Artist Bio

New Years Eve, 1997: Sorrento Hotel in Sudbury, Ontario... A 4-year old boy takes the stage for the first time, wearing Ray Ban glasses and sporting a tiny guitar... Rock’n’Roll music begins to play... Peggy Sue, That’ll Be the Day, Rave On, Maybe Baby, Donna, La Bamba...… The crowd goes wild! The band is struck with awe! The family brims with pride! They all witnessed the first glow of a bright new star that night, and his name is Gavan Rousseau!

From that point on, the only way was up – in skill and in height. He taught himself to play guitar and piano by age 8, and played an entire Christmas mass on the organ by age 9, something he still enjoys doing for his parish. Before he even saw his teens, he had already been featured twice with a live band at the Paradise Club and Tropicana Clubs in Acapulco, Mexico.

It was during his pre-teen years that he was introduced to the music of Roy Orbison, and confidently said he could sing like that too. It took a mere few weeks of practice with a karaoke CD and an inexpensive wig to learn the lyrics to Orbison’s most popular hits. Before long – and with the advent of online videos – Roy’s mannerisms and speaking voice also became as natural to Gavan as Buddy Holly’s did years before. Within a few short months, Gavan debuted as Roy Orbison live in the spring of 2005 (as depicted to the left)

Many people were skeptical that a 12-year old boy could properly emulate the haunting power of Orbison’s voice and command the stage in the way that Roy did, but sure enough, Gavan proved the skeptics wrong and rose to the challenge time after time, improving with each stage appearance.

As he matured further and performed at various local events, the word began to spread that there was a newcomer to the world of tributes and his performances became increasingly sought-after. With the release of “Walk the Line” in 2005, many audiences and fellow musicians were urging that he take on the man in black as his voice began to develop a lower range. Sure enough by 2006, Gavan was ready to take the stage as Johnny Cash. He released his first album “copyCASH: Legend of the Boy in Black” in 2008 and followed it with his “Boy Orbison: A Tribute to the Big O’” in 2009. These albums have since been retired from production.

In 2010, he released “Buddy: Alive & Well” his third album and “A Special Holiday Treat”, his Christmas album showcasing his talent in mimicking 20 different artists’ versions of Holiday favourites, including Andrea Bocelli, Dwight Yoakam, Bing Crosby, and The Drifters.

The following year, his second album in tribute to Johnny Cash and June Carter was completed: “copyCASH Vol. 2: The Legend Continues”. On this album, Gavan recorded both the vocal parts of Johnny Cash and those of June Carter in such hit duets as “Jackson”, “If I Were a Carpenter”, and “Long-Legged Guitar-Picking Man”.

In 2013, Gavan was called to North Bay to join the Good Vibrations band in a Rock’n’Roll tribute show featuring himself as Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison. Little did Gavan know that Orbison’s own lifelong friend and guitarist, Billy Dean (left image/far right), owned a home in North Bay and was being snuck into the show by Gavan's new bandmates.

Befriending Billy and being complimented by Roy’s own friend is definitely one of the highlights of Gavan’s career and he has given him greater encouragement to continue performing as Roy Orbison.They have since met on several occasions and performed together multiple times.

Around this time, Gavan was also hard at work on a new project as well: his own Elvis Presley tribute album. Many of his audience members had been requesting that he learn Elvis songs, and as the demand increased for more material, Gavan decided to begin performing as young Elvis.

Having grown up with Rock’n’Roll in his blood, this was not too difficult a task for Gavan to master and the voice had always come naturally to him. He ordered a gold lamé jacket, some blue contacts, and not long afterward, recorded his sixth studio album: “Gavan Rousseau as Elvis”.

Further on in 2013, Gavan and his now uncle-in-law, Brad, had a brief stint in Las Vegas. While there, Gavan was offered a long-term contract to headline a tribute show on the famous Strip, but declined at the time in favor of remaining close to family and his now wife. Gavan and Brad have all intentions of re-visiting their stomping grounds in Vegas someday.

In November of 2014, he was approached by the City of Sudbury to act as musical Grand Marshal for the annual Santa Claus Parade, leading the parade and participating in press releases. The following day began the “Winter Dance Party of 1959: Rock’n’Roll Heroes” tour in southern Ontario for which Gavan was invited to portray Buddy Holly alongside members of the famous Casino Brothers band.

Following that tour, Gavan was unexpectedly invited by the producer to play key roles in each of their other concert productions: “The Beach Party Boys” (Beach Boys) for which he is now singing and playing keyboard as Brian Wilson, “The Jersey Seasons” (Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons) for which he portrays Frankie Valli, “The American Revolution/British Invasion” playing guitar and singing lead/backup vocals, "Jukebox Jamboree", "Story of Rock'n'Roll", "Teen Idols of Rock'n'Roll", "The Daydream Believers" a tribute to The Monkees, portraying Davy Jones, and the most recent addition to the gamut of shows, "Jingle Bell Rock" a live Christmas-themed show featuring Gavan's mimicry once again as multiple popular artists.

With dates booked solidly throughout Canada and the US, Gavan remains busy traveling and entertaining crowds!

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Gavan's Bio