'Backbeat Gangsters': Jeffrey Sussman Returns, With a Look at the Mob in Music

Jeffrey Sussman first stumbled across Jimi Hendrix in 1970.

He was working his first job out of college — public relations for rock ’n’ roll groups — and the international sensation was passed out on his boss’s couch, high on heroin.

Sussman was, at first, amazed, he recalled, and then deeply saddened.

“He was just a victim and I felt kind of sorry for him,” he said. “He was almost comatose. I mean, you couldn’t wake him up. He was so stoned that he was in another world — and it wasn’t long after that he died of a heroin overdose.”

Decades passed. In that time, Sussman would go on to become a prolific author — whose expertise centers on the Mafia — leading him to eventually piece together the dark underbelly of the music industry with its ties to organized crime, which he exposes in his newest title, “Backbeat Gangsters: The Rise and Decline of the Mob in Rock Music,” the final volume in a series that details how the mob controlled various aspect of American culture.

Over the course of 11 chapters, Sussman covers a wide range of Mafia involvement in the early days of rock ’n’ roll, from creating their own record labels, bribing radio DJs and stacking jukeboxes with their own artists to exploiting and intimidating performers, and creating their own black market of bootlegged records — preying on artists and, in turn, making millions.

“When you’re young and you’re ambitious, you’re willing to go with that person who seems to be in a position to help you and seems interested in guiding your career, but you don’t know at what price they’re willing to do that,” Sussman said. “And often, when you find out, it’s too late.”

It began in the 1950s, when rock ’n’ roll music burst onto the scene. The large mainstream record companies dismissed the genre as a passing trend, while mobsters saw it as a new business opportunity — and pounced, Sussman said.

They opened small independent record companies, signed ambitious young singers and musicians, and produced 45 rpm records — making sure that mob-controlled jukeboxes were filled to capacity with these new tunes.

One of the most egregious offenders was Roulette Records, whose president, Morris Levy, had deep ties to the Mafia. The company’s formula was standard practice, Sussman explained: Hire inexperienced talent, give them a few thousand dollars after signing a contract — perhaps tacking on a new car as an incentive — and then never pay them again.

“When a singer tried to divorce himself from Roulette Records, they would threaten, sometimes beat up and, in a couple of cases, it actually killed people,” Sussman said.

That was nearly the case for singer Jimmie Rodgers, who had a string of hits in the 1950s and 1960s. When Roulette Records refused to pay him, he moved from New York to California, hoping to put some distance between himself and the mob-run company.

Three thousand miles wasn’t nearly far enough.

“One night, he was returning home from a party and he was stopped on an exit ramp from the San Diego Freeway by a police car, and he thought maybe he was being stopped because one of his tail lights wasn’t working,” Sussman said. “The cop didn’t say anything to him. He just made him get out of the car and then started beating him over the head with a lead pipe and fractured his skull, and he was in a coma for two weeks and wasn’t able to sing for two years.”

The organized hit was just one of many connected to the Mafia, who scared attorneys out of taking cases against them. They bribed disc jockeys in major cities to play their records. And they even got some of their musicians addicted to hard drugs.

“These singers trusted their managers to look out for their interests,” Sussman said. “But if you’re so stoned that you can’t read the fine print, it’s very easy for someone to put something over on you.”

While Roulette Records is a thing of the past — in 1989, it was sold to a consortium of EMI and Rhino Records, the latter later acquired by Warner Music Group — some of these tactics are alive and well today, as are the mobsters who started them.

“One of the gangsters I referred to is now, believe it or not, he’s 97 years old,” Sussman said. “I was hoping he wouldn’t be around by the time the book came out.”

Author Jeffrey Sussman will discuss his newest book, “Backbeat Gangsters: The Rise and Decline of the Mob in Rock Music,” during a series of talks this month, starting on Saturday, May 3, at 3 p.m. at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton. Future talks include Saturday, May 10, at 2 p.m. at the East Hampton Library; Sunday, May 11, at 2 p.m., at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor; Saturday, May 17, at 1 p.m., at the Hampton Bays Public Library; and Saturday, May 31, at 3 p.m. at the Amagansett Free Library.