The Warrior: Alan Frew’s Inspirational Battle After a Stroke
Resilient rock star Alan Frew inspires fans in the battle of his life
No one expected the Instagram posted on Aug. 22, but it was pure Alan Frew. The lead singer of Glass Tiger, the Juno-award-winning band that was hugely successful in the mid-1980s, had typed with his left hand that he’d had a stroke two days earlier. “I have suffered right-sided trauma but I am fighting the warrior’s fight already.
I am a warrior, make no mistake about that,” he declared.
RELATED: Listen to an exclusive stream of Frew’s new album!
In the days that followed, he continued to reach out to friends and fans on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as he worked his way from wheelchair to walker to cane and, finally, to home two weeks later. He discovered one fan, aged 21, a few rooms away who had been in hospital three years with muscular dystrophy. “I grabbed my trusty walker and hauled my gimpy ass up to see him. Suddenly my stroke seems like the flu,” he wrote.
Don’t Forget Me (when I’m Gone) post #stroke Day 3 A photo posted by Alan Frew (@alan_frew) on
The clot that caused Frew’s stroke had begun its damaging path as he slept. He’d sung the last note of the final song on 80290 Rewind, a solo CD covering hits from 1980 to 1990 that he’s releasing on Nov. 6. Then he went to bed, exhilarated that the recording phase was finally over.
A month earlier, I’d sat in Frew’s elegant small studio as he worked with his executive assistant and sound engineer Sean Andrews. Harry, his lab-poodle cross, dozed on the floor across from a huge Paul McCartney World Tour poster signed for Frew. He sang Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” emotionally, hoping for magic moments, “things that come out of the blue,” to sweeten the already recorded song. His voice was richer than the 1985 Frew’s, richer than the once-young singers he’s covering. Among the songs: Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” a massive hit for Sinéad O’Connor; “Owner of a Lonely Heart” by Yes; Human League’s “Human” and of course, Glass Tiger’s “Someday.”
RELATED: Listen to an exclusive stream of Frew’s new album!
The CD nearly didn’t make it that far. In April, Frew suffered a detached retina that came close to delaying the recording of the instrumental tracks in Nashville. Now, as he recovers from the stroke, he anticipates releasing and promoting 80290 Rewind as well as a memoir based on his early years. Glass Tiger also turns 30 in 2016, so there will be anniversary gigs. It seems a lot, considering, but never count Frew out. He’d survived childhood by wit and grit in Coatbridge, Scotland, a failing industrial town on the edge of Glasgow. “There was a lot of hooliganism and thuggery and drunkenness and religious bitterness. I had to weave my way through that as a boy. It builds a certain character,” he says.
I may miss a few names but a BIG #thank u to many of my fellow #musicians who have taken the time to send me emails and texts filled with #love and encouragement. #jimvallance #bryanadams #johnnyreid #honeymoonsuite #emmgryner #thespoons #trooper #michaelsadler #burtoncummings #toronto #raycoburn #platinumblonde And more ; it means a lot to me guys ; #peace #love and NO #STROKES to you all 😉 A photo posted by Alan Frew (@alan_frew) on
The boy focused on finding a new world: Canada, where his brother, 13 years his senior, lived. In his book, The Action Sandwich: A Six-Step Recipe for Success by Doing What You’re Already Doing, he describes how he insisted to friends and neighbours that the Frews were moving there, obsessively trying to sell family possessions – even a hedge; and for three years was mercilessly teased as each proclaimed moving date slipped by. But move to Newmarket, Ont., they did in 1972, when he was 16 – his father’s angry reaction to the termination of his job of more than three decades.
RELATED: Listen to an exclusive stream of Frew’s new album!
According to Glass Tiger’s bass player, Wayne Parker, the Frew home was Scottish Central. “Let’s just say it was colourful and loud,” he chuckles. Frew’s parents, he says, “were the salt of the earth, wonderful people, and it shows in Alan’s character.”
