Bliss Factory

Rick was hired by Goldenvoice founder Gary Tovar in 1985 to handle publicity, but quickly switched to booking, a post he shared with Paul Tollett, with whom he became business partners following Tovar’s arrest on drug-distribution charges; Tovar signed over the company name to his young protégés in March 1991. For more than a decade, it was a roller-coaster ride of highs and lows: The two went through fire and water to remain independent before the business went down in a blaze of artistic glory with the self-financed founding of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in 2000; although its first year was a financial bloodbath, the event was hailed as an artistic smash. Goldenvoice was sold to Anschutz Entertainment Group in 2001, and at long last Rick could enjoy booking without having to worry about the company’s tumultuously fluctuating bank balance. He told me days before his death that his pride and joy of 2003 was the All Tomorrow’s Parties event at the Queen Mary, which hadn’t been much of a moneymaker but had been creatively satisfying.

Rick’s biggest legacy was the value he put on friendship. It was Rick who sent post cards from his travels to and from Las Vegas, Alaska and Hawaii, where he pioneered rock venues; it was Rick who organized parties and funeral memorials, who used his Lakers and Kings season tickets to make sure all his friends got to see at least a couple of ball games a year, and who fostered a sense of community in a notoriously thankless business.

“We didn’t need to call band managers a lot of the time,” recalls Tollet. “Rick already knew everybody in all the bands on a personal basis. It was all about relationships with Rick.”

He is survived by his parents, Diane and Robert, and sister, Patty. A memorial gathering will be held at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Saturday, January 10, at 11 a.m.

—Brendan Mullen