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Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Leftstets Podcast. My

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Speaker 1: guest today is concert promoter of Louis Messina. Louis.

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Speaker 2: Is it ever Lewis, No, it's never. Yeah. It's really

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Speaker 2: funny because when I introduced myself, I go, Hi, I'm

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Speaker 2: Lewis Messina, but you can call me Louis, but don't

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Speaker 2: call me lou Okay.

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Speaker 1: So what differences have you noticed, if any, in the

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Speaker 1: concert promotion business post COVID as opposed to pre COVID.

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Speaker 2: The difference is is that the abundance of acts that

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Speaker 2: are on the road. It's just, you know, that is

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Speaker 2: the biggest difference. There's so many shows going on at

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Speaker 2: the same time. Even though everything has been so so successful,

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Speaker 2: I'm really concerned that one day and maybe soon, that

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Speaker 2: people are going to say I have no more money.

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Speaker 2: I've been to too many shows. I can't go to

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Speaker 2: fifteen shows like I did because I've seen everybody, or

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Speaker 2: I've been at home and COVID's over. I don't know.

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Speaker 2: I'm just looking forward to this upcoming year and I

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Speaker 2: don't know if I mean that's the big difference. There's

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Speaker 2: a lot of big difference. The country is different today

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Speaker 2: than it was pre COVID. In my opinion, the political

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Speaker 2: landscape is crazy. It's insane, and people, I think are

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Speaker 2: getting over the COVID blues.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so how hard is it to get a building

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Speaker 1: and how far in advanced do you have to book

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Speaker 1: a tour?

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Speaker 2: Well? The good thing, the way I operate, I'm waiting.

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Speaker 2: I'm waiting in advance. I know it artists are doing

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Speaker 2: two years from now because it's not like I'm you know,

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Speaker 2: I call myself a career promoter, not a tour promoter,

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Speaker 2: because it's about not only what we're doing this tour,

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Speaker 2: but what we're doing two three tours from now. And

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Speaker 2: so I'm already booking in twenty six and twenty seven

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Speaker 2: right now because I know what I mean. Everything's always

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Speaker 2: subject to change, of course, but I know what most

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Speaker 2: of my autists are doing in years to come. Unlike

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Speaker 2: you know, when I get a phone call, go hey,

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Speaker 2: we're looking for you know, an offer, and we're going

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Speaker 2: to start in January. That's not how we do business.

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Speaker 1: Okay. Recently, relative to you, you picked up the Lumineers.

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Speaker 1: You're big on career development, taking artists into the stratosphere.

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Speaker 1: The Lumineers did play a stadium in Chicago. What did

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Speaker 1: you see in the Lumineers that you wanted to work

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Speaker 1: with them?

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Speaker 2: Uh? Musically, I just love their music and and uh

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Speaker 2: when I first got involved with them, they were there

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Speaker 2: was sort of like kind of you know, just hipster

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Speaker 2: band sort of, and they had a very select audience,

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Speaker 2: I believe, you know. And then all of a sudden

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Speaker 2: they just developed into superstars. I mean, Wes has become like,

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Speaker 2: I mean, he is a superstar, and the band is

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Speaker 2: has changed. They've got a couple of new members, and it's,

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Speaker 2: in my opinion, it's I just saw I just saw

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Speaker 2: magic and them that That's that's all I can say.

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Speaker 2: I heard magic and their music, and I saw the

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Speaker 2: way that they connected with their audience. Just like everybody.

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Speaker 2: That's what I'm always looking for the connection between the

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Speaker 2: artist and audience. And they have that connection and they

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Speaker 2: are growing by the day.

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Speaker 1: Okay, in the old days, everything was driven by the

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Speaker 1: record company and radio. That's not necessarily the case these days.

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Speaker 1: So with a band like the Lumineers, what can the

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Speaker 1: promoter do to grow the audience for the band?

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Speaker 2: Wow? What can we do? It's almost like, well, we

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Speaker 2: do everything because we like to look at ourselves as

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Speaker 2: as a connection to the artist, the manager, the label,

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Speaker 2: where we're just not we just don't want to be

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Speaker 2: the promoter. We want to be the artist partner. So

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Speaker 2: we're involved in all of their decisions with them, with

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Speaker 2: the record company. So we're all on the same page

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Speaker 2: and we all have goals. And I think that is

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Speaker 2: where how you see something and then you take gambles,

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Speaker 2: you know, like we we played two stadiums last tour,

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Speaker 2: we played Denver and Chicago, and I committed that we're

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Speaker 2: going to play eight to ten uh on you know,

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Speaker 2: on the next tour because I just feel it. But

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Speaker 2: I think that that is it. It's just that we

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Speaker 2: just don't put shows on sale. We're actually we're going

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Speaker 2: deeper than that with the autists and their entire organization,

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Speaker 2: not just us selling tickets. It's selling it's selling them

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Speaker 2: and selling their career and selling their brand. And that's

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Speaker 2: what we're trying to do.

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Speaker 1: Oh, someone like the lumineers who are on their way up,

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Speaker 1: can you go a little deeper what you might do

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Speaker 1: to grow to get people into the building.

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Speaker 2: Well, first of all, we play the right buildings, and

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Speaker 2: unlike a lot of autists that take, you know, take

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Speaker 2: these tour deals. If we're only supposed to do thirty

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Speaker 2: five shows, that's all the shows we do, not fifty

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Speaker 2: or sixty. And we pick our markets and we know

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Speaker 2: where our growth is because you know, I'm a big

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Speaker 2: believer in historicals and so if I saw where they

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Speaker 2: did X amount of people that time, I'm always trying

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Speaker 2: to grow. Help the artists grow twenty five thirty five

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Speaker 2: percent each tour because there's enough people to fill every

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Speaker 2: arena in every stateium in a country that listens to

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Speaker 2: their music. So now you know the fans, they're hardcore fans.

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Speaker 2: They just got to hear one message, one thing from

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Speaker 2: the Lumineers. But now I've got to convince along with

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Speaker 2: the band. But my job is to convince people that

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Speaker 2: should I go to the Lumineers, should I go see

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Speaker 2: this band on that band. I've got to create this

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Speaker 2: imaginary world about going to see the Lumineers and how

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Speaker 2: wonderful it's going to be. And so that is kind

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Speaker 2: of my job is or as you know, throwing them

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Speaker 2: throwing magic dust on the whole on the whole program

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Speaker 2: and if that makes any sense. But that's what I do.

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Speaker 2: I do. I just throw magic dust on it.

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Speaker 1: Okay, well, there's magic dust once the show plays, and

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Speaker 1: magic dust to get people in the building. So if

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Speaker 1: you're playing a stadium that's somewhere between thirty five and

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Speaker 1: sixty thousand seats, you're gonna have a certain number of

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Speaker 1: people who are going to say, I have to see

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Speaker 1: this is my favorite band. How do you convince the

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Speaker 1: rest of the people. What's the magic dust you might

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Speaker 1: employ to get the rest of the people to come.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, through messaging if it's you know, it's

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Speaker 2: through repetition of your message and talking to people, not

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Speaker 2: talking at people. That's hard really to explain. And it's

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Speaker 2: like when you see a commercial on television, officer, Oh wow,

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Speaker 2: that's a cool commercial, and then you want to dig

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Speaker 2: a little deeper. So if I can create this fantasy

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Speaker 2: or that the Lumineers is a mussye show by through

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Speaker 2: repetition of my messaging and through different messaging, getting fans

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Speaker 2: talking to each other, because that's the key thing, because

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Speaker 2: you know, I grew up in a world where you know,

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Speaker 2: the best form of advertising is word of mouth, and

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Speaker 2: so I can get fans start talking to other fans.

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Speaker 2: That's the key thing is to get the chatter gone.

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Speaker 2: And so we just you know, if people weren't, if

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Speaker 2: the fish are inviting on this side of the boat,

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Speaker 2: we have fishing on the other side of the boat.

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Speaker 2: So our messaging has to continue and we have to

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Speaker 2: we have to continue looking for the people that we

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Speaker 2: can convince to go see a band like the Lumineers

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Speaker 2: or whomever, you know, George Strait, whoever I work for.

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Speaker 1: Okay, the old days, you know texas As GM days, whatever,

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Speaker 1: you just advertise on the rock stations. How do you

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Speaker 1: reach these people today?

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, now it's all I mean, the majority

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Speaker 2: of our advertising is social media. I mean we're still

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Speaker 2: buying you know, regular radio and Harvey zero newspaper ads,

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Speaker 2: but most of our advertisings is you know, online advertising,

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Speaker 2: and we have you know, we'll we'll, we'll, we'll partner

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Speaker 2: with you know, we'll partner with Aol or Google, or

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Speaker 2: or will partner with different entities. And so not only

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Speaker 2: are we reaching out just to autist fans, but we'll

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Speaker 2: keep on expanding the number of people we reach out to.

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Speaker 2: If it's through the buildings email. This is if it's

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Speaker 2: through the ticketing company, if it's through the fan clubs,

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Speaker 2: we just keep on growing and own and growing the

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Speaker 2: people that we are who we're trying to reach. We

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Speaker 2: you know, Scott Swift always tells me, you know, there's

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Speaker 2: so many billions of people that live in the world.

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Speaker 2: If we only get one percent of it, I mean,

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Speaker 2: we can sell out everywhere. So that's all we're trying

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Speaker 2: to do, is get one percent of the population. That

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Speaker 2: shouldn't be a tough thing to do.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about Taylor Swift. You know, she wrapped up

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Speaker 1: her US tour a few months ago. If you could

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Speaker 1: snap your fingers and do anything different, what might you

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Speaker 1: do different?

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Speaker 2: Clone her? There's nothing I would do different. I mean,

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Speaker 2: you know it was so big. As I was talking

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Speaker 2: to you and Aspen about there is such a demand,

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Speaker 2: we knew it was going to be big, and we

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Speaker 2: said it. That's while we only set one city a week,

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Speaker 2: so we knew that there was gould be multiples. But

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Speaker 2: you know, if I would have known, I mean, unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: there was ten times. I mean, there was millions and

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Speaker 2: millions of people trying to get tickets. You know, we're

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Speaker 2: trying to get one hundred and fifty thousand tickets and

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Speaker 2: two million people registered. If we would have staggered because

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Speaker 2: our new approach is slow and easy and rather than

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Speaker 2: like going out and at one time, I think that's

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Speaker 2: the only thing we might have done different. But it's

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Speaker 2: been Pitcher perfect. I mean the whole time. I mean,

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Speaker 2: the fans are loving it. She's having the best time

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Speaker 2: of her life. Her shows are incredible, her fans are incredible,

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Speaker 2: and you know, she's ready to start in a couple

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Speaker 2: of weeks in Asia and then you know, it's off

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Speaker 2: around the world this year. I mean, she's working all

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Speaker 2: the way through December.

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Speaker 1: And what is your involvement in the foreign dates we're

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Speaker 1: to see?

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Speaker 2: We're involved with Tailor Worldwide. We have local partners around

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Speaker 2: the around the world, but we're involved with worldwide.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so let's delve into the ticketing. Let's delve in

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Speaker 1: at the most basic level, the fees. What is your

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Speaker 1: view point on the fees.

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Speaker 2: They're ridiculous and I don't know how they got that high.

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Speaker 2: And I think it's sad that ticketing is the cost

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Speaker 2: of service charges ship They're like, you know, a third

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Speaker 2: of the cost of the tickets, which is ridiculous, but

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Speaker 2: there's nothing I can do about it. I mean, I

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Speaker 2: need to have a ticketing system. So if it's Ticketmaster

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Speaker 2: or Access or you know, any of these, you know,

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Speaker 2: seat geeks, their fees are ridiculous. But there's so many,

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Speaker 2: you know, so many people with their hands in the pot.

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Speaker 2: That's why, you know. I mean, you have the ticketing company,

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Speaker 2: you got the building, you got the promoter, you know

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Speaker 2: all you know having their fingers in the pot.

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Speaker 1: So with all these incredibly successful acts, to what degree

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Speaker 1: can you as the promoter negotiate the fees to your advantage?

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Speaker 2: It's very difficult because unless it's a very inexpensive ticket.

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Speaker 2: If I'm trying to sell a twenty dollars ticket, then

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Speaker 2: I will go to a ticketing company and say can

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Speaker 2: we limit the fees at this, But when you're talking

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Speaker 2: about higher up prices, there's little to no control or

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Speaker 2: say that I have because it's what it is. It's

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Speaker 2: very difficult to negotiate their fees down.

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Speaker 1: Okay, the two big ticketing companies in the US you

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Speaker 1: mentioned Access and Live Nation. Ticket Master which is owned

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Speaker 1: by Live Nation, part of Live Nation. Now you have

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Speaker 1: these super scaled shows. But a lot of people where

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Speaker 1: the shows are playing in smaller building or they're not

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Speaker 1: instantly going clean, they get an advertising bump from ticket Master.

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Speaker 1: They feel being on Ticketmaster raises a weirdness. Is that

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Speaker 1: something you've experienced relative to using other ticketing companies.

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Speaker 2: Well, Ticketmaster is the most established company, but Access is

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Speaker 2: gaining ground big time. Ticketmasters just because they're part of

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Speaker 2: Live Nation and you know, they've signed all these you know,

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Speaker 2: building contracts and they were way ahead of the game.

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Speaker 2: But I think people when they think of ticketing, ticket

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Speaker 2: Master comes to mind right away, so the manages people

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Speaker 2: are familiar with it. Even if it's not on Ticketmaster.

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Speaker 2: People go to the Ticketmaster site or go to an

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Speaker 2: automatic brokers site. You know, they'll go they think they're

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Speaker 2: going through Access or Ticketmaster and they wind up on

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Speaker 2: a seek geek site. And you know, unfortunately people are

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Speaker 2: especially a popular show, people are so anxious to get

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Speaker 2: tickets they're not even knowing where they're buying them from.

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Speaker 2: But being on Ticketmaster, you know, they're the most established.

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Speaker 2: That's all I could. It's not like, oh, I'm going

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Speaker 2: to sell fifteen percent more tickets because I'm a Ticketmaster.

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Speaker 2: You know, if I have, you know, a hot act,

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Speaker 2: I could sell it out of my trunk of my car.

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Speaker 2: But people will find where the tickets are. But I

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Speaker 2: think Ticketmaster is the most stable. I'm going to just

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Speaker 2: leave it at that. They're the most established. But we

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Speaker 2: do need to have other ticketing platforms out there.

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Speaker 1: Okay, in other countries you can buy the tickets from

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Speaker 1: multiple outlets. Do you think that's a superior system.

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Speaker 2: My experience is it's not a superior system. I mean,

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Speaker 2: like in London and at Wembley Stadium, you know, the

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Speaker 2: stadium is divided in half where ticket massa gets half

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Speaker 2: the tickets and access gets half the tickets. That works

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Speaker 2: really well, but in a lot of like when we

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Speaker 2: were down in South America, I mean the ticketing was

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Speaker 2: really kind of funky because I mean we had, you

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Speaker 2: know a lot of times the promoters controlled the ticketing.

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Speaker 2: They have their own systems, and so it's not as

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Speaker 2: organized when you leave North America. It's a different world

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Speaker 2: out there, it really is, and it's not as you know,

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Speaker 2: it's it's not as as current as American ticketing. Uh,

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Speaker 2: it's just a lot of work and a lot of detail. Uh.

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Speaker 2: To to to go into countries outside of North America

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Speaker 2: and get the service that we normally have here.

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Speaker 1: How do you make sure you're not ripped off in

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Speaker 1: these countries?

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Speaker 2: Well, you you have to pay close attention and and

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Speaker 2: I guarantee you we're getting ripped off, you know. And

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Speaker 2: I don't think as much as it used to be,

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Speaker 2: because when I first started doing international shows, I always

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Speaker 2: felt like all the international promoters were in collision with

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Speaker 2: each other because the rent you know, the building rents

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Speaker 2: were always the same, all the cost was always the same.

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Speaker 2: And honestly, I just said, this is bs. If you

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Speaker 2: want my act, then I want I. You know, we're

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Speaker 2: not gonna do it your way. We're gonna we're gonna

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Speaker 2: louis Ie this thing, and we're well, you know, I

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Speaker 2: need to know where I need to know what's behind

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Speaker 2: the curtain. So I mean, if you don't want the act,

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Speaker 2: I don't need you man, you know. And and so

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Speaker 2: when you have the power of someone you know, as

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Speaker 2: strong as someone like Taylor, you get you get to

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Speaker 2: look behind the curtain.

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Speaker 1: Okay. In some of these countries, the economics only work

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Speaker 1: through sponsorships because the public can only afford so much

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Speaker 1: for tickets. Is that a factor with Taylor Swift?

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Speaker 2: Not really. She wanted to do you know, Taylor's never

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Speaker 2: done a world tour, and she wanted to do a

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Speaker 2: world tour. And uh, when sponsorships come in, they come in.

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Speaker 2: But it wasn't the driving point of she had to

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Speaker 2: have a sponsor to go tour. You know, if we

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Speaker 2: have sponsors, it's I'm from New Orleans. It's called land yap.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's a little something extra. And so it's

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Speaker 2: not that we it was mandatory that we had to

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Speaker 2: go seek sponsors in other countries, but we did because

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Speaker 2: she's such you know, she's the biggest star and not

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Speaker 2: only in the world, but one of the biggest stars

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Speaker 2: in history of music. So so everybody wants to be

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Speaker 2: associated with her.

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Speaker 1: So how do you decide where to play?

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Speaker 2: Well, you look for the Well we knew this was

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Speaker 2: a stadium tour.

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Speaker 1: So now no, no, I'm talking international. So let's assume

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Speaker 1: you want to go to South America. Economically, do you

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Speaker 1: say I have to do a certain number of dates

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Speaker 1: just to make the numbers work. Where do you decide

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Speaker 1: what cities, what countries, how many shows?

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Speaker 2: Well that came from uh, you know, like we went

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Speaker 2: down in South America. We we only played three markets

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Speaker 2: and besides Mexico City, and that's all she wanted to

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Speaker 2: play where she didn't want to do a tour of

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Speaker 2: South America and then around the world. She just wanted

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Speaker 2: to hit every country. You know. Originally, like Canada wasn't

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Speaker 2: even available when we routed this tour, but then she

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Speaker 2: she got so many requests from her fans then that

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Speaker 2: we added the Toronto uh, and then we added the

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Speaker 2: Vancouver because fan demand and she's trying to reach her

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Speaker 2: all her audience. And so that's what I'm saying. We're

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Speaker 2: playing Italy, playing France where she's never played stadiums in

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Speaker 2: these markets before. She's never played arenas in those markets before.

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Speaker 2: I mean, she's done the UK, but but now she's

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Speaker 2: you know, she's hitting almost every every country in Europe

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Speaker 2: and and you know, then in the East, I mean,

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Speaker 2: she's only done uh, Japan, Thailand, and Australia. So that's

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Speaker 2: the only Marcus that she's done, you know, out west.

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Speaker 2: And but we're doing like I think it's like ninety

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Speaker 2: shows this year around the world, and we come back

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Speaker 2: in North America, we added three shows and we had it.

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Speaker 2: We had Miami, Indianapolis and New Orleans and Toronto and Vancouver.

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Speaker 2: At the end of the tour, Okay, we know that

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Speaker 2: all these shows are going to sell out. They already

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Speaker 2: sold out.

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Speaker 3: Right, Well, you get on the plane, it's day one,

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Speaker 3: and you know you have eighty nine more days to go.

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Speaker 3: Does she ever get fatigued or does she ever say

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Speaker 3: this is as many as I want to play?

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Speaker 2: She she is iron Woman. I mean she is. She

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Speaker 2: comes off stage with so much energy and so she's

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Speaker 2: so happy. She's having the best time of her life.

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Speaker 2: And I can't speak. Just a few times that I've

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Speaker 2: spoken to her, she's off coming off stage, and she is,

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Speaker 2: she sties, she's just happy as could be. And she's

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Speaker 2: I mean she's singing three hours and twenty minutes every night,

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Speaker 2: sometimes doing three four five in a row. She's I

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Speaker 2: told her she's bionical, and she really is. I've never

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Speaker 2: seen anyone like her my whole career.

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Speaker 1: So what makes her different as a person from the

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Speaker 1: other superstars you work with?

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Speaker 2: Man? She tail is a one of a kind. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I've known her for seventeen years and she's always been

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Speaker 2: that special person. She's always out, worked, out thought, you know,

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Speaker 2: out hustled out everything to anybody. And she always knew

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Speaker 2: where she wanted to be, even I mean when she

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Speaker 2: first started. I mean she always told me. I remember

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Speaker 2: before the first tour, she goes, you know, when they

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Speaker 2: hired me as as their promoter, she goes, this is

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Speaker 2: how I want my shows to be. You know, she

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Speaker 2: already had in their head how she wanted it to be.

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Speaker 2: And you know, I want all my songs to be

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Speaker 2: a theatrical presentation. And then she knew what kind of

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Speaker 2: affects she wanted back then, you know, way in the

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Speaker 2: early days when there's not a whole bunch of money involved.

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Speaker 2: But she knew, she knew who she is. She's so

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Speaker 2: driven and she always I don't know, she's she's able

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Speaker 2: to capture what's in her head and get it on stage.

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Speaker 2: She's amazing. I mean, like I said, I'm honored to

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Speaker 2: be a part of her world. And you know, I

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Speaker 2: wish I could take some credit, but man, it's all her.

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Speaker 1: So in terms of ticket prices, there are expensive tickets.

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Speaker 1: How do you decide what the price should be?

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Speaker 2: I let people decide, you know, And and that's why

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Speaker 2: Dynamic pricing comes in no different than airlines and hotels.

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Speaker 2: If someone wants to pay, we sought out at a

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Speaker 2: certain amount and if the demand is there, But like

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Speaker 2: with Taylor and Ed Sheeran, and they'll cap us where

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Speaker 2: we could, they also go, this is the most you

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Speaker 2: can sell a ticket far or dynamic pricing some honest

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Speaker 2: you know, sky's the limit and other parts where people

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Speaker 2: mistaken ticket pricing is that say, ticket prices that we're

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Speaker 2: selling or four hundred and fifty dollars, but on the

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Speaker 2: secondary markets they're five thousand dollars and that's what people

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Speaker 2: that they can tailors selling tickets for or George Straight

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Speaker 2: selling tickets for, and it's not the case. But that's

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Speaker 2: where dynamic price, in my opinion, is really great because

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Speaker 2: it narrows the profit margin of the secondary markets and

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Speaker 2: be the artist it actually now participates in ticket sales

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Speaker 2: as far as the grosses, the full gross and not

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Speaker 2: just their you know a third of what the secondary

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Speaker 2: markets are are selling tickets for. You know, as Bruce said,

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Speaker 2: you know, why should they make the markets when these

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Speaker 2: everybody's on stage is the one that's putting the work in.

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Speaker 1: So once again, if you could snap your fingers. How

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Speaker 1: would you beat the brokers?

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Speaker 2: What we're doing as much as we can do, as

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Speaker 2: far as dynamic pricing, that's the only way to do it.

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Speaker 2: Limit tickets for four to six per transaction. It's just tough, man.

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Speaker 2: The only way you're gonna limit it. If the government

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Speaker 2: jumps in and there's national regulations on resale tickets. It's

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Speaker 2: too big of a business for a promoter or an

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Speaker 2: act just to fight, no matter how hard you try.

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Speaker 2: I mean, you know, look at goth Brooks. He keeps

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Speaker 2: on ad and shows, but there his tickets on the

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00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:33,720
Speaker 2: secondary markets. You know, everybody's tickets are. And we've tried.

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Speaker 2: I've been fighting ticketing scalping my whole career, and I

399
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Speaker 2: don't know what to do about it. I mean, only

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Speaker 2: way I know how to do it, how it benefits

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Speaker 2: us is through dynamic pricing.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So you have these acts that go clean everywhere.

403
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Speaker 1: What kind of deal does your company make with them?

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Speaker 2: I deal that's fair for the act and fair for me.

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Speaker 2: That you know, every act is different. I my you know,

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Speaker 2: as you know, my model is a lot different than

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Speaker 2: AEG's model or Live Nations model. I work with a

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Speaker 2: dozen acts and So my deal with them is my

409
00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:24,280
Speaker 2: deal with them. And you know, I'm not out there

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Speaker 2: in the rent a band business, you know, that's how

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Speaker 2: I call it, you know, where I'm just not writing

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Speaker 2: these goofball checks and making up this these crazy deals

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Speaker 2: where people think they're getting free money. I just make

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Speaker 2: the most money for my artists. That's what I do.

