Just received some harrowing news: Barry Fey has passed away. As anyone who's lived in Denver for any amount of time knows, Barry was a legendary and revered figure worldwide, but especially here in the Colorado music scene. We'll have much more in-depth coverage about Barry and his life in the coming days, but for now, our heartfelt condolences go out to the entire Fey family and all of the people whose lives he has touched over the years. Continue on to see one of Barry's last interviews on KLOS, taped this past February, and to read my thoughts about the passing of one of my dearest friends.

See also:
- Barry Fey is dead: Towering figure in Denver music scene passes away
- Harry Tuft and Barry Fey officially inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame
- The Barry Fey archives, untold stories and more
- Barry Fey on The Jimi Hendrix Experience's last show at the Denver Pop Festival

Tonight at the Seawell Ballroom, Barry Fey will be inducted into yet another hall of fame, this one the Denver & Colorado Tourism Hall of Fame. In honor of his induction, we've been posting the stories that didn't make his memoir, Backstage Past. Today, Daniela Stolfi, Barry's assistant, recounts one Halloween that Barry made a bunch of preschoolers cry -- not on purpose, mind you, just by being Barry.

By Barry Fey

Daniela Stolfi-Tow, Barry's Assistant
Daniela made a dramatic rise. She came as the runner. She was my driver -- well, not just my driver, but anything that had to be taken some place, she would drive it. She wanted to set her sights higher, so she then became the receptionist, and two or three months before I left, she became my assistant. She's very talented and very imaginative. I quit in '97, and I kind of lost track of her for a little while, but she'd always keep in touch. Now she lives in Hawaii and she handles all of my Internet things. So all those things that you see are because of Daniela. I do my own posts, but she sets up the Rock Talk with Barry Fey and BarryFey.com -- the Rockfather, she made that up. She really rose like a meteor.

See also:
- Chuck Morris on how Barry turned throwing phones into an artform
- Pam Moore on the insanity of Feyline
- Feyline's "Goon Squad" leader Tony Funches on giving beatdowns to club-wielding gatecrashers

On Wednesday, March 6, Barry Fey will be inducted into yet another hall of fame, this one the Denver & Colorado Tourism Hall of Fame. In honor of his induction, we'll be running the stories that didn't make his memoir all this week. Today, Tony Funches on first meeting Barry by throwing him out of a show and then working for him heading up his so-called Goon Squad.

Jon Solomon

Tony Funches, Feyline head of security (1970-1986)
I met Tony because he was initially Jim Morrison's bodyguard and then he was Mick Jagger's. We sat down one night after the Stones show in Fort Collins, which was '69, and I was telling him about some of the troubles we were having with the gate crashers. I was scared then to put on a show. It was ugly every night. You'd have police with helmets and kids calling them "pigs."

See also:
- Chuck Morris on Barry Fey's phone throwing abilities
- Pam Moore on the insanity of Feyline, from flying staplers to puking kids to doing coke
- The late Leslie Haseman on Barry's busted zipper -- this is so not what it looks like

On Wednesday, March 6, Barry Fey will be inducted into yet another hall of fame, this one the Denver & Colorado Tourism Hall of Fame. In honor of his induction, we'll be running the stories that didn't make his memoir all this week. Today, the late Leslie Haseman with a story she shared before she passed about Barry's big mouth and a busted zipper.

Jon Solomon

By Barry Fey

Leslie Haseman (1968-69, 1970-74, '78-'79, 1997)
Leslie was unique. I met her in 1967. The people from San Francisco, Chet Helms and Bob Cohen, hired her locally to work at the Family Dog. I met her then because I was opening the Family Dog. She was my mentor in the world of hippiedom. I mean, I was scared. I kept hearing these stories about planting marijuana on us and stuff. I said, "What do we do? What do we do?" She said, "Don't worry. We'll take care of it." I asked Chet Helms once, what do I do if they plant me?" He said, "Don't worry, Barry. You won't grow."

See also:
- Pam Moore on the insanity of Feyline, from flying staplers to puking kids to doing coke
- Barry Fey turned throwing phones into an artform
- Barry Fey on that time that he held a gun to Axl Rose's head

On Wednesday, March 6, Barry Fey will be inducted into yet another hall of fame, this one the Denver & Colorado Tourism Hall of Fame. In honor of his induction, we'll be running the stories that didn't make his memoir all this week. Today, Pam Moore shares what it was like to work with the Man, the Myth, the Legend.

Jon Solomon

By Barry Fey

Pam Moore (1978-1998), Co-owner of Vashon Island Productions
Pam came to me because Bill Graham was a jerk to her. She was working in Hawaii with Steve Wolfe, an agent, and had told him she wanted to get in the concert promotion business. He told her there were only two places to go: Bill Graham or Barry Fey. She flew into San Francisco to see Bill. He made her wait and then gave her five minutes. Then she flew to Denver, and I spent the whole afternoon with her. There was just something about her, so I offered her a job. It took her six months to learn where to hang her coat, but she turned out to be a monster. She did everything, starting with advertising and then she moved into booking. It got to the point that people would rather talk to me than her. That shows you how tough she was! She was great, just the greatest.

