0:01

You're listening to Math and Magic, a production

0:04

of iHeartRadio.

0:08

All the major forms of current pop

0:11

music came out of the South, country,

0:13

blues, rock, jazz. What happens

0:16

here travels well,

0:19

but it always doesn't get the

0:22

understanding of the depth of how important

0:24

it is and the true artistic value

0:26

of the artists involved.

0:30

I am Bob Pittman and welcome to Math and Magic.

0:32

Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. Today.

0:35

We're going to explore some entrepreneurship

0:37

and specifically about the modern music

0:39

business and how country has evolved

0:42

to be the biggest music format. Our

0:44

guest is the founder, president and CEO

0:46

of the Big Machine label group and also the

0:48

founder of Big Machine Distillery. Scott

0:52

is a Southern California kid of the sixties

0:54

and seventies bicycle, motocross

0:56

and skateboarding and empty pools. By the

0:58

way, he's still a racer. Will dig it that more

1:00

later. His dad was in the music business,

1:02

so he grew up with the big stars of those days

1:04

stopping by his house. He has

1:07

been there at the beginning for artists

1:09

and assigned deals with Tim McGraw, Jewel

1:11

Lady, a, Zach Brownband, Thomas Rhett

1:14

Florida, Georgia, Lyne and many more.

1:16

He was also a mentor on American

1:18

Idol. He is a strategic and

1:20

flexible thinker who runs a tight ship.

1:23

He gets things done. It's not just about

1:25

ideas, it's about execution.

1:28

Best of all, he's a good guy and good friend. Scott.

1:30

Welcome, Thank you, Bob. It's great to do

1:32

this.

1:32

Now, before we jump into the meaty topics,

1:35

I'd like to do you in sixty seconds. Ready,

1:38

let's rock. Do you prefer Nashville

1:40

or La Nashville, Early

1:42

Riser or night Eye? Both listening

1:46

to music or playing music? Now

1:48

it's listening dogs, are cats,

1:51

Dougs, mountains or beach beach?

1:55

Vinyl or streaming, streaming,

1:57

cooking or ordering in country

2:01

or rock.

2:01

Depends on the mood. I'm gonna say both.

2:03

Watching car races or racing cars.

2:06

For me, racing Okay,

2:09

it's.

2:09

About to get harder. What was your first.

2:11

Job working at a bicycle

2:13

motocross store building bikes?

2:15

Favored radio station from.

2:17

Your youth k me et Tweedledee.

2:20

When do you do your best thinking?

2:22

It's shutting the door in my office and

2:25

getting into my own groove.

2:27

What was the first record you ever bought stuck

2:29

in the middle with you? What

2:32

was your first concert?

2:33

It would be Kiss at the Fabulous Forum

2:35

in nineteen seventy six.

2:37

Final one. If you could be anybody else,

2:40

who would you be?

2:41

Mick Dagger?

2:42

Okay, let's jump out

2:45

big topic, country music.

2:48

Why does it not get the attention or respect

2:51

it deserves? Biggest radio music format,

2:53

huge artists, sold out tours in

2:55

the middle of the culture of this country. But

2:58

when I look at what the media covers

3:00

or what marketing references is in they're advertising,

3:03

it doesn't even come close to reflecting

3:05

that. Why is that?

3:07

You know, you really touched on it. It's what the

3:10

culture of the middle of the country is all

3:12

about. It's not really

3:15

very often, if ever, the shiny, sparkly

3:18

thing. It's something that's consistent.

3:20

It's telling the stories of blue

3:23

collar predominantly and based

3:25

in southern culture. We're not on the

3:27

West coast, we're not on the East coast

3:30

as far as our headquarters. When you

3:32

match that up to the

3:34

national buyers of advertising, etc. We're

3:37

not there, unfortunately in

3:39

a meaningful way as often as we need

3:42

to be.

3:42

And we're a little bit older.

3:43

Demographic for a

3:46

business that's going to go after a

3:49

younger demographic. We're

3:51

predominantly not going to be the first one. But

3:54

it's always great when my friends from

3:56

both coasts come to visit, hang

3:59

out a little bit, do some business with us. They're

4:01

always blown away at how great the Nashville

4:03

system is. Everything

4:05

here in Nashville is connected.

