My Music Row Story: Why&How’s Halie Hampton Mosley

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Halie Hampton Mosley

The “My Music Row Story” weekly column features notable members of the Nashville music industry selected by the MusicRow editorial team. These individuals serve in key roles that help advance and promote the success of our industry. This column spotlights the invaluable people that keep the wheels rolling and the music playing.

Halie Hampton Mosley joined Why&How in October 2021 as Vice President of Roster Operations, and has helped define and oversee the goals and initiatives of the Why&How roster and staff. Since joining, Hampton Mosley has been instrumental in streamlining and expanding roster operations, and establishing internal practices such as Why&How’s parental leave policies. She also remains closely involved in Why&How artist strategy for such acts as Chase Rice, Danielle Bradbery, Breland and Kelleigh Bannen, among others.

Prior to joining Why&How, Hampton Mosley spent seven years in Artist Management at Maverick Nashville led by long-time Manager Clarence Spalding. She most recently served as the Day-to-Day Artist Manager for Diamond-selling duo Florida Georgia Line at Hit Farm Management in partnership with Full Stop Management led by Irving and Jeffrey Azoff.

Hampton Mosley will be honored as part of the current class of MusicRow’s Rising Women on the Row on March 19. For more details about the class and the event, click here.

MusicRow: Where did you grow up?

I grew up in and around Nashville. All my family is originally from Ashland City, and my grandparents are still there. My mom and dad met there and we moved to Murfreesboro when I was in third or fourth grade, so I did middle school, high school and college in Murfreesboro. I studied business at MTSU.

Photo: Courtesy of Hampton Mosley

What were your dreams then?

At one point I thought I might be an attorney. I didn’t really know. I did this thing called DECA in high school where we would formulate business plans and compete with them. I actually ended up getting a marketing scholarship to MTSU because of that program. I thought I could explore a million things with a business degree, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do.

How did you find out about the music business?

I was getting to the point where I was going to have to start interning for my business credits and a family friend told me about this internship in Nashville. It was at Taillight TV.

I came in, met with their team and ended up doing a production assistant type of internship. One of the first videos I ever remember being on set for was Eric Church‘s “Smoke A Little Smoke.” It was probably that same day that I realized this is a really cool business, but I don’t want anything to do with production. [Laughs]

I met a really great group of people at Taillight. At the end of that semester, the producers put together an intern barbecue. At the time, Lesly Tyson—now Lesly Simon—was married to one of the producers and they held the barbecue at their home. So I met Lesly and I ended up spending an hour in their kitchen asking questions about what she did. I just loved her—I thought she was so smart. She was like, “Why don’t you come intern for me?” So my senior year I went to intern at Sony Music Nashville.

Photo: Courtesy of Hampton Mosley

What was that like?

At the time, she had already stepped into the VP role in radio promotion at Arista, so I was assisting all of the imprints. I was packing CDs, sending out promo items and helping with listener and winner stuff for things that they were doing.

When I graduated, they didn’t have any jobs open. I had met people through various events that they would let interns come to, so I had met Pete O’Heeron and he had Cold River Records at the time with Katie Armiger. He knew that all my experience in internships had been in promo, and so he was like, “Why don’t you come try to be a regional?” So I did that.

I was only there for probably a year, but what I did get to do was take a territory and go meet radio and learn what it meant to work a record.

What was next?

It was probably just shy of a year that Sony ended up creating a job for secondary radio promo, so I ended up coming back for that job. I was working smaller markets on behalf of all three of the imprints. I did that for maybe six months before Lesly brought me in and gave me the southeast for Arista.

We had some really great success and fun together. She taught me so much. Carrie Underwood‘s “Good Girl” was my first No. 1, and Brad Paisley‘s “Southern Comfort Zone” was my second. Those were my first two major tours that I was a part of. We went on to do a couple No. 1s with Carrie, which was really sweet.

Photo: Courtesy of Hampton Mosley

How did you move out of radio and into management?

Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn were both still on Arista and working to release music individually, but still both managed by Clarence Spalding. I was on the road with Kix, and I remember him asking me if this was what I wanted to do. I told him I really loved what I was doing and was learning so much, but I knew that I didn’t want to be on the road that heavily for my entire career. He was like, “Have you ever thought about management? Why don’t you go meet with my manager?”

I went to have breakfast with Clarence. I was so nervous. [Laughs] After our breakfast, I just stayed in touch with him and a couple months later, his assistant Marne McLyman was moving into more of a day-to-day role. So Clarence called me and said, “I have an assistant job open.” I took it and that would kick off seven years with Clarence.

I remember pretty early on thinking that it was something that I could do longer term, because for the first time I felt like I was getting to see from the second an artist is in a writer room to the moment that they’re singing the song in the stadium.

I sat at a desk outside Clarence’s office and that is how I learned 70% of what it even meant to be a manager. I would listen to the way he talked to his clients, the way he navigated situations when their careers were in certain seasons or the way he interacted with our partners. I just had so much to learn. I would do the same thing with our internal marketing department which was run by Amanda Cates at the time.

