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It may come as some relief to music industry hopefuls that even Stacy Carr, who has been Clive Davis' right hand for his pre-Grammy gala since 1993, had to wait a couple of years before she was invited to the party.
Indeed, there are few stronger signals that you've "arrived" than that first year you're one of the 1,000 to 1,200 people to receive one of those coveted invites to the star-studded, ultra-exclusive event. Every year, even the stars can get star-struck: Hey, there's Paul McCartney! Beyonce! Joni Mitchell! Meryl Streep! Tom Hanks! Nancy Pelosi! The list of jaw-dropping names in attendance every year is virtually inexhaustible.
As with all such things, gatekeeping is involved. And the person closest to it, apart from Davis and his son and co-executive producer Doug Davis, is Stacy Carr, who joined Davis' Arista Records in 1991 and has been with him ever since. Carr (pictured above, right, with Davis at last year's party) is well known to countless members of the rich, famous, feted and fabulous because of her expertise, professionalism and seemingly superhuman attention to detail. She's deeply involved in nearly every stage of the event's planning and production, she's near the check-in desks before the show so that any issues -- and there are always issues -- can be handled swiftly and decisively. And for the entire show, whether it's a (relatively) brief three hours or an expansive five-plus, she's next to Davis on the side of the stage.
Over all those years, Stacy Carr has basically seen it all -- although this year brings a new element in that, for the first time, the Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Gala is a fundraiser, for wildfire relief in Los Angeles. "This year, certainly the direction and purpose of the evening is not just to celebrate the music," she says, "but also to bring some support to relief efforts. Obviously, it's a bit of a trying time all around. We're trying to be super sensitive to that and, in regard to our event and planning, we are trying to stay on task."
Although the focus of this year's event has shifted a bit, it's still the Clive party, and this year is its 50th anniversary. Earlier this month, Carr took the time to share some memories and perspective -- the ones she can share, anyway -- with Variety.
What is your official job title? Do you have one?
I guess it's Special Event Producer. Obviously, I work in tandem with Clive -- he always is part of everything we do -- and for this event, I'm also engaged by the Recording Academy, who is our partner. I do menu, I do flowers and décor, I do the floor plan, the flow and entrance, our guest list, invitations, RSVPs, check-in, routing the VIPs, the red carpet, seating and tables. And I also assist in show talent and who he shouts out. That kind of stuff.
Holy crap. How big is the staff?
It's 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 of some wonderful people that have been working with us for a long time. My core staff is maybe eight people, and then we have additional day workers that that join us, so it can go anywhere from 10 to 30. And we have our production staff, a security team, press partners.
The party has never been postponed or canceled, except for 2022, when the Grammys were held in Las Vegas due to the omicron variant. But was it ever delayed?
We did have an issue with the fire marshal one year in the '00s. We were at the Beverly Hills Hotel, which has a smaller ballroom than the Beverly Hilton, and we were over capacity, which was fairly normal. But mid-show, they decided we had too many people and made us stop the show in the middle -- they literally locked people out. I remember Jay-Z and Beyonce not being able to get in!
Clive and I, of course, were side-stage during the performances, and we basically froze everything -- the only solution was to remove the tables, line up the chairs in the rear, more like theater-style seating, which the fire marshal felt was safer and freed up some space, and that solved the problem. In the interim, funny enough, Robin Williams was in the room and did an impromptu stand-up for the guests while all this hoopla was going on, which was fun and obviously became what everybody remembers from that evening -- it wasn't like anybody asked him to do it, it just was 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 was doing a whole thing. We only lost about a half hour. So we all laugh about it, and Clive always teases that he gave me black and blue arms that night, squeezing me from nerves.
Clive turns 93 this year -- is he still as involved as ever?
Clive is probably the most hands-on person that you'll ever meet. He is always on top of everything: the show, the flowers, the guest list, whatever. There are a lot of things you learn from working with Clive, from basics like grammar to how to deal with people and how to be a good leader -- and keeping in touch with people. When I think about the relationships that he's retained over the years -- friendships, colleagues, family -- he keeps in touch with so many people regularly. That's something I've tried to emulate in my career, and certainly this event has allowed me to do that.
Do ever get people ... I suppose bribery isn't quite the word, but people trying to use some sort of influence to get into the party?
