Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, episode three seventies seven. John Esposito referred
Speaker 1: to his es BO. He's the head of Warner Music Nashville.
Speaker 1: Big record label, cool record label, very successful record label,
Speaker 1: especially since he took over. You could tell from this, Mike,
Speaker 1: I have a long relationship with ESPO. With John, however
Speaker 1: you want to refer to him, he was one of
Speaker 1: the first people when I moved to town, and that
Speaker 1: feels like ages ago, but also feels like yesterday to go, oh,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have some trouble here because you're different. But
Speaker 1: he's also way different too, and that's how he knew that.
Speaker 1: So I always appreciate him because I didn't know who
Speaker 1: to trust. I didn't know who liked me, who was
Speaker 1: trying to get me fire to But I have a
Speaker 1: long relationship with SPO. It was one of those where
Speaker 1: there be times wouldn't talk for a year, but then
Speaker 1: we'd go back and you just feel like you never
Speaker 1: left off. But he is retiring after a great, great career,
Speaker 1: so I really enjoyed the talk. But also at the
Speaker 1: end when he starts to break down each of the
Speaker 1: artists that he signed, really cool, so many good stories
Speaker 1: and then he talks about when he was starstruck. That's
Speaker 1: really cool. Who he went up to a restaurant randomly.
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it, mind blown.
Speaker 1: So it's John Esposito. I think you'll like it. I
Speaker 1: liked it, but also I like him. This is episode
Speaker 1: three seventy seven of the Bobby Cast. Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: Here we go. I was talking to Brett, who was
Speaker 1: one of my dearest, lifelong friends. Now I want to
Speaker 1: say lifelong, one of my dearest friends in this stage
Speaker 1: of my life. He feels that, Yeah, that's like he's
Speaker 1: like my guy, right, he's uh, he's sad. Like as
Speaker 1: close as Brett and I are. You guys haven't much
Speaker 1: stronger longer. Uh. Your relationship has been very mentor mentee
Speaker 1: like you found and made him and he trusted you.
Speaker 1: You know, he's he's sad. You know I'm sad. Well,
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. On on you saying that, I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what it's It's pretty crazy. I've been reflecting a
Speaker 1: lot because my last day in my office is going
Speaker 1: to be on Friday, and you've not been to my
Speaker 1: office us, but you've heard about my office kind of
Speaker 1: play and it's and it's a museum and it's it's
Speaker 1: my life. You know. You can see the Sinatra rat
Speaker 1: pack wall, the Springsteen wall, the wall with all the
Speaker 1: plaques of what we've accomplished during these thirteen plus years
Speaker 1: down here, um, and many other things that are very
Speaker 1: intriguing to me. I kind of wish I had made
Speaker 1: the decision and announced it a week before I left,
Speaker 1: because the number of conversations I've had to have has
Speaker 1: has It's going to be cathartic when it happens, but
Speaker 1: I needed to happen actually because I got to move on.
Speaker 1: I made the decision. I have accomplished what I wanted
Speaker 1: to accomplish. I was asked to come down and fix
Speaker 1: a record label that was moribund and UM, and I'm
Speaker 1: very proud of what we've done and part of the
Speaker 1: emotion that runs through it, and there's there's much, you know.
Speaker 1: And tonight they're having an for me at the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame where there will be some speeches and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm going to probably h do a lot of crying
Speaker 1: because I'm an emotional guy. But Blake and and Brett
Speaker 1: are going to fit to the top of the emotion
Speaker 1: because there's Blake Shelton, who was getting ready to get
Speaker 1: dropped at Warner, who you know, life changed for him.
Speaker 1: And Brett was the first guy I signed. And when
Speaker 1: I met Brett, I knew there was a brotherhood there that,
Speaker 1: you know, if I were lucky enough that that bet
Speaker 1: was right, we could have a long fun ride together.
Speaker 1: But experienced some things together, and I'm sure he's shared
Speaker 1: with you. He's come up, stayed at my Nantucket house
Speaker 1: and gone fishing, and we've we've done many things together.
Speaker 1: I don't feel I ever have a problem separating work
Speaker 1: from play. If I have to give him a hard conversation,
Speaker 1: I can do it because he knows it's all in love,
Speaker 1: you know. But I also prefer that I play, you know,
Speaker 1: because he's one of the dearest people to me in
Speaker 1: the world. He and I both came upon, for instance,
Speaker 1: meditation at the same time for different reasons, from different motivations. Somebody,
Speaker 1: a doctor I have tendatus, told me I should meditate.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking the head of Vanderbilt's tell me I should meditate,
Speaker 1: and it will help the ringing in my ear that
Speaker 1: legitimizes it. So let me try. You know, Brent for
Speaker 1: um the various reasons of helping his mental health, but
Speaker 1: the number of times we've talked about it and how
Speaker 1: important it is as part of our life. You know,
Speaker 1: when you have that kind of loving relationship with an
Speaker 1: artist and you can dive deep, it makes it far
Speaker 1: more fulfilling relationships. They're a big part of why people
Speaker 1: love you. What you've been able to do professionally is
Speaker 1: why people respect you. In that combination rare you have
Speaker 1: and I just will tell him the version my story
Speaker 1: with you. Still after I've been here almost ten years now,
Speaker 1: I've only ever been to dinner with one executive in
Speaker 1: the history of my life, and it's you, and we
Speaker 1: would you know before COVID. We and it's hard, but
Speaker 1: we tried. We try to go once a year, or
Speaker 1: we go every ten months or then a year and
Speaker 1: three months. But and it's hard to see people, especially
Speaker 1: when you're executive of your stature and I'm traveling a lot.
Speaker 1: But we we made it a priority. And I didn't
Speaker 1: get anything from it professionally, and you didn't get anything
Speaker 1: from it professionally, But there's always an affinity that I
Speaker 1: had for you because when I moved here. You had
Speaker 1: a wing, and I wouldn't say you took me under it,
Speaker 1: because it wasn't only I needed to live under. But
Speaker 1: you had a wing, and you said, Hey, I know
Speaker 1: what it's like to come here where people look at
Speaker 1: you like you're different, and because you are, but also
Speaker 1: you came here because you know that you could provide value.
Speaker 1: And I just remember those early talks because your experiences
Speaker 1: before you came to country, you had done a little
Speaker 1: to everything. And I'm so grateful for that relationship me too,
Speaker 1: and I appreciate that, you know. I remember very specifically
Speaker 1: we were out at the Oklahoma benefit event for raising
Speaker 1: money for the tornado that it blown through Blake and
Speaker 1: re but yeah, yeah, and I walked up to you,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's just kind of how I rolled,
Speaker 1: and I said, I'm really proud of you, and I'm
Speaker 1: rooting for you. I want you to know that, you know,
Speaker 1: and sometimes let's get together. And I'm probably the worst
Speaker 1: promo person in the world because I never want to
Speaker 1: ask for the order. I just want to talk to
Speaker 1: people and talk about music. And so the dinners you
Speaker 1: and I had um at that special little table at
Speaker 1: Giovanni's there's a plug for you guys. Um um. We
Speaker 1: never asked each other for anything. It wasn't work. It
Speaker 1: wasn't work. We are sharing humanity. Yeah, well, I I
Speaker 1: value that. I will always value that. And that's why
Speaker 1: I it's it's a sadness, not that you're or moving away,
Speaker 1: but that there's not somebody that's running that that I like.
Speaker 1: I feel like if I need to go, hey, like Tyson,
Speaker 1: can I tell you something? Can I have this talk
Speaker 1: with you? This happened to me, this happened to an artist.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't like this that's leaving. And not
Speaker 1: that I can't form that eventually, but I felt like
Speaker 1: we had a really strong bond there and I appreciate
Speaker 1: and hopefully it continues. I'm not leaving Nashville, and I
Speaker 1: haven't figured. I'm just saying I'm not. I don't want
Speaker 1: to get weaky the whole time. God bless you. Why
Speaker 1: you started in two thousand nine, I think when I
Speaker 1: look back at it, and yeah, here and their label
Speaker 1: has grown like four times the size that it was
Speaker 1: that when when you got here? What do you think?
