Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Ashley MacIsaac: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1715

Episode Date: June 19, 2025

In this 1715th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with fiddler Ashley MacIsaac about his pre-fame time in New York, dating RuPaul, breaking with Sleepy Maggie, and which controversies are real and which are pure artistic performances. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, Yes We Are Open, Nick Ainis and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1715 of Toronto Miked! Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta! Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Yes, we are open! An award-winning podcast from Monaris, hosted by FOTM Al Greggo. Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball. Get your butts to Christie Pits this summer for the best baseball in the city outside the dome Recycle my electronics dot see a committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past

building Toronto skyline a podcast and book from Nick I Ene's sponsored by fusion Corp construction management Inc and Ridley funeral home pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his Toronto mic debut, it's Ashley McKisick. Hello. Ashley, how you doing, buddy? My gosh, I have really bad internet signal where I'm at. I've been running around here for the last 10 minutes

trying to get onto this Zoom call. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you, I'm at. I've been running around here for the last 10 minutes trying to get onto this Zoom call. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you, but can you hear me? Yes. So whereabouts are you right now? I am in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia. So where do you call home these days? I have a home in Windsor, Ontario, and also I have an old convent that I live in in Cape Breton when I'm there.

Okay, did you ever live in like Oshawa lately, recently? I've never lived in Oshawa. Okay, I feel like there's Ashley McKisick sightings across this country. Well, there are, I suppose, more than one person with the same name, and I look different sometimes. You can see today I got some crazy hair, the clown do. But no, I lived in the Colberg area and up near Peterborough a number of years ago. Okay.

And then I spent many years living in Toronto. but my main times have been in Windsor, Ontario and in Cape Town. Okay, well, you know how I wanted to start this episode. I wanted to say, hi, how are you today? Fine, thank you very much. We got to thank Jane Harbury because Jane's a sweetheart, right? Yeah, indeed.

And again, are we ready to get rolling here? Are we all my friends to start? We've already begun my friend. Okay, well I'm gonna have a bite of my noodles. Okay, yeah, you be you man. I'm just gonna chat you up. And again, I appreciate you, you know, finding some time to talk to this independent podcaster in South Etobicoke

Well, you know Toronto Mike or should we say South Etobicoke Mike You get you get a lot of following I'm told I'm I'm coming up to the Ontario Area tomorrow. I'm actually I'll the Ontario area tomorrow. I'm actually, I'll be arriving around 4 a.m. We're there to play a few shows. I come back and forth every, you know, maybe two or three months, I'm doing a few shows somewhere in Ontario.

Ontario is that bedrock of towns and cities for Canadian artists to come play. So this time I'm in Dalhah, Ontario, St. Catharines, Ontario, downtown Toronto at the famous Hughes Room. And then I'm out somewhere else that's somewhere between Ottawa and Toronto. And it starts with the letter G. And that could be one of 50 places. I don't know. That's funny. So specifically your appearance at Hughes Room. So I have on my notes here that Ashley McKisick live in the green Sanderson Hall at Hughes Room on June 21st. That's 296 Broadview Avenue. It's an 8 p.m. start. The doors open at 7 p.m. and you can grab your tickets. I think it's 57 bucks at the door, $50 in advance. Look, look, I'm telling you, it's not like it once was.

You used to be able to go see, I mean, if you come to Cape Gratton, you can still see me play for $8 at a local pub. It's true. Tickets are expensive though, and people know. Of course, Ontario prices, people are used to prices being a little higher. But a lot of artists didn't get to go out and perform for a couple of years during COVID. And everybody's trying to make up for that. So in a smaller venue like the Hughes room, tickets are sort of expensive. But if you can do anything for

$60 these days, you know, get a pizza and have it delivered, you're doing okay. So I hope you don't get upset by when people see prices like that at $57. But you know, I'm coming from Cape Breton. So you don't have to go very far. If you're in Toronto, just come over to Sheerborn Street. Oh, you know, I've been to Cape Breton. Beautiful. In fact, I was in Ganish when the Tragically Hip had their last concert. I remember watching the final show from Kingston, Ontario in Ganish, Cape Breton. Wow.

I think I was in Windsor that night. I remember when that happened, of course. I had the great privilege of being out on the road with Gord and the hip a number of times. And during another roadside attraction tour, Speaker Peterborough, we went for, after one of the shows was myself and Las Lobos and Sheryl Crowe on that year.

We took a trip up there in that area. I'm not sure exactly if it was Bala or where we went to. But I had about $500 worth of lobsters flown in from down near Ingenish, Cape Breton. Wow. And had them shipped up there and then we had this big party up there. So yeah, Gord was of course a mentor for so many rock stars. And how in the heck I became a rock star? Because I mean, arguably, that's what happened. A lot of it had to do with being out on the road with Gord Downey and getting that opportunity to be in front of

those big rock audiences. Well, I think a lot of it had to do with that. But also, Sleepy Maggie was a huge alt rock hit, believe it or not, like a fiddler. And it's what is that, Gaelic? I mean, maybe we should dive into how Sleepy Maggie comes to be because it was all over my alt rock radio station. You know, it did play that way, but I'll tell you more oddly that trapped in the urban radio system quite a bit in America and Canada. And it picked up in areas that

I remember in Los Angeles going into a, you know, like a, a BET style interview. And you know, these, these big guys from Crenshaw coming out and meeting me out front and me and them and sort of like, okay, this is him. You know, like who's the girl, right? And being asked the question, so is this like Spanish? People didn't really ever understand off of where it was coming from. Because yes, it was Gaelic song sang by Mary Jane Lamond and how the track came to be, it's really odd. It's like today it's actually 31 years today that I would have been in a studio in, I guess Toronto,

your reaction studios. I was there with Michael Philip Woyawoda in I guess Toronto, the old Reaction Studios. I was there with Michael Philip Woyawoda and Michael was the first guy to come in after the first set of recordings. I did some demoing in Cape Breton and Gordy Sampson who went on to write Jesus Takes the Wheel for Carrie Underwood amongst other tracks.

He he suggested that we use the fiddle tune Sleepy Maggie which is an Irish fiddle tune or a Scottish fiddle tune. Said why don't we do that and put some lyrics to it. I said okay. So we did a basic demo of that in Cape Breton. Skipped ahead about about 12 months, were there at Reaction Studios. And I know today because it was actually today that, as I say 31 years ago, I recorded McDougall's Pride, which was also written by Gordy Sampson and myself. We were in a hotel room smoking hash somewhere and wrote this beautiful fiddle tune.

