Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Cameron Carpenter: Toronto Mike'd #690

Episode Date: July 22, 2020

Mike chats with Cameron Carpenter about his years working with bands and musical artists at MCA, BMG, Sony and elsewhere. There's great stories about The Tragically Hip, Alanis, Sloan, The Headstones, The Watchmen and more.

Welcome to episode 690 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Garbage Day. Weekly reminders for garbage, recycling, and yard waste pickup. Visit GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike to sign up now. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business.

The Keitner Group. They love helping buyers find their dream home. Text TORONTOMIKE to 59559. CDN Technologies. Your outsourced IT department. And Pumpkins After Dark. Save 10% with the promo code TORONTOMIKE. I'm Mike from Toronto Mike.

And joining me is rock and roll personified Cameron Carpenter. Welcome Cam. Thanks, Mike. Thanks for having me. I feel a George Harrison song coming on right now. Here comes the sun. That's right. I should play it if I were more on the ball.

It would be very expensive to play it, I think, on your podcast. You know, there's no, on that note, there is no legal way to play music on a podcast. This does not exist. No, that's kind of crazy. They should figure something out where the rights are paid somehow.

Right. Yeah, you could play some great music. I mean, I'm going to play some anyways, don't get me wrong, but are you going to report Right. Yeah, you could play some great music. I mean, I'm going to play some anyways. Don't get me wrong. Are you going to report me? Nah, I'm fine. I'm not, you know, I'm not a SOCAN board member or anything. Well, I figured I had Ivor Hamilton on a few times and he seemed to be, he didn't rat me out.

So, you know, if you rat me out, I'll know it's you, Cam. No, Ivor's a good man. He is a good man. Okay, so this is just to let people know who uh did not watch the periscope and are listening to the podcast and that's most people uh when you arrived here it was teeming like just pouring rain it was just soaking wet everything but hail yeah it was just coming down in buckets but it's clearing now now i've been very demanding like i had you holding an umbrella and i wanted it over this nut is there any way i know it's my new request could you

move the boom swing arm thing so that the mic was a little more even in front of you look at how demanding yeah okay there we go thank you so much thank you so much so again uh my apologies i apologize profusely for the fact I, you know, I brought you into a soaking wet, you know, recording place. The only thing you need to apologize for is the only thing I can see is your bare feet. Let me go in and get, yes, I do need to apologize for that. Now I'm all self-conscious. Let me go in and get my slippers here. But, you know, but I think we're very close to the rain stopping. Like, I'll let you know the moment I think it stopped.

But it is, you know, like George Harrison said, here comes the sun. And this is so much better. Like, now I think we're going to probably start drying off soon here. But what did you crack open? You cracked open a pompous ass. A pompous ass, yes. Because I'm a pompous ass. No, I like the can. I actually like all of their cans, but

it's an English ale. Do you drink Great Lakes beer? I've had it in passing. I was having one yesterday, as a matter of fact, when I realized you were sponsored by Great Lakes. That's why I tweeted the picture. And you had the Canuck, right? I had the Canuck. My friend, we were watching football, and he brought over some, and I was like, oh, this is so fortuitous that I'm actually doing something with Great Lakes. Well, that's funny. I tweeted the pictures. And you had the Canuck, right? I had the Canuck. My friend, we were watching football and he brought over some and I was like, oh, this

is so fortuitous that I'm actually doing something with Great Lakes tomorrow. Oh, that is great. Now I'm going to crack mine open. All right. Right on the mic. Now, football. When you say football to me, Cam, you're referring to what we Canadians call soccer. Yes.

A couple of notes on that. Robbie J, who's a great, he's an FOTM, so shout out to Robbie J. He says, be sure to ask Cameron about his feelings on the upcoming FA Cup final between Arsenal and United. And I actually don't know what that means, so please tell me. There's the English Premier League

where they play for the season that Liverpool won this year. So Rob is very excited. Actually, they'll be getting the trophy right about now. They're getting it halftime at their game today. So they won the league, which is over on Sunday. And then there's the FA Cup, and then there's the League Cup, which is a competition for all the English teams throughout the year. And Arsenal made it to the final playing Chelsea.

So Arsenal is my team. Okay, Arsenal is your team. Is that the one of the song? I should know the song, right? No. No, that was someone I think tweeted about You'll Never Walk Alone, which is a Liverpool song. That's a Liverpool song.

Okay. We're Forever Blowing Bubbles is the West Ham song. There's a song for pretty well every team. Is there a song? I need to know, is there a song for the Tottenham Spurs? That's our most hated rival. They're the other North London team, so I wouldn't care if there's a Spurs song.

And I only bring up the Tottenham Spurs because I spent a lot of time talking to Hebsey, and Hebsey's a big Spurs fan. Oh, is he? Yeah, so you guys would be butting heads in your premiership allegiances. We would be. Yeah, it's been a great thing.

I've been following since the mid-80s because when I was doing a lot of British bands, I found you'd have to find something in common with them, something to talk to them about when you're driving them out to CFNY or you're taking them to Toronto Star or whatever. And a lot of them didn't like the American record company people for whatever reason. They would run them through the grinder, get them on morning shows at six in the morning. And also they're American. I'm not saying that. They worked a different way. I think we were a lot more hands-on with our artists. So I found out that finding an English football team always gave me something to talk to English bands about. Smart. Yeah. So I adopted Arsenal because I was

flying back from New York with Nigel Grange, the late Nigel Grange, unfortunately. He started Enzyme Records, which was Sinead O'Connor, the Waterboys, World Party. And we were flying from New York to Toronto, and he was on one of the phones in the back of the seat of Air Canada that were like $1.05 a minute. Wow. Talking to his brother, who was at the Arsenal game, and his brother is Sir Lucian Grange,

who now runs Universal Records worldwide. I thought, okay, Arsenal's a good London team I'll adopt them so but you're also a TFC uh supporter huge TFC supporter so tell me this uh do you wish they would like are you are you glad that they're in this uh whatever they're calling this return to MLS cup that they got going on in Florida like are you glad they're there competing or would you rather they were just safe and sound at home? Well, they're all in a bubble, so I don't mind it. I think it gives us something with this little tournament. A lot of the teams will be out tomorrow

because only the top two in every group goes through. But I think it's, you know, it's some football, so it's good. And how are we doing? We won our group, which is great. So now we just find out who we play next Tuesday. So awesome. Awesome. Uh,

shout out to, uh, Mark Wise blot. Uh, yes. So tell me how you know, how do you know Mark? I know Mark when he was writing for,

I guess it was I magazine. Yeah. Uh, and he became a huge fan of like, he loved writing about Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Christina Aguilera, all the teen bands. He loved it. Oh he had all the posters on his wall. Yeah I think so that's

when I first got to know Marks. So this is a first for Toronto Mike and first time ever and we'll see maybe this will happen again. I think it's going to be successful but we're on episode 690 and you're the first guest I've had on because Weisblot said, have him on like, this is the first, this is the first time that happened. Wow. I thought it was Ben who said,

have me on. So that's great. It was Mark. It was Mark. It was definitely Mark. So shout out to Weisblot. He's back here next week. Hopefully it's drier for him.

Uh, cause every month he comes over, we do like two and a half hours on the whole month recap. Oh, cool. And it is really in depth and I really enjoy it but he said basically he knows this program i think better than i do at this point um and he said you and this is i don't want to put pressure on you here i feel like this is unfair to you but he said basically you know you've got the stories uh you're a good communicator

and you're precisely the kind of guest that makes Toronto Mic'd, uh, I was going to say makes Toronto Mic'd great, but that's a little arrogant of me, but, uh, you're a great guest for this type of format. So thank you for, for being here. Oh, thank you, Mark, for, uh, recommending me. I'm going to peek at the camera to see whether we can actually see it. We can now, there you are. So, uh, you are, you are here.

You're no longer a pile of, a pile of umbrellas here. Just before we dive in, I just want to say I had a great chat with Barb Poluskowicz from CDN Technologies. And I just want to speak to like really briefly if anyone listening is like a small business owner, a medium to small business owner, or in charge of like the the it uh the services for your business or your company uh outsourcing that to cdn technologies makes a lot of economic sense and they're great super efficient and i would basically urge you if you're in that situation to have a conversation with barb she'd love to talk to you. And the number to reach Barb Paluskiewicz is 905-542-9759.

So call Barb, tell her Toronto Mike sent you, and chat about outsourcing your IT to CDN Technologies. They're great people. So Cam, give us a little, like a little, like who the heck are you?

Because I think that a lot of these guests in the backyard are like, oh, Moe Berg is here. Okay, everyone knows Moe Berg. Yeah, lead singer of Pursuit of Happiness. We see him on Much Music or whatever. But your name is not for the common man and woman. Your name's not going to necessarily resonate. But, I mean, I checked you out. You're the bonafide.

You're the rock guy. Tell me who you are. Who I was. Right. Who the hell were you cam was i i was a record company guy for most of my career uh in very in publicity a and r marketing uh artist relations and then did various things after that i've been a publicist been a manager i was on the startup team of xM Canada. I worked for the Bito family at the Hard Rock Cafes for a while. Do you have anything to do with the Elmo now? I'm just looking at your t-shirt. No, I'm supporting Toronto venues. I have my horseshoe mask in my pocket. I've got my bovine hat on and my Elmo shirt, but no, I have nothing to do with the Elmo, but I've been through twice already, so it's going to be amazing.

