Hormel was a rebel from the start, pursuing a musical career in opposition to the wishes of his family, the wealthy owners of the Hormel meat-packing businesses, who refused to help him in his musical endeavors. It was the money from his music library and his own performances that, in 1968 enabled him to buy, for no money down and $125,000 the 22,000 square foot Masonic Temple that became The Village.

And it was his technical vision that opened the facility as one of the very first 24-track studios. "It was a little early," he said, with characteristic dry humor, in a 1988 interview with Mix magazine. "Everybody still wanted 16-track."

It's always been that way with Hormel - he somehow has a sixth sense for what's technologically next on the horizon. In the 1970s it was his interest in the products of Fairlight that brought that now ubiquitous name to America.