Dan Hill’s father always expected incredible success from him. He just didn’t think it would be as a singer.
Creator of the smash hit, Sometimes When We Touch, Hill has finally returned to his roots of writing prose. After losing his father, also named Daniel Hill, to diabetes in 2003, he was so brokenhearted he couldn’t write music.
Hill turned to thousands of handwritten letters produced by his father over the years — ones that recounted his father’s life, from his struggles as an African-American growing up in the 1920s to his pioneering work as the first full-time director of the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
Inspired by what he read, Hill produced a memoir, I Am My Father’s Son.
“Halfway through the book, I felt the catharsis of it,” he said. “At that point I started writing songs with more voracity than ever.”
Hill, who performed music from his newest album, Intimate, at Centrepointe Theatre Thursday night, is holding a performance and book signing at the Rideau Chapters Friday.
