Performing the songs of Neil Diamond has put Jason Scott on stages across the nation, and soon it will put him on the silver screen.
Scott brings his one-man show, Diamond Forever, back to the Sicamous Legion stage for a dinner/concert on Saturday, March 14.
Last time Scott was in town, he performed to a sold-out audience. The March 14 show will be different in two ways. One, it will be a St. Patrick’s celebration of Neil Diamond. Second will be Scott himself, who is buzzing with excitement over his part in an upcoming motion-picture documentary featuring a select few who have managed to carve out a career singing the songs of Neil Diamond.
The movie is entitled, Play Me, after one of Diamond’s songs, and will feature 12 other artists from around the globe.
Scott will be the only Canadian performer in the film.
“The movie isn’t about who’s the best one, it’s what goes on in our lives to do this, what drives us to do it,” Scott said. “Most of us have got, if not a heartbreaking story, then a motivational story that has culminated in us finally doing what we are all doing now. What our story line is.”
What separates Scott from the rest is that he doesn’t use a live band.
“I use tracks, I’m a one-man show and I carry an audience for nearly two hours by myself, without a band and no nets,” he said. “So it’s kind of like a high-wire act.”
Scott explained the motion picture and what he was hoping to accomplish with his act.
“We struck up a deal,” Scott said. “I wanted to have a show that illustrated what I do when I go and perform on the road.”
Scott said he strictly performs at Royal Canadian Legions now. He used to play venues like the Key City Theatre and Royal Theatre in Nelson, but liked the atmosphere and audience at the Legions.
“I come from a military family, going back to my dad’s dad, who was in four wars for Canada — he fought from the backs of horses to the backs of tanks, and he survived it all. So it’s kind of special to me to be playing the Royal Canadian Legions.”
Scott has been a professional singer since 1979, and was part of the West Coast rock music movement, the one that spawned Loverboy, Sweeney Todd and Bryan Adams.
“I know all those guys. We were part of the same family. We were all playing the West Coast. We were all playing in rock-and-roll cover bands.”
He was working with Brian “Too Loud” MacLeod from Headpins on a band called You Are One Too.
“We were working on the fourth song of a nine-song album, and Brian up and died of cancer. It just killed him in six months.”
At that point, the U.S. side of the record label dropped all distribution.
“That was it,” he said. He looked in the mirror, wondering if he’d just wasted the last two decades of his life and wondering what he was going to do now.
“You can’t start again. You can’t go back to playing bars on Hastings Street,” he said.
He eventually made his way to Cranbrook to help a friend run a bar.
“I had this one experience with my family where we ended up in a karaoke bar,” he said. His sister asked him to sing Love on the Rocks by Neil Diamond. The bar had the Canucks game on and most people were watching that with the sound off, while people sang.
“I started singing and I got to the second line and I hear this scream from the crowd. I thought the Canucks had just scored,” he said, but the crowd was looking at him. “It hit me that Neil Diamond was falling out of my face.”
He thought that maybe he wasn’t done with his old life yet. That led to his new career.
Tickets for the March 14 dinner and show are $40 each, and are available at the legion and INKXS. Doors open at 5:30, dinner at 6 and showtime is 7:30 p.m.
For more information, call 250-836-2224.
With files from Arne Petryshen/ Cranbrook Daily Townsman
