Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - All About Gino: Toronto Mike'd #455

Episode Date: April 25, 2019

Mike lets Elvis ask the questions, and they're all about the recent Gino Vannelli episode.

Welcome to episode 455 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, Palma Pasta, Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair, Camp Turnasol, and Sticker U. Repair, Camp Turnasol, and Sticker You. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me this week to discuss episode 453

with Gino Vannelli is Elvis Godfrey. I don't know what that means. I'm thirsty. Crack it open at GL glb what did you crack this is uh over my dad body pilsner good one are you working on a dad nice fun there

oh i'm working hard on it the uh i drive a black car since uh this entire episode is going to be about black cars we really need to get this out of the way slash make it part of the entire show. Well, here.

This is Mike's favorite song and Gino Vanelli's most hated song. We'll get to that. We'll get to that. It's coming. Don't blow your wad right off the top here. We got to go here. First of all, Gino's going to listen.

Do you think Gino's going to listen to this? Or just Ross? Do you think Ross is going to listen to this? Ross might listen. I think Ross might listen. I think Ross thinks I'm funny. He kept laughing through the whole thing. It was good. I liked Ross. We'll talk about Ross, too. It think Ross might listen. I think Ross thinks I'm funny. He kept laughing through the whole thing. It was good.

I liked Ross. We'll talk about Ross, too. It's all coming up here. So, the reference to Elvis Gottfried was Lieve Fumka. Lieve Fumka. Do you know Lieve Fumka? I do. I've met her, and I've interacted with her online.

Wow. In a non-creepy sexual way. In a non-creepy sexual way, I sometimes wear her husband's pants. Oh, boy. Because he gave me some biking pants, i i think i wore oh i see yes i think i remember the reference to that so i just like to say just like i like to tell people uh like somebody will reference i don't know uh bob mckenzie's prediction i'll go oh he was in my basement and i like to just such a fucking great song yeah i know It's a great song We should just spend

The whole 90 minutes Talking about black cars So Lieve Femke Was listening to Gilbert Gottfried's podcast Oh Which I quite like

I have not listened To his podcast It's really not his podcast Like there's a guy And I can't remember his name But he There's a guy who does The heavy lifting

Gotcha And then Gilbert Kind of adds a little color Kind of like what happens When I come in To do your podcast right like i do that i do the heavy lifting and you just oh today you're doing the heavy lifting at some point i'm gonna pass the baton to you right you're gonna be the host and i'm gonna be the guest that's gonna happen today so um make sure i'm calibrated here perfect okay. Okay. So, Lieve Femke said that Gilbert's laugh reminded her of your laugh. Really?

Yes. Oh, wow. Maybe I haven't heard his legit laugh, but his character laugh I don't think sounds anything like mine. Well, Lieve Femke disagrees with you, so I'll let you guys know. You know, if there's anyone who understands this podcast and all the things that happen, it would be her. So, I'll defer to her and say she's probably correct then. Or she is correct to me.

As you know, Elvis, I asked on Twitter, I did a little poll to see whether we should record this episode because we've never done an episode about an episode before. Do you want all the results? I don't know if I ever shared the results. I think i asked but you didn't tell me so it was a 24 hour uh poll and 95 people voted so um there were three options

you could i wrote should i record a bonus episode of toronto mic with elvis that's all about the gino vanelli episode three options you could say yes no or through a funny third option which was get off black cars, which would only mean something to you if you listen to the episode. So that would be like voting for the Green Party in the P.E. election. Right, right. Like, yeah. So if you just wanted to be funny.

The Rhinoceros. Is that a party? The Rhinoceros Party? Right. So that was kind of a joke, though, because they're the official opposition, of course. I was trying to make a dig at your NDP. Oh, yeah, they are. And did you know the Green Party is the official opposition, of course. I was trying to make a dig at your NDP. Oh, yeah, they are. And did you know the Green Party is the official opposition in Prince Edward Island?

That's what I just said, PEI. Oh, I wasn't listening. The funny third option in the PEI thing was the Green Party. You know, there's a member of provincial parliament from that party in Guelph. From the federal party? No. Isn't it a federal? No. Isn't it an MP or is it an MPP? MPP. That must drive Doug Ford

bonkers. The fact that there's one guy wearing a green jacket every day in Queen's Park. Oh, like the winner of the Masters? That's right. I feel like if you're a member of the Green Party, you can only wear green when you're at the legislature. Do you just want to play Geno Tunes? Should we do something here? Okay, so the results of the Green Party who can only wear green when you're at the legislature. Do you just want to play Geno Tunes? Should we do something here?

Okay, so the results of the poll. 45% yes. 45% said they wanted this bonus episode. So not a majority. No, not a majority, no, but a victory. 37% said no. So that's really close.

That's ridiculously close. I want to know what the motivation of the no vote is. To dick with you because you can just not listen, right? Oh, you think it's like... If you don't want to hear an episode about the gene levels, you don't click play.

So you're interpreting this, and it could be fair. It's a dig at me. I think they're just... Can we swear in this podcast? I think they're just... Ah. Can we swear on this podcast? I think that's just fucking with Elvis. I didn't... Now I appreciate that even more. I love that.

But what was the third option? How many people voted for that? 18% said get off black cars. So 18% had a good sense of humor. So 18% of your 95% or 95 viewers actually listen to the podcast right right what do you think the if we were to do a poll a live poll right now the percentage of people who believe that i listen to the podcast and i'm now going to interview you about it what do you think that oh yeah like like less than 10 would believe you listen but can you for the record yeah reveal did

you listen to this episode i listen to every single minute of the episode. Every single minute. Do I have an applause? Do you? I might have one. Hold on. Let's see. How about that? Nope.

Oh, nice. How about the pew, pew, pew? Do you have that sound effect? No, I didn't load it in. Oh, that's the best one. I heard it at the second Raptor game of the Orlando series, and they do play that still, those horns are played at the Raptor games. Okay, so let's get in here.

So Mark Weisblatt from 1236, he tweeted this, and I thought it was a good tweet. He wrote, he shares the link and he says, Gino spends an hour sounding uncertain about whether this podcast is the highlight or low light of his career and it's fantastic. I didn't get that. Well you know because Mark sometimes he's too clever for his own good. Too cool. Too cute if you will. But I think what he's saying

is Gino doesn't know where he is and what's going on exactly because it's so different from what he's used to. That's fair. I think that's fair for a lot of your guests. And it's difficult at the beginning to tell whether he thinks, oh my God, this is where my career has come. I'm in this guy's basement. Or if he's like, this is wonderful and I can do my thing.

It's difficult to tell whether Gino would view that as a highlight of his career or a lowlight, but it's compelling listening regardless. Well, can I ask you some questions here? So I didn't read that at all, but I'd be curious to get your perspective. Like, you start off the podcast. First of all, he has a handler, which I know is not usual. Well, there are two, actually.

We'll get into them. There were two, but only one that you see in that person. Listen, I listen to the fucking podcast i didn't watch it god damn it well so you had you had ross vanelli who's his brother he was the laughing in the background that's correct yeah who was the second person there was a pr guy who was upstairs during the episode so he was gonna be around what was he doing ransacking your house at the time the joke was that was good fr, so everybody was home. So I actually – So was he trying to pick up your wife?

Well, that's an interesting story because this episode – What is this guy doing? Gino was supposed to record at 9.30 in the morning, so I actually told Hebsey because Hebsey was going to record Hebsey on Sports at 9. Right. And I said, Hebsey, I don't want to lose out on Gino. Can you come at 8.30 and then you'll be done by 9.30 and then Gino on Good Friday right? Of course he's available

I mean I don't know why you're available on Good Friday it's one of the holiest days of the year Oh because our savior dies on that day. Correct but Hebsey is still waiting so I understand what he's waiting for. No what you're saying is he's not Hebsey's savior is what you're saying No isn't Hebsey Jewish?

Right but they don't believe Jesus is the savior. Yes, he's still waiting. He's still waiting. That's what I mean. All right, I have to Google it all. They're still waiting. I went to Catholic school. I don't know anything.

I do know that they had Passover, but I guess you could still record a podcast on Passover. Sure, because their Sabbaths generally start at sund sundown i have so much to learn i have wonderful stuff all around i know they had a seder two nights of the seder yeah yeah so not every friday night no i think it's just a passover no no that's uh yeah look at us talking about world religion i love this so um i'll get it i'm gonna all that. Here, let's do this. Did you know that Gino Vannelli was Sicilian? See,

by the way, I'm Sicilian or half Sicilian. I was, when I heard that, I didn't know that. I was like, this is fucking awesome.

I thought he was joking because of my hilarious joke to break the ice. Dude, he's Italian. So, of course, I mean,

it's reasonable to think that he's Sicilian. I thought it would be fun. I thought it was a funny way to add on to the irish joke to say he's sicilian irish like i didn't really take that as like oh he's really sicilian i think you might be getting into your head too much okay well speaking of mark we've been hanging out with mark weisblatt too much okay so we'll get to this we've never done this before um i thought of doing this after the molly johnson episode we kind of did though

me and you a little bit and I had a few comments there's one guy named AnonAnon on the open mic on TorontoMic.com and someone else on Twitter was kind of comparing the Molly episode to the Gino episode

which I think is really unfair because I think the Molly episode was uncomfortably awkward and I think is really unfair because I think the Molly episode was uncomfortably awkward. And I think episode 453 with Gino Vanelli was what I would call comfortably awkward. Like it was bizarre, but wonderful. So I thought really quickly, let's just remind everybody how the Molly episode started so we can get rid of the comparisons here. This was the Molly episode.

Slash the best episode of your career. Your brother is in my favorite show of all time. In fact, there's a DVD set in front of you there that's from The Wire. I love The Wire. And your brother was in The Wire. My brother was not only in The Wire, he created The Wire.

He was the first director on The Wire. So, yeah, he did a little bit of acting in The Wire but the reality and the real story there is that he actually directed The Wire well I want the real story here so obviously we know him on the screen he's Gus season 5

well read the liner notes that you got apparently right here in this box maybe you should read the liner notes I'm sure his name's in there somewhere honestly I get like PTSD this is the fucking greatest thing ever right here in this box. Maybe you should read the liner notes. I'm sure his name's in there somewhere. Honestly, I get like PTSD listening back. I was going to play the other part after I called her a diva, but I won't.

No, that's a whole different podcast. Can we correct her though that her brother did not create the wire? Yeah, I know. For the record, please. If you direct the first episode, it doesn't mean you've created the show. I did my homework.

I checked the liner notes. He directed four episodes in total. You have something on your forehead there. Wait, hold on. Do I? No, it's gone now. It's probably the headphones have black stuff coming off. So it's like these things aren't built to last.

Okay. So yeah, I mean. That was the best. That was the Molly episode. And we're going to talk about the Geno episode. But you know what? You did kind of fall into a trap there where you start talking about her brother, the best. That was the Molly episode. And we're going to talk about the Geno episode. But you know what? You did kind of fall into a trap there where you start talking about her brother, the actor.

She clearly wants to talk about her brother, the director. And you're like, and then he was Gus in episode five. And she's just like, fuck you, man. Read the liner notes. It was the best. Yeah, he was Gus season five. That was a fuck you moment. That was really a fuck you moment.

There were a few fuck you moments in the Molly episode. So there's no fuck you moments in the Gino. There was one that was all good love stuff. So we're going to dive in. So let's do this before I give you the baton, before I pass you the baton and let you kind of take over here. I have some clips loaded up, but let's do a little bit of housekeeping here.

