Mo Ostin, longtime Warner records chairman, dies at 95

NEW YORK (AP) — Mo Ostin, a self-effacing giant of the music business who with rare integrity presided over Warner Bros. Records’ rise to a sprawling, billion-dollar empire, has died.

He was 95.

Warner Records said Ostin, a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, died Sunday “peacefully in his sleep.” In a statement, the company called him “one of the greatest record men of all time.”

Among the acts signed to the label and its affiliates under his watch were Miles Davis, Black Sabbath, Van Morrison, U2, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, The Grateful Dead, Paul Simon, George Harrison, the Eagles, Dire Straits, Steely Dan, Tom Petty, ZZ Top, Van Halen and Rod Stewart.

For decades, Ostin thrived on the simple, underused idea of taking on talented and original performers and letting them remain talented and original, whether Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac and Paul Simon, or R.E.M. and Green Day.

PHOTO INFO: Record executive Mo Ostin, foreground left, is embraced by singer/songwriter Paul Simon, right, as singer/songwriter Neil Young, background left, and producer Lorne Michaels look on after Ostin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York on March 10, 2003. Ostin, a self-effacing giant of the music business who with rare integrity presided over Warner Bros. Records’ rise to a sprawling, billion-dollar empire, died Sunday, July 31, 2022. He was 95. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

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