Hacking spent his first six years living in a house that used to be owned by his grandparents, in the Gerrard Street and Victoria Park Avenue area of Scarborough, Ontario.
[2] After attending Winston Churchill Collegiate Institute, Hacking started performing while a student at Scarborough College (a campus of the University of Toronto),[1] where he graduated as an English major.
[3] His career as a musician began when a representative from the student council, who had heard him play, asked him to perform at a concert.
Critically acclaimed albums Cut Roses (1980) and Stubborn Ghost (1988) followed, and led to many festival and concert appearances.
[1] In 1996, with his son now a teen, Hacking released a greatest hits album with four new songs, Skysongs... A Writer's Collection, and returned to more active performing.
The performers on the album included Michael Peter Smith, Alan Rhody, Mikel Miller, Roger James, Nancy White, Chris Whiteley, Ron Nigrini, Jory Nash, Slowpoke, Jason Fowler and many others.
[1] Hacking released I Am The Night, a collection of 33 original spoken word selections – poetry, prose, and lyrics – in 2005.
[4] Norm Hacking died in his sleep from an apparent heart attack in his home on the night of November 25, 2007.