Music City Babylon Inside The World Of Country Music By Scott Faragher Birch Lane Press Book 1992 331 Pages ISBN:  1-55972-134-0

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Scott Faragher is a talent agent who has represented country artists like Waylon Jennings, Barbara and Louise Mandrell, The Statler Brothers, Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Billy Ray Cyrus, Ray Price, and dozens more. For the past twenty years he has booked his clients into club dates, tours, exhibitions, fairs, and concerts around the country. He has juggled talent and temperament, kept his clients happy and loyal and persuaded his customers to pay top dollar, while fending off sharklike competition. Now he takes you deep inside the country music business, whose record sales alone exceed $700 million. You will learn: How agents and managers are on the take. What happened at Jerry Lee Lewis's post-performance birthday party in Memphis. Who was the power behind Mickey Gilley, Houston's real Urban Cowboy. Why Lou Rawls turned down more $20,000 dates than he accepted. Why Loretta Lynn fired her agent of fourteen years the week before Christmas and gave him only two weeks' pay. Why Billy Ray Cyrus went from $2,500 to $150,000 a night as the result of one hit song, "Achy Breaky Heart." What life is really like inside the ghetto world of reggae. Why James Brown is known as the biggest egomaniac on Earth. And much more But Music City Babylon isn't only about big names and bigger egos. Faragher also reveals what actually happens to the wide-eyed innocent who brings a song, a guitar, and a dream to Nashville. Stardom, fame, and wealth are temptingly offered-for a price. Newcomers often learn the hard way that the "demo" record, the key to success, is a proposition that breaks hearts as well as pocketbooks. Music City Babylon is a revelation of arrogance, greed, and excess at all levels, from groupie to megastar. Scott Faragher was about to enter law school when he was offered a job with a talent agency in Nashville in 1973. He never looked back. Eventually he went on to form his own agency representing a broad spectrum of country talent.