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 So it seems only natural that the former National Hockey League star
decided to try his hand at country music, a staple of the Canadian
Prairies where he grew up. And it's fitting that the debut single
from his new album is called "My Life's Been A Country Song."
Fleury, who is now a motivational speaker and advocate for sexual
abuse victims, wrote the deeply personal songs on "I Am Who I Am,"
along with Canadian musician Phil Deschambault. The seven-time NHL
All-Star admits the experience was therapeutic.
"The songs are about my life, my struggles, my experiences," the
47-year-old Calgary man told Reuters ahead of the Oct. 23 release of
the album.
"Maybe they find their own voice or it inspires them to start that
process of healing," Fleury said, referring to sexual abuse victims.
After retiring from the NHL in 2002, the diminutive Fleury said he
had trouble finding his passion. He had a concrete business for a
few years, followed by several jobs that did not pan out.
"It just wasn't for me," the Stanley Cup champion and Olympic gold
medalist said of his post-NHL life. "I didn't like it. It didn't
excite me. It didn't inspire me. I like to entertain people and tell
stories. That's where I fit in the world."
HELPING PEOPLE
Paddy McCallion, a composer and musician as well as a "longtime
drinking buddy" of Fleury's, produced the album and helped write
some of the songs.
"Theo's not focused on being Garth Brooks," he said. "His whole
focus is helping people who have been where he's been. It might be
through a song. I've seen him pat a guy on the back and change his
attitude. That's what he can do."
McCallion said the album has "old-school country sound" with steel
guitars and fiddles, "but we put our own stamp on it."
In 2009, Fleury, who played with four NHL teams and won the Stanley
Cup championship with the Calgary Flames, wrote a best-selling
autobiography titled "Playing with Fire" detailing his troubled
life. After the book came out, he became a motivational speaker.
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Fleury now considers the struggles he has had in his life as
"gifts."
"When I'm driving the bus, so to speak, the bus always crashes," he
said. "Now I sit in the passenger's seat and I don't question
anything. Now I just go with whatever the universe wants me to do.
Since I've been doing that, it seems like I've got a lot of
serendipity in my life."
Fleury, who said the album came together more quickly and easily
than he expected, waited six years to release the collection because
he wanted to get it right.
"If you had told me 10 years ago when I had that loaded gun in my
mouth that this is the direction my life would take, I'd have said
you're out of your mind," he said.
"But once you start to put one foot in front of the other and get
honest, good things start to happen. I've done a complete turnaround
because I started participating in my own life. I stopped living in
my past."
(Reporting by Steve Ginsburg in Washington; Editing by Frank McGurty
and Jonathan Oatis)
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