Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Blair Packham from The Jitters: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1669

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

In this 1669th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike catches up with Blair Packham before experiencing The Impossible Dream. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Silverwax, 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]

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Joining me today, returning to Toronto, Mike, it's Blair Packham. Hi. Welcome back Blair Packham. I'm glad you're saying Packham. You know how many people say Pac-Man to my face? That's insane. Yes, and it's not because of the game, I don't think.

I think it's because they're not paying attention. Well, maybe they're so, they have such fond memories of the game that they transpose. I spent a lot of time playing Pac-Man. Yeah, me too, actually. I did in arcades. That's how old I am. I can spent a lot of time playing Pac-Man. Yeah, me too. Actually I did in arcades. That's how old I am.

I can tell the same story. That's how old I am. And I remember like. In between games I would also dance the Charleston. Swing the mood with Blair Packham. But do you remember the tabletop one? Like where you would sit. Oh yeah.

At the table. Yeah, there's still one of those I think at Square Boy on the Danforth. Wow. Danforth and Jones, yeah. Everything's happening in the East End. Oh man, the East End is so happening. Call Dave Bedini.

Yeah, the East End Phoenix coming soon. It's a good time to start a newspaper. That's what I hear. I mean, good for him, man. I think that's so admirable. You know, admirable. Well, I don't good for him, man. Like I think that's so admirable. You know, admirable. Well, I don't know if it's fiscally responsible, but. Well, not everything's about money.

No, exactly. And he's putting out a point of view and so forth. No, I think it's great. But it does, in a sense, contribute to the East-West divide in this town. But it doesn't go this far west either. I feel like West End Phoenix is kind of code for the annex, maybe the junction, but like nothing,

not really west of the junction. I think it's Parkdale and the junction. Okay, yeah, that Hyde Park, yes, you're right. They would consider the annex downtown or central or something like that. And anything east of the island. Ronses would count. Right.

So where's the dividing line? Maybe the dividing line is Runamied. Yeah, for here here and then going east I would say it would be like Bathurst or something like anything east of that. I think they they think of as as Halifax Well, we're gonna tell a story about heading east On the weekend, I'm gonna tell that story in a minute, but I'm thinking Are you friendly with cleave Anderson? Yeah. Yeah, i don't see cleave very often but yeah yeah yeah

i've uh i've known cleave for a hundred years like anybody else i mean he's been around for a hundred years so yeah i only met him well i've seen him around of course but i only met him for the first time a couple of weeks back when he came by he's in a band called west of jane and i was just thinking of west of jane because west of we could start a new school this would only help me not you because you're an East Ender but West of run Amid could be the arch rival of the West End Phoenix we could start something there I don't know I'm workshopping it yeah I think it's not I think it brainstormed I think it's good shout out to Mike Boguski who's in no West of Jane there

okay Scott Dobson is he he's an FOTN. Was he on my program because of a Blair Packham recommendation? I don't know that he was, but I would have recommended him. Yeah, I love Scott Dobson. I ran into him at a supermarket a couple of weeks ago. But I really enjoyed his episode with you. Okay, I enjoyed it as well.

And I just only bring up Scott because I'm on Blue Sky now I know you're not very active on blue sky but I just said hey Blair Packham's coming over if you have a question or comment for Blair let me know and Scott Dobson replies he killed a man. Okay now I have to tell my Scott Dobson story I mean it's one of many, he's such a character and a really lovely guy. Paul Myers. F-O-T-M Paul Myers. And his wife Lisa Algar. This is in the 90s. They're moving to California.

They have a farewell party at the horseshoe. And everybody who's anybody is there. You know, it's great. And Scott is a lifelong friend of Paul's and a really close friend. And, you know, it's great. And Scott is a lifelong friend of Paul's and a really close friend. I believe I was the MC, maybe? That makes sense.

Anyway, Scott. With your radio pedigree? Yeah, perhaps, yeah. But, and of course I love Paul and Lisa as well and so forth, but Scott, I think I solicited people, anybody have any questions for these guys or any comments, anything they want to say, they can say it or I can say it for you, you know, something like that. Scott said something like, oh, and he talked at that time, much less so when

I ran into him, I was sort of struck. He used to talk kind of like this. And he had a bit of a sort of a, the way he talked was like a 1940s. Or I thought it was like Brooklyn or something, some New York accent. Yeah, but slowed down. And he said, well, maybe now Lisa can show, oh wait, maybe now Lisa can finally show us her tits. And first of all, the implication being that we've all been. And first of all, the implication being

that we've all been waiting, first of all, and finally, and everyone's been asking, you know, and finally, you know. That's funny. I thought it was real. Paul thought it was funny. Lisa thought it was funny too. Quick observation here, of course.

So Paul Myers from the Gravelberries, et cetera, who has a book on John Candy, he's never been here in person, so I zoomed with him. And he's going to be in town to promote this John Candy book in the fall, and he's gonna make his basement debut in the fall. Is that unbelievable or what? Can you believe it?

Okay, but you mentioned Lisa Algar. Now of course, Paul Myers' brother is Mike Myers, and the surname of Garth from Wayne's World is Algar. No coincidence there. No coincidence there, okay, so now you know the rest of the story. Was that Paul Harvey? Yeah, that's my Paul Harvey.

See, that's how old we are. And now you know, yeah. But here's my thought on that, let's say a 25-year-old is tuning in because he wants to hear some jitters real talk. I mean, what 25 year old wouldn't? So the 25 year old is now hearing, like hears, and now you know the rest of the story. And then he hears this name, Paul Myers, Paul Harvey.

And when I was at age and I would hear things that predate me, I would then take a note like, oh, I need to dig into that. Like, what is that? And I would collect these references from before my time because I'd be interested to know them because I missed them because I was born too late, et cetera. So I feel like we it's a service we provide for the youngsters to drop these references because I'm just the cutting edge for Paul Harvey's. Like I don't know when he died, but like I remember him and he's been parodied on the Simpsons which does keep these references alive future generations like my now nine-year-old but I feel like we

need to sometimes I hear oh you're mentioning this person and half the audience won't know who you're talking about and to me that's a reason to mention it yeah I agree well you know I've written stuff I've written stuff for the stage and really yeah a long long time ago, I've, I've written stuff. I've written stuff for the stage and a long, long time ago, but I, you know, I've written stuff and people will say, well, nobody will get that reference. And I think, Oh my God, like all the music I listened to that referred to people that I'd never heard of before. Um, and, and all the, you know, the stories, the hundred S Thompson,

uh, books that I read where I'm like, I don't know who half these people are. So I would look them up. Or ask them. Right, like I'm interested in the story of Fatty Arbuckle. Yeah. Like you know what I mean? Like, oh, there's a fascinating story. Pre-OJ, that was the go-to famous person accused of murder.

That's right. And yeah, like Hollywood decadence kind of story. Right. And he certainly, Fatty Arbuckle predates both you and I. No, right, right. So this is it. So I'm here to say, yeah, we're, you know, Paul Harvey, and I just as a kid remember Paul Harvey.

So he's probably gone. I don't know, he's probably gone by the time I'm a teenager. I don't know. But love, you know, now you know the rest of the story. Okay, so now you know how Garth got the surname Algar. Garth Algar came from Lisa Algar. Also, I remember going to a screening, the premiere of, so I married an axe murderer. Yeah, great. Right? And Mike wasn't in town at that point. And by the way, I barely know Mike. Paul is my dear

friend, but I barely know Mike. I've met him a few times. But he wasn't in town for that premiere, but Paul, Lisa, and Arlene Bishop and I went. And because we were tight, man, the four of us. We had a great, great, beautiful friendship. And, um, uh, there's a scene in that movie where, um, the main character played by Mike Myers, he receives a gun rack, a rifle rack for, for a gift. And he gets upset.

Like you don't even know me. He says to his girlfriend, well, apparently that girlfriend was in the audience that night because somebody ran out crying like ran out like got up and and and was like making noise and so i mean that's a poor imitation because i don't really remember but how would i know like for all i know that was spot on i suddenly got self-conscious and thought oh my god what if she's listening and And then I felt like- She's probably listening. It's the CNN thing, she's probably listening. Yeah, who isn't listening at this point? So, yeah, so I felt bad,

because I thought what if my impression of her was really poor? That's funny. Now, okay, so we're still in the housekeeping section. This could take an hour, actually. So, Paul, on your son's recommendation more than yours, but of course your recommendation, I was very excited to have the aforementioned Arlene

Bishop on Toronto mic'd earlier this year. And it's one of my favourite episodes. Uh, she was fantastic. She was fantastic. Of course I'm biased, but it really was great. I thought that her talking about her struggles with, um, with autism, with, uh, uh, you know, her ADHD and her,

just her getting to know herself in that way at this point in her life I thought was really fascinating. And I gotta say, it's probably not the kind of conversation that she and I would have ourselves at this point because we have so much history and we've still, even though we're not together, we're divorced, we still have domestic stuff to deal with here and there, sort of domestic housekeeping stuff.

So we just wouldn't get around to it. So it was really great to hear her in that forum, basically. So thank you for that recommendation. She was fantastic yesterday, actually. And I'll get back to this episode I recorded yesterday with Ian Blurton. I wore my coping t-shirt. So she gave me this great black t-shirt that says coping

and I wore it yesterday. That's great. I've worn it myself many times. Somebody wore it to a show of mine fairly recently and I thought that was cool. Very cool. And also completely unrelated to Arlene's Toronto Mike debut,

I booked Amin Bhatia. Yes. Like unrelated because of the, basically because of the CF and Y thing. And then I caught wind of this, you know, his, he, he he's on the thriller album by Michael Jackson. I don't know if you've ever heard that album, but I've heard of it. Yeah.

So I book it and then it's revealed that, you know, when I invite a man, the person replying that I didn't know it was was actually Arlene Bishop like it was such a wild coincidence she's worked for the men we I introduced the two of them way way way back when Arlene and I were married and I'm in I was working I got a job on a TV show that a man was too busy to do so he so his what his- What TV show? It's Destiny Ridge. It was on global television and I was scoring it.

And so I scored this show. By the way, there was a sexy character on the show and every time she appeared, I was supposed to play slide guitar. So I had to go, wow, wow, wow. When she'd appear. But anyway, Amin at that point was just mentioning,

had mentioned to me that he needed an assistant. And I said, well, you know, Arlene Bishop would be really good because she's, you know, despite, you know, being on the autism spectrum and having ADHD, she's really good with details and she's also really good with anticipating people's needs. So as an assistant, those are great skills. And they've worked together forever, ever since then.

And that would have been from about 1995? It's a wild coincidence is what I'm saying. Yeah, it really is. I didn't know you didn't know. In short succession. No, I had no idea. There was any connection between Arlene Bishop and Amin Batiya. Who got royally F'd.

Can I say the F word? Royally F'd because he doesn't get it. Forget the money he missed out on, but the credit like you the credit on the Thriller album there is no I'm in Batia credit right that happens sometimes and it's awful has it ever happened to Blair Packham before you something you created musically appeared on an album without credit well yes I can think of one one example I was gonna make a joke and, and. There's no funny on this program. No.

Do not listen. You're right, you're right. REM released something that I engineered and it has no credit on it. It was a live recording from Larry's Hideaway. It was a bonus disc that came with the, I guess 30th anniversary of Murmur, their debut album on IRS.

