Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - David Shoalts KOTJ: Toronto Mike'd #284

Episode Date: November 20, 2017

Mike and David discuss the latest sports media stories before they play and discuss his ten favourite songs.

And right now, right now, right now it's time to... Take out the jams, motherfuckers! I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm a Toronto Mike, you wanna get the city love My city love me back for my city love Welcome to episode 284 of Toronto Mike'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent brewery celebrating 30 years in the craft beer business.

Visit GLB at 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard for $5 beers. And propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. And PayTM, an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. Download the app today from paytm.ca. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week to kick out the jams is David Schultz.

Welcome back, David. Thank you, Mike. Good to be here. Third visit, right? Yes. Well, I'd say two and a half. I knew you were going to say that. One was interrupted by Hebbshire. Rudely interrupted, I might add. Is there any other way?

Any other way with Hebbshire. But he did just endure that CHCH humiliation where they kind of put them all in a room and said, you guys don't have jobs, and you guys have jobs at half the salary you had before. So I feel like that was like extenuating circumstances. Yes, it was. I mean, hey,

is there anything like a corporate bloodletting for insensitivity and crudeness? Yeah, and when you have to suffer through that. If you all graduated from the same school. If you have to suffer through the corporate bloodletting, I should be your first stop. You know, just go straight to my basement.

That's what Mark Emscher did. So I'm going to recap your previous visits here briefly. So if you want to go back and hear the A to Z of David Schultz's fine career in sports media. Does your server have the bandwidth to withstand the crush when they all go back? Yeah, because when Bob McKenzie came on, I had to make sure I was ready for that.

So now I'm ready for this. I don't think I'll rival his numbers. You'd be surprised. You'd be surprised. People want to hear from you. In this 150th episode, so in episode 150, I chat with Globe and Mail writer David Schultz about Canada's sports media, particularly

primetime sports with Bob McCowan, Dean Blundell versus Mike Richards. That's how long ago this was. Dean Blundell versus Mike Richards. Perceived bias and Rogers and Rogers hockey. And then the footnote, of course, is that Mark Hebbshire crashes the party

to tell the inside story of what happened at CHCH last Friday. So that's 150. But you did come back and I locked the doors so Hebbsy couldn't come in. And that was episode 182. And we talked primarily about all the changes at Rogers Hockey and what went wrong there. And that was fantastic. Was it? I think it was great.

Oh, I just finished a book dealing with that in part, mostly with how CBC lost Hockey Night in Canada. When does this book come out? It'll come out in the spring. But that's a bad idea, don't you know? I can't give you a title. Doesn't it have to come out for the Christmas sales? Don't you guys all release your books in like a...

Yes. And that's not the publisher's fault. That's more my fault. I postponed the submission of the manuscript a couple of times. I'll blame my job. The Leafs made the playoffs. That was the latest one. We didn't see that coming.

Otherwise, it would be coming out right around now. But I ran out of time. I was going to write it in the spring, and then the Leafs rudely made the playoffs. Well, I had... By the way, did you listen to the Stephen Brunt episode? Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Yes, I did.

Why? I don't recall being the subject of much discussion. No, no, no. But he talked about writing books, and he said that the only way you can make money is if you write something about hockey and you get it out in time for Christmas. This was...

Yeah, well, Brunt is the master of writing books in this country. And he knows how to make money on them. So, yeah, well, that probably explains a lot of stuff about my career. Brunt is also the smartest guy I've ever met when it comes to managing your career

and understanding office politics. And that explains the trajectory of his career and probably explains mine too. And that also would explain why he doesn't go on Twitter. I think he realized early on there was nothing to gain from him being on Twitter. Yeah, it's mostly a losing proposition. Somebody had, okay, so Bobby on Twitter, he wrote me a note. Bobby says, based on some Twitter comments Al Strachan doesn't seem to be a big fan of David Schultz curious as to why that may be

so Bobby wants to know why Al Strachan but you're not alone by the way because I see Strachan gives Bruce Arthur the hardest time on Twitter yeah I I don't think uh Bruce and Al are in any kind of mutual admiration society. But on the other hand, I've always gotten along fairly well with Strack. But what I would tell Bobby is that's just Strack's way. And those are sort of generic, you know, those are the kind of shots Al takes all the time. He's a bit prickly. What's going on over there? Is he bitter or is it just...

