His mother Basya Volovskaya was from Bessarabia. Geffen co-founded Asylum Records in 1971 with Elliot Roberts after Geffen was unable to get Jackson Browne a record deal anywhere else. The name Asylum was chosen because of the owners' repu- tations for signing artists who would struggle to find a record company that would contract with them. The label was distributed by Atlantic Records at this time. Asylum became a generator of the Southern California folk-rock sound and signed artists such as the Eagles, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon, Judee Sill, and J.D. Souther. Later in the 1970s Geffen left Asylum, which was later acquired byAtlantic's parentcompany, Warner Communications, and merged with Elektra Re- cords in 1972 to become Elektra/ Asylum Records. The label was revived in 2004 as an urban music operation, signing hip-hop artists such as Waka Flocka Flame, Camron, Gucci Mane, Paul Wall, Mike Jones and Bun B. In December 2020, Geffen pledged to donate $46 million to the UCLA medical school, which is named after him. In June 2021, Geffen gave $150 million to the Yale School of Drama. This gift allowed the drama school to eliminate tuition for al stu- dents enrolled in masters, doctoral, and certificate programs. The school was renamed the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University.