A report in last week’s interview with Billboard earlier this year that followed his surprise Dec. 31, 2012 resignation from Live Nation, Azoff expressed frustration at having to work at a publicly owned company and deal with the board. “It was just the frustration with working at a public company,” he said. “We had a board that was afraid to do things because of the Treasury, institutional shareholders, people writing you letters, everybody complaining about you and your people making too much money, you can’t do this, you can’t do that, everybody has to be on the same e-mail address. Sh– like that just drove me crazy.”
What these new emails point to, however, is that it may not have just been the board structure itself that drove him “crazy,” but also perhaps certain board directors.