Pye Dubois obit

Pye Dubois, Sarnia-raised lyricist for Max Webster and others, has died

Members and fans of 1970s Sarnia rock band Max Webster are mourning another loss. 

He was not on the list.

Members and fans of 1970s Sarnia rock band Max Webster are mourning another loss.

Following news drummer Gary McCracken, 75, died Sept. 17 in Sarnia, an obituary for band lyricist Pye Dubois has been posted.

Paul Woods, also known as Pye Dubois, died Sept. 15 at his home in London, Ontario, said an obituary by Smith Funeral Home and Family Centre in Sarnia.

“Pye was a true Canadian Icon,” it said. “A gifted writer, artist, lyricist, and poet, he was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2021.”

After Sarnia guitarist and singer Kim Mitchell left the city for Toronto at 17 with a short-lived band, he teamed with Dubois, a poet, lyricist and childhood friend, to form Max Webster.

The band became a cult favourite in the 1970s, touring and releasing about a half dozen studio albums before ending in the early 1980s.

Dubois continued for several years to write lyrics for songs Mitchell co-wrote and recorded during his solo career until they had a falling out.

Prior to their induction into the songwriter’s hall of fame in 2021, Mitchell said he and Dubois hadn’t spoken in more than 20 years.

“I don’t know what happened there. One day I got a letter from a lawyer” saying Dubois wanted no more contact, Mitchell said at the time. “And that was it.”

Dubois wrote lyrics for many of Mitchell’s solo hits, including Patio Lanterns, Easy to Tame, Rock n’ Roll Duty and others.

“Those songs he wrote for Kim and Max Webster are not just anthems, they’re hymns now,” Bob Wegner, author of the book Max Webster: High Class, said of the impact of Dubois lyrics.

Dubois is also credited as a co-writer of several Rush songs, including Tom Sawyer, one of its biggest hits.

“That in itself is a massive, massive part of culture,” Wegner said.

“I am shocked, I am truly shocked,” said Sarnia native Dave Myles, Max Webster’s bassist for two years late in its run, said of the passing of McCracken and Dubois.

“Gary and I went through high school together, and we were good buds,” at the former SCITS high school where they both wound up in the principal’s office on the same day in the 1960s because of their long hair, Myles said.

“All of the musicians in Sarnia were a very tight group back in the 1960s,” he said.

At one point in high school, McCracken and Dubois both spent time living with Myles and his family when they needed a place to stay.

“Pye was a lyricist even then and working tightly with Kim,” Myles said.

“It was like a marriage,” he said of the songwriting partners’ falling out years later. “You don’t always get along with your spouse.”

“It was a real pleasure and honour to play with him,” Myles said of his time performing with Mitchell in Max Webster.

After leaving the band, Myles went to work for his father-in-law and eventually owned, with his spouse, six Kentucky Fried Chicken locations in Michigan that the couple sold in 2017. Now retired, they still live in the U.S.

McCracken eventually returned home to Sarnia, where he taught music for many years.

“We all started to move in different orbits,” Myles said.

Max Webster keyboard player Terry Watkinson, who wasn’t originally from Sarnia, died in February.

Dubois is survived by brothers, Dave and Rob, two nieces and a nephew, and is  “fondly remembered by everyone in his loving extended family,” the obituary said.

He was given lyric-writing credits on several Rush songs, most notably "Tom Sawyer", which has been included on the soundtrack of several films.