Skip to main content
Anthony Sanchez speaks in rough, jagged chunks of sound, with occasional pauses to clear some of the thicker phlegm from his throat. To get the words out takes a lot of effort and some translation from his fiancée, Samantha Wilmot. He has a lot to say, but his body can’t keep up with the pace of his mind.
“Don’t have a stroke,” Wilmot says during one pause in our conversation. “It’s terrible.”
The gallows humor in her voice belies the struggles Sanchez has faced since 2019. At the beginning of that year, the 48-year-old suffered a stroke that landed him in a neurocritical care facility. During his treatment, Sanchez had two more strokes, with the last inducing a heart attack that left him in a coma for four days. Two months later, he went into cardiac arrest.
It feels miraculous that Sanchez survived this assault on his body and mind. Even more astonishing is that he’s recovered well enough to get back to work running Runaway Productions, the company he started back in 2011 to promote and produce live music events here in Portland.
His biggest step back into this world is happening May 17 at Star Theater with The Get Together, a hip-hop showcase featuring many of the artists he’s championed over the years, like Lifesavas’ MC Vursatyl, high-energy groups The Chicharones and Bad Habitat, and a reunited Siren’s Echo.
The concert itself is a big enough deal, but the news of Sanchez clawing his way back from the brink to be able to once again champion the sounds and artists he loves has resulted in waves of excitement and support.
“It’s honestly kind of unreal,” Sanchez says of this event. “The response I’ve heard so far has been awesome. I feel thankful for all my friends, the artists, and my love [Samantha].”
The encouragement and assistance Sanchez has received feels more like the Portland music community repaying a longstanding debt. From his first full-time job working as a booker at Berbati’s Pan to starting Runaway Productions, he cleared a path for many local luminaries like Cool Nutz and singer-songwriter Fernando Viciconte to get stage time. And Sanchez helped produce still-talked-about events like New York MC Rakim’s 2013 appearance at Dante’s and Fire in the Canyon, a multi-day festival in 2011 that boasted headlining sets from The Pharcyde and Del the Funky Homosapien.
“He saw there was something missing from the city and he wanted to bring that to Portland,” says DJ Klyph, a veteran presence on local radio who hosted many Runaway Productions events. “Even in a time when people would talk about, ‘Do venues want hip-hop in Portland?’ The things he did proved that to be the case.”
Sanchez’s presence in the community was such that a sizable hole was left behind when he was laid low by his health struggles.
With Wilmot’s help, he was able to return home in the middle of 2020. Since then he’s kept up a steady schedule of physical and mental therapy in clinics around town and doing rehab work at home. Though still confined to a wheelchair, his progress, according to Wilmot, has been remarkable. “I mean, how far he’s come from when he first woke up in the hospital to where he is now,” she says, “I think if those doctors back then saw him [now], they would be shocked.”
A huge boost to his mental health has been simply getting back to working with the artists he loves. That started with a pair of scaled-down Get Together events Sanchez held in the apartment he shares with Wilmot, which included many of the artists who will be at the Star Theater. Those invite-only gigs proved to be the perfect way for Sanchez to strengthen his muscle in preparation for the heavy lifting involved in putting together something like The Get Together.
“There’s a bit of a family-reunion-type feel to it,” DJ Klyph says of the shows Sanchez has recently put together. “I wonder if this is potentially bringing some people out of retirement, which is a cool thing to think about and a cool way to celebrate Anthony.”
Sanchez takes a much more humble view of things. It’s true to form for someone who seems happiest promoting the work of others before talking himself up. When discussing The Get Together, he was quick to point to all the other folks who are helping to make it a reality. He’s also keeping expectations muted, wanting to just get through this one big show before even thinking about doing more.
There is little doubt, though, that Sanchez will continue on with Runaway Productions, no matter if his events are happening at a local club or in his living room. “I don’t think I know how to do anything else,” he says. “This is all I want to do.”
SEE IT: The Get Together at Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., startheaterportland.com. 9 pm Friday, May 17. $13.