Photo: Courtesy of Hampton Mosley

How did you transition into more?

Randy Goodman came in and began to oversee Rascal Flatts. The good thing about sitting in that seat was that if people needed an extra set of hands, that was me. As Randy got busier, I just started filling in for things. I just slowly started being present and then that would move into being on the road for show coverage. When I started working with Flatts, then I just started looking for holes internally to be able to do that for the whole roster. I would ask Chris Parr if there was an opportunity where Jason Aldean needs coverage or Jason Houser with Darius Rucker. I just started being the person who could be there. Ultimately what that did for me was let me learn how different the inner workings of the different artist camps operated.

Eventually I started handling my first client on my own within Maverick, which was Rachel Wammack. She and I worked together for a couple of years through the development stage.

How did you start working with Florida Georgia Line?

Lou Taylor was also Reba McEntire‘s business manager, so I had gotten to know her in my EA role with Clarence. I had a sit down with her and she asked me what my goals and dreams were. Maybe a couple months after that conversation, she came to me and she said, “I want to chat with you about Florida Georgia Line. There may be an opportunity for someone to be the lead in Nashville as a part of a new Management structure. Would you be open to that?” I think I almost passed out. I thought, “There’s no way I get this job.”

Photo: Courtesy of Hampton Mosley

I met with her a couple times and eventually ended up meeting with the guys. They were entering into a partnership with Irving Azoff out of LA, so they had formed their own management entity which I would end up working under in partnership with Full Stop. They needed someone here just to be boots on the ground. They spent a lot of time in LA at that time because we had a lot of promo periods, but they were both still living here and that wasn’t going to change, so it was important to them to have somebody here. That person became me, and it was pretty wild. I give Lou a lot of credit because again, it was another female like Lesly who looked at me and said, “You may not be a hundred percent ready, but I think you are.”

Tell me about your years with FGL.

They were challenging for me, in a good way, because it was the first time I was jumping in with an act at the height of their fame. Obviously I wasn’t on my own—having people like Irving and Jeffrey Azoff forced me to grow up and do a lot of faking it until I made it. I was thrust into new territory because the guys were just involved in so much.

It was a whirlwind. I remember not really having much time to get my feet underneath me. What was really great though was that even from here, I became integrated into the Full Stop system. I was all of a sudden sitting in meetings where Harry Styles was on screen. Learning through the pop processes and how they handled music rollouts and programming that they were doing with partners and stuff like that was really helpful for me.

Photo: Courtesy of Hampton Mosley

What was next?

After a couple years with the guys, they were entering into spaces creatively where they were considering taking time to pursue solo endeavors. They had 10 years of an amazing run. I had had a couple conversations with them each individually, so I started thinking about what would be next for me.

We were shooting the “Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God. Amen.” video out at Chase Rice‘s farm, and that was the first time I had formally met Chase, as well as his manager Bruce Kalmick. I spent some time talking to Bruce and he asked me what my next steps were. I wasn’t really sure but one thing that I did know at that time was that I really didn’t want to continue on in a day-to-day capacity. I wanted to get away from the monotony. I loved being able to work on multiple things at one time, because I think it made me better having exposure. I wasn’t so siloed in one project or one process. I said, “I’m looking for a role where I can step in and help on multiple things. I don’t exactly know what that looks like yet or if that job even exists.” He said, “I started this new company and I need to round out my exec team. We’ll create a role and you can come in and help lead our team and multiple accounts.” So that’s what happened.

Now you’re Chief Operating Officer at Why&How. What’s your favorite part about your job?

Over the last couple years, I have watched some of our staff grow and evolve into new roles. We’ve worked really hard to identify their individual strengths and make changes accordingly. The same thing for our clients—I felt really lucky that I came in at a time where Chase was going through a really pivotal moment in his career. Watching him evolve personally and professionally, to go on and have this first ever critically acclaimed album… those are my favorite things. Getting to watch our clients grow, change and evolve musically and personally—and the same with our staff.

Photo: Courtesy of Hampton Mosley

Who would you say are your mentors?

Definitely Lesly. I call a couple times a year just to walk through my decisions. Even when I was going through my infertility, I called her. She’s probably the only person that I could say has mentored me in life and work. In terms of management, Clarence obviously is the top—I just don’t think it gets any better. Randy Goodman is also a mentor.

You will be honored at our Rising Women on the Row event next month. What would you tell women who are looking at you and want to get where you are one day?

Don’t be afraid to be the youngest or the least experienced person in the room. As my career has evolved, I look back and can pinpoint so many opportunities being presented to me because I wasn’t afraid to raise my hand, even if I may not have been ready. Raise your hand whenever and wherever you can to help out and to be present and to be someone that people can depend on. Oftentimes inexperience and humility with a strong desire to learn can beat out experience and entitlement.

LB Cantrell
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