John L. Reese

John L. Reese (born 1961) is a Phoenix-born music executive who got started in the music industry by owning a concert security company in Phoenix. That led to Guns N' Roses manager Doug Goldstein hiring him to become the band's tour manager for their 1989 Los Angeles Coliseum concerts with the Rolling Stones, then as the tour manager for the massive Use Your Illusion Tours and then as a partner and personal manager with Big FD Entertainment, representing a number of artists including Guns N' Roses, The Stone Roses, Blind Melon and many more.

Reese began his career as an artist manager in 1991 and has worked with many multi-platinum artists. He has personally managed The Used, Candlebox, Danzig, Story of the Year, and Goldfinger, among many others, and has worked with Doug Goldstein as a co manager on Guns N' Roses and The Stone Roses. Reese was also a career consultant for The Cure and in that capacity he produced the 2004 Curiosa Festival. Bands that Reese has worked with have sold in excess of 80 million albums and have played to over 40 million fans.

John was the co-founder with Ross Robinson of I AM Recordings, and with Robinson signed Slipknot, Glassjaw, Amen and The Cure among others while with I AM Recordings from 1995-2003.

In 2005, Reese co-founded the Rockstar Taste of Chaos with fellow industry executive, producer and entrepreneur Kevin Lyman. The tour is the only worldwide traveling lifestyle music festival and as of 2010 has played over 400 shows to over 2 million fans in 23 countries, including Australia, Japan, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Austria and the UK.

In 2007, Reese and Lyman co-founded the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival. In 2008, 2009, and 2010 the festival performed at 108 major Live Nation amphitheaters in the U.S. and Canada and is currently the largest traveling hard rock music festival in the world and has performed to over 1.5 million fans. Reese also co-founded the college Rockstar Get a Life Tour playing 27 college venues throughout the U.S. in 2008.

Reese is the producer of the Jagermeister Music Tour through his company Synergy Global Entertainment, Inc. The Jagermeister Music Tour is a hard rock, hardcore punk, heavy metal, country music and electronic tour that has been held multiple times per year in the United States since 2002.

Reese is also co-founder of DiNG LIFE, a device (cell phone, mp3 player, laptop, gaming) personalization company that maintains over 250 musical artist licenses which makes it the largest company of this specialty in this industry.

Reese is also the founder and producer of the Rockstar Energy Drink UPROAR Festival which 2010 and 2011 has played 70 large venues in the U.S. and Canada. Uproar has featured Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold, Stone Sour and HellYeah, Three Days Grace, Seether among many more artists.

Reese is also the co founder and CEO of Entertainment 3Sixty which is a company that connects brands to consumers through music and entertainment. Entertainment 3Sixty has consummated a number of sponsorship associations with Fortune 500 brands including Best Buy, AOL, THQ, Samsung Mobile, among many more.

In 2010 Reese co founded the Avalanche Tour with fellow music executive and entrepreneur Bill McGathy, CEO of In Degoot Entertainment.

In 2011, Reese co Founded and produced the IDentity Festival, the first-ever touring electronic ONLY music festival that visited major outdoor venues throughout North America.

Also in 2011, Reese co-produced the 48 Hours Festival, a destination weekend in Las Vegas that was billed as 'the world's biggest rock and roll party weekend, live from the Las Vegas strip!'.

In 2012 Reese teamed with Slipknot and their manager Cory Brennan to launch KNOTFEST. KNOTFEST will play two destination events in its inaugural year in Somerset, Wisconsin and Council Bluffs, Iowa. KNOTFEST is an apocalyptic underworld where carnival rides, firebreathers, nightmarish creatures on stilts, fire and percussive light, and stunning visuals set the stage for an intoxicating and unforgettably sinister concert experience.

Also in 2012 Reese, along with Phoenix's 98KUPD Radio and Live Nation are launching an annual rock festival in Phoenix called Desert Uprising. Two days of hard rock music at the Ashley Home Store Pavilion Amphitheater in Phoenix, Arizona. The event will be the largest collection of hard rock music ever to be presented in Phoenix, Az.

In 2013 Reese launched the Oddball Comedy and Curiosity Festival with Geof Wills and Perry Lavoisne of Live Nation which is playing 15 large amphitheaters and arenas from August 22 to September 23 and is headlined by Dave Chappelle and Flight of the Conchords. It is the first of its kind, a traveling comedy and lifestyle festival with 2 stages and a full concourse of freak shows, psychics, roving performers and much more. Multiple dates sold-out on the first day of on sale.

2013 also saw the launch of three more two-day radio festivals. KBPI's Locura Festival in Denver, Colorado and the Revolt on The Rio Grande Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico and KIOZ's Operation Kick Ass Festival in San Diego, California. Reese is also co-producing KISW's perennial musical festival Pain in The Grass.

Rob Zombie's Great American Nightmare is also launching in 2013 and is the first of its kind Horror and Halloween extravaganza. The event will take place from October 10 through November 2 at the Fairplex in Pomona, California and will feature three incredible haunted houses as well as 15 nights of major musical acts in the metal, alternative rock, EDM and Latin genres and the Bloody Boulevard festival midway. The partners in Great American Nightmare are Rob Zombie, Kevin Lyman, Steve Kopelman, Andy Gould and Reese.

John lives in Southern California and is married to Elenie Reese (founder of Lil' Punk) and has three children: Kelsey, Kylie and Nicolette.