F. Reid Shippen: Trying to Get Fired & Fun Dates

AH: In one of our first conversations many years ago, you told me you had a business degree.

I have a degree in Recording Arts & Sciences and Business Administration from Middle Tennessee State University. I started school as an Electrical Engineering major, then an Accounting major, and realized early on I'd rather be interested and poor than secure and bored.

AH: What was it that got you into music from this side of the glass?

I'd always done music as a kid, like singing at church and being in bands, but I never really considered it as a career. It seemed super interesting, and I was going to go for it, so I quit school and moved down here.

AH: Where were you living before Nashville?

I grew up in Fair Haven, New Jersey, south of New York City.

AH: Had you made records for your bands in studios?

Nope. High school was the only time I was in bands. I'd done musical theater and church singing performances – but not recording.

AH: Were there certain albums listened to and identified as recordings that were made in a studio?

I really got addicted to, and started to pay attention to, albums like Heartbeat City by The Cars – I knew every note of that – and [AC/DC's] Back in Black. Also tons of ‘80s pop, like all the Peter Wolf pop music, the David Foster productions for Earth, Wind & Fire, all the albums by Chicago. As I look back now, I see that I gravitated towards great songs and really great production, but I didn't realize that at the time.

AH: That wasn't inspiring you to be a music producer?

My parents used to say, "Music is an avocation, not a vocation!" Until the Grammys started showing up, I guess.

AH: How many Grammys do you have now?

I've mixed ten Grammy Award winning records. A Grammy and four dollars gets you a latte at Starbucks. Don't tell The Recording Academy I said that.

AH: When you won your first Grammy, what did your parents actually say?

I remember the conversation with my dad was like, "Do a lot of people get those?" I said, "No, not a lot." He's like, "That's a pretty big deal isn't it?" I said, "Yeah, I suppose it is." I think that's when it clicked for him that this wasn't just fooling around with music, but an actual job.

AH: Are you picking and choosing the artists you work with?

I guess everybody does, to a certain extent. In the music business, as you know, it's more like they pick you. I've had a really weird career arc where it's been a lot of genre-hopping. I grew up on New York City music. I saw the Beastie Boys when they were a punk band. There were all kinds of great music, hip-hop, and all of that culture. When I moved down to Nashville, it was country or Christian. I was like, "Okay, wow." I didn't even know what Christian music was, because we didn't really have it growing up. And country music? Country music to me was Johnny Cash and John Denver. I jumped into the Christian music scene because it included rock music, pop, hip-hop, and all these different genres.

AH: It's interesting that people even consider Christian music a genre.

It's very strange. But it let me work on diverse genres of music.

AH: Why did you choose Nashville over New York? New York has a vibrant music scene.

Not so much a vibrant studio scene, does it? I came down here and had to go to school and work full-time to put myself through. MTSU was the only school I could afford. I had the single-mindedness of, "Okay, I'm going to put my head down and work my ass off." I looked up, it was six years later, and I was living in Nashville. I did school, and then internships. I almost didn't graduate because I was working in studios. It's like, "Okay, I can work on this record – or I can sit in class and do a synopsis of...