Photo Credit: Joel Katz, courtesy of the Katz family
Powerful longtime music attorney Joel Katz, whose clients included James Brown, B.B. King, Willie Nelson, and the Recording Academy, has passed away. He was 80 years old.
Joel Katz was the founding chairman of the entertainment and media practice at top law firm Greenberg Traurig, and was heavily involved in the Recording Academy and Country Music Association. He negotiated major deals for both. Katz represented artists like James Brown, Willie Nelson, Michael Jackson, and Senator Orrin Hatch, and oversaw the $300 million purchase of Big Machine Records by Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in 2018.
No cause of death was cited, but reports say he died “peacefully at home, with his wife Rikki by his side.”
Katz spent decades as one of the most high-powered attorneys in the music business, where he negotiated the Recording Academy’s $600 million 10-year agreement with CBS for the Grammys. That deal ends next year, as the Grammys move to their new home at Disney. He was also a prominent figure in Michael Jackson’s estate’s $750 million sale of its stake in Sony/ATV Publishing.
He resigned from Greenberg Traurig at the end of 2020 and was nominally retired. But he continued his work as a top-level player for artists like Justin Timberlake, Jimmy Buffett, George Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Jamie Foxx, George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, and Faith Hill, as well as the Recording Academy and numerous executives.
In 2016, he was honored with the City of Hope’s Spirit of Life Award, joining such prominent figures as Irving Azoff, Coran Capshaw, and Lucian Grainge.
“The architect is gone, but the blueprint he left behind — of boldness and belief in his clients — will shape this industry forever,” said longtime client Jason Owen, CEO of The Sandbox. “Joel was my friend, my champion, and a once-in-a-lifetime force. He believed in me before I believed in myself. I will miss his laugh, his wit, and his ability to bill me back for 15 minute conversations. I loved him like family and will miss him every single day.”
Part of the Northside Parkway in Atlanta is known as Joel Katz Parkway due to his contributions to the state of Georgia as an Atlanta resident. At the University of Georgia campus at Kennesaw State University, he launched a commercial music program that now includes over 500 students. He also led philanthropic endeavors in education and in cancer research.
Katz worked extensively with programs like the Recording Academy’s Grammy in the Schools Program, the Atlanta Downtown Partnership’s Music Industry Symposium, and many lectures and panels for the Entertainment and Sports Industry Forum of the ABA, and the Entertainment and Sports Law Section of the State Bar of Georgia. In February 2024, he was honored with a Recording Academy Trustee Award in recognition of his contributions to the field of recording.
Content shared from www.digitalmusicnews.com.