Yeah, I mean, I had Kim Mitchell on a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, I just nothing to do with the Elmo, but I've been through twice already, so it's going to be amazing. Yeah, I mean, I had Kim Mitchell on a couple weeks ago. Yeah, I just signed to Elmo Records. Oh, and also I had Neil Osborne from 5440, so I'm collecting them all. And I'm going to sound like a broken record, but Michael Weckerle's mom taught at my high school. Oh, really? She just recently passed.

Just recently passed away, unfortunately, right? And she was a very popular teacher at Power. So, you know, Cam, when I think of A&R guys, so I guess you've crossed paths with Kevin Shea, for example. Oh, Kevin and I worked together at MCA for years. I love that guy. Oh, great. Great hockey writer. Just a great, nice guy.

One of the nice guys all around. No question. We had a deal in place before COVID. I got to revisit it with him, but I had him on and we only talked like Bill Borilko. And then I said, we did talk a little Weird Al and Motley Crue and stuff. He loves his Weird Al. He's Weird Al's right hand in

Canada, always has been. Right. And he had some good, I think, some good Motley Crue stories and stuff too. But then I think, he had some good multi-crew stories and stuff too, but then I said, no man, you're coming back and we're not talking hockey at all. I just want to talk about the record days. And he was a radio guy before the record days as well. He was on the

air, so yeah. Yeah, he's a multi-talented freak. Is that fair to say? And if you're half as nice as Kevin Shea is, then I'm going to wise blot some extra GLB. And then Mo and I go back too. I helped Mo and Pursuit get signed to their deal with Chrysalis in New York.

See, you know what? Here's the rule for this episode. Anytime you want to drop a fun fact like that, just bury me. Like, honestly, because really what this is all about is tell me a story. Like I'm just collecting

these stories, man. And like that little Moe Bird nugget there, which I didn't know about, that's awesome because so Moe comes from Edmonton or whatever,

Pursuit of Happiness. We all know the story because Moe told it on the show about filming that video Queen and Spadina, I guess, where the mech is now. Where the mech is, it was the bamboo parking lot, yeah. Right, and then Much Music played it.

Yeah. And the rest is history. It is, the rest is history. And then they got signed to Chrysalis in New York and came up with their dream list of producers, Todd Rundgren being one. And then one day Mo was in a club and it was like, there's a call for you, and it was Todd. Wow. And actually

I think the USA and our team, Jeff Aldridge and everyone came up to, it was a club called Crush in the Beach, which is the old Ben Lamond Hotel at Main and Kingston Road. Wow. That was one of the few places in the beach you could drink, and it changed to Crush, and that's where they saw the band for the first time. And that album, of course, was Love Junk.

It was Love Junk. Which I loved. I should say loved past tense, but honestly, I could put that on right now. Yeah, they put a great, and I guess it was, I don't even know what anniversary it was, probably the 30th anniversary package out on vinyl a couple of years ago. It's fantastic. Whenever I think of Chrysalis, because I'm not in your industry, so all I remember is that I had a lot of Billy Idol albums,

and they always had the butterfly, right, on the Chrysalis butterfly. It's the process after a metamorphosis in a butterfly is the Chrysalis. And the guys who owned it were Terry Wright and Chris Ellis. So it was Chris Ellis. Right, Chrysalis, Chris Ellis. See, this is what you're here for, man. So wise bud, you're right. He's a great guest for Toronto Mic'd.

I'm going to just start with a question so I don't forget to ask it later and then I got to ask you about, especially the MCA, like Canadian roster. But Hades Dweller, who's a regular listener, he wants me to ask you how frustrating or not, in parentheses, was it to try to get some of MCA Canada's more successful domestic acts released in other territories,

such as the US and Europe? Painfully, painfully frustrating. A lot of bands wouldn't sign unless you could guarantee a US deal. I wanted to sign the B Naked Ladies and like they wanted a U.S. deal to happen. So they were out of the running when I was trying to sign Sloan. Yeah. They decided that they wanted a U.S. deal and luckily I was I was able to broker them a deal with Geffen Records. So they got their U.S. deal and then we got them back in Canada for free and then I signed their publishing. So. Wow. But it was really frustrating. I remember bringing you, I'd send a Tea Party tape down to Paul Atkinson, who was the head of A&R in the States, who was the guitar player in the Zombies. Great English gentleman who passed a few years ago, unfortunately.

And he said, Cameron, it sounds like Led Zeppelin with Jim Morrison singing. Oh, yes. And I said, exactly. And there's a million 17-year-old kids who would love that. Right. So it was really frustrating. And some bands was just like, fine, we'll just do what we do. And if we can make it in Canada, that's great.

But a lot of them wanted the big US record deal, which obviously didn't obviously, obviously, how many times can I say that? Which didn't always pan out. You know, the Geffen deal with Sloan was great, but it wasn't the be-all, end-all. They didn't become Weezer. Why the hell not, though?

Like, because to my Toronto ears, you know, I love Weezer and I love Sloan. I mean, I've had Chris Murphy on and I think I said the same thing. But, like, why wasn't Sloan a US success? Because, to my recollection, geffen wanted a front man they wanted one person they wanted chris to be the rivers and they had a hard time with them all switching instruments all writing songs it is all singing which i think makes them just so painfully unique right but i think that was a big part of the

problem here i'm gonna play a little sloan and then I'm going to drill in for some more Sloan, and then Hades Dweller does have a part two of that question. So note to self, go back to the part two of the Hades Dweller question. I didn't know there was questions coming in. Man, Sloan, you know, if you had only like a couple of minutes before the news break or whatever, this was the jam you'd play. This or Blur's song too. Yeah. Because this is nice and short.

Under three minutes. I know Humble and Fred used to do that all the time. Did you ever meet Humble and Fred? Yep. Oh, lots of times. Because you're bringing in rock stars, right? Yeah, exactly. We sat one morning. We had the Foo Fighters in, Young and Dundas up in the tower,

and we got a FedEx pack, and it was to Grohl, or it might have been to me, but it was the three-quarter inch of Learn to Fly video, and they hadn't seen it, so it was sent in from the States. So we all went into a boardroom and watched Learn to Fly for the first time. That's cool, because that's a big one, yeah. Yeah. Well, that's very cool. And Humble was with us, so we had just done the morning show.

But you know what? He probably took that whole moment for granted, like didn't realize the weight and the heft of that moment. Yeah, because that's really when they started to take off was that album and Learn to Fly, and then it just went from you know but when's color in the shape that's the second yeah okay so you don't think that was the i guess you mean with the the masses because the masses yeah the crossover okay i got you because to me um yeah like ever long and that color in the shape is like the big uh breakthrough but that's why i'm glad you're here

to offer that that perspective yeah but they hadn't moved to, you know, when that album came out, we did the Somersault tour, which was across Canada, which was an amazing tour. I was there, 2000, right?

Yeah, with OLP and Smashing Pumpkins. The Foos were third on the bill. And then after that, it just totally exploded where they could go do amphitheaters by themselves. And actually, Molson Amphitheater was the first amphitheater they ever played as a headliner.

Wow. Yeah. I would say today you can make an argument and maybe you'll concur that Dave Grohl might be like, he's the last guy holding that torch, like a rock star torch. Yeah, I would say. But although if you read the news today he's out there swinging that for the fences for teachers i know i haven't heard yeah because his mom was a teacher and he's like telling trump to back off and like the government shouldn't decide when the schools he's a good guy you can tell he is a good guy yeah so just uh for sloan um what else i mean so

that does make sense actually that they don't have that front man and they're not that, you know, they all, you're right, they change, you know, suddenly Chris is on drums and who's singing this song? Jay's playing bass. Right. Which is awesome. Which is awesome. But maybe that's tougher to market. Yeah, I think that's what the problem was in the States. I think up here, we didn't care. We thought that was great. But I think the U.S. majors were like, yeah, we need a front man. And again, I guess is there anything else you maybe share about your history with Sloan? Because Sloan's one of those MCA records, CanCon Acts, which we'll be talking about here. Yeah, well, my history was I got a letter from Jay. I was heading down to the ECMAs.

It was my first trip as an A&R guy. I'd moved from marketing to A&R. And he wrote me this lovely letter. So I went down to Halifax. I went into Sam's Barrington because it was a great record store. It was the same, the record man on Barrington. Shopped around. I had a Discman with me, which was pretty far ahead of the curve at that point.

Yeah, I bought the CKDU sampler, which was a little Dalhousie radio station. Went back to my room, ordered lobster because I was on the East Coast for the first time and I had an expense account. So I was like, yeah. Got my Discman out, plugged in my speakers, put it on. Underwhelmed was the first song. It was just like, wait a minute, I'm playing that again. Yeah.

And then it was like, did he say rolled her eyes and then just say rolled her r's wait a minute went back and forth then i had to go to the flamingo tavern where sarah mclaughlin used to be a waitress way back in the day okay and there was a showcase for the ucmas and there's rick arboyt who's the president of network records kim cook uh who owns revolution recording pheromone recordsan Records, A&R guy at Warner Brothers at the time, and myself and a bunch of bands playing, including Blackpool, which Sloan's manager was in, and Chris Murphy was in as well. And then Sloan came on, and they floored all three of us.

