The Gospel Music Man; An exec with vision transforms a traditional genre.(music producer Max Siegal, president of Verity Records)(Biography)

Publication: Newsweek

Publication Date: 23-OCT-06

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Byline: Johnnie L. Roberts

This doesn't begin as a family-values story. Max Siegel's father, Bill, a music salesman, was Jewish. His mother, Delores, a beautiful nightclub singer, was African-American. The marriage ended badly; Bill kidnapped 5-year-old Max and his baby sister, told them Delores was dead, then married a drug addict. When Max was 12, Bill died, Delores reappeared, as if from the grave, and the chaos continued. "It was straight ghetto," he recalls.

He couldn't have known, but this turbulent childhood, with its racial complexities and musical influences, gave Siegel, 42, everything to be what he is today--arguably the most important exec...

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