“Labels, they belong on pigeonholes. No one is just one thing. No one needs to remain what they have been.”
–Jamaal Stints
Pull no punches. Timing is everything. Live each day as though it were your last. Tired clichés or rules to live by? For Canadian rocker Sass Jordan, it’s the latter, so maybe they’re not so tired – or cliché – after all.
You know her as Canada’s Rock Queen with chart-topping hits and TV personality with numerous credits, including a half decade as a judge on Canadian Idol. Well, she’s more than just the sum of her roles. And true to her conviction about sucking the marrow out of life, Sass understands it begins with an appreciation for one’s self, deep inside.
“If you are solid and strong enough in yourself and enjoy your own company, that’s when you attract the type of people you should be with. At the end of the day, you’re the one you’re going to be with for the rest of your life until death do you part.”
While music will always be her passion, Sass has immersed herself in another gig these days – as vintner. How does a successful recording artist become a winemaker? Easy. Like any astute, creative looking for a change, she simply switches labels.
Sass is aware of the attention her celebrity will bring to the wine, “but then it’s up to the wine, the taste. It’s got to be good enough, so people enjoy it. But that’s the thing… my plan is not a huge worldwide domination thing. It’s the same with my music, which is that I’m making it for my friends and fans and my extended family. That’s really who it’s for,” she says.
Few things in life are ever really accomplished single-handedly. Or single-footedly, as Neil Armstrong would say. Brian Schmidt of Vineland Estates Winery and long-time friend to Sass is a huge part of the journey whose final dual destination is the signature series Kick Ass Sass White and Kick Ass Sass Red.
“He’s my wonderful partner in all of this and the guy that made it possible. He’s a brilliant winemaker.”
While Brian is the expert, Sass involves herself in every aspect of the product, from grape selection to label design. The results speak for themselves and are available through the Vineland Estates Winery website.
Vineland Estates Winery is a one-stop shop located in Ontario’s beautiful Niagara region, just a stone’s throw (if you’ve got a really good arm) from the southern shore of Lake Ontario. Buy a bottle, take a tour, or spend a weekend in accommodations adjacent to the estate vineyards. You could even tie the knot there. Nuptial toasting is not a problem.
It would be easy for a growingly skeptical public to look upon the venture with a sideways glance. There seems an ever-increasing glut of celebrities hawking this alcohol or that with their names on it, from Dan Aykroyd and George Clooney to Ryan Reynolds and Conor McGregor. But Sass felt an authenticity in the undertaking and viewed it as an opportunity for a woman to associate herself with something other than the stereotypically feminine – fashion, fragrance, and all the other Fs.
“Wine, to me, is not a huge stretch from music. They go hand in hand. Music goes fabulously with wine. It almost goes better than with food,” she laughs.
In a marketplace that continues to be inundated with more and more products and services, Sass is philosophical about her place and the place of her wares, whether they’re imbibed or listened to.
“There are billions of people. So, I see the product, be it music or wine or plumbing parts, attracting to itself the people meant to be attracted to it. Like attracts like.”
The project was never conceived of as a huge money-making scheme, never a plan hatched to corner the market on Ontario wines. Sass sees it as an opportunity to give another part of herself and her experience to people, just as she has done and continues to do with music. She is also cognisant of the place alcohol has in our culture, and our perceptions of it, both good and bad.
“Wine lowers people’s inhibitions. I want to be clear; I’m talking about when it’s used responsibly with friends and family and food and music. All these things are attached to wine. That’s why, for me, making wine is not a stretch.”
Immersion in the world of all things wine was a new education for Sass and going to school was fun. There’s no diploma. No mortarboard. But Sass has bestowed upon herself a new designation.
“I’m a booze maven,” she jokes.
Sass credits timing and the introduction of Brian into her life as the catalysts to undertake the new venture. That would make him the yeast to her grape juice. And the rest, as they say, is fermentation.
“If I had woken up 10 years ago with this idea the way I did a year and a half ago, I would not have had the wherewithal. I would not have had the opportunity, and it would not have happened,” muses Sass.
