"I am definitely cheering them on. I am behind them 100 percent. And I suspect that, for the time being, Monaco Parkway [where Clear Channel's Denver offices are located] is going to get a lot kinder and gentler all of a sudden, which is nice for everyone," Fey says, smiling. "Hopefully, when something like this happens, it can be a kind of wake-up call to those few people over there who still have any sense left. Like, let's dispense with the bullshit and do some business, like we're supposed to. We're in the business of bringing music to people, not fucking each other around.
"Unfortunately, I think that's what Jesse and those guys have been saying for a while, and no one has listened. So finally, they'd had enough with all of it, and they're going to court. I don't see it as some particularly brave thing that they've done. What choice did they have? They are just trying to save their business. They have nothing to lose at this point. When someone hates you, when someone is out to get you, you have nowhere to go but up."
John Johnston
Barry Fey circa 1972, with Roger Daltrey of the Who.
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But for Fey, a NIPP victory over Clear Channel would certainly offer personal as well as professional satisfaction. He tends to view each move by his competitor as a potential strike against him, a deliberate attempt to undermine his ability to do business. That Neil Diamond thing, for example. Clear Channel, he says, made a dauntingly high bid to bring Diamond to the Pepsi Center, effectively trying to force Fey out of the negotiations. "It was fucking blatant," he says. "From what I gathered, they were offering 100 percent of the gross plus half of the insides. I don't know if they wanted to make a point or discourage me early on. Here's an artist I personally helped to develop. Everything we built, they want to buy."
And then there's Clear Channel's recent partnership with the Pepsi Center, one that gives the company preferential booking. "It's insidious and impossible," Fey says. "Here's how it goes now. I call Gene [Felling, general manager of the Pepsi Center] and say, 'Gene, do you have this date open?' He says no. Click. Then he gets on the phone to Chuck, because now he is essentially an employee of Clear Channel. He says, 'Chuck, Barry's looking to book on such-and-such. Who do you think he's bidding on?' Which tips Chuck off to everything I'm working on. Before you know it, they've got a higher bid out for my act. It's getting to the point where I'm almost ready to say, 'Hey, you either give me a chance to compete, or we'll join Jesse in another lawsuit.'"
But Fey's dead wrong if he thinks Clear Channel is making any moves just for the sake of showing him up, responds Morris.
"It's all about the bottom line," Morris says. "I'm not in the business of impressing people with putting a name on the front of the marquee for any reason other than that it is a financially sound thing to do. We're not going to do it to impress anybody or scare anybody -- or just to prove that we can.
"I think it's rather funny to see a man who controlled a town in a certain way to respond this way when he now faces competition. It's hard for me to say bad things about a guy who gave me a chance to really break in and develop my career, but I also find it deeply insulting that he would even dare to say that the way we do business is without any heart or soul. It's not just myself and my company. It's Doug and Jesse, and the people at the Fox Theatre and the Gothic Theatre and everyone who has been doing unbelievably hard work, killing ourselves, to bring music to this town. For him to say that heart and soul left when he did is unbelievably egomaniacal."
Fey has never denied that he has an ego. That's one of his strengths. And while he focuses on building House of Blues's strengths, he's getting back in touch with his own. "Bill Graham once told me I'm the greatest promoter who ever lived," he says. "My approach has always been to promote not concerts, but events. People want music, they want heroes. Let's give that to 'em. Let's give them a huge fucking fireworks show. You give me any event in the world, and I can figure out a way to make it better. That's always been what I've done best.
"I'm just praying that they're all going to leave me alone so I can do it again."
