Passing of a mentor - the Gyrfalcon I received news from my daughter Melanie who lives in St-Jean sur Richelieu where I grew up and got my chance musically. Jean Paul Leblanc passed away he was 79. When I was seventeen I was invited to join an established band that work in the area from Granby, Shawinigan and Valleyfield triangle. M Leblanc eldest son Gilles was leader of the group and we practiced every thursday nite at parents home. We worked every weekend one niters, sometimes 3 dates a week, in schools and reception halls no nite clubs we were still minors.

Jean Paul found us the jobs through his connections with local schools as a printing sales rep. He and his wife drove us to the gig in their new 66 Chevrolet Impala. I remember the 6 of us in the car 4 band members two parents pulling a trailer full of our equipment this was 1966. There was a few hair raising moments in snowstorms and other matters, but we had the times of our lives the 3 bad boys Robert Lorrain, Reiner Schwarz, and Steve W LeBlanc sitting in the back seat.

Because of this man's love and dedication to his son I got a taste of the "bigtime".
I had my first audience my first shows and fell in love with performing.

Thank you for your encouragement Jean Paul you were a generous man and I salute your life.

Steve  ¶ 12:00 PM 0 comments