Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Blair Packham: Toronto Mike'd #1053

Episode Date: May 20, 2022

In this 1053rd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike is joined by Blair Packham who shares several amazing stories of all the ways he's connected to FOTMs. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, StickerYou, Ridley Funeral Home and Duer Pants and Shorts.

Welcome to episode 1053 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. Palma Pasta.

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the lowest prices on cannabis. Guaranteed. Over 100 stores across the country. Learn more at cannacabana.com. Today, my special guest is a man making his triumphant return to Toronto Mike. Blair Packham. Yay. Return of the pack.

Yeah. That came to me earlier Wow That is actually fairly original If you said pack them in I was You know I almost did

But yeah Oh did I tell you What John Derringer said Tell me Okay It was a more innocent era When I was on the Six O'Clock Rock Report

He said All right We have Matt Greenberg from the Jitters and the lead singer, Blair Pacamorez. He's known fudge. And then he let it sit there. You know, I think you could do that one today. I think that one's going to sit enough.

I don't know. What do I know? But good to have you back. We've been corresponding via email since your last visit here. But I'm going to read the description for your initial deep dive. Because if people want generally the A to Z of your life and times, I would direct them to episode 926,

which we recorded in the backyard last summer. Yeah. And you were late. I was late. I got mixed up about the time. That's all. I'm not normally late. But you're not late today last summer. Yeah. And you were late. I was late. I got mixed up about the time. That's all. I'm not normally late. But you're not late today.

Nope. Good. And now it's going to be recycled about once bit and twice shy by Great White. Okay. So Mike chats with Blair Packham about his years in the jitters, his time on Q107, last of the Red Hot Pools, closer every day,isons to Huey Lewis and Doug and the Slugs, Writing for Other People, his work on TV and films and more.

That episode was 90 minutes. I think you've got another 90 in you. I think I might. Yeah. Yeah. I got a lot of stories. So, yeah, my feeling about that episode. Well, first of all, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I mean, who... But? Well, no, wait. I got a lot of stories. So, yeah, my feeling about that episode, well, first of all, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I mean, who... But? Well, no, wait, I'll get to the but. But who doesn't enjoy talking about themselves for 90 minutes? People always say, oh, I don't like talking about myself. Yeah, BS. And especially me. So, but I listened to that episode avidly,

and then I became a huge fan of your podcast. I actually wasn't familiar with it when we met, right? Right. Other people said, oh, no, you've got to be on that podcast. But I didn't know. Okay, I was going to ask you, like, will you do any podcasts? And this is a legit question. Like, if someone starts a podcast today, and there's like three listeners, like their mom, their wife, and then themselves, let's say.

And they say, hey, Blair, will you come over and do 90 minutes of talking about you? Are you like, yeah, I'm getting on my Vespa. I'm going to be there in a half an hour. I mean, the answer might be yes, which would be awesome. I'm just curious. No, it does depend. It's not so much on the audience.

It depends on whether I like the person or not. I mean, with you, you were recommended by Pete Fowler. He said, no, you really got to do this. He's a good FOTM. He is. And yeah, and Pete's a great guy. And I just had that great experience playing in Pete's backyard playing music. And I was there. Yeah. So for me, it was, it was very legit. So no,

I wouldn't be on anybody's podcast, but you know, it's, it is fun to talk about yourself and, and I do have stuff to promote. Right. So, you know, even if it's for a few people and you just, the other thing is you never know if i like the person and i and i can see spending an hour or two with them you know yeah yeah i would did you leave with lasagna last time i did and it was so good because like not every podcast will give you a large lasagna to take home with you not every podcast will give you anything right you're getting another one. Really? Palma Pasta. Happy birthday, Anthony, at Palma Pasta. Palma Pasta wants to give you another lasagna.

So before you go, don't leave without your lasagna. It's in my freezer. I won't. That's amazing. It was really delicious. It really legitimately was fantastic. Yeah, you're not just saying that. Nope.

Because why would you lie? Your reputation is everything. Okay, so listen, Blair. Yeah. I do want to elaborate a bit more on you liking the show because you didn't know it when you came on, but Pete said you got into the show

and you came over and you were very kind and generous. But real talk, I listened back to that ep because I like to listen back to eps and see where I sucked. And so I don't suck next time. I'm trying to get better at this.

And do you think I went a little hard on the whole you guys ripping off a Huey Lewis in the news, Doug and the Slugs vibe, in the jitters I'm referring to? I felt like maybe I went a little far with that. I only felt like that in retrospect. It's funny.

I didn't really feel like it at the time. I felt like listening back, I thought, oh, he's really pushing this thing. respect um it's funny i didn't really feel like it like it in the at the time i felt um yeah like listening back i thought oh he's really pushing this because i played i played doug in the slugs and i i played huey lewis in the news and then i played the jitters yeah and i was like you see do you hear this blair but here's the thing when you're in the band you don't necessarily know that because i don't know that well you know i mean john what was that guy's name john cafferty and the beaver brown band like he probably knew that he was going uh he was going after springsteen pretty pretty much right when in our band we

never ever thought we like no disrespect to the late doug bennett but we didn't think oh man if there's a band we're gonna copy it's gonna be doug and the slugs you know but they were copying huey lewis in the news so it's like you were copying like the copy of the well we weren't even like for us yeah for us it was it was the kinks and it was uh the beatles and and so forth but i suppose that you know with with uh the existence of doug and the slugs and huey and the huey lewis in the news we we oh, you can do that kind of thing. But we never, like, honestly, it was never, even when we opened up for Huey Lewis, we weren't thinking, all right, we've arrived in our,

this is our country, this is where we live. You know. Okay, because I was worried about that. But then I felt like, because of our email exchanges, and I want to thank you also, before I forget, your contribution to episode 1000. Uh, that was awesome. And that whole experience,

putting that together and, and having your words on that episode meant a lot to me. So thank you for sending in audio for ep 1000. That's very nice. Uh, it's funny. You just said, uh,

when you listen back to this app, you, you'll notice that you said, uh, and that was Austin. Austin Matthews. He's my PTSD. Instead of awesome.

So when we get into court over this thing, you'll be able to say, I never said it was awesome. I said it was awesome. See, that's why I record everything I say because I never know what's coming out of my mouth. Even with your wife, you're recording. Every room is wiretapped.

Everything's being collected. Now, kids, I know on episode 1012, I said to you that you can't stay up late. That's pretty much it. But so, yeah, thank you for being on episode 1000. Often I'll get an email from you and I'll read it on the show. I'll get into a bit more of this later. And maybe this is an opportunity for you to pat me on the show. I'll get into a bit more of this later, but maybe this is an opportunity for you to

pat me on the back a little further because you said you didn't know the show. You came over. We had a great 90 minutes together. You left with a lasagna. Did you bring home some Great Lakes beer? I did. You're going to bring home some more Great Lakes today. That's awesome. It was delicious.

Fresh craft beer. And they have a new location. I want to shout out the new location at Jarvis, like Lower Jarvis. Lower Jarvis. And Queens Quay. Okay. Brand new. You can go in there and get a pint today. Fresh craft beer from Great Lakes. So thank you

Great Lakes. You kind of listened to this. You had the experience with me in 90 minutes and then you're like, oh, what else is in the catalog? By way yeah you've heard a few episodes so this is what happens but there's kind of a famous Gino Vanelli episode of Toronto Mike and uh Gino says a statement to me because I was harping on black cars because black cars hit me I think I was like 10 years old or something and it was on CFDR all the time. And I was into it.

And then I just wanted to talk more about black cars. And at some point he says like, can we get off black cars already? He says, I'm like his parish priest. He says, get off me or whatever. So kind of, I wondered if I was going a little hard on Last of the Red Hot Fools because that's a jam that hit me at the right time and it's been an earworm for decades now well no it didn't i mean you know realistically you know my band

happened you know in the 80s in in the latter part of the 80s so we really had any kind of notoriety at all from really 86 to 91 right that's a long long time ago and and we had we had like one hit record and we had a couple of others that sort of followed which you and i talked about closer every day with a jam yeah until the fever breaks it did really well on the much music chart and talk about that yeah and bridges burning so we had a few singles but if anybody knows this for any song at all and trust me they don't but if they do they'll know me for last of the red hot fools and it is catchy yeah you know i to me that whole song is the chorus when i went to emi music publishing to get a deal when the

band was breaking up uh mike mccarty who was the president at the time uh he said you got to rewrite that song and i said what do you mean he said that's a million seller man but you got to rewrite it so the verse is basically the same as the chorus because the chorus is the thing and yes and so i tried to do that and didn't really i ended up not getting a deal with him but um but we're still friends and uh but he had a point you know that like the verses to me have always not been that great they're not memorable at all i bet you couldn't remember a single word no the earworm isworm is definitely the chorus. I've been a fool. That thing. The whole thing. People still come up to me and

they'll start singing it in a store line. Twice a year that might happen. It's not very often. Both times it's me. That's right. Do you or Mark Weisblatt, who actually is not a fan, I don't think. That's the thing that got me hooked on the podcast.

Tell me the story. got me hooked on the podcast. Okay, yeah, that's where I was going. So yeah, tell me this story. Okay, so I listened back to the episode you and I did, which I loved. And of course, what's second best to talking about yourself for 90 minutes? It's listening to yourself talk about yourself for 90 minutes. So I did that. And then I had to listen to another episode where Mark talked about my episode. Yeah, it's pretty meta, right?

Yeah. Because Wisebot will review episodes that stuck out to him during the previous month. So he said, you know, I mean, why would anybody? He's going to hate me for doing this. He's going to now review me doing that and he'll hate me. Yeah, and it'll keep going. The cycle continues.

Yeah, Mark, I don't know you. I mean, I think we've met maybe over the years. But honestly, I love listening to his visits with you. I really do. All three hours. Yeah, well, and I do. I'll be doing laundry and stuff around the house and I'll listen. And sometimes he says something that pisses me off.

And other times, like most of the time, I'm agreeing with him. But I do think it's funny that you as the host recede into the background and and he all and he'll do the wrap-up and everything and you'll be like you're sort of trying to jump in and say i don't want to talk over him no how could you how could you possibly so so so anyway he he said uh now why why anyone would think that the the jitters were a commercial prop? You know, they could make money off of the jitters. Even back then they were unfashionable. That's a pretty good wise buy. Thank you.

Yeah, I thought so too. I think he's right. Like, I think he's right. I don't argue with that. Like, we weren't. We were not New Order. We were not new order we were not you too we were not uh you know well you know the the bands that had that that guy singing i like to me they all sounded the same at the time don't you like the low-voiced guy the sort of uh simple

minds yeah simple minds but also just that kind of that was supposed to be uh singing like that and then the pretentious lyrics, you know. But that Don't You Forget About Me before we passed, that was supposed to be Billy Idol. Right, right. I thought it was supposed to be Jim Morrison, but... I think it was supposed to be Billy Idol, and then it went, yeah, Jim Morrison.

No, I think the Tea Party was supposed to be Jim Morrison. But I remember they were with my label, but after I had been dropped, after the jitters had been dropped, and I remember there were women, friends of mine still, but women working in the A&R office, and I said, really?

