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Russ Thyret, Record Label Executive Who Signed Prince, Dead at 76 Russ Thyret, a former top executive at Warner Bros. Records and the man who signed Prince to the label, has died at the age of 76. Warner Bros. was the only label Thyret worked for across his 30 year career. He started with the company in 1971, working as a sales rep before steadily making his way up the ranks. He was head of promotion in 1976 when Owen Husney, a musician and former ad agency founder, called to let Thyret know about a new prodigy he was managing: Prince. “I always knew that I was gonna go to Warners. They wer...

It’s hard to fathom today, but in the 1960s and '70s, many record companies weren’t run by corporate boards, faceless businessmen, and bean counters. There were charismatic leaders installed in positions of power, real “music men” who could catch a new band or one of their established acts at a club or concert hall, party with them until the wee hours, then show up at the office the next morning for a finance meeting — and do it all again. Larger-than-life execs with names known only to music heads and liner note readers included Ahmet Ertegun, Walter Yetnikoff, Jerry Wexler, Al Be...

Former Warner Bros. Records Chairman/CEO Russ Thyret Dies at 76 Roy Trakin, provided by FacebookTwitterEmail Variety has learned. He was 76. Over the course of his 30-year career with the label, Thyret climbed the ranks from sales, marketing and promotions posts — eventually heading all three departments — culminating in a run as chairman/CEO from 1995 to 2001. Warner was the only record company Thyret ever worked for. More from Variety The famously bald and bearded executive signed Prince to the label (after being brought a demo by his then-manager Owen Husney and local Minneapolis prom...

And it would change rock forever.

Simon, of course, went on to release a slew of Hot 100 top 10 hits (including the chart-topping classic "You're So Vain" in 1972) and critically acclaimed albums, furthering her place as one of the leading voices of the ‘70s, and a guiding light for similarly candid yet heart-smashing artists to come: Tori Amos, Natalie Maines and Taylor Swift, the last of whom even brought Simon out for a live performance of her signature No. 1 hit in 2013. Flash forward to 2021, and there's now Olivia Rodrigo’s world-beating smash, “driver’s license,” where much of the song’s mystique is steepe...