A young band immense in talent frequently just needs experienced leaders to help guide them through the sometimes muddy waters of the music industry. The Tri-State area's Jared Keim and the other members of the band Restless Road have landed one of music's most experienced and successful managers to lead the trio into the next phase of their musical career.

Johnny Wright, well-known throughout musical circles for guiding Justin Timberlake, New Kids on the Block, the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Britney Spears, the Jonas Brothers and countless others, has agreed to terms with Restless Road to be the group's manager. The agreement was announced by Wright via Twitter Monday evening. Keim confirmed the union in an interview with me Monday evening.

"We signed Johnny Wright with WEG Music as our manager," Keim said. "He has tons of connections and knows so much about the industry it blows our minds. This is a HUGE step in our career as a group." Keim added, "There's so much happening almost every day as a result of having Johnny on our side."

Jared Keim stops by the Y101 Studios

"Big things coming!", Wright said on Twitter when announcing the partnership. Wright has an extensive background helping some of the biggest names in music. In addition to the performers mentioned above, Wright has worked with Ciara, Janet Jackson, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Color Me Badd and many more. The pairing between Wright and Restless Road will tap into new territory of sorts for Wright: It will be his first foray into country music, something that has Keim very excited about what the future holds.

"(There are) people the guys and I have said that we want to work with (writers and producers), but were kind of too big to be a possibility," Keim said. "Johnny has already set us up with some of those people. We got to skip a lot of the steps in this whole process since he's on board."

It's those connections that Keim hopes takes Restless Road to the next level. "He's got about as many connections in the industry that anyone could possibly have," Keim said. "Some of the biggest names in country music that are behind the music you hear on the radio."

Is a major label next for Restless Road? "A label is something that'll be in the future, but not immediate future," Keim said. "A label isn't needed to do what we're doing at the step of the process we're in right now."

Restless Road was formed after Zach Beeken, Andrew Scholz and Colton Pack auditioned on the X Factor USA as individual artists. Despite impressive auditions, neither singer made the top 40. The show's judges saw enough unique talent in each performer and decided to put them together as a group. Simon Cowell mentored the three and as a group they finished fourth overall in season 3. Pack left the group in early 2014 to pursue a solo career. Keim was announced as the new third member in May.

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