Ever since Tim McGraw’s move to Sony, it’s seemed like a series of missteps. Now Tim McGraw is a man without a label. We’ll likely hear about McGraw signing to a new label in a matter of days. Maybe it will even be Big Machine. Don’t count on it being Curb. But again the question is, why all the label musical chairs in the first place?
Upcoming country starlet Maren Morris, who’s been making waves of her own, was supposed to appear on Wheeler Walker’s duet. Maren even recorded the track with Wheeler, and Sony Nashville originally signed off on the collaboration. But at the last minute, the label apparently got cold feet, and permission was pulled.
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.
Well the saga of Sony Nashville CEO Gary Overton’s comments to The Tennessean of “If you’re not on country radio, you don’t exist” uttered in late February just took another interesting turn. Gary Overton is out at one of Music Row’s very top executive spots. Announced Tuesday morning (3-17), Gary Overton is stepping down from his position as Sony Nashville’s top executive at the end of March.
The country music world is titillated with anticipation at what Garth Brooks might be announcing at his upcoming press conference on Thursday, July 10th, scheduled to stream live on his website at noon eastern. But the cat may already be out of the bag. Over the last few days there has been industry chatter that Garth may be announcing a deal with Sony Nashville.