Speaker 1: And this is a you question, but it's also a
Speaker 1: question because we have a lot of new artists, and
Speaker 1: we have a lot of people in the music business
Speaker 1: of country country music that are early agents, early record
Speaker 1: people that listen to this. Why do you think you
Speaker 1: were able to do the like? What did you bring?
Speaker 1: What vision did you have to go? I can go
Speaker 1: do this. I'm not from there exactly, but I can
Speaker 1: foresee how we can make changes. I do believe that
Speaker 1: I never came here with the notion that I knew anything,
Speaker 1: and I wanted people to know that. Obviously, I knew
Speaker 1: something about how the music business worked. I'd worked at
Speaker 1: Island def Jam, I'd worked at PolyGram, I had worked
Speaker 1: running a distribution company. I knew a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1: But the last thing they needed is the distribution guy
Speaker 1: from New York City to come down here and pretend
Speaker 1: he could teach them anything. So I just listened. But
Speaker 1: the one thing I wanted everyone to be clear on
Speaker 1: is I'm willing to outwork anybody, and I love music
Speaker 1: on a level that's almost um unhealthy. What did they
Speaker 1: see in you just to to want you to do it? Well?
Speaker 1: There's one thing that I heard a lot um in
Speaker 1: the beginning, and I hear it occasionally is the town
Speaker 1: and they kind of referred to it as the town.
Speaker 1: It is a unique community of music, this Nashville thing
Speaker 1: that we work in. UM wanted Warner to come back
Speaker 1: to life. It was not good for the town that
Speaker 1: they didn't have a strong Warner UM. An artist manager
Speaker 1: didn't want to have one less door to knock on
Speaker 1: because it wasn't in good shape. So if I could
Speaker 1: help be part of bringing Warner UH to a life
Speaker 1: where we could break artists, it gave optionality to everybody
Speaker 1: through the ecosystem. The publishers they wanted It's like an economy, right,
Speaker 1: you bring a big a store, let's say a local store,
Speaker 1: but then it's a big a lot of jobs, and
Speaker 1: those jobs people can buy other stuff. So they needed
Speaker 1: to help that the music economy was. They wanted more
Speaker 1: fueling and they thought you could do it. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure some of them selfishly thought, well, they'll negotiate better
Speaker 1: deals because somebody else is hopping in the fray and
Speaker 1: offering a number or a term or whatever. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, I think what happened fairly
Speaker 1: quickly was people realized, God, this guy is relentless. You know, UM,
Speaker 1: I gotta hang with him. I gotta learn more about him.
Speaker 1: And I wasn't trying to do anything but be myself.
Speaker 1: If if I've had success in forty five years of
Speaker 1: running businesses, it's because people I want to hop on
Speaker 1: that train with me, because I'm a I'm a cheerleader
Speaker 1: on a profound level, you know, and it's it's sincere.
Speaker 1: And because I could admit to them I couldn't name
Speaker 1: ten artists on the top fifty chart when I got here.
Speaker 1: I really, you know, I said to the folks in
Speaker 1: New York, I know how to run businesses, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to have to learn all this stuff. You sure
Speaker 1: that I'm the guy? Yeah, you get down there and
Speaker 1: do that. Well, yeah, you'd find people. Um, Mike Dungan
Speaker 1: wanted to help me. Joe competitors wanted to help me.
Speaker 1: It was uncanny, you know, Ultimately they wanted to be competitors.
Speaker 1: Troy Tomlinson wanted to help me a publisher. Um, because
Speaker 1: it my enthusiasm begot their wanting. Man, I want this
Speaker 1: guy to succeed. And then some stuff happened that you know,
Speaker 1: ingratiated me to the community. The the head of the
Speaker 1: c m A was ousted and I was asked to
Speaker 1: run the what do you call it? The search committee
Speaker 1: that ultimately led to us bringing in Sarah Trey Hern.
Speaker 1: And we did such a good job with that. God
Speaker 1: bless you, Sarah Trey Hearn. That they asked me to
Speaker 1: be the chairman of the c m A board. And
Speaker 1: and so I'm kind of pinching myself. A kid from
Speaker 1: punk Stani, Pennsylvania via New York City who couldn't have
Speaker 1: named ten artists on the chart is the head of
Speaker 1: the c m A board five years into coming down here.
Speaker 1: I think that people know, and this is self aggrandizing,
Speaker 1: but I think they know. I'm sincere. I just want
Speaker 1: good ship to happen. We allowed to curse where do
Speaker 1: you want? Okay, that's the rules. Since the car's words
Speaker 1: are okay, I'm closing my speech tonight. I'll give you
Speaker 1: a preview. Is that what you have there? Your speech?
Speaker 1: You you just know this is just some notes in
Speaker 1: case I forgot who's signed to my label. That's funny, uh,
Speaker 1: But by speech tonight to close this Hall of Fame event,
Speaker 1: says you know. But when all is said and done,
Speaker 1: you know, while I'd love to give you a great advice,
Speaker 1: the only right, real advice I can give you is
Speaker 1: signed great and our people and get the fucking record played. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's a two B. If you can do that,
Speaker 1: everything else just kind of falls in and solve every
Speaker 1: problem in the world with three minutes and thirty seconds
Speaker 1: of magic. Whenever you talk about magic, and I say,
Speaker 1: what magic comes to mind? And that's such a vague question.
Speaker 1: But the three minutes and thirty seconds can be any
Speaker 1: song that you as a head believed in quickly and
Speaker 1: said that's it. Because again, you're a player. People to
Speaker 1: know this too. You're when you love music. It's not
Speaker 1: just listening like you are musical in every way. You're
Speaker 1: not torious. People come and play with you in your office,
Speaker 1: like after the CMA. Sorry, what what's the magic for
Speaker 1: you that when you think that song was magic? Immediately, well,
Speaker 1: I can tell you a few pop to my head
Speaker 1: when you say that. And then I want to go
Speaker 1: back to a little Blake Shelton story. But I remember
Speaker 1: when Blake was second guessing himself, he already had number
Speaker 1: one records and thinking, well, maybe they don't care about
Speaker 1: me anymore. And I went to a dinner with him
Speaker 1: and Gwen Um and you know. We both were telling him,
Speaker 1: you know, get over that. You know people want you,
Speaker 1: and he said, well, I got something booked for the
Speaker 1: studio on Monday. I don't know. I just don't know,
Speaker 1: you know anyhow, And on Thursday Walks a song called
Speaker 1: God's Country. As soon as we heard the demo, Blake
Speaker 1: sends me the most hilarious texts in the world, many
Speaker 1: of which I couldn't uh but anybody ever see. Um,
Speaker 1: But it was you know, I actually wish I could
Speaker 1: find that one right now and share it with you,
Speaker 1: but it would be something along the lines of ESPO.
Speaker 1: I think I just found money, real money. And I said, okay, Scott,
Speaker 1: send me this song. And I hear the demo of
Speaker 1: of God's Country. There's an artist on Thursday morning, not
Speaker 1: sure he wants to go to the studio, who puts
Speaker 1: out the biggest song of his career that it's recorded
Speaker 1: three days later, and you knew the magic of that song,
Speaker 1: and you knew that he was going to deliver it.
Speaker 1: I felt the same thing, um a lot when I
Speaker 1: heard a demo which my buddy Dan Smires is still
Speaker 1: piste off at me about of from the ground up,
Speaker 1: and it was with a little drum machine and an
Speaker 1: acoustic guitar, and you just knew that song was gonna
Speaker 1: change people's lives. It such a resonance, such a um,
Speaker 1: such a such an amazing message in it. I started
Speaker 1: playing it for a few people who came in the office,
Speaker 1: and the word got back to him, and he says,
Speaker 1: don't you ever do that again? You know, he's he's
Speaker 1: one of these the finished product only guys. He you know,
Speaker 1: we're Smiers is a club super close to us, and
Speaker 1: Caitlin and Abbey are really great friends. And Dan is
Speaker 1: no c d guying myself everything, it's got to be
Speaker 1: in the exact order. He's a he's a perfectionist um.