4:08

The Country Music Hall of Fame remains

4:10

completely relevant, as

4:13

does the Grand Ole Opry because it's

4:15

all centered here, and the

4:17

younger artists really have a great

4:19

knowledge and respect for

4:22

that connective tissue.

4:23

You know, it's interesting the most populated part

4:26

of the United States is now the South, and

4:28

I'm not sure people have turned their focus

4:30

to it. Do you think that this

4:33

feeling we have about country music is

4:35

sort of respect issue or do you think it's

4:37

just lack of knowledge.

4:39

All the major forms of current pop

4:41

music came out of the South, country,

4:44

blues, rock, jazz. What happens

4:47

here travels well,

4:50

but it always doesn't get the

4:52

understanding of the depth of how important

4:54

it is and the true artistic value

4:57

of the artists involved.

4:58

You know a lot of people.

4:59

Still say this, and I've been

5:01

hearing this for forty years. It's

5:04

like, well, I don't really like country music, but

5:06

I like that. It's like, well, Morgan

5:09

Wallin is country music. So it's

5:11

almost a guilty pleasure in some

5:13

places. In some circles, it's just

5:15

not cool to like country music.

5:18

I don't know what that stigma is. If

5:20

you look at some of those southern

5:23

inflections and the stereotypical

5:26

aspect of that, you could point

5:28

it's like, well, people think it's cheesy or

5:31

that it's phony, and that was the

5:33

entertainment part of it. But you know,

5:36

the people who think that haven't gone past

5:38

the cover of the book to see what an

5:40

amazing, fluid and

5:43

important music this is

5:46

not to just North America but to

5:48

many parts.

5:48

Of the world.

5:49

So what's the biggest barrier to

5:52

elevating country music to its rightful place?

5:54

Continued exposures.

5:56

There's always a star that starts

5:58

to shine, So that gets what my

6:00

job is, like, Okay, what's on the periphery. Who's

6:03

that one artist or two artists

6:05

that are it's going to be so strong and it's going to pull

6:07

the mainstream to them. We've

6:09

become arguably the

6:12

best place in the world for

6:14

young musicians to come and be able

6:16

to work playing music. That's

6:18

what Nashville has become. So what does

6:20

that mean, Well, that means the next one's coming.

6:23

It's right under our nose.

6:24

So let's jump a little bit. In the mid nineteen

6:27

eighties, you worked for Mary Tyler Moor's record

6:29

label. Much of the nineties, you were at

6:31

MCA Records Nashville. You

6:34

were by the way at that point, on a mission to

6:36

make it number one, and you did. MCA

6:38

was label of the Year every year you were there, even

6:41

Label of the Decade, and so

6:43

first question is how did you do that.

6:45

I was playing in rock bands when I moved

6:47

to Nashville, and so

6:50

rock's a big part of my DNA. So

6:52

when I came here and discovered Whyland

6:55

and Willie, that's what brought me into

6:57

country. And then once I got into

7:00

the game and doing promotion

7:03

at Mary Tyler Moore, I

7:05

was one of just two promotion people and we

7:07

were slaying the major label dragons,

7:10

just the two of us working with indies, and

7:12

so I was able

7:14

to envision how to win

7:16

this at a very young age.

7:19

And then I went independent in

7:21

nineteen eighty nine and I

7:24

became the number one independent promotion

7:26

guy in Nashville.

7:27

Pretty quickly.

7:29

I was part of breaking the

7:31

Kentucky Headhunters and

7:33

Dwight Yoakum and Carlene Carter,

7:36

and then I started looking at, Okay,

7:39

what is my next move? And

7:42

at that time my two

7:44

favorite artist rosters were MCA

7:47

and Warner Brothers, and so I went to

7:50

MCA in January

7:52

of nineteen ninety one, and it was one of

7:54

those things walking in like, Okay. I

7:56

always joke that when you're an Indy you learn

7:59

how to turn water into wine. So

8:01

I walk into MCA, I'm like, I don't have to

8:03

turn water into wine. You guys have wine.

8:07

We could go.

