F. Scott Thomson
AN INSIDER’S INSIGHTS
OP Rockwell is a swank, dimly lit, speakeasy-style cocktail lounge and music hall which sits at the top of Historic Main Street in downtown Park City, Utah. The owner and founder of this classy joint is F. Scott Thomson. This unique, versatile space is one of the largest venues in town and attracts national touring bands as well as some favorite local artists. The Park City Songwriter Festival, which was co-founded by Thomson, is held at OP Rockwell each fall. Numerous artists from around the world come to Park City to perform and share their intimate stories behind their hit songs while raising awareness for mental health and addiction. “It’s amazing to see this much talent together for two days,” says Thomson.
Affectionately known as “Scoot” or “Scooter” by his friends, Thomson grew up in California and played lacrosse in college. He started a small company that designed and manufactured lacrosse sticks but later changed his career path to real estate, which transitioned nicely into acquiring the space now known as OP Rockwell and Rockwell Room. Thomson says his goal is “to bring locals back to Main Street and to offer a must-see establishment for visitors as well.” He enjoys doing “cool stuff with cool people” and hopes to give back to the community by offering space for music and cultural events.
Favorite Performance Adventures From the Promoter:
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The first exciting show for me was April 1st, 2015, the first year we were open. Colin Hay, the frontman for the Aussie 80’s band Men At Work (one of my favorite bands growing up), was booked by my partners who own the State Room in Salt Lake City. I thought it was an April Fool’s joke until I had picked up Colin at his hotel to take him to OP Rockwell. It was pretty cool!
We have also had several private functions (non-Sundance related) where we welcomed bands like Zac Brown Band, Cage The Elephant, Ellie Goulding, Ben Rector, and Kelsea Ballerini. The Michael Franti shows have been amazing too! I lump these all into the same cool experiences.
In late 2018, we started doing Nashville Unplugged shows—hit songwriters from Nashville in an intimate setting—what an incredible show of talent! What spawned from this was our inaugural Park City Song Summit in September 2019 and probably the coolest thing I’ve ever been a part of. Bringing some of the best songwriters from Nashville and beyond to Park City for three days in September was quite insane!
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It was a weekend in September that changed the music vibe on Main Street. It was so exciting to drive up Main Street and see these artists walking the sidewalks—most had never been to Park City or Utah. We had over 70 artists, Hall of Fame songwriters, Marc Broussard and his father, larger bands like North Mississippi Allstars with Anders Osborn and Luther Dickenson, and one of my new favorites “Side Deal” composed of former members of Train, Sugar Ray, and Pawn Shop Kings. But, the best for me (and what I heard from others) was listening to the stories of these amazing artists in this intimate setting on why they wrote the song. Some favorite moments:
The Hall of Fame Round with Keith Stegall, Aaron Barker, Even Stevens (BMI Songwriter of the Century) was amazing! Luckily, I was able to host them in my Listening Room which is super intimate with around 100 people.
Rita Wilson and her son had a fantastic session with Tyler Hilton.
The Chris Wallin, Rick Brantley, Kyle Jacobs with the ASCAP round was amazing.
Hailey Steele, Megan Linville, Ira Dean…oh man!
I could list all of them and it would take too much space… Insane! Also, can’t forget about our local artists who hit it out of the park: Morgan Snow, Shannon Runyon, Alicia Stockman, Bryon Friedman, Carver Louis, Marybeth Maziarz, Mel Soul, Sophia Dion, Rick Gerber, Brooke Mackintosh, among others!
We also held conversations with Harold Owens and Paul Williams in support of Mental Health Awareness and sobriety issues within the music industry, and frankly any industry and in life. “Grammy’s Music Cares” as well as Anders Osborn’s “Send Me A Friend Foundation” were elements to the success of the festival. How the respect of promoting both sobriety and responsible drinking coexist in the music environment whether it’s at OP Rockwell or other bars festivals, music scenes. Everyone should feel comfortable being in these places together so they can enjoy the art, artistry, stories, and pure joy of music. There were more…Billy Dean, Hailey Steele, Megan Linville, Matt Warren, Danny Myrick, Monty Powell & Anna Wilson, Rick Brantley, Ira Dean, Chris Wallin, Sinclair. The list was sick… And, they all want to come back!!
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Yes, right… This cracks me up because Loki and Gertrude are my calling card. When they walk into the Main Street building, everyone knows I am there because they know the pups precede me with every step. If someone doesn’t remember my name or OP Rockwell, they always resort to saying, “the place with the two German shepherds.” They are my children so it’s easy and they know the rules well enough for me to allow them a lot of freedom.
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It’s funny, after years of being in commercial real estate in Park City, I always wanted to leave the craziness of the Sundance Film Festival and head out of town. Now, I create some of the craziness of Sundance—it’s a big part of our revenue. We, of course, need a bit of time off. The festival is not just 10 days for us, but also includes the months leading up to Sundance that can be stressful. We love stay-cations in town. We love to hunker down at home for a bit to catch up on sleep, but we also have so many classy hotels with pools, gyms, and great restaurants. Washington School House is one of them. We love to ski, so just getting out for some fresh air at Deer Valley Resort or Park City Mountain is heaven and recharges our batteries. Everyone needs some time off from the craziness of Sundance, so please be nice to everyone who works in the service industry because most everyone is at their wit’s end.
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One of our favorite days is Easter. We ski at Deer Valley for a few hours in the morning then have brunch with friends at Glitretind at the Stein Eriksen Lodge or Goldener Hirsch Inn—boots off and slippers on. We will spend the entire day hanging out with a large group of friends. It’s springtime (sometimes), and what a great way to spend the day and too much money on way too much food. But it’s so worth it!
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I’m proud of putting everyone else first while developing these businesses—OP Rockwell, The Listening Room, and our Office Club. It might not be the smartest philosophy, but it’s the most enriching and rewarding. We are also doing things that, we believe, enrich Park City. By creating cultural events and shows, we are striving to be the place that locals come back to on Main Street. We have learned a lot of lessons, and often have a lot of anxiety, but I’m proud of where we were and where we are now. It’s been just five years, but we have come a long way. I hope at the end of the day people see the hard work our entire team has put into making it this far.
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There are so many reasons that the art and culture scene is important for our community. For example, the Arts Council has provided and created an interactive platform for young talent to be creative and showcase themselves, such as myself and many others. This exposure to artistic creativity helps us gain exposure and helps build a loyal client base within our community, which leads to global exposure. The platform also helps build mentorship programs for the young and older generations in our community. If someone wanted to add a service to expand tourism, they could refer to the platform and potentially reach out to create partnerships with other creative small businesses within the community. This platform also enlightens our community on what talents live here, which we sometimes don't know.