Haymaker (country rock band)

Haymaker feat Zack Werner
Haymaker. Left to Right: Jay Hill, Mark Steiner, Zack Werner, Aaron 'Justice' Simpson, Stephen Kambeitz, Greg Cox.
Background information
Origin	Medicine Hat, Alberta and Toronto, Ontario
Genres	Country rock
Years active	2007-present
Labels	On Ramp Records, EMI
Website	Haymaker's Myspace Page
Members	Zack Werner Aaron 'Justice' Simpson Stephen Kambeitz Jay Hill Greg Cox Mark Steiner

Haymaker is a Canadian country rock band formed in 2007. The band signed with On Ramp Records in February 2008 and released their debut album, Wrong Place, Right Time on July 29, 2008. One of their six members is Zack Werner, a judge on the television show Canadian Idol.

In 1998, Werner lost his father to ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). In 2006, he was contacted by music manager Bennett Helfrich, whose father was to pass away shortly thereafter from the illness. The two struck up an immediate bond over music, family and common adversity. Bennett was working with several musicians in Medicine Hat, Alberta, and Werner proposed that he would join them for some writing sessions. According to Werner, "I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel. I just wanted to take all the pretention away and write songs that told great stories and made people wanna drink beer and not give a crap for a while... more than one way to drown your sorrows and music is the best one I know of." Werner, Jay Hill, Aaron Simpson and Stephen Kambeitz met in Hill’s basement studio for several marathon writing sessions. Their influences included The Band, The Eagles, George Thorogood and Neil Young.