I’m from Newfoundland and I was raised a
Catholic in st. John’s when I was 15
years old a new priest came to our
parish he was younger than the older
fellows we were used to very charismatic
and quickly became very popular and
every Friday we were strongly encouraged
to go to confession one Friday I found
myself going to the right of the church
and I ended up in his box and as I was
confessing my 15 year old sins he
stopped me and for up to me and he asked
me my name he asked me I played any
sports what I was reading
what my dad did for a living where I
lived and then he asked if he could talk
to me after the confession now in
retrospect that’s a bit of a red flag
because confession is supposed to be an
anonymous exchange but I was just 15
instead of being careful they’re
cautious
I just felt special and I remember going
home and I told my parents I’d met the
new priest we had a conversation and
they they said you should invite him up
for supper and I did and he came up
about a week later for supper and we all
felt special then he became like one of
the family he endeared himself to us all
we gave him a key to the house and could
come and go as he pleased before the
year was over he asked if he could take
me to Rome
siddik I could go to Rome and I could
meet the Pope and I begged my parents to
let me go and they said if I could work
hard enough to raise the money for the
plane ticket they gave me the rest so we
got to go
and on that trip he poured me my first
drink Bobby my first cigarettes
he began to sexually abused me
and I felt betrayed machine
and angry
[Music]
but I didn’t know who to tell and I kept
that secret buried and alcohol thirty
years until I finally face my truth with
this song
Oh mother I met my man show me a fan no
Holy Mother cuz I’m out of control
so tell me storm that I need
[Music]
I am
search of the song to do what is right
and to ride what was wrong out here in
the open there’s nowhere to hide strap
yourselves in
let’s go for round
[Music]
when I was 16
[Music]
he was so disappointed
[Music]
nicely
[Applause]
tell me
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
oh the mother I need some protection
this tracks of meatballs upon closer
and I don’t know that you hear me
love
he picks up the phone geez love you tell
about someone we nailed to a cross
[Music]
[Applause]
Oh mother I need to be God I look to the
sky and I remain undecided you don’t
need to be young to be wasting your days
you don’t need to be old to be set in
your ways any of you were here
this is what I would see
[Music]
thank you for listening a secret a
secret can kill you
a secret can kill you but a song song
can save your life there’s only one way
to defeat a secret
that’s the reason I’m here tonight the
way to defeat a secret is to tell them
music is my medicine and when things
were too difficult to deal with and too
difficult to say it was a song that let
me say it my love of music and my love
of whiskey combined in my life and ended
up we ended up forming Canada’s biggest
party band it’s not the hip it’s gray
now we work really hard at what we did
our job was a difficult job and we took
it seriously and I’m here to tell you
that it was not an act he was not an act
and every night for us whether it was
Tuesday in Saskatoon or Wednesday in
Winnipeg every single night for us was
Saturday night and every day I went to
work on my desk there was a bottle of
whiskey or rum four bottles of wine –
white – red forty-eight beer every day
and you know what from an out for an
alcoholic who was hiding from the truth
I felt like I won the lottery and that’s
where I lived hidden in plain view for
20 years and everything seemed to go
well until I hit my 40s and I started to
have blackouts started to lose control I
almost lost everything people always ask
me how I finally quit given the
lifestyle I was in and the truth is like
many alcoholics before me I embraced my
higher power her name is Andre and she’s
she loved me
she loved me enough to give me the
ultimatum I needed to hear and on
November 9 2011
I put the bottle down and you know it
wasn’t all very easy there was some
serious side-effects to sobriety the
first being that I lost every friend I
ever had phone stopped ringing I was
alone and of course the second thing was
after about three months I started to
have nightmares I started to remember
what the priest did to me why I started
drinking in the first place
and I felt very vulnerable and I really
wanted to drink and I actually went out
and I bought a bottle of whiskey
Lagavulin I believe and I brought it
home I laid it on the counter I knew
what the consequence would be if I
opened that bottle and I stared at that
bottle for a long time and as I was
looking at the bottle though another
shape came to came into my vision my
peripheral vision and it was a guitar it
was this guitar he was hung on a wall
and this is all brown this is the first
guitar I ever bought and he’s been with
