Dave Shapiro, a groundbreaking music executive in the heavy metal and hard rock scene, has died in a San Diego plane crash. He was 42.
Shapiro had a pilot’s license and was listed as the owner of the plane that crashed, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The music agency Sound Talent Group confirmed Shapiro died in the Thursday morning crash along with two employees.
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"We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends,” the agency said in a statement.
Shapiro cofounded Sound Talent Group in 2018 with Tim Borror and Matt Andersen. The agency’s roster focuses on alternative bands across pop-punk, metalcore, post-hardcore and other popular hard rock subgenres. Clients have included Hanson, Pierce The Veil, Parkway Drive, Sum 41 and Vanessa Carlton.
Shapiro was a strong advocate for independent musicians and a co-founder of the National Independent Talent Organization. He was included in Billboard's 2012 “30 Under 30” list recognizing rising stars in entertainment. Industry veterans say Shapiro paved the way for the formation of other independent agencies and helped many alternative bands find audiences in the mainstream.
“Finding something you love to do is only going to make you do a better job because you actually care. You’re not just showing up for the paycheck, it’s not a 9-to-5,” he said in a music industry podcast in 2021. “This is part of living your life if you really love it.”
From high school band to successful industry leader
Shapiro grew up in upstate New York in the “straightedge hard-core” scene, a subculture that promotes not using drugs and alcohol in reaction to mainstream punk.
In high school, he started a band with his friends, Count the Stars, and got signed with Victory Records right when they graduated. They toured for a few years, during which he made connections in the music industry that would help his foray into the business side.
Thomas Gutches, manager for the bands Beartooth and Archetypes Collide, said Shapiro’s success was in part due to his exceptional kindness and willingness to lend a hand in a competitive industry that often produced big egos.
He had a tattoo that read, “We’re people first and we’re (blank) second,” Gutches said. Shapiro gave him opportunities when he was just a newcomer in the industry, fresh out of high school.
To the skies
Shapiro said he became instantly hooked on aviation after taking his first intro flight at age 22. He seemed to love music and flying with equal passion, at one point opening an office of his talent agency at a hangar in San Diego.
Flying “helps me focus and helps me not be distracted by all the nonsense in the world, and whatever’s going on outside the plane kind of doesn’t matter in those moments,” Shapiro said in a 2020 podcast interview.
Shapiro owned a flight school called Velocity Aviation and a record label, Velocity Records.
He offered flights in both San Diego and Homer, Alaska, where he and his wife, Julia Pawlik Shapiro, owned a home, according to his online posts.
Shapiro married his wife in 2016 in the small town of Talkeetna, Alaska. They picked up their wedding licenses, got on a plane and flew to a glacier inside Denali National Park, landing with skis strapped to the plane’s wheels.
“When I met Dave, we became instantly bonded over the unconventional lifestyles we lead and our constant need for adventure,” she wrote in a blog post.
In 2019, he posted on Instagram that he had obtained his airline transport pilot rating, the highest level of certification issued by the U.S.
“Although I have a career and don’t plan to change that I always want to learn more and be a better pilot,' he wrote. He was also an adrenaline junkie who enjoyed base-jumping.
Gutches, who was also a good friend of Shapiro's, said they would often “nerd out” about aviation and went to aircraft conventions together.
Tributes pour in
Musicians and others in the industry called him warm, genuine and someone who helped little-known bands put their names on the map.
“He would listen to any band you put in front of him to give them a chance,” said Dayna Ghiraldi-Travers, founder of public relations agency Big Picture Media, who worked with Shapiro for over 15 years.
Pierce The Veil, a long-time successful alternative rock band, said they were the first band Shapiro booked. He recently began co-managing the band. On Tuesday, he had a full-circle moment with them — the band played for a sold-out audience at Madison Square Garden in New York.
“We even lived at Dave’s house between tours when we needed a place to stay, not just because we were broke, but because we just loved being around each other,” the band wrote in a post on X.
Shapiro was flying back to San Diego after the concert with two employees, Kendall Fortner and Emma Huke, when the plane crashed.
Nate Blasdell, former lead guitarist for the band I Set My Friends on Fire, said he was “absolutely heartbroken."
“Dave was the first booking agent I ever worked with and he was a major part of my music career in my late teen years,” he said in a post on X. “He was truly the best in the game and one of the most respected people in the industry.”
Sum 41 singer Deryck Whibley credits Shapiro to helping build the rock band back up during a “low point” in their career.
“His opinion mattered so much to me,” Whibley said. “He was that guy I would go to for advice on things.”
During their last conversation, Shapiro had flown out in his new plane to see Sum 41's induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in March. He promised Whibley to be back.
“Me and my wife, we’re going to fly to you," Whibley said Shapiro said to him. “We’re going to pick you up and we’re going to go somewhere crazy for lunch.”
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Associated Press writer Maria Sherman contributed to this report.