly on demand, are you gonna sit at home and not go anywhere? Then you're gonna get your iPhone, to have the app... The naysayers are just stuck in the mud Luddites who will eventually catch up, or die. Because the future is here.

And in some ways it's really good.

And in others, it's totally screwed up.

We've got the tools, but we've buried our personalities, despite all the social media posts. Those are just our best selves, in arenas full of bragging. Where can you write "I'm at wits' end and can you come over and talk to me?" I'm talking about the human condition, your hopes, your desires, it's too risky to admit them.

We used to turn to art, to show us we were not the only one, but part of a giant continuum.

That's what "The Nix" does, it makes us feel like we belong.

I'm not yet finished. At times it's boring. But when it nails it you feel like you're listening to "Gimmie Shelter" the first time through in your pitch-black bedroom.

But maybe you don't remember that.

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Narcos-Season 2

Someone always thinks the rules don't apply to them. That's the hardest part of being a leader, keeping everybody in line. You think you want to run a large organization, that manpower is appealing, as is the money raised when your company goes public, but I'm of the one man band variety, I want to be in charge of my own destiny, because I'm sick and tired of people who know little telling me what to do.

Isn't that the ethos of Silicon Valley? Misfits doing it their way?

That certainly used to be music, before the goal was to become a brand and sell out to the corporation, play by the rules and reduce innovation for fear you'll be left off the playlist.

But I'd rather watch "Narcos" than listen to most new music. Because it takes me away, removes me from this fast-paced world where you've always got to be available and are in fear of missing out, and shows me what life is really about...living.

Pablo Escobar died.

But you knew that. I didn't ruin anything for you. That's what the second season was all about, his escape from prison and eventual decline and ultimate demise.

We finished it last night. I just spent ten hours dedicated to a TV show when I complain that I've got no time. Guess I just have time for what is truly great, for what I think is primary.

And the second season of "Narcos" is not as good as the first. The first was a lark, no one had any expectations. Whereas the second... That's what success will yield, eyeballs, attention, can you succeed under the glare? The filmmakers did, but they added too many arty angles, overreaching, Shakespearean metaphors, whereas the initial season was down and dirty.

My number one takeaway?

I want to go back to Colombia. In a world where everybody wants to be more comfortable, I'm looking for danger, for excitement. Somewhere they don't speak English and the values are different. Like St. Petersburg or Bogota. Those are the two best places I've gone to recently. Because they kept me on edge. I felt that something was going on that I couldn't completely grasp. I didn't feel totally safe. The people weren't playing by my rules, in St. Petersburg it was all about coping with corruption, in Bogota it was all about not getting shot. And...I felt fully alive.

Of course Pablo Escobar was a murderer. Of course he deserved to die.

But he did it his way. Came from nothing and built something. Went against the grain, did it via his own smarts. Today we venerate those with chips, education, parentage. But the world is really changed by thinkers. Those who see things differently.

It is all about being wise. Something we don't revere. We think being rich makes you smart, but that is not true, although sometimes they go hand in hand.

And it's about having insight. Something we pay fealty to but no longer teach. Yes, we quote the great Gretzky, about skating to where the puck will be, but we don't teach kids how to see where the puck is going, how to unpack the facts and reassemble them in a way that makes sense.

Kinda like income inequality and climate change. You can deny them or go deep, try to see what's going on.

But no one wants to go deep anymore. They're too busy building out their identity online.

Pablo Escobar believed the rules didn't apply to him, that institutions were to be manipulated.

That's one thing that's opened my eyes in my ascension up the food chain. Leaders see the press as something to be manipulated, to their advantage. And the press is not as omniscient as it appears. I'm stunned how much doesn't make the news, and how often reporters get it wrong. No, I'm not talking about Sarah Palin's "Lamestream Media," she's clueless, publicly decrying a world where idiots don't reign. Whereas true players...work behind the scenes and their fingerprints are undetectable.

As for taxes... Have you noticed the big corporations don't pay them? That their effective rate is near zero? How can you complain they're too high when they only exist on paper? But, once again, the rank and file have no understanding of what's truly going on. While those with power wield it to their advantage.

This is the world we've arrived in. One of drudgery. Where a few have exciting gigs that stimulate them and the rest of us live for entertainment. We're dying for entertainment. Hollywood has never been more powerful. There's all this hogwash about haunted models, the techies taking over. But the techies don't know how to tell a story, how to take us away and fulfill us. As Steve Jobs famously said, Apple made tools, he was an industrialist. Whereas those in Hollywood are capitalists of the mind.

My problem is I'm left empty. With nothing to watch.