Speaker 1: And I was telling him that you guys did such
Speaker 1: a good job yourself, your team, Dan and Shay from
Speaker 1: that song, because that was a graduation for them, whenever
Speaker 1: you guys did for the ground up. Because I remember
Speaker 1: the I still remember the visuals, and I see visuals
Speaker 1: of everything all the time. I'm constantly inundated with new music,
Speaker 1: new clips, new content, what about this, what about I
Speaker 1: remember what you guys did and how you built the
Speaker 1: that like the church, that all of it, all the
Speaker 1: aesthetic for that song. You graduated them at that point
Speaker 1: because you believed in that song so much, and so
Speaker 1: as you say that, that to me was a big
Speaker 1: point of Dan and Jay's career because they had they
Speaker 1: did the work, and you guys believed in it so
Speaker 1: much that you pushed it and it was massive and
Speaker 1: it led them to the next graduation step. You've gotta
Speaker 1: be proud of those guys. I am. I'll tell you
Speaker 1: if anny story about Dan and Shaye. I was riding
Speaker 1: to a studio to meet Jay Joyce, a producer of
Speaker 1: of Very Much Notoriety here in town, and on the
Speaker 1: way Ben Vaughan, who runs the Warner publishing company Warner Chapel, said,
Speaker 1: I got this new song from this duo called ragtop Red.
Speaker 1: You've gotta listen to it, and on comes UM nineteen.
Speaker 1: You and me, I think it's damn near the finished product.
Speaker 1: We ended up putting out. I said, ragtop Red, what's that?
Speaker 1: He goes, You just got to meet these guys. So
Speaker 1: the next day I had Dan and Shay in my
Speaker 1: office and you know, you you do these auditions and
Speaker 1: you think they're gonna lie about forty five minutes. There
Speaker 1: are some you wish were over in ten minutes, but
Speaker 1: you still have to be courteous, right. I never wanted
Speaker 1: anybody they got their final moment to get there in
Speaker 1: front of the head of a label. You know. Well,
Speaker 1: after about ten songs, I'm looking over at Scott Hendricks,
Speaker 1: our ahead of eight, R, A and R at the
Speaker 1: time and ultimately the producer of eighty number one records
Speaker 1: in this format, and I'm like nodding. He's giving me
Speaker 1: a little nod, but you know, we've never done this before,
Speaker 1: and I'm like on my fifth nod, and I finally said,
Speaker 1: you guys are signing to Warner today. You're not leaving
Speaker 1: until you're signing to Warner. Okay. I went over and
Speaker 1: I locked the door, and I said, what do you
Speaker 1: want to drink? It turned into six hours in my office,
Speaker 1: them playing one smash after another, and then I realized
Speaker 1: they didn't have a pot to piston. So I called
Speaker 1: up my wife and said, Sean, tell but you please
Speaker 1: cook dinner for them. Cook dinner for them five nights
Speaker 1: in a row over in that Bell meat house, and
Speaker 1: just said, I'm telling you I'm not letting you go
Speaker 1: on too. You become Warner brothers artists here and you
Speaker 1: know that thankfully it worked out. What about ragtop Red?
Speaker 1: How did you convince them to lose? Oh yeah, I
Speaker 1: forgot that part of the Well. Yeah, I mean a
Speaker 1: very good name, you know. And it also doesn't represent
Speaker 1: them top Bread, it didn't walot so too funny pieces
Speaker 1: in this vignette. I have a Steeler's wall in my
Speaker 1: office because I grew up in the Pittsburgh area, and
Speaker 1: Dan Smiers walks right up to and stairs at it,
Speaker 1: and I said, you're not from Cleveland, are you? No? No,
Speaker 1: I'm from Pittsburgh. I'm thinking good, I got one. I
Speaker 1: got one here. Hey, guys, But about that name? And
Speaker 1: without mr a beat, they said, oh, we hate that name.
Speaker 1: We dropped it. We're Dan in Shay And I thought,
Speaker 1: I don't have to have that. Goddamn but that's funny.
Speaker 1: So that was it. That was what we already thought it.
Speaker 1: We're just um. Whenever it came to the branding of
Speaker 1: those guys, that and that cross, that whatever that is, like,
Speaker 1: that's what I think of when I think of them.
Speaker 1: That decision obviously had to be okayed by you as well,
Speaker 1: because it's Dan and shake. Even that little thing that
Speaker 1: is so branded, is so important. Do you remember when
Speaker 1: you get settled on that even well you do. I'm
Speaker 1: you'll laugh as I say this. We love those guys.
Speaker 1: There are certain things you just don't argue with. So
Speaker 1: it was them that was that, Yeah, it's good, it's good,
Speaker 1: it works if it makes you feel good, you know, um,
Speaker 1: and you know we It probably created a little confusion
Speaker 1: in the early days in terms of what is it?
Speaker 1: Is it Dan plus you know, yeah, you get a
Speaker 1: couple of hit records, people forget yeah exactly, and they
Speaker 1: learn it. They forget that they were confused, and they
Speaker 1: learn it forever. That's right. Um. I remember talking to
Speaker 1: John Peaks a little bit when I first came to town,
Speaker 1: who was always super nice to me, who another who
Speaker 1: was a guy by the way, didn't go to dinner
Speaker 1: with him, and he's not a record executive, but he
Speaker 1: was a guy to whom gonna pull me aside and
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, you're different like me, and it ain't
Speaker 1: gonna be easy for people like you. And here's some
Speaker 1: stuff that I've been through. And again, I was so
Speaker 1: appreciative to that. And I never listen to music with
Speaker 1: people because one it's awkward to just nod your head
Speaker 1: and be like, yeah, I could. You always have to
Speaker 1: act like you like it even if you don't. But
Speaker 1: he played me this artist and he said, you know,
Speaker 1: we're not really doing much with her now, but we
Speaker 1: really believe in her and there's gonna be some There's
Speaker 1: gonna be something here when we figure out exactly how
Speaker 1: to do it, because what it is is awesome. And
Speaker 1: he played me Ashley McBride because she's from Arkansas like myself,
Speaker 1: and he kind of used that as a conduit to
Speaker 1: get to playing the music. And what you guys have
Speaker 1: been able to do with Ashley it feels very strategically
Speaker 1: awesomely non traditional. How you made her a star and
Speaker 1: to see her be a superstar now is her talent,
Speaker 1: but also you your talent. You guys this talent. To
Speaker 1: sign Ashley McBride and have a vision for her, I
Speaker 1: imagine there was I don't know what were there a
Speaker 1: lot of meetings like what kind of artists do we
Speaker 1: want her to be even though she already knows who
Speaker 1: she is. No meetings to have that discussion. Um. I
Speaker 1: saw actually maybe six years before we signed her, and
Speaker 1: there was no doubt she was incredibly talented, but um
Speaker 1: M not ready and she admits that too. Why not
Speaker 1: What does that mean? Not ready? Um? Green The songs
Speaker 1: weren't captivating, Um the performance was you could tell, you
Speaker 1: know that she could sing. She might have been over
Speaker 1: singing some of it. You know, you're young, you're trying
Speaker 1: to impress and and god, I really just can't um.
Speaker 1: Even though I play guitar and I played drums and
Speaker 1: I play in bands, I haven't had audition to audition
Speaker 1: in in front of a bunch of wankers from this business.
Speaker 1: So I can only imagine how people can exaggerate to
Speaker 1: a point where it's kind of distracting. But then I
Speaker 1: saw her about three months before we signed her, and
Speaker 1: I was like, uh, we we have to do this.
Speaker 1: And Chris Lacy, the now co president of our label
Speaker 1: and the head of A and R, was in agreement.
Speaker 1: And then everybody wanted to sign her. And I gotta
Speaker 1: tell you, um, um, I think part of why she
Speaker 1: ended up with us is because she knew we weren't
Speaker 1: going to ask her to do anything but be yourself.
Speaker 1: I think we have a great reputation in that regard. Um.
Speaker 1: I hear, I hear horror stories of people who actually
Speaker 1: go and mix records for artists that they the artists
Speaker 1: didn't even know they were doing. It's like, are you
Speaker 1: kidding me? I'd fire me if if that ever happened,
Speaker 1: but I'll never forget for the rest of my life. Um,
Speaker 1: this will be self aggrandizing comment eight. Probably Um, everybody's
Speaker 1: trying to sign her and John Pets, who I really love.
