Inside wholesome story of how Lana Del Rey got signed, and the huge money she turned down

Lana Del Rey is one of the most mysterious women in music, always has been, always will be. When she debuted, people accused her of being an industry plant – as both her and her debut record Born To Die came into the world so fully visualised and conceived nobody could get their head around her artistry. But the truth is that Lana Del Rey scraped and fought for years to get her big break, and for the first time we just got some updates on her origin story of how she was signed thanks to legendary A&R Larry Jackson. Jackson has appeared on The New York Times podcast and explains his history with Lana Del Rey and how much her success and artistry have gone hand in hand thanks to her integrity and creative instincts.

Speaking on the podcast, when asked about Lana Del Rey Larry Jackson fondly says “Ahh, Lizzy” – using her non-stage name and speaking of her with such warmth. Jackson  explains “John Eman came to me and it was right after we’d got first from Sony, and he said he’d brought in an artist and [Sony] had passed on this artist whilst [Larry] was out of town.

“I said I’d love to hear it, because he was still so enthusiastic about it and relentless about it. He played me a demo of a young lady who had this song called Diet Mountain Dew. I loved it. And I said I would absolutely love to meet her when we get to LA. We started at Interscope with the music and I meet her maybe two months after we’ve moved to LA and I remember the meeting like it was yesterday.

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“She came in and totally looked like she walked off the album cover [of Born to Die]. It was a great meeting. Pure conversation, no music. I was so enthralled by her that I was like, you could even come work here. You’re that incredibly smart. Things obviously took a different path, and I signed her. One of the things that meant so much to me is that the night before we signed the deal with her, she got an offer from Sony UK to sign with them for twice the amount of money – and that means a lot when you’re a struggling young artist.

“She said no. She came with me. And signed with me. At that point on, I would do anything for her. I really mortgaged my credibility, everything, to make this vision that I had for her that matched up with her vision for herself.

“She told me in her first meeting ‘I wanna be a gangster Nancy Sinatra, Larry’. That continued through the album cycle. What an elevator pitch, I was sold.”

Larry Jackson then continues to explain how Lana Del Rey continued her origin story after getting signed, and how they made Born to Die together. Born to Die is one of the most successful debut albums of all time, spending over 500 weeks on the Billboard 200 album chart.

“We proceeded to make the album. We made the album for $183,000 dollars, the first album. That is very little. Many albums go into the millions from a recording cost perspective. Then I’m so maniacally driven by this person, and one day I had this idea that I think she should be on Saturday Night Live.”

Lana Del Rey got panned for her appearance on SNL. Famously.

“We did Saturday Night Live, and the rest is history. I stand by, I watched that performance recently again and the reason why I felt so passionate about it. At that time I was so sick of Party Rock Anthem [by LMFAO] and Tik Tok [by Kesha], we needed a counterpoint.”

But back to the success of Born To Die, the podcast reels off some stats about Born To Die – truly the pinnacle of post signed Lana Del Rey origin story. “It is now the best selling debut album of the 2010s by a female artist. It’s sold 21 million records around the world. Born To Die is the only one of two albums by women with over 500 weeks on the chart. It’s still in the chart right now. It’s now the longest running debut album by a female artist in history.”

If you ever hear any nepo baby whispers about the Lana Del Rey origin story, just remember that from Larry Jackson about how he and Lana fought for her vision and how her artistic integrity in signing where her heart was and not the money was has made her an icon of this era of music.

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