It may come as a certain relief to the music industry hopeful that even Stacy Carr, which has been Clive Davis‘Right hand for its Pre-gramy gala Since 1993, had to wait a couple of years before being invited to the party.
There are actually few stronger signals that you have “arrived” than the first year you are one of the 1,000 to 1,200 people who receive one of these coveted invitations to the star -studded, ultralek -separated event. Every year, even the stars can be star beat: Hi, there is Paul McCartney! Beyonce! Joni Mitchell! Meryl Streep! Tom Hanks! Nancy Pelosi! The list of jaw -taking names that are present every year is practically inexhaustible.
As with all such things, Gatekeeping is involved. And the person closest to Davis and his son and contributing producer Doug Davis, is Stacy Carr, who joined Davis’ Arista Records in 1991 and has been with him ever since. Carr (pictured above, to the right, with Davis at last year’s party) is well known to countless members of the rich, famous, obese and fantastic because of her expertise, professionalism and seemingly superhuman attention to detail. She is deeply involved in almost every step in the event’s planning and production, she is close to check-in writers before the show so that any problem-and there are always the problem-can be handled quickly and resolutely. And for the whole show, whether it is a (relatively) short three hours or an expansive five-plus, she is next to Davis on stage.
During all these years, Stacy Carr has basically seen everything-fist if this year gives a new element in it for the first time is Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Gala en collection, for will -law in Los Angeles. “This year’s direction and purpose is not only to celebrate the music,” she says, “but also to get some support for relief efforts. Obviously it is a bit of an attempting time around. We try to be super -sensitive to it and in terms of Our event and planning we try to stay. ”
Although the focus for this year’s event has changed a bit, it is still the Clive party, and this year is the 50th anniversary. Earlier this month, Carr took the time to share some memories and perspectives – the ones she can share, anyway – with Amount.
What is your official job title? Do you have one?
I guess it’s a special event producer. Of course, I work in line with Clive – he is always part of everything we do – and for this event I am also engaged by the Recording Academy, which is our partner. I make menu, I make flowers and decor, I make the floor plan, the flow and the entrance, our guest list, invitations, RSVPs, check -in, routing of VIPs, the red carpet, the seats and the tables. And I also help to show talents and who he calls out. That kind of thing.
Holy shit. How big is the staff?
It is actually quite large – although we inherit a lot of staff from the Recording Academy as part of our partnership. I bring in a rotating staff from some wonderful people who have been working with us for a long time. My core personnel are maybe eight people, and then we have additional day workers who join us, so it can go anywhere from 10 to 30. And we have our production personnel, a security team, press partners.
The party has never been postponed or canceled, except for 2022, when Gramm was held in Las Vegas due to the Omicron variant. But was it ever delayed?
We had problems with the Fire Marshal for a year in the 00s. We were at Beverly Hills Hotel, which has a smaller ballroom than Beverly Hilton, and we were above capacity, which was quite normal. But in the middle of the show, they decided we had too many people and made us stop the show in the middle literally locked people out. I remember Jay-Z and Beyonce couldn’t come in!
Clive and I were, of course, the side scene during the performances, and we basically froze all-the only solution was to remove the tables, put up the chairs in the back, more like theater style seating, which the fire marks felt was safer and released some space, and it solved the problem. Meanwhile, fun enough, Robin Williams was in the room and made an improvised stand-up for the guests while all this hoopla was going on, which was fun and obviously became what everyone remembers that night-it wasn’t like someone asked him to do , it was just so organic. I was very distracted, but at one point I think he pretended to be a waiter, he had dishes on his hand and did a whole thing. We only dropped about half an hour. So we all laugh about it, and Clive always annoys him giving me black and blue arms that night and pushes me from the nerves.
Clive turns 93 this year – is he still as engaged as ever?
Clive is probably the most practical person you will ever meet. He is always on top of everything: the show, the flowers, the guest list, whatever. There are many things you learn from working with Clive, from basics like grammar to how to handle people and how to be a good leader – and keep in touch with people. When I think of the relationships he has retained over the years – friendship, colleagues, family – he keeps in touch with so many people regularly. It is something I have tried to emulate in my career, and this event has really enabled me to do so.
Ever get people … I guess bribes are not really the word, but people trying to use some kind of influence to get into the party?