Not influence per se, but every year there's an ebb and flow our guest list -- we always try to have a lot of people return, but we also try to include new people every year. And just based on the fact that we're in one ballroom, it's a seated dinner and we have a finite number of dinner seats, inevitably there have to be some cuts every year. So we're always going to have people calling who maybe weren't invited, or want to know why they weren't invited back this year, and things like that. We deal with that every year.
Who's had the most intense security?
The ones that stand out are the politicians, obviously, because their teams need to do walk-throughs and have their security detail come through. The other one was Michael Jackson, we used to do a lot of walk-throughs with his security detail.
Besides Nancy Pelosi, who's there every year, who are some of the other politicians?
We've had Al Gore, all the mayors, Senator Diane Feinstein, Governor Gavin Newsom, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton. A lot of them.
How often do people get thrown out?
Not often. There's definitely been a couple of times where scammers or imposters somehow make it inside the room and we have to have them removed. Generally speaking, we tend to know the guests and I'm able to recognize, hey, I personally told that person he wasn't on the list and now I see him in the room. There's been a couple of times where people were in someone else's seat and had to be removed because they were unwilling to politely move back to wherever they did belong.
So it's usually for things like that, rather than people being unruly?
Yeah, I don't think there's ever been... well, actually, there was one time when Sharon Osborne had a little conflict with a guest and threw water at him, but ultimately, I think he left. But I think the majority of the people are grateful to be in the room, and so they behave that way.
Can you say -- diplomatically, of course -- the factors that go into who sits where? Obviously it's Clive's call, but it really requires up-to-the-minute knowledge of who people are and what they're up to.
We really take care to handcraft every single table. It's probably the most time-consuming thing we do, and in the same way that you would do a dinner party at your home, we try to create a mix of people at a table that, first, we think will enjoy each other's company, and second, who might [benefit from meeting each other]. Over the years, so many people have told us that, in retrospect, new collaborations or deals or friendships came out of sitting together at this event. That, for me, is rewarding and nice, because it's a sign of appreciation, and like we're doing we're doing the right thing. And also, of course, not seating 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 into the process and do right by everybody. The Beverly Hilton ballroom is tiered, and I really honestly believe that there's not a bad seat in the house. I think people can get caught up in, you know, "I was seated further back this year than I was last year -- what does that mean?" And it really doesn't mean anything. It just is how the chips fall each year.
How do you keep track of where 1,000 or 1,200 people are sitting?
My famous seating board! (laughs) Back in the early '90s, when I first became involved, Clive only seated a few tables -- his family and a few VIP tables. But ultimately we realized that everybody in the room is a VIP and we started seating everybody, and it's a huge undertaking. So I got this big magnetic board, and we made little magnets for every single guest, and to this day, we still use it. I bring it to the check-in and up until showtime, I'm tweaking and changing seats when somebody isn't able to come or shows up with an extra guest or whatever. Nowadays, they have software for table seating, but we still do it the old-fashioned way because we're comfortable with it.
Are they super-strong magnets? Because I'm picturing it being transported and somebody bumps it and all the magnets fall off.
(Laughter) We protect it with our lives! But the information is also input into a computer system now.
How long does the seating take? Weeks?
I usually don't start seating until a week and a half or two weeks out, and then really focus on it for that whole week prior -- the majority of the waking hours in those days are spent doing seating. There's really no point in doing it earlier because we have so many requests and changes that it wouldn't be efficient to do it sooner.
What are some of your favorite or most exciting moments over the years?
That's almost like asking me to pick my favorite child (laughs). I really do sit in on every single show, because respect and love for live music is part of the reason why I got into this business. There are so many: Certainly the Nirvana reunion with Beck would stand out. There was a year when we were at the House of Blues where it was an all-female lineup, and we had Carly Simon and Annie Lennox and Sarah McLachlan and Bonnie Raitt. Another year, John Fogerty and Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters doing "Fortunate Son." I loved Barry Manilow and Jennifer Hudson doing "Weekend in New England." There are so many.
What was the most challenging year?
Logistically challenging would probably be the year that the fire marshal shut us down. And then, of course, the most emotionally challenging would be the year that Whitney passed, trying to sort of plug along and go forward and share, you know, this almost shiva-like night, where everybody in 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 "surprising" doesn't really apply (laughter), but I think it's the all-star lineups: people jumping onstage, or you'll have Alicia Keys and Patti LaBelle doing a song and then Stevie Wonder comes up and starts singing with them, and then two seconds later, Justin Timberlake and Beyonce and Kelly Rowland are up there. Those are the moments that make it so unique and special.