Born on This Day in 1948, the Powerful Nashville Executive Who Discovered Alan Jackson and Wrote Hit Songs for Alabama and Jerry Reed

On this day (May 1) in 1948, Tim DuBois was born in Southwest City, Missouri. His combination of professional education and musical prowess led him to be one of the most powerful record executives in Nashville. As the head of Arista Records, DuBois is credited with discovering and signing Alan Jackson, Pam Tillis, and Brooks & Dunn. Additionally, he has written hit songs for Jerry Reed, Alabama, and Vince Gill, among others.

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DuBois started playing guitar in rock bands when he was young. However, he put his musical aspirations on the back burner when he received three academic scholarships to attend Oklahoma State University. There, he studied accounting, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1971 and his master’s degree in 1972. Then, after a career that included work at the Federal Reserve Bank of Texas, he returned to OSU to pursue his doctorate. While working toward his PhD, DuBois began writing songs.

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According to the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, he and future record producer Scott Hendricks recorded demo tapes in the OSU Library’s A/V department. He took those demos with him to Nashville when he eventually relocated to take a teaching position at Vanderbilt University in the late 1970s. He was an accounting professor by day and a songwriter by night.

Tim DuBois Enters the Music Business

While Tim DuBois was teaching at the Owen Graduate School of Management in the early 1980s, multiple artists were taking his songs up the country charts. Alabama took “Love in the First Degree” to No. 1 in 1981. Razzy Bailey topped the chart with “Midnight Hauler” the same year. The next year, “She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)” became Jerry Reed’s final chart-topper.

In the mid-1980s, DuBois opened the Nashville branch of Fitzgerald-Harley, an artist management firm. Vince Gill became a client, and they began writing songs together. “When I Call Your Name,” a No. 2 hit for Gill, was among the songs they wrote together.

Clive Davis, founder of Arista Records, tapped DuBois to head the label’s new Nashville division in 1989. In this role, he helped shape the future of country music. According to Oklahoma State University, he discovered and signed Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Brad Paisley, Pam Tillis, Diamond Rio, and BlackHawk. Those artists went on to score a combined 70 No. 1 singles on the Hot Country Songs chart. More importantly, they were influential in shaping the genre’s sound in the early 1990s.

In short, the country music world wouldn’t sound the same without the input of Tim DuBois.

Featured Image by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for the T.J. Martell Foundation