And so we recorded that with Quartetto Gelato and also that a band called Jail, when you talk about alternative rock in Canada, you know, they were the young ladies from Halifax who were carrying the torch of feminine Sloan, you know, they were, they were the grunge girls from Halifax. And so today, as I say, I remember this only because yesterday was the anniversary of the OJ Simpson, you know, racing down the street truck thing. And it was the day after that,

that we were in the studio recording these other ones, because I remember the day when we stopped recording that day, we all just in the studio recording these other ones, because I remember the day when we stopped recording that day, we all just watched the OJ race or chase. Sleepy was recorded over the period of the next few weeks, numbers of times with Michael Phillip, and then eventually I moved on from there and went into another studio and worked with a guy named Pete Pralesnik. Pete came in and took the vocal tracks that were done in one of the sessions, the fiddle that was done in another session, and then got the guys from Big Sugar to do some more backing tracks. Literally, Sleepy Maggie took about 22 months

to record. Wow. I'm a little boy, little boy, got to cheer up I'm a little boy, little boy, dance a little bit Come on and meet me, dance a little bit Come on and meet me, little boy Come on and meet me, dance a little bit Got a little bit of dream I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a

I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a

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This was only possible because of the good people at Great Lakes Brewery. They're hosting us on June 26th from 6 to 9pm. Show up for TMLX19 because Paul Mopasta is going to feed you. And of course GLB will buy you your first craft beer. Al Grego will be there, he's hosting Yes We Are Open, an award-winning podcast from Monaris. Subscribe and enjoy Season 8.

Nick Ienis will be there, he hosts Building Toronto's Skyline. Will Cliff Hacking be there? I hope so. He's from EPRA, the good people behind RecycleMyElectronics.ca. The official ambassador of Toronto Maple Leafs baseball is Snow. Will Snow be there? I'm told he will be. Come hang with the Snowman at TMLX19. And without a doubt, Brad Jones will be there.

He owns Ridley Funeral Home and he hosts Life's Undertaking. I urge you to subscribe and enjoy to that fine podcast. Let's stop fiddling around. Let's get back to Ashley MacIsaac on Toronto Miked. Music Yeah, a long time. A lot of sessions, a lot of recording, different people, different takes on it. The final result was Pete Perlesnick's. It played a lot, but I'll tell you, Sleepy Maggie, as much as it's easy for me to play it because it's a fiddle tune, I still play it.

You know, Mary Jane's not out on the road with me she's living a comfy life somewhere. But what made that track pop on your sort of style of radio and not that it ended up being you know a much music song was first Devil in the Kitchen. And so Devil in the Kitchen popped because the hero was saying, Oh, what's this fiddle stuff? I was just hammering it out on that fiddle track. And that was the first video. And that sort of fit into that grunge appeal that was around of alternative young new music in Canada. And we did that. Then the next single release was Sleepy. Sleepy is what took off across multiple charts.

It even had some success in the States, right? I think it did top 10 in the urban charts in America at one point in certain areas. It's a really odd story. I'll tell you what happened with that record in the States. It retorted quite a bit. I've been out with the hip. We're getting lots of media. And then because it was charting in the urban world, Universal down in the States said, we want you to come perform and we want you to be at the Urban Radio Conference in Florida.

So I've been out now at this point a couple of years on the road touring. I had made quite a bit of money in Canada. Was just, as I say, rocking around the world playing fiddle. And we go to Florida and it's about 120 degrees that day. And we're in this little sort of convention center. And we walk in and there's two other bands supposed to be playing. We're supposed to be a hip hop act. And then they were closing, I was in the center and

there was a young act that was opening that had never performed in front of radio before. And so sure enough, the night before in this East Coast, West Coast beef that was going. Um the compadres to the hip hop these guys backstage, you going to go on. We're like, looking at all this and li and I was like sitting ther

on whatever. And they said aren't going on. So I was about the joints and I was like sitting there going, these guys are nuts. I'm just here to play some music, right? I said, I'll go on whatever. And they said, okay, then you guys aren't going on. So it turned out the hip hop act didn't go on stage. Instead it was the first act and then me. I go on after who has never been seen before and is now appearing in front of like an audience that's already hyped up because they knew there was this gangster shit going on. Hanson.

Whoa. Hanson walks on stage, five year old on the drum, killing it. It was so good. It was unbelievable. We were just like blown away. Everybody was like, this is unreal, right? Bob is being played on stage. So next is supposed to be the hip hop act,

but they don't show up on stage. And I walk out on stage like, Hey, don't shoot. Everybody's like, what? Who's this jerk guy on stage? Started playing. As soon as I started playing, it was down in the kitchen. My bridge broke on my fiddle, had to grab my other fiddle, pulled the second fiddle up, and the pickup pulls out of the fiddle. That number is a wash. By the time we get to the second number,

people had still been waiting for the hip hop act. Most of the urban radio guys are just like, yeah, this guy's insane. They walked out. That was the end of the charting of Sleepy in America. Right there. You know, actually, that's a great fucking story. But how young are you at this point?

I would have been 22. OK, because I know I'm older than you and I'm just doing quick math in my head. I feel like you might be younger than that, but you know, you're a. I mean, I was it was it was 97, I think that for a gig. OK, yeah. Hey, so again, I I'm gonna bounce around a bit actually I'm just so like jazzed to be talking to you but if I don't get to someone. Can I tell you something? Yeah anything.

You're gonna hate me but I'm getting the answer here cuz I'm running around here I'm trying to find a lighter so if you see me moving I gotta get a smoke. No you know I'd be you as long as you can talk. I don't care what you're doing, man. This ain't a TV show. That's for sure. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. But I gotta get to some listener questions

and then I have my questions. Okay, but Diamond Dogg, it's a good handle, right? Diamond Dogg says, as a proud Southpaw, I wanna know why there aren't more lefty fiddlers. So can you speak to this as a left-handed fiddler? You know, it's not... I get asked that all the time.

I was playing last night a show for the Heads of Empire brands. There were people in from the States and people from all over Canada, all these chair people and somebody shouted, why do you play the fiddle left-handed? And I was like, just like this. They're like, because that's how I play hockey, you know, so it's just how I picked it up and some of the people wonder why I play a right-handed instrument. Uniquely, if you were to play a left-handed instrument, you've had to change the strings and the bridge and that sort of stuff around, and it makes

it impossible to play anybody else's instruments. So when I picked up my instrument, the teacher at the time looked how I was holding it. And I remember my father saying, should we change the strings around and he explained that. And I just learned it that way. That was it. So like you play it like upside down or you just play it backwards? Like how does that work? Just the strings are in a reversed way. Technically, in one sense, they make sense to me. I mean, I like to say to people I go, your hands go this way. And then your hands go that way. So it works, you know, either way. All right, you still got me on the net there. How's your

signal? You sound great. You actually sound better now. Okay, I'm outside now. Yeah yeah i just noticed there was a black spot came across the front of the screen so i don't know if that what that did yeah so i'm uh more concerned with the audio than i am the video but uh okay you're looking good there hey so um i'm gonna get back to the fiddle but jill wants me to ask you this he says i'd love for you to spend some time uh oh yeah sorry i i haven't had this visitor a long time. I've been here and all of a sudden, who's this visitor? Who is it? Give me

a play. Oh, I see a dog. Okay. It's gourd. It's gourd is named after Gordon Lightfoot. I bet. No, he's actually named after Gordon Downey. There you go. All the great gourds. Okay, very cool. What's good? Hey, gourd. All right. Yeah. Okay, very cool. Hey, Gourd. Hey, Gourd. All right, so from Jill. He wants me to ask you about that time that you and Buddy McMaster opened for the White

