Former NHL star turned singer/songwriter Theo Fleury, with co-writer Phil Deschambault, released a new single Friday with the launch of the latest installment of the popular football video game series. Titled “Longshot,” the song was written expressly for the game’s newest feature, a story mode by the same name that lets users follow a player from his humble beginnings to the NFL.
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It’s a new milestone in Fleury’s burgeoning music career. The seven-time NHL All-Star released his debut country album “I Am Who I Am” in 2015, its 10 tracks a deep introspective on his struggles with sexual abuse as a child and the alcoholism and drugs that contributed to the end of his hockey career in 2003. “Longshot” is a lighter song about the against-the-odds rise of an athlete from small-town fields and rinks to the bright lights of professional arenas, in football, hockey and beyond.
Fleury, who himself rose to the NHL as a scrappy 5-7 kid from the tiny Canadian city of Oxbow, Saskatchewan, is a lifelong fan of country music and has been fine-tuning the craft during retirement, borne from something that started as a hobby.
“Some of my fondest memories as a child are sitting beside my grandfather, listening to him play the fiddle,” he said at the time of his first album release. “I just didn’t wake up one day and say ‘I’m going to be a country music star.’ This is like a six year project. I’ve been taking vocal lessons and performance lessons for six years.”
Now 49, Fleury is working and living in Alberta. In 2016, he toured parts of Canada with his band, the Death Valley Rebels, and remains an advocate for victims of sexual abuse, often speaking and playing concerts at benefits and fundraisers for survivors.
“Longshot” is his first single release since the initial album.