Who, Al? Al, yeah. No, he's always been a sort of acerbic kind of guy. And if you don't appreciate that kind of humor, it really would get under your skin. And of course, people like that, not that I, God forbid, would ever be that way inclined, once they know something gets under your skin,

they tend to lean on it. That's what they pick on, right? That's right. Did you watch the Argos game yesterday? No, but I listened to a good chunk of it on the radio while I was working in my garage. Hoagie. Hoagie. Is he president of

the Argo fan club? I'm his sidekick there. I thought they were... Oh, I don't even think they make no qualms about it. This is a very Homer broadcast. You know what? I hadn't listened to a lot of Argo play-by-play

in recent years. I know Hoagie has done it. And I must admit, I was quite taken aback yesterday. I had to text Simmons and I said, boy, oh boy, the two biggest fans

at the game are in the booth. But that's okay for the regional radio broadcast, right? Like, this is okay. This is not a national. Yeah, I found myself rooting for the Riders. Oh, no. Yeah, he wears his heart on his sleeve, and he's a big Argos fan. He doesn't hide it.

Funnily enough, I think the guy. Joe Bowen's not exactly. Holy mother. Bless you, boys, I believe is one quote Well, Joe Bowen's not exactly... Holy... Bless you, boys, I believe is one quote. I don't think he does that one for the Flyers. But Joe kind of stops short of openly rooting. Because at one point, I believe the sidekick was going, come on, boys, you know, that sort of thing.

Yeah, well, you know, when you watch like a Jays game on Sportsnet, Buck Martinez gives it the all, get out of here, whatever he does when that ball is hit. I don't like those broadcasts. Oh, man. A little professionalism would be not too much to ask to my way of thinking. Oh, that's funny. That's just me. I'm an old cranky guy. Because you were listening on the radio,

you missed my moment of fame because I had really good seats like on the field, front row, amazing seats. And the game-winning drive by the Argos, right after that touchdown, which puts us up with less than a minute left, TSN cameras go straight to me. Okay, this is you.

Yes, me. They were seeking you out? Seeking me out like a heat-seeking missile. I was with my buddy Bob. So they kind of glanced by him, who was wearing the coolest 1970s, or I don't know, I think it was the 70s, boatman jersey jacket.

He had this retro Argos jacket. It was beautiful, beautiful. But they went straight to me. And my phone blew up. I had so many people texting me and emailing me to say like... So people were watching on TV. Apparently, I can't wait to find out the numbers whenever that press release will come out by TSN

and they'll say something like, they'll say something like 100 million Canadians. Yeah. Well, much to my surprise, the CFL numbers are always decent for TSN. Big time. I know they were declining in the last five years up until maybe last year, was it?

I think they bounced back a little. But even though, you know, and I can understand why nobody would want to go to a game at the Sky Dome. I certainly, I covered a few there. And that place was just a badly designed baseball stadium, sort of. It's cavernous. In a way, yeah, that was able to hold a football game. And I went to my first Argo game at BMO Field about, I guess it was their last regular season game of the season. They won on the missed field goal.

Okay, yeah, yeah. And Steve Simmons and his wife invited me and my wife to come along and do the whole tailgating thing. And it turned out to be a really nice day, at least at the start. And I had a great time. It's a great place to watch a football game. It is. It was just tremendous. And he has really good seats.

Sort of in the back of the first section behind the Argo bench. Yes. So you're sort of at the top of the first section behind the Argo bench. Yes, great. So you're sort of at the top of that little first level there. And so you're just at the right height to watch both ends of the field. It was great. And I really enjoyed it. Yeah, I mean, I have buddies who are big TFC supporters who seem bitter about the fact that the Argos play at BMO Field. Like, this is their big thing.

Well, to which I say, just get over it. No, it's time to move on. I don't know how... Do you know how long the lease is for? Like, did they ever announce, like, it's at least a 10-year lease, but maybe 20-year lease? Oh, yeah, I was just going to say it would be as long as the Argos want or, you know, are willing to pay. Well, they put $150 million into, like, making it football-ready or whatever. Well, I guess MLSC did.

I'm not sure how they did it, but they, and they're sort of, sort of owners. It's really, that's the weird part. Two of their owners own the Argos. Bell Media and. It's all interconnected. Was it Tenenbaum? Is he the guy?

Yeah. And, and so I, you know, let the soccer people cry. I mean, I like watching TFC games too. That team's been added to my portfolio in the last couple of years. And I don't care what Giovinco says. It doesn't look to me like there's any great damage on the field. I'm sure when he was a kid, he played on a lot worse. Yeah, right, right.

