Rocker Alice Cooper (right) playfully chokes Bob Ezrin (left) as he holds the Canadian Music Hall of Fame Award he received at the 2004 Juno Gala Dinner Awards Ceremony. SunMedia

Article content

Welcome to one Canadian’s nightmare.

Article content

Bob Ezrin, one of the most successful producers in music industry history, period, made no bones about his position on American politics after Donald Trump was elected to a second term as president.

Article content

Article content

The good Toronto boy renounced his American citizenship and came home.

Article content

The stars on Ezrin’s metaphorical World Cup jersey include The Wall, arguably peak Pink Floyd, Lou Reed’s Berlin and Peter Gabriel’s self-titled 1977 solo debut.

Article content

Article content

Any number of comparisons and turns of phrase can be pulled out of the air when a Canadian of Ezrin’s significant and continued professional success is the subject. An Officer in the Order of Canada, Ezrin has been working with the monsters of recorded sound for more than 50 years, from Reed and Elton John to U2 and Taylor Swift, as apty summed up by The Canadian Encyclopedia.

Article content

Names left off that list include Rod Stewart and Jay-Z — you get the idea.

Article content

Like so many musical masterminds, Ezrin, who was born in Toronto in 1949, is comfortable behind a two-tone keyboard. No shock, either, that his mother was a classical pianist and his father played bass in the Bobby Gimby Orchestra.

Article content

After an internship with The Guess Who producer Jack Richardson, Ezrin worked with Alice Cooper to boil down songs including I’m Eighteen on the band’s third album, Love It to Death, and with Roger Waters to expand the story and fill in the gaps in a little-known release called The Wall — ever heard of it? He co-wrote The Trial. Take a moment to let that sink in: The man punched up prog rock’s crowning achievement. Just another day at the office, eh?

Article content

Article content

All the Halls are aware of this: Ezrin has been inducted into both the Canadian Music and Music Industry Halls of Fame, and Canada’s Walk of Fame.

Article content

New Orleans residents may know him as the producer of the 2006 Superdome reopening after Hurricane Katrina. Gamers may not know it, but Ezrin entered their lives when he founded the first PC-based interactive entertainment company, 7th Level Inc., in 1992.

Article content

Ezrin also produced the smash hit and Haiti relief fundraising track Wavin’ Flag by K’naan, which won the 2011 Juno for Single of the Year.

Article content

Speaking of waving flags brings us back to January 2025, when Ezrin announced he’d moved from Nashville to Toronto and begun the process of renouncing the U.S. citizenship he was granted in the 1990s. Also according to the Encyclopedia, the father of five said honours such as his 2013 Walk induction and his Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, presented in February 2025, played a part in inspiring him to stand up for his home and native land.

Article content

“Those of us who are lucky enough and privileged enough to be recognized by our country, we have a responsibility to earn it,” he told The Globe and Mail, while lamenting the polarization in the United States. “Conspiracy theories abound, people are armed to the teeth, and it’s just a different place than the place I went to.”

Article content

From the Titan tamer who convinced Kiss to soften their image just in time for Destroyer, their commercial breakthrough (and co-wrote Beth, too, no biggie), these are words that should continue to resonate.

Article content