Jimmy Iovine

He was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 11, 1953; the Recording Academy’s profile gives his full name as James “Jimmy” Iovine.⁠[1][2]

He was born into a close Italian family in Brooklyn. His father, Jimmy Iovine Sr., was a longshoreman who coached his childhood baseball team and managed his first band. The Financial TimesFinancial TimesThe Financial Times (FT) is a London-based English-language business and financial news organization, known for its salmon-pink newspaper and its motto “Without Fear and Without Favour.” It was owned successively by the British Pearson group and Japan’s Nikkei Inc., and today digital subscriptions are its main source of revenue.Open the full entry profile states that his father wanted him to follow him into a career on the docks.⁠[3][1][4]

He grew up in Red Hook, Brooklyn. He recalled it as an Italian neighborhood, with several fish stores and pizza places on a single street, where his father and everybody else worked on the docks; he said his father spent whole days in the hold of a ship carrying coffee bags of 100 pounds each, and that when it was 90 degrees Fahrenheit on the pier it was 120 in the hold.⁠[4][5][6][6]

He said that from the time he was a small child his father drilled into him that wherever he went, the place was better because he was there, because he was a decent person who was not going to cheat anybody. He traced the ease he later felt at work to this, and said that his father had pride but was a humble man.⁠[6][6]

He recalled being the kid in right field on the baseball team: the currency of the neighborhood was physicality, sports and toughness, and he had none of them. He also said that his family was very generous but that money was always a concern, that someone who grows up that way thinks he is going to be broke, and that this thought drove him for a long time.⁠[6][6][6]

He said that he was terrible in school. The Financial Times writes that he hated high school; Music Business Worldwide writes that he left school with no real qualifications and quotes him: “I was a terrible student in school. But I’m a great student at life.”⁠[6][4][5]

His official website states that he was born in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn and that he attended Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School and later John Jay College of Criminal Justice.⁠[7][8]

He said that for anyone of his age around music, “the big bang” was the Beatles on Ed Sullivan’s television show, when he was probably 11 years old; he had no currency in his neighborhood, and when he saw the Beatles he felt that this was a currency he could have.⁠[6]

The Financial Times writes that he played bass in a band called Phantasy, which broke up when he was 17; of the spelling of its name he said, “We couldn’t spell.” He recalled that he had been in a band, that it was terrible, and that he realized quickly he was not going to be in the Rolling Stones.⁠[4][6]

The Financial Times writes that after leaving high school he went to work in a Brooklyn clothing store called The Leading Male; by his account, it was the shop that sold the white suit worn by John Travolta in the film Saturday Night Fever.⁠[4]

He recalled that through his cousin he met Ellie Greenwich, who took him to recording sessions; in the studio he saw a producer with a leather bag, and a beautiful woman coming to meet him, and he said he decided there and then that this was the work for him. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame essay states that through a family connection to the songwriter he got a few referrals that led to an entry-level job at the Record Plant in New York, a studio run by the engineer Roy Cicala.⁠[6][6][3]

Music Business Worldwide writes that he worked go-nowhere jobs in several New York recording studios. He recalled cleaning up and setting up the studio and learning the craft through repetition and by observing. The Financial Times writes that by the age of 20 he was an assistant at the Record Plant in Manhattan, and quotes him: “I figured the only thing I can do is just work harder than everybody else and be useful.”⁠[5][6][4]

Sources differ on the year in which he began working with John Lennon. The entry in Contemporary Musicians, published by Gale, states that he got a job as a recording engineer at the Record Plant in New York in 1973 and worked from the beginning with artists including John Lennon; he himself said in the 2026 interview that it was 1973 and that he was 20. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame essay, Music Business Worldwide and the Financial Times state that on Easter Sunday 1974 he was called in to the studio for a John Lennon session; the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame essay has Roy Cicala calling him in to serve as second engineer, and a photo caption in the same essay dates his assisting on John Lennon sessions to 1972.⁠[1][6][6][3][5][4]

Music Business Worldwide writes that on that Easter Sunday Roy Cicala telephoned him, then the Record Plant’s 21-year-old gofer, to say that John Lennon urgently needed someone to man the phones; he informed his mother that he would not be going to church that morning, which displeased her, and arrived at the studio to find Roy Cicala and John Lennon laughing at him: he had just become John Lennon’s new assistant engineer, the moment at which, he says, his life changed forever. The Financial Times writes that he was still living at home and that his mother, who had spent the morning cooking lunch, wanted him in his suit and with his family in church.⁠[5][4]

His official website dates the call from Roy Cicala to Easter Sunday 1974 and describes Roy Cicala as a head audio engineer at the Record Plant.⁠[8]

He worked on John Lennon’s albums Walls and Bridges and Rock ’N’ Roll, the Los Angeles sessions for the latter alongside Phil Spector; he also worked on a Harry Nilsson album that John Lennon produced and Roy Cicala engineered.⁠[3][5]

He said that he made three albums with John Lennon, got his own apartment, and concluded that for the rest of his life he would try to meet people with real talent and that things would be all right as long as he did not get thrown out of the room. He recalled that his boss Roy Cicala, who taught him, put him in with John Lennon, and that he was somehow able to turn all his fear into energy to learn.⁠[6][6]

He recalled that in December of the year he was 20 he flew for the first time, to CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a U.S. state on the Pacific coast; its capital is Sacramento and its largest city is Los Angeles. California was admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850, as the 31st state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 39,538,223, the largest of any state.Open the full entry with his boss, having until then left Brooklyn only to work in Manhattan. John Lennon put him in the Beverly Hills Hotel, which he said was the first hotel he had ever stayed in apart from a motel in PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaPennsylvania (officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) is a Middle Atlantic state of the United States; its capital is Harrisburg, and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are its two great metropolitan areas. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on December 12, 1787, the second state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 13,002,700.Open the full entry. He asked the doorman whether regular people lived in the area and whether there were docks, then called his mother to ask why the family had not settled in California; he said he knew from that day that he wanted to live there.⁠[6][6][6][6][6]

He also recalled that on that trip John Lennon took him, with Harry Nilsson, to the hillside house of a famous record producer, where a tennis court lit up at night showed him for the first time what else life could hold.⁠[6][6]

He recalled that John Lennon had to go to court every day during the making of Walls and Bridges; he said this was because John Lennon was against the war and Richard NixonRichard NixonRichard Nixon (1913–1994) was an American politician who represented California in the U.S. House and Senate, served as vice president from 1953 to 1961 and was the 37th president of the United States from 1969 to 1974. His administration opened relations with China, signed strategic arms limitation agreements with the Soviet Union and ended U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War; he resigned over the Watergate scandal on August 9, 1974, the only U.S. president to do so.Open the full entry was trying to throw him out of the country. He gave this as the reason he was used to politicians attacking records.⁠[6][6]

