Music Publicist Joe Dera Dies

Joe Dera with Les Paul, Paul McCartney, B.B. King, Bette Midler and George Benson

Joseph "Joe" Dera, a prolific entertainment publicist who represented such high-profile clients as Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Elton John, Robert Palmer and many more, has died at the age of 74.

Born in 1951, Dera worked in the industry for more than half a century, representing clients like McCartney for more than 20 years. After working at the label Track Records for a few years in the early 1970s, Dera took his newfound knowledge of music promotion onto the firm Levinson And Associates before eventually joining Rogers And Cowan in 1976. At the time, Rogers And Cowan was the world's largest entertainement PR firm, representing such clients as Tony Bennett, Paul Newman and more.

In 1983, Dera oversaw David Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour and orchestrated a plan that created pandemonium at Bowie's Madison Square Garden performance. He convinced the legendary singer to cancel the phone-in ticket service, causing fans to wrap around the New York City streets for a chance to get tickets. Footage of the long lines of fans made national news, helping sell tickets in smaller markets, and a few months later Bowie landed on the cover of Time Magazine.

It was during the same period that Dera represented Live Aid, the massive global charity concert, in 1985.

David Bowie on the cover of Time in 1983 and a signed Live Aid poster from 1985

"Somebody asked me why a McCartney or a Bowie needed a press agent,” Dera recalled in a recent interview. “And I said, ‘Well, it’s to protect them from a lot of the people pulling at them, but also to create situations that aren’t the traditional sit-down-and-do-an-interview type of stuff.’”

"There are people who are attracted to the business because they want to hang out with their favorite rock stars," Dera explained about his professional approach. "If you're going to be an ogling fan, you're not going to last (in Public Relations)... I always kept my artists at arm's length." 

Interestingly, Joe Dera's first foray into music was interviewing Robert Palmer for his community college newspaper in New Jersey (The Aquarian Weekly). Dera would later become Palmer's press agent.

In the mid-1980s, the singer reached his pinnacle of fame with his Riptide album and the single Addicted To Love. The memorable video for the song, featuring Palmer playing the dapper crooner backed by models dancing in uniform makeup and attire, is one of the decade's most recognizable moments.

"He didn't even like those videos," Dera said. "He thought they were a bit pretentious. He thought the whole thing was kind of silly with the girls pretending to play guitars. But it was an instant success."

Robert Palmer's pinnacle of fame: the album Riptide and the Addicted To Love video

Robert Palmer even helped Joe Dera financially to start his own agency, Dera And Associates, in 1989. Dera And Associates managed publicity for Paul McCartney and his wife Linda, Ringo Starr, Elton John, Billy Joel, Queen, ZZ Top, Duran Duran, Pink Floyd, Brian Wilson, The Scorpions and many others.

"A list of everyone he worked with would probably be 20 pages long,” said Chris Roslan, a former business partner.

Dera retired in 2016. "The music business that I grew up in was gone," he said. "I lost interest in the way it had evolved, and we were doing less and less music, and more and more television and books. You don't get rich doing Public Relations in the music business."

Joe Dera with Paul McCartney in the 1980s

(Compiled from various sources - 2025)