Q&A: Sire's Stein still a reigning champion of music

By Ed Christman

NEW YORK (Billboard) - From studying the charts while working at Billboard as a teen to soaking up the sounds of the Bowery while punk was exploding, Seymour Stein, co-founder of Sire Records, has spent his life immersed in music.

"He is probably the greatest living storyteller of the music business," Tommy Boy Entertainment founder Tom Silverman says. "He not only knows the B-sides of every record no matter how obscure, but he knows stories behind every one of them, especially from the 1950s to 1970s."

At the age of 14, Stein's first music industry job was as assistant to Billboard head of charts Tom Noonan. Soon he was working for legendary labels like King Records and Red Bird Records. By 1968 he and Richard Gottehrer paired to form Sire Productions, which evolved into the label of the same name. (The name was a combination and reordering of the first two letters of each man's first name.)

The company licensed bands in the first part of the 1970s, but things really jelled in the second half, when Stein signed the Ramones. Sire ultimately became the most successful punk/new wave label in the United States, if not the world. Along the way, Gottehrer and Stein split amicably, and by 1977, Sire was affiliated with Warner Music Group, where it remains today.

Sire has issued records by Talking Heads, Richard Hell & the Void-Oids, the Dead Boys, the Paley Brothers, the Rezillos, the Undertones, the Pretenders, Madness, Secret Affair, English Beat, Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, Plastic Betrand, the Saints, M/Robin Scott, Yaz, Modern English, Aztec Camera, Jonathan Richman, the Cure, the Cult and Brian Wilson. If that didn't ensure Stein's place in history, he also signed Madonna.

Q: How did music come into your life so early, and how did you wind up at Billboard?

Seymour Stein: "I used to listen to the radio under the pillow. I went up to Billboard when I was 13, and Tom Noonan was very kind and set up a table for me and let me read through the bound volumes of old issues.

"I attracted a lot of attention: 'Who was this crazy kid?' they wondered. Tom introduced me to all the people at Billboard, and in particular Paul Ackerman (the magazine's music editor from 1943-73) was very influential on me and on the industry. I also was very impressed by Bob Rolontz, who was one of the best reporters Billboard ever had.