Speaker 1: Carola. She's the queen of talking. He was sown your man.
Speaker 1: She's only his side. She got the scoop on the
Speaker 1: on the ones in side. No one can do with
Speaker 1: Cliel Carola, Carola. No one can do with Clie like
Speaker 1: Carol Tile Caroline. Hey, y'all, welcome to Hyper Caroline Hobby.
Speaker 1: I am your host, Caroline Hobby. I know music, I
Speaker 1: know people, and I know the questions do you want
Speaker 1: to ask? So let's get Hyper heads up. These are
Speaker 1: adults having adult conversations, so there could be adult content.
Speaker 1: And this week is so exciting because I have the man,
Speaker 1: the myth, the legend on today's episode Rods. He is
Speaker 1: one of the power house players at CIA, which is
Speaker 1: a huge booking agency, one of the biggest in the world.
Speaker 1: And booking agencies book acts at shows. So that is
Speaker 1: how all these artists show up at all these shows,
Speaker 1: because an agent books them and does so much more
Speaker 1: than just that. But he has worked with everyone from
Speaker 1: Tim McGraw, Sonny and Share, Martina McBride, Julian Huff, Taylor Swift,
Speaker 1: the list goes on and on, and he's hysterical and
Speaker 1: amazing and you're about to get all the inside Scoop
Speaker 1: on what really happens. So welcome Rod Sig. Everybody. Okay,
Speaker 1: Hi Rod, Well hello, how are you doing. I've been
Speaker 1: told to lower my voice, so I'm trying to speak
Speaker 1: in a more now. This is a lovely We're sitting
Speaker 1: in your beautiful office. Rod Sig. By the way, he
Speaker 1: is the badass like team captain of CIA. What is
Speaker 1: your official title? I am Department head of the Nashville office.
Speaker 1: Could you explain to me what CIA is? C A
Speaker 1: is the are just um Motion Pictures, television, music and
Speaker 1: sports agency in the world, and you are the division
Speaker 1: head of Nashville, so that makes you quite a big deal.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't think. I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I think I just have to work harder than everybody else.
Speaker 1: That's all. That's a big title. Okay. I want to
Speaker 1: know how you got started, But first I want to
Speaker 1: ask you a few rapid fire questions. What song best
Speaker 1: describes your work ethic? Live like you're dying? Okay? Okay?
Speaker 1: Who's your celebrity free pass? Who's sharey okay with? Because
Speaker 1: your wife's awesome, So this is all in respect to
Speaker 1: her because I love her, And who's her free pass. Uh,
Speaker 1: my free pass would probably be um cure nightly. She
Speaker 1: would approved. I wouldn't ask her permission. I'll tell you
Speaker 1: a great story. There was one this is way way
Speaker 1: way back when, and um anyway, I went to l
Speaker 1: A and I represent Jeff Jeff FOXFORDY at that time,
Speaker 1: and we had you know, there was no there was
Speaker 1: no fight flights going in and out. So he had
Speaker 1: to go to night before for nine o'clock meeting next
Speaker 1: next day. So anyway, I'm sitting in Brian Lord's office.
Speaker 1: And Brian Lord's one of the one of the original
Speaker 1: partners of CIA. And he said, what are you doing tonight?
Speaker 1: And I said, I'm not doing anything that I had
Speaker 1: to come out here because I got a meeting in
Speaker 1: the morning. He said, so you're really you're free tonight
Speaker 1: and I said, yeah, I'm free. So anyway, it's very
Speaker 1: rare for you, Yes, very much so in the meantime,
Speaker 1: so he said, so just stay here for ten minutes.
Speaker 1: So I stayed it for ten minutes. I said, what
Speaker 1: do you want? He said, I need you to go
Speaker 1: someplace tonight. So I went in the door walks DEMI
Speaker 1: more And anyway, I was her date that night. I
Speaker 1: don't know anymore. Anyway, she was cute, that didn't matter.
Speaker 1: But she was blond, totally bald, was for g I
Speaker 1: j and she so anyway, I went with her to
Speaker 1: all the Hollywood stuff that night. She never left my arm.
Speaker 1: And I always have a rule, and I get back
Speaker 1: to the hotel room no matter what time, as I
Speaker 1: call my wife. We got back about four five l
Speaker 1: a time, which is about a court of seven Nashville time.
Speaker 1: That's the running. And so Sherry said, she said, you know,
Speaker 1: this is really late, and I said, well, it's really early.
Speaker 1: But she said all night long, you've been out with
Speaker 1: Damny Moore. And I said, I said, Sherry, if anything
Speaker 1: would happen, if I got that lucky, I tell you
Speaker 1: about it. We go to counseling for the rest of
Speaker 1: our lives. So I mean, come on, that's what it is.
Speaker 1: Share Your wife is pretty awesome. Yes, yes, she's totally awesome.
Speaker 1: Did she like let you be you? She just said,
Speaker 1: if I don't come home, it will cost me a
Speaker 1: lot of money. And I'm a real capricorn. I don't
Speaker 1: want to share anything. Okay, all right, okay, fair enough, Okay,
Speaker 1: if your house is on fire and you can only
Speaker 1: grab three things before leaving. What would they be and why?
Speaker 1: And they can't be your family members? Uh, your pets.
Speaker 1: I grabbed the pictures, uh, and I grab well obviously
Speaker 1: a little safe in the house because that's got stuff,
Speaker 1: jewelry and stuff in it. And I get on my
Speaker 1: motorcycle and leave. You have to take your motorcycle. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: you love Harley's. I love Harley's And you're a big
Speaker 1: part of Sturgis. Is that what it is? Well, I'm
Speaker 1: very involved in booking a lot of Sturgist and I
Speaker 1: go there every year. Is that how you got into Harley's? Yes, Well,
Speaker 1: to be very honest, the first my first Harley was
Speaker 1: given to me by Tim McGraw. We had a we
Speaker 1: had a very successful run of dates. And he knows
Speaker 1: he's a writer too, you know, I love Harley's. So
Speaker 1: he bought a Harley and through the keys at me
Speaker 1: and said, okay, here's your Harley. Have a good time.
Speaker 1: That was a very successful run, right, that's it was
Speaker 1: the cheapest Harlihood he had at the time. But there
Speaker 1: was a sports but you know, he could have bought
Speaker 1: me a road king or something big. But he didn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'd say we are. Who are your best celebrity friends? Um,
Speaker 1: Tim McGraw lean rhymes, Julian Huff. She's having a big year. Yes,
Speaker 1: we're having a big, big, big I just got a
Speaker 1: text from her from doing such a great job. I
Speaker 1: congratulated her on Sunday night because it was like the
Speaker 1: biggest musical on TV since UM forgot since what they well,
Speaker 1: this was, this was was Greece and they what they
Speaker 1: do Peter Pant I think it was Peter Pant. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. She's the perfect Sandy's did our l a opposite? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I knew all about it. She's got she has a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff going, you know, and I mean her
Speaker 1: her career will guide her to some way just take
Speaker 1: over Broadway like Christian channels. I mean she's just like
Speaker 1: she's that dancer, she's that singer, you know, all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So she's got all that going. But she's still working
Speaker 1: on a lot of motion picture stuff right now. Okay, awesome, Okay, So,
Speaker 1: Julian Huff, who else your besties? Um? I said, probably
Speaker 1: then you got in there. Martina mc bride, she was
Speaker 1: over here this morning. She's a real good friend. And
Speaker 1: then probably my bestie motion picture friend is Reese Witherspoon.
Speaker 1: She's been, she's been, she's been my date for friends. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no way, what's she like in real life? Like you
Speaker 1: are just totally fun and cute and gorgeous and yeah,
Speaker 1: she's just twins. Are you calling me twins of threes? Yeah?
