Spanning nearly 50 years as a successful executive in the music entertainment industry, Bob Bender has worked in almost every facet of the music business. His outstanding accomplishments include producing over 300 tours, festivals, and concerts throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, and Japan, along with managing and working at multiple record labels.
As Tour Manager, Bob was a part of the 1989 Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band tour, along with representing such artists over the years, including Billy Preston, Dwight Twilley, Lisa Lisa & the Cult Jam, Rick Derringer, Edgar Winter, A Flock of Seagulls, Mark Lindsay, heavy metal act Anvil, the opening acts on the 1990 New Kids on The Block tour, and the legendary Gene Pitney among so many others.
While Manager of Artist Development for Curb Records, Bob represented such artists as Tim McGraw, LeAnn Rimes, Jo Dee Messina, and Hank Williams Jr. He oversaw Curb’s Christian retail segment helping develop it into a million-dollar division which led him to become Curb’s Director of Sales.
After leaving Curb Records, Bob went on to represent legendary Michael Martin Murphey’s record label, WestFest Records. Under Bob’s direction, Murphey re-released his 1970’s hit single “Wildfire” with popular country group Lonestar. Murphey’s new mix made its way to mainstream radio after an absence of over 20 years with 400+ plays by country radio stations as well as being featured on CBS’s Late Night with David Letterman.
Other television career credits include promotions and infomercial marketing campaigns for various country, pop, and Christian artists. Bob produced, co-produced, and marketed numerous concert DVD projects, including Tommy Cash’s Fade to Black concert.
Bob, along with his wife Debbie, produced the 13 episode TV Series “Songs in the Spotlight” which aired on Hulu in 2017-18. Guests on the show included such artists and songwriters as Chad & Jeremy, Bryan White, Dean Sams, Peter and Gordon, Travis Meadows, Hannah Blaylock, and Bob Livingston.
A sought-after speaker and podcaster, Bob speaks on the business aspects of the music industry at various industry and consumer events including Canada’s annual Indie Week, the Ultimate Music Business Summit, and Podfest, the world’s largest annual podcast convention featuring over 70 speakers from around the world. He’s also currently working on his book tentatively titled “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” set for publication sometime in late 2024.
In addition to hosting the hit podcast show “The Business Side of Music”, which has been ranked as one of the Top 7 music industry podcast shows to listen to by Spotify, and has over 300,000 listeners in 120 Countries around the world, he’s also producing numerous other podcast shows, including “Between The Notes with Jack Sharkey”, along with “2 Dudes Talk Money and Music” and the new Lorrie Morgan “War Paint” podcast thru his Lotta Dogs Productions (LLC) Company.