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- [00:07]
Simon Tickman
But then all of a sudden, I started being in meetings, just kind of as a sponge in music meetings, all these meetings. I was like, man, this is stuff that I'm not that well versed in. But, like, I found myself really leaning in and being fascinated by hearing a demo. I, like, loved it, and it just got me excited about an industry that I peripherally knew as I started kind of being more involved with these musicians. That's when Peter was like, oh, you need to meet Chief. Because this is, you know, yin and yang, right? Like someone operations and business background and all this kind of stuff. And Chief was funny enough interested in things that I was doing, and I was really interested in things he was doing. And it was like, oh, this could be a perfect situation.
- [00:56]
Troy Volhofer
Welcome once again to on the Bus with me, your host, Troy Volhofer. Today's episode is a special peek behind the curtain as we are joined by two stars behind the stars, Chief Zaruk and Simon Tickman. Simon and Chief are the founders and brains behind the core entertainment management company, managing hot new artists like Josh Ross, Nate Smith, Bailey Zimmerman, as well as household names like Nickelback and many other artists. Together, Simon and Chief are combining music industry experience and new age business strategy to maximize their careers. I'm so excited to have these guys to talk to about how country music and the music industry continues to evolve and really get into how the sausage is made right here in Nashville, Tennessee. Please welcome Simon in Chief to the show. Thank you for joining the show today. And I guess my first question to you all is how did you both meet? How did this start? How did the core Entertainment start?
- [01:55]
Simon Tickman
We met in 2018, I believe maybe 2018, 2019. And we actually had and still have the same lawyer. And he was telling me, you need to meet Chief. Chief needs to meet you. We were both working in different companies. Chief was at Big Loud. I was working with this company, First Access, and he was just saying, you guys just need to meet. Like, just even as friends, you guys look at the world the same way, you do business the same way. And we, we joke that it was love at first sight. We tell our wives that. That we quickly just got along well. We looked at business the same way. We valued our relationships and business. And I was in a place where I was kind of like itching to do something more. Chief was also kind of in thinking about transitioning and certain things of his business life. And then, you know, right before COVID we sat down, him and I with Michael Rapinoe, and we sat down for Hours, just kind of telling him what we thought we could do together. We really just had ideas and none of them really had any. There was not much tangible to them. Let's put it this way, it was a lot of pie in the sky ideas of what we could do together, but we knew that we could do something special. And then, you know, fast forward six years later and we have, I don't know, 27 employees and 17 artists and a management company and a label. And now we're here and a lot of hard work and dedication and I'll let Chief jump in here, but I would say that why we're great partners is we don't agree on everything. We challenge each other, we joke that partnerships are really hard, really hard. But we put in the work, the day to day work, very much like I think we all do with our wives, right? Where it's like you have to be heard and seen and understood. Because if something is meaningful for Chief, that might not be as important for me. I have to hear him and I have to be like, okay, I'm down. And I think our artists and our employer employees really feel that we're always united at the top and it goes all the way down.
- [04:04]
Troy Volhofer
The first time I met you, Simon, was probably 20, 21. Maybe it was you in Chief on my bus, hanging out, having a couple glasses of wine and, and I could see that there was a great chemistry between the two of you. And that's pretty special in the business relationship. Alec, as you said, it is a marriage by all means, and it's a marriage in business. And I'm so, so impressed with what you've manifested over the course of the last few years. Chiefer, you come from a primarily entertainment background. I mean, let's, let's go back on where you came from, how you started your career. I'm talking going back to when you were actually doing audio and transformation into tour management and that whole transformation and then into management.
- [04:52]
Chief Zaruk
It really started back in high school. I was such a music fan. I was a big 80s hair metal rock fan. Kiss and AC DC and Guns and Roses and you name it, so. But I was more interested in how the music was made and I was really interested going to shows how it was all set up and put together. So my mind was always kind of like, you know, in the background. Instead of like wanting to be an artist or learn an instrument, I wanted to be on the business side or the creative side on the other end. So for me, once I graduated, I decided I want to go to recording school. So I went to recording school for two years up in Vancouver. And as soon as I graduated that two year program, I got an internship at a studio. And the first band I ever recorded was this band called Nickelback. And they had just moved from Alberta to Vancouver. They were brand new, just put together, kind of getting, getting everything going. So I cut my teeth working in the studio for a couple years and I got to work with a lot of bands like Nickelback and a lot of up and coming local bands. Through that process, a lot of these bands asked me then to come on the road and either do live sound forum or tour manage or both or I started doing local live sound. So it's kind of cool because I kind of got to learn like the studio aspect of how albums were made. But then I got to go and mix their live sound and kind of get a taste of like, okay, this is, this is what the live side feels like. And I quickly realized I love the live side. I love being on the road, I love traveling. I think I love the adrenaline of, you know, fans cheering, band getting ready for the show. If something went wrong, you had to fix it right there. And then you didn't have hours to kind of like troubleshoot. So I quickly started going on the road with a bunch of local bands and it was just like a weekend trip or a week trip. And then eventually Nickelback had gotten signed by Roadrunner and they're like, hey, we're gonna go on the road, we're gonna leave Canada, we're gonna go tour the U.S. do you want to be our tour manager, live sound guy? And I was like, I'm down. And that first tour was supposed to be 14 weeks and ended up being 14 months.
