A wry smile creeps across Lyndon Slewidge’s face when he is asked to retell the story of how he landed the position of becoming the Ottawa Senators’ permanent anthem singer.
In the summer of 1992, Slewidge found himself in a one-on-one meeting with team owner Bruce Firestone inside the club’s temporary offices on Moodie Drive. At that point, Slewidge had pretty much secured the job, but Firestone remained slightly skeptical.
“Are you sure you’re comfortable doing this?” Firestone asked him.
Slewidge quickly retorted, “I’ve done the anthem so many times, I can even sing it backwards.”
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A startled Firestone asked for a demonstration.
Without missing a beat, Slewidge stood up from his chair inside Firestone’s office — turned around so his back was facing the owner — and started belting out the opening lines of “O Canada.”
It was a corny, dad-style joke, but it helped clinch the position for Slewidge. It was a terrific preview of the confidence and charisma Slewidge would bring to the job on a nightly basis.
More than 30 years later, Slewidge seems to bask in the glow of retelling that anecdote, even getting up from his dining room chair to recreate the scene of how he sang “backwards” for Firestone.
There is a twinkle in his eye when he speaks. His familiar, deep voice — easily recognizable to a couple of generations of Senators fans — is filled with animation when he takes a stroll down memory lane.
For a man who has lost so much over the years, Lyndon Slewidge still exudes positivity. And he still feels like he has another chapter left to write in his story.
Just a few feet away from the dining room where Slewidge retold the story of his hiring by the Ottawa Senators, there is an ominous reminder of how he lost the position.
In the fall of 2016, Slewidge was sitting on a chair in his living room when he received an email from a member of the club’s front office. For 24 years, he ironed out contracts with the hockey club in a very simple fashion. It was less of a negotiation and more of a formality.
“There was never an urgency to get a new contract done because they always knew I would come back,” says Slewidge.
But this email message struck a decidedly different tone.
The Senators were informing Slewidge they were planning to use him only for a couple of games for the 2016-17 season. His reign as the hockey club’s primary anthem singer was abruptly halted.
Slewidge quickly showed the email to his wife, Cindy, who was in stunned disbelief.
“We just kept saying, ‘No. No,” says Slewidge. “You just question the rationale. And there was no explanation. If you give an explanation that’s one thing. If I wasn’t on time or I wasn’t doing the job or I was messing up the words of the anthem, then you can say, ‘OK.’ But this was out of the blue. Where did this come from?”
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The Senators were barraged with complaints on social media for their handling of the longtime anthem singer. After 24 years on the job, Slewidge was intricately woven into the fabric of the franchise. In many ways, removing Slewidge from his role was akin to suddenly replacing Spartacat as the club’s official mascot.
The Senators issued a statement in October of 2016 that read, “As part of the Senators 25th anniversary celebrations, the team is trying a number of new in-arena activations for the fans, including inviting other performers and artists to sing the national anthems. This does not mean Lyndon will not be invited to sing at games in the future, just not as often as he had in previous seasons.”
During Slewidge’s 24-year tenure, the Senators played 972 regular-season and playoff home games in Ottawa. An educated guess would suggest Slewidge sang the anthem roughly 900 times at home games for Ottawa. He missed the odd game here or there, but he was a fixture with the microphone at Senators home games. If the Senators had a deep run into the playoffs, it was not out of the question that Slewidge would sing the anthem close to 50 times during one hockey season.
So the cold, detached email Slewidge received from the hockey club was not commensurate with his service time. And he says if the club had scheduled an in-person meeting to discuss their change in philosophy, he might have been amenable to sticking around on a more casual basis.
“I would have been open to it,” explains Slewidge. “Because that would have expressed to me they were going in a different direction, but at least they were giving me the courtesy of telling me they were doing that. And thank you for your service. But they didn’t. It was just raw. Very raw.”
