By Steve Newton
Back in 2016, when the awful news about Gord Downie’s incurable brain cancer came out, I started posting excerpts from the first interview I did with him in 1989.
The first one had him talking about a couple of the tunes on the Hip’s then-new album, Up to Here, and the second one focused on that album as well ’cause, you know, “it’s a mighty hot one”.
The third excerpt from that chat with the up-and-coming 25-year-old has him calling me up from a roadside stop near Brantford, Ontario (“the home of Wayne Gretsky”). I asked him about the music scene growing up in Kingston and his band’s biggest influences.
Have a listen:
Donate to the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research by clicking sunnybrook.ca/gord.