Photo Courtesy Tom Cochrane Tom Cochrane will perform at the Esplanade Feb. 4. Cochrane has had many hits in his career, most notably ÒLife is a Highway.Ó

Bruce Penton
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Transportation-related themes have played major roles in Tom Cochrane's life and the Manitoba-born rocker who fronts Red Rider is almost certain to talk about them when he hits the Esplanade stage Feb. 4.
Transportation No. 1 comes in the form of Cochrane's biggest hit and one of the most iconic rock 'n' roll songs of all time — "Life is a Highway."
Transportation reference No. 2 comes from the fact that when Cochrane was 11 years old, he swapped a valuable model train set for his first guitar, which set him on the road to musical fame.
"I think that train set would be worth a lot of money now," said Cochrane in a recent interview. "My dad was a bit of a train buff as well as a pilot. I loved them, too. I just assumed I inherited that train set, so when I was 11 years of age, I said, 'well, I love trains, but I love music more. I gotta find a way of getting a guitar.' That was a lot of paper route money."
"Life is a Highway," meanwhile, has made Cochrane famous wherever he goes in the world — and he travels a lot. He has sung it on Letterman and Leno. It has been covered by a variety of artists, including Rascal Flatts and Chris Ledoux.
But his biggest hit of all is certainly not his only one. His discography includes such familiar tunes as "Lunatic Fringe," "Big League," "Victory Day" and "Mad Mad World." The native of Lynn Lake, Man., has seven Juno Awards.
But back to "Life is a Highway." Cochrane says the song "was kind of a pep talk to myself . . . It basically talks about human beings. Do the best we can do and keep our eyes on the road ahead. Act in good faith and treat everybody how we want to be treated ourselves, and keep moving forward. I feel very privileged to have written that song."
Waving the Maple Leaf, Cochrane lists a number of Canadian artists as his idols, or great influences on his career. But his biggest idol is the legendary Bob Dylan. "The Band backed him up and I wouldn't say we're good friends, but I sure revere Robbie Robertson of The Band. And Gordon Lightfoot impacted me a lot. Leonard Cohen. All the Canadian writers. Neil Young. Those are the guys that really impacted me a lot. Joni Mitchell as well. A lot of it started with Dylan. He was the Picasso of songwriters."
Away from the stage, Cochrane plays a large humanitarian role. He has made trips abroad on behalf of World Vision, raising money and trying to make life easier for those who have it tough.
"My last trip with World Vision was November of 2009 when we went to Indonesia. We saw ground zero of the tsunami. Africa was a couple of years before. We went to Rwanda. That left a huge impact on me. (We saw) a church where thousands of women and children were slaughtered and the little holes in the ceiling were still there from the grenade that had been lobbed into the church. It was haunting. Such a beautiful scene until you realize what happened there. It should never have happened. We should have done something. The Americans could have done something. This is one of the biggest blights on modern civilization, that we turned our back on Rwanda."
He won't be turning his back on Medicine Hat fans when they file into the sold-out Esplanade Saturday night. It's almost guaranteed that he'll put on a great show and, undoubtedly, play "Life is a Highway."
Does he ever play a concert without performing his biggest hit? "No," said Cochrane. "It is such a cornerstone song. The amount of joy it brings to people, it would be like taking my right arm off."