Over a more than 75-minute chat with Billboard's Jim Asker, Curb shares lessons he's learned since founding Curb as a teen. "We're the oldest independent record label still owned by its original owner."
"I'm never leaving Music Row. Are you kidding me? In my will, I've got a trust set up where they can't move us off Music Row."
The latest episode of Billboard's new Chart Beat Podcast comes to you from Nashville, where Curb Records founder and Curb and Word chairman Mike Curb chats with Billboard country, Christian and gospel chart manager Jim Asker (taking the mic this week from Billboard co-director of charts and New York-based Chart Beat Podcast host Gary Trust).
It would be hard to find anyone in Nashville, or the entire music industry, with a resume as impressive, and varied, as Curb's. In addition to his label accomplishments, he's also a member of the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame; he served as lieutenant governor of California in 1979-83; and, in addition to overseeing hits for Curb, he's written more than 300 songs, including Hank Williams Jr.'s first Hot Country Songs No. 1, "All for the Love of Sunshine." (Curb's group the Mike Curb Congregation, along with notching its own hits, also backed Sammy Davis Jr. on his 1972 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 "The Candy Man.")