From the boardroom to the arena
Corporate executive lives the dream by moonlighting as musician
James Dolan is the head of one of the biggest sports and entertainment companies in North America.
He is president and CEO of Cablevision and executive chairman of Madison Square Garden Inc. His company includes the NBA’s Knicks and the NHL’s Rangers and one of the most famous arenas in the world.
It is an important post, but, it is not his only passion. In fact it may not even be his principal passion.
That appears to be his musical career. That’s right, his musical career, which will bring him to Canadian Tire Place in Ottawa Monday July 15 as the opening act for one of the seminal bands of all time — The Eagles. So where does this all begin? “The night job has been goin’ on since I was 16,” says Dolan. “I picked up my first guitar then and I’ve never put it down.”
Not quite, although Dolan still has that very first Gibson J50, recently rebuilt. But he doesn’t play it on stage. He has a Taylor for that kind of work.
“Whenever I take the Gibson out of its case, it has a smell to it that just takes me back to my childhood. I’ll never take that one on the road.”
As a teenager, music meant everything to him and his friends.
“I’ve still never seen a generation interact with music like the generation of the 1960s and 1970s. Music was our standard-bearer. It was how we expressed ourselves. The musicians spoke for us.”
He wasn’t really serious about it, but did take some lessons while he was living in the suburbs on Long Island. He and his friends would drag the guitars around to whomever’s parents weren’t home, all the while listening to Eric Clapton, the Who, The Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, Neil Young, Crosby, Stills and Nash. But his big heroes were Clapton, Duane Allman and Jerry Garcia. He has met Clapton and calls him a casual friend and a “normal person”.
At university Dolan studied music for a year before turning to business.
“I recognized it was a long, long road for me, so I convinced myself it would be better to pursue business and communications and playing guitar on the side, and so that’s what I did.”
It was, he says, a real fork in the road.
Around the year 2000 he started playing more and more with friends, they put together a show for an event, and he was intrigued.
“By 2002, we were full on.” That was the first iteration of the band that changed three more times before becoming JD and The Straight Shot.
It’s not the first passion that Dolan has pursued intensely. He was also a demon competitive sailor, who at the end was sailing across the oceans on super-fast 80-foot boats. That stopped when he ran up against what was going to be a fulltime commitment. The day job came calling again.
But with music, he’s determined to see how far he can go.
“I make rules for myself. I have a vocal coach and I do exercises every day ... for eight years.” It is a serious business.
The band was originally fairly blues-based, an acoustic band with a strong emphasis on harmonies and playing what he calls “Americana” patterned after Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. The six-person outfit carries violin, accordion and guitars and drums. “We haven’t totally abandoned the blues, but we won’t really rock you out.”
Dolan is lead singer and songwriter for the band. He says he tries to bring a more complex perspective to his songwriting. He also plays guitar. The band’s creative nucleus is Dolan, guitarist Marc Copely (who regularly plays with B.B. King), and guitarist Adam Levy (Norah Jones, Amos Lee). On keyboards, harmonica and accordion is Brian Mitchell (Bob Dylan, Levon Helm), drummer Shawn Pelton (Rod Stewart, Pink, Daryl Hall, Buddy Guy), bassist Zev Katz (Aretha Franklin, Elton John), and violinist Lorenza Ponce (Sheryl Crow, Ben Folds, Bon Jovi).
The band’s name JD and The Straight Shot comes out of another passion of Dolan’s. “Originally it had a connotation toward sobriety. Next month, I’m celebrating my 20th year of sobriety. It was something about going straight and making this musical effort a healthy part of my life.” Even though he might want to change it, he says he can’t, because he has “equity” in the name now.
He is methodical about getting bookings and he strategizes when he can take time.
The gig with the Eagles came about through his relationship with Eagles manager Irving Azoff. He is now friends with all the members of the band — first with Joe Walsh, although long after the guitarist was done trashing hotel rooms.
He is comfortable in knowing that the Eagles like his music, and want Straight Shot open for them. They are doing 12 shows this July and more in the fall, about the time Dolan’s band will release a new album, one song which will be previewed Monday, called Violet’s Song. Their last disc was released in 2012 and is called Midnight Run.
It’s rare that his day job intrudes on his night job, but the reverse does happen.
Performing in arenas is helping him with his company’s project to renovate the Los Angeles Forum into an artist friendly space.
“It is really going to be a step forward in the music industry for artists.” He hopes artists will want to play there and the fans will follow.
He’s been to Ottawa’s arena before for hockey games. “We went to seven games with the Rangers there and I had my heart in my mouth.”
Speaking of that, he is a big hockey fan. “Since I was about 10. I went to Ranger hockey camp when I was a kid.” In 1994, funnily enough, he was an Islander fan.
There is one way the day job affects the night job and that is his powerful position.
At the head of such a large company, it’s not always easy to be accepted as just another musician.
“It’s gotta be about the music first. Writing and performing is something that I’ve wanted to do my entire life, and I’m doing it.
“I don’t shoot basketballs, I don’t shoot pucks, I don’t install cable in people’s homes. Music is a place that goes from my mind to my hands and into my voice direct out.
“Some people come in and they can’t see past what they already know. They don’t like the basketball team or whatever. Those who come in and have a virgin pairs of ears, they get rewarded.”