Let's play a little. Let's play a little into the mic, Mike. This is not Gino Vanelli. This is Nana Gino Molly. They're all one-named, single-named people.

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in the GTA. If your child's francophone, French immersion, or has no French experience, they have a day camp or an overnight experience for them so i urge you all to go to camp t.ca camp turn a soul.com actually camp turn a soul.ca probably both but go to camp t.ca check out the uh french camps they have they have a new one called love my planet uh i bet you they plant trees in that one i bet you they're all it's illegal in ontario i know they're gonna be in big trouble you they plant trees in that one. I bet you they're all about that. It's illegal in Ontario. I know.

They're going to be in big trouble if they plant a tree. But lots of eco-friendly, fun-engaging, hands-on activities in the Love My Planet French camp. But go use the promo code. This is key. Use the promo code Mike2019 when you register your child for the French camp at Camp Ternesol. It saves you 20 bucks and lets Camp Ternesol know that you heard about it on Toronto Mic'd. It'd be really dark if the code was

Mike69 for a kids camp. Elvis! Elvis! When I start with Jerry Howarth, I called him Mr. Howarth and he went like this. He went, Jerry.

Jerry. And at first, I thought he was just kind of testing the mic or something. So I kind of went along with him. Jerry. But what he was saying was, don't call me Mr. Howarth. Call me Jerry. Is he the only guest you've referred to by as Mr.? Probably.

Right. I'm trying to think. Maybe for like a Brian Williams or something. Would I have called him Mr. Williams? I don't think so no i don't think so i don't that's what i felt with jerry i'm like this is mr howarth i can't call him jerry but he told me to call him jerry he's a good guy but we'll do an episode about him next we'll do an episode about him next okay let's go back in the time machine here i want to do this for fast time so i haven't done it in a few episodes but 40 years ago this week,

this was the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100. You ready, Elvis? Yes. Good one. Can you name that tune? No. Baby. Give it a minute. Once in her life She musters a smile

For his nostalgic tale Never coming near What he wanted to say Only to realize It never really was She had a place in my heart Now, Elvis, breaking news. The Periscope feed has crashed. Oh, too bad. Now, I could fix it, now Elvis breaking news

the Periscope feed has crashed oh too bad now I could fix it but it's podcast first so they got a teaser they want to hear the Gino Vanelli

meta episode they're going to have to actually subscribe to the podcast so my apologies if you were listening or watching on Periscope I don't know what happened

it just crashed Elvis this is the Doobie Brothers. Ah, that's it. What a fool believes. Number one, 40 years ago this week. Remember the time is brought to you by Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair.

They've been doing quality watch and jewelry repairs for over 30 years. No one can see this right now, but there's a brand new Fast Time poster that was shipped over here just for the periscope feed that's broken right now. So if you want to save 15% on any regular price watch battery installation, tell them you heard about them on Toronto Mike,

and they'll give you a 15% off your watch battery installation. Where are they located? Their newest location Elvis is in Richmond Hill. And they have several locations in the GTA that I don't know off the top of my head, but FastTimeWatchRepair.com is where you go to find it. So multiple locations. Multiple locations. I feel

like they're in maybe Hamilton or London. They're all around. And they repair what? Watches and what? Jewelry. Jewelry. How do you say it? Jewelry. Say it for me. Say it for me. Say it for me. It's like brewery.

Why are all my sponsors giving me trouble? Jewelry. I don't know what to do with the extra syllable. Woman. That one I still can't get. So, come on. You're going to give Al Greco a bingo. Bingo somewhere.

Oh, that's so true. It's fantastic. Sorry. No, don't be sorry. There's a case of beer in front of you, courtesy of Great Lakes Brewery. You've already cracked one open. I got Shinny Pants coming up. Harry Porter.

It's good stuff, man. The Canuck Pale pale ale classic favorite the pompous ass which is also fantastic and then of course the red leaf lager oh i mean their beer is so good i was there today i wish it was closer isn't something happening exciting tomorrow yeah they're opening it's gonna rain all day but they're gonna yeah i was i was there today um i had a glass of the new electric circus beer. Look at you drinking beer like randomly in the middle of the day. Oh, I know.

It's never happened. Long bike ride. A year ago, two years ago. I know, I know. And it was very tasty. And yeah, tomorrow is the grand opening of the patio. Do you know everyone in there now? Like I know the people you need to know.

Like I know everyone working there. There's a lot of people who like brew the beer i don't know them necessarily do you pay for any beers when you get there no no no no come on no no no no no no no okay so when you bike over there like you did you have a purpose to go there or you just were like oh yeah i need a refresh i needed uh i'm pointing again i'm so used to periscope now i'm pointing to this but uh yeah these paper cases i was low i went to pick up some of those and then i had a glass of so the electric circus beer which will be gone soon uh it's a new england pale ale if that means something to you and it was very tasty and uh we have like i i troy put some aside for me because I have Master T coming in.

I know he never was on Electric Circus, but it's close enough I'm going to give him some Electric Circus. Sure, look at you. And I'll get some to Joel Goldberg too because he created Electric Circus, don't you know? All right, so enjoy the beer. There's a, Palma Pasta wants you to have a lasagna. Did you enjoy the lasagna?

Oh, yeah. It's a family favorite now. It really is. And we eat all of it, like over the course of two or three days. Yeah, I know. It's really good. There's a lot of it, and it's very good. And is that sauce, like you're of Italian descent?

That's the first, I mean, obviously I don't listen to the podcast, but I do when I listen. I listen to the podcast when I'm on it. And I've never heard you make mention of the sauce before. So I don't know if this is, uh, El Duce's way of getting you to talk it up. No, it's, uh, Ted Wallachian. Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean, the sauce is key. And of course the sauce in Palma Pasta is fantastic. It's not El Duce. It's, uh, yeah, Ted Wall Ted Wallachian. He basically put it in my mind because his mother-in-law I think always buys the

pasta at Palma Pasta because she said they got the sauce right and if you get the sauce right the rest is easy. The sauce is the hard part. It resonated with me so I shared the tale. Everything's great. You know the hockey pool you bailed on?

That I never go to? Right. I've only been in once or twice. It was catered by Palm of Glastonbury. Yes, I know. That's the only reason why I would really go. Not to hang out with anyone else. You should, Ben.

But to go for the... You might have had a chance this year. There's lots of upsets, as you might have noticed. They were talking on the radio. They were giving the match-ups as they would be if all the losers had won. And it created for a much more compelling second round. But different podcast. That's funny.

Sticker U, were they a sponsor last time you were here? No. I don't know. I can't remember. I think they're in their first month, but they're a brand new sponsor and they're creating some stickers that will go out to guests.

So when you come back next time, I'll have some stickers for you. And there's a decal they're making for the back wall for when Periscope doesn't crash and people can see it. So thank you, StickerU. If you're looking to create like one or many custom stickers, you go to StickerU.com. Like anything that sticks, like stickers, labels, decals uh you can order one or as many as you want so thank you sticker you it's sticker you.com and we'll just play a question for you elvis uh from brian gerstein from property in the six and then we'll dive deep into the geno vanelli episode

here is brian Brian. Hi, Elvis and Mike. Brian Gerstein here, sales representative of PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Mic'd. Guys, can you confirm despite the Gino rumors that I am indeed a human being? Remember the Wolfpack game we went to together? Anyways, Phase 1 of the Galleria Mall redevelopment plan and its condos are being sold exclusively by PSR and myself in about a month, all ready to move in for 2023. Contact me now by phone or text at 416-873-0292 and I can put you on my VIP first access list for these both investor-friendly and end-user suites. The Gino episode ranks easily as my

favorite musical guest Mike has had on, and I really don't know how it would be topped. Full marks to Gino for buying in 100%, and Mike for being able to wrestle control back from continually having Gino throw him curveballs at every turn. My question to you guys, how different would this episode have been had Gino not brought his guitar and not sang at all? Strictly conversation, do you think that Mike would have been challenged or would it have been pretty straightforward

like with other musical guests Mike has had on? Is that a real person or is that a robot? Am I talking to a robot? Well, I don't understand where that reference comes from. Like, I'm going to defend Brian here a little bit. Because there's this dismembered voice. I guess that's what it is. But I was thinking about the voice and his inflection and tone

and was thinking, Brian doesn't talk robotic. No. That's what I was thinking. One time I think he recorded early in the morning and he hadn't had his coffee yet and he sounded a little robotic. Like Kathleen Turner perhaps? No.

Hey, Gino, how's it going? That's the kind of voice I wish I had. Hey, Mike. Instead you have Gilbert Godfrey's voice. Okay, I will answer part of that. First of all, Brian, I hope you have me on the list for Galleria Mall. I need a bachelor pad hangout.

Can we talk about it? I know I don't want to make fun of your sponsor or anything, but I do find it funny where it's like, hey, in a month you can buy this thing and be ready for move-in in 2023. It's the best. If you're in a rush, it's not very helpful. and be ready for moving in 2023. It's the best. If you're in a rush, it's not very helpful. But if you have time, that's the way to go because you can get it.

My youngest son is on the waiting list, by the way. He's on his VIP. He's four. Yeah, by the time your son's moving out, it'll be ready. I mean, I got invited. It's crazy. This must be a huge development for it to be 2023.

For fuck's sakes. I got invited to It's crazy. This must be a huge development for it to be 2023, for fuck's sakes. I got invited to an art gallery of photos taken from the gallery of all. Someone took a bunch of photos. That sounds so horrible. And I got invited to it. You would eat that shit up. I'm not sure I can go to it, but it was Jonathan Griggs or something. Did they have a picture of any random plastic bags from the old mall?

That would be, if I had an old Food City bag. Oh, that would be funny. Oh, by the way, I can see now in the crashed periscope that Monica has replied with a K. I had asked her, I axed her to pick up all four kids so we don't have to have such a strict deadline.

So now I'm an asshole. So now we can slow down. Yeah, you're the asshole. So I'm an asshole. But she said, Kay, you son of a bitch. She's fine. It's okay. Remember, those last two kids that I were going to pick up, they're hers too.

Oh, stop. She has to share some responsibility on this. Come on. I can't do all the heavy lifting. So now we can take a breath and do this right. So did we answer all Brian's questions? So, okay, if he didn't bring a guitar. He asked me the same question.

Did you want to go first? I have to answer. No, you go ahead. If he didn't bring a guitar, would it have been more straightforward? I think it was going to be something like the Andy Kim kim episode like andy kim's a bit a bit older than gino not a lot older but a bit older than gino and but they were they were both like people that had success decades ago and now are suddenly in some guy's basement like the clock like the calendar has advanced and now they're doing a podcast in someone's basement i feel like it might've been like that.

So, uh, cause Andy didn't have a guitar. If I might say like, I'm not here to kiss your ass or anything, but, uh, I think you should kiss my ass.

