Tower Records founder Russ Solomon has died of an apparent heart attack aged 92.
The music mogul was the man behind a retail empire that started in Sacramento, California, in 1960, and was built to include stores across the world with branches in countries as far-reaching as the UK, Japan, Malaysia and Israel.
Revealing the sad news of his father’s death, Russ’ son Michael Solomon told the Sacramento Bee newspaper that he passed away while watching the Academy Awards on Sunday night (04.03.18).
He said: "Ironically, he was giving his opinion of what someone was wearing that he thought was ugly, then asked (his wife) Patti to refill his whiskey."
When she returned, he had died much to Patti’s shock.
Since the news of his passing tributes and condolences have poured in from people wanting to pay their respects to the influence entrepreneur.
Actor Colin Hanks directed the 2015 documentary ‘All Things Must Pass’ about the rise and fall of Tower Records, which went out of business in 2006 after filing for bankruptcy for the second time.
In a Twitter post, Hanks wrote: "The world lost an absolute legend"
Meanwhile, signer Lisa Loeb posted on the social networking site: "Tower Records was such a huge part of my growing up."
The city of Sacramento honoured Russ – who was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2016 – before his passing in a number of ways, including basketball team the Sacramento Kings, which installed a neon Tower store sign in the lobby of their new Golden 1 Center arena.
The city’s mayor Darrell Steinberg added on Twitter that Russ was "a Sacramento and national icon".
Tower Records founder Russ Solomon dies
