Music Avery Dey: An Interview with ATL Soul Life's JD Hill

Today I had the opportunity to speak with visionary creator behind the successful ATL Soul Music Life concert series, and CEO of JD Entertainment, LLC, Jeremy “JD” Hill.  Join us as we discussed the details of the 2nd annual sensational affair and his mission to provide the African-American community access to exceptional, positive entertainment.

AD: Hi Jeremy.  Before we begin, please tell us a bit about yourself?

JD: Well I was born and raised in Millersville, GA and I’m a man who had a vision of promoting concerts and different other types of events.  I followed my passion and well here we are; that’s me pretty much in a nutshell.  I’m pretty private.

I entered into the promotions (arena) when I started promoting parties and events like that.  It was great seeing people having a great time, so I took it to another level by beginning to promote concerts, comedy shows and that type of thing.  Again, my focus was to make certain people have a good time.  I mean I have had shows where I ‘ve lost money but people had fun and I was cool with that believe it or not.   It was during those times where I learned lasting lessons for me, most definitely.

AD: What advice would you give to others who are contemplating the same entrepreneur path as you did?

JD: With anything, if you plan to pursue your dream, you’re going to have to make up your mind and just do it.  I mean I know a lot of people who procrastinate and who have talked themselves in and out of things they wanted to do.  I mean you can come up with many reasons for not wanting to do something.  However for me within the entertainment field, when I want to pursue something, I don’t think about it a lot, I just do it.  I mean the things I really contemplated, really didn’t work out that well.

AD: You’ve promoted a number of successful shows since conception of your organization.  Why did chose to put your passion behind this genre of music/artists?

JD: Out here in Atlanta I know that there is a large following for Neo/Underground soul artists.  Often times they come to small venues and do pretty well without a whole lot of marketing behind them.  So I figured I would take a package of artists, place them onto a big stage, and provide a real marketing campaign and see what happens.  Last year was the first year of doing an event like this and it worked out really, really well.  I believe we discovered a real niche in the market supporting this genre of music. You can do some really great things when you place them all on stage together.

AD: Although this is your 2nd festival, would you mind sharing your secret as to how manage to keep each event so enticing?  I mean you have a lot of hot acts performing at Wolf Creek.

JD: First and foremost, the festival is owned and operated completely by African Americans.  We strive to provide top-notch entertainment.  We try to make this event a party atmosphere.  The ticket prices are unmatched, attendees can bring their own coolers, but we also have some of the best food vendors to enjoy.  I kept in mind my budget and worked with key individuals to make this affair happen.  The Fulton County Government played a huge role with regards to us having such an incredible event such as this.  I worked diligently with them to assure that the cost to create this event would not be pushed on the consumers.  With us working together allows us to make this show extremely successful! 

Second, I have my wish list of artists I really like (to see perform) yet, I will turn around and ask people, who are REAL fans of music, to assist with the process.  I have a number of individuals to consult on a various aspects of creating a show, so I value their opinion and really take it from there.  Also, I run things by my 15 year-old daughter.  I need her opinion on some things as well.  So with all of these methods combined, I’ve been rather successful.

AD: Where do you see this festival going within the next 5 years?

JD: First, it doesn’t hurt that it’s in Atlanta.  It’s a great city to visit and since it’s on a major holiday weekend, there’s the possibility of more people to attend. We’ve made it easy for the public to remember.  Nevertheless, I dream big!  I think I want to make it a destination type of a music festival.  I’m one of the executive producers of “Sweat Fest” (Keith Sweat) in Montego Bay, and so one of our goals for “Soul Life” is perhaps take it to a destination location - maybe in the Caribbean at some point within the next couple of years actually.  Yes, that’s where I see this festival moving towards within the next two or three years.  I believe it will work pretty well.  I’m not certain if the (island) locals will be into that genre of music, but I believe we have enough of real soul music fans within the US that will still come and support it once the word is out.

AD: Where can fans find more details about this incredible show and purchase tickets?

JD: You can go to http://www.wolfcreekamphitheater.com and find out all of the information there.  To purchase tickets, please visithttp://www.ticketalternative.com Soon you can visit our designated “Soul Life” website for event details as well.

AD: Do you have any closing words you’d like to share about the show and/or any future shows you’re promoting?

JD: Yes, for those who attended last year and/or this is your first time attending this year, you’re going to be really, really pleased.  We will have a great partying atmosphere out there.  I have a comedian host, great DJs during the entire weekend, so people are going to be entertained from the time they enter the gate until the time they leave.  Obviously the Neo Soul genre is more laid back music; however in between the acts, it’s going to be a real party atmosphere.  We’ll definitely make it point for people to return each year.  

Now in terms of upcoming events, I have a lot of going on.  I have the "Legends of Hip- Hop" tour occurring right now and we started that in Columbia, SC on March 12th.  This is a new concept I developed since there is a niche in the market for those types of shows as well.  It has been working out exceptionally well thus far and we have 50 shows!  At Wolf Creek Amphitheatre (WCA), we have several different series we’re promoting out there.  WCA is a state of the art venue that opened its doors approximately in 2011.  They started holding public concerts in 2012, and I was the first one who took a chance on the venue.  I lost money the first time believe it or not, because no one was ready to work with the venue.  

Nevertheless, I hung in there and created a number of old school concert series in 2013.  It was a 4 show concert series where we brought out all of the 90’s and early 2000’s R&B acts that you could possibly think of.  It was anyone from Keith Sweat to Blackstreet then to Joe.  It was pretty much anyone from those eras and genres.  Additionally, we have 4 shows in a concert series we do annually.  We created a Funk series, which consist of acts like:  Morris Day,Cameo, Sheila E., Lakeside, ConFunkshun, and many, many more.  This year is the first year we’re doing the Wolf Creek Jazz Festival over Labor Day weekend – September 2nd thru the 4th.  We have artist such as:  Boney James,Rachelle Ferrell, Will Downing, Kirk Whalum, Rick Braun, Najee, I mean you name it, we got it!   We’re not done yet; we created another series called, “A Night of Classic Soul”.  We’re kicking that off on May 7th, Mother’s Day weekend with: Jeffrey Osbourne, Stephanie Mills, and Howard Hewett.  Likewise on July 30th we will have:  The Isley Brothers, Freddie Jackson, Reuben Studdard andChante Moore.  So we have probably over 100 artists coming to Wolf Creek in between May 7th and October 1st.

Thank you JD for speaking with me today and I look forward to attending the Soul Life Music Fest.  Thank you and can’t wait to see everyone at the festival.

There you have it family.  I hope to see you in the ATL for this fantastic event; you know it’s going to be hot!! This is your girl Avery and now you’re in the know.