me ever since he was the friend who
never left and that day as I stared at
that bottle I started to see in him an
option and I went over and I picked him
off the wall where he was hanging on he
said honey stand
and I started the strong
you know what that bottle never got open
I did the last tour on the bus sober you
know up for a long time I do that I’ve
never seen another great big seesaw
[Music]
things ended a little lame now take one
third of the plane one day I found
myself small Newfoundland fest walking
around with old Brown in my arms trying
to learn some Johnny Cash songs Bob
Marley songs because I was determined
not to sing any great big sea songs and
I encountered this woman who was
crawling around on her arms hands knees
the tall grass behind the stage
and I walked over her and I said are you
okay and she said yeah I’m fine I’m just
looking for four-leaf clovers then she
got up and she looked me right in the
eye she said I know who you are you’re
Sean became and I came here to tell you
something you should never give up just
like that
that she went on she said my name is
Annalise Boyer and I’m the Fergus
Ontario and I’m a huge great big seed
man been to about 30 of your concerts 10
years ago I was hit by a drunk driver
and I have a brain injury which is why I
speak so directly but I haven’t been to
come to any of your shows because my
brain injury causes me to have seizures
around bright lights and volume and big
crowds but I thought maybe in this
little festival if I drove here maybe
[Music]
just maybe I get to hear you sing some
great Big C songs are you gonna sing any
great Big C songs tonight Shawn I got a
smile
[Applause]
prefix see some that I can
[Music]
these boy was there
great because
she gave me this this ladies and
gentlemen is the four-leaf clover she
picked for me behind the stage that day
and I wear it to remind me of the huge
lesson that she taught me that day and
that is that anger is always the enemy
it never wants to help or heal it only
wants to hurt and there is exactly one
antidote to anger and that’s love in
[Music]
here’s the doubling
now you sickos
I got a smile on my face and I got we
are made of music and we are made of
love and I want to sing another song
with you but I got to get closer to you
I miss you
[Music]
because I love you
[Applause]
time’s up we have to stop high climb
though man
[Music]
[Applause]
[Applause]
thank you very much thanks for coming
out [Applause]
Catholic in st. John’s when I was 15
years old a new priest came to our
parish he was younger than the older
fellows we were used to very charismatic
and quickly became very popular and
every Friday we were strongly encouraged
to go to confession one Friday I found
myself going to the right of the church
and I ended up in his box and as I was
confessing my 15 year old sins he
stopped me and for up to me and he asked
me my name he asked me I played any
sports what I was reading
what my dad did for a living where I
lived and then he asked if he could talk
to me after the confession now in
retrospect that’s a bit of a red flag
because confession is supposed to be an
anonymous exchange but I was just 15
instead of being careful they’re
cautious
I just felt special and I remember going
home and I told my parents I’d met the
new priest we had a conversation and
they they said you should invite him up
for supper and I did and he came up
about a week later for supper and we all
felt special then he became like one of
the family he endeared himself to us all
we gave him a key to the house and could
come and go as he pleased before the
year was over he asked if he could take
me to Rome
siddik I could go to Rome and I could
meet the Pope and I begged my parents to
let me go and they said if I could work
hard enough to raise the money for the
plane ticket they gave me the rest so we
got to go
and on that trip he poured me my first
drink Bobby my first cigarettes
he began to sexually abused me
and I felt betrayed machine
and angry
[Music]
but I didn’t know who to tell and I kept
that secret buried and alcohol thirty
years until I finally face my truth with
this song
Oh mother I met my man show me a fan no
Holy Mother cuz I’m out of control
so tell me storm that I need
[Music]
I am
search of the song to do what is right
and to ride what was wrong out here in
the open there’s nowhere to hide strap
yourselves in
let’s go for round
[Music]
when I was 16
[Music]
he was so disappointed
[Music]
nicely
[Applause]
tell me
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
oh the mother I need some protection
this tracks of meatballs upon closer
and I don’t know that you hear me
love
he picks up the phone geez love you tell
about someone we nailed to a cross
[Music]
[Applause]
Oh mother I need to be God I look to the
sky and I remain undecided you don’t
need to be young to be wasting your days
you don’t need to be old to be set in
your ways any of you were here
