Born the son of a preacher-man in south Mississippi, Rod Parkin was bound and determined to find his own way to Nashville, Tennessee, in search of a career within Nashville’s music business community. After landing a voice scholarship and then graduating from Jones County Junior College, Parkin moved to Nashville in 1991 where he enrolled in Belmont University’s music business program.
Through Belmont’s internship program, he landed his first full-time music industry gig at Alpine Records/Life Music Group in 1992, where he was responsible for record promotions for the independent country record label and also worked with the in-house staff songwriters who were signed to the company’s music publishing division. A year later, Parkin graduated from Belmont University in 1993 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Music Business and also received the Outstanding Senior Music Business Major Award.
Upon graduation from Belmont, Alpine shuttered its record label and Parkin was promoted to Professional Manager of Music Publishing for Life Music Group and was later promoted to Creative Director. His duties included creative representation for the LMG songwriters where he was responsible for pitching their songs to music industry contacts including artists, managers, producers and record label representatives. After five years with the company and being associated with cuts by such artists as Lee Ann Womack, Reba McEntire and Joe Diffie, Parkin took advantage of another opportunity.
In 1997, he joined the creative staff of Peermusic, a global independent music publishing company with 32 offices in 28 countries. Over the next decade, Parkin and the creative team at Peermusic garnered cuts by Garth Brooks, George Strait, George Jones, Alabama, Dwight Yoakum, Diamond Rio, Kenny Rogers, Chris LeDoux, Keith Urban, Steve Wariner, LeAnn Rimes, Neal McCoy and others.
Parkin joined Smokin’ Grapes Music Publishing in 2008 where he served as VP of Creative Services. Co-owed by Grammy nominated songwriter, Billy Yates, who co-wrote “I Don’t Need Your Rockin’ Chair” and “Choices” for George Jones; the Smokin’ Grapes songwriting staff landed multiple cuts, including recordings by Daryl Worley, Sammy Kershaw and two songs cut by country great, George Strait. Due to our glorious (sarcasm) economy, this company which opened its doors in 2006 lost its funding in 2009.
On April Fool’s Day of 2009, Parkin launched Renegade Writer Works, an independent creative services company where he serves as Owner & President. The company creatively represents the song catalogs of songwriters, artists and music publishing companies. Various clients include: Dolly Parton and her Velvet Apple Music catalog; Regie Hamm - writer of 21 #1 songs including sole writer of “Time Of My Life” which was a 16 week #1 for American Idol winner, David Cook; T.W Hale - who co-wrote “Why Haven’t I Heard From You” (Reba McEntire), “A Night To Remember” (Joe Diffie) and cuts by Randy Travis, George Jones and others; and Alvarado Roadshow - an incredibly talented band headed up by songwriting brothers, AJ and Cleve Clark.
Rod Parkin currently resides in Nashville, TN with his wife, Kirsten, and daughter, Mia. He and his wife adopted Mia from China on Christmas Day of 2006. He is addicted to his Blackberry; has climbed the Great Wall of China; loves being a Daddy; digs all genres of music, and can’t live without Alabama & Tennessee Titans football.