Here's what Ron Sexsmith, Elvis Presley and Collingwood have in common

What do Ron Sexsmith and Elvis Presley have in common?

There are two things. The first is their birthday: both were born Jan. 8 – Elvis in 1935 and Sexmith in 1964.

The second is Collingwood this summer.

This weekend will feature a lot of Elvis’ music during the Collingwood Elvis Festival, and next weekend Ron Sexsmith will be performing his tunes at the Gayety Theatre.

“I love Elvis,” said Sexsmith in an interview with CollingwoodToday. “I always felt a connection to him. I used to tell myself, ‘I’m going to make it, I’m born on the same day as Elvis.’ It was sort of this cosmic thing I held on to.”

Sexsmith’s career in music launched in the 1990s thanks, in part, to another Elvis.

UK music magazine Mojo, in their January 1996 issue, featured a star-studded front page with the headline “The Best Thing I’ve Heard All Year: 50 stars of stage, screen and stereo reveal what’s glued to their gramophones.”

Elvis Costello was on the cover holding up a CD copy of Ron Sexsmith’s self-titled album released in 1995.

“Nobody was playing it, you couldn’t even find it really,” said Sexsmith of his debut album. At 30 years old, he had been signed by an LA label called Interscope Records and they put out his self-titled album. Sexsmith said it was dying a slow death until Costello held it up on the cover of a Mojo.

“All of the sudden, all these countries around the world wanted to hear it,” said Sexsmith. “I spent 1996 finding my audience in all these places thanks to Elvis Costello.”

Through his career, Sexsmith’s love of music led him to release more than a dozen albums, his fan base includes music legends like Elton John, Paul McCartney and Sheryl Crow.

He said it’s surreal to look back and think he’s had the long career in music he always dreamed of having. Though he’ll tell you he took the “service road” to get there.

“I was able to get in the door and was able to have a career,” said Sexsmith. “The music industry is a whole other thing, I don’t even feel like I’m part of it sometimes.”

But music is a part of him.

He started playing music as a teenager and was known as a one-man jukebox because of his natural ability to learn and perform all kinds of songs.

“I think it was a really good education on becoming a songwriter,” said Sexsmith.

At 21 years-old, a new father living with his family in Quebec, Sexsmith discovered he could write his own songs.

“Everything changed,” he said. “My life had purpose and I didn’t want to do cover songs. All of that sort of made me go for it.”

He moved to Toronto where he met Bobby Wiseman of Blue Rodeo who helped him record some demos. Nine years later those demos landed him a record deal with Interscope

“It really feels like it was driven by fate somehow,” said Sexsmith. “I guess a lot of people feel that whenever their dreams come true.”

Though he is living the dream in a music career spanning more than two decades, he said his struggle and the struggle of many musicians remains.

“Most of us are very insecure,” he said. “Part of the reason you pursue this is you want approval, or love or something. The thing you struggle with is relevance. You think, ‘does anyone care?’ Then sometimes you think it doesn’t really matter if anyone cares as long as you care about it … I spend so much time with this dialogue in my head. I imagine it’s like that for a lot of musicians.”

Sexsmith released his last album The Last Rider in 2017. He released a novel in the same year called Deer Life. He’s now working on music for a stage adaptation of his novel. He lives in Stratford and is working with theatre contacts to put together the musical. He said it will be his “first and last” venture into music theatre.

“I’m as close to [music] as ever,” said Sexsmith. “Even when I don’t want to write songs, they’re sort of swirling around in my head all the time. It’s a very kind of musical existence.”

Sexsmith will perform in Collingwood on Aug. 3 at 8 p.m. at the Gayety Theatre. He will be performing solo and plans to talk to his audience a lot. He said he’ll plan the setlist when he’s there since he has a lot more freedom to play whatever song he thinks will work and the audience will enjoy.

“I’m excited about the venue,” he said. “Hopefully they won’t mind I’m coming by myself.”

Tickets for the show are $60 and available online here.