When Nashville’s Belmont University — then a mere college — introduced a music business degree in 1973, a good portion of the city’s music pros scoffed at the endeavor., who started as a student in January 1976 and went on to become the dean of the Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business from 2015-2022. “I literally had somebody say to me, ‘You can’t teach what we do in school.’ My thing was the 10,000 hours, you know — I discoveredin 1964, and I never stopped listening.
“I had no idea it would be this important to who I became,” Paisley says. “I got there, and I saw a recording studio and internship programs that allowed me to go hang out at ASCAP for free and walk into music meetings.” “My first thing ever was as a seat filler for the TNN/Music City News Awards,” remembers Vaughn. “I ended up sitting in’ seat most of the night because they were winning everything. So I sat by his wife, and we had this nice conversation, and I’m like, ‘This is crazy.’ I’m 18 years old, but even stuff like that, if you’re not part of Belmont, you’re just not knowing there’s all these little opportunities and things to be involved in.