Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Alfie Zappacosta: Toronto Mike'd #1439

Episode Date: February 28, 2024

In this 1439th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Alfie Zappacosta about his career in music, performing a duet on Tears Are Not Enough, the Pizza Nova jingle and more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada and Electronic Products Recycling Association. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

439 and the 4-0 439 lost the hero What up Miami? Toronto VK on the beat Check I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love

I'm in Toronto right where you wanna get the city love My city love me back for my city love Welcome to episode 1439 or if you will 1439 of Toronto Miked. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities good times and brewing amazing beer order online for free local home delivery in the GTA Palma pasta enjoy the taste of, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. That's where I get my pizza. RecycleMyElectronics.ca committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics

of the past. The Advantage'd Investor Podcast from Raymond James Canada, Valuable Perspective for Canadian Investors Who Want to Remain Knowledgeable, Informed and Focused on Long-Term Success, and Ridley Funeral Home, Pillars of the Community Since 1921. Today, making his Toronto make debut is Alfie Zappa Costa. Hello. How are you? I'm good. You hear me alright? You sound great. Good. Now, Alfie, may I call you Alfie? Of course you can. Okay. I feel

comfortable with you. I feel like I can ask you anything. You can. You can. You know, be careful what you wish for. That's right. And you're in Edmonton? Yes. Yes. I live in Edmonton. I'm about 30 years now. You were a Toronto guy. Am I right? Oh yeah, absolutely. Toronto for, oh gosh, I was born in Italy. I was just six months old, so I lived 40 years in T.O. for the most part. And then, yeah, all of a sudden I was still Canadian, but Edmontonian Canadian, but you know, a lot of time in Toronto for sure. So what brought you to Edmonton? Toronto was getting really, really crazy. There's a lot of nutty friends and family and stuff, you know, it was just getting too big. My children at that point were about seven and ten, you know, and I, what I do, could I do theater? Could I do musical theater and stuff? And I remember the time needing diapers and whatnot. Another one of those slow times and the recording industries and things like that.

Well, not so much the recording industry, but as far as like what I had to do with it. But, so I took it anyway, that make it short was I did some, some, some, uh, theater, uh, was Evita and some people saw it and, uh, I got back to Toronto and I was thinking at one point I probably might look at was looking at moving. It could have been the East coast. It could have been like, whatever. At that point it was East coast. Cause I spent a lot of time there doing Evita at the Neptune theater in Halifax. It was horrifyingly scary, a whole new world for me that I hadn't really knew that didn't know existed. Came back to Toronto and got a phone call from some people in Edmonton to ask me if I wanted to do Jesus Christ Superstar in Edmonton. And I remember seeing the Jewish, the Jewish in production. And I just thought that it was kind of like hokey.

I mean, I didn't like it. Not to mention that doing Gavita and doing theater scared me to death. That was, there was a whole new element of, you know, learning, you know, people that studied this, the people that I was with that studied like theater all their lives, they danced, they sang, they know the sets, they know where to be, they knew all the, just the jargon and everything about them was so pro. And I was like, I felt like I was just constantly, I mean, I did a good job. I did fine. Everybody thought it was wonderful. I got great reviews. But I said, never do it again. I got a call from Edmonton to come do Jesus Christ Superstar. They thought I was playing hard to get because I kept saying no, right, because I was petrified and it just kept, they kept upping the money, you know. It wasn't so much again, it was sort of like, that's surprising. I guess this is how business works, you keep saying no, they keep upping it,

but it got to a point that my wife overheard. I mean, it's not huge amounts of money or anything like that. It wasn't large, you know, like theatres like in Edmonton, small theatre, but it was my wife overheard and she says, I guess you're Jesus. So I went to Edmonton to do Jesus Christ Superstar. I realized it was a little bit easier this time as a, in knowing that I had done it at the Neptune Theater in Halifax for about four months, well the whole theater singing thing and I got through it okay, everything was great, but while I was there I rented a bike and I got on my two-wheeler and I would be going all over the place and getting a vibe of what Edmonton was about. And it was small enough and big enough. It was city feeling enough

and people seemed pretty cool. Even though it seemed like people would say it's quite blue collar and whatnot. And a great arts community and I was looking at getting the hell out of Dodge. So that brought me here after being about four or five months doing Jesus Christ Superstar. I brought the wife and kids over and I had them stay with me for a couple of weeks and it was a very simple transition. Now when you say bike, you mean bicycle or? Yeah, bicycle. Okay, just making sure it's not a motorcycle.

No, no motorcycles. I just, you know, I went through those, those days, a long time, where a lot of my friends just said that still very much into those and the bikes and stuff. But this was just a mountain bike that I would go back and forth everywhere instead of renting a car. It was just, I was biking. I did it all through Toronto the whole time anyway. Okay. So I bike Toronto still, but Edmonton's weather quite different than Toronto. Like how long did it take you to adapt to those winters? Oh, just overnight. It was no problem. You know, what we've had is like brown Christmas

this year. I mean, it's been, it's, it's like minus five, you know, we had a, an incredible week of, uh, you know, minus 40 and stuff like that. That was like exactly one week. I mean, we've had, uh, we've had, definitely this is odd, but you can get like about a month, about 20 below, 25 below and stuff like that, but people prepare for it. It's real simple, ends up being like really sunny a lot of times.

So you take the cold and it's, as you've heard before, right, it's dry cold, it's drier. So before right it's dry cold it's drier so it in a lot of ways it doesn't seem sort of seem to get into your bones but well I married I married an Edmonton girl so I know quite well my wife born and raised in Edmonton Alberta well you know I thought that's great I mean it's we're from people from all over the place being displaced and stuff. It's still quite a bit cheaper to live here than, you know, that way. It's just again, anywhere in Canada, as long as there's an airplane for me, and as long as it was a jet of some sort, it didn't matter where I was and what I did.

I just hop on and go. So I imagine now these days, too, with the idea of Zoom, as you're talking, I mean, people could live. It doesn't matter where they are really. It's funny because you were at Hugh's room, I want to say last summer, when abouts did you come to Toronto and play Hugh's room? I think so around that time, yeah it was last year for sure. So I was chatting with Jane Harbury. Yeah.

And by the way she's going to come over here and make her Toronto mic debut soon. But with Jane, I said, Jane, I see Zappa cost is coming to Hughes room. I said, I desperately would. I want Zappa cost to visit and I couldn't come together. I guess you had tight schedule. We couldn't make that happen. But then with all this like talk of We Are The World, I went back and revisited the Tears Are Not Enough documentary from 1985.

And then I'm like, you know what? Maybe Alfie will zoom with me and we can finally make this happen. So thanks for making some time for me today. Well, sure. I mean, absolutely. There's no, no, no problem whatsoever. I mean, I'm glad to be here. You know, just I just need to hear some music was playing in the background, trying to get you up on. Are you still there? I'm here. Yeah, you can hear music. Good, good, good. I got it. Doesn't matter. It's all good. As long as you're here, you can hear me. That's all fine.

