Drouot introduced main acts together with The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Ray Charles to France starting within the Nineteen Seventies.
Gerard Drouot Productions' Gaetan Grivel, Gerard Drouot, and Helen Drouot, and The Company Group's Neil Warnock at Acme Feed & Seed in Nashville, Tennessee
Rick Diamond/Getty Photographs for The Company Group
Revered French live performance promoter Gérard Drouot died Monday from leukemia on the age of 69, in keeping with his firm Gérard Drouot Productions (GDP). With greater than 40 years of expertise, Drouot introduced main acts together with Ray Charles, Elton John and The Rolling Stones to France.
“His popularity around the globe was matched solely by his professionalism and his ardour for reside music,” the manufacturing firm and Drouot’s son Matthieu stated in a press release posted on social media. “We'll always remember his selflessness, his recommendation and he's leaving a lot too quickly.”
Drouot discovered his love for music when he first heard The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Membership Band and dropped out of medical faculty to launch a profession in reside music. He organized his first occasions in 1974 and by no means regarded again, in keeping with his firm. Drouot organized his first occasions in japanese France, most notably the Nico and Tangerine Dream live performance at Reims Cathedral in 1974. The occasion, which occurred with the help of Richard Branson and his newly shaped Virgin Data, drew 5,000 attendees and was broadcast on French radio, in keeping with a 2017 Rock at Evening interview with the promoter.
From 1977 to 1986, Drouot labored on the Harry Lapp Group in Strasbourg earlier than launching GDP in 1986. All through his profession, Drouot has labored with AC/DC, ZZ Prime, Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, U2 and Lenny Kravitz.
Acknowledging the passing of his longtime buddy, Kravitz took to Twitter to understand the time he spent with Drouot, together with studying about “the world of nice French delicacies & wine, which we loved over time.” Kravitz added that Drouot “has been my buddy & promoter in France from the start of my profession till now has made his transition. He believed in me from the very begin & was a beautiful man with a depraved humorousness. He was a real music lover & lived his ardour.”
Drouot additionally labored with Leonard Cohen all through the musician’s profession starting in 1976, in keeping with Le Parisien. Between 2008 and 2013, Cohen returned to the stage, with Drouot reserving 24 reveals for the musician.
Fellow French producer Valéry Zeitoun paid tribute to Drouot and his household on social media, stating, “our occupation has misplaced a really nice producer.”
Drouot has additionally promoted occasions such because the fortieth and Fiftieth-anniversary celebrations of the signing of the Common Declaration of Human Rights at Bercy, co-organized with Amnesty Worldwide in 1988 and 1998 in Paris.
Drouot’s son Matthieu joined his father’s impartial promotion firm in 2008 and continues the household legacy to today.
This story first appeared on Billboard.com.