David “Z” Rivkin, the Grammy-winning producer and musician who helmed Prince’s early demo tapes and engineered several of his albums, helped create Lipps Inc.’s 1980 smash “Funky Town,” and later worked with such artists like Fine Young Cannibals, the Jets and Jonny Lang, has died, his brother Bobby “Z” Rivkin (longtime drummer for Prince & the Revolution) confirmed to the Minnesota Star Tribune.
He died Sunday from complications of an infection in a hospital in Burbank, Calif., his brother said; he was 78.
Rivkin won two Grammys for producing Etta James and a nomination for co-producing Fine Young Cannibals’ 1989 smash “She Drives Me Crazy.”
As a producer, engineer, songwriter and guitarist, Rivkin was an active and veteran member of the Minneapolis scene that spawned Prince, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and other future members of the Revolution and the Time, among many others.
“David was the secret ingredient on many, many musical projects,” Owen Husney, Rivkin’s former bandmate and Prince’s first manager, told the Star Tribune. “He stayed pretty silent about it. He never really talked about his work or what he did. His significance is undeniable on the Minneapolis music scene.”