I can hear you. If you hear music, though, I'm worried it might be coming from somewhere in Edmonton. No, it's just something I did. I just brought the volume up over here. And with something weird, technical difficulties. Okay. Well, let's, you know, you talked about getting around on your bike, which I love to hear. Now let's go in the time machine. Do you want to go back to the seventies with me? Sure. Okay. So here's a little song I'm going to play. And then we're going to talk about this band and who you were at the time and how you got into music and all that exciting stuff. But let's listen to a

little bit of, well, the song's actually from 1982, but the band goes back to the seventies. Let's listen to a little bit of Start Again. I don't believe it How have you been? It's been a long time Nice to see you again What you've been up to You look well to me Come down to my place I'll pull out some cheer And we'll talk again It's nice to talk again My brother, he was doing okay

He worked in plastics, made a good way It's too much pressure to be faced every day And so his problems got carried away And he gets to the fools once you're off bed You'll know why he wants to get so high He's got his mind where things go down When we're tired, you call out Easy come and easy go

Do, do, do, do, do Can't seem to stop him, he just starts again He just starts again Did I tell you about the whole thing, Alfie. Oh my, oh my, oh my. So is this taking you back? What are you thinking about right now? Oh, Jesus, trying to go back into where that was all done, the sound kitchen in the, in the, oh, the Northern part of Toronto,

where we were living, a little studio that I found, Kyle the sound kitchen and the people that were living there. And you listen to that little, that little mousy voice and stuff like that. It's pretty amazing. Quite the time travel that what that was, yeah. So this is Surrender. And tell me a little bit,

like for those listening who aren't, maybe they don't remember Surrender, they might be a bit young, but tell us what made you fall in love with music and then tell us how Surrender came to be. Surrender was getting at about... I never let anybody in high school or school know that I played anything. It was nothing that I really planned on doing. I thought for sure it was going to be a hairdresser. My father was a barber and spent a lot of time. We were young enough, I guess, since we got together with a bunch of kids, you know, band, and it was a way to meet girls and stuff,

and we'd play, music was fun, you know, doing it. And we ended up, a bunch of us getting together up in the Kipling and the Islington and the Rexdale areas and stuff like that. And a bunch of us got together, Paul Delaney and Steve Jensen and Peter Curry. We got together and joined, we joined bands, we joined Robert Lee Lee and the brigade, we joined Jeanette Brantley, and I can't remember what the ass end name of that was, but we went out and started doing things and performing songs that were written like Top

40. Robert E. Lee, his name was actually Frank Quetisi, I really liked Robert. He would just listen to the radio or better just get a list of the Top 40 hits and just give us a list and say, learn all these and then he'd them. And we'd go in places like the Cambridge Motor Hotel and all the places that were in Toronto once upon a time. And we would play them on the weekends when we got to, you know, when we did the gigs. And that was fun for a while, cutting your teeth.

And then, and it was just fun, nothing serious about it. And then, Jeanette Brantley, and at that point we started, and with Robert too, we would do some touring things. We'd go to Timmins and Kappa Skiing, Timmins, a little bit of Thunder Bay, if you can imagine, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Sudbury, just the places that were still sort of what we consider Ontario, but kind of taste of it. But I got taste pretty quick in realizing that the idea of doing and with Janet Bradley, we were doing it was a disco era. So we were learning a lot of songs that were sort of like dance

oriented and stuff and start to realize at the time the band seemed to be an awful lot of work to be able to maintain and keep a band together just based on personalities. And I'm going to find that. And we were doing other people's music. It wasn't really anything. And I just figured that if I can have to put up all this crap with a band or whatnot, it might as well be original. So we, uh, Paul Delaney and Peter Curry were with me at the band. Steve, Steve Jensen came after, but, um, I just said, if I'm going to be doing this, it has to be original music. So we went back into Toronto.

And there was a little music store. And Paul and I were doing a part-time thing where Paul was drumming and teaching. And I was teaching some guitar just to pre-teens, just little kids and stuff like that. And they would give us the store to rehearse at night. So all the gear was there and whatnot, you know. So we started the practice.

I started writing a whole bunch of songs. I guess we were writing together, but it, that seems to be that it was really all based off of my ideas seemed like. So a fella called Ken Morris came down that Paul knew and Ken Morris was a brother-in-law of a fella called Frank Davies, who Frank Davies is just huge in the music community even back then with everything from Krobar to, oh you name it, well I can't remember the name of the bands right now so it sort sort of seems to miss. But anyway, he brought these demos that we were doing over there and he brought them over to his brother-in-law, who was Frank Davies.

Frank Davies went to Dean Cameron at Capital Records at the time, not even EMI. And we got a deal. And that was the beginning of the end, so to speak. Surrender got a deal and you recorded three albums and that that song I just played, I guess, is from the the last album, right? That was the very first one. Oh, the first one. OK. That sounds like Mr. Mini Mini Me for sure.

I mean, you know, that was the very first record. Then I believe that the sound kitchen way back. So this begs the question, why did you end up going solo? I had no... this was really the music company, the music business and the record company at the time, that sort of pushed me that way. Like all of a sudden one day was like, well, put it this way, as a songwriting continued and those are the powers that be. So who's doing the writing? So publishers and record company people sort of like seemed to feel that I was the one that I

should be signed to. So publishing companies and stuff like that did a quick job of sort of like picking me up and putting me up front because I was going to be the one that was going to be making basically writing the songs and selling the show. It's nothing that I wanted to do. I felt horrible about the whole thing as usual, but it um but anytime anybody was suing the band or doing anything crazy was me that had to pay seemed like. So um one thing led to another and it was really a record company thing and all of a sudden they always thought that the name Zappacosta was a strong name. And that's on your birth certificate just for the record Alfie, that's a real last name. Alfredo Zappa Costa, and there's an awful lot of Zappa Costas in Italy, in and around, from Abruzzi and Soda, it's called the La Provenza del Lazio. So yeah, there's a whole bunch of us there for sure. I mean, just my father, there was 11 brothers and sisters for God's sake.

Wow. It goes on and on. That's the Catholic way It goes on and on. That's the Catholic way, right? Come on. Seemed to be actually, if I remember correctly, my dad said that was more of a Mussolini thing because he figured like go out and procreate because we need more soldiers. Right.

Need more of a population to go and be able to fight and stuff like that. So they were, if I remember correctly, my father said that my grandfather was being paid to have kids. Do you mind if I play another song? Uh, and then we'll talk a little more Zappa cost to hear. Sure. All right. I've got a frantic disposition, an all-consuming mission, I'm after you I'm a stick of dynamite, ready to ignite because of you It's a desperate situation, a physical frustration, I don't know what to do And I don't have any things to offer you No car, no diamond rings

And I can't afford these things to soften you Baby, all I've got to give to you is passion Woo! I can feel that passion, Alfie. Yeah. That was... I kind of... It was supposed to be like a co-write. it was a co-write with Bob Ezrin. Bob Ezrin was involved in that, but from the Wall, if you remember. There was a time-

For Alice Cooper, sure. Mm-hmm. He said there was a time where, there was a time the record companies would like to be, you know know to get me involved with a lot of different people like you know they figure the bigger the name you know more records itself made a lot of sense but um i'm pretty sure that i most of the song was me for sure and it was uh something that um i went to um what surrender Surrender did a last record and they sent me down to Los Angeles with Ed Thacker to mix and record a little bit more.