The Tea Party? And both of them were like, oh no, they're fantastic. And I said, no, his leather pants are fantastic. And they were like, well, yes, that's true too. The most valuable thing in the catalog of the Tea Party is the domain name they own, which is, I think, teaparty.com. Like, I believe that is the most valuable asset

in the whole kit and caboodle. There's a caboodle? Wait a second. Okay, so you listen to wise blots episodes yeah and who doesn't they're very popular yeah and he's uh at first for those wondering he's always predictable because he'll be the first thursday of every month at 2 p.m and he has now consented to live streaming it on the pirate stream where we are right now actually but the camera can't be on him so when i live stream

at live.torontomike.com with wise but the camera's only on me but you hear the audio from both mics obviously but is he trying to protect his anonymity we take a photo after every episode i think he just gets self-conscious if he knows he can be seen so it's more but he knows he's gonna be seen in the photo but he also he likes to approve the photo. No guest does that. He's the only guest. Like I take the quick selfie and then I'm like, whatever. I do it every day. And he has to look at it. And he'll delete it or he'll say, take another one.

Or he'll say, that's okay, whatever. But shout out to Mark Weisblatt. He's the second inductee into the FOTM Hall of Fame. Yeah, I heard him reacting to that. It was quite the honor. Quite the honor. One day you might get in there. Well, who knows?

Yeah, but he's, I've got a lot. I've got to chase him first. But he was, yeah, he was quite wound up about that, as I recall. He's always wound up. That's his secret. He's at the Incredible Hall. That's his secret. He's always wound up.

I thought, you know, I was power washing my deck. You know, I know people like to get behind the scenes of the rich and famous, you know. So I was power washing my deck and listening to the episode where you were talking about all the, shout out to Ridley Funeral Homes, all the people who'd passed away. We do that every, yeah, the last half. Yes. And so one of the people was Gilbert Gottfried. Right.

And I was waiting for, it was the elephant in the room, the high-pitched, loud elephant in the room was whether Mark sounded like Gilbert Gottfried or not. And I was like, oh God, oh God, I hope he gets to that. I hope he addresses that. And then he did. And he was like, oh God, oh God, I hope he gets to that. I hope he addresses that. And then he did.

And he was like, I don't actually think that I sound like him. And I'm like, dude. So the first time he came over, his initial, he's been over like 55 times or something. But the first time he came over, my brother Steve who listens to every episode, he did an imitation. He would do an imitation.

We were talking about how it's Godfried-esque, without a doubt, right? But where Gilbert puts it on, I've never heard Mark talk any other way. This is just his default setting. Yeah, I can see that. I can hear that. And again, because I know he's probably listening.

Are you kidding me? Unless he died. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. He's listening, of course. Yes. Well, I mean this very affectionately, especially for a guy I've never met. I really do.

I enjoy listening to him very much. But, you know, he has a distinctive way of talking. And I do hear, I'm not in any way suggesting he's, you know, trying to sound like Gilbert Gottfried or anything. You know. Can we shout out Radio Lady? And I know who this is. Okay.

Radio Lady's on the live pirate stream. Okay. And she's asking, who drove you? I know who it is. Tell us who it is because we should just shout out her episode of Toronto Mic'd as well. But she drove you to Pete Fowler's house. Well, in fact, I drove her.

She was, just to be clear, she is not my driver. Oh. No, but you asked her that to her everlasting enjoyment. Because I thought she drove you. Yeah. No, she, no, my friend Sharon Taylor. Yes. Yes, former radio exec and really lovely, lovely person.

That's my 680 CFTR. There you go. Thank you, Evelyn Macko, for this. She was great on Toronto Mic, by the way. And she was on because you said, hey, you should have her on. She's interesting. She's a really interesting person.

And a good driver. Yeah, and a good driver. Boy, did she, yeah, she has mentioned that to me a few times. So yes, it's classic that she would log in and say that. No, I enjoyed her. She's not my driver. So there's a lot of connections.

So you discovered, you know, you like the Wise Blight episodes, but do you listen to anything else? Yeah, sure. I listened to Steve Paikin the other day. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, every time I listen to an episode, I think, I worked with that guy. Well, okay, we're going to cover a lot,

obviously anything you want. Like, I'm curious, you're connected to so many FOTMs. Yeah, you know, I thought that, you know, driving here, so I rode here on my Vespa because my car is in the shop. And I like riding my Vespa, but this is pretty far from me. I'm at Broadview and Danforth. And, you know, I have to go on the Gardner on a Vespa, you know. Right. It's not necessarily a great idea.

You feel vulnerable. Yeah, so I did that. But as I'm riding along, I'm thinking about various, like I have all these Toronto stories in my head that involve me generally. But, oh, there's the building where such and such. Oh, there's where the Raving Mojo's rehearsed. Oh, there's, you know, the chum sign. There's where I had an accident on the Gardner, you know. And he lives in my neighborhood, the guy who wrote this song.

Okay, let's, and then again, we're going to get to all those stories that were bouncing around your helmet on the Vespa, but, so you wrote me a, so I'm assuming you've listened to an episode or two of Toast. Yes. Because we recorded last night. Yeah. Those guys are great.

Cam Gordon, Stu Stone, check out Toast, everybody. Fresh one from last night. But we, guys are great. Cam Gordon, Stu Stone. Yeah. Check out Toast, everybody. Fresh one from last night. But I shared this fun fact that was quite the mind blow. So this song came up during an episode of Toast.

Yeah. Back to Life by Soul to Soul. Now take it from here, Blair. How are you connected to this fantastic song? Okay.

One of my best friends is a guy named david mckenzie his his best friend is mike myers um david and i go back a long long time and david met he went to school with i'm actually drawing this out a little bit he went to school with, I'm actually drawing this out a little bit. He went to school with a woman who lived in England for a few years, and she married a guy named Simon Law. Simon Law and this woman, they moved back to Toronto. They lived in Riverdale near me. And I met Simon when he was a parent at my kid's school, but also through David McKenzie.

And Simon and I shared a studio space downtown and Simon wrote this song. He still is in Soul to Soul now. So Simon Law lives in Riverdale and he wrote Back to Life. Back to Reality. That's amazing. Yeah, he lives on,

well, I won't give the street away. Are your headphones too loud? I'm looking, they look loud. They are a little loud. Yeah, I know, they are, because I normally go, so I headphones too loud? I'm looking. They look loud. They are a little loud. Yeah, I know. They are because I normally go. Yeah. So I'll tell you where I have mine.

Is that okay? Even lower. Okay. Then I can talk louder. Thank you. Then I can be more Mark Wise. Okay, let me know. That's yours.

You can always reach over, but that's yours. Okay. That's good. I just noticed it was really loud. Yeah. That's why I was being so demure. Well, we're made this so, we're keeping track.

So you sent in this fun fact because we kicked out Back to Life. This is a jam. Yeah, it really is. And you don't like the word jam. No, it's just I don't like it all the time. And you use it all the time. It's part of the branding

on kicking out the jams. Okay. Shout out to Motor City 5. That's right. Oh, that reminds me. You mentioned, you know, the Mark Weisblatt episodes. I talk the least probably of any episode, but I just want to

shout out. It's a good rest for your voice to have Mark. I want to shout out, although I have a lot of buttons to press with Weisblatt. Your fingers get a workout, but your voice gets to relax. Earlier this week, I did a Toronto Punk episode. Yeah, I heard it. Fantastic.

I think, and I loved that the way, I loved that episode. I think that might be the least I've talked in an episode. Yeah, those three guys, they really, they had some great stories. And of course, they're talking about a lot of people that I know and that I worked with, you know? Oh, yeah. Okay, well, that's my next. We're going to go do it. There's a bunch of stuff.

So let me bring down Simon Law's hit, back to life would simon law come on trot would he even do like a like a quick appearance on toast to talk about back to life yes he would okay yeah so he would probably do it on the phone or something because yeah yeah no we would i would give him a zoom link yeah zoom in oh yeah he's a good guy yeah i wouldn't make him come here he's a really nice man. And he works for, his father had Alzheimer's and really suffered for a while. And Simon works with Alzheimer's as a cause, as a charity. Okay. And so, yes. Short answer, yes.

Now, how does he end up here, though? Did I miss that part? Oh, because of the woman that he met. Okay. They ended up marrying. They've since split, but they had three children. And they lived in Riverdale. And he still lives in Riverdale.

And so do the kids and so forth. Although the kids are all adults now. So that jam was a little different from this one. But let's listen to a bit of this and talk about this. We'll be right back. Too long have people doubted the safety of their homes But instead of power, maybe truth is so much to control Enlightenment is a privilege which came when I was not right As I said to the drummer the other day, Brian McCullough. Yeah. I always feel like, is McCullough McCullough? Probably.

Did you say that last part? Yeah. Okay. I was going to call him BM. That's no good. Okay. So Brian is the drummer for this band, Youth, Youth, Youth. Yeah.

And this song is called sin and i played it just the other day and it sounds like you listen but i can't believe it uh how the hell are you connected to this song i produced it wow i engineered it i remember it vividly sitting in the studio uh at comfort sound on dufferin street at rogers road and uh uh i knew the first wave punk um you know sex pistols you know clash you know i don't even I knew the first wave punk, you know, Sex Pistols, you know, Clash. I don't even think of Clash as punk but that first wave and...

Attitude, it's punk. Yeah, yeah. And the Vibrators and, you know, the Dead... Well, no, their second wave but Dead Boys, you know, etc, etc. I knew that stuff but this stuff played this fast. So they set up and they sound checked,

and we did a regular sound check. You know, what you're looking for, you know, like if the drums go boom, bah, boom, boom, bah, you're looking for some nice space around the drums. Well, there's no space when you play that fast. Right. And so we sound checked, and I had him play like that, Brian, and then they started playing a song,

and I was like, what the hell? Like, I didn't even know what to make of it. You know, I actually loved it, but I didn't know what to make of it. And, yeah. But so, again, we're going to collect as many as we can in this visit. Sure.

And maybe your next visit, you kick out the jams because that's what I want to finally get with you. But just how you're connected to various FOTMs you discover as you listen. So, you're connected, this connects to the, I think it was Monday, but the Toronto Punk, I called it the T-O-H-C, the Toronto Hardcore episode, which has the least amount of me, but is one of the greatest episodes. And that might not be a coincidence, but that was YYYY, youth, youth, youth.

Sin, you mentioned Steve Paikin, and that was a couple of weeks ago, I guess. Paikin came over. He actually called it. He said the Leafs would lose. He said the Leafs would lose. I'm trying to remember. Leafs would win five, lose six, and he said seven would be a coin toss. This is what Paikin said on the record in that episode.

And it exactly broke down that way somehow. You know, the Leafs did lose five and did win. I got it backwards. We lost six. We won six. We lost five and then we lost seven which was the coin flip. Steve Paikin and you are somehow connected. Also how?

Well it's not through sports. I mean even everything you just said was like Venusian to me. Like honestly what are these Leafs? You're better off that way. I don't think I am actually because I think, you know,

I'm not to go all philosophical before answering your question, but I do think I cut myself off from humanity. Part of it is fear. I'm just, this is like therapy. Part of it's fear

and part of it is, well, no, mostly it's fear probably. So sports, I abandoned the idea of liking sports when I was probably like 13

or something. And when I went to U of liking sports when I was probably like 13 or something. And when I went to U of T Radio, when I was, well, I went first. CIUT? CIUT. It was before it was CIUT. It was called U of T Radio. Okay. And actually, when I went, it was called Radio Varsity.

