Back
Friday,
August 4, 2006
G.I. George: A real Canadian hero
George Canyon goes from action figure to country superstar
By
By Chris Connors
the Cape Breton Post
SYDNEY
— It’s a little-known fact but there was a time
when George Canyon sported fatigues and dog tags instead of
a cowboy hat and guitar.
Back
in 1993, more than a decade before his turn on a televised singing
competition helped turn him into a household name, the latern-jawed
country singer tried his hand at acting. And one of his first
roles was playing a martial arts hero in a series of 12 television
commericals that aired in the U.S. for a line of G.I. Joe action
figures inspired by the Street Fighter video game.
“I
was a character called Col. Guile,” Canyon, who will be
in Sydney on Aug. 12 to headline the finale of the fifth annual
Rock the Dock concert series, said Wednesday. “That was
the guy Jean Claude Van Damme played in the movie Street Fighter
that they released. I never got to see any of the commercials
but I guess they ran all 12.”
Of
course, these days, there’s no missing Canyon, 35, who’s
currently on a cross-country tour supporting his sophomore album,
Somebody Wrote Love.
The
album’s self-titled first single became the latest in
a string of hits, reaching No. 5 on the Canadian country charts,
and just this week he was nominated for three Canadian Country
Music Awards, including single of the year, male artist of the
year and the fan-voted entertainer of the year award, which
he won in 2005. He’s also scheduled to perform during
the national broadcast when the awards are handed out Sept.
11 in Saint John, N.B.
The
Pictou County native, who has won more than 15 awards and played
the Grand Ole Opry 15 times since Nashville Star made him an
overnight success story (albeit one that was 14 years in the
making), says he still sometimes can’t believe how far
his carreer has come since the days when he was performing for
“a pub full of nobody.”
“I’ve
pinched myself many times. I’ve pinched myself so many
times I have welts,” he said with a laugh. “Really,
careerwise, I’ve gone way above anything I could have
ever dreamt. Things have happened that I never could have imagined
as an artist — even as a kid having dreams about playing
on the Opry and all that sort of stuff. It’s just been
amazing.”
And
now that he’s conquered Nashville, Canyon may soon set
his sights on Hollywood.
“There’s
a cowboy movie that we’re looking at right now that I’m
not actually obliged to say much about and we’re hoping
that I’m actually going to have a part in that movie,”
he said, “and there’s a TV series that I’m
actually going to be in and I can’t say what that is —
I’m not allowed — but that’s coming up right
away too.”
Still,
he, said, his fans don’t have to worry about Canyon abandoning
his musical career.
“I
could never choose something other than music because it’s
really not something that you choose, it chooses you,”
he said. “It’s something that’s really ingrained
in me, so, music will always exist with me, God willing. As
long as I have a voice or hands to play, it’ll be something
I’ll always do.”
[Rock
the Dock takes place Aug. 10–12 on Sydney’s waterfront.
Performers include Mr. Completely, Matt Andersen, Chilliwack
and Honeymoon Suite (Aug. 10); Carmen Townsend & The Shakey
Deals, Chris Colepaugh & the Cosmic Crew, Slowcoaster and
Matt Mays & El Torpedo (Aug. 11); and Robert Barrie &
the Buzz, Terry Kelly and George Canyon (Aug. 12). Individual
tickets are available at the Rolling Phones on Charlotte Street,
Savoy Theatre, online at www.reservatech.net, or by phoning
564-6668. A limited number of specially priced anniversary weekend
passes consisting of three nightly individual tickets that can
be separated and shared are available until Saturday.]
cconnors@cbpost.com
Back
