Three former students of Springfield Public Schools are being inducted this week into the SPS Hall of Fame. One of them is a man who has spent his career in the music industry. KSMU’s Michele Skalicky has more.
Scott Siman graduated from Kickapoo kindergarten, Kickapoo grade school and Kickapoo Junior High. He went to Glendale for three years, and, when the new Kickapoo High School was built, he moved over there and was in the school’s first graduating class.
He was involved in a variety of school activities. He ran for student council, he wrestled, he was on the golf team and he was involved in FBLA—Future Business Leaders of America.
"I tried to be actively involved. I loved school. I actually loved getting up, going to school, being there, loved my teachers, loved all my fellow students, had a lot of variety of friends--just sort of did a little bit of everything," he said.
Siman has fond memories of his time in Springfield Public Schools, and he feels it prepared him well for college and life after graduation.
"I felt like it was just a really nurturing environment for me where I could learn what I needed to learn, learn the skills I needed to have, not only education wise but people wise," he said.
While he was attending Springfield Public Schools, Siman was growing up around music. His dad, Si Siman, was a music publisher, founding member of the Country Music Association and producer of the Ozark Jubilee. Scott Siman helped promote shows as a teenager for Porter Waggoner, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Dolly Parton.
He says his dad was a huge inspiration for him.
"I mean there was a guy that sort of looked at things and said, 'hey, how can we do it?' not, 'what's the problem?' And I definitely think that shaped my vision of the music industry and the things I do to this day," he said.
Siman attended Vanderbilt University where he double majored in economics and political science. He worked for a small firm practicing entertainment law for about 14 years before moving on to work in Sony’s record division in Nashville. There he worked with some big name stars.
"The artist that I'm most known for is Tim McGraw, and Tim and I had about a 14 year run together, and I worked with him starting with the "Everywhere" album that had "It's Your Love" with Faith Hill. As a lawyer I worked with Alan Jackson, Brooks and Dunn, Charlie Daniels, John Berry, Deana Carter, Little Texas, a lot of artists. I spent a lot of time scouting out new artists and trying to find who was gonna be the next big thing," he said.
Others he worked with include Mary Chapin Carpenter, Colin Raye, Joe Diffie and the Dixie Chicks.
He’s still active as an artist manager and also works as a music publisher.
"We've had a good little run as publishers. We have Dierks Bentley's new single called "Say You Do." We had The Band Perry's last single, "Chainsaw," Craig Morgan's latest single, "Wake Up Loving You," and, fortunately, we got a cut on Luke Bryant, probably the hottest male in country music right now--he recorded one of our songs on his new album, and Scotty McCreery cut one of ours," he said.
He says he’s “jazzed” about being inducted in the SPS Hall of Fame, and he hopes he can inspire Springfield public school students who are interested in the music industry.