Okay. And I was 13 years old. Whoa. Yeah. Yeah, I was 13 years old. Um, and then, and I, yeah, and, uh, yeah, I was 13 or 14. And, uh, uh,

Pagan wasn't there then, but when I went later, when I actually went to U of T, I did a radio show there for a year and a half and then went back when I was 18 and Pagan was one of the people there and he was into sports. And so he wouldn't remember me because we really had no meaningful interaction, but he was one of the guys there who did sports broadcasts and stuff. And did a yeah i just i wanted to be i don't know david marston i think he did stuff with like michael landsberg if i'm remembering yeah yeah because i reunited them on my show just to have them talk about that uh the whole sports thing is interesting i uh

produce a show for humble and fred as you know, and their regular, like a good friend of theirs who used to produce their show on CFNY, but is on every day, is a guy named Dan Duran. You know Dan Duran? Sure, sure. I don't know him. So famously in our little circle is that Dan, he didn't even care about the goal in 72

that Paul Henderson scored. And again, I don't know your age, but are you of an age where you remember that? Yeah, I was in grade nine math class. Okay. Yeah. Okay. But did you care about that at the time?

Yeah. Did you care about that? At that point, I was still, I cared about it because everybody else cared about it. Right. I mean, I just want to clarify, like I'm wrong about the sports thing. Well, no, I don't know if you're wrong.

No, I think I'm wrong because I think that it brings a lot of people joy and God knows I could use more joy in my life. Well, okay, so with Dan, he cares so little, like doesn't know or care or even want to find out. He'll might say, oh, did the Jays get enough touchdowns?

Like did they get close to the Stanley Cup or whatever? Was there a ball involved? Right. And then we were talking about, because I put Scott Morrison on Humble and Fred to talk about the 1972 Summit Series. Yeah. And Dan was,

it was the right age to give a shit about this. Simply, even at the time, didn't really care, didn't watch, didn't follow, even though it was like, you know, the whole country was enraptured by it.

So I can see that you'd miss out on some like, like some of the social fabric that binds us. Like, for example, when the Raptors win the championship, this city, united, there's a buzz. Like, we all hit the streets and we all like, hey, you know,

the Raptors won, the Raptors did it. And similarly, I'm thinking like Olympics, for example, like when Sidney Crosby scores that goal in 2010, the golden goal, that's a moment most of this country is kind of into the fact that we beat the Americans in the gold medal and that golden goal. But not participating in that, you would be missing out on

some of the social aspects of it. Yeah, it's actually something that I lament, because I feel like it's too late. Well, it's not too late. I guess not. I mean, I would feel like I'm a... you know what, if I do jump on, I should jump on not in a playoff so that I wouldn't be a bandwagon jumper, you know? I disagree. I think that's when you jump on. Really?

The stakes are higher. And then you stay on. Right. Yeah. Well, yeah, I know. Like my mom, okay? My mom, game seven's happening, okay, Tampa Bay and Toronto. Yeah.

And suddenly my mom's so nervous, I can't watch. I'm like, where were you in November when I was watching us play the Wild or whatever on a Tuesday night? I mean, there's a certain, and I admit to this freely, and I'm not saying it's good. Right. But there's a certain superiority to my stance. Like, seriously, that I take on, it's sort of like well i don't

watch your sports uh games you know it's beneath you yeah i don't you know it's like the same people who say i don't i don't have a television machine you know um that kind of thing and it's bullshit like like no it's bullshit it's i mean i recognize it as a uh i got punched by a football player in high school i think that's when it. And it was for no reason at all. Like the guy came up, he sucker punched me. And this guy, by the way, was a stick boy for the Leafs. And he had a ring on and he was wearing a full compliment of football gear.

My friend Ted Gretzner can witness this. It was at Jarvis Collegiate. And he witnessed it in the moment. I had to go get five stitches at Wellesley Hospital. Well, this is the moment, man. Yeah. You're here on the couch here. Yeah, you doctor i i uh i quit gym and honestly for me after that it was like sports you know because you saw the toxic masculinity that was

so embedded in the world of sports and you wanted nothing to do with it because you got fucking sucker punched by this guy i wouldn't be able to articulate it like that but i actually think you're you're right and here's an i's a, here's a capper doctor. I went home, told my parents, uh, because I had a big, I had stitches and a big thing on my eye and like a big,

uh, gauze thing. And, uh, my dad said, well, you must've lipped off to him. And it's like,

you know, victim blaming, victim blaming. Exactly. And, uh, it honestly, for me,

it was like, you know what? F you not, not to my dad dad just the whole sports thing however i i'm acknowledging that i think i'm wrong and to me my stance and it's not a stance anymore i do not firmly as you can tell i'm i'm capitulating but but my stance on sports it's to me it's kind of like the people who say the beatles suck it's the the rolling stones man they're my band it's like screw you you're

taking am I allowed to swear about yeah you can oh well fuck you then because because you're taking a stance to make yourself it's about you your stance is about you the Rolling Stones and the Beatles we can like them both we don't have to do that thing you know but but the people who do that they're they're like trying to make a point about their taste right and and i i'm you know subconsciously trying to do that with with my my take on sports do you think you've made politics your sports like to scratch that itch it's like yeah maybe different teams and then there's like like there's he's he's it's like to say it's you know it's unscripted mostly kind of deal. Like it's sort of your sports.

That's a really interesting question. Yeah. Except that I'm not as avid about it as lots of sports people. So, or even lots of political people. I mean, no, no knock against Dave Bedini who, who, you know, who's a friend. Who's also an FOTM. Yeah. And we're, and we're not close, but, but I've known him a long, long, long time. I was there when the Rioostatics recorded their very first recordings

at Comfort Sound. I didn't engineer them out. I was in the basement in the dubbing room when they were upstairs. And we played shows together, the Jitters and Rheostatics at Cabana Room. I've known Dave a long time. I had him on my radio show at CFRB and so forth. But I do

think when he's almost crying on Twitter about the Leafs losing, it's just like, Dave, you imagine everybody else feels this way, but they don't actually. Right. Well, I'm a guy who's been loving, you know, watching my Leafs since as far back as I can remember, as they say.

And I can tell you it took me approximately 90 seconds after the final horn on saturday night for me to completely and totally like move on and like okay we'll see what happens next spring like i mean i didn't i wasn't like there was no anger i mean i was like disappointed that we couldn't win game seven because i wanted to watch more playoff games with my kids like this was an event where six of us inoff games with my kids like this was an event where six of us in the room and it's like this really neat moment and even the little ones had an air horn that they would when the leafs score they would they would hit the air horn which they got to hit it twice even though we scored once because john tavara scores i know you didn't

watch but john tavara scores and they blow the horn and we go nuts and then the goal the goal gets called back because of a penalty. I read about that. Right. So they get to get the blow twice. And they loved it. And then they got to watch the whole game too. The latest they get to stay up, they're only six and eight.

And I loved it. I just wanted more of that because my 20-year-old was there and it was just fucking awesome. And Michelle was there. That's what I wanted. And we got that with the Raptors. Yeah. And I wanted that again with the Leafs.

Well, that whole communal thing is something I miss out on. And honestly, there's a whole lot of things that I've sort of issued that I've sort of avoided. Like, I was never a drug taker. So all my drug-taking friends

were like, yeah, you really got to try this. And I was like, yeah, no. You know, and... But, you know... Not even Coke. No, no, no, no. I have an experience with Coke.

And I suppose the statute of limitations has. Please, Peter Gross has been on this show, which we're going to get to him later. Go ahead. Well, well, I hope my son isn't listening. But in the 80s, in the 80s, when Coke was rampant and, and there were Coke dealers near me, surrounding me. Seriously, there were, I, I remember I, I tried it, you know, the Coke dealers were around and they're like, here, here, try a bump and so forth. And so I would, I never felt anything. So I did it about three or four times.

Then one time I went to a, a, a speakeasy, a booze can after playing with the jitters at the El Macombo. Okay. And it was on Spadina Avenue somewhere in a warehouse. They, they were warehouses then, not condos. And, um, went upstairs and, you know, the place was crowded and the beer was five bucks, you know, which was a lot then. Right.

And, but I'm, you know, because after you finish playing, you don't really want to go home and lie down and, you know, and TV would go off, you know, there'd be no TV. That's right. So. The anthem would play. Yeah. So.

Snow. Snow. So, and then we'd crank up the Model T, Mike. No, it sounds like it's a million years ago i think you had an edsel yeah go for a turn around that's why you have a driver the highways and byways sharon taylor and i would get in the car and she would drive me i'd be in the back she'd wear her chauffeur's cap anyway so so i at the elmo we used to play full weeks downstairs and um so this was you, midweek or something.

But I had been flirting mercilessly with Sandy, one of the waitresses. And I had a girlfriend, but I, you know, whatever. I was in my 20s and the 80s and I was flirting and nothing happened, but I was flirting with her like crazy. So I go to the booze can and then her boyfriend walks in and he's like nine feet tall and he's a biker. And he comes in and he walks over to me and he points at me. He goes, I'm going to point at the camera.

You, come here. Like that. Actually, the way I did that was sort of you, like that. It wasn't like that. It was tougher. You were like Uncle Sam there. Uncle Sam. Uncle Fester.

Yeah. So I'm like, okay. In my imagination, my voice went up a couple of octaves. Sure. Sure, thanks. So I follow him through these steel doors, and I'm like, what the hell's going to happen? And then we go into a bathroom.

I'm like, oh, no. I don't know what's going on. I literally couldn't put two and two together. He goes into a stall facing the back puts the seat down and sits on the toilet facing the wall and then starts chopping lines on the toilet tank and i was so relieved because i wasn't going to get killed right right so i did did it hey and yeah you got to do it in that situation and i thought i would do it too i thought my head would explode with happiness like it felt so amazing and i'd never enjoyed it yeah i'd never enjoyed it before so what happened was i i sat you know went back to my beer and my rest of my

friends and sat there feeling like i was king of the world you know know, I was Mark Weisblot. And I... We're going to get back to him again. Yeah. And he's going to rip me out. Anyway. Yeah, he's going to be so mad. But it's all affectionate, I swear. Anyway, I decided...

He'll be glad you listen. Yeah. I decided after 45 minutes. Seriously, when I started coming down, I thought, oh my God, I can never do that again. Because it was so good. Yeah. Because I thought I would just spend all my money on that. That's like me when I separated my shoulder and they oh my god I can never do that again because it was so good I would just spend all my money on that they put me on Percocets

and that weekend my youngest my oldest actually but he had a party at like a Chuck E Cheese or something and I was like just stoned for the whole thing it was a feeling I'll never forget and I was like oh this is how people get addicted to opiates yeah that happened to me when I had my wisdom teeth taken out.

It's like, I better deal with this pain because if I keep stringing these along, wow. Okay, so much ground to cover there. But I have to get back to the punk for a minute. Because not only did I get a question on the live stream about it, but when you listen to the Toronto Hardcore episode, it was referenced in that episode was a Teenage Head simulcast. Yeah. The one I'm thinking of, we did a few.

We recorded Teenage Head a whole bunch of times. So I worked with Comfort Sound, which had a mobile unit and did all the broadcasts for CFNY, Q107, and Chum FM. So at that time, there were three stations plus much music. So we were busy all the time, sometimes three, four a week. And we had a studio. We had to load everything out of the truck into the studio and do studio sessions as well, which is how I recorded Youth, Youth, Youth.

