My Music Row Story: CAA’s Hunter Williams

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Hunter Williams

Hunter Williams is a Music Agent at Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Based in the Nashville office, Williams works with a wide variety of touring artists across multiple genres of music, including Jelly Roll, Pretty Lights, Mark Ronson, GRiZ, HUGEL, Icona Pop, Fetty Wap, Three 6 Mafia and Moon Taxi, among others.

Since joining CAA in 2012 from The Progressive Global Agency, Williams has helped guide the growth and development of the agency’s country and electronic music departments.

MusicRow: Where did you grow up?

I was born in Macon, Georgia, and I lived there till I was about six. Then I grew up in Darien, Connecticut, which is about an hour outside of New York City.

Were you into music or instruments or as a child?

I played the cello, the baritone horn, drums, and the piano early on and sang in the church choir until I was about 14 years old. Music was definitely a pretty big influence in part of my life when I was a kid.

Very musical! Did you know you wanted to go into the music business or even be a musician growing up?

I wanted to play music. As a youngster, you have these dreams. I played so many different instruments and honestly, I wasn’t that great at any of them [laughs].

I wanted to be on stage. Whether that was a DJ or producer or whatever, but that was my dream as a kid. Then I quickly figured out that’s a lot harder than it seemed.

Photo: Courtesy of Williams

Tell me about college.

I went to University of Tennessee for two years and studied business management. Then I moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, and attended University of North Carolina, Wilmington. That’s where I started getting into the business side of music.

I started going to clubs and listening to all the DJs. I also played percussion in a band called Waylandsphere. I helped book gigs for them and assisted with the logistics. We played around North and South Carolina, so I was getting my feet wet.

Did you have any other internships or music jobs in college?

I interned for my dad at The Progressive Global Agency when I was 16 or so, I interned for him for a full summer during R.E.M,’s “Monster Tour which was pretty exciting.  I answered phones, highlighted finals in Pollstar, all the odds and ends of things.

What was your first job out of college?

I started working at full-time at Progressive Global Agency after graduation. We represented R.E.M, Widespread Panic and The Wailers. There were only five agents, so I was able to really learn a lot and get a lot of hands-on training.  My dad was there everyday and my mom did the accounting, so it was fun being in the family business.

How long were you there for?

12 years. As time went on, the booking and touring world got more competitive. I had some acts such as Pretty Lights, and things were really starting to pick up. It felt like the time for me to make a move to a larger agency. My dad was super supportive.

So that’s how you ended up at CAA?

Yes, I went straight to CAA. It’ll be 14 years in November.

Wow! So tell me about your first few months at CAA.

The first few months were awesome. already had some existing friends here, Bobby Cory and Jeff Krones. The first couple months, it was definitely a transition, but it was also the bright lights and all the shiny things I didn’t get at a small agency.

Who were some of your first clients at CAA?

When I came over to CAA, I brought GRiZ, Pretty Lights, Fort Knox Five, Tipper, DJ Logic, 3LAU and a few others. I was predominantly focused on electronic music at the time.

One of the reasons I really wanted to come over to CAA is because you can do all sorts of genres here. By the time I came over here, I knew I wanted to do more than just dance music. I always loved hip hop, country and rock. Here you have an opportunity to branch out.

Photo: Courtesy of Williams

Who were some of your first clients outside the dance genre?

While at PGA, I was working on Widespread Panic. I was their agent for about 8 years. I did a lot in the jamband space with acts like The New Mastersounds, John Popper Project and Stockholm Syndrome.

Then at CAA, I signed Jelly Roll back in 2019. I also work with Three 6 Mafia, STS9, Fetty Wap and Mark Ronson now who sit outside of the dance world.

How has it been seeing Jelly Roll’s rise since signing him?

It’s been a great ride. I signed Jelly July of 2019 at The Signal in Chattanooga. I just saw a business that could really be built with him. He had done a really good job building his own independent business. I could see at least amphitheaters in his future. He also had this Phish or Grateful Dead type cult following. That’s what was really attractive to me. I saw something there that I could build from a touring standpoint.

He started building his team around him; John Meneilly and his management team, who have been a huge, great partners for Jelly. Also his label at BMG. All these pieces started coming together that we didn’t have when I started with him.

In the beginning, in my mind, I see a guy, he’s got a developing touring business, a lovely human being, and he’s built something that I think I can take to this next level. All of a sudden, all these things started happening that I never even factored in. No.1s, country hits, rock hits, an incredible label and manager, and then everything started taking off from there. It’s been a really fun ride with the whole team.

How does the festival space play into your job?

I interact with all of the festivals for my clients. I booked all of the festivals while I was at Progressive, so by the time I got to CAA, I was good friends with almost all of the festival buyers.

For GRiZ, we’ve even built out his own festival that’s 25,000 tickets, taking place outside Charlottesville, called Seven Stars.

Do you book the whole lineup for Seven Stars?

We do. From the start, the hardest part was actually finding the right site and finding the right time of year, since there’s all these other artist curated festivals in that genre. We wanted a site that really connected with GRiZ, where he could see the vision and he feels like he can give the fans the experience that he envisioned. He had a very distinct idea of what he wanted to deliver.

Now when it comes down to the festival, we do literally everything, we have a huge team around this. The whole team in general is involved in basically every piece of the festival to a degree and nothing that happens without them.

Over the last 14 years with your time at CAA, how have you seen yourself and the Nashville office grow overall?

We’ve had smart growth, but also we’ve grown businesses outside of just our touring business. We have TV, sports, digital businesses in Nashville. When I first came over, we had a couple brand people here and we had touring. Sports came in a couple years later. Where it is now is a completely different office in a good way.

There’s so many different areas of the entertainment business that are based in Nashville, and there’s so many great folks that have moved here internally to work in Nashville and in this office. So it’s been really cool to watch it grow and be a part of it.

Photo: Courtesy of Williams

What’s been your favorite moment from your time at CAA so far?

We have parties around CMA that have always been fun. They started off as a barbecue, and now we’ve built out these crazy cool parties. We did one on the rooftop this year with Stella Lefty, Tyler Hubbard, and a bunch of other acts. It’s been fun building out events together. That’s when we all shine is when we’re all together, and we’re all having fun too.

It’s also fun to go to a festival with all your coworkers and have 30 of us running around together.

Who have some of your mentors been over your career?

My dad has always been my biggest mentor. He was an agent, so I grew up learning from him and seeing the business through his perspective. One of the great things about CAA is that mentorship is everywhere, across every facet of the company. Whether it’s Rob Light, Darryl Eaton, Richard Lovett or people outside of touring, there are so many people here to learn from. The doors are always open, and you’re constantly surrounded by people who challenge you to think differently and get better.

That was a big part of why I wanted to make the move to CAA, to put myself in an environment where I could continue learning and be mentored in new ways.

What’s one of the best pieces of advice you’ve ever gotten?

Stay levelheaded through the highs and the lows. Be humble when things are going well and resilient when they’re not. This business can change quickly, one day can feel like the best day in the world, and the next you’re dealing with canceled shows or unexpected challenges. You have to keep perspective, take care of your mental health and not let any single moment define you.

What’s a moment that your younger self would be most proud of?

Running around Stagecoach with Jelly Roll headlining is definitely one of those moments. Another would be Art Basel, having 10 clients performing in a single night and running from venue to venue at all hours. Those are the nights where you look around and realize, this is exactly what I dreamed of doing.

Madison Hahnen
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