But actually the mix, we recorded a lot of it. I'm trying to remember where we recorded it and then maybe phase one. Jesus, they're hard to remember all that. But so the band did do it. We recorded a record. By the time I got down to Los Angeles to mix it, I realized that what record we were doing at the time to make money in the clubs is to write songs

that were sort of more of a rockier, kind of like going to have fun kind of stuff. And so there was no depth to any of the songs that I'd written except for the ones that I kept on that record in particular, which ended up being the first Zappacosta record. So we went in, record company paid for surrender to do another record. And because we were gigging all the time and to make money, like I said, we have

to do rock and roll and sort of mindless pop, you know, mindless pulp. So by the time I got to record it, by the time I got down to mix it and stuff, I realized how shallow everything about it was. And it was very, very difficult to work with. So when I got back, and it was just a complete crock. And when I got back, I asked Dean Cameron, was a wonderful guy, Dean. And I asked Dean Cameron at EMI here in Canada, and I said, Dean, give me a little bit more money and let me re-record a bunch of stuff.

And he did, he gave me some monies. And I went into, D-Long used to be with Clatue, D-Long and John Jones. John Jones wasn't with Clatue, but they were all good friends and they had a studio called, it'll come to me. But the studio was just a little barn kind of thing, you know, and it's a house next to a barn or whatever the hell it is. And we went in there and Dee

was quite a genius and it still is. He was working with the Fairlight computer at the time. And with the Fairlight, I was able to go in there with a new friend of mine, Gerald O'Brien, and I basically wrote just about all the songs. I kept to run around, start again. I wrote all the new songs, including Passion and everything on that record and released it right away. It got Dean to release it right away. We had missed our window of opportunity and whatnot, but we definitely, with the strength of Dee, I was able to use, you know, we would go and get Maserati sounds and he would go to junkyards and pick up things that he would just start slamming with a hammer and things like that. And we use it for drums and we would use it for just tricks and shit like that. So we had a lot, a lot of fun doing it

and put that record together right away. That was the time that the record company said, this is its Alocaustic record. And from then on it was, that's how it all sort of started. Even though Paul Delaney and then at that point Steve Jensen was in the band and Peter Curry, they were there up until the beginning of all that, the apocaustics. And soon after, well, things started getting weeded out over a period of time. So, but that was the first SapaCosta record.

And here's the first question from the listenership. This comes from a Rick A and Rick A wants to know, and I'm going to read exactly what Rick A wrote. He wrote, well, what the hell was the thinking behind the we should be lovers video? Oh gosh. Something that I, uh, I still have a hard time. I have a hard time with that. The thinking was the, just going to go back to Doug and the Slugs, Doug Bennett had convinced the record company

that he had this great video. There was Alfred Zapakost is supposed to be this real cutie kind of guy and they figured and I don't know how much tongue in cheek it was as far as what Mr. Bennett had in mind. But I remember going, this is going to be horrible. I was embarrassed as I'll get out and doing it. But at the same time, I was very, very naive and wanted to believe that the record company and the management had my best intentions in mind. It was just a crap video, obviously. It was just a piece of shite. But I remember the guys in Loverboy and all the people that were involved just having a great, great time all around the actual club we were doing at and shooting those poor girls that were like in three feet of ice cold jello to be able to have that

consistency is for it to be very, very cold. Every 10, 15 minutes we had to rush them out of that pool to put them into a hot shower because hypothermia would be setting in. I'm not kidding. It was were that cold, I get thrown in. But it was probably well, actually, you know, I'm infamous because it's the worst video of whatever 1987. You can actually the good thing is you can look it up and know I'm lying. It was just a piece of shit. It was just horrible.

Got to call a spade a spade, right? Neil got it was freaking terrible. I still get people I tell people on stage these days right now that it's like, and I remember the, and I don't blame them, the lady VJs and stuff like that just really didn't like me at all. I just figured that I was just this real fat-headed, shithead, but they just had this whole idea that everybody had to be like an Elvis and whatnot or whatever, you know? And they played me up to be just this real run around character and stuff, you know. And it's funny because every time I wrote songs, for the most part, I would

write them in first person because I figured that anybody that sang along. They think they were singing about themselves. They say, I'm just a run around, but I play with it. We chose it was all fun stuff, but, but fun stuff but you know I start to realize how many people took things seriously that way. Anyway I continued on and sort of like look at it and have people laugh at me and just sort of go and it's all good it's all fun because you know I go back there it's been a I have to say that it's been very interesting you know it's certainly not been a boring life. Your heart's not there, that's the bottom line There's no more feelings to share

And your heart's not there, so you can cry I still put my faith in time And I believe we should be lovers Carrying for each other Not dealing with the heartaches Watching as our hearts break While love makes a way Oh, I understand that you care But I want to believe that there's more to share Only in time we will find If we're right or wrong, keep an open mind And though you're sure it can't be

I will always believe We should be lovers, caring for each other, not dealing with the heartaches, watching as our hearts break while love makes the way We Should Be Lovers, which is a better song than it is a video. Thank you Zapacosta for the real talk there. When Alfie's back in Ontario, Great Lakes Brewery is where I'm going to send him for fresh craft beer. It's delicious, available across this fine province in LCBO stores and even some grocery stores. A good Italian Canadian like Alfie knows the authentic Italian taste. He craves,

is at Palma Pasta. Go to palmapasta.com. Try it once. You'll be a fan for life and you can thank me later. The Advantage Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada. Alfie, subscribe. Great knowledge, great advice, great best practices. Thank you Raymond James Canada for supporting the show and thank you to RecycleMyElectronics.ca. That's where you go if you need to recycle your old electronics, your old cables, your old devices. Don't throw it out.

Go to recyclemyelectronics.ca. And last but not least, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. home. Let's get back to some Zappacosta on Toronto Mic'd. And, of course, you get yourself a Juno Award for most promising male vocalist. Some think that's a curse. What are your thoughts on that? Nah, not really. I think everybody, a lot of bands, if you think of all the hundreds of bands in Canada, they were all cursed. Right.

Everybody jump up and everybody try to sound the same and get it, you know, and they did, you know, for the ones that did were like, you know, the record companies, the radio people, the personalities, all the promoters were able to package a band that sounded, that's let's call it the 80s, big hair people and put them all on that bus and send them touring all over and whatever sticks, as you know, whatever sticks you back, you know, so there's a lot of people that slip off of that wall, obviously, you know, but it was great for a while. And people at the eighties, you can't go out there and do it. Actually, you can go out there and make a living right now, sounding like the eighties,

you know, if you want to go back and make a living now and be do everything from Chicago to Tom Petty to you name the band and you go out there and you probably get a gig these days, you know, going out and do original music is becoming a little bit on the oddball side, but yeah, on and on and on. But you can always give them the hits, right? People want to hear that vintage Zappa Costa and you can deliver that. We could give them, I'll give them about four, five, six, eight songs, you know, whatever if the people ask some things I could do. It's really hard for me to go back into the surrender days and sort of do that unless

these days touring, you know, hard to be able to put a band on the road and continue that way. It's just, you know, I can't imagine that it's just COVID, but I could probably say now it's, I'm 70 years old. There's a lot of people that are coming out there. Either they don't want to come out there or they're passing, they're dying, or they're having some kind of disease or something like that. So my, my, my crowd of people are getting a little older and they don't like going out all that much anymore. So I'm looking for a younger bunch of people and maybe 50, 60.