- [07:10]
Troy Volhofer
What year was that?
- [07:11]
Chief Zaruk
That would have been 1998 is when we would have started. And then came back right away to Vancouver, took five weeks. The guys recorded Silver side up, we turned around, went right back out on the road. And honestly, we're on the road for probably almost 10 years straight, give and take, between making records, touring the world, we never stopp. And it was probably just a good 10 year run of doing live sound and tour manage. And that part was also great because then I got to learn the whole business side. I got to learn about the record label side and the publishing side and the radio side and the marketing side and the promotion side. So then I started becoming really interested in the business side of music. I'd kind of like. Thankfully, we toured the world multiple times. We toured the world at a Very high level and got to do so many great things that I started to look for what's next, what sort of next in my career. And the guys had decided to take a year off. And this was 2005, and I was like, okay, I want to try this management thing. I want to try and find a band. So 2005, span from Oklahoma, called Hinder, came to Vancouver to record with Joey Moy, who's Nickelback's producer, who I started managing, fell in love with the guys. They became the first band I started managing. And that was kind of like, okay, I want to do this. This is what I want to do the rest of my career. I want to manage artists. And that kind of kicked the door open to then move into the phase of 2010 of starting big Loud.
- [08:52]
Troy Volhofer
We'll get back to Big Loud. Simon, California, man.
- [08:56]
Simon Tickman
Well, I'm jealous. I just saw you take a sip of wine. I said, why? I want some of whatever you're drinking. Troy.
- [09:03]
Troy Volhofer
I was hoping we could do this in person, but I understand we're into the busiest time of the year and everyone's scattered around the country. But let's talk about, you know. Yeah, I met your father, who was extremely influential in a lot of different areas, and I found him extremely interesting. Just a beautiful man. Tell us about your upbringing and how you started and what was your interest in music.
- [09:26]
Simon Tickman
Well, you know, I come from. I'm the first generation born here in America, and my dad and my mom came here in 79 from Moscow, from Russia. You know, my dad really created the. The true American dream. They came here with nothing. They came. They randomly came to San Francisco because they had some distant cousin there that they never even met. And it was the perfect place for him because this man, my dad was an applied mathematics, computer science guy, and he came to Northern California before Silicon Valley was Silicon Valley. And the biggest thing for me, what I learned watching through the lens of my dad and his work, was work ethic, right? Like, no matter what, you have to outwork the person next to you. And that's really like the immigrant mentality, you know, It's. It's. I came here with nothing, but I'm going to outwork everyone and show them, even if I can't even speak the language, I can't speak English. I'm going to show them how hard I work, and they'll recognize me for that. And that was really instilled in my brother and I. My mom was a practicing dentist and had her own practice, and they came here with $5 and lived in a motel that you paid by the hour when they first came to America. And that was really instilled in us. No matter if you're the smartest person, dumbest person, but outworking someone and showing, and if you say you're going to do something, doing it, that's the most important thing. All you have is your word. And that was really ingrained in us. And so I went to school. I grew up in San Francisco, and then I went to. I got into this entrepreneurship program in LA at usc. I never wanted to work for anyone. I always wanted to be my own boss. I'm jealous that Chief knew at a young age, like, okay, music and sound, that's my journey. And that journey led him here. For me, it was more like, I love the idea of creating something out of nothing. And so I love the entrepreneurial spirit. I even started a company in college and I loved it. I connected all. I connected professional athletes and coaches to their fans. It was like pre Twitter at the time. Pete Carroll was our coach at usc and he was like a bigger than he was a celebrity, you know, because there was no NFL team. And so I created this company that would connect fans to have exclusive merch, exclusive videos, all this stuff. And it was so. It was so fun for me. I employed all my friends. Like, we. We had the best time. We had all access to the USC football team, and we had three Heisman trophy winners in four years. It was like. It was like, yeah, I have this company, but also like, we get to be on the field for the games. And it just taught me, as much as I love the classroom, it taught me, you know, how to build a company. You know, I had to, you know, find developers to do the websites and, you know, all the applications and then people on the ground. And I would hire, you know, young freshmen at USC to like, bring out flyers. And I just. I love the idea of creating something from nothing. And sure, the company was ahead of its time, I think, and we did okay. We did fine. It wasn't like some crazy exit. I always say that I learned more in those two, three years of building that company than I ever did in a classroom, because I got my hands dirty. And so I was constantly involved in different things. And I work with different entertainers and celebrities and athletes, either incubating ideas with them and starting companies with them, or strictly being doing venture checks and writing checks into companies. But I always loved the entertainment side and I always loved film, tv, music. And then the thing I was Doing right before we started the core was I was working with this music management company and I started my own venture within that company where we would write checks into companies and I would, I would make brand deals with the artists. And we worked with Rita Ora and Zayn and BB Rexa. They were all at the company. But then all of a sudden I started being in meetings, just kind of as a sponge in music meetings, in an A and R meeting, in all these meetings. I was like, man, this is