And I recorded them in 1982, July of 82, at Larry's Hideaway, and I was the engineer. And a lot of the time, when I worked with really famous people, Doug McClemmitt was the engineer. But in this case, he was. Of course, FOTM Doug McClemmitt. Yeah, but he was away, and I was left in charge, and I sat with their manager in the truck, Jefferson Holt,

and he called out whenever I needed to turn up the Echo or whatever and then that was for CFNY. And we were in the habit of not writing credits on the tape box. I'm not sure why, probably should have, but I wrote the song list and the timing and that's it. And then that got released without any of my knowledge, because of course my name wasn't on it. So nobody knew it got released. Uh,

I guess in whatever that was in the early two thousands. Wow. So these are big names, Michael Jackson, REM. Uh, I have a fact check, uh, shadowed to Robert Lawson, but this is actually coming from the most recent FOTM Hall of Famer VP of Sales. Although on the live stream, he calls himself the VP of no sales. And then because we talked about Arlene, we have to talk about another woman in your life.

She's also on the live stream. So VP says the gun rack scene, that's not from So I Married and Asked. Oh, it isn't. Okay. That's from Wayne's World. Oh, there you go. Yeah, it seemed a little little as I was telling that story I was thinking it seemed a little wacky for so I married an axe murder, which is much less of a

Here's the quote. Yeah, I don't even own a gun let alone many guns that would necessitate an entire rack Okay, and a fun fact about VP Wayne's world was his first date with his ex-wife So there you go, that's a fun VP fact But there's another woman I see all the way I believe all the way from Manitoba fine province in a minute I'll talk about Saskatchewan another fine. These are all the fine provinces. I personally have never been to oh we got a Join a band because then you'll get to visit all those places. That's what Ian was telling me yesterday. He was telling me all the places in Regina. I know in Saskatchewan and Regina and I know and I was thinking I played a few but not nearly as many as he did. Well you got to eat there's room for you and change of heart. We'll

get to change our minds. So I'm gonna go rapid fire. I'm gonna just say hello. Her handle on the live stream is Radio Lady. I know her as sharon taylor uh your driver just just upset her and then i realize that that's a fake name too so uh hello to sharon sharon setterington so how many handles does this woman need well she's got three okay that's three i know of yeah three oh actually no you know that's right. Actually, she sometimes uses Flossie and Freddie. Well, okay, too many. I know. Which I rein it in, okay?

She's a myth at this point. And I joke about the driver thing because when I met you for the first time, it was in Pete Fowler's backyard. She wrote fucker. She just wrote, see, I was trying not to swear, but there it goes, fucker, okay. I drove her there.

She was in the audience. She was my companion at that show and yes and it was an auspicious meeting we met you there and and I played for Pete and a really nice bunch of people but yes Sharon was there as my she accompanied me so great and then she was a fantastic FOTM yes she was program director at CFTR and then she has the kiss of the mugs and kisses the whole country thing going on there and it was a great radio chat with Sharon Taylor not her real name you know who's calling me now so

and I don't answer this is like a Facebook call but Michael Williams is calling me and I can't answer it because I don't have three hours right now oh is it is it a commitment just he he's gonna wanna chat about stuff and I like him very much. But if he wants to chat, I gotta get him down here on the mic to capture all the gold. You know, no, no, no. Yeah, a few times.

Yeah, I would imagine so, yeah. Cause he's, the word that comes to, well, he's talkative and lots of stories. Great stories, he knows his music, but he's chatty. And it's, if I start that convo, I can go for the bike ride and come back and just pick it up where I left off. Like I totally, but I can't, yeah.

And I'm busy with Blair Packham. So I said, I got a cook of gas here. So definitively on the record, Blair Packham. Have you ever, no, did you contribute anything musically? And so demanding, Have you ever? I feel like a quarter. Did you contribute anything to the tremendous 1992 album Smile by Change of Heart? I did not accept good vibes. I wish them well.

That breaks the streak. Because Glenn Milcham was here Monday and he plays drums on some of the tracks. Oh, yes, he does of course Gilmore, I don't know if you're following this I am following he played gong and it was engineered by By Bob Wiseman, so that's you are up to date. I am impressed here So yeah, so in order it was Glenn Milcham came by Monday and then Gilmore Tuesday then Ian blurred in, and all three, of course Ian, but all three contributed to Smile.

And I was just wondering if maybe like, maybe you hit a triangle or something and it got in there. No, I know, no. But you know, I admire those guys. And around that time I was in a band called Pig Farm with Adam Fox. Right, FOTM Adam Fox. Right, F-O-T-M Adam Fox.

Yeah, and Adam is a contemporary and maybe a friend, I'm not sure, of Ian's, I don't know. I'll have to find out. I'll have to find out. But Adam is playing with me now in my band, so I get to push him around like he did to me in Pig Farm. What's the name of this band? My band?

The Impossible Dream. So I didn't know he was in The Impossible Dream. Like I have a note of this trio that's in The Impossible Dream, but I didn't know it included Adam Fox. Well, yeah, I mean, it's Adam, it's both, we're all FOTMs. It's David Steinberg who plays snare drum,

and it's Adam Fox who plays electric bass. I had a different Impossible Dream before. Okay, that's where I'm getting confused. I saw the list of personnel on the Impossible Dream and you were the only FOTM on the list. Right, that was when I was working with, oh, well you really should have Andy Humphrey on the show. Jim Nielsen was playing bass and he's a terrific fellow

and a great bass player and singer. And Andy Humphrey played drums with us not his first instrument like he he took up drums at my encouragement because I really liked him I really liked Andy and he has a beautiful voice and he's got a really interesting story brother of Paul Humphrey from Blue Peter but also an actor and yeah really really good guy so So they were my band and we had a falling out, you know, which bands do. And it was, for me, it was cataclysmic at the time,

but I'm over it now. What's your current lineup in The Impossible Dream? We will, by the way, we will spend some real time with The Impossible Dream. Okay, well, Adam Fox is playing bass. He plays electric bass and sings. And David Steinberg plays snare drum. And the reason I keep saying just snare drum

is because that's what he brings. He just brings a snare drum. Doesn't play anything else. He gets a remarkable range of sounds out of that snare drum. But it also gives me an excuse when we do that thing that contemporary musicians have to do now, which I never had to do and I'm a little resentful about, passing the hat, the tip jar, so I can at least have a reason rather than please put money in the tip

jar so I will, you know, be able to buy groceries or whatever. Instead of saying that I can say, we're trying to raise money to get more drums for David Steinberg. I saw him him at the Gary Topp, there's a book launch. I wish I'd gone to that, you hosted that. Yeah, I hosted this panel discussion and I saw, yeah, of course he was with the Mods, right? And the Mods played many a Givings gig.

Yes, and then he played with the, well, not the Dead Boys, really, Steve Bader's band. Right. The Post Dead Boys. But yeah, really great musician. He was in the Jitters as well, which obviously, it's very demanding chops wise. And from there, because the Jitters broke his heart, basically he went to law school.

So. I mean now he's like, he's like one call away from Geddy Lee, but I still can't get Geddy Lee on Toronto Mike. What's going on there? He's actually, David is the guy who says no. That's his job. If you think that's an in, it's not. I'm gonna rescind his FOTM title if he says no.

If you wanna get ahold of Geddy Lee, don't go through David Sember because his whole job is to say no. Right, that's how he earns the big bucks. That's right. Did you ever work with Bootsauce? Fuck Bootsauce. See, I'm up to date.

You know what, you got it going on. What if I meet Bootsauce? Oh yeah. And they're sweethearts. They're probably sweethearts. I've never met them, I don't know them, I don't know anything. But it's fun to just have this idea

of like you need a bad guy or whatever. Like the fuck Bootsauce. Cause all these sweethearts in Canadian rock, you need to have like, for the yin and yang, you need the dark for the light Yeah, I can think of a few but I'm not gonna spill shut them out. No some of them are Okay, I'll give you a hint, but I'm not gonna elaborate one of them is one of your favorite bands And I can point to specific experiences

It is not I love those guys. Okay, I gotta make sure yeah One of my favorite is it and it's a it's gotta be it's gotta be low? It is not, I love those guys. Okay, I gotta make sure. One of my favorite, it's gotta be Rusty. I will not comment further. Scott McAuliffe? No, but I will not. Ken? I will not, maybe. I will not comment further.

Is it the dreadlocks Ken was rocking? This was in the 90s, so who knows? Maybe these people have reformed. Short distance between me loving Fluke and me going to a Bloor West Village Diner where the short-order cook was Ken like that was a very short gap and that was the first time and I was pretty young Teenager, but that was the first time I realized. Oh the Canadians Canadian rock and roll star isn't like Aria isn't like

Let me get a pick on Bob Dylan whatever they give these are not, you know, they might be the guy cooking your grilled cheese. Absolutely, what's his name? Oh, I'm sorry, that's disrespectful. The late Bob Zagorini, I didn't mean to say what's his name. No, the Iceman. Yeah, the Iceman. Bob used to say, you know, Canadian rock star, too poor to have a limo, you know,

you'll meet them on the TTC, that kind of thing. Yeah, oh, so many stories, even stories on this show. I think Timbo Vacanti, your buddy, has a story, does he have the story of seeing Ron Sexsmith on the TTC and saying, oh, my girlfriend loves your music, would you play her birthday party? And then Ron asks, will there be cake because I need to bring my daughter do you have any memory of this like I feel like that

was a Timbo Vacanti story. That could be I don't know and it really sounds like Ron. I'm at Hyde Park with my kid we're just playing house league soccer at Hyde Park and I'm there and I look over and I go oh there's one of my oh there's one of my favorite musicians of all time and it's Hayden. Wow. He's just serious. And I'm like, Oh, this fucking Hayden. Like, I mean, if I used to write him like snail mail in the early nineties, uh, yeah, there you go. Okay. So you didn't ever work with Bootsauce cause you've never met Bootsauce.

No, well now is John Castner, was that his band? No, that's, uh, no he's dough doughboys. Oh doughboys. That's right. Yeah No, boy, so rusty comes out of doughboys because Scott McCullough was in rusty and he quit to start his own band Which was doughboy. Oh, okay. No, I don't the other way the other way Yeah, he's he left still boys to start rusty right and Michael Philip. I've Oda produced doughboys Yes, and and well, he's produced everything. Yes he did. Including Gordon, he came up in yesterday's episode of course. Of course, yeah.

He came up in my messages because I wanted to hang out with him and he's not available on that day. But it was very abrupt, his message. I can't even, like I know he lives near, but he motorcycles over and talks to me about all these great Canadian albums that he produced. I'm talking about Michael Phillip, Voya Voda. Unbelievable and I feel like you put us in touch. I feel like you are responsible for

some tremendous Toronto Mike episodes. Well that's nice. Yeah well I always, as you know, I pester you with ideas. Yeah and I think your batting average is so high. I think you said, hey Andrea Romolo and I said your batting average is so high. I think you you know, you said hey Andrea Ramolo And I said I wasn't sure about who she was but I said I you know at this point your batting average is pretty high Well, you know, I actually was thinking about that on the way into your door like up your driveway I was saying like and that's not a euphemism, sir You know, I was thinking I have a I actually have a suggestion for somebody I'll suggest off the air Like you're afraid to say no

And that person what if I get what if I say because of your batting average of being so high I will say yes To whoever this name. Okay. Well, I'm not gonna I'm still I'm well, I will okay because she's a person I know the name. I know who they are not no, that's where it gets but but you've been doing pretty well Her name is Clela Arrington and she's a singer songwriter. She's roughly my age. She's made a record with Jimmy Boeskill, producing and engineering. Blue rodeo.

The record is beautiful, it's lovely. Now, Clela has known a lot of people over the years in the Toronto scene. And I just feel like she might, she might have some stories. Spell that first name. C L E L A C L E L A. And then it's Erington and her brand new record.