Speaker 1: You could be. You know, she's so awesome and she
Speaker 1: has that production company and she's doing all those amazing
Speaker 1: movies that are highlighting women as leads, and she's she's
Speaker 1: going to move back to Nashville. Really, she started her store,
Speaker 1: her clothing store, and her Sprinkles. Have you had Sprinkles cupcakes?
Speaker 1: That's he's the sprinkle store right next to it, Sprinkles cupcaction.
Speaker 1: And she's mom and her husband is a very very
Speaker 1: very successful agent at c A. Jim Tough. You have
Speaker 1: these little people like Matthew McConaughey and things like that,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, do you know Matthew? And in fact,
Speaker 1: Tim McGraw is doing Matthew McConaughey's benefit this year Une four,
Speaker 1: New Orleans, New Orleans. Okay, have you ever been arrested? Uh?
Speaker 1: For real? No? For fun? Right where I used to
Speaker 1: grow up. There was a number of us that got
Speaker 1: in trouble a lot of times, so we would get
Speaker 1: they would arrest us basically of October thirty and hold
Speaker 1: us in jail for thirty one, so we would wreck stuff.
Speaker 1: So you actually have spent a night in jail? How
Speaker 1: was that horrible? Did you get hit on in jail? No? Oh,
Speaker 1: you're so cute, thank you, But I did not. No,
Speaker 1: I did not. Okay, And last rapid fire, If you
Speaker 1: were going to be in the circus, what would you
Speaker 1: do that? I I would probably be an animal tamer
Speaker 1: because that's basically what you do in real life. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's true. Basically what your real job description is. I'm
Speaker 1: really a fireman. I put a firehead on every day
Speaker 1: and put out fires all day long. Who gives you
Speaker 1: the biggest fires to put up? You know something that
Speaker 1: it varies. It's certain times. Certain tours could be really hard.
Speaker 1: Other tours are very easy. Um, you know there's some
Speaker 1: I'm doing. I'm doing the one right now with cheap
Speaker 1: trick Joan Jet and Heart, And I'm the direct agent
Speaker 1: to Heart and Joan Jet. And as a rule, as
Speaker 1: an agent, you should never put two of your acts
Speaker 1: on a show together because when you go see them,
Speaker 1: they both want your time, and so they're always playing
Speaker 1: you against each other. So this one's been every day
Speaker 1: is one more. They're not big problems, they're just little things.
Speaker 1: And then so you have to put that fire out
Speaker 1: a little bit. So but the tours, the overall too,
Speaker 1: are selling incredible, So now a lot of the lot
Speaker 1: of the part, a lot of the problems are gone
Speaker 1: because the ticket sales are so good. So are you
Speaker 1: in the middle of a lot of cat fights? Usually females?
Speaker 1: Is it? Artists? Is it? Age? Is it? Who? Do
Speaker 1: you find? It? Would be everybody artists agents because here
Speaker 1: we do so much conflict of interest, so you even
Speaker 1: if you have the project in CIA, everybody is fighting
Speaker 1: for their own client and they're fighting really hard. So
Speaker 1: we compete to get that second or third slot in
Speaker 1: front of a Tim McGraw or Keith Urban or something
Speaker 1: like that. So we really compete with each other, calling
Speaker 1: the managers and all that kind of stuff. But you know,
Speaker 1: as far as if you put the two artists together,
Speaker 1: there's never a problem, right. It's only a problem when
Speaker 1: they're not sitting in the same role, because then they
Speaker 1: go through the middleman, always at the problem, and then
Speaker 1: you assume it's a bigger problem than it really is,
Speaker 1: you know. So I like to have people sit down
Speaker 1: face to face and talk to each other because that
Speaker 1: problem is gone. Then it's not who said or we said,
Speaker 1: or what what happened? So smart run. So tell me
Speaker 1: walk me through a typical day in the life of roads,
Speaker 1: because I don't know if many people know what an
Speaker 1: agent is and how big of a role this plays
Speaker 1: in a career for an artist, Like, what is your
Speaker 1: typical day and week? Looking like? Well, my normal day
Speaker 1: is about between five and six emails? You read them all, yes,
Speaker 1: you have to, and then uh, then normally I've seen
Speaker 1: you like four emails in a day before, just for fun,
Speaker 1: So I'm just stop doing that and then and then normally,
Speaker 1: I mean, in today's world, normally I have a hundred
Speaker 1: phone calls. So some of them are just yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it's okay, that kind of stuff, But you get into
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff we still sell. So an agent
Speaker 1: is to go out and obtain work for your clients.
Speaker 1: That's that's your basic working gigs are you know, being
Speaker 1: shows or opportunities and television or motion pictures or endorsements
Speaker 1: or sponsorships and all that kind of stuff. You ever
Speaker 1: see all of that, you oversee all that. You're really
Speaker 1: the hub and then you also the hub of that manager,
Speaker 1: of the record company, of the publicists, because you're the one.
Speaker 1: I always figured when I booked a day on Tim McGraw,
Speaker 1: there's probably a thousand people that go to work, from
Speaker 1: ticket takers to security to you know, think of all
Speaker 1: the ushers and all that stuff, bus drivers and you
Speaker 1: know hotel. I mean you're gonna go into hotel. So
Speaker 1: because of that one day, there's a thousand people that work.
Speaker 1: So you have to get it right. So it's gotta
Speaker 1: be totally right, and you have to take it very serious.
Speaker 1: And you can only go when you're route. You can
Speaker 1: only go miles a night because they have to load in,
Speaker 1: load out, set up and all that stuff. And then
Speaker 1: you have to really watch who else is in the
Speaker 1: marketplace because you can't be Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw
Speaker 1: in the same city at the same time because there's
Speaker 1: only so many people that have money to buy tickets.
Speaker 1: Have you ever messed up? Yes, what happens when that happens? Uh,
Speaker 1: It affects the ticket sales and you have a big problem. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I mean, yeah, but that's I mean, and you
Speaker 1: sit in a lot of meetings and plan this out.
Speaker 1: I mean, right now, I'm meeting with Gil Cunningham, who's
Speaker 1: a big producer of festivals. He wants to talk about
Speaker 1: two seventeen. Really, he's already done with sixteen. Sixteen is
Speaker 1: all done on sale everything, so he wants to know
Speaker 1: who we can do in seventeen. I said, Gil, every's open.
Speaker 1: I mean, I haven't thought about seventeen. We're just going
Speaker 1: into February. So is it kind of like a puzzle piece,
Speaker 1: like putting together act and say you're get an offer
Speaker 1: for one act but they're kind of large and they
Speaker 1: don't want to do it. Well, you go to smaller
Speaker 1: act after that, oh yeah. Or you have to make
Speaker 1: sure your basic your your basic instinct is to make
Speaker 1: sure that everything sells. So we're in the business. We
Speaker 1: compete hard with other agencies, but we work very closely
Speaker 1: with other agencies because the bottom line, we have to
Speaker 1: sell tickets. If we don't sell tickets, nothing happens. That's
Speaker 1: a good distinction. So you're competing hard, but you also
Speaker 1: need them to be success. You want to put together
Speaker 1: the greatest package. So how do you that line? I
Speaker 1: don't have done it for forty years. It's just because
Speaker 1: you kind of like hate them in a way, but
Speaker 1: you also like love. But you have to talk to
Speaker 1: them because you need and they need you. So just
Speaker 1: it's it's a give and take on both sides. They
Speaker 1: want your hot act to be on their shows. Interesting, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you so you can't. You cannot as an agent.
