The times may be a-changin’ but Bill Lockwood ’59 is still here

Combining his knowledge of the audience with entrepreneurial spirit, Lockwood has created half a century of success as the special programming director at McCarter, bringing artists like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan to campus.

“I believe in helping artists build their careers,” Lockwood said in an interview last week.

Lockwood’s career began as an undergraduate, when he sold concert tickets to events that he coordinated from his own dorm room.

“There were three of us, as seniors in 1959,” Lockwood explained. “Using our own savings, we did shows here. We just got it in our blood, I guess.”

Lockwood spoke about the popularity of the concerts he organized as a student. He said he realized how many students wanted to attend his events while handing out refunds for the Kingston Trio concert he’d set up in Dillon Gym. The event was postponed when a band member got sick.

“We held refunds, and some tickets came through that looked funny … we discovered that a student had copied our tickets and had sold a few hundred of them on campus,” he said.

After graduation, Lockwood held positions at Lincoln Center, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. He made his return to Princeton and McCarter in 1963.

By the next year, Lockwood had landed a deal for Bob Dylan to come to campus. Students camped outside in the cold November weather while being served coffee by Food Services, waiting for Dylan.

In 1978, Lockwood got Bruce Springsteen to open his tour in Jadwin Gymnasium. It was the concert that, due to the high volume of students in attendance, ended the use of Jadwin as a major performance venue.

“We put down chairs on the basketball court … and the audience ended up standing on the chairs,” he said.

The next morning, University officials discovered that the chairs had drilled circles into the floor of the basketball court. This, Lockwood said, resulted in the refurnishing of the basketball court.

While Lockwood is easily able to reference musicians of the past, he emphasizes staying ahead of the beat.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“I like to capture people when they’re on their way up,” he said. “Once they’re up, they’re out of our range.”

As a result, Lockwood has managed to pull some huge names in entertainment to McCarter.

“[In 1969], I called an agent … and he said he had just signed a new artist named James Taylor,” Lockwood said. “They told me the fee was 500 dollars, and I told them to ask Taylor to sit in the last car in the train and that I’d look for the man with the guitar.”

A year later, James Taylor was a music sensation, and, as Lockwood put it, “the rest is history.”

Today, Lockwood’s musical taste ranges from classics such as Lyle Lovett and Yo Yo Ma to new artists like Vampire Weekend, TV on the Radio and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

“Sense of discovery is one of my goals,” Lockwood explained.

Lockwood said his greatest passion is making sure that the audience and performer connect and facilitating new discoveries.

“I rarely sit down for events in McCarter,” Lockwood said. “I’m usually in the back, watching how the chemistry is working. The ultimate reward is the relationship between the audience and the performance on stage.”