Mark Pucci

Mark Pucci died after a brief illness and complications from a stroke. His company, Mark Pucci Media, announced his death in a release dated October 15, 2026, and his family shared the news the same day. He was 79. The exact date and place of death were not stated in the announcement.

Coverage followed from The Hollywood Reporter, Country Insider, Rock and Blues Muse and That Eric Alper, and tributes were posted by Capricorn Sound Studios and Museum, Blues Rock Review and musicians he had represented.

He was predeceased by his wife, Patricia Powers Pucci; his parents, Anna and James Pucci; his brothers, Joseph and James Pucci; his sisters, Dolores Kenna and Carol Dinkowitz; his brother-in-law, Pete Dinkowitz; and his niece, Susan Iversen. He is survived by his sister-in-law, Gertrude Pucci; his nieces, Diane Nunno (John) and Tina Hulsman (Chris); his nephew, Peter Dinkowitz (Wendy); many other nieces and nephews; his office assistant and friend Karin Johnson; the Renteral family; his blues family; the lunch bunch crew; and his cat, Elvis.

Arrangements are being handled by South Care Cremation and Funeral Society in Alpharetta, Georgia. Services will be held on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, from 10 a.m. to noon and from 6 to 9 p.m. The family has asked that gifts in his memory be made to the LifeLine Animal Project.

Mark Pucci was born in New Jersey to Anna and James Pucci. He was one of several children; his brothers were Joseph and James Pucci and his sisters were Dolores Kenna and Carol Dinkowitz. His exact date of birth has not been made public. Based on his reported ages (72 in July 2019 and 79 at his death in October 2026), he was born in about 1946 or 1947.

He fell for music long before he worked in it. "When I was growing up, I was a huge fan of '50s music," he recalled in a 2019 Creative Loafing profile. "Some of the first records I bought were blues, R&B, rockabilly, and rock 'n' roll. A lot of them came from Memphis." That pull toward Memphis shaped the rest of his life. In 1967 he left New Jersey for the South to attend college in the city that had produced so many of his favorite records.

Pucci studied at Memphis State University, now the University of Memphis, from 1967 and graduated in 1971. In Memphis he began his career as a music journalist, and in 1972 he became music editor of a monthly entertainment magazine there.

Music journalism in Memphis (1972 to 1974) Pucci began his career in 1972 as music editor of River City Review, a monthly entertainment magazine in Memphis. He wrote features, album reviews and live reviews and supervised a freelance staff of six writers from around the South. Among the artists he interviewed were David Bowie (one of the first interviews granted on Bowie's American Ziggy Stardust tour), Lou Reed, ZZ Top, the Allman Brothers Band, the New York Dolls, Mott the Hoople, Ted Nugent, Robin Trower and Big Star. He freelanced for Rolling Stone (1973 to 1974), Phonograph Record Magazine and Zoo World, writing mostly about Elvis Presley and the Memphis Blues Festival, and he also promoted concerts and produced radio commercials for Mid-South Concerts.

Capricorn Records, first tenure (1974 to 1979) In July 1974 he joined Capricorn Records in Macon, Georgia, as a tour publicist and later became national publicity director. The label was then the home of Southern rock, and he worked with the Allman Brothers Band, the Marshall Tucker Band, Sea Level, Wet Willie, Delbert McClinton, Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Elvin Bishop, Bonnie Bramlett, Percy Sledge, the Dixie Dregs and Martin Mull. He also handled publicity and promotion of benefit concerts for Jimmy Carter's 1976 presidential campaign, concerts credited with raising crucial early funds and boosting the Georgia governor's national profile.

Mark Pucci Associates (1979 to 1991) After Capricorn ceased operations in late 1979, he moved to Atlanta and set up Mark Pucci Associates. Over its twelve years the firm represented Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Dave Alvin, Joe Louis Walker, Earl King, Snooks Eaglin, Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets, Ronnie Earl, Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers, Robert Ward, Hubert Sumlin, Elvin Bishop, Tinsley Ellis, Charlie Musselwhite, Delbert McClinton, Kenny Neal, Lazy Lester, Roy Buchanan, Little Charlie and the Nitecats, the Paladins, Michelle Shocked, Guadalcanal Diary, Love Tractor, Webb Wilder, Boozoo Chavis, Charlie Feathers, Johnny Johnson, Steve Morse, the Atlanta Rhythm Section, Billy Joe Royal, Bill Anderson, Alicia Bridges, Bertie Higgins and producer Eddie Offord. Special projects included the Class of '55 album reuniting Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins, Willie Nelson's 1983 Atlanta Picnic, the 1991 South by Southwest Music Conference, actor and comedian Jim Varney, and the world premiere of Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo. In his earlier years he also worked on the careers of Jim Varney and Billy Bob Thornton and organized videos for some Capricorn artists.