8:08

So walking in coming from nothing

8:11

as far as leverage and tools to

8:14

George Straight and Reba McIntyre

8:16

and Vince Gill and Whyonah

8:18

Judd, It's like, can I

8:21

this toolbox over in the corner. I

8:23

don't see you guys going over that. Can I use those

8:25

tools and like run like hell? And

8:28

so what I did is very

8:30

specifically. Aristo was our big competition

8:33

at that point, and so

8:35

I was scheduling all the singles, and

8:38

so I would go, Okay, George Straight for Alan

8:40

Jackson, Vince Gale for Brooks

8:42

and Dunn, We're gonna match them

8:45

Superstar for Superstar. Where we're going

8:47

to win is breaking new artists.

8:50

So I had a huge focus on breaking

8:53

Marty Stewart. I'm breaking David Lee

8:55

Murphy, I'm breaking why Nona Judd

8:57

as a solo artist, I'm breaking Trisha Yearwood.

9:00

I made sure that our front line was

9:02

throwing smoke at all times, and then

9:04

building up that next bench and

9:07

that next strength. You couldn't catch

9:09

us.

9:09

You left MCA and then you

9:12

started DreamWorks Nashville with

9:15

Randy Travis. As you're first signing, you

9:17

were hot right out of the box. Now, the ironic

9:20

twist is in two thousand and four, MCA

9:22

bought DreamWorks and you were back at MCA,

9:25

and by then I think they'd gone cold.

9:27

You brought them back again as the head of promotion

9:29

and artist development. And what

9:31

I think is more interesting is you were on

9:34

fire, but for some reason

9:36

you had this spark that

9:38

that was the moment that you wanted your own

9:40

label. Why what ignited.

9:42

That, Well, it really started at DreamWorks.

9:45

At that point, there weren't a lot of new labels

9:48

in the business, and so at dream

9:50

Works, you know having the ability,

9:53

you know, looking at the landscape looking at

9:55

the assets that we had. We're full entertainment

9:57

company. So I used every weapon

10:00

that the movie company had with premieres

10:03

and all that stuff, and brought that show business

10:06

to radio like one of my heroes,

10:08

Bob Pittman does. And so we

10:10

came out of the box smoking. We took over

10:12

one of the biggest hotels at the time, the Hermitage

10:15

Hotel, and re christened at the DreamWorks

10:17

Hotel, to the point where we had flags made

10:19

up and we're flying DreamWorks flags at

10:21

the hotel, and we had all the pds

10:23

and mds stay with us.

10:25

We launched like a nuclear bomb.

10:28

And so James Stroud, who

10:30

was the president of the label, he

10:33

was more of a producer than

10:35

he really was a label heead And

10:37

what was great about that is he

10:39

did the things he wanted to do and

10:42

really didn't love the day to day of operations,

10:46

and so I would take a little bit more

10:48

of that every day. It's like, James, I

10:50

got that, man, if you're good with this, you

10:53

keep doing your thing and I'm going to learn

10:55

the rest of this. So being at DreamWorks

10:58

and James Stroud giving me so much

11:00

rope to learn, not only

11:02

promotion, which we had mastered, but

11:05

learned the next level of marketing, next level

11:07

of sales, distribution, publicity,

11:10

all those things that it's

11:12

like, Okay, I'm going to acquire all these skills and knowledge

11:15

because at some point I'm

11:18

going to grab this by the neck and lead it.

11:20

And so that leads to.

11:22

January of two thousand and four, they

11:24

come in and say we're

11:27

being purchased by Universal and MCA

11:30

and Universal were ice cold. This

11:32

is April now, two thousand and four. Riba

11:35

had not had a number one single since

11:37

I left in nineteen ninety seven.

11:40

It was painful for me to watch.

11:41

Not only was she one of

11:43

my dear friends, but we

11:46

had achieved incredible success

11:49

and something that a lot of major labels still

11:51

do is they take their superstars for granted.

11:54

And I'm like, you know what.

11:55

It's time for us to return Riba

11:57

to number one. We put together the plan.

12:01

To this day, it's historic

12:04

because we had the biggest ever spin

12:06

increase in the history of the Billboard

12:08

chart, and that's when it was done by spins, and

12:11

we jumped from I think number

12:13

six to number one and we knocked

12:15

out Tim Murgrau lived like you were dying which

12:17

was the biggest song of the two thousands.

