Gordie Johnson's wide reach - Pique News

The Big Sugar frontman looks back ahead of his Whistler tour stop

Gordie Johnson hasn't lived in Canada for nearly a decade, but his impact on the music scene here is more apparent than ever.

As the lead singer for Big Sugar, a reggae-tinged blues-rock group that made its name in the early '90s, garnering fans until disbanding in 2003, Johnson would often pluck unknown acts toiling away in obscurity and offer them a profile boost by bringing them along on tour. "My agent (would come) to me and said, 'I have a band, they really need a break. Can we get them on some Big Sugar shows?' If they were any good at all and they were good guys and I could tell they really wanted to do it, I would say, 'They can't have a show, they can have a tour,'" Johnson recalls.

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