In 1975 he was the engineer on Bruce Springsteen’s album Born to Run, and he later engineered Darkness on the Edge of Town.⁠[1][3]

The Financial Times writes that during Born to Run, after working non-stop for eight days, he resorted to chewing aluminium foil to stay awake, and quotes him: “I was an animal.”⁠[4]

He recalled that Bruce Springsteen, three years his senior, was broke at the time, dropped by his label, with his career in trouble. He said that a drum sound took three weeks and he still could not get it right, that someone was brought in to help, and that with his pride hurt he went to Jon Landau, who answered that this was not about him but about Bruce Springsteen and the record they were making. He said the remark stopped him in his tracks and stayed with him for the rest of his life.⁠[6][6][6][6][6]

He said that between the ages of 20 and 25 he worked on two albums with Bruce Springsteen, three with John Lennon, one with Patti Smith and one with Tom Petty, and that those years were his college. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame essay quotes him calling his work with Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith “my college education”; Music Business Worldwide quotes him saying that these musicians taught him “taste, feel, respect of music.”⁠[6][3][5]

In 1977 he got his first break as a producer, with Flame, a band from New JerseyNew JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the eastern United States on the Atlantic Ocean, bordered by New York State, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, with the Hudson River forming its northeastern boundary and the Delaware River its western boundary; its capital is Trenton and its largest city is Newark. One of the original 13 colonies, it became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on December 18, 1787, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 9,288,994.Open the full entry; the chronology in the Contemporary Musicians entry records that he produced a first album for Flame in 1977 and gives 1977 to 1990 as his years as a record producer.⁠[1]

He recalled that in 1977, on an album he was producing, a guitarist he had brought in would put on headphones between takes and work at a computer instead of listening back with everyone else (it may have been the first computer he ever saw), and explained that he was creating a machine that would play the drums. He said he had always found it hard to work with drummers, and offered the story as evidence that he had watched music technology change all along.⁠[6][6][6]

In 1978 he produced Patti Smith’s album Easter. For it he obtained from Bruce Springsteen the outtake “Because the Night,” which became Patti Smith’s first hit in 1978; the Contemporary Musicians entry calls it a Top 40 hit single, and Music Business Worldwide and the Hipgnosis Songs Fund announcement describe it as a UK Top 5 hit single.⁠[3][1][9][10]

He recalled that Bruce Springsteen already had the chorus; on hearing the words he thought that it would be powerful sung by a woman, asked whether the song was going to be used, and was answered that it did not fit the album in hand and that Patti Smith could have it. He said that Patti Smith rewrote the verses. He gave this as an example of his ability to connect the dots.⁠[6][6][6]

In 1979 he produced Damn the Torpedoes by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The 2021 announcement by Hipgnosis Songs Fund states that the album was certified three times platinum in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry in the year of its release and reached No. 2 on the Billboard chart; the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame essay quotes him calling it “the best album I ever made, sonically.” He went on to produce Tom Petty’s Hard Promises (1981) and Long After Dark (1982).⁠[1][10][3]

He said that he moved to California in 1979, when he was making Damn the Torpedoes, six years after his first visit. Tom Petty put him up in a house; he said that he had never had a house and had always lived in apartments with noise outside the window, so that he was completely freaked out.⁠[6][6]

He recalled that Tom Petty, only about two years younger, was the first person he worked with who was his own age, and that both of them were trying to prove something. He said that Tom Petty was a great songwriter and a great self-editor who never brought an average song into the studio; the songs arrived complete.⁠[6][6]

He recalled that while he was producing Tom Petty the two of them went to visit Bruce Springsteen, who played them a double album that had been about two years in the making. Knowing Bruce Springsteen’s tendency to bury the vocal, he asked only one question when it ended: “When are you going to sing it?” He said that they then went back in and remixed the whole album.⁠[6][6][6]

In 1981 he produced Bella Donna, Stevie Nicks’s first solo album, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame essay states that it sold quadruple platinum and launched her solo career outside Fleetwood Mac, and that “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” her duet with Tom Petty, reached No. 3.⁠[1][3]

The Contemporary Musicians entry states that with this album he and Stevie Nicks began a personal and professional partnership. In 1983 he produced her album The Wild Heart; in 1985 the two began Rock a Little, and the partnership ended before the album was finished.⁠[1]

His official website states that in 1982 he produced the album The Distance by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band.⁠[8]

In 1983 he produced U2’s live album Under a Blood Red Sky. He recalled meeting Bono in 1983, Bono being ten years his junior; he said he realized then that the framing of how artists were thinking was changing and that the band’s music was different. He called Bono the most positive person he had met in music and said he had learned a great deal from him.⁠[1][6][6][6]

In 1984 he handled musical direction and supervision for the film Sixteen Candles; the Television Academy biography also lists him as music supervisor and producer on the films Scrooged and Road House.⁠[1][11]

In the 1980s he also produced Dire Straits’ Making Movies, the first album by Lone Justice, Simple Minds’ Once Upon a Time (1985), the Pretenders’ Get Close (1986) and Patti Smith’s Dream of Life, and worked with Eurythmics, Graham Parker and Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band.⁠[10][1][3][12]

In 1988 he produced U2’s Rattle and Hum; the Hipgnosis Songs Fund announcement states that “Desire,” which he produced, was U2’s first UK No. 1 single. He recalled going to the south of France in 1988 while making the album, and said that he had never taken a vacation before he met Bono.⁠[10][1][6][6]

He said that he did not work on a later U2 album, for which the band chose other producers because it wanted to change its sound, a choice he considered the better one, though the band still brought him in to listen to songs. He recalled that Bono first played him a song that he called house music and then played “With or Without You”; he replied that the second was the house music and the first was “apartment music,” joking that if this one came out Bono would be getting a house. He said that, like his father, he could not resist a good line.⁠[6][6][6]

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame essay states that he stepped back from producing later in the 1980s, and quotes him: “I just needed to stop.”⁠[3]

His father died in 1985. He recalled that he was 30 or 31: he went to the funeral of his grandfather, his father’s father; the next morning his father had a heart attack and died some seven or eight weeks later; and his grandmother, his father’s mother, died the week after that, all three within eight weeks.⁠[1][6][6]

He said that he was extremely close to his father and that the day of his death is still by far the worst day of his life. He recalled that his father had 28 percent of his heart left and, shortly before dying, still seized a moment to make a joke to him; he said his father is still his best friend and that whenever he gets onto the right page it is his father’s voice that puts him there.⁠[6][6][6]