In the spring of 1992, Slewidge and Cindy were happily raising their family in Sault Ste. Marie. Slewidge was a full-time member of the police force in the city while moonlighting as the anthem singer for the OHL Greyhounds.
His singing talents were first uncovered when he won a local Kiwanis music festival as a nine-year-old. He honed his singing skills, eventually landing the job as the Greyhounds anthem singer, a position he held for 14 years. He would have been perfectly content to stay the course, until a friend saw a television story about the Ottawa Senators conducting a public search for their new anthem singer.
“You might want to look at that job,” the friend told Slewidge.
So Slewidge put together a package that included a demo cassette tape of his singing, a glossy headshot photograph, his resume and various letters of endorsement from people familiar with his work in Sault Ste. Marie. The hockey club received roughly 60 serious applicants for the position, but Slewidge’s package rose above his competitors.
Slewidge remembers receiving a phone call from Randy Burgess, who was the hockey club’s original director of public relations. The Senators were intrigued by Slewidge’s resume and package and had a simple question for him.
‘What would it take for you to come this way?’
If Slewidge was a single man with no attachments, this would be an easy decision. He watched Roger Doucet belt out the national anthems on television prior to Canadiens games at the Montreal Forum in the 1970s and dreamed about the opportunity to follow a similar path. But Slewidge and his wife had three children to raise and uprooting them to a new city would present challenges.
Plus, Slewidge discovered he would have to re-apply to become a full-time police officer in Ottawa. His service time from the police force in Sault Ste. Marie was transferable from a pension perspective, but he would re-take the physical training and aptitude tests in order to be certified as an officer in Ottawa.
Those obstacles didn’t deter Slewidge. He and Cindy packed up the family and made the eight-hour drive to Ottawa to start a brand new chapter of their lives.
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“I could have just stayed in the Soo, but it shows you the drive I had to succeed,” Slewidge says.
And while he landed the position as the Senators’ anthem singer, that was merely a part-time job for him. He needed to secure a full-time, nine-to-five position that would actually pay his family’s bills. So he applied to be an Ontario Provincial Police officer, going through all of the hurdles that he cleared 15 years earlier.
“It was like I was brand new and going into recruitment,” says Slewidge. “I was 38 years old, running a mile and a half, doing sit-ups and push-ups.”
He recalls finishing his mile-and-a-half run in just under the required time, much to the astonishment of the person with the stopwatch.
“I came sprinting across the wire,” says Slewidge. “And the recruiter says, ‘I can’t believe it. I would have lost my house if I was betting on this. I didn’t think a man your size could run that far.”
Slewidge beams with pride when he tells the story of crossing that finish line and getting his certification to be a police officer as a man pushing his 40th birthday.
“That shows you the desire I had. I wanted this job with the hockey club,” says Slewidge. “I was blood, guts and gore to make it happen.”
When the Senators offered the full-time anthem job to Slewidge, they had one small caveat. The team already promised the opening night gig to 18-year-old local singer Alanis Morissette, who was on the verge of superstardom. Slewidge would regularly draw the assignment after that, starting with the club’s second home game against the Hartford Whalers on Oct. 22, 1992.
He doesn’t recall too many details from his debut performance, only admitting he was a “mixture of nerves and excitement.”
As the franchise was getting off the ground and serving as a doormat for NHL opponents, Slewidge felt some of those expansion pains in his role. He recalls the entire P.A. system cutting out for one of his early performances at the Civic Centre.
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“So I was just singing with the mic not working,” Slewidge recalls. “But the fans joined in to help compensate.”
In the three-plus seasons in which Slewidge sang the anthems at the Civic Centre, he played it pretty straight.
But when the club moved to their west end home at the Palladium in January of 1996, Slewidge felt comfortable with adding an element of his personality to the end of his performances. His signature sign-off became a salute while looking into the television camera, with a wink. He then would give an empathetic thumbs-up gesture, with the home crowd cheering wildly.
