Music manager Scott Frazier chatted with #Powerjournalist Markos Papadatos about his career in the entertainment business, which included discovering Bailey Zimmerman.
Bailey Zimmerman hits one billion streams, and he landed an opening slot on Morgan Wallen’s Stadium Tour.
Frazier of 10th St. Management has been a music industry professional for 23 years and counting. If his career was a person, they’d be old enough to get into a rock club and buy you a beer, but they shouldn’t expect Frazier to get them past the velvet rope.
His music company manages lots of rock bands like Five Finger Death Punch, Blondie, Motley Crue, and Papa Roach.
He has spent his entire career based in Louisville, Kentucky, preferring to raise his family in his hometown instead of transplanting to Nashville, New York or L.A.
Frazier’s career highlight reel boasts triumphs like discovering active-rock mainstay Saving Abel and bringing the band from local club acts to multi-platinum arena rock status, and doing the same for Grammy-nominated, world-beating Danish metal troupe Volbeat.
Frazier joined management company 10th Street Entertainment 4 years ago and has been continuing to crush it. His latest signing is rising country heat seeker Bailey Zimmerman, a 22-year-old singer from Southern Illinois, whom he discovered on TikTok.
Frazier reached out to longstanding friend and colleague, Chief Zaruk and ultimately did a co-management and strategic partnership with Zaruk and Simon Tikhman of The Core Entertainment with 10th Street Entertainment.
From there, he signed Zimmerman to Warner Music Nashville and Elektra Records. Bailey’s first single, “Fall In Love” went straight to No. 1 at country radio and is certified Gold in the United States and Canada. Bailey’s debut EP Leave The Light On was the biggest streaming country debut of all time.
He opened up about discovering Bailey Zimmerman. “It was pretty cool considering i found him while scrolling TikTok during the pandemic. It happened so organically. I heard a 20 sec clip of him singing and trusted my instincts. I immediately hit him on IG and thankfully he responded back,” he said.
Regarding his future plans, he said, “In a general sense, I plan to expand my repertoire into the Country space more and more. I plan on running the country division of 10th Street but will still remain rooted in the rock space simultaneously. I hope to sign more artists.”
On being an artist manager in the digital age, Frazier said, “You know, it’s not so different. You just have to be quicker and have your ear to the ground so to speak. I think instincts and trusting your ear is important. Everyone is looking for talent in these places and whereas there are a LOT of artists out there, this is where you need to be discerning and quick to the draw. Wait long, wait wrong.”
For Frazier, managing Volbeat all of the years was a “lot of fun.” “It was cool to work with a band from overseas who was at the time, a pretty big band abroad but not in the states. My partner and I took that band from obscurity in the states, playing small clubs and then to headlining arenas within three short years,” he said.
Regarding his use of technology in his daily routine, he said, “I always find time in the evening to scroll through platforms. I like to see what the young kids are digging and then dive in.”
On his daily motivations, he said, “So my motivation is simple. First and foremost, and I realize this isn’t the most popular answer, but I am a man of faith. I wake up thankful each day that I have breath in my lungs and the opportunity to do something positive.”
“God has blessed me so much and so I want to do what I can do show him how thankful and grateful I am. I want to use my talents and resources to be a good steward to those gifts so graciously given,” he added.
He continued, “My children motivate me….they are grown now but I still want to model to them what hard work looks like and be the eternal encouragement to them. Lastly…being a Marine….well that in itself is motivation at highest level. I wake up with a lion mentality to get out there and get it.”
On his definition of success, he said, “Success is such a broad word. I mean success can be different depending on what you view as success. Is it financial? Is it stature? Not really sure but I can share what I was told by my dad growing up that always stuck… ‘Success only comes before work in the dictionary’.”
Regarding his career-defining moments, he shared, “When I got my first record deal in the business was definitely a “defining” moment. It came at a time that I was questioning myself in the early days on whether I was pursuing a ‘pipe dream’.”
“The second was getting a Grammy nod for Volbeat and then recently with crossing into another genre with Bailey Zimmerman and him breaking records,” he exclaimed.