And we all got in conversations. I had breakfast with Peter Rowan, their manager, at that point the next morning, saying there was seven things i could offer a demo deal publishing deal record deal whatever went down the list and that's when i found out they wanted to do a u.s deal so about a month later todd sellerman from geffen was in my office i was playing him some tapes he heard sloan fell in love with it then they played music west out in vancouver he flew up for the show which was a nightmare show with the commodore there was like 40 people there things were broken but it was totally rock and roll and todd fell in love and the deal was done you know

i i can i was a teenager and i remember the first time 102.1 i used to listen that all the time and they played underwhelmed yeah and i had my reaction was like, what the fuck is that? And then I didn't know it was a Canadian band initially. And then you discover this is a Canadian band, and it's just something about, you know, we were talking about people that eat meat. I felt like an ass because I was. And that's a Chris Murphy one, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, fuck yeah. Great band. And here, I'm going to, here gonna here's a yeah we're getting there you know what we're almost there i think we're there oh bang just banged it with my headstone it's okay you know what that's rock and roll you that's when you said that i realized yeah this whole like we're out in the rain maybe we'll get again woodstock remember when they became electrocuted or whatever

it's like oh we don't even want that but and I can't afford to replace the gear. That was the one thing I was worried about. But, rain has pretty much stopped thankfully here. I'm going to play a jam from another band that was on that

MCA Records roster. And I should just preface this by saying a couple of these guys are FOTMs. FOTMs, I should tell you, is Friends of Toronto Mike.

Okay. You're now an FOTM, okay? Whether you like it tell you, is Friends of Toronto Mic'd. Okay. You're now an FOTM, okay? Whether you like it or not. Whether you like it or not. But here's a radio hit from one of my favourite bands. guitar solo Little Danny Graves there. This is The Watchmen. I'm sorry.

I just saw him at the... I just saw him. I think, yeah, in 2019, I saw him at the Danforth Music Hall. Still sounds great. Yeah, he's got... He's just got one of those great rock and roll voices always has he did uh i think it was a bookies night at the horseshoe last year um he did a billy bragg song acapella that was just breathtaking yes yeah he did a billy bragg so i'm just the same one he did a billy bragg song at this concert I saw him at recently at the Danbrook Music Hall.

Tell Me, this Boneyard Tree, of course, from In the Trees, which has All Uncovered on it, which remains one of my favorite songs of all time. Great song. Yeah. And I've let them know it, too. Sammy Cohen's a good friend of the show, the drummer, as well. Is he your realtor? Yes, he's a realtor.

No, I said, is he your realtor? Oh, no, because my realtor is Austin, he's a realtor. I know I said he's your realtor. Oh no, because my realtor is Austin Keitner from the Keitner Group. In fact, he should be yours too, Cam. Text Toronto Mike to 59559. Talk to Austin if you're looking to buy and or sell in the next six months.

Austin Keitner will absolutely take care of you. Thanks for the tip. Now you know the rest of this. All right. I'll shut up because no one wants to hear my voice. Talk to me about The Watchman. Well, The Watchman came to me through Jake Gold,

who was managing the Tragically Hip at the time and actually managing Tragically Hip again, which is fantastic. No offense to Bernie Breen, but it's great that they're back with Jake now and he's looking after the estate. And, you know, what is the Tragically Hip? I'm going to slow you roll, because later I'm going to do a whole Tragically Hip segment. I'm going to be asking these questions all again. Go ahead. Jake Gold's a good FOTM, too. Hello, Jake.

Hey, Jake. Yeah, so Jake brought us to, you know, brought them to me, and it was just like, it was a no-brainer as soon as I heard it. And you're not going to argue with the Tragically Hip's manager when they're one of the biggest bands in your roster, either. But that had nothing to do with that. I'm just saying. No, but that's an interesting point because I often would hear that HBO would produce and air like a David Simon show

simply to please him because he's the guy who did The Wire and they want to keep him happy. You know what's a good example? Seinfeld, okay? The story I've heard, well, Seinfeld had terrible ratings at first, but they wanted Jerry Seinfeld to replace Johnny The story I've heard, well, Seinfeld had terrible ratings at first, but they wanted Jerry Seinfeld

to replace Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. So they wanted to keep him in his NBC deal. So essentially, they would prop up this show, The Seinfeld Chronicles, which no one was watching, simply to keep him happy because they had bigger plans for him at the network or whatever.

Interesting. Yeah. Now, have you had Jonathan Gross on the show? No. Do you know who jonathan gross is remind me well he was the rock writer at the toronto sun and in most of the 80s and stuff he has a video distribution company great rock and roll storyteller great guy and his sister margie wrote for seinfeld i've seen her name in the credits yes and anyone you talk to like all of the radio people you've had on they're all friends of Jonathan. So there's one for future reference.

So here's how it works. So Mark says get on Cam. Cam or Cameron, what do you prefer? Either are. Call me Mike. If you call me Michael, I'm cutting your mic. You're M-I-C. You're cutting my Michael.

Right. All right. So Jake Gold says, hey, we got this band out of Winnipeg. I guess that's the McLaren furnace room stuff. Yes. Yeah. And regardless, I guess I'm curious, if there was no Tragically Hip, you'd still run with this?

Oh, no question. Yeah, they had the goods live, and they were fantastic. I remember when In the Trees went gold, Ralph James, their agent, and I got on a plane, flew to Winnipeg. They were playing in Native Hall, or the communities like the 2,000 Cedars. They were huge there.

It's raining again, by the way. Yes. They had no idea that Ralph and I were even in town, and then when they finished their set, we gave them their gold record. So a memorable day with Ralph and Jake. Okay, now this will be a common theme. This will come up for a lot of these bands.

It won't come up for Atlantis, but it will come up for a lot of these bands. Why weren't the Watchmen more successful in the USA? this will come up for a lot of these bands. It won't come up for Atlantis, but it will come up for a lot of these bands. Why weren't the Watchmen more successful in the USA? That's the great question. Like, why weren't the Hip more successful? The Watchmen, the Trues, the Headstones. You can just go down the list.

There was always a point where when you're trying to get American radio or record companies interested, they would say you have to play Canadian music on the air up there, and they discounted it immediately. And if they didn't find it, they didn't want it rammed down their throat. So not many Canadian bands really blew up big in the States. Barenaked Ladies did for a bit in certain pockets, but not right across the country.

And they had that Jason Priestley shot in the arm. They played the Peach pit, you know. I feel that's a big deal. And I just, just for the people at home, the rain did stop. And now this is real rain again. Yeah. But you know, right above you, and you can't see it

because of the umbrella, but there is a blue jay, a male blue jay, right above you in that branch, and it really is pretty. So, you're missing the show here cam come on and uh yeah i'm sorry if it's raining again here um okay so yeah watchman uh just uh yeah okay so because because when i listen to an album like in the trees or whatever i don't have my i don't think my brain is saying they're canadian canadian prefer them like i don't think i have that i'm a big pearl jam guy i know they're not they're Canadian, prefer them. Like, I don't think I have that. I'm a big Pearl Jam guy.

I know they're not from up here. No, I don't think anyone's ever figured that out, why some make it and some don't. If I did, I'd be sitting on a yacht right now. Right, right. And yes, good reminder that the Bare Naked Ladies do have a number one Billboard Hot 100 hit. One week, number one on the charts there.

Okay, I'm going to play, you mentioned them already, but let me play a little bit of... I've got a gal who lives on the wrong side of town Know what I want and man you know I sure know how It's the other side, another place I like it there, I know I count it for taste Can't think of nothing when I'm without her But the rain and the wind and the cemetery dirt. Went down to the cemetery looking for love.

Got there and my baby was buried. I had to dig her up. Went down to the cemetery looking for love. Got there and my baby was buried. I had to dig her up. Like, will Hugh Dillon take your call if you call him right now? Yeah, for sure. I still have his number. I see him all the time.

He actually lives fairly close to me. We keep running each other on the streets. Okay, so I'll do this very quickly, but Hugh Dillon was booked for Toronto Mike. Then I did all the homework and set up all the music, all ready to go. And not him, I will say, but somebody, a PR person, blew me off for some breakfast television thing and never rescheduled, and I never got Hugh Dillon in Toronto Mike's ear.

Hold on, I'm going to speak to the, I have a person, hold on here. I'm talking to a rock guy. Come on, get out of here. Hey bud. Bye bye. Say bye bye. Get out of here,

Morgan. Oh my goodness gracious. Okay. Sorry. It's not very rock and roll. What's going on there? Sure it is. Oh,

yes, I like, it's rock guys. So punk. Okay. So, uh, anyway,

uh, if you want to ask Hugh, if he, I he'd dig the vibe of what's going down here. It's all like love, man. And we just love his jam. I love them. The Headstones. Tell me about the Headstones. The Headstones was a call from Joe Bamford, who was a manager, who managed Glass Tiger.

And I knew Joe and his partner, Gary Pring. He told me, he's like, you got to hear hear this band, you've got to hear this band. I was like, yeah, yeah. Then I also got a call from Yvonne Matsell, legendary booker in Toronto. She was at Ultrasound at that point. She said, Cam, you'll love these guys. I was like, all right, now I've heard from two sources, that'll get me down there. I went down one night, wasn't very busy.

Checked out the first set. He reminded me of Frankie Venom so much. It was frightening. Absolutely frightening. He was spitting on the ceiling. He was like pointing the mic stand like he was going to punch out the windows. We had basically the same hairline at that point too.

It's a straggly stuff on the side. Thins for the top. Tons of jewelry. So at the end of the first set, I was standing by the bar. I said on the side, thin through the top, tons of jewelry. So at the end of the first set, I was standing by the bar. I said, hey, man, nice set. Can I buy you a drink? He goes, you're buying me a drink? I said, yeah, what do you want?

He goes, you're buying. I was like, yeah, I'm buying. He goes, give me a double jack and a shot of Jaeger. I was like, okay, fine. So I buy him a drink. He talks about himself for a while. Right. Goes back and does the second set.