Speaker 1: That guy is the real deal. He's he's the smartest
Speaker 1: um dude, you know, and creative and and willing to
Speaker 1: go on non traditional paths with all the artists on
Speaker 1: as roster. He calls me up. I'm in Nantucket. He says,
Speaker 1: I've never done this before, but I want you to
Speaker 1: agree to something. And I said, what's that. He goes,
Speaker 1: Ashley only wants to be with you. Well, you just
Speaker 1: promise me you'll give us a fair deal. She doesn't
Speaker 1: want to take another meeting with another record label. She's
Speaker 1: found her home and she's sick of this game, and
Speaker 1: can we just shake that. We're going to work out
Speaker 1: terms everybody will be happy with. And I said, I've
Speaker 1: never done that before either, But yes, I knew she
Speaker 1: would be that important, you know. And I think that
Speaker 1: one of the great things about what we've been able
Speaker 1: to do. Part of it's probably accidental because I didn't
Speaker 1: know about country music. Our roster is very diverse because
Speaker 1: it's filled with people that go from Ingrid Andrew's, which
Speaker 1: you wouldn't necessarily think why would you sign her to
Speaker 1: a country label, right, or Dan and Shay. They were
Speaker 1: pretty pops out, you know, um were they are, Um
Speaker 1: they can be um um. Ashley so traditional and there
Speaker 1: was nothing that we had in the twelve songs that
Speaker 1: were album one that we thought no brainer to get
Speaker 1: played on country radio. But boy, once people got to
Speaker 1: hear her and got to experience it live, it was
Speaker 1: going to become a thing. And we have to have
Speaker 1: the patients. Now with that comes you have to have
Speaker 1: Blake Shelton's and Kenny Chesney's and Dan and Shays and
Speaker 1: Brett eld Region others producing millions. For me, the joy
Speaker 1: is the success they can all have. But getting to
Speaker 1: play in sandboxes with people like Abrianna right and know
Speaker 1: that you can be changing lives, you know, by taking
Speaker 1: a risk on somebody who skirts the edge of whatever
Speaker 1: people might call country music, but it's important music. We
Speaker 1: just signed a new artist named Jordan Shellhart. I can't
Speaker 1: wait for the world to hear her. And you know
Speaker 1: it's Joni Mitchell meets uh um Um. I don't know
Speaker 1: who the hell house, but it is so refreshing distinctive.
Speaker 1: It sounds so good when you listen to it, but
Speaker 1: if you dive in the lyrics, you go, oh my god,
Speaker 1: she's talking about subject matters that people you know, they'll
Speaker 1: misinterpret the song and then they'll eventually you know, this
Speaker 1: is really odd, but I'm on my fourth Steely Dan book.
Speaker 1: Um book, Yeah, wow, you're that and a Steely Dan
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. It started with I wanted to know who
Speaker 1: played guitar on every damn record and their notorious for things.
Speaker 1: This may bore your country listeners completely, but they would
Speaker 1: get the best studio musicians in in the world to
Speaker 1: come in, and the musicians couldn't find out if they
Speaker 1: made the record until the record was released because there
Speaker 1: were twenty five guitars who came in to play the
Speaker 1: solo one peg. You know. Money Out started with that
Speaker 1: sort of obsession, but it became they purposely wrote words
Speaker 1: that nobody could ever literally um figure out. It was
Speaker 1: all jokes to them about their neurosis, etcetera. So you
Speaker 1: listen in Their Their their Thing, Donald and Walder talk
Speaker 1: about we wanted to be very pleasant sounding music that
Speaker 1: you didn't have to scratch the surface to figure out
Speaker 1: what Ricky don't Lose that number actually meant because it
Speaker 1: just sounded good and you humme it, you know, and
Speaker 1: there's something very intriguing about that. You know. Jordan's Shellhart
Speaker 1: she may she she'd appreciate that reference. I think Arihanna,
Speaker 1: if you listen to the lyrics of Arianna as a narcissist,
Speaker 1: how the hell did a seventeen year old come up
Speaker 1: with that lyric? You know? So part of this joy
Speaker 1: of my my tenure down here has been that if
Speaker 1: we had enough people paying the bills, I could play
Speaker 1: in some different sandboxes and it will all go back
Speaker 1: to Ashley McBride and now here we have Lindyville, which
Speaker 1: is one of the most important and magic records, you know,
Speaker 1: And to know I was associated with that. Ashley said
Speaker 1: to me once when we were, you know, in the
Speaker 1: signing process. She goes, you know, I like you because
Speaker 1: you're always in the back of the room and your
Speaker 1: head's always Bob you're actually paying attention. My wife came
Speaker 1: to me. COVID kind of blurs the years, and there's
Speaker 1: a kid, his man now, but from like two towns
Speaker 1: over from where she grew up, and she's gay. He's like,
Speaker 1: he's awesome. And she would listen to him on her phone,
Speaker 1: mostly on her phone, especially at first on TikTok, and
Speaker 1: she'd play songs and we'd be in the car and
Speaker 1: we're all bluetoothed up for everything, and she would play him,
Speaker 1: just playing on on TikTok over and over again. And
Speaker 1: she's in a lot of ways, she's become my compass
Speaker 1: on what is happening right this second, because it's a
Speaker 1: few layers to get to me, and I don't like
Speaker 1: that sometimes, but it is the house that's been built
Speaker 1: at this point. But she just gethers. Guys. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: she grew up around me. It doesn't live in Nashville.
Speaker 1: It's Zac Brian. And she just she was on and
Speaker 1: on to the point where I was just getting annoyed,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I don't want to listen to
Speaker 1: Zack Brian because you love him so much you won't
Speaker 1: stop playing him all the time. But then I grew
Speaker 1: again a real love for stylistically like that's my jam.
Speaker 1: I love slow, emotional and I can hear the lyrics,
Speaker 1: feel my version of what he's singing. And I became
Speaker 1: a massive fan without being very educated on him, just
Speaker 1: because I love the music sonically. I got to the
Speaker 1: point where I was like, man, I can't get enough
Speaker 1: now Zach Brian is with you? Guys, when you sign
Speaker 1: somebody that has and they'll last a couple of years,
Speaker 1: that has grown so much because of their virility, like TikTok,
Speaker 1: they blow up? Is that a whole different negotiation? How
Speaker 1: did that come together? Are these artists that blow up?
Speaker 1: Or is it different to negotiate with them than someone
Speaker 1: who you just know is going to be good playing
Speaker 1: a showcase somewhere? Well? I dare say, um as a
Speaker 1: generalization which I tend to hate. Um. The rules of
Speaker 1: engagement have changed so very much in a very short
Speaker 1: period of time. UM, I would say, And they're changing ever,
Speaker 1: um right now, right before us, but maybe go back
Speaker 1: two years. Uh it was for the first bunch of
Speaker 1: years before that. Hey, I only want to sign with
Speaker 1: you if you tell me when the radio ad date
Speaker 1: is now it is tell me how you're going to
Speaker 1: bring the story of my artist to the world. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I dare say and I tell you, Buddy
Speaker 1: Rod Phillips this all the time. Radio, by getting records
Speaker 1: to take a year to get up the chart is
Speaker 1: hurting itself because people need discovery. But it's forced a
Speaker 1: lot of looking at and it's not just streaming, although
Speaker 1: streaming is a lot of fun when when you happen
Speaker 1: to get that joy early on, but just ways to
Speaker 1: get a story told through various social media places and
Speaker 1: hopefully the result of getting some streaming um early on
Speaker 1: has has become the day you know, and I swear
Speaker 1: to God, I don't go after that in the name
Speaker 1: of being in lieu of radio, because the big win
Speaker 1: is when you get to the top twenty at radio
Speaker 1: and everything's um, you know, it tends to be smoking
Speaker 1: along in terms of how much consumption. There is a
Speaker 1: word that Kenny Chesney hates. I think he's kind of
Speaker 1: come around to understand that that is some weird part
Speaker 1: of our vernacular. Now I kind of hate it too.
Speaker 1: I hate product, you know, I never call it a product.
