Blue Rodeo are a pillar of the Canadian music canon, together for over 40 years, and still playing.
The band have lifted the lid on years of memories with Blue Rodeo: Lost Together, the documentary making its debut at Whistler Film Festival in 2024, winning the Audience Award for a feature length film.
Founding and long-time friends Jim Cuddy, ArtSci ’83, and Greg Keelor, alongside director Dale Heslip hit the red carpet at the 2025 Kingston Canadian Film Festival on March 2 for its sold-out screening. Here’s what they had to say to The Journal.
WATCH HERE: Lost Together: A conversation with Blue Rodeo
I know you’re no strangers to Kingston. I know Jim you’re an alum here [at Queen’s], but you’ve toured here a bunch of times. What’s it like to be back?
Cuddy: I love coming to Kingston. I loved being here at school, and subsequent visits. I’ve always loved it. It’s a beautiful place. My parents went here, my son went here—everything about it.
Keelor: Did you propose to your wife here?
Cuddy: I didn’t propose to my wife, but we had our first date at Morrison’s here.
Very nice.
Keelor: He’s pretty thick in this town.
Keelor: I grew up in Montreal, I had a lot of friends there. I had a lot of friends in Toronto, and I had a lot of friends here, like Jim, and his friend Charlie.
Popular guy.
Keelor: At the time, I was. I sort of lived here for a few months, just so I could go back and forth from each town and see my friends.
Dale, what’s it like to be trusted with this story?
Heslip: Oh my God, it’s fantastic, actually. We did a bunch of interviews to lead up to the initial release, and the way the guys talked about how this finally unfolded—how they finally said, yeah, we’re ready, and we think you might be the guy to do it—I was like, almost in tears.
And what’s it been like for you [Cuddy, Keelor] to see it all on the screen and replay […] the memories in your head?
Keelor: It’s not something that I ever had in my, you know, things I had to get done in life. So, it’s quite pleasant. And the response it’s been getting is really nice.
Cuddy: Well again, I think I would echo what Greg said, it’s not something I ever imagined, but then none of it is what I ever imagined. So, I think that after getting over the initial shock of just all the revelation—personal revelation—on screen, and seeing your face, and seeing you age, I think I recognized how lovely it was to have the story told. Greg and I have been friends and partners for a long time, and the journey being captured in a documentary by our good buddy Dale.
It’s not just a story about music, it’s so much about friendship. Do you have any advice for all our student musicians that are getting together in the Kingston scene, thinking to that future not only for the music, but for the friendship? How have you maintained that all this time, and looking back on it now, what have you learned?
Keelor: Well, I’ll be interested to hear what he [Cuddy] says. But I think part of it, you know—just off the top of my head—is letting your friends do what they wanna do. And, don’t challenge them, you know, about choices that they make, and just let them work through their lives without too much interference. You can stay friends.
Cuddy: Yeah, I mean I think that’s true, of course. I think that we realized about halfway through to where we are now, that it was necessary for people to be able to do what they needed to—musically and personally—because it’s just too restricting being in just a band for a long time. But I think also, you just have to be lucky enough to be around good quality people, and for those people to have the will to continue. I think that that’s a really big part of it.
Any last words for anyone who hasn’t seen the documentary yet, or is watching it tonight, what can they expect, and what do you hope they’ll take away from it?
Heslip: Well, I think they’re gonna realize that Blue Rodeo has a wealth of great songs, and that they’re not over. This is only the tip of the iceberg. They’re still gonna keep going, and in Greg’s words in the documentary, “this is the best the band has ever been.”
Keelor: After watching the documentary, I don’t know if that’s true [laughs].
Cuddy: Oh, here we go.
Well, amazing. Thank you so much for chatting with The Queen’s Journal today, and so lovely to meet you.
Tags
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be ed, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to [email protected].