By Declan Finucane. Published February 7, 2023 at 1:09 pm
“Billy Talent, a successful Canadian rock band formed in Mississauga 30 years ago, is coming home to play.
And they’ll do so alongside American hip hop legends Cypress Hill.
Band members, four of whom have been around since the group’s 1993 beginnings at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Secondary School in the Meadowvale area of north Mississauga, can’t wait to play on Canadian soil once again.
The award-winning five-man act, whose musical style through the years has been described at different times as punk rock, alternative rock and pop punk among other styles, is currently prepping for another European tour that begins in the United Kingdom in May.
The group, which found out just over a week ago that it’s up for Album of the Year (Crisis of Faith) at the 2023 Juno Awards, wrapped up a late 2022 European tour just before Christmas.
After 19 upcoming concerts from May through end of June at stops that include Belfast, Dublin, Paris, Lyon, Italy, Budapest, Warsaw, Germany and Netherlands, Billy Talent will fly back across the pond for a July 8 show at the Budweiser Stage in Toronto.
Not quite Mississauga, but just a stone’s throw to the east and good enough for this talented collection of local musicians, who’ll hit the stage along with 20-million-album-selling Cypress Hill and two other acts.
“There’s nothing like coming home. We are beyond stoked to be coming back to the Budweiser Stage as it’s been way too long since we last played there,” the group said in an Instagram post this week.
“With that in mind, we wanted to do something special and to bring the most bad-ass lineup we could. We are honoured to be sharing the stage with the legends Cypress Hill as well as our old pals in Cancer Bats and one of our favourite new bands in The OBGMs.”
After the Toronto show, Billy Talent heads west for a July 15 concert at Rock the Park in London.
Billy Talent includes the four original members Benjamin Kowalewicz (lead vocals), Ian D’Sa (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Jonathan Gallant (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Aaron Solowoniuk (drums, percussion) in addition to newer member Jordan Hastings (drums, percussion), who joined the group in 2016.
Hastings was brought on board when Solowoniuk took a break from the band in 2016 to deal with a relapse of multiple sclerosis.
Billy Talent has sold well over one million albums in Canada and three million worldwide since its inception 30 years ago. The group has produced six albums, its latest Crisis of Faith (2022).
Originally known as Pezz, the band did its thing on the Toronto indie music scene for almost a decade before hitting the mainstream in 2001 and changing its name.
Billy Talent has won seven Juno Awards over the years and 10 MuchMusic Video Awards.”
