Clint Black shakes up the Nashville music business
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Bankrate: That's certainly different for Nashville. You might revolutionize the business.

Clint Black: It's possible to do that, certainly. People are crying out for change. There's a huge gulf between the label and the artist right now. The labels are all consolidating and trying to cut costs, because they have offices on Madison Avenue and in Tokyo and Germany, and they've got a lot of fat. Equity has one office, and it's in Nashville. And the largest ownership group eventually will be the artists.

Bankrate: Nashville seems so confused right now about what kind of music it should be making and marketing -- whether to keep it country or go more in the pop direction. How do you know which way to go yourself?

Clint Black: Well, I've always made records my way. That's unusual in this town, because a lot of these things are done by committee. It would be frightening and unreasonable to me if the decisions ultimately were made by the record company. A company like RCA has a few dozen artists under its umbrella. And while I'm going to live and die by what I do, the record company is going to live and die by what it does multiplied by 24. Ultimately, it has to come down to the individual. And I didn't meet too much resistance at RCA, although there were times when I was urged to record other people's songs, and I couldn't do that because I still had plenty of my own.

Bankrate: Is that why you parted company with RCA?

Clint Black: No, it was the end of my deal, and I was ready to move on. And I wasn't going to put out an album until I was secure with where it was and how it was going to be done. Right now [with record company consolidations], you could sign with Sony and then suddenly be back at BMG (RCA). You have to understand the corporate structure of a major record company, and know that sometimes desperation drives the executives' decisions. The major labels are always about being a company. They might as well be selling Frisbees as music. It's hard for artists to understand and appreciate that, because in most cases, we are not educated in business, and don't know anything about accounting or production, even though we are surrounded by great people who do. You really have to stop and consider a lot to keep yourself from getting injured personally. An artist just wants to make his music, but somebody might be losing his job because he's not meeting the bottom line.

Bankrate: You had a very public lawsuit with your first manager, which must have taught you a lot about how the music business really works.

Clint Black: Yes, I went through the fire. I put all of my faith in one guy, and ultimately that faith was shattered. Like a lot of artists, I went into this business hoping that I would never have to know anything about the business. It was, "I'll do my job, you do yours, and nary shall the two meet." I thought I would be just as happy as a clam. But I ultimately learned that the happy clams are not the ones that get eaten.