SEASON 2: EPISODE 03 TRANSCRIPT

Rusty Gaston

Rusty Gaston: Life is hard. Life has its challenges. And to want to be filled with hope, man, you got to have a lot of fun. I want to be working with people doing what I love, surrounding myself with people that I love, and I want us to be having the time of our lives. And if we're doing that, the only possible outcome is going to be success. And I call it the equation to live by, love plus fun equals success.

Dr. Greg Jones: Our world is facing significant challenges and at every turn, another conflict seems to await. Yet we survive, we overcome, we even thrive by relying on an intangible and undeniable gift, hope. It fills us, connects us, highlights our individual purpose and unites us in the goal to do more together. Hope fuels us toward flourishing as people and as a community.

My name is Greg Jones, President of Belmont University, and I'm honored to be your guide through candid conversations with people who demonstrate what it really means to live with hope and lean into the lessons they've picked up along their journey. They are The Hope People.

Today's agent of hope is Rusty Gaston, CEO of Sony Music Publishing Nashville and a Belmont University alum and trustee. This is Rusty's incredible journey from a small town in Texas to the heart of Nashville's Music Row and the many lives he's touched and made better along the way. Together, we'll explore what he calls his equation to live by and reflect on the importance of meaningful relationships, the power of music to change the world, and the role of hope in sustaining oneself through challenges.

I've told you before that I see you as a kind of paradigmatic Belmont story in terms of how you got here and the entrepreneurial spirit that's inspired you and now the leadership that you're providing here in Nashville on Music Row and much broader than Nashville. Tell us a bit about how you came to Belmont and the journey while you were here and since.

Rusty Gaston: I found the Belmont because I was watching a television show and they were interviewing a country artist named Trisha Yearwood, and she told the story of how she attended Belmont University and she was an intern at a record label and she was the receptionist at that record label. And I knew her as a big country music superstar.

And what I took away from that interview was she went to Belmont, she was an intern. And at that point, I was going to college in Fort Worth, Texas at Texas Wesleyan University. I was a performer at Six Flags Over Texas, but I did not have any desire to be a performer. I always had a dream to be in the music business. But I grew up in a town of a thousand people called Van, Texas. I knew no one in the music business and I just knew that being in choir or drama or performing would be my way to get my foot in the door to learn about the music business.

And as I was going to college, and I saw this interview and she mentioned she went to Belmont, was an intern when my friend said, "Oh, that's where you work for free to get experience." Well, it just clicked in my head, oh, I'm going to cold call the production company that produces my show at Six Flags and ask can I intern in their office because they were the only people I knew or even perceived that were remotely in the music business. I wanted to be in that room where the words were spoken and the paperwork was exchanged that brought this concept to life. And that's how I was turned on to Belmont.

Dr. Greg Jones: It's a great story. While you were at Belmont, you developed relationships that have lasted for quite a long time. Talk a little bit about your experience at Belmont and getting to know songwriters and performers and what your experience while you were a student here.

Rusty Gaston: Yeah, I want everyone to know that in the two colleges I attended, I worked full-time when I went to college at Belmont and at Texas Wesleyan University. I had I would say an abnormal college experience, but it was still amazing for me. When I got to Belmont, it was the first time I was surrounded by like-minded people, that were interested in the same things, that were chasing kind of the same dream. It was the first time I'd met people that had the same hopes and dreams that I did.

And that first week, that first month, that first semester at Belmont, I met a handful of people that I still work with every single day in the music business 25, 30 years later, whether they are CEOs of companies, whether they manage superstars, whether they are marketing executives, whether they are songwriters and the biggest songwriter in the world. They're people that I met in my first just few months at Belmont. And those relationships that you make at Belmont can literally last a lifetime and last your career lifespan. And those are the people I do work with every single day and I have done work with every day of my career.

Dr. Greg Jones: I want to come back to that in a moment, but I want to ask you about that sense of hustle, becoming an intern when you got to Belmont and then doing all that work, you have extraordinary energy. But that entrepreneurial spirit actually led you to found your own company. Talk about that entrepreneurial spirit in the sense of future orientation and the kinds of practices and virtues that you needed to sustain yourself because certainly it's a harder road to hoe to start your own company.

