To The Editor,
In response to Mr Denton’s letter to the Times Daily, there are a few important items he elected to leave out of his correspondence. In that regard I feel it’s important to provide a bit of history on the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and what led to the current state in which it exists.
If you rewind the clock back to the late seventies/early eighties, Terry Woodford, one of the owners of Wishbone studio, had a dream of honoring the amazing talent that has emerged from the state of Alabama. At that point in time there was no other state music hall of fame in existence.
Woodford spent a considerable amount of time putting together a number of prominent Shoals area music achievers to develop a plan to take to the state legislators to build the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. In light of Bobby Denton’s musical background as the first artist to have regional success on Tune Records, a Florence, Alabama label owned by the late James Joiner and his position in the state senate, he agreed to take the lead role in drafting the bill for the Alabama Music Hall of Fame’s creation.
During this process Mr. Denton received a considerable amount of input from a number of prominent Shoals music achievers in crafting the language of the bill. A number of them would end up serving on the Board.
A few key components that were written into the bill included: a majority of the Board members of the state agency would be a member of the Muscle Shoals Music Association; all Board members will be
appointed by the Governor; and the building would be located in Colbert County.
When the legislation passed, the Alabama Music Hall of Fame became the first state museum in the country to honor its native music achievers.
The initial Board selected David Johnson, who at the time was seeking employment, to be the Executive Director. Johnson ran the museum from the day it opened for 18 years.
For a number of years Sen. Denton was vocal to various Board members about his displeasure with David Johnson’s performance and his desire to find a more qualified person to oversee the museum. Of course Denton had the political prowess to influence the State Agency Board candidates considered for appointment by the Governor’s office throughout the years and he wasn’t shy in pushing for who he thought should be involved in the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
Ultimately the Board placed a considerable amount of trust in Johnson to develop the museum’s financial status and support efforts to increase the archives contained within the museum.
Early on Johnson and Tim Leigh set up the Friends of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame as a companion to the state agency. The foundation provided a way for the museum to have events conducted on the property, which included a number of concerts on the grounds, the Alabama Music Hall of Fame Banquet and a place where donors could contribute funds for the museum.
As the years rolled by the museum continued to operate solely on the budget provided by the state while a number of banquets and fund raising concerts and events continued to take place on the grounds of the museum through the Friends of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
Following considerable political pressure from various sources Governor Riley appointed four new Board members to the state agency Board in 2009.
Concurrently an audit, which is standard procedure for all state agencies, was ordered for the museum. As the audit progressed a number of items were brought to the attention of various Board members and staff including questions related to the interaction between the Friends of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
During one of the Board meetings Tim Leigh was brought in to bring the Board up to speed on the financial health of the foundation. As mentioned earlier, one of the foundation’s responsibilities was covering the costs of the banquet, sponsorships, events, donations and most importantly to create reserve funds for the museum to ensure its long-term health.
Based on information gathered over time the museum had not received any funds that were utilized specifically for the museum nor any funds earmarked for the museum reserve fund since its inception.
The Board requested financial records of the Foundation be presented to the State Agency and instead received a budget for the upcoming Alabama Music Hall of Fame Banquet. When pressed for more details the response was there was just a small balance in the foundation.
A number of requests followed demanding a complete accounting of the foundation but the state agency never received the requested information. From a legal standpoint the state or the Alabama Music Hall of Fame Board couldn’t audit the Foundation since it was a separate foundation independent of the state.
During the course of the State Agency audit a number of procedural problems were identified by the auditor on how Johnson wasn’t running the state agency to the standards required by the state.
The Board responded and notified Johnson of the required procedural problems and monitored Johnson’s implementation of the required changes.
To improve information flow, staff was brought into Board meetings to provide more awareness of operational procedures and to provide additional information and input on the inner workings of the museum that had been absent in the past. Johnson met with the Board’s HR Committee and was provided an evaluation of his management structure that required he make a number of changes.
As time progressed, Johnson was resistant to the new structure and continued to display erratic behavior when questioned by various Board members about the Foundation, operational procedures and management requirements under the state guidelines.
To ensure that Johnson could focus on selling tables for the last Induction Banquet, two outside producers, Thom Stipe, from Tuscaloosa and Jimmy Carter, a native of Montgomery were brought in by the Board to produce the show. A tremendous amount of resistance was exhibited by Johnson with this change including not responding to what was spent on past Induction Banquets, ignoring a number of requests by the producers for essential information related to producing the event and non response to the Event Committee as it relates to requests for certain information.