Speaker 1: But anyhow, um, my long winded way of saying so,
Speaker 1: now artists are coming in and with a story like
Speaker 1: Zach Bryan, they have negotiating power that's very different than
Speaker 1: the one who's begging you to come see them in
Speaker 1: the club. And they haven't built a following, you know,
Speaker 1: And do I think that will become more mainstay? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Do I think it becomes. It goes from probably five
Speaker 1: percent of what gets signed to no, but it's gonna
Speaker 1: be probably closer to thirty or you know, there's still
Speaker 1: going to be things like hey, um Bailey Zimmerman, who
Speaker 1: I loved. When you know, folks, Bobby will just every
Speaker 1: once in a while text me and say, hey, I
Speaker 1: just met with this artist. I think they're the real deal, right,
Speaker 1: question mark? Because I know that you will even if
Speaker 1: they're your person, I know that you'll still be honest
Speaker 1: with me and go like they haven't they have the
Speaker 1: real potential to be the real deal. Or you'll go like, yep,
Speaker 1: they sure are. You know you'll be honest with me,
Speaker 1: And that's what I said, I always will. And I
Speaker 1: was thinking to myself, well, here's a guy working on
Speaker 1: a pipeline two years ago, never picked up a guitar
Speaker 1: and sang boy. He has a way of connecting with people. Um.
Speaker 1: He was kind of in between the Zach Brian building
Speaker 1: an audience over a period of time and um and
Speaker 1: and the artist who you know as one song and
Speaker 1: you're hoping you you bet on the right song. But
Speaker 1: I do think that we're going to get more and
Speaker 1: more people trying to create a story that becomes compelling.
Speaker 1: It makes it here for the manager and lawyers when
Speaker 1: they come knock on our door, you know. And you know,
Speaker 1: I have a I don't mind being held up if
Speaker 1: I believe there's a long term there. I was talking
Speaker 1: to Rod. I kind of cornered him on the air.
Speaker 1: I later apologized to him because I didn't mean to
Speaker 1: do it, but if we're on and I'm doing the show,
Speaker 1: I just follow instinct and then apologize Later's if we're live,
Speaker 1: you know that's a deal. And he was walking behind
Speaker 1: and see him and I say, hey, Rod. I talked
Speaker 1: to him about a couple of things, and I say, hey,
Speaker 1: why what's the deal with Zach Bryan. Why are we
Speaker 1: not playing him more? Like I We can't get enough?
Speaker 1: I said, And I understand it's different. I want a
Speaker 1: national syndicated show. They don't just go Willy nillion throw
Speaker 1: songs into that, but I'm talking about just generally, like
Speaker 1: why aren't we and he goes, listen, I love them too.
Speaker 1: It's doesn't sound like what everything else sounds. So we're
Speaker 1: like playing in certain places to make sure. And I'm
Speaker 1: just like, can't you just go what's awesome and and
Speaker 1: do it? And I kind of got him into trouble
Speaker 1: because the people started attacking him, which I didn't mean
Speaker 1: to do, but I was just saying how I felt,
Speaker 1: and he was like, don't apologize. You do what you do.
Speaker 1: That's what you do on the air, and I'll do
Speaker 1: and I'm I'm cool to have to stand by something
Speaker 1: even if I personally don't agree with this is what
Speaker 1: he said. He goes, I love Zach Bryan. I would
Speaker 1: play him on every station all the time. But if
Speaker 1: I do that, and he went down this executive talk
Speaker 1: that he has to report to his ball right. So
Speaker 1: that being said, did that ever get back to that
Speaker 1: I was fighting with Rod about Zach Bryan on their
Speaker 1: Uh no, the the that's probably because I'm too distracted
Speaker 1: in life period um um. But I understand the notion.
Speaker 1: This is an odd retort or response to your question.
Speaker 1: I was with a radio programmer in Pittsburgh. I happen
Speaker 1: to go to Pittsburgh a lot because I I like
Speaker 1: my hometown. And he goes, are you guys releasing Zach
Speaker 1: Brian now to purposely piss all of us people off
Speaker 1: who have been playing him for months? And now we
Speaker 1: played him too many times? And I said, only if
Speaker 1: we were that smart, you know. No, we we didn't
Speaker 1: know whether anybody would ever want it. And then we
Speaker 1: kept seeing you all who were playing this in these
Speaker 1: because we were playing in the morning show. I was
Speaker 1: playing them in the morning and you'd get spins in
Speaker 1: these I mean streams in these markets that were off
Speaker 1: the hook, and it was like, okay, even us geniuses
Speaker 1: should not overthink this and just put the damn record
Speaker 1: out and look what it's doing. It's been the top
Speaker 1: stream song in country music. I think it's in its
Speaker 1: twelfth week or something like that, and it's probably in
Speaker 1: the radio chart somewhere in the high twenties. I think
Speaker 1: is where we've reached. It's starting to now it starting
Speaker 1: to really have some some balls, you know, and as
Speaker 1: far as people have to pay attention to it, because
Speaker 1: it's climbing so high, that it says, hello, I'm here,
Speaker 1: you'd play me, because if you don't, you're real. You're real, idiot.
Speaker 1: What do you do now? Like you finished your last
Speaker 1: day on Friday? Like what? Because I think for the
Speaker 1: first month I would do I say, I don't stop working,
Speaker 1: but I think when I finally stop, I'm not doing
Speaker 1: anything for a month. I'm just gonna lay. I think
Speaker 1: that my family's placing bets on my ability to do that.
Speaker 1: The advice I'm getting from anybody of you know, deep
Speaker 1: consequence in my life, which is mostly my family and
Speaker 1: um a couple of other people who have been with
Speaker 1: me for this long ride is shutdown. In January. You're
Speaker 1: gonna have so many people asking you to do something.
Speaker 1: The stupidest thing you could do is think you should
Speaker 1: go do something. Find out what it's like to not
Speaker 1: have to make a decision every five minutes. Right, And
Speaker 1: I'm going to try my damnedest, I really am. I
Speaker 1: have a list of things that I'll do, um well,
Speaker 1: that I'm intending to do. The book is turning into
Speaker 1: two books. Um Um. Cooking class, I'm want to go
Speaker 1: to the culinary Institute. I'm a really good cook, but
Speaker 1: I'm sure, I've been slicing some vegetables incorrectly for all
Speaker 1: my life. Are you going to cooking classical school? Because
Speaker 1: it sounds like that's school school. Um. I'm going to
Speaker 1: pick my guitar up more because boy, when I do
Speaker 1: it fulfills me. And then I get busy again and
Speaker 1: I lose my callouses and all that. But I just
Speaker 1: want to see it. For the month of January, I
Speaker 1: can sit still. I want to meditate more during the day.
Speaker 1: I want to do these sorts of things. I made
Speaker 1: the decision to asked to be relieved with me creating
Speaker 1: the succession plan of I promoted four years ago. The
Speaker 1: two people who will be the co presidents of the label,
Speaker 1: Ben klined to GM and Chris Lacity in our with
Speaker 1: the purpose that it gave me an option. But I
Speaker 1: thought to myself, and this may sound horrible, to screw it,
Speaker 1: you know, I am what I am. I was asked
Speaker 1: to come and take a a label that used to
Speaker 1: be called the artist Protection Program by everybody in town
Speaker 1: because if we got signed at Warner, you were never
Speaker 1: seen again. Um to um a very productive label. We've
Speaker 1: actually grown almost six times. That's just since I said
Speaker 1: for it's going two more times, you know, and and
Speaker 1: and I'm getting to ride out on a nice high.
Speaker 1: But I've been sitting in these marketing meetings on Wednesday
Speaker 1: and feeling like it feels like groundhog Day. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: It was one thing when you had to add a
Speaker 1: second artist to the Blake Shelton thing we had going on.
Speaker 1: And this is not an indictment of Warner. This is
Speaker 1: the nature of the music business. Suddenly you find out
Speaker 1: you have thirty five artists. And I'm really good at
Speaker 1: hand holding individual artist. It gets harder for me to
Speaker 1: hear the social media stats on the fifth artist on
Speaker 1: the thing. Let alone get to the twelfth artist and
Speaker 1: all that. So let the kids do that. I'll find
Speaker 1: a way to be involved. My if I have a gift,
Speaker 1: I'm an artist whisperer, and I love it. I love
Speaker 1: that they trust me. I love that I have some
Speaker 1: many years of experience where I can offer sage advice.
