Jon Landau

Born in New York City in 1947, Jon Landau moved to Lexington, Massachusetts at age 12 with his music-loving family. His father had an expansive collection of jazz 78s, his mother adored opera, his own passion for music exploded around age 4, and by age 7 he was playing guitar. His passion for writing began in 10th grade at Lexington High School where he received encouragement from his English teacher to pursue his writing further. While attending Brandeis University, he played guitar in a band but would soon shift his focus to writing about music rather than playing it. Landau’s career as a music journalist included bylines in Crawdaddy and The Boston Phoenix, and in 1967 he became the lead writer for newly established bi-weekly Rolling Stone, a position he held for a decade during the legendary early years of the magazine. Landau’s very first work as a producer was on the pre-punk classic Back In the USA by the MC5, who will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. His work as manager for Shania Twain in the 1990s contributed to establishing her as the biggest female artist of her generation and her Landau-managed 1997 album Come On Over remains the highest-selling studio album of all time by a solo female artist, with over 40 million copies sold worldwide. Landau has also worked with Natalie Merchant, Train, Alejandro Escovedo, Livingston Taylor and many others. In 2020, Landau was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame receiving the Ahmet Ertegun Award for Lifetime Achievement.