The kids, the 50 year old kids, you're talking to one right now. I was going to say shout out to Ridley Funeral Homes at the cost is loyal fan base. Got to make fun of it, but I'm doing fine. And as far as like, you know, I am. I know I'm I'll keep doing

until I drop myself, but it's a lot of fun. I'm having a lot of fun doing it. OK, in that room that you're in right now in Edmonton, is your Juno Award in that room? Uh. Yeah, my. Oh, they're there. There's some up there. Oh, they're up. OK, I see over your shoulder. I see now over there behind my head.

They know there's a there's the American Music Award, a couple of Junos and whatnot. There's some stuff from Dirty Dancing. There's a little bit of things down here. There's not an awful lot, but it all stays down here in my room. It's not in the hall or anything like that. It's just down in my room here. Well, you should be proud, you know, I've never won a Juno that might surprise you, but you should be very proud. Well, like, I don't know whether, it was kind of a strange time for sure. I mean, it's sort of like, it was there, it was happening.

There was a lot of people wanting to make things happen at the time with EMI and whatnot, but I wasn't very forthcoming when it came to sort of like writing music. We started doing things like, you know, I got involved with Bob Rock and doing some of the records, as you know, but I was not going to do specific rock and roll and stuff. It was just something that I was really sincerely hoping that we do something a little bit more musical. And it was easy enough to fall out of grace and stuff. I don't mean that in a bad way.

It was fine. I was going to do what I wanted to do. And all my life is exactly that. That's what I've done. And I continue to do so. Okay. We have you in 1985 right now. And I think there's a call coming in. I don't know if it's coming from Bruce Allen or what, but they want to know, will Zappa Costa be a part of Tears Are Not Enough, the charity single that for famine relief in Africa? Can you please recount for the definitive record? This is very important to me. Who called you? Did they call your management? How exactly did you get involved with Tears Are Not Enough? Bruce Allen, my manager at the time, Lou Blair. Lou Blair and Bruce Allen

were managing Loverboy together. And Frank Davies introduced me to Lou Blair. I loved Bruce Allen, Lou Blair. I liked them a lot. I mean, I loved what they were doing, what they did and stuff. And they were out in Vancouver. And obviously in Canada, they were the go-tos in as far as like, because they were just doing, you know, out of Bruce Allen's office and stuff like that. Lou had an office there, just gangbusting, they were busting everything.

It was the only place to be really in Vancouver with that office, that team of people and they were great. And Bruce was involved and obviously my, with Lou being a partner with him and I was signed to Lou, it made perfect sense that I should be involved and sort of like to be part of that and I was very lucky to do so. I mean I was very grateful. I didn't have any idea what was going but I could see that now these days people looking back and saying that it was quite a bit of history being made. But when we were told, you know, like I had no problem when they would mention something, leave your egos at the door, I was like, fine. I mean, I already got through. We should be lovers. I can handle just about anything. So yeah, there was no such thing as ego because I had my display loose all over the freaking place. Right.

Okay. Well, now I'm going to drill in for a few more details, but one thing I want to tell the listenership, in fact, I'll play this tiny little clip here, but you were paired with Dalbello and you got a line and I'll just give you props because, you know, sure, you know, Geddy Lee got a line. You can understand the reason why. Oh, that was the line. That was the line. Yeah. I'm going to play in a line. Oh, that was the line. That was the longer you had to play in a second. I felt in the mix a little more Del Bello than Zappa Costa. I might have produced it a little

differently, but I'm not David Foster. Okay. Who am I to second guess David Foster, right? All right, let's play it. And then I'll hit you up with the questions. Here is, this is Zappa Costa and Del Bello on the Northern Lights charity single Tears Are Not Enough. Right, like it needs a little more, I would, a little more Zappa, a little, a little less Del Bello, just my two cents. Oh, I'm sure she was a lot prettier. And then like I said, I, you know, what can I say? It was, it was fabulous to be there and to be in the situation, you know, it was nice. And Lisa, Lisa's a hoot. There was the story there, I have to say that she was inhuman forces at the time.

She was being very, she was a very artistic lady and Ronnie Hawkins was alive and well then and it was sitting there and he kept looking at Lisa and calling her Stella, a Stella. And she had the white kind of, a bit of white makeup like purposely done and very sharp, like vampire kind of eyes and stuff. They're very, very striking looking while she was there.

And Ronnie, I'm sure that she had worked with Ronnie before, so they knew each other big time. So we kept calling her Stella. Stella shows Lisa at one point, looked and said, Ronnie, are you talking to me? And he goes, yeah, Stella Legosi. Because you're right. You know, she had that eye makeup as I just saw the doc. So she had this eye makeup.

Very vampire-ish, you know, very, very vampire. Stella Legosi. And then it was, of course, Ronnie wouldn't let anything go. But she was a real pro about the whole thing. Because she knew Ronnie, which is we just laughed and stuff. And it was just really it was just really funny. While we're waiting for our parts to come up and stuff, there was always a little bit of stuff in there and that had me a little bit of a guffaw going, but like I said, Lisa was terrific about it all. Did you have any, were you starstruck at all by Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Anne Marie?

No, no, it was a buddy of mine. Actually, Jerry had taken a whole bunch of pictures and I'd forgotten all about it because I was playing pinball with Joni and we were talking and I remember asking her, I said, I sit on the blue record with, with, with the naked woman on the rocks, I said, that is you, isn't it? And, and I was wondering how she'd take that because you know what I'd be saying like what what I hear you're just looking at my ass or whatever but no she it was a it's a beautiful picture and then she told me she says it had

to do with what she was trying to get out of it was like a a Venus de Milo kind of thing. So with her standing on the rocks on this wasn't the blue record I'm sorry I can't remember which one but it might have been on the blue break on the inside where she's standing on the rocks on this, it wasn't the blue record. I'm sorry. I can't remember which one, but it might've been on the blue break on the inside where she's standing on the rocks, uh, naked in, in front of the ocean. But, um, and with her back to you and what, and, uh, and I asked her and she just went into great, great detail as far as what she was doing and stuff, and she was a real hoop really down to earth and nice. She was, she was great.

