Before Harvey Mason Jr. became the CEO of the Recording Academy and a legendary music producer who worked with Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, and Michael Jackson, he was a college basketball player at the University of Arizona headed to the NBA. Then a torn ACL ended his career in one awkward landing, leaving him watching soap operas in a dorm room, depressed and driving around Tucson pitching jingles to Chinese buffets and brake shops. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, the Grammy executive sits down with David Begnaud to share the story...
Before Harvey Mason Jr. became the CEO of the Recording Academy and a legendary music producer who worked with Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, and Michael Jackson, he was a college basketball player at the University of Arizona headed to the NBA. Then a torn ACL ended his career in one awkward landing, leaving him watching soap operas in a dorm room, depressed and driving around Tucson pitching jingles to Chinese buffets and brake shops. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, the Grammy executive sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the man who believed in him when he was still figuring out who he was: Clive Davis, the legendary music mogul who put him in a room with Aretha Franklin and changed everything.
Harvey opens up about the day he walked into Clive's bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, nervous and blown away by the flowers and the speakers and the man who had signed his father as an artist decades earlier. He talks about playing I Like Them Girls for Clive, watching him close his eyes and nod his head, and getting the yes that gave him a confidence boost he didn't know he needed. He shares what it was like to produce Aretha's vocals, pushing her so hard she sent a furious letter to Clive saying Harvey wasn't the right producer, only to send him flowers the next day after hearing the recording and calling it one of her favorite vocals ever. He reflects on recording Whitney Houston for seven hours when she'd only promised him 15 minutes, convincing her to keep going by saying his only job was to make fans say that's the best Whitney Houston song I've ever heard.
There's also a raw reflection on belief, identity, and what it means to be pushed. Harvey talks about his father, drummer Harvey Mason Sr., who believed so fiercely in him that it became both a gift and a weight, and how that shaped the way he raised his own kids. He opens up about playing for Coach Lute Olson at Arizona, feeling like Olson didn't believe in him for years, and only realizing decades later that the hardest coaching was actually the deepest belief. He shares what he learned from teammate Steve Kerr, who asked the team on a bus ride how can you be sleeping on the way to the game? and taught him there was another level to greatness. And he reflects on what it means to be the first Black CEO of the Recording Academy, why he's never content, and why the truth is when you're in the moment of somebody believing in you, sometimes it doesn't feel like belief at all.
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Chapters ☀️
Chapters
- 00:00:00 Intro: The Man Who Believed When the Dream Ended
- 00:02:02 The Bungalow Meeting: When Clive Davis Said Yes
- 00:09:27 Producing Aretha: The Flowers After the Fury
- 00:13:36 Seven Hours with Whitney: Negotiating with a Legend
- 00:15:53 What Makes a Great Producer: Listening and Serving
- 00:18:21 The Weekend Controversy: Leading Through Change
- 00:20:45 Coach Olson: The Belief That Felt Like Doubt
- 00:26:26 The Final Four and Steve Kerr's Leadership
- 00:28:13 The Torn ACL: When Basketball Dreams Die
- 00:29:47 Selling Jingles in Tucson: The Pivot to Music
- 00:43:35 The Pressure of a Legendary Father
- 00:42:31 I Love Watching You Play: Parenting Differently
- 00:48:26 First Black CEO of the Recording Academy
- 00:51:10 Coach Olson's Final Words: You'll Be As Successful
- 00:52:08 Never Fulfilled: The Lists and the Chase
- 00:56:20 To Clive: You Changed the Trajectory of My Life
- 00:59:11 The Ultimate Form of Belief: When It Feels Like Doubt
ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question.
David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.
Host: David Begnaud
Guest: Harvey Mason Jr.
Executive Producer: Olivier Delfosse
Associate Producer: Jonah Johnson
Booker: Sully Bloch
Director of Photography: Foster Parks
Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)
Director of Social: Mariah Maull
Theme Music: Slipstream
Post-Production: Longwave Digital
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
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