stuff that I'm not that well versed in. I know how to build a company and structure and operations. But like, I found myself really leaning in and being fascinated by hearing a demo. I like loved it. I was like, oh, I'm the first person to hear this. And it just like got me excited about an industry that I peripherally knew. And then, you know, as I started kind of being more involved with these, you know, the musicians, that's when Peter was like, oh, and Joe, the other lawyer were like, oh, you really like this side. You need to meet Chief because this is, you know, Chief is looking for someone, you know, who's maybe does stuff that, you know, yin and yang, right? Like someone operations and business background and all this kind of stuff. And I'm LA based. Chief is Vancouver and Nashville. Chief was funny enough interested in things that I was doing and I was really interested in things he was doing. And it was like, oh, this could be a perfect situation. And I felt like all my years up until the core were just me preparing for this, like learning from this company, learning from a situation that was successful and from a situation that wasn't successful. And I was just being prepared to build this. We didn't know what it was going to become. And now core is seven days a week, 365 days. Don't tell my wife that.
- [15:03]
Troy Volhofer
One of the hottest, if not the hottest management companies in show business right now.
- [15:08]
Simon Tickman
I mean, we're trying.
- [15:10]
Troy Volhofer
Chief, let's go back to 2010. Talk about your entree into the management business. Your entree into creating one of the biggest bands in the country music format of all time. I'm so curious about that.
- [15:24]
Chief Zaruk
So I was managing Joey Moyne Nickelback's producer and he was obviously mainly making rock albums. And I got a call one day from Seth England, who was working at Big Loud Publishing with Craig Wiseman, and he called and said, look, I have a friend of mine who is a big Nickelback fan and he's wondering if Joey Moy would be interested in mixing a song off of his album. And I called Joey, and Joey's like, yeah, absolutely. I'm down to do whatever. So the song got sent from Nashville to Vancouver. Joey mixed it, we sent it back. The artist called, and he was like, I love it. Would you consider coming up to Nashville and working on my album? And I want to record more songs. I want you to mix more songs. I want to write more songs. Let's get in the studio. I want to work with you. I just love what you've done, and I love what you did to the song. So Joey and I went to Nashville. We sat with Craig and Seth, who is kind of like our first introduction and meeting, and they sort of gave us the lay. The land of Nashville and their publishing company and how it all worked. And then Joey went to the studio with this artist, and this artist happened to be Jake Owen. And they ended up. Joey ended up producing, I think, eight songs off of that record. Barefoot Blue Jean Night was maybe one of the first country songs ever recorded with program drums, because Joey did it all. It wasn't a live band. You know, obviously there's musicians came in and played, but it wasn't the traditional way of making music in Nashville. And some people liked it and some people didn't. And. But Jake loved it, and he loved the sound, and he loved what Joey did. And the record. Record came out. I think the first four singles off that record all went number one. Blew up Jake Owens career. Barefoot Blue Jean Knight is a massive song and to this day still is. And it kind of opened up the doors for. I think Craig and Seth were like, hey, we kind of. We kind of like what you guys got going on. Like, you're a manager, You're. You're a producer. You guys come from the rock world. We live in the. In the country world. We have a publishing company. Joey was developing acts with Chad from Nickelback for years. They did Dallas, Dallas Smith with Default. They did Theory Dead man, and they did My Darkest Days. And Joey was way deep in the weeds on developing these acts, and then I would manage these acts after they were done recording them. So we kind of all looked at each other and said, look, there could be something here. Like, you guys have a building, you guys have a staff, you have a studio. Joey and I are outsiders, but we kind of come with some new ideas and a different way of thinking of how to develop some country acts. So Steph was like, I think we should form a company. So the four of us formed a company together called Big Loud Mountain at the Time and we put in $20,000 each. So it was an $80,000 commitment. And Seth was like, I got this duo that I think we should publishing and. And records and we should sign them to production deal. I think they're great. They got great songs. They're great. I've seen them live, but no one in town really seems to get them and they don't want to touch them. So we went out one night and went saw him, and it was Brian and Tyler, Florida Georgia line. And we saw them in this club of 200 people, and everybody was going nuts. It was like these college kids that were going crazy for these guys singing every word. And they're doing cars and they're interacting with each other and they're so charismatic and. And right away we're like, there's something here. Not even a question. So we. We brought them into the offices the next day and we. We said, we want to work with you. And they were like, we're in. Like, we have no other options. If you guys want to work, let's go. And that was the start of our. Our company with Big Loud. That was kind of the. The first act that really opened the doors for Joey and I to get into Nashville. Joey never left Nashville. Joey's still in Nashville. And it just kind of like reassured us that, hey, we could actually make this work. Like, and we did true artist development. You know, we really spent time with them writing songs, getting their live show together, press VR, training, like, vocal training, guitar lessons. Like, we did all the things to make sure when they went out is ready to go. And, you know, I think we developed something new and fresh and the sound was new and fresh with Joey kind of blending his. His rock Nickelback roots, country and anything some people like, loved it and some people didn't. But clearly once it started to work, it worked very well.