It's really beautiful. Well, if Clela's game, I'm telling you, I will do this based on your recommendation. That's how much I value your suggestions Okay. Well, that's that's don't abuse this privilege. No, if you give me a couple of duds in a row, I might cut you off All right. Well, Clela don't let me down. We let no pressure Michael Philip though What I regret actually a very minor regret but regret nonetheless is that I didn't recommend Scott Dobson

I didn't un-recommend him, I just wish I had, because he and Michael Phillip and a few other people that I had, they came into my life through Paul Meyers. Paul Meyers and Scott and Michael were, you know, childhood friends. And like, you know, youthful friends. And I feel so blessed. Michael Phillip, we worked together a few times

and he's very modest and very, I aspire to be more like him. He's very calm. Well, lest we forget Blair, you yourself appear on the album Gordon. I do. I know. That to me, that's a fun fact that in,

if I had a million dollars, the chorus you hear includes Blair Packer. And Arlene Bishop. And by by the way Arlene Bishop refers to Michael Phillip as Michael Phillip won a Juneau because he did she's funny that's like when you say oh there's Ian handsome man thing that's right yes it's very much like that the Gordon thing so I teach at Seneca College and I tell them all about my history because I want to at Seneca college and I tell them all about my history. Cause I want to sort of, you know, quickly, I

tell them in my bio in the first class, you know, basically I want to justify why I'm going to tell them why their songs suck or whatever, or why they need to work on their song. Like I want to justify my, my teacher role. Right. So I tell them about the jitters and how I've been writing songs since I was 17 and how the

jitters got a record deal with capital records, the Beatles label. And we toured Canada 100 times and then we, and there we are, I hear us right there, and we played Wembley Arena three nights in a row and all of that stuff they go, mm-hmm. And like, they have no reaction. And then I say, I say, and I co-wrote the words to Beyblade. Oh yeah. And they all go, oh my God, no way. and I co-wrote the words to Beyblade.

And they all go, oh my God, no way. And you know, it's amazing. I can believe that. It happens to me sometimes these like boomer icons and I'm like, I missed all of that, but you know, he appeared on Larry Sanders show or something and it's like, that's all I kind of know this person from or whatever.

Okay, cause you know, the other song takes a lot of the oxygen, but this was a big radio hit thanks to Sharon playing it on CFTR so often. Every single time we touch, it's getting better every way And it's getting closer every day I can see that we are only getting stronger I can see that it's not gonna take much longer I can see it now, it's bound to be alright I can see we've got to finish what we started I can see it now, I won't be brokenhearted

I can see it now, let this be the night Cause it gets better Every single time I'm near you It gets better Honestly, Blair, you wrote this? I wrote it with three other members of the Jitters. Did it come together relatively quickly? Yeah, we wanted to, we love that beat, that you can't hurry love Motown thing. See, I hear gone so long, you've been gone so long.

Oh, funny. Gone, gone so long. Never thought of that. But there, you know, yeah, that's a common beat. Yeah, boom, bap, boom, bap, boom, bap, boom, that thing. And yeah, and we thought, I've had people come up to me and say sort of confidentially as if they're letting me in on something,

you know that lyric, the chorus is kind of dirty, right? It gets bigger every single time I'm near you. And it's like, yes, we did that on purpose. You dirty son of a bitch. Well we just thought it would be funny to have a pop song that did that. We wrote that well before we had a record deal so it was you know it was just kind of funny to play it live. We also had a song called stick it in and give it a twist and like we became a pop band when we made this record and we were a rock band before with a bit of attitude and we were kind of, yeah.

Well, this is very radio friendly. Well, yeah. And at that point, we were happy to be friendly to radio. This song was used by the Edmonton Oilers in 1988. Every time they hit the ice, every time they scored a goal and they won the Stanley Cup. That was this is during the playoffs. That was the last Stanley Cup won by the great ones. Yep, exactly. See what I did there?

Yeah, well done. Thank you very much. And I can do that now that I was on CNN, okay. So let's quickly tell the story about what happened to me last weekend. It was just last weekend. And then we're going to- It's a great story. Yeah, my wife is-

Why do we have to quickly tell that story? Let's- We can sit on it. And then I'm gonna give you some swag. And then I got some more music. And then we're really going to get into the impossible dream. This is going to be a hell of an appearance. And now, Oh, and then I should tease this.

Cause, um, well, somebody who, a big fan of yours also listen to another podcast you were on and pull the clip from it. And one's going to ask you about it. Okay. And then, don't worry, you're not going to be mad at me for this. Okay. I don't want Blair pack a man at me. Okay. No, And then, don't worry, you're not gonna be mad at me for this, okay? I don't want Blair Packham mad at me, okay? I couldn't live with myself if that were the case. Okay, so, I got a text from you inviting my wife and I,

Monica and I, to a house party at your home. And your home is East of Young, well just East of Young. We can say East of York. We can say East York. If you ever find yourself on one of those East York, stars of East York bus tours, they will point it out. East York is a big borough, we can say East York, okay.

A lot of great FOTMs in East York, but that comes into the story. So I said to my wife, hey, we were invited to Blair Bank, she's been to one of the house parties at this location before. We met Lori Cullen there. Yes. Bob Wagner.

These are great FOTMs we met at this house party, okay? I saw Robert Priest was there. He's an FOTM. So basically we had a discussion and we couldn't get babysitting. So she's gonna stay home with the now and since then turned 11 years old because of the birthday of yesterday.

Yes, happy birthday Jarvis. Happy birthday, who loved learning drums from David Quinton's time that's like it's a he's been talking about wanting to take drum lessons okay so I was gonna go solo and of course I bike to all my destinations year-round so I'm gonna go on a bike ride to East York I'm sitting here in South Etobicoke get a map and take a look at what I'm talking about here so I said oh it's like an eight o'clock start but I don't go on a bike ride to East York. I'm sitting here in South Etobicoke, get a map and take a look at what I'm talking about here. So I said, oh, it's like an eight o'clock start, but I have a bad habit of getting to things

at the time they start. Cause I can atomically time my, when you bike, you know exactly how long it's gonna take you. Unless you blow a tire, which is very rare, thankfully. Okay, so I said, oh, let's time it so I get there at like 8.25 or something. So I'm not the first one there, but I get there and I can tell there's no one there. And I phone I'm at this destination. It took like, I don't know, 90 minutes to get there.

Not a warm day either. It was kind of a cold night. And I have cold GLB in my backpack because I always bring the delicious fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. By the way, you're leaving home with some fresh craft beer. Fantastic. So I'm now at the destination, which is your home. I'm here for a party. I can see no one else. And I think, oh, maybe I'm too early. Maybe these eight o'clock starts are like code for don't come till nine. Like, I don't know how the real world, I don't know how the world works. Right. Like don't say eight unless you want me there at eight, because that's how my stupid brain works. Right. Okay.

So I phone you and you answer. I go, Hey, am I too early? Like, should I go for a ride and come back? And you're like, ha ha ha ha ha ha. You said, yeah, you're three weeks early. Yeah. I was surprised that you said

that you had trouble arranging babysitting. I'm thinking for three weeks from now, like that, like you guys plan ahead, man. Um, and uh, and so when you said that and you said, Monica can't come, we're having trouble arranging babysitting, I'm like, okay. I said, can I come solo? Yeah, yeah.

And so, and here's the thing, I would have invited you in, we would have had a hang, it would have been great. I was actually in the middle of a conversation with a friend, and it was a pretty heavy conversation. And like we're sort of- You didn't have time for me.

We're sort of breaking up, sort of. So on that note, not that we need to dive too deep, but when you came to TMLX 15 last summer, you were with a lovely woman. You're no longer with that woman. No, that actually ended at the end of the summer, I'm sorry to say. And did it end because of your experience at TMLX?

It was, it was specifically because of that. Uh, the, the, they didn't enjoy the Palma pasta. No, it was the, it was the boat that you got for a gift, the kayak, which I can't wait to get back. It's only April. I got to wait for a little warmer weather, but I can't wait to get back out there. Yes. She, she didn't like, did you contribute to the kayak fund? I actually didn't. I escaped that somehow. Nobody asked me.

Not too late. Like, I think BP was organizing that. Okay, well I'll get in touch with BP, but no, I didn't. You cheap son of a bitch. I was never approached about it and I never saw it because at that point I wasn't a participant in the- Oh, the WhatsApp group. Well, he had to create a, you know,

he didn't want me in the group. Yes. Right. So he had to kind of re, he took this FOTM group and recreated it minus me. Right. If you weren't in it. And I don't, well, you know, I mean,

he may have invited me and I may not, but I just didn't go on WhatsApp. So I don't want to make it his fault. Well, cut a check to VP for that. Okay. So three weeks, so I don't know. So, and it's just coincidentally, and this kind of ties into the conversation

I had with your ex-wife, where she had this adult diagnosis of ADHD. And I've been told by all of my lovers and friends for many, many years that, oh, by the way, VP asked you via Instagram. He did? Yeah. Sorry, VP, I didn't register that.

You're not leaving here, but let me put a $50 bill on the table before you go. But the conversations we're having about ADHD, I had a fundamental misunderstanding about the AD part versus the HD part because I did these very self-diagnosis, no psychiatrist involved because I don't actually wanna treat whatever it is.

But, and I didn't really understand that you can have just the HD part and have none of the AD part and you're still ADHD. So, no, and so there's two columns, an AD part, which is attention deficit. And that's typically like, you can't keep a schedule, you can't multitask, you're late for things. Like I'm not any of these things.

I'm a kick-ass multitasker and I'm the opposite of late for things and I can organize all this. And anyways, there's no AD part as far as I can tell. I can watch the brutalist in one sitting and I don't go on a device. I don't even fidget. I don't have the AD part.

But Blair Packham, I'm like to the, I'm off the charts. To the brim. The, I'm off the charts. The HD part off the charts. And this might be why I bike 50 K a day is like my coping mechanism for the HD part. So I fundamentally misunderstood this whole, I thought you needed to have these two columns

and I didn't feel any of this ADHD applied to me because I have zero of the AD part. I'm fully loaded off the chart HD. So all this is swirling around. But one of the one of the AD parts that I disown, if you will, is this missing details. And we were having this conversation literally like the day that I was three weeks early for your function. And I had to when I told Monica and I did make I made lemonade out of these lemons And I had to, when I told Monica and I did make, I made lemonade out of these lemons because I had cold GLB in my backpack. I was in East York and I knew

my buddy Chris Cooksy, shout out to Cooksy. I knew he lived fairly close to you and I phoned him up and then we, you know, he smoked some weed in the backyard and drank some GLB. Well, I just downed some GLB in his backyard that night. So I actually had a, a fine night in East York last weekend. I took my bike ride night. So I actually had a fine night in East York last weekend when I took my bike ride home. So it all worked out. I'm glad to hear that because my conversation on the phone ended up going longer and it was fine. Everything was good. But, um... Are you an item?

I am. No, I'm a, I'm a solo. You're an ex. I'm a, yeah. You're single. But we're still friends and it was a really good conversation. And, uh... Okay. Yeah. So it all worked out for everybody. But this didn't help my case is what I'm saying.

When I had to report back that I was three weeks early for the Blair Pack. No, but I would say this as a so I don't want to in any way minimize the ADHD thing for anybody. And so I don't want to buy, you know, being giving a layman's diagnosis, I would say though, you are that, you have those, and I think it's your superpower. I agree. And I think that- It's why Toronto Mic is so successful.