Oh, the papers are full of hype, there are a zillion channels and services. But nothing that titillates me the same way as "Narcos."

Life is a struggle. Where you can't survive without family. Where some are out to get you and you must follow your own counsel.

It's all right there on the screen.

Take the time.

This is the story of a notorious drug lord.

But it's simultaneously the story of today's world. Where government has its own agenda while business people tie it in a knot while nitwits think owning a gun protects them from the establishment.

Life is fluid. We get to make choices every day. What would you do for a buck? Are you willing to bend the truth? Does longevity supersede quality?

The renegades run this world. Whether it be outsiders like Pablo Escobar or insiders like Vladimir Putin. We're just pawns in their game.

Unless we decide to play.

Are you willing to play?


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That Bad Company Show...

http://bit.ly/2cpXnnG?utm_source=phplist5555&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=That+Bad+Company+Show...

If this doesn't make you tingle from the inside out, if this doesn't make you shiver, you're no fan of rock and roll, you're no friend of mine, you've got no idea what the experience really is, you're too set in your ways and afraid of letting loose and enjoying the true power of music.

I'm against fan videos. I don't mean they should be illegal, I'm just saying they never capture the magic. I could describe some technical mumbo-jumbo regarding mic specs, but...

When this dude sent me the link to these clips I was stunned.

The sound was imperfect, but it captured the essence, and then...what I experienced in my bones, what I felt in my heart, was right there in the above clip...the assembled multitude standing and singing along like this was the most important moment in their lives, like it was the only thing worth living for.

"Don't you know that you are a shooting star
Don't you know
DON'T YOU KNOW!"

"Shooting Star" was the last song on side one of Bad Company's second album, so inconsequential, so irrelevant, not a single to the point where it doesn't even have its own Wikipedia page!

There are entries for "Good Lovin' Gone Bad" and "Feel Like Makin' Love," but this album track...THE AUDIENCE KNEW IT BY HEART!

And speaking of album tracks...

Are you ready for love?

Listen to the audience sing along here, to this even less-heralded cut.

http://bit.ly/2cCGF3Q?utm_source=phplist5555&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=That+Bad+Company+Show...

They're singing earlier in the video, unprovoked, but you can hear them here and then... Listen at 4:28, when Paul Rodgers lifts the mic stand and twirls it, the release of human emotion, the joy in attendance, walking down this rocky road of life and having such an exquisite experience.

If you want to hear the power of the band, that freight train that rock and roll specialized in, the turning up of the amps to the point it demolished everything in its path, check out some of "Gone, Gone, Gone": http://bit.ly/2cH7b02?utm_source=phplist5555&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=That+Bad+Company+Show...

But the mix is a bit off, the overall sound is not as good as it is in the previous clips, but that driving element, that power, it's there.

And you can also check out a bit of "Feel Like Makin' Love," a gargantuan smash from the summer of '75. Paul's vocals are a bit buried, but those staccato guitars, they shoot machine gun fire like we're still back then and the internet has not been invented and we know who the real heroes are, not the next door neighbor pretenders, but the stars on stage who've paid their dues and earned our fealty.

Like I said, I'm against fan videos. They're curios, they're souvenirs, evidence that those in attendance actually were, there, that is.

And I was.

And I'm loath to post them. For fear you'll tell me I'm wrong, that I'm clueless, that the band wasn't that good, that the gig wasn't that great.

But then I watch and my body starts to tingle and how can I not share.

Feel like makin' love?

I DO!

P.S. You can catch all the clips from the beginning here: http://bit.ly/2bZjvpy?utm_source=phplist5555&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=That+Bad+Company+Show...


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iPhone 7

It's about the wireless. The Beats purchase finally makes sense.

I have a pair of Sennheiser Bluetooth headphones. Whenever I wear them, which is nearly every day, someone comments. They're stunned. I love them. But the sound is limited, in quality and volume. It appears that Apple has solved this problem, with its W1 chip.

I'd love to tell you today's Apple presentation was a home run. But they've lost touch with the fact that it is a presentation, that it is entertainment. The Carpool Karaoke opening was a left field stunner, it humanized Tim Cook, who's badly in need of being seen as more than a droid. But then it went on too long, with Pharrell in the back seat. There's a skill in performance. We in Hollywood get pissed on by those up north. But without our content, without our ability to tell a story, their devices are useless. Sometimes you've got to leave the best stuff out. But no one at Apple knew where to draw the line.

And the presentation got boringer and boringer, with not only Cook, but a rainbow coalition of women and ethnicities. Is that the nation we've become, where we're so busy being politically correct that it affects our culture? We want to give everybody an opportunity, a leg up, but when it's the bottom of the ninth and you're two behind...

