Speaker 1: Carola. She's a queen of talking. He was sown your man.
Speaker 1: She's on the side, she got the scoop on the
Speaker 1: walls on the side. No one can do with quiet Carola, Carola.
Speaker 1: No one can do with quiet Black Caralai Carola. Hey, y'all,
Speaker 1: welcome to Hyper Caroline Hobby. I am your host, Caroline Hobby.
Speaker 1: I know music, I know people, and I know the
Speaker 1: questions do you want to ask? So let's get hyper
Speaker 1: heads up. These are adults having adult conversations, so there
Speaker 1: could be adult content. I'm super pumped about this episode.
Speaker 1: I have Jimmy Harnet in the house. What what? This
Speaker 1: guy was a rock star. He had a huge pop hit,
Speaker 1: Are you now? One of the only guys in the
Speaker 1: record business to have also been a huge star himself.
Speaker 1: So now he's running Big Machine labels as E v
Speaker 1: P and he is the head president of BMLG Records,
Speaker 1: where my husband and a thousand horses a signed Michael Hobbey.
Speaker 1: What what? Also he launched Luke Brian or Church, Darius Rucker,
Speaker 1: Brett Young. He's awesome, He's amazing, and we talk all
Speaker 1: about what it's like to be in the middle of
Speaker 1: the record industry, running it all, making it happen. You'll
Speaker 1: get excited. Here is Jimmy Harnin. Hi, Hi, how are you? Hi?
Speaker 1: Jimmy Harnett. I was going to wear that same shade lipstick,
Speaker 1: and then I thought, I just had a feeling today
Speaker 1: you're gonna wear that Like, No, it's actually like cherry
Speaker 1: red cherry. Are you feeling it? I'm feeling it would
Speaker 1: looks so good at you think? So Okay. So I'm
Speaker 1: here with Jimmy Harnan, who you have an incredible bio,
Speaker 1: an incredible life, and you're pretty much just the sh
Speaker 1: isn't it? Would you like to manage me? Or I'd
Speaker 1: like to be a helplicist. I want to start off
Speaker 1: with a few questions and just answer rapid fire the
Speaker 1: first thing that comes to your mind. Boy, are you
Speaker 1: ready for okay? Vision board? When? Oh? I love that? Okay?
Speaker 1: Bucket list shooting under part the Masters, like playing the Masters,
Speaker 1: like do you want to play with like Tiger and
Speaker 1: on them on the real I say a bucket list,
Speaker 1: I mean any any any time. A great round of
Speaker 1: golf on a great golf course is a big is
Speaker 1: a big bucket list for me? Why do you love
Speaker 1: golf so much. You know, I don't really know. I
Speaker 1: think it's just a it's a it's a chance to
Speaker 1: get out and do something different than what I do. Um,
Speaker 1: you're in the outdoors. You get a chance to walk
Speaker 1: and see some beautiful scenery and spend time with a
Speaker 1: lot of people. So it's just the opposite of what
Speaker 1: I do day in and day out. So it's like
Speaker 1: a great escape. So day and day out, what do
Speaker 1: you do? I do a lot of stuff. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: depends on where Scott wants to use me. But it's
Speaker 1: because you're a Big Machine label group. So I'm VP
Speaker 1: of the label group and the president of BMLG Records.
Speaker 1: What does he mean executive vice president? Okay, so your
Speaker 1: executive vice president of the entire label. And there's Sport Labels, yes,
Speaker 1: so you run there's there's b MLG Records, okay, and
Speaker 1: your president of that one. Yes, there's Big Machine, there's Valerie,
Speaker 1: There's nash Icon, and then there's Dot So there's five.
Speaker 1: So you are vice president of all of them, and
Speaker 1: then president if you have all of those, and then
Speaker 1: president of BMLG Records. That's a lot of responsibility. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean Scott balances it out. So there'll be a
Speaker 1: lot of times when I commem in and work with
Speaker 1: the promotion departments for all the labels, commend with some
Speaker 1: of the marketing um again, some of the promotions, some
Speaker 1: of the A and R work with Allison and Laurel.
Speaker 1: So it's great nose two days are the same, which
Speaker 1: is fantastic, and it's a lot of fun seeing great
Speaker 1: people like your husband and A thousand of horses. Yes,
Speaker 1: how we have a new single coming out, okay, so
Speaker 1: I kind of there's so many things I wanna talk
Speaker 1: about since you brought that up. How do you decide
Speaker 1: what single to go with with an artist, because to me,
Speaker 1: that's one of the hardest decisions as a creative person myself,
Speaker 1: former songwriter, all that, like, how do you know which
Speaker 1: song is the one? Because all of them are so
Speaker 1: good in their own right, you know. I think it's
Speaker 1: a it's a process. I think you, um, you get
Speaker 1: the songs and then you you know, you share them
Speaker 1: with the staff and the staff will start raising their
Speaker 1: hands and saying, I like this song. Uh so I
Speaker 1: got the thousand horses. We had several cuts and preaching
Speaker 1: of the choir just kept raising its hand. It's a
Speaker 1: phrase that's got boor Show to uses. I like that phrase. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he said, the hit single always raises its hand. So
Speaker 1: then you start taking it to some radio people. You
Speaker 1: think you're trusted ones, and there's there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people who we you know, we call them the you know,
Speaker 1: the kind of the ears of the format, and they're
Speaker 1: always very honest. So you played for them, You play
Speaker 1: for your friends, your wife, your family, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden the song just kind of kind kind of
Speaker 1: creeps up. But the real ones like preaching to the choir,
Speaker 1: we just knew instilling we heard, were like, that's the
Speaker 1: one you just felt it. Yeah, and then we use
Speaker 1: the rest of our our our taste makers, you know,
Speaker 1: confirm or reconfirm what we think. So okay, so say
Speaker 1: like you go to your staff and you say, we
Speaker 1: really feel good about this. Everyone feels good about it.