And, uh, and then we were playing pin. And then at some point Brian came up and said, you're up to Joanie and off they went. That stuff I remember, but I don't remember anybody being there taking pictures or just how long we were actually playing pinball. But no, I wasn't starstruck in the least. It was just nice to meet these people. And you know, I didn't spend much time really talking

to Neil or anybody. They were all being around and everybody was being respectful and just letting them do what they needed to do. Amazing. Now, okay, so the sign, leave your ego at the door, that's because when they recorded We Are The World, that's what Quincy Jones had on the door, We Are The World, and David Foster wanted to follow suit there. But I'm wondering, did you witness any egos? Was there any ego at all in that room? No, I think, I think Bruce Allen would have taken a whip to them. They just had to put it up there, you know, and everybody was being respectful, sort of like not going Google

over everybody. Of course, the only people that were invited in were people that were going to be doing any kind of singing are going to be part of it. One. So they were all very respectful. And I'm sure that at some point in time, be silly to think that that Neil wouldn't sit down next to somebody and say, hey, man, how's it going?

And you get a chance to talk about it. He says, can you have your autograph? You know, nobody was reacting that way. But everybody felt comfortable about hanging around. And I think no matter who they were with, it was just a lot of people saying like, you know, feeling that there was a privilege to be in and around a bunch of Canadian people. So yeah, no, nobody. Yeah, nobody went nuts. No egos. Now, and good on you again. It's kind of awesome. You're part of that, because here we are many, many years later. And I literally just the other day watched that 1985 documentary and then I'm,

you know, some of these people like Dan Hill, some of these people have been on Murray McLaughlin, they've been on the show, they've been over. But then I'm like, and then some of these people sadly have passed away, right? They're not all with us anymore. But literally, this is what happened. I see Zappa Costa. And now once I see you, I started thinking about pizza. We'll get to that in a minute. And then I'm like, I wonder if I can have a conversation with Alfie Zappa Costa. And here we are. So thank you. Tears are not enough. All right. Do you mind if I play another song? Go ahead. Okay. Awesome. Here's a little more Zappa Costa. Before I press play here. Let me see what I've got lined up. Stand by mr. Zappa cost here

Okay, good. I've got something here. I want to play here we go Oh, conversation You're leaving me for someone new I only wish it wasn't true It's all said and done And it won't be you when the telephone rings It's all said and done I remember your love didn't mean a thing Cause I'm just a fool I'm just a fool You're all I said and done I remember your love didn't mean a thing Cause I'm just a face you're going through But I'll get over you

Our love will never end When I fall in love again Go ahead and leave if you want to Alfie, who else do I hear on this song? We went to Moran Heights in Montreal and we did a bunch of the recording in Vancouver, a little mountain sound, ocean, and then we went to mix it and do a couple of extra tracks over in Moran Heights. And Bob Rock was doing the producing and Fraser Hill was engineering on that.

Gerald O'Brien and Jerry Mosby, great friends of mine, very, very talented boys, you know, and Jerry was there, Gerald was there and was doing a lot of different kind of writing and they were involved in a lot of the stuff at that, in that particular space of time. And Bob and the guys went out to, Moren Heights, they went into a club somewhere. And on stage, there was these people that ended up being friends for a while, because the world does move on. They were on stage singing,

and I can't remember the name, Francine Raymond, and I can't remember the gentleman's name. But anyway, they were great, great singers. So the guys had all gone out to this pub, kind of rock room, somewhere in Montreal. It didn't go right to Montreal, but on the outskirts, because we're more in heights, and Saint Laurent was all just on the outside of that.

But they went to some place. Found these people singing, thought they were great. Bob invited them back, and they were the background singers on that record. Just literally came in the studio, we worked out the parts and bang. I was finishing the song, writing it in the studio with Jerry at the time too. So Jerry and me and Gerald had gotten the part. I had the basics for the song and stuff and then with them there, we worked on the production, which

it ended up being because both Gerald O'Brien was quite the, as you could tell, quite the technical keyboard functioner, you know, it was a kind of a bit of a wizard on that kind of stuff. So was able to take at the time 80s, what was very, very hip and his ideas of keyboards and just understanding of them and Jerry and their ideas. And I was able to work the song in into what we were doing. So again, it was just really the three of us just came together with that whole vibe. Bob was there just jumping all over it with the people in the background, vocals and

stuff like that. And I think it turned out one was to think back on it now as a wonderful song. I still do that song all live, of course, stripped down, completely stripped down because the song stands up just wonderfully, just, you know, with the simplicity and not all the techno stuff. I just, you know, with the simplicity and not all the techno stuff. Now, for the record here, is it a to Z or a to Z? The name of this album? What would you rather it be? I think Z would probably be a little bit more Britain, right? Ma. Well, all in Canada, too, right?

Like in Canada, it's definitely said, right? American Z for sure. But this begs the question, how important was it for Zappa costed to be a BFD, a big fucking deal in the United States of America? Not at all. I can give a shit. I really gave it. Well, then it's A to Z. I, you know, I, I never really, I have to say in all honesty, it was never the idea of being rock star never fit anywhere near in my life as such. I was, and I still am quite embarrassed about stuff. I love playing for small rooms. You know, I played a, I'm playing a hundred people, 150 people, a couple hundred people, you know,

I get a feeling, I get a feel for it and stuff. Oh, geez. And it really is not sour grapes. I really believe that people are sort of built, or people grow up with that already inbred, and that they want to be a star. They want to be a star. They need to have that happen. And I think it's all wonderful if you feel that I never have this need to be.

It was enjoying what I was doing, making a living at what I needed to do. Just make sure you could pay the bills and the kids get fed and, you know, just, you know, the normal kind of thing. The rest of it just didn't seem real. And it was easy to fall into that trap. Again, it's not sour grapes. It's nothing that I ever really wanted to do. But I've been doing it for a long time because I just need what I need. Is this like simply because you're an artist who needs to art? I was ready to get out of it a long time ago. It's just that, you know, I was in with contracts and things and it ended up becoming, it led me on to other things in theatre and whatnot and it was like you know I sort of wanted this umbrella of the arts. I ended up doing a lot of different things

and found myself being able to make a living doing it you know and then I for a while there I was just looking getting out to have like a maybe open up a little jazz bar or something like that so I could put myself in the corner and buy people to do it and sell veal cutlet sandwiches. I would have been happy doing that. But that didn't work out as I kept getting calls to do other plays and other musicals and things. And it seemed that every time I was ready to jump out, I feel like Al Pacino there and they pull me right back in.

But you know. Godfather 3. But no, I'm completely, I mean, I've never been happier really. If you think about it, I'm still able to go out there and do quite a bit of performing and stuff and I can live quietly, you know, without, I don't know, having anything to prove to anybody. I do it for myself, I really do. And if there's people out there that enjoy what I'm doing,

they're welcome to come. And if you don't want to, you're more than welcome not to come either. I really give a shit. It sounds like you've struck the balance. Like hearing you talk, you sound, you mentioned you're 70 years old. You're so content and comfortable

with where you are in your life. Like it's a pleasure to hear this. Well, it's got to be, you know, I'm not getting all like philosophical, but you have to be happy. I mean, anybody that you start to notice that anything that's going on in your life, if it's if it's if it's nothing but angst and it just continues to be that, I mean, we have to change that. I I'll continue writing songs when I feel like it.

