Aside from being a phenomenal mother, my mum was also a very good amateur pianist.

She was one of nine kids, and two of her sisters, my aunts, were professional pianists. Music was absolutely the fabric of family gatherings; there was no such thing as a get-together that didn’t involve piano playing and singing. There was a lot of classical music, and “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling,” that sort of thing. If it was Christmas, there were carols. My father would be conscripted because he had a beau- tiful baritone. He couldn’t sing “Danny Boy” because you needed a tenor, but he would sing Elvis songs, like “Love Me Tender.”

My mum also appreciated jazz, and played her favourite classical records over and over and over again. At the time I didn’t appreciate it, but I sure do now. A typical obnoxious male, I was like, Why are these old folks doing this? Who cares about the piano? It took a while for it to gradually sink in that I was being influenced anyway. I realize it now. After all, I did become a musician; and now I run a recording studio.

Because I was in a heavy metal band, people assume all I ever listen to is Led Zeppelin. Don’t get me wrong, I love classic rock. When my wife and I are out on a Sunday afternoon, we’ll listen to “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” good and loud in the car, like everyone else. And Boston, Deep Purple, ZZ Top, all that good stuff. But I also listen to a lot of Mozart. And like a lot of my generation, I grew up on the blues. Prior to the British Invasion, it all came from Memphis, Muscle Shoals, Stax, Chess Records. I’m sure the members of the Stones and Led Zep would say the same thing.

As a kid I was pretty oblivious to the music my mum and my aunts loved, but it must have been permeating the back regions of my cranium. It comes back when you’re much older and need it; that’s when you gravitate back to the mothership.

Now when I come home at the end of the working day, after ten, twelve hours of stress, I sit down at the Steinway grand piano my wife convinced me to install in the foyer of our new house. And what do I play?

Some jazz, some Mozart. I self-prescribe; I’m my own music therapist. Just like my mother and my aunts.

Gil Moore was the drummer and singer for Triumph, a hard rock band whose fourteen albums received eighteen gold and nine platinum awards in Canada and the US. He is the owner of Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, Canada’s biggest recording studio, which has hosted such acts as Drake, Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, Katy Perry, the Black Eyed Peas, David Bowie, Prince, and many more.