Elegance and Grit

ARETHA FRANKLIN
In 1967, Jerry Wexler invited me to come to Atlantic to meet Mr. Ertegun. He invited me to have lunch right there in his office. I thought it was very chic. We had a classy arrangement with a dining table and a server. I had never seen that level of class in an office before. But Ahmet was the exact opposite of the usual record man. He was the authority figure -- classy and urbane. But he had a wonderful sense of humor that cut through all of that, and that's what I liked about him.

Even after I left Atlantic, I never left Ahmet. He and I remained friends. I would have lunch with him and Mica whenever I was out in Southampton. Or he came to my concerts. Slowing down never occurred to him. He was autonomous to the end. I remember that he was going to Japan not long after I last saw him, and I thought, "Ahmet is still getting around and going to places I'm not going." He was unbelievable.

MICK JAGGER
Ahmet had very good musical taste. But he also had very good business sense. It's rare that you get those two things combined. It's all very well to sign an act you like. But that's not going to get you very far if they don't sell.

We always liked the idea of signing to Atlantic. But Ahmet had to come up with the right deal. In the end, it was like a very long negotiation over a carpet -- a lot of wooing over dinner and drinks. We had a lot of fun negotiating. When Ahmet and I finally agreed on the deal, he was so drunk he fell over backward in his chair. That was the deal clincher.

Ahmet was very liberal in his thinking. But he was fantastically sensitive to the marketplace. We had this row over "Starfucker" -- he made us change the name of the song. It was a lengthy, insane drama. But he was socially sensitive. If there were any women's issues involved, he would be on it.

After we left Atlantic, I would go over to his house and play whatever we had, and he would give his comments. It was not the norm. But Ahmet was very expansive and caring. And he would always make me laugh. We had so many good times together, and I will miss him so much.

ROBERT PLANT
Atlantic was a very classy label -- very metropolitan, even though it was synonymous with black music. And Ahmet himself was like that, gifted beyond all belief -- the way he moved from his origins, pushing against the grain into the bohemia of Stick McGhee and Joe Turner.

I must have first met him on Led Zeppelin's first U.S. tour. But I don't think it was our early success that interested him. We came here running so fast -- and he liked that. But Ahmet found the craziness stimulating. And he was a great contributor to it as well. Ahmet was always backstage, with an entourage of folk, this melange of people from all walks of life. He'd have Henry Kissinger or a princess from some deposed royal family from Eastern Europe.

Ahmet was so bright and always looking for the next move. He told me years ago, "I gotta buy the company back." And I said, "You do. You gotta get it back quick." But had he got it back, who knows? You can't keep abreast of the way things have gone. You have to be part of the next generation. He had already managed to do that through three generations, which is phenomenal.