Remembering Seymour Stein: Sire Records Chief Recounts Signing Madonna From His Hospital Bed

When the history of the record industry is written, Seymour Stein will feature on page one.

The U.S. music man, who died last Sunday (April 2), at the age of 80, was a towering figure in the music business, a game-changer who signed the likes of Madonna, Talking Heads, The Ramones and many others.

Without his dynamite ears and insatiable appetite to find the next hot thing, the contemporary music world wouldn’t look or sound the same.

Following his passing, Madonna remembered the Sire Records founder as “one of the most influential men in my life!! He changed and shaped my world.”

In this article from the archives, The Music Network revisits an interview with Stein, conducted over the phone from his London flat in February 2011.

Just prior to the interview, Stein had enjoyed lunch with Ed Victor who represented Keith Richards and many others on their book deals, “exploring possibility of my writing one.”

Stein takes us for several trips down memory lane, including a special retelling of the time he signed Madonna from his hospital bed, his friendship with Michael Gudinski, and shares his prescient understanding of the Chinese and Indian music markets. 

TMN: Seymour, what’s keeping you busy?
Stein: Sire Records. I’m visiting London to look at a couple of unsigned bands. I’m still doing what I’ve always done — looking for new talent.

Among other things. I’m also trying to develop new markets, which I think is very important for the future. Particularly India and China. (There are) 400 million English speakers in India.

And it’s also the largest English language daily newspaper, The Times of India. It’s got a lot going for it.

China does too. They pick up on what’s going on in America, and they’ve got some really good bands who are bubbling below the surface.

Do you think the world is ready for bands from China and India?
I think they will be, yes.

The way Bollywood music is changing, it’s sort of the way Broadway music changed after Hair in the ’60s.

Hair was the first rock musical. It was originally shunned by Broadway, it couldn’t get a theatre to open it. It opened in a discotheque. I was there the night it opened. I remember being thrilled by the number of songs I thought could be hits. Many of them went on to be hits.

Bollywood music is moving also to a mainstream market that could eventually go global.

You’re a regular visitor to these parts.
I have a great fondness for Australia and get there generally at least once, sometimes twice a year.

“Pushbike Song” by the Mixtures produced by David Mackay and Roger Savage was Sire’s first top 40 single in America and early signings included Australian bands The Saints and Radio Birdman, both ARIA Hall of Famers.

I saw Molly and Gudinski at the Brits. Go back with both of them a long time. Michael Parisi I rate as Australia’s best A&R men and one of the best in the world. I am meant to be going back to speak at his Dream Academy in Melbourne in a few months.

What for the future of A&R? Is it essential these days to trawl the Net, searching for artists?
I spend time on it, but not as much as other people. It’s a very good way to hear new things. But I still like seeing bands live.

I don’t think that A&R is that much different now. I could be wrong. I think the song still is the main ingredient. There are many other things too. But without the repertoire, and without great songs… It was about songs then, and its about songs now.

You look at bands like The Temper Trap who I first saw at Musexpo, it was their songs. And the lead singer’s voice of course. The type of music has changed, but its still about great songs.

The Internet helps whet my appetite but I like to see them live, though.

Is it still a word-of-mouth game?
Yeah, if I hear about a band from someone who is credible. And fortunately I know a lot of those people, then yes, it will make me want to hear more.

Would it still be possible to sign acts today that do not break with the first album?
I hope not. Some of the bands I’ve worked with over the years took quite a long time to happen. Some of the best of them.

The Ramones took a very long time, and now 30 years on they’re more popular than they’ve ever been.

The tragedy is that three of the original members are dead (Tommy Ramone, the fourth and final member, died after this interview, in 2014).

I was just at the Grammys, they were given a lifetime achievement award.

Depeche Mode is a good example. They’d started doing well in the U.K., they were on their original label Mute, Daniel Miller’s label, who co-produced all their records and still works closely with the band. In America it took longer. It wasn’t until about the third album.

Talking Heads grew with every album, but it wasn’t until the third album that they started to happen. It happens a lot.

As I remember, Bruce Springsteen’s first album got a lot of attention, but he didn’t really break until a bit later on.

Artists should definitely have a certain amount of time to develop. It’s a lot harder these days, mainly right now because the business, record sales are shrinking every year.

Physical sales are going down at a rate much greater than digital is increasing.

Yourself, myself, Jerry Wexler and Clive Calder, we’ve all worked at Billboard.
Jerry Wexler was some years before me. That was very interesting because Jerry and I had the same mentor there, Paul Ackerman, the magazine’s legendary music editor and the first journalist inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame.

There’s only been one other, and that’s Jann Wenner from Rolling Stone.

Ahmet (Ertegun) came to Paul Ackerman after his partner at the time, Herb Abramson, the original guy at Atlantic Records, was drafted into the army.