End of the second set i'm standing with joe bamford their manager and joe said oh few of you met cam cam's the head of anr for mca and you had these posters in his hand he smacked me over the head he goes you didn't say you were the anr guy and i said you never asked and he goes you're gonna sign us and i said i'll tell you what you can out drink me i'll sign you he, you're on. So we set up a drinking competition like about a week later. Wow. Yeah. I said, meet me at ultrasound.

It's like that of a movie. It was a joke and it was a bonding experience. Right. We met at ultrasound. We had a few drinks there. We went up to the El Macombo to see someone. I forget who it was. I lost him in the crowd.

He was getting a little bit out of it. We had to go to the horseshoes. We had Brent Lee and the Outsiders playing. And I knew that Randy Lennox, our head of sales, was going to be there, now the president of Bell Media. And Ross Reynolds, our president of the label. Right. And I said, listen, I'm taking you down there.

Behave. You've had a few. You know, this is a career moment for you. So he walked in, kissed you, or kissed Ross right on the mouth when he got introduced. Ended up, had to get him out of there, put him in a cab, send him home. And then called him the next day and said, okay, let's work something out.

So ultimately, we made the record. Well, I will confess it took me years, it was years before I realized Tweeter and the Monkey Man was a cover. And I prefer their version. How dare I say that? You know, Orbison and Dylan. Speak of George Harrison.

We've been talking. It's twice we've dropped his name. And where the hell is the sun, George? Seriously. Although it's kind of fun to report on this rain. It has lightened up again. So it's going to come in waves throughout this episode here. So I was only there for the first two albums.

And then I left mca at that point and left them in the very capable hands of brian heatherman who became the anr person after i did and then because where did you go after mca i actually had a midlife crisis i had uh that was about 96 so my kids were like 10 and 7 at that point. I'd been doing A&R, traveling a lot. I was a really good friend of the Bitto family and Nick was expanding the hard rock empire across Canada and asked if I wanted to be the marketing manager and I was like, you know what, let's try this out and see what happens.

Well, there's worse gigs than that. Yeah. Great family to work for. So I tried that for a year. Did you get Raptor tickets? Yes. On my Instagram, I, yes. I've got, I, on my Instagram, I was showing my courtsides the other day from like the first couple of seasons.

We were at, we had courtsides, two sets, went to so many games. Oh, and those were at the Dome. At the Dome originally. Wow. That's right. Because 99, when the ACC opens there, that's right. And then we used to do our Raptor of the Month at the Hard Rock Sky Dome, and I'd present Damon Stoudemire or Alvin Lewis

with a Hard Rock jacket. And then eventually Doug Christie, right? I'm trying to think of those early... Did John Tabak ever get a jacket? I don't know. I don't think he was ever Player of the Month. And then, because you could see the baseball games from there as well,

so I would invite touring bands and say, hey, come on down to the Hard Rock as part of the marketing thing. Have dinner on us. Watch the Jays game. What a great life you have, man. That's all. This sounds amazing. It's kind of weird.

You're offering Rob Zombie Hard Rock merch. It's like, dude. And I said, get something for your mom. Get her a hoodie. He goes, you know what? Good idea. If you're giving me free hoodies, I'll get one for moms. Oh, that is funny.

It's funny. Just the other day, I was chatting with Tom Wilson from... Ah, love Tommy. Yeah, what Tom Wilson was saying, it was me, him, and Ralph Ben-Murgy on the Zoom call. Okay, quite the trifecta there. I'm trying to live a little semblance of your wonderful life. What came up was the, because Tom does not drink anymore.

No. But what came up in the conversation was that he got this lasagna when he appeared on Toronto Mic'd. And he was saying that for years he'd do CBC things forever. No one gave him shit. You do Zosky, you get nothing. Right.

Right. You do Peter Zosky. That's right. And he was just talking, and he's so good of his words right tom will's amazing he's talking about how this lasagna he baked it up and his wife and uh i don't know one of his kids was there or whatever but they enjoy this lasagna and it's the best lasagna he's ever had from a store i guess uh this lasagna and he's just saying and he just the way

he was so eloquent and how like uh amazing it was that he got there was just just for appearing on a like yeah program and then doing an interview he left with this large frozen meat lasagna and i was listening to this and i wasn't recording because eventually we did record like ralph and tom talking but at this point we were just shooting the shit and he was telling ralph about this experience and i was like yeah like i guess yeah if you're used to doing all these hits and all these appearances and no one's giving you, CBC's not giving you shit. Yeah. And then suddenly you got this lasagna, like it's more than a lasagna. It's tangible.

It's food. It's great. It's like having a free beer. But he's never forgot it. Like. He forgets nothing. Tom and I are three days apart. He's born on June 9th.

Oh, on 8th. Okay. And I'm June 12th the same year So we have a lot in common Tom remembers Coming in and sitting in my office And playing for me Playing out his acoustic guitar

And wanting me to sign him At that point And why didn't you? Junk House was pretty cool stuff It might have been before Junkhouse. It might have been Florida. Well, maybe it wasn't Florida Razors. It was before Junkhouse. I think it was some solo stuff.

But I always found it intimidating when any artist would play for me when I had to sit there and listen to them play and watch their reaction and stuff. I always felt that intimidating, so I stopped having people do that. It's like, no, there'll be no more of this. Why doesn't Tom Wilson have his own pro?

I mean, I've been trying to tell him to start a podcast just cause I love his voice and I love his stories. Like to me, like he should have a program somewhere. Like he should. He's a great painter. He's a great writer. His book was fantastic.

It just came out in paperback. Right. Beautiful scars. Yeah. Uh, and you're right. And he's got, yeah,

it's his story, which was already fascinating. It became a, like, it's like, Oh oh my god like he finds out he's a mohawk man like as an adult and it's funny because i interviewed him at um indie week about a week after the book came out right and said if you hadn't become sober you would never have found that out and he goes you're absolutely right if i wasn't clean right i would never have discovered that side of my life so he enjoyed the lasagna didn't take the great lakes home with him he could have taken him for someone geez well i doesn't i was on tour with you no he probably did take a six-pack and gave it to somebody yeah we were uh i was on the road with huey lewis and we were playing the ottawa exhibition i forget what it's called, but it ran sort of concurrent with the C&E.

I didn't even know they had one. Okay. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Lansdowne Park every year. And we'd finished the show, and it's just like, okay, what are we doing now? So I took him to Barrymore's,

and Tom was playing with, I think, the Florida Razors at that point, and we got Huey up on stage to play harp with him. Oh, my God. That's great, because just this last week, my 16, I have a 16-year-old. Oh, she's 16 a week from today, actually, so almost her sweet 16. Michelle,

and hold on, you ignore this. I'm just going to say, my loved ones, you have to be quiet. Daddy's recording. There's mommy. Can you go inside? Thank you so much. Oh my goodness. Do you know who this is? Come on. And now, what was I saying? Do you remember?

Sweet 16, Tom Wilson. Oh, yes. She said she wanted to see American Psycho. She had never seen American Psycho. She had never seen American Psycho. We want to watch American Psycho. And there's that great scene where he's talking about Hip to be Square as like the greatest pop song ever written or whatever.

So I was just thinking about Huey Lewis. I heard he can't sing anymore. He's got a voice issue. I think they've got a new album coming out. Yeah, something's wrong with his ears or something. Yeah, maybe it's his ears or something yeah yeah i spent quite a bit of time with huey interesting okay interesting so uh yeah i need and again i'll ask you about certain artists but if there's other artists you want to share stories about uh huey lewis i we have an ongoing joke on the pandemic fridays of toronto mike that uh doug and the slugs were

canada's huey ley Lewis in the news. That makes total sense. It's funny because I'm transcribing a lot of my old date books right now into an Excel spreadsheet just so I have it. Smart, yeah. And I'm doing 1985 right now and I just, before I came here, put Doug and the Slugs

Ontario Place. Okay, yeah, the forum, right? Yeah. I saw my first concert at the forum. It was Chalk Circle. There you go. I actually worked with Chalk Circle on Duke Street Records through Quality. See, I just gotta drop names. I love this. I love this game. This is good. Okay, but who do I have loaded up next

here in my... Yeah, so great head stories. Head stories. Head's a different band. That's Brendan Canning's band before Broken Social. Is that right? I thought he was Head Yeah She just said Head So I said Head

Yes With two H's right Yes They took the H That Rhymes of Orange Didn't use There you go That was the CanCon joke

Toy Train One of the greatest Canadian rock songs Ever written Toy Train And don't Is there one about Like a boy's name in it

Christopher I should Google this. The Rhymes of Orange. That's a good, Taking of David. Okay. Was there a song? I don't remember that one.

Okay, Toy Train was great, yes. And I remember a song and I hope I have the right band. Someone will correct me right away, of course.

But the Taking of David is a song I remember from, yeah, The Taking of David one, two, three.

Yes, that's right, that's right. All right, here here let me play another CanCon jam and ask you about here let's go big on this one

I got a lot of questions about this woman here let's go big I know what's coming you don't know what's coming Cam I'm unpredictable

could have been Sarah McLachlan. Does she speak eloquently? And would she have your baby? I'm sure she'd make a really excellent mother Cause the love that you gave Every day it wasn't able to make it Enough for you to open wide No And every time you speak to me You know how you told me

You'd hold me till I died Till you died But you're still alive And I'm here I was going to play too hot, obviously. Yes, that was more my era. I know, I know, I know. Too hot was never too cold. You take your best shot, too hot to hold. And I should have, was Matt leblanc in that video do i have the right yes he was it wasn't that it wasn't the video for too hot but uh we did the video oh

god i forget what song mike levine and matt leblanc and matt wasn't even like it was pre-friends it was pre-friends but he had he was on a spin-off of married of children well he was christina applegate's boyfriend recurring unmarried with Children. And then he got his own spinoff, maybe two, Top of the Heap. Vaguely vague. But I remember we went to a basketball game. There was a game at the Gardens that afternoon, and then we went down to Queen and Broadview Mexican restaurant. I forget.

