Behind the Music: Steve Schweidel's Journey from Sound Engineer to Emmy Winner

What does it take to make it in the music industry? Strap in as my good buddy, Steve Schweidel, a music business engineer, producer, manager, and Emmy award winner, takes us on a wild ride through his awe-inspiring journey from New York to Nashville and back. We ramble down memory lane, remembering our shared experiences, the iconic artists he's worked with, and the countless challenges he faced and overcame.
 
 Ever wonder how to transition from a sound engineer to a successful music business entrepreneur? Steve shares his experience of moving from New York to Nashville, and the series of events that led him to working with Big Kenny and John Rich of the country duo Big and Rich. We delve into the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 tragedy, his financial struggles, and his pivotal role in benefit projects that followed this disaster.
 
 Steve's story serves as a testament to the power of positivity, resilience, and persistence. He sheds light on his Emmy win and how never accepting a no for an answer propelled him towards success. As we conclude this fascinating chat, Steve offers invaluable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and emphasizes the vital role of networking and creativity. Join us for an episode that's brimming with insights, inspiration, and a hearty dose of reality from the music world.

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Remember, we are all made for more!

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Intro voiceovers by her family: son, Billy Alexander; daughter, Mackenzie Alexander; and husband, Bill Alexander.
Music by Bill Alexander
Produced by Bill Alexander

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the podcast we Are Made For More with Megan Alexander. In this podcast, we'll strive to inspire people around the world to become the best version of themselves by featuring guests with experiences and mindsets that demonstrate that we are all made for more.

Speaker 2: 0:21

In this episode, megan talks with Steve Schweidel, a music business engineer, producer and manager. He shares his journey from New York to Nashville of working with diverse industry icons such as Paul Simon, tony Bennett, big and Rich Jewel and more. Hear how he faced his challenges, the tools he used to overcome them and how his vision of seeing himself succeed made him do exactly that.

Speaker 3: 1:06

All right, well, welcome to. We Are Made For More. I'm your host, megan Alexander. This is my podcast, and so I have a special guest for you today, a longtime friend of mine. His name is Steve Schweidel, from Schwei Productions.

Speaker 4: 1:21

Welcome, steve. Hello, thank you. You know, hearing special guests is such a weird thing. I'm not special, I'm just Schwei, it's just me.

Speaker 3: 1:32

I love it, I love it. But here's the thing you are special, definitely special to me, definitely special to the world. Lots to talk about.

Speaker 4: 1:39

Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 3: 1:41

You're welcome. You're right, special guest. That's funny, because we're friends, we go way back.

Speaker 4: 1:46

We do. Yeah, I mean, the chance to do this with you is so much fun Like I'm just having fun already and we haven't even started.

Speaker 3: 1:55

Same here. I think I already have the perma smile on, so we'll see how long that stays on for this conversation, which I'm really looking forward to.

Speaker 4: 2:03

Yeah, one thing I'll say about you, meg, is, anytime we talk, it's always so natural. You know, I know we're technically recording right now, but it doesn't feel that way. I feel like I'm just looking at you on a FaceTime call and we're just talking. I love it.

Speaker 3: 2:17

That's so true. That's so true, so I'm going to put it in my head that that's what it should feel like. Right, let's just keep it natural. So this is my second podcast, steve.

Speaker 4: 2:26

Congratulations Welcome.

Speaker 3: 2:29

Thank you, thank you, thank you for being a guest, but I want to say too, this is my first one doing remotely, virtually like this, so definitely happy.

Speaker 4: 2:40

Well, you're doing a fabulous job.

Speaker 3: 2:41

Well, thank you, we're a minute in. We'll see you. You're doing a fabulous job.

Speaker 4: 2:46

Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 3: 2:47

Yourself. So, as you know, I finally named it. My first podcast came out and I didn't have a name before I had started it, but I have named it and it's called. I'm going to move my head out of the way we are made for more and I wonder, just to kick off our conversation when you heard that I had done this podcast and that that was the title of it, do you have any thoughts about what we are made for? More meant to you? Did anything come across?

Speaker 4: 3:14

You know I didn't have initial thoughts, but truthfully and I know you and I have spoken about this at different times just about what is purpose, what am I here for? What are we here for? And I think that in everyday life I ask myself am I doing what I can be doing to serve other people as well as myself, and is it fulfilling me? And I think the phrase you know, we are made for more. It's so true, I think you know, in so many ways our lives are not, that we get so wrapped up in the world today of social media and things that absolutely mean nothing. It may mean something to someone in the moment, but that's all it is. It's this little moment and we've put so much emphasis on it. So I do believe we're made for more and, truthfully, for me, I know that every day I have more to give than I do, and it's not because I'm not trying, it's just not focusing on that every day. It's very easy not to give a thousand percent every single moment of every day, and, of course, that's impossible too.

Speaker 3: 4:35

Of course it is. Of course it is. And when I think about you, steve, you know I started off by saying we go, we go way back and we do. I think I've known you about 20 years now, if I'm doing the math right. You are, and it's a funny thing I will mention this isn't the first time I've interviewed you, it was just a different circumstance, that's true.

Speaker 4: 4:56

We actually worked.

Speaker 3: 4:57

You gave me a job. Oh, there you go, there you go I did. Well, you know what you were selected and I'll tell you because of who you are. And the funny thing is we. You know, we worked together for a little bit, but we became friends over the years.

Speaker 4: 5:12

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 5:12

And we made in touch.

