People tie my love for the military to my 20-plus years of serving the Department of Defense, now the Department of War, on some of their biggest and unique concerts and events. That's absolutely part of it, but there's backstory to my connection that you may not know, and Veterans Day feels like the right time to share it. Serving our service members has become the most important thing I do, professionally. It's Degy's mission and it's my calling, and I focus on it more than anything else I work on. Lately I've started to realize that it all began with early conversations with my Grandpa Jerry, who laid the groundwork for me to understand what our military does to protect freedom around the world.
I almost never talk about him. He didn't talk about his time in the service much, so the stories never got passed around. I think that's left him without some of the praise and notice he deserves. Deep down, I think he would have enjoyed that recognition. When I got curious and even wrote a history report about him in high school, it fueled his energy to talk about it, and he came back to mentioning it many more times before he passed away.
My father never saw me start my company or step into this field. He was a physician and then a businessman, and he may not have felt the same glee about my connection to the DoD. My grandpa died just about 10 years ago. He saw my work with the military begin and watched it grow for several years, but it has intensified so much since he got sick and passed that I believe he would have taken a great deal of pride in living through me vicariously.
Jerome Nisman was an Army man who served in World War II, and he spent the rest of his life working for the people who served next to him. The paper trail for his work with veterans is easy to find (thanks google!). In the April 1970 issue of The Jewish Veteran, the national magazine of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States, he's pictured as the New York State Commander. He is shown presenting the group's Public Services Awards to the state's Attorney General and a State Senator, and handing the Annual Human Relations Award to the Assembly's Minority Leader at a gala dinner dance at the Commodore Hotel in New York City. By March 1971 he was listed among the organization's Regional Commanders, and in the April and May 1973 issue his name is on the masthead on page two: Jerome Nisman, Advertising Director.
He also took pride in who didn't like him. He told me he was on some sort of government hate list, and whether it was Germany, Russia or someone else, somebody did not like him, and he wore that like a badge. I can't tell you which government it was, but the same magazine shows the kind of night that could earn a man a place on a list like that. In March 1970, while French President Georges Pompidou was being honored at a dinner in the grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria in New York, the Jewish War Veterans' New York department rented the room next door, stood up to pressure to give it up, and packed in more than 300 people to protest France's Middle East policy, as the March 1970 issue tells it. You probably guessed it. My Grandpa Jerry was the department's commander that spring.
Here's the part that still gets me. He would not talk about the service itself unless my wife, a US history teacher, and I pinned him down on a couch to make him. I have saved his medals (which he had boxed up in his Brooklyn basement). I have the papers he kept hidden from most of our family for years. When I landed my first work with the Department of Defense, he finally sat me down and started putting the pieces together for me, one story at a time.
I mentioned Stacy, my wife, above. He adored her, and I like to think it was beyond being a history teacher. He would glow when Stacy started to talk about U.S. History around him and I think that was the opening he always wanted to tell the stories he kept deep in his heart and soul. She spent a few days with him in Brooklyn not long before he passed, camera rolling, rattling off questions about the wars until we had hours of video of him telling it in his own words. I will never be able to thank her enough for that; we just need to find which hard drive she saved the footage on to decide what we do next.
As you probably know, I never served. I get the honor of watching what our service members do first hand and up-close-and-personal these days around the world. I doubt I would have made it through the effort, the dedication and the focus they put in. I've had to make peace with that decision not to stand up and volunteer my name. However, what I do have is a company that puts live entertainment in front of service members, and I'll tell you straight that serving the military has been rewarding to me in more ways than I can count. I’ve started to admit that it now feels like the biggest mission I have in my professional life. That's where this week's story really starts.
The Navy is in the middle of its biggest run of free concerts in years. Operation MWR is bringing live shows to 50 Navy installations through April 2027, and this fall it started August 8 at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. In the words of Vice Adm. Scott Gray, who runs Navy Installations Command, programs like this help reduce stress, strengthen unit and family support networks and build the resilience sailors need for demanding work. You've heard me tell some of those nights, from Teddy Swims and Miranda Lambert at Naval Station Norfolk to Pitbull and Gwen Stefani at Naval Base San Diego, which played through a tropical storm.
