Phil Gernhard was not only the most successful record producer to come out of Florida, he introduced many of the state’s homegrown artists to the world stage – including Jim Stafford (“Spiders & Snakes”), Lobo (“Me and You and a Dog Named Boo”) the Bellamy Brothers (“Let Your Love Flow”) and the Royal Guardsmen (“Snoopy vs. the Red Baron,” which he also co-authored).

Gernhard started young. He was just 19 when he produced “Stay,” a worldwide No. 1 by South Carolina’s doo-wop group Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs. After a decade of making hits back in Florida – including Dion’s original version of “Abraham, Martin and John,” one of the most-recorded songs in history – he worked his magic first in Los Angeles and then in Nashville, where as head of Artists & Repertoire for Curb Records, he engineered the careers of Tim McGraw, Rodney Atkins and others.

Yet for all his success, Gernhard was a deeply troubled man whose personal life was ravaged by alcoholism and drug abuse, four failed marriages and a simmering hatred towards his abusive father.

Told with comments from his family, friends, business associates and nearly every singer and songwriter he produced, Record Man is the story of a man for whom music was a life raft.