Speaker 4: 5:14

We did. You know, it's one of my personal I believe one of my personal skills, something I'm really good at, always have been is relationships and keeping relationships. And while you and I may not have worked together now for probably 19 years, we've stayed in touch those 19 years and that's really important to me because you personally made a mark on me and I hope that I did as well to you, you know. But the fact that we're here talking I know, I know you're like Steve. Come on, come on.

Speaker 4: 5:57

Let's stop this nonsense, of course you made a mark on me, but really, I mean, it's a true mark of a beautiful friendship that here we are, you know, 20 years later. We haven't worked together in 19 of those years, but we've stayed in touch through all of it, through the ups, the downs, every bit of it, and that's really special.

Speaker 3: 6:18

That's absolutely true. I couldn't agree more. As you just say the ups and the downs, I think about a lot of the stories that we've. You know the time we just pick up the phone and call each other, and sometimes it'd be a year when we went by and we hadn't heard from each other. But if we were in going through something, we always felt comfortable reaching out and picking up the phone and saying, hey, whether it was to cheer each other on for something we did see in social media, or say, hey, I'm going through something, I miss you, I need to catch up.

Speaker 4: 6:45

And that really helps. So it really does. And I don't want to go off on a tangent, but I will say that the job that you hired me or selected me for back then, I, I believe and this is the power of positivity I willed that job for myself. I left another state, as you know, I was living in Tennessee at the time and I moved back to New York and when I interviewed for that position, I had told everybody when I left Nashville I'm going to get that job, I'm going to work at that company. And people said that's crazy. How do you know that? Have you interviewed or have you applied? Has somebody told you that they they're interested? And I said no, none of that. And they all thought I was nuts. And you know, I didn't know that, I didn't know that, I don't know your story.

Speaker 3: 7:42

Yeah, and that does make sense, you know, and another thing I think about when I recall back to the early days of our friendship is you were somebody that just stood out from others and in the job that we worked in together, I can't go into too much detail about it, but you were somebody that just it came naturally to you because you were having conversations with people every day. That's what it was, and people respected you for that, just for your authenticity and who you are.

Speaker 4: 8:11

Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you. That feels good to hear. I don't necessarily recognize that all the time, so it's it's. It's difficult and nice at the same time to hear that.

Speaker 3: 8:23

Well, that's, that's cool. So you just mentioned you went from Tennessee to New York and I was going to even say in part of the intro oh, steve has gone from Nash, new York, to Nashville, to Minnesota, but you do have a whole journey. So tell us a little bit about your story, about Steve Schweidel.

Speaker 4: 8:39

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3: 8:40

So where do you start?

Speaker 4: 8:42

I guess I start when I grew up right, I grew up in Jersey, so as a Jersey boy I don't sing like those guys, though, but but you know, I grew up in Jersey. I think I had what I would call a normal childhood. What childhood is is not normal.

Speaker 4: 9:03

I mean I had divorced parents and it was a difficult time as a kid, but I don't think that it was abnormal, I just had a normal childhood and I had passion for music and I think at one point in my life I thought I'd be a musician. But early on, when I was in high school and maybe even middle school, I realized I am not going to be a musician. All of my friends are running circles musically around me and that's okay. But I knew I loved music so I got into recording music and I started that when I was in high school and it was the early times of of you know, digital music. It was the days of, you know, crappy keyboards and this technology called MIDI, m-i-d-i, and and I had this recording set up, I mean in the early to mid 90s and you know some of it was on a little tape deck recorder and I had just cassette decks and it was a four track and I was so psyched about that. But then when the computer stuff started to come into play, I got to record on the computer and mix it into the analog and it was just a blast. So that was something I was really interested in.

Speaker 4: 10:22

So after high school I moved to Philadelphia. I went to the Art Institute of Philadelphia. I studied music business there, which is what I have a degree in, but I emphasized in recording and it gave me a good foundation. It gave me more tools and I took those tools and while I was still in college I got hired at a radio and TV commercial recording studio in Philadelphia and I was the tape guy I was.

Speaker 4: 10:52

I was in a small room, smaller than I can I know you can't see my room here right now, but it was smaller than this room and this room is small and I had all these reel to reel tape machines and I was literally I would hit, play and record on these reel to reel machines. I had a master and the master was recording on like eight different reel to reel machines and when the spot the radio commercial was over, I'd hit stop on all of them. I cut the tape, I put it in a box, I've labeled it and I'd send it off to these radio stations and it was a friggin blast. It was kind of like I really felt like I was doing something insane and I was brilliant, even though it was something so simple you know Sounds cool. It was a blast, it really was.

Speaker 4: 11:41

And so there was a guy, his name was Keith. His name still is Keith. I saw him somewhat recently and he was the national voiceover for Dodge, specifically the Dodge Neon commercial, if you remember the Dodge Neon. I mean absolutely, oh my gosh.

Speaker 4: 12:00

So, he was doing commercials and he comes back to the tape room and he's like so I hear you're the music guy. And I said I am. And he said well, look, I'm a musician, I used to be in a band, I'm in a band now. The band I was in is no longer together, but I gotta play a gig this week. Do you want to record sound for me? Or I'm sorry, I've record but run sound for me at the club.

Speaker 4: 12:26

I said sure. So I went down to this club in a little town called Maniunk, pennsylvania, right outside of Philadelphia, ran sound and the next day he called me and he said Steve, and actually he named me. You know, you know me as Shwa, I do. He named me Shwa S-C-H-W-A. I don't know which Shwa Shwa, shwa, shwa-deviv, yeah, Shwa-Deviv.