Speaker 1: And so then you take it to radio. What if
Speaker 1: ray Dio doesn't feel good about it? Well, I mean
Speaker 1: you hope, you hope that by the time you've done
Speaker 1: all those screeners that radio likes it and it works
Speaker 1: out well, and typically it does, I mean you miss
Speaker 1: I mean, sometimes great songs aren't hit records. That's true,
Speaker 1: which is sad, but well, a lot of the greatest
Speaker 1: songs aren't hit records. Sometimes, like the most lyrically profound songs,
Speaker 1: sometimes they're too heavy for people. Well, I don't think
Speaker 1: people really understand how difficult it is to get an
Speaker 1: entire country of radio stations. It's like a miracle to
Speaker 1: move up at the same time. And sometimes you might
Speaker 1: have success that comes out of the Northeast, and then
Speaker 1: it comes out of the Southwest, and by the time
Speaker 1: it gets here this this format, this part of the
Speaker 1: country is already done. You could have another because when
Speaker 1: you mean that, like, so there's a hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: radio stations across the country, right or something like, there's
Speaker 1: a ton of them, I mean, and they and they
Speaker 1: break down into different panels just like reporters non reporters,
Speaker 1: and then there's media based Billboard music row. So there's
Speaker 1: various different ways that they put them together in categories.
Speaker 1: So when you say you're moving a song across the country,
Speaker 1: every radio station adds a song at their own pace,
Speaker 1: Like no one. You don't just send a song on.
Speaker 1: Everyone adds it and starts playing it. We like certain
Speaker 1: amount of times a day. That that's how been With
Speaker 1: some big records, yes, what's your superstar kind of happens more,
Speaker 1: but especially with the baby bands. Can you break down?
Speaker 1: Why is it breaking an act? Is like it's an
Speaker 1: act of God. It's a miracle when it actually happens.
Speaker 1: Everything has to line up right. Yeah, it's really really
Speaker 1: challenging and it does happen a lot. And when it does,
Speaker 1: especially with you, you're really great at it. Well, we've been.
Speaker 1: I've been blessed to work with a lot of great
Speaker 1: people and have a lot of great music. You're great
Speaker 1: at breaking acts. Thank you. I appreciate that. Again, it's
Speaker 1: the great music. Because without great music and a great
Speaker 1: support team and a great team of other people, uh,
Speaker 1: you just can't do it. So we've we've been blessed
Speaker 1: and I've been blessed to do it here at a
Speaker 1: capital and uh, you know, just very fortunately. Tell me
Speaker 1: some of the people you've broken well in terms of
Speaker 1: breaking and I ran the promotion department of Capital when
Speaker 1: we broke Luke, Brian, Eric Church, Darius Rucker, Lady Annabellum
Speaker 1: and then of course Keith Urban was already successful. Dirks
Speaker 1: was already successful, and then over here big Machine Labor group.
Speaker 1: It was the band Perry Florida, George Line, thousand Horses,
Speaker 1: and now Brett Young. So what is how do you
Speaker 1: do it? How do you break? And how do you
Speaker 1: pick your team? Because I know having a great team
Speaker 1: is really important. So how do you pick your staff?
Speaker 1: Because they're like your hands and feet that go out
Speaker 1: there and talk to radio get the song going, Like,
Speaker 1: how do you pick your staff? And then how do
Speaker 1: you set up and break a new act? Well? Picking
Speaker 1: his staff? I think I really take a lot of
Speaker 1: pride in interviewing people, and it's always about character. So
Speaker 1: I like people who are hard workers, who were driven
Speaker 1: but really have great character. And I have a little
Speaker 1: stick around my computer that Mike Dungan gave me a
Speaker 1: capital and says, do the right thing. So I'm always
Speaker 1: interested in people who do the right thing. And if
Speaker 1: you have good people who work really hard, do the
Speaker 1: right thing and have a great, great character, you always
Speaker 1: get great results, or you'll get you'll get great results
Speaker 1: more often than you won't. And in terms of picking songs, um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's the same thing we've talked about. We
Speaker 1: screened them and then after a while, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't do anything else very well. So this has been
Speaker 1: the one set of talent that the God has given me.
Speaker 1: I can't fix a car. I can't even fix a lawnmower.
Speaker 1: I don't cut the grass, and I'm the world's worst handyman.
Speaker 1: So I think all my brain cells have been in this.
Speaker 1: And just like somebody who's great at fixing cars, he
Speaker 1: was great at baseball or great at football, they they
Speaker 1: they've just been in it long enough. And you know,
Speaker 1: I've done this my entire life since I was five
Speaker 1: years old, so well, singing and performing and all that.
