Universal Music CEO is enforcer for industry

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“The truth is that I’m the most unlikely candidate because I don’t like being in the middle of the sandwich,” he said.

Morris broke into the music business as a performer and songwriter in the late 1950s. His writing credits include the Chiffons’ sugary 1966 chart-topper “Sweet Talkin’ Guy.”

He launched his own label then sold it in 1978 to Warner Music’s Atlantic Records. Two years later, he became president of Atlantic.

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As a record executive with roots in songwriting and performing, Morris was seen as an ally to artists and creative executives. But he could also come down hard on artists who weren’t living up to expectations.

Among the bands Morris worked with was INXS. When their fourth album took a stylistic detour and sales lagged in America, the displeased Morris had a talk with Chris Murphy, then the manager of the Australian band.

“He definitely showed his inner personality and was pretty wild with me. He was just very aggressive,” Murphy said.

Still, months later, when Murphy asked Morris for support in moving the band from a smaller label to Atlantic, Morris agreed without imposing any stylistic demands, Murphy recalled.

In the mid-1990s, Morris vaulted to president and chief operating officer of Warner Music U.S. — the parent company of Atlantic — but was soon ousted in a clash with corporate management with its then-parent company, Time Warner.

“It was a very difficult period,” Morris recalled. “You can’t live in a place for 17 years and then not be there the next moment and have to start again.”

He went on to form a joint venture with MCA Music Entertainment Group and was tapped in 1995 to be chief executive of the company, which was renamed Universal Music Group.

“He put that company together, and he’s kept it together despite all the changes in ownership and the changes in technology,” said Danny Goldberg, a former chairman of Warner Bros. Records who worked for Morris in the early 1990s.

Goldberg said Morris has remained atop the volatile industry in large part because of his realistic, forward-thinking vision.

“He’s a survivor,” Goldberg said. “No one ever got rich betting against Doug Morris.”

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