Right. It wasn't two sets of equipment, though. We had to roll it into the truck. So Teenage Head at the Coronet Theatre on Yonge Street, which is long gone, obviously. It's a jewelry mall. I don't know. Was that near the Gasworks? Where was it again?

It was at the northeast corner of Girard and Yonge. I don't know what's there now. I'm actually going there. So after you leave, I'm actually biking to 401 Games, which is just a little south of Bloor on Yonge Street.

Oh, yeah. That's my destination after this. Cool. Well, yeah. So this was at Girard and uh thanks for letting us super cool yeah so if you want if you guys want a selfie with me that's where you'll find me i thought why didn't you come to tml i was going to i was going to yeah amazing uh come to tmlx 10 it'll be a bigger one it'll be in uh september 1st i think will mark be there i bet

you he will be he he says it's not good for his brand to show up at too many of these, but he's been to TMLX's before. I like that he's concerned about his brand. I should be more concerned about mine if I have one, but I like that. Yeah, well, maybe I'm not concerned about my brand and I will be there.

Okay, amazing. I got that recorded. Anyway, the Coronet Theatre. Yeah, teenage head. With Comfort Sound, we recorded all kinds, the Coronet Theatre. Yeah, Teenage Head. So with Comfort Sound, we recorded all kinds of big ticket specials. That's what they used to call them for much music. And one of them was Teenage Head at the Coronet Theatre.

Well, we recorded them at Larry's Hideaway. We recorded them at the El Macombo. We recorded them all over the place. We recorded them at Heat Wave, the festival at Mosport, in August of 1980. While we're talking about Larry's Hideaway and you recording bands, REM. Yep, 1983, July, their first Toronto appearance. I believe it was 83, it was 82 or 83.

Wow. Yeah, they only had one album, uh, murmur. Um, and, they played that album in its entirety. I'll bet. I ate dinner with them. Uh,

I sat in the truck with their manager who directed me, you know, for when, you know, stuff was happening. Um, he's just sat there at Jefferson Holt, um,

sat with me in the truck and I engineered it and did a really good job. And they, they released it, uh, with the 30th anniversary of Murmur 10 years ago. They released it without a credit for me because in those days, for whatever reason, I didn't write my name on the tape box. It was from Comfort Sound. That's what it was. It wasn't, you you know the individual didn't

really matter right but i didn't write my name in the tape box so so i actually tried to to get through their impenetrable um security uh thing just to say just say hey i'm so glad you released that thing because uh i was the engineer on it and uh but i couldn't get through no dice yeah but but it does it really translated like it sounds good i and and i know for a fact that it was mine because i i was a fan and i listened to it for for years so i know every everything michael stipe said to the audience he was weird he like his his talking to the audience none of this um hello toronto you know nothing like that it was he would say he would do this the song would finish and then he'd go orange and then they click click minimalistic

yeah yeah minimalist and weird yeah yeah but yeah uh which worked for them yeah all right uh speaking of i was gonna say speaking of but michael stipe as far as i recall is not an fotm yet we got to rectify that at some point but rick emmet is yeah okay i actually just watched a couple weeks back i watched the triumph documentary that's on crave tv i don't know if you've checked it i haven't seen it yet so how the hell are you connected to fotm rick emmett well now didn't i facilitate his appearance on on uh on toronto mic'd no i don't did you i thought i got a i thought he was pushing a poetry book oh yeah i thought i got a like a pr saying would you talk to rick he's promoting a poetry book oh yeah i thought i got a like a pr saying would you talk

to rick he's promoting a poetry book but if maybe you tell me i'll was it from rick wharton maybe okay you might have i'll give take credit for it i yeah i'll take credit for it uh rick uh okay so rick um i met through the songwriters association of canada where i was on the board i was asked to be on the board. And then Rick and I were elected vice presidents, co-vice presidents together. And we became friends. I mean, I didn't really know Triumph. I'm, you know, you know, again, in my sort of I'm superior to everyone else thing, like hard rock and pop didn't really like, like not pop. I love pop. Hard rock really didn't appeal to me that much.

People with high, like high singers, I like Elvis Costello. You know, I like, and when I read, actually, an article in Rock Express magazine with, it was an interview with the three members of Triumph, and Rick, like, totally destroyed Elvis Costello and said, that guy can't sing, and so forth. And I'm thinking, oh yeah, well, fuck you, whoever you are, you know. And anyway, so I didn't, I wasn't a fan of, but I loved Rick. He's the greatest guy.

He's so smart and so driven and so funny and so humble. And so we got along like a house on fire. And then he said to me in 2005 2005 after we'd known each other at that point for like seven or eight years he said let's uh let's start a songwriting workshop and uh you know you can you and i confront it i can be like the figurehead guy and so i'm still doing that workshop now amazing 18 years later it's called song studio and it's at song studio here i'm song it's like i'm whispering in your ear song studio.ca if you know any songw Studio, and it's at Song Studio here. It's like I'm whispering in your ear. Songstudio.ca, if you know any songwriters. It's a week-long workshop.

It's really great. Well, I can't remember how it came to be, but if it was through you, I've got to thank you for that because I thoroughly enjoyed my Rick Emmett conversation. He is very talkative. He's very informed. He's very humble. He's just so great, and he's so accomplished he's he's just so he's just so great and he's so

accomplished and he's thought about a lot of shit so he he's really thoughtful you ask him about something and he'll go off on and it's a beautiful tangent by the way he'll go off on this tangent about it right not dissimilar to mark weisblatt's uh tangents by the way but maybe a little calmer um and but but he um he'll go off on a tangent that's totally fascinating. Before we get back to Wise Blood, the Wise Blood Hour, there's another FOTM. We've already referenced him,

but let me play a bit of this. It's like a... It's one more! And the man at the plate must be Jesse or George or Willie or Kelly or Trey or Witt. We all know just how far the shaker can hit

Why is that manager starting to twitch? He brought in his lefty Fernandez just switched Wow, okay. This is the Ballad of Jesse and George and as a non-sportster yourself, you're like, who the hell are those guys? But that's Jesse Barfield and George Bell.

And this, the singer, well, there's two. There's a duet. So the lead singer here, I'd say, is Peter Gross, F-O-T-N, Peter Gross. His last episode, Peter Gross, he took an audition. Like, he did an audition live on the recording. You've got to go back and listen. But you did hear it. Oh, I did hear it.

Right, that's why you wrote it. Yeah, he got a call from his agent. Right. Yeah, like saying, where are you? Yeah. Like, you have an audition right now. And he's like, Mike, what do I do? Anyway, I just put him on the Zoom.

We did it live. He booked the gig. He did it. He got paid. It was fantastic. Okay, so the woman's voice is also an FOTM. That's Lori Brown. Lori Brown.

So how the heck are you, Blair Packham, how the hell are you connected to this Peter Gross jam, The Ballad of Jesse and George? I produced it. What? Yes, I produced and engineered it and arranged it. So all those, the bass is too loud, Blair. I'm telling 1984 Blair, or 85.

Well, it's a terrible YouTube rip, right? So we don't know what it really sounds like. Yeah, but the bass is still too loud. Piano should be louder. And so there's a guitar on there, too. You wouldn't know it. And there's Tom and Jerry on there, too. So I just heard them in the mix.

Now, I had such a crush on Lori Brown. Oh, yes. By the way, so did I. To have her in the studio was just so thrilling. It really was. And Peter was such a laugh. He was so high energy energy and he was great. But here's the thing.

I did say to him at a certain point before we recorded, I said, do you think it's wise to mention all the names of the players? Oh, because they could get traded? And then before he even released it, before he pressed it, somebody got traded. Do you think it was Jesse Barfield? Might have been, yeah. Who's in the title?

Because Jesse got traded for Al Leiter. It was a big deal for us Blue Jay fans in the mid- Jesse got traded for Al Leiter. It was a big deal for us Blue Jay fans in the mid 80s. Do you remember what year this was? I think 85. Okay, so I think no,

Jesse was still in Toronto in 85. It might have been 86 though. Jesse wins the home run title in 86 with 40 homers, but I think it's

after that season he's gone. It's hard to tell. I sort of judge it from when the Jitters got a record deal and that's when I quit Comfort Sound.

But it might be Jesse because Jesse was a record deal, and that's when I quit Comfort Sound. Right. But it might be Jesse, because Jesse was a star. He hit the 40 homers in 86, and then he was gone for Al Leiter. Yeah, I think he was traded to the Yankees or something. Peter said he wasn't worried. No, and it'll be a piece of history. And I said, yeah, but it kind of needs... And it doesn't have the big sing-along chorus of you know let's go blue jays which i have you have oh yeah you do also an fotm keith hampshire oh keith yeah i actually i don't know keith personally but i'm a fan yeah what a

voice yeah keith sings on that one so that's So that's an original 45. Ken Daniels, F-O-T-M, Ken Daniels sent that over. Okay, so Peter tells a story about how they were promised they were going to play that video or whatever, or song, they were going to play it during a Blue Jays game. There was a big game against the Yankees or something. And he was promised they were going to play it, but they never played it. Like, he's still a little bitter.

He got a little fucked over, he feels, by the Blue Jays of that song was there so there were high hopes for that song i take it yeah well he was going around soliciting uh investments from his uh co-workers at city and machu all of whom i knew not all but i knew many of them because of these broadcasts we used to do so several of them one of them actually janice groom came to me and said is this a good idea idea? He's asking me for, you know, a thousand bucks or whatever. And I was like, well, you know, sure. I didn't want to sell 45s, right?

Is that a good idea? Yeah. And I was thinking, a thousand bucks is a lot of money. I know all the people in these credits here on this Blue Jays song. You guys talked about Lori Bauer, the Lori Bauer singers. Okay. So my dad here, another connection. My dad was vice president of Standard Broadcasting, which also owned the Canadian Talent Library,

which was the record label that had the Laurie Bower Singers. Oh, I need a moment. Yeah. Standard Broadcasting was CFRB and CKFM. Right. When I started working there as a, you know, at doing a show with Bob Reed, our boss, Steve Couch, was in my dad's old office. Wow.

So I walk into my boss's office, and it's my dad's office from grade seven for me. Yeah, so when I would come over to get my allowance or- In your dad's gym, Jim Packham. Jim Packham, that's right. Happy Jim Packham. And yeah, he's long gone, unfortunately. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. Yeah, that's right.

I'm sorry, man. That's okay. And Manta Sound here, where this Blue Jays song was recorded at, with Jon Naslund. Jon Naslund was the engineer on my CFL, TSN CFL theme,

which I think they're still using the version of it. But Manta Sound is the very first... Yeah, Jon Naslund was... Wow, what a bad grip. That's me singing. Yeah, John Nasman was... Wow, what a bad grip. Yeah. That's me singing.

Let's listen. It's Friday Night Football now. Wrote that too. Okay, you know what this makes you? Canada's Hank Williams Jr. You know that, right? Yeah. Because that's what you're going for there. Well, exactly.

They said they wanted it to be like that Hank Williams Jr. football song. Absolutely. No doubt. No doubt. And so, yeah, that's what we did. Wow, Friday Night Football theme. Okay. But also the instrumental theme that came after that. Yeah.

Yeah, I wrote that too. So is that part of my ignorance, but this is a CFL on TSN. Yeah. Is this a lucrative gig for you? Yeah. Okay. Okay, well, yeah. I don't need to see like, well, maybe I do.

