Did you diss your system doesn't really give a crap how important you think you are the laws of the laws and no means no and I learned that the hard way because I got arrested three times for so first off. I just want to say welcome to the podcast before we jump into the episode. Let me tell you a little bit about myself and what you can expect I have been in the business now for coming up on 30 years what we're going to talk about. Out in this podcast or things that go on in my day-to-day life whether it be as a manager whether it be as a consultant whether it be as someone who is creating products that's helping musicians all over the world. If there's something going on in the industry, we're going to talk about it. If there's a strategy that needs to be taught we're going to talk about it. And if there's some way that I can help get you closer to your goal. Then you're in the right place because that's what we are going to talk about here on the music industry blueprint podcast. Now, let's jump into the episode. Helping you, navigate the music industry. Here's Rick Barker with the music industry blueprint podcast. So at the tape into this episode it is a couple days before Christmas 2018. I am back in California where I actually I like to tell people this is kind of where I grew up Santa Barbara got here in my early 20s. Did my whole entire radio career here got sober here that my wife here had our kids here really discovered who? Was as a person here was able to have a lot of success here was able to make a lot of mistakes here. You know, I had someone recently respond back to me as I was reading your bio on your about section on your Facebook page and I didn't realize that you were sober also and it got me thinking of why I'm very open about my past. You know, there's a lot of people that will do whatever they can to hide the past, you know, there's a lot of people that will do whatever they can to keep people from knowing any flaws that they feel they might have or anything that could be perceived as not cool for me. It's directly opposite and I got to realizing that there's a lot of people that have started following my podcast that I'm just meeting for the first time. Is a lot of people that come up to me. I didn't realize how many people actually listen to podcast. I knew I did but I didn't realize just how many people in that wanted to be artists that were just you know, smart business people that have nothing to do with music that just enjoy consuming podcast, and I've had a lot of people come up to me this year and thank me for sharing my story. So what I want to do is I want to take this time. I feel as the years winding down. 2019 is going to be a fantastic year for me. And for a lot of you. I'm excited that a lot of you are allowing me to be a part of your 2019 super excited. For those of you that have recently come on board and have brought me in to be your your coach super pumped and excited about that. But what I want to do right now is I want to take this time to share a little bit about who I am and what brought me to this place what it is that Do today. So if you know my story that I'm going to suggest that you you know, go grab another podcast to listen to or or read a book. If you don't know it, I'll do the condensed version for you. But the goal for me with this is to show you that your past definitely does not define your future and you have complete control when it comes to getting yourself out of whatever situation. That's your in there may be some work that needs to be done. But you definitely are the one that's in control. So I grew up. I was raised by a single mom. My dad was back in California. My mom moved us out to Muscle Shoals, Alabama. That's where I fell in love with music and was first introduced to the music scene. I was blessed to be around Fame recording studio and the halls and a lot of that great music. That was coming out of at that time. It's there also where I fell in love with radio. I realized that I did not have the skill set to learn an instrument the patients to take lessons and I realized though that music was a big part of what I did and that's also where I think I developed my hustle my willingness to go out and find talented people and start promoting them. I had one of the first mobile DJ company and Alabama, so in high school we were Were you know doing college parties? We were we were we were we were doing it and we were having a great time unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it. I was exposed to alcohol at a young age because I was hanging around with these parties start to get myself a little bit of trouble at 17 moved to California and there it kind of took a turn I say it took a turn for the worst, but that is What I'm going to share with you in the next couple of minutes is what changed my life forever. What I was 18 years old. I was introduced to crack cocaine and I ended up staying high for almost 3 to 4 years. I lose kind of track of the time they're after a while but I was I was it was in the 80s the hair bands were real popular at the time. Like I said, I've always been an entrepreneur. So I felt that you know if they needed No, drugs and girls that I was a DJ at a strip club and I also sold them drunk. So yes for a short period of time in my life. I was actually a drug dealer as well fortunately for me. I think I learned a lot of problem solving being a drug dealer not necessarily, you know, encouraging people to go down that road, but you learn a lot of hustle. It's also, you know a lot like the music business you give people a little taste. Hopefully they I enjoy it and they keep coming to you for a long time. In order to get their product. You are product. They're being the music so there are some correlations that go along with that but I digress so on April 4th 1989 after being strung out on crack and I got on my knees and I asked God to let me die. I was as I like to tell people sick and tired of being sick and tired and I just I felt hopeless I felt that I was too scared to put a gun to my head. I was too scared to take my own life. I thought maybe