BIO
Meet Jody Raffoul — Canada’s Best Kept Secret.
For more than three decades, Jody Raffoul has built a career the old-fashioned way — one song, one stage and one audience at a time.
The Early Years
The oldest son of first-generation immigrants, Jody Raffoul grew up in Leamington, a small farming town in Southern Ontario. His parents worked the tomato fields through the hot Ontario summers and the factories that processed those tomatoes in the fall, passing along strong family values and a relentless work ethic.
When Raffoul bought his first guitar from a neighbour at age 15, he brought that same determination to learning his craft. Largely self-taught, he spent countless hours developing his voice and playing. Longtime fans still tell stories of a young Jody sitting on the porch on Wigle Street, picking up valuable lessons from his neighbour, Uncle Morris.
At 17, Raffoul played his first gig at the Village Inn Hotel in Leamington. He has been performing ever since.
The Trenches
With a powerful voice capable of moving from soulful restraint to full-throttle rock and roll, Raffoul quickly became a fixture on the local music scene. His range allowed him to tackle the music of artists such as Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, Steve Marriott, Paul McCartney and Paul Rodgers while still developing a sound unmistakably his own.
Alongside his cousin and fellow musician Ron Raffoul, Jody helped form The Bad Apples. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, “The Apples” were dominating the local club scene, packing rooms with their versions of songs by The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Bad Company and other rock legends.
Local success wasn’t enough. Raffoul began writing and recording his own material and released his first self-titled album, selling copies directly from the trunk of his car at gigs. Songs such as Dreamer and Color of Tears revealed a soulful and melodic songwriter, while Homeland and Hamburg captured the grit and determination of a working musician paying his dues.
In 1999, Raffoul released Simple Life, a stripped-down collection of largely one-take acoustic performances. The songs explored family, struggle, love and the realities of building a life while pursuing music. The title track became a fan favorite, while Grabtime looked back on growing up in small-town Canada.
As his audience grew on both sides of the Canadian-American border, Raffoul began sharing stages with some of rock and roll’s biggest names, including Paul Rodgers, John Entwistle and The Allman Brothers.
Giants Stadium
Raffoul’s third album, Like a Star, arrived in 2004 and brought his music to an even larger audience. One song in particular would change the trajectory of his career.
Without Raffoul knowing it, a fan submitted his song Light of Day to Bon Jovi’s “Have a Nice Gig” competition. Raffoul emerged from a field of more than 17,000 entrants, first winning locally and then being personally selected by Jon Bon Jovi as the national winner.
The prize put Jody Raffoul and his band onstage opening for Bon Jovi in front of a sold-out crowd at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.
Big Sky
After the larger production of Like a Star, Raffoul returned to a rawer, more direct rock sound with 2008’s Big Sky. Written during a turbulent period in his personal life, the album paired bare-bones arrangements with some of his most revealing songwriting.
Home, originally written for a Robin Williams film project, showed Raffoul’s melodic side and ability to write for a specific purpose. Songs such as Should I Have Known Better and Fontana Lane offered an unusually open window into the personal struggles surrounding the record.
“I could never separate my music from my life or vice versa, so it’s all there in the songs. I couldn’t hide it if I tried. But I can tell you I haven’t compromised — and if I am proud of just one thing, it’s that the music is honest and comes from real life and the heart.”
9 Wigle Street
A decade after Big Sky, Raffoul returned with 9 Wigle Street Leamington Ontario, an album whose title brought him directly back to the street where his musical story began.
The record is a collection of stories about love, loss, family, trials and triumphs, backed by the muscular rock sound and unmistakable vocals that have defined Raffoul’s career.
The opening single, Bird and Bee, sets the tone with swaggering vocals, raw guitars and a driving bass line. At the other end of the emotional spectrum, I’m So In Love With You was written for his son Peter and reflects the rebuilding of family relationships following divorce.
Those years brought profound changes to Raffoul’s life — new love with his wife Bridget, herself a talented performer; a growing family; and the emergence of another generation of Raffoul musicians as his sons Billy and Peter began building careers of their own.
A Lifetime of Rock & Roll
Jody Raffoul’s career has never followed the easy route. It was built in clubs, bars, theatres, festival stages, long drives and late nights — through thousands of performances and decades of writing songs drawn directly from the life around him.
From a teenager learning guitar on Wigle Street to a singer standing onstage at Giants Stadium, the constant has been the same: a distinctive rock and roll voice, an uncompromising work ethic and songs rooted in real experience.
For Raffoul, the music has never been separate from the life.