Speaker 1: Because you, I think are the only record label president
Speaker 1: or record label executive in the history of music that
Speaker 1: I can find that was a hit artist yourself. Uh,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Gilmer who was a publisher at EVE and I
Speaker 1: did it. And then uh, Tommy Mattolo actually had a hit.
Speaker 1: He was a singer also, So it's a very small club. Well,
Speaker 1: and there might be more, but it helps to be
Speaker 1: I mean, when you were around it all the time
Speaker 1: and you just immerse yourself in it, you just you know,
Speaker 1: if you're in a pool all day long, you get wet.
Speaker 1: So if you're in the music business your whole life.
Speaker 1: You eventually learned things that people who don't do with
Speaker 1: that much you know, you know, don't learn. So tell
Speaker 1: me about how you got into singing, how you got
Speaker 1: your first hit, and then how you transferred into now
Speaker 1: being a badass record executive. Uh well, badness right, thank
Speaker 1: you for that. Um. When I was a little boy,
Speaker 1: my we used to live in a town called Plymouth, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: and my mom used to take me on this bus
Speaker 1: to Wolkesbury to go shopping. We didn't have a lot
Speaker 1: of money, so she just took me. We walked around
Speaker 1: the stores and stuff. But when I on the bus
Speaker 1: one day, it was empty and it's and it sounded
Speaker 1: very reverberated, and I started singing the ballad of the
Speaker 1: Green Berets O Goodness. But when I sang, it was
Speaker 1: like fighting soldiers from this guy. And I heard that
Speaker 1: my voice resonating inside the bus, and I love the
Speaker 1: way that sound. And I can't believe my mother actually
Speaker 1: let me sing. So people would get on the bus
Speaker 1: and she'd still let me sing. And I was wondering,
Speaker 1: like if my son did that now or my daughter,
Speaker 1: I go stop, they're giving you people. I'm sure everyone
Speaker 1: loved it. It was like the magic bus riding it
Speaker 1: was well, they were very kind, and so that's how
Speaker 1: I started to sing. And the people would walk up
Speaker 1: to my mom and say, you should give him singing lessons.
Speaker 1: So I took some singing lessons, and then I started
Speaker 1: to play clarinet and trumpets and drums and guitar. And okay,
Speaker 1: you're a little bit of a project. You play all
Speaker 1: those instruments not very well. Why do you know I
Speaker 1: tried to play a guitar for twenty years. They still
Speaker 1: can't play it. You play like six things. Well, I've
Speaker 1: I've dabbled in all in all things, so but it's
Speaker 1: always been the music. And again that gets back to
Speaker 1: your last question. It's always been the music. So while
Speaker 1: other people were, you know, working on their craft in
Speaker 1: another form, this is all I did. So I did
Speaker 1: all that, and then when I graduated from college, I
Speaker 1: said to my mom and dead, can we write and
Speaker 1: record the best song that we can before I go
Speaker 1: to grad school? Did your parents write? No? But me?
Speaker 1: I mean sorry, I mean my friends. So we wrote
Speaker 1: a song called where you Know. It was about a
Speaker 1: girl who broke up with me. And I write. My
Speaker 1: piano player friend Rich Congdon wrote the piano part. He
Speaker 1: gave it to me. I took it home, sat down
Speaker 1: me how my drums, played the drum track, and sang
Speaker 1: and wrote the song in about three minutes. And then
Speaker 1: literally bon Jovi was coming to my hometown doing his
Speaker 1: show in Wilkesbury, Pennsylvania, and I'd already taken the song
Speaker 1: over to Jeff Walker, who was the DJ at w
Speaker 1: k Z FM and Wilkesbury, and he liked it. So
Speaker 1: when bon Jovi was coming to town, I told him,
Speaker 1: I said, can we open up for bon Jovi? Will
Speaker 1: even pay to play? Okay? I love how you just
Speaker 1: put yourself out there in your hustler like you're just
Speaker 1: like making it happen. You're not waiting for it that well,
Speaker 1: because I spent five thousand dollars recording the song. My
Speaker 1: mother is gonna kill me if I didn't make this happen.
Speaker 1: This is a get a life, needs to get a
Speaker 1: liv and then not or I needed to get a life.
Speaker 1: And so we opened up for bon Jovi, and VI
Speaker 1: the radio stations said, hey, I think I need to
Speaker 1: open up for bon Jovi. Then you did? They heard
Speaker 1: the song. They liked it, and then they said you'll
Speaker 1: have the have the gig. But when we wanted if
Speaker 1: you can play the record on the radio, So they
Speaker 1: played it on the radio and they called me and
Speaker 1: they said, you need to make up forty five out
Speaker 1: of this, and I said, well, I don't know how
Speaker 1: to do that. So I learned how to mix a
Speaker 1: record and I'm sorry master a record manufacturer, record and
Speaker 1: I and the record stores in the in the area
Speaker 1: where Joan Ardan's Gallery of Sound. They wanted a thousand
Speaker 1: of them, so we gave them a thousand, and then
Speaker 1: a week later he called me. He said they were
Speaker 1: all sold out, so he wanted another thousand, so we
Speaker 1: made another thousand. We ended up selling about fifteen thousand
Speaker 1: singles like independently Yeah, and then that's and then it
Speaker 1: started to go to Allentown, Philadelphia, and then that's when
Speaker 1: all the major labels. That's just what the dream is like.