In 1987 he brought a number of artists together for the Christmas album A Very Special Christmas; the 2021 announcement by Hipgnosis Songs Fund states that the series has gone on to raise more than $100 million for the Special Olympics. He said that he made the album about his father after his father died.⁠[10][6]

He co-founded Interscope Records with Ted Field. The Contemporary Musicians entry, the International Directory of Company Histories and the Television Academy biography date the founding to 1990; the Financial Times and the Music Business Worldwide interview give 1989, and the Financial Times adds that Warner Music’s Atlantic Group took a 50 percent stake in 1990.⁠[1][13][11][4][5]

His official website dates the founding of Interscope Records to 1990 and has him co-founding it with Ted Field “and others.”⁠[8]

The Contemporary Musicians entry states that Ted Field was an heir to the Marshall Field fortune, that Interscope was a $30 million joint venture with Atlantic Records, and that its first hit was Gerardo’s “Rico Suave.” The International Directory of Company Histories states that Ted Field used $15 million of his own inheritance to start the label and that Time Warner initially held 50 percent.⁠[1][13]

He recalled that he had spent about 20 years in the studio making records when he woke up one day to learn that David Geffen had sold his company for $500 million. He said that David Geffen was exactly ten years older than he was, came from right near his neighborhood in Brooklyn, and was his friend; he said that as a producer he had money, but a limited amount, and that he wanted to live as he had seen people live on television. He went to David Geffen, whose answer was that he, too, could start a record company.⁠[6][6][6][6]

He said that the original plan was for David Geffen to distribute and Ted Field to put up the money, that Doug Morris at Atlantic then volunteered to put up half, and that David Geffen urged him to go and do it there. He said that 14 labels started with $50 million in funding in 1989 and 1990 and that Interscope was the only one that survived.⁠[6][6][6]

He said that he was 37 or 38 when he started Interscope; in 1990 he had no idea how to run a company, not even that one buys for less than one sells for, and he learned business at Interscope for defense. Music Business Worldwide quotes him saying that David Geffen gave him a feel for “the art of business” and that he learned how to run a record company from Doug Morris.⁠[6][6][6][5]

He said that from the founding of Interscope until he was 65 every minute of his day went into making the company succeed, and that he was “obsessed”; he added that obsession does not make for a great partner at home.⁠[6][6][6]

In 1992 Death Row Records produced Dr. Dre’s album The Chronic. The International Directory of Company Histories states that Death Row was started by the former professional football player Marion “Suge” Knight, that it could not find a distributor for the album because most established labels found its contents too controversial, that Interscope stepped in and agreed to distribute it, and that it sold almost four million copies; the Contemporary Musicians entry describes Death Row as a label formed by Dr. Dre and Suge Knight. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame essay states that his relationship with Dr. Dre began with this album.⁠[13][1][3]

He recalled that what Dr. Dre played him was the finished Chronic. He said it was the first time he had heard the 808 bass in hip-hop harnessed with such clarity and power; seeing the image that Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg projected together, he said that this was the Rolling Stones, “Mick and Keith,” frightening, with music that drew the listener in. He said that at the beginning he did not understand the music.⁠[6][6][6][6][3]

He said that there were three lawsuits around the album at the time: a RICO lawsuit, a suit by a man in prison who claimed to have put up the money for the first album, and suits or challenges from Sony and from another distribution company; he said that he had to settle all of them. He compared the situation to seeing something great with a Tyrannosaurus rex sitting on it, which most people would avoid, whereas he cannot stop when he sees something new, great and unusual.⁠[6][6][6]

He recalled that Top 40 radio would not play such songs. He had the company make a 60-second commercial out of “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang,” Dr. Dre’s first single with Snoop Dogg, with nothing said before or after it, and buy radio advertising time for it in the top 50 markets, at great expense; when David SenraDavid SenraDavid Senra is the founder and host of the Founders podcast, on which he reads biographies of entrepreneurs to discuss starting and running businesses and making personal decisions. He began producing the show in 2016, partnered with Colossus in 2022, and in 2025 launched David Senra, a long-form interview show under his own name.Open the full entry remarked that listeners then called the stations asking for the song, he answered, “Of course.” He said that he is psychotic about not doing anything illegal and that this method was legal.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][3]

He said that MTV did not play such rap either. He recalled putting it to the man in charge at MTV that this was the same thing as Guns N’ Roses, that the video should be played next to Guns N’ Roses, and that if it did not work MTV need never play an Interscope record again; the man put it on. He said that this music, like the Rolling Stones, Nirvana and James Brown, was counterculture to which people who felt marginalized would relate.⁠[6][6][6][6]

He said that nobody was better at getting records played than Berry Gordy, whom he called the greatest record executive of all time: in the Jim Crow era Berry Gordy’s artists were not even allowed off the bus and their records were classed as “race records,” and Berry Gordy still got those records played and into the white market.⁠[6][6][5]

The Contemporary Musicians entry states that in order to sign Nine Inch Nails he called Steve Gottlieb, the head of TVT Records, every day for a year until Gottlieb agreed to a joint venture; Trent Reznor and John Malm then formed Nothing Records with him, with Marilyn Manson on its roster.⁠[1]

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame essay lists artists whom Interscope launched or developed, among them Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Nine Inch Nails, No Doubt, Gwen Stefani, Primus, Black Eyed Peas, Nelly Furtado and Lady Gaga, and states that U2 came to his label with the album All That You Can’t Leave Behind; the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee page also names Tupac.⁠[3][14]

The artists named in his official website’s account of Interscope also include Lana Del Rey and Kendrick Lamar.⁠[8]

The International Directory of Company Histories states that in September 1995 C. Delores Tucker, head of the National Political Congress of Black Women, attended a shareholders’ meeting in New York and, with William Bennett at her side, made a 15-minute speech denouncing Time Warner’s involvement in the production of gangsta rap; that Bob Dole also joined the criticism, calling the music Time Warner was producing “nightmares of depravity”; that later in 1995 Interscope released Dogg Food by Tha Dogg Pound over C. Delores Tucker’s opposition; and that at the end of the year Time Warner bowed out of its 50 percent stake, selling it back to Interscope for a little over $100 million.⁠[13]

The Contemporary Musicians entry states that Atlantic sold its stake back to Ted Field and him under pressure over Death Row’s gangsta-rap artists, whom the two refused to drop. The Financial Times writes that Time Warner offered to buy the 50 percent of Interscope that it did not own and that he countered with an offer to buy out Time Warner at $100 million; a question in the 2017 Music Business Worldwide interview puts the price at which Time Warner sold the stake back at $115 million.⁠[1][4][5]

