![\"Benjamin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/200dfe53161159865d0b70661715db24a4388aa8201497556e57331c509499ca.png\")
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February 23, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we\u2019re told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they\u2019re given. This week, he talks to Ron Sexsmith. The award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter, 62, has written songs for, among others, Stevie Nicks and Emmylou Harris. His latest album is Hangover Terrace.<\/p>\n Did you have a religious upbringing? I was the only kid in my family who went to church.<\/p>\n Oh, really? How did that come about? Well, one day, these people knocked on our door trying to get kids to come to Sunday school at a place called the Brockview Bible Chapel, not too far from where I lived [in Ontario\u2019s St\u2009Catharines]. My brothers weren\u2019t interested at all, but I was intrigued: they said there\u2019d be singing. So, every Sunday, I\u2019d put my suit on, wait at the corner of my street and the bus would pick me up. I got a free Bible at the end of the year for perfect attendance and I still have it. I \u2009just found the stories really intriguing, and I\u2019ve always been a sort of God-conscious person.<\/p>\n \u201cGod-conscious person\u201d. Tell me about that. It\u2019s hard to explain without sounding kind of nuts. But I had a record a bunch of years ago called Exit Strategy of the Soul, which I called \u201cshadow gospel\u201d; it was a spiritual album without the dogma and guilt that comes with religion. I never saw God as being this angry thing in the \u2009sky who judged people. I always felt it was more about unconditional love which, in my opinion, is the only kind of love that\u2019s worth anything. I don\u2019t know how it works. Nobody knows. But I\u2019ve always felt the presence of this other thing. So when I say \u201cGod-conscious\u201d, it sounds religious, but I certainly wouldn\u2019t attempt to explain it like that.<\/p>\n Other people go to church. Where do you go? I go for walks every day. It\u2019s a good way to work things out in my head and to commune with the sun and nature.<\/p>\n MONEY<\/p>\n Why pursue a music career? For all the financial security that it offers? [Laughs] Certainly not. I didn\u2019t do well in school, but I loved music. I remember on my seventh birthday, we were getting ready for my birthday party. As the DJ on the radio said, \u201cHappy birthday to Elvis Presley\u201d, I fell down the stairs, right to the bottom. In a weird way, when I got up and dusted myself off, I knew what I wanted to do. And I\u2019ve always felt this cosmic connection with Elvis.<\/p>\n How did you start off? My older brother, Don, was playing cover tunes in bars. When I finished high school, he said, \u201cWell, I can get you an audition. All you\u2019ve got to do is learn a bunch of cover songs.\u201d I was only thinking as far as Christmas. I thought if I could make a bit of money, enough money to buy some Christmas presents for my family\u2009\u2026<\/p>\n Related Article Cut to now, decades later\u2009\u2026 Well, I\u2019ve never made any money in music, to be honest. I\u2019ve made a living, but I\u2019ve never had the big ship come in where I had an enormous hit record. That never happened, and I\u2019m actually fine with that. But it\u2019s funny: in my 20s, I got turned down by everyone in Canada and was getting ready to pack it in. Then, when I was about 29, I got some interest from Los Angeles, which led to a publishing deal, and then a record deal. And then I felt doors start to open.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the richest you\u2019ve ever been? There was a period in the mid-2000s when a lot of my songs were being covered. I still couldn\u2019t afford a house in Toronto, but it meant I was able to tour for a number of cycles with my band. I felt relatively established. And now there were people in the industry who believed in me.<\/p>\n What would you tell a younger Ron Sexsmith about money and the business side of music? Oh, man, I\u2019m terrible with money. It all \u2009goes over my head; I don\u2019t know anything about it. Thankfully, my wife, who\u2019s part of my management team, is very capable with all that kind of stuff. And now we have a house. I was 53 by the time I was able to buy my first house, just from hanging in there and being a survivor of the roller coaster that is the record industry.<\/p>\n POLITICS<\/p>\n What do you think about the idea that \u2009all art, including music, is inherently political? I think there\u2019s some truth in that. Whatever you\u2019re making \u2013 a book, a record or art hanging on your wall \u2013 is a statement. I\u2019m not a provocateur with my music; I\u2019m not really interested in that. But, sometimes, a song can rattle people. I had a song called God Loves Everyone in 2002, which was written after I read about the death of a kid named Matthew Shepard in Wyoming in 1998. [The 21-year-old university student, who was gay, was assaulted, tortured and left to die.] Some fundamentalist groups there got really upset.<\/p>\n![\"Ron](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/fc59861aa9c4aea721420503452ba59050963161.jpeg\")
Ron Sexsmith Kerry VergeerRELIGION<\/p>\n![\"\u201cI\u2019m](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/09ff92168a6493617d1b5346b4b87e558adb9964.jpeg\")
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