Speaker 1: That is the dream story. Everyone dreams of that happening,
Speaker 1: but it actually happens. It's funny because that movie that
Speaker 1: thing you do. Yes, they're from Erie, Pennsylvania. Our story
Speaker 1: was almost like that. I often wonder if they if
Speaker 1: there was a yeah, but um, naturally just started rolling.
Speaker 1: Did you put obviously you put the momentum out there,
Speaker 1: but then it just started going well. And then as
Speaker 1: it started to go, we were tied in with some
Speaker 1: independent promoters who got themselves in some not good situations,
Speaker 1: and all the new artists that were tied to those
Speaker 1: and these were delayed, I'm sorry, dropped, and all the
Speaker 1: major artists were delayed, and so um, we ended up
Speaker 1: getting dropped from Columbia Records. And then between eighty six
Speaker 1: and eighty nine there were radio stations rediscovering songs that
Speaker 1: didn't work the first time. So um, his name was
Speaker 1: Jay Taylor and guys Napoleon in Las Vegas at k
Speaker 1: z z P and Kayla you see, and they started
Speaker 1: playing the record and a friend of mine, Joan ard Own,
Speaker 1: who owned that record store, was in Las Vegas, and
Speaker 1: he said, they're playing your song every three and a
Speaker 1: half hours. You got to find out ho who it is.
Speaker 1: So I went and I looked through a book called
Speaker 1: the Yellow Pages of Rock, found out who you know?
Speaker 1: It was Kaylea you see. And Jay Taylor said to
Speaker 1: me tomorrow morning, on the cover of the USA today,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a story about you. Benny Mardonna's sheriff,
Speaker 1: and you be forty, So I'm like, wow, I was
Speaker 1: like finding a bag of money, Like this was just
Speaker 1: a little gift that was happening. I'm sorry. Nine. So
Speaker 1: then I went back to the people who got me
Speaker 1: my first deal. They rereleased the record in the second time.
Speaker 1: It went to number three on the A C chart
Speaker 1: and top ten c HR and it stayed on the
Speaker 1: charts for like forty eight weeks. And since I was
Speaker 1: one of the writers, it made a lot, a lot
Speaker 1: of good chunk of money. So that helped me pay
Speaker 1: some bills in some of the debt. And as fast
Speaker 1: as that happened, the second single I wrote that I
Speaker 1: had released was a stiff and I got dropped again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but talk about like a glory story of how it
Speaker 1: had a second life though it was amazing. That doesn't
Speaker 1: usually happen, so actually get their one shot. If they
Speaker 1: don't work out, it's like by yeah. Well, there was
Speaker 1: a lot of great people. I mean Brian Phillips who's
Speaker 1: now at CMT. He was a big believer and he
Speaker 1: was in a radio station called Katie w B in
Speaker 1: Minneapolis and uh, some other former guys like Mike Kennedy
Speaker 1: used to be in Kansas City and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of move played and they were all great people. But
Speaker 1: it was really an ergazing thing because the band had
Speaker 1: broken up and I was just starving, still playing music,
Speaker 1: and literally it was like finding a bag of money,
Speaker 1: like Holy Calum on the cover of USA Today's Entertainment
Speaker 1: section and the song is being rereleased and it really
Speaker 1: was a great energizer. But I learned a lot about
Speaker 1: the business and when well, when I went to l
Speaker 1: a UM, Jerry Greenberg was the president, Davis was senior
Speaker 1: VP of promotion, and I used to hang out at
Speaker 1: the record company more than the studio. I just loved
Speaker 1: watching them get songs on the radio, putting the videos together,
Speaker 1: marketing everything. And that was when I got the bug
Speaker 1: to switch sides. Okay, I was gonna ask you, how
Speaker 1: did you decide to switch? Well, I was starving, to
Speaker 1: be honest, I mean I learned a lot, and I said,
Speaker 1: you know, I need to make a living. I was
Speaker 1: married and my wife said, rock star with the best
Speaker 1: ads I've ever seen. I would agree with, you could
Speaker 1: wash your clothes on this. We do. We saved so
Speaker 1: much money, but I'm not gonna wash it. So she
Speaker 1: said to me, Um, we could pick New York, Nashville,
Speaker 1: or l A. But let's just go and move there.
Speaker 1: And so we picked Nashville, came here, knocked on a
Speaker 1: few doors. One thing led to an other, and I
Speaker 1: met Scott Borchetta. That was the first guy I met,
Speaker 1: and he uh. He offered me a job at m
Speaker 1: c A and then got fired the next day. So
Speaker 1: then I had to take a job in the Southwest
Speaker 1: at Curb Universal doing Southwest promotion. And then Scott started
Speaker 1: up dream Works and then he called me and made
Speaker 1: me the Northeast regional and then I did that for
Speaker 1: a few years. He made me a co national, and
Speaker 1: then Mike Dungan offered me the capital. He offered me
Speaker 1: the national job, then the VP, then the senior VP.
Speaker 1: Did that for about five or six years, and you did. Yes.