Do not influence in itself, but every year there is an ebb and flow our guest list – we always try to get many people to return, but we also try to include new people every year. And only based on the fact that we are in a ballroom, it is a sitting dinner and we have a limited number of dinner seats, inevitably there must be some cuts every year. So we will always have people who call who may not be invited or want to know why they were not invited back this year and such. We handle it every year.
Who has had the most intense security?
Those who stand out are obviously the politicians, as their team has to review and get their security detail to come through. The other was Michael Jackson, we used to do a lot of reviews with his security detail.
Besides Nancy Pelosi, who is there every year, who are some of the other politicians?
We have had Al Gore, all mayors, Senator Diane Feinstein, Governor Gavin Newsom, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton. Many of them.
How often are people thrown out?
Not often. It has definitely been a couple of times where fraudsters or imposters somehow do it inside the room and we have to get them away. In general, we tend to know the guests and I can recognize, hello, I personally told that person that he was not on the list and now I see him in the room. It has been a couple of times where people sat in someone else’s place and had to be removed because they were unwilling to politely move back to where they heard.
So it is usually for such things, rather than people being steadfast?
Yes, I don’t think it has ever been … Yes, there was actually once when Sharon Osborne had a little conflict with a guest and threw water at him, but in the end I think he left. But I think the majority of the people are grateful to be in the room, and then they behave that way.
Can you say – of course diplomatically – the factors that go into who is sitting? Obviously it is Clive’s conversation, but it really requires current knowledge of who people are and what they do.
We really take care of crafts every single table. It is probably the most time consuming we do, and in the same way you would make a dinner at home, we try to create a mix of people at a table that we first believe will enjoy each other’s business, and secondly, which may (take advantage of meeting each other). Over the years, so many people have told us that afterwards, new collaborations or offers or friendship came out of sitting together at this event. It is rewarding for me and nice, because it is a sign of appreciation, and as we do we do the right thing. And of course not sitting people together who are not on good speaking terms or not in a good place with each other.
We try to bring as much knowledge as we can in the process and make the right of everyone. Beverly Hilton Ballroom is tiered, and I really think honestly there is no bad place in the house. I think people can get stuck in, you know, “I sat back this year than I was last year – what does that mean?” And that really doesn’t mean anything. It’s just how chips fall every year.
How do you keep track of where 1,000 or 1,200 people sit?
My famous seat board! (laughs) Back in the early 90’s, when I first got involved, Clive sat just a few tables -his family and some VIP tables. But in the end we realized that everyone in the room is a VIP and we started to sit on everyone, and it is a huge commitment. So I got this big magnetic board, and we did some magnets for each guest, and today we still use it. I take it to check -in and up to Showtime, I adjust and change places when someone cannot come or show up with an extra guest or whatever. Nowadays they have software for table seats, but we still do it in an old -fashioned way because we are comfortable with it.
Are they super strong magnets? Because I imagine that it is transported and someone bumps into it and all magnets fall off.
(Laugh) We protect it with our lives! But the information is also entered into a computer system now.
How long does the seating take? Weeks?
I usually do not start to sit until one and a half or two weeks out, and then really focus on it throughout the week before – the majority of the waking hours during these days are spent in place. There is really no point in doing it before because we have so many requests and changes that it would not be effective to do it before.
What are some of your favorite or most exciting moments over the years?
It’s almost like asking me to choose my favorite child (laughs). I really sit in every show, because respect and love for live music is part of the reason I entered this business. There are so many: certainly Nirvana would reunion with Beck stands out. It was a year when we were in the House of Blues where it was a female range, and we had Carly Simon and Annie Lennox and Sarah Mclachlan and Bonnie Raitt. Another year, John Fogerty and Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters make “Happy Son.” I loved Barry Manilow and Jennifer Hudson who did “Weekend in New England.” There are so many.
What was the most challenging year?
Logistically challenging would probably be the year that Fire Marshal turned off. And then, of course, the most emotionally challenging would be the year that Whitney went, trying to sort plug and go forward and share, you know, this almost shiva-like night, where everyone in our music family could come together and comfort each other and really honor her memory.
How about the biggest surprises?
I mean, I have the advantage of being on the inside so that “surprisingly” doesn’t really apply (laugh), But I think it’s all-star lineups: people jumping on stage, or you have Alicia Keys and Patti Labelle who make a song and then Stevie Wonder comes up and starts singing with them, and then two seconds later, Justin Timberlake and Beyonce and Beyonce and Beyonce and Kelly Rowland are up there. It is the moments that make it so unique and special.
