Stacey Wilbur | Song Plugger, Songs You Almost Never Heard and TIM publishing

Stacey Wilbur has spent over thirty years in Nashville doing

a job most music fans have never heard of — song plugging.

Her role: find the right song, fight for it, and get it into

the hands of the artist who will make it a hit.

She helped launch Worship Together. She championed Laura

Story's "Blessings" when the label wasn't sure it should

make the record. She worked alongside future stars before

the world knew their names. And today she heads publishing

for TIM — the company founded by Chris Tomlin and Jason

Ingram, two of the most recorded songwriters in Christian

music history.

In this conversation, Stacey takes us from a small town

in Michigan — where a poster of Wynonna Judd on her bedroom

wall sparked a dream — all the way to the rooms where

Christian music's biggest songs are pitched, fought for,

and sometimes saved from the cutting room floor.

She talks about a stranger who prophesied over her in a

restaurant before she was even a Christian. About losing

her job, hearing God say "be still," and what happened

the very next day when she wrote a name on a piece of paper.

She tells us about a CEO who didn't have to say anything —

and chose to anyway.

This is one of the most honest, funny, and quietly

remarkable conversations we've had on More Cowbell Please.

Stacey Wilbur / Head of Publishing, TIM Publishing

Instagram: @staceyswilbur

More Cowbell Please is a podcast exploring the stories,

faith, and people behind Contemporary Christian Music.

Hosted by Grammy-winning mix engineer Ainslie Grosser.

Topics in this episode: Christian music industry, song

plugging, music publishing Nashville, CCM history,

Worship Together, Chris Tomlin, Laura Story Blessings,

Mandisa, TIM Publishing, Brentwood Benson, EMI Christian,

Capitol Christian Music Group, Bill Hearn, Billy Ray Hearn,

Sparrow Records, faith and work, Nashville music careers.

Chapters

0:00 The people behind the songs you love

0:53 Meet Stacey Wilbur

1:35 Small town girl with a big dream

4:51 The prophecy at the restaurant

5:34 October 2nd — getting saved

7:57 615 Music Row — how she got in the door

8:50 The Avalon audition

11:26 Worship Together / Chris Tomlin / Matt Redman

11:46 What is a song plugger?

12:50 The Busby & Daughtry story

15:15 "It's me" — pitching herself to Gary Overton

16:41 Honky Tonk Badonkadonk

17:43 Brentwood Benson — "All the writers say hire you"

19:05 Chris Sligh / Rascal Flatts / Cracker Barrel

22:16 Losing the job — the wilderness season

24:13 Who was Bill Hearn?

25:19 "I know what happened to you. You matter."

25:35 Seth Mosley texts the next day

26:27 The panic attack (and what happened next)

27:01 TIM Publishing — Chris Tomlin's crazy idea

27:52 Steffany Gretzinger walks in

30:09 The Charlie Kirk Memorial

30:34 iTunes Top 10 worldwide — God is moving

33:32 Laura Story "Blessings"

35:41 "I mixed that record"

36:37 Advice — dream big

37:50 Be yourself / the Brian Johnson line

38:50 God's strategies > AI strategies

39:25 The magnificent defeat

40:47 Outro