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Tag: David Spero

connecTed with David Spero, Founder and President at DSM Inc.

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Ted Cohen with David Spero

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David Spero is a living rock and roll, and music industry legend. His incredible career begins at the early age of 13 working as a cue card holder for his father Herman's Upbeat TV show, and evolved over the next 57 years, with his accomplishments forever etched into our daily lives and culture.

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David Spero's career plays out like a movie, where the character progresses through the story always biting off more than they can chew ultimately overcoming all odds; except David seemed to do it with grace, humility, and enthusiasm.

During his time at Upbeat TV, which was broadcasted in over 100 cities from 1964-1971, David entered the world of radio broadcasting in 1968 (at the age of 17) at WXEN-FM in Cleveland, OH. FM radio was only emerging at the time, and David quickly established himself as a top disc jockey with stints at WNCR, WMMS, M105 and WNCX. Even after breaking away from radio, he would later be inducted into the Radio and TV Hall of Fame in 2004. It was because of radio, David ended up rubbing elbows with some of rock'n roll's most prominent artists. During his time at WMMS David's good friend Joe Walsh (The Eagles) came and played David, Michael Stanley's new record, insisting he manage him.

David Spero sitting in front of his wall of accomplishments.

David recalls during an interview with WNCX, "Joe Walsh says listen you gotta manage this guy, you're not going to be a disc jockey when you're 30?! I was 19 at the time, and I'm like ya you're probably right, but I don't know how to do that. Joe said to come out to LA and hang with my manager and he'll teach you the ropes, and then you'll manage Michael, and that way you can manage me! Then both of those things happened."

David goes on to recall highlights throughout his 50 year relationship with Michael Stanley, from opening up for the Eagles, to selling out 10,000 seat stadiums in St. Louis, to sharing the stage with legends like Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Cheap Trick, Ted Nugent, ACDC, and many more. The most notable soundbite from the interview was when David spoke about his most cherished Michael Stanley memorabilia, the 50-60 letters Michael wrote him over the years, and he saved all of them.

When speaking about the letters, David tells WNCX, "As much as he could write a song from the heart, he certainly could write a letter from the heart."

His career evolved into artist management. David Spero Management was formed in 1973 steering the career of Michael Stanley and producer Bill Szymczyk (Eagles, Who, Bob Seger etc) as well as Father Guido Sarducci from Saturday Night Live.

After long tours, being newly married, and missing radio, David returned to Cleveland's M105-FM (now WMJI), but something felt off. Radio no longer had the same appeal it did when David first got into it. Radio had become more corporate, pushing David to look for another career change.

He would go on to work at Columbia Pictures accepting a job as Managing Director/Midwest for Columbia/Tri Star Pictures. He coordinated the regional releases of such pictures as ‘Ghostbusters’, ‘The Natural’, ‘Tootsie’, and ‘Gandhi’ during his tenure.

As a musician myself, no matter how many times I leave the industry, I somehow always find myself back in it! This is exactly what happened to David in 1990, when Joe Walsh asked him to to manage his career. He would round out his roster with other artists such as Harry Nilsson, Vanilla Ice, Eric Carmen and Ian Hunter.

During an interview on Vintage Sound 93.1 FM's Tony Tone Show, David was interviewed about his history and relationship with Glenn Frey (The Eagles). One of incredibly serendipitous events for David, and perhaps the wildest takeaway from the interview was David talking about how The Eagle's "When Hell Freezes Over" tour, came to fruition.

David Spero in the middle, with Glenn Frey (left) and Joe Walsh (right) from The Eagles.

David recalls during the interview, "I was managing Joe Walsh, and I hadn't talked to Glenn since The Eagles had broken up, and out of nowhere one day he gives me a call. I'm in Cleveland, there's a restaurant here I would always take The Eagles to, and he was about to come through with his band, and Glenn says "I want to take the band to that restaurant we'd always go to."

He shows up and he was unaware that I was working with Walsh, he didn't have very nice things to say about him, and I told him we didn't have kind things to say about him either. It turned out we were both getting some disinformation. The Walsh Frey Tour started two months after that."

The tour was 40+ dates, and then one day Irzing Azoff (The Eagles Manager, Don Henley's at the time) gave David a call.

David tells Tony Tone, "Azoff calls me and said Don wants to come and join a show, we were doing a fundraiser for one of Glenn's charities out in Aspen, that's when Don showed up. That night the three of them stayed up all night and talked about what it would take, and the next morning I get a call from Glenn letting me know there's a car waiting for me downstairs, I asked what's going on, and he told me to just get in the car. I arrive to Glenn's place and he's pacing back and forth with a glass of wine in one hand and a joint in the other, and he points to a pad and he says start writing, and I started writing what I titled The Glenn Commandments. It would end up being the outline for the contract that would bring them all together for the Hell Freezes Over Tour."

You read that correctly, David was the driving force in getting The Eagles back together in 1994.

The rigors of touring took their toll and in 2000, Spero ‘retired’ and accepted the position of Vice President of Programming and Education at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In this position, Spero produced the successful MTV show “Live At The Rock Hall” which aired for two seasons and featured the first TV appearances of such artists as Linkin Park, John Meyer, Godsmack, Avril Lavigne and Alicia Keyes.

But again, antsy for that Rock and Roll lifestyle, David Spero Management was back in business in 2003 representing the careers of Billy Bob Thornton, Hall of Famers Dickey Betts and Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Buffalo Springfield, Survivor, Nelson, Don Felder, JD Souther and The Funk Brothers. After adding Richie Furay as a client, Spero helped put together the Buffalo Springfield reunion tour. Spero is currently working with Bad Co., John Fogerty, Patty Smyth, Jesse Colin Young, The Empty Pockets and Hearty Har.

David, 70, is a former (and original) member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Board of Directors. He lives in South Euclid Ohio with his wife, Ellen, of 43 years. They have a son Adam who is a graduate of John Carroll University.

Don't miss what's going to be an extraordinary interview, grab your calendar reminder.

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