you know if I just prayed hard enough that God would be so disappointed in me that he would take me. Well, he didn't and I woke up after I did that prayer I went to sleep and when I woke up, I have not had a craving for cocaine or drugs since that time. I never thought I had a drinking problem. I used to drink so I could drive I was so high, but I never thought alcohol was a Problem got sober six months into my sobriety. I went and applied for a job at a radio station and was hired in Kiss FM in Los Angeles answering the phones and I went on and the year later ended up getting my first on-air gig in Santa Barbara California moved to Santa Barbara with a little over a year sobriety and it was one of those things where my AA sponsor says, you know, there's some great sobriety and Santa Barbara go find him. I got the Santa Barbara 24 years old single in a town with you know, three colleges on the beach and I'm on the radio and my ego got the best of me. I went to a party somebody offered me a drink. I took it offered me another drink. I took it and the first night that I drank after being sober for a little over a year. I ended up getting my first DUI and I chalked it up to bad luck and continued. Gain, and shortly after that got my second DUI, and then I said screw it. I can't even drink so it did up having one beer one night waiting to turn myself in for 17 days to for the second DUI. I end up getting my third DUI only having a couple beers because the first the cop they gave me my first DUI saw me driving do I wasn't supposed to and gave me my third. So I got my third DUI and 30 days and realize that alcohol. It probably was a problem because people who it's not a problem for don't seem to get arrested. I couldn't stop getting arrested. So on March 17th 1992. That is my sobriety date. That is also the first day that I was spending 17 days in jail. Unfortunately, that would not be the last time that I went to jail, but it was it was a very eye-opening experience for me and made me realize that I never wanted to go. Back, but I thought the problem was alcohol. So I figured if I eliminated that problem, I would never go back to jail. Unfortunately. I didn't realize that the judicial system doesn't really give a crap how important you think you are the laws of the laws and no means no and I learned that the hard way because I got Arrested three times for violating my probation driving on a suspended license first time, you know get the little ankle monitor second time got the ankle monitor and then the third time the judge realized that obviously the leniency wasn't working. So I got sentenced to 11 months in County Jail here in Santa Barbara and that was devastating to me because I felt and I shared this story with my son recently that a lot of times if the Fences aren't severe enough in the beginning. You may do something a second third or fourth time and that's what happened with me. The consequences were not severe enough. I could handle having to you know, be drug tested for 30 days because I knew I wasn't going to be doing drugs. I knew I wasn't going to be drinking drinking wasn't the problem drugs and alcohol were but a symptom of the problem was is that my personality and my ego felt that I was better than everyone else and Or me I had a judge that kind of let me know that that wasn't necessarily the case. I ended up getting like I said since to 11 months in jail had a date to turn myself in I chose not to turn myself in on that date and a warrant was issued for my arrest. I guess. I thought it would just magically disappear and it didn't and in October of 1995. I was arrested while on the radio and was removed from Shift and taken into the Santa Barbara County jail, and I would remain there for the next four months and it was those four months that absolutely changed my life forever. I realized at that point that all men are created equal. I realized what it was like to have all your privileges taken from you. I realized at that point how fortunate I was to be alive the fact of the matter that I had people in my Life that cared about me and it was at that point where I made a conscious decision that I was going to do everything. I could at that point to not only turn my life around and try to help as many people as possible. You see what I got arrested. I was the number one disc jockey in Santa Barbara. So it was a news event. So it was on the front page of the paper. It was on TV. It's like my little community in my world knew my story. So what was there to hide from so I was going You use this as an opportunity to let people learn from my mistakes and I was going to be open about my mistakes. So it's just one of those things where sometimes we have this Revelation in our lives. Sometimes we need to get Smackdown. Like I said, sometimes we need to go backwards in order to move forwards and that's exactly what needed to happen to me when I got out I got back on the radio. I started attending meetings I was Very active in the community and it was at that point that I started really becoming a problem solver. I started asking a lot of questions and I ended up getting involved with country music. I was invited to start a country music station right above Santa Barbara in the Santa Ynez Valley called crazy country and it was here that I started getting introduced to Folks at the record companies and it was here that I started once again, like I said asking Solving problems. I created a program called the Nashville you radio tour, which got an artist paid on radio tour, which help them develop was able to, you know be involved early on in the careers of Sugarland a little big town and got on the radar Scott borchetta at Big Machine records. Scott ended up hiring me at Big Machine records to be a West Coast Regional promoter, which was awesome. I had about 70 radio stations and nine states that I was responsible for. I was able to get out on the road start meeting people and early on and that job at big machine is when I was given Taylor and the responsibilities to teach her radio and teacher the early side of the business and it was at that