Capricorn Records, second tenure (1991 to 1995) From 1991 to late 1995 he returned to Capricorn, by then based in Nashville, as vice president of publicity and later vice president and general manager. He directed campaigns for 311, Cake, Hank Williams Jr., Widespread Panic, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kenny Chesney, Billy Burnette and Ian Moore. He was instrumental in signing Widespread Panic, the first act of the label's second era, and was involved with Col. Bruce Hampton's Aquarium Rescue Unit. He coordinated box set reissues from the vaults of Scepter Records, Fire/Fury Records, Jewel/Paula Records and Cobra Records (including Otis Rush), plus sets devoted to Elmore James and Hank Williams Jr.

Mark Pucci Media (1996 to 2026) At the start of 1996 he moved back to Atlanta and founded Mark Pucci Media, a small firm he ran for three decades. Artists he represented there included the Flatlanders, Billy Joe Shaver, Stan Ridgway, Chuck Prophet, Randall Bramblett, Dave Alvin, Tom Russell, Chris Smither, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Geoff Muldaur, Dale Watson, Hot Club of Cowtown, Kenny Chesney, Tom Rush, Ray Price, Derek Trucks, Peter Case, Dave Bartholomew, Sean Costello, Jerry Reed, John Mayall, Maria Muldaur, Greg Brown, Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka, Eric Johnson, Kim Wilson, Ray Benson, Rev. Horton Heat, Gary U.S. Bonds, NRBQ, Al Kooper, Jay Geils, Duke Robillard, Jeff Healey, Rory Block, Ian Tyson, Dwight Twilley, Sugar Pie DeSanto, William Bell, Tom Paxton, Jesse Winchester, the Nighthawks, Webb Wilder and producer Chips Moman. The announcement of his death also named Taj Mahal, Gordon Lightfoot, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Buddy and Julie Miller, Sue Foley, Jimmie Vaughan and Savoy Brown among his clients. He continued working into his late seventies, and his firm was still announcing new blues releases in the weeks before he died.

Pucci was married to Patricia Powers Pucci, described by his family as the love of his life. She died before him. No children were listed among his survivors. He was close to a wide extended family of nieces and nephews and was remembered by them as a gentle and generous uncle.

He lived and worked in the Atlanta area for most of his adult life, apart from his years in Memphis, Macon and Nashville. He was a member of the ATL Music Lunch Club, an informal monthly gathering of musicians, record label veterans, writers and photographers at a Chinese restaurant on Buford Highway, and he invited his old friend, former Atlanta Constitution rock critic Bill King, to join after King retired in 2017. His longtime office assistant and friend, singer Karin Johnson, worked alongside him at Mark Pucci Media. His family noted his love for animals and his cat, Elvis.

Pucci was outspoken about doing publicity the personal way. "I'm an old school guy," he said in 2019. "We're a small company that concentrates on a limited number of artists, and we try to go over and above what we're contracted to do."

He took on only roots music clients, turning down other genres because they were not his taste. "If I can't get excited about it personally, how am I going to get someone else excited about it?" he said, adding that roots music still covered a lot of territory.

He saw independent publicity as more essential as the industry changed. "Major labels are forgetting about this kind of music, which means it's left to indie labels or artists to do," he said, and he described his aim as becoming the independent publicity company for small record labels that did not have anyone to do publicity.

Pucci's legacy lies in the careers he helped build. Across two eras at Capricorn Records he shaped how the press covered the Allman Brothers Band, the Marshall Tucker Band, Wet Willie and the rest of the Southern rock roster, then helped launch Widespread Panic and the label's 1990s revival. Through his own firms he became one of the most trusted publicists in blues and Americana, especially for small labels and independent artists who lacked a publicity department.

Tributes after his death came from outlets and artists he had worked with for decades. Blues Rock Review said he was one of the first publicists it worked with when it launched in 2010, a relationship that lasted more than fifteen years. Capricorn Sound Studios and Museum in Macon mourned its former publicist. Guitarist Peter Parcek thanked him for his kindness and mentoring, and journalist Bill King called him a loyal friend going back fifty years. Creative Loafing had summed him up in 2019 as "a walking encyclopedia of roots music" and an under-the-radar Atlanta music industry icon.

In 2008 the Blues Foundation in Memphis presented Pucci with its Keeping the Blues Alive Award in the publicity category, recognizing his career achievements and contributions to the blues community. The award placed him alongside other Atlanta honorees such as Delta Moon, Blind Willie's and the Atlanta History Center. He was also listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World and Who's Who in Entertainment.

Although he spent his career promoting others, Pucci appeared on camera as a witness to Southern rock history. He was interviewed for the GSUTV series Georgia Detours in its episode on Macon as the birthplace of Southern rock, alongside Alan Walden and others, and he appeared among the Capricorn Records staff interviewed in a Cool New Media documentary about Wet Willie's hit "Keep On Smilin'." His firm's YouTube channel posted holiday greetings to clients and press in 2011 and 2012.

In print he was profiled by Hal Horowitz in Creative Loafing's Blues and Beyond column in July 2019 ("Mark Pucci, the man behind the curtain"), and he was quoted in Bill King's 2021 Atlanta Journal-Constitution column about the ATL Music Lunch Club. Earlier, as a journalist, he wrote about Elvis Presley and the Memphis Blues Festival for Rolling Stone.