In his earliest days as a dance producer, John Summit spent many hours on his computer making music, then emailing it to indie dance labels he hoped might sign his demos.

He received a lot of rejections, but eventually gained traction when he signed his Touch Me EP to the Atlanta-based Psycho Disco! in 2018. A flurry of subsequent tracks were signed by Lee Foss’ Repopulate Mars, Gene Farris’ Farris Wheel Recordings and other artist-led labels. Summit pinballed from imprint to imprint as his profile rose to apex status. Now, he’s the one combing through the submissions inbox.

“I always knew I wanted to make my own label and have a home for the next generation of artists,” Summit tells Billboard. “I never expected it to grow and blow up as fast as it did.”

Like seemingly all things attached to his name, Summit’s Experts Only is a runaway success and a new powerhouse in the dance label landscape. Launched in 2022 and distributed by Darkroom Records since early 2025, Experts Only maintains the nimbleness of an indie while also functioning like a major, because it’s run by execs with major label experience. Toby Andrews, the former president of Astralwerks, is label manager, and Jack David, who spent six years as head of electronic music, international at UMG in London, is head of marketing.

The core team is rounded out by Will Weston, who comes from throwing underground parties in New York and now manages Experts Only events — including the buzzy namesake shows Summit and his signees play across the U.S. and beyond. Named for Summit’s love of skiing, Experts Only events have taken place on the slopes of Lake Tahoe and Vail, along with more traditional dance circuit destinations.

Summit is, of course, the label’s de facto leader, working on everything from curation to marketing while also barreling through global clubs, festivals and large-scale venues (last weekend he headlined London’s O2 arena), and playing label music for tens of thousands of fans. His managers, Holt Harmon and Parker Cohen of Metatone, also oversee Experts Only alongside other core elements of Summit’s sprawling business.

“My approach is to bring together the hungriest people who bring their unique combination of experience and specialization to contribute to the team,” Harmon says. “The team is made up of people we’d crossed paths with over time who naturally felt like a fit for bringing our big visions for Experts Only to life.”

Over the past three years, those “big visions” have generated a slew of hits, a No. 1 ranking on Beatport’s label chart and a sprawling crew of affiliated artists whose work has helped define the Experts Only sound, identity and ecosystem, and whose careers outside the label have been boosted by their connection to it.

“Being on a major is maybe one of the hardest places to be in dance music right now,” says Andrews. “The curated, artist-led labels — us and the people around us like Gorgon City’s Realm, Fisher’s Catch and Release and Chris Lake’s Black Book — I think we’re people who are having a lot of fun at the moment, because people obviously admire the artists who run these labels, and everyone’s curating their own sound, their own group of artists and their own vision. I’m not sure how to do that from a major perspective in 2025.”

This weekend (Sept. 20-21), the vision expands with the debut Experts Only festival at Randall’s Island in New York City. Co-produced by Medium Rare and Relentless Beats, the two-day fest will feature a pair of headlining sets from Summit, along with label artists like Roddy Lima, Tini Gessler and Layton Giordani. Joining them are artists who’ve been influential to the label and scene at large (“he’s the best selector of our generation,” Summit says of Experts Only NYC artist and revered curator Pete Tong) and artists whom Summit simply likes.

“The obvious next step is throwing a festival to showcase everyone,” he says. “I’ve grown close friendships with everyone, too, so it’s going to feel like a family affair and not a big corporate festival where we just tried booking DJs that would sell as many tickets as possible.

Summit is perfectly aware, however, that being one of the biggest DJs in the world helps fuel the label and the festival. “If I’m being honest,” he continues about this weekend’s event, “what does help is that I’m kind of the one that really pushes ticket sales, so from there I can just pick every act that I love.”

In a time when a lot of dance artists and labels struggle to break through the noise, this rising-tide-lifts-all-ships mentality is helping make Experts Only genuinely impactful.

Experts Only launched in 2022 with its first release, “In Chicago,” a tech house track by Summit. At the time, the imprint was called Off The Grid, although this name was changed in 2023 after an underground events company in California also named Off the Grid threatened legal action. (Summit calls the situation “a huge business lesson on my end, because it made me realize that I can’t literally do everything I want. Like, there are rules.”)

The first record after the name change was Odd Mob’s and Omnom’s “Losing Control,” a September 2023 release that Summit feels sums up the label’s sound and ethos. “It has big, commanding synths and a strong vocal hook that’s catchy and memorable. You can play it at Sound in LA, but you can also play it on the mainstage at EDC, and it works really well in either place. That’s the goal of Experts Only — versatile records that can’t be pigeonholed.”