It might have been Coyote and shot the video that night. Okay, so tell me now. Give me all the Alanis goods. Well, I'm the Dick Rowe of Canada. Dick Rowe is the guy who didn't sign the Beatles, so I guess it's on me. I was doing publicity for Alanis on the first two albums. I was marketing and publicity at that point.

And then John Alexander, who signed her, moved to New York to run MCA Publishing, and I became the A&R person. So I adopted Alanis, which was fine because I'd watched Alanis since she was 15. She used to hang around the house. When she left Ottawa, she moved to the beach. Great relationship with Alanis. Just take her to rock and roll heaven to go see Age of Electric. Yeah, where's my remote control?

Exactly. Another band I tried to sign, but that's another story. I always liked them too, yeah. So then she's going to L.A. back and forth. She's meeting some great songwriters. She's working with Tim Thorny up here. David Baxter from Peer had her writing with a bunch of great people. She moves to L.A.

She's doing some stuff with Mark Hudson from the Hudson Brothers. She ends up with Scott Welch as a manager So they're doing all these demos And Scott doesn't have a US record deal At this point For Alanis Like it's not Maverick It's nothing Right

But he's managing She's free and clear of her contract in Canada After the first two albums Which were both platinum records We made money on them Is it fair to say Alanis was like our Tiffany at that time? Is that not fair to her? I mean, she's proven herself.

Yeah, she's proven herself. And Tiffany was great. We worked with Tiffany at MCA as well. But I guess in a loose analogy, yeah. Okay, because we have to compartmentalize it. Like a Debbie Gibson, maybe? Yeah, let's give it Debbie Gibson. I'm playing the... Okay, so here's the jam. Hold on, then we're to compartmentalize it. Like a Debbie Gibson, maybe? Yeah, let's give it Debbie Gibson. I'm playing the...

Okay, so here's the jam. Hold on, then we're going to come back. Hold on here, let me see. So this is 1991. Alanis. A much music hit, as I recall. And you didn't see what came coming. You never saw it coming.

Is that what happened? No, what happened was Scott sent me a demo tape, and there's like eight songs. I still have the cassette. Ironic was on it and a couple others, but they were really stripped down, four songs, or four track, really loose. But like about half, four songs that probably ended up on Jagged were on it and a couple others, but they were really stripped down, four track, really loose. But like about half, four songs that probably ended up on Jagged were on it. Right.

And he said, and I believe the number was $250,000 US. You guys, we have the rights to Atlantis in Canada. I'm going to sign with a major down here, but it's $250,000 and you've got until, you know until July 1st to make this decision. This is probably in June. So I made copies of the cassette. I gave it to marketing. I gave it to publicity. I gave it to sales.

I gave it to the president. Passed it around. No one heard it. It was like, that's way too expensive. Randy Lennox, head of sales at that point, loved it. I wanted to do the deal. My argument was we've already made this money. It's a free rule.

Ultimately, at 5 o'clock decision, can't do it. I was driving to the cottage. I had to call Atlantis and say we weren't doing the deal. Wow. And that deal became Jagged Little Pill. How does it feel watching the Jagged Little Pill happen? You have to be in real time. have to kind of like experience this the first show she did was an afternoon set at velvet underground for the industry taylor hawkins from the food fighters was her musical director and drummer he just i remember that he just left sass jordan right and starts working with

his husband is now singing for the guess who right right? Oh, I think so. Okay. She was on. I'm pretty sure. Okay. Sorry, go on. So they did The Velvet, and I was invited to it. Thank you, Warner Brothers, who ended up distributing the album because they had Maverick as their label, which was Madonna's label. Right.

Right. Then Alanis came back to Gretzky's with us, and we sat in the roof with all the kids and stuff. And, you know, flash forward the next summer, the album's exploded. She's playing in front of 35,000 people at Molson Park. Yeah. And thankfully, I got a half a million award, even though it was on Warner Brothers,

made out to my name for Jagged Little Pill. So how do you get that, though? From them. Okay. It's just, like, they knew that I was fighting for her and wanted to keep her. Right. And it sounds like Randy Lennox wanted to keep her too.

Randy did as well. Yes. And I actually, I just reminded the president, we had lunch a couple of weeks ago about this. I forgot about that. It's like, yeah. Well, he's trying to forget about that. Exactly.

So I was the guy who dropped Alanis. Oh man, let the record show. But not, sounds like it was not your fault. No, it wasn't my fault. You can't sign the check. I couldn't sign it. If I could have signed the check, I would sounds like it was not your fault. No, it wasn't my fault. You can't sign the check. I couldn't sign it. If I could have signed the check, I would have signed it in a minute. Actually, a friend of mine, Rick Wharton,

I don't know if you know Rick, the old conspiracy guy on Much Music. He was a record... He was a promo guy as well. Why don't I know this Rick... It was on Space Channel and Much Music. He was the conspiracy guy. Now he runs a theater just outside of Ottawa. But that was in the good old days when conspiracy meant aliens are amongst us. It's not now where it's like Sandy Hook never happened.

It's taken a bad turn, the conspiracy game. But I posted a picture on Instagram the other day of me and Alanis from that era. It's like at Rick's goodbye party where I've got my, you know, urge overkill shirt on and my backward baseball hat. There's little Alanantis before she exploded. But a lovely girl. Okay. Went to school with the Mulroonies.

I know that she was, yeah, I knew she was a Glebe girl from Ottawa for sure. I didn't know about the Mulroonies, but that's wild. That's a success story for you. The part B to the Hades dweller question. I almost forgot it. Any good stories about that great band Boulevard? Always felt they should have gone a lot further their first time around.

Now, my confession is just, and I haven't done it. You've never heard of Boulevard. I don't think I've heard of Boulevard. No, BLVD. They were signed by John Alexander. Just a great pop band. Mark, who was in the band, runs a huge IT company out in Vancouver now.

But just one of those bands that was signed, that John signed, that never quite made it. There's another one called Paradox around the same time from Quebec. Okay. But the lead singer from that band is Sylvain Cossette, who ended up having multi-platinum solo records in Quebec. Quebec's got their own ecosystem, right?

Always has. I often hear about these big stars in Quebec, and I'm like, I never heard of that person. You could tell. Gino Socio, when I started at Quality Records, is one of the biggest artists in Quebec and around the world in the dance scene, but you couldn't give his records away outside of Quebec.

Some exceptions, I just want to give a shout-out to Mitsu, who I loved watching Mitsu. Come on. One of my, and now we have the Thunder and Lightning here. Men Without Hats. Come on, we love Men Without Hats. Doughboys.

There was lots of great ones. Then the guy went on. He's married to the girl. John Kastner is married to Jessica Paré. Right, isn't that wild? Well, they met on the movie Suck, I think. Wow. Yeah, because she's most famous, I guess, for Mad Men, I guess.

Yeah, totally. Or Hot Tub Time Machine, maybe, if that's your jam. Oh, now, what is it? There's a Navy SEAL show or whatever she's on. Oh, is she? Because I don't. She's a regular on a CBS show right now. Oh, good for her.

You know, that's great. I saw him. I was just, so just recently was talking about the 98 Pearl Jam show at Molson Park because I, it's one of my favorite concerts of all time

and on the small stage, like there was some great, like there was a Cracker and Hayden but All Systems Go was on that small stage and I think that was John's band

after Doughboys I want to say but I hope I'm not screwing up all my, all my. He's been in a few so I think that was the Pearl Jam show. That was at Molson Park, right? Yes, and Cheap Trick

was the opening band. Where Eddie Vedder got his gold record for 10, or his platinum record, and then climbed the backstage fence and just handed it to a fan. Yes, okay, yes, yes. Right in front of the CFNY trailer. A lot of moments, and it was a great night, and it was the Yield tour, so that was, yeah, right after the Yield

release, but anyway, great night, but yeah, John was the yield tour. So, uh, that was, uh, yeah, right after the yield release. But, uh, anyway, great night. But, uh, yeah, John Kastner, good for him.

Uh, does he still have the dreads? Do we know? He does. Yeah. And he's still the, he manages like great. He manages men without hats.

He manages Tommy Stinson. Uh, he manages like seven or eight great bands and he's still the, um, he's the musical director at Canadian music week. So he puts all those shows together every year. Why didn't you sign Rusty? Rusty is good friends of the show.

Any opinion on Rusty while we're talking Canadian bands from the 90s? I think Jeff Rogers made a deal with One Free Fall first with EMI Publishing, and then I think he signed to Capital. I don't think Rusty... I don't think I ever had the chance to sign Rusty. I think they were already called for. Jeff Rogers is one of my oldest friends who managed them. I love Rusty

and I love Fluke, like that album Fluke. I could spin it over and over again here. Here's an obscure Canadian band. You might not have heard of these guys. Peace out. It's the start of another new year Better call the newspaper up $2.50 for a hot bar And a buck and a half for a beer Happy hour, happy hour Happy hour's here

One of my favorite bands of all time, the Tragically Hip. Yes. All right, bury me in hip stories. We already talked about Jake Gold and The Watchmen, but he had another band he was managing, the Tragically Hip. Talk to me, Ken. They were originally signed to RCA. Bendeth had them.

