| Who is it? | Soundtrack, Actor |
| Birth Day | March 25, 1966 |
| Birth Place | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Age | 54 YEARS OLD |
| Died On | March 2, 2008(2008-03-02) (aged 41)\nToronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Birth Sign | Aries |
| Birth name | Norman Jeffrey Healey |
| Genres | Blues rock, blues, jazz, rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, guitarist, songwriter, DJ, actor |
| Instruments | Guitar, vocals, trumpet, piano |
| Years active | 1983–2008 |
| Labels | Arista, BMG, Sony, Eagle, Sensation, Healey-O-Phonic, Stony Plain, Convexe Entertainment, Provogue, CBC, Arbor |
| Associated acts | The Jeff Healey Band, The Jazz Wizards (aka Jeff Healey's Jazz Wizards), Jeff Healey's Blues Band (aka The Healey's House Band), Blue Direction |
| Website | jeffhealey.com |
Jeff Healey, a renowned Canadian musician, is not only known for his exceptional guitar skills but also for his talent as a soundtrack artist and actor. As of 2024, his net worth is estimated to be a substantial $19 million. Healey's success in the music industry, particularly as a blues and rock musician, has played a significant role in accumulating his wealth. Additionally, his involvement in the film industry, both as a contributor to soundtracks and his appearances as an actor, has added to his financial prosperity. With his diverse talents, Jeff Healey has left an indelible mark on the Canadian music and entertainment scene.
He went on to release three CDs of music of traditional American jazz from the 1920s and 1930s. He had been sitting in with these types of bands around Toronto since the beginning of his music career. Though known primarily as a Guitarist, Healey also played trumpet during live performances. His main jazz group for touring and recording being Jeff Healey's Jazz Wizards.
After being signed to Arista Records in 1988, the band released the album See the Light, featuring the hit single "Angel Eyes" and the song "Hideaway", which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. While the band was recording See the Light, they were also filming (and recording for the Soundtrack of) the Patrick Swayze film Road House. Healey had numerous acting scenes in the movie with Swayze, as his band was the house cover band for the bar featured in the movie. In 1990, the band won the Juno Award for Canadian Entertainer of the Year. The albums Hell to Pay and Feel This gave Healey 10 charting singles in Canada between 1990 and 1994, including a cover of The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" which featured George Harrison and Jeff Lynne on backing vocals and acoustic guitar.
For many years, Healey toured throughout North America and Europe and performed at his club, "Healey's" on Bathurst Street in Toronto, where he played with his blues band on Thursday nights and also with his jazz group on Saturday afternoons. The club moved to a bigger location at 56 Blue Jays Way and was rechristened "Jeff Healey's Roadhouse." Though he had lent his name to the club and often played there, Jeff Healey did not own or manage the bar. (The name came from the 1989 film, Road House, in which Healey appeared.) At the time of his death, he had been planning to perform a series of shows in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands with his other band, the "Jeff Healey Blues Band" (aka the "Healey's House Band") in April 2008.
Healey was an avid record collector and amassed a collection of well over 30,000 78 rpm records. Starting in 1990 he hosted a radio program of very early jazz on CIUT at the University of Toronto with Colin Bray. Later he went national on CBC Radio's program entitled My Kind of Jazz, in which he played records from his vast vintage jazz collection. He moved the show two years later to Jazz FM - CJRT; as a part of ongoing celebrations for what would have been Healey's 50th birthday in 2016, the latter program began to air in repeats Wednesdays 9pm on jazz.fm.
Healey married Krista Miller in 1992; they had a daughter and were divorced in 1998. He married Cristie Hall in 2003 and had a son with her.
By the release of the 2000 album Get Me Some, Healey began to concentrate his talent in a different musical direction closer to his heart, the appreciation for another original American music form, jazz.
Over the years, Healey toured and sat in with many well-known performers, including The Allman Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, BB King, ZZ Top, Steve Lukather, Eric Clapton and many more. In 2006, Healey appeared on Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan's CD/DVD Gillan's Inn.
On January 11, 2007, Healey underwent surgery to remove metastatic tissue from both lungs. In the previous eighteen months, he had two sarcomas removed from his legs.
On March 2, 2008, Healey died of sarcoma cancer in his home town of Toronto at age 41.
In 2009, Healey was inducted into the Terry Fox Hall of Fame.
In June 2011, Woodford Park in Toronto was renamed Jeff Healey Park in his honour.
In 2014 Healey was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. In September 2016, Jeff Healey was inducted into the Mississauga Music Walk of Fame. In March 2016 the posthumous album Heal My Soul was released, followed by the companion album Holding On in December of the same year. Both records were compiled from unreleased recordings by Roger Costa. The 12 track Heal My Soul featured six covers and a number of collaborations with Marti Frederiksen, Arnold Lanni and Stevie Salas. The 15 track Holding On album contains ten live tracks recorded in 1999 at the Rockefeller Music Hall in Norway and five studio tracks.
