Colorado Music Hall of Fame | Chuck Morris Exhibit Copy

CHUCK MORRIS

A pioneering concert promoter and prolific artist manager, Chuck Morris put Colorado on the marquee as a headlining destination.

A Brooklyn native, Morris’s passion for music was ignited by a Kingston Trio concert at New York’s Lake Chautauqua in 1957. But Morris launched his 50-year career in concert promotion and artist management when he dropped out of a University of Colorado PhD program in 1968 to manage The Sink, an iconic eatery/bar on Boulder’s University Hill. He convinced owner Herbie Kauvar he could book local bands and pack the house. It was a success. In 1970, Morris and Kauvar acquired Tulagi’s, another Boulder venue that built a national reputation thanks to Morris booking a blend of up-and-comers including the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt and ZZ Top plus a mix of blues, folk and country legends like Muddy Waters, Phil Ochs and Doc Watson.

Morris moved beyond Boulder in the early 1970s when he began a long partnership with powerhouse Denver concert promoter Barry Fey. Morris and Fey, along with Fey’s wife, Cindy, launched Ebbets Field, an intimate club named after the fabled Brooklyn Dodgers stadium. Though Ebbets lasted just a few years, it was regularly filled beyond capacity as Morris snagged then-burgeoning music superstars like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Little Feat and Billy Joel plus rising comedians like Richard Pryor and Steve Martin. Morris then joined Feyline as senior VP of booking and promotion.

In the 1980s, Morris and Fey collaborated on another Denver venue: The Rainbow Music Hall, a 1,250-seat space that allowed Morris to lure bigger bands and established performers including AC/DC, Bob Dylan and Metallica plus new artists like U2, Blondie and Pat Benatar. As the Front Range music scene grew, Morris turned his talents to artist management; The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Big Head Todd & The Monsters and Leftover Salmon are among those who benefited from his guidance.

Morris began a long and fruitful friendship with entrepreneur Philip Anschutz in the late 1980s, when the billionaire approached Morris about having The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band perform at the opening of Anschutz’s Western art collection exhibition in what was then the Soviet Union. Morris allied his own promotion business with the company founded by legendary promoter Bill Graham and, in the late 1990s, purchased and redeveloped Denver’s Fillmore Auditorium, which shares its name with the storied San Francisco venue Graham helped make famous. Bill Graham Presents/Chuck Norris Presents was soon acquired by SFX Entertainment, which would ultimately become the mega promoter and ticket vendor Live Nation-Ticketmaster.

In 2007, Morris joined Anschutz’s AEG as president and CEO of AEG Presents Rocky Mountains, the largest concert promotion entity in the region. The early 2000s also saw Morris lead the renovation of Fiddler’s Green, a 17,000-seat outdoor amphitheater in south Denver; the development of the 1stBank Center, a 6,500-seat facility in Broomfield; and the creation of The Mission Ballroom, a 60,000-square-foot space in Denver’s hip River North district that opened in 2019.

A pillar of Colorado’s music scene, Morris has also been recognized for his philanthropic work. He is a longtime supporter of the Denver Health Foundation, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the Denver Dumb Friends League, the American Transplant Foundation and the Museum of Nature & Science among many more organizations.