Speaker 1: And one of them will be with Brett Aldridge, one
Speaker 1: of my dearest friends on the planet Earth. You know, um, um,
Speaker 1: you know, and we talk about that openly. I just
Speaker 1: I'm not looking for compensation. I'm looking for the joy
Speaker 1: of knowing that I could help guide the handful of
Speaker 1: people artists along in a meaningful way. And then I
Speaker 1: know it's just going to unveil itself to me, that
Speaker 1: somebody's gonna say, what you do this with me or that?
Speaker 1: Because I have to be busy, because I really just
Speaker 1: don't sit still well, and that's my entire life. Let's
Speaker 1: do personally and professionally. Personally, the best decision you ever
Speaker 1: made marrying Sean Tell, actually, oh my kids they're not whatever.
Speaker 1: Um uh, you know, deciding that the first one wasn't working,
Speaker 1: and then being brave enough at the time of forty
Speaker 1: nine years old to say, well, whatever, I know, I'm
Speaker 1: not happy. I gotta go find some happiness somewhere. And accidentally,
Speaker 1: two months later, somebody said, we got a seat filler
Speaker 1: for you at the Grammys, and it was Chantelle Baine,
Speaker 1: who is now eighteen years with me in fifteen years
Speaker 1: of marriage. And I've never been fucking happier in my life.
Speaker 1: So that was the best personal decision, professionally, best decision
Speaker 1: you ever made. Um. Announcing to a group of people
Speaker 1: in a building on twenty Music Square East in Nashville
Speaker 1: that we're going to build the building around Blake Shelton.
Speaker 1: And I don't care how bad things are going for
Speaker 1: Blake Shelton. We got to prove to the town that
Speaker 1: if we could break Blake Shelton to big time, um um,
Speaker 1: people will believe in us, and more managers and artists
Speaker 1: and lawyers will knock on our door. Because nobody was
Speaker 1: coming to the Warner Building. And I looked at Blake
Speaker 1: in the I after he played the Grand Old Opera.
Speaker 1: He's told this story a couple of times, and I said, dude,
Speaker 1: I'm about to build the building around you. You better
Speaker 1: work as hard as I do. Not that I was
Speaker 1: worried about it, but I had to make some sort
Speaker 1: of statement. Mind you up, I was looking like this
Speaker 1: because he's six five and I'm squeezing out almost six three.
Speaker 1: He looks so much bigger than me. And picture he
Speaker 1: also had big boots. He would like this morning, he's
Speaker 1: like up six five, and I'm like, yeah, but you're
Speaker 1: like six seven and a half when you were big.
Speaker 1: That's fair enough. But I think that you know that
Speaker 1: that was probably it. Although I will tell you this
Speaker 1: not that you need me to talk anymore, but what
Speaker 1: led to me coming down here I was running. I
Speaker 1: was the president of WE, a distribution company for Warner
Speaker 1: The letters stood for Warner Elector A good Warner Electra Atlantic,
Speaker 1: and I had helped take it out of the ashes
Speaker 1: into a phoenix rising, and about seven and a half
Speaker 1: years into it, I swear to God this is true.
Speaker 1: I went down to my boss Lee or Cohen were
Speaker 1: the characters of all characters and the history of the
Speaker 1: music business, and I said, I've succession planned. I'm bored shitless,
Speaker 1: promote me or fire me. I can't do this anymore.
Speaker 1: He started smiling, told me to walk down the hall
Speaker 1: to Edgar Brafman's office. Edgar was the chairman. He's smiling.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking I just got set up for something. The
Speaker 1: next day they asked me to move to Nashville and
Speaker 1: run this. That's how it happened. Yeah I did. I mean,
Speaker 1: truth be told. I had just signed a new three
Speaker 1: year deal, so if they fired me, I was going
Speaker 1: to have a little money to figure it out. But
Speaker 1: I just knew when I was bored, I couldn't do
Speaker 1: it anymore. You know. It's kind of like what I'm
Speaker 1: going through now. I need a new chapter. Boy. In
Speaker 1: the hindsight, it still was pretty silly of me to
Speaker 1: just I feel like any advice I ever give anybody,
Speaker 1: if it's a good advice, it's because I've done it
Speaker 1: and messed up. I've done it and had to struggle.
Speaker 1: That's where I have gained my knowledge because it just
Speaker 1: comes to me easy, which is very few things. I
Speaker 1: don't if I can pass anything along because it was
Speaker 1: just natural. So a lot of anything that I can
Speaker 1: share to people is through hard work or sacrifice or
Speaker 1: doing it wrong. So I say that in the vein
Speaker 1: of what professionally was your worst decision, where it was
Speaker 1: a bad decision, but you know now because it happened
Speaker 1: to you, it made you smarter or you're able to
Speaker 1: help others because of what happened. That's a great one
Speaker 1: right there. I've made a couple of I have a thing.
Speaker 1: There's probably a better one than this, but sitting on
Speaker 1: my emporium shelf of shelf, one of my shelves of
Speaker 1: all this junk in my office is this thing called
Speaker 1: Furry Creatures. And it's a um um probably eight or
Speaker 1: nine inch hall um clay model of something where somebody
Speaker 1: came to me in my old job and said we
Speaker 1: can bring you two million dollars a year in um
Speaker 1: new revenue, and it can build to this. All you
Speaker 1: have to do is make this investment. And I went
Speaker 1: to the chairman of the company and I said, listen,
Speaker 1: I know this is not um my purview, but should
Speaker 1: I take a chance. And he goes, listen, you've been
Speaker 1: good so far. Why don't you take a chance? While
Speaker 1: we lost about four million dollars in the process. And
Speaker 1: I leave that thing sitting on my shelf to remind
Speaker 1: myself that I was in the music business. What did
Speaker 1: I think I needed to be in some weird video
Speaker 1: game that I do nothing about business? But I'm sure,
Speaker 1: I'm sure I've done stupider things than that. Smash that thing. Oh,
Speaker 1: good for you for keeping it and letting that be
Speaker 1: a reminder of your growth. That's funny. Bad When you
Speaker 1: were a kid, who was your hero? Dean Martin was
Speaker 1: probably one of my real heroes because he had such
Speaker 1: a swagger about him, and he had that TV show
Speaker 1: with the gold Diggers, which you know, politically correct wouldn't
Speaker 1: be allowed today, but he'd sit there on a stool.
Speaker 1: Everybody loves some of us sometime, Well, these blondes are
Speaker 1: walking around in skimpy dressed and I thought, God, someday
Speaker 1: I just want to sing and have them love me
Speaker 1: like that, you know. Uh. My dad though, really, when
Speaker 1: all of a sudden done my you know, I'm I
Speaker 1: think it's the Martin or Mark Twain line that the
Speaker 1: older I got, the smarter my father got. My father
Speaker 1: and I. I was one of six, I was the
Speaker 1: black sheep, always in trouble, always in trouble, always stretching
Speaker 1: the boundaries. I've broken nearly every bone in my body.
Speaker 1: I have stitches everywhere in this body of mine, just
Speaker 1: from falling again, beat up or what No, just climbing
Speaker 1: a tree and the tree broke and I fell out
Speaker 1: and there's a compound fracture of that leg, you know,
Speaker 1: and just just doing ship. And my father was always
Speaker 1: you know, grumpy, mad at me, But ultimately we became
Speaker 1: best friends when I was about twenty because he realized
Speaker 1: I just wanted to adventure and that it was going
Speaker 1: to serve me well. And you know, all my siblings
Speaker 1: that just fine. I ended up having the closest relationship
Speaker 1: with my dad because we would end up getting involved
Speaker 1: in conversations about pretty heavy things, you know, and my
Speaker 1: dad was typical World War Two veteran and orphan who
Speaker 1: you know, had to make his own way in life.
