Lewis Largent, former KROQ govt and MTV VJ, dies at 58

Lewis Largent, who helped convey different rock to the American mainstream together with his work at Los Angeles’ KROQ-FM and at MTV, died on Feb. 20. He was 58.

His demise, which got here after an extended sickness and which was first reported by Variety, was confirmed by a supply near Largent’s household, who didn’t specify an actual trigger or say the place Largent died.

Largent, who grew up in Southern California, started his music profession within the mid-Eighties with an internship at KROQ, the taste-making modern-rock station that was essential to breaking acts together with Jane’s Addiction, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bad Religion. By 1989 he’d grow to be KROQ’s music director, however he left the station only a few years later to go to MTV, the place in 1992 he took over as host of the video channel’s Sunday-night alternative-music showcase, “120 Minutes.” Among the various era-defining acts he interviewed on the present have been PJ Harvey, Pavement, Björk and the Goo Goo Dolls.

In 1995, Largent handed off internet hosting duties to Matt Pinfield, who wrote Friday on Twitter that he was “completely gutted” by information of Largent’s demise. Largent stayed at MTV as director of music programming and was later promoted to vp of music and artist growth on the influential cable community. He left MTV in 1999 to take a senior A&R place at Island Def Jam Records, the place he labored with Sum 41 and former House of Pain rapper Everlast, amongst different acts. He resigned from the label in 2004.

According to Variety, Largent — whose survivors embody his spouse, Atlantic Music Group Chairman and Chief Executive Julie Greenwald, and their two kids — obtained levels in inventive writing from Sarah Lawrence College following his profession within the music business.