And I mean, I had a really good view of that field. They do kind of chew it up, but there's 10 days before they need it back. So the BMO hosts the next TFC match in like next Wednesday, not this one, the next one. Yeah. And they have like a kick-ass grounds crew, right? Like I think in 10 days they can. Well, I was going to say, nobody looks after the turf like those guys do. Right.

I mean, they're working on it constantly with heat lamps in March and whenever that ridiculous MLS season starts. Right. Yeah. The, uh, so yeah, I'm with you. I, I root for the Argos. I root for TFC. I'd like to win the Grey Cup. I would like to win the MLS Cup.

Uh, and the, the live of the, the, the, the, just being at both of those games at BMO Field has been great experience. I mean, the Argo game at BMO is so much better than it was at the Dome, like this. Oh, there's no comparison. No comparison. Yeah, yeah. It's just wonderful.

And it looks to me, I wouldn't have said this probably in mid-season, but it looks to me like they have a chance of growing a better fan base there. I mean, I don't think they're going to get back up, nobody does, to what their heyday was. But if they could get a good solid 25,000 coming out every home game, that'd be a nice number for them. And the day I was there, I mean, I was there because they did some sort of big ticket giveaway with the season ticket holders. And that was, I believe, their largest or second largest crowd of the season. It was somewhere close to 20,000, I'm going to say. I didn't go and look it up.

But they got, you know, that crowd got quite noisy at the, you know, because it was a hell of a finish to the game. And yeah, they were getting pretty noisy. And I would assume yesterday would have been the biggest crowd of the season. Actually, it is the biggest crowd in the history, the long, illustrious history of the Argos at BMO Field. What was it? How much?

It was just like a hair under 25,000. Well, that's good. In capacity, I mean, according to Wikipedia, the CFL configuration where they take out a bunch of seats for CFL to make the end zones. Although the end zones are really short still, but they take out seats to make it as long as they can. But the capacity is something like 26,500. So it sounds like they were within 1,500 seats. Now, was that a legit 25,000 crowd, would you say?

Yes. Okay. I saw some red seats in the upper level because I felt... I think so. I don't know what to say. And I don't know how many of those people paid. It sounds like when you went, you didn't cough up any green. I did not pay a dime.

I paid their exorbitant parking fee. See, that's why I biked to the game. $25. And it's $30 for TFC games. I mean, jeez, talk about bandits. You've got to take the go. That go, I don't know how convenient that is for you. Well, as soon as they run the go station out to Bolton, I'll be on it, yeah.

They should do that. But yeah, I had a good time, and it was a great finish, and I got my moment of glory on TSN last, yesterday afternoon, so good times. Good times. Well, yeah, Hoagie and JJ.

I keep forgetting his name. I got in that booth this season. They certainly were enjoying it. I got to go dig up that audio and listen to Hoagie. Let me ask you a question from this gentleman's name is Greg Gold. Greg Gold says, Schultz is great.

Are you related to Greg Gold? I've never heard of the gentleman, but I'm sure he's just a wonderful person. He sounds bright, particularly sharp. Schultz is great. I miss hearing him on Primetime Sports. Always enjoyed his sports insights. And I'm going to pause that and read Brian Gerstein's tweet to me. Brian's a sponsor of this

show, and I'll present you a gift from him shortly. I don't know Brian either. You don't know Brian, but Brian knows you. And by the way, Brian, for everyone who sometimes might even fast, I don't know why you would ever fast forward Brian's message. This message, you cannot fast forward because it's

a special David Schultz message from Brian. I'm going to play shortly. I'm not going to sell my house, Brian. Brian, will you take a gig in Bolton? Come on. You can do that. Brian Gerstein says, over two years ago, this is to you, I guess, you wrote how Bob is unlikely to stay with Primetime when his contract is up. Now Jonah from TorontoSportsMedia.com is reporting Bob is about to ink a new three-year contract.

And he says, as a personal friend of Bob's, and I'm not sure how close you are to Bob. You'll have to update us. But what's changed is what he wants to know. What's going on? So just tell us, what do you know about this Bob McCallum contract at the fan? Okay, first of all, I'll bet you Jonah's right. Second of all, Bob and I are in no way could be described as close personal friends. Our relationship, I would say, was irreparably damaged when I wrote two features on him in a matter of a few months.

