Make no mistake. Dan Hill loves his father. But you might not feel the same way about his dad when you read Hill's new book, "I Am My Father's Son: A Memoir of Love and Forgiveness."

The Grammy and five-time Juno winner first recounts how his dad threatened him, on behalf of a family doctor, to give a sperm sample for a physical. As Hill says, "What parent hasn't issued a few threats to an uncooperative teen?"

The put-downs, the tongue-lashings, the impossibly high standards...Life at home was not pretty according to this searing account of Hill's tumultuous relationship with Daniel Grafton Hill III, the founding director of the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Yet Hill says, "I loved this man. I admired him. If people read this book and don't see the good in him it'll bother me. I don't like to hear people speak badly of my father."

His father was, without question, a formidable thinker.

Unable to bear the degradation of America's black segregation, Hill Sr. moved to Canada in 1950 to pursue his graduate studies.

After a teaching stint in Baltimore, where he married a white woman named Donna Mae Bender - Hill's mother - the couple moved to Toronto. Hill Sr. completed a PhD in sociology at the University of Toronto.

He later became a governmental adviser on multiculturalism, an Ontario Ombudsman and penned "The Freedom Seekers," a book about African Americans in early Canada. He also co-founded the Ontario Black History Society.

So why did a man who hated the war in Vietnam with a passion and held so much respect for humanity treat a child so abusively?

"People are complicated. They're capable of great things and egregiously stupid things. If my father was tough it was because he wanted to prepare us for the world," says Hill, who spoke with CTV.ca.

"When I turned to music I wasn't rebelling. I was being myself. But my career happened because of my father," says Hill, 54, who grew up in Don Mills, Ont. desperately seeking his dad's approval.

He says the same of his brother Lawrence, the award-winning author of "The Book of Negroes."

"Dad set the bar high," says the singer, who was so crushed by his dad's death in 2003 that he could no longer write tunes.

Reading his father's letters, which Hill Sr. had donated to Ontario's public archives, helped the performer reconnect with his talents and his domineering dad.

"My father was loyal and loved us unconditionally," says Hill. "When I was a 23-year-old pop star and got kicked out by my girlfriend, dad took me in. When I lost my record deals and the IRS sued me, he took me in. He was more than tough words, more than what I thought of him as a kid. But that's true of all of us."

Career highs and lows

At 23, Hill hit the big time with "Sometimes When We Touch." One of the most covered pop songs of all times, it turned up most recently in the soundtrack for "Tropic Thunder."

In fact, "Sometimes When We Touch" has made Hill an estimated $4 million since it first hit the airwaves.

"Whenever you put out a song a lot of people hate the music. Others don't. That's fine. I have to accept it," says Hill, who spent the past two decades writing songs for other singers.

Among the mix you'll find Celine Dion and country singer Alan Jackson. The Backstreet Boys recorded Hill's song "I Promise You." Their boy band nemesis, 98 Degrees, had a huge hit with "I Do (Cherish You)," which went multi-platinum on the "Notting Hill" movie soundtrack.

"It's like going from NHL hockey star to coach," says Hill. "I'm not kidding myself. I'm working on a new album, which I hope to release in six months. I know I'll never be John Mayer. I know I'll always make more money writing songs for other people."

With surprising frankness Hill says, "I was born with a gift. At 54 I feel like I'm at the peak of my writing powers. But I know the industry has changed."

Hill stopped performing in the 1990s. Record company executives were telling him he looked like a college professor, not a sexy rock star.

"I came up at a time when singer-songwriters were viable in the industry. Neil Young wasn't sexy. Today when you see Madonna all you think of is her plastic surgery, not her music," says Hill.

"Lyrics, melody, story. That was the priority then. Not looks. If I launched my career today I wouldn't make it."

Fond of artists like Coldplay and Kanye West, Hill says, "I am the perfect example of what too much fame can do. I derailed at 23. I fell into the patterns of a rock star. Women were everywhere and they became my drug. It happened to Elvis. It happened to Frank Sinatra. It's happening to whoever is hot right now. But it's connected to the fame, not you."

As Hill says, "Look at me and you'll see exactly what can happen to any nerd when success comes calling."