A good chunk of what we're doing for the Navy this week is prevention programming, built around suicide prevention and resiliency. 1 Degree of Separation pairs four comedians doing clean stand-up with an honest talk about their own battles with depression, and sailors leave with five questions to help start those conversations at home and at work. Creator Brad Bonar Jr. told Stars and Stripes, "This is real training." The show started with his story about his suicide note written back in sixth grade. The ‘comedy’ event played Fleet Activities Yokosuka on November 3, and then over to sailor visits across the fleet in Sasebo. This follows a run at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in early September and nearly 100 other visits 1DOS has made for us over the last two years. Laughter turns out to be a pretty good way into a room that doesn't want to talk about it.
Here's why I think this belongs in a blog about the live music business. The industry is finally talking about the same thing. In April, MusiCares teamed up with The Jed Foundation, with backing from Spotify, to launch a suicide prevention resource hub for music professionals, with a self-paced course for artists, crew, managers and support teams. The reason is hard to read. In MusiCares' 2025 Wellness in Music Survey, 11.4 percent of music professionals reported suicidal thoughts in the past year, up from 8 percent the year before, and one in six respondents had lost a colleague to suicide. If you've ever worked a long tour, none of that is hard to believe. And if you ever need help, there are people who are there to listen and you should seek that support. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 any time to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, and veterans can dial 988 and press 1.
If you're a talent buyer, a base programmer or a campus event planner thinking about Veterans Day, this is the week to ask what your own events could do. Small ones count. The Mobile Pops Symphonic Band plays its annual free Veterans Day concert at the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park on November 11, and the Military Order of the Purple Heart's Louisiana department is hosting a free concert in Acadiana on November 8. Neither one is a giant production, and both give veterans a room where they're the guests of honor.
Here are five acts who have played for service members on Degy dates this fall, and every one of them is a name a military base, college or fair programmer can put on a poster.
Tyler Hubbard played Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota on August 22 and Buckley Space Force Base the week before, with Blanco Brown on both dates.
Roy Wood Jr. took his comedy to four Air Force and Joint Base audiences in the first week of August: Malmstrom, Joint Base San Antonio, Laughlin and Goodfellow.
Chris Lane played Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst on September 12.
Brett Young played for sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in Micronesia in September, and I was there with him.
Honorable Mention #6: I'm taking some creative liberty this week to celebrate and honor some veterans who are active music acts. This is not a comprehensive list, but these are some of the many current touring artists you should know gave of themselves to our country, and to every one of them, thank you for your service.
Zach Bryan spent eight years in the Navy. Craig Morgan served in the Army and re-enlisted on the Grand Ole Opry stage in 2023. Jamey Johnson put in eight years in the Marine Corps Reserve, and Jason Michael Carroll is a Marine Corps veteran. Josh Gracin is a Marine veteran too. Shaggy was a Marine artilleryman, Sturgill Simpson spent three years in the Navy and Ice-T served in the Army. A few more names you should know: George Strait (Army), John Fogerty (Army Reserve), Willie Nelson (Air Force), James Otto (Navy), MC Hammer (Navy) and Maynard James Keenan of Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer (Army). Thank you one and all for supporting our country and serving.
If you or someone you know is a veteran or service member who is struggling, the Veterans Crisis Line is open around the clock: dial 988 and press 1 or visit the Veterans Crisis Line site. To everyone who has served, and to the families who served alongside them, thank you. Degy is proud to serve our active service members and veterans around the world. But we also support them professionally with several veterans and active service members working inside our walls. To each of them, thank you for your service. Grandpa Jerry, I hope I'm making you proud. I'll see everyone next weekend!
For more than 25 years, Degy Entertainment has been helping buyers find the act that fits the moment, whether that's a homecoming crowd, a county fair, a corporate event or a base full of service members, putting on nearly 3,000 events a year across more than 30 countries. Our talent buying and middle-artist booking teams work with colleges, fairs and festivals, military installations, parks and recreation departments and private events.
Looking for an act with a purpose behind it? Reach out to Ari Nisman anytime or learn more at Degy Entertainment.