WEBVTT - Jimmy Harnen 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:14.920 Carola. She's a queen of talking. He was sown your man. 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:18.279 She's on the side, she got the scoop on the 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:28.320 walls on the side. No one can do with quiet Carola, Carola. 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:36.280 No one can do with quiet Black Caralai Carola. Hey, y'all, 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.800 welcome to Hyper Caroline Hobby. I am your host, Caroline Hobby. 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:42.479 I know music, I know people, and I know the 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:45.400 questions do you want to ask? So let's get hyper 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:49.440 heads up. These are adults having adult conversations, so there 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:54.160 could be adult content. I'm super pumped about this episode. 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:57.600 I have Jimmy Harnet in the house. What what? This 0:00:57.760 --> 0:00:59.720 guy was a rock star. He had a huge pop hit, 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.160 Are you now? One of the only guys in the 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:05.639 record business to have also been a huge star himself. 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:08.920 So now he's running Big Machine labels as E v 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:12.240 P and he is the head president of BMLG Records, 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:15.119 where my husband and a thousand horses a signed Michael Hobbey. 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:19.039 What what? Also he launched Luke Brian or Church, Darius Rucker, 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:22.760 Brett Young. He's awesome, He's amazing, and we talk all 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:25.520 about what it's like to be in the middle of 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.600 the record industry, running it all, making it happen. You'll 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:35.440 get excited. Here is Jimmy Harnin. Hi, Hi, how are you? Hi? 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:38.120 Jimmy Harnett. I was going to wear that same shade lipstick, 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:40.200 and then I thought, I just had a feeling today 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:42.800 you're gonna wear that Like, No, it's actually like cherry 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:45.760 red cherry. Are you feeling it? I'm feeling it would 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:49.240 looks so good at you think? So Okay. So I'm 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:52.840 here with Jimmy Harnan, who you have an incredible bio, 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.960 an incredible life, and you're pretty much just the sh 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:59.560 isn't it? Would you like to manage me? Or I'd 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:01.880 like to be a helplicist. I want to start off 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:04.040 with a few questions and just answer rapid fire the 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:06.000 first thing that comes to your mind. Boy, are you 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:13.959 ready for okay? Vision board? When? Oh? I love that? Okay? 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:21.919 Bucket list shooting under part the Masters, like playing the Masters, 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:24.400 like do you want to play with like Tiger and 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:26.960 on them on the real I say a bucket list, 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:29.000 I mean any any any time. A great round of 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:30.679 golf on a great golf course is a big is 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:32.080 a big bucket list for me? Why do you love 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:34.239 golf so much. You know, I don't really know. I 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:35.919 think it's just a it's a it's a chance to 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:38.560 get out and do something different than what I do. Um, 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:40.480 you're in the outdoors. You get a chance to walk 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:42.480 and see some beautiful scenery and spend time with a 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:44.720 lot of people. So it's just the opposite of what 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:46.560 I do day in and day out. So it's like 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:49.959 a great escape. So day and day out, what do 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.359 you do? I do a lot of stuff. Um, you know, 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:55.520 depends on where Scott wants to use me. But it's 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:59.720 because you're a Big Machine label group. So I'm VP 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:02.160 of the label group and the president of BMLG Records. 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.320 What does he mean executive vice president? Okay, so your 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:09.079 executive vice president of the entire label. And there's Sport Labels, yes, 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.200 so you run there's there's b MLG Records, okay, and 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:15.520 your president of that one. Yes, there's Big Machine, there's Valerie, 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:18.960 There's nash Icon, and then there's Dot So there's five. 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:21.519 So you are vice president of all of them, and 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:23.520 then president if you have all of those, and then 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:26.639 president of BMLG Records. That's a lot of responsibility. Well, 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:28.440 I mean Scott balances it out. So there'll be a 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:29.720 lot of times when I commem in and work with 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:32.359 the promotion departments for all the labels, commend with some 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:35.480 of the marketing um again, some of the promotions, some 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.040 of the A and R work with Allison and Laurel. 