Co- founder of Riot Fest
As a kid in Beverly, Sean McKeough played his cousin’s drums, stole his big brother’s records and festooned his bedroom with posters of punk rockers and alternative bands.
He loved XTC, INXS, the Smiths, Husker Du, R. E. M., Guns N’ Roses, Midnight Oil, Black Flag and the Clash.
The son of a police evidence technician, he grew up and made a fortune trading with the Chicago Board Options Exchange. He used his money to co- found Riot Fest, befriending the musicians he loved as a boy.
His passion for music came full circle when one of his favorite groups, the Replacements, reunited at Riot Fest. “We grew up admiring the bands who eventually played for my brother,” said his younger brother, Patrick. “Morrissey played at Riot Fest, Perry Farrell became good friends with Sean. He knew Duff McKagan, the bassist for Guns N’ Roses.”
Mr. McKeough’s phone was filled with the numbers of rock stars and millionaires. He juggled so many projects, his nieces and nephews nicknamed him “Uncle Late,” yet he never missed one of their birthday parties or graduations, according to his older brother, Tim.
And at his PTR brokerage firm, “Half the people are people he grew up with,” Patrick McKeough said.
Mr. McKeough, 42, died on Nov. 29 after suffering a stroke while visiting his father in Arkansas. He never smoked, didn’t do drugs and didn’t drink to excess, according to his brothers and his partner, Erin Raymer. Doctors suspect the stroke was linked to radiation that damaged his circulatory system a few years ago during treatment for throat cancer, his family said.
“It was throat cancer on his vocal cord, because he worked down in the [ trading] pit and he was yelling all day,” Raymer said. “The hoarse- ness wasn’t going away,” prompting him to investigate.
“It wasn’t the cancer that killed him,” said Tim McKeough. “It was the cure.”
Mr. McKeough’s empire included real estate and restaurants; the Cobra Lounge; a record label, Cobra Music, and a brewery, All Rise, named for an album by one of his favorite bands, Naked Raygun. Its first brew was called Wonder Beer — the name of a Naked Raygun song.
The band released a statement saying, “He gave Naked Raygun a home when the previous Naked Raygun World Headquarters was just a PO Box. He welcomed us into his personal practice studio above Cobra Lounge, fed us, gave us drinks and made sure we had everything we wanted. His generosity was beyond measure.”
Workers at Riot Fest posted on social media that he patrolled the grounds as if he were an employee instead of a boss, emptying garbage cans himself.
His innovation and drive was motivated in part by a long- ago relationship torpedoed by the father of a girl who didn’t think he was good enough for his daughter, Patrick McKeough said. “Sean used that and thought, ‘ I’m going to prove you wrong.’ ”
Sean Patrick McKeough grew up on the 9700 block of South Winchester and attended St. Barnabas grade school, where he performed as a Blues Brother at the Barnabas Bash. He worked at a Bresler’s Ice Cream at Evergreen Plaza and graduated in 1992 from Mount Carmel High School. Though smart and good at math, “College wasn’t on Sean’s radar,” said his brother Tim.
When he landed a job as a runner at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, he thrived amid the frenetic buy- sell rhythm.
“He did his best work in chaos, sorting out chaos,” Tim McKeough said.
And he drew happiness from sharing good fortune. Erin Raymer recalled Mr. McKeough handing an envelope with $ 5,000 to an acquaintance whose wife had a brain tumor. Another time, he made a wish come true for a melanoma- stricken friend who had dreamed of owning a Tesla. “Sean took him to the Tesla dealership and looked around, and without him knowing,” she said, he ordered the vehicle and had it delivered to the friend’s garage.
She witnessed him giving a $ 100 bill to a homeless man who couldn’t believe the bonanza. If someone he knew opened an art gallery, “Sean would go and buy something off of them so he could help them and they wouldn’t feel like they were getting charity,” his brother Tim said.
If friends were down on their luck, they always seemed to match the requirements for a job he needed to fill. Over the years, he rescued four cats and a dog.
He owned around 50 cars, but there was one he’d never part with, Raymer recalled. “He said, ‘ Someday, if I lose everything, I’ll always have my VW bus. I can live in that.’ ”
Mr. McKeough also was a producer of “We Live in Public,” winner of a 2009 documentary award at the Sundance Film Festival.
He loved going to Jamaica. To thank Riot Fest workers, he whisked them there on vacation.
Mr. McKeough enjoyed jerk chicken, Ricobene’s breaded steak sandwiches, Vito and Nick’s pizza, and watching movies in the reclining chairs at Regal Webster Place.
He is also survived by his mother, Cleatus Mary Walker; his father, Timothy, and six stepbrothers and stepsisters. A funeral Mass is scheduled at 10 a. m. Saturday at St. Barnabas, 10134 S. Longwood. A celebration of his life is planned Jan. 6 at Concord Music Hall, 2047 N. Milwaukee.
“We grew up admiring the bands who eventually played for my brother.” Patrick McKeough, of big brother Sean ( right)