‘Mama Let Him Play’: Rocker and Canadian music veteran Jerry Doucette dies at 70 in Delta, B.C.

Vancouver guitarist and singer Jerry Doucette died at age 70 on Monday.

The Juno-winning rocker behind the 1977 hit single Mama Let Him Play died surrounded by household after a battle with most cancers, his son stated.

Fellow Vancouver musician Dalannah Gail Bowen was one in every of Doucette’s dwell backup singers within the Seventies.

“I used to be a Doucette woman,” she advised CBC Information. “When Jerry put the guitar on, it was simply magical — he took it to a different stage … He knew the best way to work a crowd.

“With Mama Let Him Play, he went nationwide. It modified his life and his relationship with music.”

‘Such iconic songs — and a really good man’

The album that includes his Billboard High-100 hit single earned platinum certification. Individuals who know Doucette describe him as variety, charming on stage, and doggedly persistent.

Longtime bandmate Mark Ibarra stated the Doucette band’s unique lineup was his important inspiration as a drummer. When Ibarra moved to Vancouver over twenty years in the past, his one hope was to play with the icon.

“As a child, after I first began enjoying drums, I used to play alongside to Jerry’s albums,” Ibarra advised CBC Information. “Someday Jerry known as me and stated, ‘OK, you are coming with me’ … When Jerry known as, I might at all times say sure.”

His son advised CBC Information his father’s music “will dwell on ceaselessly.”

“To see the enjoyment that he dropped at so many is one thing very particular and one thing that I’ll at all times maintain shut,” Gerry Doucette, Jr. stated in an interview Tuesday. “His music will dwell on ceaselessly, and hopefully he’ll encourage others to choose up the guitar and comply with their goals — that was a giant one for him.”

Ibarra recalled one present at the Rock the Lake Pageant in Kelowna in August 2016.  Doucette advised him he was feeling unwell earlier than collapsing.

Nevertheless it did not cease his efficiency.

“Abruptly, he went down in the course of our set,” Ibarra stated. “That they had known as the paramedics over and had him on oxygen … However he went proper again on stage and he simply blew everybody away.

“He had folks holding him up whereas he performed his guitar, and he performed ‘Mama’ like he by no means performed it earlier than. He simply kicked it like he by no means did.”

He did not go to hospital till after his set; his well being declined after that.

Mark Rankin, guitarist and co-founder of the Vancouver rhythm and blues band The Mojo Stars, recalled enjoying a New Westminster, B.C., charity present with Doucette in 2014 — an annual fundraiser for youngsters with disabilities Doucette supported for years.

“Lots of of us, like myself, had been influenced by him as songwriters,” Rankin advised CBC Information. “He was such an amazing guitar participant, such an amazing singer, and such iconic songs — and a really good man.”

Two of Doucette’s personal longtime bandmates — keyboardist Kenny Boychuck and bassist Trevor Newman — would later be a part of Rankin’s band, and Ibarra would sometimes play with The Mojo Stars dwell.

“His songs had been very a lot the soundtrack for lots of people, particularly of my technology,” Rankin stated. “He’ll be very missed by an terrible lot of individuals.”

‘It is extra than simply Dad’

Doucette was born in Montreal in 1952. He joined his first band, The Reefers, at age 11 and would go on to play in Brutus, Seeds of Time, and The Rocket Norton Band.

It wasn’t till shifting to B.C. within the Seventies his solo profession took off, successful him a 1979 Juno Award.

“When he performed his guitar and rocked out to numerous venues with the Doucette Band, it was then that I noticed, ‘Hey, it is extra than simply Dad,'” his son stated. “He means one thing to so many individuals on the market.”

In February 2018, Doucette introduced he was retiring from music for well being causes, and to spend extra time along with his partner Maggie and 10 grandchildren.

“Preserve listening to Canadian artists and hold supporting dwell music venues — they’re the lifeblood of our business,” he wrote on Facebook. “Mama, allow them to play.”