Pyro Shows is WLAF’s business of the week

‘A 10 minute $36 fireworks show vs. $3 for mowing a yard for four hours. I thought, there may be something to this’- Lansden Hill

By Charlotte Underwood

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- It started with a bang as an odd job for a teenager to make some summer spending money and turned into a thriving company with multiple locations across the country.

Fireworks and effects specialists, Pyro Shows Inc., has been launching explosives all across the country and all over the world for 55 years!

TOP PHOTO: Pyro Shows Inc. was founded by LaFollette native Lansden Hill Jr. and has over a 55-year history of providing firework displays and special effects entertainment throughout the United States. This photo shows fireworks over Norris Lake.

From Stockholm, Sweden, to San Sebastian, Spain, and from Abu Dhabi in the UAE, to Taipei, Taiwan, Pyro Shows has competed in some of the most prestigious international competitions. Pyro Shows won first place in the North American Fireworks Competition in Norfolk, Virginia, and has had the honor to provide the 4th of July fireworks at the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.  15 times since 1995.

It’s the height of the fireworks season and the busiest time of the year for Pyro Shows from June 27^th through July 5^th; during that nine-day time frame, the company will shoot around 800 shows. Shows will be shot all over the country, including LaFollette’s local show on July 5^th.

The business started up small back in 1969 by Lansden Hill Jr.  He was a teenager at the time and learned he could make a lot more money blowing things up rather than mowing yards.

He first started his fireworks business as Big Creek Enterprises in 1969 and later changed the company name to Pyro Shows, Inc.

“There was no grand plan or anything,” Lansden said, adding that he was a curious child who was always looking for a way to make some extra spending money.

“I shot a $36 fireworks show in 10 minutes; it would take me 4 hours to mow a yard for $3. So, I thought, there may be something to this,” Hill said.

His first show was for the Imperial Reading Shirt Factory.

“I shot 12 shells that cost $3 a piece. When I compared the money I could make shooting fireworks to the money I made mowing yards; it was a no brainer.”

At first, fireworks were just a hobby for Lansden, who after college went to work for the family’s third generation insurance business. Pyro-technics didn’t become an actual part time job for him until 1976 when he sold 11 shows.

“I thought I had hit the mother-load,” Lansden said with a laugh.

In the early 1980’s there was an insurance crisis in the fireworks industry and according to Lansden, lots of his friends in the fireworks business were having a hard time getting their companies insured. The fireworks company that was supposed to shoot a show in Nashville could not comply with the insurance. The Nashville City Risk Manager happened to know local insurance man Ben Rogers. He called him up and said he heard there was “some boy” that shot fireworks off up there. Being in the insurance business as well as the fireworks business, coverage for the event was not a problem and Pyro Shows landed the city of Nashville as a client. This changed everything and opened up a whole new world for Pyro Shows, according to Lansden, who said after Nashville things got “big.” The company even expanded with another location in Texas, which is operated by Mike Walden, who is also the Executive Vice President of Pyro Shows.

 In addition to his leadership role at Pyro Shows, Walden was named President of Pyro Shows of Texas in 2013 and Vice President of Pyro Shows of Alabama in 2016. Walden has “been in fireworks for 31 years.”

“Lansden talked me into leaving a career in education in 2002,” Walden said. He formerly taught Chemistry at Campbell County High School. He said over the years, he had the pleasure of working with former students, including around six to eight of the full-time Pyro Shows staff which are former students.

Walden told a little about Pyro Shows, the history of the company and what they do.

“In 1969 Lansden Hill started Pyro Shows when he was a college student…He literally started it with a CJ5, and a guy welded him some mortars together and him and some of his college buddies and high school buddies found people that loved to shoot fireworks and they would get paid a little bit of money and they thought it was something fun to do … In 1976, Lansden said Hey, I might actually be able to make money at this, and that it could build into something. Since 1969 he’s been building it,” Walden said.

In 2013, Pyro Shows expanded and “purchased the largest fireworks company in the state of Texas.”  From 2013, till 2018, Walden would spend every other week in Texas developing Pyro Shows of Texas. In 2016, Pyro Shows bought Pyro Productions in Alabama and in 2021, the company purchased East Coast Pyrotechnics which is now known as Pyro Shows East Coast.

“Those are the major acquisitions that Pyro Shows has went through over the last several years. When I came to Pyro Shows in January 2003, there were eight of us, five of us worked in the office and three worked in the storage facility…we had 85 or 100 good old Campbell Countians and when Pyro Shows went to shoot something or perform somewhere we loaded all the boys up from Jacksboro, Caryville and LaFollette and we took off and we produced these fireworks shows,” Walden said.

One of the “profound moments” for Walden and for Pyro Shows was the first time the company did the Super Bowl in 2005.

Pyro Shows maintained the momentum and achieved success both nationally and internationally.

Another major milestone for Pyro Shows was that for 15 years, the company did the Nation’s Independence Day celebration at the capital.

“That gave a small company from Campbell County, Tennessee, credibility. From that day forward, we could walk into any town, big or small, and say we did the nation’s fireworks and Super Bowl, those two events are markers for us,” Walden said.

Going strong for 55 years now, Pyro Shows is hired for events all over the world, though Hill and Walden said local shows in Campbell County and East Tennessee are always favorites.

“We have been extremely fortunate. I wouldn’t be anything if it weren’t for this community… the people here and the people who work for me,” Hill said.

Walden said he gets asked all the time, ‘what makes Pyro Shows different?’

“Our philosophy at Pyro Shows is really simple, we have one motto, you do the next right thing, whether you are talking about your employees, your customers, regulators, whatever that is. We have members of Pyro Shows staff that are on NFPA, that’s the National Fire Protection Agency that writes all the codes that fireworks follow. We have them on the American Pyrotechnics Association; Pyro Shows is putting our influence nationally in the United States and beyond, and it all started right here. The reason we are able to be in those places is because we are trusted,” Walden said.

“We get calls all the time, here in LaFollette, Tennessee, from people all over the country wanting us to come perform where they are. We couldn’t do that without the people here, the way we manage our business and the way we treat people. Doing the next right thing is the most important part of that,” Walden said.

Pyro Shows employs around 60 full-time employees, about 45 of which are here locally in LaFollette. The company provides part-time employment for around 1,800 employees country-wide at its multiple locations, with over 300 of those positions in Campbell County.  Pyro Shows also employes tons of high school students and college students here locally, providing opportunities for them to work through the summer months before going to college.

Pyro Shows “tries to stay connected” in the community and give back.

This Saturday, Pyro Shows is sponsoring the Veteran’s Breakfast at the Jacksboro First Baptist Church.

“We do the light show at Freeman Park … Locally, in Campbell County, to date, we have done about $38,000 worth of donations, pyro technic affects in services. Nationally, we have given back about $208,000,” Walden said.

He said Pyro Shows was not going to stop and that the company would “continue to employ people in Campbell County for years to come and be based here for years to come.”

Hill and Walden have both headed to the state capital of Nashville for the weekend and the big fireworks show that Pyro Shows will be shooting there.

The newest thing with fireworks is the integration of drones, according to Walden, who said Pyro Shows had several shows where they work in conjunction with drone companies doing drones and making the fireworks interact with the drones.

The big show in Nashville is the “largest show in the South” and among the largest in the country; it is an integrated show with drones and is shot from Titan’s Stadium in downtown Nashville.

As far as locally, “Pyro Shows continues to grow and more and more of the local people from LaFollette make this stuff happen and allow us to do all the things that we do; it couldn’t be done without all of them,” Walden said. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-07/04/2025-6AM)