By Jessica Lovell
Guelph Tribune

The man who once used “Travellin’ Man” as his theme song is officially saying goodbye to life on the road and getting ready to settle into retirement in the Royal City.
“I’m saying goodbye to a bus, I’m saying goodbye to a band and I’m saying goodbye to a lot of fans,” says Tommy Hunter.
The famed Canadian musician, perhaps best known for his long-running CBC television variety program The Tommy Hunter Show, embarks on the final leg of his final tour this month.
“Each night is emotional and if I get talking about it too much, the emotion starts coming into it,” says Hunter, sharing some of his feelings about the farewell tour during a telephone interview from his home just outside of Guelph.
“Each community we go through, there are a lot of memories,” he says.
Hunter began his career in his hometown of London, Ont., where he started learning the guitar at the age of nine.
Fittingly, his final show will be in London on March 20 – his 75th birthday.
“We’re going to end it where I started at the age of nine,” says Hunter.
It was at the age of nine that Hunter first saw his idol Roy Acuff play and he knew that was the kind of show he wanted to have.
“He was my inspiration to get into this business,” Hunter says.
But back then, he never had an inkling that the business would involve being on TV and that he would one day get to share the stage with his boyhood idol on his very own television program.
“I shed a tear,” says Hunter, remembering the day that Acuff was a guest on his show. “The minute that music started it was like I was right back to nine years of age.”
Hunter started his television career as the host of Country Hoedown in 1956 – early days for television. The Tommy Hunter Show eventually replaced that show in 1965 and continued until 1992.
During his long TV career, Hunter had the chance to work with countless big names in the music industry.
“I had a chance to work with all my boyhood heroes,” he says.
There were also quite a few up-and-coming performers who would go on to be big stars, including Shania Twain and Alanis Morissette, he says.
“I had the best seat in the house,” he says.
It was interesting to be working in TV in the early days and to watch the medium evolve over the years, but though it was unscripted, it was nothing like doing a live concert.
“They are two very different things,” says Hunter. “The show that I do on the road would not necessarily make a good TV show.”
Like so many actors who have returned to the theatre after years on TV, Hunter well knows the attraction of a live audience.
“There’s nothing like the instant response that you get. The intimacy, the first impact is always the best,” he says.
Leaving that behind will not be easy, but Hunter believes the time is right.
“I know it’s time to say goodbye. I can still sing; I can still perform. As time goes on, it’s not going to get any better,” he says. “I want to end on a high note.”
In his retirement, he plans to catch up on his reading of the Good Book. “I’m a Bible thumper. You never get tired of reading that book,” he says.
He also plans to take lots of pictures – photography is one of his hobbies – and maybe do some traveling, but he’ll always return to the Guelph area.
“I just think it’s the perfect city,” he says “It’s the nicest place I’ve ever lived.”
Though his tour doesn’t stop here, it will be nearby at the Centre in the Square in Kitchener on March 16.
The final leg of the tour begins Feb. 19 in St. John’s Nfld., and he will make his way through Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick, before hitting 11 towns and cities in Ontario.
It’s a hectic schedule, but Hunter expects it to be enjoyable. Throughout his years of playing on the road, he says what he has enjoyed most is all the people he’s met. They often share stories of special moments in their lives that were touched by his music, and he says.
“You bring back memories for them and it’s just as much fun for me,” he says.