I'm still recording. I'll be doing another record pretty soon and I'll be going, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Um, everybody around me is done. Okay. I could look back on some crazy, crazy times when I was, uh, felt completely lost where you felt like going and probably a lot of drinking just to, you know, medicinally the drinking that I'd be doing just to keep the, uh, keep the edge off because it was just so crazy. And it was just a great big calming down factor for me.

But of course it's a, it's stupid. It's a, it's stupid it's a it's stupid does calm me down but uh was able to sort of like medicinally keep me sort of at that level but it was well that's been a lot of years now that I don't play with that shit anymore but um you're you again not to sound full philosophical but if you're not happy it, it's all about trying to be happy, you know, trying to do what fills your heart, what fills your seeing your family around you and seeing that they're all doing good, being able to face the world and that by the end of it, we still have great company and you don't mind yours.

Well said, Alfie. Now I'm going gonna have you say more about a certain soundtrack after we listen to a little of this. I can hear you You're the only one I want I follow you home every night Just to make sure that you get there alright Maybe it's true Can't think of anything but you And what I need is, baby, is a little bit of sympathy You've got me on my knees I've run through all tonight And I can't live without your love Won't you help me, God, it's over love All right, nobody puts Baby in the corner, but somebody put Zap Acosta on the Dirty

Dancing soundtrack. Yeah. Yep. They sure did. That would be Jimmy Einer. Jimmy Einer, Millennium Records, again was introduced to him by Frank Davies. Frank was doing a lot of business with him at the time. But anyway, Jimmy Einer,

they had dinner with Jimmy a long time ago. He wanted me to sign the Millennium Records out of New York. Every time I was offered something Lieber Krebs as a management company that were dealing with Aerosmith at the time, what I saw was I would be on tour forever. And that's the whole idea of what it was. I'd get down to the States would be on tour forever, you know, and then that's the whole idea of what it was. I'd get down to the States and get on tour forever. And probably, good likelihood, based on all the kind of people they were dealing with, the Aerosmiths of the world,

something that I probably would have been famous, you know, probably would have been some, not doing exactly what I wanna do, and probably have killed myself, basically, because it was never, again, it was something that I I really did not aspire to I wanted to stay and So I turned Jimmy down about you know, but For what it's worth, you know, it sounds like oh, yeah, I just trump people that it just the way I didn't I really didn't

Want to do it. I turned out Lieber Krebs, went to Lou cause he was in Canada. It turned out Jimmy, but Jimmy, we got along great. And we went to, and he said to me, he said, I'm going to give you a call at one time and I'm going to get you to write me something. You're just going to write something for me and then no, don't think about it, just get it done.

So I went, sure. So it was wonderful when I, you know, didn't go to Millennium Records and stuff. And then I went to, I ended up doing the A to Z record with the guys that, with the Lou Blair, Bruce Allen. I can't remember the other fellas that was called Penta and who I did that record with. And Jimmy asked me about that and we had no idea what it was for. I'd asked Jerry Mosby and Gerald O'Brien, we were gonna do it, I figured they're just gonna whip up something as a demo.

And that's where I was introduced to at that point, Marco Luciani. We went to his basement and we had a little studio hooked up in there and I did a demo. I sent it to Jimmy and Jimmy said, I really like it. And I went, okay. And he goes, he gave me a minimal amount of money to go produce. And Wellesley Sound was a studio that I worked out in Toronto for a long, long time.

Went down to Wellesley and I put down a great demo of it, a demo of it and sent it down to him. And he thought it was absolutely wonderful. He came up to touch it up a little bit. And so for very little money, I handed this thing over to him. Sharon Lee Williams was the lady that did the while singing with me. She was absolutely tremendous. Sharon Lee Williams,

she sang the background vocals. Yeah, I was going to ask you who that is because she sounds great. Yeah, Sharon Lee out of Toronto. And, uh, um, and anyway, handed it over and it wasn't until like a year later, people hear about dirty dancing soundtrack. And I went to the opening, but the opening was just in Toronto, just to see the movie, like there wasn't any stars there or anything like that, just to see it. And I went, that's nice. You know, that's the nice movie.

You know, I didn't think anything of it. Like a year later and this thing is like millions and millions and millions of freaking records. And of course it's not nothing that I'd ever seen in my life. So got us out of the cockroach infested apartments and into a little house that we rented. And soon after I moved in, and again, you in and just got out of Toronto because I realized that... but anyway thank you very much Jimmy Einer, thank you very much Baby who was obviously got, you know, being in the corner was not a bad thing after all and I taught Patrick Swayze all his dance moves so you know someone should be... Is true? Because be careful what you say. It might end up on your Wikipedia page. No, my God, I'm lucky if I could do a two-step, you know.

I always remember, so you remember the Saturday Night Live skit about Chippendales with Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze are vying for the last spot on the chip. No, I see that. Okay. So I wish anyways, for the last spot on the chip. No, I see that. Okay, so anyways, rest in peace, Patrick Swayze, gone too soon. Patrick Swayze, yes, absolutely, it was sad, very sad. But it sounds like you did all right.

I was gonna, you know, I don't have to see the financial records, but I mean, Dirty Dancing Soundtrack is one of the biggest selling soundtracks of the decade. Like it's, I mean, you know this, I'm just telling the listenership who might be a bit young, what a monster, I owned it, what a monster soundtrack, that dirty dancing soundtrack. It's awesome you got on there and enough money there to trickle some down

to you and you could rent a house. It was a blessing for sure. And it was at the same time, you realize too, that there was publishers, it never was released as a single. I mean, had it been a single, there would have been a lot more to talk about if it would have been promoted that way, you know, but again, I ain't saying nothing because at the same time too, it wasn't like, it didn't, it wasn't be like millions of dollars, but let's just say that for people who aren't used to paying income tax, you start to realize too, when you sat back, I did nothing for a little while, just didn't realize that like an over half got taken away

right away by income tax. You start looking at things and, um, you know, to be able to think of it, you, it's something like that. You, You need to maintain all the time. If you start thinking that this is the beginning and it's going to be like this all the time, you're down. You're pretty freaking silly, let me tell you. It's a boon. It was sort of like winning a bit of a lottery and then it's gone. Well, savvy of you because there are too many artists who have that moment early in their career and then they kind of adjust their lifestyle as if that's going to be the new constant and then they don't realize, especially in this country, there's the peaks and valleys, right? Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

Yeah, I saw some of that. You could see some of that stuff firsthand and everything, but I was careful for sure and with all good reason, like sincerely, you know, this is stuff that just gets dropped on your lap. And it's not like you're preparing in any way, like in attacks, motions and stuff, knowing what to do and defer and all this kind of stuff. I remember they gave me some good, you know,

here's what you should, good advice. You know, if you got to pay them right away, you know, don't defer stuff like that. I just basically went everything. I just did. I did the right thing as far as I was concerned, paid it all up, didn't hide anything, just didn't what I had left for no. And I knew I was like, you know, but it's like I said, it's a, it was comfortable enough to, um, to, to be able to go back into night caps in a few places. I went to be able to learn how to play. I could never learn for a long, long time. All these songs being done, you couldn't actually, people asked me to stand up with a guitar

and sing one of them. You couldn't do it without the production in it and stuff. So I went in the night caps about two years or so and stripped everything right down. I was able to know that at any given moment I can go out as a duo, trio, full band, whatever, or a single. And so I took the time to be able to do a little bit of soul searching. Okay, good for you.