“It was something that would make my performance unique and memorable,” says Slewidge. “It was my stamp and signature of who I was.”
As the Senators rose to prominence and became a perennial Stanley Cup contender in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Slewidge’s fame was growing at the same pace. Following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Slewidge was asked by government officials to sing the Canadian and American anthems on the lawn of Parliament Hill during a commemorative ceremony. That day, under tight security, only four people were allowed to take the stage — Prime Minister Jean Chretien, U.S. ambassador Paul Celucci, Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and Slewidge.
Slewidge became a recognizable face at Canadian Tire Centre — and all around Ottawa. (André Ringuette / NHLI via Getty Images)Given the magnitude and scope of the situation, it was the only time Slewidge admits to being overcome with nerves while performing the anthems.
“As I was singing, my left leg started to shake. I was behind the lecturn, so the crowd couldn’t see it,” Slewidge says. “I was thinking to myself, ‘This is the biggest event I’ve done. And it far exceeds anything in the hockey world.'”
Slewidge was quickly becoming one of the most recognizable faces and voices in Ottawa. He would be routinely stopped by fans while filling gas or buying groceries. He would often be greeted by fans excitedly saying, “Hey, you’re the anthem guy.”
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But because Slewidge still had a daytime job as an active police officer, it made for some awkward situations.
“It was difficult at times to balance this in the police community,” Slewidge explains. “My peers would look at me and say, ‘Are you a cop or are you a singer?’ I think it caused resentment in the eyes of many.”
But Slewidge always felt support from his superiors at the O.P.P., who viewed his anthem performances as positive public relations for the department.
There was certainly awkwardness on the occasions when Slewidge was doing his police work and somebody recognized him in the field. He recalls stopping one vehicle for a traffic infraction, when the driver instantly recognized Slewidge.
“He said to me, ‘You’re that anthem guy. I see you on TV all the time. I even have your autographs on one of your cards. Can you just let me go here?” Slewidge says.
Instead of letting the fan off with a warning, Slewidge says he followed through on his duties as an officer.
“I said, ‘No, I’m not going to let you go. But I will give you my autograph again,'” Slewidge says.
Slewidge signed the traffic citation and handed it back to the driver.
As he concludes that story about the traffic citation, Slewidge finishes by flashing that same trademark wink that he used to deliver into the television cameras. These fun anecdotes are told effortlessly and are filled with colour.
But there is one subject Slewidge cannot bring himself to speak about.
In the fall of 2020, Slewidge and his wife suffered every parent’s worst nightmare when their 39-year-old son Gregory was found dead at his rental property in Carleton Place. The story has garnered headlines and attention in the area, as the O.P.P. laid first-degree murder charges against two men they allege were behind the killing of Gregory. The holidays were tinged with sadness for the Slewidge family, as the two men had court appearances in the days leading up to Christmas.
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Slewidge is not ready to broach that subject now. And he may never be able to speak publicly about his family’s devastating loss.
But he offers a brief glimpse into his soul when he’s asked about what his family has meant during his personal journey.
As he’s contemplating the question, Slewidge’s eyes fill with tears. And when he finally speaks, his rich, baritone voice suddenly cracks with emotion.
“I couldn’t have done what I was able to do without the support of my wife,” Slewidge says. “And my family and kids. They moved out of the Soo for me, where we had a normal life. We came to Ottawa and we didn’t know anybody. I didn’t even know where to fill up gas. We didn’t have a family dentist or a doctor. They had to re-write our entire lives for me. And so that support from my inner core and family means everything.”
As Slewidge is finishing his answer, Cindy clutches his hand to support him. They have been married for almost 45 years, experiencing life’s full gamut of emotions by each other’s side. Cindy jokes that she has the polar opposite personality of her husband.
“I don’t like walking into a crowded room,” she says with a laugh. “But he can go out there and sing in front of 20,000 people like it’s nothing.”
