Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Danko Jones: Toronto Mike'd #528

Episode Date: October 17, 2019

Mike chats with Danko Jones about the band's 23 years of rocking hard, the perception of the band in Europe vs. Canada, his podcast, writing, Three's Company and more.

Welcome to episode 528 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, StickerU.com, Bryan Master from KW Realty, Capadia LLP CPAs, and Pumpkins After Dark. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is rock star Danko Jones. Welcome. Thanks for having me. Scarborough, so you're an east of Younger. Oh yeah, I grew up in Willowdale and Scarborough.

And now that you're west of Young,. Oh, yeah. I grew up in Willowdale and Scarborough. And now that you're west of Young, how are you feeling? Well, I got definitely a foot. I'll never leave the east, let's put it that way. But that's where all the rock's from. So it ain't out in the west. But what about the real statics? here i am trying to think of some west of young uh rock stars uh are they from the west end yeah dave badini uh in the rio statics

and what about anvil i'm really reaching now but there's a couple of etobicoke bands for you anvil no doesn't rock hard enough well uh from the east end there's uh alex leisen and getty lee from rush okay there's alex mitchell from circus of power there's uh alex leisen and getty lee from rush okay there's alex mitchell from circus of power there's sebastian bach from skid row um uh good list yeah uh sacrifice from scarborough did i say that no uh wayne campbell mike myers of course and myself and garth richards Richardson, producer extraordinaire from Willowdale. Okay, you're right. I mean, no, you win.

Anvil and real status. Listen, there's probably more. I got to do some more digging here. And I do believe Maestro's from the East End as well. That is true. Maestro is a Scarborough guy. Absolutely. Okay, you know, now

you've got me thinking. So I think my original line stands. The East End trumps the West End when it comes to rock. We have Drake. And what about Organized Rhyme? What about the Dream Warriors? Organized Rhyme, aren't they from Ottawa?

You're right. You know what? I was going for Dream Warriors and if you remember, check the OR video that was filmed at the Food City at Jane and Finch and I remember there was a cameo

in the video by King Lou and Capital Q from Dream Warriors. So are they from the West End? Yes. They're from Jane and Finch at West End.

So we'll claim Dream Warriors but you're right. Organized Rhyme is in Ottawa. If you want to go deep, Romantic Traffic video by The Spoons was filmed at the Shepard subway station.

Can I blow your mind right now? Is that okay? Go for it. Okay. Yesterday, I did an episode with the founder of Sticker You. I'm about to give you some stickers from them. Now, his name's Andrew. He married a woman who was an extra in the romantic traffic video.

So we played romantic. This is yesterday. We played romantic traffic and talked about that video. That's crazy, right? How often does romantic traffic come up organically in conversation? I think it's crazy that he married an extra. Well, he told me he wanted to marry Sandy Horn. I was going to say, I thought you were leading to that.

That would have definitely blown my mind. I told him that if I were him, I would just tell everyone, I married the girl from the romantic traffic video, and then everyone will just assume he married Sandy Horn. Before I proceed, Danko, we have a lot to cover here. But I want to just, speaking of this episode I did yesterday, I made a mistake yesterday. I think i suggested

in fact i know i did that uh huey lewis in the news is uh i want a new drug was stolen from ray parker jr's uh ghostbusters theme i think i said this yesterday in fact it is the opposite of course so before i need i need to clear that up right now and here's a little bit of uh just a little bit and this will tie in nicely because i mentioned i'm giving you stickers i'm going to give you something to do with halloween too but uh so this is both songs together it's the same song right but huey ley Lewis had it first. Do you have any thoughts on Huey Lewis in the news? Well, to be honest with you,

I think Huey Lewis is pretty cool. Big Lizzy guy. And I think he's a good singer, too. Actor. I've seen him act in a few things, too. He's got some charisma there. Yeah, I don't know it offhand, but I know he's got an IMDb. Right.

That's right. Okay, so now you get the idea, because now we're in the Ray Parker Jr. part, and it is the same song. Okay, but it is, of course, Huey Lewis had it first. So just wanted to clear that up here. Now, okay, so you're from Scarborough. Is that where, like the band, does the band form Scarborough? No, the band was formed from, you know,

the Toronto music scene, which of course happens downtown. Very organically, you know, you meet people at shows, you play with their bands. Those bands break up and you form new bands out of the ashes of the bands you played with. Right. The people and the friends that you made.

So that's really just how our band started. And I started the band with JC in 1996. He was on bass. I'm on guitar. I used to play bass in my old band, Horseshack, and we used to play with his band, Cat Rocket, and we both played bass and I would always borrow his amp, uh, cause I didn't have, I just had a bass guitar. So I would show up to the gig and I just, uh, knowing that, you know, we were playing with their band and he would have his gear. I would just show up with my bass guitar

and then ask him at the gig if I could borrow his amp. And so his band broke up, my band broke up, I formed a new band, that broke up, and then we formed this band 23 years ago. Now, your name is Danko Jones. Yep. The band's name is Danko Jones. Yeah. The band's name is Danko Jones. Yeah.

Is it, was there a creative drought in that naming process? Like, like, so, so how does that come to be? You're just like, we're naming,

we're naming this my name. Right. So in the, uh, nineties, there was a garage rock scene that was thriving. Very, very,

um, uh, it was everywhere. and Toronto had their own, uh, garage bands. And, and Toronto had their own garage bands. The Leather Ruppers is one of the bands that I cite as, you know, one of the inspirations for our band. And it was Classy Craig, Groovy Greg. They've broken up and reformed over the years.

And I think they're still together. You know, they don't do it as full time as they used to, but back in the day, the Leather Ruppers were a band that was, you know, they don't do it as full-time as they used to. But back in the day, the Leather Rubbers were a band that was, you know, they play in the States and they made headway in, you know, they put out a few records on some really cool garage rock labels. And in the 90s, that was a huge scene. It was a garage punk scene. It eventually yielded, you know, bands like the Blues Explosion,

the Oblivions, the Makers, the Gories, and eventually went overground with the White Stripes and the Hives. And the scene has since died down. It's nothing compared to where it was in the 90s. And so you had a lot of bands with the word the in front of it, like I just mentioned, the Blues Explosion, the Leather Uppers, in front of it like i just mentioned the the blues explosion the leather uppers the oblivions the makers um and so to distinguish ourselves from it uh just said why don't we name it after me i i asked the people in the first formation of our band to join me and we had already they'd already seen me play in a garage duo called um the violent, which was a two-piece band, me and my friend from high school.

And so when that eventually disintegrated, I asked JC to join up with me. And originally it was going to be called Danko Jones and the Impossible Dreams, but we just dropped the Impossible Dreams part and just used my name. So it was to distinguish ourselves from a scene that was wrought with bands

with the word the in front of it. Right, you're right. There was the Strokes, the Hives. Yeah, it was everything. Yeah, and in Toronto, there was also the Stinkies, which was born out of the ashes of the Leather Uppers. There's a few other bands, but're they're uh slipping my mind right now but it was really because of

that and you know you you last for 23 years after 23 years people forget why things are the way they are and that's really why we're named the way we are. I'm thinking, was it, the band was called Alice Cooper, right? And then he named himself after the band? He was Alice. I'm kind of a little fuzzy on the whole thing, but Alice has always been Alice. Okay.

