{"id":867510,"date":"2026-08-22T14:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T14:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/867510\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T14:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T14:58:13","slug":"tragically-hip-band-members-reflect-on-gord-downie-and-farewell-tour-10-years-after-final-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/867510\/","title":{"rendered":"Tragically Hip band members reflect on Gord Downie and farewell tour 10 years after final show"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a decade since The Tragically Hip\u2019s final concert in Kingston, Ont., but Paul Langlois feels he hasn\u2019t fully processed it yet.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s hard to believe it\u2019s been 10 years since that last show, since our last show,” the Tragically Hip guitarist said in an interview with CBC\u2019s Eli Glasner, which aired on The National Thursday night.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m just trying to be in a place of appreciation for what we did and how it seems to have affected people.”<\/p>\n

It was a bittersweet night as Hip lead singer and lyricist Gord Downie said goodbye to thousands packed into Kingston\u2019s Rogers K-Rock Centre (now known as Slush Puppi Place) and millions watching across the country.\u00a0Fans and Downie cried together as Downie sang hits like Ahead by a Century and Bobcaygeon for the last time.<\/p>\n

\"ADownie sings during the Tragically Hip’s final show in Kingston, Ont., on Aug. 20, 2016. (David Bastedo)<\/p>\n

The Canadian band, which released 13 studio albums since its formation in 1984, toured for the final time in 2016. They capped it off with a show in their hometown on Aug. 20, 2016. Downie had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in Dec. 2015<\/a> and died just over a year later<\/a>, aged 53.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CBC will rebroadcast the band\u2019s final concert on Saturday to commemorate its 10th anniversary. You can find a list of screenings of The Tragically Hip: A National Celebration here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WATCH | The Tragically Hip: A National Celebration 10th Anniversary Rebroadcast:\"\"<\/p>\n

The Tragically Hip: A National Celebration | 10th Anniversary Rebroadcast<\/p>\n

Relive the night Canada stood still for the live broadcast of The Tragically Hip\u2019s 2016 Man Machine Poem concert from Kingston, Ont., re-broadcasting and streaming commercial-free on Saturday, August 22 on CBC TV, CBC Gem, CBC Radio and CBC Music\u2019s YouTube page.<\/p>\n

“I really appreciate that it matters to people, that people still care \u2014 about the band, the music, that they want to pay their respects to Gord in some way,” said guitarist Rob Baker.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s not so much a celebration for me, it\u2019s a remembrance \u2026 the last show was the last day of a career that I loved.”<\/p>\n

Langlois recalls feeling uncomfortable and uneasy before the final performance.<\/p>\n

“I went to the arena early, for some reason I was just kind of going a bit squirrely,” he said. \u201cIt was starting to seep in that this is the last show, so I kind of had a heavy feeling.”<\/p>\n

But as soon as Downie showed up to the soundcheck, Langlois\u2019s mood changed.<\/p>\n

“[Downie] looked around and he’s just like, ‘This is going to be so great,'” Langlois recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It just changed me. I\u2019m like, ‘You think so?’ and he\u2019s like ‘Yeah. It\u2019s going to be so fun.’ It lightened me up.”<\/p>\n

\"ADownie is seen performing on a screen as a man in Vancouver watches during a viewing party for the final stop of The Tragically Hip’s tour in Kingston. A decade on, band members said they had no idea how much the final show meant to Canadians until after. (Darryl Dyck\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

Baker said he was focused on his friend and bandmate on the tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there to support Gord, and to help Gord realize his last wish. He really wanted to do it again, and he wanted to look every last person in the arena in the eye, and make a connection, to say thank you to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Baker said it wasn\u2019t always easy.<\/p>\n

“I had to keep all of my emotions jammed down, corked down inside the bottle \u2014 much to my detriment later on. But I couldn\u2019t have gotten through it otherwise,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s no way I\u2019d get through it. You can\u2019t stand on stage, blubbering. I had a job to do, and that\u2019s to be attentive to where Gord\u2019s going to take a song \u2026 and to be there to support him.”<\/p>\n

\"ThreeFrom left, Paul Langlois and Rob Baker speak with the CBC\u2019s Eli Glasner at the Glenn Gould Theatre, in Toronto, on Tuesday. (Evan Mitsui\/CBC)<\/p>\n

At first, the band members were worried that Downie\u2019s condition would affect him on stage. But, they said, the singer seemed to improve physically throughout the farewell tour.<\/p>\n

At the time, the band didn\u2019t realize how big a deal their last show would be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it crossed anyone\u2019s mind that there might be big screens in a small town, or on a campground, or in someone\u2019s backyard,\u201d Langlois said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AnPeople who couldn’t get a ticket to the band’s final show gather in Springer Market Square to listen to the Tragically Hip in downtown Kingston, Ont., on Aug. 20, 2016. (Lars Hagberg\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t really until the days after where I think we all started to realize, \u2018Oh, that was maybe a bit bigger than we thought.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Baker and Langlois are emphatic that the band won\u2019t be getting back together.<\/p>\n

Hip release new album<\/p>\n

But the band did release a new album on Friday, Live July 22 \u2013 August 20, 2016, which features recordings from across the 2016 tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Baker said the members of The Tragically Hip were always forward-looking, so putting together an album of past performances was difficult at times.<\/p>\n

But, Baker added, music can have a healing quality.<\/p>\n

He recalled when he burst into tears at a remembrance of life for Downie\u2019s father, Edgar, who died in 2015. He later told Downie he felt it happened because he hadn\u2019t grieved when his own parents died.<\/p>\n

“And [Downie] said, \u2018You\u2019re so full of shit. I see you up on the bus at four o\u2019clock in the morning listening to Artie Shaw, or Benny Goodman or something.\u2019 He said, \u2018What do you think you\u2019re doing?'” Baker said.\u00a0“I was like, ‘You\u2019re absolutely right.’ I didn\u2019t think I was grieving, but of course I was.”<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic helps you through things. Sometimes you have no idea it\u2019s even happening.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a decade since The Tragically Hip\u2019s final concert in Kingston, Ont., but Paul Langlois feels he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-867510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}