See also:
- Barry Fey turned throwing phones into an artform
- Barry Fey on that time that he held a gun to Axl Rose's head
- Barry Fey officially inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame

Jon Solomon

On Wednesday, March 6, Barry Fey will be inducted into yet another hall of fame, this one the Denver & Colorado Tourism Hall of Fame, and that couldn't be more fitting. Next to sports, music is probably our state's biggest attraction, and we have Barry Fey to thank for that. Before Barry, Colorado was considered a flyover state. A pivotal figure in music, Barry was the law in these parts for almost three decades. All of those stories are captured in his memoir, Backstage Past -- well, most of them, anyway.

In honor of his induction, we'll be running the stories that didn't make the book all this week. These ones are told by Barry himself, and the people he held most dear next to the fans, those who worked at Feyline. Read on to see what it was like to work with the Man, the Myth, the Legend. Brace yourself, though: These aren't tidy tales of political correctness. This is rock and roll in its glory days -- you know, when it was still dangerous and unpredictable and guys used to break shit.

See also:
- Barry Fey on that time that he held a gun to Axl Rose's head
- With the help of a psychic, Barry Fey reconnects with some old friends
- Barry Fey officially inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame

buckfifty.org

If you were living in Denver thirty-four years ago this week, the Rainbow Music Hall would've been the talk of the town. After a grand opening gala featuring Jerry Jeff Walker, who performed three sets on two back-to-back nights at the venue, suddenly, the humble movie theater multiplex at the corner of Evans and Monaco became a prime concert destination for a slew of iconic acts such as Bob Dylan, Van Halen, Tom Petty and U2.

See also:
- Rainbow Music Hall now officially only a memory
- Piece of Rainbow Music Hall lives on at Twist & Shout
- More Rainbow Music Hall memorabilia unearthed

Over the next few weeks, Backbeat will finish our countdown of the twenty most fabled moments in Denver music history. Today, we take a look back at Barry Fey's Denver Pop Festival, a three-night musical event in June 1969 that culminated with the final appearance of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the outfit led by the legendary guitarist, who would have been seventy years old today.

By Mark Sanders and Dave Herrera

The mere fact that the Jimi Hendrix Experience played in Denver is itself remarkable -- even more so when you take note of the fact that the band essentially broke up at Mile High Stadium, just after playing the Denver Pop Festival on Sunday, June 29, 1969. There was also clash between the crowd and the police that involved tear gas at the three-night festival, which was a landmark event for then burgeoning promoter Barry Fey, who was only doing one show a month at the time.

See also:
- #9: Pantera fans riot at Mammoth Event Center, 1997
- #10: Nirvana's first post-Nevermind show here, 1991
- #11: Bob Dylan crashed in the Mile High City, 1960
- Twenty Fabled moments archive
- The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Are You Experienced turns 45
- Top Five Excellent Jimi Hendrix Songs You Might Not Know
- Jimi Hendrix's 70th Birthday: Thirteen revealing quotes from the man himself
- Hendrix at 70: Jimi was headed for jazz fusion and hip-hop, not Earth, Wind & Fire

Dan Fong

Barry Fey and Michelle Houchens at Red Rocks

See Also:
Barry Fey on that time that he held a gun to Axl Rose's head
Harry Tuft and Barry Fey inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame
Red Rocks' famous hidden tunnel: A peek at the rock star signatures
Dan Fong's unpublished rock photos on display this Friday at the Gallery

This year, Barry Fey was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame. Last year, he published his first book, Backstage Past, which gave the legendary promoter a chance to relate some of his best stories from the past. It's that past that psychic medium Michelle Houchens attempted to reconnect him with recently at Red Rocks. We were on hand with photographer Dan Fong to document the exchange between Houchens and Fey, who channeled some of his old friends and one particularly noteworthy adversary.

The Nig-Heist on stage at the Rainbow Music Hall in 1984.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Backbeat will be counting down the twenty most fabled moments in Denver music history. Today, a look back at Black Flag's 1984 show at the Rainbow Music Hall that ended with members of the opening act being arrested.

You may have heard about this one; it was notorious enough to merit a mention in Get In the Van,the 1994 memoir penned by Henry Rollins about life on the road with Black Flag: On April 25, 1984 at the Rainbow Music Hall, Nig-Heist, Black Flag's opening act, led by the band's iconic roadie Steve "Mugger" Corbin, played a, uh, stripped-down set that landed Corbin and Tom Trocolli in a Denver jail cell after the set. Almost three decades later, feelings over the whole incident are still a little raw for Corbin.