Because he got his name Vince Fourier, I believe, got his name from a Ouija board. Okay. See, yeah, it's funny, but I was wrong yesterday about the Huey Lewis, Ray Parker Jr. controversy, so I'm probably wrong here. But I remember that the band is called Alice Cooper,

and then when he goes solo or something, he calls them... But I mean, you might be right. I don't know. But I do know Bon Jovi, and I do know Van Halen, for example. There's a couple of bands that just took the name of a member. So Danko Jones. Now, you guys in the, I guess, mid-90s here,

but you guys were sort of like legends of the live, if you will. You didn't have a studio presence. You were live musicians. Yeah, so we wanted to make our name from from our live show and we uh said we're never going to release an album and you know when we tried to tour we realized very quickly in order to get gas money we needed to have something to sell to keep us going so uh eventually we conceded and tried to get a deal and then course, Karma bit us in the ass and no label that we wanted to be on wanted us. And that started a slog of a few years

of us trying to put something out. Eventually, we put out something on Sonic Onion. It was an EP, a seven-inch and an EP. But what we really wanted to do was be on one of our favorite indie rock labels like a touch and go that was my ultimate label back in the late 90s and then you know we got really lucky in 2000 we got interest in europe from a label called bad taste records out of sweden and then in 2001 they put out a compilation of some of our you know previous

released stuff in in Canada and unreleased stuff they made a compilation out of it and from that we were able to tour Europe and we just kind of never looked back like I mean Danko Jones is a big fucking deal in Canada but I feel like you guys is oh here hear me out this is where I'm going is that I feel like uh bigger deal in europe am i am i wrong like the the work you put in in europe and uh do you think they get the sound uh more or better or is it would would you say you're bigger in europe than you are in your home country yeah well it's a little bit of both uh for example you know i think when you start a band at least for me uh the reason why you do is so you can tour the world i mean that's a huge almost a dream right that's the dream that's

that's the impossible dream you cut out of your band name right let's see that's the ultimate uh goal is to you know tour the world sure um and if you even achieve a little bit of that the fallout is uh the the balancing act is you get forgotten in your home country where you started and that's what happened to us oh we went away for like a decade and we would always come home to like play some you know regional show um just to kind of feel like we're still there right uh but most of you know all of our live show and all of where we ended up working and playing and and um attending to is is in was abroad um and you we saw it you know over a period of 10 12 15 years of touring you get forgotten you become almost a joke because people you get in the uh in the you know where are they now file to quote spinal tap and just people refer to you almost jokingly.

But the reality is, your reality, your bubble you live in, or I lived in, was that we were very, very busy to the point where I was, there's been times where, you know, you come home to Canada, nobody, everybody thinks, I had people ask me, I ran into some people that I hadn't seen in a while. We just finished a tour with Motorhead in the UK and Germany. And they go, so what are you doing these days? Wow.

And so, you know, that's the bubble that I was living in. And we were so busy that I would go to our manager and I'd go to some of the guys in our circle and just go we can I get some time off because I'm so busy and then you go home and you're you realize you're kind of this uh punch line to a joke as to what happened to that guy or what happened to that band so it's a weird world to live in when you're kind of almost near anonymous in your home country and then you have this other profile in another doing the exact same thing i i totally i totally see that now part of it and i'm gonna uh play armchair uh psychoanalyst here no i'm gonna tell you tell you what's going on you said it's almost like radio wise in this country uh i mean let me play

a jam so you mentioned the EP. What was the name of that EP, the first studio release? In 98, it was self-titled. Okay. And then in 99, you put out My Love is Bold. Yes. Yeah, that was the second EP. Right.

Okay. So I'm going to play a jam that, I mean, everyone listening to this podcast has heard this song, but I'm just going to play it and then talk to you a little bit about this. And I've been playing it a lot lately because I knew you were coming on and I still love it. Okay. You know what I mean? I love your black dress, your red lips, your long legs, your high heels I love your thigh-high boots, your snake skin, one-piece suit

Yeah, you really get me going when you put it all on But I like it a little better when you take it all on Baby, come on Put it on Baby, come on Now take it all out I love the leopards, my bikini So this is the 90s, man.

This is... Yeah, it's 96. Okay, so 96... No, it's... Sorry, 99. 99, okay. I was going to ask pre-dated the EP there. Okay, so 96. No, it's, sorry, 99. 99, okay. I was going to ask, predated the EP there. Now, this is Bounce.

Now, this is, I think if I were to put, you know, 10 locals, like 10 Tetetoba Kokians in a room and said, what's your favorite Danko Jones song? I think most of them say Bounce, I think. Now, is that, so that's, I think that's part of what happened. So you're off in Europe

and you're a big, big fucking deal touring all over in Europe and doing these big festivals with Big Axe. I mean, you mentioned Motorhead, but you guys, lots of Big Axe.

And then here, it's like this is the, this is the radio single that people know Danko Jones. It's almost like in your hometown, I think there would be a lot of ignorance as to your legacy. Yeah, sure. I mean, it used to bother me. It doesn't bother me that much anymore.

Although, you know, I'm doing your podcast, you know, because you asked me. But also because the name of your podcast is Toronto Mike. I checked it out. There's a lot of local heroes, and I would like to remind people that we exist at home. So it's one of the reasons why I said yes to this podcast. But this song you're referring to, Bounce, we're actually in the middle of a tour right now.

I got home two days ago. There's a two-week break in it. So we did three weeks in the middle of a tour right now. I got home two days ago. There's a two-week break in it. So we did three weeks in the UK. We hit Luxembourg. We hit France. We hit Spain and Italy. We're touring with Volbeat. They have a two-week tour, a two-week break, and then we reconvene again for about four and a half weeks. We do Scandinavia and Germany and surrounding countries. And in all that time, we're not going to play this song because nobody knows it. So we have to do a radio thing, a local radio thing tomorrow. And so one of the to-do items on my list today

is to practice that song because I don't remember how to play it off the top see that's fascinating right yeah so so we basically tour all the time in europe and we never play this song and sometimes we do because we know we have canadian dates coming up after the tour so we throw it in the set and it's met with you know you know a polite response some people know it because it's been on european releases like that first compilation i mentioned earlier so they might know it if they really went deep with our discography but for the most part um that's not our most popular single when we take the whole

world into account it's only in canada that that is our most popular single only in canada so in brazil our most popular single is i want you so we Brazil, our most popular single is I Want You. So we got to learn that if we ever head over to Brazil. So if we go to Canada, if we play Canada, we have to learn Bounce. But everywhere else, no matter where we are, whether it's Canada, Brazil, or Europe, or Australia, we have to know a whole list of other songs. So that's the difference. And which is fine. You know, I'd much rather have this luxurious dilemma than,

than having nobody know who we are. So, you know, once I reminded myself of that, I kind of got rid of the attitude and I'm okay with it. Although really I would love everybody in Canada to know all the other singles and all the other songs that have literally been the reason that have taken us around the world, not bounce.

Well, I'm glad you did do this podcast, and I'm glad you came over, because we're going to give sort of some context to the Danko Jones career, because I... Yeah, you're right. But here's the thing. Here's the difference. You will have Mishimi and Maestro Fresh West

and Tyler Stewart on and you don't give this contextual back pre-story. But for us, when I find myself doing a lot of Canadian press and media, they have to put me in context with a pre-story.

And that is the nub right there. And that's fine. And I appreciate you doing that, but I need to be placed in context for my own countrymen to understand what we do. Which is why it makes for a very interesting conversation because I can't think off the top of my head, maybe you can, of a similar trajectory for like a Canadian success story

where this exists, this scenario where, you know, the first single, right? That's your first, I'm assuming Bounce is the first single Danko Jones ever put out, right? Am I right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Officially and everything with a video and service to rock radio, yes.

And you're so damn right that if you played a gig, I don't know, where are you playing? What's your next Canadian? Do you have a Canadian gig in the calendar? Yeah, we're doing, I'm so bad at this. December 6th, we're playing Toronto. We're playing at Lee's Palace. It's our own show.'s palace okay our our own show

we're headlining our own show it has nothing to do with canadian music week or north by northeast this is our own show because we've headlined a canadian music week showcase show i think four years ago okay uh three years ago so we're actually finally doing our own show at least palace december 6th so if you are curious and you've heard of the band you might want to head down and will you play bounce at that lease palace show we have to remind ourselves to play bounce because we've played canadian dates in the past and we've had we've been met with nasty message facebook messages because people apparently show up to gigs wanting to hear one song. I never did

as a music fan, but there are people out there who will throw down money to hear one song in the night, which fascinates me. But yes, for those people, we will learn balance. I suppose it's like if you went to see Maestro Fresh West and if he did not play Let Your Backbone Slide. That would be fine by me Maestro to me has got like 10 other songs that I would love to hear just as much as Let Your Backbone Slide oh I'm with you on that one I'm with you on that bus

for sure and this episode don't worry it's not just bouncing out we're not going to bounce after bounce here I've got a lot of Danko Jones stuff loaded up I want to talk about including We're Crazy because you guys I'm I want to talk about, including We're Crazy because you guys, I want people to know, listen, yeah, this is Toronto-centric, and you're a Scarborough guy,

and you're representing with the sweater, and I love that, but I want people to understand there's the Danko Jones perceived by the guy down the street, and then there's the Danko Jones, and that's, I mean, you're, you know, we mentioned the Motorhead,

but Guns N' Roses too, right? Like you're, you opened for Guns N' Roses, right? Yeah, we toured with Guns N' Roses for a year. 2010, they took us to 10 countries, Ireland, Romania, Russia, Finland, Norway. I'm forgetting a whole bunch. That's great. And Canada,

of course we, we opened for them across Canada. Actually, we did a tour at the top of 2010. And then it, I think the last show we played with them that year was in Ireland, in Dublin, which we just actually played.

