The Indie-Corporate Shuffle: Q’s With Artist Group International’s Dennis Arfa

Dennis Arfa: Early in my career I had my own business, Home Run Agency. My clients at that time were Billy Joel, Phoebe Snow and The Beach Boys. As an independent I was nervous that I couldn’t sustain my business, so in 1981 I joined William Morris. 

 

Five years, which was an amazing learning experience. In those days their structure was very bureaucratic and besides having your job with your clients, you had to deal with corporate. They weren’t always in sync with the independent spirit of beng a music agent. There was a lot of compromise and I realized it wasn’t for me.

  

At the time, I was co-head of the New York music department. They brought me in in ‘81 and gave me a guy named Phil Citron, to co-chair. Phil Citron was basically a booking machine. He could book anything and get more dates than anybody but it was more quantity and sometimes lacked quality.  

Certainly things have changed. I’m sure that’s the case, but boys clubs, bureaucracies, the philosophies—much of that is the same.

For some people it’s a safety net and security.  

I’m somebody who’s very artist-oriented and you’ve got to really work out of your heart for the artist. An agent from another department brought in a client and nobody else wanted him. So there was the client and manager thinking, “We got the wonderful William Morris music department backing us.” And nobody wanted him and they didn’t know that. That was very disappointing.

 

We started under the name of QBQ, which stood for Quality Before Quantity, in 1986.

 

The big agencies are in the volume business. It’s a numbers game.

It went very well. We became successful very quickly. We had, obviously, Billy Joel; and Rodney Dangerfield was my client for the last 23 years of his life and a big income earner; The Beach Boys; and then Andrew Dice Clay became a superstar; Debbie Gibson was then a teen sensation. We also did “The Dirty Dancing Tour,” which sold out eight Radio City Music Hall shows. All of a sudden we became very successful and independent and stayed that way until 1999 when Bob Sillerman bought us.

A combination of opportunity and financial gain and that I could maintain my independence. I was the only agency they bought. I had a lot of influence in terms of some of the acquisitions because I understood worldwide touring. I was able to direct them who to buy and financially they took good care of me. After two and a half years, when Bob sold to Clear Channel, he gave me my agency back. 

 

We have eight agents. But what I say is for the amount of agents, we have more headliners per agent than anybody else. We’re a small agency, but we’re thriving.

 

I’m sure they’ve all been approached. We have a very talented group, but loyalty isn’t free. We take good care of our people and make sure they’re part of building the company and they’re part of creating the culture.

Well, Ron Burkle owns the business, Yucaipa owns the business. And with Ron you couldn’t ask for a better owner – you would never know with how hands-off Ron is. He’s an excellent supporter.

We have board calls once every three months and we share with Yucaipa what we’re doing. And then from time to time, we certainly engage them and their support. When Linkin Park was looking for support for their Music For Relief charity, Ron helped out. He’s stepped up for our artists and has been supportive of their causes. So having the financial resources of Ron Burkle has been very instrumental. Plus, he’s a big music fan. s