Well, yeah, and I think likewise, Paul Meyers. I'm attracted to people who have those qualities. I'm attracted to you too, buddy. But I feel like it's a spark of life. I mean, in the pre, before, in the olden days when we wouldn't diagnose our, like pathologize ourselves to the same degree, we'd say, well, he's a bit scattered or we'd have names for, I think it's better

that we pathologize, but I also think there's a danger in labeling yourself and I think that also, we tend to focus on the negatives, and I really think there's a lot of positives that come from that particular condition, because all the people I know who are now are finding out that they have that, including Arlene Bishop, to whom I was married for years,

because I just love that quality in her. You know, those qualities. Anyway, I just think there's a danger of making it all negative, and it's not. It's only a negative if you have trouble coping, if you have trouble with your executive functions. Right, you can't keep a job, you can't hold that relationship, it affects your relationship, your parenting, et cetera.

But those things, and those things are obviously negative. And so getting a handle on it Of course is a great thing, but I'm just saying you know It's it's also a positive thing. No like most things in life. It's somewhere in the middle. So my well so this whole Realization you can have like the HD part without the 80 part and you'd still be labeled ADHD or whatever. My daughter had a diagnosis and she's exactly like me but like 10% of me in all the ways. And then she was telling her psychiatrist about, oh, like basically like, oh this HD behavior for me

multiply it by 10 and that's my dad or whatever. So it's like, I feel like I was diagnosed via proxy. By proxy, okay. So Blair, I'm gonna, it's funny that your real date of your house party is the same night I'm at a soccer game with my son from eight to nine, but I think I might bike to that match and then bike to you. Does your party go, how late do these Blair Packham parties go, I just wanna know.

You know, not as late as they used to. They used to go at like three or four in the morning. Now they probably go till one you know well okay well I'm gonna be I won't be in danger of arriving too early because no it come after 930 or so maybe and actually it's a long ride it might be 10 o'clock okay so I look forward to the real date I want to give you some I want to give you something okay it's a wireless speaker from the NERIS. It's a great, I've received one of these from you before

and I love it and I use it all the time. Okay, well maybe there's one for Owen. Yeah, absolutely, that's fantastic. Because season eight of Yes We Are Open is dropping now. The first episode from season eight has already dropped. Al Grego flew to Regina, Saskatchewan and he visited Kevin Toth, president of Prairie Flying Service. Can

you say that for me? Prairie Flying Service. Prairie Flying Service. You have to stop right after Prairie. My mouth doesn't roll into it. I have to stop. I had to stop before too, because the recording engineer in me does not want to have the plosive on the Prairie. The Prairie flying, prairie flying service, yeah you can't stay at last, yeah.

President of Prairie Flying Service. Well you did pretty well there. I've been, you know, 1,669 episodes. Yeah and by the way, I wanna be Ronnie the limo driver for a moment and just say, 69! I thought about making a 69 joke, but I'm too mature for that. Well the thing is, when we get to the measuring tape,

I am armed. It's going next, I'll do next. Oh, is it next? Well, I'll just say the Al and Kevin delved into the storied history and rich legacy of the company, which began in 1946, so Blair, you were just a kid back then, founded by four World War II pilots. So listen to season eight of Yes We Are Open,

wherever you get your podcasts. Shout out to FOTM Al Grego Please accept from me a measuring tape from Ridley Funeral Home We recorded a fresh episode of life's undertaking Brad Jones is excellent podcast We dropped it yesterday so you can hear Brad and I Brad went to Exeter Ontario is a little town I drive through on my way to the pinery and Exeter is where the independent funeral home owners of Ontario were meeting and we had a great chat about what he's learned and it was fantastic and I would love to hear your measuring tape joke there. Let's go. Well

I know I have noted that every single time I make some there's it's either measuring your manhood or measuring your yourket. So then I thought I gotta look up it. So I haven't, I was just scrolling through them now, so I haven't necessarily picked the best one, but I did look up on, I googled measurement jokes and so what is the unit of measurement used to measure electricity? I don't know. I'm prompting you that you didn't say the quite right thing. You all, you have to say what? Oh geez. And then I say, correct.

You know, I find these annoying the jokes where you need a specific response. They can go sideways so easily. Right? Yeah. Okay. It's crazy that they only have one unit of measurement in North Korea, a supreme leader. Okay, that's enough though. All right, not bad, but you got that measuring tape. Measure what you wish. By the way, you mentioned measuring a casket.

Ridley Funeral Home only sell Canadian caskets. Did you know that? I didn't know that, but that's good to know. It's good to know. And speaking of Canadian companies, all my sponsors are actually Canadian companies. Silver Wax is on board for all of April. So you pick the right date to drop by

and they have been proudly Canadian since 1999. That's not about to change. Silver Wax makes, what kind of car are you driving these days? I'm driving a Mini, a Mini Cooper. That's cool. It is cool. I love it. I like it whenever I get in it. I'm excited. But you know what it needs? What? It needs a good

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inside and out. And these spray bottles as well, interior and exterior detailing. You're gonna have the cleanest car in East York. That's real. Seriously. I'm serious. When I sat down here, I saw the Silverwax stuff, and of course, because I'm an avid listener,

I knew that they were a sponsor, but I was looking and thinking, oh man, I could use that for my Mini, but there's no way that I'm getting the whole bucket. You're getting the whole bucket. Listeners can save 10% on these kits if they go to silver wax dot C.A. And just use the promo. This really helps the show, too.

So if you're like, I want to support this. This is amazing. Gilmore came over and he doesn't remember playing gongs on Change of Heart, on Change of Heart. Smile, no memory of it. And then the great FOTM Bob Wiseman makes an appearance in the story. And Ian's only triggered But he forgot but Bob Z is credited with engineering this gong hit like amazing

Okay So the promo code to use at silver wax dot CA is Toronto Mike 10 Toronto Mike 1 0 at check out you use that promo code You save 10% and then silver wax knows that it pays to sponsor great programs like Toronto Mic'd. See how it works? Yeah, it works well. I guess if you say Toronto Mic'd 90, then you get 90% off. Try that, keep going down, 80, 70, until you get to 10, and then it might actually work for you.

I'm gonna give love to my other, of course, will you Blair Packham be at TMLX 18 on, what day is that gonna be? It's June 26th, from six to nine p.m. We're at Great Lakes Brewery. Will you make an appearance why? Yes, I'm checking my calendar and yes, it's we've been a lot. I'll come to your party if you come to mine. Yes He I will come three weeks early. Well, Palma pasta is gonna feed you. This is TM Alex 18 18 Yeah, yeah, June 26, everyone's invited. And it's a GLB?

GLB Brew Pub, not Brew Pub, sorry, I gotta make sure, I'm gonna fix that in post. Great Lakes Breweries, their HQ, which is like, I'm gonna say, well it's 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard, but it's very close to like Queensway in Royal York. Yes, and the time it starts? 6 to 9 p.m. I need Blair there all

three hours and bring David Quinton Steinberg and bring any of these great FOTMs. Bring Tim Bovicanti. I will do what I can but I believe I heard a commitment yesterday from Ian Blurton that he would be reuniting the band. Yeah, I got to follow up on that. That's got to happen. It was a very that he would be reuniting the band for. Yeah. Yes. I gotta follow up on that, that's gotta happen. It was a very casual invitation

and it was a very casual response. He said, yeah, yeah, that sounds good. And I thought. I think that's binding. I think he just signed a contract there. I will commit, I will be there, whether Change of Heart is there or not. Well, that's all I care about. This is a fun fact. You probably are aware about because I was doing some searching on YouTube for the jitters.

Okay. Did you know that Big Bad Voodoo Daddy has a song called The Jitters? I did and I've never listened to it. I'm sorry to say. Well, you don't have to apologize for that. But I just think that that's big bad voodoo daddy stealing some of the search the seo Thunder from the jitters. I think that's uh, that's bullshit. I it's Bullshit. Oh, i'm mad now and i'm paul harvey Hey Hear those finger snaps Who's snapping there?

I don't remember who did it, but it was a sample. It was a sample of somebody in the band or several people in the band. Is it Gilmore? No. Might have been Paul Gross. Might have been Randy Cook who plays drums with Ringo. Wow. Yeah. But they were sampled and played by Randy Cook. They were in an AMS sample box and he pressed the button every time the finger snaps were supposed to play. Well, it's a catchy as fuck song that you wrote here. And I know in the previous Toronto Miked episodes you've been over many times, we have covered in great detail how this...

I think you were vacuuming or something? Yeah I was vacuuming and and and and I had we had been told Bob Ezran was producing The Jitters you should get Bob on. I actually have tried because he have started appearing every well mainstream media anyway like CBC shows and big shows because he's talking about rescinding his American citizenship. Yeah, he's, I believe he's moved back. Well can you broker this?

No I can't, but no only because Bob and I haven't really been in touch since then. Well, still, your name, I mean I tried and I didn't get any replies. Well who was I, I was talking to somebody the other day who hangs out with Bob. Alice Cooper? I'll think, I'll do, yeah, it was either that or Lou Reed. Oh, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. That's right. I will ask.

But anyway, Bob said that he was slated to produce a record for Cyndi Lauper, which he did not end up doing, because that happens all the time. And he said, but she needs songs. And so I was like, my brain went, okay. And as I was vacuuming, I started thinking, I had the title, Doug McClemmons came up with the title unwittingly and I thought that's a good song title.

And then from there I started writing, I've been a fool. So as I vacuumed. Catchy, I'm telling you, now it's gonna be in everybody's like a brain worm or whatever you call that. I was vacuum you now it's going to be in everybody's, uh, like a brain worm or whatever you call that. I was vacuuming. I don't know that I've ever told this part of the story. I was vacuuming at John why not's house. Do you know John why not? I think I know this name, but why do I know this name?

He produced a bunch of albums for Colin Linden. I believe he produced a Jeff Healy album. No, Linden's another guy I'm trying to, uh, I know he's big and famous and too cool for me or whatever, but I have, I've had, you know, I've had Stephen for your, for your, for your, for your ring. Right. Fearing. Yeah. And of course, Tom Wilson many times. I feel like I need Colin Lyndon. Yeah. Well, uh, Colin's coming to play a show in Hamilton apparently and uh,

therefore he'll be in the neighborhood. I'll go kidnap him. Yeah. I'm going to see Rick Emmett play tomorrow night. Oh my god! Yeah. He's a great... I told that story to Gil how you drove him to Christie Pitts. Oh did you tell us? Because I didn't get as... I didn't finish the Gil one. I want to finish it. Gil was great. Very lively, very present. I know. Yeah. And he's funny, right? He's funny, yeah. Gil was great. I know, and he wears these shades, so I don't see his eyes.

And he's wearing these shades. And I thought Gil was, and I wasn't, the way that worked is they said, he was gonna come on and just, there's a great Music Monday where all these students across the country are gonna sing. What's the song called, Hold On? What's the- Hold On, the Triumph song.

Yeah, the big, yeah, great. You know, I miss Triumph. So this is my problem. Whenever I do a lot of this Rick Emmett and this Gilmore stuff, but I really am, that is like homework I'm doing because I do know the hits a little bit. But because of my age, Triumph was like done.

And they weren't, you know, when I started listening to 680 CFTR in like the early to mid 80s and started discovering top 40 and stuff, like I wasn't hearing any Tri triumph. I wasn't listening to any Q107 at that time. No, it's funny. I became friends with Rick before I knew much about triumph at all. So Rick and I were co-vice presidents of the Songwriters Association of Canada, and I just loved him. And we just got on like a house on fire. It was great. Well, he's a very likable guy you're a likable guy and you you drove

him to Christie Pace and Gil was great too. But but the the only the only time I had had any like professional contact with Triumph was opening for Rick Emmett at an arena in London Ontario with the Jitters. Wow. And that was it. Now but I want to say this because you mentioned, hold on, the show that I played at Hugh's room recently was called the Toronto Songbook and it featured yours truly, but also wearing the coping shirt.

