Manager And Label Exec Herb Cohen Dead At 70

NAPA, CA (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Label owner and manager Herb Cohen, who repped artists such as the Tom Waits and the Mothers of Invention in the '60s and '70s has died. He was 70.

Cohen started his career booking and operating clubs such as The Unicorn and Cosmo Alley in Los Angeles where he booked dates by artists such as Pete Seeger and Odetta. He then moved into artist management, signing numerous artists, including Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention, Tom Waits, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Alice Cooper among others.

Cohen and Zappa went on to launch several label imprints, including Straight Records, Bizarre Records and DiscReet Records that served as a launch point for the careers of numerous artists.

In 2009, Cohen filed a libel suit against music journalist Barney Hoskyns and his publisher, Random House for statements attributed to Cohen in " Lowside of the Road, A Life of Tom Waits" Hoskyns' biography of Waits.

According to Variety, Cohen died in Napa on Tuesday of unspecified causes. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers