1989
JOHN MASON
John Mason was always known by everyone as one of the most powerful entertainment attorneys in the business. He was Jimmy Bowen’s attorney when I first came to MCA Nashville in 1984. When Jimmy left to go to Capitol Nashville, I was encouraged by Ken Stilts, who managed The Judds, to hire Mason to do my new MCA contract. That was one of the best decisions that I ever made during my career as a record executive. Mason locked me into a very lucrative contract as president of MCA Nashville in 1993, and I remained in that position until I left to start the joint venture with Universal South, with my new partner, Tim Dubois, in 2002. We remain friends to this day.
“I was introduced to Tony by Ken Stilts, who got Tony to open up on how much he was being paid as a high-level executive of a major record company and a superstar producer. When Tony answered, Ken laughed out loud and said, ‘You need to hire John Mason.’ That was about thirty years ago. We did pretty well!”
John Mason