She sees alcohol as medicinal. Who hasn’t self-prescribed a hair of the dog on occasion? Whether antiseptic or anesthetic or simply to take the edge off after a long day of pyramid building, alcohol has a storied past and a special place in human history. What other food or drink do you know with an entire built-in cabinet or fridge dedicated to it?
“Wine is a medicine as are all alcohols when they are used responsibly. It’s one of the most ancient elixirs. People used to drink the wine because the water was so poisonous,” she says.
Sass’s tenure with Canadian Idol reignited the musical fire in her, and more music is on the way. But first, back to timing, to rhythm for a beat.
“…it is rhythm that makes a great singer, just like it is rhythm makes a great guitar player or a great bass player or a great drummer. It is astounding how underrecognized that is. It is all about rhythm, freezing rhythm and timing. Obviously pitch and the ability to turn a phrase, that matters too, but it is rhythm.”
Sass sees the rhythm of life and the rhythms in life. There is coincidence and there is cause and effect. She’s not above raising a glass to those mysterious intersections of time and place either. Probably a Kick Ass Sass, white or red.
Making anything never comes without its hurdles. Whether pressing grapes or vinyl, there are so many moving parts that getting the machine to start moving can be the greatest challenge.
“I have an album I’m working on right now called Big Noise,” she explains. “I have so many people that I’m working with, getting everyone’s schedule to line up and be on the same page can be very frustrating.”
Musically, Sass has big boots to fill, even if they are her own. Racine, her breakthrough and landmark album of ’92 left quite a footprint. Just as she likes to get her feet wet and her hands dirty making wine, Sass brings the same worker-like aesthetic to the studio. In an era when it seems to take at least a half dozen people to write a song, and when so many artists do nothing but sing someone else’s words, someone else’s melody, Sass’s approach is refreshing, an aural palate cleanser. She has a writer credit on every track.
Sass spends most of her time away from the big cities that once ignited the fire that forges her records. She recharges away from the man-made and finds fuel in serenity; that way there’s lots of yin when she needs to produce some yang.
“You need peace in order to make noise,” she says.
Sass is philosophical about where her music will land, into whose hands and ears it will fall, stoic (in a head-banging kind of way) that it will find the place intended for it.
“Music is a packed landscape. Even if we were making plumbing parts, we’d have the same problem, only it would be even less glamorous,” she says.
There’s that plumbing reference again. In case you were wondering, it isn’t a slight against any particular occupation. In fact, despite exposure to some of the “finer” things in life, Sass lumps princes and paupers together and sees through the uniforms we all wear. She is, herself, unadorned when talking about the music she makes or the wine. She is the real deal. What you see is what you get. Ya, I know.
“They’re exactly the same thing, promoting an album or this wine. You’re talking about this or that, but you’re always getting me.”
This is the essence of a genuine artist. The art they make – for your ears or your eyes or your taste buds – is an authentic embodiment of their spirit. It is unique to the creator. The music Sass records, the wine she produces are extensions of herself and her creative drive.
And she is unapologetic about her outlook on and approach to life. It’s a gumbo of friends, family and music next to a bottle of good wine. It’s a carefree f-bomb in a casual conversation that speaks to her rock ‘n’ roll joie de vivre. It’s an effortless dedication to passions worthy of her devotion.
“You just have to keep doing what you do. I’m doing this because it’s fun. And that is my mandate in life – to have fun.”
I’d say Sass Jordan is like a fine wine getting better with age, but that’s just too cliché.
The process of making wine is a great metaphor for life. Harvesting, crushing, pressing, fermentation, clarification, aging and bottling. The secret to a successful life lies in helping others and making your mark. Don’t go without giving off a bouquet, being dry and sweet. Have an aftertaste. Be full-bodied. And leave a mark.
Sidebar Questions
What advice would you give to your 20-year-old self?
“The advice would be… I think it’s hilarious… Don’t let yourself get distracted by relationships, you know, dudes. Don’t get distracted by guys.”
Who has influenced you the most? Why?
“In life, it’s parents. And, of course, it expands and expands from there. Musically, there’s no one single artist. There’s a list as long as both our arms stuck together.”
What are you most grateful for?
“Life!”
What does success mean to you?
“It means feeling like I am inspiring and uplifting other people… being financially independent and being surrounded by people who enjoy life. People first, then money.”
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