Castlegar man’s submission cracks Top 5

A Castlegar man’s hockey anthem submission is facing off with five others to earn a spot in Canadian history.

Gerry Mosby — who was born and raised in Castlegar has lived in Toronto for the past 34 years working as a professional musician for Vapormusic — is ready to take his spot at centre ice for CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada Anthem Challenge.

His venture into entering a song into the anthem challenge started on a rare night off.

Instead of going home, Mosby did what he knows best, write music.

He said it took him four hours to write the song and he entered it not thinking anything of it.

“I wasn’t waiting for anyone to call me because I wasn’t expecting it,” he said.

When he found out he had cracked the Top 10 he was called by CBC.

When he made the top five he was shocked and was told by CBC that he had to get busy and cut the song down from one-and-a-half minutes to 45 seconds.

As a top five finalist, Mosby got the chance to remix the track with Bob Rock and all the instruments in the song were re-done by the top players in Toronto.

“I had Kim Mitchell come in and he replaced my guitar solo,” he said.

Mosby will find out whether or not he made the Top 2 during Thursday night’s Hockey Night in Canada broadcast.

“I would love to be part of the Top 2 because I had a great time with the top five,” Mosby said.

He said what he is going through right now is like a ‘suspension of reality.’

“Suddenly people are saying, ‘It’s wonderful,’ and they’re shocked and you can imagine how I feel if they’re shocked,” he said.

As a professional musician, Mosby gets hired to write music others will like, but for this he did something he liked.

“I didn’t want to have a bunch of melodies in my song. I decided to go against my musical instincts and created something that was way over the top,” he said.

Mosby would like to send a big thanks to Twin Rivers Elementary, Stanley Humphries Elementary, and all his friends in the Valley, especially his brother Rob and sister-in-law Pam.