Speaker 1: You cannot sell or be responsible for anybody's festival or anything. Everything.
Speaker 1: You just don't have the right acts. If you do
Speaker 1: them one year, they don't want to repeat them the
Speaker 1: next year. So you just you just tell them, I'm
Speaker 1: I mean we have dates that I just tell people.
Speaker 1: I don't have anything to sell you. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's gonna sell your ticket. So but the only time
Speaker 1: an artist really gets really mad at you is if
Speaker 1: they look out and see empty seats and a big
Speaker 1: artist an extra fifty means nothing if there's a big
Speaker 1: hole in the middle of that don't doesn't have anybody
Speaker 1: sitting in it. Have you gotten yelled at by an
Speaker 1: artist before, anyone in particular, just a number of them.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're responsible for artist's income. And remember
Speaker 1: today in the day's world, it's probably is what they
Speaker 1: do on the road, and that's what we do. You know,
Speaker 1: before these used to be was record income and publishing
Speaker 1: and all. Well, now, I mean there was. I was
Speaker 1: telling somebody the other day, I went two years of
Speaker 1: Lee and Rhyme's first album. Two years every week she
Speaker 1: never sold under a hundred thousand units. Really, so to
Speaker 1: this day Lee and Ryan's has sold forty six million records. Okay,
Speaker 1: she has sold six million records. Taylor Swift will never
Speaker 1: ever even do that because this record sales are record sales.
Speaker 1: It's all streaming and all that. In those days, you
Speaker 1: had to buy the album to get the single. It's
Speaker 1: kind of sad that that's gone well. And that's where
Speaker 1: the record companys made a lot of their money. I
Speaker 1: mean at that point her records records were like or
Speaker 1: something like that. Now there, you don't have a record
Speaker 1: over ten dollars and so figured the profit and so. Anyway,
Speaker 1: but we went almost a little over two years that
Speaker 1: she sold at least a hundred thousand years a week consistently.
Speaker 1: That was everything I wanted to be a singer because
Speaker 1: of her. A lot of people Taylor Swifts is the
Speaker 1: same thing because because of Leanne. That's why I'm in
Speaker 1: the music business. Okay, so how did you get into
Speaker 1: music business? Like? How did you even know what an
Speaker 1: agent was to even dream this up? The real in
Speaker 1: way back when I was in college, the colleges had
Speaker 1: the biggest budgets to buy entertainment. So everybody had a
Speaker 1: student activities fund or whatever. So I used to buy
Speaker 1: talent at my college and I went to school in Lamar's, Iowa,
Speaker 1: So I used to buy talent John Denver and Johnny
Speaker 1: Cash and all those things in those days from the
Speaker 1: talent buyer at your college. That was a big position
Speaker 1: that you had to work together. You had to serve
Speaker 1: on the committee when you're a junior. When you're a senior,
Speaker 1: you could become and you had money at that point,
Speaker 1: and I remember there was no You couldn't buy films
Speaker 1: at that time, so the only entertainment they got was
Speaker 1: touring artists. So you had money. There's a I mean,
Speaker 1: American University probably had three or four hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 1: that's been on artist. So you So then I went
Speaker 1: and I in that day you don't even remember because
Speaker 1: you were born. But there was a draft and I
Speaker 1: got drafted and went to Vietnam and came back. So
Speaker 1: then I came, No, we weren't talking, so then so
Speaker 1: we came. I came back and I called this guy,
Speaker 1: Gordy Singer that I used to buy all my talent from,
Speaker 1: and he said, you think you want to be an agent?
Speaker 1: He gave me a phone and I understand, and that
Speaker 1: day it was a dial phone. Okay. And so within
Speaker 1: six months I signed this guy named Jim Croce and
Speaker 1: because again we're the largest college agency in America. So
Speaker 1: then I went from to live there to a living
Speaker 1: John mac Davis, Helen Ready, the fifth dimension. I just
Speaker 1: kept signing things. So within within the five year period
Speaker 1: it I end up owning half the agency that I
Speaker 1: went to work for, and then I was with that
Speaker 1: agency for twenty years. And then I moved everybody to
Speaker 1: California and we had to write at Chili Peppers. Motor
Speaker 1: had all these big metal bands, and then Sea came
Speaker 1: to me and said, would you ever come to work
Speaker 1: over here? And at that point they didn't have anybody
Speaker 1: did fairs, festivals, privates. They just did. They had twelve
Speaker 1: promoters and that's all they sold to. And so I
Speaker 1: literally went over there. In the second day I was there,
Speaker 1: My very best friend the life was a guy named
Speaker 1: Bobby Brooks, and Bobby got me to come to see A.
Speaker 1: And the next day he died in the helicopter with
Speaker 1: Stevie Vaughan in Wisconsin. Yeah. So I worked in l
Speaker 1: A for a while, for in a year, and then rob'sons,
Speaker 1: John Huey and Ron Baird, We're gonna open up Nashville,
Speaker 1: and those are the founder of l A. They were
Speaker 1: the founders here, John and Ron. So then I came
Speaker 1: here and the three of us, now we started with
Speaker 1: three agents and five acts, and Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith,
Speaker 1: Billy Dean, Clint Black, and I'm trying to think one more,
Speaker 1: Randy Travis Nice. So then it just I got into
Speaker 1: town and I kept being able to sign people that
Speaker 1: were in house. But I say, you know, because c
Speaker 1: A had motion pictures and television. So I signed Reba
Speaker 1: McIntyre and I signed um Tricia Year and all these
Speaker 1: people because of that reason, they wanted to be in television.
Speaker 1: They don't want to just be a touring act. Barbara
Speaker 1: Mandrell is another one. So anyway, that's kind of how
Speaker 1: it all came. And now we've got a hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty two people here and we uh and we've got
Speaker 1: probably a hundred ten acts of which you know, so
Speaker 1: it's just grown out of here into a very large company. Now,
Speaker 1: So did you go to this college because you wanted
Speaker 1: to get involved in this program or is that just
Speaker 1: an accident? I had a music education degree and in
Speaker 1: those days, I want my mother wanted me to be
Speaker 1: a teacher, so you don't have music in your family,
Speaker 1: like the fl I'm the first job, and it was
Speaker 1: just sort of a coincidence. Yeah, But in the means,
Speaker 1: in the week perfect storm from when I when I
Speaker 1: literally ended up, um when my number was thirty one
Speaker 1: in the draft, so nobody would hire anybody in that year.
Speaker 1: They were taking up two hundred and twenty people. So
Speaker 1: you'd have to go and apply for a job and
Speaker 1: they say, what's your draft numbers? Thirty one and then
Speaker 1: they wouldn't hire you because you're gonna get You're gonna
Speaker 1: get drafted. So I went and saying that summer was sunny,
Speaker 1: and share saying you saying with sunny and Share. No
Speaker 1: one knows because you're such an amazing agent and you
Speaker 1: are such a powerhouse. But I have heard you sing,
Speaker 1: you saying a duet with your daughter Frank Frank Sinacho Duett.
Speaker 1: You were a singer. So what was it like being
Speaker 1: on the road with Sunny and Share? Well, they were
Speaker 1: at that time. I mean again, it's very different because
Speaker 1: all they did was play the Playboy club circuit. So
Speaker 1: you hated it? Oh, I love it. It was the
Speaker 1: best time in my life. So you played for Playmates, Yes,
Speaker 1: that's you're performed for. I performed for Playmates and they
Speaker 1: were cloth Uh, they were the bunny outfits. Where is it?
Speaker 1: What is the playboys? And early part of the evening?
