GRAMMYS’ CAN-DO MAN
As KEN EHRLICH signs off from 40 years of music’s biggest night, the TV vet reflects — and roars a little
TO SHAKE KEN EHRLICH’S hand is to know that you are no more than two degrees of separation from just about any living pop, rock, R&B, country, hip-hop or gospel musician of note — and more than a few who are no longer with us.
They, or at least someone close to them, have all passed across his stages and telecasts since the 1970s, when he started his TV career as a producer for “Soundstage” and “Midnight Special,” before making the fateful leap in 1980 to become executive producer of the Grammy Awards, a position he’s held for 39 of the past 40 years. (More on that lone gap year, later.) He’s not retiring from television, but on Jan. 26, he’s helming his last “music’s biggest night” — an evening that’s going to seem smaller without popular music’s greatest Rolodex, and one of its greatest raconteurs, guiding the ship.
To commemorate his 40th anniversary as captain, Variety had its own “Grammy moment” with Ehrlich, sitting down in his office to talk about his tenure as music television’s most storied name. Although that name may be leaving the Grammys credit roll after this year, he plans to still keep as full a roster of specials as possible. To riff on a few of the songs that were up for record of the year when he took over the show in 1980: Like Kenny Rogers, he’s been a gambler; unlike Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond, he will be brought flowers; as the Doobie Brothers might say, only a fool would believe this means retirement; and like Gloria Gaynor, he will, well, you know.