A song fit for heroes
[attach]1947[/attach]Bob Reid never planned on making a song.
The self-described unlikely recording artist says his single “Highway of Heroes” came to him after he watched 2007 news footage of tens of thousands of people gathered along a stretch of highway between Toronto and Trenton to pay their respects to soldiers who had died.
Reid was so inspired by the immense display of respect and honour a fallen soldier received that he put idea to paper and composed a song filled with sorrow and pride.
After writing the music and lyrics in November 2009, the midtown communications consultant intended to find a recording artist to sing his song.
After all, Reid —who co-hosts Rock Talk, a weekly music-themed radio show on CFRB NewsTalk 1010 — wasn’t a fulltime musician. He had dabbled in piano as a kid but had chosen a career in communications instead.
But life would have it a different way.
The opportunity to work with an artist never materialized, so Reid sang and performed on piano the song himself.
“I wrote a song that really wanted to get born,” Reid said. “I always dreamed about it as a teen but life takes different turns.”
Months later the song is still a hit. It was clear the lyrics of honouring a country’s fallen resonated with people.
[attach]1948[/attach]By late fall, Reid’s self-produced run of 1,000 copies of the singles ran out and HMV picked the single up and began making further runs. Universal Music soon became involved. It reached number 1 on the Canadian singles sales chart around the winter holidays, and remained on the top 20 chart until the spring. These days, Highways is found wherever music is sold, including on iTunes.
That’s great news, Reid said, as a share of the song’s proceeds goes to the Wounded Warriors Fund, a charity helping soldiers and their families.
“(The success is) astonishing for a song with no advertising behind it,” Reid says. “It has had no promotion other than media coverage. “People wanted a song like this.”
The success of Highways led the unlikely musician to perform for the Canadian Forces in Kandahar in March.
Reid was invited by friends who play in The Carpet Frogs, the Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman backing band.
He performed Highway for an audience of 3,000 soldiers in a Kandahar airfield alongside other musicians, including members of Glass Tiger.
The experience topped every other experience Highway has brought him, Reid said.
“It was absolutely incredible. It was life-changing,” he said. “It’s one thing to read about the work the soldiers do over there but it’s another thing to be there firsthand and to see the kinds of things that they are doing.”
While in Afghanistan, Reid learned about the infrastructure and reconstructive efforts the Canadian Forces are involved in.
“I understand it’s a polarizing issue (if the Canadian Forces should be in Afghanistan) but having been there firsthand and having spoken at length with the soldiers … every single person said they are there for the right reasons … They are helping Afghanistan get back on its feet.”
More than half a year later Reid is still on cloud nine thanks to Highway. It has inspired him to pen on a second song on his experience in Afghanistan.
“I’m seriously thinking about recording it,” Reid says with a laugh.