I'm just showing you how everything ties together. The coping shirt from Arlene Bishop, Chris Tate from Chalk Circle. Wow. And M. Griner. I love M. Griner, she's been over. Stacey Tab, who I had never heard sing until that show. I had met her when she used to work at Service Ontario

in a Canadian tire outlet at Lakeshore and Leslie. And she, and I met her and she said something like, I don't know why, but we started talking about music. I said, oh, I make music. She said, so do I. And that was like in 2009 or something. So then she's on the bill for the show. And finally, Talia Schlanger.

And- Who I loved. There were at least two triumph songs played in that show. Talia sang Lay It On The Line and did this haunting. That's a big one. Beautiful version. And M. Griner, no, no, Chris Tate did Hold On as a ska song.

And it was, so two triumph songs. So I made a video at Soundcheck and sent it to Rick and he seemed so touched, his response was like, oh my God, that's so great. It was really nice. Oh, and that reminds to Rick and he was like he was he seemed so touched his response was like oh my god that's so great you know it was it was really nice that reminds me where I was going which is that through this third party they said oh I could have you know I can have 20 minutes with Gil to talk about this music Monday thing and then I explained how it works around here like we will do 20 minutes but after I do 40 minutes and something else and I basically like a

tough not really tough no like I had to do this negotiation that Gil would agree 40 minutes and something else. And I basically, like a tough, not a fairly tough, like I had to do this negotiation that Gil would agree to 60 minutes, but Gilmore was late. Yes. And he apologized for that. But because he was late, I decided I'm going to take it out and I'm gonna go longer than 60 minutes.

Like I decided to ignore the 60 minute thing we agreed to and I went 80 minutes with Gilmore. That's great. Well, I think. It was gonna be 20 minutes and I fought agreed to and I went 80 minutes with Gilmore. That's great. Well I think. It was gonna be 20 minutes and I fought for 60 and I stole 20 more minutes. I think that's great. And he didn't regret that.

I don't think he regretted it a bit. I've gotta listen to the rest of it. But I didn't hear. He's probably cleaning his car right now with silver wax. With silver wax, yeah. Jeez. No, he's a good guy. No, he's a great guy.

Yeah, so I enjoyed that episode but I wanna hear more of that on my way home. That's what I'm gonna listen to. Okay. I'll listen to this one. I'll listen to this one all the way. Let me better start making this one good, okay? So a couple of mop ups on the live stream. Live.torontomike.com. The brother says, and I guess we were talking about how Ken was serving food and was cooking food in Blue West Village. Last week I saw Paul Dean of Loverboy in line at the Woodbine Casino Timmy's an hour before their show. It was a surreal moment. So that's very different. He's not working at the Timmy's.

Yeah. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but he's actually he wanted a coffee and Paul Dean got his own coffee and that's how it is in Canada. I well I saw Stuart Copeland in line at the Sbarro in Times Square uh probably 1982. Right, but they're just regular people. Well, you are a rock star, so you know. At that time, as I understand it, he was scoring Rumblefish, I think.

And the studio was probably nearby, and he probably fell like a pizza slice. Yeah, sometimes you want a pizza slice. Human beings, it's funny. Paul Dean wanted a coffee. Yeah, even Paul Dean would like coffee once in a while. That's um, they're just like you and I. Okay.

Speaking of just like you and I, uh, Sharon Taylor, she's just like you and I, she just points out that stick it in and give it a twist was a good song. Oh, that's nice that she said so. Yes. And of course the metaphor in that song is it's a knife. It's an argument where, you know, we're not just going to have an argument. You're going to stick, stick it in and give it a twist but of course there's a sexual double entendre happening folks. You're a horny guy, eh, Blair? I well

especially in the 80s you know that was back when you know when I still had hormones. I'm in my 60s now. No more hormones. No they're all gone. Any hormones I might have had they're all gone. But yes. I teased, maybe on a Toronto Miked episode, I teased that I have in my calendar the debut of the rapper known as Snow, Darren O'Brien. And you said that you have a Snow story. Well, my Snow story is we did a songwriter tour together.

He very bravely accepted a gig on this tour that I put together for the Songwriters Association of Canada. We crossed the country in a tour bus and he was one of several artists on that tour and it was one of those songwriters sitting on stage taking turns kind of tours and song circle you might call it except we were in a line. But snow didn't have accompaniment for himself and we didn't

want him to be playing tracks like we didn't want to DJ or anything like that so I played acoustic guitar and he and I rehearsed before and and he sang and I sang harmonies and it was good do you remember what he sang I wish I could remember the names those songs were really really good. I only wanna be like with you. Yes, that's one. Yeah, that's a catchy song too. Yeah, that's really catchy. From that album. Everybody wants to be like you.

Something like that. Yeah, something like that, yeah. And he did a version of In Pharma. Skiddly baddly doodly in pharma. Did you do the rap part, the MC Shan part? No, but that's what I want. When I wanted to sing along, I would go, skiddly baddly doodly, skiddly daddly doodly and fa. You're licky boom boom down.

Yeah, that's right. By the way, you're a Toronto guy and I think you'd appreciate. What an interesting piece of Toronto history that I'm going to uncover in great detail when I have snow in the basement. And snow is in the basement because his manager is an FOTM, Paul Farberman. Oh, Paul's managing Snow? I didn't know that.

I know Paul for 100 years too. Say hello to Paul. I will, Paul hit it out of the park. He was at the recording of Tears Are Not Enough. He certainly was. He was a lawyer who was signing people in. He was a music entertainment lawyer guy, sort of like David Quentin Steinberg.

Yeah, well, I would say, I don't know if this is actually true, but I would say Paul would have been a mentor of sorts to David Quinten-Steinberg. And Geddy Lee was also at the tears are not enough recording, even though the Triumph guys were not. So was Mark Holmes. Oh.

He was in a limo, that's right. I know. Why, I know you do. You were too young. I was too young and too unfamous. I think they call it. I've returned to that state by the way, the state of fame. I don't know. FOTM would disagree. Very briefly, my flame flickered. Anyway, I have one, two last notes and then I'm, we're going to talk about the impossible dream and I pulled some, some songs and I have some questions. Somebody's passed away, I'm hoping you'll remember

for us here. Tyler says, do you have any memories about engineering a children's album which featured Luba Goy? And this children's album was called Bubble Gum and Other Yummy Kids Tunes. Does that resonate at all with you? Bubble Gum and Other other yummy kids tunes.

It does sound familiar, but that would have been in my comfort sound days and I did a lot of work. I did a lot of engineering. A lot of engineering. Yeah, a lot of engineering. So, and I do remember working with Lubagoy, but I don't remember specifically that album. Okay, fair enough.

There's a podcast called No Sleep Till Sudbury. Yes. And the host's name is? Brent Jensen. Okay and he lives in Sudbury? No that that title comes from a book that he wrote where I mean he maybe he's from Sudbury I can't remember but, but he wrote a book and it's all about the music that he and his friend played going up on this trip. And it's about songs that he loves. So he's been on the Beastie Boys, No Sleep Till Brooklyn. Yeah, and so he called the podcast that,

and I've been on a couple of times. Oh, I thought, for some reason I thought he was in Sudbury. No, he's in. So he's in Toronto. He's in Brooklyn, that part of Whitby where the swingers. So he's in Brooklyn and it's not called No Sleep Till Brooklyn spelled our way. But I don't think he lived in Brooklyn at the time when he came up with the name.

But Brooklyn spelled a different way. Yeah, I used to know a guy named Fred who lived in Brooklyn and it is spelled differently. But okay, so I'm gonna read a quote from you. So you're nervous right now? Yeah, because I run my mouth. You were too, you've got too comfortable on this program. Blair, we're gonna mix things up, okay?

Oh no. Okay, so I'm gonna read a verbatim. Okay. But you're speaking. Why don't I read it? Because it's me, like, if I read it, then it'll be in my voice. Um, well, it would be a pain in the ass

to get it to you to read it, so that's why. Okay, so I was on a podcast where they did an in-memorium segment. So they talk about people from the world of entertainment, sports, broadcasting, people who had passed and music as well. And so when they would talk about someone who died, who maybe had had maybe they were one hit wonders or they had this particularly cheesy song, whatever it was, they would joke about it. And I got mad because I'm thinking these people died and you're making a joke because they

put out this cheesy song. Like I don't know, you know, you don't have to be like, you don't have to bow down. You don't have to turn it into, you don't have to, again, you're speaking, so that's why it sounds like that. You don't have to cry it into, you don't have, again, you're speaking, so that's why it sounds like this. You don't have to cry because they died, you didn't know them, but at the same time maybe a little more respectful because these are human beings who died and they have families who loved them and they're not a figure that was made famous for your amusement. So this is a quote from this and I

didn't hear it so I don't know what your tone was like. I was much more articulate. But yeah. But it's, so this is somebody who I will keep nameless. I know exactly who it is. Thinks that you're referring to Toronto Mike. He is correct. I know exactly who tattled on me. I'm not surprised. But it is a public podcast.

Yes, but I'm not surprised, but it was reported to you. And I'll tell you why, and I don't mind, because I stand by it 100%. I stand by it 100%. I would sometimes get annoyed listening to your in memoriam sections, segments, because let's say somebody from a sitcom died, and it was like it was Urkel or somebody like that.

Somebody who could be a figure of fun because they're off in the distance and they're from our childhood or our youth or whatever and they die. They're fucking dead. Like to me, they're no longer a figure of fun. In my opinion, this is my opinion, and clearly it's somewhat strongly held. It. This is my opinion and it's clearly,

it's somewhat strongly held. It's funny, you know, it's funny you're bringing this up because just before, what were we talking about just before somebody, we were talking about, I was talking about, we were talking about Paul Dean and we were talking about just regular people. And we were talking about Stuart Copeland being at Sbarro and I was saying, yeah, they're just human beings

and so forth. I was thinking of me having said that because I was thinking, yeah, they're just, of course they're regular people. So, and again, I don't know the specifics, but if Urkel, hopefully Urkel lives to be 200 years old. Yes, exactly. But if the great, the actor who played Urkel died,

we might play him saying something like, uh, anybody got any cheese or whatever? And then we might have some fun with the fact that this sitcom was, uh, for dummies. Yeah, but it's, it just, for me, it occasionally crossed a line. That's all. It's not like this is a big ax to grind. There was a lot. I mean, take it to the hardware store. It was a far flung, far ranging conversation, conversation right but but it did you know I'm just being truthful it irked me when um irk me I know I was I have you see I could

have avoided that but okay when let's a real-life example now I don't know if you guys referred to this at all but Marcia Strassman Do you know? Marcia Strassman played mrs. Cotter on welcome back. Oh, I watched me. I well I watched that show. Yeah Yeah, so when she passed I feel like she might have been because that show was a show that we watched in our youth Yeah, right. She might have been a Target of you of slight derision by people in an memoriam segment. But I'm friends with her sister, Julie.

I'm dear friends with her sister. And Julie, of course, was very sad and upset when her sister died. So I can't help but think these are people with families. But here's my only, because I know what's said on these microphones and stuff. Yes I I would say so in that example, please remind me the name of this actress from welcome Marsha Strassman So Marsha. Yeah, okay. So when Marsha passed we would remember her character from welcome back Carter

I don't think there would be an ounce of Belittling her as a human being. I think that we all liked watching that show. I don't think that show was meant for, you know, Mensa candidates. I think that was a fun show and we all enjoyed it in syndication. I know, I think most of the Sweat Hog is dead except for John Travolta. Like I feel like we've lost a lot of people to Sweat Hogs. But I don't, so I mean, maybe you're being a little sensitive on this. I think you can have a little fun with the, you know,

he would, I think her role would be to kind of, I think at the end of every episode, Gabe Kaplan would tell a joke. Do you remember this to Marsha? Yes. Like I think we're separating a character. Yeah. And I think all of us would say,

oh, amazing to have a full-time role on a popular sitcom. Like, I don't think we're belittling that in any way. No, but would you like, okay, so maybe it's not a great example. Bad example. But, so I don't know, and maybe my, we're not naming him? Is that on purpose or do you want to name him?