Stripes because that's just the White Stripes are Jill's favorite band and they had their 10th anniversary. And then he points out a fun fact, which you can tell me is true or bullshit, but he says you're a distant cousin of Jack White. Well, we're not that distant. His father and my father would be first cousins. Okay. So that makes you like second cousins, I guess. Right. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Or actually, actually what they'd say in Cape Breton is first and seconds because sort of like that once removed type thing. Right. Um, uh, Gordon, it's so nice to see you. I haven't seen you in a while. I'll get you some stuff. Don't jump out with me though. Anyway, the thing with a lot of maritime was over the years moved Ontario into different places

in order to get work, of course. And his father is a Gillis and he ended up in the Detroit area working in the sixties in the car car industry. And that's how he came to be there and born up in that area. I remember used to play places in Detroit and Jack used to come out with his parents when he was like young, you know, 14, 15, basically before he was really playing music and the opportunity come up that

the tour was on the road They're doing the great white tour and he said we come down and play and I said yes And I said buddy wants to play the show too. So buddy was there. There's a really great Like a DVD or whatever of it a box set. I haven't seen it, but I know that's out there But that's that's how that tour came to me it but I know that's out there but that's that's how that tour came to me. Amazing. Okay so Jill thanks you. Daniel Koo says listening to Ashley live one time I thought I heard him run a theme through a series of modes a la Charlie Parker. Is that something he does or am I off bass? I play different themes and

how I perform my tunes. I don't know anything about Charlie Parker other than my bass player once would have mentioned them. Obviously, I'm not a big, you know, understander of jazz music. I've sat in front of an audience and said, okay, how do you want me to play? And do you want me to play this way or that way and just play the scale of tunes? But most of my music is fiddle music. They're all short little medleys. What Hi How Are You today was,

was taking some of those melodies and putting them into an arrangement. Typically when I play sets of traditional tunes in a traditional fashion, like I'll be doing at Yous Room, because I'm not taking a band out there, that's very occasionally do I perform with a band anymore. I got a great young guitar player who's a fabulous jazz student.

We just play what comes next in our mind. And that's sort of the traditional way of playing is tunes in the same key, a set of jigs, a set of reels. Of course, we do Sleepy, we do McDougals, we do stuff like that. But the traditional way of playing is really just playing medleys of tunes together. That's the only way I suppose you could consider it somewhat jazz. All right. Mike B writes in, and I'll read it verbatim here because I'm not sure I understand what I'm even saying here. I once saw a performance

mid 90s maybe when that might have been dancers rather than actual violinists who were playing or pantomiming something. Lots of stage fog, dry ice, they were wearing masks, but they were white masks. Ashley then comes stomping in, his army boots is kilt, and he obliterates them on the fiddle, and I could never find this clip online can actually point me in the right direction. Tell me what I'm talking about. No, I can't because I think I know what they're talking about and I've actually looked for that performance and I believe it was on ice. It was in the mid 90s.

It was in Ottawa. It was a performance that was live on television. It was really crazy too because that situation that day was one where because it was live, you know, there was no room for mistakes and there was a guy who was going to do a daredevil thing where he came out on skates, there were 16 barrels and the idiot who came out to light the fire for them lit it five seconds too early. So the guy went to jump and he got to about barrel 14 and the fire already hit and it hit his sort of plastic sort of leotard he was wearing set him on fire real fire the guy is on fire on the ice

now crazy performance that's probably why it disappeared because again somebody got severely injured that day I know Kurt Browning Elvis Stryko they were all on it but I did perform and I remember all these people coming out in white masks and that sort of thing. That was somewhere near Ottawa. It was recorded. It was like Stars on Ice live. Sounds like a fever dream. It was bizarro. We were standing there and I was looking and going, that guy's on fire. And they didn't realize, nobody sort of realized that it had gone wrong.

What they did was change the person who was setting the fire from the rehearsal to the show and the guy didn't do the right timing. Crazy show. I don't know whatever happened to it. Man, speaking of, yeah, if anybody listening can point us to this video, there's an inquiry minds who want to know. And I'll get you that, Ashley, if somebody digs it up, who knows who, but hey, I got to ask you about late night with Conan O'Brien. Hopefully you can speak to this. It's kind of like the stuff of legends now that you're performing Sleepy Maggie on Conan's show and you're wearing a kilt, but you know, as a nothing under that kilt.

Can you tell us exactly what happened? Because I know they blurred it out, but did you do that on purpose? Like I'm just curious. Well I always wore kilts that way. That's the standard way to wear a kilt is without underwear and we did a rehearsal that day. They saw it in soundcheck. I did the high kick. I guess they didn't catch it or somebody did and they thought it was funny and then when it came time to broadcast it that night we performed it live and somebody says, oh my God, no, we can't, we gotta go back. And I just remember them backstage sort of scurrying going,

no, it's okay, it's out there now, broadcast it. So they were in on it in one sense, it wasn't really a gag, it's just what I do. And that's why I don't wear a kilt very much anymore because I'm getting older. Well, you know, the gravity, you know what happens, like it's too low to the ground the older you get. Well, there was that famous show in Canada, Ear to the Ground. It wasn't my ears in that case.

Yeah. And if you don't do that on ice. Instead of keep your puck off the ice. Instead of keep your puck off the ice. You know there's a story, it's funny because I just recorded with Rick Vibe, former captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was at this golf. I'm coming right back. Oh yeah, tell Gord, I won't take you too long. Basically there's a story, Harold Ballard had a dog who would be in these photos on

the ice at Maple Leaf Gardens and there's this story Rick tells me about the dogs, basically scrotum being glued to the ice. Harold, Harold Ballard. Did you mean Harold Ballard, senior? Yeah. Senior. Yeah. It sounds about right. He was a cat. That one. I mean, we all know what happened in the end with Harold Ballard, senior. There was some charges and stuff. He was a bit crazy guy, right? Oh, yeah

But Harold Ballard jr. Yeah, man. I could tell you stories about that man that would make you make you shrink He was real crazy. He wants I took him to Cape Breton once he wanted to go see See that the first person out of Cape Breton that really was a star was John Allen Cameron. Now John Allen Cameron, of course, in the late 60s, he left Nova Scotia playing guitar, playing fiddle tunes on the guitar, and became a big star of the Mariposa set, and ended up having his own TV show in the 70s and that sort of thing. And he liked to hang out at the Hot Stove Club. And so he was very well known amongst the hockey crew. And so Harold, he knew Harold

and Harold came down to Cape Breton and put him in touch with me. Ashton will show you around, right? So I take him down. It was a John McDermott tour. The first time that John McDermott was ever performing live. Harold had hired him because John was working

in the newsroom for him. And Harold asked him to play a Christmas concert. And as the story goes, Harold offered John after that night, $25,000 to go in and record the songs. And so John was out doing a tour. Harold was there with him. I went out and I played fiddle.

