Lollapalooza co-founder Ted Gardner dies aged 74
Tributes have been paid to music manager and Lollapalooza co-founder Ted Gardner in the wake of his death aged 74.
Gardner, who managed acts such as Jane’s Addiction, Tool, The Verve, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Queens of the Stone Age, passed away in Melbourne in his native Australia following a long illness.
Beginning his career in 1977, Gardner partnered with Mushroom Records co-founders Michael Gudinski and Ray Evans to run the Bottom Line club in Richmond, Victoria, and went on to work in tour and production management for artists including New Order, The The, Echo & The Bunnymen and Crowded House.
He started managing Jane’s Addiction in 1989 and created the famed Lollapalooza festival in 1991 with the band’s frontman Perry Farrell and agents Marc Geiger and Don Muller.
“RIP Ted Gardner – our good times will live forever – love to you on your journey,” wrote Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins on Twitter.
We will miss a great manager, mentor and friend
“We will miss a great manager, mentor and friend,” tweeted Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre. “The funniest story he told me was of a meeting when Lollapalooza went mega. He walks in and Perry Farrell goes, ‘Ted, we got Metallica to headline.’ He goes ‘Fuck, you just wrecked this festival.’ Perry goes, ‘Ted, they are on speakerphone now.’ Telephone: ‘Hi Ted.'”
Gardner returned to Australia in 2007 after 25 years in Los Angeles, and founded Cross Section Management & Records with Scott Mesiti.
“Ted was a tough man with a good heart,” wrote musician Martyn LeNoble. “We butted heads quite a bit, maybe because he was trying to manage the unmanageable, but we still liked each other.”
“When I visited LA for the very first time in 2001, Ted was one of a handful of artist managers that gave me the time of day and took a meeting [with] me, a nobody in the music biz,” added artist manager Tim Smith. “Such a nice guy and big fan of many of his artists.”
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