Tom Cochrane and Amanda Marshall

Born on 14 May 1953 in Lynn Lake, Manitoba in Canada, Cochrane got his start in music early, having purchased his first guitar at age 11 by selling a toy train set. In the early 1970s, Tom was performing in coffee houses across Canada eventually making his way to Los Angeles, California where he found a job writing theme music for the movie “My Pleasure Is My Business, the Xaviera Hollander Story.” Unfortunately, he was unable to find a steady income from music, Cochrane returned to Toronto, where he drove a taxi cab and later took a job on a Caribbean cruise liner.

In 1978 Cochrane met and joined the Canadian rock band Red Rider in the El Mocambo Tavern in Toronto. Alongside Ken Greer, Jeff Jones, Peter Boynton and Rob Baker, Cochrane was the lead singer and main songwriter for Red Rider, and together they recorded and released six studio albums, one live album and a best of album. Because of his time spent with Red Rider, Cochrane was able to flawlessly transition into his solo career in 1991. His first release was the single “Life Is A Highway,” which went on to become a global success. He then released his first solo album in 1991 called “Mad Mad World” and it sold over six million copies. He went on to release four more albums from 1995 to 1998, on top of continually making live appearances, and in 2003 he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. In 2006 he recorded and released “No Stranger” and in 2014 was inducted in the Canadian Music Industry Hall Of Fame.