And the second one was the one that did me in where I mentioned, talked a lot about his contract. And the reason I wrote that Bob was not likely to return was that Bob himself was insisting that that was it. He was going to retire. It's okay if Bob does that, but if you do that, he's no good. Not long after that, or maybe around the same time, I had some doubts because Bob owns these two wineries. I think he still owns them as far as I know. And they can be a pretty significant drain on your financial resources. And I would

have, just from some people that know Bob way better than I do, thought that he would probably have to keep working to, you know, keep these wineries from causing him some distress. But the problem was Bob was never going to get a contract like the one he had because he signed that one, which was for a million bucks, probably a little more a year, right at the perfect time. This is before Rogers got the hockey and it hired, you know, all the, basically all the big hockey names weren't working for Rogers at the time. So Bob was the biggest star at Sportsnet and he leveraged everything. And he also had the great good fortune to be signing at the same time

that TSN radio went on the air, and TSN went after him. And I think at one point TSN might have thought they had him. Wow. But Bob, of course, is the master of leverage, and he used that to really squeeze a hell of a contract out of Sportsnet. But subsequently, Primetime now doesn't have nearly the importance over there that it used to. Bob himself with the new regime, him and Keith Pelley were really, really good friends.

And when Keith left, I don't think Bob has the same relationship with Scott Moore and Rick Brace and the new regime. So, you know, he still pulls in really good numbers, monster numbers in that time slot. You know, he still pulls in really good numbers, monster numbers in that time slot. So I could see him staying on, but I would be very surprised if he signs for anywhere near the salary that he's getting now. And I believe his contract's up December of 2018. But the thing is, broadcasters like to have things in place about a year ahead of time. So, yeah, we're probably entering into a fairly critical period for Bob and he

just doesn't have the leverage he used to. I think that's a good point on leverage because Roger seems to have a little more leverage just having the possibility of a Dan Schulman. Isn't that a bit of a wild card? Yeah, that's pretty intriguing to a lot of people and I'm not going to claim any inside knowledge here because I don't really, again, I'm not friends with Dan.

I think I've met him a few times and known him to say hello to, that's about it. But he cut his schedule back, I believe, for family reasons. So why then, if you're going to do that, and that would be mostly to cut down on the travel, but why then would you tie yourself up Monday to Friday in the supper hour if you're doing something for family reasons? But at least you could do that local. He would be the, you know, he'd be my choice to succeed Bob

right off the top of my head. But I think there's other considerations at play here. So, you know, that's just my guess. I can't claim any inside knowledge on that. What do you know about, tell me what you know about Bell Media's decision. So CFTO, which is now called CTV Toronto, by the way, they're not going by the CFTO monitor anymore.

Yeah, and don't ask me how long that's been going on. The Lance Brown and Joe Tilley have been doing local sports on CFTO slash CTV Toronto for, I believe, I believe Joe Tilly starts in 84 and Lance Brown starts in 85. So that's a long time. Really? I would have thought Lance was there longer than Joe, but I don't know. That's what I believe to be true. But there's been a press release issued by the union. There's been a press release issued by the union.

And in the press release in black and white, it says that Lance Brown and Joe Tilley are victims of this recent wave of layoffs that Bell Media did across the country. Although people, of course, so I write about this, and I'm quoting a press release by the union, because that's my source on this, the union, which is my great source. They put out a press release. But people are like, Hey,

he's on my TV right now, idiot. Like, well, you know what I mean? So the interesting detail is that it's a strange one. It sounds like TSN will start doing the local broadcast on December 27. That's the, so I'm wondering, like, do you know anything like about, are they going to work until this, like, just going to work until December 27? Is that the plan? I don't know what the plan is. Again, I'm not an insider over there at what we used to call Channel 9.

But yeah, it certainly would appear that way. And also the status of the guys is a little murky in that you've got a union speaking out. But a lot of times TV talent operates under contract. So my first guess would have been, well, they're going to work till the end of their contracts. And Bell Media is too cheap to just say goodbye, here's a nice severance package. But they're a victim of what a lot of us in the media have been a victim of uh in other in other forms certainly when you get the print but the fact is people don't watch supper hour sports on local stations anymore they'll go to tsn or sportsnet or there's a hundred other online uh instances you can or

online sources you can you can go to and the the other thing is that lance and joe have been there so long i would guess they're among the higher paid people at the station, and they're the ones who are the targets. Yeah, that more than any other is probably a reason. And I've never met Lance or Joe, but I have to assume they were preparing for this inevitability because the same decision has already been implemented at other, like Montreal did this already. So if you didn't see it coming, you weren't looking. Yeah, I would guess they're veteran guys,