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00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:51,159
Speaker 2: That's how my deals are different, because I'm honest with

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Speaker 2: my artists. If there's a dollar on the ground, they

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Speaker 2: get their piece. There's there's total transparency the way I

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Speaker 2: do business.

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Speaker 1: Have you ever scalped tickets as a promoter?

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Speaker 2: Never that one time? Okay, So you don't believe me.

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Speaker 2: I see that grin on your face.

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Speaker 1: I know so many stories with people with blue chip

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00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:20,360
Speaker 1: reputations and they have scalp tickets and they have done

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Speaker 1: other things. I can't sit here and say you've done it.

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Speaker 1: I'm just saying that, Hey, that's something that comes up

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Speaker 1: with everybody.

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Speaker 2: Or they won't share the public and I could have,

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Speaker 2: you know, I mean, I just like the acts. We

429
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Speaker 2: left a lot of money on the table. But man,

430
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:39,640
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be who I am today if I would

431
00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:42,640
Speaker 2: have played that game. I just wouldn't have simple as that.

432
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:47,880
Speaker 1: Okay, you're done with SFX. You go into business with

433
00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:52,840
Speaker 1: George straight You had so much history in the rock business.

434
00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:56,280
Speaker 1: What did you learn that was different about the country business.

435
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:04,200
Speaker 2: Nothing really different. It's well, Lowald, that's what the i'mn sure,

436
00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:07,320
Speaker 2: you know. I mean, you know, I've been with George

437
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:17,000
Speaker 2: for thirty years and it's there's loyalty there where there's less. Okay,

438
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:20,360
Speaker 2: this is going to get me in trouble. There's less agents,

439
00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:24,360
Speaker 2: there's less people involved. You know, you're dealing almost one

440
00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:26,920
Speaker 2: on one with the autist. You know, like if I'm

441
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:29,600
Speaker 2: dealing with George, I'm dealing with George and you know,

442
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:33,560
Speaker 2: or her Wolsey, his manager. You know, if I'm dealing

443
00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:36,680
Speaker 2: with Kenny Chesney, I'm dealing with Clinton him and Kenny

444
00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:41,480
Speaker 2: you know, the manager. And you know, with Blake Shelton,

445
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:44,520
Speaker 2: I'm dealing directly with Novel and Blake you know, actually

446
00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:48,040
Speaker 2: with Novel, you know, but there's a direct connection. It's

447
00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:52,719
Speaker 2: not like I got to go to the local, you know,

448
00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:56,400
Speaker 2: through the regional agent that goes to the responsible agent,

449
00:29:56,520 --> 00:30:00,680
Speaker 2: that goes to the manager. You know, where that's a

450
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:05,080
Speaker 2: goofball game. So that is the difference between in my

451
00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:09,040
Speaker 2: opinion country. But even though it's the relationship I have,

452
00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:14,200
Speaker 2: It's like with the lumineers Joel Tamian, he's the agent.

453
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:18,880
Speaker 2: Do business with him, do business with you know, activists,

454
00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:22,440
Speaker 2: the management company, and I get quick answers. It's like

455
00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:25,600
Speaker 2: because going back to what I'm saying, I'm trying to

456
00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:29,040
Speaker 2: be partners with the act, not just trying to be

457
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:34,040
Speaker 2: the guy that bought them for a tour or two.

458
00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:38,520
Speaker 2: You know, I didn't buy them. I'm partners with them.

459
00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:41,280
Speaker 1: So when you get involved with George, what's the status

460
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:42,080
Speaker 1: of his business?

461
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:44,960
Speaker 2: What do you mean status?

462
00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:46,360
Speaker 1: How many tickets could he sell?

463
00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:50,680
Speaker 2: Well, I mean we have packaged him with Chris Stapleton

464
00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:54,840
Speaker 2: and we're selling out every stadium that we play.

465
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:58,000
Speaker 1: No, No, I'm asking something when thirty years ago, when

466
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:00,200
Speaker 1: you first got involved with George.

467
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:04,000
Speaker 2: Well, George, as long as I've been involved with When

468
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,840
Speaker 2: I first got involved with George, we went I mean

469
00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:09,040
Speaker 2: besides a couple of amphitheaters that it played for me

470
00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:14,280
Speaker 2: in early early on when I was promoting him in

471
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:16,840
Speaker 2: theaters right after he got out of the Hunky Tonk.

472
00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:20,400
Speaker 2: But how I really got involved with George is creating

473
00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:23,680
Speaker 2: the George Drake Country Music Festival. It started out as

474
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:27,840
Speaker 2: a one day stadium show in San Antonio that led

475
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:32,520
Speaker 2: to an annual eighteen concerts a year throughout the United

476
00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:36,440
Speaker 2: States and stadiums. George was the first country stadium act

477
00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:37,880
Speaker 2: ever to do a stadium tour.

478
00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:42,200
Speaker 1: Tell me about that first gig in San Antonio.

479
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:46,280
Speaker 2: Well, it was George, as I remember, George, Leanne Rihimes.

480
00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:51,600
Speaker 2: I mean, we had a whole bunch of people. I

481
00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:53,920
Speaker 2: don't even remember who was on this show, but it

482
00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:59,360
Speaker 2: was a bunch and we sold out the Alamodome and

483
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:01,920
Speaker 2: George had such a good time, and then he goes,

484
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 2: let's do it again. Then I think the second year

485
00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:10,120
Speaker 2: I added Dallas and Glenn Helen the Amphitheater that we

486
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:13,720
Speaker 2: had back then because it was so big. And then

487
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:18,040
Speaker 2: finally after the Glenn Helen show, I'll know, George and

488
00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:22,400
Speaker 2: I went to play golf with Howard Rose and a

489
00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:27,120
Speaker 2: friend of his, and I had a proposal for George

490
00:32:27,840 --> 00:32:30,959
Speaker 2: and I said, what do you think? He goes, how

491
00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:33,960
Speaker 2: many shows should we we do? And I go, I

492
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:36,800
Speaker 2: don't know, twenty thirty. He goes, how's about we start

493
00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:40,400
Speaker 2: with five or ten? I anyway, we settled on eighteen.

494
00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:43,920
Speaker 2: But that's how it started. I believed in it, and

495
00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:47,000
Speaker 2: you know, the first year I had Tim McGraw, faith

496
00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:50,640
Speaker 2: hilled Dixie Chicks, you know, I had you know, I

497
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:55,760
Speaker 2: had the who's who of country every year. I mean

498
00:32:55,880 --> 00:33:00,440
Speaker 2: that's where I met you know, Tim Faye, Chesney, the Chicks. Uh,

499
00:33:01,400 --> 00:33:04,000
Speaker 2: that's where I met so many people on those George

500
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:05,600
Speaker 2: Stree country music festivals.

501
00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:09,760
Speaker 1: Okay, when the first one happened. Were you working with Pace?

502
00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:11,960
Speaker 1: Who were you working with when you started?

503
00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:17,960
Speaker 2: I was Pace, I you know, were we owned most

504
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:21,000
Speaker 2: of the amphitheaters, and then I started PACE Touring. I

505
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:23,560
Speaker 2: was always in. I was always in touring one way

506
00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:28,520
Speaker 2: or the other. I mean, back in the day when

507
00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:33,200
Speaker 2: Bruce Cap worked for me, we promoted you know, like

508
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 2: New Edition the only nw A tour and uh, we

509
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:45,400
Speaker 2: did a lot of touring. But then I hired John

510
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:48,840
Speaker 2: Meglan and I started PASTE Touring and the first two

511
00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:51,840
Speaker 2: tours that we did was the George Stay Country Music

512
00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:56,440
Speaker 2: Festival and oz Fest. So that's how we started with

513
00:33:56,480 --> 00:34:00,719
Speaker 2: PACE Touring. So what was your experience with Sharon loved it.

514
00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:04,000
Speaker 2: I love Sharon. I love Sharon. I love Ozzie. I

515
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:08,680
Speaker 2: mean it was the most fun I've had. I mean,

516
00:34:09,080 --> 00:34:13,680
Speaker 2: I just adore them, and working with her was so

517
00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:16,880
Speaker 2: much fun. And working with Ozzie was so much fun.

518
00:34:17,640 --> 00:34:20,600
Speaker 2: It was I never stopped laughing.

519
00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:25,560
Speaker 1: Okay, Sharon's tough. They had The Osbourne's on MTV. She

520
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:28,879
Speaker 1: intentionally didn't sign the contracts such that when the show

521
00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:31,000
Speaker 1: was renewed, she held them up for a lot of money.

522
00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:37,239
Speaker 1: Needs to say, her father had a colorful career. What

523
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:39,840
Speaker 1: was it like being in business with her, being on

524
00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:42,160
Speaker 1: the other side of the fence, And did you learn

525
00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:45,960
Speaker 1: anything from her? In addition, what you.

526
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:47,799
Speaker 2: Learn is not to get on the other side of her,

527
00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:50,399
Speaker 2: you know, to get on the talk side of her.

528
00:34:50,840 --> 00:34:56,160
Speaker 2: That's the one thing, you know. But I never had

529
00:34:56,160 --> 00:34:59,640
Speaker 2: a problem with Sharon never ever, you know. I mean

530
00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:04,680
Speaker 2: we would just dear friends with each other. She was

531
00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:09,719
Speaker 2: so lovely, just as nice as nice could be. But

532
00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:12,880
Speaker 2: I've seen the other side of her when she you know,

533
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:15,600
Speaker 2: when she got pissed off at people, Like I said,

534
00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:18,000
Speaker 2: you don't you don't want a blue box from her,

535
00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:20,440
Speaker 2: You don't want a Tiffany box from her?

536
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:23,520
Speaker 1: How about a golfer? Are you?

537
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:31,520
Speaker 2: I stopped playing I was never that good. But I've

538
00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:33,440
Speaker 2: had a couple of back surgeries and a couple of

539
00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:37,160
Speaker 2: knee surgeries. Now I'm kind of afraid to play because

540
00:35:37,239 --> 00:35:41,920
Speaker 2: I don't want another back surgery or knee surgery. But

541
00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:44,680
Speaker 2: I mean, I was a hacker. I mean I was

542
00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:48,799
Speaker 2: a fifteen eighteen handicapper and I think the best I

543
00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:54,000
Speaker 2: ever got was maybe twelve. Actually, the last round of

544
00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:57,440
Speaker 2: golf I played, real round of golf I played was

545
00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:00,560
Speaker 2: with Robin Allen who works with Taylor, and Rob Lighte

546
00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:04,680
Speaker 2: and John Meglin at Augusta for two days. So that

547
00:36:04,760 --> 00:36:05,560
Speaker 2: was a long time ago.

548
00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:10,400
Speaker 1: So to what degree have you benefited business wise playing golf?

549
00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:15,680
Speaker 2: Well, it's really difficult because most of the time, even

550
00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:17,600
Speaker 2: though I might have been playing with people, most of

551
00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:19,600
Speaker 2: time I was in the woods, so I didn't really

552
00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:21,600
Speaker 2: have a chance to talk to talk to a lot

553
00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:26,799
Speaker 2: of people, and so I was always looking for my ball. No,

554
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:29,040
Speaker 2: it was fun. You know, golf is a good community,

555
00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:32,280
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, you know, you spend four hours

556
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:37,000
Speaker 2: with some people, and you know when Rob light and

557
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:39,440
Speaker 2: Mitch Slater, not Mitch.

558
00:36:39,239 --> 00:36:40,960
Speaker 1: Slater, Mitch Rose.

559
00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:45,200
Speaker 2: Mitch Rose had their annual golf tournament at Pebble Beach.

560
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:47,839
Speaker 2: That was nothing but fun. I mean I look forward

561
00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:50,600
Speaker 2: to it every year. So that was fun. And the

562
00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:54,360
Speaker 2: John Barrick, you know the thing, his golf tournament was

563
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:55,440
Speaker 2: always nothing but fun.

564
00:36:56,280 --> 00:37:01,719
Speaker 1: Okay, So you mentioned Howard Rose and Rob Light. What

565
00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:02,600
Speaker 1: makes a good.

566
00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:10,720
Speaker 2: Agent, a smart agent, one that's detailed like Coward Rose,

567
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:14,360
Speaker 2: like you know he is. You know how it was

568
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:18,520
Speaker 2: always so detailed. It wasn't about you know him. The

569
00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:21,359
Speaker 2: same thing. Howard's model was almost like he you know,

570
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:23,640
Speaker 2: he had a dozen acts at the height of his

571
00:37:23,680 --> 00:37:29,040
Speaker 2: career of fifteen acts and unlike you know, one of

572
00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:32,759
Speaker 2: the big agencies where they I mean they kind of

573
00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:36,040
Speaker 2: are involved, but they're not involved. I mean not when

574
00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:40,359
Speaker 2: you have, you know, in your roster's three thousand acts,

575
00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:43,839
Speaker 2: how can you be involved, you're not. But Howard, you know,

576
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:46,360
Speaker 2: he had Elton, he had Buffett, he had Chicago, he

577
00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:50,040
Speaker 2: had you know, he had his niche bands and that

578
00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:52,960
Speaker 2: was it. And it was always one at a time shot,

579
00:37:53,080 --> 00:37:55,439
Speaker 2: I mean, one out of one act at a time,

580
00:37:55,760 --> 00:37:58,920
Speaker 2: very similar to the way I'm doing business. Dennis Offer

581
00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:02,600
Speaker 2: is the same way. He's so detailed. You know, he's

582
00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:06,040
Speaker 2: involved in everything. If it's marketing, if it's ticketing, if

583
00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:09,799
Speaker 2: it's you name it. And just like most promoters, the

584
00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:12,640
Speaker 2: same thing. The promoters that have all these you know

585
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:15,719
Speaker 2: as I call them, turn the page promoters because they

586
00:38:15,719 --> 00:38:19,600
Speaker 2: don't have no idea when a marketing person has you

587
00:38:19,640 --> 00:38:23,880
Speaker 2: know that that's in ames Iowa has thirty shows to

588
00:38:23,960 --> 00:38:26,880
Speaker 2: market at all. At the same time, they're doing a

589
00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:30,040
Speaker 2: shitty job. They're just turning the page to get to

590
00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:34,800
Speaker 2: the next one. And that is I've done that business.

591
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:37,480
Speaker 2: I've done that. That was my world for a long time.

592
00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:39,839
Speaker 2: But that is not a good world. I know. If

593
00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:41,840
Speaker 2: I was an act, I would not have an agent

594
00:38:42,239 --> 00:38:45,759
Speaker 2: or a promoter that wasn't concentrating on me.

595
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:52,239
Speaker 1: Okay, so you work with George Straight. Who was the

596
00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:54,040
Speaker 1: next act after George Straight?

597
00:38:55,239 --> 00:38:58,960
Speaker 2: Well, the five I left with was George Straight. I

598
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:03,560
Speaker 2: had a I wound up having a non compete, a

599
00:39:03,560 --> 00:39:07,600
Speaker 2: two year noncompete, but I was able to call about George,

600
00:39:08,160 --> 00:39:12,840
Speaker 2: the Chicks, Tim McGraw, faith Hill, and Kenny Chesney. So

601
00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:16,560
Speaker 2: that's who I had for the next two years. The

602
00:39:16,680 --> 00:39:21,040
Speaker 2: chicks were on fire. They were selling out everywhere. I

603
00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:25,239
Speaker 2: did the first Soda Soul tour with Timith, faith and

604
00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:29,360
Speaker 2: that's when Kenny was blasting off. You know, he just

605
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:32,600
Speaker 2: became a headliner. So those are the five acts that

606
00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:35,160
Speaker 2: I started with. And then when my non compete was

607
00:39:35,200 --> 00:39:39,759
Speaker 2: over and I started calling agents again and they were

608
00:39:39,880 --> 00:39:45,759
Speaker 2: telling me, well, you can match you know, clear Channels

609
00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:49,839
Speaker 2: offer or match Bob Ruse offer. I going, you need

610
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,360
Speaker 2: match Bob Ruse offer. I trained him, I taught him,

611
00:39:53,719 --> 00:39:56,680
Speaker 2: you know, and he worked for me as a fucking

612
00:39:56,719 --> 00:40:00,400
Speaker 2: club buyer. Sorry I mean to say so now I

613
00:40:00,480 --> 00:40:03,120
Speaker 2: got to match his offer. I played this band when

614
00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:06,319
Speaker 2: they were opening opening in a club, and so that's

615
00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:12,240
Speaker 2: when I realized. I said to myself, screw this business.

616
00:40:12,400 --> 00:40:14,040
Speaker 2: I only want to work with acts that want to

617
00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:16,520
Speaker 2: work with me. I'm going back to the personal and

618
00:40:16,600 --> 00:40:21,359
Speaker 2: relationship business. That's how I changed my whole thing when

619
00:40:21,400 --> 00:40:23,840
Speaker 2: I started Messina touring.

620
00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:29,000
Speaker 1: So tell me how you built Kenny Chesney.

621
00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:31,680
Speaker 2: Well, I believe in Kenny because I saw him on

622
00:40:31,719 --> 00:40:34,840
Speaker 2: George Straight and I saw the merchandise numbers. I know

623
00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:37,279
Speaker 2: that he was second or third from the bottom. We

624
00:40:37,320 --> 00:40:41,200
Speaker 2: had like a seven X show and people were eighty

625
00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:43,239
Speaker 2: five percent of the stadium was full, and he went

626
00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:46,319
Speaker 2: on every night and he was out selling everybody else

627
00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:50,240
Speaker 2: but George Straight and merchandise, and we just chipped away

628
00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:53,720
Speaker 2: with Kenny. I had him on George Straight for two years,

629
00:40:54,080 --> 00:40:57,960
Speaker 2: and then I had him on the Tim McGraw Amphitheater

630
00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:03,240
Speaker 2: tour and then Wet headlining, and we played everywhere. I mean,

631
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:06,080
Speaker 2: if it was a four thousand seedar, five thousand seedar,

632
00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:09,720
Speaker 2: ten thousand sedar, we just kept on building and building

633
00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:12,440
Speaker 2: it and building it, and then we took the shot.

634
00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:15,120
Speaker 2: We played him at neil And Stadium in Knoxville, and

635
00:41:15,200 --> 00:41:19,680
Speaker 2: we did the like almost seventy thousand people and everybody,

636
00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:21,680
Speaker 2: you know, because back then I couldn't even get anybody

637
00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:24,120
Speaker 2: to open for Kenny. You know, what do you mean?

638
00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:26,640
Speaker 2: You know he's a wanna be everybody. You know, just

639
00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:29,560
Speaker 2: no one believed in Kenny Chesney. The only people believed

640
00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:37,719
Speaker 2: in Kenny Chesney was Kenny Chesney, Clintonheim, Joe Galante and myself.

641
00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:42,000
Speaker 2: There was very few people that had belief in him,

642
00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:46,280
Speaker 2: but his fans loved him. And here we are now

643
00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:49,960
Speaker 2: this summer will be twenty five years with Kenny, and

644
00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:53,480
Speaker 2: he just gives it it all man. And you know,

645
00:41:53,600 --> 00:41:57,320
Speaker 2: if you ever been to his show, he's a hard worker,

646
00:41:57,800 --> 00:42:01,400
Speaker 2: just like Taylor. His work ethic is unbelievable. You know

647
00:42:01,680 --> 00:42:04,880
Speaker 2: he's involved. If he doesn't talk to me, he's talking

648
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:08,480
Speaker 2: to Kate McMahon, Roan McMahon. He's talking. He's calling them

649
00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:11,360
Speaker 2: direct about what about this idea, what about that idea?

650
00:42:11,760 --> 00:42:15,600
Speaker 2: What about so and sofa support? You know he is involved.

651
00:42:17,280 --> 00:42:19,600
Speaker 2: The other day, I mean, we got this ridiculous offer

652
00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:21,719
Speaker 2: for somebody and he called me up. He says, what

653
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:25,240
Speaker 2: do you think. I go, well, you want the truth

654
00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:27,359
Speaker 2: or you want to lie? And he goes, I want

655
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:29,440
Speaker 2: the truth. I go, I wouldn't do it. I go.

656
00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:32,399
Speaker 2: We can always make money, Kenny. But this is if

657
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:35,319
Speaker 2: we do this show and it underperforms, which I think

658
00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:38,680
Speaker 2: it will because of the city you going to, you're

659
00:42:38,719 --> 00:42:42,600
Speaker 2: gonna be bitching at me the whole summer. And we've

660
00:42:42,600 --> 00:42:46,400
Speaker 2: got an unbelievable summer coming up. We always end in Foxboro.

661
00:42:46,719 --> 00:42:49,759
Speaker 2: We're doing three stadium three shows in Foxboro this year

662
00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:52,799
Speaker 2: at Jollette Stadium and they're completely sold out. I go,

663
00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:55,839
Speaker 2: and if we add another show, you're gonna hate it

664
00:42:56,640 --> 00:42:59,400
Speaker 2: because it's outside of your normal what you normally do.

665
00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:02,400
Speaker 2: You're routie and all you need to think about is

666
00:43:02,480 --> 00:43:05,960
Speaker 2: all year is why did I book this show? And

667
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:08,600
Speaker 2: he goes, fuck it, I'm not doing it, and he

668
00:43:08,680 --> 00:43:09,839
Speaker 2: didn't do it, you know.

669
00:43:10,760 --> 00:43:13,520
Speaker 1: A little bit more specific, what was wrong with the show?

670
00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:17,239
Speaker 2: It was a it was a B market for a

671
00:43:17,239 --> 00:43:21,000
Speaker 2: lot of money, and I didn't think I thought I

672
00:43:21,040 --> 00:43:26,319
Speaker 2: would wouldn't do well because the market was not that

673
00:43:26,480 --> 00:43:32,960
Speaker 2: great of a market to begin with, and and I

674
00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:34,759
Speaker 2: thought I thought the show would be good for thirty

675
00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:36,280
Speaker 2: five thousand tickets.

676
00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:41,240
Speaker 1: Okay, Kenny, even at this laid date, does not play

677
00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:45,600
Speaker 1: only stadiums, So mix up the stadium with other places.

678
00:43:45,840 --> 00:43:47,000
Speaker 1: What's the logic there?

679
00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:52,719
Speaker 2: He Well, there's a lot of places that hey don't

680
00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:58,800
Speaker 2: have stadiums be you know, like doing this off cycle,

681
00:43:59,280 --> 00:44:01,960
Speaker 2: we always go back to the secondary markets and play

682
00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:05,399
Speaker 2: you know this last year back where I come from,

683
00:44:05,440 --> 00:44:08,920
Speaker 2: we played all secondary markets arenas, and then we just

684
00:44:09,040 --> 00:44:12,440
Speaker 2: normally mix up amphitheaters and stadiums during the summertime when

685
00:44:12,480 --> 00:44:15,080
Speaker 2: it's a stadium run where we'll play a stadium on

686
00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:18,680
Speaker 2: Saturday and play an amphitheater on a Wednesday, because you know,

687
00:44:18,719 --> 00:44:23,680
Speaker 2: there's no stadium in Raleigh, there's no stadium in Little

688
00:44:23,760 --> 00:44:28,839
Speaker 2: Rock or or Phoenix that we should go play. I mean,

689
00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:33,319
Speaker 2: the Amphitheater is the better play for Kenny, you know,

690
00:44:33,560 --> 00:44:38,680
Speaker 2: And that's just it. And there's only somebody, you know,

691
00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:41,320
Speaker 2: I don't think with Kenny, we can play a Wednesday

692
00:44:41,400 --> 00:44:44,360
Speaker 2: night in a stadium where we need to be on

693
00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:46,880
Speaker 2: a Friday Saturday night. And there's only so many Fridays

694
00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:50,440
Speaker 2: and Saturdays each week, you know, So we you know,

695
00:44:50,560 --> 00:44:55,279
Speaker 2: we do twenty two stadiums in about fifteen amphitheaters every year.

696
00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:58,080
Speaker 2: I'm not every year, every other year, because he's in

697
00:44:58,239 --> 00:45:01,799
Speaker 2: every other year cycle. When it comes to state, how.

698
00:45:01,719 --> 00:45:04,040
Speaker 1: Do you decide on in every other year's cycle.

699
00:45:04,400 --> 00:45:06,919
Speaker 2: Well, don't wear out you're welcome, you know. I mean,

700
00:45:07,560 --> 00:45:10,680
Speaker 2: if you you know, if you if you you know,

701
00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:13,439
Speaker 2: don't see him this year, tickets will go and sale

702
00:45:13,480 --> 00:45:15,399
Speaker 2: for next year in about two months, you know, after

703
00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:18,759
Speaker 2: the show. So that's it. So we're you know, we're

704
00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:21,520
Speaker 2: trying to keep the markets fresh for him, so we

705
00:45:21,560 --> 00:45:23,920
Speaker 2: don't just burn out the markets. I mean, like a

706
00:45:23,960 --> 00:45:27,280
Speaker 2: lot that's that's the unfortunately, well a lot of country acts,

707
00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:29,440
Speaker 2: you know, it's just you look at that lineup, it's

708
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:32,680
Speaker 2: this it's the same rethread shows every year. Every year,

709
00:45:32,719 --> 00:45:35,640
Speaker 2: every year, and sooner or later, these acts just burn out.

