A year after his father's death, the younger Black moved to the rural community of Fergus, Ontario, where he had relatives, in order to finish high school and then returned to Toronto to study journalism at the Ryerson Institute of Technology.
[6] Returning to Canada, he worked variously as a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman, oil tanker deckhand, cow wrangler at the Ontario Public Stock Yards, sheet metal apprentice, and plumber's assistant.
[7][4] After ending Basic Black in 2002, he could still be heard for about a decade, twice a week, on CBC Victoria's local All Points West program with a segment called "Planet Salt Spring".
[6] Black was diagnosed with Stage IV terminal pancreatic cancer on 2 January 2018 and blogged in the last weeks of his life about what he called his "final journey".
[7][5] In excruciating pain when the cancer became much more aggressive, Black chose to die with medical assistance at Lady Minto Hospital on Salt Spring Island on 21 February 2018 at the age of 74.