He recalled that these records reached the homes of the sons and daughters of senators, members of Congress and business people, and that this was what led to the falling out over lyrics in which Interscope was thrown out of Time Warner; he named Bob Dole, C. Delores Tucker and William Bennett, and said he did not care what the critics were saying.⁠[6][6][6][13]

The International Directory of Company Histories states that four months after buying back Time Warner’s stake, Interscope sold 50 percent to MCA Records for just over $200 million, a profit of about $100 million for the company, MCA having recently been bought by Edgar Bronfman’s Seagram. The Financial Times writes that in 1996 he sold half the company to Edgar Bronfman Jr.’s Seagram for $200 million; the Contemporary Musicians entry describes the event as a distribution partnership formed with MCA in 1996.⁠[13][4][1]

The International Directory of Company Histories also states that in 1998 Interscope ended its ties with Death Row at Universal’s request.⁠[13]

Early in 1999 Seagram acquired PolyGram’s record holdings and Universal Music Group was created, and Geffen and A&M were folded into Interscope’s operations in 1999; after the merger he and Ted Field became co-chairmen of Interscope Geffen A&M. The International Directory of Company Histories records Interscope’s 1999 sales as $260 million, with 150 employees.⁠[13][15][3]

On November 9, 1999, he and Doug Morris of Universal Music Group founded Farm Club, an internet and cable-television venture that had shut down by 2001. He recalled that this little television show, called “Jimmy and Doug’s Farm Club,” was about people uploading their music to Interscope, which would then put them on the show; he said that what he really wanted at the time was an all-you-can-eat music streaming service.⁠[1][6][6]

He recalled deciding on the day Napster started that the record business as it stood was finished: listeners would much rather stay at their homework and download for free than ask their mothers to take them to a record store. He said that he then went to meet a number of technology companies, to get a feel for what he called “the other side”; a man at IntelIntelIntel is a semiconductor company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, founded by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore in 1968; it introduced the 4004 microprocessor in 1971, its x86 processors have long powered personal computers, it has pursued a foundry strategy since 2021, and Lip-Bu Tan has been its chief executive officer since 2025.Open the full entry remarked to him that not every industry was built to last forever.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][5]

In February 2001 Ted Field left Interscope to start his own label and pursue film, and he became chairman of Interscope; he later became chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M.⁠[1]

In 2002 he was a producer of the film 8 Mile, starring Eminem. The Hipgnosis Songs Fund announcement states that the film grossed over $240 million, that its soundtrack sold over 15 million copies, and that its song “Lose Yourself” won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.⁠[1][10]

In 2003 he was executive producer of Interscope Presents: The Next Episode, a Showtime reality series about a rap competition; Robert Greenblatt of Showtime called him “the undisputed czar of hip-hop.”⁠[1]

Three years after 8 Mile he co-produced the film Get Rich or Die Tryin’ and was executive producer of its soundtrack, which Music Business Worldwide and the Hipgnosis Songs Fund announcement state sold over three million copies worldwide.⁠[9][10]

He recalled that around 2003 he asked the Universal side for $100 million to start businesses with the artists inside Interscope; they declined, explaining that what the company did was sell CDs. He said that his contract was up, that he made it clear he was not going to be “the guy to sell the last CD,” and that he was going to quit. He said that getting permission to build products with his artists was one of the hardest things of his career, and that Beats came three years after that.⁠[6][6][6][6][6]

He said that he met Steve JobsSteve JobsSteve Jobs (1955–2011) was a technology entrepreneur, Apple co-founder, NeXT founder, and investor and former CEO of Pixar. His career spanned personal computing, digital music, smartphones and animated films, with an emphasis on product design, user experience and multidisciplinary teams.Open the full entry after 2000 and helped him get the licenses for iTunes. He called Steve Jobs the only person he met in technology who had “soul” and understood what made artists tick, and said the two talked constantly about John Lennon and Bob Dylan. Apple’s 2014 release states that he had been a key partner to Apple and iTunes for more than a decade; Music Business Worldwide quotes him saying that he wanted to pursue streaming from 2006, when he began talking about it with Steve Jobs.⁠[6][6][6][6][16][5]

In 2006 he and Dr. Dre founded Beats Electronics and launched the Beats by Dre brand; the 2021 announcement by Hipgnosis Songs Fund instead dates the founding of Beats to 2008 and the sale of Beats Electronics to Apple to 2016.⁠[11][12][17][10]

He recalled that Dr. Dre mentioned wanting to sell sneakers and that he answered: no sneakers, speakers; the Financial Times quotes him: “I said: not sneakers. Speakers.” He said that when he saw Dr. Dre’s credibility in sound everything came together, and he dropped all his other projects.⁠[6][6][4]

His official website states that this conversation grew out of a walk on the Malibu beachfront and lasted ten minutes.⁠[8]

He said that he proposed to Steve Jobs that they make headphones together, and that Steve Jobs did not want to and urged him to build a headphone company himself. He recalled that at lunch in a Greek restaurant Steve Jobs asked for a marker and wrote out the essentials on the paper laid on the table for children to draw on: distribution; inventory, which will kill you; and that things can be made in China but cannot look as if they were made in China. He said the lunch took place after Steve Jobs became ill and that Steve Jobs guided him along the way afterwards.⁠[6][6][6][6]

He said that headphones then looked like medical equipment and that the main competitor’s marketing was about going to sleep in them, while his idea was the opposite: “we want to wake you up.” He recalled that when Beats started it was put into all of Interscope’s artists’ music videos, and that he put a lot more money into the videos for it.⁠[6][6][6][6]

He said that they built the number one headphone company in the world: by the time of the sale to Apple, Beats was number one in 50 countries, ahead of the local makers in Germany and Japan as well. He said that he did not know how to build a headphone, that it was as far from him and Dr. Dre as could be imagined, and that they figured out how to do it.⁠[6][6][6][6]

He said that about three years into the headphone business, around 2011, he bought a small streaming service that became Beats Music, and that he brought Trent Reznor on; he said that he and Dr. Dre realized they could not scale streaming on their own.⁠[6][6][6]

From 2011 he shared his insight and expertise with the contestants on Fox’s television show American Idol.⁠[17]

In 2011, as executive producer, he was nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special for the HBO program Lady Gaga Presents The Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden.⁠[11]

During GRAMMY Week 2012 he was honored by the Recording Academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing.⁠[2][11]

On May 15, 2013, the University of Southern California announced that he and Dr. Dre had given $70 million to create the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation; a first class of 25 students was to enroll in fall 2014, and Erica Muhl, dean of the USC Roski School of Fine Arts, was named the academy’s inaugural director. The announcement describes him as then chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, a unit of Universal Music Group.⁠[17]

