Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy never dreamt of being an Olympian.

“I’m a fan of the Games,” he said. “I’m not a fan of the corporate overloading, but I’ve been to a few Olympics, including the Games in Australia.

“I never watch curling or cross-country skiing at any other times,” he said. “I always watched it, but it never crossed my mind to compete in it.”

Although he never dreamt of competing for Canada, Cuddy does help Canadian athletes realize their own Olympic dreams.

“I do some fundraising for the Olympic athletes though,” he said. “I’m the national entertainment advisor for Gold Medal Plates. I find one of the interesting things is just how different these athletes are than normal people in terms of what they do, their focus, determination and what they can accomplish.”

Gold Medal Plates raises funds for Canadian athletes while offering the finest in cuisine, wine and entertainment. Founded in 2003, it hosts a sort of culinary competition in cities across Canada, featuring the best chefs and wineries in the country, with Cuddy lining up top Canuck entertainers for the galas.

So far, Gold Medal Plates has generated a combined net total of $2.8 million towards Canada's Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

So some of Canada’s gold at the 2010 Games could be considered thanks, in part, to his efforts.

And although Cuddy probably will never win an Olympic gold for his country, his band — Blue Rodeo — has certainly earned enough gold records to qualify them as Canada’s musical equivalent of Olympians.

In fact, the band’s twelfth release, The Things We Left Behind, was recently certified platinum (which everyone knows is even better than gold) and has been on the Top 100 selling albums in Canada since its release.

Not bad for a band that’s been together for almost three decades.

Founded in 1984, Blue Rodeo rebelled against the glossy pop and hair metal of the day with a Canadian brand of countrified rock that’s stood the test of time and earned the band accolades as one of the country’s most accomplished, successful and critically acclaimed acts in music today. They’ve won 12 Juno Awards, including a record-breaking five Group of the Year Junos and the 2008 Juno for Best Group, Best Adult Alternative Album and Best Video. In September, the band was even given a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame.

Cuddy said it’s not easy to quantify why Blue Rodeo has remained so popular over nearly thirty years.

“That’s the big unanswerable question,” he said. “I think we’ve worked hard to maintain our own interest in ourselves and our music, so if we genuinely like what we’re playing, then it usually translates to the fans liking it.

“It’s true that it matters, and you do have to stay popular as a band,” he said. “But you really can’t anticipate how fans are going to feel about an album. You hope they’ll like it.”

Even through the inevitable solo projects, Cuddy said the band has always remained strong.

“We’ve always allowed individuality,” he said. “Solo projects are always a bit threatening, but we’ve always worked at communicating with each other, and we’ve made ourselves a comfortable band. We’re in good shape, but we don’t take it for granted.”

Cuddy said the music industry has changed from when Blue Rodeo first started out.

“It’s very different today,” he said. “Today, people download music from the Internet, and they get exposed to music in lots of different ways.

“We were lucky,” he said with a laugh. “We got to our fans when they were most vulnerable. We played every college and every coffee house over the years. When you get to someone during that meaningful period of their life, you end up being the soundtrack to their lives.”

So although he never thought of competing at an Olympic Games, Cuddy and his Blue Rodeo band mates will bring that golden Canadian soundtrack to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Whistler Village Square on Sunday (Feb. 28) for a free Whistler Live performance at 3 p.m.