Ron Sakamoto was all smiles after learning he's been nominated by the Country Music Association for an award named after his late and great friend Rob Potts, an Australian promoter who tragically died in a motorcycle crash several years ago.--SOUTHERN ALBERTA NEWSPAPER PHOTO AL BEEBER
Ron Sakamoto and Australian promoter Rob Potts spent six years together on the board of the Country Music Association.
In those years, they developed a friendship that lasted until Potts’ death in a motorcycle crash on the west coast of Tasmania in 2017.
Potts, who ran a company called Entertainment Edge, was one of his homeland’s leading concert promoters with a career spanning more than 30 years.
Now his friend Sakamoto is one of four nominees for the Rob Potts International Live Music Advancement Award that will be handed out by the CMA later this fall.
The award “recognizes outstanding achievements by an individual who has made important contributions to the live music industry by extending performance opportunities and building live audiences for country music outside of the United States,” says the CMA.
The CMA awards will be handed out Nov.8 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, home of the country music industry which has long spread its wings to nations around the world.
Sakamoto is no stranger to recognition by the CMA. On two occasions – 2001 and 2006 – he was named international promoter/talent buyer of the year. Twice he was also named by the International Entertainment Buyers Association as its international promoter of the year.
His industry acknowledgements in Canada are, of course, as well known as Sakamoto, who has spent more than 50 years in the promotion business. He won the Canadian Country Music Association promoter/talent buyer of the year award for 17 straight years before the CCMA asked Sakamoto if the organization could name the award after him.
And in March at the Juno Awards in Edmonton, Sakamoto was honoured with the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award which recognizes individuals who have significantly impacted the development of the Canadian music industry.
For Sakamoto, this award is something special.
“He was so passionate about getting country music to Australia,” said Sakamoto on Thursday of his late friend.
During his career, Potts promoted concerts in Australia by artists such as Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn and Carrie Underwood – names Sakamoto knows well.
For the oft-decorated Sakamoto, just to be nominated for the award is a huge honour.
“It’s kind of surreal,” said Sakamoto a day after receiving word of his nomination. “It’s really special to me to be in that category. There are hundreds and hundreds of promoters in the world and to be in the top four, to be recognized by the biggest country organization in the world, it’s surreal.”
Sakamoto attributes his success in part to sage words spoken by his late father.
“He always said, ‘It’s not where you’re from that counts, it’s what you do that counts,'” said Sakamoto, who was born in 1943 in Coaldale to parents who were relocated from the B.C. coast during the Second World War.
Sakamoto grew up in Medicine Hat where he opened his first club called Honeycomb-A-Go-Go in the 1960s before expanding to Lethbridge with the Ron Sakamoto Varsity Club.
The CMA international awards “honour artists and industry executives who have supported and impacted the growth and promotion of country music in the international marketplace,” says the CMA.
“As we continue to see country music grow globally, it is thanks in large part to those who have supported our mission and spearheaded events, initiatives and programming to reach new territories around, the world,” said CMA chief executive officer Sarah Trahern in an announcement of this year’s nominees.
