Tim DuBois
in Nashville, October 17, 2019
Born	James Timothy DuBois (1948-05-04)May 4, 1948 (age 77) Southwest City, Missouri, U.S.
Alma mater	Oklahoma State University
Occupations	Songwriter record producer talent manager music executive
Years active	1977–present
Spouse	Pamela S DuBois
Children	Jamie Grace DuBois

James Timothy DuBois (born May 4, 1948) is anAmericanaccountant,songwriter, andrecording industry executive based inNashville. He has headed bothArista Records andUniversal South Records,^[1] and as asongwriter, he has written five No. 1country hits, including "Love in the First Degree" which was a world-wide hit recorded by the groupAlabama.^[2]

DuBois started playingguitar in bands as a youth. He received three academic scholarships toOklahoma State University (OSU) to studyaccounting, earned two advanced degrees, and worked as a seniorfinancial analyst for the TexasFederal Reserve Bank.^[3] He also worked forArthur Andersen.^[4] While pursuing his PhD, DuBois became interested incountry music and began writing songs. This eventually led him to move toNashville to pursuemusic. Writing successful songs led him to become arecord producer, creating over 20 No. 1 and top five singles and more than a dozengold,platinum, anddouble-platinum country albums. He founded the musical groupRestless Heart in 1984, andClive Davis hired him in 1989 to establish a Nashville office ofArista Records.^[5] He discovered and signed country artistsAlan Jackson,Brooks & Dunn,The Tractors,Brad Paisley,Blackhawk,Pam Tillis andDiamond Rio.^[6]

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

He was born inSouthwest City, Missouri. He started playing guitar inrock bands as a youth in nearbyGrove, Oklahoma.^[7] He is a citizen of theCherokee Nation.^[4] In his senior year of high school, a camp roommate wrote a song; DuBois was interested in song lyrics.^[7] He attendedOklahoma State University and studied accounting, winning three scholarships: anArthur Andersen Scholarship, anAtlantic Richfield Scholarship and anOklahoma State Regents Scholarship.^[6] He received abachelor's in accounting in 1971 and amaster's in 1972, and he became aCertified Public Accountant (CPA).

He worked for theArthur Andersen firm for about a year, then took a job inDallas as afinancial analyst for the TexasFederal Reserve Bank.^[8] During his time in Texas, he became interested incountry music and pursued songwriting in his spare time. While attending an accountingconvention in Dallas, he met up with his former professors, who convinced him to return to Oklahoma State to enter the PhD program atOSU'sSpears 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".^[9]

In 1975, he metScott Hendricks, another Oklahoma State student. Dubois and Hendricks, along with DuBois's younger brother (also a musician), headed to Nashville.^[7]

In 1979, he was given his first job as a publishing company staff songwriter byBob Montgomery for $75 a week. From 1979 to 1985, DuBois worked as both a publishing companystaff writer and as an accounting professor. Throughout that period, DuBois composed over 20 country singles. In 1980, he got a job teaching atOwen Graduate School of Management and he had three hit songs on the country charts: "Midnight Hauler" (Razzy Bailey); "Love in the First Degree" (Alabama);^[10] and "She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)" (Jerry Reed).^[11] DuBois opened the Nashville branch of Los Angeles-based artist management firm Fitzgerald-Hartley in 1986. Country artistVince Gill soon joinedRestless Heart. DuBois and Gill collaborated on some songwriting projects, including the song "When I Call Your Name".^[12]

In 1989,Clive Davis, founder ofArista 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 likeAlan Jackson,Brooks & Dunn,Pam Tillis,Diamond Rio andBrad Paisley. DuBois later joined producerTony Brown to operateUniversal South Records.^[13][14]

In 1991, DuBois marriedPamela Smith fromDallas,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.^[15] 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.^[16] After restructuring ASCAP, DuBois was asked to join London Broadcast Company in January 2012. He started ajoint venture called AMP (Artists, Managers, Partners).

DuBois serves on the boards of theCountry Music Association, theAcademy of Country Music, theAmericana Music Association, andSunTrust Bank, and as chairman of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau. He is a past board member of Leadership Music,^[17]Country Music Foundation,National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences,Nashville Songwriters Foundation, andNashville Songwriters Association International.

Tim DuBois has received recognition as "Record Executive of the Year" byPollstar^[16] and as one of the "101 Most Powerful People" in the entertainment industry byEntertainment Weekly. He was inducted intoOklahoma State University's Hall of Fame in 1996.^[4] Throughout his songwriting career, DuBois has earned five number-one singles, 24 top-ten singles, sixASCAP Awards, nineBMI Country Awards, two BMI Pop Awards and a number of other accolades.

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• 1948 births
• Living people
• American country songwriters
• American male songwriters
• Record producers from Missouri
• Cherokee Nation musicians

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