Speaker 4: 12:52

And so he literally you know. He said, steve, do you want to come on the road with me? He said I gotta go on the road for about six weeks. I need a van driver and a sound guy, would you do it? And I said, man, if my job lets me, I'm there. So I went to my boss, who knew my passion for music. He was super supportive. I'm still in touch with him as well. He's retired, but literally he was very supportive. He said, yes, go, go do it, you know. And I did. And we went through Nashville that's where Keith's record label was and I just I fell in love with the town. It was so different than anything I was used to. It was really sleepy. But here I am driving down this road called Music Row and I was like how?

Speaker 2: 13:42

cool, is this A town?

Speaker 4: 13:43

that's music row. So I literally we went back to Pennsylvania after six weeks and I knew I had to get to Nashville and so I picked up. This was 97. I picked up and I moved. I moved to Nashville. I was in Nashville for oh, about two no, not even two years, about a year, and it was my first experience of just feeling like I didn't fit in and it sucked. Yeah, it sucked because I knew I did fit in, but the town was really closed off at that time. It was like they call it, like the good old boy network.

Speaker 3: 14:27

Okay, click it.

Speaker 4: 14:28

Yeah, and it was like if you weren't from there and grew up there, you were an outsider and I was. I was an outsider and, even worse, I was from the North, you know. So I was, you know, gung ho and a go getter and I was moving too fast for everything. So I found some work, you know, I mean literally a week and a half after living in Nashville excuse me, nashville a huge tornado blew through. I mean it's just crazy stuff. And I wound up working at a dub house, a same similar type of gig that I was doing in Pennsylvania, except it was music only. And the guy who owned the studio, he was the guy behind the Budweiser commercials. If you remember Bud Wise, the Budfrogs, he did the Budfrogs.

Speaker 4: 15:22

I mean talk about some serious coin, right? Okay, so I worked for him for a while, but at the same time I was folding jeans at the gap. I mean, I was working every. I was waiting tables, I was bartending, I was doing whatever I could just to survive, because I wanted it to work so bad.

Speaker 3: 15:43

And I don't even know, I don't even know this story about you. Yeah, well, and down.

Speaker 2: 15:47

No, we probably never talked about it.

Speaker 4: 15:48

It's detailed it happened before you and I knew each other. So ultimately I wound up moving back to New York because I was like this isn't working out. So I go back to New York and what do I do? I take my resume, new York City. I go to every major recording studio, probably 30 to 40 studios. I spent that day. I dropped off my resume everywhere Electric lady, sony, I mean. The hit factory was one which I'll get back to in a second. The power station, I mean. Most of these studios are not there anymore. Some are, and it was insane because I'm just dropping off my resume, I don't know anybody and I'm thinking, okay, I've reached my end of the day, I'm going to my last studio. The last studio was like the biggest of them all, the hit factory, I mean this I definitely have heard of that one.

Speaker 4: 16:45

Oh God, I mean the studio was famous for so many amazing records. I mean, you know Graceland, you name it, you know Paul Simon Graceland, huge records, and I was intimidated but so excited just to even walk in the door to be able to hand somebody something. And I walk in and it's all glass doors and I walk in and there's a security guard at a security desk and then another set of glass doors and you can see through and it's golden platinum records. I mean wall to wall.

Speaker 3: 17:18

So you didn't have an appointment, you just walked in.

Speaker 4: 17:19

Oh, no, I just walked in.

Speaker 3: 17:21

You're going door to door.

Speaker 4: 17:22

Yeah, nice security guard. But he said you know what are you here for? And I said I'm looking for a job, I'm a recording engineer. And he said well, you have your resume. And I said I do, you know? And he wouldn't let me through the other doors. He said I promise you this is going to get to the right person. And I'm thinking like no, it's not. And I kind of argued a little with him. I'm like you're just giving me a line. I said I've been walking to studio after studio. He said trust me, it's going to get to the right place.

Speaker 2: 17:51

What happens?

Speaker 4: 17:52

By the time I got back to my apartment in New York City, I had a phone call with a message from the owner of the studio saying perfect timing, I got your resume, we're hiring you know why don't you come in tomorrow? So I wound up in there the next day. Yeah, it was crazy. I did get hired on the spot, but I was hired as a grunt.

Speaker 3: 18:16

I mean literally a grunt, but you wanted to just get in the door.

Speaker 4: 18:20

My foot was now on the door. I didn't care if I was cleaning toilets.

Speaker 4: 18:23

And I was. I was sweeping floors, I was doing errands. I mean I had. I literally was told you know, this artist needs Campbell's soup. It's got to be this kind, this flavor. You know, these shape noodles, I mean crazy stuff. And here I am running all over New York City doing it and I did it and what really changed for me was through it all. Meg, is it okay if I call you Meg? Absolutely, I love it, thank you. So, Meg, literally I was just being me. I don't know how to be somebody. I'm not. It just doesn't work If I'm not authentic, you're going to know. And I was just being Shwai. I was me. And clearly the owner and other people in the studio saw that and they saw me for who I was. And I got called into the boss's office and he said I'm going to give you the shot of the lifetime. He said I need somebody to be another engineer on a Paul Simon record.

Speaker 4: 19:32

And he said, I'm going to trust you with that, assuming you want it, and I'm like holding back the excitement because the last thing I want to do is be like a, you know, like starstruck. Over eager, but Paul Simon, oh my God, like hell.