And they said, let's go take a trip around Cape Breton. I said, OK. So we went to Fortness of Lewisburg, which is the famous old French fort where basically Canada was settled. The Quebecers think it was settled there first. They forget they had to get somewhere before they got there. So there they were in Fortness of Lewisburg. But it was settled there first. They forgot they had to get somewhere before they got there. So there they were in Fortress of Lewisburg, but it was closed. You know, it was after hours,

it was late at night. And I just, I can never get this image out of my head of little short Harold Ballard with his, you know, grubby, big fat mitts. And man, he lived life large. And he, large and he climbed the walls of the Fortress of Lewisburg and scaled the fortress. He got stuck up at the top where the spikes are and he's falling over the other side. He actually broke into the Fortress of Lewisburg. It's like you're coming to Cape Breton, what do you want to do? I want to break into the Fortress of Lewisburg. That's who Harold Ballard was. He was a real crazy dude. He did some crazy things, man, out in the road, that guy. I had him out lots of different times. He took me out to meet, I met Madonna one night with him.

I'd already met Madonna when I was younger in New York, when I was dating RuPaul. I got so many crazy stories that like- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Back the truck, what is it? Back the truck up. Like you dated RuPaul? Before RuPaul was famous, I was in New York and one

night she we're at this bar and Santa Bernhardt and Madonna and everybody was there and George as I called him George says hey Ashley are you look at I just finished and get me this cassette tape, which turned out to be supermodel, which hadn't been released yet. And he goes, this is my new music, you'll love this. So the next morning after we left, well, I was out all night with him somewhere,

I don't know, in a bathroom, something, we were doing something. And we walked away and he said, him somewhere, I don't know, in a bathroom, something. We were doing something. And he, we walked away and he said, don't forget this. He gives me the tape. And when I came back to Cape Breton, I remember going, okay, how the hell am I ever going to get back to New York? And I kept listening to this tape and that was the inspiration for Sleepy Maggie, was supermodel. I listened to it over and over and over and thought, okay, if I play fiddle tunes on top of a beat,

maybe people will like it. It just so turned out that I ended up putting together a bit of a rock band, but yeah, I had some early days in New York before anybody ever heard of me in Canada where I was a club kid. And there's that movie that came out with Macaulay Cock and called Party Monster.

Have you ever seen that one? No. Where, you know, it's about X-Ray when he was running the Lime Light Club in New York where the kid got killed. Well, I was hanging out in the club with them all that time. I was there when the guy got killed and, you know, I was a club kid in those days. So there's a whole side of me that people really don't know that's not Canadian rock music.

But Ash, if this is before your fame is here, You're a teenager in New York at that time. Yeah Yeah, I'm 17 16 17 I'm still processing the RuPaul Mind-blow there. Okay, cuz supermodel was a big jam. You better work. That was huge all over 680 CFTR over here a long time ago in a little village in a town in Cape Breton, somebody came and saw this little white boy playing the fiddle. You know, it's the opposite story, but it's the same story I had how I ended up in New York. I was working with Philip Glass in a musical. So I was hanging out a lot and I was going to clubs. I was dating porn stars. I was doing all kinds of crazy things. And then I came back to Canada

and I joined Ron Hines Canadian singer's band from Newfoundland. I was playing mandolin and fiddle and piano and it was during that that I would I would go out and perform one of my own numbers in his show and that's what led to me putting a rock band together. But before that, you know, it was dance music in my mind. I ended up my first single was actually with Chris Sheppard from BKS. That was the first single I did before. Hi, how are you today? Come out. You have any idea where Chris Sheppard is today? No.

I'm kind of looking for him. It's been 14 years since he made a public appearance. Yeah, I don't know. I maybe 10 years ago heard something about him when one of the other members died or something, but I don't know. Actually, I'm going to revise that. It's been 11 years, I think, because in 2014, I have some recordings of him, but it's been a while. But okay, if you if you hear from Shep, you'll let me know, right? Tell him Toronto Mike's looking for him. Is he still alive? Well, I believe him to be alive. I haven't heard anything otherwise, but he's he's I guess he chose to Leave the grid as they say cuz he's checked out funny the very the very first song I did that was a chart single was called The square dance song but before that I got known for recording a track I did with with Shep on

It became the the opening track for uh Much East which you know if you remember Mike and Mike, Mike Campbell had a show where he hosted and the beginning of it was me playing a fiddle tune by the group The Grid and The Grid uh had that famous you know sort of banjo tune out. We did a cover of it myself and BKS. And so that was my first connection. Let's just hope he's not in Iran. Anywhere else in the world, he's probably alive. I heard Costa Rica, but we're still the fan.

It's funny, because I told you the Harold Ballard senior story, and I think the dog's name was Puck. And it's got his poor balls glued to the ice at Maple Leaf Gardens. And then I realized I had this episode of the guys from Glue Leg, like a deep dive into the history of Glue Leg. Wow. You appeared on Glue Leg's final album, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Glue Leg were amazing. I loved them. Yeah. Okay. Well, you got to listen to the Toronto Mike episode of the guys from Glue Leg. That's your, uh, your assignment. You know how that happened? I'll tell you. They were opening up for me in Ottawa and so Glue Leg comes on stage. I never walked out to see like the opening acts very much because typically they were like fiddle playing something and I was like, okay, whatever. I know how that works. Like I'm not going to go watch the show.

And so Glue Leg was on this show and I was again, like, I don't know, I probably took 38 hits acid before that show. And so I walked backstage, and I saw this guy come out wrapped in bandages. And I thought, what is this? And they were hot. They were a hot act. So I asked them when they recorded next, if I could play on it. So I asked to be on glue legs records. So they were wrapped where they? I'm holding in my hand the the Nash the slash rises again. There's a doc being made by Colin

Brunton here but that's the guy I think of when I think about wrapped in bandages, Nash the slash. Yeah man that's him. Jeez! It was there. Holy shit okay the late great. Now I'm gonna bounce around a bit more, but you talked about New York and you mentioned Sandra Bernhard and Madonna. Is that where, I'm curious, where are you introduced to the harder drugs? Oh, I never really had any other jobs. I made my living as a fiddle player. Since I was, you know, I started getting paid, I got my first check when I was nine from

the diocese. And when I was five, I was being paid as a step dancer. By the time I was 15, I was starting to make, you know, 10, $15,000 in the summer playing square dances. And it was just getting ready to the point to make a recording. I had an uncle who was a hash dealer in town. And I went to his place to get some hash one night and I said, gee, yeah, that's good. He said, hey, you got lots of money, do you actually? Yeah, why don't you give me some money and I'll buy some hash and I'll sell it for you. So, you know, he ripped me off in the end and I realized that's not my industry. So I've been smoking pot and hash since I was 16. And I like to do that.