710
00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:40,399
Speaker 2: You know, it's just like they just become they can

711
00:45:40,440 --> 00:45:41,760
Speaker 2: become B level acts.

712
00:45:49,080 --> 00:45:53,440
Speaker 1: Okay, so you play the stadium in Knoxville. When you

713
00:45:53,480 --> 00:45:59,560
Speaker 1: start playing more stadiums, Taylor's out totally alone. Okay, how

714
00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:02,920
Speaker 1: did you build those shows to sell them? And now

715
00:46:02,960 --> 00:46:05,960
Speaker 1: when Kenny doesn't even need the opening acts, how do

716
00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:06,840
Speaker 1: you build this show?

717
00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:13,200
Speaker 2: We try to find someone that compliments Kenny and his audience.

718
00:46:14,239 --> 00:46:18,640
Speaker 2: You know, it came from my Texas Jam days of

719
00:46:18,680 --> 00:46:21,840
Speaker 2: giving people value for their money, seeing the when George

720
00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:25,800
Speaker 2: Strait Country Music Festival, or George and Chris Stapleton giving

721
00:46:25,840 --> 00:46:29,880
Speaker 2: them value for their money. Where this year it's it's Kenny,

722
00:46:30,040 --> 00:46:34,320
Speaker 2: Zach Brown, Megan Maroney and Uncle Cracker. We're giving people

723
00:46:34,440 --> 00:46:38,640
Speaker 2: value for their money, you know, two headliners. And so

724
00:46:38,680 --> 00:46:43,680
Speaker 2: that's Kenny's shows more or bigger than Kenny himself because

725
00:46:43,960 --> 00:46:48,000
Speaker 2: he turned them into events and it's sort of an

726
00:46:48,080 --> 00:46:52,279
Speaker 2: annual thing that people are It's kind of like Coachella.

727
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:56,040
Speaker 2: People are going to Coachella because they're going to Coachella

728
00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:59,680
Speaker 2: because it's fun. You know, it's an event. Kenny shows

729
00:46:59,760 --> 00:47:03,000
Speaker 2: are events, even when they play the amphitheaters. You know,

730
00:47:03,080 --> 00:47:06,360
Speaker 2: it's kind of like Buffett had it. You know, people

731
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:10,280
Speaker 2: look forward that was their one day vacation every year.

732
00:47:10,719 --> 00:47:14,680
Speaker 2: You know, they're in town vacation. And that's how Kenny is.

733
00:47:14,840 --> 00:47:18,480
Speaker 2: You know, Like we go to New York. I mean

734
00:47:18,520 --> 00:47:22,440
Speaker 2: he sold at MetLife Stadium. He's the number one selling

735
00:47:22,600 --> 00:47:26,359
Speaker 2: artist in the history of Metlight Stadium. I think he's

736
00:47:26,440 --> 00:47:30,480
Speaker 2: number three and over all the Old Giants Stadium and

737
00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:34,960
Speaker 2: MetLife behind Springsteen and the Dead. I believe that's in

738
00:47:35,080 --> 00:47:39,960
Speaker 2: New York City on Jersey. That's amazing. Stady in Philly, Pittsburgh,

739
00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:43,279
Speaker 2: all these markets that he's built, Tampa. I mean, he's

740
00:47:43,400 --> 00:47:48,000
Speaker 2: just built built this brand. You know, No Shoes Nation

741
00:47:48,239 --> 00:47:49,080
Speaker 2: is real.

742
00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:53,400
Speaker 1: So other than Taylor, who can sell as many tickets as.

743
00:47:53,280 --> 00:48:03,160
Speaker 2: Kenny, George at Sharon, who else do I have up there?

744
00:48:04,800 --> 00:48:09,000
Speaker 2: Eric Church is going to be there, The Lumineers is

745
00:48:09,040 --> 00:48:14,160
Speaker 2: going to be there. I don't know. I mean they

746
00:48:14,160 --> 00:48:17,000
Speaker 2: all have their own you know, like no one's going

747
00:48:17,080 --> 00:48:20,360
Speaker 2: to be his biggest tailor. Ever, no one's going to

748
00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:24,960
Speaker 2: be the biggest tailt she believe it or not, she

749
00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:27,440
Speaker 2: hasn't even got to where she's going I always tell it.

750
00:48:27,480 --> 00:48:29,480
Speaker 2: I tell her that every year. She hasn't even got

751
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:34,880
Speaker 2: to where she's gone yet. She's amazing. Idre George, you know,

752
00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:39,719
Speaker 2: he's in this thirty fifth year of touring and still

753
00:48:39,719 --> 00:48:43,800
Speaker 2: on top of the world. He doesn't tour seven shows

754
00:48:43,800 --> 00:48:46,279
Speaker 2: a year, eight shows a year, so he doesn't tour.

755
00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:51,279
Speaker 2: People said he retired, and he goes. I never, He

756
00:48:51,360 --> 00:48:54,200
Speaker 2: never said he retired. He retired from doing an organized tour,

757
00:48:54,640 --> 00:48:58,080
Speaker 2: but he goes, I'm always going to do shows, special shows,

758
00:48:58,320 --> 00:49:00,600
Speaker 2: and you know we do seven, eight, nine shows a year.

759
00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:03,960
Speaker 1: How did the Stapleton George straight thing come together?

760
00:49:04,719 --> 00:49:08,360
Speaker 2: Well, George has respect for Chris. Chris has a respect

761
00:49:08,400 --> 00:49:16,279
Speaker 2: for George, and you know it was magical. I mean,

762
00:49:18,120 --> 00:49:23,080
Speaker 2: Chris opening for George because he loves it. They do

763
00:49:23,200 --> 00:49:27,160
Speaker 2: great business together and probably that's the only act Chris

764
00:49:27,200 --> 00:49:30,600
Speaker 2: would ever open for. But it's out of respect and

765
00:49:30,640 --> 00:49:35,960
Speaker 2: they're magical together. But you're not the promoter for Chris. Correct, No,

766
00:49:36,000 --> 00:49:37,680
Speaker 2: I'm not yet.

767
00:49:38,040 --> 00:49:39,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, as they say, a matter of time, Okay, you

768
00:49:39,960 --> 00:49:41,280
Speaker 1: walk with these five acts.

769
00:49:41,719 --> 00:49:42,160
Speaker 2: Now the no.

770
00:49:42,239 --> 00:49:43,920
Speaker 1: Compete is over. Who's the next act?

771
00:49:44,440 --> 00:49:47,160
Speaker 2: Well, the act that I took on tour was Nickelback

772
00:49:47,880 --> 00:49:54,080
Speaker 2: and I did like one one tour, but it was

773
00:49:54,120 --> 00:49:57,040
Speaker 2: like five cycles of that one tour, and we sold

774
00:49:57,040 --> 00:50:02,320
Speaker 2: that everywhere. I mean we sold that everywhere, every every

775
00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:07,399
Speaker 2: arena across the country. And then you know, and then

776
00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:11,000
Speaker 2: they got the goofball offer from I think it was

777
00:50:11,120 --> 00:50:14,160
Speaker 2: it might have been still Clear Channel back then, and

778
00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:17,000
Speaker 2: or it might have been Live Nation, not sure. And

779
00:50:17,480 --> 00:50:21,160
Speaker 2: I remember when I was with their manager and I

780
00:50:21,200 --> 00:50:27,120
Speaker 2: was with my Wiki and Randy Phillips, and they told

781
00:50:26,880 --> 00:50:30,239
Speaker 2: the number that they were getting, which was more than

782
00:50:30,280 --> 00:50:34,520
Speaker 2: the band was actually grossing. And like Wiki and Randy goes, oh,

783
00:50:34,520 --> 00:50:36,600
Speaker 2: we have to have it. We'll match the off. I go, no,

784
00:50:36,719 --> 00:50:39,960
Speaker 2: we're not. I go, not a shot there. I go,

785
00:50:40,160 --> 00:50:42,560
Speaker 2: we didn't evengross that And you want to match the offer?

786
00:50:42,600 --> 00:50:49,120
Speaker 2: What are you insane? And so anyway, that was another

787
00:50:49,160 --> 00:50:53,520
Speaker 2: case where actually there's a resurgence Nickelback now, but they

788
00:50:53,640 --> 00:50:56,200
Speaker 2: just ran that act in the ground, you know, because

789
00:50:56,520 --> 00:50:58,760
Speaker 2: same thing, they had to play X amount of shows,

790
00:50:59,280 --> 00:51:02,000
Speaker 2: you know, they had to work off that debt, and

791
00:51:02,000 --> 00:51:03,320
Speaker 2: that's not how to build a career.

792
00:51:04,880 --> 00:51:07,160
Speaker 1: How'd you end up going to business with ag.

793
00:51:08,560 --> 00:51:16,319
Speaker 2: Well, I knew I needed I had a good run

794
00:51:16,400 --> 00:51:19,200
Speaker 2: with Pace. I mean I started Pace Concerts with Alan,

795
00:51:19,800 --> 00:51:23,239
Speaker 2: and like I told you earlier, Meglin worked for me

796
00:51:23,280 --> 00:51:27,759
Speaker 2: at Pace Touring. Then he left because he and I

797
00:51:27,840 --> 00:51:32,120
Speaker 2: got the first Spice Girls tour and all the agents

798
00:51:32,239 --> 00:51:39,200
Speaker 2: were uproar, and I remember Sillimon telling John and I

799
00:51:39,400 --> 00:51:42,959
Speaker 2: y'all got y'all can't do the Spice Girls. And we went, yes,

800
00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:49,319
Speaker 2: we can, and and and John basically says, I quit.

801
00:51:50,160 --> 00:51:54,160
Speaker 2: And then then Syllomon just told Meglin. He goes, oh,

802
00:51:54,200 --> 00:51:57,400
Speaker 2: we'll just get Louie to do it. I go, nope,

803
00:51:58,000 --> 00:52:01,240
Speaker 2: I'm not doing it, you know. And so John left

804
00:52:01,280 --> 00:52:05,880
Speaker 2: and started Concerts West with Paul Gongaware. And I literally

805
00:52:05,960 --> 00:52:11,480
Speaker 2: happened to be walking in La and Beverly Hills and

806
00:52:11,520 --> 00:52:13,560
Speaker 2: I'm walking across the street and I see John and

807
00:52:13,600 --> 00:52:15,680
Speaker 2: Paul and I've known them forever, I mean, as long

808
00:52:15,719 --> 00:52:18,560
Speaker 2: as I've been in the business. From the original Concerts West,

809
00:52:18,760 --> 00:52:20,600
Speaker 2: they go, you should come to work with us, I go,

810
00:52:20,719 --> 00:52:23,920
Speaker 2: y'all can't afford me. So I knew Tim my wiki

811
00:52:24,040 --> 00:52:27,600
Speaker 2: through early on days. His brother used to work at

812
00:52:27,640 --> 00:52:30,600
Speaker 2: the back of the Summit with the Arrows, and so

813
00:52:30,920 --> 00:52:34,719
Speaker 2: I knew Tim and I met with him when I

814
00:52:34,840 --> 00:52:38,520
Speaker 2: left Pace when Clear Channel excuse me, or it was

815
00:52:38,560 --> 00:52:43,480
Speaker 2: Clear Channel then, and then of course they were threatened

816
00:52:43,480 --> 00:52:46,400
Speaker 2: to be sued for tortuous interference. And then my wiki

817
00:52:46,480 --> 00:52:48,880
Speaker 2: said just come back when you deal's done, you know,

818
00:52:49,120 --> 00:52:51,759
Speaker 2: And I don't know. I felt like I needed to

819
00:52:51,800 --> 00:52:56,160
Speaker 2: have an infrastructure and the finances to do what I

820
00:52:56,200 --> 00:52:59,640
Speaker 2: wanted to do where I knew I could run a

821
00:52:59,719 --> 00:53:03,360
Speaker 2: small company but not play on the on the scale

822
00:53:03,360 --> 00:53:07,080
Speaker 2: that I wanted to play. So, you know, so I

823
00:53:07,160 --> 00:53:09,880
Speaker 2: went with Tim. It was, you know, probably owned company,

824
00:53:10,480 --> 00:53:14,080
Speaker 2: and I loved him. I mean, he's a he's a

825
00:53:14,160 --> 00:53:17,879
Speaker 2: rain maker, you know. And and Randy Phillips, who I've

826
00:53:17,920 --> 00:53:20,680
Speaker 2: known forever. It was just a great match for me.

827
00:53:20,800 --> 00:53:22,399
Speaker 2: So I went into business with them.

828
00:53:23,800 --> 00:53:27,920
Speaker 1: Okay, subsequent to nickelback then what comes?

829
00:53:30,239 --> 00:53:34,720
Speaker 2: Wow? Man, now you're making uh making my head spin.

830
00:53:34,920 --> 00:53:42,799
Speaker 1: Now, let me ask a questions differently the acts you

831
00:53:42,960 --> 00:53:47,000
Speaker 1: have now, Yeah, because now you're in the career business.

832
00:53:47,560 --> 00:53:50,040
Speaker 1: How many other acts did you promote that you no

833
00:53:50,120 --> 00:53:52,399
Speaker 1: longer promote in your post Clear Channel world?

834
00:53:54,120 --> 00:53:58,319
Speaker 2: Oh shit, all but I promoted almost every act all

835
00:53:58,360 --> 00:54:01,719
Speaker 2: but you know, all but the twelve acts I have,

836
00:54:01,880 --> 00:54:05,759
Speaker 2: I pretty much promoted everybody you know that started with

837
00:54:06,640 --> 00:54:10,319
Speaker 2: anybody that was on the road before the year two

838
00:54:10,400 --> 00:54:13,239
Speaker 2: thousand I promoted. I mean, you know.

839
00:54:13,640 --> 00:54:16,800
Speaker 1: I'm talking after that. Now you're done with Clear Channel.

840
00:54:16,840 --> 00:54:19,960
Speaker 1: You're in the Louis Messina business. You're in the career business.

841
00:54:20,239 --> 00:54:23,200
Speaker 1: You did work with nickelback, they took the big money

842
00:54:23,200 --> 00:54:27,040
Speaker 1: from Live Nation. Did you work with anybody else as

843
00:54:27,080 --> 00:54:29,239
Speaker 1: a tour promoter who you no longer work with?

844
00:54:29,560 --> 00:54:33,080
Speaker 2: Yes, and no longer work with the Chicks, only the

845
00:54:33,120 --> 00:54:36,200
Speaker 2: same thing. They were paid a lot of money and

846
00:54:36,400 --> 00:54:41,680
Speaker 2: God bless them, they're my dear friends. With McGraw, the

847
00:54:41,680 --> 00:54:43,719
Speaker 2: only time I worked with him was doing So to

848
00:54:43,800 --> 00:54:53,160
Speaker 2: Soul because he plays the amphitheaters. And that's the only two,

849
00:54:53,280 --> 00:54:56,600
Speaker 2: the only three acts that I could think of that

850
00:54:57,120 --> 00:54:59,160
Speaker 2: I had and I don't have anymore.

851
00:55:00,200 --> 00:55:04,280
Speaker 1: Okay, who's the first act subsequent to the Big Five

852
00:55:05,160 --> 00:55:07,120
Speaker 1: that you signed that you still work with?

853
00:55:11,280 --> 00:55:11,680
Speaker 2: Taylor?

854
00:55:12,440 --> 00:55:16,600
Speaker 1: Okay? So Taylor is opening for George straight right, right?

855
00:55:16,840 --> 00:55:17,879
Speaker 1: How do you decide that?

856
00:55:19,280 --> 00:55:23,240
Speaker 2: Well, George always likes to have a female on his show.

857
00:55:23,440 --> 00:55:28,839
Speaker 2: Ronnie Millsap was the middle act, and Taylor had a

858
00:55:28,920 --> 00:55:34,359
Speaker 2: song Tim McGraw, and we just put her on and

859
00:55:35,480 --> 00:55:37,400
Speaker 2: simple as that. I mean, the luckiest day of my

860
00:55:37,480 --> 00:55:40,239
Speaker 2: life when you know, I heard a song on the

861
00:55:40,360 --> 00:55:46,879
Speaker 2: radio and I go, what about Taylor Swift? And George went, yeah,

862
00:55:46,920 --> 00:55:51,320
Speaker 2: let's do it. So we put Taylor on our eighteen

863
00:55:51,440 --> 00:55:56,960
Speaker 2: or twenty shows run and no kid. By the third night,

864
00:55:57,080 --> 00:55:59,160
Speaker 2: I knew this girl was going to be a superstar.

865
00:55:59,560 --> 00:56:02,200
Speaker 2: She was a first one. Her work ethic was unbelievable.

866
00:56:02,600 --> 00:56:05,000
Speaker 2: By the third song every night, she had a George

867
00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:07,759
Speaker 2: Straight audience in the palm of our hands. Here is,

868
00:56:07,880 --> 00:56:10,799
Speaker 2: like I've said the story. Here's a seventeen year old

869
00:56:10,840 --> 00:56:14,880
Speaker 2: girl singing about high school breakups and boyfriends and to

870
00:56:14,920 --> 00:56:20,440
Speaker 2: a George Straight audience. And she had them, like I said,

871
00:56:21,239 --> 00:56:24,640
Speaker 2: in her palm of our hands the whole time. And

872
00:56:24,680 --> 00:56:27,120
Speaker 2: she was the first one in the production office every

873
00:56:27,160 --> 00:56:31,560
Speaker 2: morning after she went to radio, writing notes to people

874
00:56:31,600 --> 00:56:34,120
Speaker 2: around the country. She was the last one to leave

875
00:56:34,160 --> 00:56:38,080
Speaker 2: the building every night signing autographs. So she was from

876
00:56:38,440 --> 00:56:44,640
Speaker 2: seventeen years old on the like I said, she just magical.

877
00:56:44,719 --> 00:56:47,759
Speaker 2: That's that's how I met got involved with Tail. I

878
00:56:47,800 --> 00:56:48,640
Speaker 2: just saw the magic.

879
00:56:49,000 --> 00:56:53,000
Speaker 1: Okay, you were convinced. How did you convince Taylor and

880
00:56:53,080 --> 00:56:55,240
Speaker 1: Scott Swift.

881
00:56:55,120 --> 00:56:57,239
Speaker 2: Well, the good thing they got to see me and

882
00:56:57,320 --> 00:57:03,560
Speaker 2: my company work with George Straight and so on Mike Chaos,

883
00:57:03,600 --> 00:57:06,239
Speaker 2: which they are used with most people used so they

884
00:57:06,239 --> 00:57:09,399
Speaker 2: see a nice calm backstage, you know, me walking around

885
00:57:09,400 --> 00:57:11,400
Speaker 2: with a drink in my hand, and you know, everybody

886
00:57:11,440 --> 00:57:14,960
Speaker 2: having a good time, and everybody's relaxed. And and I

887
00:57:14,960 --> 00:57:18,880
Speaker 2: remember Scott Swift would would ask me questions every night,

888
00:57:18,920 --> 00:57:20,800
Speaker 2: what about this? What about that? How do you do this?

889
00:57:20,960 --> 00:57:22,919
Speaker 2: How do you do that? You know? And I got

890
00:57:22,920 --> 00:57:29,520
Speaker 2: to no tailor, and and Andrea, you know, I just

891
00:57:30,480 --> 00:57:34,480
Speaker 2: we just became friends, that's all. And then I was

892
00:57:34,560 --> 00:57:39,040
Speaker 2: such a big believer in her. And and then it's

893
00:57:39,080 --> 00:57:41,120
Speaker 2: so funny. I'm shocked that I have it because then

894
00:57:41,160 --> 00:57:45,160
Speaker 2: I convinced Kenny to put a put her on his

895
00:57:45,280 --> 00:57:52,440
Speaker 2: tour and and she was so excited, she said, you

896
00:57:52,440 --> 00:57:57,320
Speaker 2: know the day I told her, we're in in Fresno

897
00:57:57,600 --> 00:58:02,320
Speaker 2: in Texas, uh at the soccer stadium she had opened

898
00:58:02,360 --> 00:58:08,640
Speaker 2: for Kenny that weekend. And I negotiated the deal with

899
00:58:09,480 --> 00:58:14,240
Speaker 2: back then Scott Borshadow was the manager with Scott and

900
00:58:14,240 --> 00:58:17,680
Speaker 2: to be on the tour, and Taylor came up the greatest,

901
00:58:17,720 --> 00:58:20,720
Speaker 2: happiest day of my life. And then a couple of

902
00:58:20,760 --> 00:58:24,200
Speaker 2: months before the on sale, we just saw in this

903
00:58:24,320 --> 00:58:29,480
Speaker 2: massive deal with Corona Beer. Massive, I mean Buffett had

904
00:58:29,560 --> 00:58:35,640
Speaker 2: just left. And then and so they called me and

905
00:58:35,680 --> 00:58:38,840
Speaker 2: said who is opening for Kenny? And I said, proudly,

906
00:58:38,880 --> 00:58:41,160
Speaker 2: I say Taylor Swift and they go, hold is she?

907
00:58:41,200 --> 00:58:45,080
Speaker 2: I go, well, she's gonna be eighteen in December. Go well,

908
00:58:45,120 --> 00:58:49,520
Speaker 2: we can't have that. And I tried everything to keep

909
00:58:49,520 --> 00:58:54,760
Speaker 2: her on that tour, but didn't work. Her eighteenth birthday,

910
00:58:55,000 --> 00:59:00,160
Speaker 2: I was in Nashville at her birthday party, and she

911
00:59:00,720 --> 00:59:03,439
Speaker 2: locked eyes with me. See she walked in the door,

912
00:59:03,520 --> 00:59:07,040
Speaker 2: and she made her way, you know, besides saying hello

913
00:59:07,120 --> 00:59:11,360
Speaker 2: and hugging everybody directly towards me, put some arms around me.

914
00:59:11,400 --> 00:59:13,320
Speaker 2: And he goes, Louis, no one's ever broken my heart,

915
00:59:13,360 --> 00:59:15,360
Speaker 2: but you broke my heart. I go, well, this is

916
00:59:15,360 --> 00:59:18,040
Speaker 2: the end of my career. A tail square, you know.

917
00:59:18,720 --> 00:59:22,560
Speaker 2: But we had a nice little gift for her a

918
00:59:22,720 --> 00:59:26,280
Speaker 2: matter of fact, and it was her lead story in

919
00:59:26,440 --> 00:59:31,040
Speaker 2: the Time magazine how she said that Kenny gave her

920
00:59:31,040 --> 00:59:35,880
Speaker 2: this big check. You know that we all chipped in.

921
00:59:35,960 --> 00:59:38,800
Speaker 2: Kenny and I chipped in together. And she goes, you know,

922
00:59:39,000 --> 00:59:42,240
Speaker 2: and she's referred to me as Kenny Chesney's promoter, not

923
00:59:42,760 --> 00:59:46,640
Speaker 2: who was also my promoter. But I wasn't back then,

924
00:59:46,720 --> 00:59:49,640
Speaker 2: and then she was just blown away, that's all, you know.

925
00:59:49,880 --> 00:59:54,920
Speaker 2: And then when it was time for her to ready

926
00:59:54,920 --> 01:00:00,439
Speaker 2: to go on tour, you know, they met with their

927
01:00:00,480 --> 01:00:03,000
Speaker 2: agent and then the next day they called me, can you

928
01:00:03,000 --> 01:00:08,120
Speaker 2: come to Nashville? And so I met with Scott Andrea

929
01:00:09,560 --> 01:00:14,080
Speaker 2: brushetta business manager, and we had a great meeting. Andrew says,

930
01:00:14,800 --> 01:00:17,600
Speaker 2: come with me, hop in a car, go out to

931
01:00:18,080 --> 01:00:22,920
Speaker 2: their house and Taylor is at home in a pajamas

932
01:00:23,600 --> 01:00:29,040
Speaker 2: and played me to Fearless record and that was it, man,

933
01:00:29,720 --> 01:00:34,000
Speaker 2: you know, end of story. I mean, it was just magical.

934
01:00:34,040 --> 01:00:37,600
Speaker 2: It's always been magical. And I'm lucky guy.

