RSR557 - Teresa Knox - Reviving Leon Russell’s Church Studio & the Tulsa Sound - Recording Studio Rockstars

RSR557 – Teresa Knox – Reviving Leon Russell’s Church Studio & the Tulsa Sound

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 Heartbreakers arriving as Mudcrutch, J.J. Cale, The Gap Band, Phoebe Snow, Willis Alan Ramsey, Freddie King, and even Bob Marley & The Wailers turning the place into a Jamaican party. She walks us through the official Church Studio playlist, the discovery of original artifacts inside the walls, and why preserving the stories of these musicians matters just as much as preserving the building itself.

Finally, we talk about the reconstruction: shoring up a collapsing foundation, solving electrical noise and RF issues, preserving historic architecture while building a modern studio, restoring a Neve 8068, installing two EMT 140 plates, and designing a hybrid analog/digital workflow. Teresa also explains how The Church Studio now trains new engineers through its hands-on vocational school, hosts sessions with top artists, runs a nonprofit to support musicians, and continues the legacy of Leon and the Tulsa Sound through events like CarniFest. Her passion for preservation, community, and world-class sound makes this one of the most inspiring studio stories I’ve ever heard.

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Website Links:

The Church Studio site: thechurchstudio.com

Fasebook: The Church Studio
Instagram: @thechurchstudio
Youtube: @TheChurchStudio


Additional podcast editing and production by:
Vlad Vasilcenko
Daria Tupesis

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