It’s a miracle that Frew survived the early pre-Glass Tiger years. It was a treadmill of rehearsals and performing around Ontario and Quebec as the band developed a sound and built audiences. For a time, he suffered stage fright that Parker concluded was caused by the over-the-counter drugs Frew used to keep his voice and respiratory system clear. “It was my task to drag him back to the stage. He’d run off in the first song. Not fun then – fun now,” he laughs. Frew tamed his fear, but he admits to butterflies before gigs even now.
So here I go. To #stroke #rehab facility. I am doing great. I am #lucky . Let me say again that the #love and #kindness you guys have shown me has been #remarkable and humbling. I feel like George Bailey at the end of IT’S A WONDERFUL #LIFE ; thank u all so very much. I want you to know that I am having my #guitar brought to rehab to help heal me #Frew #solo #80s #retro #rewind A photo posted by Alan Frew (@alan_frew) on
Probably few patients at a Newmarket, Ont., hospital realized that the orderly wheeling them down the hall or cleaning up after them was a budding rock star. But Frew always wanted to become a doctor and as a first step on that path, had badgered the hospital daily until he had the job. “If someone was dying who had no one to sit with them, Alan was the one they would send to hold their hand,” Parker confides. “He was so loved around the hospital. To this day, we still meet people who worked with him or he cared for back then.”
RELATED: Listen to an exclusive stream of Frew’s new album!
By 1982, Frew was a registered nurse but simultaneously pursuing medicine and music was crushing. A single father, he also needed time for his adored young son. As the band, then named Tokyo, got its big break opening for Culture Club at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens, Frew had little time for sleep. Finally, after a close call behind the wheel after a gig and an incident where he fell asleep on his feet and awoke on the wrong hospital floor, he reluctantly abandoned medicine. The band then signed with Capitol Records, changed its name to Glass Tiger and Frew was a rock star. By 1987, they had five Juno Awards, a Grammy nomination and their all-time biggest hits “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)” and “Someday.”
The fight continues one step at a time #healing #hands #Frew #solo #stroke #survivor #warrior #nosurrender A photo posted by Alan Frew (@alan_frew) on
He found love in 1988, when he met Marcy Mihalcheon on a blind date. They married in 2007, after 19 years together. She’s the founder of Marcy’s Gourmet Products, sold at premium food markets in Canada and internationally. “We’re both alphas,” Frew says. “You need that dynamic of independence that sometimes clashes, but I think that’s what makes the two of us stronger. (Their daughter loves musical theatre and plays several instruments. “She’ll be a one-woman band for sure,” he laughs.)
RELATED: Listen to an exclusive stream of Frew’s new album!
Glass Tiger’s keyboard player, Sam Reid, notes the band’s success meant a lot of time on the road. “We’ve shared our significant others’ birthdays, anniversaries, funerals – where we couldn’t come home. That tends to bond you even tighter,” he says. In The Action Sandwich, Frew writes movingly about losing people close to him while he was out on tour, yet Parker points out that he’s “never depressed or melancholy. He’s always upbeat, always moving forward. One of his tattoos is No Surrender.”
It’s almost out of the picture 👍. #no #surrender to #stroke. #Frew #solo #survivor #love #kindness #gratitude #thanks A photo posted by Alan Frew (@alan_frew) on
That tenacious spirit drives his recovery. Even the medical career he left behind is having a resurgence of sorts – people have responded to his advocacy and are checking blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Strokes happen silently to all ages, but he ruefully admits he had stopped medication for hypertension and non-diet-related high cholesterol because he felt fit and well and ate a healthy diet.
The dialogue continues on Twitter and Instagram. A fan, cancer-free for 15 years, thanks him for having urged her to “stay strong and fight this,” words that sustained her at her worst moments. The response to his posts inspires Frew as he plans for the launch of 80290 Rewind. “From here to the stage … that is my goal. A thousand-mile journey truly does begin with just one step. I am about to prove that to you,” the warrior writes.
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#emancipation A photo posted by Alan Frew (@alan_frew) on
I don’t know why my last post accompanying this photo has not shown up please read on FB A photo posted by Alan Frew (@alan_frew) on
Follow along and see more of Alan Frew’s journey through his instagram account, @alan_frew.