Uh, we returned to a few weeks ago. Do you ever, a couple of questions on this front. One is, did you ever consider moving to Europe? I've considered it and I've lived there for a few months at a time, but Toronto is where I was born and raised and I live here. You're planning to die here, but not too soon.

No, I wouldn't say that. I don't know. I mean, if there's any city I would not never. I wouldn't say that. I don't know. There's, I mean, if there's any city I would, I would consider and have considered moving to would be Stockholm. Stockholm, Sweden is, is the city I'm,

I feel the most comfortable in outside of Toronto. Like I know how to get around there. I know where I'm at. You can drop me and I can find my way back. It's probably the only city in the world outside of Toronto where, where it is for me like that now that now the success of balance in local toronto's in canada uh that leads to you and i guess 2000 you open for for beck like this is uh right you open for back at maple leaf gardens yeah yeah yeah we we played maple leaf gardens before they shut

it down oh yeah it must be just before i believe we were the last local band to play Toronto, to play Maple Leaf Gardens. Yeah, if you did it today, you'd be in like the tuna aisle or something. Yeah, yeah. We'd be buying eggs and... Right. Yeah.

Although they are... I'm happy to report they do play hockey there. It's just upstairs and it's a little smaller, but above the Loblaws, they still got... Oh, yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah, they still got hockey going on there. Now, let me play another jam.

This is not bounce, so we're going to bounce from bounce here. Let me just talk to you about this one here. You got a broken heart that just won't fix You can't stop crying cause you'll miss your miss Get her out of your head Try someone new instead and feel alright Just look at me, man, I was just like you I loved a girl, but then we were through Every time you come in

You're only gonna split and say goodbye So are you in or are you out? Huckle look, baby To the sound of love With the fall in love and then you fall out Fucking right, that's Sound of Love, right? That comes from the first full-length album? Yeah, first full-length album is Born a Lion.

And that was out 2002. So that's 17 years old. Yeah. Playing the classics here on Toronto mic. But again, we're going to, we're going to be so recent. We're going to play.

We're crazy. So we're running through the, through the years here, but I'm just trying to like in your career projectory. So here for Danko Jones, we talked about bounce. You have the EP. Then you get... So what label are you with

for Born a Lion? We're with Bad Taste Records. And in Canada, we licensed this album to Universal Music. We weren't really technically on the label. So they distribute it? Is that how that works?

Yeah, kind of. Yeah. Some sort of deal like that where you're not a direct signing. And that comes with its pluses and minuses as well. For sure, for sure. Hold on, I dig this part. a little harder Every time you see her she'll get a little harder Every time you see her she'll get a little hotter Oh yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Speaking of acknowledgement at home in your home country here, this album did garner some Juno recognition, right? Yeah, yeah. That was the last time we were given a Juno nod or a nomination or what have you. I think actually...

17 years ago? Is that when you decided? Yeah, I believe so. And since that time, since those Juno nominations, our career has been on an upward trajectory. So please, no further nods. You don't want the, yeah. It's a superstition on my part.

Sorry. I know some people at the Junos. Let them know. Let them know. Leave you off the air. It's a request they don't get very often. So what happens when you're an old man and they come calling

you mentioned Tyler Stewart the Barenaked ladies just got this Tyler's a dude, he's a great guy but at some point they're going to probably knock on your door and say we want to put you in I don't know, when you're an old man there's so many people who are way ahead of us in line

and who have achieved a lot more and who are more popular and more successful. We've carved out our little corner in the music world. And I mean, of course, it can always be bigger. But we're very happy and satisfied. And we play for a demographic, if to use that word, or a group of, of music fans that are kind of outside the, the, the usual circle of music fans, you know, they like their music a little harder. You know, hard rock music at this point is,

is really become outsider music now it's it's really not um mainstream like it used to be so that's who we play for i i really really doubt um they'll come knocking when i'm an old man maybe when they're dead and i'm dead someone out there who who likes to go deep will will find it but i doubt that'll even happen as well and to further this thought yes um what's recently come about in the the bigger music world is uh the rock and roll hall of fame nominations with motorhead and thin lizzy finally being given an an a chance to enter the hall of fame and And if they aren't already in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and 2020 is the year that they finally go in,

this is a stupid club that I think they shouldn't be a part of. And that includes me. I don't really want to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, nor any Hall of Fame or any sort of nod, by a bunch of people who have denigrated hard rock music all the time. And even with the Motorhead nomination, they're not allowing Phil Campbell and Mickey D. Phil Campbell was in Motorhead for 31 years. He played on all the albums except six, and Mickey d was in motorhead for 18 years on drums and

they're not allowed to be nominated in the rock and roll hall of fame so why would why would i want to be part of that club this is the groucho marx line you're dropping here oh yeah you don't want to be a member of any club and i think it's not quite the groucho marx i realize it's not quite the groucho marx because groucho marx said you don't want to be a member of any club that would haveo Marx because Groucho Marx said, you don't want to be a member of any club that would have you as a member, but you're essentially saying you don't want to be a member of any club that wouldn't have them as a member.

Yeah. Right. Can you, speaking of Motorhead, maybe share a little bit of your... You played with these guys, like Lemmy, for example. Any stories you can share of what kind of dude he was? I mean, we did tour with them, and it was an amazing tour,

and we played many festivals with them, and I sang with Motorhead over a dozen times, less than 20 times. I sang Killed by Death with them. I sang Born to Raise Hell with them on stage. And the last time I sang with Motorhead actually which feels great was in toronto the last motor not the last motorhead show but in 2009 or 2008 they played with national pussy and i sang killed by death with motor and that was the last time i was on stage with him that was great and lemmy has always been really cool with our band he always liked us and he always helped us out whenever we asked him to so he's in our video music videos um and he was very welcoming on tour

like i got to hang out with him in his dressing room a few times and there's yeah i've got a few stories but then everybody who even had a casual times and there's yeah i've got a few stories but then everybody who even had a casual meeting with lemmy always walked away with a lemmy story and i've got i've got a i've got a few but any you could share uh even just one one selection from the mix there that might be okay to broadcast yeah exactly that. That's the only thing that I'm thinking about. I mean, I just sang, and actually, this story is actually in my book that was released last year, and it's about the time that I sang Born to Raise Hell for the first time with Motorhead.

And Phil Campbell, the guitarist, came up to me and he said, do you want to sing it with us tonight? And I was like, yeah, sure. Like I knew the chorus, but I didn't know the song. And so he said like, meet me in Lemmy's dressing room at such and such time. So I had to basically sing the song to Lemmy to prove to him that I knew the song and I didn't know the song past the chorus. So I had about two hours, something like that. So I listened to the song like in that time period, however many times you can listen to a three, four minute song in two hours until I kind of memorized it. And then let me sat as far away as you are from me right now in his dressing room. And I had to, and we sang

it together and he was watching me the whole time and i passed i sang it with him oh good uh but that is probably one of the most nerve-wracking moments i've ever had for sure i'm nervous hearing that story like i'm anxious for you but it's also like there's also a time where you know i'm not a real drinker i don't drink i mean i'll have a glass of wine only to make the meal, accentuate the meal. That's, that's about as far as drinking as I get.

So you don't drink beer? No, but I know this is part of the deal, but I will take the six pack because I am surrounded by beer drinkers. They're going to love you for it. Who will appreciate it. And I've actually gotten a taste for cider because i'm around these people um but anyways um yeah so so lemmy's drink

of choice i think it's very publicly known with jack and coke and so when you when he pours you a jack and coke it's this much coca-cola and this much jack right so i was invited over before our sound check one day when we were in um belgium and we were playing with them at the tivoli uh which is where the roadburn festival happens and i was buzzing that i was hanging out with lemmy and his tech Tim. So it was the three of us and we're just hanging out. And Lemmy was, I think not a lot of people know this, but Lemmy would just sit in his dressing room and draw cartoons and read World War II novels. And so he had these books upon books upon books of all these cartoons. So he gave me a book and he waited for me to read the cartoons. These one-off like,

kind of like peanuts. Yeah. Like Charles Schultz type stuff. And then I would read the punchline and then he would wait for me to laugh. The only problem was I was like, so shocked that I was with Lemmy. Right. That the,

the punchline wouldn't always like i wouldn't always get it not because i didn't understand it's just i was just so nervous and surreal right but i was just buzzed plus he was serving me jack and cokes so i would finally when i left his dressing room i went upstairs to do sound check and i was drunk and everybody was watching me going, what the hell's wrong with you? And then I told them, I was with Lemmy for the last hour. Oh, I get it. We get it. So that was quite funny.