12:20

We turned that place on its head. We had

12:22

the number one on every all three imprints

12:24

within the first sixty days, and

12:28

you know, just breaking sugar Land and

12:30

Gary Allen for turning Terry Clark

12:32

to.

12:32

A number one.

12:33

It's I mean, we had that place just

12:36

on fire. And I

12:39

started thinking about, Okay, now's

12:42

my next move.

12:43

Because I was looking what everybody was doing.

12:45

I'm like, you know what, I've got no place where

12:48

I feel I can compete with all of these guys.

12:50

I don't think any of them are any smarter or

12:53

any more wise. It's time for me to jump

12:55

into the driver's seat. And so I started

12:57

putting together a prospectus, and

13:00

I started having meetings with investors,

13:03

and while I was doing

13:05

it on the QT, I wasn't

13:07

hiding it because I was in the last

13:09

year of my deal. And so we

13:12

get to January of five, and

13:15

so I was meeting with the two co presidents

13:17

of Universal Nashville and they said,

13:19

hey, you know, we know you want

13:22

to run your own label, but we'd

13:24

like you to stay where you are and give you a bunch more money. And

13:26

I'm like, I appreciate that, but I'm

13:29

not going to do that, and so we

13:31

pretty much defined my exit

13:34

at that point.

13:35

So let's jump to you

13:38

officially start Big Machine

13:41

and just put it in perspective for again,

13:43

for people that don't know the music business. You've

13:45

sold almost two hundred million albums

13:47

worldwide, I think, and you've had over one hundred

13:50

singles at the top of the charts. So

13:53

let's start with the name big Machine. Where did that

13:55

come from?

13:56

So it comes from two places.

13:58

At that time, I was racing in the NASCAR

14:00

Weekly Series and I was a three time

14:02

NASCAR Weekly Series champion, and

14:05

so when the car was really good, we say, hey

14:07

man, we got a hot ride.

14:07

We got a big machine.

14:09

And then the other thing that kind of took the scales

14:11

was that great song by Velvet

14:14

Revolver Big Machine, just this big, powerful

14:17

rock anthem. And I'm like, you know what,

14:20

let's just declare ourselves a big machine,

14:23

all thirteen of us. I always joked that

14:25

I never told the staff at that point.

14:27

That we weren't a big machine. It's like, we are

14:29

a big machine, go forth and conquer.

14:32

So how did you operate differently from

14:34

other music companies.

14:36

One of the things I think about in

14:38

that moment in the early two thousands,

14:41

is just the waste, you know, and

14:43

waste of physical

14:45

product of all

14:48

the junk, and just looking at

14:50

how the spending wasn't

14:52

lined aligned properly. And if

14:55

you look at the leaders of the business in that

14:57

moment, they didn't see streaming

14:59

coming. It was a very polar moment

15:02

for me because every week at DreamWorks

15:04

we would be on with the entire company and

15:08

the Napster conversation came up. So I said,

15:10

hey, have you guys been on this? This

15:12

is amazing. They didn't

15:15

give it a chance to be a flower

15:17

or a weed. They just said kill it, Scott.

15:20

If that's on your computer, you

15:22

get it off your computer right now and do not

15:24

put it back on. And I'm like, this Genie's

15:27

out of the bottle man.

15:28

And so that was.

15:30

A big, big cast flag

15:32

to me. I was just like, Okay, they do

15:34

not see where it's going, and it

15:36

has officially passed our

15:38

current leaders by I can't go down with

15:40

this ship because physical distribution was

15:42

turning into not

15:45

a joke but a joke in

15:47

certain ways. So it's like, this is the future.

15:50

We better figure this out.

15:51

I was at MTV. When someone

15:53

brought in some CD players

15:55

from Japan, we had to actually have a power

15:57

transformer to play them on our electricity

16:00

to show us what it was. We all got one and

16:04

it was interesting. The lawyers at that moment

16:06

said we have to kill it because

16:08

this master quality recording will

16:10

be good enough that the pirates can steal everything.

16:14

And a couple of people said,

16:16

it is coming. We can't fight it. We should

16:18

embrace it. It'll be good for us. And as

16:20

you know, the nineties were the go go years

16:23

of the record business because everybody

16:25

bought a CD and I don't think

16:27

they had ever had anything quite like that.

