Yahoo Lifestyle Doug Davis, Clive Davis’ Son and Co-Pilot for the Pre-Grammy Gala, on This Year’s Show and 18 Years of Memories
In an industry filled with blowhards, Doug Davis flies pretty far under the radar, at least for a major music attorney, son of one of its most legendary executives and, for nearly two decades, co-pilot of that legendary executive’s iconic annual event, the Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Gala. Even those who have known him for years may be surprised to learn that Doug is up for his fifth Grammy this year, as a co-producer of the late President Jimmy Carter’s album, “Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration” in the Best Audio Book, Narration and Storytelling Recording category. (His previous wins were in jazz categories as a co-producer of Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra’s “Four Questions” and other albums.)
Yet a large percentage of his time for the last 18 years has been occupied by his work on the Gala, which features a jaw-dropping, completely unique lineup of talent and guests every year that is largely assembled by Clive, Doug and special event producer Stacy Carr. To cite just one example, last year’s invitees included Tom Hanks, Cher, Meryl Streep, Nancy and Paul Pelosi, Stevie Wonder, Shania Twain, Janelle Monae, Smokey Robinson, Dionne Warwick, Dua Lipa, Berry Gordy, Brandi Carlile, Jon Bon Jovi, Andra Day, Lenny Kravitz, Megan Thee Stallion, Gayle King … we could go on. And every year there are once-in-a-lifetime performances (head here for Clive’s own favorites).
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Needless to say, it’s a massive undertaking, and not only is this year the gala’s 50th anniversary, it’s been transformed into a fund-raiser for Los Angeles wildfire relief. Doug somehow found time last week to talk with Variety about this year’s show, his history with the event and its legacy.
What was involved in turning this year’s gala into a fundraiser, just three weeks before showtime?
Because it began as a 50th anniversary celebration, we knew it was going to be unique from any other party — it would be a sort of celebration and retrospective. But when the fires hit and the tone changed, we didn’t immediately pivot, because that’s not what you do — you take stock of what’s happening. The Grammys made their decision to go forward prior to ours, and the most impactful factor for us was, when I asked Rex Supa at the Recording Academy how many people the Gala puts to work, and it was no less than 650 people: independent contractors, waiters, caterers, security, florists, production, musicians. It would probably be about two weeks’ wages for 650 people in Los Angeles, and putting people out of work didn’t feel like the right thing to do. Now, the labels canceled their parties, but they probably didn’t think that kind of celebration was the right tone, and their parties are probably not as easily able to pivot to a fundraiser. But ours was, and MusiCares was instantly able to support the music community and then adapt itself for fire relief. So it was seamless for us to plug into its fundraising infrastructure.
Has your plan for the show changed much?
The performers and the repertoire we were discussing haven’t changed. Elements of the evening have been pared back, and I think the wording of what people are going to say will adapt and change. There’s not going to be a red carpet, but we are going to have a photo moment, which will be for fire relief and MusiCares and it’s adjusted in a way that feels right for what we as a community should be doing.
I think we are going to raise a meaningful amount of money, we are going to keep people employed, and it will be a chance for people who have been through tragedy to come together. There is a call to rise to the moment and make a meaningful, positive impact, and people come away from the night feeling that it wasn’t just a party or a gala. That’s the metric for success.
This will probably be hard to put into a few sentences, but what exactly is your role with the Gala?
I’ve been involved for 18 years now, and someone on the Recording Academy side dubbed me executive producer, and I do think that fits. I run point for my father and the Recording Academy on, for the most part, talent, guest list and seating. Production and logistics are handled by Jennifer Hellman, and she and I work very closely together. The hotel and catering and the vendors are handled by the Recording Academy under Rex Supa and Casey Immoor.
We always say the biggest star at the party has become the people in the room. There’s no one star who shines as bright as the collection of these movie stars and rock stars and executives and everyone — and they don’t just show up, you know, there’s outreach and conversations, and I’m involved in that sort of “sauce creation.” It’s really being at my father’s side, translating at times, cracking the whip at times, putting out fires. I don’t know if that’s a good explanation — there’s not necessarily one defined answer for what I do other than a sort of meandering answer, like I just gave (laughs).