I think you're doing a disservice to yourself. I mean, I don't think that this is just at this point in time, this many years in and this many episodes in, this is not just you and your basement. How many conversation? There's a reason why people are coming on the show they may not necessarily know what they're going to get into

when they get here but they certainly have seen or heard the quality of the content and so that's why they're here I think I don't think there's a chance Gino has ever heard a second of this podcast like I think there's a how do you get him on our person so there you go okay so let's start there so thank you Brian

great questions I hope everyone listening now since no one's watching anymore how do you get him on your person? Sure. There you go. Okay. So let's start there. So thank you, Brian. Great questions. I hope everyone listening now, since no one's watching anymore, I hope everyone listening buys a, buys a suite at the gallery of mall. Yes. Like everyone should just do that. Brian,

this episode is a hundred times worse without the guitar for reasons that are weight. Like I question why we're even doing this episode Because I don't see this being a bad episode. I see this being a fantastic episode and having nothing to do with Molly Johnson. I know, I agree. Not comparable in any way. If I wasn't clear, that was my point. It's nothing like the Molly Johnson episode.

That was a great episode. Other people's points, right? Like the whole black car thing. Come on, fuck. Oh, somebody called it on, I think it might be that Anonanon. Why am I giving this guy so much credit? One outlier. You know my problem is elvis let me maybe you can give me a little therapeutic assistance here like if i get 20 pieces of feedback after an episode and 19 are telling me how much they loved it and enjoyed it and they had it on their i don't know their drive

to brampton or whatever and it made them laugh and they brought joy to their shitty lives that's 19 out of 20 and then the 20th guy will be like an anon anon. Like that's not even, what kind of name is that? It's an anon anon. And it'll be something about how I bailed

on this black cars episode. And then the only comment I can think of in my head when I go on a bike ride is that 20th comment that the guy who said it was a black cars episode. So now, come on,

talk me off the ledge. Part of it is human nature, of course. I mean, you want to please everybody, right? That obviously is a part 20th comment that the guy who said it was a black cars episode so now come on talk to me part of it is human nature of course i mean you you want to please everybody right that obviously is a part of your personality and and that's a good trait to have like that's not a bad thing um but you also have to like i mean i from what i i'm gathering here it's not debilitating and and in this episode certainly isn't in response to one comment. No, no, no, no, no, no. People are going to have their own. When you're in the business like you are, you are in the

industry, my friend. As Molly once said. This is going to be normal. You're going to have to take the good with the bad or just don't read the fucking comments. I know, but it was on my own blog. I have to read the comments. No, you don't. Stick to the liner notes. Don't read the fucking comments. I know, but it was on my own blog. I have to read the comments. No, you don't. Stick to the liner notes. Don't read the comments.

I was thinking, are there liner notes? Like I felt like cracking it open. Of course there's liner notes. I don't know. CDs have liner notes. Okay. So of course there's liner notes. So, okay.

So Brian, great questions. I'm going to start by setting up. I kind of touched on this earlier, but this was going to be a 9 30 a.m episode on good friday and i'm all set right like gino's coming over i got rid of hebsey i'm all set for a 9 30 episode at about 10 10 like i gave him 40 minutes there's no sign of gino i actually uh phoned his pr handler okay let's pause here for a second. Have you had a guest no show before? No.

Okay. Have you had a guest be 40 minutes late before? Yes, because Ron James slept in and he was like about 40 minutes late. And then I phoned, I phoned him and he was so apologetic, but yes. So you had to phone him as well.

Yeah. So this is the second guest that you've had to call 40 minutes late and say where are you i think so okay i think so it's very it doesn't happen very often right okay so he's 40 minutes late i get a hold the pr guy's like he's not there and i'm like no he's not here so that pr guy goes tries to track down gino i get a call back like a 20 what's the pr guy's name because we need to know because he's going to be the father of Monica's third child at the end of this episode. His name is Eric. Eric, okay. And Eric calls me back 20 minutes later and is like, oh, they got in really late from Montreal the night before.

It was too early. So they canceled it. I missed the email, I guess. So there was an email that maybe Eric missed. Eric, sorry, he didn't get the email to tell me. and then i said well can we do it later today and then we go back and forth and we decide okay eric's gonna bring gino here for like yes i didn't know about ross yet ross i had no idea about ross uh and they were gonna come do it at something like 4 30 p.m or something like that gotcha so then of course, I just...

Which is the witching hour in this house, I'm imagining, because you have two younger children and this is right before dinner. And normally they're not home because right now it's about 4.30. Okay. And normally they're not home because they're in daycare. But on Good Friday, they shut the doors, no daycare. Right, of course. So that was the big thing.

So it's the witching hour now. Yeah. So I told Monica, I said, okay, and Monica's younger than us. She doesn't know black cars. She doesn't know the name Gino Vanelli. Oh, really? Yeah. So what is she, 36 or 37?

And she did not know the name Gino Vanelli. And then I realized, well, after Wild Horses, would we ever hear another song on on the radio uh or much music from gino vanelli after wild horses well i don't think you would you think so they play gino vanelli now it's okay okay i guess they do play the old stuff okay of course okay no you're right she's a she's a rosa mocha girl so they're not gonna play new stuff but i mean they gotta get cancon any way they can damn straight damn straight so uh i So I said to Monica, I said, do you think you could bring the kids like to the third, the second floor so that they're not making a racket right above us because it's, you

know, Gino and everything. And she said, okay, I'll put on the TV in the bedroom upstairs and I'll keep them there for like an hour because I only had an hour of Gino. And that's all negotiated in advance. Right. Right. Do you have any subjects that you're not allowed to talk about? No.

Nothing. But now there will be. No more questions about black cars is part of his rider. Right. And it's sort of like Van Halen with the red M&M's or whatever. Brown M&M's. It's in the rider. I don't realize. So Eric is

bringing Gino. So I'm expecting two gentlemen at the door. And I figured we'll both be down here for the recording. But there's a third gentleman. And he introduces himself as Ross. But my brain never connects. I never. They don't look alike? Not enough.

Because have you seen Gino? Yeah, I saw Gino. Of course I saw Gino. They don't look that much alike at all. I don't know what Ross looks like though. I mean, Gino looks like a stylish Italian man. Yes. Looks great for a 66-year-old.

Yeah, he does. He looks fantastic. Gino, I didn't connect the dots. They were brothers. I thought he was just like a roadie guy or whatever. So they don't look the same. They don't look, they don't dress the same. Was Ross wearing a scarf?

No, Ross was dressed like a normal guy. And Ross seemed normal. Not that Gino wasn't, but Gino looked like a rock star. Well, Gino's a star. Right. Gino's a star of the show. So I don't know at this time it's Ross Vanelli. Because I know about Gino and Joe.

Right. But I don't actually know about Ross. But he plays too, though, doesn't he? Yeah, I think he does. Yeah, he does a lot of stuff. Like, I kind of wish I had known it was Ross. Because then you could have asked him some questions. I would have asked him some questions.

Okay, cool. But I didn't know it was Ross. I knew could have asked him some questions I would have asked him some questions okay cool but I didn't know it was Ross I knew it was a guy named Ross am I supposed to be asking you questions at this point yeah yeah

I guess we're you're now doing it but I'm setting up the setting things up so Eric was going to be around the corner where James's desk is where James does his homework

gotcha and this is all on the Periscope by the way so thankfully it didn't crash oh it did crash for Gino's episode but like 45 minutes in that Periscope app is crashing way. So, thankfully, it didn't crash. Oh, it did crash for Gino's episode,

but like 45 minutes in. That Periscope app is crashing. I need to fix that, but that's another story. So, Eric says, I'm going to go upstairs.

So, he went upstairs and I was thinking, like, Monica doesn't know Eric's upstairs, but I don't know what happened after that.

I think Eric was upstairs. I think Monica might have figured out there was a guy downstairs. I don't know. Let's talk to her in nine months. My own Vanelli to raise as my own?

I'd be okay with that. It's Eric. It's the Vanelli agent. To be cucked by a Vanelli, I think, is a badge of honor. Oh, boy. It's your joke. Wait, he's not a Vanelli.

Ross? I thought you said Eric went upstairs. It's Eric. It's not Ross. It's a different story. That's a whole different story. No, I don't want that. But Eric went upstairs. It's Eric. It's not Ross. It's a different story. That's a whole different story. No, I don't want that. But Eric went upstairs.

Right. I thought I was having a Vanelli, but you're right. No, you're having a Vanelli agent. That's too many degrees of separation. I want to interview Eric. What the fuck is he thinking? I can hook you up with Eric. He's a good guy.

I'd love to know what happens when he, like, this would be a legit. So to your point, I think it is sort of like there could be some sticker shock as they, when they come here and not so much here in the moment and talking. Yeah. When they walk up and realize this is a fucking house. Well, first, you know, he's a tall guy, Gino. He's not a short guy. Like, okay.

So Jerry Howarth is a short guy. Right. He was the guest. The only guest between us and Gino was Jerry. Jerry was, he did. He was the guest. The only guest between us and Gino was Jerry. Jerry was, he did, I asked him actually, I said,

I said, hey, do me a favor, show me what would happen like if you didn't duck. I said, stand up straight, let's see.

Like he actually would have nicked like his forehead a bit like at the top of his head but he's about, I'm going to guess he's about five, six and a half. Oh wow.

Okay, so he's a short guy. Yeah, but that tells you how short the ceiling is because he's still at his head. This is an older house and it's a, so the ceilings are low a short guy. Yeah, but that tells you how short the ceiling is because he's still at his head. This is an older house, and so the ceilings are low.

Thank you. Yes, it's 102 years old. There you go. Unlike Gino. So Gino's younger than that, but Gino, I think he's a tall guy, and he has these big boots on and stuff, so I think we've got to cram him in here.

Okay, so Ross is all about how is the guitar going to sound. Right, I was going to ask you about that. So let me ask you about this. I'm not good at being the subject here. This is the first time that you've had someone play on the show that you didn't know about in advance, correct? Because you've had a band play before.

Fred Penner whipped out a guitar and strummed along. Gotcha. But not a specific song, but he played. So how do you, you're confronted now with this change, another change where, hey,

I want to be able to have Gino play. What do you do? Like, you have a third mic, so are you bringing down the third mic and just putting it up in front?

Okay, not to toot my own horn, but I actually, and this was actually on tape because I watched it later. The whole 10 minutes. Yeah, well, it's interesting to note. It I actually, and this was actually on tape because I watched it later. The whole 10 minutes. Yeah, well, it's interesting to note.

I hate this. It's interesting. Well, you don't have to worry about it now. Good. It's interesting to note that the 10 minutes before I press record

have all been captured on tape. Like, it is a fast, somebody commented that I had the patience of a saint or something. Like, you have to see it in action. But very quickly on my feet, tooting my own horn here,

is I got myself one of the, I have an extra, I have four mics. Thanks to Blue Sky Agency for the fourth mic. So I had a mic that I put on a stand and I angled it down like this. And then that's a separate channel in the new board here. And I have control over that channel separate from the other channels. So there were things, in fact, I'm going in there to read them. Because only Andrew Stokely will now know what I'm talking about. But if I go in here, hold on here, advanced. Okay. So, there are things with each channel. So, each mic is a channel. There's four mics. And there's a compressor, a de-esser, there's a thing called high-pass filter, and there's a thing called noise gate. Okay?

And there's a thing called NoiseGate. Okay. These are all things happening. They're all turned on. I turned off ducking, but I have all those four things are turned on right now. And Ross wanted me to turn off the NoiseGate for Gino's microphone. Guitar. Two, but for both of them. Both of them.

