Hedley 'Hedley' album

Jacob Hoggard, singer/daredevil of Vancouver rockers Hedley and self-confessed attention whore, never turns down a bet. “People have always dared me to do stupid things, like eat sandwiches off the floor for five dollars.” But last year, his band members upped the stakes: they bet him $150 he wouldn’t try out for TV’s Canadian Idol. “They found out that my mom had been nagging me to try and had already forged my name on the application,” says Hoggard. “So it was either spend a summer working construction or appear drunk on television.”

The 22-year-old musician had been playing piano since he was six years old, guitar since 12, learned music theory in high school, and was fronting a fledgling rock band named Hedley that was fast making a name for itself, so he was hoping it wouldn’t be a total embarrassment. But he had no idea that he would actually be chosen as a contestant. “I didn’t bring clothes to change in, so I stayed the whole preliminary week in the same t-shirt and jeans.”

And never was there a contestant quite like him in all of Idol history, Canadian or otherwise. Hoggard was an excellent singer, albeit one who would occasionally wear a skin-tight blue latex jumpsuit. Suddenly, the class clown had a national audience, and a newly-devoted following.

“So, I’m balls deep into the competition, and I keep not getting voted off!” Surviving and doing well was not apart of the bet. And the joke had become surreal. “All of a sudden, I’m in the top three! So, I had to think seriously about what I was doing, and that it was a real possibility that maybe I’d win and then what? I’d have other people writing my songs and telling me what to wear. I wanted to do the opposite of that. I wanted to go back to Hedley and keep writing my own stuff.”

So he said thanks, but no thanks. On his blog, to his new legion of fans, he “very poetically may or may not have said” that he didn’t want to be on the show any longer. That he’d like to be voted off. And the fans complied. In the next round Canada decided he would NOT be Canada’s newest Idol, to Hoggard’s great relief.

Though, to be fair, perhaps the country was not ready for an Idol who had been kicked out of high school for lighting his desk on fire and who had up until that point been living a life of petty crime, getting drunk and stealing cars. “I was just not cut out to be an Idol. But the whole thing was f*cking awesome fun. I was a born attention-seeker. And well, live national television, as I found out, milks that craving.”

During the competition, Hoggard wore his Hedley t-shirt and promoted the band in interviews, inspiring a deluge of fans to check out the band on their Myspace page. After being voted off, he returned back home a hero (though he never did collect on the $150) and now more than ever wanted to get back to band business, which would have been great if the band felt the same way. “By the time I got back, the guys were doing their own thing, applying to colleges and getting on with their lives. I was ready to quit my job and eat sh*t for three years.”

Fortunately, three guys were so impressed with his vocal chops and charisma that they gave him a call that would change his life. Drummer Chris Crippin, bassist Tommy Mac and guitarist Dave Rosin from the Vancouver band Everything After needed a new singer and invited Hoggard to jam.

Things clicked immediately and the reinvented Hedley reworked songs that Hoggard had already written, wrote new songs, and sharpened their sound. “Tommy came from metal background and I came in with Jimmy Eat World and Steven Tyler as being my biggest influences, and it somehow came together amazingly.”

The band recorded a demo, got signed to a record deal in Canada, and quickly found two established producers who wanted to work with them: Gggarth Richardson (Rage Against The Machine, Trapt, Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Brian Howes (Hinder, Closure, DDT).

But the entertainer in Hoggard still hadn’t learned his lesson about accepting bets. “I must have been talking big, so Gggarth dared me to do the entire four-week recording process in a thong. Not like, oh, I’m crazy! I’m wearing a thong under my pants! No. Naked except for a thong. I got props. Respect? Probably not.”

In December 2005, Hedley released their self-titled debut in Canada to instant success and acclaim. Within months the album went Platinum and produced three chart-topping hits – the rock anthem “On My Own” and the power ballad “Trip” both went to #1, and the high voltage screamer “321”became the most spun video on Much Music – with the group earning two Juno nominations in the process.

All this may work for them as newly-minted rock stars in the Great White North, but what about the Holy Grail of Rockdom: breaking the U.S.? “It’s going to be a back-breaking, sh*t-eating ride to the top. I’m ready to trade our big bus for a smelly van, sell my own t-shirts, and hand out stickers. But, one thing, if my water isn’t chilled to perfection, I gotta warn you, I’m gonna freak the f*ck out!”

BAND MEMBERS:
JACOB HOGGARD, VOCALS
DAVE ROSIN, GUITAR
TOMMY MAC, BASS
CHRIS CRIPPIN, DRUMS

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Hedley - Hedley