Ed Robertson

Lloyd Edward Elwyn Robertson (born October 25, 1970) is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter of the band Barenaked Ladies.

His 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.

[4] 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".

[4] The two became counsellors at Scarborough Schools Music Camp in the summer of 1988, and spent a lot of time together singing songs and playing guitar.

[6] Upon receiving a telephone call from an organizer of a benefit concert to which Robertson had committed his recently broken-up band to play, Robertson quickly advised the organizer that he would still be performing but that the name of the band had changed to Barenaked Ladies, a name he had previously joked with Page about.

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

He and Page spent the next two years building the reputation and following for Barenaked Ladies, joined along the way by Andy and Jim Creeggan, and Tyler Stewart.

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

On each passing album, he has sung lead on an increased number of songs, to the point where he shared approximately equal duty with Page by the time the latter left the band.

Besides Tyler Stewart, who does not typically compose, 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.

Robertson has preferred to spend creative energy outside the band in co-writing and producing songs for other people (including Andy Kim and Jason Plumb).

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

He 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.

From 2004, Robertson voiced the occasionally recurring character of Captain Butch Flowers/Agent Florida in the web series Red vs. Blue.

When I got the letter from the Defence Minister, I was, like, ‘This is real; I am actually going to be an honorary colonel!’"[11] Robertson held the position until March 2012, noting that, although he had not been able to be around as much as he would have liked, the Squadron felt like family to him.

Rooster Teeth Productions has also made special videos, using Red vs. Blue characters, to be shown at Barenaked Ladies shows.

Having an interest in acting, Robertson had a cameo in Charlie's Angels 2, which was offered to him by director Joseph McGinty Nichol, who had directed Barenaked Ladies' video for "One Week".

Robertson had a larger role in the independent Canadian film Love, Sex and Eating the Bones, which was directed by childhood friend Sudz Sutherland.

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

[13][14][15] At 12:30 pm on August 24, 2008, Robertson was involved in a plane crash while piloting his amphibious Cessna 206, north of Bancroft, Ontario.

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