Speaker 3: 19:50

Right, the first person you're going to record Like talk about that level automatically.

Speaker 4: 19:55

So I said absolutely whatever you need.

Speaker 4: 19:57

Well, I was doing like 165 hour weeks because I'm working with Paul Simon and he records, to get to watch his process, Him recording a full record in the studio, not coming prepared with songs and tracks, just building it all from nothing, was amazing. I mean, the guy is just brilliant and at the same time I'm working on that and then that afforded me other opportunities. So now all of a sudden I'm engineering you know, rap and hip hop records at night and I mean I'm sleeping at the studio. I had a bed blown up behind the console. It was nuts.

Speaker 3: 20:35

Seriously.

Speaker 4: 20:36

It was nuts.

Speaker 3: 20:36

Oh my goodness. So they shower there and everything. Do they have that kind of facility?

Speaker 4: 20:41

Oh yeah. So I lived there for a full, solid another year and a half and I got burnt. I was really burnt.

Speaker 3: 20:51

I was gonna ask how do you do that? How do you know what happens? I really I did.

Speaker 4: 20:55

I was fried and I was working so hard. I mean, I worked on Tony Bennett records.

Speaker 2: 21:02

Paul.

Speaker 4: 21:02

Simon. Billy Joel. I got to do a track with Billy Joel Before Beyonce was Beyonce. You know when it was. Oh God the three girls. Yes, destiny's Child, destiny's okay.

Speaker 3: 21:19

Thank you.

Speaker 4: 21:20

Thank you, I have a gold record of theirs, and a platinum one.

Speaker 4: 21:23

But I mean like I got to work on some really cool stuff, but it really fried me. I mean, I was just unhealthy at that point and I said to myself I'm gonna get through this Paul Simon record and then I'm going back to Nashville Because now I had it in my head that, wait a minute, there's no way. No matter what I experienced the first time, there's no way now, with the experience and the technology and my skills that I've learned, I'm an A-lister now in terms of the things I learned and I did. I finished that record with Paul and I wound up going back to Nashville.

Speaker 3: 22:01

Before you get to that, because obviously I want to hear about that story. Ha-ho, were you not able to tell them? Hey, I want to break. Or was that your choice or was it the circumstances? It was a little bit of a normal work week, yeah it was a little of both.

Speaker 4: 22:16

I mean, you know my boss, he gave me the, the freedom like, hey, you know, you don't have to work as much as you're working. I also knew it was a way to get my chops to where they needed to be. Yeah, and I was young, you know, and when you're young, like you don't think about long-term or you know, you just go and go. Yeah, and I think I went and went and went until I just couldn't go anymore, you know, and and I just knew that I just had to finish that record and then I had to go because I Knew it was my only way out. The other thing is I started to really decide what I love to work on and what I didn't, and what you know worked for me and what fed my soul. And there were things that I was working on that just didn't. It just didn't feed my soul. And I knew that there was no perfect recipe, but I wanted that, you know, opportunity to try and work on as much as on music, that that really fed my soul and I knew.

Speaker 4: 23:21

That the songwriting in Nashville was so deep and so beautiful, Similar to you know the songs that Paul Simon would write. You know they had substance.

Speaker 3: 23:32

So so you went back to.

Speaker 4: 23:33

Nashville. I went back to Nashville and, sure enough, I was right People listened. This time.

Speaker 4: 23:41

You had something under your belt so and what I really had under my belt was Pro tools, which was a technology, still is and it became the biggest digital recording technology. Pro tools had not reached Nashville yet. They were using a different technology ADAT tapes and so I come in and I have the chops on Pro Tools and Vocal tuning had become a big thing. So I got hired. I wound up buying my own rig. It was very expensive, but I bought my own equipment and I had a cartage company that would bring my equipment to whatever studio I was working at and I was tuning vocals for a lot of big artists and it was a blast. I was also just editing tracks.

Speaker 3: 24:30

It was a lot of fun, you know so, steve, I let's talk about this for one second. I mean, you just name dropped a ton of people that Anybody hang on, let me pick them up oh.

Speaker 3: 24:40

Would love to meet just one of these people and you make it sound like, oh yeah, I just worked with this one, this one, this one and all of these greats. What? Were there any situations with any of those people that were nerve-wracking To meet them in the room, or was? Did they have an instant respect for you because of your role? What was that like so?

Speaker 4: 25:02

there. There's a little story here to tell you everybody. Every artist is different, sure, and I would say that nine times out of ten I had amazing experiences. I wasn't star struck, I just went in, I did the work and it was just a job. And these people, you know, I looked at him no different than hopefully they were looking at me Like this guy knows what he's doing, he does his thing, I do mine. It was fine, but there were some weird situations and of course I'm not gonna mention names, but of course, but one night, you know, one of the artists I was working with came in and put a Glock nine pistol on the console. Oh boy, and now can I? I don't know what the rules are here. Am I allowed to say a curse word?

Speaker 3: 25:57

I'm being told I might have to bleep it out.

Speaker 4: 25:59

Maybe the letter you could always, you could always believe it. But literally this guy says to me you're gonna make my shit right and throws this gun down. And it was like you know, my heart starts pounding and I'm like is this guy serious? You know, and part of me thinks he might have been, but now that I look back on it, I I think he wasn't. I think it was like his own version of humor.