935
01:00:38,080 --> 01:00:42,440
Speaker 1: So Ed Sheard ends up opening for Taylor, you end

936
01:00:42,520 --> 01:00:44,880
Speaker 1: up becoming his promoter. How did he get on the

937
01:00:44,920 --> 01:00:46,840
Speaker 1: bill and how did you become the promoter?

938
01:00:47,440 --> 01:00:51,320
Speaker 2: Well, Taylor picked him out, I'll be honest. I didn't

939
01:00:51,360 --> 01:00:57,080
Speaker 2: know who had Sharon was okay? So so I same thing.

940
01:00:57,280 --> 01:01:00,320
Speaker 2: I saw him the first night because I'm always watching

941
01:01:00,840 --> 01:01:05,440
Speaker 2: I'm always out watching the audience in the autist and

942
01:01:05,520 --> 01:01:10,160
Speaker 2: so I'm watching that sharing and places going crazy. I mean,

943
01:01:10,240 --> 01:01:12,520
Speaker 2: he was not big in the United States at all.

944
01:01:12,960 --> 01:01:16,440
Speaker 2: I mean, he had the A team and that was

945
01:01:16,480 --> 01:01:20,400
Speaker 2: sort of a hit over here, and and I just

946
01:01:20,440 --> 01:01:22,880
Speaker 2: saw the audience going crazy for him, and he and

947
01:01:22,920 --> 01:01:25,720
Speaker 2: I just became friends. I mean, he would ride my

948
01:01:25,760 --> 01:01:28,960
Speaker 2: bus every night, you know, because he had nothing to do.

949
01:01:29,040 --> 01:01:32,760
Speaker 2: He was my drinking buddy back then. And he did

950
01:01:32,840 --> 01:01:36,520
Speaker 2: forty five minutes and you know, Ed Edward play five hours.

951
01:01:37,120 --> 01:01:39,560
Speaker 2: He would play another two hours on my bus every

952
01:01:39,640 --> 01:01:43,240
Speaker 2: night or three hours. And we just, you know, I

953
01:01:43,360 --> 01:01:49,760
Speaker 2: just we were in we were in in Jersey, I

954
01:01:49,760 --> 01:01:53,120
Speaker 2: think at Prudential and it was rainy and cold outside

955
01:01:53,320 --> 01:01:56,800
Speaker 2: and ed was literally sitting on the sidewalk and I'm

956
01:01:56,840 --> 01:01:59,800
Speaker 2: on my bus. What Sarah went to who works with me,

957
01:02:00,440 --> 01:02:05,840
Speaker 2: and Haley mcallis there. She sees Ed's just sitting on

958
01:02:06,120 --> 01:02:10,400
Speaker 2: on the sidewalk and she goes, what are you doing?

959
01:02:10,480 --> 01:02:12,760
Speaker 2: He goes, I missed my ride. So he's just sitting

960
01:02:12,800 --> 01:02:15,160
Speaker 2: there by himself in the cold, in the rain, smoking

961
01:02:15,160 --> 01:02:17,360
Speaker 2: a cigarette. Come on the bus, have a drink. And

962
01:02:17,400 --> 01:02:19,720
Speaker 2: Susie walks on the bus. I looked at him and go,

963
01:02:20,000 --> 01:02:21,640
Speaker 2: you don't know this ship. But I'm going to be

964
01:02:21,680 --> 01:02:26,760
Speaker 2: your promoter. And then and Sarah goes, I'm gonna I'm

965
01:02:26,760 --> 01:02:29,840
Speaker 2: going to market to your whole tour. And then I goes, seriously,

966
01:02:29,880 --> 01:02:32,680
Speaker 2: you want to take me on? I went, hell yeah,

967
01:02:32,760 --> 01:02:35,280
Speaker 2: And I'll never forget. The next day, Stewart Camp goes,

968
01:02:35,400 --> 01:02:38,480
Speaker 2: I understand that you were talking to my autist. I go, no,

969
01:02:38,720 --> 01:02:41,480
Speaker 2: that wasn't me, that was Jack Daniels talking to him.

970
01:02:41,600 --> 01:02:46,600
Speaker 2: You know, I would never you know, And so so

971
01:02:46,680 --> 01:02:52,280
Speaker 2: anyway we struck up a conversation and I'll never forget.

972
01:02:52,400 --> 01:02:56,000
Speaker 2: Ed and I are talking and Taylor walks up to

973
01:02:56,440 --> 01:02:58,680
Speaker 2: the two of us and he goes, what do y'all do?

974
01:02:58,720 --> 01:03:02,880
Speaker 2: And I go, I just you know, bssen And Taylor

975
01:03:02,880 --> 01:03:04,600
Speaker 2: looks at it and he goes, is Louie trying to

976
01:03:04,640 --> 01:03:10,360
Speaker 2: hustle you? And Ed goes, yeah, he is. Actually she goes, well,

977
01:03:10,400 --> 01:03:13,040
Speaker 2: you should pay attention to him because I've never made

978
01:03:13,040 --> 01:03:14,920
Speaker 2: so much money in my life, you know, since I've

979
01:03:14,920 --> 01:03:18,320
Speaker 2: worked with him, and he's really the best, so you

980
01:03:18,360 --> 01:03:21,080
Speaker 2: should you should pay attention to what he has to say.

981
01:03:21,120 --> 01:03:23,640
Speaker 2: And you know that was it, you know, I mean,

982
01:03:24,600 --> 01:03:27,480
Speaker 2: we're we're still best of friends to this day. I

983
01:03:27,480 --> 01:03:31,120
Speaker 2: mean Ed and I've been together, I know, it's like

984
01:03:31,280 --> 01:03:36,520
Speaker 2: ten twelve years, and he's just he's adorable man. You know,

985
01:03:36,640 --> 01:03:39,320
Speaker 2: he's like my son, He's like my best friend. And

986
01:03:40,120 --> 01:03:42,280
Speaker 2: I just love him to death. I love his manager,

987
01:03:42,840 --> 01:03:46,040
Speaker 2: you know, I love his parents. It's just one of

988
01:03:46,120 --> 01:03:51,520
Speaker 2: those things.

989
01:03:53,600 --> 01:03:58,240
Speaker 1: Okay. Earlier in her career, did Live Nation make one

990
01:03:58,280 --> 01:04:00,760
Speaker 1: of those stupid offers to Taylor.

991
01:04:00,760 --> 01:04:04,560
Speaker 2: Were to d or any early late in the middle, Yeah,

992
01:04:04,600 --> 01:04:08,000
Speaker 2: they did. But Tail always bet on herself.

993
01:04:08,480 --> 01:04:10,760
Speaker 1: Okay, betting on herself meaning.

994
01:04:12,120 --> 01:04:18,520
Speaker 2: She's going to control her career and not that's it.

995
01:04:19,080 --> 01:04:21,760
Speaker 1: Okay, you end up making a deal with Eric Church.

996
01:04:22,480 --> 01:04:26,320
Speaker 1: Eric Church is Q Prime Nashville, but it's part of

997
01:04:26,400 --> 01:04:29,840
Speaker 1: Q Prime in New York with Cliff and Peter, and

998
01:04:29,880 --> 01:04:37,840
Speaker 1: they really don't like these deals. How did that come about?

999
01:04:38,280 --> 01:04:44,240
Speaker 2: Eric opened for Kenny in the stadium and Kenny told me, Louis,

1000
01:04:44,920 --> 01:04:47,680
Speaker 2: you need to get involved with him. This guy's going

1001
01:04:47,720 --> 01:04:52,120
Speaker 2: to be a major star. And the same thing. You know,

1002
01:04:52,960 --> 01:04:58,720
Speaker 2: I got to know Eric and Catherine, his wife, and

1003
01:04:58,800 --> 01:05:03,040
Speaker 2: watching him perform, you know, every weekend, and we just

1004
01:05:03,080 --> 01:05:08,320
Speaker 2: became friends. And and then I met with him and

1005
01:05:08,400 --> 01:05:13,120
Speaker 2: Pete's his manager, and one thing led to the other.

1006
01:05:13,400 --> 01:05:16,440
Speaker 2: That's it, you know, And I said, I want to

1007
01:05:16,440 --> 01:05:18,360
Speaker 2: be a promoter. He had a promoter at a time,

1008
01:05:18,480 --> 01:05:23,360
Speaker 2: but it wasn't Live Nation, but Live Nation went after

1009
01:05:23,400 --> 01:05:27,560
Speaker 2: him big time. But that's how it went, you know.

1010
01:05:27,600 --> 01:05:30,840
Speaker 2: It's just like he saw the work I did. Eric.

1011
01:05:31,120 --> 01:05:33,160
Speaker 2: I remember one night he told me, he goes, I

1012
01:05:33,240 --> 01:05:36,040
Speaker 2: never thought I'd want to play stadiums Louis, But what's

1013
01:05:36,040 --> 01:05:38,520
Speaker 2: bigger than the stadiums? And I go, We'll figure it out,

1014
01:05:38,920 --> 01:05:42,880
Speaker 2: you know. But you know, I've been with Eric for

1015
01:05:43,320 --> 01:05:49,280
Speaker 2: ten plus years, you know, and trust me, he I

1016
01:05:49,360 --> 01:05:53,400
Speaker 2: almost lost him, you know, because you know, one company

1017
01:05:54,080 --> 01:05:57,680
Speaker 2: offered this ridiculous amount of money. But after I explained,

1018
01:05:57,880 --> 01:06:01,640
Speaker 2: after I explained to him that he's getting paid with

1019
01:06:01,680 --> 01:06:05,880
Speaker 2: his own money with a really high interest rate. And

1020
01:06:06,000 --> 01:06:10,000
Speaker 2: Eric's a smart guy. So soon as he saw the

1021
01:06:10,040 --> 01:06:13,480
Speaker 2: math of things, and he knew the passion I had

1022
01:06:13,520 --> 01:06:18,919
Speaker 2: for him, I mean, and he knew where he went

1023
01:06:19,720 --> 01:06:24,000
Speaker 2: with me, and so he stayed with me. I thought,

1024
01:06:24,160 --> 01:06:26,600
Speaker 2: you know, for a minute, I thought it was it

1025
01:06:26,640 --> 01:06:30,880
Speaker 2: was a jump ball, I mean, but it was throughout

1026
01:06:30,960 --> 01:06:35,840
Speaker 2: friendship and him knowing how devoted I was to his

1027
01:06:35,920 --> 01:06:38,000
Speaker 2: career and to him as a person.

1028
01:06:38,920 --> 01:06:42,040
Speaker 1: Now if you listen to Rappino, he has other revenue

1029
01:06:42,040 --> 01:06:47,560
Speaker 1: stream sponsorship, etc. And certainly they're paying more money in

1030
01:06:47,640 --> 01:06:51,480
Speaker 1: certain cases. Aren't there cases where they can just pay

1031
01:06:51,520 --> 01:06:52,680
Speaker 1: more money than you can?

1032
01:06:53,640 --> 01:06:57,840
Speaker 2: Well, they do, but they don't. I mean they do

1033
01:06:57,920 --> 01:07:01,720
Speaker 2: pay more money. They pay once again this fantasy money,

1034
01:07:02,080 --> 01:07:05,040
Speaker 2: you know, non not just down but other companies too,

1035
01:07:05,400 --> 01:07:10,919
Speaker 2: non recoupable bonuses, full non recoupable advance bull. All they're

1036
01:07:10,960 --> 01:07:13,800
Speaker 2: doing is, you know, the autists are not sharing in

1037
01:07:13,840 --> 01:07:17,080
Speaker 2: the rebates. They're not as much as the rebates they'll

1038
01:07:17,160 --> 01:07:19,800
Speaker 2: share be shared in the taste. All of a sudden,

1039
01:07:19,800 --> 01:07:23,320
Speaker 2: your ticket's on TM plus, you know, like happy inventory

1040
01:07:23,400 --> 01:07:25,760
Speaker 2: on TM Plus. And you're right, they have so many

1041
01:07:25,800 --> 01:07:28,960
Speaker 2: revenue streams. The amphitheaters. You know, you look at every

1042
01:07:29,000 --> 01:07:33,640
Speaker 2: person that goes in there, besides the cost of the ticket,

1043
01:07:34,080 --> 01:07:39,000
Speaker 2: everybody that's in there, you can their netting must probably

1044
01:07:39,000 --> 01:07:43,280
Speaker 2: be sixty to eighty dollars ahead on people that walk

1045
01:07:43,320 --> 01:07:47,360
Speaker 2: into amphitheater. So you have fifteen thousand people times sixty

1046
01:07:47,440 --> 01:07:50,280
Speaker 2: or eighty dollars ahead. That's so much money they're making

1047
01:07:50,400 --> 01:07:53,959
Speaker 2: on the amphitheater. So yeah, they have all this monopoly money,

1048
01:07:54,800 --> 01:08:00,000
Speaker 2: and so they're pretending they're given to you in a dance,

1049
01:08:00,400 --> 01:08:04,000
Speaker 2: but they really are. They're just giving you your own money.

1050
01:08:05,200 --> 01:08:08,600
Speaker 2: And autists don't understand that. I lost two autists of

1051
01:08:09,120 --> 01:08:14,400
Speaker 2: one stadium artists and because I had the deal, handshake deal,

1052
01:08:14,680 --> 01:08:15,960
Speaker 2: but all of a sudden they came in and go,

1053
01:08:16,960 --> 01:08:20,719
Speaker 2: here's this check. And the artist called, He goes, Lookias Harts.

1054
01:08:21,200 --> 01:08:25,120
Speaker 2: Decision I had to make in my life. But I can't.

1055
01:08:25,320 --> 01:08:27,720
Speaker 2: You know, I couldn't say no. I go, have you

1056
01:08:27,760 --> 01:08:30,519
Speaker 2: already committed? He goes, yeah, I had to because they

1057
01:08:30,560 --> 01:08:33,800
Speaker 2: made me commit. I go, well, best of luck to you,

1058
01:08:33,800 --> 01:08:37,240
Speaker 2: you know. And you know, I mean, when someone's given

1059
01:08:38,040 --> 01:08:43,800
Speaker 2: this massive check or not at one time, but they're saying, here,

1060
01:08:43,840 --> 01:08:47,000
Speaker 2: we'll guarantee you this, it's hard to say no unless

1061
01:08:47,040 --> 01:08:49,879
Speaker 2: the artist is smart enough to peel back the layers.

1062
01:08:51,800 --> 01:08:54,120
Speaker 2: And I just just now this year, not too many

1063
01:08:54,160 --> 01:08:59,719
Speaker 2: months ago, I had this artist done and we shook

1064
01:08:59,760 --> 01:09:04,719
Speaker 2: hands everything, and all of a sudden, five million dollars

1065
01:09:04,760 --> 01:09:08,280
Speaker 2: non recoupable signing bonus, you know, versus a ninety five

1066
01:09:08,320 --> 01:09:12,200
Speaker 2: to five, And you know, and I went, what the

1067
01:09:12,280 --> 01:09:16,840
Speaker 2: hell are y'all doing? I mean, why you know, like,

1068
01:09:19,160 --> 01:09:22,559
Speaker 2: you can't make that much money, and they're gonna see

1069
01:09:22,600 --> 01:09:24,960
Speaker 2: where half their tickets are going to be on TM

1070
01:09:25,040 --> 01:09:29,439
Speaker 2: plus half they're too you know, it's it's just not

1071
01:09:29,840 --> 01:09:33,120
Speaker 2: it's just not Live Nation. And you know, my partner's

1072
01:09:33,120 --> 01:09:37,200
Speaker 2: ag they play the same game. But you know, autists

1073
01:09:37,320 --> 01:09:41,240
Speaker 2: just don't understand where there's no such thing as free money.

1074
01:09:41,760 --> 01:09:45,519
Speaker 2: There's no such thing as free money. And that's what

1075
01:09:46,040 --> 01:09:49,000
Speaker 2: autists have to understand. But it's hard when they go here,

1076
01:09:49,120 --> 01:09:51,840
Speaker 2: here's this money, but you don't have to pay it back. Well,

1077
01:09:51,880 --> 01:09:54,519
Speaker 2: they don't know I could steal so much money from

1078
01:09:54,520 --> 01:09:57,840
Speaker 2: every artist every night. They wouldn't have a clue, you know,

1079
01:09:58,000 --> 01:09:58,599
Speaker 2: but I don't.

1080
01:10:00,080 --> 01:10:02,920
Speaker 1: And let's assume you did. Where would you steal it?

1081
01:10:03,920 --> 01:10:08,160
Speaker 2: Oh, everywhere building deals rebates. I mean that's where I would,

1082
01:10:08,360 --> 01:10:09,880
Speaker 2: you know, that's where I would get it. Instead of

1083
01:10:09,960 --> 01:10:14,360
Speaker 2: get X amount in rebates, I would give the audits

1084
01:10:14,400 --> 01:10:20,240
Speaker 2: a taste and keep the rest. And instead of you know,

1085
01:10:20,800 --> 01:10:24,479
Speaker 2: giving them discounted rent, I would charge them rec rade

1086
01:10:24,479 --> 01:10:28,559
Speaker 2: on rent and just keep the rest. But that's not

1087
01:10:28,600 --> 01:10:33,040
Speaker 2: how I work, but that that is how other companies work.

1088
01:10:33,960 --> 01:10:34,759
Speaker 2: I know it.

1089
01:10:36,479 --> 01:10:38,600
Speaker 1: So the acts ever come to you and you say no,

1090
01:10:38,760 --> 01:10:39,680
Speaker 1: I don't want to work with you.

1091
01:10:40,560 --> 01:10:42,800
Speaker 2: There's been a few I just didn't want, you know,

1092
01:10:43,120 --> 01:10:46,439
Speaker 2: I didn't have I have to be passionate about the act.

1093
01:10:46,600 --> 01:10:48,720
Speaker 2: I have to. I have to be passionate about it,

1094
01:10:48,920 --> 01:10:52,800
Speaker 2: and they have to be passionate about me too. They

1095
01:10:52,840 --> 01:10:55,600
Speaker 2: have to want to work with me, and I have

1096
01:10:55,680 --> 01:10:58,400
Speaker 2: to want to work with them, and they have to

1097
01:10:58,479 --> 01:11:02,280
Speaker 2: invite me into their world, because if they don't, I

1098
01:11:03,120 --> 01:11:06,880
Speaker 2: can't do them. I can't think what's inside their heads.

1099
01:11:07,760 --> 01:11:09,960
Speaker 2: I just can't think what's inside They have to tell

1100
01:11:10,000 --> 01:11:12,000
Speaker 2: me what's inside their heads. If they let me into

1101
01:11:12,080 --> 01:11:14,720
Speaker 2: their world, I'm just going to try to make it

1102
01:11:14,760 --> 01:11:20,000
Speaker 2: bigger for them. That's what I tried to do. But yes,

1103
01:11:20,360 --> 01:11:22,439
Speaker 2: so there's been acts. They're going, what do you want

1104
01:11:22,439 --> 01:11:24,800
Speaker 2: to do with me? I go, I don't know what.

1105
01:11:25,040 --> 01:11:28,200
Speaker 2: Let's talk about it. You know, I don't know what

1106
01:11:29,080 --> 01:11:32,240
Speaker 2: let's talk about You know, what is your plans? I mean,

1107
01:11:32,280 --> 01:11:34,400
Speaker 2: you've known what you want to do since the first

1108
01:11:34,400 --> 01:11:37,479
Speaker 2: time you picked up a guitar or you know, played

1109
01:11:37,479 --> 01:11:40,960
Speaker 2: a one note on a piano or saying one note.

1110
01:11:42,760 --> 01:11:44,640
Speaker 2: So yeah, I've passed on a bunch of acts. If

1111
01:11:44,680 --> 01:11:48,639
Speaker 2: you want to honestly, probably I passed on two three

1112
01:11:48,680 --> 01:11:52,360
Speaker 2: acts a year. I'm just not don't think I can

1113
01:11:52,479 --> 01:11:53,000
Speaker 2: run with it.

1114
01:11:54,320 --> 01:11:57,360
Speaker 1: Okay, you talked about your bus and edge Sharon riding

1115
01:11:57,400 --> 01:12:00,519
Speaker 1: in your bus. Your acts go on the road. How

1116
01:12:00,560 --> 01:12:01,759
Speaker 1: often are you with the show?

1117
01:12:02,960 --> 01:12:08,040
Speaker 2: I am one year, I was on the road like

1118
01:12:08,040 --> 01:12:13,000
Speaker 2: two hundred and sixty days. Most of the time, I'm

1119
01:12:13,040 --> 01:12:15,720
Speaker 2: between one d one hundred and fifty days a year

1120
01:12:16,880 --> 01:12:17,599
Speaker 2: something like that.

1121
01:12:18,600 --> 01:12:20,400
Speaker 1: And you do you own a jet.

1122
01:12:21,800 --> 01:12:26,200
Speaker 2: I don't own a jet, but I've got you know,

1123
01:12:26,920 --> 01:12:28,680
Speaker 2: I've got to deal with net jet. That's what I

1124
01:12:28,800 --> 01:12:33,160
Speaker 2: deal you know, a you know, a card, you know,

1125
01:12:34,240 --> 01:12:39,080
Speaker 2: on a fractional share. Right, Yeah, So your acts are

1126
01:12:39,080 --> 01:12:41,439
Speaker 2: on the road. Are you in the bus or you

1127
01:12:41,600 --> 01:12:45,960
Speaker 2: flying in for the gig. I'm usually flying to the gig.

1128
01:12:46,439 --> 01:12:48,240
Speaker 2: Then I go on the bus. You know. If I'm

1129
01:12:48,280 --> 01:12:50,639
Speaker 2: doing multiple nights, I stay on the bus. I never

1130
01:12:50,680 --> 01:12:53,240
Speaker 2: get a I never check into a hotel, you know.

1131
01:12:53,479 --> 01:12:56,600
Speaker 2: So the bus is my home, my office, you know,

1132
01:12:57,360 --> 01:13:01,000
Speaker 2: and that's that's what I do. Then I'll fly home.

1133
01:13:01,600 --> 01:13:04,200
Speaker 1: Okay. Do you have your own bus like Willie Nelson

1134
01:13:04,320 --> 01:13:06,400
Speaker 1: or you get a new bus when you're on the road.

1135
01:13:06,720 --> 01:13:09,360
Speaker 2: No, I have my own bus, and how.

1136
01:13:09,240 --> 01:13:10,400
Speaker 1: Is your bus fitted out?

1137
01:13:11,600 --> 01:13:15,160
Speaker 2: It's pretty cool, you know. I mean it's you know,

1138
01:13:15,160 --> 01:13:18,880
Speaker 2: it's a double slide out. It's got a front lounge,

1139
01:13:19,520 --> 01:13:25,719
Speaker 2: it's got two bathrooms, four bunks, and a queen's size

1140
01:13:25,760 --> 01:13:28,880
Speaker 2: bed in the back, full shower. I mean, I know,

1141
01:13:29,280 --> 01:13:32,439
Speaker 2: it's got everything. It's like, you know, everything but room service.

1142
01:13:32,479 --> 01:13:34,719
Speaker 2: And I got room service anyway, because I go to show,

1143
01:13:35,200 --> 01:13:36,800
Speaker 2: I call the runner as I go pick me up

1144
01:13:36,840 --> 01:13:39,720
Speaker 2: a hamburger or something. So and you know, there's a

1145
01:13:39,760 --> 01:13:44,040
Speaker 2: refrigerator of microwave oven on my bus, so I can

1146
01:13:44,040 --> 01:13:45,080
Speaker 2: cook on my bus too.

1147
01:13:45,920 --> 01:13:47,679
Speaker 1: So when you're on the road, you're on the bus.

1148
01:13:47,720 --> 01:13:49,640
Speaker 1: How many people are on your bus?

1149
01:13:50,360 --> 01:13:54,360
Speaker 2: Most of the time it's just me, or if someone's riding,

1150
01:13:54,439 --> 01:13:56,439
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, I could have my staff riding

1151
01:13:56,479 --> 01:14:00,840
Speaker 2: with me, or somebody needs a rod, you know, time

1152
01:14:00,880 --> 01:14:01,200
Speaker 2: it's me.

1153
01:14:02,040 --> 01:14:06,759
Speaker 1: Okay, you talk about eating a hamburger. We're in our seventies. Now,

1154
01:14:07,320 --> 01:14:09,880
Speaker 1: How is your health and you're eating this road food?

1155
01:14:10,400 --> 01:14:11,200
Speaker 1: Tell me about that.

