Payola, File Sharing an Exclusive Interview with Rick Hendrix
Rick Hendrix-CEO-Hendrix Group
Nashville,Tn - Driving into the city limits of Nashville, TN, instead of reveling in the sights along historic Natchez Trace Parkway, I wondered what I would find once I arrived to interview one of the foremost figures in the music scene today, Mr. Rick Hendrix of the Rick Hendrix Company. When I was asked by USA Today to write a piece on Hendrix in the mid 90's I chose to attend Woodstock instead. (Almost a decade later, I have refined my ideas of "a good story.") The continual decay and fall in sales for Christian music has intrigued me, and I was hoping for some answers. From the horse's mouth, as it were.
Imagine my surprise when I was greeted, not by a man in a three piece suit, but an energetic young fella in blue jeans and sneakers. Full of enthusiasm, Hendrix showed me around his office, humming with contented chatter broken only by the ringing of several telephone lines. Hendrix ushered me out to the back patio with tall glasses of fresh lemonade, another departure from the norm for my interviews. I was here to find out what was so mysterious about this young man. And what drives him to ride the emotional roller coaster as he had for 15 years in an ever changing music industry. This, I told myself, with surprise, eyeing the gorgeous autumn afternoon, was actually going to be fun.
KD: Rick who are some of your clients currently?
 RH: We work with Hoskins, Hoppers, Martins, Freemans ,Dottie Rambo, Ruppes, Heirline, Nicole Watts Jenkins, Sondra Burnett, Alan Jackson, George Jones, Brad Paisley, Diamond Rio, Reba ,Mariah Carey.........shall I keep going (laughs Hendrix)
KD: What is it, exactly, that you do?
RH: What DON'T I do? About the only thing I don't do is sing. Except in the shower. I leave that to the professionals. Other than that...my job, in a nutshell, is to help God's voice be heard. I'm only one of many He has called to do that.We take the music and artist we believe in and we distribute them to the radio stations, retail stores and concert promoters,pray and hope for the best.
KD: Why do you work Christian music?
RH: Always, from when I was a kid, this is what I wanted to do. He opened doors for me when I was still in the proverbial short pants, really. Looking back, every step led me here, and leads me on today.When I was homeless, I promised God to always lift real people up,and to never stop pushing a positive message.Alot of prayers went up form that ole box I called home. (Looking around later, I saw Hendrix keeps a box in his office to remind him where he came from.)
KD: Rick I cant help but notice you have amassed a lot of success for a young man.What do you attribute to your continued success?
RH: NO- God has amassed a lot of success.Many souls and prayers have been answered with this company. Many dreams along the way, for myself and about 600 artist.I am very humbled by his continued flow over our company.I dedicate myself to my clients and their needs and success.We pray for every project we do,if it be Mariah Carey or the Hoskins-We give it to God and we ask for direction. He never fails when we ask for the right reasons.
KD: Does it all come back to the music?
RH: Nope. It all comes back to God.
KD: What are some of the highlights of your career behind the scenes?
RH: We just celebrated our 1000th hit song.In all music it would be the Grammy for "Go Rest High on the Mountain" Vince Gill and the Oscar for "When You Believe" Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, I also cherish when my hometown gave me the key to the city and the former NC Gov. Jim Martin made a special day for me, President Clinton gave me a Cultural Ambassador Award. I have had several Dove nominations for songs I have written.We as a company helped Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Diamond Rio, Lonestar, Lifehouse, Creed, Lee Ann Womack, Crabb Family, Martins, Ruppes, Steeles, Tony Gore, New Hinsons and many others score their first hits. So, its really hard to highlight all of God blessing in a paragraph.But those are the goodies. (Hendrix high five's one of his business partners Shane Jordan and laughs) "I feel like a cheerleader for the varsity team,"-stated Kellie Cartelli (Hendrix personal assistant)
KD: You just finished writing a book with your mother Donna Hendrix.Can you share a little about "Mama's Letters to Jesus" ?
RH: Oh wow.My mother and father are the greatest.When my home burned down Christmas 2000-Mom had sent me some things, to replace my loss. Inside this box, by mistake, my dad had placed my moms journals.I stopped and sit down and read all night-It was the most emotional trip, I had ever been on.I knew she was the greatest mom, that I could have ever had. She suffered, great pains and loss,and never burdened us kids with them. She always wrote letters to Jesus in her diaries.I can't wait for the world to read them.
As this interview continues,I find myself more interested in Rick Hendrix the man, than I do the task at hand. Why is Christian music declining?What is record promotions?As the lemonade warms, and the ice melts away in my glass, I tell Hendrix, "Its time for the real questions."
KD: I feel I know you a little better at this point.Why is Christian music starting to drop after a continued growth spurt for several years?
