‘A living breathing lie’ finding his truth
Musician Tom Wilson turns in a riveting read, spurred by the revelation of his Mohawk roots
Over the past three decades, Tom Wilson has placed a large bootprint on the Canadian music landscape, first as the charismatic frontman of platinumselling rock band Junkhouse and now as one-third of acclaimed roots-rock group Blackie and the Rodeo Kings.
News that he was writing a memoir has elicited real interest, but the resulting Beautiful Scars is not quite the book most expected. This is not your typical recollection of a debauched life of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, although veteran road warrior Wilson certainly has enough material on hand for just such a book.
Some of those elements do surface, and Wilson is laceratingly honest about his own personal failings, prior to kicking addictions he describes as “a deadly circle of abuse that I kept going for decades.”
The true heart and soul of Beautiful Scars comes from the revelation five years ago of a zealously guarded family secret, namely that Bunny and George Wilson of Hamilton were not Tom’s birth parents, but a couple who adopted him at the request of his natural mother, an Indigenous woman from the Mohawk Kahnawake community who became pregnant out of wedlock.
The news shakes Wilson to the core, sparking a journey to explore his newlyrevealed Mohawk roots and uncover the true story.
In the process, he discovers that “My name is Thomas George Lazare. I come from a family of Mohawk chiefs . . . But instead of growing up around these heroes and zeros, I grew up on the East Mountain in Hamilton, Ontario, the son of a blind war vet and a French-Canadian she-warrior. I am a living breathing lie.”
A lifelong proud denizen of Steeltown, Wilson has long embodied the essence of that city with his gruff, dredged-fromthe-swamp voice and gritty songwriting.
His unsentimental reflections on growing up there make for satisfying reading. Here’s his memory of the War Amps club he’d be taken to as a youngster: “The club was dark and dreary and filled with smoke and the smell of piss and beer and dried blood. Blind men and men missing arms or legs would gather to drink and often fight in the dimly lit room.”
The storytelling ability present in Wilson’s songwriting translates to the written page with real ease.
He has a direct cut-to-the-chase style, but is still capable of delivering poetic imagery.
One interesting footnote: Wilson’s solo “acid-folk” musical project, Lee Harvey Osmond, released an album entitled Beautiful Scars in 2015, while a song of that name, inspired by novelist Miriam Toews, appears on Blackie and The Rodeo Kings’ 2016 album, Kings and Kings.
The author’s ability to find beauty as well as pain in the scars of his family’s experience ultimately renders this an inspiring read. Kerry Doole is a music journalist who has interviewed Tom Wilson extensively over the past 25 years.
The storytelling ability present in Wilson’s songwriting translates to the written page with real ease. He has a direct cut-to-the-chase style