Karl Tremblay was born on October 28, in Montreal.
Jean-François Pauzé and Karl Tremblay met for the first time, without speaking, according to the official biography of Cowboys Fringants. They wrote their first song the following February.
After their participation in an amateur competition presented at the La Ripaille brasserie in Repentigny, Karl Tremblay and Les Cowboys Fringants are already small local stars. 12 Great Songs Released.
The reputation of the Cowboys Fringants continues to grow. After On My Couch (1998), the group launched Motel Capri, on which we notably find The Guy from the Company, which announces the sociopolitical songs to come. Very popular concert at the Francofolies.
Release of the album Break syndical. Toune d’Automne, chosen as the first extract after bitter debates, became the group’s first big success. Karl Tremblay shows his tender side and gives a glimpse of the nuanced performer he will become.
On December 30, Les Cowboys Fringants performed at the Bell Center for the first time. The concert is the subject of a DVD. In March 2004, first concert in Paris, at the Élysée-Montmartre.
“Cowboymania” is at its height with the release of La grand-messe, which confirms the group’s ability to connect with an increasingly large and multi-generational audience. At the same time, Karl Tremblay was briefly a video game critic on the show M. Net on the now defunct MusiquePlus channel.
After the departure of drummer Dominique Lebeau, the group remained a quartet and released several records over the following decade: L’édition, Que du vent and Octobre. Les Cowboys Fringants is no longer the latest novelty, but its popular success continues.
Karl Tremblay becomes a partner in a video game design company, Triple Boris, of which he is creative director and main shareholder.
Publication of the album Les antipodes. Great radio success with America is crying. The song On my shoulder becomes an anthem that will mark the group’s concerts.
La Tribu, record company and management company of Cowboys Fringants, announces that Karl Tremblay must undergo surgery for hernias. The singer received, probably as a result of this treatment, a diagnosis of prostate cancer, which he would not make public until the summer of 2022.
In March, Marie-Annick Lépine announced on Facebook that the cancer treatments that her partner Karl was undergoing were no longer working. The singer received further treatment over the following months and the band was forced to cancel some concerts on their festival tour that summer. July 17, historic concert at the Quebec Summer Festival, extended by a day to allow the group to resume a show canceled a few days earlier due to bad weather.
Karl Tremblay died of prostate cancer, leaving to mourn his two daughters, his partner Marie-Annick Lépine, his friends Jean-François Pauzé and Jérôme Dupras, as well as a large part of Quebec.