No, I have check subs. Do you have any financial statements? Yeah, yeah. Where's your T4 or whatever? I carried, I brought with me, I hope you don't mind, all my tax material for the last 30 years. Open that briefcase here. That's right.

My T4s and my stuff. You know, I say too, but I haven't had a T4 in a long time. Like, T4 comes from a company you work for. Yeah, yeah. Like, if you're, like, you don't live in a world of T4 no well i do only in that i like i have three of them three t4s because i teach at seneca college yeah and also so can issues t4s they're i think they're t5s maybe but all right yeah for okay so so it's a good gig so yeah so the. Yeah. So the Jitters, we put out two albums. And after the second album, which didn't do, it did about the same as the first album and

didn't get as much radio play, but sold about the same, like almost 40,000 copies. That's surprising. Yeah. And they spent way more money on it. So they were, at that point, the label, first of all, the band hated, at that point, we hated each other. And the label was like, yeah, we're done. So they dropped us.

So we had a band meeting and I said to the guys who, you know, we tolerated each other. And the label was like, yeah, we're done. So they dropped us. So we had a band meeting. And I said to the guys who, you know, we tolerated each other enough to have a meeting. And I said, so we got dropped. And they're like, oh, okay. Like they were not surprised or unhappy. And I said, what do you want to do? You want to keep going? And they were like, no, I don't want to go.

And I said, no, I don't want to go on either. And so we finished. And seriously, I'm the luckiest guy. Within two weeks, I got a phone call from Bruce Fowler, a friend of mine still, lovely guy, who said, I got a call from TSN. He wrote music for film and TV. That was his gig.

He said, I got a call from TSN. They want a new hockey theme, and they want it to sound like blah blah blah blah i think they said seriously huey lewis in the news or blah blah blah maybe dug in the slug of course they want yes you're the guy you call or the jitters and and and so they the jitters were in there and he said he said to me and i thought well i don't know those other two guys but i know i know the jitters so i'm calling you do. Do you want to write this with me? So at that point, the Jitters,

we were paying ourselves $100 a night each. Now, we were playing five nights a week, and $500 a week for playing music was not terrible, plus royalties and so forth. You know, it wasn't terrible in 1991. Okay. But it wasn't great, and we were putting money in the bank together collectively.

So when we broke up, we actually had a, you know, we had a party splitting up the bank account. Oh, like a nest egg or something. Yeah, but I always wanted to buy a shopping mall or something. Sounds like a terrible investment. No, but I wanted to invest in something, you know. Right. Anyway, so I went and did that,

and it paid me $3,500 for the TSN thing. Like, that's what I cleared after. And I thought, well, for like two weeks' work like that's what i cleared after and i thought well for like two weeks work right that's okay right you know and i and i wrote this thing so the tsn nhl tonight theme okay i don't know if you have that queued up but no i mean i went i went to your website and i don't think it's on your way i don't i'm terrible at putting all these things up i went wise about there for a second did you hear that that? I don't, I don't. Wait a minute. So wait, so let me talk.

So TSN had an NHL theme before they bought the rights to the song that Hockey Night in Canada was using. Yes. By Dolores Klayman. Yeah, I can sing it to you and you might remember it. Okay, go. Da-na, ba-da-na-da. Da-na, ba-da-na-da-da. That was the main hook.

Sure, okay. Colin Linden played that. He's a missing link for me because I have two-thirds of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings as FOTMs and not Colin. Colin lives in Nashville, so he might be hard to get. But I have started doing the odd, like I did Paul Myers, for example,

and I've done a few strategic Zooms. My best friend, if one can say that, at my age, Paul Myers married me on a beach in San Francisco. Well, his wife did, Lisa. They were like, when I was married to Arlene Bishop. It was just in town. Yes.

Arlene and I were married to each other by Paul and Lisa. You know, I think I might have known that fun fact, but my mind is equally blown now as it was the first time I heard it. Okay, so Paul was in town because of the Kids in the Hall documentary. Because I saw a picture of Hebsey with him. Yeah. And I record Hebsey, I record of him this morning.

Okay, and Paul Myers is, of course, in the Gravel Berries. Yes, in the 90velberries. Yes. In the 90s, yeah. What's better, Gravelberries or Jitters? Well, it's hard to say. I love the Gravelberries, but I wasn't in the band. Paul was great. He's a great singer-songwriter, but he's a really great author.

He's an authority on Kids in the Hall now, essentially. Yeah. And by the way, I worked on the new Kids in the Hall reboot, too. So I'm all over the place. So what did you do? Because I'm actually ready to dive in. I haven't. Yeah, I haven't either.

I hear it's great. I love Kids in the Hall. Some people have said, yeah, I don't like it. But several of my friends are going crazy for it. But what did you do exactly for that? I believe it's episode eight. I produced the vocals on a Bruce McCulloch song. Okay.

Yeah. These are the Blairs I know. That's right. Yeah. Sean. What was the dog one? The terrier. That one got a lot of much music played.

The terrier one. These are the Daves I know. Yeah. This one, I don't know if it will. But it was fun. We did it last summer. Okay. I love how you're connected

to all these things. Okay. I do want to ask you one more question from the live stream, the pirate stream. Ask him about drummer David Steinberg.

Oh, okay. He's got to be on your show. I set that up. I don't know if you've done it yet or no, I would have, I know because I would have heard it. David Steinberg, you've got to get him on the show.

I think I did set it up. Hold on. Let me see here. Yeah, see what's on your calendar. He's, he is. Yeah, no, he's he is yeah no he's booked june 6th i want to come that's you can if you want uh june 6th let me just go in here and tell you okay he's booked for uh 7 oh 7 p.m so he needed to be an evening so it's monday june 6th

at 7 p.m david stanbury is fucking you should come in come. I'll make sure it's okay with him. But okay, so David was in the jitters. My show, Blair. It's your house too. David was in the jitters. That's how I met him. Okay. But he had already been in the dead boys with Steve Bader's.

And so he was this figure in my imagination. And the fact that we got him in the jitters was fucking awesome. Like, honestly, Dave Steinberg, who, Dave Quinton at the time, David Quinton, who played his drum standing up, who, like, at the end of a song, not kidding, would jump up, like, on the bass drum, which would be about as high as this table. He would just suddenly be standing on the bass drum.

And then he'd jump over that and be standing beside me at the lead vocal position smiling at me you know and and uh you know sort of taunting me he was he was hilarious and a really great drummer he was in the band when we got a record deal we fired him i fired. And he was like one of my best friends. He, I love David. He, he is so great, but that caused a problem. He was already in law school.

Oh, right. And he was, and he was living in, in London, Ontario. We're making the record in Scarborough at phase one. So he,

he couldn't be there. You know, he couldn't be at rehearsals. He couldn't, he couldn't record. And the drama, be at rehearsals. He couldn't record. And the producer, Paul Gross, not the actor, wanted to work with Randy Cook, who lives in Los Angeles, and one of his big gigs was playing with Ringo.

If you can imagine being Ringo. Who's in town next week, I think. Oh, yeah. Well, it's possible Randy's playing drums. I think it's a casino whatever. Right, right. Casino Rama, yeah. So

the producer wanted to use Randy Cook, so we just decided to fire David and he didn't speak to me for three years. Okay, so this is like a teaser because we're going to have David on, but he was the drummer for the Mods and shout out to FOTM's The Garys because

the Garys loved the Mods. They loved the Mods and they loved David and David and Gary Topp are still very much in touch and I talk to Gary occasionally. Well, not so much now. He was on the radio show at CFRB, but yeah, David

is a lawyer. He's got some really big clients. He will tell you all about. Okay. I've decided now you are going to co-host that episode with me and it'll be in his best interest. Like it's all about, it's not obviously that we've had enough of Blair for going to, especially by then, but like, this is the David Steinberg show, but it just, you, you knowing his history and having that involvement will make it a better episode and extract more. He will be super entertaining.

Like, I'm telling you. Ask him, make sure you ask him. Well, I'll be here, but if, I want to be here just to watch, but he, because he makes me laugh and we make each other laugh and he's so great and he's such a good friend and I had some, you know, some sad times in my life in the last few years

and some losses and he was always there for me, you know, some sad times in my life in the last few years and some losses. And he was always there for me, you know, and gave me good advice. But we have to ask him about Stiv Bader's from the Dead Boys talking to David's mom. All right. No. Yeah. This is exciting. So everybody get excited.

This is not too long from now, a few weeks from now. Okay. Now, I want to go in so many different places. Okay. Let's wrap up the Weisblot talk before I move on to my next list. Because you were at, when you were at U of T Radio, CIUT? Yeah, it became CIUT by then. Okay.

Mark was there at the same time as you? Yeah, although I don't know that we ever met. I really honestly don't know. The station manager was a guy. Mark can confirm or deny this. The station manager was a guy named Michael Rule. His girlfriend was Diane Collins, the late Diane Collins, who ended up being editor of Music Express and Rock Express magazine. And who else was there that Mark might remember?

Andrew Crystal was there. He mark might remember uh andrew crystal uh was there he's an fotm well yeah there's a whole i can tell you lots of stuff about him but i but probably not on the air well he's but he's batshit crazy like he's bananas and you can even hear it when in or his episode which was via phone it's ridiculous like i have to check that out yeah he's crazy because i've got a couple of stories, but I won't share them here. Because I don't want to malign him. That's the good stuff.

That's the good stuff. But yeah, so Mark and I may have crossed paths back then and don't remember or who knows. Okay, and Jungle J. Nelson is a name radio fans in this city know. And how are you connected to Jungle J? Okay, so I never knew jay but but here's here's the thing so i'm at u of t radio at that time it hadn't it still hadn't become ciut it was the it was radio varsity then then u of t radio then ciut and by then i was gone

but when it was when i was at radio varsity when i was 13 no 14 years old i had gotten the gig because i was dishwashing at Howard Johnson's on Yonge Street at Yonge and St. Clair, opposite my dad's office at CFRB. And so I was dishwashing in the summer when I was 13 or 14, 14, I guess. And Richard Morichove was the accountant there

and he was articling. And Richard Morichove became the Toronto Star's technology columnist. And, um, so you may look his name up. He's all over the internet. So Richard Marchove is, is snooping and he's looking through the, uh, the, um, uh, the job application forms where, and I had to put down my father's name for some reason, cause I was a teenager maybe or something. So he looks through it and Richard Marchove is a fan of broadcasting and he sees James Packham.

I put down James and he said, is your dad Happy Jim Packham? And I said, Happy Jim? And he said, well, he smiles all the time. And I said, yeah. And he said, from CFRB? And I said, yeah. And he said, oh, you like radio?

I said, yeah. And he said, because he wasn't supposed to be looking at these things it was a breach of privacy you know but he said uh i uh i'm uh one of the managers of uh of the of radio varsity at university of toronto uh would you like a show seriously it was like that and you were a kid yeah i was i was 14 wow he said would you like a show so i was like okay and he said well, come on down and we'll see. So I go down and they say, yeah, 11 to 2 on Saturday mornings. Wow.

So I go down and suddenly I have a radio show. Wow. So I'm doing the radio show and I do it for about, maybe I was 13 when I started. But I used to tell people I was the youngest broadcaster in Canada. I used to say that. I had no idea if I was or not, but as far as I was concerned, I was. Well, then one day, I'm with my friend Ted.

