[charlene]

part 2

I asked about a performance he once did with Johnny Cash. “And I raise this,” I explained, “because my great-uncle was Johnny’s manager.”

“Saul Holiff,” Gordon replied without missing a beat. We were amazed that he remembered the name 50 years after performing with Cash.

Because Francesca was sitting beside him, she actually had some private conversations with Lightfoot and got some stories about his darker days, when he was a self-described alcoholic. She confessed that she, too, after work sometimes liked to come home and have a Scotch or two.

“Oh my, that’s nothing,” Gordon said. “I’d drink a bottle a day.” But he told us he was now clean, had been for years, and worked out six days a week in a health club at the Sheraton Centre.

“Do you get people coming up to you while you do your workout to interrupt you for autographs?” I asked.

“All the time,” he said.

“And what do you do?” I wondered.

“I sign ‘em. All of ‘em!” Gordon said to laughs all around.

Even though I fancy myself not a bad interviewer, I have to confess the best questions of the night all came from my brother Jeff: “Did the money matter to you, or was it all about the art?” (The money did matter. “I’ve got six kids!” he reminded us.) “What’s your favorite venue?” (We all assumed Massey Hall, but he didn’t actually name a favorite.) “What was the most memorable concert you ever did?” (Again, no particular one came to mind, but it did lead to us tossing out examples of our favorites.)

“Gordon, Giulia here has a question,” I said, referring to my very nervous then-14-year-old daughter.

“Of all the people you’ve worked with over the years, have any of them been mean to you?” she asked.

He paused, thought long and hard about it, and said, “I can’t think of anyone. People have been pretty pleasant to work with.”

Gordon told us that he’d never performed at 24 Sussex Drive for any prime minister but that he would be performing on July 1 at Canada’s big 150th-anniversary celebration on Parliament Hill, and he was very much looking forward to that. No one ever asked him what his favorite song was, but I think he said that he’d be playing “If You Could Read My Mind,” so perhaps we inferred that’s the one. I read somewhere that song is in the Top 100 greatest Canadian songs of all time, and it’s his highest-ranked song on the list.

It was getting late, so Gordon mentioned that he’d left his guitar in his car, and, if we didn’t mind, he’d go get it, come back, and play a song.

Did we mind? Of course we didn’t mind!

Lightfoot ended up singing a song I didn’t know, but, as he sang it, he turned towards Francesca as if serenading just her. It was magical.

It was now about 10 p.m., and Gordon indicated it was time to go. The star then patiently stood around for another 15 minutes having his picture taken in different combinations with everyone, before making his departure. He could not have been classier. He could not have been more gracious.

Before going, I gave him a copy of a book I’d written about former Ontario premier Bill Davis, whom he knew, as a thank-you souvenir of the event. I signed it, “To Gordon: with thanks for one of the most memorable evenings of our lives.”

That evening turned out to be hugely important in all our lives. My wife and Gordon’s wife, Kim, struck up a friendship and have stayed in touch. In fact, when Gordon played a beautifully renovated Massey Hall in November 2021, we all sat together for what would turn out to be the last time I saw Lightfoot do a concert.

Gordon isn’t the only one from that dinner that’s no longer with us. My brother’s wife, Andrea, contracted glioblastoma and died 15 months ago. But we all have the memory of her being there with an effervescent smile beaming all night long.

If you could read my mind now, you’d know how utterly grateful I am to have had this unique experience with a Canadian troubadour whose legend lives on well beyond the big lake they call Gitchigumi.

Rest in peace, Gordon. And thank you for everything.

Steve Paikin

Steve Paikin is the host of TVO's flagship current affairs program, The Agenda with Steve Paikin. He co-hosts the weekly provincial affairs #onpoli podcast and contributes columns to tvo.org. Paikin was born and raised in Hamilton, which explains his love of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Toronto Maple Leafs. We’re still trying to figure out his obsession for the Boston Red Sox.