Pete Bennett Tribute: I Rocked the World and Made It Glow

He brought us the Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who and so many more. Pete Bennett left us when we were not ready, this video tribute tells his story.

The late greats: Rock Promoter Pete Bennett and John Lennon

(SACRAMENTO, CA) - It was a shock to learn in November of last year, that the legendary rock promoter Pete Bennett had passed away. He was called the "Number 1 Promotion Man" by Billboard magazine and was a close friend to the world's biggest stars, bar none.

Bonnie King interviews Pete Bennett in 2008, Portland, Oregon.

I really felt honored to work on this tribute with Agron Belica. I believe it captures the man through a series of interviews from Salem-News.com and other sources and shows him with many of the stars he became famous for promoting, people like Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Jackson 5, Richard Burton, Donald Trump, Elizabeth Taylor and Kid Rock.

I could keep going and I would not run out of names any time soon. Pete handled Eric Clapton, Nat King Cole, Aerosmith... in fact he would tell the story about saving Eric Clapton's life after an overdose, which took place just before he was to go on stage.

There is another story about Pete dragging Rolling Stones founding member Brian Jones out of a roadside restaurant backward, with a hamburger in his hand, because it was time to get on the bus in order to make it to the next show.

Pete and his gold records!

Pete also boosted the careers of actresses and models like Brooke Shields, Cheryl Ladd, and Claudia Schiffer.

He was too young to go, and Pete's unexpected departure left many broken hearts around the world. On that day came the end of a legacy that shaped modern culture. Few people from the entertainment industry had more of an impact on this world than this incredible man, Pete Bennett.

I really like the way this video tells the story of Pete and the people that he helped achieve world stardom. Agron did an incredible job in bringing it together and it was all done for the sake of memorializing Pete, who was there for us when we reached out to him.

Bonnie King had the pleasure of interviewing Pete at length about his lifetime achievements and every story he told was amazing and riveting, they always had something to do with superstars and places and events that stand out in history.

Pete and Paul Petock

Bonnie and Pete's casting

I was able to interview Pete at length about the loss of his longtime friend Michael Jackson, that was an enlightening day and parts of it are included in this video.

The person behind Pete having become a friend of Salem-News.com, is a producer, Paul Petock, who had a long term relationship with Pete and was one of his biggest advocates. We greatly appreciate Paul's help in so many areas, including several of the wonderful images of Pete. Others were provided by Pete himself.

Finally, it is sad that so little has been done to recognize the life of Pete Bennett. He was so connected, there are simply no words. One day when we spoke he had just hung up after talking to Paul McCartney about a tour Paul wanted Pete to accompany him on. Pete had decided to pass. As I recall, the tour was going to Israel.

Pete Bennett was a shining light in this world, he worked with the heaviest and biggest names and lived a life that few people can even imagine. His presence remains in so many ways, and the light still shines and always will, even if it was greatly diminished on the 22nd of November 2013, when our friend Pete went to join John, and Michael, and George, and Frank, and Elvis, and Brian, and a long list of others who checked out before him.

Video production by Tim King & Agron Belica

Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer

You can write to Tim at this address: tim@salem-news.com.

Visit Tim's Facebook page (facebook.com/TimKing.Reporter)

Pete Bennett and Tim King

With almost 25 years of experience on the west coast and worldwide as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor, Tim King is Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. His background includes covering the war in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, and reporting from the Iraq war in 2008. Tim is a former U.S. Marine who follows stories of Marines and Marine Veterans.

Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing from traditional mainstream news agencies like The Associated Press and Electronic Media Association; he also holds awards from the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs; and was presented with a 'Good Neighbor Award' for his reporting, by the The Red Cross.

Tim's years as a Human Rights reporter have taken on many dimensions; he has rallied for a long list of cultures and populations and continues to every day, with a strong and direct concentration on the 2009 Genocide of Tamil Hindus and Christians in Sri Lanka. As a result of his long list of reports exposing war crimes against Tamil people, Tim was invited to be the keynote speaker at the FeTNA (Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America) Conference in Baltimore, in July 2012. This is the largest annual gathering of North American Tamils; Tim addressed more than 3000 people and was presented with a traditional Sri Lanka ‘blessed garland’ and a shawl as per the tradition and custom of Tamil Nadu

In a personal capacity, Tim has written 2,026 articles as of March 2012 for Salem-News.com since the new format designed by Matt Lintz was launched in December, 2005. Serving readers with news from all over the globe, Tim's life is literally encircled by the endless news flow published by Salem-News.com, where more than 100 writers contribute stories from 23+ countries and regions.

Tim specializes in writing about political and military developments worldwide; and maintains that the label 'terrorist' is ill placed in many cases; specifically with the LTTE Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, where it was used as an excuse to slaughter people by the tens of thousands; and in Gaza, where a trapped population lives at the mercy of Israel's destructive military war crime grinder. At the center of all of this, Tim pays extremely close attention to the safety and welfare of journalists worldwide.

Special thanks to Paul Petock

Agron, Jamal, Benjamin, and Alexander Belica Aldin Entertainment Music Group

Salem-News.com Writer/Author/Musician Agron Belica, faced many challenges growing up as a rootless street youth, situations so intense that they threatened to destroy him- that is until he rediscovered his Muslim roots a few years ago and turned his life around.

In 2008, Agron Belica published his research article The Revival of the Prophet Yahya, and has caused quite a stir in scholarly circles. In 2009, a new theory was born, The Crucifixion: Mistaken Identity? John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ.

With no formal advanced education, he offers new interpretations of certain key words in the Quran along with his challenging theories about the role of John the Baptist in the Crucifixion and has attracted the attention of well-known scholars in the field of comparative religion, such as Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar, the first American woman to translate the Quran into English, the noted university professor, Dr. Mahmoud Ayoub, and the author and translator, Dr. Jay R. Crook.

When it comes to comparative religion, Agron has the ability to go up against the most studied religious scholars and few come calling. They fear his logical interpretations based on historical record, and they should.

You can write to Agron at this address: agronbelica@gmail.com