The board of directors of Downtown Music Holdings is exploring a sale of the nearly 20-year-old music company in part because the family of its longtime backer, the late Sir Douglas Myers , is considering winding down its stake. But who was Douglas Myers and how did he get involved in Downtown? Before Myers’ investment in what was then known as Downtown Records helped catapult Gnarls Barkley ‘s 2006 hit “Crazy” to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earn the duo a Grammy nomination for record of the year, he was the heir of one Australasia’s most successful brewing dynasties.
Myers was a fourth-generation brewer and the descendant of Polish Jewish immigrants to New Zealand. In 1965, he joined the brewing company that would become Lion Nathan and eventually spend around 15 years there as MD, CEO and ultimately chairman, a post he ascended to in 1997, according to 2007 biography The Myers by Michael Bassett and Paul Goldsmith. In 1998, Myers sold the majority of his Lion Nathan share to Japan’s Kirin Brewery Company.
In retirement, Myers threw himself into philanthropy and some alternative investments, including, at 69, Downtown. The success of Gnarls Barkley’s led to Douglas attending the 2007 Grammys, where he saw the duo, which was composed of Cee Lo Green and Danger Mouse , pick up two awards: best urban/alternative performance for “Crazy” and best alternative music album for St. Elsewhere .
In a subsequent interview on the New Zealand TV evening news show .
