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Clive Davis Dies: Music Mogul Was 94

Originally posted on TV Insider | Last updated Jun 22, 2026 12:15 PM ET

Clive Davis, the music mogul known for helping make Whitney Houston, Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, and Billy Joel household names, has died at the age of 94.

The music producer had reportedly been hospitalized with an upper respiratory infection recently and died at his home in New York City on Monday, June 22. Most recently, Davis served as the COO of Sony Music Entertainment and was the former head of labels Columbia, Arista Records, and J Records, as well as a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Davis had also served as the president of CBS Records, where he discovered acts like Springsteen, Joel, Joplin, and Aerosmith. Under his label Arista, Davis shone a light on stars like Houston, The Notorious B.I.G., Patti Smith, Usher, TLC, and many others. His ability to recognize talent made him a top target for corporate shakeups, and he emerged with even more power when he launched J Records, leading to his rise in power at Sony Music.

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Born in New York in 1932, Clive Davis was raised in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights, where his family was middle-class. Ultimately, Davis attended NYU, where he graduated in 1953, before moving on to Harvard Law School. He ended up being admitted to the New York Bar Association in 1957 and joined the firm of Rosenman, Colin, Kay, Petschek, and Freund.

That is where Davis would cross paths with the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), and eventually went on to join its subsidiary record label, Columbia Records, as its assistant counsel at the age of 28. By the time Davis was 35, in 1967, he was the president of Columbia Records.

While there, he discovered other acts including Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire, and got Pink Floyd to sign with Columbia before they released their album Dark Side of the Moon. Davis also won over performers like Paul Simon and Barbra Streisand for the company. Among the other top-tier talent Davis was tied to were Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Barry Manilow, Lou Reed, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Carly Simon, Carlos Santana, Alicia Keys, Luther Vandross, Maroon 5, Busta Rhymes, Rod Stewart, and Kelly Clarkson.

Davis has five Grammys as a producer, two for Album of the Year from 1994 and 2000 for The Bodyguard by Whitney Houston, and Supernatural by Santana, the latter of which also earned him a nod for Best Rock Album of the Year. In 2006, Davis earned producer credit for Kelly Clarkson’s win for Best Pop Vocal Album for Breakaway. And rounding it out, Davis got producing credit for 2009’s Best R&B Album win for Jennifer Hudson’s self-titled album.

In his personal life, Davis was married and divorced twice and had four children, among which are Fred, Lauren, Mitchell, and Doug. He also leaves behind eight grandchildren. In 2013, Davis also came out publicly as bisexual with the release of his autobiography The Soundtrack of My Life, and had been in a long-term relationship with his partner Greg Schriefer at the time of his death.

This article first appeared on TV Insider and was syndicated with permission.

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