Rusty Gaston: But it just always felt natural to me. I was very lucky not to just have a father, but I had a remarkable stepfather as well. And I feel like I got, not the best of both worlds, I feel like I got a double portion of blessing. And I watched my father who was a banker growing up, and I watched him leave and go to work and put on a white shirt and a tie every day. And I watched him provide for our family, but I watched a consistency and a hustle that it takes to build a career, grow in a career. But he exemplified someone that you got to put in the effort, go to work every day, and I learned that.

I had a stepfather that was an entrepreneur. And growing up early in my life, he owned a video arcade. And as a kid, what could be better? We're talking pool table, full-size, Pac-Man machines. This was in the eighties. My stepfather was also a chef, but he owned multiple restaurants and I worked in those restaurants. I was a busboy. He owned a video rental store and I would ring people up and return videos and put them back on the shelves.

But when I was probably 15 in my little small town, somebody had built a new little strip center and there were three little shops in it. And my stepfather had kind of reserved one of those spaces to put a new business in and he said one day, "What business should I put in there?" He was trying to think of an idea that our city may be needed. I was a 15-year-old kid and I loved baseball cards. And baseball cards were hot, and this was maybe around '91, '92, and I said, "Well, you should put in a baseball card business."

And he said to me, "Hey, I tell you what, I'm not going to put a baseball card shop in there, but I'll pay the first month's rent if you'll put a baseball card shop in there." And that conversation changed a huge momentum in my life because I took my personal baseball card collection, I took my few hundred dollars of savings I had and went to a wholesaler and bought some box of cards, and I opened up a baseball card shop called Van Sports Cards, and I had my own business.

And as I continued to grow up, just the idea of taking the initiative of creating your own business and starting your own business and doing something you love and making a living out of something you love, it was really all I had ever seen. And so that drive and determination of building your own business, it came very natural and I saw it from my stepfather and it really put something inside of me. But now being 48, I look back and I realize that's not everyone's journey.

Dr. Greg Jones: It wasn't my journey. You're a lot more clever and had a better mentor. I had a big baseball card collection. I just gave it away when I was a teenager. It was before baseball cards got hot, but it was like I was an older teenager and I thought that that was child's play. So I gave it to a younger kid up the street and I had some pretty valuable cards. So I wish I'd had your stepfather as a mentor to make that seem natural. Talk about starting your own music business after you graduated from Belmont.

Rusty Gaston: After I graduated from Belmont, I was working full time with a music publisher while I went to school here. And I continued to work for him for several years, and then I eventually moved into another job and ran a publishing company for a producer named Byron Gallimore for about five years. He produced Tim McGraw and Faith Hill really in the late '90s, early 2000s, and it was 2006.

Dr. Greg Jones: They seem to show promise.

Rusty Gaston: They did. And in 2006, myself and two songwriters, Tim Nichols and Connie Harrington, Connie's also a Belmont alum, we started a business called This Music, a publishing company. But that philosophy of that publishing company being a place where we would encourage and motivate and promote songwriters to do their best work. And the business plan that I had put together, grateful and thankful, it went better than that and it was a remarkable journey of success and love and respect for creators.

And we did that for 14 years and ended up with having over 60 BMI and ASCAP award-winning hit songs. I've worked with songwriters that won Grammys, songwriters that became ASCAP and BMI Songwriter of the Year, songwriters that wrote Song of the Year and won ACM Awards and CMA Awards. And it was the most special time of my life and career and it was just fantastic.

Dr. Greg Jones: That's remarkable. Your co-founder, Connie Harrington, a Belmont alum is also the co-author of one of my favorite songs, I Drive His Truck, which is I tear up whenever I hear it. It's just beautiful. And it was featured in the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corporation's documentary about Nashville, It All Starts With A Song.

Rusty Gaston: That's right.

Dr. Greg Jones: Well, how does a guy who's an entrepreneur with that sense of hustle become an executive at a big corporation? That sounds like exactly the opposite of an entrepreneurial spirit and that sense of hustle. It sounds like entitlement and bureaucracy. How do you end up CEO of Sony?

