Canadian country music star Ryan Laird told the students of Fort Assiniboine School to be themselves and to follow their dreams during a special concert at the school on Thursday, Feb. 25.
Laird visited the school as part of his Bigger than That tour, an organization he founded in 2014 to help school children prevent or overcome bullying.
This is a topic the two-time Canadian Country Music Award nominee knows something about firsthand.
When Laird was in grade school he was the target of bullying after changing schools. To make friends, he decided to enter in the school’s talent show.
However, even though he received a lot of wonderful comments about his singing, the girl whom he had a crush on, along with her friends, made him the object of ridicule.
“She made fun of my voice and did everything she could to belittle and make me doubt my dream of becoming a country singer and songwriter,” he said.
And she was nearly successful until one day Laird realized he would have to stand up for himself to make his dream of having a career in country music a reality.
“Do you what know what I did? I reached out to an adult that I knew I could trust and asked for help,” Laird said. “As soon as I learned I could reach out to an adult who I trusted, everything got better for me. I wanted to go back to school and play my music again, because I wasn’t being picked on and it was fun again.”
A few years later after he graduated from high school, Laird took his love for music and his dream to become a country singer and headed to the United States, more specifically, Nashville.
“Because if you want to be a country singer and songwriter and live my dream, everyone knows you have to go to Nashville,” he said.
Laird said he was starting to get discouraged about his chances of becoming a success in the music business when after struggling for many years, he still hadn’t made it.
“I was working really hard and I wrote over 300 songs and yet I still hadn’t achieved my dream, but what I discovered is that in order to make my dream come true I was going to do something different,” he said. “Something that made me stand out from all those other singers and songwriters. Something unique that no one had ever done before.”
In order to be noticed and stand out, Laird decided he needed to do something big. So he rented out a large billboard with his picture on it. But it wasn’t just an ordinary picture of himself, it was one with him holding a note.
“It said, ‘Hey Taylor, I love your music. Will you help me produce my album? Ryan Laird,’” he said, adding the Taylor he was referring to was Taylor Swift.
Also written on the billboard, was his web site address where he had samples of all the songs he had written.
“I thought maybe Taylor would see the big billboard sign and go to my website and listen to some of my songs and if she liked them, maybe she would help me out,” Laird said, adding that to increase the chances of Swift seeing the billboard, he rented one just across the street from her studio.
Within two weeks of the billboard being up, Taylor Swift was asked during an interview on network TV what she felt about Laird’s billboard. She told the interviewer that she had gone to Laird’s website, and listened to his songs and said she would be pleased to work with him.
“After Taylor Swift spoke about me that way on the news, my whole world changed and all of a sudden my dream started to come true,” he said. “Because after Taylor Swift spoke about me, I went from being unknown to having all these people discover my name and music. Eventually because of that, I got the chance to make my own CDs and my own songs played on country music radio stations.”
Laird ended his mini concert by telling the students to never let anyone stand in their way.
“The most important part to remember is, it is a good thing to have a dream,” he said. “You always have to believe in yourself and chase that dream and don’t let anyone else tell you that you can’t do it.”
For more information on Laird, visit the Bigger Than That website, www.biggerthanthat.org.