16:30

So the business people won, not the lawyers.

16:32

And I remember when Napster came, it was

16:34

sort of the same thing, that no, we can't

16:37

do this because basically coming

16:39

from a legal point of view. And what was interesting

16:42

was at that moment the lawyers won,

16:44

not the business people. And as you know, the music

16:46

business probably stunted for five

16:48

to ten years because they missed that

16:51

moment and had to catch up a little bit more

16:53

Mathet magic right after this quick break,

17:00

Welcome back to Math the Magic. Let's hear

17:02

more from my conversation with Scott Boshadow,

17:05

I want to go back in time a little bit to your youth, just

17:07

to get some context. You were born in southern

17:10

California in the California Heyday sixties

17:12

and seventies, and you actually

17:14

got us start in racing at that time, racing

17:17

BMX bikes and then went on the quarter

17:19

midget cars. Describe that

17:22

time and place for us.

17:24

Going back to those southern California

17:26

years, we just lived outside, you

17:28

know, we were on our motocross bikes

17:30

all the time. And once

17:32

we got into skateboarding, what happened

17:34

is we would hear about a pool in

17:36

the valley somewhere and there was this group

17:39

of us like, okay, let's meet there at

17:41

three o'clock, and you

17:43

know, whether it was an abandoned home and we'd

17:46

clean the pool out and skate in it, or

17:49

if there was a pool that was empty or that it

17:51

was dirty, had been swimming and whatever. And

17:53

so then we'd go back around to the front door, knock

17:55

on the door. Person comes to the doors, and

17:59

we would hustle them basically said hey, if

18:01

you'll let us skate in your pool for a

18:03

week, we will clean it. So it was always like

18:05

Okay, where's the next one. It's like finding

18:08

the next great concrete wave. Just

18:11

being Southern California kids. You know, you don't

18:13

realize it when you're doing it, but we were real

18:15

culture leaders with all that, going from BMX

18:18

to skateboard culture to

18:21

the music culture, which we were just surrounded

18:23

by it. You know, what was happening with punk

18:26

rock, and then what happened

18:28

when Motley Crue took over LA and

18:30

going to Guns n' Roses, and so

18:33

it was always there. And once I

18:35

got old enough, we were in Hollywood all the

18:38

time, three or four nights a week, whether going

18:40

to the Starwood or the Whiskey,

18:42

or Gazaries or the Rainbow Roxy,

18:46

all those clubs down there. You know, I

18:49

can go right back there. I mean I could feel

18:51

the sunshine on my facetop.

18:52

So you quoted

18:55

as saying you had good grades but

18:57

were an angry, rebellious kid who

18:59

was kind of anti everything.

19:02

You dropped out of college, by the way,

19:04

a trait we see often on the Entrepreneurs

19:06

here on Mathem Magic. You started playing

19:08

bass in a new way bands,

19:10

country punk bands. What

19:13

was the peak of your career as a musician

19:15

and why did you stop doing that.

19:17

The reason I left LA in

19:19

nineteen eighty one is that I

19:21

felt like I knew what was going on there, and I just wanted

19:23

to see what else was going on. And my

19:25

intent was to come to Nashville

19:28

for the summer, where my dad had moved in nineteen

19:30

seventy nine. And so I

19:32

was here in Nashville for a few

19:34

weeks and one of the independent

19:36

artists that my dad was working needed a bass

19:39

player. And I'm like, it's a country I

19:41

don't know because they're on tour. I'm

19:43

like, they're on tour, nineteen years

19:45

old.

19:46

Game on.

19:47

So I went in auditioned, got the gig, and

19:49

bob. It was so great because I had really never

19:51

been out of southern California for very much, and

19:54

it was seeing the rest of the country

19:56

and then all of a sudden, I'm like, oh my

19:58

god, it opened that aperture

20:00

of my existence

20:03

exponentially. I really didn't know my place

20:05

yet, I knew, I was determined. I

20:08

knew that I was

20:10

not going to be poor. I hated growing

20:12

up in southern California not having money,

20:15

and so I did that for eight months.

20:17

I traveled through thirty eight states in eight

20:19

months, and when I came back to Nashville,

20:22

like, I feel like I'm home. And so I

20:24

started building working for my dad.