He would come down and join me because I would get bored doing it. I was easily bored. And through the glass, we can see another guy in the adjacent studio. And he's like, from the back, I can see him. He's moving his head and he's yelling. It looks like he's

yelling yeah and and we're wondering what the hell what the what's that guy doing and then then he comes in and he goes um he said uh i'm not bothering you guys am i and he's a kid he's a kid and and i'm like no and he said i'm uh i'm kevin and i said okay and nice to meet you i'm blair this is my friend ted he said said, yeah, I just started here. I'm on after you. And I said, okay. And then he goes, I'm going to go back and warm up. And I'm thinking, warm up?

Like, why would you warm up? You know? So he goes, and then he's like, you can see he's sort of yelling and stuff. And then he comes in, and we do the handoff. And then he's like, yeah, my name is Kevin Nelson, and I'm going to be with you until around 6 o'clock. I'm going to be rocking some tunes. And he's's like, yeah, my name is Kevin Nelson. And I'm going to be with you until around six o'clock. I'm going to be rocking some tunes. And he's talking like that.

And I'm like, and then so he puts the song on and we're able to talk. And I said, Kevin Nelson, are you? And he said, yeah, my dad's Jay Nelson. And he said something like, by the way, that youngest broadcaster in Canada. He said, I'm 13. You're not even the youngest broadcaster in the building. Yeah, exactly. So I was like, oh, shit. And here's a funny thing.

He became a best friend of Sharon Taylor. Wow, it's all about Sharon. It's all about Sharon. She used to drive him. No, she never drove him anywhere. Oh, by the way, Mark is actually watching live. Oh, nice. Hi, Mark. It's all affectionate. I mean it. Oh, so Mark wants. Hi, Mark. It's all affectionate.

I mean it. Oh, so Mark wants you to know he's a decade younger than you. Yeah, but I was the youngest broadcaster in Canada, so. He says he's thoroughly enjoying the conversation, though, even though it's off-brand for him to interject like this.

It is off-brand. But he was not a part of the, he says he was not a part of the U of T radio station when he was seven years old. I thought he was. No, but he was not a part of the, he says he was not a part of the U of T radio station when he was seven years old. I thought he was. No, but he's not seven years old. That would make me 17.

Yeah, well, you know, he's just, yeah. Anyway, he's questioning the timelines. I doubt that he's a decade younger than me. And Mark, we don't let the facts get in the way of a good story around here. Come on here. I love it. Okay.

So maybe I knew Mark some other way because i feel like i knew mark like not through reading him at i we oh yeah yeah no but but i feel like we met 640 maybe was there a i feel like he was hanging around 640 for a while yeah so i'm getting my stories okay so you completed stories i do that every day that's the part of the charm okay i want to ask you you mentioned you didn't you weren't a drug guy you did a few lines of coke and then you said this is too much fun, I'm out. But did you ever smoke weed? Only the first time I did was at U of T Radio,

Radio Varsity, when I was like 14. I went to a party. They would hold parties in the radio station and they passed around a joint and I sort of put it to my lips and I felt guilty for weeks after. And I had a doctor's appointment and I thought, he gonna know he's gonna know for sure and uh so but no it never took like I never really got into it all right well it's legal now Blair go ahead now I now I take CBD oil to help me sleep yeah and uh yeah and I actually kind of like it well it's a very

medicinal and very good for you so I'm giving you a toque from Canna Cabana. Fantastic. They have unbeatable prices on cannabis and cannabis accessories. And there's over a hundred locations across this country. So if you're looking for a Canna Cabana location, just go to cannacabana.com. They got more than just weed. They've got bongs, pipes, vapes, dab rigs, grinders,

anything else a smoker could want. There's a very special episode of Toronto Mic'd in my backyard. So, you know, substance could be combusted. That is on May 31st and it's going to feature Andy from Canada Cabana with Stew Stone and maybe a very special appearance by Canada Kev.

And yeah, it's going to be good. We're going to kick out stoner jams and spark one up, and it's going to be a wonderful night. Hopefully it's not raining, but regardless, I'll be ready. And everybody should tune in for that. Shout out to Kana Cabana.

That was very wise, Blotty, when you went. It's going to be a very... He's rubbing off on me. I spent a lot of time with him. Well, it was just the inflection. I'm going to imitate you now. It's going to be a very... He's rubbing off on me. I spend a lot of time with him. Well, it was just the inflection. I'm going to imitate you now. It's going to be a wonderful night.

Okay, well, way back before I had a podcast, I would have many private conversations with Humble Howard Glassman from Humble and Fred. Yes. And he would say he was getting, he would get like a mild Christopher Walken vibe off the way I spoke. And I always thought that was kind of puzzling.

I guess that's when you like, I don't know, you pause in strange places. I don't know, but I've never heard the Walken thing. No, I'm not sure I hear that. But when you do the show intro though. Oh, I read that though. Maybe that's the difference. No, but how do you do it?

What's the first thing you say? Welcome to episode 1053 of Chronomite. The welcome is usually longer. Welcome. You know why? Because I always think that intro, I'm always thinking like, this is like when we used to hear like announcers

before a big, like a big boxing match or maybe even like monster trucks or something. And, you know, they would do this. Ready to rumble. So that's my intro. And I'll go big on that. It's kind of like an homage, like a tribute to that kind of style. Right.

And it sounds like that. Very artificial, very phony baloney. And I only do it in the intro. And then from then on, nothing's really scripted. Although I do have nice notes of the notes I want to hit. There's a guy I want to talk about. Okay. And I think you'll have things to say about him.

So let me play a little of this gentleman. Okay. about okay and i think you'll uh have things to say about them so let me play a little of this gentleman okay all through the night i'll be awake and i'll be with you all through the night this precious time when time is new oh all through the night today

knowing that we feel the same without the same We have no past, we won't reach back Keep with me forward all through the night And once we start, the meter ticks And it goes running all through the night

until it ends, there is no end all through the night Blair, who are we listening to here? That's Jules Scheer and he wrote this song this is his song.

Yeah, it's his song. Cyndi Lauper recorded it. And my band plays it now. And I love it. What's your relationship with Jules Shear? He produced the Jitters' second record for Capital EMI of Canada. He also co-wrote all the songs on the record, which was a bit of an affront to us at the time.

Not once we started, once we agreed to do it, but initially the idea that the producer was going to co-write all the songs. Yeah, that does sound a little fishy. Here's a jam. Yeah, here's a jam. Play a little of this. My bed is soaked.

My body shakes. And it's no better in these dreams without you. When you're flying around my room, dancing on my tomb, I like songs that have that one beat of silence in it. Always dug that in a jam. Okay, tell me, this is you, buddy. Yeah, that's the jitters. That's from the second record, which is called Louder Than Words. This is called Till the Fever Breaks,

and it was the first single from that record, and we wrote it with Jewel Shear in Northampton, Massachusetts. We wrote it in 1989 and released it in 1990. Jules Scheer, I got a few questions wondering what it was like basically working with Jules on this album. Well, Jules at that point

had already had hits with Cyndi Lauper, but also The Bangles, If She Knew What She Wants, and Alison Moyet, Whispering Her Name, and Tommy Conwell, less remembered. What's that one called? If We Never Meet Again.

So he had a... Oh, he also had a band called The Reckless Sleepers, and the guitar player in that band was... Well, the drummer was Steve Hawley, who played with Wings. And the guitar player was, what's his name? He was Conan's band leader. Not Max Weinberg, but the guitar player. Oh, yeah.

I can't remember. Yeah, the guitar player. Anyway, big session guy. And they had a band called the Reckless Sleepers. And I loved that record. It was like 1985 or something like that. So I was a big session guy and they had a band called the Reckless Sleepers and I loved that record it was like 1985 or something like that so I was a big fan

oh and I loved Jules and the Polar Bears I loved them I discovered them at U of T Radio where you did not meet Mark Wiseblood where I apparently did not

and I'm sorry Mark I gotta just clarify that because he wants to be chiming in is he writing you again? yeah he says he's never met you so the best part, that was

quite the story about crossing paths with a young Mark Wiseblood at CIUT. It was Jimmy Vivino. Jimmy Vivino, that's right. Thank you. Mark was seven, as I recall, and what he was doing hanging around the radio station at the university, I don't know. He says he's 12 years younger than you.

He's done his research. Oh, okay. I don't think that's true. Before Mark calls He says he's 12 years younger than you. He's done his research. Oh, okay. Okay, so we just want to clarify that. I don't think that's true. Before Mark calls Lorne Honickman and I have a... No, he's taking this very seriously, I must say. Yeah, so, okay. Could be worse.

At least we're saying nice things. You know how infuriating it is when somebody says something and you say, and you say, well, I'm not really sure that's true. And they do this. No, but they do this. They go, okay, with a little smile. Okay, if you say so. Yeah, if you say so, Mark.

I had that this morning with Hebsey. We were talking about Derek Trucks. Yeah, yeah. Derek Trucks? Okay, so Hebsey's going to see Derek Trucks in the summer because he's playing with Los Lobos and Hebsey's friends of the guys from Los Lobos. Anyway, Hebsey's talking about Derek Tranko.

I was like, do you know, and I can't remember the name of his new band, but he's got a new outfit with his wife in him and it's like her name and his name. Yeah. Tadashi Trucks. Yeah. Tadashi Trucks. Right. He's like, oh, do you know Derek Trucks or something?

And I said, oh yeah, from the Allman Brothers. And then Hebsey says something like, no. And I'm like, yeah, like he was in the Allman Brothers. No. And he was like, no. And he's like no he just dismisses it or whatever so now he's doing his intro and I'm on I'm going to I'm like I remember Derek Trucks in Allman Brothers like I have vivid memories of this yeah no yeah so I yeah

and he's so I'm on his wiki page and I and I'm like and I'm letting him know that yeah he was in like from 99 to like I don't know 2000 and I don't know 16 he's there for many many years Derek Trucks was in the Allman Brothers. Like, this is a fact. And I was not wrong. But it's like, anyway. Well, if you say so. He's like, okay.

And I'm like, go to Wikipedia. Go check it out. I mean, no. But the confusion for Hebsey might, Hebsey, anyway, I can't pronounce it. Hebsey. Hebsey, right. Hebsey.

Hebsey is, might be, you know, that it was, Butch Trucks was actually in the Allmansey. Hebsey, right. Hebsey. Hebsey is, it might be, you know, that it was, Butch Trucks was actually in the Allman Brothers longest. Yeah, right. And then, yeah, that's his uncle. Apparently there's even some member of that family

pitched a no-hitter or something. There's a Trucks in the New League Baseball. Do you remember? I can't remember. Derek Trucks is one of the most brilliant slide players you'll ever hear.

Oh my God. And he was brilliant at 12. Yes. And he sounds like nobody else. I remember this when he was a prodigy. If you're not paying attention, you might think that all people who play slide guitar sound the same.

They don't. And he's unique. I just want to, since we were talking Jules here, I just thought we should hear why that song sounds familiar to you. Yeah. And Jules sings the harmony on the chorus, by the way. Hey, let me hear this. Yeah, it Jules sings the harmony on the chorus, by the way. Hey, let me hear this. Yeah, it's so good. Bye. And once we start, the meter clicks

And it goes running all through the night Until it ends, there is no end Love it. Big jam right there. Very 80s. Oh yeah, that whole, what is that? It's a sequenced synthesizer. Okay.

It's annoying. But... Yeah, it can only come from one decade. Yeah, exactly. But hey, it still sounds good in the cans here. Yeah. So well done, Jules. Yeah.

