Sakamoto honoured with international CMA award

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on November 22, 2024.

Herald photo by Al Beeber Ron Sakamoto was named the fourth winner of the Rob Potts International Live Music Advancement Award at the 58th annual Country Music Awards ceremony this week at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Ron Sakamoto has earned many accolades in his decades as one of the world’s leading music promoters.

But on Wednesday he received an award which may be one of the closest to his heart.

The Country Music Awards named Sakamoto the fourth winner of the Rob Potts International Live Music Advancement Award at its 58th annual awards ceremony at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

The award recognizes outstanding achievements made 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 U.S. Eligible recipients are promoters, talent buyers, booking agents and other industry professionals but the award is only presented when the CMA deserves a recipient is worthy.

“Ron Sakamoto has been instrumental in building multiple country artists’ careers for decades in Canada. Very early in his career, he came to Nashville to develop relationships with agents so that he could start building Country Music touring opportunities in Canada. This award honours an individual working in the live touring business who has enabled country music to thrive in new territories,” said Milly Olykan, CMA vice president of international artists and development on Thursday.

We are so thrilled to honour Ron with this award, and we are grateful that Matthew Ramsey from Old Dominion was on hand to help us surprise Ron with a heartfelt speech.”

For Sakamoto the award is particularly special because the late Potts was a close friend. While they promoted shows on different ends of the earth, Sakamoto and the Australian Potts developed a close bond over the years, serving six years together on the CMA board. Since its inception, only three others have been given the award and Sakamoto is the first Canadian.

Lethbridge-based Sakamoto was nominated for the award last year.

Just days after they spoke in the fall of 2017, Potts died Oct. 27 in a motorcycle crash on the west coast of Tasmania.

“He was so respected in the industry,” Sakamoto said recently about his friend.

Potts ran a company called Entertainment Edge and was one of Australia’s leading concert promoters with a career spanning more than three decades.

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.

Sakamoto’s industry acknowledgements in Canada are well known with a career spanning more than five decades.

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. In March of 2023 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.

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.

“It’s real special because he was a really dear friend of mine,” said Sakamoto in a recent interview.

Potts was the first person to introduce Sakamoto to the music of Keith Urban who had a band in Australia called The Ranch.

“He said ‘Ron if you can get this guy he’s going to be a superstar’ so I was the first one to bring Keith Urban to Canada,” said Sakamoto.

When Urban came to Canada, he brought a couple of his band members to Nashville where “he can’t get arrested because they don’t know who he is,” Sakamoto recalled.

Sakamoto was asked to bring Urban to Canada because he know the artist’s manager and he decided to take a shot, Urban’s first shows in the country being at the Calgary country venue known as The Ranchmans.

“He was so good, it was amazing. I knew that he was going to be a superstar and now I have sold out eight Saddledomes with him” and other venues across Canada over the years, he said.

In September of 2017, Potts told Sakamoto he was going to do some motorcycling in Tasmania “and I said ‘pardon me, you’re too old to go motorcycling’ but guess what? Oct. 27, 2017 he got killed,” said Sakamoto.

“He was so respected in the country music industry because of all the shows he took to Australia and he was on the board of directors of the Country Music Association in Nashville with me and they wanted to name this international promoter of the year award after him.”

Sakamoto said he’s representing Lethbridge, Alberta and the entire country with the award but he had no plans to walk the red carpet last night even though he was invited.