1156
01:14:12,400 --> 01:14:16,160
Speaker 2: Actually, my health is really good and I don't eat

1157
01:14:16,439 --> 01:14:19,840
Speaker 2: that much. Is very red I eat catering, you know,

1158
01:14:21,120 --> 01:14:25,439
Speaker 2: and most of the time I just order out. You know,

1159
01:14:25,560 --> 01:14:28,479
Speaker 2: from a restaurant, you know, if it's you know, if

1160
01:14:28,520 --> 01:14:32,960
Speaker 2: it's Eddy V's or you know, whatever the good restaurant

1161
01:14:33,000 --> 01:14:34,880
Speaker 2: is that's close to the venue. You know, I'll just

1162
01:14:35,320 --> 01:14:37,920
Speaker 2: order out and have a good meal. It's very rare.

1163
01:14:38,040 --> 01:14:41,880
Speaker 2: I'm you know, schlupping down pizzas at the end of

1164
01:14:41,960 --> 01:14:45,080
Speaker 2: the night, you know, and just eating junk, junk, junk.

1165
01:14:45,400 --> 01:14:48,320
Speaker 2: It's you know. And then I stopped drinking over a

1166
01:14:48,400 --> 01:14:52,800
Speaker 2: year ago, so that's that's made me a lot better

1167
01:14:52,840 --> 01:14:56,640
Speaker 2: and more coherent. So my health is great. You know.

1168
01:14:56,920 --> 01:14:59,800
Speaker 2: I'm you know, just wear and tearing my body. That's all,

1169
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:01,120
Speaker 2: you know, knees them back.

1170
01:15:02,240 --> 01:15:07,320
Speaker 1: Okay, the being goes off the stage at eleven. They're

1171
01:15:07,320 --> 01:15:11,280
Speaker 1: playing the next night somewhere. What's your routine?

1172
01:15:12,240 --> 01:15:18,280
Speaker 2: Usually routine is, I'll hang on the bus in the beginning,

1173
01:15:18,400 --> 01:15:21,040
Speaker 2: have the building come up, you know, do a little

1174
01:15:21,200 --> 01:15:24,960
Speaker 2: you know, song, and dance with them. If then it

1175
01:15:25,000 --> 01:15:28,880
Speaker 2: depends on the act, if it's George or Eric or Kenny,

1176
01:15:29,200 --> 01:15:33,040
Speaker 2: I'll go hang out with them for half hour, hour,

1177
01:15:33,200 --> 01:15:37,439
Speaker 2: two hours and you know, just shoot the ship and

1178
01:15:37,720 --> 01:15:42,000
Speaker 2: talk about life. That's what I do. And then if

1179
01:15:42,040 --> 01:15:43,960
Speaker 2: we have a show next night, I'd just go back

1180
01:15:44,000 --> 01:15:47,519
Speaker 2: on my bus, go to sleep, wake up at the

1181
01:15:47,560 --> 01:15:49,639
Speaker 2: gig the next day, and do it all over again.

1182
01:15:49,800 --> 01:15:54,400
Speaker 1: Okay, gigs over at eleven? What time would you be

1183
01:15:54,439 --> 01:15:55,240
Speaker 1: in your bus?

1184
01:15:57,080 --> 01:16:03,040
Speaker 2: Eleven oh two? And then I know I'll go usually

1185
01:16:03,120 --> 01:16:05,680
Speaker 2: go on my bus and then let the autist you know,

1186
01:16:05,800 --> 01:16:09,960
Speaker 2: cool off, and usually they have their little you know,

1187
01:16:10,080 --> 01:16:14,200
Speaker 2: their gassed and then then you know, I'll go go

1188
01:16:14,320 --> 01:16:16,080
Speaker 2: on their bus or they'll come on my bus and

1189
01:16:16,120 --> 01:16:17,280
Speaker 2: we just hang out.

1190
01:16:18,400 --> 01:16:20,559
Speaker 1: If the dig is over to eleven, at what point

1191
01:16:20,600 --> 01:16:22,000
Speaker 1: do you put your head on the pillow?

1192
01:16:22,920 --> 01:16:26,200
Speaker 2: Could be twelve, it could be four o'clock in the morning.

1193
01:16:27,439 --> 01:16:30,679
Speaker 1: You know, inherently on the road it's hard to sleep.

1194
01:16:31,320 --> 01:16:33,280
Speaker 1: So how's your situation with sleep?

1195
01:16:34,520 --> 01:16:38,000
Speaker 2: I have a comfortable bus. I mean it's good. I

1196
01:16:38,040 --> 01:16:41,400
Speaker 2: don't know, you know, since I stopped drinking before, it

1197
01:16:41,439 --> 01:16:46,519
Speaker 2: wasn't sleeping, it was just passing out. But I sleep

1198
01:16:46,560 --> 01:16:48,760
Speaker 2: good on the bus. I love my bus, you know.

1199
01:16:48,920 --> 01:16:51,280
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a queen size bed. I've got a

1200
01:16:51,400 --> 01:16:54,360
Speaker 2: tell you know, huge TV back there. I mean, it's

1201
01:16:54,920 --> 01:16:57,280
Speaker 2: it's definitely home away from home. I love it.

1202
01:16:58,640 --> 01:17:01,800
Speaker 1: Well, are you looking forward to getting home to a

1203
01:17:01,880 --> 01:17:04,080
Speaker 1: normal life or do you do you feel like you're

1204
01:17:04,080 --> 01:17:06,560
Speaker 1: burning your candle on both ends on the road or

1205
01:17:06,600 --> 01:17:08,400
Speaker 1: could you stay on the road indefinitely?

1206
01:17:09,320 --> 01:17:14,360
Speaker 2: Now, this year I picked and choose because I had,

1207
01:17:14,439 --> 01:17:18,120
Speaker 2: you know, Taylor, ED and Straight playing at the same time.

1208
01:17:18,439 --> 01:17:21,000
Speaker 2: So I was only gone, you know, like two days

1209
01:17:21,040 --> 01:17:24,559
Speaker 2: a week because I couldn't go to because they all

1210
01:17:24,560 --> 01:17:29,640
Speaker 2: played on Saturday night, you know. And and so I

1211
01:17:29,640 --> 01:17:33,120
Speaker 2: would go to George one weekend, Taylor one weekend, ED

1212
01:17:33,160 --> 01:17:35,680
Speaker 2: one weekend, and you know, That's what I did the

1213
01:17:35,720 --> 01:17:38,920
Speaker 2: whole summer. You know. So this summer, as busy as

1214
01:17:39,000 --> 01:17:42,240
Speaker 2: I was, it was probably was the lightest the least.

1215
01:17:42,400 --> 01:17:44,760
Speaker 2: I think I was under one hundred shows this year

1216
01:17:46,080 --> 01:17:49,240
Speaker 2: because I didn't stay at all seven Taylor Swift shows

1217
01:17:49,320 --> 01:17:50,440
Speaker 2: or six shows.

1218
01:17:51,120 --> 01:17:53,400
Speaker 1: Okay, do you watch the show?

1219
01:17:54,320 --> 01:17:59,160
Speaker 2: Absolutely? Absolutely watch the show, you know, I mean, do

1220
01:17:59,240 --> 01:18:02,320
Speaker 2: I watch one hundred center of this show? Not every night?

1221
01:18:02,760 --> 01:18:06,519
Speaker 2: But am I out there. That's where I'm getting my education,

1222
01:18:06,960 --> 01:18:09,639
Speaker 2: and that's where honestly, I'm watching the opening acts, I'm

1223
01:18:09,640 --> 01:18:13,640
Speaker 2: watching and I'm watching the artists. I mean, I know

1224
01:18:13,760 --> 01:18:17,320
Speaker 2: George's set list by hard, Taylor is set list by heart. Kenny,

1225
01:18:17,760 --> 01:18:22,080
Speaker 2: I'm always you know, and you know, and yeah, that's

1226
01:18:22,080 --> 01:18:24,479
Speaker 2: what I do. I mean, I have nothing else to do.

1227
01:18:25,600 --> 01:18:29,080
Speaker 2: I really have nothing to do at a show because

1228
01:18:29,560 --> 01:18:32,639
Speaker 2: my job is done. You know, I'm working on next

1229
01:18:32,720 --> 01:18:36,280
Speaker 2: year in a year after. And my team you know who,

1230
01:18:37,320 --> 01:18:40,080
Speaker 2: because I assigned a team to every autist. They're the

1231
01:18:40,120 --> 01:18:42,240
Speaker 2: ones that are doing all the work to day of

1232
01:18:42,240 --> 01:18:44,519
Speaker 2: the show. I always say, if I got something to

1233
01:18:44,560 --> 01:18:47,200
Speaker 2: do day to show, I didn't do my job. And

1234
01:18:47,920 --> 01:18:51,559
Speaker 2: so I'm there really bored as crap at the show.

1235
01:18:52,040 --> 01:18:54,880
Speaker 2: But the only thing I have is the entertainment, so

1236
01:18:55,400 --> 01:18:57,679
Speaker 2: which I love because when I walk into a sold

1237
01:18:57,720 --> 01:19:01,559
Speaker 2: out stadium, I'm I'm a pre o Papa man. You know.

1238
01:19:01,560 --> 01:19:04,799
Speaker 2: I always say, that's my Academy award, that's my Grammy.

1239
01:19:05,080 --> 01:19:08,439
Speaker 2: When I see, you know, fifty five, sixty thousand people

1240
01:19:08,760 --> 01:19:13,080
Speaker 2: or fifteen thousand people in an arena, I just there's

1241
01:19:13,120 --> 01:19:19,960
Speaker 2: nothing like nothing more exciting than seeing that energy in

1242
01:19:20,040 --> 01:19:20,760
Speaker 2: a facility.

1243
01:19:21,920 --> 01:19:23,840
Speaker 1: Okay, you go to bed in the bus. What time

1244
01:19:23,840 --> 01:19:24,479
Speaker 1: do you wake up?

1245
01:19:25,760 --> 01:19:29,719
Speaker 2: It could be eight o'clock in the morning, and now

1246
01:19:29,960 --> 01:19:32,400
Speaker 2: that I don't drink anymore, usually it's eight o'clock in

1247
01:19:32,400 --> 01:19:35,240
Speaker 2: the morning before who knows.

1248
01:19:35,400 --> 01:19:37,799
Speaker 1: And you wake up, what do you do you immediately

1249
01:19:37,840 --> 01:19:39,879
Speaker 1: jump on the phone.

1250
01:19:40,560 --> 01:19:42,800
Speaker 2: You know, most of the time I'm on it. It's

1251
01:19:42,840 --> 01:19:48,280
Speaker 2: the weekend. Yeah, I'm on the phone. Coffee building, people

1252
01:19:48,320 --> 01:19:50,519
Speaker 2: come on in and out, my people on in and out,

1253
01:19:50,520 --> 01:19:53,720
Speaker 2: my bus all day, you know, to my staff if

1254
01:19:53,760 --> 01:19:58,240
Speaker 2: it's the building. But yeah, I'm doing phone work. I'm

1255
01:19:58,280 --> 01:20:03,920
Speaker 2: doing you know, you know, responding to emails and doing

1256
01:20:03,960 --> 01:20:07,240
Speaker 2: all that stuff and just hanging out. But most of

1257
01:20:07,240 --> 01:20:09,360
Speaker 2: my show, you know, most of the time, it's the weekend,

1258
01:20:09,479 --> 01:20:12,639
Speaker 2: so there's you know, it's kind of quiet as far

1259
01:20:12,680 --> 01:20:13,840
Speaker 2: as the business goes.

1260
01:20:15,080 --> 01:20:16,680
Speaker 1: So how many people do work for you?

1261
01:20:17,720 --> 01:20:22,360
Speaker 2: We have total between here and Nashville, only forty five people.

1262
01:20:23,040 --> 01:20:24,280
Speaker 2: I think it's around forty five.

1263
01:20:25,360 --> 01:20:28,400
Speaker 1: And when you talk about your team on the road

1264
01:20:28,439 --> 01:20:30,720
Speaker 1: with the act, are those full time employees?

1265
01:20:31,120 --> 01:20:34,240
Speaker 2: Yeah? All my employees are full time.

1266
01:20:34,880 --> 01:20:37,400
Speaker 1: So are they only working on one act or they

1267
01:20:37,400 --> 01:20:39,040
Speaker 1: work on multiple acts?

1268
01:20:40,720 --> 01:20:44,639
Speaker 2: Most of them just work on one act the marketing

1269
01:20:44,680 --> 01:20:49,920
Speaker 2: people use. Sometimes we'll work on two or three acts. Max.

1270
01:20:52,240 --> 01:20:56,160
Speaker 2: It's very rare that the acts that work on overlap

1271
01:20:56,200 --> 01:20:59,599
Speaker 2: with each other. You know, where Kate only to actually

1272
01:20:59,600 --> 01:21:02,560
Speaker 2: works on is George Straight and Kenny Chesney. Kate McMahon

1273
01:21:03,200 --> 01:21:07,200
Speaker 2: Sarah went to She works on Ed Taylor and Illumineers

1274
01:21:08,080 --> 01:21:11,639
Speaker 2: and that's it, you know. Rachel Powells just works on

1275
01:21:11,920 --> 01:21:18,559
Speaker 2: Eric and Blake, you know. And that's how I divide

1276
01:21:18,560 --> 01:21:21,479
Speaker 2: it up. I mean, and then I have like Mike

1277
01:21:21,560 --> 01:21:24,559
Speaker 2: Dugan All he's president of the company, but all he

1278
01:21:24,680 --> 01:21:29,360
Speaker 2: does is Taylor, you know, that's his only act Rome.

1279
01:21:29,479 --> 01:21:32,680
Speaker 2: All he does is Kenny Chesney. So you know, I

1280
01:21:33,640 --> 01:21:37,640
Speaker 2: my road people, they're really only really have one or

1281
01:21:37,680 --> 01:21:40,559
Speaker 2: two acts max that they work with and never at

1282
01:21:40,600 --> 01:21:42,959
Speaker 2: the same time, Let's.

1283
01:21:42,720 --> 01:21:44,760
Speaker 1: Say I call you and I say we're getting on

1284
01:21:44,800 --> 01:21:47,080
Speaker 1: the jet. We're going to this island where there's no

1285
01:21:47,320 --> 01:21:50,600
Speaker 1: cell service, no internet for two weeks. And let's just

1286
01:21:50,680 --> 01:21:55,040
Speaker 1: assume you're enticed by the trip. Can you go for

1287
01:21:55,120 --> 01:21:57,280
Speaker 1: two weeks without being connected to your people?

1288
01:22:00,360 --> 01:22:05,200
Speaker 2: If Christine allows me to go. Yes, I've got a

1289
01:22:05,240 --> 01:22:11,280
Speaker 2: great team. I'm not kidding I in what I've done

1290
01:22:11,280 --> 01:22:17,200
Speaker 2: with everyone here, I've empowered everyone to make decisions on

1291
01:22:17,240 --> 01:22:20,320
Speaker 2: their own. They know what they know the difference between

1292
01:22:20,360 --> 01:22:23,360
Speaker 2: right and wrong. I don't have any gunslingers here. We

1293
01:22:23,479 --> 01:22:26,600
Speaker 2: know they know my model, I know their model. You know.

1294
01:22:26,720 --> 01:22:31,000
Speaker 2: It's like they know the autos so they can make decisions.

1295
01:22:31,720 --> 01:22:36,320
Speaker 2: I mean, if something really crazy, they would find a

1296
01:22:36,360 --> 01:22:38,519
Speaker 2: way to get to me. But the answer is yes,

1297
01:22:38,640 --> 01:22:41,200
Speaker 2: I could turn I could. Like last week, I just

1298
01:22:41,800 --> 01:22:44,320
Speaker 2: I said, screw it, I'm not you know, I went

1299
01:22:44,360 --> 01:22:47,800
Speaker 2: to my ranch, my ranch by places dripping springs and

1300
01:22:48,240 --> 01:22:50,759
Speaker 2: got on my skits theer and I pulled up ceedar

1301
01:22:50,840 --> 01:22:53,880
Speaker 2: trees for three days because I just had to get away. Man.

1302
01:22:54,040 --> 01:22:56,759
Speaker 2: You know, I just you know, I just I wanted

1303
01:22:56,800 --> 01:22:59,760
Speaker 2: a mindless job to do, and that's what I did.

1304
01:23:00,960 --> 01:23:03,720
Speaker 1: If you're in town, does it ever shut down? Or

1305
01:23:03,760 --> 01:23:05,680
Speaker 1: is somebody going to be calling you all night? Or

1306
01:23:05,720 --> 01:23:06,960
Speaker 1: you're going to pick up the phone?

1307
01:23:07,520 --> 01:23:09,960
Speaker 2: No, I won't pick up the call. I mean I

1308
01:23:10,160 --> 01:23:13,280
Speaker 2: will if I have a show on the road and

1309
01:23:13,360 --> 01:23:15,960
Speaker 2: the phone rings. I was looking to see who's calling.

1310
01:23:17,680 --> 01:23:21,439
Speaker 2: But if it's after seven o'clock, I'm not picking up

1311
01:23:21,439 --> 01:23:24,160
Speaker 2: the call. I used to I used to be a

1312
01:23:24,200 --> 01:23:28,879
Speaker 2: phone junkie, but not anymore because they'll be there tomorrow.

1313
01:23:37,160 --> 01:23:38,400
Speaker 1: So why'd you give up drinking?

1314
01:23:39,760 --> 01:23:46,479
Speaker 2: I just decided, you know, it wasn't healthy for my

1315
01:23:46,560 --> 01:23:52,680
Speaker 2: personal relationship with my wife and family and my you know,

1316
01:23:52,800 --> 01:23:54,960
Speaker 2: I'm getting up in the age and I just had

1317
01:23:54,960 --> 01:23:57,479
Speaker 2: a good run with Jack Daniels. I just I got

1318
01:23:57,479 --> 01:23:58,200
Speaker 2: tired of drinking.

1319
01:23:59,280 --> 01:24:00,240
Speaker 1: Have you quit the four?

1320
01:24:03,840 --> 01:24:07,920
Speaker 2: Not seriously? But it was never dependent on a drink,

1321
01:24:07,960 --> 01:24:11,519
Speaker 2: you know. I always say I'm only drinking when I'm drinking,

1322
01:24:12,960 --> 01:24:16,920
Speaker 2: you know. Oh that's why they call it drinking, because

1323
01:24:17,200 --> 01:24:19,800
Speaker 2: once I have won, the party starts. But if I

1324
01:24:19,840 --> 01:24:22,200
Speaker 2: don't have a you know, I would go a month,

1325
01:24:22,280 --> 01:24:24,920
Speaker 2: two months without a drink. But you know, you know

1326
01:24:25,200 --> 01:24:28,760
Speaker 2: my environment, I'm usually the first one. I start the

1327
01:24:28,800 --> 01:24:32,040
Speaker 2: party and I end the party, you know. But I

1328
01:24:32,160 --> 01:24:35,360
Speaker 2: just you know, I mean shit, holding Court. I mean,

1329
01:24:35,360 --> 01:24:38,719
Speaker 2: this is gonna be my first Grammys without my first

1330
01:24:38,760 --> 01:24:42,680
Speaker 2: Grammy sober. And you know, the Chairman's lounge was was

1331
01:24:43,400 --> 01:24:46,439
Speaker 2: that was my roost man. I ruled that that was

1332
01:24:46,439 --> 01:24:51,439
Speaker 2: my lounge, you know. And I did more business in

1333
01:24:51,520 --> 01:24:55,040
Speaker 2: the Chairman's Lounge than I did, I mean anywhere around

1334
01:24:55,479 --> 01:25:01,240
Speaker 2: just you know, just holding Court, and that's where So

1335
01:25:01,320 --> 01:25:04,200
Speaker 2: this could be. I don't know. I survived the Kenny

1336
01:25:04,240 --> 01:25:07,960
Speaker 2: Chesney Taylors with Ed sheeran George Straight tour without a drink,

1337
01:25:08,160 --> 01:25:10,640
Speaker 2: without a drink. I think I can survive the Grammys.

1338
01:25:11,479 --> 01:25:13,800
Speaker 1: So what have you noticed has been different. Now since

1339
01:25:13,800 --> 01:25:15,000
Speaker 1: you stopped drinking.

1340
01:25:15,479 --> 01:25:17,639
Speaker 2: I can remember what I said the night before.

1341
01:25:21,080 --> 01:25:28,599
Speaker 1: Okay, to what degree has this gig affected your personal life?

1342
01:25:30,040 --> 01:25:33,080
Speaker 2: It's tough, man, you know a lot. I mean, you know,

1343
01:25:33,080 --> 01:25:36,160
Speaker 2: it's just when I'm on the road so much, and

1344
01:25:37,160 --> 01:25:42,000
Speaker 2: it's a disconnect between myself and my family. And that's

1345
01:25:42,040 --> 01:25:44,719
Speaker 2: why I made a commitment that I won't travel as much.

1346
01:25:44,800 --> 01:25:48,320
Speaker 2: But this is after fifty one years of doing this,

1347
01:25:48,439 --> 01:25:52,559
Speaker 2: so yeah, it's you know, it's affected my life. It's

1348
01:25:52,600 --> 01:25:55,439
Speaker 2: really hard to be married to me or to be

1349
01:25:55,800 --> 01:26:01,000
Speaker 2: a child of mine because I'm gone to be. Like

1350
01:26:01,160 --> 01:26:05,680
Speaker 2: I told you, I was the workaholic guy. That was NonStop.

1351
01:26:05,800 --> 01:26:07,599
Speaker 2: I mean the time I woke up in the morning,

1352
01:26:07,880 --> 01:26:11,400
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, a cup of coffee in one hand,

1353
01:26:11,439 --> 01:26:14,120
Speaker 2: cigarette and the other hand, and just jam and jam

1354
01:26:14,120 --> 01:26:17,320
Speaker 2: and jam and jamming. And that was all day and

1355
01:26:17,400 --> 01:26:19,479
Speaker 2: all night. And I couldn't do it. I just didn't

1356
01:26:19,479 --> 01:26:21,559
Speaker 2: want to do it. When when Christine and I got

1357
01:26:21,560 --> 01:26:26,760
Speaker 2: together was you know, it's over twenty years ago. I

1358
01:26:26,840 --> 01:26:29,719
Speaker 2: even though, I mean I would cut the phone off

1359
01:26:30,120 --> 01:26:32,240
Speaker 2: at a certain time. That's why I started, but I

1360
01:26:32,280 --> 01:26:36,000
Speaker 2: still my traveling and it was tough. I mean, we

1361
01:26:36,000 --> 01:26:40,720
Speaker 2: we we had a tough time, you know, keeping all

1362
01:26:41,080 --> 01:26:44,960
Speaker 2: keeping our relationship together. And that's why I had to

1363
01:26:45,080 --> 01:26:46,880
Speaker 2: change things. And you know, that's why I made a

1364
01:26:46,920 --> 01:26:50,880
Speaker 2: life change decision as far as drinking, as far as traveling,

1365
01:26:51,200 --> 01:26:57,559
Speaker 2: and just I just wanted to change and because I

1366
01:26:57,600 --> 01:27:01,120
Speaker 2: love my family and I love what I do and

1367
01:27:01,160 --> 01:27:02,519
Speaker 2: I want to do this for a long time.

1368
01:27:03,200 --> 01:27:05,040
Speaker 1: How many times you've been married in how many kids

1369
01:27:05,120 --> 01:27:05,439
Speaker 1: do you have?

1370
01:27:06,400 --> 01:27:09,479
Speaker 2: Oh? Man, okay, I'll be on the four. I've been

1371
01:27:09,520 --> 01:27:15,080
Speaker 2: married four times. The third one didn't count though, And

1372
01:27:15,160 --> 01:27:15,439
Speaker 2: I have.

1373
01:27:15,439 --> 01:27:17,920
Speaker 1: Six kids, and what are those kids up to?

1374
01:27:19,280 --> 01:27:23,639
Speaker 2: See? My oldest son. He teaches jiu jitsu and mixed

1375
01:27:23,640 --> 01:27:27,840
Speaker 2: martial arts in Katie, Texas. He's got he owns like

1376
01:27:27,880 --> 01:27:35,040
Speaker 2: four gyms. Lewis Junior he works here. He oversees Sean

1377
01:27:35,120 --> 01:27:42,920
Speaker 2: Mendez in different other projects. Christopher's on the road. He

1378
01:27:42,960 --> 01:27:47,360
Speaker 2: works with Todd Stewart who does events, staffing and chairs

1379
01:27:47,439 --> 01:27:51,680
Speaker 2: for stadiums. That's what he does. And Barack is in

1380
01:27:51,800 --> 01:27:55,639
Speaker 2: transition right now. He just just finished the course. He's

1381
01:27:55,640 --> 01:27:59,559
Speaker 2: going into UH as an analyst. That's what he's trying

1382
01:27:59,560 --> 01:28:02,120
Speaker 2: to get a job. Is an analyst who with a

1383
01:28:02,200 --> 01:28:08,479
Speaker 2: company and My oldest daughter's eighteen. She's graduating this year

1384
01:28:08,520 --> 01:28:12,240
Speaker 2: and she'll be going to Sarah Lawrence and she's gonna

1385
01:28:12,240 --> 01:28:17,400
Speaker 2: study film. And then Gabrielle is fourteen. She's gonna be

1386
01:28:17,400 --> 01:28:20,760
Speaker 2: a superstar on the theater one day, and she's a

1387
01:28:20,800 --> 01:28:22,759
Speaker 2: freshman in college in high school.