- [20:20]
Troy Volhofer
And loved it.
- [20:21]
Chief Zaruk
That exactly.
- [20:22]
Simon Tickman
Anyone wants to blame don't like bro Country. Chief Zu created bro Country. Just don't want everyone.
- [20:28]
Chief Zaruk
Right.
- [20:29]
Troy Volhofer
I love it. Well, okay, so you know, and then you had. And we'll just mention a couple other names that were under your Tage Morgan, Wallen Hardy, Ernie, Ernest. So here we are. Simon in chief. Start the core first. Signing to the core.
- [20:48]
Simon Tickman
Let's start at the beginning. We started the corps and then Covid started and Chief was stuck in Vancouver. I'm in Los Angeles and we are just every morning we jump on a FaceTime and we just walking around our respective neighborhoods talking about our big plans of what we're going to do together. No idea what we're going to do do, but just talking about our one day takeover. And then, you know, after a few months we said, you know what we should start doing? Let's. Let's go to Nashville. Let's just start going to Nashville. Obviously, Chief has deep history in Nashville and we started going to Nashville and Chief told me, he goes, you know, I've known Emily Wiseman for a long time and I know her sister Anna, who's at Sody Pub. They got win that. Chief and I started the corps. It was our first phone call saying, hey, Chief Simon, I think you should meet with Emily. Emily is a big time songwriter in town. Massive. But she had an artist project and that was our first signing. And I swear Chief and I talked about it recently. We look back on that time as some of the most fun times we've ever had, where we'd have secret songwriter rounds in Nashville in basements of places you've never heard of. Well, maybe Troy's heard of them, but most people have never heard of because Troy knows everything in Nashville. But we would have these se. And then Emily would jump on and you'd have these big artists like just looking for a place to play. And Emily was our first signing. And although I would say it wasn't like successful on a big massive scale, we felt like it was successful because we put out some incredible records together. We were wearing every hat. Chief and I had no one else. It was just me, Chief, Emily, and we were just figuring it out as we went and shooting a music video for seven and a half dollars. Whatever it was, we were just figuring it out. And Emily is a big name in Nashville and a respected name in Nashville. And all of a sudden, like it just started going around like, oh, core is this new management company. They just have Emily for now, but they're out here getting their hands dirty. And I think that slowly started becoming our reputation, that we were a management company that were really hands on. Then we got a phone call from Melissa. She lives in la and she was talking about how she has this kid, super talented, he's relentless. She's like this guy, I mean, he would email me and call me daily and just beg for a spot. And I finally let him play and he was pretty unbelievable. And she was calling about Nate Smith and he started to have this song, wildfire go a little bit on itunes. Song about his hometown that burned down. We hit him up. Chief and I were talking to him and he was like, I moved to Nashville, but I'm living in my car.
- [23:48]
Troy Volhofer
You know why I kind of smile when you said living in your car, Chief and I took him out for dinner about maybe a couple of months ago at the top of the year. And he had a beautiful Rolex watch on.
- [24:00]
Simon Tickman
So.
- [24:02]
Troy Volhofer
With Nate Smith cards having a beautiful Rolex, that's pretty special.
- [24:08]
Simon Tickman
Times have changed, right Troy?
- [24:10]
Troy Volhofer
Absolutely.
