Howard Klein (February 20, 1948 – December 24, 2025) was an American writer, political activist, media personality, and onetime record label executive, DJ and producer. He was the president ofReprise Records from 1989 to 2001. He appeared occasionally as himself in music- and political-related film documentaries and received accolades for his stance againstcensorship and for his advocacy of free speech protection.
Howie Klein was born inBrooklyn on February 20, 1948. He attendedStony Brook University in New York, graduating in 1969.[1] He gained his first experience working in the music industry with the Stony Brook Students Activities Board, writing about bands and booking them for local performances.[2][3][4][5][6] Notable acts he successfully promoted during those years includedBig Brother,Byrds,Jackson Browne,Tim Buckley,Sandy Bull,Country Joe McDonald,the Doors,the Fugs,the Grateful Dead,Jefferson Airplane,John Hammond,Jimi Hendrix,Joni Mitchell,Pink Floyd,Otis Redding,the Who, and theYardbirds.[7][8]
Klein then spent several years exploringAfghanistan,India,Nepal, andAmsterdam.[8][9]
Klein moved to San Francisco, and from 1976 to 1978 hosted the first regular punk radio showThe Outcastes onKSAN with co-hosts Norman Davis, and Chris Knab, then-owner ofAquarius Records onCastro Street.[10][11][12] The radio show allowed Klein to interview bands such as theSex Pistols,Iggy Pop,Devo,the Cramps,the Dead Boys,the Nuns, andRoky Erickson.[13][14][15] While Klein lived in San Francisco, he also hosted, with Ian Kallen and Ron Quintana,Rampage Radio, a 6-hourHeavy Metal radio show, from 1982 to 2011 onKUSF, later, at Radio Valencia.[16][17][18]
In 1978, he and Knab, with Bruce Bridges, co-founded the San Francisconew wave record label,415 Records.[11][19][20] Klein discovered and signedthe Nuns,the Units,Romeo Void,Translator, andWire Train among others.
Klein joinedSire Records in 1987[21] and was president ofReprise/Warner Bros. Records between 1989 and 2001.[22][23] During his tenure at Reprise, he attracted artists to the upscale label such asLou Reed, with whom he had worked while at Sire.[24] There, he oversaw the career development of recording artists such asDepeche Mode,Talking Heads, Joni Mitchell,the Ramones,the Pretenders,Neil Young,Alanis Morissette,Barenaked Ladies,Eric Clapton,Green Day,Enya,Fleetwood Mac,the Smiths,Ice-T, and dozens of other major acts.[25] Following theTime Warner merger withAOL,[26] on June 29, 2001, Klein resigned;[27][28] accepting a buyout.[29]David Kahne, who had worked for Klein as 415 Records' A&R manager until 1982, now temporarily controlled Reprise as executive vice president of A&R for its parent company, Warner Bros. The same day Klein resigned, Kahne rejectedWilco's newly recorded album,Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, leading to the termination of Wilco's multi-album contract with Reprise.[28] TheWashington Post noted that the change marked a "seismic shift" from the label's former "artist-friendly" reputation.[30]
During and after his work with Sire and Reprise, Klein distinguished himself as a stalwart opponent ofcensorship and a dedicated advocate offree speech. Reprise Records was started byFrank Sinatra in 1960, securing what he saw as artistic freedom from his former record label,Capitol Records Klein carried Sinatra's tradition further, clearly articulating his even broader vision that creative freedom was not limited only to choosing one's business and music partners, but also encompassed the freedom to write, even about controversial topics, as one saw fit.[31]
The 1992 United States presidential election sawBill Clinton choose SenatorAl Gore as his vice presidential running mate. This decision disturbed many Democrats and music industry professionals, including Klein, because Gore's wife,Tipper Gore, with Susan Baker, had co-founded theParents Music Resource Center. The PMRC had initiated Senate hearings in 1985 on "potentially harmful lyrics", spearheading a five-year effort that by 1990 had successfully forced the recording industry to implement a voluntary identification and labeling system to warn parents about music containing explicit lyrics. Tipper Gore's vocal and instrumental role in the PMRC was perceived by some as a campaign of outright censorship against musicians and the music industry itself. Klein took an active role in publicizing these concerns through speaking engagements and by becoming one of the most influential supporters of a very effective, multimillion-dollar, industry-wide campaign to register and educate young music-loving voters, calledRock the Vote.[32]
