(gentle music) (upbeat rock music) - [Nicki] Red Rocks is the best place to see a concert in the world.

- [Tad] Not only is it a concert venue, but it's also a tourist attraction.

- [Chuck] It's the most beautiful amphitheater in the world.

- [Carlos] Those rocks on each side of the stage are nature's acoustics.

- Took a lot of people, a lot of energy, a lot of different music influences in Colorado, to help create the mystique of Red Rocks.

- [Rick] Barry Fey was the father of popular music coming to Red Rocks.

- [Chuck] He was one of the greatest promoters that ever lived.

- [Carlos] 'Cause nobody had the rocks.

Barry had the rocks.

♪ Down country roads (audience cheering) - [Narrator] This program was made possible by The History Colorado State Historical Fund, supporting projects throughout the state to preserve, protect and interpret Colorado's architectural and archeological treasures.

History Colorado State Historical Fund.

Create the future, honor the past.

With additional funding provided in memory of Deanna E. LaCamera, by Hassel and Marianne Ledbetter, and, by members like you.

Thank you.

With special thanks to the Denver Public Library, History Colorado, and to these organizations.

(gentle piano music) (energetic rhythmic music) (energetic rhythmic music continues) - [Barry] You step out on that stage and you look at this place and you're stunned.

You know, every other place in the world was made by man.

Red Rocks was made by God.

- [Narrator] Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater is hardly Colorado's newest music venue or National Historic Landmark.

Millions of years of sedimentation and earthly shifting created the fountain formation, a thick stripe of pink sedimentary rock that stretch along the eastern edge of Colorado's Front Range.

- There were some different Native American tribes that used this area as a ceremonial location, and as a special location, sort of similar to the way it's used today.

- Red Rocks was a gathering place for the Arapaho people.

They would gather there and trade, and share stories, and it was just a place of community.

- Doing my research and and studying the actual location, I thought, wow, my people were there.

Indigenous people were there and Native people were there, and that is those lands and those are those spirits that I felt.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Although many tribes used the area for thousands of years, the US government forced them off of their native places onto reservations, leaving European colonists free to exploit the land.

(gentle twangy music) In 1880, a talented entrepreneur, John Brisbane Walker, saw the potential for what was then called Garden of the Angels and Garden of the Titans, to be transformed into an entertainment venue.

25 years later, he finally had the means to realize his dream when he sold Cosmopolitan Magazine to William Randolph Hearst for a reported $1 million.

He then bought the magnificent red sandstone outcrops and began developing.

- In 1906, John Brisbane Walker had Pietro Satriano's 25-piece brass band as one of the first concerts up here at Red Rocks.

He did a lot of things to try to make Red Rocks a tourist attraction.

(gentle twangy music continues) - [Narrator] In 1928, the city of Denver acquired Red Rocks Amphitheater from Walker for just over $54,000, integrating it into the newly created Denver Mountain Park system.

- The iconic landscape of Red Rocks would've been very similar to what it is today, minus the manmade structures like the stairs and the seating.

People didn't have to do much of anything except create places for people to sit, for it to be the perfect setup for concerts and services.

During the 1930s, as part of the National New Deal Programs, President Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration, and one of the main projects and the pride of Colorado, was the creation of the Red Rocks Amphitheater.

The Works Progress Administration was a jobs program for the unemployed.

And, you know, in the early thirties, the national unemployment rate was about a quarter of all Americans who were of working age.

This was an effort to put people to work on projects that would benefit the common good.

- The construction of the amphitheater, including the stage area, started 1936.

They constructed seating for about 9,000 people.

The official dedication was on June 15th, 1941.

- [Nicki] It was a place where the upper class could gather and listen to the symphony.

- You would see more classical-type entertainment, so dance and opera and ballet.

The Denver Symphony Orchestra held a series at Red Rocks every year for a number of years.

- [Chuck] The Beatles played there, actually.

Only Beatles show ever that didn't sell out, 'cause there weren't a lot of music shows there yet.