Speaker 4: 26:30

Okay, at the time I didn't think it was funny you know, but I can look back now and you know For what it's worth. That person, who I'm not gonna mention, happens to be a billionaire now. So I mean it's like you know he wasn't being serious. But you know again, at the time I didn't know that and I was.

Speaker 3: 26:48

You didn't know him. You didn't yeah, no, exactly, and I also. It's scary.

Speaker 4: 26:51

Yeah, I had all sorts of weird experiences. I mean, people call me a skinhead, like I used to have shaved my head really shorter than this, you know it's like, okay, yeah, I'm a Jewish skinhead.

Speaker 4: 27:03

I go figure, like right, it doesn't, it doesn't there's a lot of ignorance out there in the world, you know, and and I certainly got different aspects of that.

Speaker 4: 27:13

But you know, there was only one time that I really like, my heart kind of dropped and I got starstruck and I hadn't even seen the artist, and it's when Michael Jackson came into the studio. Oh, my goodness, yes, he comes in, and I think it's the way that his people Took care of him that created that, that excitement in me that my body just couldn't control and it was like, okay, all of a sudden, every light in the entire building goes out and they, basically there was this, uh, elevator, service, elevator that a car could pull up on the street and pull right into and close, and so you know they open the other side of this garage door on the inside of the studio and hallway of the studio and it's Michael Jackson, but all the lights are out and he's walking, like walking right by me and I'm just like my god, like yeah, that's, that's crazy, that's nuts, I can't even believe all these names that you've just mentioned.

Speaker 3: 28:21

It's pretty, it's pretty special.

Speaker 4: 28:23

It's, you know it's it's, it's awesome to have had those experiences, those opportunities.

Speaker 3: 28:30

Um again, there's more there's more like if you think about we've we've just touched the surface. I know, people listening or hearing this saying wow, that this is pretty incredible to hear someone who started out in the music business and we're about to. We got a flash forward to some of the stories of where you've gone from there.

Speaker 4: 28:46

I know I need to move on from new york, right, I need to move you back to nashville. Because that's yeah, so I go back to nashville, I'm working in the studio, it's great, everything's good. Until September 11th 2001.

Speaker 2: 29:02

And when you know.

Speaker 4: 29:04

People say you know the world stopped with covet. I actually disagree. I think the world stopped for quite a while. On September 11th 2001 and People don't necessarily remember as well as they remember covet covet's recent, so it feels like it was yesterday. September 11th happened and things really did stop. I mean the world just stopped.

Speaker 4: 29:31

You're right, and the music yeah, in the music industry went into um Benefit mode, so artists were recording for benefit projects and they were appearing for concerts to raise money and and it was all really great and I got to be a part of some of it. But I was donating my time as a recording engineer. I didn't have a check that was coming in from anybody. I was a freelance gig worker and when September 11th happened and you know, the world stopped and so did my paychecks.

Speaker 4: 30:08

So I was doing a lot of good stuff, but I wasn't getting paid for it and I don't think I was smart enough or advanced enough in life at that point To think about it as it was happening, and so, you know, I got in a bad way. I I was spending more money because I wasn't making any money, so spending my savings and then my savings was going away right, and then I would get a credit card and that was maxed out, so I get another credit card.

Speaker 4: 30:41

I mean, I wound up in serious, serious financial trouble really bad, and so, while my studio work wasn't really picking back up, that's where it was like, okay, I got to find something. So what did I do? I become a barista at starbucks.

Speaker 3: 30:59

Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 4: 31:00

And and, by the way, I was a damn good one. I still am I'm my own best barista these days. In fact, I've been called the Heisenberg of coffee. If you're familiar with the show Breaking Bad Heisenberg. Yeah, so he makes all the the drugs, you know, he makes the good stuff, I make the good coffee. I have a whole process. It's like I'm a scientist. Anyway, I'm working at Starbucks, and at the time, though, back in the first stint I did in Nashville, I became friends with big kenny and john rich.

Speaker 4: 31:38

And most people know them as big and rich big and rich country duo. Yes, and at the time though, in the early or the mid 90s, when I met them Mid late 90s it was just john rich and big kenny. John had just finished being a member of loan star, which he was a founding member. Kenney, uh, had just finished.

Speaker 4: 32:02

He had had a record deal on a rock record, um, and it had just gotten out of that deal because his rock career just didn't take over and they had this thing called the music mafia and it was, you know, music being played by a bunch of friends, you know, every week in this little club called the pub of love, and it was just like great songs that they were writing together and they were showcasing Other friends who were writing songs, and I mean, they were showcasing just beautiful songs and it was like hey, steve does this and I'm just using me as an example, but okay, this is not true but it was like hey, steve's really good at this, so we're going to showcase them doing that. That's what they were doing with young musicians and it was really this beautiful community. And so we became friends and in fact, big kenny and I wrote a bunch of silly songs together Back in the day and I mean I love those songs, but are are they for somebody else? No, they were for us, and it was great.

Speaker 4: 33:04

And so now I'm back for the second time and I'm still recording, just not as much because september eleventh happened. I need to make a living, so I'm working a starbucks, which happens to be right down the street from where big kenny was living, and so I finished work, I go to his house and we write songs and we record and we have a blast in the same breath big and rich. We're starting to write songs together as an act although at the time they were big and rich yet and they were doing something for a performance rights organization organization there's a couple of them ask cap bmi and they were doing one where a bunch of students from berkeley music school in boston Come down and they were teaching us how to write a song and in the room that day they wrote save a horse, ride a cowboy. And a couple of days later they were going in the studio with the same students to record and I was one of one of the guys recording. I was one of the engineers.