His anti-censorship efforts earned him one of two Spirit of Liberty Awards bestowed in 1999 byPeople for the American Way; co-honored that year was filmmaker and actorRob Reiner. Klein created a CD for the awards ceremony, demonstrating his unflinching support for protection of the artistic freedom to convey important social and political ideas in ways that might scare the establishment.Fuck Censorship was a compilation of censored and off-color songs celebrating everything fromcannabis tocross-dressing; the liner notes of which contained a pointed message from Klein, "Sometimes protecting freedom of speech isn't pretty."[31]In 2000, theAmerican Civil Liberties Union of Southern California honored him with its "Bill of Rights Award" for his activism in the protection offree speech.[33] He served on the board of directors forPeople for the American Way.[9][34]
Klein appeared (as himself) in several music documentary films:Lifestyles of the Ramones (2001), a George Seminara film about the Ramones;[35]I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (2002), aSam Jones film aboutWilco;[36] andFix (2011), a Doug Free film aboutMinistry.[37]
In early 2005, he was appointed to the board of directors ofJamBase.com, a San Francisco-based internet search engine company focused on concert and tour date information, whose founder and CEO Andy Gadiel cited Klein's reputation as "a true artist's advocate".[7]
On August 25, 2011, theRock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum archived a gift from Klein, the Howie Klein Collection, consisting of research materials evidencing a broad cross-section of musical acts that appeared on Sire, Reprise, and Warner Brothers labels and spanning his tenure as a record company executive between 1983 and 2001. The collection comprises several videocassettes of electronic press kits, tubed posters, artist itineraries, and a three-ring binder containing the Warner/Chappell "Mighty Three Music Catalog". It also contains a certificate for 1000 shares of415 Records, Ltd. While copyright interests in the collection were not transferred, its contents are open for research. Housed in the collection are materials related to all three record companies and to bands and musical artists includingB-52's,Babes in Toyland, Barenaked Ladies,BoDeans,Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds,Kasey Chambers, Eric Clapton,the Cult, Depeche Mode,Tanya Donelly,Erasure,Faith No More,Filter, Fleetwood Mac,Chris Isaak,Rikki Lee Jones,Chaka Khan,The Living End, Joni Mitchell,Modey Lemon,Nu Flavor,Orgy,Recoil, Lou Reed,the Replacements,Snake River Conspiracy,Steely Dan, Temple of Hiphop,Videodrone, Neil Young, andZwan.[38]
Klein lived inLos Angeles, where he wrote the progressive political blogDownWithTyranny! and regularly guest-blogged onCrooks and Liars.com's Late Night Music Club feature and onFiredoglake.com.[39] He was the founder and treasurer of Blue America PAC,[40] served on the board of directors for the Progressive Congress Action Fund,[41] and was a member of theDrum Major Institute for Public Policy's Netroots Advisory Council.[42] He was also anadjunct professor of music atMcGill University in Montreal, where he sometimes lectured.[25]
Klein was a frequent collaborator with comedian and political commentatorDavid Feldman on theDavid Feldman Show.[43][44][45]
Klein died from pancreatic cancer on December 24, 2025, at the age of 77.[46][47]
In his song "Talking Christmas Goodwill Blues,"John Wesley Harding mentions a meeting with Klein andSeymour Stein who ask him to record aChristmas song.[48]
His musical omnivore qualities led Klein to host a program on KSAN-FM. "It started out as just a one-time thing," he says. But The Outcastes — the first punk radio show in the country — quickly found an audience. "There wasn't really enough music coming out of New York and London at the time," Klein explains. "We would play songs twice in one show!" To fill up the time, Klein started playing music from Bay Area bands.
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