I used to tell my husband that, when I grew up and got a big girl job, I wanted to book the Fox Theatre. This position came about when the Fox opted to become more of a player in the marketplace and do their own programming. When I got a call asking if I was interested in applying for the position, I laughed and said, “Are you kidding me!”

When I interviewed, I told Alan Vella, our president and CEO, that I really wanted the job but wasn’t going to close my business down. So, if we could make that work, then I’d be all in. And we’ve made it work.

My first big shows when we started Rival were two performances by the Pixies in 2004. It was incredible. Prince was the last show I did here before I took a position with the theatre. It was one of the most monumental shows I’ve ever been a part of. I stood in the auditorium and watched the entire show, and I couldn’t believe it.

Yes, it does! We had that great Centennial Olympic Park show with them, and the band had a great time. I always wanted to do a show at Turner Field, but I was roadblocked a few times. When the band called this time, I thought, “OK, what do we do that’s bigger than Centennial Park?” Georgia State opened the doors, so I was like, “Oh, we are so doing this!”

To be honest, the Foo Fighters were a little nervous about it at first. They worried the venue was too big. So, I said, we’ll go conservative and not open the upper deck. But then the show sold out, so we opened the upper deck and sold more than 31,000 tickets.

I started as a runner and production assistant during the Olympics. After that, I was hired to be a runner at Chastain Park Amphitheater, and when the summer was over, they asked me to work in the office. I was the receptionist there for about six months. Then, I started booking the old Cotton Club when it was in Midtown. After that, I started booking the Tabernacle and the Music Midtown festival. It all happened very fast — in like a year or a year and a half.

There is (laughing). I had been working in the business for about nine years, and when I started to go and do my own thing there was a lot of ugly talk going on — stuff like, “She’ll never make it,” or whatever. So, I said, OK, if it’s going to be ugly and hurtful, let’s call a spade a spade, and I named the company Rival.

I grew up in Gainesville, Ga., and I couldn’t wait to move to the city. I was working at a bar and going to school, and then I got this opportunity during the Olympics. I couldn’t go to school during the day, so I had to take night classes and 8 a.m. classes, then go to work at 10 a.m. It was a lot of juggling. Back then, bars were open in Midtown until 4 a.m., so there were days where I would go to class at 8, work from 10 to 6, go let my dog out, then work at the Cotton Club until 4 a.m.

It was a tough time, and my grades suffered a little bit, so I took some time off. I went back after my father died because I only had a year left to graduate. I did that for him because he wanted me to graduate college. Even though I was neck-deep in my career, that was something he wanted, and I wanted to honor that.