Jerry Doucette (69) – Doucette – was born in Montreal, Canada on September 7, 1952 and grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, where his family moved when he was 4. Two years later his father bought him a guitar and he started learning quickly. He joined his first band, The Reefers, at age 11 and would go on to play in Brutus, Seeds of Time, and The Rocket Norton Band.
The young Doucette turned out to be a guitar prodigy. By the time he was 11, he was playing with three other guys, four or five years older school in a Hamilton group called The Reefers (as in refrigerator truck). The band played paying gigs throughout the area, including a spot opening for Roy Orbison. By the time he was 20, he was living in Toronto, playing in a string of bar bands.
In 1973, he was invited to Vancouver for a recording session with Mushroom recording artist Alexis. The move became permanent. In Vancouver, he established a reputation as one of the city’s hottest guitarists, playing with groups like the Seeds of Time and the Rocket Norton Band. He wrote the B-side, “Donkey Chain”, for the band’s first single. He subsequently signed a solo recording deal with Mushroom Records, and commenced recording under his surname only. He began writing his own songs in 1976 and offered up a demo to Mushroom. The demo included “Mama Let Him Play.”
“Mama Let Him Play”, the single from the first Doucette album release of the same name in the fall of 1977, earned platinum status (sales of 100,000 units) in Canada having reached #46 on the charts, plus substantial publicity and tour promotion. The single and record were not successful to the same degree in the United States, though the single charted in the Billboard Top 100 and the album in the Billboard 200. The album also won him a 1979 Juno Award for Most Promising Group of the Year.
“I was about eight and my mother, being the staunch Catholic that she was, always wanted me to put down the guitar and stick to the books,” recalls Doucette. “One day I challenged her. I said, “Mom, I know my lesson, back off, give me some space here.’ At the time, Dad worked on shift. He was asleep in the other room when mum and I started raising our voices. Like I said, I challenged her. Well, dad broke into the room and said ‘Mama, let him play.’
“I was thinking about that in my studio in Vancouver when it came to me: ‘Gee, that would be a good line for a song.’”
The following year’s release, The Douce is Loose, was less successful, although it earned gold status (50,000 units sold, #27 on the charts) in Canada, and produced the popular single “Nobody” co-written with Maxwell.
Mushroom Records eventually succumbed to financial problems in 1980. This left Doucette to find a new label for his third album, Coming up Roses, which was eventually released by Rio Records. This, plus the emergence of new wave music, were blamed for Doucette’s lack of follow-up success. After a fifteen-year hiatus, he made a comeback with Price Of An Education in 1995. Between 1977 and 1999 Doucette released five albums as a solo artist and continued playing in small venues in Western Canada until 2018.
Both of Doucette’s Mushroom Records albums, Mama Let Him Play and The Douce Is Loose, were re-released on compact disc and digital formats for the first time in 2013 through Hamilton, Ontario-based independent record label Linus Entertainment
Eric Alper, a music industry expert, says Doucette never hesitated to play the song that made him famous. “I know a lot of artists who don’t like to play the one or two hits that they may be known for around the world because they’re tired of them,” he tells CTV News. “Some, like Jerry, loved the fact that he was remembered for that hit. It allows you to keep going because there’s always going to be classic rock fans who want to hear the song and most artists like Jerry are happy to put on the clothes, go out on tour, and play it in front of an adoring crowd.“
Alper also says learning guitar at such a young age gave Doucette an advantage over others who pick up an instrument somewhat later in life. “When you get good and you become a guitar prodigy like Jerry, which allows you to play in bands when you’re a teenager, you start your 10,000 hours worth of practice at a really early age,” he said. “For about five decades. Jerry’s music has never gone off of the radio in this country in Canada. And a large part of it has to do with timing, and a large part of it has to do with the talent and the knack for a song like Jerry had.”
In February 2018, Doucette announced he was retiring from music for health reasons, and to spend more time with his spouse Maggie and 10 grandchildren.
Jerry Doucette died of cancer Monday, April 18, 2022. He was 69 years old.
• “To see the joy that he brought to so many is something very special and something that I will always hold close,” Gerry Doucette, Jr. said in an interview. “His music will live on forever, and hopefully he will inspire others to pick up the guitar and follow their dreams — that was a big one for him.”