Yeah, you needed the reverse, like this much Coke. And then, yeah, you needed the reverse. Oh, so what do you think that says right there? Can you read it? Yeah, I'll read it. Okay, here, Danko Jones is going to read. says right there can you read it okay here I've had Danko Jones gonna read all right click OK there and this is an as you can tell that's an ancient iPhone and it might not okay oh wait can you open we have a all right hit the okay

you saved the day Thank You Danko Joneso Jones. The live stream, yeah. We fixed it, thank you. All right. Now, okay, so great Lemmy story. So that's a couple of Lemmy stories. Yeah, just off the top of my head that I could tell. Now, for the sake of closure, I'm very keen on this because we brought it up.

I now have the exact Juno nominations that triggered your ascent. No, listen, listen, I'm joking around. People take what I say a lot more seriously than I mean it. Yeah, we don't want to start some war between the Juno Awards and the Danko Jones. Well, that would be fine. Okay, so

it was nominated for Best Rock Album. Nice. Born a Lion. And I didn't even realize, I I guess that they had this but they have an award for best video and the video for

Lover Call it was a good video for its time it was a little groundbreaking in terms of the post production effects that was used

I remember that well Juno's got it right that year for giving you the nomination. But do you have any memory of what won Best Album? Do you even remember or did it even make its way into your cranium? No, we only attended the Junos where we were nominated for the first time for My Love is Bold.

And we were in the Best Alternative Album category. So something happened from the two-year span where we went from becoming an alternative album category. So something happened from the two-year span where we went from becoming an alternative band to a rock band without changing our sound. I noticed this too, and I was trying not to harp

too much on Bounce because I didn't want to trigger anything, but I did notice myself as a radio listener in this city back in the late 90s, Bounce was played like it was an alternative rock song i feel like it was treated sort of like as an alt rock song and then

subsequently like sound of love and stuff you are then kind of put into like the uh no this is an alt rock this is just like straight up rock bucket which means like a station like a 102.1 i could have told them that the moment we finished recording Bounce. They should have asked you. Well, I think they just asked you. But see, the Junos fell for the same trick. They had you in alt rock, and then they put you in Best Where You Belong, Best Rock album.

Okay, so I'm going to bring down Lever. Well, I guess it's already down, Lever Call, because I'm going to give you the gifts now to get it out of the way. So you don't drink, but you have friends who drink beer, and if they enjoy beer, they're going to love Great Lakes beer. So Fresh Craft Beer. It is made west of Y they're going to love Great Lakes beer. So fresh craft beer. It is made west of Young Street. I hope that's okay.

You'll still accept it. No, I will accept it because it's, you know, Toronto. I love Toronto. And they're independent. And I think you'd appreciate that this is not Molson Coors, InBev, or whatever all these other places are called. This is a family-run business. The Bullet family still owns and operates Great Lakes Brewery.

They're great people, fantastic people. So you're taking that home with you. Thank you. That's not it. That's an empty box. But in my freezer right now, I have a lasagna. Would you prefer a meat lasagna or a vegetarian lasagna? This is, I'm surprised by the offer. i'll take a veggie lasagna which is

great thank you you didn't know that was coming you knew you were getting the beer but you didn't know you know i knew the lasagna but when i even got the the email i i i didn't even answer the question because i didn't realize this is a real thing this is a real thing it's in my freezer right now for you so uh that's courtesy. That's courtesy of Palma Pasta. Wow. They're hosting at Palma's Kitchen on December 7th. That's a Saturday. Maybe you're already on tour.

You might be in Europe already. Nope, back from tour. The day after our Toronto show. Of course. Yeah, Lee's Palace, right? I should have connected. Yes. So the day after Lee's Palace show,

you wake up a little late, you come down to Palma's Kitchen, and we're doing a live recording of Toronto Mic'd at Palma's Kitchen. Everybody is invited and it would be great to see you all there. So thank you, Palma's Kitchen, for hosting that. And thank you for giving a lasagna to Danko here. Stickers. Okay, so I mentioned yesterday I had the guy from Sticker U on. He was fantastic.

He played romantic traffic. Right. And they made up a Toronto Mike sticker for you and some other assortment of goodies. More Spoons trivia. It's not trivia, but just a factoid.

I've read Gord's autobiography, which is pretty cool. But thank you for the stickers. These are great. Okay, I'll top you there. And to tell you that, since I know you cherry-picked some episodes to make sure this was a real thing,

you could cherry-pick a great episode as the Gordep episode. Oh, I will. What episode number is that? I can't remember, but you'll find it in the notable episodes on Toronto. By the way,

what did you think of the podcast? I know you're a podcaster too. We're going to talk about that, of course. But what did you think of what you heard from Toronto Mike? Well, I thought it was great that there's someone out there doing a Toronto-centric podcast. And lots of people who have been on this podcast go deep with Toronto. So I appreciate that. You know, it's hard to talk about deep toronto stuff with people who you know like we

talked about for a large part of this episode our audience is you know outside of canada so it's you never end up talking about stuff like this with other people so when we do and i can i i relish it so i'm wondering if there's if i'm going to notice a uptick on uh swedish uh listeners of this episode of Toronto Mic'd. Maybe I'll rank in the Sweden Apple podcast charts if they're listening to their Danko Jones deep dive and learning about this city. So, yes.

So, you got stickers from StickerU. So, thank you so much. I want to just make a couple of mentions here. One is that Brian Master, actually, I'm going to let Brian Master speak for Brian because I really do like his voice. Brian's a local radio DJ legend in the city. And I'll let Brian speak for Brian. Hi, it's Brian Master, sales representative with Keller Williams to Realty Solutions Brokerage.

I like working by referral. I love working with people, finding out what they need and where they want to go. So every month I put out an item of value called the Client Appreciation Program. And this is really great material. It's all about, well, for one thing, the way the real estate market is, but other things like, well, this month is how to turn your home into a smart home. We've also had things about how to throw a party on a budget, some travel tips. It's really great stuff. And it comes out once a month called the Client Appreciation Program. I'd love to get you on it. It's easy to do. Send me an email to

letsgetyouhomeatkw.com. And I'll send that out once a month via snail mail and follow it up with an email that's something related to the item of value. You can't miss. It's great information. It's something you can share with your friends. I'm Brian Master, sales representative with Keller Williams Realty Solutions Brokerage, thrilled to be on Toronto Mic'd. So thank you, Brian. And I want to thank Rupesh Kapadia, who's actually dropping by this weekend to record some answers to questions that you've all submitted for him.

He's an accountant at Kapadia LLP CPAs. If you have a question for an accountant, you can submit it to me, mike at torontomike.com or DM it to me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike and I'll feed it to Rupesh who will record the answers.

So thank you, Rupesh Capadia. So just one more gift for Danko and then we'll rock on, as they say. One more gift here. Let's bring in a little ministry for this one because every day is Halloween. So my friend...

They're not from Toronto. No. No, they should be though. The Pumpkins After Dark, actually, they're not from Toronto. They're Milton. So Milton, Ontario is where you go. So what is Pumpkins After Dark, Mike?

What am I giving Danko Jones? So Danko, I got two tickets to go to this they're gonna they're pdf files i'm gonna email to you all right pumpkins after dark is 5 000 hand-carved pumpkins that illuminate the skies at country heritage park in milton ontario this runs every night uh through november 3rd so you not only the 5 000 pumpkins and they look great in the night sky. They're illuminated but there's sculptures, 100 sculptures. There's sounds as well. If you're listening

to my voice and you'd like to go and you want to save a few bucks, you can save 10% when you order at pumpkinsafterdark.com with the promo code PUMPKINMIKE. So PUMPKINMIKE will save you 10% Danko.

You're going to save a hundred percent times two. And that's cause you made the Trek, uh, West of young for this film. Yeah. That's something you got to go to Milton for that one. That's for sure. Now I'm going to,

okay. So I think this is cool. I think you'll tell me if I'm wrong. I often, um, bike the waterfront trail. Okay. Which means I bike by the waterfront trail. Okay.

Which means I bike by the Palais Royale. And according to my crack research, you opened up for the Rolling Stones at the Palais Royale. Did this happen in 2002? No. Yeah, it did. Come on now, Danko. We don't joke around on Toronto Mike.

