NEW YORK -- A man known as the 'kingpin of disco' went from making $6 million a year to robbing from friends to support a $500-a-day drug habit, the Village Voice reported Wednesday.
Ray Caviano, 35, became the youngest label president in the history of Warner Bros. records in 1979.
His custom label, RFC Records, broke hit after hit out of New York's gay dance clubs and revolutionized the record industry's approach to dance music promotion.
Among the hits Caviano promoted were 'Do Ya Think I'm Sexy' by Rod Stewart, 'Turn the Beat Around' by Vicky Sue Robinson and 'Cherchez la Femme' by the Savannah Band.
Caviano, now serving a prison sentence in Taconic Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills, N.Y., went from making $6 million a year to forging checks and stealing from friends and family to support the $500-a-day cocaine and heroin habit.
The Voice describes Caviano's excessive drug use as standard practice in the industry, quoting one RFC staffer as saying, 'We were all doing drugs. You couldn't see what was serious and what wasn't.'
After leaving Warner Bros., Caviano took a similar job at Atlantic records, where his drug abuse increased. The Voice said Caviano attended marketing meetings with powder on his nose and shirt.
Atlantic forced Caviano to attend a drug treatment clinic, but he relapsed into cocaine use.
By 1984 he was stealing from friends to support his habit and was he arrested and sent to Rikers Island for forgery and criminal possession of stolen property. His sentence was five years probation on the condition he join a drug treatment program.
On March 13, 1986, Caviano pleaded guilty to burglary charges and was sent to Bedford Hills.