Speaker 4: 34:08

So, what I didn't know is that they were really gonna get signed to warner brothers and a career is gonna take off so fast forward. Two thousand three. I've kinda had enough again and I'm like I gotta go back to new york. It just must not be my time to be here.

Speaker 4: 34:27

Yeah so again, I'm not gonna mention the company that I I wound up looking for work with, but I did tell people, hey, I'm gonna leave nashville, I'm gonna go work for this company. They all think I'm nuts. Everybody's tell me not to do it and I leave. I move back to new york. I moved to long island and I interviewed at that business with you. You selected me out of, I'm sure, tons of beautiful candidates and I was lucky enough to be selected.

Speaker 4: 35:02

You and I got to work together for a while, for about a year I think yeah I transferred within the company to another location in the new york city and I had a blast in new york city and I get a phone rang, the phone rang yeah, I get a call.

Speaker 4: 35:21

It's big kenny and he's like the. He called me the, the good jewish reverend. And he said reverend schwae, how are you know? It's big kenny. And I was like I'm doing great. He's like you know how you like in your job. And I said yeah, it's, it's a great job. I got it, I got benefits, I got a good salary. And he's like that's awesome.

Speaker 4: 35:42

We're coming to new york city next week. We're playing cbgb's. It's a, it's a play for the media. You gotta come. You know the records gonna come out soon. You gotta be Said alright, I'll come out. I said why don't I hop out on the road? If you guys can spare some room, I'll come out for a week. And he said, brother, you gotta do it. So I go out for a week. I went to that show that night. I hopped on the bus in the middle of the night and I'm on the road with them for a week. They were just doing radio stuff and kenny said we need a guitar tech. He said you've met our tour manager. I can't give you that job, but we need a guitar tech. We're going on the road with tim mcraw. We need you. You gotta come out and I'm like, yeah, I'm like what do I do?

Speaker 4: 36:30

so I came back to new york and I met with my boss in new york city and I said I I'm not the type of guy to put in my resignation with no notice, but I have to make. I have a maker break decision and I've decided I'm gonna take this job. And this person I actually, you know, is very upset, not just I didn't give two weeks, but just was very upset in general and I was like, really, is this really happening? And he said you know you're gonna be so sorry you're leaving. You know you're just wasting your time. Nothing's ever gonna come to us. And I just I kinda stayed me again. I'm a calm person, so I just stayed calm and moved on. And guess what? It was the best decision I ever made in my life right, right, and who knows?

Speaker 3: 37:27

and those moments I mean sometimes you can't tell, but you knew, you had a feeling that it was. It was calling you.

Speaker 4: 37:33

Yeah, right to do and, let's be honest, I'll fast forward just quick snippets of this. But I wound up becoming big and riches tour manager, extremely successful at it for years and left them at the end of a tour and worked with jewel and platinum but what are some of her credentials? I mean, I'm over, I think over thirty two million records sold worldwide you know, I mean huge hits, and I met her.

Speaker 4: 38:07

Everything has a networking story, but john rich, it's like six degrees of shawaii, I mean it really. It's like how did I get the jewel? I mean that one's really quick. It's like john rich jewel. He produced her record, she did a country record and she called me for advice on putting together a band and a crew for her tour. And it was like, and I literally I said what am I chopped liver? And she goes oh, I can't steal you from big and rich. And I said you don't have to. I literally I'm leaving at the end of the year they already know it was. I think this was in mid october. And she's like, oh, my god really. And I said, yeah, you call john if you're concerned about.

Speaker 3: 38:49

She didn't have to call john, but so I wound up working with her for how long you were with yeah, your your friends with jewel a long time, yeah so, yeah, two thousand and Eight was when we first work together, work for a solid year, full tour.

Speaker 4: 39:08

Then. And oh nine, I did a basically travel the world with her doing solo acoustic shows. It was just her and I and one other guy On the crew. She had a personal assistant now, so it's like four of us traveling around the world is a blast. And and then she, you know, was kind of taking a break. She know what was next for her. So she needs to let me go.

Speaker 4: 39:32

When I say let me go, let me go off of what they call in the business retainer, you know. So I was getting paid. If there were months that went by that we didn't work, I was still getting retainer, so that if something came up, she, she had to be my first priority, and it's pretty common in the business, but she was taking a break. So I took a break from her, but at the same time she call me randomly hey, I got a gig, are you available? Yeah, is available. In twenty thirteen she did her greatest hit store. She's like any chance you can, you know, go out at this point. I started my own business, I start a management company and I artist most know clear view clear view artist management.

Speaker 4: 40:16

I still have it today, but the notable act that I had at the time was nitty gritty dirt band. For those of your, your viewers, that haven't heard of them, I'm sure they've heard the song fishing in the dark, and the band has many, many great hits. They've been around, you know, fifty five plus years now and they're still going. And so I managed them from two end of two thousand nine just until twenty twenty one, so a long time.

Speaker 3: 40:47

So, steve, pause for one moment because I'm getting offered. For those that aren't watching, this right with. This is something we put out on youtube, but for those that are just listening at what I'm one of the many podcast platforms I'm, you can see that steve has a bunch of beautiful records on the wall behind him and he also has. He also has an award that sitting there. I have to call it out and it's, it's an Emmy, so that's pretty impressive. Can you tell us about that?

