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Q&A: Mike Curb
11/11/2005 9:14 PM, Reuters
Phyllis Stark
Mike Curb has gotten a lot out of
the music business in the past 42 years. Now, he is in the
process of giving back.
As chairman of Curb Records, he runs the only label on
Music Row with a generous tithing policy, which earmarks a
percentage of profits for charitable causes. He is also
fiercely dedicated to the preservation of Nashville's music
history, particularly its landmark recording studios, which he
is buying, restoring and turning into classrooms and museums.
In four decades, Curb has done nearly everything there is
to do in the business. He has been a songwriter (of nearly 400
tunes, including cuts by artists ranging from Donny & Marie Osmond to Liza Minnelli), recording artist (leader of the Mike
Curb Congregation, which recorded for Word Records, MGM Records
and Warner Bros.), producer (of such iconic hits as Sammy Davis
Jr.'s "Candy Man," Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life" and
Donny Osmond's "Puppy Love") and record label executive. And he
has had a parallel career in politics, serving in numerous
Republican Party leadership roles, including lieutenant
governor of California.
Through his Mike Curb Family Foundation, he has given away
millions of dollars, much of it to Belmont University in
Nashville, which named its music business school and a large
new events center after him. At Vanderbilt University, he
endows the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy.
Other beneficiaries are Fisk University and the Nashville
Symphony Orchestra.
In 2002 Curb purchased the historic RCA Studio B on Music
Row and leased it in perpetuity to the Country Music Foundation
for $1 a year. The studio is managed and operated by the CMF in
partnership with Belmont University, which uses it to teach
recording fundamentals to its students and to local high-school
students. It is also open to the public as a cultural
attraction.
This year, Curb purchased the Sony Music building after
that company moved its Nashville operations in with sister RCA
Label Group. The structure was built around two studios:
Columbia Studio A and producer Owen Bradley's famous Quonset
Hut, part of the first recording complex on Music Row in the
1950s. The Sony building also will become part of Belmont's
Curb College of Music and Entertainment Business, with the
non-studio space being used as classrooms and offices.
Q: Why is studio preservation so important to you?
A: When I first started in the business, I had just
graduated from high school. It was the early '60s, and it's
safe to say Music Row was responsible for 50 percent of the
country and pop records in the country. It was all being
produced here, essentially in two studios -- the Quonset Hut
and RCA Studio B.
I was so heavily influenced by that music. I'm talking
about Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, Don Gibson. I'm talking about
"Wake Up Little Susie" by the Everly Brothers, "The Battle of
New Orleans" by Johnny Horton, "El Paso" by Marty Robbins and
Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire." (Albums recorded there include)
Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde."
What we heard at the Quonset Hut and RCA Studio B in the
'50s and '60s, Curb Records in the '70s, '80s, '90s and even
today is benefiting from.
Q: What did you do with RCA Studio B after you purchased
it?
A: We restored it exactly as it was when Elvis Presley and
the Everly Brothers recorded there.
Q: Including an analog board?
A: I think it's important for students to learn (analog).
It's kind of like if you learn how to drive a stick shift,
you'll know how to use a clutch. (Learning analog first) you'll
be a better producer than if you just learn on Pro Tools and
digital. When you do it on analog, you have to get the sound
and the feel right in the studio.
Q: What are your plans for the Sony building?
A: The Quonset Hut we're going to restore exactly the way
it was in 1956 when it was completed (and open it up to tours).
Columbia Studio A we're still in discussions about. We very
much need the facility for our students at Belmont. We need to
find a way to restore it so that it's operational so that
students can learn (there).
We're looking at the possibility of expanding (Belmont's)
music history program there. We're (also) looking at the
possibility of collaboration with Fisk University.
We're going to be able to preserve some of the history of
Columbia Records there, and (Sony BMG execs are) working
closely with us to give us historic pictures of some of the
artists that recorded there.
George Jones made all his hits there. Sonny James had 16
Billboard No. 1 records in a row, all cut at the Quonset Hut.
Bill Monroe; Ray Price; Johnny Paycheck; Webb Pierce; Tammy Wynette; Bobby Vinton; Dusty Springfield; Simon & Garfunkel;
Carl Perkins; Peter, Paul & Mary; and Roger Miller (all
recorded there). Even Buddy Holly recorded there, before he was
successful.
Q: You also recently purchased the contents of the
long-shuttered House of Cash Museum in Hendersonville, Tenn.,
that was featured so poignantly in the Cash video for "Hurt."
What are your plans for that?
A: The senators from Tennessee -- Lamar Alexander and Bill
Frist -- were concerned that the House of Cash would end up
outside of Tennessee. So our foundation purchased major parts
of the House of Cash and the Johnny Cash estate. I think it was
close to 300 items (including) Johnny's piano, his guitar,
Grammy Awards and (Country Music Assn.) Awards. We were
thankful that we were able to keep it all together.
I don't have to tell you how he's revered. So to see his
effects (outside of) Nashville would have been a tragedy.
Q: Where will you put the new museum?
A: It will be at 47 Music Square West (a building Curb owns
on Music Row), which is currently vacant. The museum will open
next year. We're almost finished with it.
Q: How did you personally benefit from the music recorded
at the studios you're now preserving and restoring?
A: I didn't get to go to college, so I feel like I went to
school listening to the music recorded at the Quonset Hut and
RCA Studio B. And I've spent the rest of my life trying to make
music that measured up.
Reuters/Billboard
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