Former Cleveland music executive Steve Popovich, who died Wednesday in Nashville at age 68, wasn’t like most people in the music business. Even while working with major labels, he retained a passion for music that was genuine and sincere, no matter how offbeat, obscure, or unpopular. He demonstrated what sheer belief and tenacity in the face of an army of naysayers could accomplish when he moved back to Cleveland from New York in the mid ’70s to form Cleveland International Records to promote a record that had been passed over by every major label: Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell, released in 1977.
This article appears in Jun 8-14, 2011.