- [24:11]
Simon Tickman
And we took him to breakfast and we spent the whole day with him. And no joke, that night we, we said, okay, we're going to manage you. He was like, please. And we had a, we had a Sony pub deal for him, I don't know, a few days later. And he was able to get himself an apartment, I think not live in his car and start making this a full time thing. And that was kind of a like, we have something. It wasn't like big success, but like signing a con, like a pub deal. Like don't get me wrong, it was a $40,000 pub deal. It wasn't a crazy pub deal by any means, but for.
- [24:47]
Troy Volhofer
Starter kit and.
- [24:49]
Simon Tickman
For chief and I, I think no matter where you are, no matter how much success you've had in the past or where you are in your career, I think it felt monumental for us personally. It felt like, oh my God, we just got this kid who was living in his car, who came to Nashville before failed, went back to California. This is his second go around. We got him a pub deal. Like it felt like, okay, maybe we can. Maybe we're onto something. Maybe you and I are going to be good at this. And I just remember being in the moment with Chief and I always talk about being in the moments of these things, like, this is a big deal. We're going to remember this. And next thing you know, Nate started really taking off. You know, it's very rare that you see a 35, 36 year old, you know, become. Be able to break in the industry. You know, everyone's looking for the hot 18, 17 year old now, but a 35, 36 year old, like finally getting, you know, a song on radio, a song going number one, getting invited to go on this tour and a hit. And for us it was a real like, okay, we're here to stay. It just felt really big at the time.
- [25:56]
Troy Volhofer
Who was next after Nate?
- [25:57]
Chief Zaruk
John? After Nate, we had a couple of bands that probably most people haven't heard of. There's a couple younger acts that we started signing, a couple of development acts that again, this was all during COVID So all you could do is kind of like whatever acts you could kind of see play around Nashville or through friends or family. Someone would send us some music and we'd go check it out. So there's a couple acts that we started, like, just developing and put our eyes on, but nothing, nothing ever really caught our attention enough that we knew, like, oh, this was going to be something. It was more like, hey, let's see if we can develop some acts and see what happened. But then really it was Bailey, an old manager friend of mine, hit us up one day sort of out of the blue. I didn't seen or heard from him and I don't know, 10, 15 years, and he kind of hit us up and said, hey, there's this kid on Tick Tock. His name's Bailey Zimmerman. I don't really know much about country, but I like what he's doing and I like his voice. If you guys are interested, we should set up a meeting. So we, we heard the music and he had one song, you know, working on a second one. But there was something there. We could tell. We're like, you know anyone who's. His voice or Matt Bailey, like, his voice, his energy, his, like. His nickname forever was Hurricane Bailey because he was the guy that would come in a room and just go. And he end still during COVID So it's like, this is like face times and a couple zoom calls. And then we took some. Some meetings with some record labels in town. And then everybody who met him wanted to sign him. Everybody, every label is like, we gotta sign this kid. We gotta sign this kid. And meanwhile, his TikToks were blowing up, his socials were blowing up, and everyone's just like, we don't really know what this is, but it's something. So we signed him. You know, he was so young. He was 20. He just turned 25. He was 22, 21 when we signed him. And the plan was like, man, you're. You came from a small town, Louisville, Illinois, 800 people. You've never done this before. You've never seen, you've never played, you've never toured, you've never really written. So we're just going to park you, we're going to bring you to Nashville and we're just going to park you for like two years. And you're gonna write and you're gonna record and you're gonna play, and we're just gonna develop you and. And then in two years, when we're ready, we're gonna go and we could. We do. We didn't have that luxury. It was going that way.
- [28:33]
Troy Volhofer
Did it.
- [28:33]
Chief Zaruk
The phones were ringing. The show offers started coming in, the tour offers started coming in. Everything just started snowballing. The publishing deal got done, the record deal got done. Witness Studio started making music. The music got released, the music started going did in an ep. Now he's on tour. Now the world's starting to reopen. So now all of a sudden it's like, oh, you can get on the road. Oh, you can really start touring. And. And this kid just, everywhere he went, just made an impression. You know, he built fans, made an impression. Every artist won him on the bill. And it was off to the races. And then we got the Morgan Wallen headline tour playing stadiums. I think in total, this kid had played like 30 shows. And then he's in a stadium, he's like, oh.
- [29:21]
Simon Tickman
He's like, oh, this is so easy.
