Ken Ehrlich’s relationships with music stars span generations and genres. Here’s reaction from a few to the word Ehrlich was to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“Ken is a hands-on person. He is in the trenches piecing the show together and is driven by his love of music and the celebration of it. He has flown all over the country to convince me to sell him my crazy ass ideas — and on top of that, he isn’t afraid to take chances. He is a huge part of why I had a second chance in America. He took a chance on me by allowing me to perform a song no one had ever heard – an album track – while flying through the air, with water and no harness, above a bunch of famous important people, dripping water all over their beautiful hair. The guy has guts and charisma and really damn good taste. I’m a lucky girl to be able to have an audience with him. And I genuinely appreciate his enthusiasm.”
— Pink
“Ken Ehrlich thinks quality is entertaining. His taste is impeccable. His sense of flow is impeccable. He’s not one of these guys who’s putting two big names together and saying ‘That’s what America wants.’ He’s a music fan. The word I would use with Ken is ‘sensitive,’ not just emotionally sensitive, but sensitive to each musician’s gifts and each musician’s strong points. And what he’s basically doing every year — and by the way he’s one of the last people in the industry doing this — is make artists look and sound as good as they can. He’s one of the last guys who thinks that quality is entertaining.”
— John Mayer
“He’s always one of the smartest guys in the room in terms of what he does and creativity. He’s very creative and he has been a great friend to me. He’s really helped me a lot about hosting and putting together big shows like this. I wouldn’t be producing ‘Lip Sync Battle’ if Ken didn’t let me grow and be a co-producer on the nominations all of those years. He really walked me into the game and taught me a lot. He’s been a great friend. He’s been like a big brother to me in a lot of ways.”
— LL Cool J
“When I was just starting out many years ago, there was a wonderful social commentator named Marty Faye, who had a radio show in Chicago. He did an awful lot for Civil Rights, he just talked about people being good to one another. And it was always one of the most pleasant things to have an interview with him – everyone in town listened to him.
“And of all places, that’s where I met Ken: He was Marty’s assistant in Chicago. I remember Ken was very essential to Marty’s show, very efficient in taking care of all the tiny details and everything you needed to do to do a proper radio show.
“And then years later, all of the sudden I heard there was a new thing called the Grammys, and of all people, pretty soon Ken was put in charge of it. From this great local job, he became one of the most important guys in the music business. It’s something that once again reminds me how great it is to live in America. To go from having a great job, but in some ways a very ordinary job in Chicago, and end up being the head of the Grammys – it proves that if you do the right things you can go to the top, and that’s what happened to him.
“He really deserves a Walk of Fame honor, because he’s always been on the side of doing good things for people.”
— Tony Bennett