And then headed out to BC, opened up, I think, for the odds or the bare naked ladies or something one day. And I smoked really strong pot. And I thought, OK, this is good. And then, of course, I ended up in Los Angeles touring. And just eventually out on the roads sitting in hotel rooms, you know, what are you going to do? You know, I'd have like 40 dates in front of me. I'd already bought eight cars. I was getting ready. I was in the

middle of building a house. I had countless amounts of hash and pot and mushrooms and acid. And, and then I was like, okay, what are all these people talking about smoking crack? Let's try that. So I was hanging out in a hotel room for about a month in Toronto and I just go into Regent Gardens. I'd buy some I'd go back to my hotel room. I had a few days off. I'd smoke. I'd smoke. I never performed in my life on cocaine on narcotics. Never never did. So it was always something I'd do in my off time in the spare time. I eventually got to the point where I was like,

okay, I like this too much, I better quit. So around February of 99, I flew to Mexico to get some raw cocaine after being up all night in Regent Park and said, okay, the lights are up. Got on a plane, went to Mexico, bought a whole pile of raw drug, went back to my hotel room.

When it ran out, there was still never enough. I said, that's it. And I quit then. And it was the story as it was, I remember a number of years later when Rob Ford, obviously, I have an odd connection to Rob too. The first video of Rob or the first recording of Rob and drugs,

was recorded by one of my ex-boyfriends by the name of Dieter. And Dieter had recorded him on the telephone asking for dope, and he sent the audio recording to the Toronto Star while he was still counselor. And so, you know, Dieter ended up dead when Rob became mayor and the other videos come out. 52 division had some protection on him for a while and eventually they said, we can't watch your house anymore while the Gugliani is out front with the big black escalate. And we got him on a plane. He flew to Germany and next thing, you know, a week later he was found dead in his apartment.

That type of drug use and that type of crazy was something that I knew would lead to a bad direction. So I got out of it when I was, I say like 24 was on my birthday and I took a year off, built a house in Cape Breton and started out on the road again. So it wasn't anything that I used for performance enhancements, but I did just sit back in the rock and roll lifestyle with my cars and my houses and go, what's and that was just a drug to try. Good on you for kicking that because to me you got one you know cannabis and cannabis is one thing right but crack cocaine that shit will kill you. Well look I wouldn't say that it'll kill you. I would say that what you will do for

it might kill you. Right. You know, look at Rob. Look at his brother. He's the premier there in Ontario now. Everybody knows the story of his brother. I mean, I grew up with people from Ontario working for me out on the road. Some of them went to school with the premier. He was a hash dealer when he was young. You know, he drove around in the Camaro and had his father's post-it note money or whatever that

little machine he invented. And he was like the big guy on campus. They were all associated with drugs. A lot of people were associated with drugs. And so if you get associated with a harder drug, then you're around some harder people. And I think the Premier saw that in his brother. He probably tried to protect him you know that's but people ended up dead there's videos you know videos are put out about his brother and then they ended up dead that's all I'm gonna say I so I don't

associate with that group of people that the Rob Ford saga if you will is sort of back in the limelight because Netflix just like yesterday dropped a new like documentary about the Rob Ford years like this is so it's sort of back in the limelight because Netflix, just like yesterday, dropped a new documentary about the Rob Ford years. So it's sort of like people are talking about it again, and young people are sort of- I remember being asked, Mike, I remember being asked, I got on the radio when this was happening, the question was in Ontario, can he still be the mayor? It was a cross-country checkup or something. And I stopped my car on the side of the road and I pulled the car over and I called in, they put me on and I said, look, if anyone knows that you shouldn't

be in control of a budget when you're a smoke and crack, it's me. And so I knew that there was no end to that. And I thought, this is not a guy who can be the mayor. And people were like, okay, everybody has an idea, but here's somebody who's actually talking from experience. That was a bad saga. It just so coincidentally happened that he died of a horrible disease of cancer. I don't think there's any correlation between the two.

But again, the dirty sullenness around this and the people who ended up dead with videos and like I say, my my first ex, you're right. People talked about him in in in Maclean's magazine. I was dating Dieter. Dieter was 15. Dieter was 18, I was 18, we were in New York when McClain wrote the story about me. And they, you know, he became sort of infamous that way. And so he was somebody who was associated with a lot of odd things. And again, he somehow connected in with Rob in these phone calls. Rob was looking for OxyCottons or something at the time from calling him on the phone or Deater, or something like that. And again, he somehow connected in with Rob in these phone

calls. Rob was looking for Oxycontins or something at the time from calling him on the phone or Dieter was. I forget how it was back and forth was his thing. But the whole association, it's why people sometimes want to legalize everything to try and take the criminal element out of it. But the dangerous thing now, obviously, and what I've been a proponent of the last number of years, and I hope Mark Carney, who I really don't trust, and didn't vote for and became a Conservative years ago, I've got to say, we were at a point where we had some politicians who talked about trying to stop the real scourge on Canadians right now,

which is the overdoses from fentanyl and the hard life that's there because of it. I've seen it, seen people on the streets. I hope they can start forcing some people in that really will die otherwise. Cocaine, I don't know if it'll kill you, but the people of Salat will. You make a great point. Firstly, that Cross Canada checkup, that was probably Rex Murphy. Yeah, yeah, probably. He's dead too. Poor Rex. He's dead too.

I remember, yeah, Rex was a good Newfoundlander. Yeah, yeah, probably. He's dead too. Poor Rex. He's dead too. I remember, yeah, Rex. Rex was a good Newfoundlander. Yeah, absolutely. And just, did you ever see the movie Half Baked? So there's that, so I think they're talking about, somebody's talking about being addicted to weed or something, and Bob Saget stands up and he goes, have you ever sucked dick for marijuana? And he's right. The point being that like when you have a true chemical addiction, the shit you'll do to scratch that ish and get your itch and get your fix. That's pride is around now, Mike, you know, and I'm throwing this interview all over the map for you. This is about me coming up to play in Ontario, some traditional fiddle tunes that use room,

but pride is around. And you know, a lot of people do a lot of things, like you said, when it comes to hard narcotics and their addictions and it's horrible. Uh, I gotta say with gambling, people jump off bridges with the addictions to hard narcotics. Yeah. You know, they used to say in, in the gay, the gay community, six beers from queers is what they'd tell they call straight people, right? That guy, he's six beers from queers is what they tell, they call straight people,

right? That guy, he's six beers from queers. One puff from a snuff. You know what I mean? That's narcotics. Okay. Well, you know, you kick that addiction to crack cocaine back in the late 90s. You never kick it. If you like something, you like something. So, you know, I just I choose not to use. But when you're at that, you know, not to bring up some old stuff, but at the very end of 1999, you know, you're at that rave in Halifax. And I mean, if I read one more... No drugs. No drugs.

