Gerald Roy has been a concert promoter and manager for over 25 years. He first began promoting concerts in college while at Eastern Kentucky University, later promoting in his hometown of Louisville after graduating. He was hired by Kenny Rogers concert company to be the “in house” promoter for the Kenny Rogers Tour worldwide, beginning in 1979. During his time working with Kenny he promoted over 1,200 shows, with Kenny’s tour consistently ranking as one of the Top 10 tours of the year.
Roy was named Director of Operations for Kenny Rogers Productions when the firm moved from Los Angeles to Nashville. He led a staff of nine in routing the tours worldwide, negotiating the venue deals, negotiating the merchandise deals, negotiating opening artist deals and developing and implementing all tour marketing and media buys.
In addition to promoting shows on Kenny Rogers, he has promoted national tours on Randy Travis and Reba McEntire, wherein he was responsible for setting and selling full national tours of 50 or more cities. Other tours that Roy promoted included George Jones (over 50 shows), The Judds, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Gatlins, Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn, and many others.
Other non-country artists that Roy successfully promoted included Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Phil Collins, Van Halen, Eric Clapton, Garth Brooks, AC/DC, Ray Charles, Dean Martin, Barry Manilow, Diana Ross and others. Roy has also promoted shows on numerous Christian artists including Casting Crowns, Mercy Me, Third Day, Newsboys, Toby Mac and others.
Roy produced and promoted a variety of corporate events and tours for such notable entities as Crown Royal, Budweiser, Miller-Lite, Red Man, Nicoderm-CQ, True Value Hardware and others. Additionally he coordinated corporate sponsorships for Kenny Rogers tours with Jovan, Dodge Trucks, Dole Pineapple, Kraft, Proctor & Gamble, Philip Morris USA, Coors, Miller Brewing, Budweiser, Seagrams Distillers Co, BC Powders, Coca-Cola, KFC, For Members Only, Ford, Papa Johns Pizza, Chic-Fil-A and others.
He was talent buyer and sponsorship coordinator for the Cajun Country Crawfish Festival in Biloxi, MS as well as producing the Kentucky Derby “Free” Philip Morris USA Concerts and co-produced the grand opening of the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas starring “The Return Of The Pack Rat”–with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. (replaced by Diana Ross).
In addition to promoting shows, Roy was a partner in Stellar Entertainment and Starbound Management where he was involved in managing the careers of B.J. Thomas, Forester Sisters, Sawyer Brown, Patty Loveless and others.
In 2009 Roy, along with partner Charles Dorris, launched DR Artist Management, a Nashville based firm specializing in artist management, concert promotion and talent buying.