I don't care. I mean, I don't care, except, except I think he has the impression I don't like him. And I do. Well, you thought you worked with him at CIUT. Yeah, it was a mistake. And there was a decade difference. I made an ongoing joke about it that apparently he took really seriously. Well, you did an impression of him in your first visit.

I think my impression is quite good. You want to do one now? No, because now if he's bringing this stuff up, I sort of feel like, oh, man, he's but in his defense, I believe he shared this in the aforementioned FOTM WhatsApp group in which you are a member. Like, so he wasn't sharing this behind your back. Oh, I don't care about that. No, and it was just a quote quotes from a something you said another podcast, because it was clear you were talking about trying to make, so I don't,

I only have two issues with it. It's your pain. My issue is one is how dare you pull a, this hour has 22 minutes on me. And why not, instead of saying I was on a podcast where they did it, why don't you say I was on Toronto Mike? Would it kill you to tell the no sleep till Sudbury audience that this podcast that you come on is called Toronto Mike? Like, why is that not said?

I'm always thinking of the promo. Yeah, like no credit, so that bothers me. And the other thing is you're cheating on me. Well, yes. I thought we had an exclusivity agreement. What next? Damn it, Mike, I have a record to promote. Because God knows there's no other way

to promote a record these days. Oh my goodness, oh yes, you have a record. I think that's my cue. But no, it isn't actually. I just want to say to our mutual friend, I apologize if anything I've ever said has hurt his feelings. I think he likes you. He will deny it.

Well, I don't know. When we've met in person, I've said, I'm sorry if, you know, my, and he said, he said, no, no, it's fine. But I don't believe that that's true because he then took the time to transcribe what I said on this podcast. No, I don't think he did the transcribe. I think he found the trans, maybe Apple did the transcription. Oh, maybe.

And he screencapped it. I don't think he typed it. Okay. Well, I hope not. I hope this FOTM Hall of Famer code name 1236. I hope, because he doesn't, I noticed he doesn't come to the Palm of Pasta FOTM, uh, TMLX events. And I noticed he doesn't get on the list to make an appearance at the GLB Brew Pub TMLX events, but he does come out to many of the events at the Great Lakes Brewery, 30 Queen Lake Old Vag.

So I'm just, I'm really hopeful that Mark Weisblot, oh, I said it, the things I'd imposed, that I hope he makes an appearance at TMLX 18. Well, I miss him on, I miss the memoriam things. I miss him on my podcast. I miss him on my podcast too. But, but I'm also, you know, we can have two ideas in our heads at once. And I'm also, I also found sometimes-

More respect for the dead, you're saying. Well, I just feel like sometimes these people, maybe it's their characters, but maybe it's also these people are held up as, they're just objects in a way, in the way that they're talked about. And I feel like they're not, they're not. And they're just objects in a way, in the way that they're talked about. And I feel like they're not, they're not. And they're not just objects for your,

it reminds me of when I used to get fan mail back in that brief moment when I had a flicker of fame. And no, I'm good with it, believe me. But I used to get fan mail and one of my correspondents wrote at one point, I am very pleased with the Jitters and the Jitters new album and I thought very pleased as if we're sort of served up on a platter or a tray for them to, for their enjoyment. And I just, even in that moment I sort of thought

that's an odd way of putting it. And I sort of think of people who are famous, I mean, I volunteered for the position and I received a little bit of it. But, and so people, and people who, they seek, you seek fame or you seek, very few people who become famous didn't seek it. Anyway, I'm rambling.

You get what I mean. I just feel like it dehumanized a little bit. That's all. No, Duly noted as another podcast might say. Which I also listen to that podcast too, by the way. He also says he replies to every email he gets and he did not reply to my email. He says he reads every email that goes to that address.

I notice it, it's almost like he's a lawyer. He says, and I read every email that goes to that address and but I reply when I can yes That's the part. Well, I'm still waiting. It's been eight years. Okay, so I'm gonna get I'm glad that we talked about death Oh, I'm really glad that we cleared the air because it was really our chat up was really It was stiff I did tease that early on. Sometimes I tease things and I never get to it. And then afterwards I'm like,

oh, I forgot to, I teased it and I got to it. I, time to get serious because I want you to talk about somebody who passed away. As you get serious, I want to just, I want to say once again for the record,

I like Mark Weisblot. I do not resent that he brought this up. I like, liked very much hearing him on your podcast and I wish I could hear him again more easily. And I echo those sentiments and I have said this to Mark many times but I'm gonna say it again because I know he's listening.

My door is open for Mark Weisblot and we used to have a three hour recording once a month. Very entertaining episodes. But then it stopped and then he did make an appearance on the mics when I Was recording that Christie Pitts for the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball game. Yeah, great But that's the last time he's been on my mics Like I don't know how to book somebody who doesn't want to come by so it takes two to tangle

But I'm telling you I'm ready to fucking tango body. Let's go Okay, let's get serious cuz I want to ask you about somebody who passed on. Yeah, sure. I was gonna make a sad song about being alone. I was gonna make a sad song about moving on To a higher plane as a beam of light I wonder where she is tonight Was gonna make a sad song but I changed my mind I was gonna make a sad song I got lots to say I was gonna make a sad song But not today I'm gonna stand tall, act real brave

Pick up my bags, get off that train I was gonna make a sad song, but I changed my mind To some it must seem easier to set themself adrift To quit the bonds of life and all that's in it But she helped me make a choice Her unexpected gift To stay the course and stand with that decision I was gonna make a sad song about giving up

I was gonna make a sad song, I almost had enough But I must march on, even though I bleed I have people here who need me I was gonna make a sad song, but I changed my mind so I'm gonna stand tall act real brave pick up my bags get off that train was gonna make a sad sad song but I changed my mind For Joanne, would you please tell us about Joanne? Yeah. Um, Joanne was my girlfriend from, uh, sometime late 2013 or so early 2014.

And, um, we were, um, on again, off again, but mostly on, very much mostly on. And, and I loved her and, uh, she chose to take her own life in, um, February of 2018. And, um, uh, we had broken up at that point because, well, for a variety of reasons. Um, but, um, we were still really close friends. She was at my house two days before watching TV with my son, Olin and I, and then two days later, she, uh, she, she chose to leave.

And, um, I really can't help, but think it was a decision made in the moment. I think she was in a lot of pain at the funeral. The rabbi talked about now the black cloud has lifted, and this was echoed by other people who spoke. I didn't know there was a black cloud. She was always, she was sweet and lovely and beautiful and charming. But she also, she was troubled.

I think, you know, with the benefit of hindsight, I can see that she was troubled. And so I see what the other people were talking about, but at the time I had no idea. I just thought she was odd at times. But she had an odd way of, uh, reacting to things and, and that I didn't know. I wasn't smart enough and I wasn't educated enough in depression and in, um, trauma to know, to even have an inkling of what was going on. And so it was an unbelievable shock when she died.

And I've spent the rest of the time, as you can hear, I think I've spent the rest of the time processing. I'm still processing it, but, and I miss her every day. And yeah, it was a huge thing. I'm sorry for your loss. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, she was, yeah.

Anyway, she was wonderful. I wanted to write a song, though, that wasn't about how sad I am, which maybe, you know, maybe still I can write that, but I wanted to write a song that that acknowledged her choice or first of all her existence but also her choice and the fact that her choice meant that I I have made a choice too but I will never do that you know I felt suicidal I but I won't do that because of the ripple of pain, the ripples of pain

that her death caused for everybody around me and me and her family, of course. And I could never do that to my son, first of all, but also all the other people who would feel pain, because all of us have people around us who love us and care for us even if we feel we don't which of course we all feel like that at times you know and so that I wanted to write that in a song so I did and I wrote a few years ago now all the songs on this record of mine are older the newest one is from 2022 but um so did Joanne hear songs from The Impossible Dream?

Yeah, she did. Yeah, she did. She didn't hear that one, obviously. But, uh... Right. Um, but yeah, she did. There were songs on their early bird, for instance, which opens the album. Um, she would hear these songs and I wouldn't have recorded them. Yeah, there it is. And she'd say, she called me Bear. She would say, Bear, you should record this. You should put this out.

And she would dance in her chair, not kidding. Like sitting to it and she was just, yeah, she was great. A little early bird from the impossible dream. Look at me, look what I've done. was great. A little early bird from the impossible dream. But me, I just get mad This fiction time, the penny saves The early bird, it's all the same Free advice costs what it's worth Living for me, not for some dumb bird Someday I may rise with the sun but I won't crow to everyone.

The early bird might be virtuous but me I'm not the crowing kind. I don't cover that much distance On the path of least resistance And I don't ever rush to procrastinate But I resolve to keep on trying Spread my wings and just start flying Maybe tomorrow, maybe even today Still the early bird don't get my admiration, my approval nor envy too. The early bird is on my hit list, waking me up with its coo coo coo. The early bird might get the worm but who would want worms anyway? The early bird gets up and gone, but me I just get mad. The early bird might get the worm, but me I'm sleeping in. Sleeping in.

I'd sleep in too. Yeah, don't bother. The early bird can have the worm, but who wants worms anyway? Okay, love it. So Joanne would hear these songs. Is it fair to say that Joanne would encourage you to record these songs? Yeah, yeah, I would say so. Yeah, she, yeah, she would, and I regret not having her sing on any of them.

I don't think she was a good singer, but she was cute. I have a couple of pictures of her with headphones on, standing in front of my studio mic, the way I am right now, pretending to sing, like making a singer face. And she was so cute and so smart too, oh my goodness. See, I feel I know you pretty well, like we've had how many episodes of Toronto Mic'd

and of course I'm at your house on Saturday, I bike to your home just to say hi quickly and you're to tell me that you don't have time for me. I love that by the way, yeah. That's right, you're three weeks early. Three weeks, that's such an unbelievable story. I was like oh did you make that up? But that actually happened.

22 kilometers from your house to mine. Yeah, you asked me how long and I said, oh, I happened to record my rides. He had 22K and it was cold then. And I was happy to do it. It was great ride. And again, I got to hang out with Cooksy and have some great lakes.

But I had no idea that you had a Joanne in your life and that this happened in your life. I had no idea until until I basically was reading up on the impossible dream and I was listening to that song and I'm like oh this song is for a Joanne I did not know the Joanne story well that's interesting to me because I feel like I have talked about Joanne a lot and so maybe I've become self-conscious about talking about Joanne for two reasons. One is, because I have a lot of guilt

because I had broken up with her a few weeks before, maybe six weeks before. And I've been told that that contributed to her decision. I've been told that by people who don't otherwise know that, but anyway, I don't want to be coy about it, but it's, and so I don't want to claim Joanne, I don't want to make Joanne's passing her death like part of my drama or anything like,

you know what I mean? I don't want to make it about me. So. But the trauma is for the survivors to deal with. Oh yeah, oh yeah. And I mean, I'm sure you know this, but, uh, you're not responsible for her decision to take her own life.

