Rich Engler reflects on career in music industry

Rich Engler saved his backstage passes and a few ticket stubs from the first four years of his musical career, but after receiving a signed guitar from Bob Dylan, he came to a realization. 

“I should have been doing this all along,” Engler said. 

And for the next 40 years, he did. 

Since the late 1970s, Engler, 67, has been collecting signed guitars while working as a booking agent and promoter throughout Pittsburgh. Engler’s collection, which includes 18 guitars and four museum pieces, were on display in the William Pitt Union Kimbo Art Gallery on Monday. Pitt Program Council organized and hosted the event.

Each instrument featured signatures from musical artists such as Paul McCartney and ’N Sync. 

Engler’s recent memoir, “Behind the Stage Door: A Promoter’s Life Behind the Scenes,” which was published last December, was also available for purchase at the exhibit. 

Inspiration for the memoir came from his colorful career in the music industry. 

“Every time I’m around people, they’re like, ‘Rich, tell me a story,’” he said.

After 30 years of his friends recommending he write a book, Engler spent three years documenting almost half a century in the music industry. 

The memoir depicts how Engler launched his own booking agency at age 21. A native of western Pennsylvania, Engler grew up in Creighton, Pa., located in Allegheny County, and attended Carnegie Mellon University in 1966.

Scheduling rising stars such as Janis Joplin, Chicago and Santana, Engler brought fresh talent to colleges, fraternities and high school venues around Pittsburgh in the late 1960s. 

“Some of these acts nobody had ever heard of, but they’re coming — they’re coming up fast,” Engler said. 

Engler transitioned to his job as a promoter in 1973, forming DiCesare-Engler Productions to publicize concerts and festivals primarily in the Pittsburgh area with his partner, Pat DiCesare, 76. He booked acts, paid for the necessary expenses of the venue, including stage fees and sold tickets. Clear Channel Radio, a division of the private mass media company based in San Antonio, Texas, bought the company in 1998.  

Engler currently operates his own company, Engler Entertainment Inc., based in Sewickley, Pa. He continues to search for breakout artists in today’s music scene, and follows young European bands and electronic dance music acts, such as Daft Punk.

By the end of a show, he receives approximately 15 to 20 percent of the leftover revenue from an event. 

“So it’s a sink-swim operation — being a promoter,” Engler said. 

Engler has become accustomed to taking risks, including DiCesare-Engler’s purchase of a Downtown theater more than three decades ago.

While working in the unpredictable market, Engler took a gamble in 1977 on the Stanley Theater — located on Liberty Avenue — which reopened as the Benedum Center in 1987.

“The Stanley was a 3,900 seat, beautiful, beautiful, theater and no one could fill it but us,” he said.

By bringing in rock and jazz acts, Engler flipped the floundering movie theater into the number-one theater in the country, according to Billboard Magazine. 

While working with countless legendary acts, including Bruce Springsteen, The Who and Guns N’ Roses, Engler experienced an array of interesting encounters. 

Among the numerous fascinating acts was Bob Marley. Engler produced the last Marley show ever at the Stanley Theater in 1980.

“It’s near and dear to my heart,” Engler said. “I wrote a very heartfelt story in my book about how he got through the show. He just seemed to know in his mind that it was his last.” 

After the show, Marley left for Germany to treat a brain tumor that took his life in 1981.

Engler said he will never forget promoting the Rolling Stones in the summer of 1990 on their Steel Wheels Tour, in which the band brought “gigantic” inflatable women.

 “When I say gigantic — these inflatables had to be three stories tall. They were like floats at a Macy’s Day Parade, but, although they were cartoonish, they were very lifelike. One was smoking a cigarette with holes in her stockings. … It was like Godzilla!” 

Students entering the exhibit at Pitt were floored by the quantity and quality of the artists featured on the guitars. 

Mya Hogan, Pitt Program Council’s lecture director, and Maddie Blom, the council’s advertising director, left the exhibit in shock. 

“He has legends in there,” Hogan, a senior majoring in psychology, said. 

Blom, a senior studying marketing and finance, agreed, adding that she found her one-on-one exchange with Engler enlightening. 

“I think it’s cool that [Engler’s] here so that you can talk to him if you have any questions about these amazing legends,” Blom said.

Ben Wahlberg, a junior majoring in psychology, plans to revisit the exhibit when Engler returns to the gallery on March 26 and April 1.

“This is beautiful,” Wahlberg said, referring to the display. “To see walls of guitars inside this Union — I don’t know — this just made my Monday.”