Dixie Chicks drop Nashville talent agency for Hollywood firm

After 11 years in the fold, the Dixie Chicks have departed the roster of Nashville’s oldest and largest privately owned talent agency, Buddy Lee Attractions. The band, which started out as a developmental

Email | Print By Drew Ruble

12-04-2002 12:00 AM — After 11 years in the fold, the Dixie Chicks have departed the roster of Nashville’s oldest and largest privately owned talent agency, Buddy Lee Attractions. The band, which started out as a developmental act at Buddy Lee, has become the biggest selling country act of all time.

In turn, the Dixie Chicks have signed with Hollywood-based Creative Artists Agency, a talent and literary agency and home to some of the most popular actors, directors and screenwriters in Hollywood. CAA maintains offices in both Hollywood and Nashville; however, Buddy Lee Attractions Vice President Paul Lohr says his former act will be represented by the Hollywood office.

It’s difficult to pin a dollar value on what the loss means financially for Buddy Lee, under whose efforts the band became arguably the biggest stars in the country music genre. Lohr says after many years of laying the groundwork for success, Buddy Lee profited from only one tour of the band in their incarnation as superstars.

“You have to gauge 10 years of struggling against one year of super-stardom,” Lohr said.

The emotional loss to the company is more easily gauged. Clearly still stinging from the move, Lohr questions openly if it was “justified” or “honorable” for the band to leave Buddy Lee Attractions, particularly after he personally devoted 11 years of his career to making the band the success that it became.

Lohr’s loss in some ways mirrors Capitol Nashville’s recent loss of budding country music star Cyndi Thomson. Thomson surprised the industry when she announced this fall that she wanted to return to the life of a songwriter and quit her career as a performer. Although Thomson’s latest record sold over 500,000 copies, the proceeds cannot compare to the money Capitol Nashville spent launching her career.

It’s not uncommon for artists who reach super-stardom to break free of their talent agency and hire an in-house person to handle the tasks an agency once performed. Lohr says he’s somewhat confused by the decision of the Dixie Chicks to leave Buddy Lee for another talent agency. An emailed message to the band’s publicist had not been returned at the time of this article’s publication.

The immensely popular Dixie Chicks were the top act Buddy Lee represented. Remaining Buddy Lee artists include LeeAnn Womack, Pinmonkey, Marty Stuart, Lorrie Morgan and Ronnie Milsap.

In the past Buddy Lee has represented such mega-stars as Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson and George Strait.