Blue attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he studied Communications focusing on Media Law.[1] Blue played drums while in college.[1] He interned for TMZ host Harvey Levin who was the legal reporter at the local CBS TV News Department and convinced Blue to go to law school.[1] Blue then attended Loyola Law School in Los Angeles to pursue a career as an attorney.[1] Blue passed the bar exam and found work as a lawyer, but lost passion for the profession.[1] Blue became a music journalist for Billboard, HITS, and Entertainment Weekly, and eventually published his own magazine, Crossroads, which focused on discovering unsigned artists.[1] He also pursued a career in acting and appeared in television commercials.[1]
Blue joined Zomba Music Publishing in 1995 and became the label's vice president of A&R while also teaching classes at UCLA.[2] He met Brad Delson at UCLA, then a student, who became his intern.[2] Blue mentored Delson and took interest in his band, Xero, which he had just cofounded with Mike Shinoda. Blue signed a publishing development deal with Xero and played a pivotal role in Linkin Park's early history by helping the band find vocalist Chester Bennington.[3][4] After Blue left Zomba and joined Warner Records, he signed Linkin Park to their first record deal and executive produced the band's debut album Hybrid Theory.[5]
Blue also developed and co-wrote with Macy Gray.[5] After recording Gray's demos, Blue secured a deal for the artist with Epic Records and led to him co-writing "Still" for Gray.[6] He also signed rock bands Korn and Limp Bizkit to publishing deals.[6]
Beyond A&R, he has directly collaborated with artists to write and produce music. Blue wrote Hoobastank's "So Close, So Far".[7] He was also the executive producer and co-writer for Queen of the Damned'ssoundtrack.[7] In 2007, Blue collaborated with The Last Goodnight to co-write the song Pictures of You, which won a BMI Pop Award.[7] He also performed all the drums and percussion on the band's debut album, Poison Kiss.[7] In 2008, he developed, co-wrote, and co-produced the debut album for Steadlür.[8]
In 2012, Blue signed, co-wrote, and developed WERM after discovering the band on Music Xray.[9] In 2020, Blue released, One Step Closer, From Xero to #1; Becoming Linkin Park, a book detailing his early work with Linkin Park.[10] He also worked on a docu-series covering the history of A&R through and in conjunction with Mark Wahlberg's production company Unrealistic Ideas.[11]
Currently, Blue is the founder of entertainment media production company, Century Park Entertainment.[12]