Speaker 1: After that? You never know, but do a lot of
Speaker 1: time at the Playboy Mansion. I didn't. I didn't. Mainly
Speaker 1: we see in Wisconsin, Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, and
Speaker 1: then we played the Playboy Mansion. But Sunny and Share
Speaker 1: we're just starting at that time. What does the Playboy
Speaker 1: circuit mean? What is that? I've never heard of that.
Speaker 1: There used to be a lot of Playboy clubs on
Speaker 1: the top of hotels so like, so they were all
Speaker 1: over America, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and they were always
Speaker 1: on the top floor of a hotel. Torture. I know,
Speaker 1: it's just this is just horrible for you. It's a
Speaker 1: young guy starting out seeing it was sunny and share
Speaker 1: the playboys circuit. I mean, this is the start of
Speaker 1: your And then I got drafted, so my hair was
Speaker 1: down to here. I'm telling you what I got. Showed
Speaker 1: up at Fort Leonardwood, walked in and it took thirty
Speaker 1: seconds cut your hair off. Was that sad? It was
Speaker 1: very sad because you have great hair. It was very sad.
Speaker 1: So that and then you know, and then tell having
Speaker 1: people tell you what to do, I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: that guy. No, you're the one that tells people what
Speaker 1: to do, so you know the I remember one time
Speaker 1: the sergeant said, we're just standing okay, who has a
Speaker 1: college education? And I raised my hand. The dumbest thing
Speaker 1: you've ever done in your life. Don't ever do that
Speaker 1: in the army raise your hand because we clean floors
Speaker 1: for the next three days because we had a college education.
Speaker 1: You're punished for it. Yeah, why do you think you're
Speaker 1: smarting everybody else? I'll show you your little college kids
Speaker 1: what's going on? It was horrible, horrible, horrible. How long
Speaker 1: did you serve? How were your verses? Uh? Now, this
Speaker 1: is the nineteen seventy two and seventy three, so normally
Speaker 1: you were in for twenty four months. I got out
Speaker 1: in fourteen months because the war was was getting over
Speaker 1: seventy three seventy four, so everyde's coming home. So I
Speaker 1: was only the other for two months. That's good. So
Speaker 1: why did you not pick up singing when you got back?
Speaker 1: Why did you you know the other side, because I've
Speaker 1: I don't want to starve to sing. I'm I made
Speaker 1: a lot of when I was a student teacher, I
Speaker 1: made a decision how much music music? Okay, now there
Speaker 1: was there was this great senior, that good looking senior
Speaker 1: that I went, okay, yes, Well most of my clients
Speaker 1: are women. So in the meantime I think women are gorgeous.
Speaker 1: But the meantime, so I at that point student taught
Speaker 1: in Rock Rapids, Iowa. So just you can picture that
Speaker 1: in your mind, you know. And so in the meantime
Speaker 1: I had long hair. You couldn't have a drink in
Speaker 1: town you were, so I just said, from this point on,
Speaker 1: no one over tell me how much money I can make,
Speaker 1: what I have to look like, and who I can date? Ever,
Speaker 1: and you stuck by that, and I stuck by that,
Speaker 1: and here you are. What was the first sold out
Speaker 1: show that you ever booked? John Denver? Oh? John Denver? John?
Speaker 1: How was that? So? Now Ames Iowa, which was about
Speaker 1: twelve thousand seats was huge? How did that make you
Speaker 1: feel incredible? You know? But again, everything in those days
Speaker 1: were so different. John Denver on that day got paid
Speaker 1: twenty dollars. The promoter made all the money. There was
Speaker 1: no one knew anything about bad agends, the percentages and
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. So you know, I mean
Speaker 1: I would still represent sticks and sticks to this day.
Speaker 1: Now they make grand a night they played the forum,
Speaker 1: and so that six forums. They get paid dollars per
Speaker 1: night in their hey day. But now remember tickets were
Speaker 1: five dollars, seven fifty and twelve fifty, so the grossers
Speaker 1: were not big. So it's it's it's a very different
Speaker 1: world that we're in. When did that change? When did
Speaker 1: the ticket sales and how it's distributed change? Probably on
Speaker 1: the onset of the computers, because in your accounts would
Speaker 1: go on the road, or you could equally send it
Speaker 1: in and and you know, and your your managers just
Speaker 1: got a lot smarter. I mean, you're it managers it
Speaker 1: at that point. Now we're just dealing with we gotta
Speaker 1: make as much money as we can in the road.
Speaker 1: We gotta grows our acts out as much money as
Speaker 1: we can. That kind of stuff. That's crazy. So that
Speaker 1: when was the first time you had the feeling of like,
Speaker 1: this is what I love, like I'm doing my passion.
Speaker 1: I will tell you the first time I had that
Speaker 1: was Tim McGraw when you shot up Lean Rhyme through
Speaker 1: the roof. There was no stopping these people. What does
Speaker 1: it feel like when you're on that rocket ship right
Speaker 1: of you? Nothing goes wrong? It's just you can't nothing
Speaker 1: goes wrong. Any thing is you have to really watch
Speaker 1: that your artist doesn't believe in all the hype. You
Speaker 1: have to just keep them as much as real as
Speaker 1: you can. How do you do that? Because they'll have
Speaker 1: they'll they'll stop your toe, you'll have it. You'll love
Speaker 1: a show that just doesn't do it, and they go like,
Speaker 1: what happened, what happened happened? Well, you didn't do an
Speaker 1: interview and you didn't do this and you didn't do this,
Speaker 1: and you didn't wait long enough to play the market
Speaker 1: after somebody else had played the market. You know, I mean,
Speaker 1: I've got one right now. Cam's going through the roof.
Speaker 1: I mean, she's she's blowing up. She's blowing up totally,
Speaker 1: you know. And she called, that's a call in. She
Speaker 1: called it said you have would would you have a
Speaker 1: meeting with me? She came to you and she's a woman,
Speaker 1: which is hard right now for women, especially in country music.
Speaker 1: So is that a risky sign in the beginning, because
Speaker 1: you believe, first of all, back again, this is ten
Speaker 1: twelve years ago, when at that point I had lee
Speaker 1: and Rhymes, Reba McEntire, Faith Hill, Tricia Yearwood, Martina McBride,
Speaker 1: Dolly pardon Um. They were and they were all happening,
Speaker 1: and you knew women could work totally. The very few
Speaker 1: have done what Reba has done or Dolly has done.
Speaker 1: You get you go really fast because most guys want
Speaker 1: to have a female as an opening act just because
Speaker 1: they don't want anybody to compare them with them. That's
Speaker 1: the thing. It's a very big thing. We gotta have
Speaker 1: something for the guys to come to the show because
Speaker 1: the girls all come to see the guys, so it's
Speaker 1: something that for their husbands at least to entice them
Speaker 1: to come to the show. So that's that's But you
Speaker 1: can build that to a certain point of about ten
Speaker 1: twelve thousand seats to get from twelve to eighteen thousand
Speaker 1: like the Tims and the Lukes, and that takes a
Speaker 1: lot of you have the package properly. Who tour is
Speaker 1: a big deal? Yes? Yes, big deal. Do you want
Speaker 1: someone who's going to sell a lot of tickets to
Speaker 1: go on tour someone or is it more like a
Speaker 1: cool factor or what do you look for as an
Speaker 1: opening act. I'm totally into radio hits, radio hits, radish.
Speaker 1: I mean I'm not I'm not a Americana kind of
Speaker 1: guy that you know. It's really hit the book this
Speaker 1: club with this act. Yeah. I like representing big stars
Speaker 1: and doing a lot within their framework of an artist.
