Music industry legend Barney James Kilpatrick, former vice president of promotion at Warner Bros. Records who managed and collaborated with countless artists locally and nationwide such as R.E.M., Van Halen, Madonna, John Lee Hooker, Sophie Lee, Concrete Blonde, and Cher, died by suicide on Saturday, December 3. He was 65.
Kilpatrick was born in Snyder, Texas, on September 21, 1956, but his family soon moved to New Orleans where he was raised and would forever more be identified with the Crescent City. He thought of New Orleans as his town, irrespective of where he may had been based during his career. A graduate of the 1974 class at Benjamin Franklin High School, Kilpatrick was classically trained as a child. He earned an undergraduate degree from LSU where he majored in journalism. He earned a law degree from Tulane soon thereafter.
Kilpatrick’s career in music was marked by a lifelong association with roots music, a fact that soon became apparent when he served as an early organizer for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He even took piano lessons from New Orleans’ legendary Roosevelt Sykes. Kilpatrick was an on-air talent at WTUL, Tulane’s college radio station, both during both high school and college. He later worked as a DJ under the name Barney K at what was then one of the first Top 40 stations in America, WTIX-AM in New Orleans.
After another DJ stint at WLTS in New Orleans, he took the local radio promotion job for IRS Records in Dallas in 1985. Kilpatrick also worked for I.R.S. Records out of Atlanta and Los Angeles from 1986 to 1988, where was key in breaking R.E.M. on the radio.
He spent much of his career as vice president of promotion for Warner Bros. Records in Burbank, California. He also held a position with Skyline Music where he represented acts such as Nancy Sinatra, Al Stewart, The Chenille Sisters, and the Pink Floyd tribute and laser show The Machine. As head of the symphony division, he paired pop and rock acts with symphony orchestras in order to encourage higher attendance from younger audiences.
Kilpatrick was a driving force behind the 1997 remix release of Madonna’s Evita second-single, “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina [Miami Mix].” Kilpatrick said that for years top 40 programmers had been begging for a dance record by Madonna. In 1997, he told Billboard, “It’s a pleasure giving them what they want.”
While at Warner Bros. Records, Kilpatrick worked closely with the incomparable virtuoso, Prince Rogers Nelson. In 2017, he teamed up with Glen David Andrews at the Jazz Playhouse in New Orleans to choreograph and musically direct a tribute performance to the late entertainer.
In 2000 Kilpatrick moved to metro Atlanta where he joined Capricorn Records. After Capricorn’s demise, he started Rockit Management, a boutique management and tour marketing company co-owned by his fellow Warner Bros. Records veteran, Neal Spielberg. He also ran Rattlesby Records which represented such diverse acts as The Radiators and The von Trapp Children.
In recent years, Kilpatrick had returned home to New Orleans along with his music management services. He was working with Nashville-based manager Neal Spielberg, with whom he co-managed country artist Blane Howard, Southern jam band Perpetual Groove, and bluegrass band Nefesh Mountain.
Spielberg took to Facebook to mourn the passing of his friend. “Barney and I met while we both worked at Warner Brothers while he was VP of Pop Promotion in L.A. and I was in Nashville. He was a bulldog that never gave up on a record that he felt had a life, even when some doubted him. And he delivered. He was brilliant. I don’t just mean as a promo guy, but literally brilliant [in terms of] his passion for music, for the business, and for his artists.”
Tributes to Kilpatrick poured in via social media. Local band New Orleans Suspects wrote: “Barney was a huge part of getting The Suspects off of the ground and he managed the band from around 2011-2018. Barney had more accomplishments in the Music Business over the last four decades than most could dream of. He believed in the Suspects when no one else did and always stood in our corner, no matter what.”
Kilpatrick is survived by his wife of 34 years, Valerie Brys Kilpatrick, and their children, Mary, Katherine, Jimmy, and Charlie.
A memorial for Kilpatrick will be held in New Orleans on Saturday, December 11, at Jacob Schoen & Son Funeral Home, 3827 Canal Street. Visitation with family and friends will begin at noon, followed by a brief service at 2 p.m. There will be a reception afterwards at Rosedale Restaurant from 3–5 p.m.
There will be a livestream of the service here.
In lieu of flowers, gifts can be made in Barney’s memory to the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic suicide prevention program and/or to the AFSP Suicide Prevention Program, Louisiana Chapter.
