Gordon Lightfoot on his new neighbour, Drake,
Legendary songwriter looks forward to breakfast with Bridle Path neighbour
Gordon Lightfoot doesn’t have an invitation from Drake quite yet, but he hopes his potential new neighbour might be willing to share a meal in their posh Bridle Path suburb.
“I’m very proud of the fact that he would choose to move next door to me,” Lightfoot says with a laugh. “It’ll be good to have him drop by.” The “Hotline Bling” rapper appears to be building a mansion just across the street from Lightfoot’s longtime home in the quiet Toronto neighbourhood. And if the two legendary Canadian performers are living just a few steps from each other, there’s ample opportunity to collaborate on a project — like brunch.
“I’ll go over to his house for breakfast,” Lightfoot says. “His mom might come over for coffee.”
Drake is rumoured to have bought the Bridle Path property last September through a numbered company based in Halifax, which lists his close friend Adel Nur, a DJ who performs under the name Future the Prince, as its president. Documents say about $6.7 million was paid for a bungalow on the land that was quickly demolished to make way for a twostorey, five-bedroom mansion with an attached garage.
It’ll be a sprawling abode that will house a full-sized basketball court, spa and sauna, jersey museum, awards room and snack lounge.
Construction workers have been laying the groundwork for the mansion throughout the summer, though Drake’s camp hasn’t officially confirmed that the rapper plans to make the Bridle Path his home.
Asked how he feels about Drake as a neighbour, Lightfoot shrugs. “It don’t make no difference to me,” he says. “He’s a powerful performer, he really is. He’s one of those guys where you’d say he’s got something special.”
Lightfoot suggests that other neighbours might not be as keen on Drake’s famous parties happening in the area. He points to former newspaper baron Conrad Black as one who might be “getting a bit of a thump” from the music inside the mansion. The singer doesn’t think it’ll disturb him much at all, however.
“People really do mind their own business around here,” he says. “But everyone is with each other spiritually.”
Drake is currently on a North American tour to promote his latest album Views, which sits at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 album chart for a 12th nonconsecutive week. But if he’s hoping to break bread with the man who wrote some of Canada’s most unforgettable folk songs, such as “If You Could Read My Mind,” he’d better start making plans.
Lightfoot, 77, is about to embark on his own lengthy North American tour that will carry through the final half of this year.
The singer will play six cities in Eastern Canada this month, including Glace Bay, N.S. (Aug. 19), then Moncton (Aug. 20), Saint John (Aug. 21) and Fredericton (Aug. 22) in New Brunswick.
Asold-out show in Lunenburg, N.S., on Aug. 24 will be followed by concerts in Halifax from Aug. 25 to 27.
Lightfoot will return to Canada from the U.S. to play five dates in Ontario in November.