Gippy Grewal worked as a guard in Canada despite massive hit: ‘Cleaned toilets for $13’

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Gippy recalled that the song was a rage even in Canada and was being played everywhere but no one knew that it belonged to him. Gippy said that despite the song’s success, he worked as a security guard as his career as a singer was not making him any money. “I used to work as a security guard back then. Even though my song was a hit, I had to make money to survive and for my family. I knew that until I have a high income as a performer or singer, I needed to work to pay the bills,” he said.

‘Wife had two jobs, I had to clean toilets also’

Gippy shared that even his wife had two jobs then. “She would go to work at Subway at 6 am, work there till 4 pm, and then work as a security guard. That’s how I also got the job at the same place,” he recalled and said that he had to sit outside a closed factory through the night, make rounds every two hours and report if everything was fine. “I had to make a call every two hours after inspecting and say ‘Everything is safe and secure’. Just memorising that line took me two days. My English was quite limited back then,” he said.

Gippy then listed the many odd jobs that he did during this period. He shared that he would work as a guard till 4 am, then pick up his wife from their home and the two would then go and distribute newspapers for two hours. He shared that they also got jobs as cleaners in a mall where his wife would clean up the trays in the food court, and he would sweep the place. “I had to do everything. I had to clean the toilets also,” he said.

Gippy shared that back in India, it would appear that he was doing something extraordinary but it was just something that they had to do so they could have a comfortable life. “In other jobs, I would make 8 dollars, but in the mall cleaning job, I would get almost 13 dollars. Like with the newspapers, my wife and I would think that this is our time together. So we would keep talking the whole time and get done with that job in two hours,” he shared.

Gippy and Ravneet are parents to three sons.