Rusty Gaston: This was never on my radar. This was not something I was going after. Things were wonderful at this music. We had built a very successful company. But in full disclosure, I knew that something needed to transition but I was not sure of what that was. I would pray... I feel something inside of me that career-wise or my company, something needs to change. I'm not sure what that is but I was praying about it for months looking for answers.

And one day, I got a cold call from Jon Platt who's the chairman of Sony Music Publishing worldwide. And he'd said, "Hey, Rusty, can you come to New York next week? I'll make the arrangements." I said, "Okay, no problem." I didn't need to ask any question. He is at the pinnacle of my industry on a global basis.

And we ended up having a meeting a few days later and he said, "Hey, I'm going to make some changes in Nashville, but I've watched you build a culture that songwriters want to be a part of. And I've watched you build a destination that songwriters want to come to." And he said, "God has given you a gift to influence songwriters." And he said, "I'm in a position that could allow you to influence a thousand times more songwriters than you ever could doing what you're doing."

And he invited me to come be a part of Sony Music Publishing, and it has been a fantastic experience and continues to be every day. But I'm telling you, it is an absolute example of God's plan is bigger than my plan.

Dr. Greg Jones: That's a great story. I just love the way in which you walked into an invitation and got surprised.

Rusty Gaston: Without a doubt.

Dr. Greg Jones: When you got to Sony and now you're in a role as CEO of a well-established, well-respected brand, talk about how you've brought some of your same entrepreneurial mindset to your new role at Sony.

Rusty Gaston: You know Greg, I deeply believe with all that I am that songs have the power to change the world, that you have listened to certain songs and they have comforted you in times of maybe loss or need. You've listened to that same song and it has filled you with strength and power and hope. You've listened to that same song and it has revved your blood up. You've listened to that same song and it has wrapped its arms around you like a warming blanket. And there's not an accident that there's an entire book of the Bible of Psalms that are all songs, because songs lead every major movement that's ever happened in the world.

And no one ever told me what the role of a music publisher was. I've just always believed that role is to motivate and encourage and promote songwriters to do their best work. And that for creative people, if I can help start their day with one morsel of hope that gives them the feeling of this could be the day or this is the day it could happen, well, that may be the spark, the catalyst, the turning of the engine that is what is required for them to show up that day.

And if they show up that day, that could be the day that they create the next Happy Birthday, the next Amazing Grace, the next Live Like You Are Dying, you name any iconic song. These songs, they were not written 2,000 years ago. They were written 50 years ago, a hundred years ago. Well, that's that long ago. And in our lifetime, there are songwriters alive today, maybe one right here at Belmont that is going to write a song that touches lives, that gives someone the encouragement to forgive. They're going to write a song that fills you with so much joy you forget about all the stress in your life.

And if in my job, if I can encourage a songwriter to do their best work, they can create songs and music that changes the world for a better place, that creates hope, that creates encouragement for others and moves forward that mission of hope. And that is what keeps me going and fires me up every day.

Dr. Greg Jones: That's so inspiring. I like to quote St. Augustine who said, anyone who sings prays twice.

Rusty Gaston: Amen.

Dr. Greg Jones: Because it's both the words and the music, and it's often the music that carries us or creates those memories that can be a source of energy or a source of consolation or sometimes both in that way. I want to go back to your description of your time at Belmont and relationships, because one of the things that seems to mark your vocation as a leader and as a creative and as someone who enables creatives is that you care a lot about relationships. And for you, leadership isn't about transactions. Talk about why relationships are so important to you as a person, as a leader, and how that cultivates that sense of hope in terms of the work you do.

Rusty Gaston: Relationships matter because dreams matter, that when we're in relationship with one another, we've maybe shared information that make us feel closer. And if we feel closer to one another, then we work a little extra harder for one another. And I moved here a complete dreamer and what makes my dreams come true are helping other creators see their dreams come true. And it's all built around relationships because there is a bond in between dreamers and people filled with hope because they know how much those dreams mean and how hot they burn inside of them. I have a empathy, a sympathy, a connection with other dreamers to know how important that dream is, and then that creates a relationship that turns into a trusted support system of one another.

