On Friday November 14, Catawba College had the pleasure of welcoming Kevin Lyman to our campus.  Kevin Lyman is an entrepreneur that is best known for creating the Vans Warped Tour.  This event was hosted by Catawba’s School of Business and the Department of Music.

Kevin Lyman attended California State University at Fullerton.  Kevin Lyman revealed during his discussion that while he was at college, he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. Lyman joined the ski team while he was at California State and used his love of music to help them become one of the biggest teams on campus.  He did this by organizing bands to play at certain parties. After graduation, Lyman told the audience that he still did not know what he wanted to do.  Kevin Lyman’s experience organizing bands to play ended up sparking his passion in music.

Lyman gave lots of advice while he was speaking.  Lyman told the audience that we need to “Learn to live and die by our decisions” and that it is important to get involved and make connections while we are still in college.  Lyman also mentioned that it is important to not be afraid to step back after you get an excellent opportunity and to remember where you come from.  One of the things Kevin Lyman stresses is respect, for others and yourself; Lyman gave a couple examples where his career was made better because of the way he treated a couple people.

With as popular as the Vans Warped Tour is now, it is hard to believe that the Warped Tour almost did not have a second year. Lyman’s original name for the Warped Tour was “The Bomb,” but on the morning they were announcing the tour the Oklahoma Bombing happened.  Also, Lyman was afraid of bad ticket sales and was worried about people saying the tour, The Bomb, bombed.

During the mid 1990’s, when the Warped Tour was created, it was required that a lawyer be paid to research and see if there would be a copyright infringement with names of businesses.  There was a magazine that was called “Warped Magazine” and was popular in Japan; Lyman decided to ask if he could use their name with the understanding that the magazine would not put out a tour and that Lyman would not start a magazine.

Kevin Lyman’s ex-partner convinced him that they needed a sponsor and Calvin Klein would be an excellent choice.  The Great Blizzard of 1996 stopped this sponsorship because Lyman’s ex-partner was unable to get on his flight in order to make it to the meeting with Calvin Klein.  Shortly after this incident, Vans contacted Lyman, they wanted him to create a skating festival.  Lyman convinced Vans that they should combine his Warped Tour and their skating festival.  The Vans Warped Tour has been the longest running tour in the United States.

Some other projects that Kevin Lyman has worked on in the past are the “Taste the Chaos” tour, the “Sprite Liquid Mix” tour featuring Jay-Z, Elenore record label, Side One Dummy record label which signed Flogging Molly, and a Haunted House featuring Rob Zombie.