Speaker 1: I was always so nervous to say hi back in
Speaker 1: the day, thank you, I think, but I was so
Speaker 1: when I was an intern. I was so nervous because
Speaker 1: there's just so much happening, so much like powerful things
Speaker 1: going on, and like you were running it all. And
Speaker 1: I've told you before I will never forget you printed
Speaker 1: out this book The Art of War, and there are
Speaker 1: all these stuffs. You passed them out to all of
Speaker 1: your staff and you're like, we're reading this as a group.
Speaker 1: Was I think it was the forty it Laws of
Speaker 1: Power in the forty eight Laws of Seductions or something
Speaker 1: like that, and I just wanted anybody to read it
Speaker 1: and understand that, you know, this is this is sales
Speaker 1: and it's not easy. And we had so many records
Speaker 1: and they were all hits. So you know, I never
Speaker 1: wanted to go to Luke Brian or Charles Kelly or
Speaker 1: Darius Records say this isn't working. But I will tell
Speaker 1: you funny story. So Luke Brian, one of the classiest
Speaker 1: guys in the business, first single comes out and with
Speaker 1: Mike Dungan picked, it was called all my Friends Say Goes.
Speaker 1: The number three second single was a song called We
Speaker 1: Wrote in Trucks, which I love. Fourteen weeks and it's
Speaker 1: not working. So what does that mean? When it's not working?
Speaker 1: It just means that people were either not playing it,
Speaker 1: didn't want to play it, or when they did play it,
Speaker 1: people didn't like it. But overall it just wasn't working,
Speaker 1: So I have to call in Luke Brian and tell
Speaker 1: him his second single is not working. So I call
Speaker 1: him and he sits in the office and I go
Speaker 1: through this long, very soft pedaling things, just trying to
Speaker 1: make it easy on him, and he goes, well, fuck,
Speaker 1: I wrote the thing. If it sucks and it your fault,
Speaker 1: it is my fault. Le's just pick another single. And
Speaker 1: the next day I went to number three. And the
Speaker 1: reason I say that is because success has many fathers,
Speaker 1: but failures and orphan and success has many fathers but failures.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? When any anything is is successful,
Speaker 1: everybody wants to take credit, but when it fails, nobody
Speaker 1: wants to be near it. Oh okay, And so Lute
Speaker 1: was great and he just he said, listen, you know,
Speaker 1: we all did it. It didn't work. Let's just get
Speaker 1: our stuff together and go. And he's still that classy
Speaker 1: guy today. Don't you kind of think to sustain yourself
Speaker 1: in an industry like the music industry that does have
Speaker 1: so many ups and downs, you kind of have to
Speaker 1: develop that attitude of just okay, let's just keep it going,
Speaker 1: keep it rolling. Like everyone tries their best, but it's
Speaker 1: like you can't harness magic and like predict what's going
Speaker 1: to happen, and you have to have tough skin and
Speaker 1: you can't take it personally because it's art and there's
Speaker 1: you know, there's no there's no best guitar player in
Speaker 1: the world, there's no best singer in the world. It's
Speaker 1: all subjective and it's like, why does one person take
Speaker 1: off at another person with all this talent doesn't And
Speaker 1: that's the toughest part of my job is when I
Speaker 1: have to say something's not working after you know, a
Speaker 1: collegiate try and it is a business at the end
Speaker 1: of the day. If it doesn't, it's a business, it is.
Speaker 1: And if it doesn't work monetarily, you know, we always
Speaker 1: say that art that doesn't that doesn't sell is an
Speaker 1: obsession with a storage problem. Art that doesn't sell is
Speaker 1: an obsession with a storage So many good lines, he's
Speaker 1: one liners. We needn't read a one liner book of
Speaker 1: Jimmy Harnet. Okay, So how do you decide when you
Speaker 1: want to sign an artist? What is it that makes
Speaker 1: you want to sign someone? You know? I think I
Speaker 1: read a book of Clive Davis and he said he
Speaker 1: signs things that he can't get his arms around, meaning
Speaker 1: when he sees something or hears something and it's you know,
Speaker 1: it could be reminiscent of something else, but he just
Speaker 1: can't figure out why he's just attracted to it. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, it's kind of like when you get married,
Speaker 1: you know what what makes you want to get married?
Speaker 1: It's just that that attraction that you go, I just
Speaker 1: need to be with this person. And it was that
Speaker 1: way with you know, Michael Hobby and a thousand horses,
Speaker 1: And it's the same way with Brett Young and I'm
Speaker 1: sure Scott with Taylor and all the other artists we
Speaker 1: have here. So it's just that thing that you see
Speaker 1: and you go, this is where I belong. I feel
Speaker 1: like you I've never been scared to take a risk
Speaker 1: on people either, like I feel like you will put
Speaker 1: yourself out there for something that is a little bit
Speaker 1: more alternative or not like as mainstream because a lot
Speaker 1: of your acts other people didn't sign and then they've
Speaker 1: gone on to be like really successful because you saw
Speaker 1: something that maybe other people didn't. Well, I think the
Speaker 1: thing I look for something unique. I always listened for
Speaker 1: a unique voice. Again, Michael Hobby has a very unique voice,
Speaker 1: but done voice, And I think because it starts there,
Speaker 1: it has its own space and it has its own oxygen.