RH: Christian music cannot be classified as only Christian radio and media anymore. You find major networks shooting pilots for Christian based sitcoms for prime-time, the consumer doesn't have to just hear gospel music from Bill Gaither or McKameys anymore, major artist and retailers are carrying gospel tunes by Alan Jackson, Clay Walker, Mariah Carey, Diamond Rio etc.The sides have dropped off the box and we are finding huge growth in popularity but inside the small circles gospel music has pond up-they are losing the war. A major secular album runs unit sales at 1 to 3 million. A major gospel record anymore is lucky to pull 25,000 units total.Thats not downplaying our industry-its educating ourselves-we are reaching the same people and we are flooding the market with too many new clients and not enough good ones.
KD: Do you feel downloads and file sharing has filtered into gospel music?
RH: In a big way-I feel it has really hurt the industry. I think marketing is so important at this point in our genre.We are finding more pirated products and fraudulent downloading than ever before." More people are willing to market the artist products - at any cost. "I feel the only way to fix our short falls is to meet it head on, educating the consumer about the downloads and file sharing, spending more time making the artist more personal with the public. Most people wouldn't steal from a friend. So, I feel if you place your clients and artist into the hearts of the consumer and make the music business more personal to the consumer and not the big giant most people feel it is. You can at least slow down the sharing.
KD: Over the last several years, record promotions have been hit hard with ugly accusations, not just in Christian music, but in secular as well. How has this affected you?
RH: It hasn't. I mean, there's always "talk", always. That's not going to change. Maybe it's a little different on the Christian side. I have friends in radio, people who are part of my extended family. In Gospel, I think the major difference is, we care about each other. It's not a numbers game. You'll always have the petty sniping and the "he said - she said". It's not pretty, and it doesn't make any of us look good, but it is, for better or worse, what being a family looks like sometimes. Radio is not easy, and it creates a lot of jealousy for artist and labels when we do well. And the greatest defense for them is to discredit someone else. But, God sees the real picture and that's where we lean, not in retaliating.
KD: I am going to put you on the spot. Who are the best record promoters, excluding yourself ?
RH: (Hendrix unafraid-smiles) By far the most influential and Godly would be Buffi Holland at Spring Hill , another great aggressive promoter is Jeff O'Neal of Heritage Communications, Shane Ferrell at Lighthouse Promotions, Matt Galvin of Arista Records, DJ Man Phillip Emery, Pat Payne of MCA Records Nashville are all dear friends of mine and I would recommend them to anyone looking for help.They are a few more, but....Did you say a petty list? (Hendrix manager smiles and says Hendrix be nice)
KD: How do record promoters work, and is there payola?
RH: (Hendrix belly laughs) If I hear those words one more time, I am going to scream. This is the funniest thing I have ever heard. Just because there is success doesn't mean there is sin. Record promoters can have success for their clients and labels without being unethical. I have personally never heard of but maybe one promoter in gospel music that paid radio off. They are not effective. I have not seen any of their artist charting. And they have been around for 30 years or more. I ask any client that hears of any unethical practice to call the stations themselves and ask if anything has happened concerning their music. And not listen to talk. We have the worst industry for gossip. Insecurities and lack of success breed a lot of untruth.
KD: My last question.Where is it all going and what do you think will happen to Gospel music?
RH: That's not a hard answer to give you. Nothing is easy. The world is a harder place to live and function in daily. We have too much. We have to plan time for family, we have to plan time to eat, we have to plan time to breath.But, we get it done. Or we shift it to another day or change our want's. Thats what will happen for Gospel music. We will either fix our current problems,or we will learn to function with the changes. So, if our sales drop, we cut budgets and cost. If we loss radio stations and retailers, we advertise to get more.If we continue to be consumed by corporate America. We go back out into the trenches and we cultivate more ground. We cannot stop at opposition and decreases. We have to make the increase. Sure we are losing ground, But, everybody is. The Internet was the greatest invention at segregating reality. Everything is available with a few typed words. WWW. is the cleft notes of life. Get the goods fast at who evers cost.
KD: WOW-now that's another story!
RH: You think(As he reads his palm pilot and laughs)
As I got up to leave, I realized Gospel music will be OK. I also felt I will be OK, in an ever changing world.We have to remember the basics. Be real, be serious, and think of others. I could hear the guys in the office cheering and screaming, another artist had just reached number one for them. The Hoskins Family"When the Savior Wipes the Tears from Our Eyes" had reached number one in the USGN Charts .I could hear in Hendrix voice after 15 years of dedication to the music industry,he was still ambitious, hungry and willing to fight to win. Visit- Rick Hendrix at [url=http://www.rickhendrix.com]http://www.rickhendrix.com[/url]
by Kitty Davenport - Beliefnet.com
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[147] Comments
Excellent interview! 
Written: 10/31/2003 
Author: SGN
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