Bio : Notes Live
ABOUT NOTES LIVE
Founded by the visionary entrepreneur JW Roth, Notes Live stands as a prominent and rapidly expanding live-entertainment enterprise. Rooted in Colorado Springs, Roth's brainchild is poised to revolutionize the entertainment landscape with a portfolio of large and mid-sized premium music venues strategically positioned across the Western and Southern regions of the United States. By the close of 2025, Notes Live aims to operate a network of six distinctive and premium concert destinations attracting over 2,000,000 visitors annually expanding to over 3,000,000 in 2026, each meticulously chosen to cater to burgeoning populations underserved by high-quality music and entertainment venues.
At the heart of the Notes Live ethos is the commitment to deliver unparalleled concert experiences marked by luxury offerings, optimal sightlines, and an elevated musical experience. Currently, the company proudly manages entertainment campuses in both Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Gainesville, Georgia. These campuses house the renowned Boot Barn Hall concert venue, the Bourbon Brothers restaurant, and, exclusively in Colorado Springs, the Notes Live music and social bar.
Notes Live is strategically expanding its luxury amphitheater footprint across key states, including Colorado, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. As the company scales, it anticipates leveraging its growing network to procure multiple artist dates, further solidifying its presence in the live-entertainment arena.
JW Roth, an experienced entrepreneur, and fifth-generation Colorado native, embarked on the Notes Live journey following a transformative trip to California with his wife. Inspired by a concert at Peter Mondavi's scenic property, Roth envisioned creating a space where music enthusiasts could revel in both exceptional performances and a world-class atmosphere. Drawing on his successful entrepreneurial background, which includes founding Roth Industries—one of America's fastest-growing packaged food companies—Roth brings a wealth of experience to his role as the Executive Chairman of Notes Live.
The flagship Boot Barn Hall, launched in February 2019 on the Colorado Springs campus, swiftly ascended to become one of Colorado's premier music venues. Not content with past achievements, Notes Live is poised to elevate its status further with the unveiling of The Sunset—an 8,000-person state-of-the-art open-air amphitheater in Colorado Springs. This crown jewel, set to open in Summer 2024, epitomizes Notes Live's dedication to delivering unparalleled entertainment experiences. In partnership exclusively with AEG Presents, The Sunset will host the nation's largest touring acts, offering an unmatched vista of the sun setting over Pikes Peak. Designed by industry-renowned architects, this masterpiece will feature 133 VIP luxury firepit suites, 4–5 star restaurants, including a signature seafood and chophouse, and a top-shelf rooftop bar boasting over 150 of the rarest bourbons in the world.
ABOUT JW ROTH
Notes Live, founded by Colorado Springs-based entrepreneur JW Roth, is the rapidly growing live-entertainment company that within the next year and a half will be operating a half dozen large and mid-sized premium music venues across the West and South. It currently boasts a Colorado Springs entertainment campus with the Boot Barn Hall concert venue, Bourbon Brothers restaurant, and Buttermilk breakfast eatery and will have launched similar locations in Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Texas by the end of 2023, as well as the company’s crown jewel: The Sunset, a state of the art, 8,000 person open-air amphitheater in Colorado Springs that will host the largest touring acts in the country.
Down to almost the smallest detail, the company’s venues were envisioned by Roth, an entrepreneur who has led the process of taking seven different companies public and a lifelong music fan and concert-goer. He first conceived of the company on a trip to California years ago. A train tour of Napa made a stop at Peter Mondavi’s property, where the revered winemaker had set up a small amphitheater to hold concerts. Seeing a show in such a beautiful setting stuck with Roth. “I love live music, whether it's in Peter Mondavi’s front yard or whether it's some hole in the wall in downtown Colorado Springs,” Roth says. “But not everyone is not going to go to a lot of the places that I go. People don’t want to stand in a long line at the bathroom, sit at a table that is sticky, eat bad food, or not be able to see the band well. So I built a place where the overall experience is as good as the music itself.”
