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Bob Ezrin

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Bob Ezrin

Robert Alan "Bob" Ezrin (born March 25, 1949) is a Canadian-born music producer, known for his work with artists including Alice Cooper, Kiss and Pink Floyd. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2004.

Biography

Ezrin was born in Toronto, Ontario. In a career as a music and entertainment producer that has, as of 2010, spanned 40 years, Bob Ezrin has worked on recordings with artists including: Alice Cooper, KISS, Pink Floyd, Lou Reed, Hanoi Rocks, Roberta Flack, Peter Gabriel, Dr. John, Nils Lofgren, Kansas, Rod Stewart, Berlin, Nine Inch Nails, The Jayhawks, 30 Seconds to Mars, The Darkness, Jane's Addiction, Julian Lennon and The Deftones among many others.

In recent years, Ezrin has produced a live and TV extravaganza to reopen the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, starring Green Day and U2; was music producer on The Clearwater Concert celebrating Pete Seeger's 90th birthday at Madison Square Garden, worked on an album and live opera with L'Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio in Rome, Italy; co-produced Peter Gabriel's new album, Scratch My Back; co-produced "The House Rules", the new album by Christian Kane; produced singles for the Canadian Tenors and young pop sensation Fefe Dobson for her album Joy and worked with The Feeling on their new album. As well he has recently reunited with Alice Cooper working on a new album and show and numerous other related projects together, and is currently working alongside his partner Keith Stegall on a new "Nashville" album by stage, TV and film superstar Kristin Chenoweth.

On February 18, 2010, Ezrin mobilized Young Artists for Haiti. Fifty Canadian artists recorded a rendition of hip hop star K'naan's "Wavin' Flag" for the victims of the Haiti quake. The song was reworked by Ezrin to include specific lyrics for Haiti and will be released in the coming weeks with proceeds going to Free the Children, War Child Canada and World Vision Canada.

In May 2009, Ezrin co-produced The Clearwater Concert at Madison Square Garden celebrating the 90th birthday of musician and activist, Pete Seeger, and starring over 50 guest artists including Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, John Mellencamp, Ben Harper, Joan Baez, Tom Morello, Ani DiFranco, Emmylou Harris and Kris Kristofferson. He was also co-producer of the PBS broadcast of the event.

Bob Ezrin has been described by Alice Cooper as "our George Martin". Having defined the group's sound on his first album as a producer, Love it to Death in 1971, Ezrin embarked on a long-term collaboration that by 1973 would see the release of the number one Billion Dollar Babies album a year after the success of School's Out and Alice Cooper established as one of the biggest acts in the world. After the group separated, Ezrin continued his collaboration with Alice as a solo artist in 1975 with Cooper's ground breaking Welcome To My Nightmare. Ezrin worked with the Alice Cooper group (and later with Alice as a solo artist) not just as a producer but also co-writer, arranger and musician.

Ezrin produced KISS's best selling album, Destroyer, in 1976. As explained by Peter Criss during an interview in the documentary KISS: Krazy Killer (1994), Ezrin co-wrote, arranged and performed the piano accompaniment to the song Beth. He went on to produce two other albums with the band and remains close to them to this day.

Ezrin has worked with Pink Floyd on a number of occasions, co-producing the albums The Wall, A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell. He has also co-written their songs "The Trial", "Signs of Life", "Learning to Fly" and "Take It Back".

Ezrin created new theatrical, television and live events with @Radical.Media in New York including Jay-Z's feature film, Fade to Black.

In 1993, he co-founded a computer software company called 7th Level which developed and published educational and entertainment CD-ROMs including a highly popular and groundbreaking series of Monty Python games. In 1999, he co-founded Enigma Digital, a pioneer internet radio provider. It was eventually sold to Clear Channel, where he became vice-chairman of Clear Channel Interactive. Ezrin was also Chairman of Live Nation Artists Recordings in 2007 and the first half of 2008.

Ezrin was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in April, 2004, and into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame in March, 2006.

Ezrin spends much of his time serving his community. He is Chairman Emeritus of the Los Angeles Mentoring Partnership, Vice President of The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, a founder of MusiCounts, CARAS' music education initiative and, along with U2's the Edge and Henry Juszkiewicz the CEO of Gibson Guitar Corporation, he is a co-founder of Music Rising (www.musicrising.org), an initiative to preserve the musical culture of the gulf coast region that was savaged by the hurricanes and flooding of 2005. He is also a past Trustee and Governor of NARAS.

In 1982, Ezrin briefly appeared as the host of Enterprise, a City-TV panel show replacing Dr. Morton Shulman's The Schulman File. He has been a keynote speaker at numerous music, entertainment and business conferences as well as a guest lecturer at various universities and colleges around North America. He has also been a frequent interviewee for documentary films and television.

In 2007, Ezrin joined the Board of Advisors of Tonic, an online media site that produces and aggregates content around goodness.

In 2008 he co-founded Beat Kangz Electronics, LLC a music technology company focused on the development and innovation of electronic musical equipment for rap and hip/hop production.[1]

In 2009 Ezrin, along with Garth Richardson and Kevin Williams, started Nimbus School of Recording Arts in Vancouver, BC.[2]

Ezrin was the producer for the Alice Cooper album Welcome 2 My Nightmare, as well as writing songs for it; the album is to be released during 2011.[3]

Ezrin is now a partner in Bigger Picture Group in Nashville, TN and continues his work in the studio as well as on film, television and theatrical productions.

Ezrin is married and has five grown children and lives with his wife and two dogs in Nashville, TN.

List of albums produced by Ezrin

See also

References

  1. ^ Beat Kangz website
  2. ^ http://www.nimbusrecording.com/
  3. ^ "ALICE COOPER Completes Work On 'Welcome 2 My Nightmare'". Blabbermouth.net. 20 February 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2011.

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