Voices From The Trenches: Rich Best, Live Nation

Best is president of booking for Los Angeles, overseeing the booking department and strategy for everything from Fresno, Calif., through Orange County and he has a confession to make to Don Law.

How did you get into the business?

I wanted to be a rock star and that kind of failed.  Miserably. Somewhere in all of that I had the foresight to connect to the business side. My father told me I might want to have a backup plan. In the late ‘80s I had a friend who had the opportunity to go on the road with Mötley Crüe and Ratt, and she recommended me for her job – doing promotions at First Avenue in Minneapolis. I interviewed with Steve McClellan, my first mentor. I guess he liked me and I stayed there for about nine years.

I started to gravitate into the promoting side. There are talent buyers and there are concert promoters and, for me, I had been fortunate to be mentored by true concert promoters – Steve, Sue McLean, Nick Masters, Rick Franks, Mark Campana, Bob Roux, and Brian Murphy. I developed some relationships early on and when Pearl Jam / Smashing Pumpkins / Soundgarden started to break I wanted to continue my evolution and progress their live careers. 

A few years later I was hired by Sue at Compass Entertainment. We had a lot of fun and success, and it caught the attention of Rick and Mark. They were with SFX / Clear Channel, were in the acquirement mode and they, just, “acquired” me.  I was based out of Minnesota, had a great team and expanded out of Minneapolis to having a good run in the Dakotas and Wisconsin.

Rick and Mark thought I was doing a good job so I got invited to L.A. and the growth happening here.  I’ve been here for 11 years.  I’m a big believer in mentors and paying back.

To those just starting out, what would be some great ways to screw your chances at a career?

You want to screw up your career in the music business?  Be the last one in the office and the first one to leave. Don’t go to your shows. It’s the music business and it’s a privilege but there are no short cuts. If you submerge yourself, develop your relationships, deliver what you say you’ll deliver – first and foremost to the artist – and the fan, good things will happen.

You see people come in wide-eyed, thinking something should be given to them. There’s no cutting corners.  You do your job; in my case it was making copies. 

For the first year I made copies in a small room in a dirty club in Minneapolis, but I was willing to do it. Anybody who works for me knows that; they know it before they get in. People who don’t have that commitment don’t last.

What would be the one thing people would be surprised to learn about you?

I barely graduated high school. I never attended college. My high school was probably glad to see me go. It was a lot of good mentors and a lot of hard work.  It’s not the path I recommend, that’s for sure. One of the godfathers of the business, Don Law, had a meeting with the heads in Minneapolis and he looked at me and said, “Ah! You’re a Golden Gopher? Are you a U of M (University of Minnesota) alum?”

I looked him straight in the eye and said, “Yes! Yes, I am!” 

Literally, five minutes later, I see Mark Campana. “Mark! Mark!  I screwed up! I just lied to Don Law!” We still laugh about it.  This is probably the first time Don Law will find out about it, if he reads this.

It wasn’t an easy path; it just happens to be my path.

If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing?

Food or movie critic, all the way. Love food, love movies, all the way, no questions asked.

Favorite movie?

Scarface?  Also, I’m a total sap and will cry at any movie. Give me a romantic comedy and I’m a ball of tears.

Any movie you’re supposed to like but just don’t?

This is going to bum some people out, but anything David Lynch has ever done. It’s so in my wheelhouse but I just don’t get it.

What younger acts do you see becoming superstars?

Definitely twenty one pilots, Halsey, Travis Scott, Sam Hunt all have a certain something. They have great songs, they’re great live and they have organic fan bases. Those are the ones on my radar right now for the real big-time.

What’s the biggest travesty in rock?

In my book, it’s that the Afghan Whigs never played the Enormodome*.  Their songs are so important and they have had an unbelievably profound impact on my life, and still do. The fact that very few people got them like I did totally bums me out. They should have been an arena rock band, all the way.

Best concert experiences?

I have a few. Game changers for me were Jane’s Addiction, 7th St. Entry, the Nothing’s Shocking tour. Bad Brains, the I Against I tour, First Avenue in 1985. The Replacements, 7th St. Entry – they did a week run doing Tim start to finish. I think I was at all of them (but none of them). And every Iron Maiden show I’ve ever seen. There’s no phoning it in with them; they’re one of the greatest live bands of all time.

Pull out your crystal ball: what will be something new about concerts five years from now?

I’m a big believer in two things and, without them, I don’t have a job: artist and audience. The name of Alex Kochan’s agency always resonated with me. We have to make sure we get those two things right. I think we’ve done a much better job, as an industry, getting the artist model right with the revenue portions of their live careers. We continue to improve the opportunities artists have to present themselves at price points that make sense. We also have made great strides with the fan experience.

I feel we’re right on the cusp of turning the corner on the fan experience. In L.A., when you go to see a movie at an ArcLight, your concession food is great, it’s easy to buy a ticket, the audio/visual is exceptional, the seat is comfortable. It feels we’re about to head in that direction. As a company we’re putting hundreds of millions into the fan experience and my gut says five years from now the fan experience is going to be vastly improved, creating an unbelievable, communal environment.

*Spinal Tap reference.