Howie Klein, Influential Sire and Reprise Records Executive, Dies at 77

Howie Klein, the influential record executive who helped shape punk, new wave, alternative and mainstream rock through his leadership at Sire and Reprise Records, died on December 24, 2025, after a battle with cancer. He was 77.

Born in Brooklyn on February 20, 1948, Klein’s path into music began early and loudly. While attending Stony Brook University in the late 1960s, he booked concerts on campus featuring artists who would soon define a generation, including the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. That early instinct for spotting culture in motion would define the rest of his career.

Klein started out as a rock radio DJ in San Francisco before co-founding the independent label 415 Records in the late 1970s. The label became an important launching pad for emerging punk and new wave artists, including Romeo Void, Translator and Wire Train, and established Klein as a trusted advocate for artists operating outside the mainstream.

In 1987, Klein joined Sire Records, a label long associated with adventurous and genre-shifting artists. Two years later, he was named president of Reprise Records, the storied Warner Bros. imprint founded by Frank Sinatra. During his tenure, Reprise released and supported work from a wide range of influential artists, including Green Day, Alanis Morissette, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac, Lou Reed, Talking Heads and Depeche Mode.

Klein’s years at Reprise coincided with a period when alternative music broke into the mainstream, and he was widely respected for balancing commercial success with artistic integrity. Colleagues and artists alike credited him with trusting musicians’ instincts and allowing careers to unfold rather than forcing quick results.