Country singer Tim Hicks has five Juno nominations, a Canadian Country Music Award win and three platinum-selling singles under his belt — and now, he’ll be headlining Boots and Hearts Music Festival this weekend alongside Keith Urban, Tim McGraw and more. Ahead of the festival, he and his wife, registered nurse Amanda Hicks, tell us how they were destined to be together.

How they met

Amanda: We first met as kids! My childhood best friend, her mom and Tim’s mom are first cousins. So we would see each other at family functions. As teenagers, my friend would often want me to come along to see Tim’s band playing wherever they were playing. And there was always a spark of connection between us.

Tim: I used to drive my cousin crazy; if she came to a function without Amanda, I would say to her, “Did you bring my wife?” It became a little bit of a bone of contention. But of course, I was only half-joking.

The first date

Amanda: It was after we had gone separate ways in university and then moved back home that we reconnected. It was at a gig, of course.

Tim: It was Valentine’s Day. I played my gig and I drove Amanda home because she always needed a ride. And by the glow of the dashboard lights, I played her some demos I had been working on. And then I went in for the kiss. 

The proposal

Tim: We’d been together probably four or five years, officially. I had the ring in my pocket for our camping trip, and I was waiting for the right moment. One night after dinner, we took a canoe ride, and I pulled the canoe over and found a place to sit and, and I said something like, “I really love camping with you.” And she’s like, “Yeah, I really love it too.” And I was like, “You do want to do this every year?” And she said, “Yeah, I want to do this every year.” And I was like, “No, I mean…” and then I pulled it out. And that was it. We went back to the campsite and everybody cheered.

The wedding and honeymoon

Amanda: We got married on Oct. 3, 2009, in Vineland at a place called Twenty Valley Golf Course. It was beautiful. It was important to us to have a nice party for our wedding without the ceremonial aspects of it. Lots of singing and dancing and carrying on!

Tim: We left the next day for our honeymoon in Paris, and we went back there for our 10th anniversary.

The kids

Tim: JJ is our oldest; he turns 12 in November. And Anna Lee will be 11 next March. Anna was born in the middle of the CMT Hitlist Tour. The schedule was like, “Tuesday: Medicine Hat, Wednesday: Calgary, Thursday: Baby!” because Amanda had a C-section scheduled. I did my first big TV interview with my hospital bracelet still on!

Balancing careers and a relationship

Amanda: We’ve had a lot of hard conversations over the years to recalibrate, and we have good, supportive people around us. We weren’t afraid to take the kids on the road with us, either.

Tim: Some days you win, some days you lose. We’re both high achievers, so knowing that about ourselves and checking in with each other has been important.

The future together

Tim: We talked about getting one of those A-frame trailers and just driving it across Canada to all our favourite camping spots!