Hugh Dillon, the star of two TV series -- Durham County and Flashpoint -- left rock music behind years ago but has recently returned to it with a new album, Works Well With Others.

There was a time when Hugh Dillon was known as the hard-rocking, hard-living frontman of Toronto '90s band, The Headstones.

But then the band split up in 2003, Dillon got clean and sober, and re-emerged in the last few years as a respected lead actor with two successful TV shows, TMN and Movie Central's Durham County and CTV's Flashpoint (also seen on CBS in the U.S.).

The Kingston, Ont., native, however, never stopped writing songs and the results of those more musically toned-down efforts appear on his first major label solo album, Works Well With Others, in stores today.

"Playing in a rock and roll band that intense in the '90s and that whole '90s explosion of music, you think that it's never going to end," said Dillon, 46, sipping a coffee recently in a Greek restaurant in Toronto's Danforth neighbourhood.

"And all of a sudden it ends and the Spice Girls are popular and it's that realization that everything you know has got to change. It's difficult to change and people are fearful of it and so was I, but I had to do it. It's that Dylan thing, 'If you're not being born, you're busy dying.' And I changed, not for professional reasons, but for personal reasons, and that somehow opened the door for me to grow professionally, both with acting and with music. You take all that drugs and alcohol out of the f---ing mix and you've got a different life.

"It was a huge deal to get clean and sober. I was trying to do it for years and I continued to fall back. My life was Trainspotting for a while, remember that movie? THAT was my life, for a couple of years, and it was misery."

After having a well-received movie at Sundance -- 2005's Down to the Bone -- Dillon moved to L.A., got an agent and a manager and his acting career took off. (He still has a home in Toronto.)

Music, however, never went away and in fact, writing songs calms Dillon down "'cause it's honest."

"On all the projects I acted on, people asked me about music, 'cause I'm a musician, and I said, 'I got stuff.' And then they started using my music in both shows, and Trailer Park Boys before that, and anything I've ever done."

Not only did Dillon record Works Well With Others at The Tragically Hip's The Bathhouse in Kingston, Hip rhythm guitarist Paul Langlois produced the album, and also played acoustic guitar and sang background vocals throughout while Hip lead guitarist Rob Baker played pedal steel on the song Lucky.

Dillon has known Langlois for 35 years. They played hockey together when they were 10 and went to high school together.

The Headstones would eventually play some of their biggest gigs ever opening for The Hip.

"Those are guys I've kind of known my whole life, which is a luxury because once I went on my path from The Headstones -- and there's that fallout of who's left and where do you go -- it was nice to have people who have known you since you were a kid, that know you, and know the business. So it's comfortable to go back to where I started. It came full circle. And yet starting from scratch with a whole new approach to music."

Dillon said with the new solo album and two hit TV shows he's enjoying being on the biggest major creative roll of his life while in middle age.

"I think, 'Holy f---! This is awesome!' I gotta say that it couldn't come at a better time. It's the kind of thing, you're freer and you've learned your lessons and you're more open to people and situations. I guess I changed my whole approach to life."