No, no. It's a no serious serious business yes we did uh it was a great great day um we drove all night to make the gig and so i hadn't slept and it was a bit added to the surrealness of the whole day um yeah it was amazing they were doing their launching their 40 licks um tour they used to launch a lot of their stuff here because i know they had an affinity for toronto i think maybe keith richards had his uh he got arrested here right yeah but there's uh there's a uh yeah there's a i believe their manager is based out of toronto So a lot of people don't know that. I don't know if I should.

Yeah, anyways. It's out there now, man. Yeah, anyways. Yeah, so they always, they would base, the rehearsals would go on for a couple of weeks and there'd be Rolling Stones sightings in and around Toronto. And I've got a few stories about that I can't share on the air. The good stuff is all...

It's always off the air, right? I mean, that's half the reason why I love being in a band is you get all this inside stuff. You can't share it, but it's just as a fan, I love knowing about it that nobody else does. But you wrote a book because you alluded to it. So what's the name of your book? The book is I've Got Something to Say,

and it's on Ferrell House Books. It came out last June and, uh, it's just a compilation of my various, uh, articles I've written for various rock magazines, uh, for the,

for a period of, of 10 years. So, cause it took, it took about a year and a half to, to compile it all. And then another year and a half for it to be released. So it's just a 10-year period of articles I've written for rock magazines.

I've had a column in Close Up Magazine out of Sweden since 2006. I've had a column since 2011 in Rock Zone Magazine out of Spain. I wrote for Rock Hard Magazine out of Germany. I wrote for Rock Hard magazine out of Germany. I wrote for Mute magazine in Norway. I wrote for Rockstar magazine in Switzerland. And I wrote for a couple other magazines. But that's amazing that you're doing all this writing and you compiled it into the book you put out. I was going to ask you that you're doing all this writing and you compiled it

into the book you put out. I was going to ask you, you need to put out a book where you tell all these stories you can't share. You just look at tell all. A lot of the articles in the book were just kind of opinion pieces. We took out all the real negative ones where I just shit on bands and we just kept it real positive. And I think it turned out great.

And Aaron Brophy was the editor and he was the editor of chart magazine. And so Aaron and I would get together when I'm not on the road and we'd meet at a coffee place and we'd talk about the book. Cool. For a long time. We almost talked all over. Uh, forget my name.

Thanks. Let's talk all over Forget My Name, I think. And that's from the 2003 release, We Sweat Blood. You should see a doctor if you sweat blood, I think. That sounds, it can't be healthy. No, it isn't healthy. Uh, getting back to the book, I've got something to say.

It's on Ferrell house. Ferrell houses. Uh, they call themselves the most dangerous publisher and it's, it's an imprint I've been reading since I was, you know, in high school. And when I was going to university,

um, and they still, they put out some great books, Lords of Chaos, Harley Flanagan's autobiography, and a whole bunch of really weird outside occult stuff and i think they most recently put out a book on the residents and it's it's based out of washington state so it's an american imprint uh there wasn't any

canadian publishers who wanted to publish it when we approached them and that's fine because it worked out amazing because feral House is like, if not my favorite imprint, it's, you know, one of my two or three favorite imprints. And so I'd much rather be on Feral House. It's like being on touch and go the way I wanted to, when we first started our band as a record label, this is the equivalent of in the book world. And it was a lot of, it was such a new experience for me to put out this book. And it was a definite labor of love. It also has a lot of Canadians involved in it.

Damien Abraham from the band F fucked up, made an illustration for it. Fiona Smith did two or three pages of comic panel for it. Gary Tech Sally did an illustration for it. Richard Comley of Captain Canuck Comics did a page of comic panel for it. Away from Voivod did two pages of illustration for it. And then other people like Eerie Vaughn from Samhain and Danzig did an illustration. Mary Fleener from Slutburger Comics.

Gary Dumb from American Splendor did four pages of comic panel. Valiant himself from the band Valiant Thor did four pages. Juan Montoya from the band Torch and Sylvester did an illustration for it. And Duff McKagan from the band Guns N' Roses wrote the foreword. And Brian Walsby did the cover so and that's very cool at the and it's around this time i guess so we so 2003 we sweat blood you're sort of uh doing radio shows right you like syndicated radio shows i mean the magical world of rock this is is coming out of Stockholm.

It was, yeah, from Rocket FM in Stockholm. But then it got picked up by some internet stations in Canada, a station in Norway, a station in Germany. But it was a weekly show and I just didn't have time to do it. So I stopped doing it in 2005. So I did it for about two years. And then in 2011, I started to do a podcast. Now, I'm going to hold on to that.

What's that awful expression I use often? Put a pin in that because I do want to dive into this podcast thing here. But I have a question from a fan of yours. And he goes by the moniker Jerry the Garbage Man. Okay. So Jerry the Garbage Man says, please ask him if he has any Headstones Hugh Dillon stories. Also, if he thinks Three's Company

could be successfully rebooted. Hugh Dillon. We played with the Headstones maybe three, four times over the years. But I think in the late 90s, early 2000s. They were really nice to us. Got really no crazy Hugh Dillon stories. Well, it depends which Hugh you get.

There's the Hugh after he cleans up and there's the Hugh before he cleans up. I understand Hugh has addressed some substance, substance abuse issues he had. He's a clean and sober and today, but there, if you go back,

this is in the late nineties, early 2000s. So I'm not really up on my headstones history as to where Hugh Dillon was personally. So, so you, you can figure it out, but,

but the shows we played with them, the few shows we did, they went off without a hitch cool so that was cool and then in terms of the three's company company he mentions three's company which seems like out of left field but it's because i do a three's company podcast and i've been doing it for two and a half years now um and we just go in chronological order talking about each episode um and we're up to season six episode 10 is that the terry years yes okay yes terry enters the series in season six yeah i never liked terry but oh really those are my favorite years are they okay okay um because you're you're mr obviously you're Obviously, when did Mr. Furley enter? Furley entered season one, two, three, four.

Is there a worse deal in the history of television broadcasting than you take characters for a spinoff? Like you take the Ropers, you throw them in a spinoff. The spinoff doesn't work, but they aren't allowed to come back. It's like you're done. Terrible. They did come back after they canceled the Ropers for one episode, and it was the only episode

where Furley and Roper and Mrs. Roper were in scenes together that's a fun fact that was a one and only time but the Ropers

were already cancelled so it was bittersweet right and that was the last time the Ropers appeared on television that's sad now

why Season 5 that was in Season 5 Season 5 why did you of all shows did you have an affinity for it because you watched the syndicated reruns as a kid or something? Well, I mean, I watched it when it was airing and when it was in syndication. But it's my favorite show of all time. And I found myself, like a lot of times, you know, just always referencing it, you know, humorously.

Sure. And then I, you know, just always referencing it, you know, humorously. Sure. And then I've, you know, was doing my podcast for nine years. I was like, wait a minute. I was seven years into doing my podcast and I had this idea to just, I wanted to just talk about Three's Company a lot. And I thought it was also very, very absurd to do it, especially coming from, you know, a guy in a band right so uh and not just a band but a hard fucking rock band right you're not right so that added to the absurdity and i

thought that was funny in it in and of itself um and i still live for when i tell people that and just the look on their face when they realize that that's a it's a real thing and that's really 80 of the reason why i do it and i i do it with my cousin cameron who doesn't know the show very well so he's learning with the episodes i give him to watch he doesn't like the show so he honestly doesn't want to do it all the time and it's a burden to him. So I give him a break and I get other people in bands to, to come on the show or friends of mine to come on the show and talk about certain episodes. So, you know, uh, I just, well, I can't really say who I just did it with, but he's in a really, really, really big band and we're, that's coming up in the next month.

and that's coming up in the next month. And I've done it with Scott Reeder from Caius, Derek Green from Subultura, Jeremy Taggart from Our Lady Peace, Murray Lightburn from The Deers has been on for four episodes. Yeah, and it just, I can't remember all the people. You can't tease who this big band is who's going to be on the podcast?

He wants to have a million dollars. Let's put it that way. Okay, well, then it's got to be my friend, Tyler Stewart. No. Okay. I'm getting close to it. Kevin Heron. But you're close.

