Nobody May Be More Happy for a New Sony Nashville CEO Than Garth Brooks
“If you’re not on country radio, you don’t exist.”
Those were the now immortal words the former Sony Nashville CEO Gary Overton uttered in late February that caused reverberations and backlash throughout country music. Then about a month later it was announced Gary Overton was vacating his position at Sony. Seems strange to think all of that transpired a mere four months ago (Salad-gate has sort of supplanted the controversy), but as arguably the biggest label seat in Nashville, the absence of a leader left many artists and the plans for their music in limbo, and possibly nobody more than Garth Brooks.
There’s no better example of why Gary Overton’s radio comments were unfounded than the success Garth Brooks has experienced in the past year after coming out of retirement. The first two Garth Books singles from his Man Against Machine album positively bombed, but that didn’t get in the way of him earning $90 million dollars, good for #1 in country, and #6 overall on Forbes’ Highest Paid Celebrities list. Of course, Garth Brooks had a little bit of a legacy to ride on, and about 13 years of pent up spending power to take advantage of. We’ll see if those numbers can hold up for consecutive years.
But don’t think Garth is content with counting his concert money while his recorded music tanks. You can’t put all the blame for the Garth Brooks radio malaise on Gary Overton. “People Loving People” and “Mom” were terrible single selections, and seemed to have come from the heart of Garth Brooks instead of the head of a label. But the vacancy of Overton’s position put Garth and others in radio limbo while the new CEO was selected.
“Sometimes you’re a person in the boat, and you’re not steering the boat. And it’s scary,” Garth said right after Gary’s departure was announced. “So as an artist, when your label head is gone you wonder who’s gonna fill in and what’s gonna change … I’m not sure it’s as hard to get a deal, but I guarantee it’s a thousand times harder to hang on to it. Because everything is disposable.”
Garth later explained that any plans for a third single were on hold until a new CEO could be named. “My thing is allow them the freedom to make that transition and get a plan and nobody’s heard anything about that yet,” he said. And let’s not forget that when Garth announced he was coming out of retirement, launching a world tour and releasing a new album, he initially said it would be a double album, but later said he would release the second half on a subsequent date. The longer the Sony Nashville CEO seat remained vacated, the longer Garth was likely to have to keep the second album on the shelf. Garth also announced recently that he’s planning a Christmas album with Trisha Yearwood. Without a label head to work with, some serious kinks could have formed in the Garth Brooks itinerary.
But now it appears Sony Nashville has found their man. Randy Goodman, the former founder and president of the now shuttered label Lyric Street, will be the new CEO of Sony Nashville taking over for Gary Overton. Goodman was the understudy of former long-time Sony Nashville CEO Joe Galante who Gary Overton replaced. Where Gary Overton’s tenure was seen as one of a ship adrift, Joe Galante is given credit for keeping the company on sure footing.
“That place has been like a lost ship on the sea without a captain for too long,” Alan Jackson manager Nancy Russell told Billboard. “So it’s comforting to know that what Joe Galante built during his many years at RCA and then Sony will be in capable hands again. It’s great news for the Nashville community.”
So the next question is if Randy Goodman will take the same narrow perspective on country music Gary Overton did, or if he’ll use the position at Sony as one to be a leader at large in an industry that is severely lacking in the leadership department.
July 8, 2015 @ 9:29 am
How do we feel about this, and which is “better”? Even then, as has been offhandedly mentioned in most appraisals, Man Against Machine just didn’t have any songs that screamed “radio” like Garth’s previous albums. It’s not so much that they weren’t of the current style as none of them really stood out as exceptional or especially able to stand on their own two feet.
July 8, 2015 @ 9:43 am
“Tacoma” was supposed to be the first single from the album, and it was even sent out to radio before being pulled last minute for “People Loving People.” I feel this was a critical mistake in the radio strategy. I don’t think “Tacoma” would have been a major hit, but it would have done well, and now Garth has been typecast as a has-been by corporate radio, and I’m not sure if they’ll ever pay attention to him again. “Mom” was even a biggest disaster than “People Loving People,” and I said it would be when it was announced as the second single.
