Lawrence "Larry" Vallon

January 4, 1947 - July 14, 2024 Legendary concert promoter Larry Vallon passed away peacefully as a result of complications from Alzheimer's disease in Los Angeles on July 14, 2024. He was 77 years old.

Larry was born in Washington, D.C. to Edwin and Eleanor Vallon. His father was in the United States foreign service and Larry spent many of his early years in Argentina, El Salvador and Guatemala, becoming fluent in Spanish. After his father passed away in 1960, Larry and his mother moved to Montebello, California where Larry instantly took to the Southern California lifestyle, following the local music scene and becoming an avid surfer.

He attended Pasadena City College, where he became a DJ at the innovative KPCC radio station, playing the jazz and rock music that he loved. He was also known as the "surf reporter" at KRLA, calling in live daily updates on the surf conditions from Malibu to the South Bay.

In 1967 he was drafted into the Vietnam war where he served on the radio operations team until 1969, setting up communications between the front lines and headquarters. His army unit was the 199th Infantry Brigade.

After returning to Los Angeles, he met Steve Wolf and Jim Rissmiller, founders of a concert promotion company called Wolf & Rissmiller Concerts. Steve and Jim gave Larry his first job in the music business-"Icing the Cokes," as Larry described it, backstage at shows. Larry rose from there to junior partner, working with then-up-and-coming acts like Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, the Beach Boys, and Steely Dan at venues across Southern California. Neither knew it at the time, but Larry's future wife Claudia was in the audience at one of those early shows: the infamous 1969 all-night Rolling Stones double-header at the Forum.

Larry and Claudia officially met five years later backstage at an Eagles concert he was promoting in Honolulu, Hawaii. They got married on August 27, 1977 in the Fern Grotto on the Wailua River in Kauai.

In 1979, Larry started his own concert promotion company, Larry Vallon Presents, putting on successful shows with Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and many others. After reading in the LA Times that Laker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had negotiated for the free use of the Forum in Inglewood, Larry reached out to Abdul-Jabbar and together they successfully promoted Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers there in 1981.

Larry's mentor, Hollywood mogul Lew Wasserman, invited him to join the concerts arm of MCA in 1982, booking concerts for the Universal Amphitheater. Larry is credited with developing the concept of the LA concert residency. He convinced artists like Julio Iglesias, Frank Sinatra, and Linda Ronstadt to play consecutive shows at the 6,200-seat Universal Amphitheater (as opposed to a single show at its nearby competitor, the 17,500-seat Hollywood Bowl). Larry's fluency in Spanish and his upbringing in Central and South America helped make the Universal Amphitheater the prime destination for Latin acts to play in Los Angeles. Jose Jose, Luis Miguel, Camilo Sesto and Juan Gabriel were just a few of the Latin artists to headline the Amphitheatre.

In 2004, Jay Marciano, the CEO of AEG Presents, invited Larry to run the company's national touring operations. At AEG, Larry oversaw the company's national offices and promoted hundreds of concerts, festivals, and tours. While in this role, Larry worked closely with The Who. He retired from AEG in 2019.

Larry was on the board of the Country Music Association, City of Hope's Music, Film & Entertainment group, and the North American Concert Promoters Association. He staged fundraising concerts for Teen Cancer America and was inducted into IEBA's Hall of Fame in 2019.

He was known as one of the nicest people in the music business and has mentored many young promoters.

Larry loved playing golf, mountain biking, and skiing but his favorite activity was spending as much time as possible with his family, whether he was bringing them to shows, attending sporting events or traveling around the world together.

He was incredibly proud that his daughters were carrying on his legacy in the music industry: Vanessa is a Sponsorship Manager at AXS and Kelly is a Partner in the music department at Ziffren Brittenham.

He is survived by his loving wife Claudia Vallon, his daughters Vanessa Vallon and Kelly Vallon Ciccotti and his son-in-law Matt Ciccotti.

A memorial for Larry will be held in the coming weeks. The family is requesting donations be made via a Larry Vallon tribute page on the Alzheimer's Association website.