Jimmy Iovine

James "Jimmy" Iovine (born March 11, 1953, Brooklyn, New York, USA) is an American former record producer, engineer, executive, and businessman. Jimmy started out as an engineer in the mid-1970s for John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen, and produced hit albums for U2, Dire Straits, Eurythmics, former girlfriend Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, The Pretenders, Bob Seger and former girlfriend Patti Smith. In the 1980s he was named one of the five hottest producers by Billboard magazine and twice voted producer of the year by Rolling Stone magazine. In 1989, he and former film producer Ted Field co-founded Interscope Records, introducing artists such as No Doubt, Nine Inch Nails, Limp Bizkit, Enrique Iglesias, Mya and Smash Mouth. In 1992, the gangsta rap label Death Row Records (2) joined the Interscope family with artists like Dr. Dre, 2Pac and Snoop Dogg. In 1996, Interscope was sold off by its parent company Time Warner for $230 million and was later bought by MCA, which was later rebranded as the Universal Music Group. In 1999, Iovine's label was at the center of the Universal Music merger of MCA, PolyGram and Seagram, colliding Interscope with two other labels, becoming what appeared to be Interscope Geffen A&M. In 2006, Iovine co-founded the audio headphone brand Beats Electronics with Dr. Dre and it was acquired by computer giant Apple, Inc. for $3.2 billion in 2014; the biggest deal in Apple's history. Later in 2014, Iovine parted ways with Interscope to work under his partnership with Apple. Iovine is a father of five children. He was married to Vicki Iovine from 1985 until their divorce in 2009. He is currently married to Liberty Ross-Iovine since 2016.