Now I teased earlier in this conversation which I'm thoroughly enjoying by the way. Cancel your, you know, your five o'clock. We're gonna go all night here. Just kidding there Alfie, don't worry. Don't close the zoom because I'm about to play the jingle that I got more questions about this than anything. So let's listen. 439-0-0-0-0 Pizza Nova With every Pizza Nova you can real-acal you Pizza

You'll get a friendly Chow And that's the way we'll be here So pick up the phone and call us Pick up the phone and call us now Oh Pizza Nova, pick up the phone and get a Chow 439-0-0-0-0 Pizza Nova 439-0-0-0-0 Pizza Nova You can39! Oh, oh, oh, oh, Pizza Nova! The real Italian pizza

With flavor you can savor Get off, mille grazie Now do yourself a favor So pick up the phone and call us Pick up the phone and call us now Oh, Pizza Nova Pick up the phone and get a chow! 439!

And the 4-0! 439 lost a zero Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, My goodness gracious. A wave of nostalgia just coming over me here, but I need the full story. Tell us what you did here, how it came to you, and are you aware of this legacy? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. What is it? 60 years? 40 years or something like that? I was writing for Sid Kessler at the air company, Robert Arms, Sid Kessler, a bunch of people that had come through there. And I was asked to join the writing team. And it was, again, things that I would do while I was in the music industry, the music business and stuff, because people didn't know that, you know, unless you're touring constantly and stuff, making some monies that way is the only money you're actually going to make, right. And I worked for a jingle house. So I did a lot of a lot of singing and a lot of writing for for the jingle companies. And, and that was another way for me to be

able to, you know, keep my family alive, and then what I needed at the time, as well as being able to do something again, that umbrella of the arts. I kept doing it and at one point in time there was the pizza nova thing that was offered and the whole idea of that was like with the record company, I wasn't going to take complete advantage. I could only do it for a certain point of time. And they promised it was going to run like three cycles. I think they're probably going to run maybe, I don't know,

you know, about a year, maybe less than that, six months or something like that, whatever it was. So they did. And they stuck to that. And then after that, they came up with the moon hit your eyes like a big pizza pie, pizza, Nova. Then they came up with that., hit your eyes like a big pizza pie, pizza, Nova. Then they came up with that. I wasn't singing it or anything, but he had somebody else and then it didn't do well. So somehow Sid Kessler sold the piece for, I don't know what he sold it for, but he sold

it to pizza Nova and they overrode everything and stuff. And all of a sudden just took it. They own it and they overrode everything and stuff and all of a sudden just took it they own it and they just went with it and now they only so it was not a very nice thing to do tell you the truth as far as like what they were doing with us i remember one point uh because at that point they weren't going to i don't know how legally how it all went but they just did what they wanted with it and it was nothing it's almost like the way things are today we look at social media and whatnot you get your song they throw it on there and that's all that's to it the whole idea of what used to work with publishing when not in songs and radio

it doesn't exist anymore if you see any money anymore it's ridiculous so it was like the beginning of the end so they they went with that i mean as a matter of fact there was a robert arms called me at one point and he said, Alfie has been offered a good chunk of money to redo pizza Nova commercial. And what he was asked to do is change the number. And so the people that were involved, Robert Arms and a few other people were people that sang on that commercial as well. And he mentioned that he said, if you don't want me to do this,

I won't do it. And I was just kind of flabbergasted. It was just an incredible, wonderful thing for him to say. And I said, well, don't do it. Because they hadn't paid up any of the monies. They paid up exactly as long as, of course, this is not really about the money as much as like some people just being nasty, you know. And it's, there was, you know, they were just going to walk away with it and stuff and there was not much anybody could do. So when you asked me what do you think? And I said, well, it'd be interesting if you say like, you know, just tell them, no, you don't want to do it. Because there's a lot of people that felt the same way I did, they weren't getting paid. Nobody was getting paid for the fact that we're just going to run away with it. And so he read Robert, they say he didn't do it. He said, I'm not going to, but anyway, they, they came across the wonderfully, the people that were involved, the Montana Steels of the world, people that were actually the advertisers and

people that were came across and what it would have paid up until that moment. They were good enough to be able to pay up and be completely great people for what they did. And of course, up until that point, but it's still going on and on now, but you'll never see anything else of it at this point. But yeah, they ran with it. As a matter of fact, I was just in Toronto because they flew me in for their 40th anniversary. I think Pisa No has been around 60 years, but that song has been like over 40 years, right? Right. 50, I don't know. And I went and sang it live for them at their party, at their great big party that they had.

And I mean, you know, I look at it and say, that's okay. I might sit there and I'll be screaming blue murder if you guys go national. But at this point in my life, it's just, you know, we sit back and go like, oh, well, you know, remember for something that's fine, you know, so pizza. But they owe me a few pizzas. They owe you a few pizzas, my friend. And I hope you're, you know, content with the financial settlement there because that's, that's a, I mean, I got notes. Rock Golf wrote in and said, my favorite Alfie's Apacosta song is 439-000. And he wanted to know the scoop on that. My goodness gracious. Okay. so is that your voice though?

That's your voice I'm hearing on 439-000. Oh yes, mine and the Robert Arms and a few, and then who were the top session players at the time in Toronto? It was, and being part of all that, it makes it all honestly worthwhile. There's some great, great memories and great history with that, you know, like wonderful.

Well, it does hit me like a ton of bricks only because I listened to a lot of radio in the eighties and nineties, and you couldn't miss this particular jingle. But one thing that strikes me is of course, phone numbers are obsolete now. Like in 2024 pizza companies aren't, they don't pitch their phone number.

Even pizza pizza dropped the nine six seven eleven eleven That was Graham Shaw, right? Yeah, Graham Shaw was another one here well, don't mind me I'm gonna go dig something up to show you in the crates beside me. But tell me about Graham Shaw. Oh No, you can tell me I mean I'll you. I'll just be over here. But, Oh yeah. Well, tell me about Graham Shaw. Graham and I, um, isn't a wonderful character. You know, uh, I remember at the time when you start thinking about pizza commercials because he is the same kind of thing. You're, you're working for, uh, uh, the, the, the,

the people that own the company would, you know, when it comes to doing stuff, but they make it, you get paid a pittance to be able to do what you do. It's just the way of the world. But Graham Shaw, would you come near? Anyway, we wrote a song together. We wrote a song called Midnight Mirage. And that was, I think, a lady called Jennifer Rush did in Europe. Graham Shaw and I worked on the song together. Great character. I love him. We still every now and then on Facebook say a quick howdy, hi Graham. And he had done the 9 6 7 11 11 thing but you're right I guess that however the world has gone to. They don't want you to first of all they added as you know they added

area code requirements at some point I don't know if that was the early 90s or whenever that hit us So it's like you can't even call four three nine. Oh, we can have four one six four three nine Oh, right, and then at some point they they really do now try to steer everybody to whatever pizza Nova comm or whatever They want you to yes, you know, so it's like whatever, pizzanova.com or whatever. They want you to... Yes. You know? Yes.