Gotcha. What does NoiseGate do? I don't know. And that was the thing. I was really, like I knew enough to do what they asked me to do. And they were happy with the results. But as I said, when did I say it? I said really, like I knew enough to do what they asked me to do and they were happy with the results. But I, as I said, uh, when did I say it? I said it, I think I recorded yesterday or something quickly. And I talked about channeling my inner Stokely. Like I just kind of

faked it until I make it it, you know what I mean? Like I, I talked like I was an audio guy, but I really just knew enough to be dangerous. So I, we, I mean, I, I, I read him out. He said to do that. I did it. He wanted it up, and then he wanted a bunch of stuff. I knew how to do, and I did it quickly. And Gino kept playing, and Ross would listen on those headphones there. And at some point, Ross was happy enough with the quality

that he allowed Gino to play. But Gino was not going to play if Ross was not happy with how it sounded. I like it. I like it. So then where does, so now you're getting ready to say press record. Is there any preamble with you and Gino

or is it just you and Ross primarily? And then when it's go time, then you start talking to Gino. Yeah, it's me and Ross getting that all right and me talking to Ross. And no, Gino's just sitting where you are with his guitar. Right. And he's playing. Like he did like a uh is he singing or just playing he's singing he's singing uh I just want to stop he's warming up yeah he's warming up and then I think I said did you know

you're ready to go and he broke into another song and I just pressed record like I'm like I'm just so at the beginning of the podcast you heard playing right that's because Gino, I didn't know what was going on, but he wanted to play. And I'm like, I was of the mindset, like if Gino Vanelli wants to play, he can play. So if he starts playing, I'm going to shut up and let him play. And if he stops playing, I'll say something. So then where does Ross sit and watch the recording?

He's sitting, I moved a chair right to uh behind the camera so you can you never see him on the camera but you gotcha you can hear his laughter i'm laughing right yeah okay and then um was there anything in advance of this interview that was discussed in terms of think because one thing that you did talk about which i imagine you probably wouldn't have this is what i'm guessing yeah is his new album in the level of detail he did were you asked to promote his new okay yes uh but not not directly so the pr guy eric sent me a link where i could download the new album gotcha and he didn't say oh there is an interesting ross thing i'll get to in a second but he eric never said you have to talk with a new album but it's like a there's a code that i have there's a code here where he's promoting this album and he's giving me an hour to ask anything i want so

there's a code that i will and i would do it just as a kind human and if not then gina's going to bring it up at some point and why wouldn't I? What kind of an asshole am I? I don't know if you detected it in listening back, but there was a difference in tone when, not tone so much, but there was like a glimmer or a sparkle in Gino's eye when you mentioned the new album. And he was like, you know, sort of got,

that was like a nice little energizing point of the interview where clearly that was what he wanted to talk about. You had sort of got your questions out and that was the beginning of the end of the interview. And I was always like, I had two songs loaded up in the soundboard here, the first two songs in the album. And I played them both.

And I was definitely going to promote it. But one quick thing, just before I pressed record, Ross Vannelli looked me, a nice guy looked me in the eyes and said, do you mind pushing the April 24th show off the top? Like he, so he actually directly said,

so that's why I do a like a, right off the top, I do the April 24th thing. I was always going to mention it at the end, but I did at the top. Smart though for Ross to do that, right? Cause not everyone's going to listen to the end.

Apparently those are like, he's the business guy. Exp seats uh theater like i don't even know how to say the name if you notice i never said the name of the theater i know i looked it up and i've never heard of it i know i don't even know where it is do you know what it's called it's saint lawrence center art center but it's called but it's la belle yeah so i always called it the april 24th show because i didn't know how to say yeah i didn't know how either because i looked i actually looked it up and googled it because i'm like he says he's playing in the city at the April 24th show because I didn't know how to say it. Yeah, I didn't know how either because I actually looked it up

and Googled it because I'm like, he says he's playing in the city proper and I was like, where is this place? I don't know what it is. Well,

I think it's like too nice for us to go to. It looks lovely though. It looks like a really nice venue. Like I said, I think I said on the show but Michelle,

my oldest daughter, had a big dance thing in Markham Theater so I spent a couple of days there two weekends ago and they had a big dance thing in Markham Theatre. So I spent a couple of days there two weekends ago. And they had a big time poster about Ross, about Gino playing. And it was sold out.

I was kind of impressed. Oh, he sold out this theatre. Yeah, well. But yeah, so I pushed the April 24th thing because Ross asked me to. And at the end, of course, I was always going to do the album. But I will say Ross did whisper really quietly,

just like two feet from me. I don't think it got picked up on the uh mic but uh he gave me like a 15 minute warning so i knew i had an hour but i often i'll tell you i often get an hour and steal 20 minutes this is a move i've been doing for years yeah i think i did it with uh was famously if you will with uh dan shulman think I, but I do it all the time. You give me this, I'm going to, so I'll take more. So I got, I thought I knew I had an hour and I had it all kind of structured perfectly. Sure. But then Ross gave me the whole 50 minute warning.

And then basically that's when I knew I had to do, you know, I'm going to get into the new album. So I kind of dove in there. So, so yeah, so that was the Ross thing. Is this still, are you still introing things yeah i'm pretty much done intro i guess we're doing it but uh yeah i thought it was so when i press record it's because he's breaking into a new song and i'm gonna just record and see what happens like i kind of wish i had recorded earlier because he was playing more earlier but do you want to uh

you want me to play a clip near the beginning? In fact, you can still hear the theme song, the Toronto Mike theme song in the background. When I ask him like the first question, what he does, and then we can talk about that move that Gino employed. Okay. Sure. Mike is instrumenting his own interview here, everyone.

We're going to do it together, brother. Not like as if I wasn't prepared with things I wanted. Well, we're going to have time because Monica's picking up all the children. Here we go. Thanks for being here, man. I know you came straight from Montreal. Is that right? As the sun goes down on the Arizona plain,

the wind whispers by like a runaway train. It's a beautiful thing. It's me and you in a flatbed truck My heart kicking like a whitetail buggy Middle of spring So what's going through your head at this point? You've started the interview. Your theme song is done. Yeah.

You ask him a really softball question. A softball opening thing, yeah. And he's singing a song. What's going through your head? Basically, I'm wondering, oh, what's going through my head is, oh, he's just going to break into song periodically. Like, this is what he's going to do. Like, now I'm thinking is, oh, he's just going to break into song periodically. Like this is what he's going to do. Like now I'm thinking is the whole, I think my next line is like a joke about how

he can just sing the whole episode if he wants. Like, so I'm two things are going on here. One is I, I want it to be a, like a pleasant hour discussion, right? So I want, I don't want it to be a cringy awkward, like, cause it could kind of go that way. So I'm playing like by the Gino rules here, but I don't know the Gino rules because I'm reacting. No one's done that before. So basically at that point, I'm just wondering,

are we going to be able to have a conversation or is he just going to start, just going to play songs? And if he was just going to play songs, I'd be okay with it. It is what it is. I have no control over it, but it would be rather unique.

At any point in time are you thinking to yourself i'm just going to restart no no never never thought of doing that no like at that moment you're like oh oh shitty i i this is not no because he's a singer right and i'm thinking you know what i'm thinking in my head i'm thinking oh he's like an artist and artists are weird that way like i'm thinking oh i have an artist here so you just went with it yeah i went i totally was just gonna go with it like wherever he took me i was gonna go like smiling along or whatever what's ross's facial expression are you ever i never see you ever look at ross no you know why i'm in like with help in your eyes and like help me out here no never once did i make Ross. Is he ever looking at you with help in his eyes?

I don't know because I got my notes here. Right. And that's my point. You only see it. I got notes here. I've got the songs because I got lots of music loaded up here. Right. I've got Gino here.

Right. I'm trying to look at him. So the way this new setup is, just to visually give it to people, is in the past, I was able to look at Mike and Mike was able to look at me. Yeah. is in the past, I was able to look at Mike and Mike was able to look at me. But because Mike has introduced this stupid new video component of his podcast, now I'm looking at Mike, but Mike is not looking at me

and it's very off-putting. I kind of want to fix it, but I don't really know how. So any suggestions are welcome. Why don't I just do this? But then how would the camera get us both? Well, fuck the camera. But that's the whole point of the movie. There's right now there's no point no but now i don't

care much better fucking episode this way now yeah but i i'm talking about your fucking head you're just you're a buddy like i don't need to look in your eyes well i need to look in yours i need a personal connection when i'm doing this it's your 12th appearance you don't need a personal connection but when i'm meeting someone for the first time like a jerry howarth right it's different like i want to i want to stare but you know what someone like so maybe they're used to it because You don't need a personal connection. But when I'm meeting someone for the first time, like a Jerry Howarth, it's different. Like I want to stare at your baby blues. Maybe they're used to it because Jerry wouldn't have been looking at his broadcast partners.

Yeah, he's probably used to it. And Gino doesn't look at his bandmates. And if he does, he has to make a purposeful effort to do so, right? Right. Because he's looking at the audience. So, okay, good point. Maybe it's just me.

So it didn't, and it hasn't bothered me yet. Even the Marie McLaughlin episode, which got buried by this Gino episode and it was a wonderful episode i hope people don't ignore the marie mclaughlin episode because gino came up right a couple days later but um yeah that is something with the configuration the studio i would like to fix so that we could both be on the camera i know you say to fuck the camera but that's the whole point of the config and still be able to make eye contact without me having to leave all my...

Because I'm doing a lot of shit here. So you went through, which is interesting. I heard you comment at some point. I think you might have commented on your blog, or maybe it was in a podcast that I didn't listen to. But you commented that you borrow some of your interview style from Howard Stern. Yes. And Howard Stern recently over the course

of the last number of years has, even when he brings return guests back, has brought them through sort of like this journey from the beginning of their career to where they are now. And so you tried to talk to him about his childhood in Montreal. And it seemed as though that Gina was very resistant to open up about that. At what point in time did you decide to pivot from that? Did you ever, like, do you feel disappointed in not knowing a little bit more about Gino's

childhood? I, first of all, if you, but I just played where he broke into song. I had just asked him if he arrived late from Montreal and he clearly his move when he doesn't want to answer a question is to sing a song. Like this is the Gino move.

Because he did it a few times early in the ep. Smart. Yeah. And later in the ep, I asked him about like, were you in Montreal at the time that I just want to stop broke or whatever? And he said something like, he wouldn't say Montreal ever. Although he has to sing it when he sings, I just want to stop. He has to sing Montreal. But he said something like, I was in the suburbs somewhere or something like that. Do you remember this part? Yeah. And you also, he also, when he talked about Montreal at

one point in time as well, you asked him about the influences of the music industry in Montreal. And he first said that there wasn't any. Right. And then sort of crawled that back a little bit and named a couple of venues that he had played at. But I mean, he clearly wasn't going to go there, but there was obviously, there's something to that. There's something there, there, as they say, about Gino's time in Montreal and his connection with that city. Agreed, agreed.