Speaker 4: 41:13

I know pertains to nitty gritty yeah, so it is a Emmy award for special event coverage. So it was. It was a special event. It was for their fiftieth anniversary Nitty gritty dirt band and friends celebrating fifty years and I, along with two other guys, produced the special and we won this Emmy award for the special. It was air. It still is airing all these years later that it came out in twenty sixteen. It's still airing all these years later on PBS. It was made, we made it and produced it for a PBS pledge special. It's done so well and helped raise so much money that it's still on today and Congrats.

Speaker 3: 42:06

Thank you seriously. It's incredible. Like how many people do I know that I want an Emmy oh right just you.

Speaker 4: 42:13

It's really, it's like one of the coolest things that's ever happened to me. I got to go up and give the acceptance speech and that I saw that I was asked what was that like?

Speaker 4: 42:26

That was the most nerve wracking thing I've done in my life. And what's funny is I'm in a room of my peers like maybe, maybe, four or five hundred people. I've stood on state the stage at Gillette stadium to a sold out Gillette stadium show for Kenny Chesney concert and they're big and rich and I'm standing on that stage To, you know, a hundred thousand people and I'm working and I was fine but now I have to talk and say something.

Speaker 4: 42:55

Holy crap, what do I do, you know? But it was an amazing experience. I mean, it was one of those oh my god moments like this can't even be real. Like, don't pinch me you better just sucker punch me because it just doesn't feel real, you know, but it was real and it's so special.

Speaker 3: 43:15

It is special, you know, if you, if I'm thinking about all the stories that you've shared with us and you have a theme going, which is that you know, if you know this about yourself maybe you do but you put it out there in the universe of what you're going to do, from everything you just shared with us tonight, and I didn't know that this was coming. But I've been listening and I'm thinking, wow, he did it again, did again. And you say to people hey, I'm gonna come work for you, I'm gonna go work there and I'm gonna make it happen. I'm gonna go work there and I'm gonna make it happen. I'm gonna show up.

Speaker 4: 43:46

You have so much grit and do you know that about yourself that you put it out there and say, hey, I'm gonna come work for you, jewel, I'm gonna come for you, can, I'm gonna come work for you, so I wouldn't say that I know it about myself, but I believe you and I believe it about myself, because I do believe that there's a, there's a power in positivity and there's a power in manifesting your destiny, saying, you know, if you believe it and you truly believe it and you say it's going to happen, it will happen because your determination, your soul, your blood I mean it's all going towards that goal.

Speaker 4: 44:32

If that's what you want and you can make it happen, as long as you're willing to do one thing, and it's a really important thing not take no for an answer, and it's like the easiest thing. But it's the hardest thing for anybody, including myself, to get, because when somebody says no, the easiest thing to do is accept it and say okay. The hard thing and the hardest thing to do is to not accept it and say I don't accept it. I heard it but I don't accept it. So now I have to move on to that next stage of how I'm going to get there, and sometimes it's with that same person who gave you the no. Other times it's going to that other door that's still open and seeing if that's the the one that you can walk through and it doesn't shut on you.

Speaker 4: 45:25

But it's hard though it really is hard, but I'll tell you, the power of positivity is so true. And I think, meg, when we were talking the other day, I told you about a documentary.

Speaker 4: 45:38

It's a docu-series on Sean White, the snowboarder and there is a point in that in that documentary where he gave up it was. He was like, okay, I got to be okay with with winning silver it and it was his last run he was about to do. But the guy that the Japanese snowboarder who had just done a run had done the most amazing run and Sean was in awe he was like he's like okay, I'm okay, I'm just, I'm gonna take silver, I'm gonna be okay with this.

Speaker 4: 46:13

And he's talking about it. You hear him talking about it in real time. And then he overdubs over the silence as the camera is on him. This is at the, I think, the Sochi Olympics, I think it was and he's on the top of the mountain, he's about to go down to his run and he's overdubbing and he says and then I thought to myself but what if I wasn't okay with silver? Yeah, and he said and so I believed that I wasn't gonna be okay with silver. So I just knew that I wasn't gonna be good with that. And what did he do? He went down that pipe and threw down an insane run and he won gold.

Speaker 4: 47:01

He won gold and it yeah, it just shows you if his head wasn't in the right place. And think about it. I'm we're talking about me, like you know, trying to get a job and and I'm gonna go do that. Yeah, this guy is like gonna jump you know these crazy twists and turns and all this stuff you know a hundred feet in the air, sometimes out of the bottom of the pipe, and can kill himself. And he just willed it. He's like I'm not gonna be okay with silver. Bam, he gets it's it's.

Speaker 3: 47:33

It's so true, it's, and you're right. We did talk about that and you and I have always liked talking about these kind of things and about people that are successful and what their mindsets are, and that is the mindset of a champion, that is the mindset of somebody who pushes themself, and I love how you just shared it's about not taking no but for an answer, and that is that is really tough. Like do you, how do you? How do you do that right? I think that's the question people have is how do you, I guess, get rid of that? I call it limiting beliefs. How do you get put that aside and continue forward, not taking that person's no?

Speaker 4: 48:08

yeah, so it's not easy, I'll say that. And even to this day, no matter how many successes that I can talk about and and go into, it's still very difficult for me and sometimes I get in my own head and luckily I have an amazing support system, you know.

Speaker 4: 48:29

So you know, sometimes I'll be laying in bed and kind of bashing myself, quite honestly you know, yeah, I talked, I talked down about me for no other reason, but maybe it's because I heard a no, you know, or and sometimes it's not even that I heard a no.

