Barry Fey Passes

BARRY FEY, 73, the legendary concert promoter who established the Colorado market for rock and roll bands, died yesterday while recovering from a recent hip replacement surgery. Fey promoted tens of thousands of concerts and other events from the 1960s, selling his company Feyline to Universal Concerts in 1997 before consulting the House of Blues. Among the acts he booked, and became friends with, were the Beatles, Black Sabbath, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead, the Who, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, among many others. The New Jersey-born Fey moved with his family to Chicago when he was 11, serving in the Marine Corps between Korea and Vietnam. He became a concert promoter in 1965, booking Baby Huey and the Babysitters, his favorite college band, at the American Legion Hall in Rockford, IL. Soon after, he booked the Association for a fraternity party at the University of Denver and never left the city. He went on to become what one friend called “the second biggest celebrity in Colorado for the last 30 years next to John Elway,” synonymous with local shows such as Red Rocks and the Summer of Stars. “He was rock and roll in Colorado,” said Dan Steinberg, a Denver-area promoter who now heads Square Peg Concerts in Washington state. Fey published his memoir, Backstage Pass, in 2011, which included forwards written by Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne and the Who’s Pete Townshend. More recently, he hosted a show on local sports radio about the role of gambling in professional athletics. Fey is survived by his four sons, Tyler, Jeremy, Geoffry and Alan. (4/29a)