Meanwhile, Summit’s own career had gone stratospheric following the March 2023 release of “Where You Are,” his collaboration with British vocalist Hayla, a record Andrews says “we obviously tried to sign” when he was still at Astralwerks.

This familiarity led to a conversation with Harmon and Cohen after Andrews left the label. “We knew we wanted Toby on board from the second we were able to speak about the possibility,” says Harmon.

Andrews brought a boots-on-the-ground understanding of the structure of a major-sized electronic imprint, which helped the team understand how they’d scale. To do it, they’d need a dedicated marketing person, so David was hired. “If it wasn’t John, and if it wasn’t Experts Only, I probably wouldn’t have considered it,” David says. “The fact that it was one of the biggest DJs on the planet, along with Holt and Parker, sold it to me. When those guys do something, they do it properly, and they wanted to go all in on the label.”

Summit maintains his position as the label’s chief A&R, creative guide and musical soothsayer. (He “doesn’t sit in the background and let us get on with it,” says David.) Summit declares he “genuinely loves marketing” and, crucially, is also behind the decks somewhere in the world every weekend playing releases and testing music.

“The key difference [between us and a major] is having a label figurehead who’s a live act and is out there able to support the records,” says Andrews. “On a promotional level, we don’t have to go chase for crowd reactions or proof that the records we’re signing are the right ones.” 

Summit’s touring schedule also demands that he constantly finds new music, which he says leads him to “dig through demos to see if I can get anything worth playing. If you think about a major label, their A&R is in some boardroom or whatever, my A&R room is literally playing to a crowd of 10,000 people and seeing if it works.”

The music that works is brought to the team, with the team also showing Summit music they think he might like. “Sometimes you send him something you think he’s going to like, and he’s not into it,” says Andrews. “Then you send him something unexpected, thinking it’s a shot in the dark, and he hears something in it. He’s very thoughtful and definitely does not react to something just because it’s shiny.”

This high level of curation means a slower release schedule than most dance imprints, with Experts Only dropping just two to four tracks a month. “We stay away from weekly, because I don’t think it gives everything a chance to breathe,” says Andrews. “We want people to notice [the music]. We don’t want it to become like ‘Here’s the weekly Experts Only email.’ We don’t want it to lose that glamour.”

The approach also allows David and Summit to make comprehensive marketing plans for each release — rollouts that can include multi-post social rollouts and David hand-selecting territories he thinks each track would work in.

“It’s not a case of just sending the record to our entire contact list and hoping someone picks it up,” he says. “When you do that over and over, people kind of switch off to you because you’re not tailoring anything.”

Instead, for example, David will take a new song he thinks is in line with what dance radio stations in Berlin or Amsterdam typically play and personally send it to his contacts there. “If they like it and start playing it and their audience reacts, you’re going to see it on the Shazam or Spotify viral chart,” says David. “Then you’ve got data, and you haven’t hit up anyone else yet, but you’ve slowly started lighting the fire in that market.”

David says this strategy worked well for Colorado-born producer Disco Lines, who released “Wide Open” on Experts Only this past January and for whom the metaphorical fires were subsequently lit when he released his global smash collab with Tinashe, “No Broke Boys,” in June.

All artists who release on Experts Only receive weekly reports with high-quality data on the track’s streams, market traction and more, with the aim being for every artist to have a rollout experience that better positions them in their career at large.

“We want to promote that family feel,” says David. “When you sign a record to this label, even though we’re only signing one, we don’t just work that song and say anything outside that isn’t our problem. We want artists to leave in a much stronger position than when they first released their record.”

The ability to better position artists is buoyed by the fact that they can be booked for Experts Only events. Rising Brazilian producer Roddy Lima released two records on the label in March and July of this year, was featured on a recent Experts Only compilation (special projects the label has done since its inception), made an episode for the Experts Only mix series, played the label’s Miami Music Week showcase and will play the festival this weekend.

Other artists whose names are linked with the label include Max Styler, Chris Avantgarde and Kevin DeVries. And it’s not just focused on rising artists, as the label has released music by legends and peers like Green Velvet, Gorgon City, Subtronics and Tape B. Summit’s solo releases also come out via the Experts Only/Darkroom Records partnership.