He traced the school to what he learned at Beats: he had assumed that everyone in technology understood, as Steve Jobs did, where technology and the liberal arts meet, and then found that people in engineering, design and culture could not collaborate, while colleges kept students in separate silos. He said that neither he nor Dr. Dre had had much schooling or any idea about education and that they put up their own money; he felt instinctively that Erica Muhl could build the academy, and said that C. L. Max Nikias, the university’s president at the time, was an engineer who nevertheless understood it.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6]

The Recording Academy and California Museum biographies state that the University of Southern California awarded him an honorary doctorate of music.⁠[2][12]

His official website states that he received this honorary degree in spring 2013 and delivered the commencement speech.⁠[8]

Beats Music launched in early 2014. On May 28, 2014, Apple announced that it had agreed to acquire Beats Music, a subscription streaming music service, and Beats Electronics, the maker of headphones, speakers and audio software, for a total of $3 billion, consisting of a purchase price of about $2.6 billion and about $400 million vesting over time; the release states that he and Dr. Dre would join Apple and that the deal was expected to close in Apple’s fiscal fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approvals.⁠[12][16]

In the release he said: “I’ve always known in my heart that Beats belonged with Apple.” The release describes him as having been at the forefront of innovation in the music industry for decades and as having produced or collaborated with some of the most successful artists in the history of the iTunes Store.⁠[16]

The Financial Times writes that Apple’s official confirmation that it was buying Beats made billionaires of the company’s two founders.⁠[4]

The Music Business Worldwide interview records that he left Interscope in 2014 and quotes his explanation: “I couldn’t get done what I wanted to get done inside Interscope.”⁠[5]

He said that when the sale of Beats to Apple became public he felt great but had no thought of celebrating: what occurred to him was that Apple had paid all this money, that a streaming service now had to be made to work, and that SpotifySpotifySpotify is an audio streaming subscription service offering on-demand music, podcasts, and audiobooks through a free ad-supported service and a paid Premium subscription. Its parent company, Spotify Technology S.A., is incorporated in Luxembourg, has its principal operations in Stockholm, Sweden, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker SPOT). It helped move the recorded-music business from buying and owning music to on-demand streaming and is one of the largest audio streaming subscription services by users.Open the full entry had the lead. He said that he has never had a “victory lap” in his life. He also said that the sale to Apple did not cure his fear of being broke; he knew he did not need money, but what overrode everything was having to get the job right.⁠[6][6][6][6]

In 2014 he and Dr. Dre were inducted together into the eighth class of the California Museum’s California Hall of Fame, and the two received the Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal is a U.S. news publication founded in 1889, with a focus on business, finance and economics. It is published by Dow Jones, part of News Corp.Open the full entry Innovator Award.⁠[12][11]

Apple Music launched in June 2015; the Music Business Worldwide profile states that he helped Apple launch the service.⁠[4][15]

His official website states that in 2015 he spoke at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference to announce the launch of Apple Music.⁠[8]

He said that when he ran Interscope, Beats and what became Apple Music he woke up each day and did everything by instinct, listening to people, taking a piece from here and a piece from there and synthesizing; this was harder at Apple, with its giant infrastructure, than at his own companies, and he always felt a bit like “the tail that’s wagging the dog.”⁠[6][6][6]

In February 2016 he married the model Liberty Ross. HELLO!, in an article dated February 14, 2016, writes that the couple were married “on Saturday” at their home in Malibu, California; Entertainment Tonight writes that the wedding took place on Saturday, in a ceremony on a beach near the couple’s Malibu home to which about 50 guests were invited, and that Valentine’s Day is now their wedding anniversary.⁠[18][19][6]

Entertainment Tonight writes that the reception, held on Sunday at David Geffen’s house, had more than 300 guests, among them Gwen Stefani, Eminem, Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks and his sons Jamie and Jeremy, and that Lady Gaga performed with Tony Bennett and Mary J. Blige also performed. The article gives his age as 62 and Liberty Ross’s as 37, and states that the two began dating in early 2013 and became engaged in September of the previous year.⁠[19]

On May 16, 2017, Music Business Worldwide published an interview with him, which describes him and Dr. Dre as then Apple employees working on Apple Music. In it he said that free music streaming is so technically good and so ubiquitous that it is stunting the growth of paid streaming, and said: “If Apple Music had a free tier we would have 400m people on it.” He also said that artists were “getting screwed,” that changing this was everyone’s responsibility, and that Daniel EkDaniel EkDaniel Ek is a Swedish entrepreneur and a co-founder of Spotify, and has served as Spotify’s executive chairman since January 2026. He also co-founded Neko Health with Hjalmar Nilsonne and helped found the investment firm Prima Materia.Open the full entry of Spotify was doing a fabulous job.⁠[5]

The HBO documentary series The Defiant Ones is about the intertwined careers of Dr. Dre and himself; the Financial Times profile published in 2017 gives July 9 as the date of its US premiere, and Music Business Worldwide described it that May as upcoming.⁠[3][4][5]

The Financial Times profile published ahead of the series states that Apple Music then had 27 million paying users. In it he called YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry “a massive problem for the record industry” and said that he never let record companies into his sessions.⁠[4]

The founders page of the Iovine and Young Center Inglewood states that he and Dr. Dre won a GRAMMY and an Emmy for The Defiant Ones. The Recording Academy’s artist page lists one GRAMMY nomination and no wins in his own name, and the Television Academy’s page lists only one Emmy nomination under his name.⁠[20][2][11]

His official website states that he has received GRAMMY and Emmy nominations.⁠[8]

In October 2017 the University of Southern California held the groundbreaking for the academy’s first building of its own, Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Hall, with Dr. Dre and him turning the soil. The university’s article of October 11 states that the academy had begun four years earlier in part of the fourth floor of the Ronald Tutor Campus Center with a first group of 30 students, that 114 students were then enrolled, and that the first class would graduate in May. At the ceremony he said he hoped the school would help students “dream big, execute and build the courage to stay in the saddle.”⁠[21]

In January 2018, after rumors that he would leave Apple, he denied them, saying “I am in the band” and that most of his stock had vested long before. On March 21, 2018, an article in The Wall Street Journal stated that he would move into a consulting role with Apple Music that August and step back from day-to-day involvement; MacRumors, summarizing it, writes that he wanted more time with his family while continuing to support Eddy Cue as needed, and that Apple Music had 36 million subscribers as of March 2018.⁠[22]