“All-American Kid” could be big at radio, and since he performed it at the ACM Awards, it could be the next single. There are half a dozen tracks that would have all been better single selections than what was chosen. Would have they been #1’s? Probably not. But they wouldn’t have bombed.
July 8, 2015 @ 10:11 am
I liked “Mom”, but that was a 90’s era single, not a 2014 single.
July 8, 2015 @ 5:14 pm
“All-American Kid” I first herd on the ACM’s and then bought the album (CD) because of it, should really been his first single. But I wasn’t crazy about most of the album after listening to it.
July 8, 2015 @ 9:44 am
Regardless of what he releases, just like George, Reba, Martina, Alan and too many others, Garth has aged out of radio. He does not fit in with the current crowd, I can’t figure why they still play Tim and Kenny, I’d like to see those 2 disappear.
July 8, 2015 @ 9:49 am
Because they have big label support behind them. Garth thought he did too, and then it dried up. I think a strong label would have convinced Garth to make better decisions on his singles, and at least released a radio-friendly song to prove he could still be relevant on radio before shoving pet projects embedded with social commentary down consumer’s throats. That was never going to work.
July 8, 2015 @ 10:52 am
We are not currently in a “People Loving People” time period in Country Music.
July 8, 2015 @ 3:21 pm
or society lol
July 9, 2015 @ 6:51 pm
Very True
July 8, 2015 @ 10:52 am
Radio had stopped playing Tim a few years ago, but give the man credit, he got to work and put together a great album. “Shotgun rider” and “Back at Mama’s” would have been hit singles in any era.
Radio still plays Kenny because his music fits the current climate because if we all really look at it, everyone is trying to be the next Kenny Chesney. Just like every new male singer in the 1980s and 90s wanted to be George. Every singer now wants to be Kenny, so his music still fits radio.
If I remember right, radio didn’t play much late 90s Garth either. When he released a song even back then, it wasn’t a guaranteed No. 1.
July 8, 2015 @ 11:25 am
Things started getting spotty for Garth in about 1995 with ‘Fresh Horses’ which had some hits but they weren’t the giant hits of earlier in the decade and after that it kind of became obligatory for radio to play him if something new came out but he wasn’t a core act for radio anymore mainly because his output became so erratic. Really after the first few albums he sort of stopped being a singles act and just became an album act as he became more and more obsessed with sales and breaking records.
In retrospect it was probably wishful thinking that led many of us to believe that Garth would have an impact at radio at this stage because of the current trends and his age which may as well be 80 to today’s radio. The funny thing is all these country stations go all out when his concert tour comes to town but they don’t care to play his new music. He has almost become the country version of the Rolling Stones or Paul McCartney who sell concert tickets like crazy but have virtually no impact on the current music scene.
July 8, 2015 @ 12:17 pm
Paul McCartney? Has he even been around long enough to have an impact on the current music scene? After all, he only got his big break a few months ago thanks to Kanye West.
July 8, 2015 @ 12:57 pm
I guess I don’t understand that logic. My take would be if you wanted record breaking album sales, you would need the big radio hits to drive sales. No?
July 8, 2015 @ 1:15 pm
What I meant was he started releasing live albums and greatest hits packages that were then repackaged as new releases instead of concentrating on making new albums of original material and it was generally accepted that one of the main reasons he was doing that was to rack up RIAA certs in his quest to sell the most albums ever.
Didn’t see his contemporaries like Strait and Jackson go that route and they just kept on cranking out hits which was what Derek above said that Garth stopped doing and I think that is generally correct.
July 9, 2015 @ 4:27 am
Derek, agree but radio is pretty big on ‘Diamond Rings & OB’ right now following up ‘Shotgun Rider’. I give Tim a lot of credit on those songs as billboard radio continues to go more ‘bro’.
