Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Rupe founded Specialty Records, whose artists also included John Lee Hooker and Lloyd Price
Music executive Art Rupe, whose Specialty Records was a premier label during the formative years of rock’n’roll and helped launch the careers ofRupe, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011, died on Friday at his home in Santa Barbara, California, according to the Arthur N Rupe Foundation. The foundation did not release his cause of death.
In a 2011 interview for the hall of fame archives, Rupe explained that Little Richard had learned of Specialty through Price, sent a demo and for months called trying to find out if anyone had listened. He finally demanded to speak to Rupe, who dug out his tape from the reject pile. “Up that up to that point Bumps was having Little Richard just be a vocalist,” Rupe said. “The neck bone connected to the knee bone or something; his voice and his playing sort of gave it a lift.”
Rupe was known for how little he paid his artists and engaged in an exploitative practice common among label owners in the early rock era: having performers sign contracts leaving him with much or all of the royalties and publishing rights. Little Richard would sue him in 1959 for back royalties and settled out of court for $11,000.
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