Gary Tovar is known as a music promoter and marijuana smuggler in the US. He named his music concert business Goldenvoice Productions, after a strain of marijuana that users said gave them a feeling of being spoken to by angels. Tovar is no longer involved with smuggling but acts as a consultant to Goldenvoice, which now operates the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival ..
Tovar was born in Los Angeles[2] and began smuggling illicit goods as a 14-year-old when he brought fireworks into the US from Tijuana in Mexico. Influenced by someone referred to as LaRue, who was connected to Timothy Leary's The Brotherhood of Eternal Love, Tovar's involvement with marijuana began in the late 1960s, with his sources for the seeds that he distributed including US servicemen on furlough from the Vietnam War. His organization was such that he was able to guarantee a market and a distribution network for the growers to whom he sold the seeds. The strains that he imported included Thai stick and Acapulco Gold.[1] He earned many millions of dollars before being arrested by federal drug agents on March 9, 1991. He fought conspiracy charges from Los Angeles County Jail before being imprisoned in October 1992 for seven years on four counts relating to trafficking from Arizona.
..The Olympic Auditorium shows ended in 1985 as interest waned but Goldenvoice moved successfully into other venues such as the John Anson Ford Theater, where tickets for concert by The Ramones were sold for US$5.[2] The business promoted some of the first concerts by bands such as Nirvana and Red Hot Chili Peppers,[4] expanding beyond punk to be in the vanguard of the speed metal, Goth and alternative music movements. In 1986,[5] he had met and employed Paul Tollett, an upcoming ska promoter; a year earlier,[6] he had employed Rick Van Santen, who managed 45 Grave. Tovar pulled out of the music venture in 1991 and has cited the losses and the increased levels of violence as his rationale. There had been, for example, three major riots at promotions in 1983. Now facing the trafficking charges, Tovar signed the business over to Tollett and Van Santen free of charge. Goldenvoice launched the Coachella festival in 1999. Tollett and Tovar remain friends, and Tovar attends Coachella every year as well as operating the "Tovar and Otis" hand made merch tent with his long time artist and merch partner Bad Otis Link. Tovar also remains a consultant to the company; Van Santen died in 2003.
Tovar now has a medical marijuana card. He is sometimes called an Anglophile and is no longer involved in illegal activities, describing his current interests as "English fun".
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MercurysBall2 ago
Connected to this : CDAN Reveal: Coachella, Merv Griffin, Ryan Seacrest, and Bohemian Grove.
See: Childhelp Merv Griffin Village
MercurysBall2 ago
Goldenvoice, subsidiary of AEG..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Tovar