Kenny Shields (October 24, 1947—July 21, 2017) was a Canadian musician and the lead singer of rock band Streetheart, known for singing various hits, including "Action," "Hollywood," "Look in Your Eyes," "What Kind of Love Is This," and a cover of

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classic "

Under My Thumb "Under My Thumb" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Under My Thumb" features a marimba played by Brian Jones. Although it was never released as a single in English-spea ...

Early life

Shields was born and spent his youth in

Nokomis, Saskatchewan Nokomis is a town in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Nokomis had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 popu ...

, a small farming community. He developed an interest in music early in his life, enrolling in an amateur talent show at six years old.

Early career

Shields moved to

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as th ...

to attend the

University of Saskatchewan A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

and joined the local band Witness Incorporated. The band started touring the country, opening for Roy Orbison and

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. His career was sidetracked in 1970 when he was critically injured in a car accident. Shields returned to music in 1975 and moved to

Regina, Saskatchewan Regina () is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province, after Saskatoon, and is a commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. As of the 2021 census, Regina had a city populatio ...

following the dissolution of Witness Incorporated. He began performing with local musicians and soon formed the band that would become Streetheart. The band became a success in Canada, frequently playing cities across the country and recording six studio albums and one double-disc live album. Their more popular tour mates would include AC/DC, Styx and

Max Webster Max Webster was a Canadian hard rock band formed in Toronto in 1972. The band's founder, Kim Mitchell, enjoyed a long and successful solo career in their native Canada. Biography Initially a trio for their first gigs in December 1972, the ori ...

Later career and death

After the original Streetheart lineup dissolved, with two of them leaving to form Loverboy, Shields would continue to tour as the Kenny Shields Band throughout the 1980s. He would reunite with some of the original group in the late 1990s to play festival shows. In 2017, Shields was forced to back out of the band's 40th anniversary tour when he became disoriented and confused during a Canada Day concert in Sherwood Park, Alta. He had undergone an emergency surgery and a combination of health problems led to the band cancelling its 40th anniversary tour. Shields died at St. Boniface General Hospital in Winnipeg. Band mate Jeff Neill, via the band's

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page, confirmed on July 21, 2017 that Shields died that morning.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shields, Kenny 1947 births 2017 deaths Canadian rock musicians Canadian male singers People from Rural Municipality Wreford No. 280, Saskatchewan