Hollywood is playing a somber tune.

Clive Davis—the music executive who helped catapult the likes of Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys and Bruce Springsteen to the upper echelons of fame—died on June 22 following a hospitalization for respiratory issues, his family confirmed to The New York Times. He was 94.

Born in Brooklyn in 1932, Davis never foresaw a life of music for himself—but in addition to the many artists who are grateful he ended up in the career he did, so, too, was Davis.  

“I had no idea that I was ever getting into music,” he told The Guardian in 2014. “I did not prepare for a music career, and here I’ve found, out of pure luck, that I did have, not only a talent and an ear, but a passion for music. And I have it to this day.”

But even so, Davis’ path to music was circuitous, beginning his career as a lawyer after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1956. It was eventually being hired by Columbia Records at age 28 that would alter the course of his life and career.