Bruce Springsteen inducts Jimmy Iovine into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
On Saturday, Bruce Springsteen recalled some of Jimmy Iovine’s greatest moments while inducting the engineer turned producer turned executive into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He also had the honour of presenting his “little brother” with the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
Springsteen first met Iovine when he was the “skinny Italian kid” responsible for swapping the tape on the reel to reel. During a heartfelt speech, the singer-songwriter spoke of watching Iovine’s illustrious career take shape, noting that he “never took off his fan shoes”.
Iovine was responsible for convincing Springsteen to give his unfinished composition ‘Because The night’ to a New York punk outfit called the Patti Smith Group in 1978. “With Jimmy’s guidance, Patti turns ‘Because The Night’ into a huge Top Five hit record,” Springsteen recalled. “Something that I could never have done, because I didn’t have the guts to turn it into a love song … Jimmy knows great songs and he knows who can sing them. He has one of the greatest guts for talent is one of the greatest sponges for learning I’ve ever met.”
Springsteen also observed Iovine’s talent as an executive and entrepreneur: “Jimmy misses nothing. […] Trust your artists. Let them know. Hire the best people. Give them the reins. Don’t be intimidated by talent. Recognizing her talent is your talent. Jimmy is brave and smart. He turned his relationship with the great Dr. Dre into one of the greatest and most valuable partnerships in the music business. He trusted Dre’s vision and he recognized the power of hip-hop and its ability to conquer the culture.”
He continued: “He tells me he told Dre, ‘We shouldn’t make sneakers, we should make speakers!’ So they did. They made millions of them. Jimmy has the intelligence, the art, the soul, and the trust to understand his artists, to put them first, and to put the business of music in its proper perspective. It isn’t rocket science, except for the fact that pretty much no one else was doing it the way he did.”
Concluding, Springsteen asked: “What does Jimmy know? Jimmy knew everything important. So, Jim, all I can say is [unintelligible]. Congratulations, little brother. Welcome to the Hall of Fame.”
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