And I do have a clip I pulled. You asked me to pull a clip. Do you want to set it up? The interesting part about Montreal though, however, is if you look at his tour date schedule, which I did immediately after, is he plays a lot of shows in Montreal. So I imagine that in his brain somewhere,

he's like, oh, shit, I shouldn't crap on my home city when clearly he's well-loved in that city. Yeah, and he knows he can sell out shows there. So then as we continue to progress, before we get to the clip, as we continue to progress through his career you start going through song hit by hit sort of like his first hit then a second hit and then we get to the black cars thing which we can talk about um and then maybe one song after black cars um but did you have more songs set up and did the black cars comment derail you where you're like i'm not going

to go through any more of the songs or no no did you get through all the ones that you wanted to get through i got through everything i wanted to get through because uh like i said i was going to play a couple from the new album which obviously i don't know very well but the last album the last song i was going to play as we went through his kind of hits or whatever it was going to be wild horses and i did it so there actually was nothing after that. Do you want to set up the clip though? I pulled, you asked me to pull a clip.

which, which one is it? Are we going to play the black cars clip or the other one? The other one. Okay. So I, there was some really interesting nuggets in this interview. Lots of interesting nuggets in this interview,

both just funny stuff, but also interesting stuff. But there was one, one thing, two things that were really profound for me. One of them is a story I'll share later. But the other one is this particular clip that you're going to play where Gino talks about, I don't know, just about something that's related to his journey, I think, that it is a really interesting way of looking at things

that I think it was really powerful. And I listened to it, and then actually the only time in the interview that I went back and immediately listened to it again was this particular clip. Yeah, I mean, by the time I was three or four years old, I knew that the path was clear to me. A lot of stories I bet you we don't hear about are the same as that except they never go anywhere you know what i mean like we only hear the stories when they they make it like

yourself well i mean i mean there are many many uh points in in even a successful career where you're going nowhere i mean i i tell you i went more nowhere than i went somewhere until i got to where i was going man i that's that. Man, that's really deep stuff. Yeah. What's going through your head? Like, at that moment in time, you're like, oh, fuck. Like, can you even process that when it's being said in the moment? Not to that degree.

Like, I try to react to things that I kind of took it in and probably advanced further. I don't think it hit me. It didn't resonate with me in the moment as it would in a, when I asked you to pull the clip, did you know what I was talking about? Cause I gave you a timestamp and I said, I don't,

I don't remember exactly how I asked for it, but when you went back and listened to it, what, what happened then when you, when you're like, Oh shit. Or was it just, no,

I pulled it. Perry's being, and then I you're like, oh, shit. Or was it just like Perry's being or Elvis is being sad? And then I thought I better send it to Elvis and make sure I got the right clip because it wasn't obvious to me that it was the right clip. Oh, really? Yeah. Lucky you, the heartless. I'm not a heartless guy. Hey, we'll get to that because later he essentially reveals later in the episode

when I had very little time to deal with it, he reveals that he was considering suicide later in the episode when I had very little time to deal with it. He reveals that he was considering suicide later in this episode. Oh, by the way, in your new seating arrangement, just make sure you stay on the microphone there. Yeah, sorry. That's okay. My bad. I was opening a beer.

I'm now drinking the Canuck Pale Ale. That's the staple, my friend. That's the big one there. That's what she said. So, okay. So, I don't know know i don't know if anyone else feels that i'm sure i'll hear fucking can i ask you questions i know you can ask me lots of questions obviously but i can ask you questions about as a listener yeah of course of course so i you know a lot of preamble before i press record and he's singing and i'm thinking i gotta like i need to bring him on side like i

need to like win him over early with something with some levity this is my thought process okay so i'm thinking the guy's name is gino vanelli which is the most italian name i've ever heard well yeah it's pretty fucking gino i mean my brother reminded me that in primary school, Gino was kind of a slur, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You call Italians Ginos. And we went so far as we would call Italians Gino Vanelli. Oh, you would? Oh, that never happened with me, but Ginos were Ginos.

Oh, for sure, for sure. And the IROC Zeds or whatever. Correct, which is also awesome that he had that car. Oh, my God. That's the fucking greatest thing ever. So he's like a walking stereotype, right? So I'm thinking, okay. You can't.

That's like playing the fucking Brady Bunch song for Greg Brady. I did do that too. I know. Twice I think. And I was there. I was like, fuck, man. Anyway, what was going through your twisted brain? No, I was thinking, I would grow, I like this joke. I would grow up

on The Simpsons, okay? And I liked how The Simpsons would look like they're going one way, but then they would go the other way. And that was the joke because everyone thinks you're going one way, but you go the other way. I know, but you're the only one who's thinking like that. When I watched The Wire, there's a line, I think it was Marlo, but somebody says. Sorry, a line in the show

or a line in the show? A line in the show. You think it's one way, but it's the other. Like this, a line in the show or a line in the line? A line in the show. Okay. You think it's one way but it's the other. Like this was a line, I think Marlo Stanfield says it and that line resonated with me. You think it's one way but it's the other.

And with Gino, I'm thinking, oh man, it would be funny if I think I'm going to make some joke like Gino Vanelli, that's Italian, right? Like ha, ha, ha,

yeah, it's Italian. And instead, I told him, that's Irish. Okay, in my head and I'm not a comedian i just play with a podcast like i like to craft jokes and things and sometimes they're bad dad jokes sometimes i think they're kind of funny we're going to talk about one in a minute that missed with gino that i think was really funny like i pulled that clip too right so uh i'm thinking i'll i'll say gino Vannelli that's Irish right

so that's how that was I think that might be the you felt like that was your end let me tell you from a listener perspective the fact that this guy was playing his guitar and breaking in a song was fucking awesome I loved it I thought it was fucking great I didn't think that that was weird

in any way and I think that that's one of the reasons why if you're ever going to listen to a shitty podcast that's why you would listen to a podcast right because you're not going to see that on the news or some like david letterman or where he's not on tv you know what i mean i know what you mean that's i that's breakfast television right let's say breakfast television aspect of the podcast that people love and people come to that you can't get anywhere else if breakfast television has gino vanelli on and i don't know if they did or not i know he did a lot of press when he was here but i think he's gone now but i think uh if he was on breakfast television it would probably be

like five to seven minutes and they talk about mainly the new album right yeah at breakfast television they have really short segments and it's going to be mainly about that new album, right? Yeah, at Breakfast Television, they have really short segments. And it's going to be mainly about that new album and his concert on April 24th and then Thanks for Being Here, Gino. But you don't get that playful, you don't have room to breathe. Mike, you had an hour with him and you had someone comment on your blog

that you should remember more than the fucking bozo who says that they didn't like the episode, that this person has listened to so many Gino Vanelli interviews and thought that this one was the best. And you know who told me that? And I hope he doesn't mind me saying this because it was a DM. So I hope I don't get in trouble.

But Mark Weisblatt told me that via DM. A dick magnet? Sorry, what's a DM? DM, you know what DM is, don't you? Direct message? It's a private message on Twitter. So Mark Weisblatt said... Someone posted that on your blog though too.

Yeah. That's where I read it. Yeah. But, and Mark, but cause we don't know who that is on the blog, but we know Mark Weisblatt. Like he's a,

like he listens to a thousand podcasts. Yeah. And I, they both seem, yeah. So I feel really good about that. Cause Gino's probably done a lot of interviews. Yeah.

Okay. So then we get to black cars, right? Do you want to talk about the joke first no i want to talk about black cars all right so you want me to play you get to the point where you're now going to like let's let's let's be real juno vanelli was a big big big star real like the fact that you said he sold 20 million albums. In the intro. I would have never guessed that. And I like Gino Vanelli.

I'm like you and other readers of your blog where we know who he is and he was on Greatest Hits, but we're not buying Gino Vanelli albums. No. He's not our thing. But in that way, right? But this song was, this is a big fucking song, right? right but this song was this is a big fucking song right so now this is where mike the fanboy gets to play right right right you're like oh man this is gino fucking vanelli in my basement on my podcast i've been promoting this for a long time. I'm beating out another shitty podcast radio show

and getting him. And yeah, so here he is and you're like, I can just imagine on your tablet Wait, I'm beating out what? What did you say? You're beating out a shitty podcast that thinks they're a radio show. Do you want to elaborate on that? To get Gino. No, I don't want to

elaborate on that. I'm not interested in getting, I don't want to elaborate on that. I'm not interested in getting... I think I know what you're talking about. I'm not interested in getting... Those are shots fired. ...in another fucking war with those bozos. But they're friends of the show, the bozos, right? Sure.

I'm not friends of their show or their show. But somebody told me they... Somebody did. Somebody put a comment on the blog that those guys you're talking about, that you're calling bozos. I'm not calling bozos. I'm calling them bozos in a friendly way.

Jesus. Somebody told me on the blog they stole Palma Pasta from me. Well, they didn't steal. Palma Pasta's right here. I've got a fucking lasagna. Anyway, I'm playing into whatever's happening online. I just love it. I love the controversy.

Anyway, so here he is. I can imagine you've got 20 questions laid out about black cars and you want him to play this fucking song you want to like this slow dance with him down here and you get i think maybe two three four questions in and he he drops the line okay do you want to hear him drop yeah i want to hear him drop this line all right let me bring black cars down you need to play this multiple times. Okay, here it is. Gino breaking my heart. I want to know if you, at the time,

regarded Black Cars as any sort of, I joke that it's Don't Call to Come Back. Can we get off Black Cars? There's only half an hour more on Black Cars. We can move on to another cut from the same album here. I got more Black Cars questions. You know what? You're breaking my heart, Gino.

Can we get off Black Cars? I'm going to wake up in the middle of the night tonight in a cold sweat. Did Gino really say that? You remind me of my parish priest. Get off of it, I said.

Which is a funny line by Gino. That's a great line by Gino. I forgot about that. I got lost in the shuffle. That's fucking awesome. But you have Ross. So you played it well. I mean, I can hear it in your voice, Mike. Your That's fucking awesome. But you have Ross.

So you played it well. I mean, I can hear it in your voice, Mike. Your heart is fucking breaking. Your heart is breaking. But you've got, you've pulled it out because you have Ross laughing. You've got Gino laughing. How does it make you feel, though, when you're ready to talk about black cars in depth and like go like so what is that transition like from a to g on the guitar and he's just like fuck you man let's talk

about something else all right so little context okay my personal history of gino is i missed the 70s of gino i missed 70s gino his biggest hit is probably uh i just want to stop that's definitely his biggest US hit. That was like 1978 when I'm like four years old or something. Like I miss that. I only know that as I told on the episode, it was on the four disc set I had called Oh What a Feeling. What was it called?

Yeah. Oh What a Feeling. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's how I knew I Just Want to Stop, which was a big jam, but you knew it as a classic song whatever but i lived the two songs i lived were black cars and wild horses but i legit had that uh which somebody tracked down the cassette i had yeah i saw that which was amazing because that was that and i looked at the cuts i'm like yeah those are the songs i heard over and over again so uh i legit loved black cars because I had it on that compilation cassette when I was like 10 years old.

And I was going to fanboy, which I'll do. Like when I have a Moe Berg on, I'll go long on I'm an adult now or whatever. And when Sloan, I got to go long on like underwhelmed or whatever because I loved it or whatever. So I'm totally fanboying out. And I do have a lot of black cars questions, and yeah, when he does that, it cuts me off at the knees. It was funny, though,

because you asked him early on in the podcast. Excuse me, too much beer. Early on in the podcast, I think you asked him, do you not like black cars? Yeah, because his initial reaction when I first mentioned, I made a crack about how there's more of that coming up, because I knew I had a lot of black cars. Yeah. Cause his initial reaction when I first mentioned, I said,

I made a crack about how there's more of that coming up. Cause I knew I had a lot of black cars coming up. Right. And so it reminded me of, um, uh, I remember Howard Stern interviewing Dave Grohl one time and he talked to him, uh, asked him about playing a big me and,

and suggested that he didn't like to play that song. And Dave was like, no, I fucking love that song. I think it's a great song, which is, you know, if you're a Foo Fighters fan, it's not really a Foo Fighters song necessarily, but some would say that it's,

people who aren't Foo Fighters fans would say it's a shitty Foo Fighters song just like every other shitty Foo Fighters song. Apparently that's the rap on it. Are you still burping? I am. Jesus. It's been a long day, folks.