The Music Business Worldwide profile states that he stepped back to a consulting role in 2018. He himself said in the 2026 interview that he retired in 2018, at 65: Apple, he said, is a great company that treated them well and with which they did some great things, but he came from a world of breaking things and trying anything, while Apple has a very structured business and would not let its music side steer the whole company, for which he said he did not blame it. He said that there he “couldn’t do me,” and that he decided not to run companies any more.⁠[15][6][6][6][6]

He recalled that one morning some months after leaving Apple he woke with nothing on his mind and asked his wife whether people really wake up without thinking of something.⁠[6][6]

Steven Lamar said that he conceived the idea of celebrity-endorsed headphones and took it to Dr. Dre and him in 2006; the parties later fell out and reached a settlement. In a lawsuit filed in 2014 (Complex gives 2016 as the year of filing) Steven Lamar alleged that the two had violated the settlement and owed him royalties on later Beats headphones; they argued that he was entitled to royalties only on the first model, the Beats Studio. The case was at first dismissed by a judge and then revived by an appeals court.⁠[23][24]

In June 2018 a jury in Los Angeles found that Steven Lamar had fulfilled his contract and that Dr. Dre and he owed royalties on three headphone models, the Studio 2 Remastered, the Studio 2 Wireless and the Studio 3, in the amount of $25,247,350; Steven Lamar had sought more than $100 million in royalties. Complex writes that the case was heard in Los Angeles Superior Court.⁠[23][24]

The Associated PressAssociated PressThe Associated Press is a cooperative news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it is the oldest and largest news agency in the United States.Open the full entry wrote on October 2, 2019, that the dedication ceremony for Iovine and Young Hall, a high-tech building at the University of Southern California named for Dr. Dre and him, was to be held that Wednesday, with the two expected to attend, and that the hall would offer 3-D printers, electronic labs, a podcast studio and incubator space for alumni.⁠[25]

An article posted on his official website on February 25, 2025, states that in 2019 he and Dr. Dre celebrated the ribbon-cutting of Iovine and Young Hall together with the academy’s faculty and students; the website describes the hall as a 40,000-square-foot building with 10,000 square feet of maker spaces.⁠[26][27]

On January 4, 2021, Hipgnosis Songs Fund announced that it had acquired from him 100 percent of his worldwide producer royalties, covering 259 songs, together with his film production royalties for 8 Mile and Get Rich or Die Tryin’; the price was not disclosed.⁠[10][9][28]

In the announcement he said: “I’m happy that my work as a producer with so many great artists has found the right home with Merck and Hipgnosis.” He stated that he would use the proceeds of the deal for the Iovine and Young Academy’s initiative to build a high school in South Los Angeles. Merck Mercuriadis, the founder of Hipgnosis, said that his success with Interscope and Beats meant that he would never have to make a deal for money again.⁠[10][28]

In 2022 he and Dr. Dre founded in Los Angeles the first Iovine and Young Center, in full the Iovine and Young Center Integrated Design, Technology, and Entrepreneurship Magnet; the Television Academy biography calls it “high school education reimagined,” with coursework in entrepreneurship, technology and design.⁠[20][11][12]

His official website states that after the success of the USC Iovine and Young Academy he and Dr. Dre wanted to scale its instruction to the high school level; an article on the site, marked as a throwback post from July 28, 2021, states that the first Iovine and Young Center serves underrepresented high school students in the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles.⁠[29][30]

In the same year the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced that he, Allen Grubman and Sylvia Robinson would receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award, with the 37th induction ceremony set for November 5, 2022, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles; the Recording Academy biography records his induction in 2022.⁠[31][2]

The essay that Parke Puterbaugh wrote for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame judges that he could have been inducted for any one of his roles as record producer, co-founder of Interscope or co-founder of Beats; it quotes Bruce Springsteen: “Jimmy’s career is based on a tremendous lack of fear of moving forward.” The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee page quotes Bono: “Jimmy has this brutal honesty, but brutal honesty is why you want him in the room.”⁠[3][14]

At the 65th GRAMMY Awards in 2023 he was nominated, with Josh Abraham, Steve Berman, John Janick and Jason Sangerman, for Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package for Artists Inspired By Music: Interscope Reimagined.⁠[2]

His official website states that in February 2024 he and Dr. Dre held an art auction event to benefit the Iovine and Young Center and enhance public education, with help from Sotheby’s, Josh Abraham, David Kordansky, Jacqueline Wachter, the host James Corden and others; the works auctioned were by artists including Noah Davis, Reggie Burrows Hodges and Ed Ruscha.⁠[32]

TheWrap wrote on February 21, 2024, that BuzzFeed had sold Complex to the commerce platform NTWRK for $108.6 million in cash; that the other investors in the acquisition included Main Street Advisors, he himself, Universal Music Group and Goldman SachsGoldman SachsGoldman Sachs is an American financial services group headquartered in New York whose businesses include investment banking, securities trading, asset management, and wealth management. It traces its origins to the commercial paper business Marcus Goldman founded in 1869; it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1999 under the ticker GS and became a bank holding company in 2008. David Solomon serves as chairman and chief executive officer.Open the full entry; that Aaron Levant, NTWRK’s co-founder and chief executive, was to lead the merged brands; and that Interscope Geffen A&M and Capitol Music Group would be the first Universal Music Group labels to work with the merged platform. In a statement he said that Aaron Levant, along with Jamie and Gaston, was building an incredible platform and that the acquisition “will exponentially accelerate its growth.”⁠[33]

The Television Academy biography lists him as a board member of Complex NTWRK. In the 2026 interview he said that he had come out of retirement a little for Complex, because he had not been able to finish his thought on streaming; he said that Complex comprises media, live events and e-commerce, that Universal Music has invested in the project, and that he wants to help the labels build their own enterprise around AI. He said that he is not running any companies now and that the companies have to be run by someone with that crazy energy.⁠[11][6][6][6][6][6][6]

His official website states that he became an investor in Complex NTWRK in 2024, and describes Complex NTWRK as a music, style and pop culture platform that hosts ComplexCon, an annual festival and exhibition in Las Vegas.⁠[7]

His official website states that on March 19, 2024, Dr. Dre received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and that he and others spoke at the ceremony, where he called Dr. Dre “the greatest partner, friend, ally you could possibly have.”⁠[34]

His official website states that on May 10, 2024, he and Dr. Dre attended the commencement ceremony of the USC Iovine and Young Academy, where the two handed out diplomas and congratulated the graduates as they crossed the stage; the keynote speaker was Alexis OhanianAlexis OhanianAlexis Ohanian (born April 24, 1983) is an American entrepreneur, investor, and author, a co-founder of Reddit and the founder of the venture capital firm Seven Seven Six. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 2005, co-founded Initialized Capital, and later expanded his work into women’s sports, climate philanthropy, and investment software.Open the full entry, and the academy’s dean, Thanassis Rikakis, also spoke.⁠[35]