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:40.720 So it's great nose two days are the same, which 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:43.200 is fantastic, and it's a lot of fun seeing great 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.839 people like your husband and A thousand of horses. Yes, 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:51.360 how we have a new single coming out, okay, so 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:52.840 I kind of there's so many things I wanna talk 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:54.840 about since you brought that up. How do you decide 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:58.160 what single to go with with an artist, because to me, 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.120 that's one of the hardest decisions as a creative person myself, 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:05.080 former songwriter, all that, like, how do you know which 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:07.480 song is the one? Because all of them are so 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:09.960 good in their own right, you know. I think it's 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:12.760 a it's a process. I think you, um, you get 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:14.560 the songs and then you you know, you share them 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:16.680 with the staff and the staff will start raising their 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:18.720 hands and saying, I like this song. Uh so I 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:21.320 got the thousand horses. We had several cuts and preaching 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:23.200 of the choir just kept raising its hand. It's a 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:25.520 phrase that's got boor Show to uses. I like that phrase. Yeah, 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:27.520 he said, the hit single always raises its hand. So 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:29.440 then you start taking it to some radio people. You 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:31.640 think you're trusted ones, and there's there's a lot of 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:33.520 people who we you know, we call them the you know, 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:35.400 the kind of the ears of the format, and they're 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:37.400 always very honest. So you played for them, You play 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:39.480 for your friends, your wife, your family, and all of 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:41.120 a sudden the song just kind of kind kind of 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:43.560 creeps up. But the real ones like preaching to the choir, 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:45.480 we just knew instilling we heard, were like, that's the 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:47.520 one you just felt it. Yeah, and then we use 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:49.920 the rest of our our our taste makers, you know, 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:53.159 confirm or reconfirm what we think. So okay, so say 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:55.400 like you go to your staff and you say, we 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:57.360 really feel good about this. Everyone feels good about it. 0:04:57.560 --> 0:04:59.680 And so then you take it to radio. What if 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:02.240 ray Dio doesn't feel good about it? Well, I mean 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:04.000 you hope, you hope that by the time you've done 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:06.080 all those screeners that radio likes it and it works 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:07.960 out well, and typically it does, I mean you miss 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:11.080 I mean, sometimes great songs aren't hit records. That's true, 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:12.760 which is sad, but well, a lot of the greatest 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:16.440 songs aren't hit records. Sometimes, like the most lyrically profound songs, 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:18.760 sometimes they're too heavy for people. Well, I don't think 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:21.040 people really understand how difficult it is to get an 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:23.920 entire country of radio stations. It's like a miracle to 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:26.000 move up at the same time. And sometimes you might 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:27.800 have success that comes out of the Northeast, and then 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:29.720 it comes out of the Southwest, and by the time 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:31.440 it gets here this this format, this part of the 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.680 country is already done. You could have another because when 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.240 you mean that, like, so there's a hundred and thirty 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:39.560 radio stations across the country, right or something like, there's 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:40.880 a ton of them, I mean, and they and they 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.040 break down into different panels just like reporters non reporters, 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:46.839 and then there's media based Billboard music row. So there's 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:49.880 various different ways that they put them together in categories. 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:51.920 So when you say you're moving a song across the country, 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:54.840 every radio station adds a song at their own pace, 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:56.400 Like no one. You don't just send a song on. 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:58.560 Everyone adds it and starts playing it. We like certain 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:00.200 amount of times a day. That that's how been With 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:02.520 some big records, yes, what's your superstar kind of happens more, 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:04.960 but especially with the baby bands. Can you break down? 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.320 Why is it breaking an act? Is like it's an 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:10.560 act of God. It's a miracle when it actually happens. 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:13.800 Everything has to line up right. Yeah, it's really really 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:16.680 challenging and it does happen a lot. And when it does, 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:19.200 especially with you, you're really great at it. Well, we've been. 