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Jewish music mogul nearly dies of Covid - then recovers to earn $150m in record payday
Sir Lucian Grainge’s record label Universal Music Group is gearing up for a £39bn float on the stock market
September 24, 2021 20:21
Sir Lucian Grainge’s record label Universal Music Group is gearing up for a £39bn float on the stock market
September 24, 2021 20:21Jewish music mogul Sir Lucian Grainge is in line for a record payday of $150 million - but just 18 months ago he came close to dying after he was struck down with Covid-19.
“I was completely at my death,” the executive told the Financial Times.
When he left intensive care he was so weak he had to be carried into his Los Angeles mansion by security guards.
In an incredible reversal of fortune, Sir Lucian’s record label Universal Music Group is now set to debut on the stock market, sending the company’s value soaring to $39bn.
The native north Londoner stands to receive a bonus of up to $150 million.
Universal is the world’s biggest record label and home to artists from Lana Del Ray to Kanye West.
Last year the group bought Bob Dylan’s entire back catalogue for more than £225 million.
Sir Lucian has regularly been hailed as one of the most influential music industry figures of his generation.
He was raised in Finchley as a “nice Jewish boy,” as he put it in a 2020 speech given as his star on the Hollywood walk of fame was revealed, reported Music Business Worldwide.
Ironically though it was at a Christian school where he discovered his “love of melody,” during his favourite part of the day - the morning hymns.
After leaving school at 18 he joined the record industry and soon signed his first act: post-punk rockers The Psychedelic Furs.
In the decades since Sir Lucian has been hailed as the most important person in the music business four times by Billboard magazine, and in 2020 was recognised as the first-ever ‘Executive of the Decade’.
Reflecting on his long career at the star unveiling, the mogul said: “I googled this morning how far it is, as the crow flies, from the suburb of Finchley where I grew up to Vine Street here in Hollywood. It says it's 5,471 miles.
“If you told me when I was growing up in that small house in Parkside that one day I’d find myself here, looking out at all of you, I would have said you're nuts.
“But looking back I see how my boyhood passion for music, which I inherited, set me on my path. For as long as I can remember, I just loved music... and starting at the age of 17 in the music business, it’s been my life’s work.”