In fall 2024 he and Dr. Dre opened the Iovine and Young Center at Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta; the Television Academy biography states that two locations, in Los Angeles and Atlanta, have opened since August 2024. A location in Inglewood, California, was to open in 2025, in the fall of 2025 by the California Museum’s account.⁠[20][11][12]

His official website lists three Iovine and Young Center locations: one in Los Angeles opened in 2022, one in Atlanta opened in 2024 and one in Inglewood set to open in 2025; an article on the site, marked as a throwback post from September 1, 2023, states that he and Dr. Dre partnered with Atlanta Public Schools to offer students at Frederick Douglass High School a secondary curriculum centered on entrepreneurship, technology, innovation and design.⁠[7][36]

In the 2026 interview he said that they now have five high schools in the inner city (five or six, as he put it elsewhere in the interview). He said that his debt to Black culture is enormous and that he wants to help the inner city and give its children an educational advantage that no one else is thinking about; he said the school they built is considered one of the best interdisciplinary schools in the country.⁠[6][6][6][6][6]

Music Business Worldwide wrote on September 16, 2024, that he sits on Live NationLive Nation EntertainmentLive Nation Entertainment, Inc. describes itself as the world’s leading live entertainment company, made up of Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts and Live Nation Media & Sponsorship.Open the full entry’s board of directors and that an SECU.S. Securities and Exchange CommissionThe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is the federal securities regulator of the United States. Created during the Great Depression by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and led by five commissioners, it has a three-part mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation.Open the full entry filing from June showed him holding 37,351 shares of Live Nation, not including stock options, a 0.016 percent share worth about $3.75 million as of September 16.⁠[37]

The Television Academy biography lists him on the boards of the XQ Institute, Live Nation Entertainment, Complex NTWRK and Rosewood Creative and as an investor in the cocktail brand Gin & Juice By Dre and Snoop; the California Museum biography, marked as current as of 2025, lists the boards of Bizaar Studios, Live Nation Entertainment, Rosewood Creative and the XQ Institute.⁠[11][12]

His official website’s list of organizations on whose boards he has served adds Backflip House and the Iovine and Young Foundation to those named above.⁠[8]

His official website states that he became an investor in Gin & Juice By Dre and Snoop in 2024; an article posted on the site on February 13, 2024, about Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg launching Gin & Juice mixed cocktails names him as an investor in the brand. The website describes it as a spirits brand that Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre launched in 2024 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their 1990s hit “Gin and Juice,” and states that the brand’s second product, Still G.I.N., is a bottled spirit.⁠[7][38][8]

On February 1, 2026, David Senra published on his YouTube channel a long conversation with him titled “Jimmy Iovine: Building Interscope Records & Beats by Dre”; in it he gives his age as 72.⁠[6]

The conversation opens with his view that fame replaced greatness and that attention has now replaced fame. It then moves in turn to the economics and shortcomings of music streaming, what he learned beside John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen, his father and humility, how to speak the truth to artists, Steve Jobs and the iTunes licenses, the reasons for the school he and Dr. Dre endowed, and The Chronic, the lawsuits around it and its promotion on radio and MTV.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6][6][6][6]

In the conversation David Senra relays questions that two people had asked him to put: Steve StouteSteve StouteSteve Stoute is an American music and advertising executive who founded the branding and advertising company Translation in 2004 and, in 2017, UnitedMasters, a distribution and brand-partnership company for independent artists, where he is chief executive.Open the full entry wanted to know how he had got Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg onto Top 40 radio, and Daniel Ek wanted him asked about the origins of Beats. David Senra also relays Daniel Ek’s remark that he had lost only two deals in his life, both of them to him; he answered that this only meant he must have been slicker.⁠[6][6][6][6][6]

The second half of the conversation covers, in order, the founding and marketing of Beats, his effort to get Universal’s permission for new businesses, artificial intelligence and music, the founding of Interscope, fear and what he calls the “bend in the pipe,” leaving Apple and the search for peace, his father’s death, marriage and therapy, how he got into the business, and what he learned from Bono, Dr. Dre and Tom Petty.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6][6][6][6][6][6]

In the conversation David Senra mentions having heard his conversation with Rick RubinRick RubinRick Rubin is an American music producer and record label founder. He built the hip-hop label Def Jam with Russell Simmons out of his New York University dorm room and in the 1980s produced records for LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Slayer, and others; he went on to work across hip-hop, rock, metal, country, and pop with artists including Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Adele, served as co-head of Columbia Records from 2007 to 2013, and had won nine Grammy Awards as of 2022. In 2023 he published The Creative Act: A Way of Being, a book on creativity.Open the full entry, in which, David Senra says, the two agreed that no one has been famous in the way the Beatles were; the website of the podcast Tetragrammaton has an episode titled with his name, whose description has Rick speaking with him. At the end David Senra brings up a clip of his appearance on Ari EmanuelAri EmanuelAri Emanuel is a talent agent and entertainment and sports executive. He is executive chair and CEO of TKO, executive chairman of WME, and founder and principal investor of live-events company MARI.Open the full entry’s podcast, in which he complains about the recording conditions, and says that he once sent it to Daniel Ek; TheWrap wrote on September 29, 2025, that the guests of Ari Emanuel’s podcast “Rushmore” include Rick Rubin and him. He himself adds that on that occasion Rick Rubin was sitting in a beautiful house in Italy, backlit, looking like Moses.⁠[6][39][6][6][40]

In the 2026 conversation he said that the licensing deals between streaming services and record companies copied the 70/30 split of the iTunes download market, leaving the services too little money, so that they have to find other revenue; under the present method most of the money from a family plan goes to the most heavily streamed artists, and for artists outside that top group the money is no longer meaningful, which he called a problem that has to be fixed.⁠[6][6][6]

He called streaming “an ATM machine”: money goes in and music comes out, and it does nothing to help artists communicate with their fans, whereas TikTok and Instagram let artists promote themselves; for that reason, he said, the streaming services are “minutes away from being obsolete.” He also said that it was extremely hard for Daniel Ek to wrestle the licenses out of a record business that did not understand what he was talking about.⁠[6][6][6][6]

He said that the music industry has never had a customer of its own and that the relationship with the end user has always belonged to radio, television and later the streaming services. He argued that companies should “move laterally”: what he wanted at Interscope was the complete chain from making music and distributing it to making the instrument on which it is heard, and at Complex he now wants to add e-commerce so that artists can communicate with their audience in other ways.⁠[6][6][6][6][6]

