Peter Paterno started out his career writing software for NASA and would eventually transition into pursing music law. He since became a FORCE in the music industry and over his career has represented Dr. Dre, Pharrell, Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Soundgarden, Skrillex, Frank Ocean and many more…. He also had a stint running the Disney owned, Hollywood Records where he signed Queen for $10 million dollars when no one believed they had any success left in them in the US market and they soon after exploded back onto the charts with “Bohemian Rhapsody” featured in Wayne’s World quickly recouping the deal. Peter is a founding partner at the formidable law firm King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano and was legal counsel on two of the biggest landmark cases in music business history… The ”Blurred Lines” copyright lawsuit representing both Pharrell & Robin Thicke against the Marvin Gaye estate, as well as representing Dr. Dre & Metallica in the lawsuit against Napster that would mark a watershed moment transitioning the industry from physical to digital consumption.
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EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS – PART 1
+ Peter’s journey from software engineering & math major into being a lawyer
+ Rejecting his rejection letter sent to him by one of the first law school’s he applied to
+ How as an artist you need to have good business acumen for longevity
+ Getting assigned, a still unknown, Prince as a young lawyer at his first firm
+ How Peter first got involved with Dr. Dre and the impact of the Chronic
+ Writing the original 125 page contract for Geffen Records
+ Meeting Metallica for the first time and discovering they were all living in an apartment with no heat in Brooklyn
+ Artists changing after going from broke to successful
+ Watching James Hetfield go through alcohol addiction and the added difficulty of going through your problems in public
+ Recalling the Napster debacle and representing both Dr. Dre & Metallica in the lawsuit again Napster
+ The reason behind the fall out between Easy-E and Dr. Dre
+ Running Hollywood Records for Disney and the chairman getting angry with Peter for not signing Dr. Dre.. before hearing some of The Chronic lyrics… haha
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Love and blessings,
– TEAM CIM
