Buddy Killen

Music Row was created by a small handful of men and women with talent and vision. Exceptional even in this elite group was Buddy Killen, who took a tiny, struggling music operation and made it into the biggest and best music publishing company Nashville had ever seen.

In 1951, at age 18, Buddy came to Nashville to be a musician. He started playing bass on the Grand Ole Opry. In 1954, radio executive Jack Stapp asked Buddy to run the small, almost nonexistent publishing company he had bought in 1951. The company was called "Tree." It had its first number one country hit and a year after that Tree was the sole publisher of the hit song that was the foundation stone of the rock and roll movement, "Heartbreak Hotel."

By the 1970's Tree was the undisputed top publisher on Music Row, and the company continued to rule the Nashville music publishing scene. In 1989, Buddy sold it to SONY.

TTU sadly mourns the death of Buddy Killen on November 1, 2006. He was 73 years old. Pat Quillen, the development director for TTU's College of Business, is a long time friend of Killen's. He recalls this particular visit to campus Kilen made in 2004: "Buddy was reluctant to commit to speaking to our business students when I first met with him in Nashville. As he began his first session you immediately saw the student response and acceptance, and Buddy's eyes took on a new expression. My favorite memory is of Buddy attempting to leave his parking spot in front of Johnson Hall, and the students leaning into his driver's side window, throwing him questions as he was backing away. He hit his mark right here at TTU as he did throughout his career and his all too short life."