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:20.480 I've been blessed to work with a lot of great 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:22.479 people and have a lot of great music. You're great 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:25.200 at breaking acts. Thank you. I appreciate that. Again, it's 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:26.880 the great music. Because without great music and a great 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.159 support team and a great team of other people, uh, 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:31.200 you just can't do it. So we've we've been blessed 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:32.520 and I've been blessed to do it here at a 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.520 capital and uh, you know, just very fortunately. Tell me 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:39.120 some of the people you've broken well in terms of 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:41.520 breaking and I ran the promotion department of Capital when 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.400 we broke Luke, Brian, Eric Church, Darius Rucker, Lady Annabellum 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.120 and then of course Keith Urban was already successful. Dirks 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:51.400 was already successful, and then over here big Machine Labor group. 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:54.400 It was the band Perry Florida, George Line, thousand Horses, 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:58.080 and now Brett Young. So what is how do you 0:06:58.160 --> 0:06:59.760 do it? How do you break? And how do you 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:01.680 pick your team? Because I know having a great team 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:04.360 is really important. So how do you pick your staff? 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.200 Because they're like your hands and feet that go out 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:09.000 there and talk to radio get the song going, Like, 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:10.400 how do you pick your staff? And then how do 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:12.840 you set up and break a new act? Well? Picking 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:14.880 his staff? I think I really take a lot of 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:18.040 pride in interviewing people, and it's always about character. So 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:20.280 I like people who are hard workers, who were driven 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:22.720 but really have great character. And I have a little 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:25.120 stick around my computer that Mike Dungan gave me a 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:27.600 capital and says, do the right thing. So I'm always 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:29.200 interested in people who do the right thing. And if 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:31.560 you have good people who work really hard, do the 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.040 right thing and have a great, great character, you always 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:36.400 get great results, or you'll get you'll get great results 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:40.040 more often than you won't. And in terms of picking songs, um, 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:42.440 you know, it's the same thing we've talked about. We 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:44.360 screened them and then after a while, you know, I 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.160 don't do anything else very well. So this has been 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.360 the one set of talent that the God has given me. 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:53.320 I can't fix a car. I can't even fix a lawnmower. 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:55.840 I don't cut the grass, and I'm the world's worst handyman. 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:57.920 So I think all my brain cells have been in this. 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:00.320 And just like somebody who's great at fixing cars, he 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.120 was great at baseball or great at football, they they 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:05.640 they've just been in it long enough. And you know, 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:07.360 I've done this my entire life since I was five 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.360 years old, so well, singing and performing and all that. 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:14.800 Because you, I think are the only record label president 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:18.440 or record label executive in the history of music that 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:21.920 I can find that was a hit artist yourself. Uh, 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:25.080 Jimmy Gilmer who was a publisher at EVE and I 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:28.160 did it. And then uh, Tommy Mattolo actually had a hit. 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:32.480 He was a singer also, So it's a very small club. Well, 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:34.040 and there might be more, but it helps to be 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:35.680 I mean, when you were around it all the time 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:38.520 and you just immerse yourself in it, you just you know, 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:40.319 if you're in a pool all day long, you get wet. 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:42.120 So if you're in the music business your whole life. 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:45.240 You eventually learned things that people who don't do with 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:48.480 that much you know, you know, don't learn. So tell 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:51.720 me about how you got into singing, how you got 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:55.640 your first hit, and then how you transferred into now 0:08:56.520 --> 0:09:00.679 being a badass record executive. Uh well, badness right, thank 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:02.800 you for that. Um. When I was a little boy, 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:05.319 my we used to live in a town called Plymouth, Pennsylvania, 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:07.439 and my mom used to take me on this bus 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:09.760 to Wolkesbury to go shopping. We didn't have a lot 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:11.240 of money, so she just took me. We walked around 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:13.160 the stores and stuff. But when I on the bus 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:15.480 one