and they could see which way the wind was blowing. I'd be very surprised if this came out of the blue for either one of them. Another question about TSN Radio, which they have a new show with Leafs, is it Leafs Guy? What are we calling him, that guy? Dart Guy. Dart Guy, oh my calling him? That guy. Dart guy. Dart guy. Oh, my God.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Dart guy. I don't know if you're listening, but seems like a nice enough fellow. Dart guy has a show on TSN and it's co-hosted by Todd Shapiro. And the rumor du jour is that Todd Shapiro is auditioning to be Michael Landsberg's co-host Mornings on 1050 Chum. Have you heard anything, any rumblings about him? No, but you know what?

And the funny thing, I've been so busy with the Leafs and also TFC that I just haven't had a chance to poke around on that one. And I'm not sure what to think there because, you know, Naylor went back to television. And it struck me as a little odd they just sort of left Michael by himself. And I started to wonder, well, I wonder when his contract is up. And that may be why they haven't really jumped in to do anything that would look permanent on the morning show.

haven't really jumped in to do anything that would look permanent on the morning show. They're waiting for his contract to be up. Whether that's the end of the calendar year, I really don't know. And the ratings are such that, you know, I don't think it's worth their trouble to really, you know, throw everything aside and try and fix it right now. So I don't know. I mean, yeah, he's this guy, Todd Shapiro, who, again, I don't know. Apparently he seems to be the favorite, but I just wonder if they're not looking at maybe some sort of new morning show. Maybe Dart Guy. Oh, God. I mean, I don't want to dump on dart guy because hey this is a big moment you know

this is this is his 15 minutes certainly got extended and you know it wasn't as if he planned all this he was just sort of a phenomenon and but a lot of people think this sort of encapsulates what's wrong with the broadcast business. You know, you have all these people that studied hard at broadcasting school or are working for years, and out of the blue, this guy, because he got shown on camera one time at a Leaf playoff game, gets his own radio show. Now, mind you, it's at a time mid-afternoon on Saturday when I think his girlfriend and parents are probably the only ones listening.

But still, it is a slap in the face to people who work for decades in the business trying to get ahead. And I can certainly sympathize with them. I had Kayla Gray is a very young, I mean, very young. I think she's like 25 years old, but she went to school for this. And she works at TSN Radio, basically hustling, doing whatever she can to get airtime, and she's doing some Raptors coverage, like, she's busting her hump, can you say that, I guess, she's busting her hump to try to get some airtime at TSN Radio, and then they hand the two-hour show to Dark Guy, and I, you know, it just seems, yeah, people in that position are maybe feeling a little slighted.

Like, it's a bit of that cult of personality, like celebrity thing. Like, if Donald Trump's now president and Dark Guy gets a two-hour show, like, it doesn't matter that you went to school and you're working hard at this trade. These are, like, famous people. I'd feel the same if I were Kayla and any of her colleagues, you know. of her colleagues, you know. And I mean, it also shows the state of the radio biz when the desperation to just get any kind of attention, any kind of rating as such, that you hand a radio show

over to a guy with zero qualifications other than he's quite good at painting his face. He's got a sort of personality. And, you know, I think it's I think you nailed it. This is a show on a Saturday afternoon. It's basically the Homer show.

This is the Storm and Norman type go-leaves-go, rah-rah-rah show. There is no in-depth hockey analysis. Yeah, but Storm and Norman always had a kind of likable flair about him. Now, I've got to point out, I've never listened to Dark Guy's show, so I can't offer any sort of critique.

He might be the next Bobcat. We don't know. We need to listen. It just struck me as, I've got better ways to spend my time in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday. Are you still friendly with the guy that Simmons fired in Calgary? What was his name? Howard Berger?

Howard Berger, yes. Yes. Are you aware of his little, he's got the blog still, which I want to call it Burger Bites, but I think he renamed it. It's got a something around the net. I forget. See, why did you rename it, Howard? Burger Bites, we knew the name, and then you just renamed it. That makes us all confused.

I don't know. He threw this thing down. He quoted an MLSC insider close to Lou Lamorello, and he quoted this guy and said that he basically said that Austin Matthews was going to be traded because the Leafs could get so much for him right now and they don't need him to win because they were like 4-0 without him.

