Lewis Largent, the influential MTV VJ who hosted 120 Minutes and former music director of Los Angeles radio station KROQ, has died, report Selection and the Los Angeles Instances. His household confirmed the information to Selection, stating that Largent died on February 20 after a “lengthy sickness.” He was 58.
Raised in Southern California, Largent took up {golfing} as a teen and landed a job working at a rustic membership. It was there that he coincidentally met the the final supervisor of KROQ and impressed him together with his huge data of alt-rock, a lot in order that he granted Largent an internship there in 1985. After shortly ascending the ranks, Largent grew to become the alt-rock station’s Music Director by 1989.
In 1992, Largent accepted a proposal at MTV to change into a Vice President of Music Programming. He quickly started internet hosting 120 Minutes, the channel’s Sunday evening present targeted on different music, the place he interviewed icons of the period equivalent to David Bowie, Radiohead, Pavement, Björk, Trent Reznor, Dinosaur Jr., and PJ Harvey. When Largent handed his internet hosting duties over to Matt Pinfield in 1995, he shifted his focus to behind the scenes, changing into the Director of Music Programming at MTV. Afterward, he was promoted to Vice President of Music and Artist Improvement.
Ultimately, Largent wished to show his consideration in direction of extra label-focused work. He left MTV in 1999 for a senior A&R place at Island Def Jam Information. He stayed on the label for 5 years, signing artists equivalent to Sum 41 and Andrew WK, amongst others.
Most not too long ago, Largent went again to school to get a BA in Inventive Writing from Sarah Lawrence Faculty and later earned his MFA in 2015.