{"id":38868,"date":"2025-12-28T00:35:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T00:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/howie-klein-legendary-executive-with-sire-and-reprise-records-dies-aged-77\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T00:35:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T00:35:05","slug":"howie-klein-legendary-executive-with-sire-and-reprise-records-dies-aged-77","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/howie-klein-legendary-executive-with-sire-and-reprise-records-dies-aged-77\/","title":{"rendered":"Howie Klein, legendary executive with Sire and Reprise Records, dies aged 77"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Howie Klein, the legendary record executive at Sire and Reprise Records, has died at the age of 77.<\/p>\n

The news was confirmed by his sister Michelle Swerdloff on social media on Christmas Day, who said he passed away after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. \u201cHe had a truly amazing life and he lived it everyday,\u201d she wrote. \u201cHe will be missed by everyone who knew him and loved him. Good night to my dear brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klein was considered one of the defining artist-friendly figures at the labels where he worked in the \u201880s and \u201890s, forging a reputation as a champion for creative freedom and working closely with the likes of Lou Reed<\/a>,\u00a0Ramones<\/a>,\u00a0Talking Heads<\/a>, Green Day <\/a>and Alanis Morissette<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Born in Brooklyn on 20 February 1948, Klein started his career\u00a0by\u00a0booking performers such as\u00a0Jimi Hendrix<\/a>,\u00a0The Doors<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Janis Joplin<\/a>\u00a0at Stony Brook University\u00a0in New York. He moved to San Francisco and became a DJ at KSAN-FM\u00a0in 1976, becoming an early\u00a0vocal supporter\u00a0of punk and new wave\u00a0music.<\/p>\n\n

He co-founded 415 Records in 1978, launching acts including Romeo Void and Wire Train, before joining Sire Records in 1987, one of the key homes of alternative music in the US at the time.\u00a0It was there that he\u00a0helped\u00a0to\u00a0revitalise\u00a0Lou Reed<\/a>\u2019s career with the 1989 album \u2018New York\u2019, which is often seen as the former Velvet Underground<\/a> singer\u2019s late-period peak.<\/p>\n

Klein was made president of Reprise Records in 1989, and in his 13 years in post, he worked closely with Green Day, Ramones,\u00a0Neil Young<\/a>, Alanis Morissette,\u00a0Ice-T<\/a>, Eric Clapton <\/a>and Fleetwood Mac<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He developed a reputation as a leading voice against censorship in the music industry and became deeply involved in political activism, especially\u00a0as a leader of\u00a0the Rock\u00a0The\u00a0Vote campaign.\u00a0For such work, he was\u00a0recognised\u00a0with Spirit\u00a0Of\u00a0Liberty Awards and the Bill\u00a0Of\u00a0Rights Award from the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.<\/p>\n

In the days following Klein\u2019s departure from\u00a0Warner Brothers\u00a0due to\u00a0the Time Warner-AOL merger in 2001,\u00a0his successor decided not to release\u00a0Wilco<\/a>\u2019s 2002 album \u2018Yankee Hotel Foxtrot\u2019\u00a0in the form the band wanted, leading to Wilco leaving Reprise,\u00a0signing with Nonesuch\u00a0and earning the best reviews of their career.<\/p>\n

Klein\u00a0continued\u00a0with\u00a0his activism through his\u00a0Down\u00a0With\u00a0Tyranny\u00a0<\/i>blog\u00a0in later life\u00a0and continued to support progressive political causes.<\/p>\n

The post Howie Klein, legendary executive with Sire and Reprise Records, dies aged 77<\/a> appeared first on NME<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Howie Klein, the legendary record executive at Sire and Reprise Records, has died at the age of 77. The news was confirmed by his sister Michelle Swerdloff on social media on Christmas Day, who said he passed away after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. \u201cHe had a truly amazing life and he lived it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-art"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-25 13:48:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}