Speaker 1: I like making and it's fun growing them into a
Speaker 1: into a brand as opposed to just an artist, so
Speaker 1: that they have all these different things around them. What
Speaker 1: do you like to how do you like to maneuver that?
Speaker 1: Like when you get the music cemented, where do you
Speaker 1: like to go next with the brand. Is it dependent
Speaker 1: up the plan. It depends. Like with Taylor Swift, Taylor
Speaker 1: of came in and she knew exactly who she was.
Speaker 1: She was first of all, she she was a writer,
Speaker 1: she was a singer. She was the first really really
Speaker 1: really um digital person that was would go on and
Speaker 1: tell you where she's going. She's seeing what she's doing
Speaker 1: every part of the day. So she was on her
Speaker 1: life was exposed, exposed and then she then she like
Speaker 1: she said, she wrote really good songs. But the very
Speaker 1: first tour I put her on was George Straight because
Speaker 1: she was sixteen years old, and if in country music
Speaker 1: when you're sixteen years old, you don't know anything, you're
Speaker 1: just dumb. When you're cute, that's it. So we had
Speaker 1: to make make her a country star. So by being
Speaker 1: on George Straight and her wearing cowboy boots says she's country.
Speaker 1: That's very strategic. So the cowboy boots are strategic, yes,
Speaker 1: and she wore those for probably the first three years
Speaker 1: of her that was her thing, little dresses in cowboyods
Speaker 1: exactly right. In the same when she had a song
Speaker 1: Tim McGraw, I said to her and Tim, because I'd
Speaker 1: luckily had both of them said, you guys can never
Speaker 1: meet until we do this in national television. They did, smart,
Speaker 1: they did, and they were at the A c M.
Speaker 1: She's saying and walked down to Tim and face. Remember
Speaker 1: that that was a big moment. So you set that
Speaker 1: up because because it's real, why should they lie? And
Speaker 1: it's a great story. And but I also remember when
Speaker 1: I told Tim McCraw that she was doing a song
Speaker 1: about him. He was going like, why would she do
Speaker 1: something about me? Why don't you say about George Jones?
Speaker 1: You know I'm not an icon? What to her? You are? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Because it's the exactly which is the kind of crazy, right.
Speaker 1: So so that was a really fun, fun moment. Do
Speaker 1: you have a lot of creativity like that where you
Speaker 1: can dream up wild ideas and make them happen? Yeah,
Speaker 1: but maybe only ever do because there's there's some really
Speaker 1: crazy ones. You know, what's something you've dreamed of? This? Wow,
Speaker 1: that's that's happened. That's been an amazing event. Um Man.
Speaker 1: I had to think back, it's been so long on
Speaker 1: how many people I've done? Um, I can't come up
Speaker 1: with the one right now. Susan, here's a manager at
Speaker 1: red Light and we were actually talking about you because
Speaker 1: you're amazing. Do you speak things into existence because you
Speaker 1: always are super positive and you like it's just happening.
Speaker 1: It's always happening with you, like it's never not going
Speaker 1: to happen, but then it actually does happen. And I
Speaker 1: feel like that is a talent that not all people
Speaker 1: can actually materialize. I do a lot of that just
Speaker 1: because I've done this for so long. So I have
Speaker 1: so many friends in the business. I mean, you know
Speaker 1: a lot of them are dying off now. But that's
Speaker 1: that's a bummer. But you know, again in my in
Speaker 1: my world, every you talk to every they're your friends.
Speaker 1: In your world, you text and email. I tell all
Speaker 1: the time, email or my assistance call them, call them,
Speaker 1: get a relationship, find out about them, because when when
Speaker 1: they need something to call you, when you need something,
Speaker 1: to call them and get just get it done. So
Speaker 1: that personal relationship. Do you think that's gone a long way?
Speaker 1: It's done a long time. I mean I can actually
Speaker 1: say that, you know, uncertain things. Jack Sessman will do
Speaker 1: this at CBS because he's been a friend of mine
Speaker 1: for so many years. You can't give him something that's
Speaker 1: really a dud. You have to give him something that's
Speaker 1: on fire, and you know him and you know what
Speaker 1: he gravitates. That's interesting with speaking on the phone because
Speaker 1: it is such a texting digital I'm on the phone
Speaker 1: twelve to fourteen hours, but you actually want the human contact.
Speaker 1: It makes a difference. It's harder to say no and
Speaker 1: you experience half of it getting ship done. Human relationship
Speaker 1: goes so much farther. I feel like people want to
Speaker 1: help you when they know you, and you want to
Speaker 1: help someone who know them. There's so many people that
Speaker 1: are touchy feely. You just gotta get get to know them. No,
Speaker 1: I mean you have to get to know them, and
Speaker 1: once they get to know you, they'll kill for you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. And so I always really work on that.
Speaker 1: I always try and put people together other it's artists, managers, agents, whatever.
Speaker 1: I'm always trying to network people. I love networking people.
Speaker 1: I'm very good at networking. So how do you deal
Speaker 1: with radio because radio is such a separate beast and
Speaker 1: booking because you have all these great acts. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of great female acts in particular to females are
Speaker 1: having a hard time in country music right now. A
Speaker 1: lot having to do with radio and not playing him,
Speaker 1: changing it. How are you changing that? Because we're getting
Speaker 1: Kelsey Bellerini, We've got Cam happening, gret Brooke Eden starting
Speaker 1: to happen. We've got a lot of stuff that's happening,
Speaker 1: you know, And a lot of that is my friends
Speaker 1: carry Wolf and Milwaukee. There's a bunch of playmakers, your
Speaker 1: friends with the radio, because they all do they all
Speaker 1: do radio shows and they need artists, so they buy
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff from from us directly as opposed
Speaker 1: to promoter putting him in there. And then they're also
Speaker 1: these guys on the air. I want to know that
Speaker 1: they have Taylor Swift and I can call up. And
Speaker 1: I got Martin Bride calling in. I got this calling in.
Speaker 1: So some in some regards as an agent, I'm much
Speaker 1: much more of a manager agent. And sometimes that's good,
Speaker 1: sometimes it's bad. But I'm really involved with my clients
Speaker 1: and the managers. Their managers all know that I'm really involved.
Speaker 1: I think that's important. I do too, But I have
Speaker 1: other friends of mine they are great agents, and until
Speaker 1: they tell their artists asked for something, they would never
Speaker 1: do anything. I like to be proactive. I like to
Speaker 1: keep bringing them stuff and keep bringing them because I
Speaker 1: think they work harder than because they know how hard
Speaker 1: you're working, right, And also there it's an opportunity they
Speaker 1: haven't thought about, you know, I mean things and or else.
Speaker 1: Martina will talk about she she loves cooking. So we
Speaker 1: went and made a cookbook. So we went to I called.
Speaker 1: She said, it was her, it's her idea. I was
Speaker 1: able to make it happen with Simon Green in New
Speaker 1: York City. Yeah, so you're like, done, you want a cookbook.
Speaker 1: We're gonna make a cook book. Well she had to go,
Speaker 1: you have to go sell it. You can't, like I said,
Speaker 1: you can't sell duds. You have to you have to
Speaker 1: have something behind it. But once Martina went and met
Speaker 1: the publishers, they were in yea. And in fact, I
Speaker 1: think they came down here and went to her house
Speaker 1: for dinner and they were totally in cooked for him.
Speaker 1: And that was it. Why do you think women haven't
Speaker 1: been a big presence lately? Why they're coming back? But
Speaker 1: why do they have a little Well, we just got
Speaker 1: into this whole broke country for so long and it
Speaker 1: turned out to be just male dominant. And you know,
Speaker 1: and again there was a cut off. You said some
Speaker 1: of the people who were just getting older and you
Speaker 1: didn't have to blow away people that were younger. And
Speaker 1: I think right now some of the younger kids are
Speaker 1: just incredible artists. I think they're really, really good. And
Speaker 1: unless you're really great, you're not going to make it.
