Host with a heart
Country singer Brett Kissel uses music to help in breast cancer fight
REGINA In recent years, Brett Kissel has seen his career grow in leaps and bounds. Having recently won three Canadian Country Music Association Awards, he’s ready to take the next step at the Western Canadian Music Alliance awards.
Kissel’s participation in the WCMAs, however, is a little different than usual. Instead of performing at the awards show, he’ll host the event Thursday in Regina. For the 26-year-old former Edmonton artist, the hosting duties are the next step in his music career.
“It was something that we actively pursued,” said Kissel. “It was something we wanted to do, to diversify who I am as an artist and as an entertainer. A lot of my heroes, guys like Paul Brandt, they hosted the Canadian Country Music Association Awards for many years. You look at a guy like Brad Paisley, who I’ve spent a lot of time with over the last couple of years, he hosts the CMAs. There’s no better opportunity that we’ve found than to host the Western Canadian Music (Alliance) awards … “This is a big opportunity.” It should be an interesting evening for Kissel, whose hosting experience has been limited to serving as MC at family weddings.
“I’ve got enough buddies in the radio business that MC on a nightly basis that have given me a lot of great pointers,” said Kissel.
While Kissel’s focus currently is on the WCMA gig, he understands he also has to keep an eye on his music career, which received a tremendous boost last month when he won the fan’s choice award, male artist of the year and interactive artist of the year at the CCMAs.
He recently released I Didn’t Fall in Love with Your Hair, the fourth single from his 2015 album Pick Me Up. His previous singles, such as 3-2-1, Airwaves, Started with a Song and Pick Me Up, have made Kissel a mainstay of Canadian country radio.
Yet the new single, which carries an incredibly serious message, might be a turning point for Kissel.
“Of the nine songs that I’ve released nationally, I would say without question that this is the most important song that I have ever recorded. It’s one of those songs that’s very typical of country music because it’s the only genre left that tells a story this way,” said Kissel. “It’s inspired by my mom and my dad, but the real important meaning is for women across Canada and anyone going through cancer to know that beauty is a lot more than just skin deep.
“The lyric says that the heart that’s inside you is why I stopped and stared and that’s the biggest message in all of this. I’m very, very proud to be the teller of that tale.”
Kissel performed the song during the CCMA awards show and was joined on stage mid-song by a number of cancer survivors, including his mother Brenda. It made for powerful television. Kissel said it was tough to make it through the performance without breaking down.
“I broke down at the end and the reason I broke down, even though I was trying to stay as strong as I could, was that I looked at my dad in the crowd,” said Kissel.
“My dad is a real quiet guy, he doesn’t say a whole lot, but when I saw him lift his glasses and start to wipe his eyes, that was really tough for me. It was special. It was at that moment I realized I shouldn’t have looked at him, because I knew then there was no way I could keep it together.”
Kissel is donating the proceeds from all sales of I Didn’t Fall in Love with Your Hair through Oct. 28 to the Canadian Cancer Society. Canadian entrepreneur W. Brett Wilson has joined the campaign and will match the sales figures up to $25,000.