So you, I don't know, was that a... Here's okay, let me set this up this way. I know you've been very generous with your time. I feel like I could do several hours with you, man. You're so interesting. But we lost a legend here in Toronto this past week when Stephen Leckie passed away. He was the founder and lead singer for the Vile Tones. And I did an episode with Liz Wirth and Kirei Papouts. And we just wanted to talk about the man Stephen Leckie. And in this conversation, we tried to figure out to borrow a wrestling term, like what's a work versus what's a shoot. Because he was so larger than life

with all this stuff going around, you couldn't tell what was real and what was like attention grabbing stick. None of it's real, none of it's real, none of it. A real show business person will tell you, I've been putting on shows since I was a kid. It's all a performance, since I was a kid. It's all a performance.

This interview is a performance. I go back inside, I'm going to pet the dog. So the reality is that show, that was a performance art that was based on, there was people in the local area have been dying during raves and they were dying from one hit of ecstasy. Didn't drink any water and they got a pill and these young people were dying. And the guy who, here's a real crazy story about that night. The dickhead, the complete jerk who was running that event came to me and hired me and he goes, actually I want you to make a scene for me.

I go, you want me to make a scene? What do you mean? He said, well, I want a rave to get well known. So what do you want me to do? He said, anything crazy you can do. I go, you want me to make a scene? What do you mean? He said, well, I want to, I raved to get well known. So what do you want me to do? He said, anything crazy you can do. I said, okay. I thought of Ozzy. I said, I'll get some rabbits. I'll put them on a clothes line. I'll eat them. You know, we'll do something crazy. Some, some dead rabbits said, yeah, it's perfect. So the day of the show, why 2k, you know, the whole world's supposed to end them going, this isn't going to make any press. He comes to me, pays me

$10,000 before the show that night. Yes the place sold out I walk in he comes side of me goes okay, by the way, actually we can't do the rabbits thing. I Go, what do you mean? That's the whole whole shit. He said no wait, you gotta do something else. I Said well, what do you want me to do? He says just just stick out like make a big, big scene of things. I said, okay, I got a DJ here. He turned out to be the guy who he ended up in Len and he wrote stuff for N sync and Alex Gregs is the guy I had someone with me. I forget her Casper was his name at the time.

Anyway, long story short, I turned around, he has a camera hiding behind the curtain from CBC. Doesn't tell me. And he says, Oh, by the way, CBC's here. I said, so now what do you want me to do? He says, just do what they're going to do. I said, okay, you paid for it. Here it goes. So I walked out on stage and I give this very anti-drug message by walking out in front of the audience and saying, Hey, you think you're high?

You don't even know what high is. I've done every kind of drug and I didn't die. Now I'm going to show you what high is. And I was performing to try and get this little buzz that they're on because even being high is a show, typically. And so they were there, you know, these young guys, young girls, and I'm screaming and I'm doing this, I'm playing to a beat. I did the thing that Jack White did before Jack did, actually, Speak the Stripes, I

said, bing, bing, bing, I played four notes in the fiddle and I go there that's one more note than you deserve you're not getting anymore and I kept performing doing the show he comes to the side of the stage screaming I'm everybody's getting upset and I'm like yelling at people and screaming at people the beats are playing I'm going to drop the beat he goes nine one one what the hell right and? And he goes, show's over. I go, okay, show's over. I walk off the stage. Everybody's gone out of the room. I'm waiting. I had a 45 minute contract.

I won't leave the room. He's like, you gotta get out of here. I'm going, man, you paid me for 45 minutes. This what you asked for? I'm not leaving. I'm fulfilling my 45 minutes. Around 40 minutes, two big guys come and say, get the hell out.

I go, fine, I'm going now. I walk out and go back to my hotel room a half hour later the guy who happens to turn out to become the premier of the Yukon range play he's a complete asshole he shows up with a gun at my hotel room with two guys and says we're outside your room with a fucking Mac man we want our $10,000 back we're gonna kill you I call the police you know they get rid of the guy. Long story short, that night was made out to be something that it wasn't,

but that's what performance is. It's something it isn't. You put on a show. I've been putting on shows and been paid to do many kinds of shows. I've performed on Carnegie Hall five, six times. I've performed all over the world. I've performed the Ac the world. I've performed

the Acropolis, I play square dances, and I'm going to be in Hugh's room on Saturday night. And that's about as real as you'll get traditional fiddle tunes with a guitar player, hoping you all show up. All right, actually, so I'm fucking fascinating because you're it's all a show. So if you and I, I don't know, I'm wrestling the this summer by the way. I'm doing a wrestling match I've always loved wrestling. So I'm doing a wrestling match this summer in an event called giant stock I have this image that I do where I take my hair out like this and I go on the fiery fiddler And I got this this rocker named Andre Petty Pau is a great young rocker from down here

And he runs giant stock and I'm actually going out to wrestle go figure.'s it's all wrestling it's all shtick it's all it's all a bit I walked into the record company when Randy Lennox was running it for the first day Randy Lennox who went on to run Bell Media I had the top acts in the country for about two years myself and Jan Arden were signed to A&M by a guy named Alan Reed who went on to to run Keras. And I walk into the office and I say, Hey, listen, I'm in the middle of making this record. And I got to finish this record. And you're not paying me the budget that you're supposed to pay me and you owe me $50,000 right now and back money. Can I

get paid because I'm going to have a tax situation come up right now or I'm going to end up filing bankruptcy or paying this tax bill of like $80,000. He looks at me and he goes well I don't know you from Sunday why don't you go get a job at McDonald's and I go Randy do you understand what I do for living? I stand in this small space that's the size of 8x8 and I stomp like

a lunatic. I'm like a wrestler this is a show but now it comes down to business there's two sides to every artist. One is what you see on stage and the other is the business side of it. I got out of the record deal that day. You know, Reed married to Kim Stockwood. Yeah, you know, Kim's great. Kim's from Newfoundland and Alan's always been great.

What a conversation that was the night when he told me to go get a job at McDonald's. Should have seen how that ended. Hey, did you did you recently work in fast food? No, but during COVID, I thought I really like KFC. I got to do something. I might as well get a job. And I said, if I ever get a job, it'll be at KFC. But then I would do it because I didn't want to take a job from somebody else.

I'm in Nova Scotia right now. I got a place in Windsor and I live in this convent. I have investors from here in Nova Scotia who helped me out and it's allowed me by the grace of God and angels to help me continue to tour and to make music after this long period where, you know, the accounting of it all was insane. I'm somebody who's gone out and performed and I never worried about saving any money. My deal was, hey, I'm going to go to the next gig. I've been doing it since I was a kid. So I've never had another job since since SleepyMaggie came out. Did you auction off 50% of your future earnings on eBay? I did and on Canada Day somebody from Saudi Arabia

purchased it and then it was considered an illegal sale and so the lawyers at downtown and Cadillac, Fairview, whatever they're called in Toronto who are doing the legals on it they come back they charge me 5600 bucks for about eight hours work and we had to cut the deal because it was considered a legal sale because it was considered indentured servitude the way that it was and they prevented any sales from it the way that I had put it for sale so that didn't end up falling through and the reason that it felt true was the ones from Saudi Arabia I found out where they were from and they came back and they said we can't have the person know who owns it. And then it started into the legal sides of it.

