By Adriana King

Robert King. Photo courtesy of Red Giant Rights group via instagram @redgiantrightsgroup.

Born to be surrounded by music, my father Robert King has filled his life with various types of musical forms. Ranging from country music in the heart of Dallas, Texas to musical theater in New York City, King has experienced it all and falls more and more in love with music each day. 

King’s love for music became his fate from birth. Growing up with his single mother, he was constantly reminded of his distant relative, the legend of Western Swing music Bob Wills. His mother told him from the ripe age of one that King was going to “grow up to be a country artist, just like your cousin.” By the age of three, King toured alongside country artist Faron Young as a roadie and guest in the bus: “My mother and I traveled in his bus with him and his band. The drummer called me ‘Mickey Duck’ because I wore Mickey Mouse ears and a T-shirt with Donald Duck on it.” Through memories on the tour bus and experiencing first-hand the life of various musical artists, King’s passion for music began to strengthen at a young age. 

King started taking matters into his own hands at the age of five. Living in Lubbock, Texas, he put his hands on his first-ever guitar and began strumming away. A local and popular teacher nearby watched King play guitar and agreed to teach him, seeing his potential. After weeks of lessons, King had found a new passion and wanted to spread his love for music. He spent evenings after school traveling from table to table, playing guitar and singing for each group at his family-owned restaurant, The Alpine Inn. By the time he was 12, King had been participating in various talent shows, performances, and events, sharing his musical interests with the people around him. 

When King reached high school at First Baptist Academy in Dallas, his passion for music continued, but his primary focus was basketball. Debating whether he would continue his athletic career in college, King put his musical interests aside. That was until he met Luke Garrett, at the time an intern at his church leading the youth and music department. Garrett had an immense impact on King’s future, even singing at his wedding many years later: “He singularly had the most beautiful voice I had heard in my entire life, and he had a tremendous impact on my life.” Garrett and King were able to bond about their passions for different artists who acted as their mentors, such as Steve Perry, the lead singer of Journey, and award-winning gospel singer Russ Taff. 

Although King’s adolescent years were an integral part of his early infatuation with music, his true devotion to music began in college. After a medical discharge from the Marines Corps, King attended Texas Tech University and studied musical theater. His process of finding his major was seemingly simple after a counselor asked King what he was interested in, and he replied with, “I’ve always wanted to be an actor… put me down under ‘Theater.’” Throughout his college career at a few different schools, he earned a BA in Drama from Howard Payne University, a BFA in Musical Theater from Mars Hill University, and an MFA in Acting from the University of Tennessee. In the following 10 years, King performed in around 50 plays and musicals in eight states, ultimately obtaining a multitude of awards.

King married my mother, Jo Ellen Constine, in 1999 and put his theater work aside. Inspired by one of his mentors, author and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, King entered the sales industry, working with medical publisher the McMahon Group. Ziglar and King met at Sunday school when King was intrigued by his “incredible voice” and “incredible stories.” He continued, “he delivered each story so well, he had a great influence.” In 2004, King started his own company called The King Consortium and Better Presentations Live. Through these businesses, King used his “own selling and training learned from previous experience.” King quickly achieved success and developed his own sales system, eventually writing his first book, Are You an Exceptional Salesperson? and continuing to present his ideas for many different businesses and companies. 

After King’s first son Austin (‘20) was born, he and his wife moved to Richmond, my mother’s birthplace. In Virginia, King picked up his musical interest once again and began working as a singer/songwriter, acting coach, and vocal coach, and he began learning the piano: “I missed music. I missed entertainment. I knew that I needed to incorporate music into my life again.” In Richmond, King began performing again with his own band. Based in pop-ups and smaller venues, the Robert King Experience came to life and released its first album, All About Love: The Hits of Tony Bennett, in 2014.

In 2015, King created The ProtoStar Network, which he described as a “competing platform that helps aspiring artists promote themselves.” Shortly after the business was launched, King had lunch with a thought leader in the music industry, who said to him, “Have you ever heard of recaptures, reversions, and terminations?” King explained, “It’s a concept that helps artists get their copyrights back.” King left that lunch confident that “if what he said is true, there is a business there.” In the summer of 2016, King closed ProtoStar Network and started Red Giant Rights Group. 

Image courtesy of Red Giant Rights Group.