Speaker 1: And if you have that lane, then that's one check
Speaker 1: mark out of the way. Then you just need to
Speaker 1: get great songs, which is not easy, and you need
Speaker 1: to have a great performance. But that's the first thing
Speaker 1: I listened for, is is the voice unique? And will
Speaker 1: people hear it on the radio or hear it on Spotify?
Speaker 1: Here on iTunes and go who is that? Can you
Speaker 1: explain to me the marriage between record labels and radio
Speaker 1: stations because I think al yes, like the marriage of
Speaker 1: like that balance, because I think a lot of people,
Speaker 1: most people do not understand the power of radio and
Speaker 1: like how it works. Well, I mean, in radio they
Speaker 1: are the ultimate matchmakers. Is Kimberly Perry once said, you
Speaker 1: know from the band Perry. She said, they're the people
Speaker 1: who take your song to the consumers. But the thing is,
Speaker 1: you don't just send them a song and they play it.
Speaker 1: It's way more complicated than that. Well, I think they
Speaker 1: obviously they what they don't play can't hurt them. So
Speaker 1: their airwaves are very important and you can't sit back
Speaker 1: and not respect that. So they only have a certain
Speaker 1: amount of time in a day, and the best songs win,
Speaker 1: and every program director or music director puts on what
Speaker 1: they think is best for their station, and many people
Speaker 1: to stay listening to that station. They don't want to
Speaker 1: have a song that makes people want to turn the
Speaker 1: dial and so so it's it's a balancing act. So
Speaker 1: you'd have to sign, you know, because all the way
Speaker 1: back to the beginning, you have to find great artists
Speaker 1: with unique voices, with great songs, have great relationships at radio,
Speaker 1: be trustworthy, do the right thing, have a great character,
Speaker 1: and you're not always going to win. Sometimes winning, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, you have to lose a lot to win,
Speaker 1: and you can't win every game because there's another thing.
Speaker 1: You know. A pig gets fed, the hog gets slaughtered.
Speaker 1: So never be a hog. You want to be a pig?
Speaker 1: I want to be a pig. Can you start writing
Speaker 1: your quote? I'm done, we're doing let's go okay. So
Speaker 1: you that's the thing. So how do you may stay
Speaker 1: a pig and not a hog? Because isn't it sometimes
Speaker 1: don't you want to be a hog? I think it's
Speaker 1: a balance. I think that you know, you know. Another
Speaker 1: saying my dad used to say is if you try
Speaker 1: to pick up ten pillows, you're gonna drop all of them,
Speaker 1: but if you pick up two, you're gonna be able
Speaker 1: to carry them out. So I think life is always
Speaker 1: a balance and you can't be greedy. And I think
Speaker 1: if you do that in the long run, more people
Speaker 1: will help you out. Then if you go the other way.
Speaker 1: Who has been one of your greatest inspirations in this business?
Speaker 1: Who have you really learned from? I guess who would
Speaker 1: you call like a hero for you or someone that
Speaker 1: you have admired greatly throughout your career. I think anybody
Speaker 1: who's come in my life. I mean from from Jerry
Speaker 1: McDowell who hired me a curb Universal, to Mike Dungan,
Speaker 1: Scott boor Shadow. Um my old manager is back in Wilkesbury, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: Tom Greco was a great business guy. Uh. Gary Cornfield,
Speaker 1: Mitch Cornfield and Mark corn fell down the club called
Speaker 1: the Woodlands. I worked there. They all taught me a
Speaker 1: lot of things. One are the things that stood up
Speaker 1: the most of They taught you how to be driven,
Speaker 1: how to be detailed, how to make sure you're always
Speaker 1: moving forward. Uh, don't confuse motion with progress. Don't, because
Speaker 1: that's just like being busy but not accomplishing any point.
Speaker 1: It's like being in a rocking shore. You move all day,
Speaker 1: but you don't accomplish anything. So I've all those people
Speaker 1: have taught me all that kind of things and to
Speaker 1: be good with details. And then my mom and dad
Speaker 1: just taught me to be as good of a person
Speaker 1: as you can be. And my wife still does that today,
Speaker 1: and and my kids still teach me that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: It's like, Dad, you're being, you know, a dork. Don't
Speaker 1: do that. You know, my wife's saying, don't do that.
Speaker 1: So everybody you meet, you know, they say, you have
Speaker 1: two ears in one mouth, so you should listen twice
Speaker 1: as much as you talk. And so I try to
Speaker 1: listen more than I talk. I love that, Okay, So
Speaker 1: if your world could go perfectly, what would things look
Speaker 1: like for you and the next five years, and then
Speaker 1: let's just go ahead and say the next ten years.
Speaker 1: If you could just lay it all out there, what
Speaker 1: would be happening for you in the next five years. Well,
Speaker 1: I like people to understand. I think we have to
Speaker 1: find a way to um get people to understand the
Speaker 1: value of music. I agree, and what do you think,
Speaker 1: like with the whole Spotify stuff and streaming, like, because
Speaker 1: there's people are streaming on this music, but it's not
Speaker 1: making money, Like, how do you think that's going to happen?