this is what I would see
[Music]
thank you for listening a secret a
secret can kill you
a secret can kill you but a song song
can save your life there’s only one way
to defeat a secret
that’s the reason I’m here tonight the
way to defeat a secret is to tell them
music is my medicine and when things
were too difficult to deal with and too
difficult to say it was a song that let
me say it my love of music and my love
of whiskey combined in my life and ended
up we ended up forming Canada’s biggest
party band it’s not the hip it’s gray
now we work really hard at what we did
our job was a difficult job and we took
it seriously and I’m here to tell you
that it was not an act he was not an act
and every night for us whether it was
Tuesday in Saskatoon or Wednesday in
Winnipeg every single night for us was
Saturday night and every day I went to
work on my desk there was a bottle of
whiskey or rum four bottles of wine –
white – red forty-eight beer every day
and you know what from an out for an
alcoholic who was hiding from the truth
I felt like I won the lottery and that’s
where I lived hidden in plain view for
20 years and everything seemed to go
well until I hit my 40s and I started to
have blackouts started to lose control I
almost lost everything people always ask
me how I finally quit given the
lifestyle I was in and the truth is like
many alcoholics before me I embraced my
higher power her name is Andre and she’s
she loved me
she loved me enough to give me the
ultimatum I needed to hear and on
November 9 2011
I put the bottle down and you know it
wasn’t all very easy there was some
serious side-effects to sobriety the
first being that I lost every friend I
ever had phone stopped ringing I was
alone and of course the second thing was
after about three months I started to
have nightmares I started to remember
what the priest did to me why I started
drinking in the first place
and I felt very vulnerable and I really
wanted to drink and I actually went out
and I bought a bottle of whiskey
Lagavulin I believe and I brought it
home I laid it on the counter I knew
what the consequence would be if I
opened that bottle and I stared at that
bottle for a long time and as I was
looking at the bottle though another
shape came to came into my vision my
peripheral vision and it was a guitar it
was this guitar he was hung on a wall
and this is all brown this is the first
guitar I ever bought and he’s been with
me ever since he was the friend who
never left and that day as I stared at
that bottle I started to see in him an
option and I went over and I picked him
off the wall where he was hanging on he
said honey stand
and I started the strong
you know what that bottle never got open
I did the last tour on the bus sober you
know up for a long time I do that I’ve
never seen another great big seesaw
[Music]
things ended a little lame now take one
third of the plane one day I found
myself small Newfoundland fest walking
around with old Brown in my arms trying
to learn some Johnny Cash songs Bob
Marley songs because I was determined
not to sing any great big sea songs and
I encountered this woman who was
crawling around on her arms hands knees
the tall grass behind the stage
and I walked over her and I said are you
okay and she said yeah I’m fine I’m just
looking for four-leaf clovers then she
got up and she looked me right in the
eye she said I know who you are you’re
Sean became and I came here to tell you
something you should never give up just
like that
that she went on she said my name is
Annalise Boyer and I’m the Fergus
Ontario and I’m a huge great big seed
man been to about 30 of your concerts 10
years ago I was hit by a drunk driver
and I have a brain injury which is why I
speak so directly but I haven’t been to
come to any of your shows because my
brain injury causes me to have seizures
around bright lights and volume and big
crowds but I thought maybe in this
little festival if I drove here maybe
[Music]
just maybe I get to hear you sing some
great Big C songs are you gonna sing any
great Big C songs tonight Shawn I got a
smile
[Applause]
prefix see some that I can
[Music]
these boy was there
great because
she gave me this this ladies and
gentlemen is the four-leaf clover she
picked for me behind the stage that day
and I wear it to remind me of the huge
lesson that she taught me that day and
that is that anger is always the enemy
it never wants to help or heal it only
wants to hurt and there is exactly one
antidote to anger and that’s love in
[Music]
here’s the doubling
now you sickos
I got a smile on my face and I got we
are made of music and we are made of
love and I want to sing another song
with you but I got to get closer to you
I miss you
[Music]
because I love you
[Applause]
time’s up we have to stop high climb
though man
[Music]
[Applause]
[Applause]
thank you very much thanks for coming
out [Applause]
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