In 1995 I got a phone call from Marc Beaulieu who was the band leader with Roch Voisine asking to hire me for some studio work. I was well aware of Roch Voisine’s monster hit success with the single HELENE. He was a huge international star. I went to world famous STUDIO VICTOR and set up with 12 other musicians on the session. We put in a long day and so off I went. The next day I showed up and everyone was gone. Only my microphones were set up and a single chair. I asked if it was a joke and they answered it was not. I played all day with Roch, Marc Beaulieu and engineer Mike Delaney staring at me through the glass. Everything that Marc Beaulieu asked for I delivered without hesitation. I finished the sessions alone under a microscope and in record time. I went home with a king’s ransom as my pay.
A couple of months later the phone rings and it’s Marc Beaulieu asking if I would be available for the CHAUD ’95 European tour with Roch. I was miserable in the throws of a divorce and turned it down. He called back and I turned it down again. He called a third time and I said yes but with a bunch of greedy little stipulations I was sure they would refuse. They agreed and hired me. My intention was to stay for the three months and go home to wallow in my misery.
Holy Smoke!
Ok…I arrived at rehearsal and I had seen a lot before this…but THIS was big. The rehearsal hall was huge and clean with brand new gear and lots of technicians. The entire band was set up exactly as we would be on the tour stage. It was big. The band was big. 14 musicians and singers in all. I was to play acoustic and electric guitars, lap steel and vocals. We rehearsed for a month…a MONTH! At full salary. By the time we left rehearsal hall we not only sounded like a big, world class band…we WERE a real big world class band.
We flew to France and our hotel was located in the Montmartre/Pigalle section of Paris. We had two double decker tour busses and airplanes to fly us around. The food was great, the beer was great, the band was great. When we stepped on stage I had never experienced anything like it. The volume at which his fans screamed was deafening. At the time we were still using floor stage monitors and had to turn them up so loud so as to drown out the screaming fans that one could hardly hear anything! It was insane! The fans, the autographs, the hiding in venues to avoid being mobbed.
This was really, really big. After three months I felt invigorated again. I had the proverbial needle shoved so far in my arm to continue that I could nearly taste it. We travelled through France, Belgium and Germany on that tour.
The Tours go on and on
The Acoustic Tours and Americana
After a two year absence in Europe while we recorded in Los Angeles for the album KISSING RAIN and subsequently toured North America. We wanted to go back to France however the French promoters being fickle and a little upset at what appeared to be us snubbing them for two years, decided that they no longer thought we could fill large stadiums anymore. So after years of me suggesting an acoustic tour, ROCH decided it was probably the only way we could get back. So that’s what we did.
The band and crew were small in numbers and we carried much less gear than before so production didn’t cost anywhere near as much. We were only four musicians including Roch and every musician had to double on several instruments AND sing. This made it very attractive for local promoters. Many changes to the structure and management of the band were all occuring at the same time. Roch’s band had seen lots of personnel changes over the years as any band that big would but these changes were really big. Gone was our long time band leader Marc Beaulieu and he was briefly replaced by Eric Webster. Eric’s tenure lasted about a year and then I was promoted to band leader just in time for the Acoustic tour. It was a smashing success. In fact new shows were being booked while we were in Europe so that the tour originally scheduled for 6 weeks blossomed to triple that. We ended up taking a break and then returning to Europe again to continue. We did some 85 shows for that tour. We played in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Germany, Corsica and Lebenon. The tour was so successful that promoters welcomed us back into large venues when we returned for the AMERICANA tours. Not to be outdone, Canadian promoters booked our acoustic tour across Canada as well..and subsequently a symphonic tour across the country.
The acoustic version of the band was extremely versatile able to cover the classic Voisine repertoire as well as nearly any cover song we chose, and was in constant demand with Jason Lang on acoustic guitar/bass and vocals, Yvon Plouffe on percussion, Roch on acoustic guitar/bass and vocals and me on acoustic guitar/dobro/banjo/bass/flute and vocals that we were requested for a command performance in Ottawa for Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin with their spouses and an audience of dignitaries. It was thrilling.
Roch Voisine was another very big influence on my life and career and I continued to learn an awful lot and play with some amazing musicians. My intentions to stay in that band for a scant three months…way back in 1995..were dashed and I stayed with the Roch Voisine Band for 20 years. When I left the band I was 54.
Roch Voisine remains a friend today and we continue to collaborate on some projects such as THE SILVER FOXES…more on them later.