Sarah Trahern may be an incredibly successful American businesswoman, but there’s one element of American business culture that she has absolutely no interest in.
“I call it ‘die in the chair,'” she says. It’s the idea that, once you’ve summited the executive mountaintop, you hold onto that position until you’re in the grave.
“My dad retired too late to do all the things that he and my mom wanted to do,” says Trahern. “He was 71, and by then my mom’s health had gotten bad, so while he could still travel, she couldn’t.” It was a lesson that stuck with her. And it convinced her of the benefits of retiring while you still have gas in the tank.
More than that, it shaped her approach to leadership. An approach built on stewardship rather than ownership. “My job is to get the organization to a good place, hopefully better than when I came in, and then it’s about passing it on to the next generation, rather than being the person who dies in the chair.”
For Trahern, the time to pass that torch has come. Earlier this year she announced that she would be stepping down as CEO of the Country Music Association at the end of 2026. And though it was a difficult decision, she’s excited about what comes next. We spoke with Trahern about her time at the CMA, her experience as a Vanderbilt Executive MBA student, how Nashville and country music have changed during her tenure, and what her post-CMA future might look like.
And, because we couldn’t resist, we also asked her about Dolly Parton.
Looking back on your tenure, how do you feel about your 13 years running the Country Music Association?
I’d really look at those 13 years as three different chapters.
From 2014 through the end of 2019, that was the regular trade association chapter. We celebrated the 50th anniversary of the CMA Awards in 2016, which was a milestone. But it was really about solidifying the team, growing the organization, and meeting changing demands.
And then there were the COVID years; a lot of sad things, a lot of hard things. We did a program called MICS, Music Industry COVID Support, which let us not lay anyone off, but pivot what people did. Folks on our sales team no longer had anything to sell since we weren’t doing [CMA] Fest, so they helped us gather resources for our industry’s food banks, and support people who weren’t working. Out of those COVID years came some of the most innovative things we did.
And then you have 2022 to now, which is just fast-paced change. Our board chair in 2022 — Jim Beavers, a songwriter who went to Owen — said that he was going to “bring back the fun.” So, after the darkness of ’20 and ’21, in ’22 we brought the fun back, but at a really fast business pace. It’s an exciting time again, with a lot of change coming next year, and it’s a good time for me to go.
I’ve done my three chapters, and now I get to go have a personal chapter and sit on the sidelines and cheer the CMA on.
Your time at the CMA has coincided with an incredible growth period for Nashville. How has that affected the CMA and country music? Did it change the way you approached the business?
I think one of the things about Nashville’s rise is that it’s not just about music. It’s always been a combination of all the strong businesses here — healthcare, music, tech, and banking. It’s a livable city and all of those businesses have grown together.
When I first moved here in the ’90s, my uncle was at a bank, a cousin was in healthcare, and the music business at that time was kind of off to the side. And I think during this era we’ve had the opportunity to really work together — whether around the flood, or when CMA Fest and the Stanley Cup were happening at the same time — and figure out how to work across businesses so the city can contain all of it at once.
One thing you’ve had to deal with during your tenure is the rise of AI. How has it affected the industry, and do you see it being rejected or embraced as we move forward?
There are good things about it, bad things about it, and things in the middle. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle, so it’s about how we as a business adapt, and how creatives adapt. A number of songwriters filed lawsuits just in the last week, and I think that what we, on the creative side of the business, continue to focus on is protecting intellectual property. At the same time, a lot of other songwriters are using it to help with their demos, or to get over writer’s block. So it’s figuring out the right way to do it.
When I first moved to town in the ’90s, I was at a panel on changing consumption habits, and one of the record label presidents was asked about Napster. This was probably ’96 or ’97. And he said, “Oh, we don’t have to worry about that, it’s always going to be vinyl and radio.” And I — who was in my 30s at the time — was thinking, I’ve got friends sending me files, saying check out this song. I think we had our head in the sand as a country music business, and it took us until a couple of years ago to really be competitive at the same level in streaming.
