For Jason Niebaum, who's known as "The 8-Track Guy," getting musicians to sign 8-track tapes is less about the signature and more about the connection with the musician.
The Dallasite can still remember when Michael Lee Aday, better known as Meat Loaf, signed his 8-track tape in 2015. It followed the singer's performance at the Texas Trust CU Theatre, then the Verizon Theatre.
Niebaum was outside hanging against a metal fence near the tour buses, hoping to catch a few artists on their way out. The moment Aday saw Niebaum’s orange 8-track tape of Bat Out of Hell, he sidled up next to him, and the two struck up a conversation about 8-track tapes.
Niebaum recalls it lasting so long that the manager attempted to pull Aday away. He remembers the musician saying, “No, no, I want to talk to this guy — I haven’t seen an 8-track in so long.”
“There was this fan-to-fan moment that that I really sort of treasured, and that's really what I'm kind of going for,” Niebaum says. “The autograph is really cool, it's that permanent keepsake. But for me, the collecting is about those moments with an artist.”
Now with over 200 signed 8-track tapes and hundreds more unsigned, Niebaum always has an extra 8-track tape in his pocket in hopes of creating another memory and connection with a musician.
The Start of the Track
Growing up in the late '70s and '80s, Niebaum says that he lived in what was the best time for music. He says he got his music “education” from his uncle Brad, whom he remembers as a "classic rock guy," for his tendency to bring around Van Halen, Aerosmith and Led Zepplin tracks.The period when Niebaum grew up was centered around cassette tapes and CDs. But when he moved to Dallas in the '90s, he found himself drawn to small sections in record stores offering 8-track tapes.
“They're this forgettable format from a bygone era,” Niebaum says. “Once cassettes came out, and like, nobody was talking about 8-tracks.”
Being a collector of playable music merchandise, he already had a few lying around. However, the first one he could recall purchasing was Business as Usual by Men at Work at 14 Records, a record store once owned by the late Bucks Burnett. He remembers purchasing it for only a quarter and says that at the time all 8-track tapes in records stores were about that price.
Later in 2012, Niebaum found himself slipping that tape into his back pocket before attending a Colin Hay concert at Granada Theater. He was hoping Hay would stay to greet fans afterward, and to Niebaum’s delight, Hay invited attendees to stick around in the lobby for a meet-and-greet.
When he reached the front of the line, Niebaum handed Hay the cartridge to be signed and recalls Hay asking him, “Where did you get that? Do you have an 8-track player?” The two then struck up a conversation as Hay signed the tape. Niebaum describes it as “the coolest little interaction with one of my musical heroes.”
“There was this moment where it's like I handed him a time machine, like there's this piece of his own musical history that he had forgotten about,” Niebaum says.
Since then, Niebaum says that he consistently brings 8-tracks to live shows that he attends, which he says is almost once a week because he's a “live music junkie.” Even when he's not attending a concert and just traveling, he packs a few just in case he runs into a musician.
Spotted in the crowd
Niebaum says he started going under the name 8-Track Guy on social media because musicians began to recognize him and refer to him as that. He would often wave an 8-track tape in the air toward the end of a show, which he says usually sticks out as something different.In 2014, Niebaum attended Paul McCartney’s concert at American Airlines Center with an 8-track of the Beatles' Revolver in his back pocket.
Seated within the first couple of rows, Niebaum easily made his way to the barrier near the stage toward the end of the performance. He took out the tape and started waving it up in the air while a mixture of the songs “Golden Slumbers,” "Carry That Weight” and “The End” echoed in the venue.
McCartney finished his performance and as he took a bow, noticed the cartridge and gestured for Niebaum to toss it on stage. McCartney caught it and signed it as he said his goodbyes to the crowd. He then tossed it back to Niebaum as confetti dropped from the ceiling and smoke lingered from the stage.
“I pull it out and I hold it over my head and just everybody around me was like, ‘Oh my God, I can't believe what happened, that’s unbelievable,’” Niebaum says. “People were taking pictures of me.”
Calling it his “greatest score,” Niebaum still gets emotional when recalling the memory. He says when he lived in a 20th-floor apartment he kept the tape in a fireproof box. One night, the fire alarm went off in the building and his second thought was about the Revolver tape.
“My wife wasn't there, but it was me and the dog,” Niebaum says. “So I got up, put the leash on the dog, grabbed the tape out of the box and quietly exited the apartment. Like, if I'm going to take one thing with me, it's that Paul McCartney 8-track tape.”
In 2019, he collaborated with Fort Worth artist Matt Cliff, who provided him with an official logo of a red cartoon 8-track cartridge with white outlines, limbs and all. Niebaum has printed stickers and shirts with his logo to give to musicians who sign his tapes.
He hopes to make more memories in the future and get even more signatures. Niebaum says that, chances are, he has an 8-track tape with him every time he steps out.
“Each cartridge holds a memory,” Niebaum says. “I think that's what I'm going for, that little moment to kind of bond with the artist over that connection.”