While Slewidge was a household name and face, Cindy was the unseen hand who helped keep everything running smoothly in the background. On nights when Slewidge was singing the anthem for a home game, Cindy always made sure his dinner was prepared and ready for him to eat at 3 p.m. The routine was straightforward and simple. Slewidge liked to eat four hours before his performances, to ensure he didn’t have any digestive issues.
Cindy says he didn’t have one particular meal that he preferred, but there was simply one rule: nothing spicy. Her husband was always worried about acid reflux being an issue during a performance.
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The Slewidge home is filled with the type of warmth you would expect around the holidays. They speak excitedly about watching their grandson open gifts under their Christmas tree in the living room. The couple has experienced hardships and unimaginable loss, but they don’t have a hardened, negative edge about them.
“Family is always first with us,” says Cindy. “Jobs don’t mean anything. Our family means everything.”
Slewidge has only been back inside Canadian Tire Centre for one Ottawa Senators game since his sudden departure from the organization in the fall of 2016. A friend offered him a ticket to a game and Slewidge accepted.
“I was there to hear the anthem,” Slewidge says. “It was a young girl singing.”
It was likely Sophia Pierce who sang the anthem on the night Slewidge attended as a fan. Now 12 years old, Pierce is one of the regular contributors who performs the anthems at the Canadian Tire Centre. Pierce dazzled the crowd as a nine-year-old in 2019, even earning a congratulatory handshake from Bruins forward Brad Marchand following her performance.
Prior to the start of this regular season, the hockey club put out an open call for auditions to join Pierce in the rotating cast of regular anthem singers for home games.
“A quality rendition of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ and ‘O Canada’ has always been a mainstay of the pre-game ceremonies at Canadian Tire Centre,” the club wrote in an online posting. “The Ottawa Senators are searching for new individuals or groups to join our roster of talented performers. All interested anthem performers may submit an audio or video recording of both the American and Canadian national anthems, performed a cappella and one after another. Please include your name, age, past anthem singing experience, and if a group, the number of individuals in the ensemble. If submitting an audio file, please include a photo.”
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As was the case 30 years ago, Slewidge would have a demo reel that would blow his competition out of the water. He didn’t submit a formal application, but Slewidge wants it known that he would be open to returning to the Senators in some capacity.
“Would I come back? Yes, I would, under the right arrangement,” Slewidge says. “Not to do all the games, but I would consider doing some games for a team that’s on the upswing.
Over the past several months, the Senators have done an admirable job at mending broken relationships. Daniel Alfredsson has been welcomed back with open arms. They’ve shown longtime team president Cyril Leeder on the giant screen inside the arena. Wade Redden was inducted into the club’s Ring of Honour.
Allowing Slewidge the chance to return and sing the anthem would certainly be another example of the organization reestablishing its connection to the past.
“They seem to be going in a different direction now, possibly with a new ownership group,” says Slewidge. “We’ll see where it goes. The history is what it is. We’re looking at the future now.”
Slewidge regularly keeps his voice tuned by signing the anthem — and other contemporary songs — in his living room. So if the call to return to Canadian Tire Centre ever comes, he would be ready to accept the assignment without having to shake off any rust.
“You exercise the vocal cords. I practise, because it’s who I am,” says Slewidge. “I was singing since I was nine years old. I’m 68 now and in pretty good health. I still sing just to keep everything working.”
Cindy often listens to her husband when he’s filling their living room with his rich singing voice. She believes he hasn’t lost an ounce of his enthusiasm or talent, despite being out of the spotlight for more than six years.
Asked if she thinks her husband could still perform on a big stage before an NHL game, Cindy offers a definitive answer.
“He would sound the same, if not better,” says Cindy.
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Then, tapping her own heart emphatically, she adds, “Because it comes from here.”
(Photo of Lyndon Slewidge on Oct. 25, 2014: Andre Ringuette / NHLI via Getty Images)
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