point that we absolutely just kind of it was it was good for both of us, you know, as many people have said early on that that her and I were too dumb to know any better. We just knew. There was a lot of people out there and we knew that there was this thing called the internet which can allow us to get access to them. And we just went things different. That's what we did and that's a whole nother story for a whole other podcast, but I was blessed to be asked to be her manager. She was my first management client ever. I had no previous management experience everything I learned I learned by doing and then I realized that management just wasn't for me a lot of the things that come along with it. It's not all tours and and shows it was a lot of being away from the family. It was a lot of trying to fix situations that you know, you had zero control over there were so many things that that we couldn't control but we were held responsible for if things went wrong it was frustrating. It was frustrating knowing that you know, my my best That's is in the artist development the early stages helping an artist figure out who they are helping to build an audience helping them, you know move forward in their career. My what I suck at is I suck at the political stuff. I suck it having to hire and fire people I suck at having to sit down in the meetings with the label and call BS what I know, it's not right that part's not fun that part. I didn't enjoy and I also didn't enjoy being on the road by last year. Would Taylor. I was gone a hundred table. That was crazy. So I told you I'm driving as this is happening and it went straight to the ground. I guess, you know talking about Taylor she got pissed but oh well, so as I was saying, let me set this back up here again my last year with her. I was gone a hundred eighty seven days. My daughter was for my son was two and I realized I was going to make more money than I've ever seen in my life. But at what expense at that point I also to was Almost 300 pounds, you know, I started having health issues and I just realized that that's not why I got into this business. That's not what I loved. My health was more important. My family was more important and I gave my notice and decided to move on from their best decision that I ever made it was a time in my life that I will never forget. It was an opportunity that I was given to be a part of changing so many lives being involved with her and being a part of coming up with a lot of creative. Of ideas that helped share her with the world. So what I'll do is I will finish this story and the next episode. I don't want to keep you too long, but I do want to say thanks for allowing me to ramble. Sometimes it's good to go back and look down memory lane and the next episode. What I'll do is explain to you what happened next and what ultimately led me to creating the music industry blueprint watching families. Lose hundreds of thousands of dollars and being taken advantage of and I will share all of that with you in the next episode. If this is your first time and you got through this bless your heart head on over to the website. If you haven't picked up a free copy of the book Rick Barker.com will do that for you while you're there if you're an artist and you haven't taken the assessment do so kind of identify where you currently are in your career and I'll give you some things that can help move you to that next level you guys have yourself a great. Great rest of your day and I'll talk to you on the next episode Channel. I hope you enjoyed this episode to the music industry blueprint podcast. Be sure to subscribe and tell a friend remember there is no one-size-fits-all model when it comes to the music industry. So check out my website Rick Barker.com take the quiz and I will send you information specific to you to help make sure that you are on the right track. You've been listening to the music industry blueprint podcast with brick Barker. You can follow Rick on. A trick Barker music and remember you don't drown by falling into the water you drown by staying there. A trick Barker music and remember you don't drown by falling into the water you drown by staying there.
Your past does not define your future and Rick is proof of that. On today’s episode of the Music Industry Blueprint Podcast, Rick shares his personal story. Starting from how he was exposed to alcohol at such a young age and used cocaine. Then he became a drug dealer and an alcoholic right at the highlight of his career as the #1 DJ in Santa Barbara. He also tells how he got arrested several times and put in jail! If you haven’t heard Rick’s story, tune in now and discover how he turns his life around and came to where he is, helping other musicians to succeed by sharing his knowledge. “Drinking wasn’t the problem. Drugs and alcohol were but a symptom. The problem was that my personality and my ego felt that I was better than anybody else.”-Rick Barker     What do you want to hear from the Music Industry Blueprint Podcast? Tell us here! ***Want to be a guest on the Music Industry Blueprint Podcast? *** Send an email to podcast@musicindustryblueprint.com With the following information: Name, website, social handles, questions you would like to ask Rick and contact information   Time Stamps: 1:10 - Rick’s life living in Santa Barbara, his success and mistakes and why he’s very open about his past 4:16 - His family and career background and how he got exposed to alcohol at a young age 5:45 - Why he used cocaine and became a drug dealer while working as a DJ plus the first turning point in his life where he stopped cocaine and drugs and became sober 8:00 - How he made mistakes again and did some time for it 11:28 - The tipping point in his life and how he turns his life around 13:52 - How he came to know, teach and manage Taylor Swift 15:00 - Why he quit as a manager and why it is the best decision he ever made   Resources:  Scott Borchetta  Big Machine Records Sugarland Taylor Swift  Connect with Rick:   Facebook Instagram  ---   Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/music-industry-blueprint/message 