The Glorious Sons taking care of ‘unfinished business’ on tour
By Al Bieber on June 16, 2022.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
For the Glorious Sons, the COVID-19 pandemic may have been a blessing in disguise.
After years of touring and recording, the band needed a break and after a long time away from each other and the stresses of performing, the Canadian rockers are back on the road taking care of some unfinished business.
The Juno award-winning Glorious Sons perform here Saturday on their Unfinished Business tour at the Enmax Centre with rising rocker JJ Wilde, the first female artist to hit No. 1 on all three Canadian rock charts with her single “The Rush” in 2020.
Show time is 7:50 p.m. with tickets ranging in price from $69 – $79.
Lead vocalist Brett Emmons of the Kingston, Ont. band said during a phone interview from Winnipeg this week “it’s amazing to get out and to be able to work again,” he said of a performing musician’s life.
“It feels great, it’s been awhile, right? This is what we want to do.”
The band has defined Emmons’ life for 10 years so “to have that kind of ripped away through COVID it was a learning experience to say the least. I’m really happy to be back,” he said.
During their downtime, the band did a lot of recording and writing and Emmons said he did a bit of soul searching.
“For myself, it was an interesting time to kind of take stock in things that weren’t music and try to figure out who I was outside of the travelling circus act that is The Glorious Sons,” said Emmons.
“It’s all a blur now to be honest. I spent a lot of time on the lake with my dog and my girlfriend and spend time with family.
“I’ve said this a million times but it’s really true is the fact I think for as hard as COVID was on us, it also kind of hit at the right time and made us take a forced break that we would never really have taken on our own. We were super tired and disenfranchised on that last tour and there’s a plethora of reasons why but I think the main one was just we were overworking ourselves for that proverbial carrot and I think it was really good for us to just take a step back and realign ourselves. It makes you appreciate it more,” added Emmons.
During the pandemic, the band members still hung out and “in a weird way” they re-established the family aspect of what it means to be in a band, Emmons added.
“It’s not like we were really fighting that much but when you spend hours upon hours and years of your life in a tour bus with people, it does affect your friendship in many ways. I’m just happy that all of us got through it and nobody got really badly hurt or really disenfranchised over the two years and we were kind of able to band together as a family.
“We’re still here.”
The band has been on the road steadily since Christmas with a few breaks along the way.
The Glorious Son switch up their set list every night so fans will hear some of the hits along with other songs.
“We try to give people a different experience than the last time they came and a different experience than the last city we went to. I find that keeps people on their toes and making them want to come back. And it makes it more interesting for us, too.”
During their career, The Glorious Sons have seen two of their albums become CRIA certified platinum and their 2017 hit S.O.S. (Sawed Off Shotgun) reached No. 1 on American mainstream rock for four straight weeks. And it was the most played song on U.S. rock radio.
That same song spent 64 weeks on the Canadian rock radio chart.
Their lead single “Panic Attack” from their album “A War on Everything” also became a No. 1 hit south of the border.
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