Vol. 5, No. 6, June 2008
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Like A Rolling Stone
Profile: Suze DiPietro, Marketing Director, Stockton Performing Arts Center
‘You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you’ll find you get what you need.’
The lyrics define a life journey for Suze DiPietro. The Pennsylvania native, now in Upper Township, had been in an all-girl heavy-metal group that once inked a brief recording deal. She opened for Cinderella and Britney Fox, performed the rock opera Tommy and wanted the big musical break. It never came.
So DiPietro became a media specialist, serving 11 years in public relations and marketing for major bands at the Trump casinos. Today the wife, mother and author is marketing director for the Stockton Performing Arts Center, has her own production outfit, released a CD, Look At Me, this year, showcased it at Borgata, and will soon publish a book-CD combo, Between Keys.
“It’s about a rock and roll band, with many twists and turns,” she says. “It’s also a murder mystery, with comedy and vampires.”
Unlike other projects, the vampire whodunit brought little pressure, and big results.
“I’m 47, a never-was, a has-been who just put together a CD which I didn’t think would go anywhere. Well, it’s selling like crazy on i-tunes. Now, with no expectations, there is more success than at any time. It seems like everything is happening for me.”
Often caught between life’s big keys, or opportunities, DiPietro scrapped for success. She completed a theater scholarship at Penn in the ’80s, but stared at a $25,000 debt and an uncertain future. When husband Glen, a WAYV DJ, told her of the Trump job, she entered the new world of promoting someone else.
“It was the most fabulous, exciting time ever,” DiPietro says. “I know they credit Borgata with bringing in the hip movement, but I think it happened at the Marina. Larry Mullin was there and they had Rock the Dock. You’d call media people and say, ‘We just booked Prince’ and they couldn’t believe it. And our demographic got younger. We had Van Halen, Sting… great acts.”
Some stars were surprisingly nice, others standoffish. Then there were the pranksters. DiPietro recalls lobbying ZZ Top to sign a guitar—no small feat, even for a PR person.
“Guys are funny about signing things; they don’t want it to end up in the Hard Rock,” she says. “So it required going through hoops, hoops, hoops to get this done. Finally it happens. Then a man came up asking for another guitar signed for his son, who is dying from cancer. He says Don Henley approved the idea. Don and Dusty from ZZ Top are friends, so this guy gives his cell phone to Dusty, who talks to Don, then Dusty signs the guitar.
“Some time later, I told Don Henley the story. He said, ‘My dear, you’ve been had.’ Whoever spoke on the cell phone convinced Dusty that he was Don Henley and that’s how the guitar got signed.”
DiPietro enjoyed casino energy, but in 2002 got “the big ka-BOOM” via layoff. The downsizing sent her to the Merriam Theater in Philadelphia, then to Stockton, where she generates attention for about 40 shows per year.
Casino contacts, meanwhile, remain intact. When DiPietro gave a benefit for the Upper Township music program, Borgata President Larry Mullin provided the venue. DiPietro has seen jobs, circumstances and arenas change over the years. But the music and the stage never die.