How can you be a host if you're belgian i needed a couple of fucking beers to get through it um but so yeah i mean do you now in hindsight right with the reaction and do you think that that it is a song that he begrudgingly plays or loves because obviously that's one of his big hits or was he just playing with you do you think probably just playing with me i think like because earlier in the episode before i played black cars he told this great origin story of like what he was talking about like it wasn't about a car at all that was awesome yeah that was really we all think it's about a black car but it's it was much more than that and he gave like a really long detailed answer about what he was writing about when he

wrote black cars so it didn't i never got the impression he didn't like black cars but the question i'm asking uh when he shuts me down in that clip is i'm asking him that a very question like i'm about to ask him if he had uh like i can't remember exactly what i was gonna ask but something about like what does he think of black cars is he at all like embarrassed or ashamed of black cars like is he proud of black cars like i think that's the question i'm asking yeah because because you usually get two different reactions from from bands in interviews that i've read or or heard where they're like fucking amen i'll play that song all day every day 100 times a day i'll play it the whole day every day 100 times a day i'll play it the whole fucking concert because that's that's what's paying the mortgage kind of thing

um or the reaction that you know i i don't know if it was genuine or not but gino saying all right let's move on but when he did the let's move on and he did it in a funny manner and i tried to roll with it so it wasn't awkward and i think i did a good job of that but so at that point that did end the black cars question right you're also he was effective you're also not you're not getting like even still you're not getting any visual cues from ross i've never i never laid my eyes never looked at ross the entire hour not one thing because because when i wasn't looking at the notes or the uh songs i was playing or gino who was playing and he was right beside me and my guy was talking to right i might glance over here and look at the fact oh there's the periscope feed to see okay that looks whatever

and over there where ross was i never once i know i have no idea oh i could hear his laughter in the headset right i never i never once uh looked at ross during the entire what is it do you have any of your black cars questions there no i delete i deleted them is there any is there any burning black cars questions that you want to ask to the hive mind right now to get an answer from perhaps honestly i can't i can't remember any of the burning ones i probably just wanted to talk more about it and get a, get, talk more about, cause he, cause there was a great question from a rock golf who,

uh, went to Michael power for what that's worth. Uh, he was a friend of Bill Brio. That's how he came in. Al Greco's checked another box office. I can tell you that rock golf came into the Toronto Mike universe because he was friends with Bill Brio when Bill Brio came on the show.

Anyway. So rock golf always has good questions about these, uh, seventies guys. universe because he was friends with Bill Brio when Bill Brio came on the show. Anyway, so Rock Golf always has good questions about these 70s guys. So he had a really good question. There were transvestites in the video for Black Cars and coincidentally maybe Black Cars did not do as well in the USA as it did in the rest of

the world. It was a massive worldwide hit. You did ask questions about that. Yeah, I asked Rock Golf's question about that. You did? Yeah, yeah. But I had more questions about that uh yeah i asked rock golf's question about that that was yes yeah yeah but i had more questions about i wanted i had some more follow-up stuff i wanted to find out more about uh like why uh black more i wanted to know more about black cars being a hit everywhere on the planet except the us of a which i found strange because i i had help from mark weisblatt to get those casey casem clips which we never talked about them yet, but I thought that was like a differentiator. Like he'll do 20 interviews that week maybe, but no one else is going to play Casey Kasem's intros and outros. So one thing,

I was listening to the podcast on the driving to work. So it was a perfect amount of time because my drive is about an hour and 15 minutes. I was screaming out loud when you used the term transvestites because that's not a... Well, I only read... I know, but I only read the question. It's not an appropriate term. It wasn't my...

I know. I didn't think about the words I was saying. Well, what happens if someone asked a question with the N-word in it? Are you going to read that? No. Well, there you go. Okay, but I didn't consume the words.

So let's talk about that. The Casey Kasem stuff was, I thought it was fine. It was interesting. I don't know if I needed to hear all of them, but it was fine. I mean, like, I'm not going to criticize you for that. What was Gino's reaction? Was it, because it seemed as though my impression was that he enjoyed it. Hearing Casey Kasem talk him up was was probably kind of cool that's what i

that's what i would imagine he thought uh i got a note from somebody who was watching the live periscope feed that said it was thoroughly enjoyable to watch gino's reactions to hearing the casey casem uh clips oh i did see that actually now so i'm thinking it was all good so you let it did was that what you were hoping for? Yeah, of course. I wanted something different. Like I was thinking, because you mentioned,

you called them bozos, but I know you're joking there, but there was other people, and that never happened, by the way. That episode never happened. So there was no, it didn't happen because he's out of town now and it never happened.

But Gino was going to do a bunch of press, obviously, while he was in town. And I was on a long list. I don't know how many were on the list, but it wasn't just, you know, Toronto Mike. Which is totally normal, right? A star doesn't live in the city. They come in, they maximize their…

Colin James is a good example, yeah. Colin James lives in BC or something, and he was here for a very short time. And I had an opportunity to sit down with him, and I took it. But I'm sure he did a lot of interviews that week. You're right, though. I think that that, you know know a couple of things differentiated this interview from anything else that he's ever going to do which is which is the appeal to coming into a random stranger's basement however crazy that may be gets to play the guitar right gets to sing

along gets to be a little bit more loose and more open and and and go into areas that maybe he wouldn't be able to otherwise also has the opportunity to you know understand that he's working with somebody who cares about his craft and you know is going to bring out some of these things that someone else just isn't going to think about and doesn't have the time to do so i thought that was a really nice touch to be able to to bring in the casey casem stuff agreed and and you know when you have an hour and if when he's going to be that, and, and, you know, when you have an hour and if, when he's going to be that off the wall and different or whatever, like I could have been a tire fire.

Like I really, it really could have been. I don't think he was that much off the wall though. That's the thing. I mean, he played a couple of fucking songs like in the middle of talking. And he did stop doing that. Right.

Like you notice how it was all at the beginning. I felt, you know, that's also could have been for him a crutch, right? Like a way for him to get comfortable and, you know, provide a security blanket that if he didn't like the way it was going to go, then he could have just done that the whole time. But then, you know, he got into it and was able to have a conversation. Somebody who probably knows him better than I do, I don't know, but somebody did remark that he's maybe an introvert who needed that as a crutch, like you said.

And then he felt comfortable and we had a conversation. So it's like you just kind of have to wait it out. And the reality is you're an introvert, I think. Right? So having two introverts. Are you an introvert? It depends on whether or not you look at introvert by the true definition of what introvert and extrovert are.

I think most people assume I'm an extrovert, but if you look at the, but most people assume I'm an extrovert. Really? Because I do this. No. Like who the hell? Well,

I know this. I know you. Uh, this is also different. You're, you're talking to a microphone. You're not, you're not X.

So the true definition of introvert and extrovert is where do you get your energy from? Do you get your energy from interacting with other people or do you get your energy from having, you know, uh, that alone time or solace time? Right. And so while I, I certainly enjoy being gregarious and out there and all that stuff, I'm at heart, I think I'm more of an introvert where I get a lot of my energy from alone time. Now, my alone time is generally a lot shorter than I think a lot of people and I can get re-energized pretty quick

and go back out there. But anyway, I think it's interesting that, yeah, Gino probably is an introvert for the most part and he uses his music as his way to communicate. Can we talk about, I know you're asking the questions, but can we talk about the joke that didn't work with Gino? Do you know what I'm talking about? Sure.

So again, we were having an interesting discussion about how, and I think I used the C word, and I liked Gino's. He revealed a couple of things. Let me take over here. He revealed a couple of things. Let me take over here. He revealed a couple of things that I thought was really, really cool about his career that I'm not sure anybody would know who wasn't in it at the time. One is that he was the first white person to appear on, I was just going to say. You're going to say Caucasian? Is that a bad word?

No, I was, well, you could say. I use Caucasian. I just say white person. You said, Caucasian? Is that a bad word? No, I was, well, you could say. I use Caucasian. I just say white person. You said, what did you call me? Yeah, exactly. But the first white person to appear on Electric Circus. No. Soul Train.

I see. So that's cool, right? Like not only the first white person to appear on Soul Train, but a Canadian, right? Right. So that was interesting. But then also, who would have fucking known that Gino Vannelli opened up for Stevie Wonder?

Right. You know, like craziness. So coming off the context being that you're coming off the talk about how Don Cornelius asked him to be on Soul Train, even though he's a white guy. And again, he made a joke.

I think Don said he was off white or something. That's right. And so you're coming off that context now we're talking about coming off of that we're talking about stevie wonder asked him to open up for him crazy concert right it is crazy right so then i think it's the natural joke to go for like i i in my head i quickly craft a joke where i say something actually let's let's hear it because i'm going to tell the joke on that episode and then we're going to hear gino's reaction and then we'll talk about that so here's the stevie wonder joke that i'm about to defend don cornelius asked me personally to do soul train and so it kind of introduced me to an

audience that a lot of uh a lot of white cats were not used to playing for. Well, I believe you're the first Caucasian to get on Soul Train, right? What did you call me? Caucasian? Is that okay? Caucasian. You're the first guy. But you say transvestite. The color barrier. Well, Don Cornelius said that they considered me off-white at Soul Train,

so that's why they put me on. That's the color of the walls in here, I think, off-white at that soul train, so that's why they put me on. That's the color of the walls in here, I think, off-white. But what can you tell me about, you know, writing People Gotta Move? Badger One. That era. And the whole Stevie Wonder thing is amazing. Did he know you were Caucasian?

That's not a good joke. Ridiculous. Okay, be very, be, well, of course you're going to be honest here. But first, a quick little defense because you've now alluded to the T word I used twice. I copied and pasted it and read it and I never thought about it.

All right, all right, Mike. All right. Secondly, Caucasian, that's a word I didn't know. White is a fine word too, but I thought Caucasian. Caucasian has a history to it that has no connotation. So tell me though, is Caucasian not

a correct term? No, just say white person. White guy, white girl, white person. Caucasian has a negative... I don't want to speak to it because I don't have it in front of me. But today, if cops are looking for someone and they describe them today, they're going to call them Caucasian.

Yeah, there is a negative racist connotation to that word because it means the root of it comes from a bad place. Caucasian. And I'm sure people are going to comment just like they did on the fucking... To be honest, it's news to me. I had no idea. Yeah, there is...

It's not a good... Just say white. Just say white. It's fine. However, moving beyond that, Just say white. Just say white. It's fine. All right. But, however, moving beyond that, the joke is, I think it's just an easy joke. And he's probably calling you out for it. Be like, dude, you can do better than that.

