Music legend Tom Cochrane with Sherman Dahl of the Emily Dahl Foundation in Vernon after a round of golf at Predator Ridge. Cochrane, who will perform in Vernon Nov. 13, is holding one of the hand carved chains from Saskatchewan blind carver, Ted Ohlsen. (submitted photo/Sherman Dahl)

By Pete McIntyre

message in the music

Golfing at Predator Ridge with music great

Oct 24, 2023 | 6:30 AM

A local businessman and foundation president got a chance to get to know a Canadian music legend and find out more about one of his best-known songs.

Sherman Dahl was at Predator Ridge for the resort’s final day of the season, Saturday, Oct. 21, and thanks to a tee time set up by his friends, Dev Randhawa and Jamie Bannerman, Dahl was surprised to be playing golf with Tom Cochrane.

“The course was completely empty,” Dahl explained. “When I pulled into the valet area, the one team member from Predator said, “you are the only group playing today,” and then Dev introduced me to Tom Cochrane, and off we went for a magical ride of golf and visiting.”

Cochrane will be in Vernon Nov. 13 at the Performing Arts Centre for his show called ‘Songs and Stories.’

Tom Cochrane (submitted photo)

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Dahl, president of The Pretium Group and of the Emily Dahl Foundation, said after their round, the group went for wings and beer, and it was Bannerman who asked Cochrane the story behind his biggest hit, Life Is a Highway.

“First envisioned as Love Is a Highway, Cochrane told us his original version was nixed while he was still in Red Rider,” Dahl said. “It was his friend, John Webster, an instrumentalist on Mad Mad World, who encouraged him to revisit a demo recording with mumbled vocals and improvised lyrics that still lacked the infectious singalong chorus.”

Cochrane told his golfing buddies, the song was bare bones at best and he didn’t know what to do with it.

“He told us the story about returning from a “shocking and traumatic” visit to West Africa where he found the answer. Struck by his experience in the region with the World Vision famine relief organization, he was trying to process his thoughts after witnessing levels of poverty and pain unlike anything he had seen before,” Dahl stated.

“I didn’t realize how much that would affect me,” Cochrane said, adding he needed a happy song he could “hang the experience on,” and one morning, inspiration struck for a new take on Life Is a Highway.

“It became a positive talk to myself, saying you can’t really control all of this stuff, you just do the best you can,” Cochrane told Dahl and the others.

Writing some ideas out, the 70-year old former Red Rider frontman from Lynn Lake, Manitoba, said he rushed into his backyard recording studio to lay it down. Within days of its release, Life Is a Highway went to number one in Canada, and climbed to No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S.

“It just seemed to keep going,” Cochrane recalled.

Dahl said Cochrane’s kindness and compassion was amazing, and he looks forward to spending more time with him in the future. He’s also going to Cochrane’s show in Vernon on Nov. 13 after buying tickets.

Dahl, who’s foundation encourages compassion and happiness, called the following verse from Life is A Highway “powerful teaching”:

There’s a world outside every darkened door
Where blues won’t haunt you anymore
Where the brave are free and lovers soar
Come ride with me to the distant shore — Tom Cochrane.

“Life Is a Highway is a ruggedly optimistic song about taking the ups and downs of life with a good, hardy attitude,” Dahl remarked. “The lyrics focus on how life can be very unpredictable; it’s like a highway because it has twists and turns. Regardless of this, the message of the song is that we should keep driving forward. In addition, the track manages to touch on the importance of companionship as one takes this journey.”