On Wednesday evening, Belmont University, in partnership with BMI, hosted a special edition of The Insider’s View, an exclusive roundtable discussion exploring the solo career of Michael Jackson. The four featured speakers—Frank Dileo, Steve Popovich, Larry Stessel and Dan Beck—all served in strategic positions at Epic Records during Jackson’s unprecedented career from 1975 until his untimely death in 2009. Mr. Dileo, who personally managed Michael throughout much of the 1980s, reunited with the singer just weeks before he passed away.
Beck, who product managed Michael Jackson at Epic through the “Dangerous” and “HIStory” albums, said, “The opportunity to share our unique experiences of working with Michael Jackson with the students at Belmont University was very special for each of us. As long-time friends and colleagues, we have an extraordinary respect and appreciation for each other’s work, so we were eager to learn from this event as well. The students, faculty and administration at Belmont created the perfect environment for us to capture for the first time, some historic perspective on Michael’s phenomenal career.”
In addition to serving twice as Jackson’s manager, Dileo was head of Epic’s national promotion department, which yielded seven Top 10 singles from “Thriller.” Jackson first played the album for Dileo in his car on a Walkman, and then asked his radio promoter what he thought could be done to market the project. “To get out of the car,” Dileo recalled, “I just said, ‘I’m going to release two singles at one time.” Though unprecedented at the time, the strategy worked, and Dileo landed both “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” in the top five on the radio charts at the same time.
“Thriller” remains the largest selling album in the history of recorded music. Jackson’s music videos dominated the airwaves and changed popular music. His dance moves enthralled the world, and the controversies surrounding his life garnered global headlines. From a childhood star to the ultimate rock, pop and soul superstar, Michael Jackson will be a topic of cultural historians and enduring fans for decades to come.
“Before MTV started in the early ’80s, you really became a star based on your music, on the songs and on touring,” said Stessel, who served as the product manager and point person for the marketing strategies in launching “Thriller.” “There’s a good possibility that we’ll never again see the type of mania that surrounded the Beatles, Michael Jackson or Elvis.”

Representatives from ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, several publishing companies and A&R groups joined Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business (CEMB) faculty, staff and students on Oct. 21 at Ocean Way Studio A for an intimate reception celebrating the launch of Bruin Publishing, Belmont’s newly established publishing company. In addition to student creator Kevin Grosch’s poignant description of the inception, purpose and goals of the company, attendees got a taste of the talent Bruin Publishing will work with through performances from student songwriters Matt Wright, Keith Johnson, Jena Rickards and Claire Dunn.
Bruin Publishing is completely student-run, working exclusively with currently enrolled student songwriters, engineers, musicians and other music business students. Bruin Publishing is being supported by the Center for Entrepreneurship, which will be assisting hte students with the logistics of running a business. The primary goal of Bruin Publishing is to give students invaluable hands-on experience and a solid understanding of how they will interact with publishers, record labels and other business professionals in the industry. Rather than competing with established music publishers, Bruin Publishing will likely serve as an incubator for developing writers who will graduate with a better understanding of the publishing process and be better prepared and equipped to develop into professional writers.
“We will develop a catalog of the best works of Belmont songwriters, and we will showcase their writing and performing talents at regular writers’ nights at leading Nashville venues,” explains Grosch of the enterprise. “Every song that is part of our catalog will be the subject of a single song agreement, but because the purpose of Bruin is solely to benefit our students, there will be absolutely no exclusive writer agreements. Our student engineers, musicians and vocalists will be charged with producing quality recordings of the songs in our catalog, and our music business students will provide catalog administration, organizational functions and song plugging services.”
Bruin Publishing aims to provide a benefit for the Nashville music industry, as well, by offering access to the tremendous songs being crafted by Belmont students and by helping establish professional track records for Belmont writers, making them much more attractive candidates for publishing companies and record labels following graduation.
Curb College Strategic Programs Director Sarah Cates added, “Most importantly, we view Bruin Publishing as a training ground for success for all of our students – and it is our goal that the industry will be able to count on Bruin Publishing credentials as a guarantee that our graduates will be able to hit the ground running and perform to the highest professional standards.”