NEW ORLEANS (CelebrityAccess) — Legendary New Orleans concert promoter Don Fox, co-founder of Beaver Productions, announced that after more than five decades in the industry, he’s planning to retire.
“It’s time, for me anyway,” Fox, who is 76, told NOLA.com. “I just didn’t want to work for the rest of my life. I would like to have some time to do other things.”
According to NOLA.com, Fox’s company, Beaver Productions will shut down by the end of 2022 and has already wrapped its final shows, which included Diana Krall, who performed a previously postponed concert at the Saenger Theatre on September 23rd.
A transplant to from Chicago, Fox, along with his partners, opened Beaver Productions in 1969, producing the company’s first show featuring the Grateful Dead and Fleetwood Mac at a converted warehouse, dubbed The Warehouse, in New Orleans.
Since then, Beaver Productions has staged events by a veritable who’s who in rock music, including Bob Dylan, The Eagles, ZZ Top, Rush, and The Doors, who played their final show with frontman Jim Morrison at the Warehouse in 1970.
In addition to The Warehouse, which closed in 1980, Fox promoted shows at other key venues in the region, including Municipal Auditorium and Tad Gormley Stadium, as well as in arenas such as the Smoothie King Center.
Unlike many of his peers, Fox remained independent during the concert industry consolidation of the 1990s, even expanding his operation to Memphis, where it is helmed by Barry Leff.
As for what Fox plans to do after his retirement, it doesn’t seem like it will be connected to the concert industry.
“I’m not going to do any more shows. I might go to a few, and I’m still going to listen to music,” he told NOLA.com. “Maybe do a little more fishing, play a little more golf, do a few trips here and there. I’m just going to enjoy life, as best I can,” Fox added.