1388
01:28:23,439 --> 01:28:27,120
Speaker 1: So what's your philosophy in terms of financially supporting your children?

1389
01:28:28,479 --> 01:28:31,120
Speaker 2: Man, that's a tough I don't really I mean my

1390
01:28:31,200 --> 01:28:34,160
Speaker 2: sons I don't support. They're on their own. I mean,

1391
01:28:34,240 --> 01:28:39,600
Speaker 2: Lewis is here. I don't know that that's you know,

1392
01:28:41,120 --> 01:28:44,559
Speaker 2: you know, when you're talking about estates and stuff, do

1393
01:28:44,640 --> 01:28:49,240
Speaker 2: you give it? It's so funny. When I started Pace Concerts,

1394
01:28:50,080 --> 01:28:53,120
Speaker 2: I didn't have two Nichols to rub together, right, And

1395
01:28:53,240 --> 01:28:56,439
Speaker 2: I moved to Texas, I mean didn't have a penny.

1396
01:28:56,960 --> 01:29:02,680
Speaker 2: And everybodybody else they're around me, they were all like

1397
01:29:02,760 --> 01:29:06,320
Speaker 2: trust fund kids, and they all had a head start life,

1398
01:29:06,800 --> 01:29:11,000
Speaker 2: you know, and I started with negative. I had to

1399
01:29:11,000 --> 01:29:14,280
Speaker 2: pay off my parents's debt, you know, even though I

1400
01:29:14,280 --> 01:29:18,320
Speaker 2: had three other siblings, I'm the one that paid off

1401
01:29:18,320 --> 01:29:21,120
Speaker 2: the bills. And I always made a commitment to myself

1402
01:29:21,200 --> 01:29:24,519
Speaker 2: that my kids will never be in that situation where

1403
01:29:24,560 --> 01:29:26,160
Speaker 2: I'm going to always you know, they're going to get

1404
01:29:26,200 --> 01:29:29,640
Speaker 2: a head start life. Well now that I'm here, I

1405
01:29:29,680 --> 01:29:34,880
Speaker 2: mean now I don't want to, like, I don't want

1406
01:29:34,920 --> 01:29:38,920
Speaker 2: to enable them to not be driven. You know, I

1407
01:29:38,960 --> 01:29:41,439
Speaker 2: don't want to be their retirement. Let me say that.

1408
01:29:42,000 --> 01:29:43,800
Speaker 2: But it's a tough one to go. You know. Do

1409
01:29:43,880 --> 01:29:46,080
Speaker 2: I give all money in the charity? I don't know.

1410
01:29:46,600 --> 01:29:52,559
Speaker 2: You know, they're all doing good, so I don't know.

1411
01:29:52,640 --> 01:29:55,200
Speaker 2: I'm not supporting my kids. Let me just say, but

1412
01:29:55,280 --> 01:29:59,080
Speaker 2: anytime they need something, I'm always there for them.

1413
01:29:59,320 --> 01:30:02,320
Speaker 1: You talked about working twenty four to seven earlier in

1414
01:30:02,360 --> 01:30:06,040
Speaker 1: your career. Yeah, if you hadn't worked twenty four to seven,

1415
01:30:06,080 --> 01:30:08,920
Speaker 1: would you be where you are today?

1416
01:30:08,960 --> 01:30:12,720
Speaker 2: Probably not? You know, probably not. I mean I had

1417
01:30:12,760 --> 01:30:14,639
Speaker 2: a lot of good Alan Becker taught me a lot

1418
01:30:14,680 --> 01:30:18,360
Speaker 2: about business and life, so I owe him a lot

1419
01:30:18,360 --> 01:30:23,400
Speaker 2: of gratitude. But I was always driven. I was always

1420
01:30:23,439 --> 01:30:29,160
Speaker 2: always driven, and I never I've never reached my goals

1421
01:30:29,160 --> 01:30:32,160
Speaker 2: of my whole career because whenever I get close to

1422
01:30:33,120 --> 01:30:36,439
Speaker 2: a goal, I always raised the bar. And I think

1423
01:30:36,479 --> 01:30:39,440
Speaker 2: that's why the artists I work for are so successful,

1424
01:30:39,520 --> 01:30:43,599
Speaker 2: because I keep on convincing them to raise their bar.

1425
01:30:44,479 --> 01:30:47,799
Speaker 2: And you know, my line is tell me your dreams

1426
01:30:47,840 --> 01:30:53,280
Speaker 2: and I'll dream you. And I just want to keep them, always,

1427
01:30:53,280 --> 01:31:00,320
Speaker 2: never getting to a goal, because if you reach your goal,

1428
01:31:00,680 --> 01:31:03,960
Speaker 2: where is there to go to? So I keep on moving,

1429
01:31:04,040 --> 01:31:04,960
Speaker 2: I keep on moving.

1430
01:31:05,000 --> 01:31:10,720
Speaker 1: The line tell me about paying off your parents' debts.

1431
01:31:09,400 --> 01:31:10,920
Speaker 2: Simple as that I had to pay it off.

1432
01:31:11,840 --> 01:31:14,000
Speaker 1: Were your parents still alive at that point?

1433
01:31:14,120 --> 01:31:17,920
Speaker 2: No, no, no they no, no no no. I only

1434
01:31:17,960 --> 01:31:23,559
Speaker 2: have one on one sister that's still alive. My oldest

1435
01:31:23,560 --> 01:31:27,719
Speaker 2: sister passed and my brother, oldest brother has passed away,

1436
01:31:27,960 --> 01:31:31,360
Speaker 2: and both my parents are pasted. You know, they're gone.

1437
01:31:31,600 --> 01:31:34,559
Speaker 2: And so you know, I've got one sister, a lot

1438
01:31:34,600 --> 01:31:39,080
Speaker 2: of nieces and nephews in New Orleans and then my family.

1439
01:31:39,800 --> 01:31:41,840
Speaker 1: Okay, so you grow up in New Orleans in the

1440
01:31:41,880 --> 01:31:45,240
Speaker 1: fifties and sixties. They even have a different legal system.

1441
01:31:45,280 --> 01:31:47,960
Speaker 2: In Louisiana, they didn't have a legal system.

1442
01:31:48,080 --> 01:31:51,320
Speaker 1: And it's not like they had internet and they don't

1443
01:31:51,400 --> 01:31:54,280
Speaker 1: have cable TV at the time. What was it like

1444
01:31:54,400 --> 01:31:57,280
Speaker 1: growing up in New Orleans? And how is that different

1445
01:31:57,280 --> 01:31:59,599
Speaker 1: from how other people grew up to the degree you know.

1446
01:32:01,880 --> 01:32:08,600
Speaker 2: Well, let me say this, my family integrated the neighborhood

1447
01:32:09,080 --> 01:32:13,880
Speaker 2: where we were the only white family, like in a

1448
01:32:14,000 --> 01:32:20,439
Speaker 2: three block radius or two block radius. But growing up,

1449
01:32:20,640 --> 01:32:23,280
Speaker 2: you know, I say, I'm just a kid from the

1450
01:32:23,320 --> 01:32:26,120
Speaker 2: streets of New Orleans, and I really am. You know,

1451
01:32:27,920 --> 01:32:31,120
Speaker 2: New Orleans was tough. I mean it was tough town.

1452
01:32:31,240 --> 01:32:34,840
Speaker 2: I mean it's it's a tough town today. I hate

1453
01:32:34,880 --> 01:32:37,320
Speaker 2: going back there, you know. I mean I like going

1454
01:32:37,360 --> 01:32:39,960
Speaker 2: back there. I have a show and I'm just going there.

1455
01:32:40,000 --> 01:32:42,799
Speaker 2: But man, would I have a move back there? No,

1456
01:32:43,280 --> 01:32:47,639
Speaker 2: not a shot. It's it's filthy, it's it's corrupt. It's

1457
01:32:47,640 --> 01:32:50,840
Speaker 2: still corrupt, and doing business there is like you know,

1458
01:32:50,920 --> 01:32:55,800
Speaker 2: the big things where you from where you at. You know, please, man,

1459
01:32:56,080 --> 01:32:59,439
Speaker 2: you know, but it was tough. You know, I don't

1460
01:32:59,439 --> 01:33:03,520
Speaker 2: have a lot of great memories from New Orleans. Uh.

1461
01:33:03,560 --> 01:33:07,799
Speaker 2: It's it's one of those things that there's no looking

1462
01:33:07,840 --> 01:33:08,320
Speaker 2: back there.

1463
01:33:09,720 --> 01:33:12,360
Speaker 1: So you'd say it was tough. Was it personally tough?

1464
01:33:12,439 --> 01:33:14,480
Speaker 1: Like you getting beaten up and surviving.

1465
01:33:16,400 --> 01:33:21,679
Speaker 2: Well, I've had, you know, I'm given a few black

1466
01:33:21,680 --> 01:33:24,519
Speaker 2: eyes and I've got a few black eyes, and yeah,

1467
01:33:24,600 --> 01:33:27,160
Speaker 2: I mean it was tough, you know. I mean, uh,

1468
01:33:27,720 --> 01:33:31,679
Speaker 2: my grandfather was an Italian immigrant. My mom and dad

1469
01:33:31,760 --> 01:33:35,240
Speaker 2: hated each other, and it was it was miserable, you know.

1470
01:33:35,520 --> 01:33:40,080
Speaker 2: I mean I had a terrible childhood, you know, and

1471
01:33:41,040 --> 01:33:44,360
Speaker 2: you know it's just there's not there was never fund

1472
01:33:44,600 --> 01:33:49,840
Speaker 2: found memories of of my childhood. You know. There's a

1473
01:33:49,880 --> 01:33:53,760
Speaker 2: lot of therapy. I'm still going to to to work

1474
01:33:54,280 --> 01:33:57,759
Speaker 2: through my through all my craft, even at my age.

1475
01:33:58,080 --> 01:33:59,280
Speaker 1: So do you go to therapy?

1476
01:33:59,439 --> 01:34:00,240
Speaker 2: Oh? Absolute?

1477
01:34:01,320 --> 01:34:04,240
Speaker 1: So how did you decide to go to therapy?

1478
01:34:04,600 --> 01:34:08,280
Speaker 2: Because I knew I couldn't handle this by myself, you know,

1479
01:34:08,880 --> 01:34:15,320
Speaker 2: I mean, I've got this thing. I think Richard Lewis

1480
01:34:15,439 --> 01:34:19,040
Speaker 2: was the comedian who said this problems. Sure, I've got problems.

1481
01:34:19,080 --> 01:34:22,200
Speaker 2: I have fresh problems flown in every day, you know.

1482
01:34:22,960 --> 01:34:25,519
Speaker 2: And that's kind of me, you know. I mean, you know,

1483
01:34:26,160 --> 01:34:33,879
Speaker 2: trying to balance work, personal, you know, and myself. It's difficult.

1484
01:34:34,000 --> 01:34:36,360
Speaker 2: It's being Lewis is a hard time. It was a

1485
01:34:36,360 --> 01:34:37,240
Speaker 2: full time job.

1486
01:34:38,360 --> 01:34:45,599
Speaker 1: So what have you learned in therapy?

1487
01:34:46,520 --> 01:34:50,880
Speaker 2: The biggest lesson I learned in therapy about everything is

1488
01:34:50,920 --> 01:34:57,400
Speaker 2: be true to yourself. Is too don't make any commitments

1489
01:34:57,400 --> 01:35:02,040
Speaker 2: that would you wouldn't make te yourself, meaning like when

1490
01:35:02,080 --> 01:35:06,160
Speaker 2: I stopped drinking, I didn't promise Christine or anybody else,

1491
01:35:06,160 --> 01:35:09,160
Speaker 2: I would stop drinking. I promised me to stop drinking.

1492
01:35:10,040 --> 01:35:14,439
Speaker 2: You know, when I wanted to do what I'm doing

1493
01:35:14,520 --> 01:35:19,920
Speaker 2: now at Messina Touring. This is what I wanted to do.

1494
01:35:20,040 --> 01:35:22,519
Speaker 2: I made a commitment and I stayed on my path.

1495
01:35:23,040 --> 01:35:27,479
Speaker 2: I didn't try to you know, I'm not still not trying.

1496
01:35:28,040 --> 01:35:30,200
Speaker 2: I've got the hottest hand in the business right now,

1497
01:35:30,560 --> 01:35:35,280
Speaker 2: right I really do. And I'm not trying to sign

1498
01:35:35,320 --> 01:35:38,760
Speaker 2: every act that that's coming my way. You know, it's

1499
01:35:38,760 --> 01:35:42,080
Speaker 2: still my model. It's one act at a time, and

1500
01:35:42,120 --> 01:35:44,880
Speaker 2: the act that I have to believe in personally believe in,

1501
01:35:45,720 --> 01:35:49,160
Speaker 2: and my team has to believe in it too. Because

1502
01:35:51,320 --> 01:35:54,960
Speaker 2: it's so funny that last week I was I was

1503
01:35:55,000 --> 01:35:59,880
Speaker 2: in Nashville, and because I was a big Milltown fan,

1504
01:36:00,320 --> 01:36:06,240
Speaker 2: and I met Barry Gordy Son and I went, oh,

1505
01:36:06,280 --> 01:36:08,559
Speaker 2: my gosh, he was excited to meet me. And I

1506
01:36:08,640 --> 01:36:11,719
Speaker 2: was like, you know, I grew up and I remember

1507
01:36:12,160 --> 01:36:15,880
Speaker 2: reading I mean, there was this documentary with Barry Gordy

1508
01:36:15,920 --> 01:36:19,680
Speaker 2: and Smokey Robinson how every week they would, you know,

1509
01:36:19,720 --> 01:36:22,599
Speaker 2: people would bring in their songs in and everyone would

1510
01:36:22,680 --> 01:36:25,360
Speaker 2: have to agree upon the song, you know, and that's

1511
01:36:25,439 --> 01:36:28,080
Speaker 2: kind of how I am around here where my whole

1512
01:36:28,120 --> 01:36:31,200
Speaker 2: team has to agree upon the acts that we work with,

1513
01:36:31,400 --> 01:36:34,640
Speaker 2: where we're just not going, Oh, Nickelback's coming back out,

1514
01:36:34,680 --> 01:36:38,240
Speaker 2: I'm going after them. Oh, I'm going after you know so,

1515
01:36:38,320 --> 01:36:40,800
Speaker 2: and so that's not the case. It's got to be

1516
01:36:41,160 --> 01:36:44,519
Speaker 2: like I'm staying on course. You know, we believe in

1517
01:36:44,600 --> 01:36:48,240
Speaker 2: something and they believe in me. That's what we want

1518
01:36:48,240 --> 01:36:49,120
Speaker 2: to be in business with.

1519
01:36:50,720 --> 01:36:52,960
Speaker 1: So what kind of kid were you growing up? Did

1520
01:36:53,000 --> 01:36:55,320
Speaker 1: you have friends? Were you good at school? Were you

1521
01:36:55,320 --> 01:36:57,160
Speaker 1: good at sports? None of the above.

1522
01:36:57,920 --> 01:37:01,480
Speaker 2: I was pretty good at sports and basketball and baseball,

1523
01:37:01,800 --> 01:37:05,720
Speaker 2: and I had tons of friends. I was very mediocre

1524
01:37:05,960 --> 01:37:12,840
Speaker 2: or terrible at school because I hardly ever went and

1525
01:37:12,840 --> 01:37:18,080
Speaker 2: and literally, Bruce says, I've learned more from a three

1526
01:37:18,160 --> 01:37:21,760
Speaker 2: minute record that I've learned in school. And you know,

1527
01:37:21,920 --> 01:37:25,920
Speaker 2: I grew up on the streets, I really did. I'm

1528
01:37:26,040 --> 01:37:31,559
Speaker 2: very you know, street savvy. Uh, And that's it was

1529
01:37:31,600 --> 01:37:33,840
Speaker 2: tough in New Orleans. I mean no, Yeah, I had

1530
01:37:33,880 --> 01:37:37,080
Speaker 2: tons of friends, I had, you know, and I played

1531
01:37:37,080 --> 01:37:40,720
Speaker 2: sports year round. But then you know, I couldn't hit

1532
01:37:40,720 --> 01:37:42,840
Speaker 2: a curveball, so that was the end of my baseball career.

1533
01:37:43,479 --> 01:37:48,800
Speaker 2: And I could, you know, and white men can't jump.

1534
01:37:48,920 --> 01:37:51,559
Speaker 2: So I was in my basketball career too.

1535
01:37:52,760 --> 01:37:57,320
Speaker 1: So you know, New Orleans has its own unique musical sound.

1536
01:37:57,600 --> 01:37:59,680
Speaker 1: Was that something you were aware of and connected to

1537
01:37:59,760 --> 01:38:00,400
Speaker 1: growing up?

1538
01:38:01,040 --> 01:38:05,360
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yes and no, I mean, of course I listened

1539
01:38:05,360 --> 01:38:10,240
Speaker 2: to You know, my dad had a friend, uh, Barry McKinley.

1540
01:38:10,280 --> 01:38:14,120
Speaker 2: He had a radio station. He worked at radio station WYLD,

1541
01:38:14,320 --> 01:38:16,320
Speaker 2: and he was a disc jockey. He was also a

1542
01:38:16,320 --> 01:38:18,880
Speaker 2: concert promoter and he brought in all the our you know,

1543
01:38:19,040 --> 01:38:21,679
Speaker 2: R and B acts, and so whenever James Brown would

1544
01:38:21,680 --> 01:38:23,280
Speaker 2: come to town, you know, it would be me and

1545
01:38:23,320 --> 01:38:26,439
Speaker 2: my six white friends at the James Brown show. And

1546
01:38:26,479 --> 01:38:30,280
Speaker 2: so you know me growing up with you know, Fats Domino,

1547
01:38:30,600 --> 01:38:34,720
Speaker 2: Ernie Cato, Erna Thomas, and you know those great New

1548
01:38:34,840 --> 01:38:39,000
Speaker 2: Orleans artists back then. I mean doctor John and you

1549
01:38:39,040 --> 01:38:42,080
Speaker 2: know that was later on. But I grew up listening

1550
01:38:42,120 --> 01:38:46,200
Speaker 2: to music and loved it. And so, uh, you know,

1551
01:38:46,240 --> 01:38:50,360
Speaker 2: we lived downtown. I lived right by them Miscal Auditorium,

1552
01:38:51,200 --> 01:38:55,000
Speaker 2: right about three blocks from the French Quarter. And uh

1553
01:38:55,200 --> 01:38:58,760
Speaker 2: Mardi Gras day, like the Mardi Gras Indians would start

1554
01:38:58,840 --> 01:39:01,360
Speaker 2: right in front of my house. And so it mean,

1555
01:39:01,560 --> 01:39:05,360
Speaker 2: you know, music was always around and I always loved music.

1556
01:39:05,600 --> 01:39:07,400
Speaker 2: I mean when I was seven years When I was

1557
01:39:07,400 --> 01:39:10,360
Speaker 2: seven years old, I saw Elvis at the Municipal Auditorium

1558
01:39:10,439 --> 01:39:12,320
Speaker 2: and that's what got me hooked.

1559
01:39:12,320 --> 01:39:16,559
Speaker 1: Man, Okay, you saw Elvis, other than the acts you've

1560
01:39:16,600 --> 01:39:20,240
Speaker 1: worked with. Now, what are the two best shows you've

1561
01:39:20,240 --> 01:39:20,800
Speaker 1: ever seen?

1562
01:39:22,479 --> 01:39:29,160
Speaker 2: Oh? Man, I can't answer that question, you know, I mean, uh,

1563
01:39:29,800 --> 01:39:30,880
Speaker 2: you're gonna you.

1564
01:39:30,800 --> 01:39:34,639
Speaker 1: Know, well, a couple of memorable shows.

1565
01:39:37,680 --> 01:39:42,280
Speaker 2: My most memorable show, it was not even a live show.

1566
01:39:42,840 --> 01:39:47,920
Speaker 2: It was the Monterey Pop Festival. The movie That was

1567
01:39:47,960 --> 01:39:51,400
Speaker 2: my most memorable show. That show and the Tammy Show,

1568
01:39:52,840 --> 01:39:56,439
Speaker 2: those are the two shows that man, that blew me away,

1569
01:39:57,320 --> 01:40:00,400
Speaker 2: you know. And I remember one year or so Dick

1570
01:40:00,520 --> 01:40:03,960
Speaker 2: Clark's Cavalcade of Stars in New Orleans, and that also

1571
01:40:04,000 --> 01:40:06,280
Speaker 2: blew me away because everybody was just doing like one hit,

1572
01:40:06,360 --> 01:40:09,559
Speaker 2: you know, to do the house band and everybody doing

1573
01:40:09,600 --> 01:40:14,920
Speaker 2: two three songs, and you know, Den it's hard to say.

1574
01:40:14,960 --> 01:40:17,320
Speaker 2: I mean, I get off on every show. I mean,

1575
01:40:18,520 --> 01:40:20,479
Speaker 2: you know, say, like when I'm at a Taylors show,

1576
01:40:20,720 --> 01:40:23,439
Speaker 2: there's nothing like it. And of course then I'm at

1577
01:40:23,479 --> 01:40:26,000
Speaker 2: a George Straight show There's nothing like it, you know,

1578
01:40:26,320 --> 01:40:29,240
Speaker 2: And Kenny's show, I mean, I just love what I do, man,

1579
01:40:29,640 --> 01:40:33,120
Speaker 2: so I can't say this is you know, this show. Yeah,

1580
01:40:33,240 --> 01:40:39,519
Speaker 2: seeing Elvis made the most biggest impression on me when

1581
01:40:39,560 --> 01:40:44,840
Speaker 2: I was a kid. But I just I don't know everybody.

1582
01:40:45,000 --> 01:40:47,600
Speaker 2: I look around my look at you know, pictures on

1583
01:40:47,600 --> 01:40:51,479
Speaker 2: my walls, sea, watching the illumineers grow from where I

1584
01:40:51,560 --> 01:40:54,320
Speaker 2: first got involved with them to where they are today.

1585
01:40:55,560 --> 01:40:58,439
Speaker 2: They're all memorable. Now when you know, the first time

1586
01:40:58,479 --> 01:41:04,400
Speaker 2: we played that stadium in Denver, that was memorable. First

1587
01:41:04,400 --> 01:41:07,479
Speaker 2: time I put George in the stadium in Phoenix back

1588
01:41:07,520 --> 01:41:13,080
Speaker 2: in ninety six or so, that was memorable. And you know, Taylor,

1589
01:41:13,120 --> 01:41:18,559
Speaker 2: I've got a picture, right, I got an autograph. I

1590
01:41:18,600 --> 01:41:20,280
Speaker 2: was up for a Promoter of the Year or something.

1591
01:41:20,800 --> 01:41:23,960
Speaker 2: Just you're my promoter. Thank you, Thank thank you for

1592
01:41:24,080 --> 01:41:28,160
Speaker 2: believing I could sell out stadiums, you know. And you

1593
01:41:28,200 --> 01:41:32,280
Speaker 2: know her playing Foxborough on her first tour, you know,

1594
01:41:32,640 --> 01:41:35,639
Speaker 2: ending a tour at Foxborough, you let stadium and sold out.

1595
01:41:36,439 --> 01:41:40,360
Speaker 2: That was memorable. You know. So it's hard, you know.

1596
01:41:41,120 --> 01:41:43,120
Speaker 1: So how'd you get into this business?

1597
01:41:44,040 --> 01:41:47,519
Speaker 2: So you Elvis, you know, high school, I was promoting

1598
01:41:47,520 --> 01:41:51,519
Speaker 2: local bands, local dances and uh and I was on

1599
01:41:51,560 --> 01:41:55,400
Speaker 2: a mission to do exactly what I'm doing today on

1600
01:41:55,479 --> 01:41:55,960
Speaker 2: a mission.

1601
01:41:56,280 --> 01:41:57,200
Speaker 1: How'd you get into it?