He said that the entire record industry is worth half of what Spotify is worth, putting Spotify at $150 billion. He said that the first to understand how to make money from products other than the music were hip-hop artists, because they are practical and see the truth, and that they influenced his thinking.⁠[6][6][6][6]

On artificial intelligence he said that he is “all in on AI music”: in his view AI will not thwart great people, it will make average music better, and many well-known artists already use it without saying so. He urged labels and artists to build their own enterprise around AI instead of licensing their music to every company that comes through the door, which would feed a dragon that will eat them; he added that giving a license in exchange for 3 percent of the next “AI Spotify” would be an absurd deal.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6][6][6]

His first marriage was to Vicki McCarty; Entertainment Tonight writes that he has four children from that marriage. The Financial Times writes that he and his wife Vicki divorced after 24 years of marriage, that he struggled emotionally for a period after the marriage broke down and that he sought counsel from a rabbi. The Contemporary Musicians entry describes him as married with one son and one daughter; Music Business Worldwide in 2017 quotes him saying that his son has a comic book store in Los Angeles, Meltdown Comics.⁠[19][4][1][5]

In the 2026 conversation he said that he and Liberty Ross have six children between them; he said that the marriage is now more important than his work and the only place where he finds peace, and that the two work on their marriage, their friendship and their bond. Entertainment Tonight writes that Liberty Ross was previously married to Rupert Sanders, with whom she has two children, and that she filed for divorce in January 2013, the divorce being finalized in July 2014; HELLO! gives May 2014.⁠[6][6][6][19][18]

He said that he began therapy in his thirties and forties without taking it seriously; only after his divorce, in his fifties, did he take it seriously, twice a week, and he wishes he had done so earlier. He said: “To unring the bells of your childhood takes a lot of work.” He also said that he was long very insecure in his personal life and has grown out of it only in recent years.⁠[6][6][6][6][6]

He said that from the age of 20 to 65 he did not feel peace for one second, and that every day he woke up seeing what was wrong: with the product, the business, the record, the guitar sound. He said that he is a positive person by nature who has woken in a good mood every day of his life except after his father died, but that a compulsion drove him constantly when he was running companies or producing records; only since he stopped running companies has he felt balanced for the first time.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6][6][6]

He said that among the people he knows, the truly brilliant ones all have “a bend in the pipe,” usually from trauma when they were young or from family matters, combined with an innate talent. He said that for someone who grew up as he did, the sidewalk caves in behind as one walks forward, so that there is no choice but to keep walking forward however frightening or painful it is.⁠[6][6][6]

He said that he keeps his circle of close friends small, an infield with only a few positions, and that some of his friendships are 50 years old. He gave his height as 5 feet 7 inches; he said that his father was a very funny man and that the family saw humor in everything, which is why he takes what he does seriously but does not take himself too seriously.⁠[6][6][6][6][6]

The California Museum biography states that he and Dr. Dre both live in Los Angeles. The Financial Times writes that a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting hangs on a wall of his house alongside works by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Tracey Emin; the Music Business Worldwide interview mentions a work by Brice Marden in his home.⁠[12][4][5]

He said that he and Dr. Dre have worked together for 32 years and are very different: every time the two have to appear somewhere, Dr. Dre calls the night before to ask whether they really have to. He said that he gets along with every record producer he has ever met and that everything he knows about hip-hop and its culture he learned from Dr. Dre; he compared Dr. Dre to Bruce Springsteen, saying that both are completely uncompromising; he said that when he met Dr. Dre, Dr. Dre, too, was in trouble and broke.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6]

Under “Speaking Engagements,” his official website lists occasions on which he has shared his story: the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, episode 34 of “Out of Office with Rich KleimanRich KleimanRich Kleiman is a New York-born sports and entertainment entrepreneur and the longtime manager and business partner of NBA player Kevin Durant. After starting out as a music manager at Roc Nation, he co-founded Thirty Five Ventures (35V) and the sports business media brand Boardroom with Durant, and became Boardroom’s CEO.Open the full entry,” The Bill Simmons Podcast, Masters of Scale and the Tetragrammaton With Rick Rubin Podcast.⁠[8]

Take “this is not about me” as a rule: he said that anyone who applies it, and does not think himself great because of one success, can get somewhere even without being that good (video at 8:59).⁠[6]

When there are gatekeepers, find a way around them for something you truly believe in: he said this is the job whether the gatekeepers are inside one’s own company or at radio stations (video at 39:12).⁠[6]

If you know that what you have will stick and you are passionate about it, break through the wall: he said there will be a great deal of resistance, but if it sticks, you win (video at 44:08).⁠[6]

Marketing is empathy: he said that marketing is nothing more than understanding whom you are trying to communicate with, understanding them and where they come from (video at 47:54).⁠[6]

Do not be afraid of new technology, and do not wait to understand something fully before doing it: he offered himself as proof, saying that he understands little of many things but knows how to get them done (video at 1:01:11).⁠[6]

Turn fear into a tailwind: he said that when there is no choice but to walk forward, the thing to learn is how to make fear a tailwind instead of a headwind, because fear is massive energy (video at 1:16:05).⁠[6]

Take what you do seriously but not yourself: he said that he loves having a sense of humor and thinks that laughing extends one’s life (video at 1:39:59).⁠[6]

Have someone in your life who has no agenda: he said that everyone in one’s life has an agenda, even those who love you, and that with a guide who has none one can get much further; for him that person was a therapist (video at 1:46:37).⁠[6]

Interscope Records: Official website: https://www.interscope.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[41]

Beats: Official website: https://www.beatsbydre.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[42]

USC Iovine and Young Academy: Official website: https://iovine-young.usc.edu/ (opens in a new window).⁠[43]

Apple: Official website: https://www.apple.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[16]

Live Nation Entertainment: Official website: https://www.livenationentertainment.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[44]

Iovine and Young Center Inglewood: Official website: https://iyc.inglewoodusd.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[20]

Complex: Official website: https://www.complex.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[24]

Personal website: https://jimmyiovine.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[7][45]

X: Public account: https://x.com/jimmyiovine_ (opens in a new window).⁠[7][45]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmyiovine/ (opens in a new window).⁠[7][45]

YouTube: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/@jimmyiovine_ (opens in a new window).⁠[7]

Instagram: Public account: https://www.instagram.com/jimmyiovine/ (opens in a new window).⁠[7][45]

FlickrFlickrFlickr is a photo-sharing and photography-community platform developed by Ludicorp, formerly owned by Yahoo and acquired by SmugMug in 2018.Open the full entry: Public account: https://www.flickr.com/people/jimmyiovine/ (opens in a new window).⁠[7]