The guest list and performers are always very up-to-the-moment with who’s been significant over the past year, whether it’s legacy or new people. How do you decide?
It’s a great question and again, a complicated answer. Because I have a contemporary law practice, I’m dealing with all the labels and the music companies throughout the year, so I do know who the power players are. And we take stock every year of the industry and make sure those executives and managers and people that have risen into positions of prominence are invited. It keeps the party contemporary and important, and it’s become sort of a career milestone to have been invited, although I don’t necessarily see it that way. We’re much quicker to include people than we are to cut them; it’s actually a very small number of seats that turn over every year. I learned this from my father — you’ve got to be sensitive to people, and you don’t just cut them if they lose their job. This is a business of relationships, and there are people who are part of the evergreen music business, you know?
I don’t love the idea that someone takes stock of their worth based on whether or not they’re invited to any party, or who else is at their table. But you want to get it right. You want to make sure that that the party stays hip and relevant and you include those new power players, and also try to make sure you don’t hurt people’s feelings.
Having said that, everybody wants a plus-one, and it’s problematic because for every guest that gets one, that means there’s a relevant executive or a celebrity that we can’t accommodate. So every year we say: It won’t be too much to come alone. We’re going to put you at an interesting, fun table with people you recognize, or who you might strike a new relationship with, and we’re going to get it right. One year, Jon Bon Jovi was on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” and they talked about how they had met the Clive Davis party. I remember the moment where we [decided to seat them] together and said, “Would this work?” And then a few months later, they were talking about it on national TV and how they had such a great time together.
Although one year we had the party on Valentine’s Day, and nearly everybody called saying, “Listen, I’m going to get divorced if you don’t let me bring my spouse on Valentine’s Day!” (laughter)
There’s always going to be someone who doesn’t think they’re close enough to the center of the room, or doesn’t think they’re at the right table, or they didn’t get the plus-one. But the way we arrange the seating of the room — I call them solar systems. We try to create little suns around the ballroom, where there’ll be a major celebrity table, and around that table we’ll have smaller planets with executives and guests, so nobody in the ballroom is more than a table away from a Hall of Fame rock star or a Nancy Pelosi or a Tim Cook. So even if you’re on the third tier, you’re near a Joni Mitchell or a David Hockney, and you feel like you’re in a great place. For the most part, I think the fact that everybody comes back shows that we do a great job at it.
One year a British guy came back to our table and said, “I just met Paul McCartney in the toilet! [men’s room]!” (laughter)
That reminds me, one of my most indelible memories was a year that Paul McCartney RSVP’ed saying he was doing his rehearsal for the Grammys on Saturday night, so he’d be unable to attend. But I guess Sir Paul felt like the night was young, and in the middle of the show, his security team reached out and said he was on his way over from the arena to the party. Now, you don’t just put him in whatever empty seat you have in the back. So we had this moment — mid-show, with a band onstage — where Stacy and a couple of our team went to the best table and very delicately asked some of our VIP people to move to some of the other tables. And then this hush came over the room, because everybody saw Paul McCartney walk in and take his seat.
I can still get starstruck. You’d think I’d be jaded, growing up in the industry with the father I have and the path I’ve been on. But one year, I was in my father’s dressing room when Meryl Streep and Cher came in together and I was like, I can’t believe this is my life.
What was the first year you went?
Well, my father had a rule, which I really did not like at the time, that you had to be 16 years old to attend the party. So 36 years ago, I had been in a motorcycle accident and broken my leg over the Christmas break, had knee surgery on New Year’s Eve — but I went to the party. I was not going to be stopped, and my father certainly was not going to let it be a letdown, since I’d just gone through that. So he loaned me one of his tuxedos and we had a tailor open up the leg so my cast and knee brace would fit. I couldn’t move around the party, but I could feel the energy, and it was everything I’d expected.
