Biography
 

Country music has by tradition offered itself as a haven to the hard drinking, hard living misfits, who fought their way back to the light. Julian Austin is one of these – a maverick, renegade, rebel and after a lifetime of struggles has now earned the respected title of “The Bad Boy With The Big Heart” of country music.

Julian Austin was born in Sussex, NB and was raised in the Grand Bay/Saint John, NB area as an adoptive child. When he was 17 years of age his father Harvey McPhee, who was dying of cancer, told Julian that he was adopted and his birth name was Julian Austin. In 1994 Austin reunited with his birth families in Minto, NB - the Austin’s and the Quigley’s. Sadly, Julian never got the chance to meet his birth father who died of cancer the very week that they were set to meet, but what he did learn about him was another gift. It turns out that his father was also an artist, a songwriter and a poet. “It’s answered so much that was once left unanswered,” says Julian. “It’s helped me so much”.

Julian Austin started writing songs at the age of 13 and at 15 he took his dad's guitar out of the closet and started to learn how to play. While learning how to perfect his craft in both playing and writing he realized music was going to be his lifelong soul mate and without a doubt his destiny, he’s never looked back since. For the past 25 years Julian has gone through many changes in his music, from heavy metal to rock to 80’s pop and eventually to his love for country music.

In 1996 along with being signed to a major album deal with BMG Canada Julian teamed up with friend, accomplished producer and writer, Daniel Leblanc, (Alanis Morissette, Dean McTaggart) to record what has become Julian’s best selling CD to date “What My Heart Already Knows”. Soon after the 1997 debut release of this CD it earned Julian a certified CRIA gold record (50k+ sales) and the 1997 Wrangler Rising Star Award from the Canadian Country Music Association. His first single “Little Ol’ Kisses” went #1 on radio and also made the CMT Top 30 Videos of 1997.

In 1998 he decided to make the big move to Calgary, AB where he resided with his wife Angela and their beagle Baxter until she convinced him to move to her birthplace in Manitoba in the spring of 2004. Austin vows that one day he will convince Angela to move back to the place where it all began for him.

Julian spent most of the next three years building up a solid fan base with relentless touring, at the same time preparing for his next album. Austin won “Best Country Single” at the first annual Canadian Radio Music Awards in 1998 for “Little Ol’ Kisses” and was also nominated for several Juno’s that year. While getting ready to record his second album “Back In Your Life” Austin was severely injured in a bull riding accident at friend Kelly Armstrong’s bull riding school in Olds, AB on January 9th, 1999 leaving him with several broken and cracked ribs, a punctured right lung and a gaping hole in his right leg. Austin spent the next several months healing and preparing for his “Back In Your Life” CD with a cut on the album he wrote for the bullriders called “Holdin’ On For 8” a kind of a theme song for the warriors of the rodeo world he says.  more...