Ron Sakamoto at the unveiling of Sak's Honourary Wall at the ENMAX Centre on November 7, 2022. Sakamoto has accepted the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award at the 2023 JUNO Awards. (Photo: City of Lethbridge)

By David Opinko

Lethbridge’s Ron Sakamoto receives special achievement award at JUNOs

Mar 14, 2023 | 10:02 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – A famed music promoter from Lethbridge has claimed one of the highest honours that the Canadian music industry can give.

At the JUNO Awards opening ceremony in Calgary on Saturday, March 11, 2023, Ron Sakamoto was presented with the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award.

Named after the co-founder of the JUNO Awards, it recognizes people whose work has significantly impacted the growth and development of the Canadian music industry.

Sakamoto said it was a huge honour to receive this distinction.

“It’s really really something because it entails every aspect of the music business in Canada. It’s not country, it’s not pop, it’s not rock, but it’s all of it. It’s pretty special,” said Sakamoto.

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Sakamoto told Lethbridge News Now that it was amazing to be inducted by fellow promoter Bruce Allen, someone who he says is one of the very best in the business.

He says it was “spectacular” to walk the red carpet, but that it is always a bit overwhelming to deal with the level of media attention that comes with it.

“It’s really kind of breathtaking what happens with all the people,” says Sakamoto. “For me to walk 100 yards, it took me probably half an hour because they all want pictures, they all want this, they all want that, and you know, you have to be mindful of everyone.”

Sakamoto congratulated Alberta rock band Nickelback on their induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and says he has always enjoyed his interactions with them.

He said in his JUNO Awards acceptance speech that it is impossible to summarize a nearly 60-year career in just three minutes, and thanked everyone who has crossed his path to bring him to where he is today.

Sakamoto has spent more than half of a century working in music promotions, first opening the Honeycomb A Go Go club in Lethbridge in 1964, and started his record label, Gold & Gold Productions Ltd., four years later.

In the decades that followed, he has promoted artists such as The Guess Who, Bryan Adams, Bee Gees, KISS, Keith Urban, Old Dominion, and many more.

He says so many of the people he has worked with are incredibly talented and genuinely good people, so while he could never pick just one artist as his favourite to work with, he highlighted Johnny Reid, Keith Urban, and Shania Twain.

Early on in his career, Sakamoto told LNN that he was pressured by many in the music industry to move away from Lethbridge and work from one of the major music hubs, but says he prefers smaller city life in Lethbridge.

He says he plans to continue working in music for as long as he can and even plans to run a 100 metre dash when he is 100 years old.

According to a media release from the City of Lethbridge in November 2022, Sakamoto’s long list of accomplishments include:

• 1964 – Opens first nightclub, Honeycomb A Go Go in Lethbridge for teens
• 1968 – Launches Gold & Gold Productions Ltd.
• 1975 – First event at Lethbridge Sportsplex, a Doobie Brothers concert
• 1993 – Wins first Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) Promoter of the Year. After receiving this honour for the next 17 years, the award is re-named to “Ron Sakamoto Talent Buyer or Promoter of the Year” in 2010
• 1996 – Receives Award of Exceptional Citizenship from Lethbridge Mayor David Carpenter
• 2001 – University of Lethbridge creates Ron Sakamoto Scholarship
• 2001 – Wins Country Music Association (CMA) International/Talent Buyer of the Year Award
• 2003 – Receives Honourary Doctorate of Law degree from the University of Lethbridge
• 2006 – Wins second CMA International/Talent Buyer of the Year Award
• 2007 – Awarded CCMA Hank Smith Award of Excellence
• 2008 – Presented Key to the City by Lethbridge Mayor Bob Tarleck
• 2010 – Establishes Digital Audio Arts Scholarship with wife Joyce, for the Digital Arts and Music Program at the University of Lethbridge
• 2012 – Awarded Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal
• 2012 – Becomes owner of Paradise Canyon Golf Resort
• 2013 – Donates 28 guitars to Galbraith Elementary School to start their music program
• 2013 – Launches Sakamoto Agency
• 2013 – Wins International Entertainment Buyer’s Association (IEBA) International Buyer of the Year Award
• 2014 – Inducted into Canadian Country Music Association Hall of Fame
• 2015 – Presented the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce Business Legacy Award
• 2017 – Honoured with Blackfoot Name Komahniisihnskii (Owns Many Songs)
• 2017 – Substantial donation to Angel Tree Program enabling Lethbridge Family Services to fulfil every child’s dream of a Christmas gift
• 2019 – Sponsors One District One Book with 13,000 books distributed to Lethbridge School District No.51
• 2019 – Awarded the Music Managers Forum (MMF) Canada Brian Chater Pioneer Award for instrumental contributions to artist management in Canada (for immeasurable contributions to Music Management Canada)
• 2019 – Becomes a member of the Alberta Order of Excellence

The full list of JUNO Award winners is on the JUNO Awards website.

READ MORE: Lethbridge’s Ron Sakamoto inducted into Order of Alberta Excellence

READ MORE: Honourary wall for Ron Sakamoto unveiled at ENMAX Centre