About Rick Sanjek

In 1971 Rick Sanjek moved to Nashville to work for BMI in writer/publisher relations under vice president Frances Preston. His responsibilities covered the entire Southeast including Memphis, Muscle Shoals, Atlanta, and Miami. He also helped create Nashville’s first “Songwriters Night” series at the Exit/In, then Nashville’s premier showcase room. 

In mid-1972 he was hired by Atlantic Records’ Jerry Wexler to open a country music division. He oversaw A&R and marketing for Willie Nelson’s Shotgun Willie and Phases & Stages albums, which revitalized Nelson’s career and launched the outlaw country genre. Atlantic Country also charted singles by David Rogers, Terry Stafford, Henson Cargile, and the Willie Nelson & Tracy Nelson duet After The Fire Is Gone. Despite Nelson’s expanding album sales and growing FM radio airplay to complement his country base, Atlantic decided to close the division after just two years of operation.

From 1975 to 1977 he worked with Sun Records veteran and future Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, songwriter, and producer Cowboy Jack Clement; reorganized his finances to expand the Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa studio; and helped secure a record deal for Clement and his Ragtime Cowboy Band with Elektra Records.

In 1978 he became vice president of the production, records, and publishing interests of steel guitar virtuoso and also future Hall of Famer Pete Drake. Their First Generation Records focused on classic country with its Stars of the Grand Ole Opry series and the Ernest Tubb The Legend and the Legacy tribute album featuring duets with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, and other country superstars. These projects led to a television co-production with Dick Clark titled Ernest Tubb: An American Original, and a TV special for the Canadian Broadcasting Co. (CBC) titled A Country Celebration. Drake also produced country chart-toppers for former pop star B.J. Thomas, had success with infomercial phenomenon Slim Whitman, and introduced new artists Marshall Chapman and Pam Rose.

From 1982 through 1986 Sanjek managed EMI recording artist Becky Hobbs, singer/songwriter Rick Schulman, and his Circle East Music publishing partnership with songwriter Don Goodman which scored with Lee Greenwood’ #1 Dixie Road and #5 Ring On Her Finger. He also helped the Nashville Network (TNN) implement their sync license procedures. 

From 1986-1992 he returned to BMI as vice president of writer/publisher relations in the New York corporate headquarters where Preston had assumed the presidency. In 1988 he led BMI in co-sponsoring the historic Music Speaks Louder Than Words Songwriters' Summit organized by Alan Roy Scott of the Music Bridges cultural foundation. Held in Moscow USSR, the event produced a globally-released album on Epic Records of songs created during the event by songwriters from the two nations. During that time, he also served the Recording Academy, then known as the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), twice as a national VP, president of the New York chapter, a four-time national trustee, a member of the New York City host committee for the 1991 and 1992 Grammy awards, and for two years as a member of the Grammy awards and nominations committee.  

In July 1992 he returned to Nashville to re-open his own companies under the umbrella of Sanjek Entertainment. In 1995 he partnered with Charles McCutcheon in Americana Masters, specializing in infomercials for CD box sets sold through TV Shop, Europe’s largest independent television advertiser. Mega Country, Shades of Country, The Rock & Roll Generation, and The Love Generation were televised throughout Europe selling millions of CDs.  

He has been an elector for the Rock & Roll, Country Music, and Songwriters' Halls of Fame; a voting member of the Recording Academy; chairman of the selection committee for Tin Pan South songwriter festival; a consultant to the Midem convention in Cannes, France, the Voice of Asia Festival in Kazakhstan, and the World Music Awards in Monaco; and a jury member for music festivals in Tokyo, Moscow, Latvia, and Romania. 

He has been involved in the production of and/or licensing for hundreds of audio projects, as well as music clearance, talent supervision, and/or scripting for dozens of video projects including the public television series Legends & Lyrics; the PBS/HDNET special The Outlaw Trail for which he co-wrote the theme song; and the Hallmark Network feature movie A Way Back Home (originally Shuffleton’s Barbershop) for which he also co-wrote the closing song for the final scene.

A 1968 graduate of Yale University with a BA in history, he was also a founding partner and co-owner of the Sunset Grill, an awarding-winning restaurant in Nashville that operated from 1990-2014.