All right. Anyways, I'm sure Tyler would definitely make a great guest on the Regal Beagle podcast. Oh, he's God's gift to podcasts. Yeah, he's great. He's a great guy. I remember Tyler Stewart used, like the Barenaked Ladies hadn't hit number one on Billboard,

but they were very, very, they were nationally known. From 90210. Are you talking about in America or in Canada? No, I'm talking about, this is in the 90s. They were nationally known okay and they had had a few videos on much music and they were huge but then i went to a show at the rivoli and tyler's work in the door for venus cures all show so so i know that those you know like people like tyler they they definitely uh are pretty grounded and and and you know he comes from a good background and that kind of

that kind of background really grounds someone and humbles them right oftentimes when bands you know become successful regionally they become the biggest assholes ever and just you kind of thank your lucky stars that it's just regional because anything further my god they'll be monsters um and every band is allowed a window of of you know trying to deal with this newfound success or fame but tyler is one of those people who i think always just was grounded if you when you do have him on uh other podcasts make sure he tells you the super dave osborne stories because he was like his handler when he was filming uh super dave osborne they filmed at an aging court uh right yeah right because it's two iterations that get confused one

but bottom line is tyler's like the uh the his name's uh bob einstein is his name he just passed but yeah he passed a year ago uh yeah about that and yeah he passed just shortly before tyler came on i remember maybe uh yeah a year or so, get him talking about Bob Einstein. It's amazing. You mentioned Agent Court. I kind of grew up in Agent Court, being in Scarborough and everything. And my house that I grew up in is in the Subdivisions Rush video.

Oh my God, yeah. That's amazing. So I grew up near Lamoureux Collegiate, which is in the high school halls, in the basement bars, in the backs of cars. Your house being in that video would be sort of almost as cool if you married somebody from the romantic traffic video.

I feel like there's similar stories. See, two in a row. Can you tell me about the shit that went down with Universal Canada? I mean, all I could garner from my Googling and stuff is that you had a pro-download stance of some sort that maybe aggravated the, and you tell me, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but is there something there? Not really. I mean, it's old news because, you know, it's hard for people to understand, to put it in context now, because we live with streaming, we live with a version of downloading and that's accepted and nobody questions it.

But back then people were outraged that people downloaded and I was of the mindset that this is good for music. So I actually, what I was saying actually turned out to be true. And, you know, they tried to do something like Star Tracks or something. I don't think it worked. It didn't it did not work didn't work i can confirm yeah um but i mean yeah it's hard for me to answer these questions because i've answered them before and i always come off bitter in fact in a lot of Canadian interviews I do, I come off bitter. That's why, I mean, even coming into this podcast and this interview, I was trying to tell myself, how are you going to come off not bitter when he asks you questions? And I'm not, honestly,

I am not bitter. But to answer the question will make me sound bitter. I don't care. I don't really think about this too much. Are there people involved in that situation that I don't like still? Yeah, because I'm the type of guy who never forgives or forgets. When you're out of my life, it usually takes close to a miracle for me to bring you back in. You're dead to me. to a miracle for me to bring you back in like you're you're dead to me so that's just how i am i was raised that way my mom is that way but that's that's awfully uh and i'm not no judgment i mean that you are you are but uh that's a black and white it feels like there should be a little maybe a few more shades of gray in there yeah there should be i agree but they're i'm just not made that way so so i mean it's hard for me to uh it's hard for me to uh answer that question without coming off bitter because i will say what i said is like they're all dead to me so so it's just how i am everybody who knows me knows this

i i have to correct you on something you said because i i have uh evidence that you were nominated for another juno yeah actually you're right it was in for the we sweat blood right album so that brings our juno nods to four and that was that last one was uh a while ago well it was i don't know what it was oh. Oh, for... I think it was, yeah, Best Rock Album, We Sweat Blood. Oh, okay. There we go. So that was our last Universal Records release and our last Juno nomination. Right.

And since that time, we've put out Sleep is the Enemy, Never Too Loud, Rock and Roll is Black and Blue, Fire Music, Wildcat, and our new album, A Love Supreme. Okay, so I'm going to keep this down. I'm going to, well, I have a question for you,

but maybe I'll ask. So, okay, so you mentioned, okay, so it's Aquarius Records? It's where you sign after that whole shit goes down with that we're not talking about of Universal Canada. Aquarius Records, okay. And you mentioned Sleep is the Enemy. That's like six by the way you open for nickelback is that right

in oh six yeah across canada oh wait never too loud you mentioned and we're listening right now to code of the road this is uh from never too loud let's just hear it for a second. Earlier you mentioned being, I think you said I live by the cold Earlier you mentioned being, I think you said butt of some jokes or a punchline, I think is the word you use, punchline. Sometimes you said you're in Canada. You're used as a punchline. Did you say that to me earlier this episode? Yeah. I've never heard Danko Jones used as a punchline, but I have heard several times Nickelback used as a punchline.

Like, what are your thoughts? I mean, you toured with them and all, but what are your thoughts on Nickelback as a rock band? Well, first of all, I mean, the chances of me hearing something said about myself and the chances of you hearing something said about me, I mean, they're greater because I've got my ear to the ground when it comes to me.

I'd say that it's a big big difference so i kind of know like i i know that there's a band that kind of ripped up my name on stage and stuff like that so i these things have happened oh no i wasn't suggesting you were wrong just that it hasn't uh yeah um and it totally like totally to do with the fact simply because they didn't like our our band's music or the way we coordinate our three power chords in our songs. It just didn't appeal to their sound aesthetic. So that was the reason to rip up my name on stage or something. That's bullshit. Yeah, nothing to do with any sort of behavior

or the way I was to somebody. So having said that, uh, I feel for a band like Nickelback because people hate them without even knowing who they are. You know, they just don't like their music and maybe their music isn't what a lot of people like, you know, but they're the ones laughing at the end of the day. They sold millions and millions of dollars worth of music in any capacity, T-shirts, albums, et cetera, and rock tickets. So I kind of sympathize. I can see how it's frustrating for them.

They're just playing their songs. I also see it from the other side, how people might not like them because they stand for kind of like a rock radio that you know maybe some people don't think is cool but they treated us great they treated us very they were a class act the way they treated us and how do you how do you put down someone who's actually really nice to you when the people who don't like them have never met them? I can't say that I listen to their music, but I also can't say that I can't confirm everybody's hope

that they were assholes because they weren't. So it's funny, the whole Nickelback tour was an interesting experience in, in terms of how people deal and see and hear music. Um, it has nothing to do with music. Uh, we were ensnared in, in this whole thing because we toured with them and somehow we we um we were traitors to to uh to an aesthetic that we didn't even know we were part of um and all i wanted to do is play in front of a lot of people right and i've always said i don't care what crowd you play in front of

as long as it's a crowd because playing in front of a crowd on an elevated stage is a privilege and there were bands who turned that that tour down and uh because it wasn't cool and maybe they do well in canada but i will tell you on the international stage we kick their ass and so so i will tell you this it is always a privilege to get asked to play and we there was a great offer for that from them and they treated us nice and we got to play every NHL arena and as a kid growing up as a hockey fan I'm not a hockey fan anymore but I was this is a salming for you salming hat i'm wearing yes um i will tell you uh it was awesome and uh the bands or the band that i know of that turned them down

like they adhere to i think i think one of uh something that will always, a tell, a big tell, when someone is very insecure and trying to be cool is when they're doing stuff like this and turning down stuff because it's not cool enough. I think a real tell for someone who's very confident and secure with themselves

is I don't really give a shit whether we play with Nickelback. Give me a full arena. Give me an arena. Yeah, just, we played early. We were first of three, but guaranteed

the amount of people, even though it might have looked very sparse, that could fill four club shows that we would play in that city. We'd have to come

four times, return four times to that city to play in front of that many people in one go. I'm dying to know this band that turned it down.