And then they use that as a defense to be able to get out of the sale was that it was considered slavery. You're an interesting man, Ashley. If I ever tell you the stories, I'm not allowed to tell you on the radio. So does this ever like, do you ever have any regrets at all? like that some of this stuff follows you around and people don't seem to have the savvy to know what's a work and what's a shoot like I think people think oh actually that's controversy. Yeah no no I've I've been so fortunate as I say as a fiddle player to become basically a Canadian rock star. Because I really play fiddle tunes, I play slow tunes, I play slow airs, I play jigs and reels.

And I had that moment of Canadian fame where Canadian artists were being looked at, started with Sloan, the Rankin family in the East Coast, and then me. And then eventually it went on to, you know, what do you call them? Great Big C, Newfoundland, Alan Doyle and such. So I was in a lucky moment to have media attention and everything else around my personal life and everything from drugs and gay and connections and traveling and touring. That's all part of the zeitgeist of what I call rock and roll. So I don't think there's any reason to have any regrets.

I'm gonna get you been fucking amazing. Like I absolutely love this chat and getting to know you. And at some point when you're like in Toronto, we got to find a way to kind of pick this up in person or whatever. But if you think this is a bad idea, you tell me, but I'm looking at this CBC article that comes up when you Google the name Ashley McKisick, okay? And it's 25 years old. It's dated January 4th, 2000. Okay? Okay. So I'm going to read it. And then now that you're on the line with me, you can call it out for what's bullshit, what's not real, what's fair, whatever. And then we'll remind people. It's all fairs in journalism. All is fair in journalism. There's one very famous journalism

course I studied at Ryerson that is about me and the McLean's article that came out two years before about me having a young partner. Well, today it will be nothing, right? So it's, I remember standing in line when I was again 17 in New York waiting for Madonna's sex book to come out and so I was at Tower Records I was waiting and I got the you know the silver wrapped book. Everything is about marketing and in Canada the notion of brashness we start from the top and pop is what they call it right. So people don't really look at celebrities in my day and age as being like, they weren't touchable.

You know, it was Anne Murray. It was, you know, Kurt Browning and, you know, that sort of thing. Tommy Hunter? Tommy Hunter, you know? So I didn't have a problem because I grew up watching Motley Crue and Madonna and that sort of stuff and thought this is par for the course media goes with it.

So what did they say? Okay. So again, January 4th, 2000 the headline is Ashley McKisick stirs up more trouble and you can interrupt me whenever but I'm just going to read it quickly. It looks like Ashley McKisick's New Year's resolutions don't include cleaning up his act. McKisick angered fans at two separate New Year's Eve concerts. McKisick began the evening at the Halifax City Hall lip-syncing to his songs without picking up his fiddle before abruptly before leaving abruptly after 15 minutes. Later he was booked for

a gig at a rave party. Again, he never picked up the fiddle. After 20 minutes of a profanity-filled rant into the microphone, McKisick was finally dragged off stage and asked to leave. He was to perform for 90 minutes and reports say he was paid $10,000 for the show. The owner of the club is demanding his money back.

McKisick's business manager, Rob Cohen, makes no... Yeah, we can stop right there. Because Rob Cohen was this guy who really worked hard to make the East Coast music industry relevant. But then I needed a manager. At one point, I was working with Jeff Rogers, who went on to work with V2 in the States, or V1, whatever it was. And long story short, I hired Rob for six weeks, then I wasn't working with Jeff Rogers who went on to work with V2 in the States and or V1 whatever it was. And long story short, I hired Rob for six weeks, then I wasn't working with him anymore. And Rob turned out to be a jerk. So he's the only guy ever punched in the face knocked out my god. Okay, because he made Yeah, so okay, so now glad you had that. And we already discussed what happened with that rave that night and the reasoning behind that.

And the former premier now of the Yukon. Okay. His ABC. Prior to that, the show, I'll tell you, there was some weirdness happened at the first show that night. Okay. And it wasn't lip singing. I went out on stage and I looked again, it's Y2K.

Jesus is supposed to be showing up. The computers were failing the end of the world. I thought, okay, it's New Year's Eve. What the heck? Had my band down from Toronto. They were a rock band and we're in Halifax and it's Lloyd Robertson Presents New Years Across the Country.

And I thought, what can we open up the show with? And I looked at Halifax and I said, let's do a song from Boston because Halifax has such a strong connection to Boston. So they started playing more than a feeling on the stage of which I didn't know the lyrics to. So I screamed a little bit into it and they all of a sudden went to commercial break. They went back and started playing the next tune and Lloyd Robertson came on screen and

said, well, I guess the boys in Hellefax are having a good time. We're going to be off to Ottawa now. And that's how that played out. It wasn't such a big deal. All right. So we'll skip this part with Rob there, but this is not the first time that Kaizic has shocked his audience. He's lifted his kilt and exposed himself on American television in I think that's a punk move man in 1996 he was dumped from McLean's honor roll of worthy Canadians after he admitted to having an underage boyfriend and enjoying sex acts that involved urination He was also dumped by his previous record label, largely due to his admitted problems with cocaine addiction. Like this is the shit that people will hit a CBC article 25 years ago.

Yeah, sure. And so I mean, and they're all based on stories that happened before I ended up having to sue global at one point for calling me racist. And the same newspaper, like six months later, had on the headline, MacCasag for Prime Minister. So when that story came out on January 4th of that year, six months later, I was playing Canada Day on the Hill with Kretchen as the Prime Minister. So the reality is, the sensationalism that has surrounded me as a performer has been based on a few moments. And it all goes back to that one thing about that McLean's article because I was gay. So here I was a gay guy and I had this young boyfriend at the time. I was 18 when I was doing the interview.

I'd just graduated and they were in grade 10. We're like two, three years apart, whatever it was. Wasn't a big deal. We weren't doing anything that was illegal. We weren't having sex, which is why they called it illegal because for gay people at the time, before Stephen Harper changed the rules, it was the old Victorian law that if you had,

he put something in the wrong place, then it was considered okay for you to put it in one hole, but not the other. I'm trying to say it that way. So long story short, we weren't doing that. We're not like that was happening. But it got sensationalized because I was talking about the fact that my boyfriend was a certain age and this reporter, she was from McLean. She came down to New York.

