When Chilliwack frontman Bill Henderson says music saved his life, he’s not joking.
The lead singer and guitarist for the B.C.-based rock group played his first paying gig in Edmonton as a teenager, and eventually formed the Vancouver-based Chilliwack, which went on to fill music venues across Canada in the ’70s and ’80s. Before that, however, Henderson struggled, and music was there to fill the hole.
“Music essentially saved my life,” the 81-year-old said during a phone interview on Wednesday. “When I was a kid I got fairly depressed. I got into a weird space. Teenagers often had that kind of trouble, and I certainly had some problems socially. Music just took care of me.
“If I could sit there and just play my guitar, I’d start to feel good. Then I’d learn new things, and that’d make me feel really good.”
More than 60 years later, music has not only helped Henderson feel good, it’s turned into a lifelong passion. It’s led to award wins, like a 1982 Juno for Producer of the Year he won with then bandmate Brian MacLeod. It’s also allowed him to play coast-to-coast, and led to Chilliwack’s’ Canadian Music Hall of Fame induction in 2019.
What started as something Henderson did to feel good became something he devoted his life to.
“I did an interview in about 1968 or ’69 and the interviewer said, ‘so what do you think you’ll be doing when you’re 40 years old?’” Henderson remembered. “That was old then, and immediately got a flash of someone standing on a stage playing a guitar, singing, at 40 years old….
“It was very clear to me that that’s what I would be doing—that I would continue to play music. That’s just what I do.”
Chilliwack will be in Prince Albert on Friday as part of their Farewell to Friends Tour. The line-up has changed since they first formed in 1970, with more than two dozen band members having contributed at one time or another.
The current lineup features Henderson, along with Jerry Adolphe on drums, Ed Henderson on rhythm and lead guitar and backing vocals. Bass player and Prince Albert product Gord Maxwell rounds out the group. Henderson said Maxwell will likely have a large cheering section in the audience when they perform at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre.
Their musical style has changed too. Depending on which of their 11 albums released between 1970 and 1988 you’re listening too, you might hear psychedelic, progressive, country rock, or pop rock influences.
“It’s a nightmare for a record company,” Henderson said when reflecting on Chilliwack’s repertoire. “The record companies, whatever your sound is, if that’s the sound they’re looking for they want you to do that just like you did on the last album and blah, blah, blah. They want a carbon cut-out thing.
“I just couldn’t write those kinds of songs. When I wrote them they were crap. Nobody liked them. They just liked the ones that just poured through me. I did a bit of work on them and worked on them with other guys in the band but those were the ones that people liked.”
Henderson said it’s tough to pick a highlight from his time with Chilliwack, but his favourite comes from the improvisational pieces the group would play in their early days on stage.
“That was a real high point for us,” Henderson said. “To use an industry term, we blew a lot of major acts off the stage while opening for them.”
Chilliwack will perform at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre in Prince Albert on Friday. The show starts at 8 p.m.
