The Legendary Ahmet Ertegun sadly passed away on the 14th DEC 2006 at the age of 83 yrs. After an accidental fall at a Rolling Stones concert in New York in October 06 he had been in a coma, and died with his family at his bedside.
Ahmet was the founder and Chairman of the famous Atlantic Records in 1947, and with Jerry Wexler,the great engineer Tom Dowd, they discovered artists like Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Buffalo Spingfield, The Rascals, Solomon Burke, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding,Phil Collins, Rolling Stones, Average White Band, to name just a few.
In 1968 Ahmet and Jerry signed both Cartoone and Led Zeppelin to Atlantic Records. Both bands released debut albums in the USA at the same time, and toured together in 1969. Jimmy Page was guest artist on Cartoone's debut album playing guitar in session man mode.
In Rolling Stone magazine, Jerry Wexler was quoted as saying " The two bands that Atlantic have most faith in to be successful, are Cartoone and Led Zeppelin" unquote. Well one of those bands went on to be huge million sellers for Atlantic, so Jerry was half right in his projections.
Ahmet Ertegun will be sorely missed, as he was respected and loved by musicians and high society personalities from all over the world. His personality, warmth, and his business savy gave him a unique quality which made Ahmet so special, he could mix easily with Presidents and musicians with his gift for making great coversation and telling wonderful stories. Ahmet thoroughly deserves the accolade of being called a "Legend". Ahmet still kept in touch with many musicians past and present that were signed to his label, that was the special character he had, and that's the reason why everyone loved him so much.
I had the honour of having lunch in his office in June 2003. He was so warm and considerate, and told me some lovely stories from way back, plus we spoke about the old Atlantic Studios on 1841 Broadway,NY which was magical and created some amazing artists.What a fantastic personality Ahmet was, he will never be forgotton by me or any of his many admirers.
Ahmet is buried in his native Turkey, and there was a memorial service in New York in the 2007 attended by his close family and a few "A" list artists.
There will only ever be one Ahmet Ertegun, he was a one-off. They broke the mould after they made him.
Led Zeppelin reformed after 27yrs to play a tribute concert for Ahmet Ertegun in London O2 on 10th December 07. John Bonham's son Jason took his fathers place on drums, and did an amazing job, his dad would have been proud of him.
Dennis Sheehan ( U2 tour manager) our old tour manager from our USA tour with Led Zeppelin was there and said Zeppelin were fantastic, and Jason really gelled with the rest of the band to make a powerful unit, they rocked the O2 arena that night.
It was an amazing night with all the tickets selling out within an hour. Millions of Zeppelin fans from all over the world logged on, but were unlucky, as tickets were limited to a ballot only, and people who won the ballot were given special passwords to collect their tickets.
The concert was a fitting tribute to a great man AHMET ERTEGUN -LEGEND.
Charlie ( drummer Cartoone)