Once the Tragically Hip summer tour is over. Fans will always know they’ll always be able to listen to the bands music to get them through the good and bad times.
Raised in Kingston, Ontario, where the Tragically Hip were born, Justin Chenier went out to Alberta in the 90’s, to pursue a career in the military. H endured some tough times as a 19-year-old, and ended up in hospital.
As a curiosity, and in an attempt to find that connection to home, he bought a Tragically Hip tape and began to listen, “It really helped create a soundtrack for the hearing process I needed to go through, and it allowed me to quiet the thoughts that were going through my head, the thoughts that you’re not really equipped to deal with as a 19 year old.”
Chenier say this isn’t uncommon. When word of Gord Downie’s illness broke this week, many fans took to Facebook and Twitter to express what the Tragically Hip’s music has meant to them.
Chenier says, “It’s hard to describe in words, just exactly what music means to someone, but when you start seeing that their music is able to help you weave a difficult time together or find a light in the tunnel, it makes it really easy to get lost in the words and lost in the music. Regardless of what you are going through in your life, whether it is good times or bad times, music is always an easy place to find solace or emotional rescue from it.”
Chenier plans to attend the Tragically Hip’s last show on their summer tour, in Kingston on August 20th.