- [29:24]
Troy Volhofer
Just a second, because it's the first day I met Simon, we were in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, and before you showed up at the gig, I didn't even know that you were managing Bailey Zimmerman. And I didn't know Simon at the time. Yeah, and Morgan Wallen was playing that gig because of you, Chief. Because on December 16, 2019, you and I had a lunch at the Palm in Nashville, and you told me that this record dangerous and the biggest record ever. So this is one of his playouts of that conversation that you and I had. So it was a hot Saturday afternoon, 40,000 tickets sold. It was a big day at the park. And all these people are in at like one o' clock in the afternoon. And the first band went on at 2 o', clock, and I thought they were all in for Morgan Wallen. And so I went out there to check the barricade. I'm talking to the fans. They're like, hey, man, do you know Bailey Zimmerman? And I'm with my general manager, Kim Blevins. And who's Bailey Zimmerman? And she looks at the past. He's up next. And honest to God, he put about 20,000 people into that bowl. He did his show. You guys came back after. And I watched him outside of, you know, the window of my bus. All leave to go back to their campsites to have beers or whatever. They were there to see Bailey Zimmerman. It was. I blew my mind. I've never seen that before. I haven't seen it since, you know, that's when I knew that you had something that was pretty special.
- [30:46]
Simon Tickman
I remember that day so well. I remember being on your bus and you were just like, no, no, this. I thought this just was an early Arriving crowd from Oregon. And then you saw Bailey said, and you saw everyone leave. You're like, holy. People were here for this kid, Bailey Zimmerman. And I remember we sat for hours on your bus, got to know each. I mean, you already knew Chief, but you and I got to know each other. And I was like, ugh, this is fun. This is fun. That Troy, who sees artists early on, gets to realize that he just booked Bailey Zimmerman at a 3pm slot and knows that this is the beginning. There's going to be a story here. And lo and behold, a few years.
- [31:23]
Troy Volhofer
Later, if you haven't seen this thing, it's pretty special. That opening gag is unbelievable. We won't let the cat out of the bag. Let's see. I mean, I was so blown away. I've been in this business a long time. I've seen a lot of bands do great things. I've seen a lot of great openings. I've never seen anything like this.
- [31:39]
Chief Zaruk
Bailey's like field of Dreams. He's like, if you build it, they will come. And he is always coming up with these, like, what you think at the moment are these crazy, outlandish ideas that would never work or just you can't pull off. The one thing that I think everybody who knows Bailey and has worked with Bailey is nobody knows Bailey's brand better than him. Him. Right.
- [32:01]
Troy Volhofer
I agree with that.
- [32:02]
Chief Zaruk
And he is such a clear idea and clear direction of who he is as an artist, who he wants to be, how he wants to be represented and what kind of show and what kind of music he wants to do. And he often says, I want my. My. My life to be a movie. So he thinks everything as, like, not how he sees it, but how everybody else would see it. So he often comes up with these. These really unbelievable ideas. And lo and behold, 99% of the time, they're great ideas. We make them happen, and then he executes them and we all go, there it is. He always wants to keep growing, keeps building the show. We've got a whole summer of festivals that were and some more headline dates that we got lined up. Then he has a new album coming out August 8th, which we're very excited about. And then after that, it's, you know, next year's arena tour, and then summertime will be sheds and festivals and fairs. He loves, loves playing outdoors. And we're just going to keep growing.
- [33:06]
Troy Volhofer
Let's go back to Nate for a second. Pretty exciting things happening with Nate Smith right now. Let's talk about him being out with Jason Aldean That's a. That's a North American tour. Pretty exciting stuff, right?
- [33:20]
Simon Tickman
Yeah, it's exciting. I mean, look, Jason Aldean is. Is the North Star for. For Nate, you know, a guy who's really buil career in so many ways, but really in country radio. And Nate's had a real presence in country radio and tying the longest, you know, country number one. I think it was 10 weeks a few months ago. And Nate lives for the live show. That's where Nate's. Nate's, you know, bread and butter is live. Nate can sing anything, and I think we always find it. We have a whole digital team here at the company, and. And we always see the spikes for Nate in terms of followers. And all that stuff on socials always happens after a live show because, you know, you're introducing yourself to new fans, especially when you're on a big tour like Aldean or when he was on Morgan's tour. A lot of those people never heard have heard of you. That's just the truth. It's not. You're auditioning for new fans, and we see it when Nate's on these big tours, he walks away with so many new fans, and it only builds this Nate Smith story, you know, and. And helps his own hard ticket and when he goes on his own tour. But this Aldean tour couldn't come at a better time. Perfect summer tour. I think he's playing Fenway. He's playing a bunch of places. And Nate lives for it. Nate lives for the live show, and that's what's fun for us to see. Like, as management, they haven't broken in the same way. They've all done it in such unique, idiosyncratic ways that, like, you could. If Bailey did what Nate did, it wouldn't work. If Nate did what Bailey did, it wouldn't work. But it works for their fans, and it works for their careers. And it's. Honestly, it's a real pride point for us to see how these guys can do it in different ways and unique to them.