Can't you? Okay. That's what I'm picking up from it. I don't think he's calling you out for being anything like a douche. Who was I being insensitive? Was it to blind people? I was thinking maybe it's insensitive to blind people, but he is a blind person. Gino Vannelli is blind? No,

Stevie Wonder is blind. Oh, gotcha. The joke, which I find funny, is the joke is that Stevie Wonder might have thought he was not, might have thought he was a black guy. I used to do improv in university and there's this improv game where you you get it's called props you know where you have a prop and and you rehearse you

know before the show um to get better not because you know what's coming but because you you build a level of comfortability with your partner and um we were practicing with props and one of the things was like something that looked phallic. And, uh, I immediately, the first thing I did with the prop when it was my turn is I use it as a penis. And, and my partner said to me, he's like, dude, that's just, it's cheap. It's so obvious. There's a, you don't need to go there. You're, you're funnier than that. You're better than that. And so that,'re better than that and so that moment actually I thought of that on the drive in I was like Mike

your friend is right and my Stevie Wonder joke is still pretty funny and it's not I don't know if this is obvious I mean it's not bad I'm not saying you shouldn't have said it remember it's an unedited real time kind of thing so it's like that wasited real-time kind of thing.

So it's like that was... I thought it was real talk. Bam. It's also real talk. Real talk. Strombo told me it was real talk. Real talk. Way back when. We got to get Strombo back on the show.

He's in LA now. Permanently, isn't he? Not permanently. Seems like he's hosting a podcast from his living room every day. But he filmed something here. Like there's something going on because Mishy Mee was in. Did you ever listen? I didn't do that today because it's about Gino.

Please don't do that. Since you were last year, you've only heard the Gino. I love... Someone commented recently about the fact that their favorite part of our podcast together is when you go through all the episodes that I haven't listened to. Are you really not going to listen to the Jerry Howarth episode?

Listen, I don't listen to any of your fucking episodes. Jerry Howarth? Who? It doesn't mean anything to you, that name? Who? Mr. Howarth? Give me some Mike Wilner, all right? Oh, I can have Mike right now.

Oh, yeah, sure. By the way, I got a vibe. I didn't think I could ask Jerry about Wilner, as if there was something there, and I actually decided not to poke at it or whatever. Did you ask him about his relationship with Tom Cheek? Yeah, of course. Because they're notoriously famous, or infamous, I guess,

for not being friendly. The way I felt, it was more of like, they don't hang. Right. But I also. But Cisco and Eber didn't hang, right? Well, but I also thought that there was a professional respect, but beyond that, there wasn't a personal respect. I don't know. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm.

I would say that. I don't want to say that. I mean, Jerry copped to them not being like buddy, buddy, but definitely there was a respect and they were both very, you know, they worked well together. Based on what I've heard is that quite literally game would end, headphones off, and they'd walk away. Like to the point where they're not even

acknowledging each other. The goodbye that they say on air is the goodbye that also was the goodbye that they said. It's still a warmer relationship than Gord Martineau and Ann Ruskowski, from what I understand. Has What's-Her-Name retired yet? Can we bring that up again?

Who? The fucking, who's the woman that you keep wanting to, Ann Romer. Has she retired? Well, she's not on the air. Didn't she retire four or five times? Isn't that another Al Greco bingo thing? I had her on. Yeah, it's the center square, I think.

So someone's getting bingo today. But did you listen to the Anne Romer episode? No, of course not. I have no interest in... You know what, Anne, I have a lot of respect for Anne. I have no interest in Anne. Are you going to listen to the Jerry Howarth episode? Of course not. So you never listened to Tom and Jerry? Is this fair to say? No, I listened to Tom and Jerry.

I mean, that's the soundtrack of my summer evenings. So how could you resist 90 minutes of me asking him everything and playing everything, and we talked about everything? I don't know. Mike, do we really need to? This is another episode. This is about you. Okay, back to Gene.

Yeah, please take it up. By the way, I find it much easier to drive and ask the questions than it is to give you control and answer the question. That's fine. I feel like we're having a good wrap here. This is good. And I'm still upset that Caucasian is now on the ban list. Listen, I know I'm going to get fucking flack for this

because as much as your listeners are progressive, there's a lot of assholes out there too. But I wish I had my phone. My phone is charging. I'll look it up for you. But rock golf should be ashamed for using the t word and i'm sorry i read that one correct but caucasian i'm still okay aren't i caucasian it's like a when watley converted for the jokes remember yes would you have gino back to throw out the jams

of course are you any excuse to get gino back with his hopefully he brings his guitar maybe he plays along to his jams. Of course. Would you interview Ross? Of course. Would you interview Joe? Yeah. Would you interview Eric? Yeah.

I might have Eric on. Would you interview Monica about Eric? In nine months? So Eric has long hair, like really long straight hair. Oh, really? I don't know, right down to almost his bum or something. His bum. Not that I was staring at.

Not that there's anything wrong with looking at his bum. He's a shorter guy. He did not have to. He's shorter than Jerry Howarth. He was fine. You know what you should do? You know like how when you're a parent of a young kid and you put the pencil marks on the wall?

Yeah, of course. You should do that for every one of your guests. Because Dan Shulman, was Dan Shulman the tallest guest that you have? Dan Shulman? Not even close. Isn't he a tall guy? Yeah, but like not. There's been dozens taller than Dan Shulman. Leo Routens will probably be your tallest. Leo will be the tallest, but I'm thinking

of like a James Myrtle. You know who's really tall? James Myrtle. Oh yeah, I saw him walk by us at the Wolfpack and give us the Did he give us the evil stare? Give us the cut eye. He's still mad that I asked him about the... Here I am, I'm dropping bombs all over the place. Well, I have another bomb to drop in a minute,

but I think Myrtle was... Oh, he came on twice. So the people that are really... If you're pissed at an experience... Myrtle's been on the show twice? Yeah, he came on with Sean Fitzgerald. What do you think about the duo guest? It depends.

It's okay. I mean, I'm talking to the wrong guy. Give me wise blood. He listens to every episode. He's going to replace me. He's coming in next week. Of course he is. What were we talking about?

Dirt and somebody... Did you see the clip from 1985? It was so amazing. I just remembered. Okay. Actually, real quick aside before we come back to Gino. On torontomic.com, we have the open mics, right? Yes.

It might not even be an open mic, so this might be the wrong place. But bottom line is I wrote about the, I just shared pictures I took of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Yes. I remember seeing that. And Urooj Islam. This guy, he's on fire, this guy, in a bad way. Pardon the pun. Sorry, I didn't even mean that.

He's burning up like the Notre Dame Cathedral. I didn't mean that. Oh, boy. But Urooj, who I believe is a person of color. So he's not a Caucasian. He's not a white guy. I like the C word. Okay, so the funny thing is I never used the word Caucasian. It sounds like a police blotter.

I know, it's ridiculous. But I'm using it with Gino. You know, you have to think on your feet. Sometimes you say the wrong words. Okay, so Arooj Islam is a person of color. And he was remarking, he made some remark about how white people care more about buildings than they do about people. Like he made this generalization about white people,

all of us, we all care more about buildings than people. And this was on the heels. The context was that a lot of money was raised very quickly to restore this cathedral. In fact, they raised more than they need. Like millionaires coughed up coinage.

Okay. It was a billion dollars, I think in 48 hours in 48 hours right but like they still have like flint michigan still can't drink their water you know what i mean okay so so rouge is making some interesting points making us all think you know i was stroking my little my little beard my scruff here okay so uh i think i replied back with a sarcastic to Aruj, a sarcastic, I felt it was very sarcastic, something like white people suck or something like that. Something like that, okay. Fair.

Right, I thought it was just a snarky, it was kind of a strange generalization he made. I said white people are the worst or something like that. And a couple of people, one person said that was racist of me. And the other person was really disappointed that I would say that. And I don't know if you caught this. I don't know if you probably haven't seen this, but it's still there. I didn't delete anything, but am I crazy to think that, uh, I'm allowed to say, aren't I allowed to say white people are the worst if I'm a white person? Like, how does it work anymore? Like, first of all, it meant a sarcastic snark.

It wasn't meant, I'm not being serious. And as I pointed out to the individual, I said, I think my reply to the people who said I was being racist was, I think I said something like, I'm not racist. Two of my children are white people. So a couple of things.

One is, I don't think you're racist. I know you're not racist uh because i know you uh but the thing that doesn't uh resonate is tone in on a blog but i said white people are the worst but the so listen hold on a second so tone the way you just added tone to what you just said i know i'm defending my right to think you people are the worst. You can, you know, understand someone's commentary a little bit better when you can understand

their tone. And you can't do that very well in the written word. So that's one. So words matter. And then two, you probably shouldn't say that anyway

because it's, you should just not say that. But at the same time, you can say that when there's tone. And there's no tone. My thought, and tell me if i'm wrong here and and maybe i am wrong but if you are part of a like if i were to declare that

blue-eyed people are the worst i feel like that's okay because i'm a blue-eyed person but if i were to declare brown-eyed people are the worst now that's offensive but why why do you get to speak for all blue people blue-eyed people because i'm it's a self-deprecating say that like it where where a rouge would have probably not had some of the reaction that he had is if he said generally speaking based on what just happened white people like their buildings better than yeah some white people clearly prefer buildings right people without a doubt i mean it's a fair comment the way in which you structured it or the way and again then the commentary back is going to be well i'm not going to worry about how i fucking

you know our ceo says something that i fully believe in words fucking matter words okay can i tell you what you say things is super important And so when you're going to write something down on a blog, I get here and I get your blogs. It's free-flowing conversation. There's emotion. There's blah, blah, blah. But yeah, I mean, when you look back at something historically, whether that be a day or a week or a month later,

the words matter. And the tone isn't there to be able to understand. But here's, can I tell you my thought on this? And you can tell me I'm out to lunch. I think you're the right guy for this quick, brief discussion before we get back to Gino. How I feel is it all has to do with, okay,

when you're talking about an oppressed group, this is how it works for me. This is why I feel you can go do a Scottish accent. It's fine. But you would, I don't think it's fair. If Elvis, you start breaking into a South Asian accent. Just don't just do your own.

No, I know you're big on like, no, but I'm here telling you my thoughts on this and you can tell me I'm not at the end. Hold on. So, it's all about, is it an oppressed group? Like, for example, so if you're going at white people,

white people are not an oppressed group. So, to me, that's fine. You can't go at a person of color because there's an oppressed group. It's sort of like, you can't have a straight pride parade that's uh gross and offensive but of course you could have a gay pride parade you know what i mean so it all has to do with whether the group that you're just talking about is an oppressed group or not so i would say that saying if i were to comment that white people are the worst it's fine because the white people are not an oppressed group.

Never have been. That's my thought on it. So before you make, that's why people say, I will say, you will admit that you can probably go on the radio right now and do like an Irish accent if you're not Irish. Sure.

And you're not going to get a lot of blowback. No, but. But you can't, if you broke into a Jamaican accent. It's also just stupid. Well, that's a different story. Unless you're... I'm talking about if you were going to a Jamaican accent,

that would be regarded as offensive. The problem is that a lot of times when this is happening, it's just not funny. It's not funny. You haven't heard my Irish accent. It's very funny. Right. I guarantee it's not funny.

But if you're, you know, Anthony Manoscuco and you're, I don't know, that's how you say his name, and you get up there and you're imitating your Italian father, that's fucking funny because he's funny. Oh, he's in Green Book. Right? Is he in Green Book? I don't know. Is he?

I think he's in Green Book. I don't know. But he's a popular stand-up comic right now. All right. He's an Italian guy. He's got content to go along with the good impression. Okay, but he's also the Italian descent, which gives him license to make that.

I agree. Listen, what I'm suggesting here is that if you're going to do it, at least make it funny. Any radio bit, 9 out of 10 radio bits, not funny. In conclusion, the Stevie Wonder joke was very funny. I think that's the bottom line. If it wasn't funny, then Gino would find it. But I think it was very funny.