I need to know. I'll tell you off the mic. Is it a Canadian band? Yeah it's our lady piece isn't it oh no no our lady piece could probably compete with with nickelback with nickelback's numbers at least at that you know i know i had bad guess oh yeah no but i mean it's a band that i lost respect for when i found out they turned it down okay and so so you know really, really showed me. And we got made fun of by like cool press people. Every interview I did tried to bait me into trying to say that I like Nickelback and I love Nickelback. And I never did, but I really, really appreciated and respected them for taking this out. You can only be flattered by someone who will who will watch you

on their tour you know so so we i i you know like it's like saying it's like saying well you can like our band but you can't because you're not cool enough and to me growing up as an outsider and to me playing hard rock which i've said before is outside music. No, you're welcome to like us. I don't care who you are. If you like our band, well then at least if we don't agree politically on the political spectrum, this is a meeting ground. We like the same sounds and we like the same bands and we like the same albums. And this whole thing as to what's cool and what's not another friend of mine who's in a super cool band told me not to do the tour and really he can go fuck himself even though he's a friend of mine and i'll tell you who he was after we get off the mic and he probably won't remember but i

do and i i thought that wow like everyone's just insecure in this industry. Everybody's just hasn't graduated high school yet in their head. And everybody still lives for what's cool. And A&Rs in the music industry, especially in Canada when they existed, all they were to me were overgrown teenagers, adolescents still in the high school cafeteria looking over their shoulder as to which band is cool. They had no idea. overgrown teenagers, adolescents, still in the high school cafeteria,

looking over their shoulder as to which band is cool. They had no idea. There was no confidence in what they liked. I mean, hell, I like cool indie rock music too. Of course, I don't lead with that publicly because I play in a hard rock band. I always talk about other rock bands in our genre because I think, what is it? High tide raises all boats. Yeah. Yes.

So, so, so that's why I always lead with rock music personally. I don't care. I can go from this genre to that genre and think it's all cool. But that is not the way. It is especially in the small little pond of Canadian music. And I didn't learn that lesson as hard as when we went on tour with Nickelback. Borsalmin was awesome.

That's a Stockholm connection, right? He's a big deal still. He's got like underwear and stuff. Gothenburg. It's a company based out of Gothenburg. It's called Salming Sports. And I guess we're sponsored because I bothered them so much. That's all right.

And also we met Borya Salming. And we got to talk with him for a while and he is the nicest, coolest guy. And I genuinely love his clothes. I'm wearing his Salming shoes right now. Oh, cool. And the shoes are my favorite shoes I've worn ever. They're the most comfortable shoes. And yeah, we're kind of sponsored by them i think at this point but um it's just because i'm a huge fan and i bothered the hell

out of them and uh yeah i knew a lot about the brand before they they knew of us a higher scoring leaf defenseman of all time yeah and it's it's because of borya salming being on the leafs and i i grew up as a leafs fan i saw him play at the gardens and then when i finally met him in frankfurt at the frankfurt airport when the plane was delayed and we got to hang out with him turns out that he's a super super duper nice guy so the clothes are awesome the shoes are awesome and he's awesome and he puts his name on these clothes and i'm proud to sport it because i'm i'm from toronto and and i'm they used to have a store in stockholm i remember i walked in there and and the woman there was she noticed my accent she asked me where i was and what's from and when i

said toronto she goes you're a hockey fan right i go yeah i'm an old hockey fan but this isn't why i'm here i'm here because the clothes are awesome awesome cool cool and uh cool now below the belt 2010 we actually played it behind well you were talking about nickelback but that was uh full of regret which kicks ass by the way but i want to ask you the video like this video's got well lemmy's in the video elijah wood uh selma blair uh mike watt like so so just what can you share about how that video comes to be for Full of Regret from Below the Belt? Well, the Diamond Brothers, Josh and Jason Diamond directed the video. We've known those guys for a long, long time.

And we asked them to direct. They were directing commercials. So they're friends with Elijah. They asked Elijah to be in the video. They turned Elijah onto our band years before we did the video. I'd say five, six years before, we knew Elijah knew our band. And so when he said yes to do the video, that kind of opened everything up. We were able to throw out his name to reel in other people,

like Ralph Macchio, Jenna Malone, Selma Blair came on board. Um, Selma and Elijah shared, shared scenes together. Ralph Macchio and Elijah shared scenes together. Um, JC was in a fighting scene with Ralph Macchio, uh, where they practiced this whole fighting routine routine so he's like fighting with the karate kid and lemmy was luckily in town when we were in la shooting it so he came down and mike watt was there as well and yeah yeah we didn't know if mike watt could even act we just asked him because you know what's like you know friend and we've gotten to know him we played with dos his other band with kira from black flag and and over the years we've

just gotten to know mike and so when i i called up what and he was in town and he came down and we said okay you're going to be the bartender in this scene you're going to introduce the video we had no idea if he could deliver lines like a robot or not and then while he was doing the take i think he did two or three takes we were just looking at each other going holy cow he's like hitting it out of the park and that's what you see at the the beginning of the first video of the trilogy ralph macho's in the show i'm watching called the deuce which is an h HBO show from 1977 New York City. And it's interesting to see the Karate Kid today, but he's in that show as a cop.

He was a great guy too. It was really fun to hang out with Ralph Macchio. And he realized right away, he goes, okay, you guys are Karate Kid fans, but you're also really Crossroads fans. And we were all like, yes, yes, Crossroads is the greatest movie of all time. So, you know, we talked about,

he had to chase us down because we were giving him space. And he was like, guys, come here, come here. And we just talked, you know, it was awesome. Gil LeBlanc is a big fan of yours and he wants to know how much, well, he wrote this, how much does he really love being in the band

Danko Jones? That's the question. And then he has a follow-up, which is, and will he ever write a sequel to I've Got Something to Say? I'd love to write a sequel. I mean, I've got a few articles for it, and I definitely would love to do that. Hopefully I can.

What was that? That was Google talking to me. Did we summon Google? This would get scary whenever Google talks. Ralph Macchio? That was Google talking to me. But did we summon Google? This is going to get scary whenever Google talks. Ralph Macchio? That's Ralph Macchio. He wants to come on Toronto Mike. So what was the first half of the question?

He just wants to know, he just basically says, how much does he really love being in the band, Danco Jones? Right. It's what I do for a living. It's the only thing I do. Yeah, but a lot of people hate their job. Right, right. I mean, it's what I do for a living. It's the only thing I do. Yeah, but a lot of people hate their job. Right, right. I mean, it is a job.

And I say that people get offended when I call being in a band a job, which offends me, actually. It bounces back and offends me. Because if this isn't a job, then it's just a glorified hobby, and I'm unemployed, basically. And no, this is a very serious thing but is it your only like I mean you do several things like when I say several things I mean well you got the podcast and you've done a lot of writing then you've done different radio work but you're in your main job

I guess is being you know in Danko Jones but do you have a job outside of that like do you like basically do you make enough money that you can have a lifestyle you're happy with without having to I don't want to say get a real job because that suggests danco jones is a real job i know i almost fell for it there you see that is you know yeah i do take offense because it's like this is a real job and yes it's a full-time job it's my career it's what i do and it puts you on the road for like you're on the road a lot man like you're a road i'm on the road technically like i said right now it's just a two-week break right on a on a eight-week tour but you're able to you're able to make a living and uh and which is awesome because uh and probably i'm gonna get it's hard to

do yes in this in this business it's hard to be an abandoned and do it full-time and and you know kind of pay the rent so to speak speak. Right. Especially Toronto rent. And we're lucky, we're lucky and we don't, we don't take it for granted. Definitely know that. So, so yeah, I do love what I do at the same time. It can be a grind just like any job, but I have to remind myself that, Hey, listen, this is like this is like air you get to breathe that not a lot of people get to breathe like the second half of this tour that we're on with volbeat you know we're playing the mercedes-benz arena in berlin and we're doing the zygodome in amsterdam with them volbeat is the headlining band and baroness are on the bill as

well and so you know we wouldn't be able to play Mercedes Benz arena on our own, you know? Um, so that's my job. And I got to remind myself sometimes when it gets, you, you feel burnout that, Hey,

listen, enjoy this, you know, cause it, it might not come around again. The new, the rocks, a wildcat you mentioned came out in 2017,

but Rock Supreme, when did Rock Supreme, that came out in 2019? Yeah, it came out this April, past April, and so it's been about five,

six months. We've been promoting it on tour. Let me play a little of We're Crazy here and then I want to talk about your podcast. C-c-c-crazy,

yes we are. C-c-c-crazy, yes we are Crazy Yes we are It's you baby Who I like to love Nobody gets messed up for you I wanna shout this On top of the highest mountain

And let the whole world know it's true I'm on a mission To get some kissing It's necessary Oh let me tell ya This love for you Ain't arbitrary I don't care which way we go

Just get me outta here I bet it all on the two of us. I know I'm crazy, but so are you, baby. C-c-c-crazy. Yes, we are. C-c-c-crazy. Yes, we are. We're crazy.

A rock supreme. Rocks hard, bud. Thank you. Dig it, dig it. Please bury me in detail. As you know, I'm a podcaster and I produce other people's podcasts and I'm fascinated with people who have a podcast.

