Big Sugar is a band formed in Toronto in 1988 by Gordie Johnson, the band's lead singer, lead guitarist and main songwriter. Between 1996 and 2016, Big Sugar was among the top 25 best-selling Canadian bands in Canada. They are still active today, releasing new music, vinyl re-releases and touring.

Big Sugar originally consisted of Johnson, bassist Terry Wilkins, and drummer Al Cross. The three musicians had already played together for several years as a supporting band for Molly Johnson's jazz performances, and as an informal jam band with members of the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir. When Molly Johnson returned to rock music with Infidels, she helped her former bandmates secure a record deal, leading to the eponymous debut album released in 1991 on Hypnotic Records.

Wilkins left the band in 1993. Big Sugar recorded the album Five Hundred Pounds with the help of guest musicians, including harmonica and tenor saxophonist Kelly Hoppe, a.k.a. Mr. Chill. Hoppe and Johnson were longtime friends from the same home town; Hoppe had given Johnson his first gig as a guitarist. He brought a blues and old-school R'n'B influence into the band's sound and later added keyboards and melodica. He became a regular member of the band in September 1994, while bassist Garry Lowe had joined the band that July.

Lowe moved to Toronto in the mid-1970s from Kingston, Jamaica, became a bass player for touring reggae recording artists, and was a founding member of Culture Shock, a popular Toronto reggae band. Johnson had long admired Lowe; his was the bass sound that Johnson had been looking for. Johnson told The Globe & Mail, "His bass sound became how I envisioned Big Sugar's sound—a blend of blues and rock anchored by his reggae groove." Johnson told Artsfile Ottawa of their unique musical language, "...so much of our connection was unspoken. We didn't work things through musically. If I played a little something, he would play a little something back. It was a very symbiotic relationship."

In 1993, Big Sugar released the album Five Hundred Pounds, which had little publicity or radio airplay but sold 10,000 copies in Canada on the strength of their live shows. In 1995, Johnson also recorded an album under the name Don't Talk Dance, with Tyler Stewart of Barenaked Ladies and Chris Brown of the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir.

In 1994 they appeared in the drama film The Circle Game, portraying the blues band of which the film's lead character was a member, and performing several numbers in that context.

In 1995, Big Sugar released two EPs, Dear M.F. (which featured a cover version of Traffic's "Dear Mr. Fantasy") and Ride Like Hell. Drummer Stich Wynston, who had taken over from Al Cross, was replaced by Walter "Crash" Morgan. During a show in Iowa, Morgan suffered a heart attack and died on stage. Tyler Stewart flew in to help finish the tour, followed by Tony Rabalao. Lowe's musical partner Tony 'Raffa' White was enlisted for recording and other live performances, becoming Johnson's favorite studio drummer and appearing on many Big Sugar albums. Former Odds member Paul Brennan subsequently joined as the band's new drummer, playing on one of their most commercially successful albums, 1996's Hemi-Vision. Brennan left the band in May 1997 leading to Al Cross' return.

A French version of Hemi-Vision's single "Opem Up Baby" was recorded, titled "Ouvres-Toi Bébé", for radio stations in Quebec. The song gained widespread airplay in the province, and for their next album, 1998's platinum-selling Heated, the band recorded a French version of each single they released; the French songs were collected on the 1999 EP Chauffe à bloc. Also that year, Johnson and Hoppe began to perform acoustic shows as a duo, billed as "Big Sugar Acoustic—Two Fools on Stools".