20:26

During the day, I still was playing

20:28

in bands, rock bands.

20:30

You know.

20:30

We had a couple fun moments where

20:33

we had some great record company showcases.

20:35

We opened up for Cheap Trick and

20:38

a couple other big artists. We made

20:40

some of our own independent records, but we never

20:42

got signed. We never got that next

20:44

break. And it's like, Okay,

20:47

I'm not going to be

20:49

a rock star. I see it, I'm

20:52

friends with it. That's not my strength. And

20:55

I started allowing myself to

20:57

follow the energy because I tried to stay

20:59

out of the record business because

21:01

my dad wasn't it and I didn't want to follow

21:04

in his footsteps.

21:05

And I wanted to be my own man.

21:07

And when I stopped fighting, that is

21:10

when my record career really just started

21:12

to take off.

21:14

So let's jump to some of your philosophies.

21:16

Company culture. The first time

21:18

I visited the Big Machine offices in Nashville,

21:21

I was probably most struck by

21:23

what a cohesive and passionate

21:25

culture there was throughout the building and

21:28

among everyone I met. How

21:31

do you build a company culture?

21:33

You know, it's a gut feel for me because

21:35

it's not something for me personally

21:38

that I can put a list. It's like, Okay, you check

21:40

all these boxes, You're going to fit perfectly. It's

21:42

the same way with signing artists. I

21:45

know most of the time within the first

21:47

five ten minutes, is this somebody I

21:49

want to work with? Is this an artist I

21:51

want to sign? I like people who are

21:53

very matter of fact and passionate

21:56

about what we do.

21:57

And also, I'm not.

21:59

One who's out for credit on any

22:01

day of any week. I'm truly It's

22:03

not a cliche when I say it. I'm

22:06

a team builder, and I

22:08

am inclusive and I am transparent,

22:11

and that is really

22:13

kind of the foundation of the culture because

22:16

when everybody knows what's going on, when

22:19

the goals are as clear as can be and

22:22

you've got the passion to execute,

22:25

That's how I built all of my companies.

22:28

So let's talk about creative artists.

22:31

You obviously deal with them day in and

22:33

day out. It's your job. What's

22:36

the secret for people who don't deal with them but find

22:38

themselves there? What advice can you give

22:40

them?

22:41

I always say, there's an artist's language,

22:44

and you can learn

22:47

it, but because I was around

22:49

it from such a young age, you

22:51

know, it came natural. So it's

22:53

really talking to them about

22:56

trying to look at things through

22:58

their eyes, adding in creative

23:00

thought. And it's never

23:03

ever putting an artist in the corner

23:05

saying you have to do this. If you don't

23:07

do this, then it's never going to happen. It's

23:09

like, here's the playing field, here

23:12

are the options. I'm going to tell

23:14

you right now. There's not a

23:16

wrong decision. There's just

23:18

a better decision. But whatever

23:20

you decide, it's your name that's on the

23:23

marquee. I'm here to help you

23:25

try to make the best decision.

23:27

So about fifteen years

23:29

ago I started Costan Tregonez Tequila

23:32

with my partner Vitta Gonzalez,

23:34

and the one thing I learned is

23:37

it's not for the faint of heart, So

23:40

tell us why you have big

23:42

machine distillery.

23:46

So the idea to

23:48

have our own Tennessee whiskey

23:51

started from an activation

23:53

we did with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

23:56

in twenty ten. We

23:59

had been working with them wanting to do more.

24:02

They had been back and forth

24:04

with Crown Royal and they

24:06

didn't get the deal done with Crown. This was further

24:09

NASCAR race the Brickyard four hundred, and

24:11

so we got the call it say, hey, this title

24:13

sponsorship is open. What do you got

24:15

I said, why not?

24:16

Have you money?

24:17

But what if I bring Rascal

24:19

Flats and the Van Perry and

24:22

Brandley, Gilbert and Thomas.

24:25

Let me bring you a festival in

24:27

exchange. They're like, you

24:29

can do that, and we

24:32

did it and it blew

24:34

everybody away, and so that started

24:36

the relationship. So Crown comes back the next

24:38

year, so it's the Crown Royal

24:41

Brickyard four hundred powered by Big Machine,

24:43

and so we start this wonderful relationship

24:46

with Crown and Diagio. So we're a few

24:48

years in marketing. Medium said, hey, you know what, We're

24:50

a Tennessee label. I'd love to have a Tennessee whiskey.