So it's like, you just had to live long enough for technology to make your song obsolete here. But I'll just tell you this, okay? With all due respect to Pizzanova, I just want you to know I always eat my pizza from Palma Pasta. So I'm just throwing it out there. I'm a Palma pasta pizza eater. It's been, you know, to think about it, you know, 50 years, obviously things are going to change in a big way when you start thinking about the music industry and what's done like what before 50 years, it was 100 years ago, where we are. I mean, it's pretty obvious it's just going to continue. knows who's gonna recognize it in the next little while and whether there will be a business.

I don't really know. I mean, people could record, you record everything on GarageBand on your phone right now if you really wanted to do something. It's pretty much all there. I mean, not being negative about it. It's just sort of looking at if, I just haven't really no idea where it's going to go,

where it's going. I just know that if I'm lucky enough to be able to do this for the next, you know, seven, eight, 10 years of my life, I really won't give a rat. Go higher, man. Let's go for 30. Why not? It's okay. I'm sure my audience will be dead at that point. Well, actually they'll all live me. What am I talking about? But they'll still be younger fans of the wonderful work you did with Pizzanova. Well, see, you know, there's some to be said about Pizzanova. There you go. It wasn't with them. They saved my life.

Last song, and then I want to talk a little acting and then I'll set you free. I feel like I've taken a lot of your time because I'm very selfish like that. But there was a song this actually like you know we spent a lot of time we started in the 70s we spent a lot of time in the 80s but this song as I was listening to Alfie Zappa Costa I was listening to a whole bunch of jams and then this song struck me like oh yeah I remember this from 1990 I remember it so well so I just want to play a little bit of jams. And then this song struck me like, oh yeah, I remember this from 1990. I remember it so well. So I just want to play a little bit of this and then I want to hear about the acting.

But here is, you know, maybe technology at some point will make it so that there are no letters to send in the mail or not. So maybe this song will get obstinate, but here we go, here we go. I sent my girl a letter, I've got to get the letter back You see I sent a letter, believing she was in the sack Living with her lovers, I've got to get the letter back I was wrong, so wrong

It was jealousy that made me perform The pedal was guided by what ignited With the power of emotion Never trusting her devotion I've got to get the letter back. I've got to get the letter back. I've got to get the letter back. I've got to get the letter back. I've got to your wonderful catalog and then this one and I remember this one very well and catchy AF as the kids would say man this thing's been stuck in my head for the past few days.

I, um, I wrote that, that wrote this song and, um, David and David, I'm trying to remember David's last name for God's sakes. He took it down to skip Taylor in Los Angeles and, uh, we, we had asked David, oh, it'll come to me to produce that one song. He'd, um'd kind of an obscure kind of a character. Frank Davies introduced me to him. I gave him this song and I had things everything like flutes. And I had this the song and I'd written it and I sent it down to them and they came back with that. I was just completely blown away in as far as like where they went with this almost like metal and when I say metal it's the sounds are so metallic you know and the kick-ass

drums and what they did with the B3 and shit. So I went down to Los Angeles and I sang it. I did all the background vocals and I sang the song and everything and did it. And it was fun to do, but he kind of blew me away. We came up and of course, Don Allen was responsible for after the fiasco of We Should Be Lovers. Don did When I Fall In Love Again and Let Her Back and I'll Be The One. And Donny did a bunch of great sort of like, you know, all of a sudden it became a lot more artistic for the time, you know, and it was a very, very happy time, you know,

for sure. It was on the Pentar record, Quick Don't Ask Any questions. So some really great, great songs on that record. And yeah, I have to hand it over to Skip Taylor, the musicians over there, because from the arrangement, they took mine arrangement to what they did over there, all of a sudden was like, really the other side of the universe, you know, but I loved it for sure. I agreed to it right away. Very cool. Now, I know you know letters, you know, about those letters. You're supposed to read it in the first place.

Well, now, you know, it would be I got a recall that email like it's not quite as catchy. But you got to get that email that got to get the email. Yeah, right. Recall recall. Okay. So email. Yeah, right recall recall. Okay, so Not quite as romantic but okay No, it didn't say I suppose you have to be sort of like a paying attention to what rides nicely on The tongue so to speak right now

Carlo when I was you know, I was all about the music zap Acosta, but I do know you have a Wealth of acting under your belt, but Carlo said don't sleep on his Danger Bay cameo. Ha ha. I think about you. Yes, of course. It was another one of those things. After I did the the theater stuff, after doing theater, everybody thought that I could be an actor or some damn thing on danger bay. I mean, oh my God. I mean, you know, like, again, I just wanted to curl up in a ball and die, but you know, what we do, what we do. So what acting in your life, what acting are you most proud of?

None. I don't mind whatever acting I've done that is on spur of the moment while I'm sitting there singing and on stage, bouncing around where it's not recorded and, uh, and, and, you know, uh, gesturing to Evita, you know, uh, more what a circus or what a show Argentina's gone a ton over the death of an actress called Eva Peron. Look at this stupid bitch.

You know what I mean? Stuff like that. I can get away with this stuff, you know, but in and I only want to say if there is a way to take this couple away from me, I don't want to taste this poison. We're sitting there doing it all for yourself. And here's what I would sound like in a closet singing to myself, you know, and acting because it happens. I don't have to look at it.

Right, right. Well, long may you run my friend. Speaking of Neil real quick on the way out here. So there's a lot of attention being paid to the We Are The World charity single because they made a Netflix documentary that people are now watching. And I'm wondering should tears are not enough get the same treatment? I think we should revisit this this night of recording and, you know, pay some respect to artists like yourself that got together and made that song for a good cause. No, very kind. I mean, it's nice, you know, it'd be something I wouldn't mind seeing again, you know, whatever I could watch the

video, I suppose, anytime. And let's refresh it a bit here. Let's get, let me see if I can get some funding and I'll get on this thing because the world, you know, Canada needs this and Canada needs Zappa Costa. Thanks for being so generous with your time today. Thanks so much for having me on. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mike. And that brings us to the end of our 1,439th show. One, four, three, nine. You can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky. I'm at Toronto Mike.

All your Elfy ZappaCosta needs are met at ZappaCosta.ca Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, RecycleMyElectronics.ca, Raymond James Canada, and Ridley Funeral Home. See you all tomorrow when Gord's brother Bob Stelick makes his Toronto Mic debut live in studio. Don't you dare miss it. Read Andrew Miller and wander around And drink some goodness from a tin Cause my UI check has just come in Ah, where you been?

Because everything is coming up Rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold but the snow is cold Won't speed the day And your smile is fine and it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and gray