GQ Magazine has named Apple exec and Beats cofounder, Jimmy Iovine, as one its Men of the Year. To go with the annual honors, the music legend sat down for an interview to discuss how he went from sweeping floors in a New York recording studio at 19, to creating the iconic Beats brand at 55.
Apple acquired Iovine’s company for a record $3 billion earlier this year, but according to Jimmy, it took him about two years to convince Apple that they needed him to plug the musical hole Steve Jobs left when he died in 2011.
“I convinced them that they had to buy this company. I said, ‘I don’t want to work for anybody else. I want to do this at Apple. I know I can achieve this at Apple. I don’t want to shop it. I wanna come here, to Steve’s company. I know you guys; I know what you’re capable of; I know you get popular culture. I know you have a hole in music right now; let me plug it.’
I think it was two years before they said yeah.After Steve died, and with the rise of streaming, I could see they needed something. Beats Music fit.”
Jimmy also dished and his special relationship with Dr. Dre, as well as what he does to find peace in life, despite his insatiable ambition. “When I go up to Apple to work on this music service we’re doing, I’m in it,” Iovine said. “I’m in that spot from 1973, in the studio, just saying, ‘I’ve gotta crack the code on this thing.’ But I got it. It doesn’t have me. The holy grail is peace, with ambition. Otherwise, you’ve wasted your life.”
There quite a few other interesting bits in the interview, like how Iovine’s temp assistant discovered Eminem, plus a tale of how Iovine tried to suck up to John Lennon, before both of them admitted they just got into music to get laid.
You can read the full interview right here
