As the CEO of Sellars Absorbent Materials, Tom Sellars has been dedicated to creating sustainable, environmentally friendly products. But Tom is much more than a businessman. He has worked with artists like James Taylor, Willie Nelson, Jerry Garcia, and even Paul McCartney to plan massive concerts to raise awareness of Earth Day. Tom joins WTMJ’s Libby Collins to discuss how he first began working with musicians, some of his favorite “on the tour bus” stories, and his pivot to starting a business that became a multi-million dollar company. It’s all ahead on this edition of WTMJ Conversations! Listen in the player above.
A partial transcript is provided below, courtesy of eCourt Reporters.
TOM SELLARS: I had wanted to try and see if I could get McCartney, right, I mean, it’s Sir Paul McCartney. So, I developed a relationship with his agent, a guy named Alex Kochan. McCartney hadn’t toured for a while but was coming up. And so, I’d gotten Alex to give me a commitment for a pitch to McCartney’s manager to get McCartney to do our thing.
And so, we set up a time to come do the pitch. We go to the Four Season’s penthouse, there’s this party, the manager comes over and says, “Look, I know who you are, I know why you’re here, and I was going to blow you off, but because Alex asked a personal favor, come here.” So, he looks at his watch and says, “You have two minutes. Go.”
We give this who we are, the media stuff, we got the Hollywood Bowl and Earth Day.
And he says, “There’s no way we’re going to donate a pay date.”
And we knew that they were going to add a couple dates in Southern California, but there were a few dates that were blocked. And so, I said, “Well, we’re not asking for you to donate a pay date, we’re actually asking McCartneys to donate their performance.
He said, “What venue do you have again?”
“Oh, we have the Hollywood Bowl.”
“You have the Hollywood Bowl. Okay. I think Paul and Linda might be keen on the idea.”