The five-song EP with... Last American Exit? Last American Exit. Highway Girl? Yeah, Highway Girl. Yeah, good stuff. And then my friend Bruce Dickinson in New York, not the lead singer for Iron Maiden.

Who flies his own plane, right? The Iron Maiden guy. It was ahead of A&R. It was like, what's going on with them? Really interested. And he came up and saw them on a multi-bill show at Massey Hall. I forgot what it was. And then came down to the horseshoe and saw them, fell in love, and made the deal.

I didn't directly do anything A&R with them. I was a friend of Bruce's. I was doing marketing, but they weren't my specific band by any means. They were hanging around the office. They were all from Kingston. My uncle had a place in Odessa. Gord went to school with my cousin, Wendy. So as soon as I could bring up stories about about, or stories about Mudlake Road or the

Wilton Hilton Hotel, I had an instant in with it. That's like talking premiership with the British guys. Exactly. I had their, their thing, but I, in Michael Barkley's book, I was quoted about one of my proudest moments was when Dan Aykroyd introduced them on Saturday Night Live. Yes. When he just came on as a special guest and demanded the hip be on it. It's like my friends from Kingston, Ontario, Canada, the Tragically Hip. I get goosebumps every time I think about that. Yeah, I read that in his book, and what a moment. And, you know, he changes that lyric in, he says,

I'm tragically hip. But he did that by accident, right? This is just the nerves, and he just heard himself them introduced, but that was not an intentional lyric change. I don't know.

You know where the name came from, though. There's a, yeah, yes, but remind me, there's a... Michael Nesmith from the Monkees did a video called Elephant Parts,

which was like one of the first great music, long form music videos. And there was a Marines, like young Marine, tragically hip or something, but they actually use the line tragically hip. And I think that's where they stole it from.

Just worked, man. Yeah. Great, great stuff. So did you have any, uh, like any,

any interesting interactions with Gord? Because you were describing, oh, Sloane, they don't have a front man. But the Tragically Hip had a front man, like an interesting presence, a charismatic presence in the front there. Gord was always a unique character. They were five unique characters in the hip and stuff. If I smoked pot, I probably would have been a lot closer to Gord. You closer to cool you never smoked pot no i never how do you fit in with these guys like they must be uh yeah i was always the outcast you're the uh this yeah the straight edge guy yeah i wasn't

far from straight edge but no just ben rayner when he's coming back next next week he's coming back on the 30th and he's uh he's gonna he says he's gonna smoke a blunt on the podcast but now that it's legal it's no who cares yeah it's no biggie anymore no they were just they were great to work with and just you know gourd's a unique person johnny's a unique person and they all had their quirks and i'm just now that uh just real quick before i forget but they uh he he does that homage to Andy Mays in the Sky Diggers on the Saturday Night Live, right? Doesn't he go into Penny Moore, a Penny Moore? I can't remember that.

But God, what a great, you know, another absolute Canadian classic. Penny Moore by the Sky Diggers. And a pure voice. God, I love Andy. Yeah, those harmonies and stuff. Because he had the I Will Give You Everything and then Penny Moore. And, I mean, I've had Andy on the show. And, I love Andy. Yeah, those harmonies and stuff. And because he had the, I will give you everything and then Penny Moore. And I mean, I've had Andy on the show. And that's another bit.

I don't understand. I do not. And again, I'm dumb. I'm so dumb that it's now pouring rain again. Third time lucky. Like, I'm so dumb. I know. It's like it's coming in these waves.

Maybe this will be the last one. But I don't understand. Like, what American ears don't appreciate a penny more? They don't hear that like we do? No, I think it's the politics of the game down there, as I said earlier. Radio doesn't take it. They didn't believe in it because, as I said,

if it's a hit in Canada, they had to play 33% Canadian music anyway, so it's not a real legit hit. And the record companies were the same way down there. Man. It's like R.E.M. and the Tragically Hip weren't that far apart lyrically. No, no. I remember back, Americans would be like, what's the comparison?

And there's not really a direct comparison, but you can kind of, you mix in some, you're right, you mix in some Michael Stipe and maybe a little Bruce Springsteen. You got to mix up some guys and create your Gord Downie. He's ours. Get your, get your damn hands off. Get your damn hands off of him. Speaking of Huey Lewis and the news, uh, big jams on the Back to the Future soundtrack. And then, uh, that's my, uh, it's my, uh, what uh what was his name what mcfly the dad anyways get marty not marty mcfly that was michael j fox what was the dad's name yeah crispin glover yeah who loves rats but what's the yeah what was his character what mcfly anyways it was the dad get your damn hands off of her okay mike's going crazy here because the rain is just nuts see that made a

lot of money for universal MSCA, that movie. So that helped the record divisions. Okay. Great fucking movie starring a great Canadian. Love Back to the Future. Seriously, I thought I was watching, like, I mean, my 10-year-old mind was blowing up when I was watching that damn movie. Did you have any uh professional interactions with simon cowell no and what he had going on at uh in england no but i was asked to audition to be a

judge on canadian idol when they first went into production you could have been the zach werner is that correct well it's funny because zach and i were partners at that point in a management pr company so i got called by one of brenton's, John's, from Insight's people, Mark, and I went down and did the interview, and I kind of, I shied away from it. It's like, I just don't think I could be that person. I don't know a D from an E, like musically. I can't play a note. I might be tone deaf, but I always thought I had a good stomach for bands.

I always listened with my stomach as opposed to my ears. Okay, yeah. And I thought I wouldn't be literate enough on television to say why I didn't like them. Plus, I'm not a mean person, and I found it could present a problem to be critical to people on television. So I sort of shied away from it. Not that I was officially offered it and I was telling Zach about it and then somehow Zach weaseled in

and got an interview. Zach is actually the only judge who has not been on my program. Oh, there you go. You've had Farley on. I've had Farley. Farley's making his second appearance. Hopefully, Farley,

I don't know if he'd sit in the rain. You're rock and roll. Would Farley sit in the rain like this? He always wears nice suits and stuff. Yeah, that's true. if he'd sit in the rain. You're rock and roll. Would Farley sit in the rain like this? Sure. He always wears nice suits and stuff. Yeah, that's true. He's better dressed than I am. But I signed Zach to a demo deal at MCA when he was in a band called Thick as Thieves.

That's when I first. And actually, going back to this 1985 date book I'm transcribing today, we had a meeting in July of 1985. He went to law school with a buddy of mine, Dable Bryan, who lived down the corner from Gord Downie. Everything connects. Everything connects in this country. And I gave him $5,000 for a Thick of Thieves demo that the U.S. didn't like, and I thought it was just average, so we didn't do a record with Zach back then.

I think he lives in Newfoundland now? He does. That's probably why I haven't had him over. Yeah. But looking back, We managed Tara Sloan together at that point. She's been on a couple of times. Probably why I haven't had him over. Yeah. But looking back, like the sack. We managed Tara Sloan together at that point. Okay.

She's been on a couple of times. Yeah, Joy Drop. Joy Drop, absolutely. Robin Black, who's now the MMA commentator. See, I've got to plead ignorance. The fighting guys. I know. I'll take your word for it.

I don't ever know these MMA guys. UFC. UFC. UFC, whatever. I don't watch it. I don't ever know these MMA guys. UFC. UFC. UFC, whatever. I don't watch it. I'm a wrestling guy. I'm a wrestling guy, but I like 80s wrestling. Oh, totally. That's when I was going with the kids.

Okay, cool. Yeah, I like me some King Kong Bundy. You know what I mean? Oh, you're going way back. Yeah, way back. 80s. You're going 70s. Well, 80s. He had a big time in the mid-80s. He probably showed up in some what's her name

videos I just girls just want to have fun no that was Captain Lou Albano but I feel like a bunch of the Goonies Goonies are good enough for me remember this video

Goonies are I feel like a bunch of them showed up but I thought King Kong Bunny did have a guest appearance on Married of Children I think primarily

because their last name was Bundy. That would make sense. Okay, so BMG, just before we get you out of there, and again, anytime you feel like telling a story, go ahead. Because we have to take a photo after this, and I want to time it so it's between rainstorms. We talked about some cool rock stuff here but you mean you had you had bands there uh like like the american label like like backstreet boys and in sync and britney

spears right this is all guys so talk about that then maybe to make mark weisblot happy talk about these pop stars here yeah that's when i moved back i got a call from larry mccray who was had a promotion at bmg at that point who originally hired me at Quality Records in 1978, so I owe my entire career to Larry. He brought me back to run the artist relations department for BMG, and it was just as Backstreet Boys started. I had known Barry Weiss from Jive Records, who signed the Backstreet Boys,

because at Jive we had put out records by Flock of Seagulls and Houdini and stuff with quality back in the early 80s. So then Barry said, we've got this band, Backstreet Boys. And then they started to blow up in Quebec. It was crazy. They played a balloon festival and 60,000 people showed up. And then they started playing. They played the Verdun Arena where all the U.S. people came up to see the band,

because they hadn't even released the record in the States at that point, and saw the potential of it. Right. And then I became the Backstreet Boys guy. It was like, outside of Stéphane Droulet, who ran our Montreal office, he was the official 6th Street Backstreet Boy, the 6th. Right. But I became their publicist for the rest of Canada,

and watched them go from playing, you know, a January night in the sleet at RPM to, you know, three months later, Maple Leaf Gardens to a year later, Skydome. It was really like manic. You're right. One of the stories I like to tell is that I played a softball game.