“John excels not only as an artist and creative but also as an executive,” says Darkroom CEO Justin Lubliner. “Having cultivated such a strong relationship on the creative side, it was a natural decision to partner on distribution for his Experts Only label and continue to build with him holistically.” 

Experts Only ranked No. 1 on Beatport’s global label chart in 2024 and for much of 2025 so far. The achievement is evidence that, says Andrews, “we’re putting out records that are resonating with the core base of DJs, producers and club fans. We know we’re doing a good job servicing the right songs and marketing plans to them.”

He adds that the team is also “obviously proud of the gains the label has taken in terms of overall sales volume.”

Dance music is an extremely fast-paced genre where songs can come and go on TikTok in a flash. Andrews emphasizes that Experts Only isn’t chasing virality. “We’re not signing things because of momentum and then trying to retrofit that into an Expert Only release. John is much happier to release a song that he’s played, that he believes in, that’s by a producer that he wants to support, than me finding something on the internet and sending it to him. We’re not looking for one off moments — he wants to build the next generation of experts.”

During CMA Fest in 2024, K. Michelle introduced herself to a Nashville stadium full of country fans from a small satellite stage at the far end of the venue with “Jack Daniel’s,” a song that embraced bourbon as if it were a fellow human being.

Her voice was big, her look was bold, the song was clever, and a portion of the 50,000 or so in attendance — largely unfamiliar with K. Michelle and her R&B history — didn’t know quite what to make of her. But she belted out “Jack Daniel’s” with an unrepentant swagger, referencing the city’s honky-tonk district across the river from Nissan Stadium in the process. And she did, in fact, amass some new fans with that first-time exposure.

“It’s a feel record,” she says. “It’s addictive, and those who caught the lyrics, I knew that they would be able to relate with me about ‘Jack Daniel’s.’ So it was really a good moment for me, and just to see people — even after I sang it — in my DMs, to go to Broadway, and people asked about the record. I know that there was something with the record.”

Long before K. Michelle sang about a romantic relationship with Jack Daniel’s, she had a business relationship with the manufacturer. In 2017, she helped develop a Southern peach cocktail brand, including the packaging, which featured a first-ever gold cap for the bottle. In the process, she became the first Black woman named an ambassador for one of the best-known alcohol trademarks.

“I had a great experience with Jack — not only just loving the product,” she says. “They taught me more about business than I’ve ever learned. Like the song says, ‘Something here’s different, something feels right.’ ”

Her background with Jack Daniel’s the company helped fuel “Jack Daniel’s” the song. K. Michelle was a fan of Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album, and as she dug into the credits, she realized the songs she most liked were written by ERNEST. Her manager set her up with a co-write circa 2021, and when ERNEST came to her house, she ended up recounting her “Jack” history.

“I do jam sessions, so I make sure everybody has food — a lot of food — and we all get comfortable,” K. Michelle says. “I was telling this story, and I was saying that I have something I’ve been saying my whole career, and that’s ‘Jack Daniel’s is the only man I trust.’ That’s been with me for years, so we ended up writing about it from that perspective after I said that line.”

They kicked into it sequentially from the opening verse, with ERNEST describing Nashville’s busy Downtown night scene in conjunction with short, choppy phrases in the initial lines. The pre-chorus became more elongated, while No. 7 was introduced into the plot. No. 7 is, of course, a key part of the Jack label, though listeners can be forgiven if — before they become fully familiar with it — they associate the number with NASCAR drivers. 

They segued into a high-energy chorus that starts with stark, descending quarter notes, recognizing in the process how many times the woman has “been let down like a bottle just collecting dust.” Jack offers what she needs — “He keeps me warm, I keep him close” — working its way to the “only man I trust” payoff.

Overall, they pulled together a strong framework for “Jack Daniel’s,” made a simple demo, then let it simmer. Eventually, K. Michelle decided “Jack” was worth finishing, and she called on songwriters Rocky Block (“Cowgirls,” “Man Made a Bar”) and Jordan Dozzi (“Pour Me a Drink”) to bring it home. One of their most important duties was to ensure the listener didn’t know Jack was a whiskey, rather than a guy, in the song’s opening frames.

“We double-checked everything and made sure we didn’t give it away until the chorus,” Dozzi says. “That was definitely intentional.”

K. Michelle was adamant that it needed a bridge — “I just don’t think a record is complete without one,” she says — and they fashioned one around a “shot in the Broadway dark,” pushing the melody to a higher, more challenging peak. “She’s so aware of her voice and not afraid to sing that high and that powerfully,” Dozzi notes. “That’s her just going, ‘Hey, I’m going to sing my ass off here.’ That’s all her.”

