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Tom Cochrane

Year of Induction: 2024

Origin: Lynn Lake, Manitoba

Best known for his timeless No. 1 hit Life Is a Highway, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Tom Cochrane is a born story-teller, his songwriting informed by a deep social conscience. Born in the northern Manitoba town of Lynn Lake in 1953 and raised in Etobicoke, Ontario, Cochrane has released a grand total of 17 albums as solo artist and band leader.

Inspired by the music of the 1960s British Invasion, Cochrane got his first guitar at 11. Following in the footsteps of CSHF inductees like Joni Mitchell and Ian and Sylvia Tyson, he began playing at Toronto coffeehouses, mostly the music of Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, and The Band. By the early 1970s, he was writing original material, while working at short-term jobs like driving taxi and hefting boxes on commercial loading docks. In his songwriting he later relied on these experiences, saying “It’s real life that you learn from and draw songs from.”

Signed by Daffodil Records in 1973, Cochrane released the debut single You’re Driving Me Crazy, followed by the album “Hang On To Your Resistance” and a few more singles, before joining the band Red Rider in 1978. Within a few years the group became Tom Cochrane & Red Rider, opening in the U.S. for such acts as Pat Benetar, REO Speedwagon, and The Kinks. In 1987 the band won JUNO’s group of the year award and shortly after, Cochrane earned his first – but not last – JUNO as songwriter of the year.

In 1990, Cochrane re-launched his solo career after Red Rider disbanded. Then came the tsunami-like success of Life Is a Highway, an anthem now recognized around the globe, and of his solo album “Mad Mad World.” The album blew past Red Rider’s previous sales records, topping 600,000 in less than a year and going diamond as Billboard’s No. 46 top-selling album. Cochrane swept the 1992 JUNO awards, prestigiously winning songwriter of the year, male vocalist of the year, single of the year, and album of the year, while Life Is a Highway topped the RPM chart at No. 1 and reigned for six weeks on Billboard’s top 10.

To cap off the year, Life Is a Highway was nominated for a Grammy award for best male rock vocal performance (losing only to the legendary Eric Clapton’s “Unplugged”.)

Cochrane told Billboard Canada that he wrote Life Is a Highway after witnessing extreme poverty, violence and death in Mozambique while doing humanitarian work with World Vision Canada. “It was like a pep talk to myself in that you can’t change the world by yourself all at once. All you can do is keep going on the road ahead of you and try to spread some goodwill along that road…. I’m very honoured to have been blessed to have been able to write that song.”

Since that time, singer-songwriter Cochrane has reaped success with many other hits (both with the re-formed Red Rider and solo), notably the tragic Big League. The song, about a small-town boy who is on the way to making it big in pro hockey but dies in a car crash, resonated deeply with Canadians, reaching No. 4 at home and No. 9 on Billboard’s rock track. Cochrane, himself from a small prairie town, re-released the song for charity after the 2018 Humboldt Broncos’ deadly bus crash.

Other Cochrane-written SOCAN-award winners include I Wish You Well (No. 1 in Canada); the heartfelt No Regrets (No. 3 in Canada); the cautionary, powerful Lunatic Fringe, which attained No. 1 for five straight weeks on the vaunted U.S. AOR (album-oriented radio) charts; the tender ballad Dreamer’s Dream (No. 4 in Canada); and Red Rider’s reflective signature song Boy Inside the Man. Cochrane’s recording of Annette Ducharme’s Sinking Like a Sunset also went No. 1 in Canada.

Cochrane considers himself a singer-songwriter first and foremost, and in this capacity has earned many honours, including induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Order of Canada and the Order of Manitoba, Canada’s Walk of Fame, and the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame, as well as the JUNO Humanitarian Award and the SOCAN Cultural Impact Award.

Cochrane remains devoted to humanitarian causes including World Vision and Médecins Sans Frontières.

When asked about his early success, Cochrane recalls that having a signature to his music helped him stand out. He says, “I was never the best singer or guitar player, but I was unique. I had a signature and vision, and that is the most important thing in writing, art and music.”

Cochrane continues to headline music festivals with Red Rider and as a solo artist.

By Betty Nygaard King

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