Bruce Cohn: Four Decades of Rockin’ for Charity
Tom Ruwitch / Sunday, February 1st, 2009 / No Comments »The following is an excerpt from the upcoming book, Generation BIG. In the book, I profile several BIG people, including Bruce Cohn. The following is from the chapter about Cohn whom I visited at his winery, B.R. Cohn, in December.
- Jeffrey Smith
“In the beginning, back in the early ‘70′s, I’m telling you, we lived on food stamps. If we got a hundred bucks, we split it eight ways,” he told me.
Sitting in his office surrounded by gold records and Grammy’s, pictures of the whole spectrum stars that have dominated the rock and roll industry for decades, and large format bottles of collector bottles of Cabernet from his own winery, it’s hard to imagine that Bruce Cohn ever slept on a couch. Bruce Cohn, lifelong manager of the Doobie Brothers and owner of B. R. Cohn Winery (and now B. R. Cohn Olive Oil) is a world-class force in the clubby industries of both rock and roll and Sonoma Valley wine. From where I sat and the very reason we were talking is that the crowning grace of this man’s legacy is his 35-plus year history of being a BIG philanthropist.
The music industry has its share of generous people. Bono travels the globe to pursue humanitarian causes. Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp started and still run FarmAid to support family farmers. And countless other rockers give back in various ways. But few, if any, have given as much for as long as Bruce Cohn.
I discovered Bruce through his wines. B.R. Cohn Winery is among the world’s best, and it produces my favorite Cabernet. Nestled in the Sonoma Valley hills near Glen Ellen, California, the winery is the most welcoming I’ve ever visited.
Every year, Bruce hosts a charity concert at the 2,500-seat amphitheater he built at the winery. I had attended the concert before, but I’d never given much thought to Bruce’s role — until this year. I attended the concert in October, soon after I began my quest to connect with BIG people. Frankly, Bruce Cohn was not on my list. That all changed before I even entered the amphitheater.
My family arrived mid-afternoon, several hours late for the event that began at noon, and parked in the appointed area. Since we were so late, we were the only ones on the bus except a care giver (probably a grandmother) and a Down’s syndrome young adult. I offered to help Patrick and his care giver around the grounds. She said that they’d be ok. She then said that Bruce gives Patrick free tickets every year and that Patrick lives for this event.
Until then I thought, “Bruce is a great businessman and realizes it’s really, really good for business to be charitable.” Then I saw Patrick’s unvarnished excitement as he gave the ticket taker his ticket and was greeted by name. Clearly, Bruce has a huge heart.
