Southern California Promoter Jim Rissmiller Dies

Photo by George Rose/Getty Images – Jim Rissmiller
Rock promoter, Jim Rissmiller, poses in the Los Angeles Coliseum during a 1981 Los Angeles, California, photo portrait session to promote a Rolling Stones concert.

Jim Rissmiller, a seminal promoter in Southern California’s concert scene, died of a stroke in Cleveland April 3. He was 76. 

Rissmiller began working with Steve Wolf in the 1960s and the two were soon putting on shows under the name Concert Associates, according the Los Angeles Times.

The duo sold Concert Associates company to Filmways Corp., and they eventually founded the seminal company Wolf & Rissmiller Presents in 1975. Together, they would promote shows by Jethro Tull, Elton John, The Who, Pink Floyd, and Queen.

According to the Times, Wolf & Rissmiller’s reach extended to putting on shows in Northern California, New Mexico and Arizona. 

Wolf was killed by a burglar in 1977, after which, according to the Times, Rismiller said concert promotion became “just a business to me.” He would go on to teach at UCLA and assist the athletic department, according to the paper.

“I think the concert biz is pretty boring,” Rissmiller told The Times in 1993. “There are really no master showmen anymore. Today concert promoters are administrators. They’re too busy making a living.”