How I Met Madonna, by Seymour Stein, the Man Who Signed Her
“I think she’s still got some mileage to go.”
On June 12 St. Martin’s Press released Siren Song, the autobiography of America’s greatest living record man: Seymour Stein, the founder of Sire Records and spotter of rock talent from the Ramones to Madonna.
Now Variety.com brings to you one of the things that make the memoir book precious for every Madonna fan: a lightly edited excerpt from the chapter where he meets the soon-to-be Queen of Pop for the first time.
Stein mixes his accurate reports of the events with his own personal thoughts – among the other things, he writes:
Lots of people have written about Madonna’s natural star power, and it’s absolutely true that even when she was still a complete unknown, she filled up every room and oozed a dazzling aura that even a hardened vet like me wasn’t immune to.
And in an interview to The New Yorker on the phone from Athens, where the 75-year-old co-founder of Sire Records is on a working vacation, Stein has some more, interesting things to say bout that night at Lenox Hill Hospital when he signed Madonna:
I certainly thought she’d have a long career, and I think she’s still got some mileage to go. I make mistakes all the time in business and in my personal life, but she’s fucking smart.
Siren Song – My Life in Music, written by Seymour Stein with Gareth Murphy and published by St. Martin’s Press is out now.
Read the full excerpt on Variety.com.