Speaker 1: I think it's the what happened because music needs to
Speaker 1: make so much money. Well, I think that the digital
Speaker 1: world changed everything. So I think that you know, if
Speaker 1: you have a phone right now, it's very easy to
Speaker 1: pay fifteen dollars a month for Spotify and streaming and
Speaker 1: it's right there, and it's a great concept. It's a
Speaker 1: great concept and it's a great platform. What we have
Speaker 1: to do is get as many people as we can
Speaker 1: to Spotify, to Pandora, to the streaming services and pay appropriately.
Speaker 1: It's the free streaming that it's just that it's just
Speaker 1: taking money out of our pockets. And I actually think that,
Speaker 1: you know, um, we need to raise the cost of
Speaker 1: a single a little bit and raise the most of
Speaker 1: an album. It's not inexpensive to do what record labels
Speaker 1: do or what artists do, and not anybody can just
Speaker 1: do it. You know. I was somebody was talking to
Speaker 1: an artist and I think they were talking to Sting
Speaker 1: and they kind of made they made him feel like, well,
Speaker 1: anybody could do what you can do, And I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: he's Sting. You don't just do what Sting does. Thing
Speaker 1: is a genius. And I was I was watching listening
Speaker 1: to that interview and I was kind of just deflated,
Speaker 1: thinking that people just think it's easy, but exactly it's not.
Speaker 1: So it's a it's a tough life and it takes
Speaker 1: a team, absolutely, and it's not easy to create. It's
Speaker 1: not easy to get brilliance to to write a song
Speaker 1: like Michael, they would smoke, or to to write what
Speaker 1: Taylor doesn't mean, that's just those songs just don't fall
Speaker 1: out of the sky. They come from within and it's
Speaker 1: a gift and music really does have value. In Scott
Speaker 1: and Big Machine Label group are really trying to push
Speaker 1: that message to let people know how much value music
Speaker 1: really does have because if it if we don't start
Speaker 1: monetizing this, we could endanger in American art form, which
Speaker 1: is music. If you could have it the way you
Speaker 1: want it, how would you monetize it. Well, this is
Speaker 1: just a person of you. I I think we have
Speaker 1: to get a lot more people, as Scott Borsche says,
Speaker 1: we have to get it to scale we get to
Speaker 1: get more people to pay for it, not do the free.
Speaker 1: And I think if we do that, that's a step
Speaker 1: in the right direction. And then let's take it from there. Let's,
Speaker 1: you know, how to eat an elephant one bite at
Speaker 1: a time, So let's just take it one bite at
Speaker 1: a time and move on. And I think, well, it'll
Speaker 1: start showing us how to to move towards the future. Okay,
Speaker 1: what are you most excited about this year? What's on
Speaker 1: the horizon for you this year? Well, I mean all
Speaker 1: the music, um, you know, I'll take it to the
Speaker 1: family thing for that. My son is now sixteen and driving,
Speaker 1: and he's about to go to his senior year and
Speaker 1: then go to college. So I'm excited about that. That's crazy,
Speaker 1: he's already going to college. Where does the tough Where didn't?
Speaker 1: Where did it go? Now? Where does it go? I know?
Speaker 1: It just flies right by. And you know when he
Speaker 1: was he's born in two thousand and don't blink, came
Speaker 1: out right when he was born. Yeah, And and it does.
Speaker 1: It really does fly right by. Life happens when you're
Speaker 1: doing stuff. And so I'm really excited about him going
Speaker 1: to college and my daughter driving, which is and by
Speaker 1: the way, your daughter's would knock out, So good luck
Speaker 1: with that. I'm scared about that, excited about that, and
Speaker 1: scared about and just spending time with my family and
Speaker 1: try to balance my life and be a good father
Speaker 1: and a good executive and and break a lot of
Speaker 1: new music. And that's that's been my biggest thrill is
Speaker 1: breaking new music. So how exciting is it when you
Speaker 1: stay like with a thousand horses with smoke and then
Speaker 1: Brett Young just had his first number one? How exciting
Speaker 1: is it to you when you have this artists that
Speaker 1: you believe in and then you put all this build
Speaker 1: up and all of the set up and then it
Speaker 1: actually works. The best I mean is that the moment
Speaker 1: you live for, Like in the industry, is that like
Speaker 1: the moment of like, oh my god, yes, if you
Speaker 1: if you realize that they start from essentially nothing, no disrespect,
Speaker 1: they start from very little meaning in terms of chart
Speaker 1: success or sales, and you see it happen, and you
Speaker 1: watch it happen, and it's even more exciting to know
Speaker 1: that the art that you saw and heard the consumers
Speaker 1: like as well. That that's a great feeling and the
Speaker 1: only way you can get that is by doing it,
Speaker 1: and it's I'm very fortunate to be able to experience that.
Speaker 1: What stresses you outmost about this business, uh an honored
Speaker 1: dishonest people, UM, people who yeah, just not any anybody
Speaker 1: who's dishonest and just can't have a grown up conversation
Speaker 1: or a positive conversation and any kind of negativity. I mean,
Speaker 1: I got into the music business because it was fun.