I was invited to play. It was on Canada Day 2003, I want toball game. I was invited to play. It was on Canada Day 2003, I want to say. But I was invited to play. I played a lot of slow pitch, and I was going to play a softball game. And I wasn't told that a certain someone was going to be part of this game, but I get there, and Nick Carter was in this game.

Wow. Wasn't very good, by the way. Not very good hand. He dropped a pop fly, and I said, oh, he's not very capable there. They were more basketball kids. Okay. They were good around the way. Not very good hand. He dropped a pop fly and I said, oh, he's not, he's not very capable there. They were more basketball kids. Okay. They were good around the hoop.

But I mean, even I, who wasn't really into the pop scene at that time, I understood that the Backstreet Boys were a BFD, man. These were a big fucking deal,

these guys. And I was dealing with Denise, their mom, who was a road manager back then who wrote a book. I was Backstreet Boys' mom. Wow. And it was great. I really got along with like all five of them and had a great time and lots of funny stories with them through the years with aj especially who's now clean and sober which is good

okay good and then we had in sync at the same time so i gave in sync to my partner in publicity dawn so we had like battles with you know me and her and Backstreet Boys. I was always pro-Backstreet Boys, anti-NSYNC. Well, me too, by the way. And my wife had a huge crush on Justin Timberlake. But I would be a Backstreet Boy guy if I had to pick a side there. No contest. One of my daughter's favorite days.

Well, she was at, the first time Brittany played Toronto, she played Whiskey Saigon on a Saturday. Well, Whiskey Saigon on a Saturday afternoon, then she did Markville Mall a little later. That was crazy. Is this before Hit Me Baby? Just as it was hitting. When she played the track at

Whiskey Saigon, her starting number was Hit Me Baby, two other songs, and her encore was Hit Me Baby. That other songs in her encore was Hit Me Baby. That's always funny when they play a song again. I always, and Brittany was, her aunt was on the road, so I dealt a lot with her aunt. And just to watch Brittany go from

like zero to unbelievable in a year and a half. Also on Jive Records, also with Barry Weiss. Wow. Brittany used to steal drags off my smoke when her aunt wasn't around that's what we're looking for the real talk yeah absolutely i mean britney a phenomenon but uh lately i've noticed uh trending on twitter is free britney this is like a hashtag i guess i guess that she had some uh issues and her father took over some finances or something.

Yeah, her parents were managing at one point. All the parents. Like Justin's mom managed him for a while and then managed O-Town. I know this O-Town because the guy who died in jail or whatever, he would kind of just build up these boy band things yeah uh big uh god i can see lou perlman lou perlman right met lou there's a there's a figure for you okay yeah but you know the backstreet boy the thing i loved about the backstreet boys the first time i worked with them like they were all singing like they could all sing they were talented it was all choreographed

but they could sing i hear what you're saying. They manufacture a nice pop song, but there's... I always like it, like, the Beatles. I just like it when bands kind of meet organically. Like, we went to high school together. And then you hear about this, like, oh, I went to an audition. It's a different game. Well, Spice Girls. I was thinking of Simon Cowell earlier.

Like, you must have had something to do with the Spice Girls. No, they were on Virgin. Had nothing to do with them whatsoever. Nothing to do with the Spice Girls. Okay girls okay i'm gonna fire my crack research staff here they've they've let me down let me oh uh let me ask you about a um quick britney story before i ask you about this fotm here uh what i remember is my old my 16 year old daughter uh was was big on the show zoe 101 on the Disney Channel. And I still remember watching with her when they said Zoe was going to Europe or whatever.

Meanwhile, knowing that Brittany's sister was pregnant, and this is a Disney show, and she played like a teenager. I guess she got pregnant very young, I guess, is what happened. I don't know. Anyway, I still remember the episode where, oh, Zoe's going off to Europe. You won't see her anymore.

Meanwhile, she's going on the maternity ward, I think. She was playing like a 16-year-old or something. But anyway, I digress with my Spear story. Bob Segarini, the Iceman. I recently had a... We did it by phone. It was during this COVID period and we did it by phone. But I recently

collected a whole bunch of Bob stories for Toronto Mic'd. I wanted to talk to the Iceman there. You do write a lot of blog entries for his blog. I did, yeah. I wrote for about five years. I've known Bob since he moved to Toronto from Montreal. I wrote the liner notes for his first A&M single

when the lights were out, the Slade song. We became great friends after that. If you look at Gotta Have Pop, if you want a great enchilada recipe, you write to me at four Andale road, uh, became a great friend of the family. Bob was an usher at my wedding in 1982. We go way back and there's a million stories. Yeah. A million and a half.

But when I was, you know, 1920 and just starting in the business, he taught me so much about the other side of it, about the record company side and music to listen to. We were in the front row, the premier of, like, American Hot Wax, and, like, I didn't know who Alan Freed was at that point. He just taught me a lot of rock and roll history. He's quite the character, Bob. Because he was there. He was there in Stockton, California

back then. And yeah. I haven't seen Bob for a while. It's been a couple of years. He's been living a little bit north of the city and not out as much

as he has been in the past. Well, do you see anybody these days? I mean, with COVID? This is why you're so happy and eager to sit in the rain. I'm in my own little bubble

over here. And this is hard rain. I'm in my own little bubble over here. And this is hard rain. Like, I'm really dumb. Like, this is... If we had done this at 7.30, it would have been probably... Anyway, I hope you don't hate me forever for this here. But... I don't even feel like I'm doing the interview.

It's just... Okay, good. I feel like I'm sitting in a bar talking to a friend. Well, that's what it is, man. You're drinking some GLB and you're burying me in stories. I'm fighting octopuses now. Right. Oh, you got an octopus wants to fight.

You know, I love the octopus wants to fight. I like this one, yeah. Available year round now and I'm a big fan here. But I saw you, I know I didn't give you a Canuck Pale Ale, did I? That's like the, that's, I would, I think I've got, I know this for a fact. I believe like the most popular beer they have in LCBOs is the Canuck Pale Ale. But I think I was told by a retail person at Great Lakes that they sell more Great Octopus in the retail store. That makes sense.

You just look at it and that's a great title. It's just like, yeah. And it's delicious, right? Like once you have one, you want another one. It's like looking, you know, back in the day when you looked at a record on the shelf at sam the record man or a and a's and you would buy the record because the cover was so cool for sure those days are gone no i know you miss those days you must miss those days i totally miss those days you know seeing a new york dolls album cover it's like what the hell is that i have to hear this record or an ultra box the first ultra box album i remember

buying that or Or Japan. But there must be some great stories about albums you bought because you love the cover and the music sucked. This has got to exist. I don't remember any of those, actually. There probably is. Right. You blocked those out. Yeah.

Blocked those out. Here, let me take a moment. Let's pause for a moment. You can collect yourself there. You're soaking wet. You cursed me out on the way home here. But I want to thank just a couple of people here to help fuel the real talk. It's important that the FOTMs listening support

sponsors of Toronto Mic'd. Now, it's soaking wet, but there is a Toronto Mic'd sticker in front of you. I think it should hold up okay. I know. That's the Toronto Mic'd sticker that StickerU made. You can upload any image to StickerU.com, and you can create stickers or temporary tattoos,

or you can get decals, or you can get badges. There's a whole bunch of cool stuff you can get made. It's efficient, it's economical, and it's safe because it's e-commerce. It arrives at your doorstep. So thank you, StickerU. And this is kind of neat. This is a drive-through event in Milton, Ontario.

It's called Pumpkins After Dark. Last year, you walked it, but this year, you're going to drive it because it's completely contactless because we're in a pandemic. Have you heard? Yeah, apparently. There's a fucking virus out there.

So this will sell out so you can go to pumpkinsafterdark.com and book your time slot and if you use the promo code toronto mike you save a little money and it lets them know that it uh it works uh sponsoring a program like this so we can have these awesome conversations with Cameron Carpenter and man, it's coming down, Cam. Oh yeah. My back's wet again. Is the mic wet? That's what I want to know. No, mic's fine. Okay. That's all that matters to me. I hope you're not offended by that. Your back will dry. My mic could be fried. So thanks so much for taking care of my mic there. So after BMG, here we are.

After BMG, a lot to cover there. But is it true you go to work for another FOTM, Denise Donlan? Yes, I did. I was hired away from BMG to become head of international for Sony Music Canada by Denise and Bill Bannum. Denise Donlan married to a Canadian rock star. I don't know if you call that rock or not, but I do like it. But Murray McLachlan, right?

So what was that like at Sony? It was interesting. I wasn't there that long. It was a different culture, and it's just as the record industry started to implode. Yeah. I was doing international. So my job was making sure Celine Dion and Leonard Cohen

and Our Lady Peace records got released around the rest of the world. Which wasn't too hard convincing, like most of those acts. Well, okay, let's focus on Our Lady Peace for a moment since at least Jeremy Taggart's been over here for a few times. Yay, Jeremy! Although he's no longer in the band, but he was on all those big albums from R.A.P.'s. And in the Heroes,

what was that song on the Spider-Man soundtrack that he's in the video playing drums? You know what I'm talking about? No. Hero, anyway. I didn't sign R.A.P.'s. I had the chance to, but I didn't. He took a pass on...

But they had some relative... they had some American success. Yeah, not bad. They did like mid-level American success. Like they weren't number ones, but they made some money in the States. So when you can convince Foo Fighters and Smashing Pumpkins to tour with you in Canada, you've got some clout in the States. Yeah, that could, yeah, right. Because Our Lady Peace is behind the somersault we were talking about.