day, it was empty and it's and it sounded 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.439 very reverberated, and I started singing the ballad of the 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:22.920 Green Berets O Goodness. But when I sang, it was 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:26.160 like fighting soldiers from this guy. And I heard that 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.559 my voice resonating inside the bus, and I love the 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.600 way that sound. And I can't believe my mother actually 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:34.360 let me sing. So people would get on the bus 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:36.520 and she'd still let me sing. And I was wondering, 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:38.080 like if my son did that now or my daughter, 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.120 I go stop, they're giving you people. I'm sure everyone 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:41.839 loved it. It was like the magic bus riding it 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:43.880 was well, they were very kind, and so that's how 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:45.520 I started to sing. And the people would walk up 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:47.560 to my mom and say, you should give him singing lessons. 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:50.040 So I took some singing lessons, and then I started 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:52.680 to play clarinet and trumpets and drums and guitar. And okay, 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:54.080 you're a little bit of a project. You play all 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:55.760 those instruments not very well. Why do you know I 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:57.560 tried to play a guitar for twenty years. They still 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:00.199 can't play it. You play like six things. Well, I've 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:02.760 I've dabbled in all in all things, so but it's 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:04.439 always been the music. And again that gets back to 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:06.280 your last question. It's always been the music. So while 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:08.520 other people were, you know, working on their craft in 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:10.400 another form, this is all I did. So I did 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.679 all that, and then when I graduated from college, I 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:15.240 said to my mom and dead, can we write and 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:17.719 record the best song that we can before I go 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:20.360 to grad school? Did your parents write? No? But me? 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:22.920 I mean sorry, I mean my friends. So we wrote 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:24.280 a song called where you Know. It was about a 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:26.040 girl who broke up with me. And I write. My 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:28.920 piano player friend Rich Congdon wrote the piano part. He 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:30.559 gave it to me. I took it home, sat down 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:32.680 me how my drums, played the drum track, and sang 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:35.240 and wrote the song in about three minutes. And then 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:38.439 literally bon Jovi was coming to my hometown doing his 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:41.640 show in Wilkesbury, Pennsylvania, and I'd already taken the song 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:43.719 over to Jeff Walker, who was the DJ at w 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.439 k Z FM and Wilkesbury, and he liked it. So 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:48.280 when bon Jovi was coming to town, I told him, 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:50.040 I said, can we open up for bon Jovi? Will 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:51.800 even pay to play? Okay? I love how you just 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:53.800 put yourself out there in your hustler like you're just 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:55.600 like making it happen. You're not waiting for it that well, 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:57.800 because I spent five thousand dollars recording the song. My 0:10:57.880 --> 0:10:59.400 mother is gonna kill me if I didn't make this happen. 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:01.000 This is a get a life, needs to get a 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:02.640 liv and then not or I needed to get a life. 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:06.439 And so we opened up for bon Jovi, and VI 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:10.000 the radio stations said, hey, I think I need to 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:12.160 open up for bon Jovi. Then you did? They heard 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:14.000 the song. They liked it, and then they said you'll 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:15.760 have the have the gig. But when we wanted if 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:17.720 you can play the record on the radio, So they 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.319 played it on the radio and they called me and 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:22.559 they said, you need to make up forty five out 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:24.120 of this, and I said, well, I don't know how 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:26.280 to do that. So I learned how to mix a 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.679 record and I'm sorry master a record manufacturer, record and 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:31.720 I and the record stores in the in the area 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:34.680 where Joan Ardan's Gallery of Sound. They wanted a thousand 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:36.800 of them, so we gave them a thousand, and then 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:38.400 a week later he called me. He said they were 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:41.079 all sold out, so he wanted another thousand, so we 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:43.520 made another thousand. We ended up selling about fifteen thousand 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:46.199 singles like independently Yeah, and then that's and then it 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:48.480 started to go to Allentown, Philadelphia, and then that's when 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:50.319 all the major labels. That's just what the dream is like. 