43 Facts About Ed Robertson

Ed Robertson was born in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, Ontario.

Ed Robertson is the youngest of five children, with two sisters, Lynn and Bonnie, and two brothers, Bill and Doug; Ed Robertson claims to have been named on a bet.

Ed Robertson's mother, Wilma, was a secretary for Imperial Oil, and his father, Earl, worked both as a shipping foreman for Honeywell, and as an egg grader.

Ed Robertson believes that his conception was an "accident" because he is several years younger than his siblings, who were all born about one year apart.

Ed Robertson began working part-time when he was 13 years old.

Ed Robertson has bragged about being named employee of the month at his local Wendy's in July 1985.

Ed Robertson appeared in the music video for "All We Are" by Kim Mitchell from Mitchell's 1985 album Akimbo Alogo.

Ed Robertson was brought up in a home where country music was played almost exclusively; he is still fond of it today.

Ed Robertson sang harmonies with his family and learned how to play guitar, which his father played.

Ed Robertson was in several bands during his school days including a band that covered a collection of rock artists, such as Rush and Kim Mitchell.

In grade four, Ed Robertson entered the gifted program at Churchill Heights Public School.

Ed Robertson's first run-in with Steven Page, who was a year ahead in the same gifted program, was when he unknowingly "stole" Page's best friend.

Page saw Ed Robertson at a Harvey's restaurant after a Peter Gabriel concert and was surprised to find that Ed Robertson was a fan.

Ed Robertson attended Woburn Collegiate Institute with Page and, around grade twelve, realized he needed to focus on passing his courses to get into university, believing his goal of being a musician was something of a "pipe dream".

Page was flattered that Ed Robertson knew some of the songs he had written, which Ed Robertson had learned after acquiring a copy of a cassette tape Page had recorded.

Ed Robertson then phoned Page and invited Page to be his bandmate in Barenaked Ladies.

Ed Robertson was accepted to York University, but dropped out after only half a year, choosing to devote his time completely to the band.

Ed Robertson was the second member of Barenaked Ladies to get married, and the first to have children.

Ed Robertson married his longtime girlfriend, Natalie Herbert, in June 1994.

When he is not working with Barenaked Ladies, Ed Robertson prefers to spend as much time as he can with his family in Toronto, or at their Bancroft-area cottage.

Ed Robertson's mother died on December 13,2008, at age 72, and his father died on June 10,2011, at the age of 76.

Ed Robertson wrote the song "Moonstone" about his mother passing away.

Ed Robertson is the primary guitarist for the band, playing dominantly rhythm guitar on nearly all of the band's songs.

Ed Robertson is capable of playing several other instruments including drums, pedal steel guitar, banjo and mandolin, but he rarely plays anything other than guitar, or occasionally 6-string banjo, on stage.

Ed Robertson performed co-lead vocals with Page on "If I Had $1000000" and "One Week" and solo lead on many singles since the release of the latter.

Ed Robertson often includes rapping and beatboxing into performances with Barenaked Ladies.

Ed Robertson contributed to the writing for the band from their first album.

Besides Tyler Stewart, who does not typically compose, Ed Robertson is the only other band member who has not written and recorded songs outside of the Barenaked Ladies for himself in the form of a side project.

Ed Robertson has preferred to spend creative energy outside the band in co-writing and producing songs for other people.

In 2002, Ed Robertson won an International Achievement Award at the SOCAN Awards in Toronto for the song "Pinch Me" that he co-wrote with Steven Page.

In 2006, Ed Robertson began starring in Ed's Up for OLN Canada.

The series premiered on November 1,2006; Ed Robertson filmed a second season in the summer of 2007, which premiered on November 7.

In 2008, Ed Robertson guest co-hosted Daily Planet on Discovery Channel for several weeks while one of the regular hosts was away.

Ed Robertson can be seen in a handful of season 8 and 9 episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation as the music teacher, Mr Fowler, which aired new in 2009 on Canada's CTV and TeenNick in the States.

On May 29,2012, Ed Robertson was the guest co-host on the US television morning talk show, Live with Kelly.

Ed Robertson received his pilot's license in 2005, and the 2007 season of Ed's Up was purportedly designed around his attempting to earn his floatplane license.

Ed Robertson is fan of video games, and claims to have had almost every console system released since he was a child.

Ed Robertson usually brings several consoles and many games on tour with him.

Ed Robertson is a fan of the popular Rooster Teeth series Red vs Blue, lending his voice to the series to voice Captain Butch Flowers, during a time travel episode in the third season.

Ed Robertson won Humber College's inaugural Euterpe Award at the close of the 2005 Humber Songwriting Workshop.

Ed Robertson collaborated with astronaut and musician Chris Hadfield in writing a brand new song for Music Monday 2013.

The Transport Canada Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Report indicated that the crash occurred after take-off from Baptiste Lake when Ed Robertson apparently lost airspeed and settled into the trees approximately 300 metres in from the shoreline.

Ed Robertson commended Robertson for being "outstanding" in his cooperation with the investigation.