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:: The Early Journey
In his early teens, Garou was a model student at the Séminaire de Sherbrooke, the private school for boys he attended. However, by the age of 14, his grades plunged and he adopted an attitude of defiance of authority and conformity. His parents and teachers were at a loss to understand. In music class, Garou was assigned the trumpet, but the teenager refused to be told what he should learn. Frustrated by the antics of this otherwise stellar student, Garou's music teacher expelled him from class.
When his cronies from music class formed a Beatles cover band dubbed The Windows and Doors, they called on Garou to play guitar. In retrospect, a bemused Garou acknowledges the band got more than they bargained for. For the first performance of his life, on stage in the school auditorium, Garou played guitar – and sang – delivering his best imitation of his idol, Paul McCartney. It was a pivotal experience. "Every time we played, the auditorium was filled to capacity – 300 kids would come to hear us! We did everything ourselves – printing tickets, making posters – everything! That's when I caught the entertainment bug."
Shortly after graduation, inspired by his love of horns, Garou enlisted, trumpet in tow, in the Canadian Armed Forces' regimental band. An incurable romantic, Garou saw himself more as a ballad-crooning troubadour than an eager cadet with impeccable boots answering a corporal's orders. Suffice to say, Garou's superiors had trouble reining in the perpetual rebel…
Summer 1991. Stationed at the Quebec City Citadelle, Garou often 'borrowed' an army vehicle for frequent forays to Montreal's concrete jungle. A year later, Garou, convinced the time had come to bring his army career to a close, called a good friend in Sherbrooke to come and "spring him loose." The armed forces, it seemed, were no longer in need of his services. "Before when all hell was breaking loose, I made it my job to lift the troop's spirits. But that summer, everyone was happy and there were no more souls to save, so to speak," he laughs, "... so I left.
