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RSR557 - Teresa Knox - Reviving Leon Russell’s Church Studio & the Tulsa Sound
What's in this episode
What happens when you rescue a forgotten studio that once shaped American music history - and bring it roaring back to life? This week, I sat down with Teresa Knox, the powerhouse entrepreneur and preservationist behind the rebirth of The Church Studio in Tulsa, Oklahoma - the legendary home of Leon Russell, the early Shelter Records family, and the roots of what became known as the Tulsa Sound. Teresa shares the entire arc of this wild journey: from collecting Leon Russell Slurpee cups as an 8-year-old kid, to buying the abandoned church sight unseen, to rebuilding it from the ground up and restoring it as a world-class studio, museum, archive, and engineering school. We talk about the stunning history embedded in the building - the 1915 hand-built sanctuary, the 1972 Leon-era renovations, and what it really takes to preserve a place where so many iconic recordings were born. We dig deep into the music: Leon’s time in the Wrecking Crew, his explosion after Mad Dogs & Englishmen, recording with George Harrison at the Concert for Bangladesh, and his early influence on players like Elton John and Glen Campbell. Teresa shares stories from the Shelter Records years - Tom Petty and the