Johnny Reid's tour What Love is All About stops at CN Centre Friday, Feb. 5. This will be the third time Reid takes to the stage in Prince George to a full house.
Reid never forgets who has brought him his great success and is always mindful of his fans and what they're looking for in their music.
"It's all about bringing a good message," said Reid during an interview with The Citizen.
"This album was an interesting one - I had written, recorded and released the song Fire It Up and Joe Cocker had decided he was going to record and release it in Europe and he did so and had great success and it really opened up a lot of doors for me as a songwriter."
Reid got a lot of phone calls asking if he would go to Europe and write with a lot of different songwriters.
"I was never intending to write an album for myself," said Reid, a Juno Award winning singer. "I was just looking forward to going over there, taking in Europe and traveling around, writing some songs and before I knew it I had written several songs with different guys in different places like London, Zurich, and Berlin and it quickly dawned on me this process of getting together with these guys to write songs supposedly for other people - these songs were Johnny Reid songs."
When Reid came back to Canada, he played What Love Is All About for legendary producer, Bob Ezrin, in studio.
"He said 'Johnny, we must go in and record this.' So we went and recorded that one song and decided it was going to be the fulcrum and what we would base our entire album around and quickly got to work on it," said Reid, whose total album sales are more than 1.1 million units.
The album What Love Is All About, released Nov. 13, 2015 had already been certified platinum in Canada by Dec. 22. This is Reid's first major studio album since Fire It Up was released in 2012.
"It's amazing," said Reid of the platinum certification. "It's just crazy. It's always a humbling experience and needless to say it's nice to surround yourself with good people and you know when the public speaks it's always a nice thing. You know all the miles on the road and all the time you put in through the years getting to know people and really taking time for people really pays off because people really rise up even when the music industry thinks people don't sell records, they just sell singles and we've proven that not to be true."
The first time Reid came to Prince George in 2010, without fanfare or announcement, he arranged for people who had tickets in the furthest-from-the-stage seats at CN Centre to be upgraded to front and centre seats. There were tears.
In 2012 when Reid came to Prince George, he did his usual and came through the audience to visit with as many people as he could. He was hugged and kissed by senior ladies, lifted off his feet as big barrell-chested men greeted him and when a little girl in the arms of her daddy waved frantically to get Reid's attention in the top row of CN Centre, he bolted up the steps in a burst of energy that saw sweat streaming into his eyes while an apology for taking so long to get to her was uttered with a sheepish grin.
"I remember how I felt when I would go to concerts and I was just enamoured by the whole experience and you know sometimes you think some things are untouchable and I think it's really important to show people that you're just a normal person," he said.
Reid is a father of four and he said he's a last minute kind of guy so when he buys tickets and he's at the back of a show and has to pick up his baby just so they can see the stage it reminds him of what it feels like to be part of the crowd.
"So why not go out there and try and solve that problem and give that person a lifelong experience and something that might even change someone's life in a way, knowing there are people out there that care," said Reid, who became a Canadian citizen in 2015. "Without going too deep into this, I think in this world there can be a lot of darkness at times so for me those small acts of kindness are important for me to show there is goodness in the world."
Natalie McMaster will be joining Reid on the tour as a special guest.
Aaron Goodvin from northern Alberta will open the show, following him is JJ Shiplett from Alberta who is a folk rock and roll style musician, said Reid.
"Throughout the show - I won't let the cat out of the bag - but at some point in the show Natalie McMaster is going to grace the stage and we'll have a Celtic celebration," laughed Reid. "I've always called her the Queen of the East and I look forward to sharing my admiration for her talent with other people. I can't wait to get there to share the music and the message with everyone. I'll see you soon."
Tickets for the Feb. 5 show at CN Centre are available at Ticketmaster locations and online.
