Barry Davis is leading an incredible double life.
When he isn’t selling cars at Motorcity Mitsubishi in Whitby, he can be found rocking it out at various music halls and bars as the frontman for various tribute bands. So while he may be dressing in business attire at his dealership, he is otherwise donning the apparel to resemble Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rick Ocasek of The Cars or Tom Petty of the Heartbreakers.
“I almost feel like I’m a character actor, and when I’m on stage as Ronnie Van Zant or Rick Ocasek or Tom Petty I’m playing a character,” he told me. “I’ve got to take that role seriously to be that person, and I’ll do that from the minute I get to the venue until the time the wig comes off and I’m in my street clothes. Once I get to work I’m just me again. It’s like two different characters. Everything I do in music is me, it’s just portrayed more subtly when I’m at work.”
In one conversation with a customer, he indicated he played in a band. When asked which one, Davis mentioned it was a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band, and not only did the customer know of Simply Skynyrd he also knew the bassist. The customer was aware of the band before Davis joined it a few months ago when it was auditioning for a new lead singer.
“It was just a weird coincidence,” David said.
Some customers recall Davis from his days as a Toronto Blue Jays broadcaster with Rogers Sportsnet. He was involved in some interesting moments, including interviewing Jays’ animated infielder Munenori Kawasaski, and some champagne showers during the team’s two division championship runs.
He left the network in 2017 to start his own podcast but lost his sponsorship during COVID. He ventured into selling all-terrain vehicles and boats and five years ago began selling cars.
He said he’s had customers who Googled him after their initial visit because of the familiarity of his name and returned to say they saw YouTube footage from his broadcast work and from his tribute bands. He’s also had potential customers whom he’s talked to on the phone and emailed respond to say they’ve know of him from his Blue Jays days. He has a Blue Jays nameplate on his desk and a Jose Bautista bobblehead.
“I’ve had customers saying, ‘have we met before?’ And that’s when I’ll say, ‘it all depends, do you go to a lot of Blue Jays’ games?’ Then it hits them. I had this father with two sons who were all excited and wanted to get photos with me at the dealership, and a lot of times these experiences end up becoming a sale. But even if it doesn’t it’s still spreading the word that I work there.”
Long before he started his 25-year career in broadcasting, he was a musician. But he gave that up to pursue a full-time TV/radio career that saw him start out in radio covering the major Toronto sports. He gravitated to TV and began covering the Jays. He started to get back into music almost 10 years ago and began fronting the Tom Petty tribute band, We Ain’t Petty. When the opportunity arose to audition for Simply Skynyrd, he gave it a shot and it’s given him more opportunities than ever before. Overall he is in six different bands.
“Once I retire I can totally see myself doing music full-time and being able to financially survive,” he said. “Selling cars is a little bit more stable, although when you’re in commission sales nothing is for sure anyway. But between the two it’s survival. I love music. I could play music every day. That’s why I’m in so many bands. I’ve worked really hard to try to establish all of these bands. They do have their audiences and their markets. I’ll go wherever the gigs are. But Simply Skynyrd is just a different beast. This is a band that was well established before I joined. My job is to go and be Ronnie Van Zant on stage. We’ve already got 25 gigs lined up for 2025 and we’re still building more.”
He said in both cases, he’s selling. One is a character he’s portraying, the other is a brand.
“The big key for me to make it work is not just what, but more importantly why,” he said. “Learning about Ronnie Van Zant and why he wrote lyrics like he did and why he presented on stage like he did, anybody can see that what but it’s to see the why. It’s the same thing selling cars. I can tell people what Mitsubishi has to offer. I can tell them Mitsubishi has the best warranty around and our dealership has a one price, one promise policy, but unless I tell people why I’m just rattling off things. I find the similarity between fronting a band and pulling off a character that’s not me and selling cars is just knowing what you’re doing.”
Davis said before he explains to customers about the one-price, one-promise policy, he makes it known he understands how stressful it is to buy a car.
“There’s so many uncertainties, and it’s a big purchase and a big investment,” he said. “What we want to do is to take that stress out of purchasing a car. So I tell them the why, then I tell them the what. You don’t have to be a good haggler to get the best deal available. Everybody’s getting the best deal available.”
He has been with Motorcity Mitsubishi for three months and credits the dealership’s owner, Richard Macdonald, for creating a culture to help his employees succeed.
“It’s been a really amazing ride, the only negative, and that’s regardless of where I’ve been selling cars, is that the economy is not great, but we’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel.”
Perry Lefko is the Content Manager of The Car Magazine. He can be reached at [email protected]. Feel free to forward any story suggestions or comments.
