Rich Terfry on blending fact and fiction
Rich Terfry, aka Buck 65, is a CBC Music host, a hip hop artist, a romantic and a fervent baseball lover. He started writing his book to help him figure out some difficult things he was going through, like a divorce and the death of a beloved baseball coach. He spoke to Shelagh Rogers about his book, which uniquely blends fact and fiction to tell a remarkable story, Wicked and Weird.
WHY HE CAN'T ESCAPE HIS SMALL TOWN HOMETOWN
There's that old expression, "You can take the boy out of the small town, but you can't take the small town out of the boy." I would say that's absolutely true for me. I have lived all over the world now, I haven't lived in Mount Uniacke since I was 18 or 19 years old, but it still informs every part of me. I take it with me everywhere I go. It's shaped me in a lot of ways
WHY HE LOVES BASEBALL
Somehow, for reasons I can't explain, it was something that I took to quickly and, seemingly, naturally. It just clicked for me. That being the case, I was given encouragement by a few adults and other people I looked up to. I think that's so important, for kids in particular, but really for anyone. I don't think we encourage one another enough. A little encouragement can take a person a long way. For someone to say, "Hey, you're good at this, you should keep doing it," was enough to send me off to the races and it's been under my skin since.
WHY HE STRETCHES THE TRUTH
The fairest way to describe the book is, "It's not what happened, it's how it felt." Throughout my life, whether it's been writing songs or telling stories verbally or anything, I've not always necessarily hung around the truth because if it was boring, I always wanted to go somewhere interesting. The truth is, a lot of times my life was kind of boring and I always wanted my life to be as interesting or as humanly exciting as possible. It's gotten me into plenty of trouble, but that's always been my path.
HOW HIS DIVORCE TRIGGERED THE WRITING OF HIS BOOK
Divorce is a difficult process to go through. It leaves a person asking, "Where did I go wrong?" and "Was this relationship doomed before it even started?" When I reflected on those things, I mostly felt confused. All the stuff in my head felt like a jumble. I thought, "Well, let me just take the time and try to untangle it." I might not come to any big revelations or anything, but maybe I can make some sense of things. If I can just order it, maybe I'll be helping myself out and I thought, "Well, go do that. Just write it out."
Rich Terfry's comments have been edited and condensed.