Jerry Moss has died aged 88.
Moss co-founded A&M Records in 1962 with Herb Alpert, who worked with musical giants including The Police, The Carpenters, Bryan Adams and Janet Jackson.
For his services to the music industry, he was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame in 2006 alongside his business partner Alpert.
Moss died at his home in Bel Air, California today, according to a statement by his family to .
‘They truly don’t make them like him anymore and we will miss conversations with him about everything under the sun,’ it read.
‘The twinkle in his eyes as he approached every moment ready for the next adventure.’
Speaking of their successful business model Moss simply said: ‘We wanted people to be happy.’
‘You can’t force people to do a certain kind of music. They make their best music when they are doing what they want to do, not what we want them to do,’ he told The New York Times.
New York-born Moss also told Artist House Music, they had gratitude for their artists.
‘Every once in a while a record would come through us and Herbie would look at me and say, “What did we do to deserve this, that this amazing thing is going to come out on our label?”‘
A&M Records – a company that was originally run from Alpert’s garage – was purchased by PolyGram in 1989 for a reported $500 million (£393 million).
They remained as managers until 1993, before becoming frustrated with the constant pressure to force the label to fit into a corporate culture. They sued PolyGram for 200 million dollars (£157 million) for violating their contract’s integrity.
Moss and Alpert left and founded Almo Sounds, which worked with artists Garbage and Ozomatli.
In 2020, Moss and his wife Tina made the largest single contribution ever made to The Music Center Moss in Los Angeles, when they donated $25,000,000.
As well as music, Moss was passionate about horse racing. He was a longtime horse breeder and owner. In 2011, he was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Moss is survived by wife, Tina Morse, whom he married in 2019, and three children.