- [Nicki] Prior to the 1960s, Red Rocks was very inaccessible to the general public, as it was limited to opera and symphony.

But it was really in the '60s and '70s when it was transformed into a place for rock concerts by Barry Fey.

Rock and roll has always been sort of, pushing on the boundaries, pushing on the color line, right?

The racial relations.

And so, rock and roll has always been this space in which progress could be made, that lines were blurred and crossed, and promoting a genre of music that was more inclusive, that was more diverse.

I mean, Barry Fey, in that sense, he was almost prophetic.

(mellow jazz music) - [Narrator] Barry Fey was born in 1939, when Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow" topped the charts.

The young Jewish New Yorker lost his father when he was in high school.

Later, living broke in Chicago, the music lover enlisted in the Marines.

At 27, he moved to Denver.

He started out booking concerts on campuses before becoming an owner of the short-lived, but hugely popular, Family Dog.

Bringing in new acts like the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and The Doors.

His first booking at Red Rocks was Jimmy Hendricks in 1968.

Later that year, he promoted the first Led Zeppelin show in the United States.

- [Barry] So I book Led Zeppelin for $750, and they get on stage, and Robert Plant lets loose.

They killed!

They just destroyed the place.

- [Narrator] Fey was a musical wizard, becoming THE promoter for Middle America.

(upbeat rock music) (gentle guitar music) - [Tad] When shows wanna come to Red Rocks, typically those shows work through promoters, and the promoters then contact us about holding in booking dates, and then, the promoters really rent the facility.

- A music promoter is somebody that buys a band, finds a hall, whether they own it or rent it, puts it on sale, sells the tickets, pays the band a lot of money, what's ever left they get to keep.

We work for the bands, but the old promoters, the big, big ones, and Barry was one of them, they were bigger than, in some ways, than the acts.

He was brilliant at promoting, when his head was into it.

He was brilliant.

He could sell anything, Anything.

He was just a natural at selling tickets.

- Barry was very smart, there's no two ways about it.

He was probably the best promoter and ticket seller I ever worked with.

There were basically a dozen promoters across the US that had their territories.

The first partner Barry had was Chet Helms, Family Dog fame here in Denver.

And Chet Helms was an ex-partner of Bill Graham.

Barry and Bill started to work together.

Barry very quickly became, probably the number two or three promoter in the country.

- Promoting is basically consolidating control so that you don't have competition.

It's just, it's the American way.

(Carlos chuckles) Sorry to say, but that's just the way it is.

- In 1971, there was a Jethro Tull show here.

There were a number of fans that didn't have tickets necessarily to get in, so they stormed the gates to get in, and there were some efforts to keep them out, let's say, by the Denver police officers that were here.

There was some tear gas used.

- That tear gas caused the patrons in the amphitheater to become distraught and disruptive, probably wanting to get out of there, as well as probably some belligerence towards the police.

And so, a quote, unquote riot ensued.

- As a result of that particular show, there was some concern on the part of the city and the folks that managed Red Rocks to try to keep those kind of things from happening, so there was a period of time where rock and roll wasn't allowed to be at Red Rocks.

- The city created this ban, controlling the type of acts and artists that would be at Red Rocks, mainly acoustic artists, and limiting Barry to about five shows a season.

He fought the city legally.

Barry would do his usual, pick up the phone, get somebody on the phone, and just an atomic eruption of all kinds of things.

- He had a propensity for lawsuits, though.

And music industry, that's the way it is.

You have a set of lawyers and you just, you know, it's what you do.

(energetic rock music) ♪ She's got me under pressure - [Tad] Barry Fey was able to prevail in that effort and thank goodness, 'cause now we have a wide range of genres, of musical styles, that play at Red Rocks every single year.

- One day I took the nerve of calling him.

I didn't think he'd take the phone call.

We fought over the phone, I'd never met him in person.

And of course, Barry used to answer the phone, "What the (beep) do you want?"

