David Forest Dead At 66
Former gay porn and music agent David Forest has died, the LA Times reports. Earlier this summer, the 66-year-old suffered a massive heart attack and broken leg, but was able to recover. According to the obit below, Forest died on August 13th due to side effects from diabetes:
December 12, 1948 – August 13, 2015 David was born in Long Beach, CA, December 12, 1948 to Ira and Joyce Forest. David attended Paul Revere JHS 1961-1963 and Palisades High School, class of ’66. David was accepted at Stanford University; he wanted to earn some spending money, so he booked local bands for fraternity and sorority parties. He liked the money he earned and found he was spending more time at that than with classes, that is also when he first met Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham. He went to work for Bill Graham’s Millard Agency in San Francisco at Fillmore West where he handled the Grateful Dead and Santana. He moved back to LA in 1969 to work at IFA and then was hired by David Geffen at CMA in 1971 where he would end up handling Moody Blues, Leon Russell, Carole King, James Taylor, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, The Carpenters. At the age of 25, David decided to open a booking agency and also concert promotion (Fun Productions). Most of the concerts were on the west coast, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Jose and included Sly and the Family Stone, Boz Scaggs, Steve Miller, Billy Preston, Loggins and Messina, Uriah Heep, Lynard Skynard, Jefferson Starship and Cat Stevens. In the summer of 1976, the first big concerts at Anaheim Stadium headlining, KISS, ZZ Top and Aerosmith. After the economy took a dive, he moved on to book acts for the Whisky a Go Go and the Starwood. David passed away from the side effects of diabetes. A Celebration of Life service will be Friday at 11:00 AM at Hillside Mortuary.
Throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s, Forest managed the careers and helped secure exclusive contracts for some of the gay adult industry’s biggest stars, most notably Ryan Idol, Ken Ryker, and Billy Brandt. More recently, Forest was promoting Zeb Atlas and Mark Dalton (but not Mick Lovell). He was also known for his role as a “male madame,” as GayPornBlog notes:
Somewhat fitting in light of the recent Rentboy shut-down, Forest harkened back to a different era. A flamboyant Hawaiian-shirt-clad showman, he was endlessly promoting his various escort “connection services” until the end. […]
According to Forest, it was in the summer of 1981 that he made his first “adult connection”, connecting porn stars Leo Ford, Lance, John King, and Jamie Wingo for “private meetings” with johns. Around this time, he began to work with Falcon Studios founder Chuck Holmes.
Soon, Forest began his first escorting service, first known as “Brad’s Buddies”, booking porn stars like Kip Knoll, Jon Davenport, and others. After spending two years in prison for pandering in 1996-1998, he returned, to booking porn stars for live appearances, movies, and escorting, this time around calling his service “Forest Meetings”, which later became “The Premiere Artists”.
Read the full GayPornBlog obit here.
Forest is survived by his mother and two brothers.