You bring out Phil Schiller.

The Watch guy... Didn't tell us if the Watch itself was improved. It was all about software, there was no mention of charging times, of functionality re the screen staying on. He blew his chance.

But Phil Schiller, the old white guy...

He blew us away!

It's about keeping our attention. Something Sia is not doing as I write this. The breakthrough would be to have no music, the idea of a star du jour playing at the end of these shows is so stale that it should not be repeated, but, once again, no one left at Apple has a sense of theatre.

So, Phil comes out without any bells and whistles, tells us he's got a ten point program, and keeps us in rapt attention as he goes through the list. This is the modern paradigm, we don't have a short attention span, just an incredible detector of b.s., we change the channel if you're not great, that's the world we live in, where excellence triumphs and everything else is left in the dust.

The cameras... Those were impressive.

As well as the performance specs.

As for design... To hear Jony Ive testify is to think of an SNL skit, this guy has become a parody of himself, this element should be abandoned too, get someone else to narrate, better to do live.

But, it's what was left behind which is most interesting. We've been hearing for months that Apple is abandoning the headphone port. It's been lamented, no one has explained the change until yesterday, when David Pogue gave a convincing case. ("Why The Headphone Jack Must Die: http://yhoo.it/2chNZUU)?utm_source=phplist5554&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=iPhone+7 That's the nation we now live in, where facts are irrelevant and everybody wants to stay in the past. We need a national explainer, like Walter Cronkite way back when, to keep everybody up to speed on what is really going on. If you watched this presentation you'd be glad the headphone port is gone, and, to boot, they included a lightning adapter for your old phones! Headphones, that is.

But it's the wireless ones that were intriguing. The pods looked...futuristic and funky, you almost don't want to be seen wearing them. But when they said the Beats headphones would include the W1 chip and the resulting wireless I was intrigued, that's what I want, high quality wireless sound, this is a breakthrough.

Will they license the technology? Are the specs really that good?

That's unclear.

What is clear is that the star is the product, built by human beings.

The star is the music, built by human beings.

You lead with the product.

People care about the product.

But most people believe they deserve attention when they cannot get out of their own way and cannot deliver something deserving of interest.

We need thinkers. We need pushers of the envelope. We need people who pay their dues who are willing to do it different.

That's the Steve Jobs way.

P.S. Too many old people in the audience. Makes Android look like a youth movement.

P.P.S. Only 17 million Apple Music subscribers, who skew old too? It's like Apple Music is spinning off into its own universe that the rest of us can comfortably avoid. Bells and whistles are irrelevant when the underlying infrastructure sucks. You watch this presentation and wonder if this stuff really works, whether you can swim with the Watch, but today we expect everything to work right, right out of the box. Apple Music didn't and still doesn't. It needs a rethink and a rewrite. And no exclusive appearance by Sia will push it forward. We're looking for visceral excitement, the only person who delivered it today was Phil Schiller.

P.P.P.S. I want a date with Toadette!


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Re-Jerry Heller

In 1988 I get a call from Jerry who asks if he can come by with Eazy
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

_________________________________

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

_________________________________

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

_________________________________

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

_________________________________

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

_________________________________

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

_________________________________

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

_________________________________

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.

_________________________________

He was a good friend of mine.
Thanks for your kind words.

Nick Masters

_________________________________

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

_________________________________

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.

_________________________________

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

_________________________________

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

_________________________________

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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Bad Company At The L.A. County Fair

This should have been bad. Seventies act far beyond its years playing to a multitude that didn't care in a faraway land where no discerning eyes are present. But that wasn't the case, this show was FANTASTIC! INCREDIBLE! ASTOUNDING! THE BEST OF THE YEAR!

And how can that be?

"Some people say I'm no good
Laying in my bed all day
But when the nighttime comes I'm ready to rock
And roll my troubles away"

In a world where how EARLY you wake up is a badge of honor, it's refreshing to be re-rooted to a world where all the good things happen at night, and it's not when you get up, but how long you STAY UP!

There's no place more bizarre than a county fair. In this case in far-off Pomona, a sea of people you see nowhere else, bad bodies, various ethnicities, only an hour from L.A. but in mind-set and visuals as far away as Iowa or Mississippi. You're forced to walk through a midway of vomit-inducing rides, vittles that might cause a heart attack and ultimately funneled to a grandstand that looks like it hasn't had a dime invested this century. And then the screens light up, introducing the band, yes, they brought their full production, and the guitars start to scream, the drums start to pound, Paul Rodgers twirls the mic stand and sings the above lyrics and...

