The creative minds at Barrie Fire and Emergency Service are recording an upcoming Valentine's Day video and you could be in it.
Firefighters will take to the karaoke stage Saturday night at Rooster's Bar and Grill to capture elements for their seventh fire safety music video.
"We'd love to have as many people there as possible so we have lots of people enjoying it and participating in the karaoke. We're also going to be filming part of their reaction and include some of it in the video," said Barrie Fire Public Fire and Life Safety officer Samantha Hoffmann.
When it comes to the song, that's where the story gets really interesting.
Hoffmann says she approached a Canadian rock star through social media in a bid to get permission to use the music.
The song and the artist are secret - for now.
"For over a year I 'stalked' the artist," said Hoffmann. "Any time there was a fatality in Ontario or actually anywhere in North America I would send the artist on twitter the news paper article. And I finally got a call from Universal Music saying 'If you please leave the artist alone you can use our song.'"
The Fire Prevention Team quickly went to work on a parody, making up a story board and writing lyrics.
"And then I got an email from the Netherlands and they said our client is co-writer and they don't like parodies," said Hoffmann. "And I said it's the Netherlands. You're so far ahead of us in fire safety. What does he need to make this happen? Does he need his own helmet? Does he need his own bunker gear? Tell me what he needs. We want to do this. He wanted nothing to do with it."
The co-writer is legendary music producer and songwriter Robert 'Mutt' Lange, who was once married to superstar Shania Twain.
"So we shelved it," said Hoffmann. "Really disappointing. A lot of work went into it and it's really good. When I heard this song sung I get tears in my eyes and I get goosebumps. It has that impact."
After the setback with Lange, Universal Music wrote Hoffmann a message of encouragement.
"They said 'You've got great talent in Barrie why don't you just write your own song?'" said Hoffmann. "But it needs to be something people relate to. And if we just wrote a fire safety song, it's just a fire safety song. It has to be funny or catchy or make you think. It's an ear worm."
Then firefighters learned through social media officers in law enforcement that there's no copyright infringement if you do a song through karaoke.
That's how the team produced its last video for Fire Prevention Week.
The version of Willy Nelson's 'Never Crossed My Mind' sung by Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Weber is a social media sensation with thousands of hits.
So the team decided to try it again with this secret song and the anonymous, world famous musician who supported the effort.
"And hopefully Mutt Lange will like it but if not, as long as it drives home the message and makes people think," said Hoffmann.
Rooster's Bar and Grill is located at 477 Grove St. East.