Which is his way of saying hi.

I said, "Well you know, I'm this young kid who's done very well in Boulder at this club and I'd like to go into business with you and maybe open a club and then maybe do bigger shows."

And to my absolute astonishment, he said, "Go find a club, I'll put up all the money, we'll be 50-50 partners."

And I was saying, "Oh my God, did I just do that?"

And, I hope I did the right thing because he was a tough guy.

And that's how it all started.

And I found a club called Marvelous Marv's and we bought it, called it Ebbets Field.

(energetic rock music) - [Narrator] Chuck Morris promoted shows at Ebbets Field in the mid-'70s, while Barry Fey focused on promoting shows at Red Rocks.

His business, Feyline, was promoting an increasing number of shows around the region, and the country.

By 1976, Barry had a proposition for Chuck Morris.

- Barry said, "Why don't you sell the club, Feyline's getting so big, sell the club," which he owned half of, "and come to the parent company Feyline and be my number one guy."

And so I sold the club, and went over to Feyline for 10 years.

And was his right-hand guy.

- By the time the '80s hit, Red Rocks was already just kind of like, starting to be the place.

I mean, it was every night, all the time.

- Richard Gooding, who was the local Pepsi bottler, Barry and some of the other personnel from his office, approached Richard Gooding about becoming the sponsor for this new-named series of shows for a summer at Red Rocks, The Summer of Stars.

(gentle twinkly music) - [Announcer] Feyline presents the Pepsi 1982 Summer of Stars at Red Rocks.

(audience cheering) - That was one of the first seasons of popular music concerts in the country.

- We decided to put all of the shows on sale for the whole summer.

Can't do that anymore.

Bands now tell you when you can go on sale.

- [Narrator] Advertising and promotion for all of Feyline's shows happened on the radio and via the all-important newspaper spread.

But Fey was not always great at public relations, nor managing people.

His temper, and intimidating language, gave him a reputation.

- My favorite Barry Fey story, and I've had 400 of them, Barry and I would get interviewed when we announced The Summer of Stars, and the Denver Post came up, they brought an older gentleman who was their photographer, who was probably 65 or 70.

And, these guys are waiting in my office and all of a sudden Barry said, "You (beep)," went running into my office and took my desk, which was huge, and threw it over my head.

With everything on it.

The guy, the photographer, looked like he was gonna have a heart attack, and went running out the door, to his car, and we see him, this older gentleman, screeching out of the parking lot, and we start laughing, because he did that all the time.

It was not that big a deal.

That's the relationship we had.

His personality was larger than life.

He was one of those characters.

He was larger than life.

Physically, he was larger.

There was times where he was 305 pounds.

And he was only five seven and a half.

He loved to schmooze with the superstars that liked him.

Loved it.

Well, he had a really good relationship with people like The Stones.

And The Who.

He used to have parties at his house, 'cause he was a really good chef, and he'd make barbecue.

- He came in a pair of black shorts, some flip flops, and a Rolling Stones T-shirt.

(Nikki laughs) He was mad about some concert that was supposed to be promoted and he was like, "Y'all, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep.

Get this bleep bleep, bleep, bleep together, bleep, bleep.

Like, it was a whole moment.

I was like, "Who is that?"

He was reading the station management the riot act over a promotion.

- Yeah, he was the worst dresser in the world.

I had a sort of, a love-hate relationship with Barry.

I loved the guy to death, he was best man in my wedding.

- Barry was extremely abrasive.

He used the worst language I'd ever heard.

I never had anybody talk to me like that.

Barry had his rough side, as did 90% of the promoters across the country.

They didn't know how to act any other way.

But Barry also had this wonderful childlike side, which made him not understand why you were upset that he just grandstanded you in front of hundreds of other people, and using incredibly, I mean, break-your-legs-type sentences.

- I just was never afraid of him.

Most people were petrified of him.

(upbeat rock music) - My first concert was 1986.

