Agents’ Agents: How Dennis Arfa’s AGI Came To Partner With John Jackson’s K2

It came as a surprise on Aug. 13 when Dennis Arfa’s Artist Group International announced a joint venture with John Jackson’s London-based agency K2. Far more often, over the past decade, it’s been larger corporate agencies acquiring smaller ones – whether UTA nabbing The Agency Group, Paradigm acquiring Windish or X-Ray or ICM picking up Primary Talent International – not a partnership between two mid-size agencies. That the deal was brokered amid a pandemic and economic crisis, when most agency news has centered on downsizing, was all the more impressive. 

While financial details of the partnership were not disclosed – it’s estimated to be a multi-million dollar deal – it went through Y Entertainment Group, a division of The Yucaipa Companies, Ron Burkle’s private equity firm founded in 1986, which acquired a majority stake in AGI in 2011. AGI was founded in 1999; before that, it was QBQ Ent., which launched in ‘86 after Arfa worked for five years at William Morris. QBQ stood for “Quality Before Quantity,” a business ethos at the core of AGI.

“The way it started was I’ve known John Jackson for a lifetime,” says Dennis Arfa of meeting now-partner John Jackson. “I remember going to Europe in the late ‘70s for the first time and meeting all the agents in England. I was looking for artists and for opportunities for business and to learn the marketplace. I met a lot of agents in those days. I also did some of the deals when SFX owned us. We rolled up a bunch of the agencies, including ITB and Solo, though Sillerman sold the company to Clear Channel.” 

Jackson pegs the meeting to a little later, but also isn’t exactly sure when. “We probably met in the early to mid ‘80s, perhaps when I signed Metallica in ‘85,” he says, mentioning one of the world’s biggest touring bands of all-time, which both agencies represent in their respective territories.

A major synergy between the two agencies: rock and roll! Both AGI and K2 lean heavily into the genre and its many variations, including hard rock, metal and alternative. In addition to Metallica, AGI counts Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Neil Young, Iggy Pop, Ghost, Volbeat, Smashing Pumpkins, Linkin Park, Cage the Elephant, Five Finger Death Punch, Frank Turner, Papa Roach, and The Strokes among its roster, which also features Rock and Roll Hall of Famers like Joel, Rod Stewart, Elvis Costello and Hall & Oates; comedians Jim Breuer and Andrew Dice Clay and family fare like Kidz Bop. For its part, K2’s roster is similarly rock-focused and includes Slayer, Alter Bridge, Ghost, Gojira, Iron Maiden and Anthrax. 

The newly combined agencies will have the muscle of more than 25 employees. Beyond Vlasic, AGI’s agents include Adam Kornfeld, Peter Pappalardo, Nick Storch, Michael Arfin and Justin Hirschman. K2’s agents include E.G.O founder Jim Morewood and his colleague Yerry Stetter, along with Factory founder Sharon Richardson and Jackson’s longtime assistant Jane Miller. 

Jackson and Arfa both credit an apple who didn’t fall far from the AGI tree with making the deal happen. “We had originally approached John like six years ago and there was always a willingness on both sides to work together, but at the time the stars didn’t align,” says Jarred Arfa, AGI GM and Dennis’ son. “A number of our agents work with John because of the shared acts [such as Metallica, Volbeat, Ghost, Baroness]. There’s always been a good vibe between us as companies and when we decided to make another go at it, my role was to try to find a sweet spot that John would agree to and would make sense financially for our parent company.” 

The joint venture was on the brink of getting signed just before the pandemic emptied out everyone’s calendars. “When Coachella got moved to October, which followed on from similar high-profile rearrangements, Yucaipa chose to put to one side our deal,” Jackson says. “We revisited it a couple of months ago and it was felt that nothing had changed, the deal was a good deal and so we pressed on.” 

Sergione Infuso/ Corbis / Getty Images – Let It Rock:
Denmark’s Volbeat are one of the acts both AGI and K2 book. The band’s Kaspar Boye Larsen and Michael Poulsen playing Milan club Fabrique on Oct. 14, 2019.

Jarred Arfa says there are many synergies between the two agencies. “We were already sharing clients, but now I believe we can sign clients together and that’s going to happen immediately,” he says. “This is going to make us the go-to agency for managers who already have relationships with us and John and others. I also think John having been in the festival space and building an amazing brand and Sonisphere [which he co-launched with Kilimanjaro’s Stuart Galbraith in 2009], and Yucaipa’s interest in the festival space there could be things we do in that realm. There’s a lot we can do together that doesn’t have to be agency based.”

In February, Yucaipa Companies invested an undisclosed amount in Danny Wimmer Presents, the famed rock festival promoter and acquired a minority stake in Spain’s Primavera Sound festival in 2018. While it’s not exactly clear what Yucaipa has planned for its growing entertainment holdings, it’s tantalizing to consider what may lay ahead, with two major independent agencies and a growing festival portfolio, as well as assets in TV, film and sports and entertainment. Yucaipa boasts the value of its mergers and acquisitions since its 1986 inception at more than $40 billion. (After this story closed, Yucaipa made an undisclosed cash but non-equity investment in Agency For the Performing Arts APA. )

Meanwhile, AGI and K2 are already on weekly calls and many in the industry are taking notice of the new partnership.

“Dennis is an all-star and John’s been an all-star in my book since I met him in 1979,” says Peter Mensch, co-founder of Q Prime, whose clients include Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Muse. “When I was 26 years old, I started managing AC/DC. The third person I met on the job was John Jackson. He was their booking agent; he’s been my go-to agent since then. He said, basically, ‘Follow me and you’re going to have the biggest band in the world.’  And I was 26. I went, ‘Fuck, I don’t know what I’m doing, sure.’ And he was right. 

“And with Metallica, when they needed a new agent in England in 1984 or ‘85, there was no question in my mind that John had to be the agent. And when [Q Prime partner] Cliff [Burnstein] and I met Dennis Arfa, when Metallica was looking for a new agent in ’92 – and Def Leppard for that matter – we said, ‘He’s our kind of guy, just like John was back in 1979.’ To me, they are not quite two peas in a pod, but what they are, and I really appreciate this fact about them, is they’re both agents’ agents. Whenever you need to get Dennis on the phone, he has his routing sheets there. Same with John. That’s what they were born to do, and they do it really well.”