How the Troubadour Keeps Its Indie Heart Beating After Nearly 70 Years: ‘We’re All Kind of Insane’ ...Middle East

Christine Karayan, owner of Los Angeles’ Troubadour, has a million stories to tell about the famed venue. There was the time when Tom Petty was set to perform three songs for a benefit, but was feeling the atmosphere so much he played his greatest hits for an hour. There was the time Karayan helped Bonnie Raitt type up lyrics for her show and Raitt kept kindly asking for the font to be bigger. Then there was the time Karayan quietly cried during sound check when her favorite band Depeche Mode finally played the Troubadour for the first time.  

“Right before doors, I ran in front of the stage and told everybody, ‘I’m not working. I don’t care if the building falls down. I don’t care if it catches on fire. Leave me alone,’” Karayan recalls of the 2013 show. A photo of that night’s performance has been her computer background screen ever since.  

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Sitting in the 500-capacity venue on the heavily foot-trafficked Santa Monica Boulevard with no lights, just the sunlight from the front windows illuminating the nearly 70-year-old wooden bar and original stools on a Thursday afternoon, Karayan can sound a little exasperated by her years working at and running The Troubadour. She started doing odd jobs around the venue in her teens and decades later – after a short stint away to pursue a business degree in college – acting as general manager is second nature.  

“If there is a problem [at the Troubadour] f—king email me and I’ll deal with it. Call me. I’m gonna take care of it,” Karayan says. “My skin’s in the game. There’s no ifs/ands about it. This is not me trying to get to a different venue or getting a different position. I’m here. If the wall is falling, I’m gonna stand and hold it up.” 

The Troubadour is a standalone independent venue. It is not owned or operated by one of the big promoters like Live Nation or AEG, nor is there a larger promotion arm or a string of varying sized venues for artists to continue playing as they grow in popularity. The storied venue, first opened in 1957, is one and done with only six full-time employees and typically no more than 20 staff on site for a show including bartenders and security. With ownership of the venue only belonging to two families since opening, Karayan calls it a family business full of a dedicated staff that cares deeply about the Troubadour and its history.  

“Myself included, we’re all kind of insane,” Karayan tells Billboard. “You have to be insane to work in this environment.” 

“We could be a sitcom,” says Troubadour talent booker Jordan Anderson.  

“We’re a mishmosh of people, but overall we all get along,” says Karayan. “Thank god.” 

The eclectic group of employees is fitting based on the Troubadour’s founder. Doug Weston (whose name still graces the building’s facade) was of German descent and wanted to create an intimate space for writers, musicians and comedians to gather in the 1950s. Weston first opened a small spot on La Cienega Boulevard in LA before moving to its current location in 1957 on the border of Beverly Hills where it has remained for nearly 70 years.  

“Doug was a very flamboyant man, very well spoken, very eloquent, very intelligent,” says Karayan of Weston who was openly gay. “He wanted a place that welcomed everyone, that inspired creativity and so he came up with the Troubadour.” 

Weston built out the small club with a warm wood paneling, an intricately carved wooden bar imported from Europe and, originally, wooden picnic benches to give the feel of a German beer garden. The Troubadour has been reshaped a few times over the decades including moving the stage from the back of the show room to the side, changing the location of the green room and moving the business offices (Weston’s office, which featured a hot tub, was moved to make room for The Loft bar) are now located in a separate building behind the venue. While the paneling and the imported bar remain, today’s Troubadour is an open floor with an overhanging balcony and not a bad view in the house.  

Weston was a controversial figure at times for his beliefs on how hard he worked his staff and recording rights at the club, according to a Los Angeles Times obituary, but he accomplished what he set out to do: creating a legendary venue for all creatives. Shortly after opening, daring comedian Lenny Bruce was arrested for obscenity for his set at the Troubadour. Comedian Richard Pryor opened Nina Simone’s mini residency. Joni Mitchell played her first LA show in 1968. Neil Young and James Taylor made their solo debuts at the club in 1969 and The Eagles’ Don Henley and Glenn Frey meet at the front bar in 1970. That same year, Elton John made his U.S. debut at the club and the night before her untimely death, Janis Joplin was seen hanging at the Troubadour.  

The list goes on with performances from Tom Waits, Billy Joel, Donny Hathaway, Van Morrison, Pointer Sisters, Bruce Springsteen, Miles Davis, Leonard Cohen, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Metallica, Gun ‘n Roses, Korn, No Doubt and countless more. With fewer than 15 years under its belt, the venue became the spot for an LA underplay gig when Led Zeppelin played a three-hour jam session following a show at the 18,000-capacity LA Forum.  

Despite its early success, the venue began to hemorrhage money in the early 1980s due to the changing musical scene and poor management. Weston turned to an unlikely friend Ed Karayan, who owned a mechanic shop that Weston frequented, and asked for help with the business.  

“Ed took me to dinner and would tell stories about him coming into this space,” says Anderson, who worked with Ed Karayan before his passing earlier this year. “He said Doug came to him and said, ‘I’m going to lose my baby’ and Ed was like, ‘What do you mean you’re baby?’” The elder Karayan told Anderson that Weston brought him to the Troubadour and said, “This is my baby.” 

Ed Karayan became a co-owner of the Troubadour and helped turn its finances around despite knowing very little about the live music industry, while Weston continued on the creative side.  

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Weston’s baby lives on over 25 years after his passing even after it faced dire straits during the pandemic.  When the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered all live events, two things saved the Troubadour from permanently closing: a GoFundMe that raised $70,000 to pay basic bills and employees, and the fact that they own their building.  

Several entities attempted to convince the Karayans to sell the Troubadour during the most difficult months of the pandemic, but Christine says the answer has always been a “hard no.” 

“It felt dirty, but, I mean, it’s business,” says Karayan, who explains that the venue is just a small business that’s never going to make anyone a millionaire, but serves as a place to bring music lovers joy. Without parking or VIP packages or other ways to upcharge fans, the Troubadour survives on the bar and fans and bands wanting to come back time and time again. Karayan explains that a night out in LA means paying for transportation or parking, childcare, dinner, drinks, etc., which leads to a night out costing $200, so raising ticket prices (currently $25-$35) on fans would be short sighted.  

“That is the difference between the [independent venues], we all pay attention to that,” says Anderson, adding that selling to one of the major promoters would take that consideration out of their hands. “The moment [the Troubadour] isn’t indie anymore, that changes everything.” 

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