If you ever have the good fortune to get picked up at the Vancouver airport in a Lincoln Town Car, pay close attention to the driver. He could be a rock star.
Earlier this month, the folks behind When Calls The Heart, a turn-of-the-century family drama coming in the spring to Super Channel, kindly arranged to ferry me to and from the Vancouver airport to the Sutton Place hotel in style. A tall, white haired gentleman in aviators met me at the baggage area with a sign with my name on it and I followed him into his pristine Town Car. We start chatting about the Vancouver weather, which was unusually chilly but sunny and beautiful. The view of the mountains was spectacular.
The man introduces himself as Rocket. Right away that gets your attention. What did Rocket do before he became a professional limo driver? Rocket Norton was the drummer for Prism, a Vancouver-based arena rock band who charted with six albums back in the late-’70s, early-’80s.
I mean–Prism–they sold out Maple Leaf Gardens! Armageddon, Spaceship Superstar, these guys were right in the mix with Styx and Journey. Jim Vallance and Bryan Adams were early songwriter contributors, with other members going on to Chilliwack and the Powder Blues Band.
Norton has stories and shares many of them in his wild biography, Rocket Norton Lost in Space, available on his website here. Or climb into the back of his town car and get the stories live here. Either way it is a trip.