24:52

We became aware of a distillery an

24:55

hour south of Nashville. The products

24:57

were fantastic. They didn't know a thing about

25:00

marketing, and I'm like, wow,

25:03

physical product that needs to be

25:05

marketed. We don't get to market CDs or

25:07

albums anymore. I got this. We

25:10

purchase the distillery and

25:13

everything that we do. The distillery

25:16

and the spirits product and the racing. It

25:19

all leads back to entertainment. It all

25:21

leads back to an experience, and

25:23

so in my mind, all of these things are

25:26

connected, and so what we do with

25:28

our Spirits brands. It

25:30

also gives me the ability to

25:32

sponsor the race team, So every dollar that

25:35

goes to the race team is an

25:37

expense marketing expense for the distillery.

25:40

I love it. So let's move to racing

25:43

for just a second. Racing is a huge

25:45

part of your life. You're actually a serious driver

25:47

yourself, you have a racing team. What

25:50

about racing draws you in

25:53

and what lessons have you learned

25:55

from racing which you

25:57

apply to other parts of your life.

25:59

There's a certain freedom and liberation

26:01

when you're it's maning machine

26:04

and it's just you and the car.

26:07

And when you're doing that and

26:10

you're on the edge and you're

26:12

performing at the highest

26:14

level, there's no other feeling

26:17

I've ever had. You know, maybe the

26:19

biggest artists in the world when they're playing the fifty

26:21

thousand people and they're all singing, maybe it's that

26:23

same feeling and being competitive.

26:26

Everybody wants to win and it's finding out

26:28

those ways to win. It's a chess game at

26:31

you know, one hundred and eighty miles an hour.

26:33

I rode motorcycles for a lot of years of my

26:35

life, and I was a pilot for

26:37

fifty years of planes and helicopters,

26:40

So I get it. But I know we

26:42

talk about racing and talk about the great things with

26:44

racing, but you had a very

26:47

serious accident. Talk to us

26:49

a little bit about it and what got you through

26:51

that.

26:52

Yeah.

26:52

We were at road Atlanta and

26:55

it was March twenty sixth, and

26:58

we're mid race.

27:00

I start picking up the pace, my

27:02

paces.

27:02

As fast as the leaders. We're passing cars, We're

27:05

moving up. So going into

27:07

turn one at

27:09

over one hundred and fifty miles an hour, our

27:11

brake zone because in road racing you break

27:14

really hard, and so I go to the brakes

27:17

at the three fifty foot mark, no

27:19

brake, not a soft break, no

27:21

break. The right brake caliber

27:23

had exploded, and

27:25

so all of a sudden I

27:28

am in a heap load

27:31

of trouble. They estimate

27:33

that I hit the wall at one hundred and nine

27:35

miles an hour and I.

27:37

Was knocked out for a little bit.

27:39

It's a longer story, but I was I

27:41

call it my evil canevil list of injuries.

27:44

You know.

27:44

I broke both ankles, both.

27:46

Tibias, cracked my pelvis

27:49

in four places, four cracked

27:51

vertebra, five broken ribs, some

27:54

internal injury. I ripped

27:56

my stomach open, and I

27:58

almost died in the ambulance. Everything

28:01

hurt. One of my meditations is

28:04

counting backward from a thousand, and

28:07

so in that moment, I just said, let go try

28:09

to get to the next minute and start

28:11

counting backwards from a thousand.

28:13

So that was my mantra.

28:14

Just I was counting and then get to the next

28:16

minute. And so went into emergency.

28:19

Well gut.

28:20

My wife was there, several friends, several

28:22

race friends. So from after everything

28:24

went absolutely wrong, everything

28:27

started to go right. We had the best lower

28:30

extremity doctor in the world, and Bob, here

28:32

I am nine months later, and I'm ninety

28:35

nine percent yield. I'm

28:37

so fortunate. I don't have a head injury or

28:39

a spine injury. I'm walking normally.

28:42

You wouldn't know it. So I've been really fortunate

28:45

in my recovery. I've always

28:47

felt like I was very good at being present

28:50

and living in the moment, and

28:52

I think that's been underlined and highlighted.

