Over the past 50 years, publicist Sanford “Sandy” Brokaw has seen his share of changes in the entertainment business, but nothing could have prepared him for the shutdown of the industry caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week, Brokaw spoke with me on the phone, from his home in Studio City, California.

Brokaw, 70, and his twin brother David, have represented some of the biggest names in show business, and some big names in country music, even some from Oklahoma.

“I worked for Reba McIntire for about 12 years, and Roy Clark was a client for 20 years,” Brokaw said. “One of the artists we represented was Garth Brooks, for about six months, and I booked his first television shot on a show called Night of 100 Stars, and I worked for Toby Keith for a couple of years.”

Outside the folks from Oklahoma, Brokaw has done P.R. for other big names.

“We started the company in 1972, and our first three clients were Lou Rawls, Loretta Lynn and Ricardo Montalban,” he said. “Lorretta Lynn was the reason why I got so involved with country music. She just opened the door for my brother and me, I liked the music, it really appealed to me in a big way, and so I embraced it. I remember one day when my brother said, ‘Mickey Gilley is a client,’ and that was a big thing for us and he was with us for 30 years. We were involved with Urban Cowboy. It was a great time and we got to do a lot of fun things.”

Brokaw continues to work for The Oak Ridge Boys, the Righteous Brothers, Vicki Lawrence, and others.

I asked him how this pandemic has affected his business, since none of these artists are touring right now.

“Well, it’s shut me down, you know, I can’t get on the phone and promote concerts that aren’t going to happen,” Brokaw said. “The one thing I am doing, Loretta Lynn asked us to do some publicity for her new book, which is about her two-year friendship with Patsy Cline. I’m able to do that and that’s kept me pretty busy, but outside of that it’s been quiet.”

So, instead of keeping busy with work, Brokaw has found other things to occupy his time and his mind.

“I’ve always had a huge passion for reading, and I’m going into my library and finding books that I’ve had for years and I’ve never read them,” he said.

“I’ve been reading a book that the casting director on The Dukes of Hazard, gave me called All the Stars in Heaven, it’s a biography of Louis B. Mayer. It’s really good, and I’m enjoying it a lot. I can only handle so much of the newspapers. I’ve read the New York Post, the L.A. Times and the L.A. Daily News today, and I have to go past a lot of articles [about the coronavirus] because it will really wear you out if you embrace it too much.”

It was through Jim Halsey, a Tulsa music artist manager, that Brokaw began working with Roy Clark and the Oak Ridge Boys.

“I met Halsey in 1975, and I was so intrigued with what he was doing,” Brokaw said. “He was an amazing success story even back then. We developed this friendship over the years, and when Roy became a client in the early ‘90s, since Jim was so close to Roy that took the relationship to another level. One day Jim called me and said the Oak Ridge Boys publicist was retiring and he said ‘I want you to handle the Oaks,’ and I said ‘okay.’ It’s been a great relationship for 20 years and I’ve really enjoyed it.”

One thing that has made an impact on Brokaw during this time of staying at home, was an article in the L.A. Times, that he in fact sent to me.

“This article gives you some tips on how to come to grips with what we’re all facing now,” he said. “One of them is, keep a journal of the things you have to be thankful for, stay connected with people, make sure you exercise, and something I learned from Roy Clark was do some random acts of kindness, and the last thing was limit your exposure to all the corona virus news.”

Brokaw said you can now call him semi-retired, but he certainly has many great stories to tell. We spoke for over 30 minutes, and if you’d like to hear the entire interview, you can find the link at www.jeffbrucculeri.com.