The new documentary Ron Delsener Presents looks at the 60-year career of legendary New York concert promoter Ron Delsener, and director Jake Sumner tells ABC Audio there’s good reason why he’s a great subject for a film.
“To me, Ron is a great character and a way to look at the kind of larger picture of live music and to be a vehicle to kind of take you on a journey,” he says. “He’s great because he is kind of larger than life. … They kind of broke the mold with Ron.”
Sumner, son of The Police frontman Sting, knew of Delsener prior to making the film because he’d met him during his childhood out on the road with his father.
“He’s just a character and he … had just kind of great stories about everyone,” he adds.
The film features interviews with artists like Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Van Zandt, Jon Bon Jovi, Paul Simon and Billy Joel, and Sumner says he didn’t have a hard time getting them to talk.
“There were people that called me up asking to be in the film … big artists,” he says. “(Delsener) had an impact on them and their careers that they felt they wanted to be part of it.”
And while Delsener may be the focus of the film, Sumner says the doc is about more than just the famed promoter.
“To me, the film tells the bigger story of live music and the kind of history of it,” he says. “And it was Ron and a handful of others that really kind of created an industry where there wasn’t one.”
Ron Delsener Presents opens at Quad Cinema in New York on Friday and will then hit theaters in select cities nationwide.
(Video includes uncensored profanity.)
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