Did anyone suggest it was racist? No, but I was trying to understand what part of that joke Gino said was not funny. Gotcha. I think something in it. Do you think Gino had a bit? No, not racist. I forgot. Yeah, Stevie Wonder is a black man,

isn't he? I wasn't thinking race at all. I was thinking blind, blindest. Right. You're blindest, Mike. Citist. I thought it might be anti-citist.

I wasn't sure, but anyway, I love blind people. I think with a lot of these. Most of my blog readers are blind people. I think a lot. Not only Cheryl,

but there's blind Dave. That's right. I think a lot. Not only Cheryl, but there's Blind Dave. That's right. I think a lot of this is really a result of just people not being funny. And Blind Eric. Okay. Blind Eric. Blind Derek. Oh, Derek.

He was a guest on the show. He gave me a Roy Halliday autograph. How tall was he? I can't remember about my height. Back to Gino. So we discussed the fact he was interrupting. I'm just checking my clips. We pulled that clip. We talked about the Stevie Wonder joke. Can we play the

Get Off Black Cars clip again, please? Alright, here it is one more time. Thank you. I want to know if you at the time regarded Black Cars as any sort of, like Joe said, Can we get off Black Cars? My God. We're only half an hour more on black cars. We can move on to another cut from the same album here.

I got more black cars questions. Only half an hour more. That was good. You know what? You're breaking my heart, Gino. Can we get off black cars? I'm going to wake up in the middle of the night tonight in a cold sweat.

Did Gino really say that? You remind me of my parish priest. Get off of it, I said. Hey-o. Speaking of Notre Dame. And he can do that joke because he was raised Catholic. Well, also because it was probably true.

I mean, that's the reality. Or he was a Boy Scout. So, Elvis, let me ask you the big question. Everybody's wondering, what are your final, like, what did you think of the Gino Vanelli episode of Toronto Mike? So I didn't listen to the episode.

No, I, I promised. I, well, I didn't promise, but I said I would tell a story. Uh,

and your brother is going to, uh, comment on this. I'm sure. Which one? Uh, the one who always listens. The one who comments.

Yeah. The one who always listens. Um, so there was a moment where I can't shit now. Yeah, the one who always listens. So there was a moment where I can't, shit, now, see, I should have written it down.

But there was a moment where you played a song and it might have been Wild Horses. I don't know if you have that. Of course I do. There's crickets at the beginning of Wild Horses.

Yeah, and you guys commented on that. It wasn't his move, he said. I think Joe did that. Was that Joe? So anyway, so I think it was a song it might have been black cars but for whatever reason i'm in my car it's like five o'clock in the morning i'm driving to work and you're playing this song and i was immediately

transported back to little elvis um i don't know when i would have heard it, but I'm imagining it was, you know, early double digits in my age. And I used to listen, there was two places I used to listen to music. One was with my headphones at night and I would listen to music or mostly listen to hockey or baseball on the radio. But the other part, the other place that I would listen to hockey or baseball on the radio. But the other place that I would listen to music in the house, and I don't know why I would do this, but I would sit in my closet, and I would listen to music on headphones as well.

Maybe that's the introvert part of me. But I just had this, like, I was immediately transported back to this little Elvis, little elvis and remembering how much i loved the song and i started to cry as i was listening to the episode because it just brought back so many great memories of listening to a song that i loved so much at that point in time in my life and it was really i i caught myself it was like what the fuck and i just realized like i i really am enjoying listening to someone who clearly at that one even if it was not the only time i listened to it that one moment in time where it had a profound effect on my life i find

this fascinating because you've been so anti-nostalgia on this show. Like you pretty much, every time I, because I'm obviously into nostalgia and you like to poke me for that and like you pretend you have no like time for nostalgia. But the story you just shared of a song bringing you back to Little Elvis in the closet that brought you to tears. What nostalgia?

That's the bitter, what are the bittersweet memory of times gone by. Correct. As I've explained to you before, however, is that it's not that I'm anti-nostalgia. It's that I don't seek it out like you do.

So when I'm hit with it, listen, what am I, heartless? Oh, maybe. But I'm into it. Like, you know, but I don't seek it out like you do.

What was the song we played last time you were here that reminded you that your mom loved? Oh, it was Elton John, Don't Let the Sun Go Down. Was it? Yeah, Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me with George Michael. Okay, so I took a little time to analyze. I listened back, and I heard you talk about it. Oh, you did?

I think a lot of this anti-nostalgia sentiment from you is I don't think you like how it feels to go back there. And I think you wish you could reconstruct the relationship you had with your mother. Oh, yeah. But it's all about you and your mother. I don't want to be an armchair therapist here, although I am being one. You and your mother, like I don't want to be an armchair therapist here, although I am being one.

Your mommy issues are at the root of your anti-nostalgia plight. I wouldn't agree with that. Do I have mommy issues? Absolutely. If not, that has nothing to do with my nostalgia. Is it because she's not Italian? No. No. But it was, yeah.

I mean, it was a moment where i was just like oh wow i remember that sitting in the closet and that was it was it was beautiful it was really um for whatever reason i don't even know if it's true you know i don't i don't have any recollection of sitting in my closet listening to gino vanelli that's a repressed memory that came back it must be for whatever reason i thought of it, and it touched me. And that's why you're avoiding old songs like that, because they have the ability to do that.

You're saying... You're such an asshole. I think Steve and I will have a little discussion about this new revelation. I can't wait to hear that song. We just want you to be happy. Again, I just want you to be happy. You're such a dickhead.

In the present tense, you got a great thing. You beat is that correct okay right you got three amazing kids they're all healthy yes yes yes a wife who still shares a bed with you is that correct yes i mean you're stuck in north oshawa but you've got to make compromises along the way yes yes so in the you gotta i see that uh i i see on linkedin and from your official twitter account that you you got a big promotion yes yes yes yes you're like uh running microsoft or whatever you're doing amazing honestly you're kicking ass professionally yes yes yes yes uh life is good for elvis right? In the present. Yes. So why would you ever want to go into the nostalgia time machine

and go back to those memories? Well, yeah, I don't, that's the point. I don't seek them out. But if they come about, I don't avoid them. That's the difference between what you think I do

versus what I actually do. I don't avoid the nostalgia, but I don't seek it out. Well, then you should skip all my retro ontario episodes there's another one coming up did you listen to i don't know why i bother even asking did you listen to the on the one year anniversary of gourd downy's passing you know if if i listen to it i'm not even going to say i did okay but did you listen to the episode with ty Campbell and Jamie Dew. Did you listen?

No. No, I didn't. I didn't. So Jamie Dew is helping to raise funds for CAMH and mental health initiatives. This is a very good cause and I'm very proud of Jamie here. It's called Crazy Funny, the One Brave Night Extravaganza.

It's an evening of laughter, magic, music, and giving back featuring Elvira Kurt and many others. Elvira? Is that her name? Like that Elvira? No, no, no. That's the Mistress of the Dark. That's right. That's a different one, right? So this is Friday, May 10th at 8.30pm at the Social

Capital Theatre. Tickets start at $20. You can go to ashowofstrength.com to buy tickets. It's a very worthwhile endeavor for Jamie Du, friend of the show. And I urge people to look into it. Again, ashowofstrength.com. Are you coming to TML?

Oh, we don't have to be done. I'm in charge of the show. Do you have more questions? I can bring it down. to be done. I'm in charge of the show. But do you have more questions? I can bring it down. No, I think I'm good. I'm good. Did you enjoy the interview overall? Are you happy with the final product?

I prefer, I'm happy, of course. I prefer asking the questions. Where does it rank in your all-time favorite guests that were musical? Not very high because usually when I have a musical guest on, it's because I want to talk about The Watchmen for 90 minutes or Sloan for 90 minutes or there's many that

are higher ranked in my own heart because Gino Vanelli, I was 10 years old, there's a couple of top 40 jams. That's not the same as having Chris Murphy from Sloan over here. This was an opportunity that came along and he took it, worked it well, happy with the finished product, but not at the top of your list. I mean,

personally, I'll take Maestro Fresh West or Mishy Me. And guess who's coming on the show? Farley Flex. Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, that's more my bag. Moe Berg was a big deal to me. Is Fearless Fred coming on anytime soon? Actually, I had an idea for an episode.

Tell me what you think. Is Dean Blundell coming on? How about Stafford? Stafford coming out soon? Molly Johnson? I got a number. Look, if you look at the phone,

I'm getting, Rogers is sending an emergency alert. What does it say? Amber alert. Amber alert. Okay. There's an Amber alert.

For a five-year-old boy in Mississauga. Interesting. I have to go on my bike and find this poor child. That's close, Mississauga. Oh, shit. The suspect is the mom. Oof. Breaking news.

In fact, I'm going to have this episode up in 15 minutes, so the Amber Alert might be still active. Do you want me to give out the license plate number? Yeah, sure. it so the amber alert will might be still active so you want me to give out the license plate number yeah sure 2003 toyota matrix gray in color ontario plate 379 wtm and that wow wait wait talk about ending on a high note we shouldn't be laughing about an Amber O'Neill. Jesus Christ.

You want to go back and talking about me and my mom? Fuck you, dickhead. It'll come full circle. Maybe that's why Gino didn't want to talk about Montreal.

There's something there as well. There must be something there. It's interesting. And that brings us to the end of our 455th show. You can follow me

on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Elvis, which of your handles do you want to share? Oshawa Elvis. At Oshawa Elvis. So let Elvis know that Caucasian's okay. You're an asshole. You really are.

Our friends, the PC police here. Our friends... I'm not! Who's offended by the use of the word Caucasian? Doug Ford over here, PC police. I plant trees, man. No, you don't. I did it with scouts. I burn trees down. Burn them all down.

That's legal now. Okay. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Elvis, I hope to see you at TMLX3. Yes. June 27th. I'll be there. Seriously?

Yeah. Well, I'm surprised. I'm delighted. Wait, you've had two. I've been to one. It's not unusual for me to show up. Because you'll be sent to Singapore or something. Right. Yeah, that's true. I'm delighted. Well, you've had two. I've been to one. It's not unusual for me to show up. Because you'll be sent to Singapore or something. Right.

Yeah, that's true. That's true. Isn't that what happened the first one, was it? Or the second one? Something like that. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptor's Devotee, the robot. Palm Apostle is at Palm Apostle. You and I love to chat about good old days of Il Duce.

That's right. See, I'm nostalgic. Yeah, that's right. See, I'm nostalgic. Yeah, that's right. That was 12 years ago. Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair is at FastTime.gr. Camp Ternasol. Now listen,

the Camp Ternasol It's good shit. Send your kids that. Promo code. I'm telling you. It's expiring soon. And if you're even like on the fence about this,

it's Mike 2019. If you're on the fence about it, pull the trigger now with that promo code. I'll owe you one. I'll buy you a beer. Sticker U is that sticker U. Is this a party all you can drink? It's open bar? No, you get your first drink on the house and then it's $5 a pint.

Right. Okay, cool. Open bar. Yeah, there's this free lowest of the low show and drink's $5 a pint. Right. Okay, cool. Open bar. Yeah, there's this free lowest of the low show and drink as much as you want. Well, you bought this new fucking board

and everything and you paid for Gino Vanelli to be here. And TMDS investment. I get to write part of this off and write my taxes. See you all next week. Yeah, yeah, yeah.