28:55

You ask yourself, Okay, I'm still here, what

28:57

is the next big thing that I can

28:59

do? Because I'm still here and

29:02

I'm energized by it. I'm probably

29:05

as energized in my life right

29:07

now as ever coming

29:09

out of this thing because I'm still here.

29:12

Well, there are two through lines that

29:14

we talk about here. Is you have one

29:16

of the most can do positive

29:19

outlooks in life of anyone I know. And

29:21

two, you're lucky and thank

29:24

goodness it continued there. Absolutely

29:27

we always finish each episode of Math and Magic

29:29

with a shout out to the great biz

29:32

folks from both skill sets, the analytical,

29:34

organized math type person and

29:36

the charismatic, creative promotional

29:40

the magic person who gets

29:42

the shout outs for each from you.

29:44

So the Math is my

29:48

now COO Andrew

29:50

Katz, who's been with me literally

29:52

from day one. We're getting ready to touch on nineteen

29:55

years together. He's always been my guy.

29:57

I'm like, Andrew, I know we can figure

29:59

this out, and he has to

30:01

this day always found a way. And

30:04

then the great creative marketing person

30:07

is John Zarling, And ironically

30:09

he was with me from the startup Big Machine

30:11

as well, because as I was cleaning out my office

30:14

at Universal. He came into my office

30:16

and he goes, can I come with you? And even

30:18

though I didn't physically do it, in my mind, I dropped

30:20

to my knees and thank God. It's like, if

30:23

John will come with me, this is

30:25

the best gift I could get. And

30:28

to this day, he and I are the ones who've always

30:30

brainstormed and challenge each other for the biggest

30:32

promotions we've ever done, taking over the Statue

30:35

of Liberty with Florida, Georgia

30:37

Lyne. You know, he's just he's my

30:39

big thinker and he always

30:41

delivers for me.

30:43

Scott, You've had a magical life.

30:46

You've pushed a lot of boundaries, still pushing

30:48

them, You've taken a lot of risks, still

30:50

taking them, and you have created

30:52

so much. Thanks for sharing those lessons

30:55

with us. There

30:59

are a few things I picked up for my conversation

31:01

with Scott. One follow the

31:03

energy. Scott has a true passion

31:05

for the music industry. For a while, following

31:08

that passion, touring with rock bands,

31:10

but eventually he realized his greatest strength

31:13

wasn't playing guitar, it was how well

31:15

he knew the business. It's important

31:17

to know what interests you, but also to figure

31:19

out where you excel. Let that momentum

31:22

guide you to success. Two.

31:24

Pull all the leavers you have. As an

31:26

independent promoter, Scott says he had

31:28

to learn how to turn water into wine.

31:31

When he joined a major company, he realized not

31:33

every tool was being used. Leverage

31:36

every opportunity at your disposal, whether

31:39

you're selling a product, creating an experience,

31:41

or marketing talent. When Scott

31:43

took on responsibilities that didn't interest

31:45

his business partner, he gained new

31:47

skills that he later used to start

31:50

his own company. Three. Be

31:52

competitive. Whether it's on the racetrack

31:55

or the billboard charts. Scott doesn't shy

31:57

away from competition. It energizes

31:59

him. It's not a bad thing to compare

32:02

yourself to those around you. It can

32:04

be essential for gaining a leg off,

32:06

and you may even realize you have what it

32:08

takes to lead innovative new

32:10

company. I'm Bob Pittman. Thanks

32:13

for listening.

32:16

That's it for today's episode. Thanks so much

32:18

for listening to Math and Magic, a production

32:21

of iHeart Podcasts. The show is

32:23

hosted by Bob Pittman. Special thanks

32:25

to Sidney Rosenbluff for booking and wrangling

32:27

our wonderful talent, which is no small feat.

32:30

Mathematics producers are Emily Meronov

32:32

and Jessica Crimechitch. It is mixed

32:34

and mastered by Baheied Fraser. Our

32:36

executive producers are Nikki Etoor and

32:39

Ali Perry, and of course, of big thanks

32:41

to Gail Raoul, Eric Angel

32:43

Noel and everyone who helped bring this

32:45

show to your ears. Until next time