Darren Hill: Remembering Howie Klein

This continues our tributes and reminiscences about this site's founder Howie Klein. For others in this series, click on the tag "Howie" at the end of any of these posts.

Darren Hill has a multifaceted career in the music business as both an artist manager (Replacements, Paul Westerberg, Roky Erickson) and a rock and roll artist himself (Red Rockers, Raindogs). Red Rockers were one of the earliest and most successful 415 Records artists. Like all who knew Howie, Darren knows how much his life was enriched by the friendship.

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Remembering Howie Klein

by Darren Hill

My longtime friend and mentor Howie Klein shed this mortal coil on Christmas Eve. In the truest sense, he shed the physical skin that temporarily cloaked his soul. His spirit and energy transitioned to a higher plane to begin the next adventure. Somewhere we will never know or ever understand.

Howie was an ancient soul and lived this life on the highest level of mortal comprehension. He had a Lust for Life like I had never experienced and probably never will again. Sometimes it got him in trouble.

I first met Howie in San Francisco when my band literally landed unannounced on his doorstep in 1980. At the time Howie was an influential groundbreaking DJ on KUSF and had started a label called 415 Records. He was high atop the lively nascent punk and new wave scene in the city.

I had corresponded with him via letters and sent him a copy of our DIY single, naively thinking he might play it on his radio show and maybe help us get a gig. Not only did he play it - it soon reached the top of the station's playlist. Before I knew it, he had called my parents house and left a message with my mom to share the news and the order to “send as many copies of your single as you can.” From there he spread it to his friends around the country - soon to be legendary DJ’s, writers, and tastemakers in their own right.

We quit our jobs, pooled our savings, and headed to San Francisco. We defiantly told him we were not leaving until he signed us to 415. Eventually our persistence would pay off, but not until we drove him so crazy that he signed us just to get rid of us.

415 Records was headquartered in one room in his apartment in the Mission District, a kaleidoscope of ethnicity at that time. In a sea of strewn books, records, magazines, and papers there was one telephone which he constantly used to persuade others to play his records. I shadowed him when he would allow me to and relished every minute spent with him. I learned so much. Not just about the music business, but about worldly things, spirituality and things larger than life that I would carry with me.

Howie had traveled the World extensively. I was fascinated by his accounts of those surreal adventures, often told over an exotic meal financed by selling promo records to a used record store for cash. It was a ritual I will never forget. The best education I could ever receive.

After releasing our first record on 415, we followed him to Columbia Records for two more. When we parted ways professionally, we remained friends. He went on to run Sire Records at its creative peak, then became president of Warners/Reprise for several years.

Retiring from his career in music, Howie channeled his brilliance into Political Activism. He was a defender of free expression and battled the censorship of Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). He was a leader of the Rock The Vote campaign. He was honored twice with the Spirit of Liberty Awards from People for the American Way, one year sharing the honor with Rob Reiner. The ACLU presented him with their Bill of Rights Award.

Howie continued his activism until his final days. Writing for his blog ‘DownWithTyranny!’ and raising money for his Blue America PAC. In fact, I last spoke to him about a month ago when he wanted some help with a benefit auction for a congressional campaign in Minnesota.

Howie was the most influential man in my career and probably my life. I will miss him dearly. But I will never let the lessons he taught me go to waste.