I grew up in Denver, in Colorado, and Red Rocks was always the place, the coolest place to go to rock concerts.

If you grew up in the '80s, Feyline Productions was a constant in your life.

It was our connection to the world.

- I got Barry to create a financial backing company called Feyline Video 82.

Chuck Morris says, "I bought this act that I think is a great act."

It was U2.

Barry saw the act and with Chuck said, "I think these guys can be the next Who."

MTV had just started, so we knew there'd be a market for producing videos.

- [Narrator] Extremely cold weather, fog and rain, turned it into one of the most iconic videos of the '80s.

(audience cheering) - Ladies and gentlemen!

(audience screaming) A warm, Red Rocks welcome, please!

From Dublin, Ireland, U2!

(audience continues screaming) ♪ Sisters torn apart ♪ Sunday, Bloody Sunday ♪ Sunday, Bloody Sunday - I think I was in like, seventh grade, maybe sixth grade.

Low and behold, my mother was like, "You want me to hike in a mountain and take you to a what concert?

You who?"

And I was like, "U2.

Please, please, please, please!"

And, it was breathtaking.

A moment I still remember, I still get the goosebumps.

- The U2 show at Red Rocks in 1983 was one of those milestone moments in the history of Red Rocks, because of the weather conditions and because they filmed it, and through video, it really put Red Rocks, and U2, on the map, worldwide.

(upbeat rock music) - [Narrator] Irish rock wasn't the only musical genre Barry helped put on the map.

By the late '80s, the Denver Symphony was struggling.

So he orchestrated what he called a "people's symphony", managing and promoting it back to health.

Barry Fey appeared to be invincible, but Fey's demons began threatening his success.

Along with compulsive overeating, gambling on sports and horses were Fey's greatest addictions.

He started betting on the races as early as the 1960s, with loan sharks on the South Side of Chicago.

His habit grew, until he was betting tens of thousands of dollars and spending hundreds of thousands on his own horse.

- [Announcer] He's got it!

- But sometimes... - He won millions.

This is a hectic scene in this winner's circle.

There are a lot of owners on this horse.

- Well, these are my owners, Mr. Fey here, he has a big majority part of the horse.

- Was there a big debate over whether or not to put that money up?

- [Barry] Not for a second.

(everyone laughing) Not for a second.

- [Announcer] No debate, no debate.

- I loved Barry to death, but he had his dark side.

You know, it's no secret.

People knew he had a gambling addiction and he really threw away almost all, lost all his money.

He was a convicted felon.

He got busted for interstate gambling.

- He just had that addictive-style personality.

And you kind of have to, when you're in the music industry in that level, in which they're competing, right?

You're competing nationally to get the best acts, at the best time, have the most dates, spend the least amount of money, but turn over the best profits.

That's addictive, right?

- It was sad because a lot of us tried so hard to beat that.

You know, I did an intervention on Barry, and got his wife, kids, me, and he fought us, and finally gave up and went.

And I was praying it would work.

And he went and stayed for 30 days.

I'll never forget this call, and he said, "You know, I hated you for doing that intervention with the family and you and a few other people.

And I hated going, but I learned so much."

And I'm saying to myself, God, maybe it worked.

And then, with a straight face on the phone he said, "And by the way, I stopped in Vegas on the way home."

And I knew it didn't work.

- If you are a concert promoter, your success depends on a lot of variables.

But once you've got all of that in place like Barry did, you made a lot of money.

So, at the highest level, people last longer, there's more money to being made, but sometimes you crash harder, because you're coming from a higher place.

And when you start to go down, you go down.

- [Rick] The heyday of Barry started to end in '87.

He wasn't as in touch with the music that was coming up as he was with classic rock and classic artists.

- And you gotta know about the new music, or have somebody in your office that does, and Barry fell behind the times.

And that hurt him.

- Barry Fey, at that point, no longer had the total lock on everything.

And part of that is that Chuck Morris- - Come on!

- You know- - Everybody get up!

- Started to do his thing.

