Barbara Charone

Barbara Charone is a UK-based American public relations officer for musical artists, a board member of Chelsea F.C., and a former journalist and music critic. She wrote regularly for the Chicago Sun-Times, the NME and Rolling Stone while still a university student in the early 1970s. After relocating to England in 1974, she worked as a staff writer for Sounds magazine, where she subsequently rose to the position of deputy editor. During the 1970s she also contributed feature articles and reviews to publications such as Crawdaddy!, Creem and Circus.

Charone commenced her career in public relations at WEA in 1981. She left in 2000, having become the company's press director, to co-found the agency MBC PR. Her clients at MBC have included Madonna, Depeche Mode, Primal Scream, Robert Plant, Pearl Jam, Rod Stewart and Christina Aguilera. Charone is also the author of an authorized biography of Keith Richards, published in 1979.

Early life and education Barbara Charone was born in March 1952, and grew up in Chicago, Illinois. She wrote a pop music column for her high school newspaper before going on to study English at Northwestern University. In 1971, at the end of her first year of university, she visited England with her parents,

During her second year at Northwestern, Charone wrote music articles for the Chicago Sun-Times. She then lived in England for a year on a student exchange program, during which she studied creative writing with the film critic from Time Out and began contributing to the New Musical Express. Crawdaddy!, Creem, Hit Parader and ZigZag through to late 1975. During her three-and-a-half years with Sounds she was promoted to features editor, and finally to deputy editor of the magazine.

A longtime fan of the Rolling Stones, when Richards was charged with intent to traffic heroin. She spent the next two years working on an authorized biography of the Stones' guitarist and songwriter, during which she was afforded rare access to the couple's private life at Richards' Redlands estate. Titled Keith Richards, the book was published in 1979 by Futura.

Between 1977 and 1979, Charone's freelance articles and reviews appeared in Creem and Circus. In addition to representing acts she had known from her time as a music journalist, including Rod Stewart and Eric Clapton, The agency's clients have included musical artists such as Madonna, R.E.M., On July 22, 2022, Charone was appointed to the Chelsea F.C. board of directors.