Meet Tommy Massad

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tommy Massad and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tommy, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
It’s a good question–I’d say that throughout my entire career as a creative person, I’ve always been able to have confidence that my work is a fundamentally positive thing in my community. It does not belittle or demean anyone else, it doesn’t prey upon peoples’ fears or prejudices, it doesn’t exploit the labor of others–rather, what I do generally empowers people, amplifies their joyous moments, and assists in helping folks make deeper connections with loved ones. I’ve been thinking about this dynamic a lot recently, reflecting on how beneficial it must be over the course of a lifetime to have a basic belief in the goodness of one’s career. As a songwriter and a radio professional, I’ve got that, and it feels good.

In my radio work touring with Kenny Chesney for SiriusXM, I interview fans in the tailgates every day. They’re elated already, partying in the sunshine with their friends and meeting new people who’ve set up tailgates around them in the parking lot. It’s a really sweet and loving community, and my job is to turn on the microphone, turn it to the fans, and ask them about who they’re with, why they’re so happy, and how they expect to feel when they walk into that stadium and experience the show. People open their hearts–they tell stories about their friends, their relationship to the music, about loved ones no longer with us. There’s euphoria, cathartic tears, and a whole lot of life, and it’s my job to draw out that sincere humanity, package it for radio, and broadcast it all over North America. I love it.

My artistic/creative career has been serious, professional, and profitable. Simultaneously, I’ve had a lot of fun, built a lot of wonderful friendships, and been able to hold my head up high knowing that my work is essentially kind and worthwhile.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ll speak more to my radio career, which has been a dream come true from day one.

I was an intern at SiriusXM’s flagship contemporary country channel The Highway back in 2016, the summer before my senior year at Georgetown University. It was a grind, for sure–during the week, I worked with Storme Warren on the morning show from 6am to noon, and then worked at a restaurant washing dishes from 3pm to 11pm to pay for food and the room I was renting. Come fall of my senior year, I did a second SiriusXM internship, this time at the Washington D.C. studios.

I had applied for the producer job on the morning show (The Storme Warren Show) that I’d been working on as an intern, but when graduation came around, SiriusXM still hadn’t made a hiring decision. So–I took another job, this one as an assistant at the talent agency CAA. During my time at CAA, my knowledge and understanding of the music business grew extremely quickly, and I was able to build a network of both deeply-established music professionals and newcomers like myself who, since then, have gone on to become established and influential in their own right within virtually every sector of the music business in Nashville.

Ultimately, I was in fact hired as Storme’s producer, and from there I spent a little over three years working extremely hard and having a ton of fun. I got to meet, work with, and befriend so many of my heroes–writers, artists, radio reps, managers, label executives whose Wikipedia pages I’d been studiously combing through just a couple years before. It was a dream, all while building lifelong friendships with my colleagues that I cherish today.

I was working a lot of hours, stretched quite thin, and when COVID hit, my job got even harder. It had been a glorious 3 years, but come fall, I decided to leave the show. In the year that followed, I truly rested–I read 50 books, I lost 40 pounds, and I capped it off with a 60-day road trip up, down, and across the country that lit a fire under me for the joy of the highway. Shortly after I got home, I was approached for a new position as personality/producer on Kenny Chesney’s SiriusXM channel No Shoes Radio, and the rest is history from there. I tour when we’re on the road, work on the channel when we’re home, and write as many songs with as many co-writers as possible on all the days between.

What sets me apart from other radio personalities? It’s the breadth of roles and experiences that I’ve had in the music business, all of which I bring to the airwaves. A lot of radio DJs have been in that role their entire careers–that’s great! In my career, however, I’ve been a part of just about every step in the life of the songs that we plays on the radio. From writing the song, pitching it, recording it, mixing, mastering, promoting the music, radio, booking the tour, BEING on tour–from the agency, to corporate radio, to songwriting, to independent radio and touring in my current role, I simply have a wider breadth of fully-formed experiences in the music business than most personalities on the mic.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Oh, goodness. I’ll do my best to be brief, but Nashville is such a wonderful city, and it may be best to simply spit out a long list of recommendations.

Go get breakfast at Dozen Bakery, and do some reading.

Then head to Percy Warner Park for a long walk and some sunshine.

Head downtown for Frist Art Museum, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and a short tour of Hatch Show Print.

Turkey and the Wolf, a New Orleans sandwich shop, just opened in East Nashville–get a late lunch there, then head back to the house for a nap.

Go get a beer outside at Village Pub. See the sun go down.

Dinner at Two Ten Jack, then a show at Basement East or The East Room.

Nightcap and some pool at Wilburn Tavern.

That’s a solid Nashville day.

If there’s a fun screening of an old film or a compelling new independent film you’d like to catch, at some point in the trip you should head to the Belcourt Theatre.

Side note–a lot of locals are too cool for school, and get a little high off of hating on Broadway. But if you go, like, twice a year when you’re showing an out-of-towner around the city, it can be really fun, especially if you head to Robert’s for some dancing.

As for hot chicken, I will always recommend Bolton’s in East Nashville.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
As far as radio goes, there are so many mentors, peers, and heroes to whom I owe thanks. Teddy Zambetti, Emily Fenton, Storme Warren, Mary Carlisle Callahan, JR Schumann, Trapper John Morris, Jon Anthony, Kizzi Barazetti, Kenny Chesney…these are all people without whom my radio career thus far (and by extension, the wonderful life I lead now) would not have been possible. Each of them has taught me something separate and essential about the art of radio, the business of radio, and/or the worthiness of a creative life.

In my career as a songwriter, there’s an equivalent list of friends and mentors who’ve shown me the way. There’s one teacher, however, that I’d love to single out, and that’s Corey Snyder.

Mr. Snyder was my very first songwriting teacher back in my senior year of high school at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin, Texas. At that time, I fully intended to become a lawyer–I’d already been accepted to my dream school (Georgetown University), from which I expected to get my law degree and embark on a life from there. What I hadn’t planned for was falling madly in love with music–how songs are built, how artists could empower, and how music could unify people and smother fear. It totally altered the course of my life, that class, and I’m so grateful to Mr. Snyder for his commitment to something he so evidently believed in.

It’s not to say that the life I’d been planning on (law school and the rest) wouldn’t have been every bit as wonderful as I’d envisioned. I’ve just found such a beautiful life down this particular road, and music is the beating heart of the whole thing. Thanks, Mr. Snyder!

Website: https://tommymassad.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tommymassadmusic?igsh=MW5sa3NuZmhpaWVqcA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr