Live Nation Senior Exec Calls Bob Lefsetz An “Asshole With A Computer”
(UPDATED) After it was reported that former Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino had gotten a 137% pay hike, music industry commentator Bob Lefsetz joined the chorus wondering how a company that's losing money and laying off staff can pay each of its top executives millions of dollars in bonuses. That drew an angry response from Live Nation's CEO of Global Music, Jason Garner, who in 2008 was #15 on Forbes Higherst Paid Under 40 list. Full text of Garner's emai to Lefsetz:
From: Jason Garner
Subject: Re: Live Nation CompensationPls print this – if you have the balls
You are an asshole with a computer. I can finally say what every relevant member of our industry thinks. I dare you to sit in michael rapino’s chair for one week – and then write your column. I dare you to do one thing, just one, that takes a risk to move our industry forward the way michael and irving have for their entire careers versus whining about the glory of the past and criticizing those who pour their hearts into our business today. I dare you, just once, to be on the other side of your cowardly, late night computer jabs and feel the way I’m sure nathan does right now after working 20 hours a day for the last five years. Until then you are a coward and a cynic and a man who never spent a day in the ring and is so bitter in his irrelevance that he takes shots at the guys who are actually doing something.
Ineptly yours,
Jason Garner
Looks like Garner is an asshole with a computer too.
Very interesting post. It gives new ideas!
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Not defending the corporate crime organization that is Live Nation, but Bob IS an asshole with a computer! Then again, he himself would probably agree with you!
Really, Aleksander? They still still utilize 90s internet marketing spam techniques where you come from?
Garner…. part of the Ticketmaster/Live Nation scam/cartel that totally rips off people with service fees and which gives kickbacks to bands on part of the service fees. I look forward to competitors undercutting Ticketmaster into oblivion… and to putting their total asshole CEO -Irving Azoff- known as the angriest midget in the business, out to pasture.
Eh… My first reaction is and was that this guy is an asshole, but we all know that this type of business has does better some years and less in others. They have contracts that they and their company agreed to that if the the company makes a certain amount, then they automatically get a bonus. This is capitalism and pure business through and through. Yes, it would have been nice of the ones getting these hefty bonuses would forego them for the sake of not putting certain employees out of work, but those employees also knew what they were getting into when they took their jobs. At the end of the day, we still live in a country that allows us the right to make as much money as we possibly can. Otherwise, we’d all be Communists. Don’t get me wrong, I think both have their good and bad sides. Now if Live Nation were going out of business or the heads were caught embezelling money, then I would be fully against them and think they were assholes, but their just playing the game like the rest of and we all know not to hate the playa…
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Oddly, he never disagreed with anything Bob said. He just resorted to name calling. Maybe Bob is an asshole, Jason may also be an asshole. I don’t this e-mail settles anything.
This should be settled the old fashioned way. 🙂
Wow, nice to see THIS asshole with a computer has the time and the inclination to vent off whiny, angry emails… frankly this response proves to me how close to home Lefsetz’s post must have it.
Didn’t Bob Lefsetz run Sanctuary Records into the ground?
Any former music executive who can’t get a job takes to the computer.
Too bad LiveNation stooped to Leftsetz’s level.
Insulting : the oldest form of flattery
Uh, Jason Garner hasn’t been with Live Nation since last November:
http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/83223/global-chief-jason-garner-is-out-at-live-nation
I used to think Lefsetz was a breath of fresh air, till I read a few of his columns and realized it was mostly hot air. His column ‘announcing’ the arrival of Spotify, around two years after its launch made for cringeable reading.
Lefsetz does trawl up the occasional interesting comment, but for the most part I agree with Garner. In the words of the godfather, he’s just: “Talking Loud, and saying nothing.”
LOL, great comment Don!
Yes indeed Lefsetz has his good days and his bad days, but at the end of any day, its just his opinion. The fact that his opinion has garnered this much attention speaks volumes about Lefsetz’s opinion. Does he really have a point?
…people have been saying that about Irving for 30 years… good luck with that… he’s got more money than God either way… what you got?
Yep. And guilty enough to feel he needs to explain something…., although I’m unclear exactly what that is 🙂