User:Eagledj/sandbox/Tim Dubois

James Timothy Dubois (born May 4, 1948 in Southwest City, Missouri) is a Nashville-based songwriter and recording industry executive who has headed both Arista Records (Nashville Division) and Universal South Records. As a songwriter he wrote five No. 1 country hits, the most successful being "Love in the First Degree" by the group Alabama.

DuBois' early career path had nothing to do with music. He received three academic scholarships to Oklahoma State University to study accounting, earned two advanced degrees and became a senior analyst for the Texas Federal Reserve Bank. While living in Texas, he became interested in country music and began writing songs, eventually leading him to move to Nashville to pursue music. Writing successful songs led to his becoming a record producer, creating over 20 No. 1 and top five singles and more than a dozen gold, platinum, and double-platinum country albums.

DuBois was recognized as the "most powerful person in the music industry" by Business Nashville in 1996, "Record Executive of the year" in 1992 by Pollstar, and was included in Entertainment Weekly’s list of the "101 Most Powerful People in Entertainment" in 1994 and 1995. He is a member of the Oklahoma State University's Hall of Fame (1996) and was the school's Accounting Alumnus of the year (1992).

Early Life
As a youth, Dubois played guitar in various rock bands but his primary instrument was trombone. At that time he had little interest in the  music that would occupy his later life, country music. At a summer camp in Oklahoma, he and another guitar player he had just met were passing around a guitar when the friend played a song that he said he had written himself. DuBois knew at that moment he could write something better than what he had heard, and the songwriting spark was struck. He began writing songs, but another endeavor was competing for his time. He had an aptitude for accounting and received an Oklahoma State Regent's Scholarship to the OSH. As an undergrad at OSU, he worked as an internal auditor for the university. He was awarded an Arthur Anderson Scholarship and an Atlantic Richfield Scholarship.