Roger Sovine, Longtime BMI Nashville Exec Who Championed Country Songwriters, Dies at 82
Over a decades-long career in Nashville, Sovine helped nurture the artistry of some of the biggest names in country music.
12/29/2025
Over a decades-long career in Nashville, Sovine helped nurture the artistry of some of the biggest names in country music.
Singer-songwriter Freddy Weller, BMI's Roger Sovine, music publisher Bill Lowery and BMI's Harry Warner attend Lowery Group Picnic at Lowery Group Publishing in Atlanta, Sept. 22, 1983. Rick Diamond, Getty Images
Roger Sovine, who spent much of his four-decade career in country music as an executive at BMI Nashville and as a leader in Nashville’s country music community, has died. He was 82.
Sovine passed away peacefully on Dec. 23, surrounded by family at Alive Hospice in Nashville, Tenn.
Born Feb. 17, 1943, Sovine was immersed in music from a young age as the son of “Giddyup Go” hitmaker Woodrow Wilson “Red” Sovine, most widely known for his country truck-driving songs, and Norma Searls Sovine. The Sovine family relocated from Eleanor, W. Va., to Nashville when Roger was 12. After graduating from high school and serving in the United States Marine Corps, he embarked on a career in country music.
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Sovine got his career start at Nashville’s Cedarwood Publishing Company in 1965. In 1972, he moved over to BMI, where he was assistant vp of writer/publisher relations. Positions at Welk Music Group and Tree International followed, but by 1985 Sovine was back with BMI for the long haul, now as vp of writer/publisher relations — an executive position he held through 2001 when he retired.
In Sovine’s years with BMI, he fostered outlaw country (backing the likes of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson) and nurtured artists who’d become mainstream country hitmakers (Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, Brooks & Dunn, Keith Urban and more).
As an advocate for songwriters and a mentor to young professionals in the music industry, he served in various roles within Nashville’s community. He was a trustee of the Country Music Foundation and a trustee of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS), for which he was also a member of the board of governors and four-term president of its Nashville chapter.
Previously he’d also held positions as chairman of the Copyright Society of the South, executive vice president and board member of R.O.P.E., and president and chairman of the board of the Country Music Association. He was a former commissioner of the Tennessee Film, Entertainment & Music Commission and a charter organizer and board member of Leadership Music. Additionally, he’d served as an executive committee member for the T.J. Martell Foundation for Cancer, Leukemia and AIDS Research, MusiCares and the United Way of Middle Tennessee.