Speaker 1: And I think I think cam Kelsey. I mean, all
Speaker 1: these people are not overnight success. They've been doing this
Speaker 1: for a long time. They just happened to get the
Speaker 1: brakes right now. Who are you most excited about this
Speaker 1: new batch of artists? Who are you most on fire for? Um?
Speaker 1: I'm really really onside on fired for Brooklyn brook She's awesome.
Speaker 1: I think she's cute. She writes Harley with me, Yeah
Speaker 1: she does. She's She's my Harley bitch. But in the meantime,
Speaker 1: I think she's also really good. Her voice is ridiculous
Speaker 1: when you put it again, if you can't deliver, I
Speaker 1: can sell all day lyng, it won't happen. And she's
Speaker 1: really good. So all of a sudden, all the artists
Speaker 1: are loving who she is. And you have to build
Speaker 1: the artist network as much you do the fan network,
Speaker 1: because then they all talk about because it's a community.
Speaker 1: I feel like National in general is a community. It's
Speaker 1: a total community, and the writers are all and there's
Speaker 1: people that are great writers and they're just not ready
Speaker 1: to be an artist yet. And there's people that are
Speaker 1: great writers that never become an artist, and they shouldn't be.
Speaker 1: They don't have the artists. Look, they don't have the
Speaker 1: they don't they don't have the work ethic. Being an
Speaker 1: artist is really hard. What kind of work ethic do
Speaker 1: you have to have? You got to just kill to
Speaker 1: be obsessed. You have to be obsessed. You get to
Speaker 1: bed at midnight, you're up at four in the morning,
Speaker 1: so you look great six am for being on the
Speaker 1: stupid radio. You have to look great because that if
Speaker 1: that guy in there sits there and go, yeah, she
Speaker 1: didn't look that good this morning, they won't play. It's
Speaker 1: that simple. Huh, that's simple. It's very different. Or if
Speaker 1: you're not funny enough, you know, or if you're not
Speaker 1: funny just naturally, you better figure out how to be funny.
Speaker 1: You're well, then you should be a writer. If you
Speaker 1: don't look good, you're not funny. You need to write,
Speaker 1: just write great hit songs, you know. That's true. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but that's I mean there's just so much to do
Speaker 1: in that world that we get people to come in here.
Speaker 1: And I have to say this, Normally, if they're from
Speaker 1: the Voice or from uh some of some of those
Speaker 1: TV shows, they've learned how to sing four songs. I'll
Speaker 1: take anybody that's been playing in front of a crowd
Speaker 1: in a bar and develop them any day before I'll
Speaker 1: just take someone that doesn't know how to do it.
Speaker 1: That's so true, you know, And I just I got
Speaker 1: cringe every time you come in and like, okay, here
Speaker 1: we go. So you have seen a lot of stuff,
Speaker 1: You've done a lot of stuff. Some you might not
Speaker 1: be able to talk about. What is some of the wild?
Speaker 1: Tell me a wild story that like people could not
Speaker 1: believe could really happen. Well, this you don't even know
Speaker 1: who this guy is. Jerry Jeff Walker? Who that is? Okay?
Speaker 1: He wrote Mr bo Jangles. Well, Jerry had a major
Speaker 1: lely drinking problem is early and I was his agent
Speaker 1: and I remember going to a show and anyway, the
Speaker 1: bands on stage playing, playing, and we couldn't find Jerry.
Speaker 1: He was so drunk he was in the audience waiting
Speaker 1: for himself to come on. Yeah, so we put him
Speaker 1: on stage and took towels and wrapped around so he
Speaker 1: wouldn't keep hitting his head against dingy. Well, Jerry Jeff
Speaker 1: never was a great singer. He was just you know,
Speaker 1: but he's saying, but that's why I could write Mr.
Speaker 1: Bo Jangles too, you know. So those kind of things,
Speaker 1: you know, just fun stuff like that. I also remember
Speaker 1: with with Um Andrea Agassi. I used to do all
Speaker 1: the entertainment for Andrea a grassy yeah and stuff. They're
Speaker 1: still friends. So anyone when you're I put Tim McGraw
Speaker 1: on that on the evening and you used to be
Speaker 1: David Foster had a big orchestra and everything. So that
Speaker 1: night there was was uh I think it was Elton John.
Speaker 1: It was Elton John, and Elton sang his song and
Speaker 1: he said, with Tim ever sing with me? Tiny d answer,
Speaker 1: I remember, Tim, should I want to do it? And
Speaker 1: he did it, but he was the wreck, a total wreck,
Speaker 1: just nervous service. He went out and he nailed it
Speaker 1: and they put out as a single for real. He
Speaker 1: was one of Tim's singles. That's amazing. Yeah, But those
Speaker 1: kind of things are just the things that's what fires
Speaker 1: me up, because like you could even dream that up.
Speaker 1: You can't. Some things you can they just happened, or
Speaker 1: other things you can just try and make them happen
Speaker 1: and they still never do. But when they do their
Speaker 1: magic and you'll never see that again, it's like you
Speaker 1: cannot recreate it. I remember we did. We did this
Speaker 1: thing um called off for the Hall. We do off
Speaker 1: for the Hall, l a off for the Hall of
Speaker 1: New York. So this one year it was it's always Emmy,
Speaker 1: Lou Harris, Vince Gills. It's a it's a singer songwriter thing.
Speaker 1: We had Taylor Swift, Lionel Richie, and Christmas Offerson. Now
Speaker 1: Taylor was on fire saying her Tim McGraw's song and everything. Well,
Speaker 1: Lionel sings one of his career anthems, and I remember
Speaker 1: a little Christmas Officers sitting over there and going, you know,
Speaker 1: I wrote this song, and this little girl Janis Joplin
Speaker 1: saying it. But it was you know, I used to
Speaker 1: call my manager. He never talked to me, so I
Speaker 1: kept talking all the time to his assistant, his secretary,
Speaker 1: and her name was Bobby McGhee, and he started singing
Speaker 1: me and Bobby McGee. That's how he wrote the song
Speaker 1: because he was talking to secretary. His manager wouldn't talk
Speaker 1: to him, so Bobby McGhee was his manager's secretary. And
Speaker 1: I'm telling you to this day, I mean, I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: if you walked up the lionel or Taylor and say
Speaker 1: what was what was an event in your life, they'll
Speaker 1: say christmasofts and singing Bobby McGee because you know he's
Speaker 1: old and he's got sort of onset of Alzheimer's and
Speaker 1: you know everything, but it's just kind of it was
Speaker 1: such an emotional moment that night for these major stars.
Speaker 1: Dang and yeah, they because you don't know all the
Speaker 1: back stories, you don't know, and it was just, you know,
Speaker 1: we just did the one this last year and that
Speaker 1: had Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Emmy, Lou Harris, Vince and
Speaker 1: Paul Simon. And when Paul Simon starts singing, every just
Speaker 1: dropped her guitars and went, oh my god, how how
Speaker 1: do we even do this? You know, just you know,
Speaker 1: it just it just I mean those kind of things
Speaker 1: to me are that's why I do this every day. Well,
Speaker 1: I'll take ship all day long to get those moments
Speaker 1: because people don't get those moments. I agree, with you
Speaker 1: like you don't want an ordinary life? You never want
Speaker 1: How did you know you didn't want an ordinary life?
Speaker 1: Like you just aren't made for it. I grew up
Speaker 1: in a little town. I leven kids in my graduating class,
Speaker 1: and all I want to do is get out of that.
