CAA’s Rod Essig Joins ‘Innovative’ 2019 IEBA Hall Of Fame Class With Joan Jett, Steve Dahl, Kevin Lyman, Larry Vallon

As the International Entertainment Buyers Association prepares to induct the newest class to its Hall of Fame, it may not be immediately clear just how tight-knit the live industry is and how connections made decades ago remain vital.

The Hall of Fame Class of 2019 – CAA Nashville Music Agent Rod Essig, former AEG Presents Executive Vice President Larry Vallon, late Paradigm Director of Fairs Steve Dahl, Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, artist Joan Jett and her longtime producer Kenny Laguna – will be celebrated on the final day of IEBA’s Oct. 27-29 conference in Nashville.

Essig spoke with Pollstar two days after closing a 52-date tour with clients Joan Jett and Heart, and says that every inductee has common connections and roots in the industry and with each other, despite their disparate roles.

He has represented Jett since his earliest days at Variety International Artists in Minneapolis, where he also worked with Dahl. Essig’s son got one of his first jobs from Lyman on the Warped Tour. And his relationship with Vallon goes back to the beginnings of their careers as well.

“When I brought Joan to CAA from Variety, her first agent was John Huie who came over from FBI where he’d worked with all those rock people. They still call him ‘Johnny.’ Those are big things,” Essig says of the importance of relationships. 

“I sold [talent] to Larry Vallon for years and years. My son was having some issues when he was 14 and Kevin Lyman put him on the Warped Tour. He straightened right up. Kevin has another big space in my heart because Greg was on the Warped Tour for years. Steve Dahl and I grew up together in Minnesota. We were at Variety together,” he adds. “That’s how far back these connections go.”

Even though it sometimes seems that if one has been around long enough, they’ve worked with everyone else in the business, the Hall of Fame honor is a singular recognition of a body of work that goes beyond years and friendships, Essig says.

“Between Variety and CAA, I’ve been in this business 47 years and what it means to me is that you’ve been put here by your peers. I am totally a relationships person and I try to instill in my agents how important those relationships are because those relations last forever and ever,” Essig says.

“People come and go; some careers happen, some don’t. But it’s a really big thing when your peers ask you to be in the Hall of Fame, because that is forever.”

Essig says he is most proud of having built a company in Nashville with CAA that started out with three agents and five artists. “Now, with everything else CAA is involved with including sports [representation], we have 145 people in this office. That’s what makes it fun. I’m honored with the people I’m around,” Essig says.

The key thread that ties this class together is that all are innovators, Essig explains.

“Larry Vallon is one of those people who knows everyone, and even though he says he’s retired, he called me up just the other day with an idea for Nashville. Kevin Lyman is an innovator. He has broken so many bands and people in the music industry and I’m so glad he’s teaching. Then you take Joan Jett and Kenny Laguna – they are so true to who they are. Joan at this point in her life is still a punker. Kenny wrote and produced all her stuff and when nobody would sign them, they went out and recorded [themselves] and now they own the record company. It’s all about innovation.

“Steve Dahl. In the Fairs world, Steve early on was the guy who had the integrity and really developed that market. He had the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and he and Don Romeo really built that business. There’s a lot of festivals buying talent now but you can make a career of the fair business, and Steve was one of the pioneers who made that happen,” Essig says of his colleagues.

IEBA, he adds, is the backbone of the fair business and the conference itself will host 1,200 to 1,400 registrants all ready to buy, sell and network. The Hall of Fame Honors and Awards ceremony takes place Oct. 29 at 5:30 p.m. In addition to member inductees, IEBA will induct the Delaware State Fair for reaching its 100th anniversary.