Speaker 1: And when someone's dishonest or when they get angrier, when
Speaker 1: they get all bent out of shape about stuff, It's like,
Speaker 1: we're not saving lives here, we're making music. So let's
Speaker 1: keep it fun, let's keep it positive, let's keep it happy,
Speaker 1: and it'll all be good. What makes you respect someone
Speaker 1: that they respect themselves. Um, that they take care of
Speaker 1: themselves and they present themselves well, and they're positive and
Speaker 1: they try hard and they're optimistic. Um. You know, just
Speaker 1: good people attract good people. And I think if you
Speaker 1: are a good person, there's a lot of things that
Speaker 1: can go your way and you don't even know they're
Speaker 1: happening because you're just a good person. I totally agree
Speaker 1: with that. I actually think that people want to root
Speaker 1: for people who just keep trying, positive energy and it's
Speaker 1: it's not easy, especially in this business, because you know,
Speaker 1: it's like you just keep trying. You hit you miss,
Speaker 1: you hit you miss, you hit you miss. But you
Speaker 1: have to or you you know. Kenny Rodgers great line.
Speaker 1: He said, there's two kinds of people, those who get
Speaker 1: it done and those who bitch about it. So try
Speaker 1: not to bitch about it. I agree. I think it
Speaker 1: doesn't do any good, just attract more of that negativity. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I have a question. If you won the lottery,
Speaker 1: and you won thirty million dollars tomorrow, what would you do?
Speaker 1: I probably donate a good part of it, um if
Speaker 1: I got it all one lump um to a lot
Speaker 1: of people who I think might need a lot of
Speaker 1: charities that might need it. Obviously, take care of my family, um,
Speaker 1: and probably in your life a little more crazy in
Speaker 1: some ways, like I think anybody would do, probably buy
Speaker 1: something stupid if you could be the pet dog to anyone.
Speaker 1: My wife, My wife, I mean, she's like the she's
Speaker 1: like the the animal queen. I mean, she's just she
Speaker 1: just loves animals. She's you know, you probably seeing her social.
Speaker 1: She's always got the two dogs. I mean we have
Speaker 1: two rabbits, two dogs. We feed the deer and the
Speaker 1: turkeys in our yard. And yeah, definitely my wife. She's
Speaker 1: like snow White with the animals. Yeah. If you could
Speaker 1: be the pet dog to any celebrity, he would it
Speaker 1: be in Why Reba McIntyre details. She's just the best.
Speaker 1: I mean, she's just what is it about Reba that
Speaker 1: you love everything? Uh? We just released an album on
Speaker 1: her that I went to number one and she the
Speaker 1: whole week on the road. I mean, she's Reba McIntyre
Speaker 1: and she's never stopped reinventing herself and staying relevant. How
Speaker 1: does she do that? Well, she never because she's talented.
Speaker 1: I mean obviously she's incredibly talented. She's a mentor and
Speaker 1: and and many. She inspires a lot of people, both
Speaker 1: in the business an artist. But she never complains. And
Speaker 1: I'll never forget the first time I met her, it
Speaker 1: was like nineties six and dallars how I'm reading mcintarre
Speaker 1: like she needed a last name. Oh yes, weepen McIntyre.
Speaker 1: But there's never a stuck up. No, there's never a
Speaker 1: you know, knows up in the air. She's just that
Speaker 1: hard working, incredibly talented artist. That's you know, changed a
Speaker 1: lot of people's lives, and she's never too like to
Speaker 1: she I feel like she never gets too caught up
Speaker 1: on who she is to stay young and hungry, Like
Speaker 1: she's always seeing what's out there and evolving with it,
Speaker 1: which I think is so crucial. Why do you like her?
Speaker 1: Probably because when you see her, she makes she feel
Speaker 1: like she's your best friend. She's got talent for days,
Speaker 1: she's approachable, she doesn't feel like she's too good to
Speaker 1: talk to anyone, and her songs like they were late.
Speaker 1: I agreed, and she's cool. She's yeah. Okay, So let
Speaker 1: me make sure I've asked you all the questions that
Speaker 1: I want, because then I like to wrap up with
Speaker 1: leave your light, So leave some inspiration. Leave your light
Speaker 1: or how you have been inspired or how you would
Speaker 1: like to inspire people. I mean kind of a lot
Speaker 1: of the things we just talked about. UM. I hope that. UM,
Speaker 1: when someone looks at something I've done, they say that
Speaker 1: I did the right thing. I was positive, I was respectful.
Speaker 1: UM I did it with it with as much care
Speaker 1: and sensitivity as I could and impacted their lives in
Speaker 1: some way. Positive, that made them go, That helped me
Speaker 1: move in a direction I need you to go. I
Speaker 1: love that, Jimmy Harden, thank you for Julie and I'm
Speaker 1: gone that I got it writing where she's I hope
Speaker 1: you guys loved hearing from Jimmy Harnon you guys. Next week,
Speaker 1: I have the Redneck Woman Herself, Question Wilson, Joy Any
Speaker 1: Meek What and John John Barry your love Amazes Me
Speaker 1: are joining me. I interviewed them at CRS, which is
Speaker 1: Country radio seminar where tons of artists go around and
Speaker 1: they talk to radio and they tell what's going on
Speaker 1: in their life and their careers and their music. And
Speaker 1: I got to interview Gretchen Wilson and John Barry, so
Speaker 1: I'm making it a double episode. You will not want
Speaker 1: to miss it. Gretchen Wilson in the house and John
Speaker 1: Barry will see you next week. Don't forget to subscribe
Speaker 1: and leave some comments by