Larry Vallon, the longtime concert executive for AEG and others who built Universal Amphitheatre into a regional powerhouse, has died. He was 77.
An AEG representative confirmed Vallon's death on July 14 due to complications from Alzheimer's.
Vallon’s career in concert promotion spanned five decades, beginning with a stint as a page on Bob Eubanks’ “The Newlywed Game.” He then worked for promoters such as Wolf and Rissmiller Concerts and founded his own label, Larry Vallon Presents.
He spent 23 years at the label that became Universal Concerts (and later House Of Blues Concerts), where he worked with his mentor and Hollywood mogul Lew Wasserman. He booked shows for top artists including the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and The Who, and won Pollstar's Talent Buyer of the Year award four times.
Locally, Vallon renovated and managed the former Universal Amphitheatre in the late 1980s, turning it into a world-renowned venue for artists such as Frank Sinatra and Linda Ronstadt, who held residencies there. Under Vallon’s management, the venue was a popular spot throughout the 1990s for artists such as Maná, Juanes, and Julio Iglesias (who played there for 18 dates), helping to seed the growth of Latin and Spanish-language music in the U.S.
Vallon joined AEG in 2004 and worked there for 15 years before retiring in 2019. While working at Universal in 1984, Vallon had hired future AEG Presents CEO Jay Marciano, who told Hits Daily Double: “He was a friend, a mentor and the big brother I never had, the most positive person I ever met and he could really make me laugh. My life is so much better since I met him. I loved that man.”
Vallon is survived by his wife, Claudia; daughters Vanessa Vallon and Kelly Vallon Ciccotti; and son-in-law Matt Ciccotti.
