Lauren Daigle Presents Jim Asker With the Farewell False Cover Award | Country Power Players 2025 - video Dailymotion

Billboard

Lauren Diagle presents Jim Asker with the Farewell False Cover award at Billboard’s Country Power Players 2025.

Transcript

00:00Hello, everybody. How y'all doing up here? Y'all doing good? Wow, yes. I'm from New Orleans.

00:07We like to have fun. We cut up all the time. Y'all doing all right? Good. Okay, good.

00:14I have sweat dropping down every square inch of my body, so we can all get really cozy

00:21knowing it's the truth for everybody, okay? There are some things that are really easy

00:26to say yes to, and there are some things that are not. And when I got asked to present

00:32this next award, so to speak, to the wonderful Jim Asker, it was not a hard yes. It was a

00:42very easy yes. Jim is someone who, every time he placed me in that interview position, you

00:49know, you can get nervous sometimes and wonder what crazy question is about to be asked, but

00:54he is someone that made me feel right at home every time. He is a protector of the

00:59artist. He is a protector of the interview, and he is such a music connoisseur. Yay! He

01:06loves music, and he cherishes us. And to have someone who always fights on your behalf is

01:12just a beautiful thing, especially in this industry. He is beloved by so many. I know

01:17he's not just beloved by me. And whenever I found out that he wasn't going to be here

01:24at Billboard much longer, I said, you know what? If this is the last moment I get to thank

01:28someone for the role that they have played in my career, I wanted to be able to do that.

01:34He is such a noble man, a man of integrity, and that is beautiful, especially nowadays. It's a beautiful

01:40thing. And so I just want to say he's given me a lot of information about my chart rankings

01:48and plaques and things like that. And so for once, I think it's time he deserves a plaque

01:54of his own. Jim, come on up here and receive this. Come on. Give it up for Jim Asker, y'all.

02:01I only look 90. No, you don't. Come on. I'm going to help you out over here. Yeah. I'll stand

02:25with you. Hey, everyone. You know, we do charts at Billboard because we like working

02:32off the radar. And I'm actually going to be leaving. Did you mention that? I'm leaving

02:39on August 15th. It'll be my last day. Ten years. And I'm one of the lucky people who came

02:46from working in radio. And I also love writing. And when Wade Jessen, who's an icon, was in

03:02this job, he passed away, unfortunately. I thought I was going to work for like a nonprofit

03:10organization because I'm a stage four non-Hodgkin's cancer survivor. And I've run since cancer.

03:22They didn't think I'd make it through the first two weeks in the hospital. I'd have run since

03:28cancer 15 full marathons. And all of that was to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma

03:38Society. That's why I did it. But of late, I've had some health issues. That's why people

03:45had to help me up here. So while I leave Billboard, it's really sad because, you know, as a kid,

03:55I grew up, like a lot of you, listening to great rock and roll. I grew up in upstate New

04:01York. And my connection was reading the Rolling Stone and Billboard every week. And I would look

04:08at Billboard to see how many weeks Dark Side of the Moon had been on the charts as a kid. But I was

04:16lucky enough to be able to do both, to be a radio programmer and then to come to Billboard and work

04:23for Silvio. Where is he? You coming up? And Silvio runs a tight department. It's a great little team,

04:34a family that I'm really going to miss. So, you know, the people here for Billboard in Nashville,

04:44Melinda Newman, Jessica Nicholson, Tom Rowland, and Leanne Photoglo, they've just been, you know,

04:52by my side for 10 years, putting out the country update every single Monday and Friday, sometimes

04:58two times in a day. And Tom, unlike me, I consider myself a radio guy that writes. Tom's a journalist.

05:08He's a musicologist. And I really respect what he does. And then I'll cut this short because

05:16I always hated long speeches. So, and I had nothing prepared. But believe me, I could ramble.

05:24So, you know, when Silvio asked me a few weeks ago, well, who were your favorites to interview in

05:31your time here? And I said, well, why? Am I going to interview someone? I'll tell you a quick story

05:40about Lauren. I said Lauren Daigle and Keith Urban, who happened both to be in Paul's camp. He represents

05:48both of them. And I've interviewed Lauren about five times now. And when her album came out, I asked,

05:57if I, hey, can I do this? I did a podcast with her. But the first time I interviewed her was a long

06:04time ago. It was probably my first year at Billboard. And she was the new Christian artist of the year

06:11because in the charts department, I do country, Christian, gospel. And I love all of it. But she

06:19was the new Christian artist of the year. I loved her music right out of the shoot. I thought this is

06:24so soulful. And her voice, unbelievable. And so I had her phone number, I guess I called her. And she

06:34was in the car. And I broke the news to her. I said, good news, you're Billboard's new Christian

06:40artist of the year. And she was like, wait a second. And she says, I'm pulling over. And she

06:47goes, I got to take my seatbelt off. And she started crying at the time. It was pretty emotional.

06:54It was one of the favorite things that I got to do to tell somebody that you're number one or you've

07:00won an award like that. But with Lauren, it was really special. I love interviewing her. And on the

07:06way over, I thought, well, maybe she's got something new coming out. And I could do one

07:11more before I leave. But we're running out of time. And I'm just thankful. You know, having

07:19cancer and all this shit that you go through in life, I knew what I wanted to do when I was

07:24nine years old, that I wanted to write, I wanted to be on the radio, I wanted to program. When

07:31life is really bad and you have something you love to throw yourself into, like writing

07:37up an interview with Lauren Daigle or Keith Urban or doing the charts and overseeing and

07:42watching Bailey Zimmerman fly up the charts or Big X first time on the country charts. And

07:49we take a long time deliberating whether this is country. As the lines blur, we try and be

07:57really, really careful. And Silvio has done a great job with the team. And I'm just really

08:04thankful to him for keeping me on for 10 years. It's been a great 10 years. I'm not retiring,

08:09by the way. My family, we work till we die. So I teach a little bit at Columbia State Community

08:16College. Let's hear it for community colleges. I'm going to keep doing that. And I'm going back

08:22to school for another degree. And if anybody wants me to write, Lauren, you can call me.

08:28I'll call you.

08:29So thank you. I wasn't expecting anything tonight. And I was just blown away to see Lauren walk in.

08:35So thank you all.

08:42Thank you so much.

Lauren Daigle Presents Jim Asker With the Farewell False Cover Award | Country Power Players 2025

Category

Transcript

Recommended