Speaker 1: And he's my hero. My leadership style is one my
Speaker 1: father's influence. I could watch him walk into a room
Speaker 1: of angry people and diffuse it by asking the unquestioned
Speaker 1: that made them all have to shut up because they
Speaker 1: didn't even know what they were fighting about. You know,
Speaker 1: people get all rebbed up. And I thought, man, that
Speaker 1: guy just listens, He lets everybody spew. And then you
Speaker 1: asked the one, you know, checkmate. Thing. You know, I
Speaker 1: was talking with somebody yesterday about um, and it's probably
Speaker 1: all the emotional stuff related to this h cathartic moment
Speaker 1: that that is going on to be moving on to
Speaker 1: some next stage. When my father died, Um, there was
Speaker 1: a road between Princeton, New Jersey, and where I had
Speaker 1: a farmhouse out in the country. I used to commute
Speaker 1: into New York on the train that I called my
Speaker 1: father every day on this one road, and it was
Speaker 1: about a three mile stretch of road and just so
Speaker 1: we could say hey, you know, and ask each other
Speaker 1: a couple of questions. When he died, I could not
Speaker 1: ride on that road anymore. Because all I would do
Speaker 1: is ball every time I was on that route. I've
Speaker 1: gone back since just to see if I still have
Speaker 1: and I do the emotion. You know, I don't live
Speaker 1: there now twenty years, but god, it just affected me
Speaker 1: because that memory is so locked in, and you know,
Speaker 1: I was happy, and in so far as when my
Speaker 1: dad died, I didn't end up being one of those
Speaker 1: guys going I wish I had had a relationship. You know,
Speaker 1: there was there was no no time lost or whatever
Speaker 1: the right expression is. Thanks for sharing that story. That
Speaker 1: is like, I'm jealous of that story in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways. And it sounds like a dad was a
Speaker 1: important part of who you are and even who you
Speaker 1: who you are and who you are even today, because
Speaker 1: you say your managerial, your leadership style comes directly from him. Um.
Speaker 1: When did you notice your your dad's son early in
Speaker 1: your career or did it take a while before you
Speaker 1: started to go, oh, I am kind of inadvertently my
Speaker 1: dad as I'm managing folks. That's a great question. If
Speaker 1: I don't romanticize it, it probably was sometime in my
Speaker 1: my twenties. Um, Um, just because I found myself in
Speaker 1: a room full of people saying something that could you know,
Speaker 1: shut the room down. Not with the intention of shut up,
Speaker 1: but like, that's crazy that you did that. And then
Speaker 1: I go, God, that's what he used to do. That's
Speaker 1: what I used to as a kid watch him do
Speaker 1: with people. And you know, there's this other part. My
Speaker 1: father would never let my head get big. He he
Speaker 1: loved my success, but he would just make sure. You know,
Speaker 1: I remember every once in a while I would try
Speaker 1: to explain why I was doing well. He says, stop
Speaker 1: the ship. You start explaining why you're doing well, you're
Speaker 1: going to ruin it. Just be yourself, It'll it'll be okay.
Speaker 1: Stop talking about yourself. You know I haven't done an
Speaker 1: effective job of that. Yeah, listen, the job is to
Speaker 1: talk about you. I'm very interested in you. Um, the
Speaker 1: first time because and we have like five minutes left.
Speaker 1: I want to get to a few other quick things,
Speaker 1: but I want to do first and last, the first
Speaker 1: time that you were genuinely starstruck, where you're like, wow,
Speaker 1: I can not believe I'm that close to this person.
Speaker 1: Um Uh, I'm sorry. There's always more than one. The
Speaker 1: first one was when I was sitting in Chason's restaurant,
Speaker 1: famous in U l A. Johnny Carson always used to
Speaker 1: talk about going to Chasen's, and I was there because
Speaker 1: I was a buyer at Macy's and the Fisher I'll
Speaker 1: never forget it was Fisher Electronics had us out for
Speaker 1: dinner and Chasen's and the cast of Dynasty was over
Speaker 1: here and blah blah blah blah blah, and two tables
Speaker 1: over Frank Sinatra sitting there having dinner with the Princess Caroline.
Speaker 1: I think her name is Grace's daughter, and I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just decided to walk over and introduce myself. And
Speaker 1: he was gracious and I didn't take up more than
Speaker 1: fifteen seconds of his time. But I couldn't be that
Speaker 1: close to somebody who was such a hero. But I
Speaker 1: remember my knees were shaking. You know. That's a cool story.
Speaker 1: And the second one, I'm highly involved in environmental things,
Speaker 1: and so I I'm on the Global Leadership Council of
Speaker 1: the Natural Resources Defense Counsel in r DC. I go
Speaker 1: to Washington and lobby senators and congressmen to get environmental
Speaker 1: laws stiffened, and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Speaker 1: and I go to an event and my daughter's working
Speaker 1: for the organization. She accidentally gets put at the front
Speaker 1: of the ballroom and I'm at a table Warner Bot
Speaker 1: a table where fifty ft back, and I noticed she's
Speaker 1: sitting with Paul McCartney, and I'm thinking, that little bitch,
Speaker 1: what what is going on? So at the end of
Speaker 1: the night and the reason Paul McCartney was there is
Speaker 1: Stella was the honoree, you know, because of her environmental
Speaker 1: orientation and you know, not eating um meat or any
Speaker 1: living thing. Anyhow, cutting to the chase we're in at
Speaker 1: the meeting ends and there my phone's ringing and Jessica,
Speaker 1: my daughter, Paul wants to meet you. And I said,
Speaker 1: Paul doesn't want to meet me. No, no, no, Paul
Speaker 1: wants to meet you. And I said, don't know, it's cool,
Speaker 1: so we're good. Say hi to Paul for me. You know,
Speaker 1: all I could imagine is walking up and being one
Speaker 1: of the five germs on Paul McCartney. Five minutes later,
Speaker 1: Paul wants to meet you. I said, Jessica, it's cool.
Speaker 1: I'm good. Well, Linda Eastman's sister came back, Linden. Linda
Speaker 1: was was Paul's wife many years who passed from cancer,
Speaker 1: and said, are you coming up to meet Paul or not?
Speaker 1: Now this is relative. I'm okay, this is serious. So
Speaker 1: I go up and there's Paul McCartney standing nearer the exit,
Speaker 1: but he's waiting for me, and um, he goes, hello,
Speaker 1: John Esposito, and I said, well, hello, Paul McCartney. You
Speaker 1: don't know anything about me, but I know a lot
Speaker 1: about you. He goes, I know everything about you, and
Speaker 1: he starts rattling off a bunch of ship that apparently
Speaker 1: my daughter told him. And I'm sitting there thinking a
Speaker 1: beatle has just talked to me, you know, not just
Speaker 1: a beatle, it's Paul McCartney. And we probably talked for
Speaker 1: a good two minutes and then I felt like, whoa,
Speaker 1: that's royalty. Yeah that's one. Uh final three questions. Um,
Speaker 1: the last time your star struck? M hmm, right, now
Speaker 1: come on as well. You can see me anytime any day.
Speaker 1: That ain't the same, Um, the last time I was
Speaker 1: star struck. And this is years I've been around famous people,
Speaker 1: becoming jaded in ways, and you still it could be
Speaker 1: ten years ago, I don't know, And that's probably what
Speaker 1: it is, um jay Z. So I'm an Island def Jam.
Speaker 1: I'm called by Lear Cohen, I'm the GM of Island
Speaker 1: def Jam. He tells me I need to get on
Speaker 1: a helicopter and fly with jay Z to Albany, New York.
