Tandy Rice, a prominent businessman known for his work on and off Music Row passed away Monday from respiratory failure at Centennial Hospital. He was 76.
Born Aug. 16, 1938 in Franklin, Tennessee, Tandy Clinton Rice Jr. graduated from the Citadel with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961 and went on to serve as an information officer in the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command.
Tandy Rice began his career as a publicist, representing Waylon Jennings, Chet Atkins, Kitty Wells and Hank Williams Jr., among others. He hit his stride as a salesman for Show Biz, Inc., which distributed syndicated country television shows to stations throughout the nation. After three years there, he bought the company’s booking agency, Top Billing, Inc. He developed Top Billing into a Nashville powerhouse. At its peak, the firm booked and/or managed 18 major artists. There, Tandy Rice famously managed Mississippi fertilizer salesman Jerry Clower, who became a recording artist, a Grand Ole Opry member, a top convention speaker, a commercial pitchman, an author, a radio host and a TV star. Similarly, he transformed Billy Carter into a national media celebrity who out-earned his brother, President Jimmy Carter.
The statesman-like Music City personality managed and/or booked such country-music greats as Porter Wagoner, Dolly Parton, Jim Ed Brown, The Kendalls, Tom T. Hall, Helen Cornelius, Jeannie C. Riley, and more.
In 2014, he was honored as the very first inductee into the Nashville Association of Talent Directors Hall of Fame.
Born Aug. 16, 1938 in Franklin, Tennessee, Tandy Clinton Rice Jr. graduated from the Citadel with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961 and went on to serve as an information officer in the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command.
Tandy Rice began his career as a publicist, representing Waylon Jennings, Chet Atkins, Kitty Wells and Hank Williams Jr., among others. He hit his stride as a salesman for Show Biz, Inc., which distributed syndicated country television shows to stations throughout the nation. After three years there, he bought the company’s booking agency, Top Billing, Inc. He developed Top Billing into a Nashville powerhouse. At its peak, the firm booked and/or managed 18 major artists. There, Tandy Rice famously managed Mississippi fertilizer salesman Jerry Clower, who became a recording artist, a Grand Ole Opry member, a top convention speaker, a commercial pitchman, an author, a radio host and a TV star. Similarly, he transformed Billy Carter into a national media celebrity who out-earned his brother, President Jimmy Carter.
The statesman-like Music City personality managed and/or booked such country-music greats as Porter Wagoner, Dolly Parton, Jim Ed Brown, The Kendalls, Tom T. Hall, Helen Cornelius, Jeannie C. Riley, and more.
In 2014, he was honored as the very first inductee into the Nashville Association of Talent Directors Hall of Fame.
Tandy Rice, a prominent businessman known for his work on and off Music Row passed away Monday from respiratory failure at Centennial Hospital. He was 76.
Born Aug. 16, 1938 in Franklin, Tennessee, Tandy Clinton Rice Jr. graduated from the Citadel with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961 and went on to serve as an information officer in the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command.
Tandy Rice began his career as a publicist, representing Waylon Jennings, Chet Atkins, Kitty Wells and Hank Williams Jr., among others. He hit his stride as a salesman for Show Biz, Inc., which distributed syndicated country television shows to stations throughout the nation. After three years there, he bought the company’s booking agency, Top Billing, Inc. He developed Top Billing into a Nashville powerhouse. At its peak, the firm booked and/or managed 18 major artists. There, Tandy Rice famously managed Mississippi fertilizer salesman Jerry Clower, who became a recording artist, a Grand Ole Opry member, a top convention speaker, a commercial pitchman, an author, a radio host and a TV star. Similarly, he transformed Billy Carter into a national media celebrity who out-earned his brother, President Jimmy Carter.
The statesman-like Music City personality managed and/or booked such country-music greats as Porter Wagoner, Dolly Parton, Jim Ed Brown, The Kendalls, Tom T. Hall, Helen Cornelius, Jeannie C. Riley, and more.
In 2014, he was honored as the very first inductee into the Nashville Association of Talent Directors Hall of Fame.
Born Aug. 16, 1938 in Franklin, Tennessee, Tandy Clinton Rice Jr. graduated from the Citadel with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961 and went on to serve as an information officer in the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command.
Tandy Rice began his career as a publicist, representing Waylon Jennings, Chet Atkins, Kitty Wells and Hank Williams Jr., among others. He hit his stride as a salesman for Show Biz, Inc., which distributed syndicated country television shows to stations throughout the nation. After three years there, he bought the company’s booking agency, Top Billing, Inc. He developed Top Billing into a Nashville powerhouse. At its peak, the firm booked and/or managed 18 major artists. There, Tandy Rice famously managed Mississippi fertilizer salesman Jerry Clower, who became a recording artist, a Grand Ole Opry member, a top convention speaker, a commercial pitchman, an author, a radio host and a TV star. Similarly, he transformed Billy Carter into a national media celebrity who out-earned his brother, President Jimmy Carter.
The statesman-like Music City personality managed and/or booked such country-music greats as Porter Wagoner, Dolly Parton, Jim Ed Brown, The Kendalls, Tom T. Hall, Helen Cornelius, Jeannie C. Riley, and more.
In 2014, he was honored as the very first inductee into the Nashville Association of Talent Directors Hall of Fame.
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