Seymour Stein, the co-founder of Sire Records, has passed away at the age of 80.
He succumbed to cancer on Sunday, April 2, in Los Angeles, as per a statement from his family.
Stein made significant contributions to the careers of artists including Madonna and the rock band Talking Heads during his tenure as a record executive.
He was also the co-founder of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005.
The New York City native spent his teenage summers working at Cincinnati-based King Records, which also played a role in launching the career of James Brown. Stein established Sire Productions, which later evolved into Sire Records, by his mid-20s.”
He held a deep passion for music and had an extensive knowledge and appreciation of it, fueled by his childhood obsession with the Billboard music charts.
During the New Wave era in the 1970s and 1980s, he signed record deals with bands like the Talking Heads, the Ramones, and the Pretenders.
According to Talking Heads manager Gary Kurfirst, “Seymour’s taste in music is always a couple of years ahead of everyone else’s.”
Stein gained particular fame for discovering Madonna in the early 1980s after listening to her demo tape.
In his memoir “Siren Song,” he expressed his fondness for Madonna’s voice, feel, and name, and revisited her tape multiple times.
Among the other notable names signed by Sire were Ice T, the Smiths, Depeche Mode, the Replacements, Echo and the Bunnymen, Lou Reed, and Brian Wilson.
Stein’s marriage to record promoter and real estate executive Linda Adler in the 1970s ended in divorce. They had two children, filmmaker Mandy Stein and Samantha Lee Jacobs, who passed away from brain cancer in 2013.
After his divorce, Stein publicly came out as gay and did not remarry.
Mandy Stein expressed her gratitude for the time spent with her father and the positive impact his music had on people’s lives.
