Rainmakers 2020, our latest collection profiling top players in the biz, is due in Q4. To mark its impending arrival, we offer this classic excerpt from our piece on the inimitable Irving Azoff.

Back in 1970, Irving was just a bright, ambitious, highly opinionated wiseass from the hinterlands who even then displayed a rarefied gift of gab. He paired that talent with a related one that turned out to be equally important—he listened. And unlike so many of his peers, he never failed to return a phone call—or these days an email—a discipline that has become an integral part of the Azoff legend.

It was his innate social skillset that enabled Irving to quickly lodge himself smack-dab in the middle of the action, where he has remained ever since, calling the shots and directing the scene—and doing so in the most entertaining way imaginable. What’s more, if there’s anyone legitimately worthy of authoring a book titled The Art of the Deal, it’s Irving. In terms of dealmaking, it’s fair to say no one can touch him.

Irving has compared his behavior to that of a real-life Dennis the Menace, while taking on the nicknames “Swirv” and “poison dwarf” for his oft-notorious hijinks, infamously including sending a birthday present containing a live snake to a rival. And that’s not all, folks. During the ’70s, Irving and longtime client Joe Walsh teamed up on a running practical joke. They’d enter an executive’s office for a meeting, whereupon Walsh would pull a chainsaw out of his guitar case and they’d zip the legs off the office chairs, while Irving would sprinkle lighter fluid on the desk and set it on fire.

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