Other promoters as well.

Lu Vason was the main promoter for most of the Black acts that come to town.

- [Narrator] 1997 was the last Summer of Stars, marking the end of an era in more ways than one, as big corporations started taking over the live music industry.

AEG and Live Nation soon had the lion's share of the market.

- The industry was taken over by two behemoths.

- The difficulty, though, is in this consolidation, we cut out independent promoters.

It's challenging to get in, and it's hard to get dates.

But that's the music industry.

And that's the way the music industry was built.

It was built on, I don't know any other way to say it, but the backs of white men.

So many white men were leading in that way, and it made it really challenging for people of color wanting to get in and become promoters.

- It's just a different business.

I think it's a better business.

There are a lot more accountants and lawyers that protect the bands, protect the amphitheaters, protect the promoters.

I think it's a better business.

And I've learned how to change with the times.

Barry couldn't change.

He didn't realize how big the business was getting and how he couldn't be crazy, egomaniacal, brilliant Barry Fey anymore.

- [Narrator] Feyline was acquired by Universal Concerts in 1997, with Barry ultimately cashing out with a seven-figure deal.

His focus shifted from high-risk concert promoting to horse races.

- [Narrator] 73-year-old Barry Fey, the man who promoted Red Rocks to success, was failing.

- We didn't know the depression.

We didn't know the angst that he was experiencing.

That happens in the entertainment industry.

Getting men to talk about mental health is a challenge.

And recognizing that you're not okay, and to say it's okay to not be okay, and know that you can get resources, this isn't a conversation most entertainment folks have.

It's one we're having now.

- I saw him three days before he died.

You know, he was broke then, he had been bailed out by a couple of big promoters, but no one else wanted to work with him anymore.

If I would've thought he was gonna do something to himself, I would've tried to stop him, but, I just didn't think.

And four days later, you know, he killed himself.

(somber music) - The industry that he loved, and he really did help create, moved on without him.

- When I heard about Barry passing, I was shocked.

I was shocked about the suicide, just because it's always shocking.

But, a number of years had passed, where Barry was no longer doing what he was known for, you know?

Promoting concerts and so forth.

- [Narrator] Although Barry's ambition was to be buried at Red Rocks, local regulations prevented it.

Only his legacy remains in the famed amphitheater built by nature and promoted by Barry Fey.

(swanky rock music) - [Chuck] He was one of the godfathers of music in Denver.

He did a lot of stuff, but Red Rocks was a big chunk of his legacy.

- [Rick] He should be remembered as bringing incredible acts to the Denver market, because in that day and age, there was a lot of risk being taken by the promoter, financial risk.

- He offers us a window into the rock and roll industry, whether it's the good, the bad and the ugly.

It's everything from the promotion of these big acts, which would shape us culturally, to very personal struggles with addiction and mental health issues, which we can't shy away from.

We have to recognize that's a part of the history too.

(upbeat rock music) - It was Colorado's season to be in the forefront of music, just like it is now.

We're selling more concert tickets, especially for hip hop and R&B, per capita, bigger than LA and New York.

Those lands around are becoming more and more recognized as sacred lands.

I'd love to challenge any promoter to come through and give some money back to those Indigenous people and be able to see more shows that reflect more diversity.

- Any given week, we can have a rock band, country artist, an electronic artist.

We have the Colorado Symphony Orchestra play up here.

- [Narrator] And this vast array of musical styles all began with Barry Fey, who promoted 934 shows at Red Rocks during his career.

He was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2012 and the Denver and Colorado Tourism Hall of Fame in 2013.

As Dean Singleton, former chairman and publisher of The Denver Post expressed, "He was one of the giants of a generation.

He brought the music scene to Colorado, and every part of the music scene you see here today, has his fingerprints on it."

- [Carlos] Musically, it's never been more successful.

It's making a greater impact now than it ever has.

(audience cheering) - Thank you very much, all you lovely people!

Thank you very much.

[rock music] ♪