EDDIE ROSENBLATT – Geffen Records President During GUNS N’ ROSES, WHITESNAKE Years Dead At 89

Eddie Rosenblatt, president of Geffen Records during the ‘80s and ‘90s that sported a roster of Guns N’ Roses, Whitesnake, Nirvana, and Peter Gabriel has died at 89 of pneumonia, reports Deadline.

The Geffen label scored early-MTV hits with albums by Asia, Sammy Hagar, Quarterflash, and others, and also signed more-established artists like Peter Gabriel, Don Henley and Neil Young (the latter of whom had a legendary legal feud with Geffen). Yet it found blockbuster success in the mid-1980s with hard-rock acts like Whitesnake and Guns N’ Roses, and later, via its DGC offshoot, with alternative artists like Sonic Youth, Weezer, Hole, Beck and especially Nirvana.

Geffen sold the label to MCA in 1990, but Rosenblatt stayed on and continued its success throughout most of the 1990s. David Geffen left the company in 1995 to launch DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, and named Rosenblatt his successor.

The Geffen label later was absorbed by Interscope, and Rosenblatt retired.

Survivors include children Michael (a longtime Warner Bros. Records executive), Steven, Peter, and Gretchen, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild. His wife of 68 years, Bobbi, died in 2023.