She sat down for an interview and she was from McLean. She came down to New York. She sat down for an interview and she was really, really fishy. And so I'm sitting in New York. I just done a, a, an article for Inside Edition. You know, I, I'd been on the, uh, the Jenny Jones show or one of these shows. I was doing crazy New York media and I did a people spread that, that weekend. She comes in to have to sit down to talk to me about this. I'm in America where I'm seeing you know gay rights talked about for years already and in Canada again there was no real sensationalism around it. You know we still don't know if Ann Marie's knees are the way they are because she plays golf

or because she's the way she is. Like this is the way the world is and I love Ann and I love Jan and I love Jan and I love all these people, but nobody will talk about the sexuality. So here I was talking about it and I should say Anne Murray has stated clearly that she's not gay. So I don't want to give that a notion. But the point is people talk about things sort of like hush hush. I wasn't going to be hushhush about it. I left Cape Breton when I was 17. There I was hanging out with RuPaul in New York dating a porn star named Bill Purlson, went by Steve Crystal on the X video series. Long story short, I'm back in Canada. They offered me

this Maclean's award. They come to meet me in New York. I'm doing the interview. And she said, so you have a boyfriend? I said, yeah, this is my boyfriend. And it wasn't actually, it was a boyfriend in Nova Scotia, but this other person was with me, Dieter, was another boyfriend. And so he goes, she goes, isn't that a bit risque that you're talking about being gay? And I go, well, what's so risque about it? I said, are you a dyke? risque about it. I said, are you a dyke? And she got really offended. And long story short, I just then spun a little bit and I was like, yeah, I like sex with piss, like whatever. I'll say whatever now. What do you want me to say to you lady? Like get over it, right? I'm having success and I'm a musician and you want to talk about this as being a stinky

thing. Okay, whatever. Now they study in Ryerson, the course on that journalist about whether or not she went too far. Well, clearly she was taking advantage of a thing and she tried to sensationalize it. There was other acts in Canada that made it afterwards. I mean, on the back of the negativity that came around that story, I sold a hundred thousand records. I was counting quarter by quarter.

Somebody came to me and said, you know, you better watch what you're saying. I go, listen, there's a famous politician who I grew up with who just passed away. It was the first legal case in Canada that the Charter of Rights and Freedom actually was used against for a freedom of organization and they Billy Joel McLean. And so Billy Joe used to

say, as long as they're writing about you, it doesn't matter what they're saying. And I thought at the time, okay, I have an obligation to talk about being gay, but I also have an obligation to my career. And the money just kept flowing. So I wasn't going to pull it back. Once the story started talking that were like bad boy, bad boy based around one night I was playing in Cleveland right beside the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And I just played the night before at the Junos. I walked out on stage, killed it. I have to go across the border, can't take any pot with me, of course,

from all over the states. Couldn't get any pot that night. I was like, I don't want to do this show, somebody can't take any pot with me, of course, from all over the States. Couldn't get any pot that night. I was like, I don't want to do this show if somebody can't get me pot. Somebody showed up with some rotten, dirty, skanky Mexican dirt weed. I was like, I can't smoke this. I took my fiddle and I smashed it off my bus. I said, we're not doing the show this night. It's canceled. I've been on the road nonstop. I'm saying I'm not doing it. My tour manager at the time said, oh, by the way, you have a second fiddle. I said, shit, I forgot. He brought me the fiddle. I smashed that one

on the wall too. I said, I guess there forgot, he brought me the fiddle. I smashed that one on the wall too. I said, I guess there's no show. Should've listened to me before I smashed two fiddles. So then I was considered bad boy. That was one show that I decided not to do. And I was looking at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and I thought, it's time to do a little rock star move here. I can't be my own boss.

If I'm gonna let the media write my story or I'm gonna let management write my story. I'm gonna let Randy Lennox and the record club industry write my story, then I'm not in charge. And that's just not the case. Long may you run, man. Shout out to Neil Young here. So we can see at Hugh's room on Saturday, and seriously, open invitation.

I'm in South Etobicoke, man. If you're ever in Toronto and you have an hour to kill a sequel in person, you'd love it. I'd love it. Open invitation. Jono Mike, so kind of you to have me on your podcast here to our listeners. Thanks for listening to me. Just spleel and spleel and go on and go on and go on about myself.

I'm sure there's way more interesting things to talk about. God bless all the people out there that are dealing with horrible situations around the world. We got it pretty good. I forgot to ask my famous question. Where do you keep your Juno Awards? See, I wanted to ask, you ask if this is about a show. Everything is a show. And my instant response was, well, you know where. But you know, reality is I got them in the convent. I have a haunted convent in Cape Breton, and they're sitting up on the wall. You know, you mentioned that a few times, I let it go. But I don't understand, like,

you live like this is an actual, is it an active convent? Or what is this like? Not anymore. It was owned. I bought it from Louis Del Vecchio, who was, you know, if you remember him from Louis Del Grande. Oh, seeing things. Seeing things. When I was 16, I only had one other day of work in my life. I was driving, it's this guy, I picked up hitchhiking and guy then the next year I picked him up hitchhiking and he said, Hey, we can't do our job anymore. Our car is broke down. Do you want to do this job for us this week? So I took this job and

went for one day as the Socan rep. I went to a store, I walked in. They said, we're not paying for music, that's crazy. I said, okay, I'm not doing this. And on the way back from that job, I saw a guy standing up in the field and I said, okay, I was smoking hash. And I look and I go, okay, I'm seeing things. This can't be real.

I'm driving to Cape Breton and here's the guy from Seeing Things standing in a field. Turned out it was the day he was buying this house. Skip ahead to last year, I'm driving by to go for this girl who we have a police escort we're gonna go meet who's just come back from Toronto to Cape Breton. We're gonna double lung transplant. They didn't work. She almost died.

They gave her another one. They take her home. They played her Ashley MacIsaac fiddle tunes while she was in the hospital and they, Ashley, you come here. So I drove down to there on the way back. Was it for sale? So I said, gee, I wonder if that's that same house. Drove up the road and sure enough, that's where they lived. And he had moved there. I saw him that day, 30 something years, 35 years ago, purchasing this house. So it was an old convent that he had purchased. It was built in 1891 for a politician who was a member of parliament for Sir John A. McDonald

and then ended up owned by, I think, First Nations for a bit, then became a convent. Then Louis Del Grande owned it. And I said, OK, this was meant for me to be there. So I got all the crazy things I've collected over the years haunted items and stuff like that and when I moved in here's the real crazy story I get a phone call from the singer she said hey somebody's in Toronto just came down and they brought a doll to Toronto with them 30 years ago that they had picked up from somebody

and they wanted to know if anybody wanted to keep retin and she just took it down and said my house they hear you got a new house. Do you want a house where I'm impressed? And I said, sure. Why not? She brought over the shoe box, I opened it up. It's a paper doll of the guy who picked me up hitchhiking that day. You're freaking me out.

My house is haunted, man. It's crazy. Dude, on that note, thank you so much, man. I love this very much. Toronto, can't wait to see you. And that brings us to the end of our 1,715th show. 1715. Go to torontomic.com for all your Toronto Mike needs.

Much love to all who made this possible. Again, that's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Minaris, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, RecycleMyElectronics.ca, Building Toronto Skyline, and Ridley Funeral Home.

See you all tomorrow when my special guest is Josh Matlow, Toronto City Councillor. He may also have a story or two about Rob and Doug Ford. I'm gonna be a star I'm gonna be a star I'm gonna be a star I'm gonna be a star I'm gonna be a star I'm gonna be a star

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