- [34:55]
Troy Volhofer
Man, we're gonna go to Josh Ross for a second. I love talking about these guys behind their backs. It's perfect. Josh Ross came to my house at a Christmas party probably about seven years ago. He was a pretty young guy, fresh to Nashville. And, you know, his. You know, his entrance way to meeting me was, hey, man, I play hockey. And I'm like, oh, great. That's awesome. You know, like, all Canadians play hockey. It was fantastic. And I kind of had an idea at that particular time, just meeting him with the personnel that Josh Ross has, it might not be music. I don't know. I've never heard his music. But there was something inside of him that made an impression. I never forgot him. And it took a few years before you guys got a hold of Josh to actually see what Josh Ross can do as a musician and an artist. So let's talk about Josh and his successes, which have been really, really amazing.
- [35:45]
Chief Zaruk
Josh is one of those kids where it's like, he doesn't take no for an answer. You know, I like. So I met him at the Canadian Country Music Awards in Calgary, Alberta. And this is probably now going back eight, nine years ago. And I had spoke on a panel, and at the end of the panel, he'd come up to me, and he's like, hey, my name's Josh. You know, I'm a Canadian country music artist. I'm moving to Nashville. I want to have a career in country music. Would it be okay if I got your information and they sent you some music? And I was like, yeah, absolutely. And it was like clockwork. Every six months, I would forget about the kid. And then he'd hit me up on an email and be like, hey, I just got a couple new songs. What do you think? And his voice was always incredible. His voice, the talent was so crazy. But the songs weren't there. But he was in Nashville, and he was doing the thing. He was writing, he was working, he was doing rounds, and he was doing the grind. And I just kept checked, hey, like, keep going, Getting better, sounding good, sounding this. And. And he told me. He's like, until you tell me no, that you're not going to work with me, I'm going to keep sending you songs because I think you're. You guys are the right team, and I think you're the right person who's going to help me. But if you think differently, tell me no, and I'll start going elsewhere. And I was like, no. Like, there's something there. There's something there. Keep them coming. And he did. It was almost four years. He'll tell you that he was sending songs and writing and working on his craft, and he never stopped sending me songs. And then one day, he sent me a song called First Taste of Gone. And anyone who knows that song, you hear that song, and immediately you're like, okay, he's there. He's there. His voice was there. He had matured the songwriting, the lyrics, and he found his sound because he was kind of trying to figure out what it was going to be. And then he found it. And immediately I called Simon and I'm like, okay, we gotta go. This kid is ready. And we called him up and we're like, okay, let's go. And sort of like Simon alluded, like, everybody's different. Everyone's timeline is different, everybody's path is different, everyone's journey is different. And Josh's journey is now completely different than anyone else's. But here we are today, sitting at, well, as of today, top five at country radio in the U.S. i think by the time this airs, knock on wood, he might have a number one. That song has been on the radio for over a year to get number one. I think he's going to be one of the first Canadians, definitely the longest running Canadian to get a number one song on radio. And he's really starting to establish himself as a really household name. It's to give him a while and he's really worked it, but he deserves it. We love him. He does all the right things. And here we go, we're off to the races.
- [38:40]
Simon Tickman
Josh is one of those guys where you really cheerful, you know, like, Josh is someone you just want to win. He deserves it. He's hardworking, he's a good kid. He's a good son to his parents. He's, you know, maybe that's just the Canadian in him. He's just a respectful, nice kid that you want at your dinner table at Thanksgiving. It's hard in country music to be just a good looking guy with a great voice. There's a lot of them, you know, and he, he just keeps going, he keeps writing great songs, he hustles. He's one of the hardest working guys I've ever seen. You know, he's not living in three tour buses. He's got, you know what I mean? Like, it's not easy. It's not easy, but, you know, he's relentless. He knows what he wants, he knows what he deserves, and he's not gonna take no for an answer. The way he was relentless getting to Chief and myself, the way he's gonna do it to getting to the fans. Josh will be an arena act very soon. His songs are great. They're starting to really resonate with fans. And I think like we said from the beginning, work ethic. Josh got it. And that's going to separate him big time from, from a lot of the other artists.
- [39:44]
Troy Volhofer
I don't know if our listeners know this, but it was about a year ago that you put him in front of Nickelback which I thought was a pretty ballsy move, but it worked out brilliantly for both bands perfectly. Both artists, I'm sorry, turning on, you know, country fans to the Nickelback brand, which they. You guys have done that so successfully. I mean, it's basically the same fan, you know, a country fan, you know, a rock fan. And putting Josh in front of Nickelback was brilliant. So I just want to tip my hat to you on that.