I'M TINGLING AS I WRITE THIS! I IMMEDIATELY JUMPED TO MY FEET AND THRUST MY ARM IN THE AIR! It was like it was still the seventies and music was the most important medium in the world and fully worth living for. This was a show where you didn't pull out your cell phone unless it was to take a photo, you didn't want to take your eyes off the band, you felt when they left the stage you might not get another chance.

And it wasn't just me. The middle-aged women next to me were twisting and turning their bodies, singing every word at the top of their lungs. The Latino men in front of me were doing the same thing. The fat white guy to the right, he was getting more exercise than he probably got in a month. The assembled multitude was gyrating like rock music was the most important thing in the world, the elixir of life, they were taking it all in AND GIVING IT ALL BACK!

Come on, "Ready For Love" was a Mick Ralphs cut on a Mott The Hoople record that was redone more slowly for the initial Bad Company LP, an album track for sure. But when Paul Rodgers dropped the mic and stopped singing...everybody in attendance sang in unison that they were READY FOR LOVE, OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN! It was like an alternative universe, where not only rock ruled, but Bad Company were legends, the toppermost of the poppermost, rock royalty come back to get its just accolades. WHEW!

They get no love. The punksters and hipsters at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame pooh-pooh them, lauding fraudsters like Patti Smith and Joan Jett when it's groups like this that are the heart of rock and roll. And I've been to see Kiss, but the mania for Bad Company was bigger. And I love the guys in Rush, but this audience was half women, and they weren't dragged by their boyfriends, THEY NEEDED TO BE THERE!

It's almost like they don't exist. No one ever talks about Bad Company. But here they are, in plain sight, and they're LEGENDS!

And it wasn't only "Ready For Love." The audience took over for "Shooting Star" too.

"Johnny was a schoolboy
When he heard his first Beatles song"

So was I, so were you. We heard this sound and it changed our lives, it gave us something to live for. And Saturday night I felt like I was at the church, the synagogue of my life, re-centered, I'm a rocker, always was and forever will be.

And speaking of rock...

This is the show you want to see, not Guns N' Roses, they ran circles around Axl and Slash. You see there were TWO lead guitarists. Howard Leese of Heart and Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes. And not only did they riff off each other, they played in unison... We went there to relive what once was and we didn't know they were gonna reinvent it and push the envelope into the future. Leese doesn't get enough respect, he WAILED! And after watching Robinson... Just because you're not the frontman, that doesn't mean you don't deserve credit, Chris Robinson gets all the accolades, but now I'm re-evaluating.

And speaking of re-evaluating...

Legend has it Paul Rodgers still has his voice, when almost no one from that era still does. And not only is that true, he played the guitar and the PIANO! He tickled the ivories and I was stunned, this was not some lame singer, this was a MUSICIAN! And except for a storm effect at the beginning of "Burnin' Sky," nothing was on hard drive, it was just real music, all the time, played on guitars, how it once was and seemingly forever more will no longer be. It was like being jetted back to the past where everything was different. Where how you looked paled in comparison to how you played. Where it was all about a big sound emanating from the speakers, one you created by practicing in your bedroom for eons, alone. IT WAS REVELATORY!

Sure, they played "Can't Get Enough," but they also played "Crazy Circles," it was just as hypnotic as it was on wax.

"Life is like a merry-go-round
Painted horses riding up and down
Music takes you and you're gone again"

ABSOLUTELY!

What if I told you there was an era where we were glued to the radio, where we lived at the record store, where being into music wasn't only one thing, it was EVERYTHING! That's what it was like during the seventies, when you went to the show not to be seen, but to connect with the band, which wasn't featured in social media, which made it on the music alone, which went from town to town living a life of luxury and debauchery, with wine and drugs and sex and...it was everything we wanted, everywhere we wanted to be, musicians were the richest and most powerful people in America...AND WE LOVED IT!

Yes, it's all part of my rock 'n roll fantasy...AND THEY PLAYED THAT TOO! I knew every lick, every word...AND SO DID EVERYBODY ELSE! Was it all that airplay on classic rock radio, could it be that this band with no respect and no ink RULES?

YES!

Bad Company, and I can't deny. Paul sat at the piano and began the riff and the crowd swooned, they immediately recognized it. Simon Kirke pounded the drums like he was still looking for his ticket out of obscurity and the entire joint levitated, high on the sound.

We were rocking steady, which was the second encore. We couldn't believe it. We were at the heart of rock and roll, and it was still beating. The band was not punching the clock, they were feeding off our energy.

And I still haven't gotten over it.


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