The Coast To Coast Closeup is presented by Melody Motors in Melfort.
Some people are born with a special talent, perhaps even a musical soul. Adopted as a baby to a family in Calgary, AB, no one knew what an impact Bobby Wills’ biological DNA would have on his life path. “My dad was a huge country music fan,” he says of the man who raised him, “so that’s where I get my love of it from, but no one ever played music in my family when I was growing up.”
Following a spontaneous dare while traveling in Australia, and an unexpected phone call, the course of Wills’ life would literally change forever. “We were at an open mic night and my buddy bet me $20 that I wouldn’t get up and sing with the band, so I did,” Wills says of the Australian trip. “I sang “The Dance” by Garth Brooks and there was a reaction from the crowd that I didn’t anticipate. It was amazing. I’d always poked around music but I’d never put any real effort into it, so I started to learn to play guitar while I was over there.”
Returning from his world travels, he received a call from the adoption registry learning his biological mother had registered to request contact (as had he), quickly resulting in their first meeting. Wills could not have anticipated the artistic genealogy he was about to discover, including five siblings and a musical streak a mile wide that ran throughout his biological family. “The first night I visited my biological father, we sat up all night listening to records. We both shared an affinity for a great lyric, and it was then that I realized ‘this is real. This is in my blood. This isn’t just a crazy dream I had; this is part of who I am.’ It really crystallized for me then. This journey solidified my love of music and aspiring passion to pursue this love on a professional level.”
While he got to know his new family Wills also started pursuing music more seriously, performing at open mic nights, touring Canada playing country music in a bar band, and preparing to record demos in Toronto with Juno-nominated country artist Thomas Wade. In keeping with his commitment to playing and writing country music he started splitting time between (his home base) Calgary and Nashville. Falling in love with music, he invested years in perfecting his craft and released his debut album Man With No Past in 2010.