Roth’s personal passions infuse every experience at his venues. He loves classic rock and country, so those were some of the first bands he booked (“I told people, I'm going to build a place that is going to have the same kind of music that I listened to in my car,” he jokes). He has the largest residential firepit in the nation at his house, so the Sunset will include over 60 VIP luxury firepit suites. He is a bourbon collector, so all his campuses will include bourbon tasting rooms with over 150 of the rarest bourbons he has discovered from all over the world. Roth’s attention to detail informs every decision made, from the tables in the concert halls – all custom-made hightops for an optimal sightline whether the attendee wants to sit or stand – to the lights in the bourbon room – every one hand blown by a lighting company he found in Tennessee – to the state-of-the-art sound system designed by Martin. “People know that I go over the top, it’s just what I do. I want it to sound like it does in my car. I want to sound like it does on my patio at home,” he says. “I want it to be perfect, and I want that perfection to be translated into everything we do.”
The fifth-generation Colorado native traces his self-starting streak back to his early teenage years, when he started a business selling firewood door to door. He scaled his ambitions up from there, selling everything from bulk delivered foods to insurance before he was twenty. Drawing on his childhood experiences working on his family’s cow ranch outside of Denver, as a young adult he co-founded the animal health company Aspen Bio Pharmaceuticals and was the initial financier of the veterinary imaging company Sound Technology, leading the process of taking seven different companies public along the way. In 1996, he made his first investment in food manufacturing, which, through a series of further investments, led to his biggest success yet: Roth Industries, one of the fastest growing packaged food companies in America that provides fresh-never-frozen meals and proteins to over 12,000 grocery stores nationwide.
In 2021, though, he resigned as CEO of Roth Industries (he remains on the board as Executive Chairman) to devote himself to another passion: Live music and entertainment. The company he founded, Notes Live, has become his main focus. It began almost by chance after one of Roth’s early real estate investments was leased by a restaurant group. That establishment soon went under, leaving him with a fully-operational restaurant sitting empty on his land, just waiting for someone to run it. Rather than find someone else to lease it again, he decided to step in himself.
“I didn't know anything about the restaurant business, to be honest with you,” he recalls now. “So I took a team that we already had established at Roth, and we put a business plan together. Then I went down to the culinary school in Colorado Springs and started hiring some of the students that were graduating. Then I hired the guy that ran the culinary school.”
That first restaurant, Bourbon Brothers (opened in 2014), became a smash success, and an example of one of Roth’s core business philosophies. “One of the things that I learned early on in my career was invest in jockeys, not horses,” he says. “I've had that mentality through all of my businesses: Find good people. Bad people can screw up a good business; great people can fix a bad business.”
Some of those great people include his own family members. Roth boasts one of the longest family lines in Colorado; he notes that the Roths settled there before Colorado was even a state. And now his son Mitchell has joined the family business at both Roth Industries and Notes Live. “I would take him with me when I would go on meetings when he was nine or ten,” Roth recalls, “and I would always tell him, one of these days we're going to work together. And today, Mitchell runs our family’s crown jewel, Roth Industries.”
The campus with Bourbon Brothers soon expanded to include the music venue Boot Barn Hall (opened 2019) and Buttermilk, A Breakfast Eatery (opened 2020). Since its opening, the Boot Barn Hall has quickly become one of Colorado’s premiere music venues, booking a mix of country and classic rock acts for the upscale demographic that has moved into the area. Next, Roth plans to bring that model to other cities across the West and South in Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Texas, and beyond. The company identifies markets in regions with growing populations but a dearth of high-quality music and entertainment venue, and offers premium concert experiences, complete with unbeatable sound and sightlines as well as elevated food and beverage options.
The biggest of all will be The Sunset, an 8,000 person open-air amphitheater on the same Colorado Springs campus as Bourbon Brothers, Boot Barn Hall, and Buttermilk. Opening in 2023, it will host the largest touring acts in the country in style and comfort. “My goal is to build the most luxurious, state of the art amphitheater in the world,” he says. Designed by industry renowned architects, it offers an unparalleled view of the sun setting over Pikes Peak right behind the stage as each concert begins, flanked by the United States Air Force Academy stadium on the left and the iconic Air Force chapel on the right.
“I am building an entertainment company that when you think of our name, you think ‘experience,’” Roth says. “There will be no better place to see a concert on earth than at one of our properties.”