_Īssociated Press writer Rob Gillies reported this story in Kingston and AP writer Charmaine Noronha reported from Toronto. I’m 49 and the Hip has been a part of my life since I was a teenager.”ĭownie is survived by his wife and four children.
There are so many memories listening to Hip songs,” Nesbitt said. 20, 2016, to watch a public screening of the band’s sold-out final concert - a collection of flowers and candles surrounded a commemorative stone for the band.
In the square - where thousands gathered on Aug. In Kingston, where he grew up, fans left flowers and lined up to sign a book condolences while his music played in the town square in front of city hall.įan Ted Nesbitt, who lives north of Toronto, said he wanted to be in Kingston to pay tribute to him and say thank you. The band’s 2012 album, “Now for Plan A,” was lyrically influenced by Downie’s wife and her successful battle with breast cancer.ĭownie also produced three solo albums since 2001, as well as a collaboration with fellow Canadian indie darlings The Sadies. They have received numerous Canadian music awards, including 14 Juno awards, the equivalent of the Grammy in Canada. Since then they have released 14 studio albums, two live albums, one EP and 54 singles. Their first self-titled EP was released in 1987 and their breakthrough debut full-length album, “Up to Here,” was released in 1989. While at university, he met Paul Langlois, Rob Baker, Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fray, and they formed The Tragically Hip, which started out as a cover band. He said his “Secret Path” project was aimed at Canada’s decades-long government policy of requiring aboriginal children to attend residential schools, where physical and sexual abuse was often rampant.īorn in Amherstview, Ontario, Downie said he “always had a keen ear for music” and while all the other kids were spending their allowance on baseball trading cards, he was buying records “from the fathers of rock ‘n’ roll.” on the lips,” the Downie family said in a statement.ĭuring his final show, Downie called out to Trudeau, who attended the concert, to help fix problems in Canada’s aboriginal communities.Ī few months after that concert, Downie released a solo album with an accompanying graphic novel and animated film inspired by the tragedy of state-funded church schools that Canadian aboriginal children were forced to attend from the 19th century until the 1970s. “Gord knew this day was coming - his response was to spend his precious time as he always had - making music, making memories and expressing deep gratitude to his family and friends for a life well lived, often sealing it with a kiss. But through it all, Downie remained the consummate showman, rocking out on stage in distinctive leather suits.
#GORD DOWNIE FAMILY LIFE SERIES#
Millions tuned in.ĭownie later said that he needed six teleprompters during the concert series so he would not forget lyrics. Tickets for the 2016 summer tour sold out almost immediately, culminating in a national broadcast of the band’s final tour stop at Kingston, Ontario. That same day, the band said it would mount a Canadian tour despite Downie’s cancer. When the band made the news public the following May, expressions of sorrow poured in from across the country.
His final project, a solo album entitled Introduce Yerself, is due for release on 27 October. Wenjack was a First Nations boy who died in 1966 while attempting to escape from a residential school designed to assimilate Aboriginal Canadians. In recent years, Downie, who has been called “ Canada’s unofficial poet laureate”, had worked to support the indigenous people of Canada with the Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund. 'Gord knew this day was coming - his response was to spend this precious time as he always had - making music, making memories and expressing deep gratitude to his family and friends for a life. The Tragically Hip’s music invited us to explore places we had never been – from Mistaken Point to Churchill – and helped us understand each other, while capturing the complexity and vastness of the place we call home.” He also gave a tearful public address about his “buddy Gord”.
He was the frontman of one of Canada’s most iconic bands, a rock star, artist, and poet whose evocative lyrics came to define a country. Downie, 53, died Tuesday night from glioblastoma, an aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer. Trudeau released a statement following Downie’s death, saying “For almost five decades, Gord Downie uncovered and told the stories of Canada.
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