Ron Sexsmith

St. Catharines to Interscope

Ronald Eldon Sexsmith was born on January 8, 1964 in St. Catharines, Ontario. He started his own band at 14 and played the Lion's Tavern, earning the nickname the One-Man Jukebox; by 17 he had a regular solo gig, mostly covers. In 1985 he began writing songs seriously and spent several months in Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, in a prolific stretch. Wikipedia dates the cassette Out of the Duff to 1985 and There's a Way, produced by Kurt Swinghammer, to 1986; the Canadian Encyclopedia dates Out of the Duff to 1987, after he formed The Uncool in Toronto. Grand Opera Lane, produced by Bob Wiseman and credited to Ron Sexsmith and the Uncool, is dated 1986 in one table and 1991 in the text. Interscope Music Publishing offered a publishing deal, and in 1993 he signed with Interscope Records.

His self-titled major-label debut came out on May 16, 1995. Interscope initially disapproved of it, and it did poorly in North America at first, with rumors the label would drop him. Elvis Costello's endorsement changed that: in December 1995 Costello appeared on the cover of Mojo holding the album, which Sexsmith called the shot heard around the world for him, and he toured the UK, Ireland, Australia and Japan in 1996. Bud Scoppa wrote in Rolling Stone that Sexsmith might be the most fluent balladeer since Tim Hardin or Harry Nilsson.

Other Songs (1997) won him his first Juno Award in 1998. Blue Boy (2001) was recorded with Steve Earle in Nashville, and Terry Gross interviewed him on Fresh Air on June 5, 2001. He won a Genie for Best Original Song for "Love Is Free to Go" (2002, The Art of Woo) and the Juno for Songwriter of the Year in 2005, one win among eight nominations. Long Player Late Bloomer (2011), produced by Bob Rock, was shortlisted for the Polaris Prize. The documentary Love Shines, directed by Douglas Arrowsmith, premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival on October 8, 2010. His first novel, Deer Life, was published in 2017. He played the Massey Hall retrospective in February 2024, part of a year he called Sexsmith at Sixty, and released The Vivian Line (2023, produced in Nashville by Brad Jones) and Hangover Terrace (2025). He lives in Stratford, Ontario.

Elvis Costello, Feist, Rod Stewart, Emmylou Harris and Nick Lowe are among those who have performed or recorded his songs. He co-wrote "Brandy Alexander" with Feist, and Michael Bublé covered "Whatever It Takes", k.d. lang "Fallen" and Katie Melua "Gold in Them Hills".