1602
01:42:01,080 --> 01:42:03,960
Speaker 2: I went to work. I knew I wanted to do this.

1603
01:42:04,040 --> 01:42:06,280
Speaker 2: I had no money, had no nothing. I went to

1604
01:42:06,320 --> 01:42:10,080
Speaker 2: work at a radio station WWM Radio in New Orleans

1605
01:42:10,280 --> 01:42:13,559
Speaker 2: also known as Mother Radio, one of the first FM

1606
01:42:13,680 --> 01:42:19,880
Speaker 2: underground radio stations FM station, and so I took a

1607
01:42:19,960 --> 01:42:27,280
Speaker 2: job there as a salesman and I started meeting people there,

1608
01:42:27,880 --> 01:42:31,400
Speaker 2: you know, meeting record reps and stuff. And I finally

1609
01:42:32,880 --> 01:42:36,680
Speaker 2: through this record rep with Warner Bros. Introduced me to

1610
01:42:37,320 --> 01:42:40,479
Speaker 2: Joe Sullivan. He was a promoter out of Nashville. He

1611
01:42:40,520 --> 01:42:45,960
Speaker 2: had a company called Sound seventy Productions and he came

1612
01:42:46,000 --> 01:42:49,360
Speaker 2: down to New Orleans. We met, He had a run

1613
01:42:49,360 --> 01:42:52,200
Speaker 2: of dates with Curtis Mayfield and BB King. We did

1614
01:42:52,240 --> 01:42:57,679
Speaker 2: the show together and that's how I really got started,

1615
01:42:58,680 --> 01:43:01,559
Speaker 2: you know, with Joe sol then taking a shot with me.

1616
01:43:02,720 --> 01:43:05,439
Speaker 1: And how did you end up putting together Texas Jam?

1617
01:43:06,640 --> 01:43:10,040
Speaker 2: Uh? Data Crabs was doing the cow Jam and he

1618
01:43:10,120 --> 01:43:13,120
Speaker 2: calls me up and he goes, I want to what

1619
01:43:13,160 --> 01:43:16,320
Speaker 2: do you think about doing the show? Silma is their

1620
01:43:16,400 --> 01:43:19,439
Speaker 2: speedway in Texas? I go, yeah, there's one in Brian, Texas.

1621
01:43:19,960 --> 01:43:22,519
Speaker 2: And then I went to the cow Jam the year

1622
01:43:22,560 --> 01:43:25,080
Speaker 2: before and it was a It was a cluster, man.

1623
01:43:25,439 --> 01:43:29,559
Speaker 2: I mean people were knocking over as Ontario Speedway. People

1624
01:43:29,560 --> 01:43:33,440
Speaker 2: were knocking over the fences and all that stuff. And

1625
01:43:34,800 --> 01:43:38,400
Speaker 2: I'll never forget. I Lone Star Beer had a commercial

1626
01:43:38,960 --> 01:43:43,679
Speaker 2: and it was it was taken at the fairgrounds at

1627
01:43:44,120 --> 01:43:46,400
Speaker 2: where the Cotton Bowl is. And I saw where the

1628
01:43:46,479 --> 01:43:49,799
Speaker 2: hall these rides in the stadium, and I go, screw

1629
01:43:49,920 --> 01:43:54,519
Speaker 2: doing this at a at a racetrack. I want to

1630
01:43:54,520 --> 01:43:59,080
Speaker 2: do the Cotton Bowl. And so I convinced Crabs and

1631
01:43:59,120 --> 01:44:04,000
Speaker 2: that's when he met Aerosmith and Ted Nugent instead of

1632
01:44:04,000 --> 01:44:08,200
Speaker 2: playing a racetrack to go to the Cotton Bowl. And

1633
01:44:08,240 --> 01:44:11,920
Speaker 2: then we used entire fairgrounds. I mean it was We

1634
01:44:11,960 --> 01:44:16,439
Speaker 2: had a skateboard exhibit. We had the world's biggest rock

1635
01:44:16,479 --> 01:44:20,240
Speaker 2: and roll movie theater where we were showing concert films

1636
01:44:20,280 --> 01:44:24,439
Speaker 2: all day. We had the rock and roll Warehouse where

1637
01:44:24,680 --> 01:44:28,000
Speaker 2: Del Ferno, he was our merchant guy back then. He

1638
01:44:28,160 --> 01:44:31,120
Speaker 2: brought all his inventory so you could buy almost any

1639
01:44:31,160 --> 01:44:34,439
Speaker 2: T shirt you wanted there. And we would allow people

1640
01:44:34,479 --> 01:44:36,800
Speaker 2: to come in and out the stadium. And we had

1641
01:44:37,200 --> 01:44:41,599
Speaker 2: we had had we had second stages, third stages. It

1642
01:44:41,640 --> 01:44:46,240
Speaker 2: was quite the event, you know, And that's how the

1643
01:44:46,360 --> 01:44:49,560
Speaker 2: Texas Gym started. You know, even in New Orleans, I

1644
01:44:50,640 --> 01:44:54,640
Speaker 2: always loved the event. My first concert stadium concert was

1645
01:44:54,680 --> 01:44:59,000
Speaker 2: called the Bayou Boogey Festival. Black Oak, Arkansas was the headliner.

1646
01:44:59,400 --> 01:45:03,839
Speaker 2: I had Frampton, Peter Frampton on the show, Bob Sieger

1647
01:45:03,960 --> 01:45:06,400
Speaker 2: on the on the show, Wet Willy on the show.

1648
01:45:06,920 --> 01:45:10,400
Speaker 2: And this is when before Frampton came alive. Seegar was

1649
01:45:10,479 --> 01:45:13,360
Speaker 2: just starting out, and that was at City Park Stadium.

1650
01:45:13,720 --> 01:45:17,440
Speaker 2: And yeah, black O'cackansas, Jim Danny to the rescue.

1651
01:45:17,840 --> 01:45:19,920
Speaker 1: What was the name of the manager again.

1652
01:45:20,640 --> 01:45:21,360
Speaker 2: Butch Stone.

1653
01:45:21,800 --> 01:45:27,479
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll leave it at that. So how are the

1654
01:45:27,520 --> 01:45:29,360
Speaker 1: economics at Texas Gym?

1655
01:45:32,120 --> 01:45:34,120
Speaker 2: They look good? I mean the first year I did,

1656
01:45:34,160 --> 01:45:36,840
Speaker 2: I had the Texas Gym one day and Willie's picking

1657
01:45:37,040 --> 01:45:39,519
Speaker 2: the next. I never made so much money in one

1658
01:45:39,600 --> 01:45:41,880
Speaker 2: day and I never lost so much money in one day,

1659
01:45:42,240 --> 01:45:47,200
Speaker 2: all within the twenty four hour time period. But overall

1660
01:45:47,240 --> 01:45:50,680
Speaker 2: it was good. I mean it's not. I mean, I mean,

1661
01:45:50,760 --> 01:45:54,639
Speaker 2: ticket prices were twelve dollars, you know, and I finally

1662
01:45:54,680 --> 01:45:58,479
Speaker 2: got up to twenty dollars. And I mean, if you

1663
01:45:58,520 --> 01:46:05,719
Speaker 2: look at today's you know, with the value of today's money,

1664
01:46:05,760 --> 01:46:08,880
Speaker 2: it was totally chump change back then. You know, if

1665
01:46:08,920 --> 01:46:11,360
Speaker 2: I made one hundred thousand dollars, I'd have sold eighty

1666
01:46:11,439 --> 01:46:14,080
Speaker 2: thousand people. I was a ton of money, you know,

1667
01:46:14,439 --> 01:46:19,920
Speaker 2: And but they were good. I just ran out of talent,

1668
01:46:20,000 --> 01:46:23,240
Speaker 2: you know, That's what happened. And it's just and I

1669
01:46:23,400 --> 01:46:25,840
Speaker 2: got in the amphitheater business, and you can make more

1670
01:46:25,880 --> 01:46:29,160
Speaker 2: money selling fifteen thousand tickets that I could sell in

1671
01:46:29,200 --> 01:46:30,720
Speaker 2: eighty thousand tickets.

1672
01:46:31,160 --> 01:46:33,360
Speaker 1: Why did the Fourth of July picnic fail?

1673
01:46:35,080 --> 01:46:36,320
Speaker 2: Not enough people showed up?

1674
01:46:36,800 --> 01:46:40,639
Speaker 1: Oh really? Why did why? You know that's a legend.

1675
01:46:40,720 --> 01:46:43,920
Speaker 1: I'm not that Texas savvy and he did it for years.

1676
01:46:44,040 --> 01:46:46,120
Speaker 1: Was that one of the initial ones? Or are they

1677
01:46:46,160 --> 01:46:47,280
Speaker 1: all challenging?

1678
01:46:48,120 --> 01:46:51,280
Speaker 2: But you know what, the Willie Picnics were all challenging,

1679
01:46:51,320 --> 01:46:59,760
Speaker 2: you know, Oh, mostly artistic successes, you know. Then there

1680
01:46:59,800 --> 01:47:03,240
Speaker 2: were financial successes because I did a couple of picnics

1681
01:47:04,200 --> 01:47:07,120
Speaker 2: outside of the Texas Jeff. It just didn't work. I

1682
01:47:07,120 --> 01:47:10,160
Speaker 2: mean it didn't work, that's all. I mean. I had

1683
01:47:10,200 --> 01:47:16,640
Speaker 2: like thirty thousand people there, and yeah, and I had everybody,

1684
01:47:17,000 --> 01:47:21,760
Speaker 2: Willie Whaling, Christofferson. I don't know, I'd go, I'll look

1685
01:47:21,760 --> 01:47:25,959
Speaker 2: at the poster outside, but it was the Star of Stars.

1686
01:47:26,000 --> 01:47:30,479
Speaker 1: You know, So what if one of these festivals, which

1687
01:47:30,600 --> 01:47:33,720
Speaker 1: pay more than anything, calls up and wants one of

1688
01:47:33,720 --> 01:47:37,840
Speaker 1: your racks to headline the festival, what do you say?

1689
01:47:38,200 --> 01:47:42,400
Speaker 2: How much? You know? I had George Straight headline ACL

1690
01:47:42,560 --> 01:47:47,200
Speaker 2: festival maybe four years ago. I was there and watching

1691
01:47:48,120 --> 01:47:53,559
Speaker 2: and Casey Musgraser was playing and I leaned over and

1692
01:47:53,720 --> 01:47:55,800
Speaker 2: I said, we need to have George Straight do this.

1693
01:47:58,640 --> 01:48:01,439
Speaker 2: And I told George about it. Don't forget I go, George,

1694
01:48:01,520 --> 01:48:04,559
Speaker 2: it'd be a really cool thing for you to do now.

1695
01:48:04,960 --> 01:48:08,439
Speaker 2: And George goes, you don't think I'm cool enough now?

1696
01:48:09,640 --> 01:48:13,160
Speaker 2: But and we took a haircut doing the show. I mean,

1697
01:48:13,320 --> 01:48:15,760
Speaker 2: you know, but I thought it was a cool thing

1698
01:48:15,800 --> 01:48:18,800
Speaker 2: for him to do. And he did it, and it

1699
01:48:18,840 --> 01:48:21,799
Speaker 2: was an ACL crowd. It wasn't a typical George Straight crowd.

1700
01:48:22,280 --> 01:48:25,519
Speaker 2: And everybody was singing every word to every song. It

1701
01:48:25,600 --> 01:48:29,559
Speaker 2: was amazing. I mean, just Charles A. Tall says still

1702
01:48:29,880 --> 01:48:33,559
Speaker 2: to this day, you know, probably the best headline he's

1703
01:48:33,560 --> 01:48:34,040
Speaker 2: ever had.

1704
01:48:35,680 --> 01:48:42,240
Speaker 1: Okay, Taylor Swift, they wanted to headline Coachella. You say,

1705
01:48:42,880 --> 01:48:46,160
Speaker 1: good luck, you know, I mean, why is there a

1706
01:48:46,280 --> 01:48:47,959
Speaker 1: number where you would say, yes.

1707
01:48:49,000 --> 01:48:52,240
Speaker 2: Here's the deal. If Taylor wants to play Coachella, she'll

1708
01:48:52,240 --> 01:48:54,880
Speaker 2: call me up and say, hey, what do you think

1709
01:48:54,920 --> 01:48:58,479
Speaker 2: about playing Coachella. She won't call me, but Robin will

1710
01:48:58,479 --> 01:49:02,280
Speaker 2: call me or Andrea call me and say, Taylor wants

1711
01:49:02,320 --> 01:49:08,120
Speaker 2: to do some festivals. No, there's no, there's no You

1712
01:49:08,240 --> 01:49:12,600
Speaker 2: have no idea. How what ridiculous offers I get for

1713
01:49:12,760 --> 01:49:15,880
Speaker 2: Taylor and for George and for all my artists. You know,

1714
01:49:16,240 --> 01:49:18,360
Speaker 2: but it's always got to be the right thing. You know.

1715
01:49:18,920 --> 01:49:21,759
Speaker 2: If Taylor wants to do a movie, you do a movie.

1716
01:49:22,360 --> 01:49:26,440
Speaker 2: You know. If she wants to play festivals, she'll play festivals.

1717
01:49:26,520 --> 01:49:30,400
Speaker 2: It's like, but you're not gonna Money's not going to

1718
01:49:30,520 --> 01:49:31,960
Speaker 2: drive her to make a decision.

1719
01:49:33,200 --> 01:49:36,439
Speaker 1: Okay, So let's say, since you've planned so far in advance,

1720
01:49:36,479 --> 01:49:41,280
Speaker 1: and you're in the career business, let's say hypothetically Taylor

1721
01:49:41,400 --> 01:49:46,599
Speaker 1: never had another radio hit, how do you, as a promoter,

1722
01:49:47,640 --> 01:49:48,799
Speaker 1: plan for the future.

1723
01:49:51,760 --> 01:49:55,200
Speaker 2: Taylor is only going to get bigger. I mean, even

1724
01:49:55,240 --> 01:49:59,960
Speaker 2: if she never has another hit, which is impossible because

1725
01:50:00,080 --> 01:50:10,000
Speaker 2: she always outdoes herself musically. I just know that where

1726
01:50:10,040 --> 01:50:13,559
Speaker 2: we're at now, is not the height of where she's

1727
01:50:13,600 --> 01:50:15,439
Speaker 2: going to be. That's all I know.

1728
01:50:16,200 --> 01:50:19,160
Speaker 1: Okay, Kenny used to have more radio singles than he

1729
01:50:19,240 --> 01:50:22,080
Speaker 1: does today. Has that affected his business?

1730
01:50:23,000 --> 01:50:26,320
Speaker 2: No, because people are there for Kenny now, you know.

1731
01:50:27,040 --> 01:50:29,679
Speaker 2: You know, they're there for the show. They know they're

1732
01:50:29,680 --> 01:50:32,320
Speaker 2: getting their money's worth, and we always, like I said,

1733
01:50:32,360 --> 01:50:36,479
Speaker 2: we always load up the show. So yeah, if he

1734
01:50:36,760 --> 01:50:40,240
Speaker 2: happens to have I mean, like when American Kids was

1735
01:50:40,720 --> 01:50:44,880
Speaker 2: you know, a number one song that there's definitely a bump,

1736
01:50:44,960 --> 01:50:47,160
Speaker 2: you know, but it's not a game changer.

1737
01:50:48,439 --> 01:50:52,080
Speaker 1: Okay, you mentioned David Krabs. We've mentioned some other managers.

1738
01:50:52,560 --> 01:50:57,519
Speaker 1: Let's be specific, John Land, Allen Springsteen. Okay, Springsteen hadn't

1739
01:50:57,560 --> 01:51:00,800
Speaker 1: toured for years, and that's really Land that was one

1740
01:51:00,840 --> 01:51:05,880
Speaker 1: big act and therefore he didn't know, in my viewpoint,

1741
01:51:05,960 --> 01:51:08,360
Speaker 1: the landscape as well as somebody who's in the business

1742
01:51:08,400 --> 01:51:11,679
Speaker 1: every day, whether it be a promoter or a lawyer

1743
01:51:11,720 --> 01:51:16,400
Speaker 1: who's making these deals. How savvy are the managers today?

1744
01:51:17,840 --> 01:51:23,240
Speaker 2: Well, the good managers are real savvy, you know. I mean,

1745
01:51:24,760 --> 01:51:28,200
Speaker 2: I'll start with thirteen. Management is there's no one manager

1746
01:51:28,600 --> 01:51:33,160
Speaker 2: because it's all tail is self managed. But there's basically

1747
01:51:33,160 --> 01:51:36,320
Speaker 2: a committee. I mean, Andrew being number two, then Rob It,

1748
01:51:36,760 --> 01:51:42,519
Speaker 2: you know, and so they're very savvy, you know, Stuart

1749
01:51:42,600 --> 01:51:49,160
Speaker 2: Kemp Edge manager, very savvy. The Lumineers manager, George really

1750
01:51:49,200 --> 01:51:52,000
Speaker 2: is self managed. You know, irvs's manager. They've been together

1751
01:51:52,080 --> 01:51:57,760
Speaker 2: forty years. But you know, you know, John Petz is

1752
01:51:57,880 --> 01:52:03,000
Speaker 2: very savvy. He's very creative with with Eric. Uh and

1753
01:52:03,320 --> 01:52:06,639
Speaker 2: I'm just looking around, you know.

1754
01:52:07,320 --> 01:52:09,160
Speaker 1: Okay, let me you know, these are all acts you

1755
01:52:09,240 --> 01:52:14,400
Speaker 1: work with. Do you find today's business is so complicated

1756
01:52:14,439 --> 01:52:18,080
Speaker 1: and changing so much that unless you're doing it every day,

1757
01:52:18,720 --> 01:52:20,479
Speaker 1: you don't have a good feel for it.

1758
01:52:22,200 --> 01:52:24,240
Speaker 2: But that makes a lot of sense. I mean, I

1759
01:52:24,240 --> 01:52:28,400
Speaker 2: think you need to be involved. But so that's a

1760
01:52:28,400 --> 01:52:31,439
Speaker 2: good question. I hate when people say it's a good question.

1761
01:52:31,720 --> 01:52:37,280
Speaker 2: Why would you ask a bad question? You know, because

1762
01:52:37,360 --> 01:52:41,639
Speaker 2: I'm not. I'm only focusing on the acts that I'm

1763
01:52:41,680 --> 01:52:47,880
Speaker 2: focusing on. It's like, you know, so I'm not like

1764
01:52:47,960 --> 01:52:51,640
Speaker 2: paying attention and going to concerts everywhere or going to

1765
01:52:51,680 --> 01:52:55,320
Speaker 2: clubs and stuff like shit out of the blue, Zach

1766
01:52:55,360 --> 01:52:57,599
Speaker 2: Bryant popped up. I'm going, what the hell did this

1767
01:52:57,640 --> 01:53:01,240
Speaker 2: come from? You know? I mean, and but you know,

1768
01:53:01,320 --> 01:53:04,160
Speaker 2: my younger staff goes, oh yeah, man, he's amazing, you know.

1769
01:53:04,800 --> 01:53:09,480
Speaker 2: And my daughter, my fourteen year old song came on

1770
01:53:09,479 --> 01:53:12,080
Speaker 2: on her playlist. I go, who is this? She goes

1771
01:53:12,240 --> 01:53:15,200
Speaker 2: Zach Brian. I go, holy crap, this is really good.

1772
01:53:15,960 --> 01:53:18,599
Speaker 2: You know, this is like amazing. I mean, I haven't

1773
01:53:18,640 --> 01:53:25,599
Speaker 2: heard of the guy before. So business savvy, I don't know. Yeah,

1774
01:53:25,680 --> 01:53:27,200
Speaker 2: you've got to be in the business. You got to

1775
01:53:27,240 --> 01:53:29,519
Speaker 2: be in the business. But as far as me grinding

1776
01:53:29,560 --> 01:53:31,719
Speaker 2: out the way I used to, as far as listening

1777
01:53:31,800 --> 01:53:34,000
Speaker 2: to every new song, you know, every time a new

1778
01:53:34,040 --> 01:53:36,439
Speaker 2: album anybody would come out, I have to put it

1779
01:53:36,479 --> 01:53:38,960
Speaker 2: on or go to a club and watch him. I

1780
01:53:38,960 --> 01:53:41,799
Speaker 2: don't do that anymore. I go watch opening acts.

1781
01:53:43,280 --> 01:53:47,680
Speaker 1: Okay, in the old days, forget you know, Frank Barcelona

1782
01:53:47,760 --> 01:53:51,320
Speaker 1: and Loyalty. In any event, you worked your way up.

1783
01:53:51,720 --> 01:53:55,080
Speaker 1: No one started at the top. Seam Smith had a hit.

1784
01:53:55,600 --> 01:54:00,000
Speaker 1: First tour was Arenas. Okay, Zach Bryan's going to be

1785
01:54:00,080 --> 01:54:02,719
Speaker 1: playing stadium soon. Although we paid a few dues along

1786
01:54:02,720 --> 01:54:05,599
Speaker 1: the way. You're in control of one of these acts.

1787
01:54:05,800 --> 01:54:08,439
Speaker 1: What do you say, go for the money or is

1788
01:54:08,479 --> 01:54:09,880
Speaker 1: this going to hurt you in the long run.

1789
01:54:12,040 --> 01:54:14,360
Speaker 2: I always say do what you're supposed to do. The

1790
01:54:14,400 --> 01:54:18,400
Speaker 2: money will always be there, you know. We know. I

1791
01:54:18,520 --> 01:54:23,200
Speaker 2: try to convince everybody, never go for the money to

1792
01:54:23,400 --> 01:54:28,240
Speaker 2: do the right thing, you know, That's what you know.

1793
01:54:28,320 --> 01:54:33,680
Speaker 2: Sometimes I'm wrong, but I never chase the money, and

1794
01:54:33,920 --> 01:54:36,360
Speaker 2: I you know, because the money will be there.

1795
01:54:37,440 --> 01:54:42,760
Speaker 1: And if you're deciding where to play, do you say, well, listen,

1796
01:54:42,800 --> 01:54:45,200
Speaker 1: I want to play this building because I'll go clean

1797
01:54:45,240 --> 01:54:47,920
Speaker 1: and it's a good look as opposed to another building

1798
01:54:47,920 --> 01:54:50,720
Speaker 1: which may not sell out. How important are the optics

1799
01:54:50,760 --> 01:54:56,280
Speaker 1: to you, I.

1800
01:54:56,360 --> 01:55:01,440
Speaker 2: Think is you know you're going to play the right

1801
01:55:01,480 --> 01:55:06,160
Speaker 2: act in the right building for the right ticket price.

1802
01:55:08,240 --> 01:55:12,080
Speaker 2: A lot of times it's a jump ball where if

1803
01:55:12,160 --> 01:55:14,120
Speaker 2: I'm going to get a better deal for the act

1804
01:55:14,280 --> 01:55:18,320
Speaker 2: at somewhere else, then that's that's where I'm going to go,

1805
01:55:19,040 --> 01:55:23,160
Speaker 2: you know. And and you know, but I'm not going

1806
01:55:23,200 --> 01:55:25,560
Speaker 2: to put an act in a stadium unless I believe

1807
01:55:25,600 --> 01:55:27,720
Speaker 2: they could sell it. I'm not going to put an

1808
01:55:27,760 --> 01:55:30,480
Speaker 2: act in an arena unless they think I think they

1809
01:55:30,520 --> 01:55:33,640
Speaker 2: could sell it out, you know, or come close to it.

1810
01:55:34,960 --> 01:55:37,560
Speaker 2: So it's a matter of knowing who your artist is

1811
01:55:37,880 --> 01:55:43,640
Speaker 2: and and with the right steps to take. Sometimes I'm wrong,

1812
01:55:44,600 --> 01:55:47,320
Speaker 2: you know, But most of the times I'm right, and

1813
01:55:47,360 --> 01:55:47,880
Speaker 2: they're right.

1814
01:55:48,360 --> 01:55:50,680
Speaker 1: Tell me two mistakes you made in the last year.

1815
01:55:58,240 --> 01:56:01,280
Speaker 2: I don't know. Last year was it was almost like

1816
01:56:01,280 --> 01:56:02,360
Speaker 2: a perfect strong for me.

1817
01:56:03,800 --> 01:56:06,320
Speaker 1: Tell me two big mistakes you made in your career.

1818
01:56:09,280 --> 01:56:18,800
Speaker 2: Man, I made a lot of mistakes. You know. That's

1819
01:56:18,800 --> 01:56:20,960
Speaker 2: the time. I can't you put me on the spot.