Eventually the two outside producers elected to withdraw from producing the event and the Board was forced to place it back in Johnson’s hands. This defiant act in addition to a number of other complaints described earlier coming from past and current Board members at the time, local negative feedback and concerns generated across the state led to his termination.
Based on Bobby Denton’s musical accomplishments in expanding the reach of Alabama’s musical legacy he was selected by the Alabama Music Hall of Fame Board as an inductee into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Ironically within a short period of time, following his induction, his last legislative action was an attempt to immediately eliminate the existing Board that had inducted him into the Hall of Fame and replace it with a new one.
One interesting component of Denton’s Bill was the empowerment of the Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association Board to appoint a certain number of individuals to sit on the new Board. Coincidentally, this same association that would oversee the appointment of the new board included none other than David Johnson. Would this not be an oxymoron for the Honorable Sen. Bobby Denton to empower the one person he repeatedly complained about for so many years to be a party to selecting his new Board? For what reason would Denton have this sudden change of heart?
When the bill was passed unopposed by the Senate, it fortunately ended up going before an oversight committee on the House side. Its contents did not resonate with the committee resulting in the bill being killed.
According to one source, Johnson was on the phone calling potential new Board members when the Alabama Music Hall of Fame Board met in Montgomery and unanimously terminated his employment. He refused to answer the phone when the Chairman of the Board attempted to reach him. His comment to an employee who was standing next to him at an event in Birmingham when the phone rang was, in essence, “I’m not going to answer that call and be fired.”
Following Johnson’s termination the Board decided to cease interaction with the Friends of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and start a new foundation. Concurrently they created an outside selection committee comprised of Alabama natives from every corner of the state to submit candidates to replace David Johnson.
During this extensive and exhaustive process lasting several months, a wide range of candidates from around the country were vetted for the leadership role. Noted music industry veteran Marty Gamblin was the first person to receive an offer for the Executive Director position but he received a counter offer from the Governor of Mississippi for a similar post in that state. After considerable reflection he elected to accept the offer from his native state of Mississippi.
In light of the decision the Board hired Hank Adam Locklin Jr., the son of the legendary Alabama artist and the former Director of Membership of the CMA (Country Music Association), to serve as Interim Director of the Museum.
Following additional months of vetting Phil Walden's nephew, G Scott Walden, was selected to fill the position (former GM of the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville) but personal issues prevented him from moving to the Shoals.
The final selection by the committee that was approved by the Board was Wiley Barnard. Even though the process was a long and tedious one it was essential that every part of the state be represented in deciding who would fill the position. Candidates from all over the country were vetted and ultimately an Alabama native was selected.
When Governor Bentley was elected he had the difficult task of making budget cuts. Eventually the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and a number of other museums were cut from the state budget as had been the case in Georgia with the Georgia Music Hall of Fame that resulted in the museum being shuttered.
Prior to and following Governor Bentley’s election, the Board had been actively lobbying and seeking alternative funding sources in the event the state cut funding for the museum. A few of the efforts included: Creating a new foundation, approaching local governmental officials for funding, requesting a portion of local Shoals gas tax be allocated to the museum, collaborating with local universities and aligning the museum with RSA. This is just a few of the items they pursued before they finally were forced to look outside of the Shoals for additional options.
In the case of a portion of the local Shoals gas tax revenue being directed to the Hall of Fame a key prominent local elected official wasn’t supportive of the idea. On the RSA efforts, they were receptive to the idea of moving the museum to Veteran’s Park and expanding the museum into a larger complex complete with an amphitheater but the local elected officials couldn’t come to an agreement since it would mean moving it from Colbert to Lauderdale County even though the existing property in Tuscumbia would continue to be used by the Agency. Recently the Muscle Shoals Music Foundation acquired the original Muscle Shoals Sounds Studio on Jackson Highway which theoretically satisfies the Colbert Country part of the equation.
Now that we have journeyed from the beginning of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame to now, will our community continue to turn away from supporting this invaluable museum? Will the Shoals financially support this important musical legacy for future generations? Do you value your musical legacy?
Mr. Denton, you were a key part of the museum becoming a reality. We owe you, the early supporters, volunteers and long time supporters a special thank you for the wonderful moments the museum has contributed to the area, state, nation and world.
Whatever your current agenda may be and why you attacked a number of solid citizens who volunteered numerous hours to serve their state in an honorable way in promoting the best interests of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame can only be answered by you.
Political rhetoric is fruitless at this point. As a community we should collectively work to obtain viable solutions. If we fail to unify our efforts, the museum should live on in whatever part of the state that will support its noble purpose. Now is the time for positive action!
Anonymous...for the time being.