Speaker 1: Get out. I wanted to get out, and a big
Speaker 1: thing to me was having someplace I lived in my
Speaker 1: life that would have something open all night long. It
Speaker 1: could be a Perkins waffle hall. They didn't care. It
Speaker 1: had something. So then I just, like I said, I
Speaker 1: just kept signing and signing and signing people, you know,
Speaker 1: and it just it's kept going through all these years.
Speaker 1: It's been a very good life with that same thing.
Speaker 1: That's why I travel over the holidays and go to
Speaker 1: all these crazy places. I've never been these places. So
Speaker 1: you want to, like, is your goal like rod esse
Speaker 1: mission statement for life? Do it all, be it all,
Speaker 1: see it all big, and have fun at it. But
Speaker 1: you want to experience everything? Yes? I want it all.
Speaker 1: So what are the coolest things you've experienced? Well? I
Speaker 1: had last year in November. I've always wanted to land
Speaker 1: in an f A ten on an aircraft here, okay,
Speaker 1: and so I do a lot of work with the
Speaker 1: with the US Afghanistan. You convinced me that Iraq was
Speaker 1: gonna be safe going over there, that it was not
Speaker 1: scary at all, and then we're getting Now we're sitting here.
Speaker 1: It's great and it was a great experience, wasn't it.
Speaker 1: It was a great experience. It wasn't I'm so grateful
Speaker 1: I did. It was the most amazing experience. Meanwhile, though,
Speaker 1: you're telling me you had just gotten back from Afghanistan
Speaker 1: where a bomb dropped right by y'all, I think that
Speaker 1: you're in You're like, but don't worry about it. It'll
Speaker 1: be fine. It's fine, and you're fine to it, aren't
Speaker 1: you totally fine? You're fearless now. So anyway, so I
Speaker 1: got to land on an aircraft carrier in November and
Speaker 1: stayed there all day long, shot guns off the aircraft
Speaker 1: carrier and the next day take off, cat catapult off
Speaker 1: in and f a T and go back and those
Speaker 1: are I had that wish for probably twelve years, and
Speaker 1: he did it. How was it? Finally? Was beyond incredible.
Speaker 1: It was beyond And some people say, why did you
Speaker 1: do it? I've always wanted it, that's I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't want to skydive. It's not my thing, so I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna do that. You know, I do want to
Speaker 1: go to Africa and African Safari, which is have you
Speaker 1: done that yet? No, that'll be next year. So you
Speaker 1: just got back from India And how is that? Chaos? Chaos, chaos.
Speaker 1: I loved it. I'm glad I did it. I won't
Speaker 1: go back and do it again. Incredible, incredible, just crowded, crowded, crowded, crowded.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like I said, it's chaos at its best,
Speaker 1: and I just I'm glad again. I'm glad I did it,
Speaker 1: but it's not my thing. I'm much rather go to
Speaker 1: Spain or you know, or do go to Italy or
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, I loved we went to um
Speaker 1: when year went to Tahiti, that was great, and then
Speaker 1: we went to Thailand, Cambodia. Thailand. Thailand was just amazing,
Speaker 1: It's amazing, and Cambodia Anger Watt was a highlight too.
Speaker 1: But we've done that with with our kids and hopefully
Speaker 1: they have great memories. You know, where where are your
Speaker 1: top places you've traveled? Thailand? Uh, Spain, Oh, I love Spain.
Speaker 1: I lived in Spain, did you love I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: back to Spain. Where in Spain would you want to go?
Speaker 1: I'll go back to Barcelona. I loved it with all
Speaker 1: the gaudy stuff, and I think I loved it. The
Speaker 1: people were great. You know. I like the Italy. So
Speaker 1: I didn't like France. You didn't like France? Why not?
Speaker 1: I thought the people were snooty. Really, I'm not. I'm not. Wasn't.
Speaker 1: The people in Italy was so nice. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: was into it. Okay. So I mean, I love the
Speaker 1: louve and all that kind of stuff, and Martie Monte
Speaker 1: Carlo was incredible. But it's just I just think the
Speaker 1: people were a little obnoxious. You have to you have
Speaker 1: to get rid of that when you can't say that
Speaker 1: I have French people. I don't need French acts. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's crazy leaning on Hurt Love I love On and
Speaker 1: Michael Bolton. She's a great singer, the best in the world.
Speaker 1: I love singers. You do you appreciate it? You love singers?
Speaker 1: If you are you know what they call that spot
Speaker 1: it got it? You are a great singer, rod Esse,
Speaker 1: So you noticed that in other people? It's a big
Speaker 1: deal to walk into a showcase and they get two songs.
Speaker 1: If they're off pitch for two songs, I'm out the door.
Speaker 1: I don't care. But how good they look or what
Speaker 1: if you can't sing on pitch and you're a singer,
Speaker 1: don't go into business. I don't care. Auto tune is
Speaker 1: not going to save your ass, you know. So now,
Speaker 1: why do you think so many people have addictions in
Speaker 1: this industry? I think it's just very difficult. It's seven
Speaker 1: So take yourself, I mean you do. That's a normal
Speaker 1: day that you go. It's it's kind of crazy. You
Speaker 1: you spend twenty hours waiting to perform thirty minutes, and
Speaker 1: then you got to keep up and happy for the
Speaker 1: other three and a half hours until everybody leaves, and
Speaker 1: then you then you're so wired that you have to
Speaker 1: somehow try and slow down to get up at four
Speaker 1: in the morning to take a shower and be wh
Speaker 1: So then they go down and you go back up again,
Speaker 1: and then you get done with that in the mornings
Speaker 1: nine o'clock in the morning, Well, do I really want
Speaker 1: to go to sleep again? I mean, it's just it's
Speaker 1: just a really really roughing have to be on all
Speaker 1: the time. You've got to be on You could never
Speaker 1: have an encounter with someone and they have a bad
Speaker 1: experience with you. And let me tell you the in
Speaker 1: your world today, your world, our world. I'm still here,
Speaker 1: You're still definitely here. But you know, the cameras are
Speaker 1: on everywhere right here. I mean yeah, I mean you're
Speaker 1: any place it used to be somebody do would screw up.
Speaker 1: It would take three days for any ways to find
Speaker 1: out about it. You know, even during the war it
Speaker 1: took twenty four hour hours for that that stuff to
Speaker 1: come back here. Everything is documented now anything in the
Speaker 1: world going on, and it's there, even in your own
Speaker 1: bathroom if you have somebody put a camera there. I
Speaker 1: mean that it's just it's just it's not somewhat not
Speaker 1: fair that there's no place for you to get there's
Speaker 1: no place to Okay, So who who do you have
Speaker 1: any problem? Max? No, all of them are perfect m
Speaker 1: M for this interview, Yes, Jim. Any favorites that you
Speaker 1: just love to be around, Yeah, I love I absolutely
Speaker 1: love to be here. I'd like to be around Tim McGraw.
Speaker 1: He's a great guys got he's very intense. He runs
Speaker 1: four miles afore he does a show every show that's
Speaker 1: he's in great ship. He's just you know it is
Speaker 1: he's a guy that, um he's your partner, but he
Speaker 1: never leaves. He may get mad at you, but and
Speaker 1: that is he's questioning what you're doing or he's done
Speaker 1: something or whatever. But that's what I love about him
Speaker 1: because he's he's I always say, if you go into
Speaker 1: an alleyway for a fight, Tim will be right next
Speaker 1: to you. He will not stay in what you have
Speaker 1: to fight and say how you come out? Really, and
Speaker 1: there's there's a bunch of people like that, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've had, you know, a fun acts to
Speaker 1: be I love. I love being around John and Martina. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're fun. Leanne is great, but she's she's like my daughter.