Yeah, so working with him. You asked about that. Yeah, yeah. And I went off on a huge tangent. It was great. It was our first time working. Like, I felt like in the Canadian record industry, no disrespect to Paul Gross or Phase One or anything like that or any of the players we had on the record,

but it was sort of like not the real, it wasn't the big leagues. It was still pretty big, you know, in that the record company spent some dough and so forth. But working with Jules, it was the first time we worked with somebody in America. And at that point, we'd played in, we'd toured with Heart in the UK. And we played at Wembley Arena for three nights in a row.

And so we'd had a taste of what it was like out in the real world, you know? And so working with Jules was more of that. And it was great. He's such a quirky guy. Like he's, you know um you know amy man yeah of course okay so amy till tuesday till tuesday and the magnolia soundtrack yes and but the till tuesday record everything's different now do you know that record it's it has a song on it called

jay for jewels they were they were a thing and jewels and amy and so when she's with michael penn now or something. Oh, yeah, and has been for 100 years. But she was with Jules. Chris Penn, by the way, late great Chris Penn, was in a movie with Stu Stone. I feel I need to put that out there for my buddy Stu. What was the movie?

Do you remember? The Boys. The Boys, I think it was called. So there's a movie. It was filmed in Canada, I think, but The Boys, and Chris Penn's in it, and Stu Stone's in it. Because I scored a movie with Chris Penn. Which movie? Hold on, I have to remember.

Fall, Fall, The Price of Silence. Chris Penn and Chad McQueen. And Daniel Baldwin directed it and I scored it. So you got the siblings of the better ones. Yeah, yeah. And I talked to Daniel Baldwin on the phone once. That was a thrill. Yeah, yeah.

And he was married with Chyna Phillips, right? Yeah, yeah. And I think Mark Weisblatt was their driver. I'm trying to work Weisblatt into every story now. You know, why not? He says... Oh, he's back. Here's what he thinks.

He's decided you got confused probably because you heard him on ciut oh yeah 12 years later yeah that's probably true yeah and yet that maybe the conflation happens there maybe maybe that was um the late great uh hanging out uh you know we lost uh make a bad joke but back to his voice there but okay now um so jules and i the first night i met him we we went to a steakhouse, which was funny. It was booked by our manager who thought that's where you take American record producers. I would think so. Well, Jules was a vegetarian.

So in between, before dessert, he asked if, because I was the main songwriter, he asked if I'd go for a walk with him. And we walked down Yonge Street. We walked past the window of Sam's. And there was Everything's Different Now by Till Tuesday in the window, and I was aware of this song, J for Jules, and he said, he's very Eeyore-like. Like Jules, he's sort of like, yeah, so anyway, yeah, yeah. And he said, have you heard that?

And pointing at the record. What is Eeyore-like? Yeah, and he said, and I said, I have heard it, but I wasn't going to say anything in case it was embarrassing. He said, no, it's okay. I think it's a good song. And I said, what happened with you guys? He said, I went back to my wife.

Oh, what? Yeah, but he was great in certain ways and the writing. He still, you know, when I write songs, I still have a little jewel sheer on my shoulder telling me, no, that's shitty, you know, write a better lyric. He really, like I up my game. I write way better lyrics now because of him.

Amazing. Now, did you check out my pants when we met outside? You were on your best spot. How do I look? How do my pants look? I didn't, but I made a note when I listened to the podcast before that I should because you talk so warmly about your pants. I can ride my bike in this. It's comfy, rugged, and then they look good enough and sharp enough.

I can wear them to the club. I'm not going to many clubs these days, but I can also wear them to the boardroom for business meetings. I look sharp as fuck. Anyone listening, including you, Blair, there's a retail store in Toronto

for Dewar. D-U-E-R. They got the world's most comfortable pants and shorts and shirts, actually. The shirts are freaking comfortable. Now you can go to the retail store and save 15% if you use the promo code TMDS, or you can even go online at Dewar.ca,

and if you buy online, you can use the promo code TMDS and save that same 15%. So welcome to the family, Dewar. Where is the retail store? You know, how do I not know where the retail store is? I'm going to go now. Because I will go. I mean, because of your raving.

And you can feel these too. You can feel my pants. Get in my pants there, Blair. Yeah, stores. Hold on. We're going to do this together. Our stores. I'm here now.

A map has shown up. Oh, by the way, I have an audition to do. No, I'm joking. It's Peter Goose joke. That's it. 491 Queen Street West. That's pretty good.

That is great. Okay. In fact, I remember now, not Midtown Gord, but YYZ Gord told me this yesterday and I got to retain that info. So yeah, I could pop in there today on my bike ride. So shout out to Dewar Toronto and their new Toronto location there.

Okay, one last I want to thank, of course, StickerU.com. Did you get a Toronto Mike sticker last time? I did, yeah, yeah, yeah. Where did you put it? On my old phone case. Nice. Okay, that's better than sometimes it ends up in garbage cans and things. That's pretty slick. Sharon Taylor has hers on her phone case. Nice. Okay, that's better than sometimes it ends up in like garbage cans and things. That's pretty slick.

Sharon Taylor has hers on her phone case as well. Shout out to Sharon Taylor. Again. She's probably not listening anymore. Well, it's a Sharon and Mark show. They're fighting for our affections here. That's right. Two great FOTMs here.

I am going to YouTube for this jam because I forgot to load it up. And this one I want to ask you about. So bear with me here. Hopefully this plays from YouTube. I don't want that one. I want... I think I want this one. Let's see what I got here. One, two. I count three

FOTMs in this band At this time, I should say What song are we listening to, Blair? If I Had a Million Dollars by Barenaked Ladies Do you have a million dollars? I do not Well, if I sell my home Right

If I had a million dollars Me too, buddy If I had a million dollars. Me too, buddy. If I had a million dollars. Well, I'd buy you a house. I would buy you a house. I'll come back to a part later, but why is this song at all significant to you, Blair Packham? Two reasons. The acoustic guitar that you hear primarily on it is my guitar which i still play

to this day i loaned uh the ladies uh i think seven of my guitars um they didn't have any good guitars they had crappy guitars and uh i was friends with them and friends with their producer who i actually watched the kids in the whole documentary with, Michael Philip Voivodo. We sat together at the Hot Dogs Theater, old friends. Wow. And he produced this record and several of their other records. But then here in this chorus, I'm singing. I'm one of the singers.

Wow. Maybe not on this chorus. The end chorus is for sure. Okay, I'll hang around for that. Okay. They decided that they would have, the ladies decided that they would have people from their scene come and sing on the record.

So Kurt Swinghammer's on there. I don't know, Bikini might be on there. Mia Sheard, Ron Sexsmith. We're going to get to him. Yeah, and my ex-wife Arlene, who I'm still dear friends with. And we're singing on it all together. I don't know if anybody else gets royalties from it, but I still get royalties. Really?

Yeah. Like 17 bucks here and 10 bucks there. That's because of the guitar you lent them. No, it's because of the singing. Yeah, no, no, no. Okay, so where are we at here? Okay, well, when your part comes up, I'm going to turn it way up

and we're going to try to spot the Blair. I think you can, I mean, people have said you can hear me, but I have not noticed that myself. I can hear Weisblot. I'm sorry. That's Gilbert Gottfried. I'm telling you,

I'm going to get him in on every story. I like it, though, because then when he gets... He's going to be here. It won't be long. First Thursday of the month is a couple weeks away, and he'll be over here, and then we'll talk about your visit, and then you'll come back with the David Steinberg episode,

and then we'll talk about Mark talking about you. That's right. And then Mark will talk about you in the next, and it just makes my life... I like these threads that weave us all. As long as he's not offended by anything I'm saying, because I do enjoy him very much. Please.

Please. Now, I will shout out the FOTMs in this jam before we turn it up. Tyler Stewart loves Toronto Mike. I bet he does. He came over for a long deep dive, and it was amazing. So lots of Super Dave Osborne talk in that one.

So thank you, Tyler Stewart, for being a good FOTM. Kevin Hearn's Back to Back. I just want to shout out the second of the two we did together where we talked about his relationship with Gord Downie and his work on The Secret Path. Yeah. There's a print literally right behind you of The Secret Path. And Kevin Hearn, that episode, unbelievable.

And because we're going back to Gordon here, I can shout out FOTM's Stephen Page. Yeah. Stephen Page is a dear friend of mine. I'm friends with all these guys. You actually sound a bit like Stephen Page. That's what people tell me, yeah. I can hear it in the timber.

And I always say, because he, like Mark Weisblatt, is 10 years older or younger than me, I always say, no, he sounds like me. That's true. You did come first. So is younger than me. I always say, no, he sounds like me. That's true. You did come first. So is this the part? I think so, yeah. If I had a million dollars.

If I had a million dollars. If I had a million dollars. If I had a million dollars. I don't know. There's a lot of voices in there. Yeah. I can hear Arlene. She's a woman, man.

I'd be rich. Yeah, man. Nice. Yeah. Nice. Another FOTM is Brother Jake Edwards. What connects you to Brother Jake? When I did overnight Sunday nights at Q107,

Q107, I had to wake Jake up with a phone call at like 4.30 or 5 in the morning to get him over for 6 a.m. That's all. So they didn't have alarm clocks they trusted back then. No, I think he would set an alarm, but my job was to phone and uh uh you know and he we didn't know each other he i mean we'd

meet when he would come in but he was all business and he was all half asleep still so he'd come in and he's like yeah yeah hi hey man how's it how's it going yeah okay i think i still hear his voice on a lot of ads like i feel like he's he maybe he's or somebody who sounds like brother jake that ballsy, big FM voice. Yeah, I think, isn't he out west or something?

He's out west, but his voice. He probably does production voice. Yeah, he's in Vancouver, I think, or something like that. So he's an FOTM.

That's funny. Now another FOTM, he's been over twice. We have a great relationship, is the legendary Andy Kim. Andy, and I go way back andy i don't know if he credits me to anyone else other than me uh but uh andy well first of all when i was a kid i i would i was you know it was the typical the you hear this all the time from people you know who

grew up with music i had the am radio under my pillow so my parents wouldn't wouldn't know that i was you know was falling asleep. And Andy Kim, the song, How'd We Ever Get This Way, would be on Chum AM, 1050 Chum. And I know you've said you were too young to hear Chum as a top 40 station. I was listening to CFTR. Yeah, CFTR was a...

And the woman, your driver. Yeah, my driver, yeah. The Chum was a new... CFTR was a new kid in town. I'm even younger than Wise Blot, so that's our gap. Yeah, so I would listen to Chum, and Andy Kim was played regularly. And then I remember vividly when Sugar Sugar happened and the Archies, I remember thinking, that's Andy Kim.

Now, it wasn't. It was Ron Dante. Right. But Ron Dante was hired to sound like Andy Kim because Andy Kim and Jeff Berry wrote that song together. Right. So when... The Brill Building, right? This is a...

He was at the Brill? Well, he was actually at, was it 1050 Broadway? It was called the Brill Building era, but it's down the street. Okay, it's down the street. Yeah, but it was more modern. The Brill Building was a little more old school and they were slightly more modern. But it was the same thing, same era.

Okay, wait. So let me just tell you what we're listening to. The perfect day for a Christmas song. Whatever Happened to Christmas. And it's not only is it FOTM Andy Kim on this song, but FOTM Ron Sexsmith. I've been wondering where you are

Wondering if you ever think of me I've been searching near and far Not a wise man with a star Who gives to breathe Okay, what's going on here? Okay, so Andy Kim and Ron Sexsmith Two of our greatest singer-songwriters And how the hell is Blair Packham tied to this jam?