Speaker 1: We're gonna help launch his new record. And I said,
Speaker 1: why am I going to fly in a helicopter? The
Speaker 1: president of def Jam, Kevin Lyles, is sick, so we
Speaker 1: want you to do it. And I knew j had,
Speaker 1: you know, been in some meetings with him. But I'm
Speaker 1: gonna write a helicopter with jay Z the whole way
Speaker 1: to Albany from there, and and it I was. I
Speaker 1: was genuinely gob smacks, starstruck, thrilled, nicest damn guy, smart
Speaker 1: as all get out. And there's a real quick story,
Speaker 1: and I know we're running out of the time. Um,
Speaker 1: we get done with surprising this room full of people
Speaker 1: who are about to launch a new album. It was
Speaker 1: a big record retailer that we needed their full support,
Speaker 1: but they didn't know jay Z was walking into their
Speaker 1: marketing meeting. We get done. We get in the car
Speaker 1: to head back to the airport and Jay says, I'm hungry,
Speaker 1: sees a burger King, and the he said, okay, we'll
Speaker 1: stop at the burger King. We walk in and there's
Speaker 1: this lovely, probably in her fifties, um African American woman
Speaker 1: behind the counter, her back turned to us, and you
Speaker 1: know she's filling other people's order. She turns around and
Speaker 1: she says, what can I get? I am not seeing
Speaker 1: jay Z. I am not seeing jay Z right now. No,
Speaker 1: I'm not seeing jay Z. Pretty soon, the whole restaurants over.
Speaker 1: Everybody's taking pictures, and he was so gracious. Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: taking up all the time. But yeah, I still got
Speaker 1: two things left and the site. This next one is
Speaker 1: going to be a little quick series, so I I
Speaker 1: went quick ones here because I have a few. But
Speaker 1: I want to give you an artist that you have
Speaker 1: on your label. You may have a personal relationship with me,
Speaker 1: but the only I just want you to tell me
Speaker 1: a line about them when I say her name, like
Speaker 1: what comes up about them? For example, Charlie Worsam genius.
Speaker 1: I feel you only want one word, well a sentence,
Speaker 1: a genius that I wish the world would hear more from.
Speaker 1: I agree with that wholeheartedly. In the world deserves to
Speaker 1: want to hear more from they should yea, they should. Um.
Speaker 1: Kenny Chesney man, he is a soul brother. Um. He
Speaker 1: he rescued me from a an island and didn't even
Speaker 1: know who the hell I was twenty years ago. I
Speaker 1: don't understand. I'm at an island belong before I'm running
Speaker 1: this record label tortola Um. The house of the people
Speaker 1: I'm staying with was busted into by a guy out
Speaker 1: of his mind on drugs. Um. Big Kenny, which is
Speaker 1: who I was with, calls a Kenny on the phone
Speaker 1: and said, Kenny, can you come over and get us?
Speaker 1: We take us over to ghost van Dyke. We how
Speaker 1: to get out of here. I have no idea who
Speaker 1: the Kenny is. We go down to the dock and
Speaker 1: it's pouring rain, and up comes a boat and then
Speaker 1: comes the dinghy. I guess you call it piloted by
Speaker 1: Kenny Chesney who's carrying the bags and the pouring rain
Speaker 1: onto that boat. And I said, Kenny, you don't need
Speaker 1: to do that, go come on man. And then we
Speaker 1: went over to this other island and sat and just
Speaker 1: talk music for two or three hours. And I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: he really is he really is special, you know, And
Speaker 1: it started a level of intense friendship that you can't
Speaker 1: make up. You know, I'm so proud of that boy
Speaker 1: that that what is it called a single Saturday Night
Speaker 1: cut through the chase, despite how hard radio made it
Speaker 1: for us, and who later came back and said, you
Speaker 1: were right now. Yeah, you added thirty years or thirty
Speaker 1: weeks to his life with that, bought him another twenty
Speaker 1: years and put him in position to have that massive
Speaker 1: duet and and then the one he has now. Um,
Speaker 1: that's way more than a word or a sentence. But
Speaker 1: I think Cole is the one who's next, poised for superstardom,
Speaker 1: playing in in stadiums and able to command it one more.
Speaker 1: And I love her Madeline Edwards, Yeah, man, you know
Speaker 1: you feel it when you're in the room with her
Speaker 1: period and you know I love her music, but I
Speaker 1: love her spirit so much in her where she's coming from.
Speaker 1: And we've had some you know, tearful moments. Um. Some
Speaker 1: people know that I like scotch. I've shared some scotch
Speaker 1: with her just because she said, how am I going
Speaker 1: to be at this label and miss you having a
Speaker 1: hand in all of this? And I said, I'm always available.
Speaker 1: We'll go to dinner in January. You deserve it. You're special.
Speaker 1: You're special, and you know I'll be a big cheer
Speaker 1: leader for that gal. She deserved it. Final question, what
Speaker 1: are you gonna miss the most? You know, I am.
Speaker 1: I was asked a question, So I'm going to try
Speaker 1: to reproduce the answer. What will you miss the least
Speaker 1: and what will you miss the most? And I said, oddly,
Speaker 1: the answer is the same. I will not miss going
Speaker 1: to CRS and having lecturous old men with some hot
Speaker 1: young girl on their arms and hand me a CD
Speaker 1: and say this is my new star, you know, and thinking,
Speaker 1: oh man, can they just leave me alone? But I'm
Speaker 1: gonna miss walking around the streets and people looking at
Speaker 1: me going like you could change my life. You signed
Speaker 1: me to a record deal. You know, that's a big
Speaker 1: that's a big deal. That was that was that was
Speaker 1: food for the soul for all you know. I hope
Speaker 1: I didn't let it go to my head, but I
Speaker 1: sure like being able to do that and have a
Speaker 1: number of them turn out That's what I'm going to
Speaker 1: miss the most. Well, I respect you so much professionally, However,
Speaker 1: that pells in comparison to the feelings that I have
Speaker 1: accumulated for you personally. I just even if we didn't
Speaker 1: talk for nine months, I always knew it didn't matter.
Speaker 1: We hadn't talked for nine months. I mean, that's that's
Speaker 1: the end of that. And it didn't It just didn't
Speaker 1: matter what it was. I knew if I needed it,
Speaker 1: I could call you and sometimes to be two years,
Speaker 1: but it's it was just that I just just new,
Speaker 1: you know, and and it's not leaving and you're not
Speaker 1: dying and you're not moving. But I just want to
Speaker 1: tell you this because we're kind of celebrating you. Is
Speaker 1: I didn't have a relationship with because I purposefully fought
Speaker 1: the idea of even knowing any executive because I just
Speaker 1: wanted to be the guy who did my own crap.
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear from people giving me. I
Speaker 1: was just anti everything, um probably ignorantly a little bit,
Speaker 1: but that's how I came into this place. And I
Speaker 1: think it was you who kind of show me, hey,
Speaker 1: don't be idiot, open your eyes and ears a little bit,
Speaker 1: and you can have good people in your life. And
Speaker 1: so that is that. That is my feeling about you personally.
Speaker 1: It's way more personal than professional although this town is
Speaker 1: it's gonna be different without you running that label that
Speaker 1: I only know as a massive label. You you flipped
Speaker 1: it by the time I got here. But I just
Speaker 1: I just respect you, but like a value you personally.
Speaker 1: I will treasure those words forever. I mean it, I am.
Speaker 1: I'm insanely proud of you. I know you weren't soliciting
Speaker 1: a compliment back but it was so fun to watch
Speaker 1: you plow through those early days and get to the
Speaker 1: place where you got not just respect, but you've got
Speaker 1: all sorts of opportunities. And I just hope for you
Speaker 1: that you can stop and smell the roses. Everyone. That's
Speaker 1: a that's a challenge for hard chargers like us, and
Speaker 1: you you take it to a new level. But you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll end with this. When somebody is dear to me,
Speaker 1: as Brett Aldridge tells me how important you are to him,
Speaker 1: you know that's vouching in a way that because he's
Speaker 1: got a hell of a meter and I didn't need
Speaker 1: him to do that, but boy do I love that
Speaker 1: somebody that discerning would say you mean so much in
Speaker 1: your relationship and that and and so I'm happy about that.
Speaker 1: But I'm happy you came over, um and we're done.
Speaker 1: But did you ever I'm sure there have been different times.
Speaker 1: Did you get really pissed at me for saying something
Speaker 1: or like just really no? Actually, if we are done,
Speaker 1: I was so proud of you sing Oh, I've got
Speaker 1: so much trouble for that. The people publicly that we're
Speaker 1: ripping me, we're also privately going sorry many Yeah, it's tough,
Speaker 1: but that's tough. Well nothing you ever did buck me out,
Speaker 1: buddy'll take it. Hey, you man,