Red Giant Rights Group, King’s current company, helps assist “the older artist with copyright protection by applying the intricacies of the US Copyright Act to their advantage and to the advantage of any surviving family members,” according to their website. In the music business, artists usually sign a recording contract and a publishing agreement in the early stages of their career. Typically, the signed contracts are poorly negotiated, giving the majority of the income to the record label instead of the artist. Fighting against all the major record labels and publishers, Red Giant Rights Group is working to “renegotiate the old contracts and help the artist gain better terms. We win on behalf of our clients.”

There are two types of music copyright: sound recordings and compositions. Sound recordings are primarily the master recordings, or as King described it, “the things we hear on the radio and other streaming platforms.” The composition is the song that was written. Once contracts are renegotiated, Red Giant Rights Group works to exploit the musical pieces: “One of the ways to make money is to create a new product based on the assets that are already given.” 

In addition to the negotiation aspect of copyrights, there is the exploitation part of the business, which starts with the question of “How do we reinvigorate an existing brand?” This is accomplished through licensing, as King describes, such as “putting a song in a movie, TV show, or advertisement,” digital distribution, which “gets each song on streaming,” and live production. Red Giant utilizes the owned assets to create new products, such as concerts and theater performances: “Exploitation focuses on taking the assets we have and creating new products. For us right now, that looks like getting back into musical theater.” 

Many artists, famous and not-so-famous, have had copyright disputes. One well-known example is singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. When Swift began publishing her music, she partnered with the popular record label Big Machine Records. The original record company sold the masters of her recordings, without consulting Swift, to record executive Scooter Braun. Swift lost control of her recordings, so she decided to re-record all of her music as “Taylor’s Versions” under her own record label. Throughout this controversy, King knew “this would revolutionize the industry.” He continued, “It empowers artists to take back their art and release it under their own control.” 

In 2017, Paul McCartney sued the Sony Music Publishing group in order to reclaim his share of The Beatles’ song rights, which were originally held by Northern Songs Publishing and later acquired by the Sony Group. McCartney used the Copyright Act to his advantage, and when Sony told him that he had no rights, he continued to fight and ultimately won the battle against the company. King explained that this situation is an additional testament to the unfair contracts that are proposed by big corporations: “Again, another win for artists! We need more high-profile music icons to win publicly in the courts on behalf of all artists.” 

25 years later, King is taking his talents back into New York City as a producer. Through 81 Entertainment, a division of Red Giant, his team is using their “clients’ stories and compositions to create new theatrical projects.” Turn On Your Love Light, a musical designed to promote one of King’s client’s music, is Broadway-bound. This mid-20th-century jukebox musical celebrates the iconic highlights of record mogul Don Robey’s musical career. King said, “I’ve been out of the theatre for the past 20 years. For the next 20 years, I’m going to produce musicals and plays on Broadway, in the West End, and around the world.” 

As King reflects on his journey with music and entertainment, He feels “blessed to have worked with some amazing people along the way.” From a young child with a broken family to having a beautiful family of his own, King is grateful for each moment of growth and challenge that he has faced: “Through the difficulties of starting a business from scratch, I have learned so much about myself through determination, inspiration, maximization, and connection.” Ultimately, King emphasizes the importance of finding work that strengthens passions and interests, not a career that diminishes any sense of one’s individuality. 

I have witnessed my dad’s hard work throughout my entire life. Through the ups and downs of wins and losses, King has never let defeat stop him from persevering and expanding his interests. He has taught each of his children to love well and pursue excellence in everything we do because sometimes, that is the only thing we can control. 

My parents’ love for music has played an integral part in my childhood and continues to impact each of our lives. My brother Austin (‘20) has an incredible voice and was in various performances throughout high school, and he has recently started to pick up the piano. My other brother Wyatt (‘23) also has a beautiful voice that he used throughout high school in the fall musicals and is actively taking voice lessons this semester. Wyatt has recently picked up the guitar, which came naturally to him. I love music and being around music, and I dabble in piano. Music has become a strong bonding point and topic of conversation between my family. When the five of us are together, our nights are filled with family karaoke or having a sing-along while my dad plays guitar and/or piano. We have grown up going to New York City and listening to many different musicals in the car, eventually seeing a few on Broadway. My parents’ love for music and their experience pursuing their interests has created an environment that encourages each of us to push ourselves out of our comfort zones and not let fear of failure or mistakes discourage us from trying new things.