No, but I was, I was told that, uh, directly. And you shouldn't have been told right in the moment. No, I don't think I should have been actually, but it's just not fair to put that on you. That's undeserved. But I, but I don't want to, again, I don't want to make that a, make it about me. Um, uh,'t wanna, again, I don't wanna make it about me. But yeah, I agree. I ultimately agree. It's just that it hurt to hear it

and it hurts to think about it. And it hurts as well to think that somebody might be listening who is thinking that I'm somehow milking Joanne's death or something for, you know. I'm not. Jesus. Because seven years later you wrote a song about your, you know, and that's cathartic. I'm sure that was cathartic to write this song.

Yeah, yes. And, but there are people who would be cynical about it maybe. And, um, so I, so I, I don't, um, so that's one reason why I've been reticent to talk about it. I also had a girlfriend after Joanne died who told me that I talked about Joanne too much and it was one of the reasons she was going to break up with me and and so I

maybe from that I learned and I what and then by the way and if she were still in Toronto I would still be friends with her but so you know I don't hold that against her that's how she felt but did, she actually reached out to a families of grieving people kind of group. I don't remember the name of the group, and they told her, no, that's an inappropriate thing to say to somebody who's grieving. And so she wrote me in detail to say how sorry she was

that she said that. And- Well, inappropriate, but unfair. Yeah that and inappropriate but unfair yeah and and but you know if you're feeling it you're feeling I also I also believe you can feel things that are unfair and incorrect and but you still feel them and you still have to deal with them somehow so so in that case anyway the point is though it all led to me talking about it less which would be right which would be why you didn't know about it.

Well, so, so this, this sadly happened, uh, in 2018, right? Yeah. Okay. So you and I don't meet until October, 2021. So I just went back in the archives here and that was a backyard episode, much, much like, uh, in, uh, in Lerden's first episode of the backyard, because this is in that COVID period when I had it. And I think I might bring back some Backyard episodes this summer, because they had a nice vibe to them.

They were great, that was fun. Although you were really late. I was late, yes. I was three weeks early to your things, and you were late. Yeah, I was this morning thinking, maybe I'll be late this morning to Toronto, Mike, just for old times. No, we gotta hurry it out today, okay.

But that was just to tell people Blair's first episode we kind of cover the eighties out of everything and uh it was as I just mentioned it was in October 2021 and here's what I wrote so that's episode 926 and I wrote Mike chats with Blair Packham about his years in the jitters his time on q107 last of the red hot fools closer every day well we did and we I know no longer bring this up but I did tell you at the time I felt you were very much in the Huey Lewis in the news vein right you actually focused more on Doug and the slugs oh yes because we're gonna slugs was in the Huey Lewis in the news all right and then and then you when you played a bit

of Doug in the songs I thought oh shit It does sound like that. So I Where but I have I realize you didn't enjoy that comparison necessarily because it's not fair That's not fair to you But there are some songs that were on the radio from the jitters that I felt were very much reminded me of Doug in this month, right and and You know with the comparison I both I both acknowledged it and was it irritated right now Yeah, so I so I held back on that, just like you're holding back and things, okay.

So, and we talked about you write for other people and your work on TV, you mentioned Beyblades and films and et cetera. And so there's a great episode 926 for everybody. But sadly, I'm not gonna let you off the hook with these chats about people who have passed away because somebody else passed away I wanna ask you about. And I believe he is heard on the impossible dream Teddy Hawkins

yeah could you talk to me about Teddy yeah I I don't I didn't know Teddy that well but I really liked him a lot real real character Teddy played drums and sang he only said he didn't play drums on my record, but he sang on Four Joann, which is of course, you know, it's not, I don't know what it is. It's sad that he died. He died of a heart attack just a few weeks ago, really. And he was a working musician who played everywhere

and with everybody. And I shared a stage with him. and he was a working musician who played everywhere and with everybody and I shared a stage with him. He played in the band that I would be playing with a couple of times. There was a Patsy Cline tribute show that I have done a few times. Heather Morgan put it together at the Lula Lounge and she'd have great guests and somehow I would be included. But Teddy was the drummer in that band and I gotta tell you, there was something about his playing

that was so beautiful. There's a thing that happens in a band and he wasn't a technical drummer at all. When people have these arguments about who is the greatest rock drummer in the world, Neil Peart, and Ringo Sucks and so forth. But Ringo has this thing that Teddy Hawkins had, which is this beautiful feel thing, and it just feels good. And music, that's what music is. It's not, it's not

math, and it's not athleticism, though those things come into it, right? But it's about feeling. And you know And the thing that I like, I don't care if it's fast or slow, I don't care if it's complicated or simple, as long as it makes me feel something. And which is why I've got a late in life appreciation for Rush, because I always heard that as math rock. Right.

It's so technically perfect. Yeah, and it's great. And Neil Peart was an unbelievably great drummer. Like unbelievably great. But to compare Neil Peart versus Ringo, I had this discussion at a party a few weeks ago and I was like, oh, not this discussion again. Right.

But a nice guy who, maybe he's listening now, I don't know. But I just feel like it's not a contest and especially not if somebody plays faster, they must be better or more technically proficient. In any case, Teddy was not one of those technical drummers, he was a field drummer and he did it beautifully and he had this big, beautiful gospel influenced voice. And once I decided that this song about Joanne could be kind of gospel-y, I thought, Teddy, I should get Teddy to sing. So sadly we lost Teddy and you may not have known him well,

but you appreciated his gospel-tinged mojo. Yeah, for sure. So okay, so if I'm understanding so the new album is called the impossible dream and it sounds like there's some of these songs that have been hanging around for a while now like before your beloved Joanne passed away in 2018 and then of course when that happens in your life that's gonna sidetrack you right so is that is it fair to say that maybe dealing with this trauma like you were lost for a while and that you that maybe that

delayed yeah i mean my my previous record which is called unpopular pop right um the space between it and the pandemic, the pandemic, that thing that happened. The thing that forced you into my backyard. Yeah, yeah, that's right. A little more. Lucy took another call, she knew it'd be recorded for the purposes of quality control

she gave out some information she upgraded an account briefly wondered what had happened to her soul she stretched her neck and yawned and shrugged and thought about the weekend and how she'd finally have the chance to just sleep in. But in her dreams she is soaring out over the ocean. Arms outstretched as wings, her hair shining in the sun. In her dreams she is no prisoner of the day-to-day routine.

She really loves to fly in her dream. I like how you tell a story in your songs, Blair. Thank you. And that song I play around Halloween every year, One Hit Wonder. Same deal, like it's just a great story, just you're a great storyteller in these music. Well, thank you. And it's funny mentioning that song now and not wanting to revisit our argument that we just had, our really dispute. Not much of an argument.

Yeah, I'm going to call David Steinberg to sue you. Well, I got Lauren Honigman on speed dial, so let's go, buddy. Watch it, buddy. There you go. Yeah. But One Hit Wonder is about Bobby Boris Pickett and the idea of people, again, it's humanizing, you know, these one hit wonders. We always sort of sneer at the one-hit wonders, just like we, some slightly sneer at the people who are on, you know, cheesy sitcoms. And I think, yeah, okay, but when they die,

when they die, that's- But if a one-hit wonder dies, like Boris Pickett. Yeah, Bobby Pickett, yeah. Right, Bobby Pickett, right. Bobby Pickett. Yeah. Right. Bobby Pickett. Right. Yeah. You're not dehumanizing them. Like I feel like this is the disconnect. Like no, this is, this is the fact that they had one song that people know the words to and love to hear. To me, that's amazing. Like I don't think I ever feel... Well, good for you. And I agree. I feel the same way.

But, but, but I have... I can't speak for my co-host, but... Well, I have been prone to, the same way but but but I have for my co-host but I have been prone to like so that story that I tell in that song one wonder yeah it's a true story I was in a parking lot in Sarasota Florida had just seen a movie it was it was public eye with Joe Pesci and great movie it was about the the photographer Weegee who you really should look up. He took these great Hollywood photographs and crime scenes and stuff. We were great. Anyway, I step out and with Arlene Bishop, by the way,

on my arm, and there's a flatbed truck with a band on it and there are hay bales everywhere and there are people in costumes and there are people drinking beer. And the band, they just start cranking into the Monster Mash and then there's a sign like on a on an easel and it says Bobby Boris Pickett the Monster Mash and I realized oh it's that guy right it's that guy and I can see everybody sort of snickering a little bit as and they start paying attention

because I guess he'd been playing other songs and nobody cares about his other songs right and I started sneering a little bit too, but as the song played I thought why am I laughing the guy had a big a huge hit absolutely one more hit than 99.99999 percent of people who hear it right yeah So I just felt like in that instance like why are we why I'm why it was about me Like why am I sneering and it was about me, like why am I sneering? And it was also about me, the song,

because I was thinking of the Last of the Red Hot Fools. I was thinking about, oh, I'm kind of a one-hit wonder. But then you remembered yet another hit that we played earlier. Well, no, but neither of those songs would play in a parking lot in Sarasota, Florida, you know, so. Depends where, not in Sarasota, but you put that parking lot a bit young and Nord in there

and we're gonna blast out that Hey, I do have a question about one of the songs on impossible dream and But before I get to that Let me please tell you about a fantastic podcast from Nick. I E N E's It's called building Toronto skyline. In fact tomorrow morning We're gonna record an episode all about the 50th anniversary of CN Tower. The CN Tower is 50 years old, Blair. Wow. Wow.

Who'da thunk it? Okay. So we're going to talk about that and I would urge people to subscribe and listen to Nick's podcast, Building Toronto Skyline. He's got a second podcast that's launching, first episode already available called Building Success. And I also recommend that podcast. And thank you, Nick Ienies, for stepping up to fuel the real talk.

And last but not least on that front, RecycleMyElectronics.ca. They're on board for all of 2025. And if you have any old devices, old cables, old electronics, do you Blair? I do, I have a drawer full. Is East York full devices old cables old electronics do Blair I do I have a drawer full East York full of old cables everywhere even over in East York you trip over the big call the land of Cape Cableville they call it of cable and of

cables people in East York and elsewhere in this fine country this sovereign nation are you proud of your sovereign nation very very proud of this sovereign nation. Are you proud of your sovereign nation? I'm very, very proud of this sovereign nation. I wasn't sure Gilmore was proud enough of the sovereign nation. Like I had to call him out. Like, do you? Cause he seemed, uh, I just had to, you know, I've only had one guest since all this 51st state rhetoric who even made me question, uh, whether they'd be okay with that for what it's worth. And it wasn't, not Gilmore okay but but I will finish this thought yes recycle my electronics dot CA is where you go you put in your postal code and you find out where you can drop off those old cables old devices old electronics to be

properly recycled so the chemicals do not end up in our landfill that's what you do Blair Packham that sounds good to. Now for the 50th anniversary of the CN Tower, will you be playing Michael Jordana and the Poles CN Tower? I don't even know this song. Oh my goodness. Look it up. It's from Toronto punk rock history. And the hook goes CN Tower, CN Tower. I'm learning, by the way, I'm learning so much about, I was

too young for the scene and I'm learning and there's a band in my calendar now. I don't know. I didn't know anything about, and then I started scene and I'm learning and there's a band in my calendar now I don't know I didn't know anything about and then I started researching and I'm like I need to do an episode with this band and I'm vamping while I come to tell you the name of this band. Are you ready to know the name? Yes I will vamp for you. Yes I'm ready if you tell me the name I'm sure I will have something to say. Okay, well that was perfect. You're good at this.

No wonder you went Q107. Hit the post, that's right. Stark naked in the flesh tones. Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, really, yes. What do you know about Stark naked in the flesh tones? Well, you can get, I don't know who, do you have Eugene Ripper coming on? I have Stark.