And I know they had one in 98, i went i went to the one in 2000 i think the one in 98 was like the week after that pearl jam show we were talking about because i remember the posters being there but that 2000 show that was touted as the smashing pumpkins uh final concert that was like the promo and i just remember i remember i think they were the closer at that show you're right that was a big bill. Like you had Our Lady Peace, you had Foo Fighters and you had

Smashing Pumpkins on that bill. You had Sum 41 on the second stage at Eve 6. Trouble Charger was the first band on the main stage.

I still can only name one Eve 6 song. I know, is there two? Great guys. Inside Out, great jam but I can't think

of a second one. The drummer is Don Was' son. I didn't know that. There you go you go okay what other fun facts do you have for me here i might keep you here through the whole rainstorm just i'm thoroughly enjoying this but uh yeah somersault was great man and i do remember though uh i i was really pissed off i felt the smashing pumpkins were pretty shitty and i was really looking forward to that that was a farewell tour it was supposed to be the farewell tour for them and I just remember that they kind of like, Mick just changed their

songs enough that you weren't sure what they were playing and they didn't do an encore and I remember thinking like, you're the headliner for this. You have to do an encore right? What's with bands not doing encores when they're the headliners? Billy's always been an odd one. They make their own rules.

I saw them like two years ago at the Scotiabank Arena, and they were awesome. Yeah. So what's that about? I don't know. He's always been very unique. Not that I ever worked with him directly. I remember one night we were out, and we had a night off in Edmonton.

Yeah. And we all went out drinking on White's Ab and came back to the hotel, and Max from Eve 6, there was a grand piano in the lobby. So he sits down and just starts playing uh way oh fountains of wayne songs acoustically on the piano for like 25 minutes till the hotel management told him to get out and all of a sudden we look over and we called him the dark lord because he was wearing a long black trench coat it was like billy was just standing there yeah

watching him do fountains of Wayne songs and applauded and went off into the night. He's an interesting... One of those weird rock and roll 2 a.m. moments. Interesting guy. Okay, so you weren't at Sony too long, but then you were involved with the XM Radio Canada you mentioned. Yeah.

So what were you doing there? I was part of the startup team with the Bitto family and Stephen Tapp to get the license for XM. And then when we got it, I did Canadian talent development. So we had X amount of money we had to spend from the CRTC to give back to Canadian bands

and just sponsoring different things. We were the first sponsor of Polaris Prize and things like that across the country. So I did that for a while. Then things changed there. And I went out on my own. Well, they merged with Sirius, right? Yeah, I was gone before that.

Gone before that. Okay, so here's the million-dollar question. What are you up to these days? Right now, the last couple of years, I've been working with Indie Week, but it's sort of changed this year. We're doing something every Tuesday at 4 o'clock, IndieWeek.com, online with great guest speakers about conferences, how to make money getting sing

how to whatever the different different topics every tuesday so i've been freelancing for them i've been doing some writing for fyi david farrell's magazine okay i i read because i like uh the king stuff bill king stuff yeah big fan of the bill king love bill yeah i just wrote some stuff about concert venues reopening across can. I've been helping a band called just helping just independent PR, a little bit of everything right now. So if anyone's looking for a publicist or consultation, I'm available.

And I can say Cam Carpenter, if he would sit out here in the pouring fucking rain in my backyard and tell these fantastic stories, I'd want him on my team here. With never once swearing either. I've got my great radio persona on right now.

I told you we were on the radio. That's because I fooled you. No, but radio would have nothing to do with this program. David McPherson, he wrote the great book about the Horseshoe Tavern. Is he also the guy writing that Massey Hall book? I'm not sure. Because there's a Massey Hall book? I'm not sure. Because there's a Massey Hall book coming out. I feel like he's involved.

I'm not 100% sure to tell you the truth. So unfortunate that Dean Cameron, who was the president of Massey Hall and president of Capitol Records, passed away recently before Massey Hall reopened. He was a great Canadian A&R guy and record company president. Their timings... Yeah, that's tragic. That's terrible. I know a lot of people loved Dean Cameron.

But I will say it is kind of interesting, that timing that Massey Hall gets shut down for renovations. But everything got shut down. Yeah, if we'd sat here a year ago, it's like, oh, by the way, next summer, clubs will have been closed for four months. You'll line up at Freshco. You'll line up at the beer store you know i you'll have if you want to do a podcast with toronto mike you're gonna have to do it in the

pouring rain in his fucking back air because he won't let you in his because i have a basement studio but let's be honest here his wife won't let you uh down there although i yeah um yeah i don't know when i'll be i don't know when I'll be allowed to record down there again but to be decided anything else you want to share with everybody? are there any grade A stories that I didn't prompt you for

that you just want to put on the spill I will tell Wiseblood if he's watching right now that he was right I thoroughly enjoyed my Cameroneron carpenter conversation but when we're done which will be very soon here you'll still pose for a photo with me even though it's raining because i take a photo by the tree with everybody okay cool i've seen them all okay and actually i don't think my friend's back from ikea yet okay so okay okay okay

so that means the onus is on you or Or my phone's going crazy under your barbecue. Oh, do you? No, I don't know that. Do you want me to get it for you? No, no, it's fine. Okay. Yeah, because twice now this rain has stopped. Yeah.

But this is full bore. Like we're, it's raining hard here. Yeah. Awful. Okay, so what's your best story that I didn't prompt for here? I met Andy Warhol. That's cool. Yeah.

The same day I met Keith Haring, I was at a new music seminar in New York, mid eighties. And I was helping out a band called heavy metal records or label heavy metal records UK. We had a great backdrop that Andy Warhol was walking through the conference center and fell in love with. And we got our pictures taken and Keith H herring was giving away free south africa posters

that were brilliant which i lost in a rain in a in a flood in a basement oh that's i'm sorry to hear that but i i recently somebody was talking about queen queen the greatest band of all time i don't remember who this was or anything but this is like a twitter thing i was kind of like monitoring mildly and somebody uh chimed in to uh chastise queen and said they lost their they lost queen lost them because queen played uh south africa during the apartheid oh yeah and sun city i guess yeah and then i mean i mean because i mean i was like i'm old enough that i was alive when there was apartheid in south africa but i don't i don't, but I don't remember these things necessarily because I was very young. But it's kind of an interesting perspective,

just little things like that in history and how they age. Yeah, there's a great single, Sun City, Little Steven and Bono and I Ain't Gonna Play Sun City. It was a great song. So Freddie Mercury played Sun City, I guess. I guess they did. I saw Queen like their first couple tours in Canada. I saw Freddie with long hair, then short hair.

I lost him after about jazz. Like the first couple, Queen 1 and Queen 2 were brilliant. Sheer Heart Attack was great. Net at the Opera, Day in the Races. As the rest of the world discovered them, and you know what it was like at high school

when you had a band and everyone else found them? Oh my God, yeah. I'm out. Well, I mean, I know people who were like, I know a guy, he was the biggest

Pearl Jam guy you ever met. And then at some point around, probably shortly after Versus probably, like, he wanted nothing to do with the band. And I remember thinking like,

like, what happened? Like, it's like, yeah, there's a lot of, you love the band until happened like it's like yeah there's a lot of you love the band until everyone discovers them like that there's a lot of guys you like rem fans who are like uh like once monster happened it was like i'm out of here yeah i was like that with kiss i saw kiss open for the new york dolls on their first tour that somebody was at that show

who was on my program recently and it's killing me that it's not coming to me right away but somebody was at that show. Crap. Someone old. Well, who the hell was it? I don't know. Tom Wilson could have been there. You know who I think it was? Scott Ferguson. Do you know this name? Okay, Scott Ferguson forever would cover, like be the guy who when Tom and Jerry would do a Blue Jays game.

Yeah. Scott Ferguson would be on CJCL doing the out of town scoreboard and stuff like that. Okay. He was like a sports media guy for a long time. I believe he was at that show. Let me talk warmly about that show. Yeah. Fantastic show. All right, Cam.

I'm going to wrap this up. You were amazing. Can I come back in a blizzard? The answer is yes. You can come back in a blizzard here. I'm just checking out my notes here. But I thoroughly enjoyed that. There's no questions from Alanis or anything?

No, but why didn't you sign the lowest of the low and make them big fucking stars? You know what? I did publicity work for lowest of the low. I love lowest of the low. Did you? I wasn't doing A&R at that point. But I love it. I still talk to Steve Stanley all the time

and the boys so yeah I did work with them Steve's great he's been over but he's no longer in Lois DeLoe no but he gets together for the reunion shows

and yeah they're friendly they do these online things together for good causes they're definitely friendly but we close every episode of Toronto Mic

with Rosie and Grave from Shakespeare My Butt why didn't Lois and Lo make videos though? I mean, it would have been... I think that would have made a big difference. I hate videos. I always have. I know you do, but that's... This country's very vast and wide and you need to make

videos. Okay, no videos. Videos destroy a song. It makes you have an image of a song that you don't necessarily have if you just know the lyrics. So it's forever ingrained in your mind. That's why you're the rock star here. And I'm just Billy Squire for videos.

That's right. And that will bring us Billy Squire, the end of our 690th show. Wow. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. I actually screwed this up. Cameron. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. I actually screwed this up, Cameron. What is it? CC59?

Like, is that your Twitter handle? That's my Twitter. Cambo1959 is my Instagram. Yeah, follow. Yeah, so that's what I learned. I'm a Twitter guy, but I learned that there's a lot more action on the Instagram. You post a lot of cool shit. I've just been doing that during this pandemic. I was just like, ah, I'll just

post something different every day. Good for you, man. So everybody should follow that. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. The Keitner Group

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