Carrying on with the classic rock vibe on Friday, July 16, 2024 in Petrolia, Tom Cochrane closed out the second day of the Hard Oil Music Festival.
“What a good bunch of people, everybody here has treated us so well,” Cochrane told the Petrolia crowd.
“I always like to say something about our crew, because we’ve got an incredible crew, Greg over here on monitors. I don’t do anything, I’m a lazy motherfucker, so I was late here coming in for sound check, but they covered my ass. It sounds really good, Greg. It’s awesome.”
Cochrane added: “Bungie, our good buddy here, he’s usually out with the Barenaked Ladies. He’s a dear, dear friend, our guitar tech and Ken Friesen, best sound guy in the country and Kelly on lights, he says ‘this is the best rig we’ve had all summer’ right here in Petrolia.”
Cochrane also gave thanks to the audience.
“We’ve got the big jumbotrons where you can see nose hairs that we haven’t kinda taken care of, all that stuff,” he said.
“You guys get to see all our dirty secrets up close. As old men, we’ve got to cut those nose hairs, ear hairs and all that shit.”
Cochrane added: “We’re never going to quit, we’re going to keep doing it, we love doing this. You guys keep us alive. I want to just thank-you so much because without you guys the music doesn’t exist. You breathe life into these songs. We want to thank-you very much for the great privilege of being able to do what we really love to do and be up here every night. This is living the dream. I never forget what brought us here, you guys do.”
Before playing one of his hit songs “Big League”, Cochrane also gave a shout out to Petrolia’s local hockey team, while also paying an emotional homage to the Humboldt Broncos, who were involved in a tragic bus accident in 2018.
“This song here is about each every one of you because we were in the dressing room back there and the Petrolia Flyers, right… they’re your (local hockey) team? How are they doing? They doing okay? Oh, they haven’t started yet. How did they do last year? So we’ve got some of them out in the audience tonight, I’ll dedicate this song to you guys,” Cochrane said.
“This song is a true story and it’s about each and every one of you because there are a lot of Mom’s and Dad’s in the audience and there is a lot of people that had great dreams of being hockey players. I was one, get up at 5 a.m. like Gordie Howe, I used to get down to the rink outdoors and take shots until it was time to go to school and back there on the ice after school.”
Cochrane added: “I’d like to make special mention in these communities like yours and so many communities all across this country and all across the Prairies. We’ve had the great privilege of travelling all across this country so many times and the kids they travel on buses to school and to hockey practice and to hockey games, to volleyball games. There was a team named the Humboldt Broncos, and this was a horrible tragedy a few years ago, and I changed the third verse of this song for them. I promised the mother of Tobin, the goaltender, I promised her I would never change the lyrics back. I’d like to make special mention to them before we play this song for you guys. It’s all of our song.”
SWOMP was in the pit for Cochrane’s performance to capture these images:
Upon the release of Mad Mad World 25 it looks like Tom Cochrane’s life will continue to be a Highway.
He says “the road was and is like going to school.”
An iconic career which started in the pubs, rough neck bars and coffeehouses of the roads and highways of first Ontario and then the rest Canada and then the world has spanned over four decades and is characterized by creative, adventurousness and musical and personal integrity.
Commenting on some of the jobs he had early on in his life, which include cab driving, working at CIL Paints, on the loading dock at Sears and Canada Packers, crewing out on a sail boat (not a cruise ship).
“Those gigs are character builders, you pay some bills along the way with them but it’s real life also that you learn from and draw songs from.”
A few years into his tenure with Red Rider they graduated to larger venues, halls, arenas and festivals stages. “The early days never leave you though, they get etched on your soul like a tattoo.” Within and without Red Rider, Tom has released 17 albums. Having helped shape the musical landscape for future generations of Canadian artists, Tom remains one of only 3 male Canadian singer songwriters to have a diamond certified album in Canada (over a million copies sold). Mad Mad World is now around 1.7 million in Canada, and at over 3 million worldwide.
Songs such as Life Is A Highway and Lunatic Fringe have been international hits and continue to garner much airplay around the world.
Being part of our collective cultural consciousness and landscape for a long while now, this list has been seen before but to recap: Tom Cochrane is a recipient of 8 Juno Awards, and is a member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame, Walk of Fame, a prestigious Officer of the Order of Canada, the Order of Manitoba, former Honorary Air Force Colonel in the 409 squadron, an honorary doctorate, a recent Diamond Jubilee award, many songwriter awards from SOCAN, CAPAC and ASCAP, a Grammy nomination as well as numerous other citations and awards.
Asked about some of these Tom says “I was tremendously proud to get the key to the city of Winnipeg a while back and my cousin asked me if I get free parking with it” he says with a sheepish grin “that kind of stuff brings you back down to earth you know? The thing is I’ve been extremely blessed in my life and career, I’ve had the good fortune of having some good people around me over the years, I’ve put one foot ahead of the other to see where the road would take me and providence has been kind…so from time to time I’ve happened to or tried to do the right thing” and continues “of course I’m very proud and humbled especially with the Officer of the Order of Canada and the Order of Manitoba investiture and induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the CMIHOF one as well, I’m a proud Canadian” … “ the biggest reward though is when someone comes up and says this song or that song got me through some tough times or was part of the best times in my life, or when I fell in love that was our song.”
Throughout his career, Tom, has thrown his support behind a wide range of worthy causes.
He has traveled the world, including Africa 9 times and Asia twice on behalf of World Vision. He helped spearhead the Canada for Asia initiative, entertained our troops in Afghanistan, raised money for Parkinson’s research, has performed at Live 8, in Tears Are Not Enough, Young Artists for Haiti, and more. He endorses or supports besides World Vision: Waterkeeper’s Alliance, Amnesty International, War Child, Medicin Sans Frontiers, Unison, World Animal Protection, The United Way, Tree Canada, Unison and Tempo, to name a few and has lent and continues to lend his support to several other causes.
An outspoken proponent of freedom of speech in his work and personally, Tom believes that journalism and journalistic freedom is the cornerstone of democracy.
Before embarking on a music career he wanted to be a foreign correspondent and report “the truth from different parts of the world”, which continues to transcend and fuel his musical creativity in the same manner he touched on the universal values of hope and perseverance in his international hit, “Life is a Highway”.
“I was a funny kid, my heroes included the likes of Edward R Murrow, Eric Sevareid, Walter Cronkite, and the great Canadian journalist Peter Jennings. I felt there was nothing more noble than doing what they did, that’s why I like to think of myself as a sonic journalist” this may partly explain songs like White Hot, Lunatic Fringe, and the album Neruda.
A down to earth Canadian prairie boy at heart from Lynn Lake Manitoba, who came of age and started playing music in the west end of Toronto, Tom now divides his time between the tour bus, the city, and his beloved studio/retreat “Layastone” on the shores of Georgian Bay.
His passion for life and interests in, global issues, music and Canada have not waned.
Cochrane has several shows lined up across the country to fill out 2024.
Follow him on his official website https://www.tomcochrane.com/.