Joseph Rascoff

Joseph Rascoff was an accountant who exhibited little passion for rock ’n’ roll but became the powerful business manager and tour producer for a roster of music powerhouses, including the Rolling Stones, U2 and Paul Simon. He died on April 6 in Los Angeles. He was 71. Mr. Rascoff was a partner at the Manhattan accounting firm Hurdman & Cranstoun in 1974 when he had a serendipitous encounter at an office urinal with Prince Rupert zu Loewenstein, the financial adviser for the Rolling Stones. His company pioneered tour management that oversaw nearly everything but the artistic side — from lighting and hotel bookings to arena scheduling, trucking, sponsorship and merchandising — thus taking the logistical details out of the artists’ hands. “It used to be an artist would tour and take on all the responsibilities,” said Bill Zysblat, a onetime friendly competitor who merged his company with Mr. Rascoff’s to form the Rascoff/Zysblat Organization in 1988. The merged company also represented David Bowie, Sting, the Allman Brothers Band and the Elvis Presley estate. Joseph Fishel Rascoff was born in Brooklyn on Aug. 12, 1945, to Henry Rascoff, a pediatrician, and the former Minna Martz, a criminal lawyer, and grew up in the Far Rockaway section of Queens. He began working for Hurdman & Cranstoun almost immediately after graduating from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, becoming an audit partner. In 2013, as Mr. Rascoff was contemplating retirement, he reversed course and became the chief operating officer of SFX Entertainment, a producer of live events focused on electronic dance music. He left in 2015. SFX filed for bankruptcy last year. In addition to his son Spencer, who is chief executive of the Zillow Group, the online real estate database and marketplace, Mr. Rascoff is survived by his wife, the former Jane Schaps; a daughter, Brooke; and another son, Jake. A third son, Justin, died in 1991. Mr. Rascoff is also survived by three grandchildren.