Canadian country music star Aaron Pritchett knows how to have a good time — or at least, that’s what it looks like on-screen in the new video for his song, Liquored Up.
Shot at the legendary Wheatsheaf Pub in Cedar by Victoria-based musician and videographer Sean Lyons, it’s a careening ode to drowning one’s woes in “wobbly pops” with friends after a week that “has been a total write-off,” sings Pritchett, who also lives in Cedar.
Liquored Up is also the name for the upcoming cross-Canada tour, his first in five years, which hits the Port Theatre on Feb. 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Known for his rowdy live shows and energetic stage presence, Pritchett’s 25-year career has proven his longevity in a business that is notoriously fickle, and it’s seen him through to what is now an upswing in the popularity of country music in Canada.
For Pritchett, success and popularity came early and strong — though remarkably, he doesn’t have much of a musical background and actually got his start singing when his mom pulled him onstage at a karaoke bar in Cloverdale.
At the time Pritchett was 20 years old, with a wife and a new baby. He dreamed of being an actor, but in reality he took what jobs he could find — laying and cleaning carpets, and working at gas stations and restaurants.
“I didn’t like doing that kind of stuff. I respected the job, but just wasn’t into it,” he says. But that all changed in the early 90s. “My sister wanted to sing at this new karaoke thing that was happening, and my mom dragged me out, and then dragged me up to sing a song. I’m like, ‘I don’t sing. I’m not a singer.’”
After one song — Foreigner’s rock ballad “I’ve Been Waiting for a Girl like You” — he sat back down, but was soon approached by the guy running the karaoke night, who asked if Pritchett wanted to work for him.
“I’m like, doing what, cleaning your car for you or what?” he laughs. “And he says, ‘No you’re a really good singer. I want you to host these karaoke shows.’”
The rest, as they say, is history. Pritchett put a band together and started touring, and within two years, was earning approximately $90,000 a year as a performer.
After he won the Project Discovery talent search at the Canadian Country Music Awards in 2001, Pritchett took his winnings and used it to make a music video and what was technically his first album, Consider This.
Fans were soon singing along to hit anthems like “Let’s Get Rowdy” and “Hold My Beer,” which won Songwriter of the Year at the 2007 Canadian Country Music Awards. More awards and nominations were to follow, from both the B.C. and Canadian Country Music Associations and the JUNO Awards.
The top ten hits also started to stack up — 13 and counting, most recently in 2019 for his number one single, “Better When I Do.”
Through it all, Pritchett maintained his passion for performing live and touring, something that ground to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Though touring artists took a hit, Pritchett kept busy by offering a Live From Mom’s Basement show for his fans in lockdown. The brainchild of his bass player Shane (Marty) Hendrickson, each musician played and recorded their parts separately at home on cell phone cameras, and then pieced it together with Pritchett’s vocals.
“If we didn’t do that kind of thing, we would have gotten a little stir-crazy,” says Pritchett. “There was a time there in 2020, 2021 where we didn’t think we were gonna get back on the road. I didn’t know if we were ever going to play again. It was really scary. And now we can’t wait. If I could do 10 weeks in a row I would. Or longer.”
Though Pritchett had the opportunity to move to Nashville in the late 1990s, he “didn’t want to do the U.S. thing,” and figured he could be just as effective locally as he could in any other city.
Now 53 years old, he’s about to become a grandfather for the first time, and says he’s less concerned with traditional success than being with family and sticking close to home.
“I’ve done so much in my career, and I still have more to do. But at the same time, I’m just happy I am where I am. And I don’t need any more than what I got,” he says.
Pritchett is joined on the Liquored Up tour by Quebec country singer Matt Lang and former hockey player, drummer and singer Cory Marks. The tour hits the Port Theatre on Feb. 2 at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $52.
