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Music executive Clive Davis has died at age 94.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday, June 22, that Davis died one day prior at his home in Manhattan. His death was confirmed by his family.
Davis had recently been hospitalized with respiratory problems. A spokesperson for the mogul told TMZ in late May that he was suffering from “an upper respiratory infection and out of an abundance of caution, he was admitted to the hospital.”
Davis rose to fame at Columbia Records and became one of the most powerful execs in the industry, where he worked alongside notable names like Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow and more. His last position in the music industry was chief creative officer of Sony Music Entertainment.
During his career, Davis won five Grammys — including the Recording Academy’s Trustees Award in 2000. In celebration of the awards ceremony, Davis also famously brought together music executives and artists for an annual party at the Beverly Hilton. He had held the event since 1976, with the 2021 party being held online due to the pandemic.
In 2013, Davis got candid about his ability to hear talent in the industry.
“I didn’t necessarily have an ear, but I think I developed one,” he admitted to Playboy magazine at the time. “Whether there was a natural ear that was triggered, I don’t know the answer to that. But when you see a Joplin or a Springsteen, you know. And the statistics start mounting and give you confidence. You think, ‘My God, yeah, I did say yes to Santana.’”
In the same interview, Davis opened up about the moment when he first began thinking of signing musicians.
“I had finished my freshman year of college and lost both parents within 10 months of each other. I had a support group with a sister and an aunt with whom I was close, but that was a tough time,” he recalled. “I was in a Jewish family and grew up in the public school system of New York, and there was a work ethic that I was left with that said the way you rise above your station is to become either a doctor or a lawyer. I never loved science, but I did love politics and government, so I became an attorney. By some accident, the company I worked for owned a record company. Soon I was running it.”
He continued, “That’s when I went to the Monterey Pop Festival. It was the 1960s and the time of Haight-Ashbury, but I had no idea what awaited me. I thought the Monterey Pop Festival was a social event where I would see Simon & Garfunkel and the Mamas and the Papas and be with my friend [the producer] Lou Adler. My life changed there. I sensed a total social, cultural, musical revolution, and my peers in the music business had no idea. They didn’t see it; they just were not there. That’s probably the epiphany that changed my life. Janis Joplin was performing there, and I went on to sign her.”
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