Ira blacker: A life in rock & Roll

My name is Ira Blacker, and this site is built around two core parts of my life: my rock and roll memoir and my experiences in the music business. Everything here comes from a life lived inside that world, not from the outside looking in.

Before there was any music business, there was my upbringing, one that shaped how I saw people, trust, and survival. That part of my story is just as important as anything that came later. From there, I moved into a world most people only see from a distance, and the reality behind it is often very different from the image.

Over the last few years, with this one finding me at the ripe old age of 83, I have been fortunate to be very fit and healthy, minus the usual skeletal aches and pains, as if it were the horror version of the movie “Groundhog Day.” As I wake up each day, I feel like that Halloween skeleton you are familiar with, but with inflamed joints. Bone touching bones is never fun. But still, thank G-d for being the “gym rat” that I was and still am for most of my adult life. Eating very healthy, mostly organic foods, with proper supplements, and junk foods are not part of my diet. 

Thus, as I age, and may G-d bless me with more of the same, I seem to question more and more my past and my actions during that time. What I also find interesting is that, since I completed my music memoir, “Once A King, Now A Prince,” and now have the additional requirement of writing for this website, I have been asking myself the same question repeatedly: How did I get here?

I think all of us, as we age, ask ourselves: “How did we get here?” In my case, I have been thinking not just about how, but also about which occurrences and behaviors, both my own and those directed at me, have enabled me to become exactly who I am today. More to the point, why did I make the decisions I made in life that led me to this very day? As many lives led, this does not come to fruition in my memoir until late in the book. 

The eventual result of all of this was that I craved attention. I wanted to be in the spotlight, and there was even a part of me that envied the attention my sister received from my deeply dysfunctional father throughout his life, and I wanted the same. My father always preached his “worker’s mantra,” that “I should get a job and make that ‘steady seventy-five cents an hour,’ and be happy with just being a cog in the wheel of life. I listened for a New York Minute (thirty seconds), and when the opportunity arose, I jumped at it. I loved the rock and roll of the time, and when my college fraternity gave up on running a dance, my friend Larry and I jumped in and took over the project. I will never forget that look on my father’s face; however begrudgingly it may have been to show when he saw over a thousand kids pile into our dance. The die was cast. I finally found the attention I was seeking. I became the master of ceremonies for all the shows, including a successful stint in stand-up comedy. The rest is in my music memoir.

So, in answer to my question, “How did I get here?” All of the above is how.

Upon graduation from Hofstra University with a BA in Speech, “I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse.” I went to work for Joe Glazer, a former Capone mobster and lieutenant who founded Associated Booking Corporation, where I “rocked and rolled” for a living. Once there, my first two signings were Rod Stewart & Faces and Savoy Brown. Upon Joe’s death, I established my agency, American Talent International, which eventually became a major one, representing notable artists such as Rod Stewart, ZZ Top, The Eagles, Deep Purple, and many more.

CAA later purchased American Talent International. Following my departure from ATI, I became a music business personal manager, representing artists such as Kraftwerk, Ronny Laws, Wayne Henderson, and The Jazz Crusaders, among others.

Following my years at the top of the music industry, I founded two additional successful businesses: a commercial printing company, Printing By Design, and an online antique clock business, ValuableClocks, which I still own and operate today.

I later honed my writing skills over two decades as a blogger, with one of my blogs featured by The Times of Israel. I am also referenced in numerous books and articles involving artists such as Kiss, Rush, and Kraftwerk.

My life, as you will discover in this memoir, was one hell of a ride.