Producer Jeff Balding (Megadeth, BeBe Winans) lined up a recording session at Blackbird Studio D, where the goal was to create a track full of intensity. “She wanted it to have a raw feel, to push it,” Balding says, “to really just have some angst to it.”

Guitarist Tom Bukovac developed a 1990s alt-flavored guitar opening with a simple riff that changed the phrasing on the descending melody from the chorus. The rhythm section, bassist Craig Young and drummer Shannon Forrest, borrowed from R&B, with Young playing an active, aerobic part. K. Michelle belted her vocals without restraint.

“The headphones are a huge part of it, making sure we’ve got the right mix,” Balding says. “Once we get that locked in, she doesn’t seem to be shy about just going for it.”

She wanted to give “Jack Daniel’s” every chance to succeed, so she asked Kristian Bush if he had any further production ideas, and they ended up doing more work on it. Guitarist Benji Shanks offered a fiery solo before the bridge and stabbing, descending lines at the end of the chorus.

“We have this awesome little place in Atlanta,” Kristian says. “It’s like a 600-square-foot room with a bathroom in it and a kitchen, and we leave the doors open, and all the high school kids walk by. It’s just a Downtown Atlanta thing, and Benji was in there screaming that lead.”

Brandon Bush also tailored a new Hammond B-3 part to suit K. Michelle’s vocals. “You can control the Hammond in such a way that you figure out where the singer’s actual frequency of their voice is, and you hollow that out on the Hammond so that that frequency doesn’t exist in the instrument,” Kristian says. “Imagine it’s a raft that you can sit in and it buoys you on all sides, but in the middle, you’re down in it. That’s the way you use a Hammond organ for a lot of women’s voices.”

BBR Music Group released “Jack Daniel’s” to digital service providers on Aug. 29, and K. Michelle hopes that her relationship with the song and the manufacturer helps in her efforts to build a relationship with the country fan base.

“I kind of just want to be the bridge,” she says. “Music is the universal language, and I want to bring people together. I always do it through food, music and Jack Daniel’s.” 

THE BIG STORY: Taylor Swift was once again dragged into the never-ending legal war between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni over the movie It Ends With Us — with a confusing back-and-forth over whether the superstar was going to be deposed.

Baldoni has been claiming for months that Swift’s friendship with Lively makes her a key witness in the ugly case, in which Lively alleges Baldoni sexually harassed her and then orchestrated a retaliatory smear campaign. In June, a judge granted him access to Swift and Lively’s text messages as part of the document discovery process.

Now, Baldoni wants to depose Swift. In a court filing last week, his lawyers claimed the superstar had “agreed to appear for deposition” after her schedule opened up next month. But Swift’s attorneys quickly said that wasn’t what had actually happened.

“My client did not agree to a deposition,” Swift’s attorney wrote. “But if she is forced into a deposition, we advised (after first hearing about the deposition just three days ago) that her schedule would accommodate the time required during the week of October 20.”

As is so often the case in the frenetic Baldoni-Lively spectacle, it was all over quickly: A judge denied Baldoni’s request for special accommodation to depose Swift. To understand why, go read the full story here, featuring access to the judge’s full written ruling.

You’re reading The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, go subscribe here.

Other top stories this week…

TORT OF GOLD – Neil Young was hit with a lawsuit over the name of his new backing band, called The Chrome Hearts, filed by a fashion brand that has used the same name for decades. The luxury apparel company says the rock legend’s new name — he usually tours and records with another group called Crazy Horse — clearly infringes its trademark rights to the name.

A “MEASLY” DEAL – A class action settlement for songwriters that netted their lawyers a far larger payout is officially history. The 2019 deal, which secured a total of $53,000 for songwriters but paid their lawyers a whopping $1.7 million, was struck down in 2023 by an appeals court that said the ruling left them in “disbelief.” Following that slapdown, a lower judge heeded the warning this week: He awarded the lawyers just $86,022.

DUA LIPA MERCH – Sony merchandise venture Ceremony of Roses sued to stop bootleggers from selling knockoff Dua Lipa merch during her Radical Optimism tour — the latest in a recent spate of anti-counterfeiting lawsuits brought by official merch retailers.