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:52.760 That is the dream story. Everyone dreams of that happening, 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:55.640 but it actually happens. It's funny because that movie that 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:59.160 thing you do. Yes, they're from Erie, Pennsylvania. Our story 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.360 was almost like that. I often wonder if they if 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:08.760 there was a yeah, but um, naturally just started rolling. 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:11.640 Did you put obviously you put the momentum out there, 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:13.240 but then it just started going well. And then as 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:14.880 it started to go, we were tied in with some 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:19.640 independent promoters who got themselves in some not good situations, 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:21.880 and all the new artists that were tied to those 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.480 and these were delayed, I'm sorry, dropped, and all the 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:28.960 major artists were delayed, and so um, we ended up 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.959 getting dropped from Columbia Records. And then between eighty six 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:36.319 and eighty nine there were radio stations rediscovering songs that 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:39.400 didn't work the first time. So um, his name was 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.360 Jay Taylor and guys Napoleon in Las Vegas at k 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:45.160 z z P and Kayla you see, and they started 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:47.440 playing the record and a friend of mine, Joan ard Own, 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:49.280 who owned that record store, was in Las Vegas, and 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:50.760 he said, they're playing your song every three and a 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:52.679 half hours. You got to find out ho who it is. 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:54.839 So I went and I looked through a book called 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:56.839 the Yellow Pages of Rock, found out who you know? 0:12:56.880 --> 0:12:59.160 It was Kaylea you see. And Jay Taylor said to 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.240 me tomorrow morning, on the cover of the USA today, 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:03.480 there's gonna be a story about you. Benny Mardonna's sheriff, 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:06.079 and you be forty, So I'm like, wow, I was 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:08.240 like finding a bag of money, Like this was just 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.880 a little gift that was happening. I'm sorry. Nine. So 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:13.480 then I went back to the people who got me 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:15.719 my first deal. They rereleased the record in the second time. 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:17.480 It went to number three on the A C chart 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:19.480 and top ten c HR and it stayed on the 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:21.640 charts for like forty eight weeks. And since I was 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:23.240 one of the writers, it made a lot, a lot 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:25.079 of good chunk of money. So that helped me pay 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:26.840 some bills in some of the debt. And as fast 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:29.319 as that happened, the second single I wrote that I 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.800 had released was a stiff and I got dropped again. Yeah, 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:36.000 but talk about like a glory story of how it 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:39.840 had a second life though it was amazing. That doesn't 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:41.760 usually happen, so actually get their one shot. If they 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:43.880 don't work out, it's like by yeah. Well, there was 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:46.160 a lot of great people. I mean Brian Phillips who's 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:47.920 now at CMT. He was a big believer and he 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:50.880 was in a radio station called Katie w B in 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:54.640 Minneapolis and uh, some other former guys like Mike Kennedy 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:57.120 used to be in Kansas City and there's a lot 0:13:57.160 --> 0:13:58.679 of move played and they were all great people. But 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:02.080 it was really an ergazing thing because the band had 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:04.720 broken up and I was just starving, still playing music, 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:07.600 and literally it was like finding a bag of money, 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:10.120 like Holy Calum on the cover of USA Today's Entertainment 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:12.640 section and the song is being rereleased and it really 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:14.680 was a great energizer. But I learned a lot about 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:17.400 the business and when well, when I went to l 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:20.680 a UM, Jerry Greenberg was the president, Davis was senior 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.400 VP of promotion, and I used to hang out at 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:26.040 the record company more than the studio. I just loved 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:28.760 watching them get songs on the radio, putting the videos together, 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.240 marketing everything. And that was when I got the bug 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:33.240 to switch sides. Okay, I was gonna ask you, how 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:35.520 did you decide to switch? Well, I was starving, to 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:37.800 be honest, I mean I learned a lot, and I said, 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:39.680 you know, I need to make a living. I was 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.160 married and my wife said, rock star with the best 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:45.600 ads I've ever seen. I would agree with, you could 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:47.840 wash your clothes on this. We do. We saved so 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:51.240 much money, but I'm not gonna wash it. So she 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:53.880 said to me, Um, we could pick New York, Nashville, 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:55.720 or l A. But let's just go and move there. 