Howie Klein, Top Executive at Sire and Reprise Records, DJ and Political Activist, Dies at 77

Howie Klein, a veteran record executive, radio DJ and political activist who was a leader in the famously artist-friendly Warner Music family during its golden era of the 1980s and early ‘90s, died Wednesday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, according to a social media post from his sister. He was 77.

He was a top executive at Sire Records during the label’s peak era — a time when the label had everyone from the Smiths and Depeche Mode to Madonna and Lou Reed on its roster — and later was president of Warner’s Reprise label from 1989 to 2001. He was a co-founder of the San Francisco-based 415 Records during the 1970s, and was a strong and vocal presence in the music industry’s anti-censorship efforts in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, focusing on political activism in his later years.

Born in Brooklyn in 1948, Klein began his music career at Long Island’s Stony Brook University, where he began writing about music and later booked many legendary artists to perform at the school, a list that reads like a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame from the late 1960s: the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Otis Redding, Pink Floyd, the Doors, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Tim Buckley, Jackson Browne, and many others.

He spent several years traveling in Asia and Europe before settling in San Francisco in 1976. There, he became a popular DJ at the city’s KSAN-FM and was a vocal supporter of the city’s then-nascent punk and alternative scenes; on the station, he interviewed such acts as the Sex Pistols, Devo, Iggy Pop, the Cramps and others. In 1978, he co-founded the San Francisco-based 415 Records, which released singles and albums by Romeo Void, Wire Train, the Nuns, Translator and others, several of which were distributed by major labels.

Klein moved to Los Angeles to join Sire Records in 1987, which was then at the peak of its reign as a mecca of alternative music. He played a key role in bringing Lou Reed to the label and helping to launch his legendary “New York” album, which revitalized the singer-songwriter’s career and was seen by many as his late peak. Klein often spoke of the signing as a full-circle moment, as he had seen Reed perform one of his last shows with the Velvet Underground during the band’s residency at New York’s Max’s Kansas City nightclub in the summer of 1970.

After just two years he was elevated to president of Reprise Records, the Warner label founded by Frank Sinatra, a post he held for the next 13 years. Among the dozens of acts he worked closely with during these years are Green Day, Ice-T, the Ramones, the Pretenders, Neil Young, Alanis Morissette, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac and many others.

During these years the music industry, and Warner Music in particular, was a frequent target of censorship efforts by right-wing organizations — notably the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), many of them aimed at gangsta rap and heavy metal, and Klein became an outspoken purveyor of free speech in the business and the country. He was a leader of the Rock the Vote campaign and other efforts, and had found the causes that would occupy much of his later life. His efforts were recognized twice with Spirit of Liberty Awards from People for the American Way; in 1999 he shared that honor with filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner.

In 2000, he was honored by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California with its Bill of Rights Award.

In 2001, following Time Warner’s ill-fated merger with AOL, Klein accepted a buyout and resigned from his post. Ironically, a day after his resignation, his successor rejected the new album from Wilco, “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” setting off a controversy, documented in the film “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” that ultimately resulted in a bidding war over the album that saw a different Warner label, Nonesuch, re-signing the band.

In his later years, Klein published a political blog and social media account titled DownWithTyranny! and worked with such organizations as the Blue America PAC, the Progressive Congress Action Fund and others.