Vancouver guitarist and singer Jerry Dusset died at the age of 70 on Monday.
The Juno rocker who won the hit single from 1977, Mama Let Him Play, died surrounded by his family after a battle with cancer, his son said.
His fellow Vancouver musician Dalana Gail Bowen was one of Dusset’s backup singers in the 1970s.
“I was a Ducet girl,” she told CBC News. “When Jerry put on the guitar, it was just magical – he took it to another level.” He knew how to work with a crowd.
“With Mama Let Him Play, he became a national. That changed his life and his relationship with music.”
“Such iconic songs – and a very nice person”
The album with his hit single Billboard Top-100 won a platinum certificate. People who know Dussett describe him as kind, captivating on stage and stubborn.
His longtime colleague Mark Ibara said Doucette’s original line-up was his main inspiration as a drummer. When Ibara moved to Vancouver more than two decades ago, his only hope was to play with the icon.
“As a kid, when I first started playing drums, I played with Jerry’s albums,” Ibara told CBC News. One day Jerry called me and said, “Okay, you’re coming with me” … When Jerry called, I always said yes.
His son told CBC News that his father’s music “will live forever.”
“Seeing the joy he has brought to so many is something very special and something I will always keep close to,” Gary Dusset Jr. said in an interview Tuesday. “His music will live forever and we hope that he will inspire others to take the guitar and follow their dreams – it was great for him.”
Ibara recalled a show at the Rock the Lake Festival in Kelowna in August 2016. Dusset told him he felt bad before fainting.
But that didn’t stop him from performing.
“Suddenly he fell in the middle of our set,” Ibara said. “They called the paramedics and put him on oxygen … But he immediately returned to the stage and just blew everyone up.
“He had people holding him while he played his guitar, and he played Mama like never before. He just kicked her like he never did.
He did not go to the hospital until after his set; then his health deteriorates.
Mark Rankin, guitarist and co-founder of Vancouver’s Rhythm and Blues band The Mojo Stars, recalls playing a charity show in New Westminster, British Columbia, with Dusset in 2014, an annual fundraiser for children with disabilities supported by Dozens of years.
“A lot of people like me were influenced by him as songwriters,” Rankin told CBC News. “He was such a great guitarist, such a great singer and such iconic songs – and a very nice person.”
Two of Dusset’s longtime teammates – pianist Kenny Boychuk and bassist Trevor Newman – will later join Rankin’s band, and Ibara occasionally plays live with The Mojo Stars.
“His songs were a great soundtrack for a lot of people, especially my generation,” Rankin said. “It will be very much missed by an awful lot of people.”
“It’s more than just Dad.”
Dusset was born in Montreal in 1952. He joined his first band The Reefers at the age of 11 and will continue to play in Brutus, Seeds of Time and The Rocket Norton Band.
It wasn’t until he moved to British Columbia in the 1970s that his solo career began, earning him the Juno Award in 1979.
“When he played his guitar and went to countless places with the Doucette Band, then I realized, ‘Hey, this is more than just a dad,'” his son said. “It means something to so many people out there.”
In February 2018, Dusset announced that he was retiring from music for health reasons and spending more time with his wife Maggie and 10 grandchildren.
“Keep listening to Canadian artists and continue to support live music venues – they are the lifeblood of our industry,” he wrote on Facebook. “Mom, let them play.”
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