Russ Solomon, founder of Tower Records, dies at 92

LOS ANGELES - Tower Records long boasted of being "the largest record store in the known world," a boast that few of the old retail chain's regulars would have debated.

The slogan was characteristic of Tower's colorfully eccentric, larger-than-life founder: Sacramento businessman Russ Solomon, long known and admired for his passion for music, a quality that often trumped his business acumen, and personal idiosyncrasies such as confiscating neckties of employees, salespeople or customers.

"What happened was that all these record guys came out from the East wearing suits and ties and I'd say, 'Hey, this is California. You can't dress like that here,' " he told the Los Angeles Times in 1980. "And then I'd rip the ties off and put them