- [40:11]
Simon Tickman
Thanks, Troy. Yeah, I mean, look, I think when we started managing Nickelback a couple years ago, we told them that, you know, Nickelback's a household name. Do you? Do you. They could be making money for the rest of their lives with or without management. That was just the truth. But I think the added value of what we could bring was we see firsthand how much influence you have in this country genre. We've seen Bailey growing up, listening to Nickelback and wearing Nickelback merchants. We see it all. Why not dip your toe into a genre that's like, you know, expanding like crazy, that you already. People love your music. And they started, you know, they're doing a lot of country festivals. You know, Nickelback is so big for them. They didn't really care who was their first of three. And we're like, there's this young kid, Josh Ross, and then we put Brantley Gilbert on it and it just was the perfect package. You know, they did 52 sold out arenas and it was this an incredible tour. And then they went to Europe and so some of the best selling tickets they've ever had in Europe. I think Chad lands in Nashville and realizes Nashville opens their arms wide open to Chad. They're like, we love you. Like we were. A lot of us are here because of you and your music and obviously connection with Joey. And now Joey being. It was just. It just was felt so organic. It's been such a great thing for them and, and a different chapter for them that they've really leaned into and it's been very, very fruitful.
- [41:34]
Troy Volhofer
So we're going to close up here. But what's. What's the plan for both of you this summer? Let's start with Chief. What's your plans this summer? And explain a day in the life of Chief.
- [41:43]
Chief Zaruk
On the road, we have Nicolac. On the road, we have Bailey. On the road we have Josh, we have Nate. And then we have some young acts that are starting to. To tour a lot, like this kid, Brandon Wisham, who's starting to come out and do much show. So our summers, unfortunately or fortunately, thankfully, we love what we do, but we're on the road every weekend in trying to see all of our acts as much as we can. So a lot of fairs, a lot of festivals, a lot of shows, some stadiums. And we have a record label now too. So we are, we're trying to build a record label. We got the management side, we've got a publishing side, and that's Corey Rock Records.
- [42:23]
Simon Tickman
Core Records. Yeah. So, you know, it's Summer's all about finding the balance of how much can we be in the office versus how much are we on the road. Chief and I are used to a 5am flight and a 5am flight the next day return. It just, it's what we signed up for and we're blessed to be able to do that. But also it can be tiring. And I have a one year old at home, so I'll do a quick jaunt to LA for one night to see my child and my wife and then we're back on in Boise. God knows where we're gonna be at, but we'll be there.
- [42:52]
Troy Volhofer
Well, that's fantastic. Well, gentlemen, I just want to thank you so much, Chief Zaruk, which I've never before. Your wife refers to you as Kevin.
- [43:03]
Chief Zaruk
Which I would like.
- [43:05]
Troy Volhofer
Everyone knows.
- [43:06]
Simon Tickman
He might make you edit that. He might make you edit that.
- [43:10]
Troy Volhofer
Simon. Thank you very much, gentlemen. I appreciate you, you know, so much. Take time out of your busy day to to do this podcast with us. But most of all, I really appreciate your friendship and your loyalty as friends and you're great guys and I'm so proud to just call you my friend and that's more important than any of the business stuff.
- [43:28]
Simon Tickman
Troy, thanks. Do anything for you. In this industry, it's very rare to meet someone like you and we don't take that for granted.
- [43:37]
Chief Zaruk
Nothing but love. We love you, buddy.
- [43:38]
Simon Tickman
Love you guys.
- [43:39]
Troy Volhofer
Love you back. Have a great day. Safe travels out there and I hope to see you down the road. Thanks now for a segment called Bring the Thunder where we highlight an artist who's been bringing the thunder lately. And today that artist is Bailey Zimmerman. Chief and Simon have nothing but great things to say about him. And his career is really taking off. As you've heard in our conversation today, Bailey's got a lot to smile about. His new album is amazing. Different night, same rodeo is dropping in just a few short weeks. Friday, August 8th. Which is great to hear because he's been working hard on his new album for the last two years. Here's Bailey Zimmerman's new single off his upcoming record Coming In Cold. I'd like to thank you our listeners, for listening to us on a weekly basis and hopefully we can give some insight into the show business and how it works behind the scenes. Today was a great example of that with Chief and Simon from the Core Management Company, Nashville, Tennessee, Los Angeles, California. They have a great roster of artists, but more importantly, they give you a look behind the scenes, how artists are developed and any aspiring artists who do listen to on the Bus. Take that into consideration of how it's done. And never lose your dreams because as we spoke about today, every one of those artists all were artists with dreams at one time who are living their dreams now. Keep your head up, keep swinging and make music beautiful. For now, I'm Troy Volhoffer on the Bus. Be sure to follow Country Thunder on all our social platforms. At Country Thunder, we have new episodes dropping bimonthly. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you know when the new episodes hit the feed.