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:58.720 And so we picked Nashville, came here, knocked on a 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:00.360 few doors. One thing led to an other, and I 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:02.800 met Scott Borchetta. That was the first guy I met, 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:06.160 and he uh. He offered me a job at m 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:08.800 c A and then got fired the next day. So 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.000 then I had to take a job in the Southwest 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:14.680 at Curb Universal doing Southwest promotion. And then Scott started 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:17.240 up dream Works and then he called me and made 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:19.960 me the Northeast regional and then I did that for 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:22.120 a few years. He made me a co national, and 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:26.360 then Mike Dungan offered me the capital. He offered me 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:29.480 the national job, then the VP, then the senior VP. 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.240 Did that for about five or six years, and you did. Yes. 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:35.800 I was always so nervous to say hi back in 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:42.640 the day, thank you, I think, but I was so 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:44.960 when I was an intern. I was so nervous because 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:47.920 there's just so much happening, so much like powerful things 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:49.680 going on, and like you were running it all. And 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:52.080 I've told you before I will never forget you printed 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:55.120 out this book The Art of War, and there are 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:56.640 all these stuffs. You passed them out to all of 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:58.960 your staff and you're like, we're reading this as a group. 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:00.640 Was I think it was the forty it Laws of 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:02.560 Power in the forty eight Laws of Seductions or something 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:04.360 like that, and I just wanted anybody to read it 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:06.480 and understand that, you know, this is this is sales 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:08.720 and it's not easy. And we had so many records 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:11.080 and they were all hits. So you know, I never 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:13.280 wanted to go to Luke Brian or Charles Kelly or 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:15.760 Darius Records say this isn't working. But I will tell 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:18.200 you funny story. So Luke Brian, one of the classiest 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:20.640 guys in the business, first single comes out and with 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:22.840 Mike Dungan picked, it was called all my Friends Say Goes. 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:25.360 The number three second single was a song called We 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:28.840 Wrote in Trucks, which I love. Fourteen weeks and it's 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:31.280 not working. So what does that mean? When it's not working? 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:33.640 It just means that people were either not playing it, 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:35.600 didn't want to play it, or when they did play it, 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:38.240 people didn't like it. But overall it just wasn't working, 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:40.520 So I have to call in Luke Brian and tell 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:43.160 him his second single is not working. So I call 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:44.720 him and he sits in the office and I go 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.320 through this long, very soft pedaling things, just trying to 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:49.920 make it easy on him, and he goes, well, fuck, 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:52.240 I wrote the thing. If it sucks and it your fault, 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:55.040 it is my fault. Le's just pick another single. And 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:56.320 the next day I went to number three. And the 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:58.680 reason I say that is because success has many fathers, 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:03.040 but failures and orphan and success has many fathers but failures. 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:07.240 What does that mean? When any anything is is successful, 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:09.440 everybody wants to take credit, but when it fails, nobody 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:12.440 wants to be near it. Oh okay, And so Lute 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:15.000 was great and he just he said, listen, you know, 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:17.040 we all did it. It didn't work. Let's just get 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:19.320 our stuff together and go. And he's still that classy 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:24.000 guy today. Don't you kind of think to sustain yourself 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:26.119 in an industry like the music industry that does have 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:28.359 so many ups and downs, you kind of have to 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:31.320 develop that attitude of just okay, let's just keep it going, 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:33.960 keep it rolling. Like everyone tries their best, but it's 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:37.239 like you can't harness magic and like predict what's going 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:38.840 to happen, and you have to have tough skin and 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:41.800