LIL NAS X IN REHAB – Weeks after the star was arrested and hit with felony charges for allegedly attacking police officers and resisting arrest while wandering naked in Los Angeles, a judge said Lil Nas had entered an inpatient treatment program: “We’re not going to get specific about where he is,” the judge said at a court hearing: “It’s private, nobody needs to know where he is, but he is in treatment.”

DURK TRIAL DELAY – Lil Durk’s trial on federal murder-for-hire charges might be postponed from October to January, after prosecutors and several of his co-defendants agreed to the change. Durk himself didn’t consent to the delay, but prosecutors argued that a three-month wait won’t violate his constitutional right to a speedy trial. Stay tuned.

“COMPLETE BOONDOGGLE” – Calvin Harris took legal action against his longtime financial adviser Thomas St. John, claiming that he duped him into investing $22.5 million in a doomed real estate project as a means “to simply steal” funds from the star DJ. The revelations came in court filings that revealed details of a private arbitration case that has been underway since June.

COMEY SUES DOJ – Maurene Comey, the lead prosecutor at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex-trafficking trial, filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department claiming her July termination was an “unlawful and unconstitutional” act of political payback by President Donald Trump against her father, former FBI director James B. Comey. Maurene Comey was previously one of the lead prosecutors in the case against Ghislaine Maxwell, a top accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein.

SMOKEY CASE UPDATE – A Los Angeles judge ruled that the former housekeepers accusing Smokey Robinson of rape can stay anonymous at this stage of the lawsuit, which is scheduled to go to trial in 2027. The singer’s lawyers argued it’s unfair that the accusers can remain Jane Does while dragging Robinson through the mud, but the judge was unmoved: “For now, this early on in this case, I don’t think their identities need to be revealed.”

RECORD SETTLEMENT – Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group and Concord reached a settlement to end their lawsuit against the Internet Archive over the “Great 78 Project” — a program to digitize thousands of old vinyl records from Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby and other iconic artists. The Internet Archive claimed it was just trying to preserve the works, but the labels called it “wholesale theft of generations of music.”

DIDDY APPEAL – Making the Band contestant Sara Rivers launched an appeal following the dismissal of her sexual assault lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs. The move will challenge a ruling last month that dismissed the case, which accused Diddy of sexually harassing and groping Rivers during the filming of the 2000s MTV reality show, because Rivers waited too long to sue.

TRIAL AVERTED – Trey Songz reached a settlement to end a lawsuit claiming he sexually assaulted a woman named Jauhara Jeffries at a Miami nightclub on New Year’s Eve in 2018. The pair — and the nightclub itself — had been preparing to go to trial next month when the settlement was reached.

A new court filing claims Damon Dash’s recent bankruptcy petition is a “bad faith” effort to slow down collection of a nearly $5 million debt, comparing the Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder to notorious Infowars host Alex Jones.

Dash declared bankruptcy in Florida on Sept. 4, saying he owes more than $25 million and has just over $4,000 to his name. The record executive filed a so-called Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, in which an individual’s assets are sold off to pay creditors, and remaining debts can be erased.

The bulk of Dash’s debt consists of roughly $19 million in unpaid taxes. But he is also plagued by creditors Joshua Webber and production company Muddy Water Pictures, who once worked with Dash and who now hold more than $4.8 million worth of court judgments against him for copyright infringement and defamation.

Webber and Muddy Waters have had a rough time trying to collect money from Dash over the years, and they said in a Sunday (Sept. 14) letter to the New York federal judge overseeing the litigation that bankruptcy is just Dash’s latest ploy to frustrate the repayment process. The filmmakers compare Dash to Jones, who unsuccessfully tried to use bankruptcy to avoid paying his own $1.3 billion defamation judgment to the families of Sandy Hook victims.

“It is well settled law that Dash cannot discharge the above debt in bankruptcy,” wrote Webber and Muddy Waters’ attorney Christopher Brown. “Dash is simply attempting to slow the plaintiffs’ attempts to collect their judgments. Dash stands in the same legal position as Alex Jones.”

This court filing also claims Dash’s bankruptcy petition is “riddled” with falsehoods, noting that the list of assets in the petition omits multiple LLCs that Dash controls, as well as his “most valuable asset:” his life rights.  

“Dash’s ‘life rights’ is an asset due to his connection to Roc-A-Fella Records Inc. and his former partner Jay-Z,” wrote Brown. “In fact, Dash has been developing a script/movie on his life rights and has publicly addressed the issue. It is no secret that Dash is developing ‘The Roc-A-Fella Movie.’ This asset should have been listed in the Petition for potential liquidation.”

