Even after more than 30 years in the Canadian Country Music scene, Jason McCoy still gets some surprises.
The two-time Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) Male Vocalist of the Year received an unexpected one last year when he was inducted into the CCMA Hall of Fame. The induction was so unexpected that McCoy assumed he was in trouble when the organizers called to congratulate him.
“I was sitting with my wife and I got a call from the CCMA last summer,” McCoy remembered. “I said to her before I picked it up, ‘have we paid our CCMA membership dues?’ I figured that’s why they were calling, right? (In) September the awards were coming up … and they told me I’d been nominated. It’s been quite a ride. I didn’t know what surreal meant until this happened.”
McCoy is no stranger to awards, having received 19 CCMA Award nominations, and multiple JUNO nominations as well. He also received multiple awards with Clayton Bellamy and Christ Byrne when the trio performed as The Road Hammers.
Despite the history of nominations and wins, McCoy said the Hall of Fame induction still hasn’t sunk in yet.
“I’m still 12 years old in my bedroom learning how to play a G-chord, in my mind,” he said. “You always just work and work, then you lift your head up and it’s like, ‘wow, this is pretty cool.’”
After more than three decades in the music industry, McCoy is still as eager to tour as ever. He’ll be in Prince Albert on Feb. 28 along with two other award-winning Canadian country music acts: Doc Walker and Michelle Wright.
The performers are travelling through the prairies on The Great Canadian Roadtrip, which includes three stops in Saskatchewan. McCoy said he played ‘every corner’ of the province while trying to break into the music industry, and always enjoys coming back.
“I love Saskatchewan,” he said.
“Saskatchewan’s home to some really great country fans and there’s a lot of great homegrown Saskatchewan talent, so to have us in is a big honour.”
Chris Thorsteinson and Dave Wasyliw formed Doc Walker in 1994, and have since gone on to win a JUNO Award and 14 Canadian Country Music Awards.
Wright has won more than 40 major awards, and was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2011.
McCoy said the decision to join forces with both acts for The Great Canadian Roadtrip was “a no brainer.” He also said it’s been fun to perform with two other celebrated acts he knows well from his time in the music industry.
“I think the biggest thing is we’ve all been doing it a few years so there’s no ego,” McCoy said with a chuckle.
“We’re just there to have fun. We got all that rock star ego stuff out of our system decades ago.”
McCoy said it’s becoming more and more popular to see package musical tours where two or three acts band together and perform together on stage. As long as fans want to see it, he said all three Great Canadian Roadtrip acts are happy to keep performing.
“We only get to go out if there’s demand, so it all comes down to fans,” he said. “If they didn’t want to hear us, we wouldn’t be playing, so thank you very much. I always say that without the fans, it would just be a rehearsal, so thanks for making it a show.”
The Great Canadian Roadtrip opens at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre. Tickets are available at earc.ca.
@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca
