How seeing a Tragically Hip show in the ’90s changed Raine Maida’s aspirations

TORONTO — When Raine Maida was trying to break into the music scene more than 30 years ago, he says he bought tickets to the Toronto Music Awards at Massey Hall, in hopes he could use the event to network with industry folks.

But the night didn’t unfold as expected. Rather, the Our Lady Peace frontman said he thought the performances weren’t great and left him uninspired. He was ready to leave, but decided to watch the final act.

That’s when the Tragically Hip stepped on stage.

Maida said he watched as lead singer Gord Downie and the band commanded the show with an authenticity and a nod to poetry that he hadn’t seen from the other artists that night.

The Hip’s 1988 performance at the awards show is part of the band’s lore, as members have described the night as “disastrous” but it led to them being signed.

At the time, Maida says he thought to himself: “That’s the connection I want to be able to make someday.” He left the concert venue and ripped up a potential record deal that he said now would have been “the worst deal in the world” and listened to more music by the Hip.

Today, the 56-year-old Toronto-born singer said that night remains a seminal moment that impacted the trajectory of his career, which spans more than three decades and includes over 10 albums with his band and as a solo artist.

“That performance by the Hip gave me enough stock to be like, OK, slow this down. We’re not just chasing getting a record deal, we are trying to chase the art first and then the things will come, hopefully. That’s how I started to think when I left there,” said Maida, who later wrote the song “Ballad Of A Poet” about watching Downie and the Hip perform that night.

Now, Maida will come full circle as Our Lady Peace will perform a tribute to the Tragically Hip when the Kingston band is inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame on Saturday during a gala held at Massey Hall.

Maida said he’s had many amazing career moments, but “this is up there.”

“Getting to honour literally one of my favourite bands and favourite singers, now that you’re making me, like, talk about it, actually I’m starting to get nervous,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hip guitarist Rob Baker has had months to absorb the news that the band will be inducted alongside Toronto indie pioneer Feist, Mike Reno and Paul Dean of Loverboy and French-Canadian singer-songwriter Roch Voisine.

But Baker still said it’s “surreal” to join a Hall of Fame that includes artists the band admired, including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot and Rush.

The 64-year-old said it’s also special to go in as a band, since songwriting credits on the Hip’s music were shared among the group.

Of course, there is a bittersweet note to the festivities for Baker and his bandmates as well, because Downie, who died in 2017 after he was diagnosed with a rare and incurable form of brain cancer, won’t be there with them. But Baker said their songs remain the group’s “lasting testament.”

“We wrote these songs and we wrote them collectively and they go out there like our kids,” he said. “We have hundreds of little kids that went out. Some of them were ne’er do wells, never to be heard from again. And some of them have taken up residence with people and they’ve gone on to storied careers of their own. That’s really nice. It’s gratifying to sit back and watch what your kids go on and do.”

Baker said the Hip, whose hits include “Ahead by a Century,” “Bobcaygeon” and “Fifty-Mission Cap,” often wrote songs during jam sessions, passing a guitar around a circle, trying to impress someone else in the group.

“If they were impressed and maybe they got excited about the song, then someone else got excited and it would snowball,” he said.

Baker has fond memories of how their songs came together, he said, including one especially productive session at Convocation Hall at Queen’s University where they were rehearsing before recording their 1991 album “Road Apples.” In one day, the Hip wrote about four songs that all ended up on the record, Baker said, including “Long Time Running.”

Maida praised the Hip’s lyricism, which often includes references to history, Canadian landmarks and imagery, and unique turns of phrase. Maida said sometimes the phrasing felt “unfinished” which allowed a listener to make their own conclusions.

“It’s not just packaged so properly that it’s, like, ‘Oh, that’s what it is,'” Maida said. “Gord always allowed you to get inside those songs with him and see things.

“I think the idea of him putting you in a time and a place where it’s like, ‘Oh, I can smell where he is, I can feel that, I could see it,’ whether I’m sitting at a kitchen table. It’s those kind of nuances that Gord had that are truly special,” he said.

As Our Lady Peace’s success grew across Canada, Maida said they had the chance to play shows with the Hip, which shifted his relationship from strictly a fan to a peer.

“I love their music, but it’s so much deeper now being an artist and being a peer,” said Maida, who has covered his favourite Hip tune “Locked in the Trunk of a Car” with Our Lady Peace.

Baker said it’s an honour to know Maida was inspired by a Hip performance.

“These moments can mean a lot, if they hit at the right time,” Baker said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2026.

Kaitlyn McGrath, The Canadian Press