Oh, yeah, Paul Stark. Yeah, Paul Stark. Yeah. And a gentleman named Bruce Yes, Bruce. Charlotte who was Eugene who still is Eugene Ripper. That was the kind of Intel I haven't done yet Okay, so I have these the two the two founding members Eugene Ripper was a his his thing was he's sort of a punk folk guy and Yeah, and he's and he's a great guy. So I'm always, what I'm saying is- And Paul's a great guy too, by the way. This goes back to Paul Harvey. Yes.

Because I don't know that band. Yeah. But I realize I should know that band. And I need, this is similar to, you know, it's a lot like former Jitters member, Martin. Glenn Martin. No. Oh, Blair Martin. Blair Martin. Okay, yeah, but I can connect that. former jitters member martin uh... uh... glenn martin

where martin okay yeah but i think i can i can connect that so the bass player in the raving mojos with blair martin right uh... base player is currently in a new york band called the flesh tones who also were a seminal sort of punk band but not to be confused with stark naked in the flesh tone cake right you did it perfectly and in the raving mojo, yeah, you finish your thought. And Ken Fox, that's the name of the bass player

from the raving mojos, his brother is Paul Fox, who directs Canadian television at a high level. Wow. Yes, honestly, you should look up Paul Fox. Hook this to my vein. I thought you were gonna tell me it was Adam Fox's brother. No, no. The member of the Impossible Dream.

That Adam Fox, that Fox is spelled F A U X. Right. So he was, he was who introduced me to Ken McNeil from, from rusty. I'm telling you, it's all connected. Who, by the way, you, the podcast you cheated on me with is called no sleep till Sudbury. Ken McNeil is a brick layer in Sudbury. No kidding. Wow. Well, there you go. It's unbelievable. Talented guy. I like those, those rusty records by the way.

But my encounter with Ken was not great. So I gather. See, finally you're coming clean here. Okay. But you know what? But it was a hundred years. It was literally 1992. Yeah. I feel like he's growing quite a bit as a person. I hope so. Okay. We're going to, we're going to reunite you guys at a TML X event.

Okay. We're cooking off gas here. Cause I just saw the clock okay so I would just say the raving mojos is an example of I miss the raving mojos but I needed to learn about the raving mojos and I talked to Blair Martin former member of the jitters and we got that host no pack him former member of the jitters Blair Martin not yes was never in the jigger no no why did I think he might have played with the jitters for a little bit or something? No, his brother, Glenn Martin. His brother, goodness gracious.

Glenn Martin also played with Ray Sawyer from Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. Wow. Yeah, so that's spreading the circle a little bit more, but. Okay, and here's how we're gonna close, because these songs from the Impossible Dream are from like over many years.

Yes, yeah, well some are from the 90s. Two of them are from the 90s. Okay. So I'm going to do that. Yeah. Because I'm going to play a song from the jitters. Okay. Just a bit of it. Then I'll break it down and then I'm going to play a song from impossible dream. Okay. So this is from the jitters. Yep. You were in the jitters. I knew them quite well. Yeah. It's in the liner notes. It's in the liner notes. Hey, kidders. All at once I saw myself without any doubt And I knew that it was you, that it was all about But if I'm gonna make this happen

I've got some figuring out to do I'm gonna spend my time from now on Making heads and tails out of you And I don't think that I should hurry I don't ever want to get through I'm gonna spend my time from now on Making heads and tails out of you Heads and tails of you Claire Packham, The Impossible Dream Song. Here we go. out of your eyes last night and over me

and I knew that what comes from a moment like this was meant to be all at once I saw myself without any doubts and I knew that it was you That it was all about But if I'm gonna make this happen I've got some figuring out to do I'm gonna spend my whole life trying To make heads and tails out of you So there you go. Did you reimagine Hensin Tales? Yeah, I, and I'm reimagining it further now. I think it should be faster. Well, people listen to this podcast at like 1.5 or whatever. So it'll be faster.

So it actually will be faster. Perfect. Okay. Who's the woman's voice I hear in that? Oh, that, that is the, the unbelievably great Natalie Wong. She plays violin, fiddle and violin, all like they're the same instrument, but she plays live with me sometimes, but I wanted a flavor that sort of reflected what I sounded like live these days because I don't have a big rock band anymore,

I don't have a big pop band. So this is mostly acoustic and there's a fiddle player, but I couldn't resist putting the castanets on because, well, actually that was the drummer's choice and I just loved it. So the drummer said, what about castanets? So, yeah. But it's interesting, you're covering yourself essentially.

Yeah. This is like. Yeah, that was Andy Humphrey's idea, by the way. He actually did it, he worked up a version of it, a recording of it and then sent it to me and said what do you think should we cut this and and I thought yes we should except I'm gonna do my own version yeah well I to be maybe because it's more I'm taking this version oh I like this version I just think it should be a little bit faster that's all okay

well and and I and the jitters version, it hit me hard listening to it just now. I was like, oh wow, that's pretty good. We had a jitters reunion in November and we played that song and we rocked. Well, will there be more jitters performances? Yeah, but the only way we can do it and actually not have it cost us money is to do it like once a year.

Now a real phone call from Michael Williams that's a real call I don't like Facebook calls no cuz who knows what you're doing at that moment it's just to me like I have a phone yeah can you I know I'm do I sound like an old man call my phone I prefer to get a text first. Just Mark Wise-Blood if you're listening. Did he call you? No, I don't. I would say-

No, I'm just thinking who am I talking to? Like when I say that, who's gonna text me first? And then I thought, well, it'd be funny to say- I try to text you first. If I phone you, it's because I'm outside your door. Yes. That's a big difference. So here, as we do final thoughts here,

as we put a little bit of another song from the Impossible Dream in the background while we wrap up. This is funny how he's calling again. Do you think this is harassment? It might be being harassed by the former DJ, Michael Williams. Could be an emergency, but I can't imagine. Could have a much music emergency.

If you're calling me in your emergency, it's too late. It's too late. Okay. Any words about beloved FOTM and founding member of lowest of the low, Stephen Stanley. Oh, I have so many words about Stephen Stanley. And I thought you might have some words. They're all good. Um, Stephen is a lovely fellow.

You know, when, when Joanne died, Stephen, we'd already, we'd been friends a little bit because he was on my radio show on News Talk 1010. We, uh, Bob Reed and I had him on as a guest and he, um, and you know, we sort of hit it off and it was good. And then I went to some shows he did and, uh, I don't know, but when Joanne died, he, he sort of swooped in much like Sharon Taylor, by the way, Sharon Sederington. And I don't know, but when Joanne died, he sort of swooped in, much like Sharon Taylor, by the way, Sharon Sederington, and I mean it in the best way, swooped in to like take care of me. And both of them were, it was very meaningful to me,

both Sharon and Stephen. Sharon just wasn't doing any shows that I could open for her where Stephen was. So he not only provided me with friendship, but he also gave me opportunities to play music, and to play on the same bill with him, which is, he's really, really talented. I'm a big Stephen Stanley fan. Me too. And he lives in Prince Edward County now. And he's one of the reasons-

So not Wolf Island? I feel like he was on Wolf Island. He was on Wolf Island and he's moved. And he's one of the reasons I want to move to Prince Edward County, to be honest with you. Okay, that's interesting. Steve Anthony moved out there, but then he moved back. Right. The pandemic was a great disruptor for what he wanted to do there. What's his partner's name, Jen? Jennifer?

No, it'll come to me. I'm sorry, I'm forgetting. I know. Because I don't know them very well, but anyway, she said to me, get in touch because we have comments, both positive and negative. Like before I move out there, get in touch.

And a few people have said that to me, not about Prince Edward County specifically, but the idea of leaving the great metropolis of Toronto. Yeah, because that's a big, like, I mean, I don't have plans to do it, but I know people who did it and some regretted it and some are say it's the best thing they ever did. Like, you know, it depends what you're into, but. There was that article in Toronto Life about, I don't know, five, six years ago, Dave Eddie, David Eddie from the Globe and Mail, wrote wrote this article Pam Seidel that's right that's

right there they were TV they moved out there out somewhere near Hamilton near flamber or something and I believe they regretted it that was the gist of the article and you know so you think about these how serious are you about this like how likely is it that the next time you're on Toronto Mike, you had to make the commute from Prince Edward County? That's a long ride. Not pretty likely, not bloody likely, because it's gonna be a while.

I've got to convince my son that he will survive, and not only survive, he'll thrive in my absence. And he doesn't, I don't think he believes that right now. And I understand that. I think if I moved right now, he would feel abandoned and I think in his imagination He already feels abandoned, but I would never abandon him. So no, of course one way or another he will be fine One way or another that's right on the live stream. There was a correct I think I agree if this that there are times when your cadence, your voice are very reminiscent

of your old pal, Stephen Page. Isn't that funny? And I love Stephen Page, of course. Yeah, yeah, people have said that to me, singing and playing and talking. They've said that. I've opened for Stephen a couple of times, notable times, once in Dublin, Ireland.

You may have heard of Dublin, it's in Ireland. I've been there, I've been there. Yeah, and once at the Danforth Music Hall. He opened for Arlene and I a whole bunch of times with Ed Robertson in the earliest days of the Bare Necked Ladies. Drove downtown in the rain. Okay, let's hear it tomorrow.

9.30 on a Tuesday night. I miss when the albums came out on Tuesdays. Do you remember this? Yeah. Of course you do, what am I talking about? Of course I do. But it's like, I don't think that happens anymore. No. They change the date or they just drop.

They don't release, they drop and they drop on any old day. What? And I mean, we don't, I know I'm playing you out, but I was going to say, because I started my sentence and then I realized we don't have time. I thought you were doing a David Clayton Thomas impression. Oh, what?

Go, who's up? Must come down. It'd be funny if he answered the phone like that. If he picked up the phone and went, what? You know, I almost had a phoner with him. Really? Eric Alper was arranging and then Eric, maybe this is a tale out of school,

but basically he wasn't in any condition to do a phoner with Toronto Mike. It was a bad idea. We had to kibosh it. Oh, I'm sorry. It didn't happen. But I will say this. I don't know how you released new music in 2025.

I'm not sure you know how to do it, but you did it, man. Well, yeah, thanks. I mean, I just decided to just put it out like I don't know. But yeah, I yeah, it's out. People listening to us right now can now go listen to the impossible dream. That's true. Apple Music, Spotify, Bandcamp. Bandcamp is my favorite, by the way. OK, so Bandcamp, do we just search for Blair Packham?

Yeah, if you want to go direct, you can go to BlairPackham.Bandcamp.com It's that easy. Dude, this was great! Yeah, fun as always. Always fun with you. Can't wait to take that photo by the Toronto tree. That's right, can't wait for you to show up at my party on the right day. We'll see. The joke will be, I don't show up at all.

That's true. And we'll all laugh. And that brings us to the end of our 1,669th show. 69! Go to torontomic.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. I'm getting multiple texts from Michael Williams. Like something is happening. You're getting them on your watch.

Yeah, because my watch is vibrating. I'm looking over and I see Michael Williams is writing me. Like I have to read tomorrow when I record, I'm going to report back. What the heck Michael Williams wanted to talk to me about. It's important. Yeah. But much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Monaris, Silver Wax.

Man, you're going to have a clean car next time I see it. Love you Silver Wax. Use Toronto Mike 10 at checkout at silverwax.ca. Recycle my electronics.ca, building Toronto skyline and Ridley Funeral Home. See you all tomorrow. What a music week on Toronto Miked. Tomorrow, my special guest, I can't wait for this, Crystal Shawanda.

Do you know this name? Yes, yes, she's great. That voice is amazing. She's a great interview too. Live in the basement, Crystal Shawanda, tomorrow afternoon on the live stream at 2.45. See you all then! You