He said, “do you have any idea where I can find somebody to run the company?” Paul said, “look no further than Jerry Wexler” and he hired him.

Billboard back in those days was the bible of the music business. I met so many people up there, because they’d come to have their records reviewed.

A great review in Billboard would mean automatic sales to jukebox operators, who were looking for tips on what records to put in the boxes. They couldn’t wait until the record hit the charts. By then it was too late.

Does Billboard mean as much to you now as it did then?
I don’t know what it means to the industry, but it will always have a place in my heart.

I started my career at Billboard, age 14, working for Noonan, the legendary chart editor, and Ackerman.

It shaped what I became. Syd Nathan at King Records, Jerry Wexler, Ahmet, George Goldner at Roulette Records, these were people I met up in Billboard. Leonard Chess from Chess Records. It was quite amazing.

I worked in the Tim White era. I spoke with him the day he passed away.
It was very tragic. He went out to lunch and never came back. No one ever knew there was anything wrong with him.

You also have a heart problem.
Yes, I did. Not as serious as what he had. I had a murmur at birth.

It didn’t affect me until around when I discovered Madonna.

I was in hospital when I signed her. Mark Kamins, a DJ at the time in New York and around the country, wanted to make records and I gave him some money to try to find artists and make demos.

Not the first thing he (visited) me, but the second or third was with Madonna.

Just the one song intrigued me. I asked her to come to my hospital, and we did the deal right in the hospital. My barber came and gave me a haircut and shaved me.

She (my PA) brought me pajamas, a bathrobe.

I was connected to all these tubes, but I didn’t want to look like I was about to croak.

Madonna, fortunately for me, was at least as anxious perhaps more, to be signed, so she could move forward, than I was to sign her.

So it went very well. And the deal was concluded right there in the hospital.

There’s a new album coming out apparently. And there’s a tour in the works. So Madonna’s back in Vogue.
She’s never to be underestimated. I think she will just go on and on and on. She stays on top of what’s going on and she’s well ahead of the curve.

You’re about to be named as International Music Person of the Year at Musexpo. What will be the Hot Topics at this year’s event?
What I’d like to see is that we focus on bringing international…there are so many countries besides the ones I’m focused on, which are India and China, but Brazil and Turkey, Indonesia. Countries that are booming, while the rest of us in the old world are struggling.

Clearly the 21st century belongs to Asia. That means, not just business but arts and music.

That’s to a large degree where our salvation lies.

But also countries like Brazil. That’s going to be one of the big powerhouse countries. It is already, and it’s just going to keep getting bigger and bigger.

There’s music everywhere. The heart of the world that perhaps contributes most today, the United States, the U.K., Australia and Canada. That wasn’t the case 100 years ago. When what has now become classical music, was the rage. It was Germany, Berlin, Vienna Austria. St Petersburg, Milan, Paris. Those were the world centres of music. They do change.

The more we can add on, and get into the mix, the better it will be.

A third of the world’s population live in India or China. The diaspora is growing as well. That’s something that should be discussed.

But we should never forget to discuss the music itself. Because the quality and the commerciality and the strength of music is vital.

A lot of music has been coming from leftfield, which is a wonder thing. Mumford and Sons, Temper Trap. Bands that are out of the ordinary.

You shouldn’t be looking for the same old, same old. That’s what’s good about Musexpo. It gives you the opportunity to explore new music live right in front of you.

From my right: Peter Jenner (manager of Billy Bragg, former manager of Pink Floyd), Jonathan Poneman (co-founder Sub Pop, signed Nirvana), Seymour Stein (Sire Records chairman, signed Madonna and the Ramones), Stephen Peach (former CEO of ARIA) and Marcus Seal (former MD of Shock Group).

Have you signed anything you’ve seen at Musexpo?
No

Is it good for contacts?
It’s very good. I find it to be a great source of new music. I was the first person to believe in The Temper Trap.

But I couldn’t convince folks at Warners. I don’t like signing bands where their backup and support isn’t that strong. 20 years ago it didn’t bother me because we could do it, we had three albums to convince (the label) and break them.

These days you’ve got to have the whole team behind you.

You’ve had some incredible signings? Are your bands like your children, or do you have any favourites?
I might have favourites, but I never disclose them. It’s just not right.

When I found out I was being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, people started urging me to get Madonna to induct me. I wouldn’t do it.

I reached all the way back. My second job after Billboard I went to work for King Records, and I have a lifelong friendship with James Brown and some of the other artists – Hank Ballard, the guy who originally wrote and performed “The Twist.”

I asked James to induct me, and he wasn’t well at the time. He thought me might have cancer, which wasn’t what he died from.

In the end, Ice-T inducted me. He was so unlike any other artist who was on Sire.

It’s very hard to chose among them. I love them all.