I produced this recording, and that brief little solo that you heard, it can now be revealed. What? That's me playing, and that's me playing those bells too, by the way, and singing a bunch of it as well. But Tim Bovacanti, do you know him?

I don't think so, but maybe. Tim Bovacanti plays with Burton Cummings, but he used to play with Ron Sacksmith. He's a fabulous guitar player. He lives in the East End. Really accomplished guy. All the talented people live in the East End. No, well, the West End.

Dave Bedini would argue with that. Yeah, that's true. He's the only guy. Tim plays 12-string electric on this song, but he played the solo and Andy came to me after and he said I don't know, I liked what you did on the demo better so we flew in from the demo

and I never told Tim because Tim thought and later I remember Tim was like yeah, yeah, it sounds good, I love the solo but he thought that he he thought it was him, it was you hopefully Tim won't hate me now but yeah, yeah, it sounds good. I love the solo. But he thought that he, anyway. He thought it was him. Yeah, it was you. Hopefully Tim won't hate me now. But yeah, so I produced the record and those guys are friends

and they drank a lot of wine while we were making it. And I would be editing in the other room and Ron always laughs at this. They would, they yelled. They would, I'd get the edit wrong because that's when you're editing digitally, you might get it, you have to try it maybe two or three times just to make sure it's just so right and they would yell they'd be in

the other room drinking wine and they'd go no like that and it was so annoying so finally i after they did it about 10 times i got up and i said would you guys fucking shut up like like i know it's i'm just i'm getting it and they cracked up and they laughed. And Ron still will occasionally go, no. Speaking of sweethearts, Ron Sexsmith is a sweetheart. Yeah. So Bare Naked Ladies, Stephen Ed and Ron Sexsmith and Moxie Fruvis used to open for Arlene Bishop, my ex-wife, at the cabana room where I met her.

She used to do a residency there. And they would come and and open for her because it was her residency right and that's how i met ron and ron and i became friends and we bonded over the kinks we loved the kinks and um i i loaned him a book that i had there weren't many books about the kinks then and i loaned him this book and we bonded over that and then we've worked together at a on a bunch of levels since then he did some demos at my house a few times and and uh yeah and he's uh yeah he lives in Stratford now so we don't see each other too often but he's a great guy okay I'm gonna do a brilliant songwriter absolutely I'm gonna I'm gonna kick out

this jam for my eight-year-old Jar Jarvis. Okay. This is for you, Jarvis. Too red, that's your way of life You gotta fall down Need ground to get back up again Let's play, play Skidding it out at the speed of sound Gonna rip it up, now the bet is down With the team, with the bank Our gang's the one that's gonna win Let's play, play Play, play Let it rip. Let it rip. Let it rip.

All right. You can't possibly have anything to do with that great theme song, the Beyblade theme song. I don't even know why I played it, to be honest with you. I just wanted to dedicate a song to my boy. Well, at first, that's so nice, Jarvis. At first, I thought, what the hell is this? I'm going to have to say to you, yeah, I don't know what that is.

But then when the words happened, because I co-wrote the words with my ex-wife, Arlene. Wow. And that was through this guy. Such a great team. I'm sad that you're not romantically a team anymore. Well, you can't be everything. I mean, I was a guitar player in her band,

and I produced the records. Why not? Just be everything. Yeah, I know. It worked for a while. It worked really well for a while and uh and she's great and like i say we're still friends and like good friends and we travel together with her partner and with um our son and that's not like at all awkward for you no the first time she and i traveled together with him to orlando this is before she met her partner yod, that was a little awkward only

because it was the first time and it just felt a little weird to be in a hotel room sleeping in separate beds, you know. Yeah. But neither of us have any desire, you know, really ever to get back together. Just good friends. Yeah. Yeah. And it works.

And co-parents? Yeah, of our 20-year-old. I mean, he's 20-year-old. Not too much involvement there, yeah. No. Although financially, I don't know what you're, I have a 20-year-old and I noticed he doesn't need me at all. And once in a while he needs a chunk of money. Well, my 20-year-old still lives at home.

He's never had a job. Like when I think that I was out at U of T radio, not getting paid, but, and I was dish washing. And not with Mark Weisbottom. No, no, no. But I was dish washing, also not with Mark Weisbottom no no no but i was dishwashing also not with mark weisbottom we'll just yeah we'll just keep saying that but uh but i delivered papers when i was 11 and i i've had jobs since i you know all through my teen years and my boy hasn't worked at a job

and it concerns me actually uh he does stuff 20 is not the same as it was when we were uh or you and i were like i will say i i, because I was married and living on my own at 21. Wow. I know. Oh, my God. And I know my boy is going to be 21 in January. And it's like, he might as well, it's a whole different, like, holy smokes.

Like, you know, he's still, you know, anyway. Well, no, I know. And yeah, I'm a little worried for my boy, except he's kind of brilliant. And he's in third year. He just finished third year at uh york in mechanical engineering and he builds uh replica props for um for like from films and tv shows and stuff and he and they're great like he has three 3d printers and wow and he mold molds

and casts uh he's creative he's quite amazing and he plays guitar he took up guitar at the beginning of the pandemic and he's really fucking good Wow Yeah He can rock like crazy Yeah And he's In 20 years

Still very young Yeah He learned the solo From Last of the Red Hot Fools Because it's all Got to come back to me Or Mark I've been a fool

Played it dumb Should play it dumb I was actually flirting With not playing At the whole episode And then when you said The magic words It's like on Pee Wee's Playhouse when you say the magic words. The solo on this is played by Kurt Schefter, who was in Alana Miles' band.

A brilliant guitar player, and he could play better guitar than either me or Danny Levy, the guitar player in The Jitters. So he played the solo. I've never learned it. I don't know how to play it. My son has learned to play it. And he can play it note for note. Wow. Yeah, and So he played the solo. I've never learned it. I don't know how to play it. My son has learned to play it. And he can play it note for note. Wow. Yeah, and it's a good solo.

It's a really good solo. It's about two-thirds of the way through the song. Okay, well, I'm going to let this run through. But okay, I did have a fun fact come in from Cam Gordon, who's my co-host on Toast Episodes. And Cam Gordon says, you can tour the site of the Last of the Red Hot Fools video shoot on May 28th and May 29th as part of Doors Open Toronto.

So that's only not this coming weekend. The weekend after, you can tour the R.C. Harris water treatment plant. That's great. That's great, Cam. So it all comes full circle. And, okay, first album cover was also shot

at the R.C. Harris water plant and David Steinberg was in it even though he'd already been fired. He'd been fired and Deborah Samuel

took the cover photo and she did Rush's Moving Pictures as well and we didn't know it was the album cover and David came out. We didn't know it was the album cover. They told us that we had to have a keyboard player and we didn't know it was the album cover and David came out we didn't know

it was the album cover they told us that we had to have a keyboard player and we didn't take that when I say they I mean the record company didn't take it seriously so we got the bass player's brother to come and be in the picture so he's on the album cover doesn't play a note of music and so you have David Steinberg with what we always joke with a gigantic arm. His arm looks huge. And then we have Paul Greenberg who went on to be, he's a writer for, what's his name? What is it, the solo? Yeah. That's Kurt Shepard from Atlanta Miles Band.

I was trying to think of how do I connect Atlanta Miles to FOTMs? Here's how I can do it. So Christopher Ward is an FOTM. Yeah. Not only dated her, but wrote Black Velvet. Yeah. Yes. Wow.

Okay. I know you're in the middle of a sentence, and we're going to get back to you, but the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant is exactly a one hour and 15 minute bike ride from here. And I would totally like meet you there for a selfie during the doors open. What are you doing? Is there any chance you'd go see it for the doors open? It's like next weekend? Yes.

Or this weekend? No, next week. The one after this one coming up. So not the long weekend. The one after. Okay. I'd meet you there. Yeah.

It's a beautiful spot. It's beautiful. Especially on a sunny day. You feel like you're in europe on the mediterranean or something i'm all in on this like i we just will coordinate but just i just need to know because i just leave here an hour and 15 minutes before we're supposed to meet there i take the martin goodman trail all the way yeah i'm already on it and bam we're gonna take a photo. We can recreate that Jitters first album cover. Yeah. As long as you have a huge arm.

It's all perspective. And we can have some other person there who shouldn't really be there, like Matt Greenberg's brother. That could be anybody. Yeah. Dude, I'm going to be during this wonderful low song. I just quickly, you are an audio assistant

on Martin Short's first HBO special. I taped a body mic onto his naked torso. He's a sweetheart, right? He's really. Have you heard the Dave Thomas episode of Toronto Mike? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Reach out to Martin and tell him I need him on the show too. Okay. You were an audio assistant

for Stevie Ray Vaughan's first appearance at the Elmo. Yep. Yes. That's amazing. Yeah, that was amazing. Okay, so Colin James is an FOTM, and he was mentored by Stevie Ray Vaughan. Right, and we toured, the Jitters toured with Colin James,

playing theaters across the country. And he's a sweetheart. Yeah, he's a great guy. And last but not least, although there's a lot of other theme songs I could play, but I'm going to save them for your next visit. Okay. You were friends with Stephen Leckie of the V vile tones best friend in grade seven and eight no great yeah grade seven and eight yeah at deer park public school yeah and i've seen stephen

since too i've seen him a few times but he was the singer in the vile tones yeah first wave punk and there's a very interesting uh ppmive Past of Modern Melodies episode of Toronto Mike with brother Bill and Cam Gordon where we dive deep into the history of punk in Canada with Ralph Alfonso do you know Ralph? Ralph was our product manager at EMI still friends now, played on

Ralph's record, one of his records anyway, great guy you are connected to all the FOTM I am! I think you're to all the FOTM. I am. I think you're connected to every FOTM except Mark Weisblatt. That's right. Yeah, well, I thought I was connected to him, but he ruined it. You've earned your lasagna.

This was fantastic, buddy. It was fun. And you're coming back. We've already got it in the calendars. Okay. So that'll be amazing. And that brings us to the end of our 1053rd

show you can follow me on twitter I'm at Toronto Mike Blair is at let me see if I remember Blair Matic Matic what's that Blair O Matic who are you on twitter I'm at Blair O Matic

you laughed like I said something in another language. But blairpackham.com is my website. Yeah, okay, yes, yes. Blairpackham.com is the website. But on Twitter, if you're going to follow this gentleman, Blair-o-matic. That's right. And on Instagram, same thing, but without the dashes.

You'll find him. Yeah. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Dewar are at Dewar Performance. Remember, Dewar is D-U-E-R, and that promo code is T-M-D-S. Use it.

Let them know it works. Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley F-H. And Canna Cabana are at Canna Cabana underscore. See you all next week. I know it's true. Yeah. I know it's true. How about you?

I'm picking up trash and then putting down roads. And they're broken stocks. The class struggle explodes And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can Maybe I'm not and maybe I am But who gives a damn because Everything is coming up rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold

but the smell of snow warms me today And your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and gray Well, I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in France And I've kissed you in Spain

And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down On Chaclacour But I like it much better Going down on you Yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up

Rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow warms us today And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Because everything is rosy now. Everything is rosy and everything is rosy and gray. Thank you.