And you have the official Danko Jones podcast. I've been doing it for eight years, since 2011. On and off co-host is Nick Flanagan and it's bi-weekly. Does that mean twice a week? Or does that mean every two weeks? Every two weeks. Bi-weekly. Okay, I get that

confused a lot. People say bi-monthly and I'm like is that every two months or twice a month? Every two months. Every two weeks i put out a uh episode and um yeah that's that's pretty much it i mean i get guests that i'm genuinely interested in uh that i'm friends with um i can't do a q a thing with someone that i'm not really interested in um that makes it a job for me. And the podcast for me is not my job. It's something I use to kill time on the road. On days off, I'm holed up in a

hotel room editing the podcast, writing the intro, which is usually like a five to seven minute intro, which ends up being like, you know, a thousand to 1500 words that I have to write on every single guest. So that's what I, that's what I do. By the way, I heard you, I heard you recently, my, uh, my buddies have a podcast and I'm going to script the name completely ignored. Okay. This is Cam Gordon and Sammy Cohn from the Watchmen. Okay. I know. Yeah, right. I know Sammy. So yeah,. So, you, I guess, yeah. So, you were on, I hope I have the right name. You know, that's terrible.

Completely ignored because Sammy asked me a long time ago and then kind of ghosted me because they went away. And I told Sammy, you completely ignored me. They take an album and you take, we talk about it. So, I chose uh blonde redheads fake can be just as good which came out in 97 which is an album that we actually toured with them for they brought us out to america and we toured um the midwest with them and we played a lot of shows that were pretty pretty cool so we've talked a lot about guns and roses and nickelback

but we haven't talked about our tours with you know blonde redhead and the makeup no please i have blind spots i'll be the first to admit it okay listen i don't i don't come here thinking like okay you should know everything about our because i'm not that cool like you must notice after 90 minutes like my whole thing is my whole thing is that i get defensive about when i talk to other canadians is like um there's 23 years of history with this band and it started from an underground level and it went up and obviously most people just know the mainstream part of it and there's such there's years that we slogged in the underground where we know a lot of bands in underground bands that you know so when you graduate into a mainstream arena people just know you from that including people who think they're underground wait see i'm smart enough

to know i'm not underground so at least right i don't think you are either yet jim mckinney on this podcast that's right oh yeah he says the reason he lost his spot on the power play was because of Boris Solman. He was so much better than he was, and that's when he got booted from the power play. Sorry, Jim. I like his shoes. Yeah, Jim, where's your shoes?

Where's your shoes? But anyways. So, yeah, feel free. Obviously, I hit on these like me again. Nerves? Not nerves so much, but I hit on like Nickelback and Rolling Stones and Guns N' Roses. Not exactly the indie list. Stones are one of my favorite bands of all time.

Guns N' Roses are, you know, undeniable. Well, Duff McKagan's been on your podcast, right? Yeah, he's been on. Well, technically, he's been on twice. Technically, he's been on your podcast right yeah he's been on uh well technically he's been on twice technically he's been on three times but we took two of those interviews and we jammed him into one episode but uh we did a lot of touring with duff's other bands um walking the coolest guy i've met who is in that rare air of biggest bands of all time he's the coolest most down-to-earth guy and that's because he comes from punk rock and that's like i said that's a grounding and a humbling a vetting grounding kind of sleep in your car type uh it just grounds it

just grounds everybody who comes out of that scene like there's just no time for you know rock star heirs and you feel that when you when you talk to duff. He's very, very grounded. For someone who comes from that super hyper world of biggest band on earth kind of air, he is one of the coolest guys I've ever met. He's awesome. He's a great dude. And including him contributing the foreword to my book. So it was a very loose rumor around

the time I asked him, I asked him in 2013 to write the forward. I said to him on the last day of the uproar tour in America, um, I said, listen, if I ever write a book, will you write the forward to it? And he said, absolutely. Sure. Absolutely. So 2016, three years later, it was a loose rumor that Guns N' Roses were Axl and Slash and Duff were going to reunite. The industry kind of knew this. Nobody outside knew it. And he wasn't at liberty to say. So I asked him in 2016 and I said, hey, Duff, remember that, you know, that, that thing I asked you in 2013? Well, it's done. I just need the forward. And he wrote me back and he said, listen, my world is about to get very busy in one week.

So I don't know if I have time to do this. Now, him turning it down, I totally knew the rumor. So I was disappointed, but I totally knew like, man, I totally knew it. It made sense. I would do the same. And then two or three days later, after he sent me the email, he goes, ah, here you go. I just did it. Cool.

Which was the coolest thing. He didn't have to do that. I knew exactly his world when he said, my world's going to get busy. Yeah. The band that you were in that the whole world wants to see get to back get back together is getting back together right after x amount of decades like i have to ask you the week before the announcement and so him doing that how and me knowing and him not telling me what was going on i was like wow this dude is the dude no so i love duff i i. I don't know if this is true, but I always had this assumption

that on The Simpsons, they named the beer Duff. I believe that is true. Yeah, I always thought it was after him. I believe it is. We're on the same page there. Yeah, I think you're right. I gotta stop spreading the bad rumors here.

That's probably true. We gotta find out. Just to let you know, I mean, the official Danko Jones podcast has some tremendous guests on it, really kick-ass guests and uh like i pride myself on on the guests actually and you you're recording every two weeks and it doesn't matter where you are like you do like if you're i don't know you're in stockholm for example like so how can i ask you a little like a little behind the scenes like is it uh like are you recording what are you recording with right yeah

um so um uh i usually stockpile podcasts before i leave for tour so this last tour that i did um in september i had three chats that i needed to get edited needed intros etc etc and i took the three weeks to do it. I took my time to, so on days off, I would edit the content and write the intro in my hotel rooms. But the chats are in person? The chats were,

uh, one of them was, okay, so the next one is with Todd Kearns. And I, I talked to Todd via Skype because he just put out a toque album, which is his Canadian cover band with Brent Fitz and Corey Churko.

Is he in Manitoba? He's based out of Las Vegas. Las Vegas. And he plays with Slash and Miles Kennedy in The Conspirators. And he plays with Bruce Kulik and Bob Kulik. And of course,

he was in Age of Electric and Static and Stereo. For some reason, I thought he was in Winnipeg or something. I guess I'm... It was, I believe, Saskatoon or outside of Saskatoon. And Todd has also been on the Regal Beagle podcast,

one of the only six people who've been on both because he loves Three's Company. Right, Regal Beagle, that's a great name for that podcast. So I got Todd to appear on my main podcast via Skype. We talked and that's that episode. But sometimes if they're local or they're cruising through Toronto and I have the time and I'm home, I use my mics.

I bring my mic. But sometimes when I'm on the road and there's somebody there that I can only get right there right the iphone despite the update erasing my voice memos the voice memo app if cleaned up in post can can do uh wonders and i i put it through a very very old version of garage band garage band 2 because it's the only one I know. Right. And even though it's up to 16 now or something. I don't know, because my MacBook Pro is from 2011, so I try not to update it because I'm afraid it'll... Exactly.

That's the reason why I keep my GarageBand 2.0 when it's up to 16. Now, I know you're a rock star, but I actually switched at some point from that to Audacity. Because for just editing a podcast, it just kind of works i've used audacity when when for individual songs like whatever the the reason but i have audacity as well but garage band just for editing purposes it's not the best the version i use is not the

best but it's the one i know the best. So I can wield around it quite easily. Danko, this has been awesome, man. Thank you. I'm so glad you made the trek. Thanks for asking me. Thanks for doing this. Thanks for the beer and the pasta and the stickers and the tickets. You got it, buddy.

It was worth the drive, as they say. Not just the actin'. We're not enactin'. That's gone now, right? The old hide house is gone, I think. Is it? I feel got it, buddy. It was worth the drive, as they say. Not just to Acton. We're not in Acton. That's gone now, right? The old hide house is gone. Is it? I feel like it's gone. It's a shame.

I think AM radio is gone, which is the main medium that the old hide house used to advertise in. Don't I know it. Don't I know it. And that brings us to the end of our 528th show you can follow me on twitter

i'm at toronto mike danko is at danko jones or do you do your own tweeting yep uh at danko jones and then instagram is at danko underscore jones it's confusing but no i gotta know where to i gotta know where to tag you. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Now, remember, Brian Master wants you to email him at letsgetyouhomeatkw.com to get on his mailing list.

Capadia LLP is at Capadia LLP. And Pumpkins After dark are at pumpkins after dark.com. See you all next week. It's fine and it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is Rosy and green