Modern Music

The nostalgia for late ’80s, early ’90s Canrock is now officially in full swing.

Reunion tours for everyone from The Tea Party to the Grapes of Wrath are now pushing April Wine, Trooper and the Headpins even further back in the Rolodexes of those booking this nation’s theatres, bars and casinos.

But while most of those aforementioned acts are willing to cash in entirely on memories and past glories, when Gordie Johnson decided to collect together his former Big Sugar bandmates, it was done with one thought in mind.

“It can only be on the strength of the future or the here and now,” says the guitarist who rocked Hugo Boss suits like nobody’s business back in the day.

“That’s what we did when we picked up. We thought, ‘Let’s just keep going, not with an eye to the past but with almost a disregard for the past. …’”

Which is why the reggae blues rock band is not only offering fans the opportunity to relive some of those memories via a cross-Canada jaunt — yes, they will be playing old faves such as “Diggin’ A Hole” and “The Scene.” They’re also touring on the strength of a new studio album.

“It wasn’t guaranteed to be easy,” Johnson says. “But the only way I wanted to get back into it was if … everybody was of the same intention and mentality coming into it. Just when everyone was on the same page, there was no dissenters, there was nobody who was, ‘I’m only willing to do it for x amount of dollars.’

“There was never any of that type of discussion at any point. It makes me feel like bending over backwards for my people when they’re all in it for the same reasons that I’m in it for.”

As for the reasons he got out of it in the first place, heading to Austin, Texas, to produce and get involved in the country-rock act Grady, Johnson points his fingers directly at an industry that didn’t know what to make of Big Sugar at first and then, when they became one of this country’s biggest bands, attempted to control them artistically and curb their creativity.

“Nobody expected Big Sugar to do anything, I don’t think,” he says. “And then every time we got played on the radio or videos or concerts sold out, it was kind of like a surprise to everyone. …

“I wanted it to stay like that, I wanted it to stay what it was. I didn’t want to start conforming to whatever trend was trendy at that moment. We’d never conformed to any other trend –why would we start now?”

Johnson, having left and returned on his own terms, says his expectations and hopes for fitting in are even less than they once were.

“I don’t actually care if they make one in my size,” he laughs. “I don’t actually really care. …

“If it’s a flop, it is, but we’ll go out on our own terms at least. …

“We just really set out a record to please ourselves and I had a pretty good idea that the music that pleases us would also please a big audience.”

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