Tom Cochrane

Tom Cochrane (born May 14, 1953) is a Canadian singer and songwriter, whose story-telling songs have earned him the nickname "The thinking man's rocker". Perhaps his best known song is the hit single "Life Is a Highway&

Tom Cochrane (born May 14, 1953) is a Canadian singer and songwriter, whose story-telling songs have earned him the nickname "The thinking man's rocker". Perhaps his best known song is the hit single "Life Is a Highway".

Cochrane was born in Lynn Lake, Manitoba to Violet and Tuck Cochrane, a bush pilot. The family relocated to Etobicoke, Ontario when Tom was four years old. He purchased his first guitar at age 11 by selling a toy train set. In the early 1970s, he was performing in coffee houses across Canada. He eventually made his way to Los Angeles where he found a job writing theme music for My Pleasure is My Business, a Xaviera Hollander movie. Unable to find steady income from music, Cochrane returned to Toronto where he drove a taxi cab and later took a job on a Caribbean cruise liner to help pay the bills. Cochrane went back to Los Angeles in 1976, trying to sell his songs to publishers but without success, and returned to Toronto in 1977. Cochrane walked into the El Mocambo club one night in Toronto and came across a band of locals calling themselves Red Rider. After an audition, they agreed to Cochrane joining the band as lead singer and songwriter.