I don't know how it came about, but about 10 years into my career as about the time we were starting this music, I kind of laid out a philosophy that has directed my career and my life. And I lay it out as love plus fun equals success. And that if you love what you do and you love the people you do it with, and you add in a lot of fun, the only possible outcome is success.

Now, success can be defined in a lot of different ways. Success doesn't always mean just a mound of monetary reward. Success can be defined in a lot of different ways. But when you're a dreamer, when you are filled with hope, when you're an entrepreneur, you feel the weight and the heaviness of that on your shoulders. And to chase down that dream, you've got to love it. You've got to love it with all you are. You have to surround yourself with people you love and you want to be in the trenches with.

But life is hard. Life has its challenges. And to want to be filled with hope, man, you got to have a lot of fun. I want to be working with people doing what I love, surrounding myself with people that I love, and I want us to be having the time of our lives. And if we're doing that, the only possible outcome is going to be success. And I call it the equation to live by, love plus fun equals success.

Dr. Greg Jones: I love that equation. That's really beautiful. You said life is hard, and you talked earlier about the Psalms as being a whole book of the Bible devoted to music, to singing. The Psalms are also filled with a fair bit of suffering, that we are going to hit brick walls. How do you sustain yourself when the going gets tough?

Rusty Gaston: I think a lot of it is a peace and a spirit within you that for me personally, I find from the Lord and my religion. But I find that hope in watching the people I'm working with, their dreams come true. There are unfortunate realities in life to where there is loss. Things don't go your way. But I love that idea of there are new mercies every single morning. And I love the idea of waking up and one of my favorite sayings is, I love the smell of possibility in the morning because every day you wake up and this could be it. And I am just wired to wake up that this could be the day.

I'm very lucky that there are fewer days that I wake up still hanging onto the anchor that may have pulled me down the day before. But when that happens, I go to music, I go to the songs that fill me with hope, that remind me of why I love this. I go to podcasts about hope. I go to listen to sermons. I try to read Scripture. I try to listen to other leaders that have messages of positivity and hope because it helps just center me on what is possible. And unfortunately, every day is not going to go the way we want it to, but tomorrow could.

Dr. Greg Jones: I love that spirit. That's so inspiring. I just love being around you because you infuse any room you're in with energy and creativity. I want to ask you one final question. As you dream of what Belmont and Nashville could be like over the next 5 to 10 years, what do you dream about in your role as trustee at Belmont and your work on Music Row as you think about the impact that Nashville and Belmont could have in the broader world?

Rusty Gaston: There's never been a more exciting time, I believe, to be in the music business. There's never been a more exciting time to be in Nashville. Nashville is exploding. We've watched it explode over the last years and years and years. There's not any more empty lots, but if there are empty lots, people see hope and possibility in those.

Nashville is called Music City. It's never been called Country Music City or Christian Music City. It's called Music City USA. And what's happened since the pandemic is every single type of music is being created today in Nashville. I believe over the next 5 years, 10 years, Nashville will become the creative hub for all of the United States. Whether you are making any genre of music, whether you are filming movies or TV, whether you are creating video games, whether you are creating technology that we can't even understand yet, there's a great chance that it's going to be created right here in Nashville, Tennessee.

Belmont plays such an enormous role in that because it provides their students not with just a campus experience, but right in the heart of one of the fastest growing and hottest cities in the United States. And the students have the ability to see that growth. And as they see that growth and as their minds are expanding with what is possible out there in the world from their classroom, all they have to do is look out the window and they see the world expanding in front of them. And that should fill them with hope, optimism, drive, and encouragement to chase down their dreams to make everything possible.

Dr. Greg Jones: Thank you for participating in this conversation with The Hope People. Our aim is to inspire you to become an agent of hope yourself, and to help us cultivate a sense of wellbeing for all. To join our mission and learn more about this show, visit thehopepeoplepodcast.com. If you enjoyed this conversation, remember to rate and review wherever you get your audio content.