James Timothy DuBois (born May 4, 1948) is an American accountant, songwriter, and recording industry executive based in Nashville. He has headed both Arista Records and Universal South Records, and as a songwriter, he has written five No.1 country hits, including "Love in the First Degree" which was a world-wide hit recorded by the group Alabama.

DuBois started playing guitar in bands as a youth. He received three academic scholarships to Oklahoma State University (OSU) to study accounting, earned two advanced degrees, and worked as a senior financial analyst for the Texas Federal Reserve Bank. He also worked for Arthur Andersen. While pursuing his PhD, DuBois became interested in country music and began writing songs. This eventually led him to move to Nashville to pursue music. Writing successful songs led him to become a record producer, creating over 20 No. 1 and top five singles and more than a dozen gold, platinum, and double-platinum country albums. He founded the musical group Restless Heart in 1984, and Clive Davis hired him in 1989 to establish a Nashville office of Arista Records. He discovered and signed country artists Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, The Tractors, Brad Paisley, Blackhawk, Pam Tillis and Diamond Rio.

DuBois was known as the "most powerful person in the music industry" by Business Nashville in 1996, "Record Executive of the Year" in 1992 by Pollstar, and was included in Entertainment Weekly list of the "101 Most Powerful People in Entertainment" in 1994 and 1995. He is a member of Oklahoma State University's Hall of Fame (1996) and was the school's Accounting Alumnus of the year (1992).

Early career in accounting

He was born in Southwest City, Missouri. He started playing guitar in rock bands as a youth in nearby Grove, Oklahoma. He is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. In his senior year of high school, a camp roommate wrote a song; DuBois was interested in song lyrics. He attended Oklahoma State University and studied accounting, winning three scholarships: an Arthur Andersen Scholarship, an Atlantic Richfield Scholarship and an Oklahoma State Regents Scholarship. He received a bachelor's in accounting in 1971 and a master's in 1972, and he became a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

He worked for the Arthur Andersen firm for about a year, then took a job in Dallas as a financial analyst for the Texas Federal Reserve Bank. During his time in Texas, he became interested in country music and pursued songwriting in his spare time. While attending an accounting convention in Dallas, he met up with his former professors, who convinced him to return to Oklahoma State to enter the PhD program at OSU's Spears School of Business. While in the PhD program, he said, "I'm a true left-brain, right-brain conflict, but it has served me very well".

Reorienting career to music

In 1975, he met Scott Hendricks, another Oklahoma State student. Dubois and Hendricks, along with DuBois's younger brother (also a musician), headed to Nashville.

In 1979, he was given his first job as a publishing company staff songwriter by Bob Montgomery for $75 a week. From 1979 to 1985, DuBois worked as both a publishing company staff writer and as an accounting professor. Throughout that period, DuBois composed over 20 country singles. In 1980, he got a job teaching at Owen Graduate School of Management and he had three hit songs on the country charts: "Midnight Hauler" (Razzy Bailey); "Love in the First Degree" (Alabama); and "She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)" (Jerry Reed). DuBois opened the Nashville branch of Los Angeles-based artist management firm Fitzgerald-Hartley in 1986. Country artist Vince Gill became a Fitzgerald-Hartley client. DuBois and Gill collaborated on some songwriting projects, including the song "When I Call Your Name".

In 1989, Clive Davis, founder of Arista Records, appointed DuBois to open the Nashville division of the label. Arista Nashville sold 80 million albums in its first eleven years of business, breaking acts like Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Pam Tillis, Diamond Rio and Brad Paisley. DuBois later joined producer Tony Brown to operate Universal South Records.

In 1991, DuBois married Pamela Smith from Dallas, Texas, a friend he had known for fifteen years. Their daughter, Jamie Grace DuBois, was born in 1994.

In 2007, DuBois returned to the faculty of Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management, where he is developing courses related to the music business. He has also joined forces with Marc Dottore to form Dottore-DuBois Artist Management. DuBois resides in Nashville, Tennessee. ASCAP announced in February 2010 that they would relocate their Nashville location to a DuBois-led regional office. DuBois holds the positions of Vice President and Managing Executive. After restructuring ASCAP, DuBois was asked to join London Broadcast Company in January 2012. He started a joint venture called AMP (Artists, Managers, Partners).

Organizations

DuBois serves on the boards of the Country Music Association, the Academy of Country Music, the Americana Music Association, and SunTrust Bank, and as chairman of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau. He is a past board member of Leadership Music, Country Music Foundation, National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Nashville Songwriters Foundation, and Nashville Songwriters Association International.

Awards and recognition

Tim DuBois has received recognition as "Record Executive of the Year" by Pollstar and as one of the "101 Most Powerful People" in the entertainment industry by Entertainment Weekly. He was inducted into Oklahoma State University's Hall of Fame in 1996. Throughout his songwriting career, DuBois has earned five number-one singles, 24 top-ten singles, six ASCAP Awards, nine BMI Country Awards, two BMI Pop Awards and a number of other accolades.

Songwriting awards

Discography

Record production credits

Song production credits

References