Jimmy Iovine Wants To Learn

Even though he produced hits for legends like U2 and PATTI SMITH and SOLD BEATS to APPLE for $3 billion, the cofounder of INTERSCOPE RECORDS isn’t finished

- Adam Grant

When something exciting happens in music, odds are Jimmy Iovine has influenced it. He started his career in the early 1970s as a recording engineer for John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen. Soon he was producing albums for the likes of Patti Smith, Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, and U2. He cofounded Interscope Records, signing Tupac Shakur and later Eminem and Lady Gaga. He and Dr. Dre went on to cofound Beats headphones and help create Apple Music. In his spare time, he was a mentor on American Idol and coproduced the movie 8 Mile. Iovine and Dr. Dre made a $70 million donation to USC to start an academy with the mission to spur entrepreneurship at the intersection of arts, technology, and business. This July, their lives and work will be profiled in HBO’s four-part documentary The Defiant Ones.

I’m an organizational psychologist at Wharton, specializing in how people can find motivation and meaning and lead more generous and creative lives. I talked with Iovine about what drives him and what he’s learned about collaboration.

Adam Grant: I’ve spent a lot of my career studying givers and takers, and you’ve been pegged as a giver. Patti Smith said musicians know you as ambitious—but ambitious for them, not for yourself. Where did this generosity of spirit come from?