But, because we went through that head-in-the-sand period, I think we approach it very differently today as a business. We’re at least having open conversations about what works and what doesn’t, and making sure we still protect creators in the process.
Since you’re an Owen grad, I wanted to ask you about your MBA. You were already well established when you came to the Executive MBA program. Did you feel that getting the degree helped your career?
I think it did, but not necessarily for the things I learned in the classroom.
I was one of the oldest people in my cohort. I’d always thought about getting my MBA, back when I lived in D.C. and certainly once I moved to Nashville. Business was changing, and I was thinking about how I could stay in Nashville and broaden my experience. And during the time I was in school, the two things I really learned weren’t traditional classroom material.
One was the “paper chase,” where you have to be ready to be called on for anything. I remember one day our team was presenting a paper, and we’d each worked on different parts. I had to present the part I hadn’t worked on, and I probably hadn’t studied as well as the others had. Learning to think on your feet, and take what you see and tell a story, that’s one of the things I often have to do as a CEO.
And then there were the study group dynamics. I had a great study group, a really interesting mix of people. There was me, from the entertainment business, an oil and gas engineer, someone from GM, a physician, and an accountant. As we worked on projects, we had our own dynamics — one person might be a better writer or editor, but somebody else had agreed to actually write the paper. So how do you navigate that, whose work is it, and who’s playing what role? That dynamic is what business is about. The time we invested working together really taught me a lot as a leader, about building teams and putting together high-functioning groups of people with different skill sets.
Given that you’re stepping down from your role as CEO to go out and enjoy the next chapter of your life, I was wondering if mental health and work-life balance have always been important to you, or is it something that you began to focus on more recently?
I was actually talking to a friend about this at lunch yesterday; she’s also a very driven striver.
About five years ago, it was a pretty tough era. We were still in the middle of COVID, and it just wasn’t as fun as it used to be. So, as I was renewing my contract, I thought, probably five years from now is the right time.
That doesn’t mean, by the way, that we’re going to just sit on the sofa and eat bonbons. That’s not the plan. But my husband is a CRNA — a nurse anesthetist, he puts people to sleep for surgery — so for him, the busiest time of year is the end of the year, when everybody’s met their deductible. But for me, the CMA closes for two weeks at the end of the year since it’s a slow time in the music business. So, for 13 years, I’ve either gone on vacation by myself, or wasted my vacation sitting at home while he worked.
About five years ago, we said that this probably isn’t the kind of life we want to keep living, and we started keeping that timeline in mind. And then, a little over a year ago, I told the board. So now I’m looking forward to what’s ahead. Definitely some travel and adventure. And I’m probably going to do some coaching and mentoring. And in the last few weeks, I’ve gotten the urge to do content and TV again, so we’ll see what happens.
Finally, I wanted to ask you, with the unfortunate loss of Dolly Parton last month, do you have any good Dolly stories? Surely, you’ve had some amazing interactions with her over the last 13 years.
Oh yeah. I was just at a breakfast meeting, and everyone was talking about the fact that she is just bigger than life. I’ve gotten to work with her on numerous occasions. We all love the icon, but we sometimes forget about the woman. And I’ve been lucky enough, on a couple of occasions, to see the woman.
We did a shoot with her in 2016 around our “Forever Country” music video, where at the very end she sings “I Will Always Love You.” The day of the shoot, her team told us that she was going to have to cancel, but at the last minute we were able to talk her into still doing it. I’d prepared the crew that she was going to show up early and be ready to go, and sure enough, she showed up half an hour early, 6:30 in the morning, with hair done, clothes done.
She asked us to play the song for her, so we played it, and she heard all the different parts, where Brad Paisley was singing, where the others came in, all of that. She said, “Okay, I’m ready to go,” did her piece, and 15 minutes later she was out the door.
Her staff asked me later, “Do you want to know why she almost had to cancel?” And I said, sure. They said it was because she wanted to take her husband to breakfast. It was a great reminder that everyone’s always pulling at people, artists included, and that they need to find that grounding that gets them up in the morning and keeps them humble and at peace.