COREY HART at the South Stage (Church and Wood), Saturday (June 30), 8:15 pm. Free. pridetoronto.com. See listing.
Eighties pop sensation Corey Hart has re-emerged from a decade-plus retirement to play a small run of Pride festivals around the world, performing a new remix of his 1988 song Truth Will Set You Free. We know what you’re thinking, and, no, he isn’t coming out as gay himself. Well, unless you count coming out as a straight ally. Turns out the original song was largely inspired by the homophobia he saw his queer friends experiencing, although no one noticed at the time.
“I wrote it because of three people in my life, and one person in particular,” Hart explains, after apologizing profusely for an interview time mix-up. He also apologizes for not speaking in sound bites, and asks if I think he’ll actually be received well by the gay community. If only all former pop stars were this unguarded and sensitive.
“I witnessed a lot of her suffering and pain. There were a few people I was close to from my late teens through my early 20s who prompted me to want to express this in a song. Had it been released as a single, I would have discussed it then, but it wasn’t, so I never had the opportunity.”
The chance came when his assistant forwarded a note from Kingston, Ontario, DJ 1Love (aka Paul Todd) asking for permission to remix the song.
“I’ve probably written 110 songs over my career that were recorded, and he chose the one that really struck a chord with me. I couldn’t believe it, because I always wanted this song to be heard, and 25 years later I’m getting an opportunity.
“It felt like this was a calling for me, destiny. And there were too many parallels with Paul Todd for me to let this go.”
Todd isn’t a superstar DJ (nor is he gay), and this is his first official release. When he approached Hart, he was driving a taxi to supplement his club DJing earnings. He’d lived a hard life (father killed by a drunk driver, addict mother, growing up in hostels) and had only recently discovered that he had siblings he’d never met, which inspired him to reach out to Hart about reworking the song for the clubs.
The label had unfortunately lost the master tapes, so Hart wasn’t able to give him the isolated vocals. By this point they’d bonded, so Hart re-recorded all the elements he’d need. This had the unintentional side effect of giving Hart the chance to make the anti-homophobia message more explicit.
“When Matthew Shepard was killed in 1998, I was really affected by that. His death was no more tragic than a kid killed in Syria or in Tahrir Square, or someone getting hit by a drunk driver, but somehow his death really upset me. I had the opportunity here to write about him and bring the song full circle.”
Don’t mistake this for a comeback attempt. Hart has no intention of being a full-time musician again.
“I grew up without a dad present in my life, and I did not want that for my four children. I’m a dad first and a singer/songwriter second. This will be a season of my life, though, for however long the lifespan of the song is. I will see it through to the end.”
benjaminb@nowtoronto.com | twitter.com/benjaminboles
