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Arts Alive! podcast: Tom Gribbin

The former VP of Big3 Entertainment remembers Bill Edwards.

Bill DeYoung

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Author, musician, producer, promoter. Historian, former attorney, legendary raconteur. Tom Gribbin is all of these things.

Today on Arts Alive! he joins us to talk about his 17-year working relationship with businessman Bill Edwards, who died Aug. 27.

As executive vice president of Edwards’ Big3 Entertainment, Gribbin was right there for the creation of the Big3 record label, the overhaul of the Mahaffey Theater, the Sundial and Al Lang Stadium. And more.

What was it like behind that velvet rope? He takes us behind the scenes and into the inner circle, where working with the irascible Edwards wasn’t always easy, but never less than interesting.

Gribbin also talks about Edwards’ considerable charitable work, which Bill didn’t want publicized.

It’s a heartfelt eulogy, a warm send-off for a bossman, business partner and friend.

The interview then turns to Gribbin’s Zelig-like personal story, from the stage at England’s Wembley Stadium to the longest-lived comedy club in the State of Florida.

And, of course, his novel The Last Florida Boy, a fictionalized – and very funny – account of the early days of pot smuggling along the Gulf coast.

Click on the arrow to listen to the conversation.

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