In response, Dash’s attorney, Natraj Bhushan, filed his own letter to the court on Monday (Sept. 15) claiming Webber and Muddy Waters’ filing violates the automatic pause on litigation that comes with declaring bankruptcy.

Dash’s bankruptcy counsel, Brian Zinn, similarly says in a Tuesday (Sept. 16) statement to Billboard that if Webber and Muddy “believe their debts are non-dischargeable, or that Mr. Dash’s bankruptcy petition is deficient, the Bankruptcy Court in the Middle District of Florida has exclusive jurisdiction to determine that.”

“While it may come with a negative societal preconceived notion, bankruptcy is simply a legal tool that many successful people have used to restructure their obligations to make their debts more manageable,” says Zinn. “Through our extensive experience, it is clear that Mr. Dash’s case is no different. Mr. Dash’s bankruptcy filing will stop most lawsuits and other collection activities. It will give him breathing room to organize his finances and rebuild his credit. He may also be able to eliminate some or most of his debts.”

Webber and Muddy Waters have been in a legal war with Dash since 2019, when they filed suit claiming the record executive was trying to illegally claim ownership of their movie Dear Frank. The filmmakers said that while Dash initially signed on to direct the movie, he spent the bulk of the shoot “inebriated on marijuana, belligerent and aggressive.”

That case went to trial in 2022, and Webber and Muddy Waters won a collective $823,000 in damages from Dash. Webber sued Dash again for defamation in 2024, claiming the Roc-A-Fella co-founder was continuing to claim publicly that Webber actually stole the film from him.

A judge ruled this past February that Dash had forfeited his right to defend against those allegations by blowing past case deadlines and ignoring court orders. Dash was hit with a $4 million default judgment — the price of a different movie contract that Webber allegedly lost due to Dash’s public accusations of theft.

Meanwhile, Dash’s one-third stake in Roc-A-Fella was auctioned off last year to help pay off his tax and child support debts. New York state bought the shares for $1 million and has since resold them.

Hooshmand Aghili passed away on Sept. 4, 2025, at 88. We were with him, grateful for a lifetime of music that felt like home to millions.

He was born in Isfahan in 1937, the city of poets and blue tiles. As a teenager, he trained with the great Taj Esfahani, and by his early years, he was already on Radio Isfahan, a voice people would stop to hear.

In Tehran, he kept studying — ever the student — and stepped onto national stages. When Iranian National Television launched, he sang with the National Orchestra and worked alongside master composers and virtuosos, a circle that sharpened his classical phrasing and broadened his reach. 

If you grew up in a Persian household anywhere in the world, there’s a good chance one song unlocked a hundred memories: “Farda To Miayee”. It’s the tune that plays when a living room becomes a dance floor and cousins become a choir. For many in our community — and for our family — its first notes are instantly recognizable.

He carried other favorites with him too — “Cheraghe Khooneh,” “Darya,” “Ghesehgoo” — songs that traveled across oceans, pressed into vinyl and tape and, later, playlists spanning generations.

In 1977, he moved to the United States and built a new life while keeping Iran close. For us — and for so many in the diaspora — his voice became a bridge between places: A few notes and suddenly you were back in your grandparents’ kitchen, or on a moonlit drive down Valiasr. 

That was the artist. Here is the man. He was the life of the party — telling jokes, reciting poems, captivating every room with that easy charisma. He was the kindest, sweetest presence, always giving of himself and, often, his belongings. He was a doting father who did the school drop-offs, taught us how to ride a bike, exposed us to all kinds of wonderful experiences — the daily work of unconditional love. He lives on within us, and in his grandson, who bears Hoosh as his middle name, a quiet echo of his legacy. After losing the love of his life, our mother, Farideh, in 2007, he never remarried. Sometimes the truest performance was in the life he lived offstage.

What did he mean to Persians — and to music — everywhere? He showed how a classical sensibility could meet popular feelings without losing either one. He proved that a song could be both refined and welcoming, both rooted and open-armed. For decades, he gave Iranians an anthem to gather around and a repertoire that could turn a lonely evening into a remembered celebration. That was his gift: to remind people where they come from and who they belong to — together.

To everyone who shared a wedding dance to “Farda To Miayee,” kept “Cheraghe Khooneh” on repeat during long drives or dreamed of the beach while listening to “Darya” — thank you for letting our father’s voice live in your homes and hearts. We’ll keep singing with you.

With love and gratitude,
Mae & Mike