John Branca

John Branca discusses some of the price Michael had to pay for his success. John Branca: Starting in the 80s, James Baldwin had the famous quote that "Michael Jackson would forever pay the price for being as successful as he was and buying the Beatles catalog”. The press started on Michael in the mid-80s, and it hasn't stopped. And you asked the question, why not do a counter documentary? It's impossible to prove a negative. And quite frankly, there are large segments of the press that doesn't care because it's not controversial.

  Jackie Robinson Stadium, home of UCLA Baseball UCLA Athletics today announced its plan to make improvements to the Gifford Sports Complex at Jackie Robinson Stadium, including the construction of a state-of-the-art baseball practice infield, to be known as Branca Family Field. The practice infield and improvements are designed both to serve as developmental tools for UCLA’s nationally-renowned baseball program and to provide recreational space and opportunities for Veterans and their families on the Veterans Affairs West Los Angeles campus. The practice infield  i s to be named after legendary Brooklyn Dodger pitcher and three-time All-Star Ralph Branca, who had a successful 12-year major league career and was famously the first to embrace and welcome Jackie Robinson to Major League Baseball. Robinson, a standout UCLA student-athlete in four sports, U.S. Army Veteran and namesake for the Jackie Robinson Athletics and Recreation Complex at UCLA — whose number 42 is retired ac...

  John Branca discusses how being a music artist himself has impact his representation of music artists Harvard Law Student: How has your experience as a musician influenced your perspective as a lawyer in unexpected ways? Could you elaborate on that? Do you feel like your clients relate to you more being a musician? I was just curious. John Branca : Yes, absolutely, 100%. The fact that I played clubs, played the band, wrote music, late nights… and other things on gave me a perspective on being an artist. Now, I wasn’t   a great artist, I wasn’t a great musician, but you know, it gave me a perspective. And the fact that I spent so much time listening to music, I think really helped me relate to clients. Now, it’s not essential, I think a friend of mine was a mathematics major at Columbia, and then got his law degree and very, very, very successful lawyer in the music business. But I found it to be very, very helpful.

  John Branca  explaining what it’s like working with artists of differing levels of experience Brian Price: So, you’ve worked with some pretty famous people. Susan mentioned a few of the names. Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Dr. Dre, Fleetwood Mac, Richard Pryor, Earth, Wind & Fire, and so on, Elton John, is there any difference between working with a super celebrity and standard artists just coming up? John Branca : Oh, yeah, absolutely. Brian Price: Tell us about the differences. John Branca : Well, y o u know, when an artist is just getting started, they need all the help they can get, all the breaks. And so, you know, the business people can loom large in their life to try to equalize the lack of bargaining position between the artist and the company. When an artist is a superstar, they’re used to getting their way. Everybody’s catering to them. And so, then the difficult part is trying to help the artist stay on track in terms of what they’re trying to do; y...