Garth Brooks pays tribute to country music mogul Jim Foglesong

Country music star Garth Brooks has paid tribute to the mogul who helped launch his career following his death on Tuesday (09Jul13). Jim Foglesong was 90 when he passed away at a Nashville, Tennessee hospital after a brief illness, and now Brooks has spoken out to express his condolences.
In a statement to the Associated Press, Brooks writes, “Today, the music industry lost its greatest diplomat for kindness, tolerance, faith, and sincerity. But do not weep for Jim, I have never met a man with a stronger faith, anyone who knew Jim knows where he is now. Instead, weep for those of us who are left here without him… truly, a great, great man.”
Born in West Virginia, Foglesong began work as a session musician in New York before helping bosses launch Epic Records and moving to Nashville.
He made his mark in the 1970s as the head of ABC/Dot Records, where he gave Don Williams, Barbara Mandrell and The Oak Ridge Boys their big breaks.
When MCA purchased the ABC labels in 1979, Foglesong signed Strait, Reba McEntire and Lee Greenwood, and signed signed Brooks as the boss at Capitol Records in the mid-1980s.
After retiring from the business, he taught at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, where Dierks Bentley was one of his students.
The star was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004.