Speaker 1: So it's like she's been with me for so many years.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, and that's great. And yet when
Speaker 1: she opens her mouth, she's a incredible Singer's the best.
Speaker 1: She just blows your socks off. Tim and Faith as
Speaker 1: perfect as they sing. Yeah, I think they really are.
Speaker 1: I think that they really are. Um. I think Faith
Speaker 1: is just I'd love to walk into the house and
Speaker 1: she's got all these what she used to have all
Speaker 1: the you know, all this yellow pages full of all
Speaker 1: their itineraries and what they're gonna do, what the girls
Speaker 1: do this day, and what they're doing, what they're doing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think she's just incredible that way. She's
Speaker 1: a great decorator. She's gorgeous. But they're both really nice people.
Speaker 1: That's the big They're really nice people. They're not unhappy, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, they're just they're good people. So you can
Speaker 1: have great wives. You have a great wife. How did
Speaker 1: y'all meet? Because she's a saint to be here and
Speaker 1: you're you're an angel, but you're a wild man. Years well,
Speaker 1: way back when again I was a singer. She fell
Speaker 1: in love with your voice, did you? I was, so
Speaker 1: I met her. I my partners son was getting married
Speaker 1: to her cousin, and I was the wedding singer, no way,
Speaker 1: and I thought you had a great ass. So that's
Speaker 1: where I went. So she loved you before any of
Speaker 1: this happened. Before playmate tour, Oh no, no, that's OK.
Speaker 1: You had I was in my late twenties early thirties,
Speaker 1: so there was I had a lot of playmate time.
Speaker 1: I think that's good for all people to have some
Speaker 1: so I had some time and everything like that. In fact,
Speaker 1: for the first couple of years, there was a number
Speaker 1: of people that would come up and say hi to us,
Speaker 1: and she didn't appreciate that. I mean, the past is
Speaker 1: the past, right. So you have two amazing kids. They're
Speaker 1: both in this industry. They're both in the industry in
Speaker 1: different facets. Yes, your daughter Laana is super talented. She's
Speaker 1: a great singer, and she's being an actress and doing
Speaker 1: her yes and doing her thing. And my son is
Speaker 1: so be on what I can even understand. It's like
Speaker 1: a genius. Yes, in the gaming world of you know,
Speaker 1: of game apps and has his own company and it's
Speaker 1: kind of crazy and hopefully he'll sell it in the
Speaker 1: year so now and we'll be fine. Okay, So anything
Speaker 1: else I missed that You need to tell me that
Speaker 1: it would be awesome for listeners to hear. Do we
Speaker 1: get to talk about some of our times in Vegas
Speaker 1: and stuff? What happens in Vegas? That's saying for a reason.
Speaker 1: I do love Vegas, Yes, you do. We had some fun.
Speaker 1: We had some fun there, I know we've had We've
Speaker 1: been in Vegas many times a day. Yes, we have
Speaker 1: so it's been good. It's been fun. But I love
Speaker 1: the stuff. I love the direction you're going in now.
Speaker 1: It's great. You do Do you support my hosting career?
Speaker 1: I totally do. Will you get all of your artists
Speaker 1: tweet about this podcast? Yes I will, you will, And
Speaker 1: also I'll go book a nice, big fat date for
Speaker 1: your husband so you can so we pay for this.
Speaker 1: Thousand says Yes. That's one of your other favorite bands,
Speaker 1: isn't it. I love I think they're great. Michael's great,
Speaker 1: but a lot of years too. You both have that hair.
Speaker 1: You both have a sex hair. It's that flowing locks,
Speaker 1: so it gets all the ladies. But his his is
Speaker 1: still black. Mine is beyond it. You're still color. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's good, that's good. I know, Rod, you're already married,
Speaker 1: so I mean I had to marry Michael. I know
Speaker 1: that's true. That's okay, But I also remember when you
Speaker 1: left him. Know, we had quite we had a road.
Speaker 1: Know we can talk about. I like to call it
Speaker 1: our halftime show. All great acts have a halftime show.
Speaker 1: That's true, that's true. Yeah, okay, So to wrap up
Speaker 1: my podcast, I'm wanting everyone to have a little segment
Speaker 1: called leave your Light give me some inspiration that either
Speaker 1: has affected you or that you can affect on other people.
Speaker 1: I think the one thing if everybody, if I could
Speaker 1: tell all the young people, if you have a passion,
Speaker 1: just stay with it. Tenacity is everything, because it maybe
Speaker 1: not be the right time right now, but it'll come round.
Speaker 1: Everything goes in circles, and so if you really have
Speaker 1: that passion, just stay true to it and don't change it,
Speaker 1: because it'll all happen. It will. Well, I'm just I mean,
Speaker 1: so many people change, change change. If they just did
Speaker 1: this way and people got to know who they were
Speaker 1: for that, then it happens. That's what it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is. And you know it's not gonna be always
Speaker 1: easy every day. Nothing's ever easy. But uh, you know,
Speaker 1: like I'm I always said, I'm one of the lucky people.
Speaker 1: I got to do my life what I want to do.
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to be an agent. I got to
Speaker 1: be an agent my whole life. So I'm very I'm
Speaker 1: still happy. I still get excited about every day. I mean,
Speaker 1: I have my ups and downs, to believe me, but
Speaker 1: most of them. I never dislike anybody I get. I
Speaker 1: get frustrated with what they do but I don't dislike anybody,
Speaker 1: So frustration is the biggest thing. And and that's just
Speaker 1: because somebody did some dumb thing, or somebody had announced
Speaker 1: something before they they didn't tell you the truth. And
Speaker 1: so you have grace for people. Oh yeah, totally. Well,
Speaker 1: I never I never say never with anybody. I I
Speaker 1: don't have anybody that I've ever left. That's just no.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna see him. Were gonna talk to Himgain?
Speaker 1: Never quite an accomplishment. I don't know why. Right, it's
Speaker 1: too it's negative. It takes too much energy to hate somebody.
Speaker 1: I love that. Okay, Rod, Rod, everyone, thank you for
Speaker 1: joining me. This is amazing. Oh shooting a Carola, She's
Speaker 1: the queen of talking. He she's only inside. She got
Speaker 1: the scoop one no one can do with Carol. I
Speaker 1: hope you guys loved hearing all of the inside skinny
Speaker 1: from Rod es. That man knows everybody and knows everything
Speaker 1: about the entertainment industry, and it was so awesome to
Speaker 1: get to hear it from his own mouth. I hope
Speaker 1: that you loved it, and I hope do you feel
Speaker 1: more enlightened about what goes on behind the scenes. Next week,
Speaker 1: I have the Warren Brothers and y'all brace yourselves. I
Speaker 1: mean it, like get ready, because these guys are wild.
Speaker 1: They are wild maniacs in the best way possible. There
Speaker 1: two brothers. They had a big artist career and then
Speaker 1: they morphed into just becoming hit songwriters. They wrote so
Speaker 1: many songs for Tim McGraw. If you're reading this, they
Speaker 1: wrote that song. They've written a ton of stup from
Speaker 1: Martina McBride. They're actually also best friends with timargraw and
Speaker 1: used to tour with him. And they tell some stories
Speaker 1: and they're funny, and they had a show on CMT
Speaker 1: called Barely Famous. They're absolutely insane and so much fun
Speaker 1: and I cannot wait for you guys to hear them
Speaker 1: next week. So do not forget to tune in and
Speaker 1: subscribe on iTunes to hyper Caroline Hobby and leave comments.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next week. By