Speaker 4: 48:48

It's like I don't feel good about myself mentally. So I decide that, you know, somebody says you should go, maybe do this, and it's something I might want to do, and I say I can't do it, I'm not that talented, I'm not capable of that, I can't do that. But then having a really amazing support support network and having a beautiful, amazing fiancee who supports everything I do, yes, absolutely the fact that she can say to me you know, hang on a minute, like, why are you talking about yourself? Like that, you know, and she kind of puts me in check. And and that's difficult too, you know it's it's not easy to hear a no or to break a cycle. But the more experience you have and this is where the tweak is, if you have even one, you just need one, you need one know that you turned into a yes because of your attitude and your will to go do something. All you need is that one, because if you're able to take that one and store it in your memory, and we all can do that.

Speaker 4: 50:05

All you have to do is go back to that memory. You just have to go back and say, well, if I did it for this, when all the odds were against me. But all I had to do is say, nope, I'm determined, that's what I'm going to do.

Speaker 2: 50:17

Yes, and it happened.

Speaker 4: 50:18

That's how I can get out of the next one and the next one of me thinking that it's not going to happen. But there are some times that you know you just get stuck and it's good to have that support network that can pull you out of it. And and Meg, you're one of those people. I can talk to you. I could be in a down place. You might not know that I'm in a down place, but we can talk and your positivity, it, it's infectious, it it you, you infect me with the positivity and I'm able to be a better person that day or that week or that month. I'm glad to hear that I am that makes that.

Speaker 3: 50:54

That makes me feel good. Thank you for sharing that. But I agree with what you're saying. You got having a support network, people that care about you, for others that are trying to figure out how do I get out of those tough times, because we all have them and I love that you just shared. You have them too, with the success that you've had and the records on the wall behind you and the awards and the people that you've worked with. You still have those tough moments and those doubts. Can I do this next thing you need? So I'm going to pull you out of it and you need that. Like you said, the memory bank, the file cabinet, is in there because our self-doubts will talk us out of. It's easier, right, it's easier to say, oh, I can't do it, I can't do it, but it's just pulling that one thing out. I love that analogy.

Speaker 4: 51:38

So and you have to stay humble. I think I don't. You know. You asked me, so I'm talking about myself which is not something I like to do. You know, there are people that love to talk about themselves, or talk about an award or an accomplishment. I really don't. It's not so, and that's why I'm so good behind the camera, so to speak, as we're on camera, you know but truly that's, that's what's made me successful.

Speaker 4: 52:05

I don't boast about what I've done. Now I'm proud, I'm very proud of everything I've been able to do. Sure, I'm even proud of my failures. I don't look at my failures as true failures. I look at my failures as that's how I got to do this, which was a success.

Speaker 4: 52:23

You know, we can't just there's nobody in the world that's just successful. You have to have a lot of things to go wrong to get it right, and I've had plenty of wrong to get it right. But, you know, not talking about it has been a great thing, because what I love to do, I love to be proud of what I've done. I love for somebody to walk into my office and they start the conversation what the heck is this? Or what did you do to get that? And when you feel their excitement and their, their authenticity and them being genuine and really wanting to know more, it's a lot easier to talk, because then you're not feeling like you're talking about yourself. You're talking about something that somebody genuinely wants to know about and has asked you about. Sure, I think that's really important.

Speaker 3: 53:17

You know being humble is absolutely really important thing it surely does play into it. But, um well, this has been really lovely to talk to you today, really mean it.

Speaker 4: 53:28

I know it's crazy sharing all your stories. You asked me, literally, I think, one question and I just kept talking this no.

Speaker 3: 53:35

I've had a couple. I swear I've had a couple it's like easy to just let you.

Speaker 4: 53:39

Let you go with it, because you kind of connected all the dots for us well, you gotta promise me if your viewers enjoy this and meaning this specific episode and I hope they do at some point you gotta bring back for, like shawaii version two. You know we'll have to have like a mini series oh, absolutely that has shawaii only because I'm having so much fun. I love talking to you, meg. It's like well.

Speaker 3: 54:04

I feel the same and I really actually think that you have your onto something here, because I'm just getting started and I really think that you know we just we have a small audience right now. I'm hoping that it grows, steve. I'm hoping that it grows and if so, I'd love to have you back. We'll definitely talk again. You have so much to share. I've always admired just who you are, the person that you are. That's why we've kept in touch and been friends all these years. So thank you for what you've shared with us today oh my god.

Speaker 4: 54:32

Thank you, meg. I mean you, your family, you guys are beautiful, you're, you're just positive personality. This is a lot fast here it it is, but what you bring to me has always been so positive. I mean, there's never been a moment whether it was work fun, just catching up there's never been a moment that hasn't literally made me smile ear to ear, just big old grin whenever I get to converse with you and sometimes it could be a text, absolutely that.

Speaker 3: 55:08

That means the world to me, steve. So thank you everybody out there for listening, thank you for those of you that have watched. I hope you've enjoyed these great stories and taken something out of it today, and we'll say goodbye for now bye for now well, that's it for today.

Speaker 1: 55:26

Thank you for listening. If you like what you heard, bookmark this podcast and follow Megan on Instagram. Okay, now for the disclaimer. This podcast is solely for educational and entertainment purposes. Megan is not a licensed therapist and this podcast is not intended as a substitute for physician, professional coach, psychotherapist or other qualified profession. Goodbye, everybody.