1820
01:56:21,160 --> 01:56:24,160
Speaker 2: I don't know, you know, I really don't know. Don't

1821
01:56:24,200 --> 01:56:29,320
Speaker 2: know what mistakes? What big mistakes? I mean, I never

1822
01:56:29,360 --> 01:56:33,600
Speaker 2: made a mistake that was so that was so bad

1823
01:56:33,880 --> 01:56:40,120
Speaker 2: that what was I thinking? You know, I did some

1824
01:56:41,200 --> 01:56:44,000
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know. I can't answer the question. Sorry,

1825
01:56:44,080 --> 01:56:48,240
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know. Drank too much.

1826
01:56:48,920 --> 01:56:53,040
Speaker 1: What's your philosophy on money? I'll give you an analogy.

1827
01:56:53,640 --> 01:56:56,160
Speaker 1: In the old days, everybody used to pay agents ten.

1828
01:56:57,240 --> 01:57:01,320
Speaker 1: Now that's negotiable, so you're making to deal with somebody

1829
01:57:01,360 --> 01:57:03,240
Speaker 1: in general. I know you have these acts you work

1830
01:57:03,280 --> 01:57:06,880
Speaker 1: with a long time. To what degree are you firm

1831
01:57:06,920 --> 01:57:09,040
Speaker 1: on the money. What's your negotiating style?

1832
01:57:10,920 --> 01:57:18,080
Speaker 2: Oh, believe in yourself and you'll make more money. And

1833
01:57:19,880 --> 01:57:23,880
Speaker 2: it's so funny because none of my acts that I

1834
01:57:24,000 --> 01:57:29,040
Speaker 2: work for are charging me guarantees, you know, but they're

1835
01:57:29,040 --> 01:57:33,760
Speaker 2: getting the line share of everything. Where they see every penny.

1836
01:57:35,280 --> 01:57:37,520
Speaker 2: It's not that I won't pay a guarantee. It's just

1837
01:57:37,520 --> 01:57:42,840
Speaker 2: that I will advance autist money, you know. But I'm

1838
01:57:43,080 --> 01:57:46,280
Speaker 2: you know, I'm not going to. I'm not going to.

1839
01:57:48,160 --> 01:57:51,360
Speaker 2: But everyone feels everyone, like I said, that's on themselves

1840
01:57:51,720 --> 01:57:56,080
Speaker 2: and they see every dollar that they see that piece

1841
01:57:56,120 --> 01:58:00,960
Speaker 2: of every dollar. And that's that's my philosophy, you know, transparency.

1842
01:58:02,000 --> 01:58:03,600
Speaker 1: Well, you've been doing this a long time and a

1843
01:58:03,600 --> 01:58:06,640
Speaker 1: lot of different capacities. There's an old line there are

1844
01:58:06,680 --> 01:58:11,840
Speaker 1: no no bad shows, only bad deals, right, So what's

1845
01:58:11,880 --> 01:58:14,680
Speaker 1: your philosophy on deals in general? In terms of your

1846
01:58:14,720 --> 01:58:15,680
Speaker 1: fifty year career.

1847
01:58:16,800 --> 01:58:19,120
Speaker 2: I'm not going to buy my way into a relationship.

1848
01:58:19,880 --> 01:58:23,720
Speaker 2: I think it's total bs. You know, when you know,

1849
01:58:23,840 --> 01:58:27,640
Speaker 2: when you the autists don't even know who they're working for.

1850
01:58:27,720 --> 01:58:32,640
Speaker 2: They're just taking the deal and then they regret it after,

1851
01:58:33,000 --> 01:58:37,840
Speaker 2: you know, And I'm not gonna I'm not going to

1852
01:58:37,960 --> 01:58:41,360
Speaker 2: chase an act with money that won't happen. So that's

1853
01:58:41,640 --> 01:58:44,600
Speaker 2: that's how I operate. I mean, I don't I'm in

1854
01:58:44,640 --> 01:58:46,960
Speaker 2: my own lane. I'm not in the ag lane. I'm

1855
01:58:46,960 --> 01:58:49,200
Speaker 2: not in a live nation in that lane, you know,

1856
01:58:49,280 --> 01:58:53,280
Speaker 2: I don't go after their acts, and most of the

1857
01:58:53,280 --> 01:58:55,080
Speaker 2: time they don't go after my acts. Every once in

1858
01:58:55,120 --> 01:58:58,600
Speaker 2: a while, you know, one of their promoters get greedy,

1859
01:58:59,000 --> 01:59:01,840
Speaker 2: and then I have to, you know, I have to.

1860
01:59:02,040 --> 01:59:04,240
Speaker 2: I have to, I have to get a little New

1861
01:59:04,320 --> 01:59:05,040
Speaker 2: Orleans on them.

1862
01:59:07,040 --> 01:59:12,440
Speaker 1: Okay, the landscape today is totally different. As I'm referenced earlier,

1863
01:59:12,520 --> 01:59:16,839
Speaker 1: the acts tend to be built by record companies. In radio,

1864
01:59:17,920 --> 01:59:21,040
Speaker 1: there's a lot of acts can tour that are not

1865
01:59:21,120 --> 01:59:23,840
Speaker 1: on the radio, don't even have record companies. By the

1866
01:59:23,880 --> 01:59:28,720
Speaker 1: same token record companies, the three majors have almost an

1867
01:59:28,760 --> 01:59:32,840
Speaker 1: impossible time breaking new acts. So where's it going?

1868
01:59:34,720 --> 01:59:37,160
Speaker 2: Well, this new acts breaking every day, you know, so

1869
01:59:37,200 --> 01:59:39,680
Speaker 2: maybe the record companies need to get in with the

1870
01:59:39,720 --> 01:59:42,800
Speaker 2: program instead of trying to control their acts, trying to

1871
01:59:42,840 --> 01:59:46,800
Speaker 2: figure out different ways how to promote their acts, instead

1872
01:59:46,840 --> 01:59:49,680
Speaker 2: of you know, the same thing, instead of a cooking

1873
01:59:49,760 --> 01:59:52,520
Speaker 2: cutter thing where they find an act, they find a

1874
01:59:52,520 --> 01:59:55,320
Speaker 2: hot act and then they go all in for it.

1875
01:59:56,080 --> 01:59:59,920
Speaker 2: And you know, but if you don't make the great

1876
02:00:00,000 --> 02:00:02,160
Speaker 2: eight out of the box, you're not going to get

1877
02:00:02,160 --> 02:00:05,920
Speaker 2: any interest. You know, my son's band was signed to

1878
02:00:06,000 --> 02:00:13,160
Speaker 2: a major record label, right and they did nothing. So

1879
02:00:13,600 --> 02:00:16,240
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, they did nothing. I you know,

1880
02:00:16,600 --> 02:00:19,800
Speaker 2: I was out there getting radio stations to come, shows

1881
02:00:19,800 --> 02:00:22,000
Speaker 2: to come, I was getting the taste makers to come

1882
02:00:22,040 --> 02:00:24,040
Speaker 2: to shows, but the band didn't go anywhere. You know,

1883
02:00:24,120 --> 02:00:26,920
Speaker 2: two albums on a major label. I don't think they

1884
02:00:27,000 --> 02:00:32,240
Speaker 2: pay enough attention to the artist and they're kind of

1885
02:00:32,280 --> 02:00:38,200
Speaker 2: like whatever sticks is who they're going after. So I

1886
02:00:38,240 --> 02:00:43,360
Speaker 2: think if they signed less bands, and if they sign

1887
02:00:43,400 --> 02:00:46,640
Speaker 2: a band, they need they have to believe they could

1888
02:00:46,640 --> 02:00:48,600
Speaker 2: take it all the way to the top, and they

1889
02:00:48,640 --> 02:00:51,600
Speaker 2: need to get involved and not just hiring somebody just

1890
02:00:52,080 --> 02:00:57,480
Speaker 2: and do generics posts. You know, Hi Denver, how are

1891
02:00:57,520 --> 02:01:04,080
Speaker 2: you you know from autist X where they they are

1892
02:01:04,120 --> 02:01:09,480
Speaker 2: engaging with the artist audience and not controlling what the

1893
02:01:09,520 --> 02:01:12,760
Speaker 2: audience is having, what the artist is having to say.

1894
02:01:13,120 --> 02:01:15,280
Speaker 2: I think they just need to be in tune to

1895
02:01:15,360 --> 02:01:18,160
Speaker 2: what's happening in the same way I need to be

1896
02:01:18,240 --> 02:01:21,080
Speaker 2: in tune to what's happening. That's why I have such

1897
02:01:21,080 --> 02:01:24,960
Speaker 2: a young staff and I grow my digital department every day.

1898
02:01:25,720 --> 02:01:27,800
Speaker 2: I think that's what record companies need to do, or

1899
02:01:27,800 --> 02:01:30,520
Speaker 2: any kind of companies. Yeah, you've got to get to

1900
02:01:30,560 --> 02:01:31,800
Speaker 2: the people you.

1901
02:01:31,840 --> 02:01:34,440
Speaker 1: Came up with what would be called a social media

1902
02:01:34,560 --> 02:01:38,080
Speaker 1: post showing a certain amount of savviness. But to what

1903
02:01:38,240 --> 02:01:42,360
Speaker 1: degree do you personally look at social media, whether it

1904
02:01:42,440 --> 02:01:46,680
Speaker 1: be Facebook, Instagram, TikTok? And to what degree are you

1905
02:01:46,840 --> 02:01:51,680
Speaker 1: personally computer savvy?

1906
02:01:52,600 --> 02:01:56,800
Speaker 2: On computers savvy to a certain degree. But I don't

1907
02:01:56,840 --> 02:02:00,800
Speaker 2: live on the computer, you know, I'm just doing emails.

1908
02:02:00,840 --> 02:02:05,360
Speaker 2: And so I'll just go to to my team and say, okay,

1909
02:02:05,640 --> 02:02:07,680
Speaker 2: tell me about the growth of this act, you know,

1910
02:02:07,760 --> 02:02:10,200
Speaker 2: tell me where they were five years ago. Tell me

1911
02:02:10,200 --> 02:02:12,800
Speaker 2: what their socials look like. Tell me what their audience

1912
02:02:12,800 --> 02:02:16,720
Speaker 2: looks like, you know, break down the demographics. And that's

1913
02:02:16,760 --> 02:02:20,960
Speaker 2: that's how I'm computerist. I always say I know where

1914
02:02:21,000 --> 02:02:22,520
Speaker 2: I want to go, but I don't know how to

1915
02:02:22,520 --> 02:02:26,840
Speaker 2: get there. And that's why I have the people that

1916
02:02:26,920 --> 02:02:30,360
Speaker 2: I have working with me, because I know what I

1917
02:02:30,480 --> 02:02:33,160
Speaker 2: want to do, but I just not savvy enough to

1918
02:02:33,200 --> 02:02:36,160
Speaker 2: do it. That's why I hire people that is much

1919
02:02:36,200 --> 02:02:38,800
Speaker 2: smarter than me to get it done instead of me

1920
02:02:38,920 --> 02:02:42,600
Speaker 2: doing a half assed job of it. You know, I

1921
02:02:42,640 --> 02:02:45,600
Speaker 2: rely upon them to feed me with knowledge. I ask

1922
02:02:45,720 --> 02:02:46,879
Speaker 2: good questions, though.

1923
02:02:48,120 --> 02:02:51,160
Speaker 1: What's more important? Data or gut instinct?

1924
02:02:52,400 --> 02:02:56,480
Speaker 2: Combination of both? I mean data. Sometimes you know, you

1925
02:02:56,560 --> 02:03:00,000
Speaker 2: got you have people that have you know, ten minutes

1926
02:03:00,320 --> 02:03:03,520
Speaker 2: followers but can't sell out you know, my car and

1927
02:03:04,760 --> 02:03:07,520
Speaker 2: you know you you know, sometimes you just have to

1928
02:03:07,560 --> 02:03:09,880
Speaker 2: feel it, you know, you just have to feel it

1929
02:03:09,960 --> 02:03:15,800
Speaker 2: like this is going to happen. And I think you

1930
02:03:15,840 --> 02:03:19,440
Speaker 2: need a combination of both. The you need to know,

1931
02:03:20,760 --> 02:03:22,960
Speaker 2: you have to have a feel for the audience. You

1932
02:03:23,000 --> 02:03:25,000
Speaker 2: have to have a feel for the music. You have

1933
02:03:25,040 --> 02:03:27,600
Speaker 2: to have a feel for the connection. But you also

1934
02:03:27,720 --> 02:03:31,160
Speaker 2: have to have the savvy to knowing how to get

1935
02:03:31,200 --> 02:03:34,880
Speaker 2: to the audience and knowing how to send the right

1936
02:03:34,880 --> 02:03:38,720
Speaker 2: message to the audience and and to connect the artists

1937
02:03:38,760 --> 02:03:44,400
Speaker 2: and the audience. And and sometimes the artists don't even themselves,

1938
02:03:44,440 --> 02:03:50,200
Speaker 2: don't have enough belief in themselves, where you have to

1939
02:03:50,560 --> 02:03:52,600
Speaker 2: kind of give you know, you have to you have

1940
02:03:52,720 --> 02:03:58,680
Speaker 2: to give them your enthusiasm. And that's kind of what

1941
02:03:58,840 --> 02:04:01,720
Speaker 2: I do, you know, like I'm a tap dancer, you know,

1942
02:04:02,000 --> 02:04:05,200
Speaker 2: like I put I'm mister bo Jangles, you know, And

1943
02:04:06,840 --> 02:04:09,680
Speaker 2: just you got to have both. You've got to have

1944
02:04:09,720 --> 02:04:12,800
Speaker 2: a great team around you that is savvy and every

1945
02:04:12,840 --> 02:04:15,280
Speaker 2: which way, but you've got to have a gut feeling.

1946
02:04:15,320 --> 02:04:18,720
Speaker 2: And I think that's what has been the key to

1947
02:04:18,840 --> 02:04:22,920
Speaker 2: my success is that I have a great feeling I

1948
02:04:22,920 --> 02:04:26,920
Speaker 2: could see town, you know, I feel I could see

1949
02:04:26,920 --> 02:04:30,560
Speaker 2: where there's that connection between the artis and audience that

1950
02:04:30,600 --> 02:04:32,080
Speaker 2: I think that's my biggest gift.

1951
02:04:33,600 --> 02:04:36,000
Speaker 1: And what would you say to young people wanted to

1952
02:04:36,000 --> 02:04:37,760
Speaker 1: get into this business?

1953
02:04:39,680 --> 02:04:44,880
Speaker 2: Uh, dive in man, you know, follow your dreams. You know.

1954
02:04:44,920 --> 02:04:48,920
Speaker 2: I do a class every semester at ut and and

1955
02:04:49,120 --> 02:04:52,200
Speaker 2: you know it's always like forty to fifty students in

1956
02:04:52,240 --> 02:04:55,560
Speaker 2: my class. And uh, it's just just called the you know,

1957
02:04:56,080 --> 02:04:58,040
Speaker 2: the making of a concert where I kind of go

1958
02:04:58,120 --> 02:05:00,600
Speaker 2: through the whole steps from signing the and all the

1959
02:05:00,640 --> 02:05:04,760
Speaker 2: way through load out. And I always encourage people to

1960
02:05:04,800 --> 02:05:09,120
Speaker 2: follow their dreams. And I'm not going to say, oh,

1961
02:05:09,320 --> 02:05:11,640
Speaker 2: you know, it's such a shitty business. It's not a

1962
02:05:11,680 --> 02:05:16,560
Speaker 2: shitty business, you know, if you have the drive. I mean, yeah,

1963
02:05:16,600 --> 02:05:18,720
Speaker 2: it was a shitty business when I started because I

1964
02:05:18,720 --> 02:05:20,800
Speaker 2: didn't know what the hell I was doing. But I

1965
02:05:20,880 --> 02:05:23,800
Speaker 2: kept on asking why why, why? Why? Why do you

1966
02:05:23,840 --> 02:05:26,320
Speaker 2: do this? Why do you do that? And I always say,

1967
02:05:26,560 --> 02:05:28,840
Speaker 2: don't have a tate no for an answer. On the

1968
02:05:28,880 --> 02:05:32,960
Speaker 2: third note, it's a maybe, you know, just keep on

1969
02:05:33,080 --> 02:05:37,080
Speaker 2: moving forward, keep on moving forward. So yeah, I would

1970
02:05:37,160 --> 02:05:41,680
Speaker 2: encourage people. I encourage my kids, you know, to go

1971
02:05:41,800 --> 02:05:44,520
Speaker 2: for it. You know, my daughter wants to go into film,

1972
02:05:44,520 --> 02:05:48,160
Speaker 2: I go for it. You know my other my fourteen

1973
02:05:48,240 --> 02:05:50,760
Speaker 2: year old daughter, want to You know, she's got an

1974
02:05:50,880 --> 02:05:54,920
Speaker 2: incredible voice, she's got such charisma, but I don't think

1975
02:05:54,920 --> 02:05:58,240
Speaker 2: she has the drive. But I encourage you every day.

1976
02:05:58,280 --> 02:06:02,040
Speaker 2: And last night eleven o'clock I heard her playing piano

1977
02:06:02,640 --> 02:06:06,960
Speaker 2: and and so that was pretty cool because that day

1978
02:06:07,000 --> 02:06:10,480
Speaker 2: I go, why'd you stop playing piano? And because I

1979
02:06:10,480 --> 02:06:13,640
Speaker 2: don't know? And then last night I was in bed

1980
02:06:13,960 --> 02:06:15,960
Speaker 2: I could hear her play, and then it was pretty cool.

1981
02:06:16,600 --> 02:06:20,320
Speaker 2: So I'm always encouraging people to follow their dreams.

1982
02:06:21,120 --> 02:06:22,640
Speaker 1: So how much longer are you going to do this?

1983
02:06:22,680 --> 02:06:24,480
Speaker 1: You're going to do this till you drop, or you're

1984
02:06:24,520 --> 02:06:25,720
Speaker 1: going to retire at some point.

1985
02:06:26,640 --> 02:06:32,600
Speaker 2: Probably do it till I drop. Uh Uh. I love

1986
02:06:32,640 --> 02:06:34,520
Speaker 2: what I do. I still love what I do. You know,

1987
02:06:35,920 --> 02:06:38,120
Speaker 2: why would I do? I can only pull up so

1988
02:06:38,120 --> 02:06:42,320
Speaker 2: many cedar trees, you know, And and I really love

1989
02:06:42,400 --> 02:06:46,520
Speaker 2: what I do, And I don't know, I wouldn't know

1990
02:06:46,520 --> 02:06:49,200
Speaker 2: what else to do. I mean, he has to sit

1991
02:06:49,240 --> 02:06:52,640
Speaker 2: at home, and you know, I'm not going to write

1992
02:06:52,680 --> 02:06:57,400
Speaker 2: a book. I'm not gonna you know, I've traveled. I've

1993
02:06:57,440 --> 02:06:59,480
Speaker 2: traveled my whole life, and so it's not like I

1994
02:06:59,520 --> 02:07:05,800
Speaker 2: want to try, you know, And I don't know. I guess.

1995
02:07:06,320 --> 02:07:09,280
Speaker 2: I used to say, when George retires, Our retired, when

1996
02:07:09,360 --> 02:07:13,280
Speaker 2: Kenny retires, Our retire, when Taylor retires, I'll be dead.

1997
02:07:15,320 --> 02:07:19,920
Speaker 2: And that's basically it, you know me. But when I

1998
02:07:20,000 --> 02:07:24,720
Speaker 2: signed a new van and see them go to the top,

1999
02:07:25,400 --> 02:07:29,280
Speaker 2: I just love it. When I have George Strait thirty

2000
02:07:29,360 --> 02:07:31,240
Speaker 2: years is still at the top of it. When we

2001
02:07:31,280 --> 02:07:35,680
Speaker 2: set a tent, we set gross records everywhere we played.

2002
02:07:36,080 --> 02:07:40,960
Speaker 2: I mean somebody sent me somewhere all highest gross. Number

2003
02:07:41,000 --> 02:07:43,800
Speaker 2: one was George Straight, Number two was George Straight, number

2004
02:07:43,840 --> 02:07:47,960
Speaker 2: three and four would Beyonce. I don't know what publication

2005
02:07:48,080 --> 02:07:49,640
Speaker 2: that was, but somebody sent it to me and went,

2006
02:07:49,640 --> 02:07:53,840
Speaker 2: holy shit, and that's pretty cool. And every night, you know,

2007
02:07:54,080 --> 02:07:57,840
Speaker 2: where single night attendance record ed was breaking every night,

2008
02:07:58,320 --> 02:08:02,640
Speaker 2: And what Taylor has done, it's like mind blow. I mean,

2009
02:08:02,680 --> 02:08:06,839
Speaker 2: I'm part of history. I'm living in history with Taylor,

2010
02:08:07,400 --> 02:08:11,080
Speaker 2: you know. And shit, after fifty one years of the

2011
02:08:11,120 --> 02:08:13,800
Speaker 2: business and still having a hand as hot as I

2012
02:08:13,920 --> 02:08:17,000
Speaker 2: have and still have artists and still have you know,

2013
02:08:18,240 --> 02:08:22,840
Speaker 2: a brain, and I'm pretty lucky, and why would I

2014
02:08:22,880 --> 02:08:24,560
Speaker 2: want to give it up? I don't.

2015
02:08:26,400 --> 02:08:29,640
Speaker 1: Okay. You say you're in the business and making dreams

2016
02:08:29,680 --> 02:08:35,160
Speaker 1: come true. You say to the artist, what is your dream? So, Louis,

2017
02:08:35,200 --> 02:08:38,320
Speaker 1: what is your dream beyond what you've already accomplished.

2018
02:08:39,720 --> 02:08:44,000
Speaker 2: I don't know, Find the next artists, bring them to

2019
02:08:44,040 --> 02:08:51,080
Speaker 2: the stadiums, you know, and just see my team grow,

2020
02:08:51,560 --> 02:08:56,720
Speaker 2: my kids grow up, but seeing the younger people of

2021
02:08:56,840 --> 02:09:02,320
Speaker 2: superstars on my team grow, you know, my son Lewis

2022
02:09:02,400 --> 02:09:08,200
Speaker 2: and Haley McCollister and you know, Sarah Winter, and just

2023
02:09:08,240 --> 02:09:12,480
Speaker 2: see them becoming stars. That's that's my dream, you know.

2024
02:09:13,360 --> 02:09:15,880
Speaker 2: That's what I want to do. As far as watching

2025
02:09:15,920 --> 02:09:18,000
Speaker 2: the growth of my family and watching the growth of

2026
02:09:18,040 --> 02:09:21,680
Speaker 2: the individuals here, that's what I like to do. That's

2027
02:09:21,680 --> 02:09:24,200
Speaker 2: what I want to do. You know, I don't want

2028
02:09:24,240 --> 02:09:27,160
Speaker 2: to you know, people say, oh, Louis, if you drop dead,

2029
02:09:27,240 --> 02:09:31,040
Speaker 2: you have no company. That's bs you know, I mean

2030
02:09:32,800 --> 02:09:37,000
Speaker 2: Taylor because of Mike Dugan, because of Sarah, because of Haley,

2031
02:09:37,360 --> 02:09:40,880
Speaker 2: you know, Illumineers because of Haley and my niece Margo,

2032
02:09:41,080 --> 02:09:43,840
Speaker 2: you know, and Kenny Chesney is because of Rome and

2033
02:09:43,920 --> 02:09:47,560
Speaker 2: Kate McMahon. You know it's not yeah me, I am,

2034
02:09:47,880 --> 02:09:50,760
Speaker 2: you know the song and dance man, but you know

2035
02:09:51,800 --> 02:09:54,800
Speaker 2: they're the people. They're the mechanics that just get the

2036
02:09:54,880 --> 02:09:58,480
Speaker 2: job done. But I'm making them song and dance I'm

2037
02:09:58,480 --> 02:10:00,200
Speaker 2: making a lot of them song and dance men too.

2038
02:10:03,520 --> 02:10:05,880
Speaker 1: Okay, Louis, I want to thank you so much for

2039
02:10:05,960 --> 02:10:10,320
Speaker 1: taking this time to talk and educate my Owdens. Really

2040
02:10:10,360 --> 02:10:14,720
Speaker 1: been great, always hilarious talking to you so insightful. Thanks

2041
02:10:14,760 --> 02:10:15,160
Speaker 1: so much.

2042
02:10:15,560 --> 02:10:18,360
Speaker 2: All right, thank you, my man, Bye bye.

2043
02:10:18,320 --> 02:10:21,160
Speaker 1: Until next time. This is Bob Left sets