July 8, 2015 @ 1:53 pm
Concert tours will always pad the bottom line. But what country music needs is more sad songs for the common man. The type of down home tunes that became crossover covers back in the day. Party music and sappy feel good jingle ditties have jumped the shark. Where are all the Jimmy Webbs? You can’t sell deep lyrics or quiet melodies to millennial kids. You gotta market it to mature folks and an older crowd.
July 8, 2015 @ 2:24 pm
This brings up the issue of target audience again. Up through the past decade, country’s target audience was people in their mid-30s. The talk of the town was about appealing to the “35-year-old housewife”. Pop’s target audience, on the other hand, has always been people around 18 (on average). The recent sharp drop in the country music industry’s target age has certainly helped fuel the current state of affairs in the genre.
July 8, 2015 @ 5:06 pm
I think that this new tour-focused music world we live in has put more of an emphasis on party songs. Concerts are where the money is made. People go to concerts to hear the hits. Party songs play best at concerts. Thus, artists want to have hit party songs to support their tours. That’s why every country artist today describes their shows as “a party.”
July 8, 2015 @ 5:53 pm
True for Arena shows. But if you’re Emmylou and ROdney Croweel you play your new album back to front some hits and the crowd LOVES you at The Fillmore. That is why it is rare a big arena act put on anything deep or moving outside say The Boss or MAYBE Prince… because it has to be a show not a concert look at Taylor Swift’s tour with the arm bracelets and dancers. She basically want to be Lady Gaga and not learn the choreography and do the wild costume changes… But for me all that dressing just covers up how mediocre the act usually is and how cliche and bland the songs are.
July 8, 2015 @ 6:23 pm
Even for arenas, it is not necessary to use party songs to attract an audience. Theatrical production can often be more important than the music itself in an arena show. Take a look at Taylor Swift’s Speak Now tour, for example. Very few songs on that album could be construed as party songs (it is easily her most serious album), and yet the tour broke records and gained $100 million in revenue.
July 8, 2015 @ 2:54 pm
I didn’t like his first 2 singles but I like his title track.
July 8, 2015 @ 4:32 pm
I still think releasing those two singles was such a huge let down of what could have been, radio-wise for Garth. I would have gone with either She’s Tired of Boys or All-American Kid. Both of those songs sound perfect for radio.
July 8, 2015 @ 9:17 pm
Randy Goodman is responsible for Rascal Flatts, SheDaisy, Josh Gracin, and a bunch of other crap. I’m not sure Lyric Street had anything that would come close to “good music”.
July 9, 2015 @ 10:18 am
The closest I can remember off the top of my head was Trent Tomlinson. Guy cut a pretty damn good debut album, had a couple minor hits and then fell off the face of the earth shortly after Lyric Street closed. Damn shame, cause the guy could really write a good COUNTRY song.
I agree though, Lyric Street was incredibly poppy. I wonder how much of that had to do with the Disney overlords owning the label.
July 9, 2015 @ 4:40 am
This article shows just how fucked up the country music industry is. Here you have one the biggest acts of all time admitting he is lost and scared to release any more music without the correct help. I get how the record company-radio biz works but to me this goes back to what guys like Sturgill Simpson preach about…..they don’t want some jackass in a suit telling him what songs are going to be singles (much less what songs they buy and record).
I understand there are good country singers for ages who have bought songs but Garth just shows how Nashville has turned into a gimmick. Many of these ‘artist’ are nothing more than country music puppets doing what their label forces them to do.
I commend and support the music of those pushing against such.
July 9, 2015 @ 5:23 am
Not necessarily. Artists like Garth see themselves as employees. They have the skills to make a product, but they want guidance from the boss on what goal the product should serve and the deadline by which work should be finished.
July 9, 2015 @ 6:30 am
“See themselves as employees”……That’s exactly my point. I understand how the business works and a guy with the talent of Garth should be able to find, record and release good music without the ‘correct CEO’.
July 12, 2015 @ 10:39 am
Garth Brooks
And example of marketing and make up or should I say made up. Oh he has talent. What he lacks is a spine. He uses his bully pulpit to promote his political beliefs. Where he should keep his politics out of his celebrity. He’s a pop act. Smoke and mirrors at best cowboy.