But I’ll never forget: Nick Ashford [late, legendary artist-songwriter of Ashford & Simpson] sat down with me, introduced himself and said, “Mind if I hang out with you for a little while?” We made conversation, he asked me what my interests were, and I asked him a little bit about his career, and obviously my jaw hit the floor when he told me all the iconic songs he had written [with his wife Valerie Simpson, including “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “You’re All I Need to Get By,” “I’m Every Woman,” their own “Solid” and many more]. I’ll never forget his kindness. So at my first Grammy party, I spent 45 minutes sitting chopping it up with Nick Ashford, with a broken leg.
Do you remember who performed that night, or — this will sound really jaded — do they just start to blend together after a while?
Oh yeah, you’re almost overstuffed with greatness, and it’s sometimes hard to remember, Wait a minute, I did see those two people perform together! With it being the 50th anniversary, we’ve been doing some retrospective research, and you look at the run-of-show of a certain night, and it is bountiful beyond belief. Every year involves multiple unique, never-done-before, never-to-be-done-again moments.
When do you usually start organizing? I assume that this year took longer because it was the anniversary?
Well, my father has no “off” switch when it comes to ideas for the party. If he runs across a certain iconic artist, he’ll say, “You’ve got to do my party this year,” and plant a seed. And he’s always watching the charts and listening to every new song and seeing how many weeks something stays at the top. So there’s always that calculus. In August, Stacy starts putting together her team, and that’s when the Recording Academy ramps up conversations, and that’s sort of the first piece of the guest list. Then there’s adjustment for talent performing that year, refining it, and we have the different lists finalized probably by December. But obviously there’s a tremendous amount of adjustment from December through January. Stacy’s team sets up in my office starting in mid-December, and the invites go out the first work day after New Year’s. We used to have to pack, label and FedEx a thousand invites from the office, and that was a laborious process, but now it’s email. So there’s no time off for the Davises, but for everybody else, it’s an August to February gig.
We have a giant board with the whole ballroom and every table, and on Tuesday, Stacy and her team start putting the RSVP’ed names on these little tiles, and then Wednesday is when we start moving the tiles into groups and putting them all at the different tables around the ballroom. I don’t know if you’d call it a talent, but I can recall every guest and who we sat them with, and where in the room they were. And I think because of my law practice, I just know who doesn’t like each other, who fired who, who may have dated and no longer dates. Knowing the industry gossip really goes into making sure you get the seating right.
How do you run a successful, busy law firm and do this at the same time?
Well, I don’t play golf. I don’t have a lot of hobbies outside of production activities like the homecoming concert in Central Park or the Aretha Franklin memorial TV concert on CBS — my father and I do a lot of event production outside of this. [Through accident or modesty, he omitted his album production work.] I mean, the Grammy party and those activities, those are my hobbies. It’s this and my family. I love the action — I don’t know how to get off this ride.
I’m out of questions. Anything more you’d like to say?
You know, I’m uniquely situated in that of everybody involved, I am the only one who’s a protective child, so I want a successful event and I also want my father’s name and legacy to be burnished to its brightest self. I’m not paid to do this. I do it to be alongside my dad, to have this bond and be in the trenches with him. The party is has really given me the ability to do that, and that is really why I do it year in and year out.
This year, when the fires hit and we were in the midst of what to do, one of the label chairmen, who I’m very close with, kept texting me, “Boy, your job ain’t easy,” and it was almost like a little poke in the ribs. So, I called him and I was like, whenever anyone says “job,” I sort of bristle, because this is unpaid. And he said, “I know, and I say it that way because at some point, there was a mantle on the ground, and you picked it up, and you carry it now for the whole industry. So keep that in mind when you’re making the decision for Saturday night.”
This is my father’s party, and the aforementioned music stars, movie stars, sports stars, politicians, tech CEOs — they show up for him, and I see myself as support staff. We have this incredible father-son bond that is stronger because of the Gala. I see myself as helping to carry the mantle, but it’s his. The magic is all his.
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