How Pasquale Rotella Built His Rave Empire

The tough kid from the Palisades doesn't seem to be too worried.

He just married girlfriend Madison this week at Disneyland. A reported $50 million richer as a result of selling 50 percent of his company to Live Nation, Rotella has plans to move Insomniac's modern, black-walled offices from the east end of Melrose Avenue to Beverly Hills.

The nation's largest concert promoter is facing competition for the lucrative and growing EDM festival market and, as such, has been staking out turf with its checkbook.

PHOTO BY ERIK KABIK

Pasquale Rotella

PHOTO BY ERIK KABIK

Pasquale Rotella at Burning Man

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More About

• Pasquale Rotella
• Reza Gerami
• Todd DeStefano
• Insomnia
• Crime and Law

With EDC now part of the Live Nation family, Rotella is officially in bed with Gary Richards' HARD events, which was purchased last year by the concert giant. (In February Richards tweeted to Rotella, "Wonder twin powers activate.")

The buying spree pits Live Nation, the corporate grandchild of Bill Graham Presents, against Robert Sillerman's SFX Entertainment, which has snapped up rave company "Disco" Donnie Presents and European festival promoter ID&T. (L.A.'s AEG Live also is an EDM player, with one-off DJ concerts and a little thing called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.)

Pollstar's Bongiovanni says living with a publicly traded company could prove to be a challenge for an up-from-the-streets promoter like Rotella. "There's always pressure to make money when you're working for a public company," he says. "Before, it was just his wallet. Now he has other people to answer to."

In the introduction to rock promoter Bill Graham's posthumous autobiography, Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock and Out, co-author Robert Greenfield writes of Graham, "Rock was never a business. It was an ongoing war in which he did battle each and every day with not only egotistical rock stars and their self-centered managers, agents and lawyers but also Hell's Angels and any city official who dared stand in his way."

For Rotella, like his hero, music events can mean going to war. That's clear in his fight with the Coliseum — but also in his relationship with rival promoter (and fellow defendant in the Coliseum kickback case) Reza Gerami.

In 1998, when Rotella first got hard-earned access to the Sports Arena, he thought he was on top. But then the Coliseum events manager also offered a date at the venue to Gerami. Never mind that Gerami had known Rotella since he was a teen raver; the way Rotella tells it, Gerami elbowed Insomniac out of the Arena.

Rotella retreated to the Inland Empire, where Insomniac found a home at the National Orange Show fairgrounds.

"I ended up owning the Orange Show and he ended up being the Sports Arena guy," Rotella says.

Three years later, the two kissed and made up and double-teamed for one almighty New Year's Eve's party, aptly named Together As One. And after Gerami allegedly flubbed his shot at the Coliseum in 2005 with Independance, Rotella was in prime shape to take over that venue for EDC.

Then, in 2011 Rotella pulled out of the partnership with Gerami that was responsible for the annual Together As One. Soon, it seemed, Gerami's Go Ventures was shut out of the market: unable to book top DJs, unable to get decent venues, unable to cash in on the corporate gold rush.

By 2012 Gerami's parties were essentially finished in L.A.

"Reza's demise was his own doing," Rotella says. "He wasn't able to find venues after the Sports Arena."

For his part, Gerami says, "I don't think it's personal, where he elbowed me out. Business is business, and competition is competition."

In recent years, Rotella has embarked on a steady takeover of L.A.'s EDM club scene, wringing its neck like a boa constrictor. The expansion includes one-off DJ concerts at the Hollywood Palladium, a partnership with SBE Entertainment Group's new super-club Create, and regular weekend bookings at downtown club Exchange Los Angeles. One promoter, who asked not to be identified for fear of invoking the wrath of EDM's king, reports that the only way he can book big-name DJs is with Rotella's blessing.

Another promoter, who also declined to be identified, says that Rotella reached out to metaphorically slap his hand for handing out a competitor's fliers at one of Insomniac's SoCal parties this summer. A no-no in '92 is still a no-no in the corporate world of festivals today. And Rotella is not afraid to be a micromanager.

"I don't like when people attack me," Rotella says. "I can be fierce."

He adds, "I don't like confrontation. But I am never going to stop what I'm doing when my life is on the line. I do have business sense. It's because of my upbringing. I wasn't given toys. I grew up with parents who had nothing and wanted to start businesses. I'm very strategic. I want to protect what I do."

Rotella denies any attempt to dominate the local market, saying he only does the local shows because they "just kind of fall into my lap." Underlings handle those bookings, Rotella says, while he focuses on EDC.

He describes his company's signature event as "fulfilling people's fantasies." To that end, he says the Live Nation deal won't change his events — he retains creative control. "I have some big things I want to accomplish. I'm not even close yet."