Kenny MacPherson, the Scottish-born publishing executive whose instinct for unconventional songwriters shaped the catalogs of Radiohead, OutKast, My Morning Jacket and St. Vincent, died on Friday, October 23, in Los Angeles. He was 71. No cause of death has been made public.
Colleagues remembered him as fiercely loyal to the writers he signed. Jamie Cerreta, his former partner and now president of Peermusic for the U.S. and Canada, said MacPherson was beloved by the songwriters he fought for, while Supertramp bassist Dougie Thomson, a friend for half a century, called him one of a kind.
From the Glasgow Apollo to publishing
Born in Largs on Scotland’s west coast, MacPherson started out in live music in Glasgow and rose to manage the city’s famed Apollo Theatre. That led to work touring with comedian Billy Connolly and to a job with promoter Harvey Goldsmith’s company, and eventually to the United States, where he worked with the Manhattan Transfer and then with Supertramp’s management, helping set up its publishing arm. He later recalled being told early on that publishing was “a gentleman’s game.”
In 1989 he took over Warner/Chappell’s New York office. Over 13 years there he signed or nurtured Radiohead, Underworld, Paul Westerberg, the Afghan Whigs and the Blue Nile. He then led Chrysalis Music’s North American operation, where his team brought in OutKast, My Morning Jacket, Ray LaMontagne, TV on the Radio, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beach House, St. Vincent and Thom Yorke, along with producers such as Ethan Johns and Dave Sitek. He stayed until BMG bought Chrysalis in 2010.
Big Deal and beyond
In 2012 MacPherson launched Big Deal Music with longtime colleagues Dave Ayers and Cerreta. With offices in Los Angeles, New York and Nashville, the indie reunited him with earlier signings and added names including Blake Mills, Weyes Blood, Kamasi Washington, Sharon Van Etten, Sylvan Esso and Sleater-Kinney, as well as pop hitmakers Teddy Geiger, Julian Bunetta and John Ryan. The Association of Independent Music Publishers named it indie publisher of the year in 2017. Hipgnosis Songs Fund acquired Big Deal in 2020, folding it into Hipgnosis Songs Group with MacPherson as CEO, and in 2021 he started a new venture, Oh Aye Music.
He was a vocal advocate for songwriters, pushing for writers to hold seats on industry boards and supporting the idea of a publisher-funded health care fund for them. Variety noted that a former Chrysalis employee filed a sexual misconduct lawsuit against him in 2023, with mediation scheduled for next month.
MacPherson is survived by his wife, photographer Melanie Nissen, his daughter Nicole Walker, granddaughter Kate Land and sister Anne Cowgill.
Photo: Rebecca Sapp/WireImage for The Recording Academy, via Billboard (https://www.billboard.com/business/publishing/kenny-macpherson-big-deal-music-publisher-dies-71-1236367718/).