And of course you read it and you realize Howard's either gone crazy or he's effing with us. But he doesn't present it as an April Fool's Day thing. And it wasn't April Fool's. He presented it as straight up quoting this insider he talked to. So it really does sound like Howard's just lost his mind. And I think anyone who, it was a clickbait, and he did this, and then he followed that up to say, ha ha, got you. So what's this, is Berger

just basically out of Fs to give, or is this just Berger thought that was really funny? Any insight to the madness there? Well, yeah. Howie always thought that I didn't really like him. That was my impression over the years, whenever once in a while he'd talk about me or write about me. And that wasn't really the case.

Howard could be annoying at times with some of his ways, but I didn't really the case. Howard could be annoying at times with some of his ways, but I didn't really dislike him. This was pointed out to me by several people. It came out the same day as the Leaf game last week, right? It was probably the same day that we went. I just remember we were like 4-0 without Austin. Yeah, I don't, I don't, I just remember we were like 4-0 without Austin. Yeah, it was, I forget which game, but I remember Terry Koshin came to me in the press box and said, have you seen this?

So I called it up and read it and just shook my head. I mean, I think Howard has issues because he's out of the media spotlight and I don't think he's dealing with it very well. I don't think he's dealing with it very well. Howard has never been a good self-editor. When he's left to his own devices, he comes out with some really off-the-wall stuff sometimes. And if you give him the benefit of the doubt and say, okay, he was trying to be satirical, the problem with writing satire is you have to be good at it. Right, otherwise it sounds like a straight-up, right? Like an idiot. And Howard's not good at writing satire is you have to be good at it. Right, otherwise it sounds like a straight up, right?

Like an idiot. And Howard's not good at writing satire. And so when you read this thing, and maybe he could have sold this if it was April Fool's, which I think, you know, April Fool's, God, it's been done to death. Yeah. Maybe, but to me, this just reads like a pathetic attempt to get some attention i think howard has some issues about being out of the limelight that he

has to deal with and that was my overwhelming sense was i read it was i felt bad for howard and you know the predictable stuff on twitter ensued. And I, you know, I would guess Howard is now gamely just trying to make, you know, double down and... He's like, oh, you won't believe how the idiots bid on this or whatever. I fooled you all. Yeah, well... You all thought Matthews was being traded as if there was... But I'm all for like a good fighting game. I just think, yeah, it was a very badly thought out thing to do.

And it just shows me that, it tells me rather, that there are some issues underneath here that Howard needs to deal with. See, I think it was clearly clickbait, for lack of a better term, which is just look at me, pay some attention here, because I'm saying something crazy here. Yeah, that's one of the things, yeah, because he doesn't have nearly the visibility he used to when he was the Leaf guy for the fan,

and I think that makes it clear it must bother him a lot. And then someone pointed out to me that Howard is trying to change industry. So this is one thing I will say. You mentioned Storm and Norman. I think it's really, really tough for men and women in your industry who find themselves on the outside looking in at this age. I think it's really tough because people like Storm and Norman and Howard Berger want back in, but the jobs are disappearing. They're not growing. The industry is shrinking. And I think it's really tough. And then at some point, you have that moment where you realize you need to make money. You can't get a job in the industry you love and have worked in forever.

So you need to now change industries. And I think maybe Howard is at that point, and he might be exploring a career in, I don't know, what do you call it? Funeral services? Well, this is the other odd thing about it. That also appeared within a day or two of him announcing that he had taken this job at a funeral home as a sort of assistant to the funeral director. I'm not sure what that job involves,

but the way he described it was that he was going to be working with the bereaved. And I have no idea if Howard is good at that because I have a little experience of the bereaved, and that is a very, very difficult job to do well, and I wish him well in that, but it just seemed as maybe that's more of a coincidence too in that this is also, if I'm not mistaken, his first regular job since the fan fired

him some years ago so maybe that was playing into it too that he was having trouble coming to grips with you know now i really have changed careers maybe yeah so maybe i thought it's almost like he lit a match and said okay now there's no going back. You know what I mean? Well, yeah, I would say, yeah, except his reaction would seem to be that he plans to stick around with the blog. Well, hey, keep that muscle going. That whole thing is just so bizarre. I wouldn't hazard a guess on what his game is.

But we both wish Howard luck in his funeral home endeavors. I wish him well, and yeah, but most of all, I wish he'd just maybe deal with what's going on that would make you write something like that. Mike Gregotsky, he says... How many questions do you have? There's only a couple more. We're going to kick out the guys.

This is a kick out of the jams. I didn't think I mattered to that many people. No, people are... First of all, you know this. That's why Jonah is breaking stories, because there's a lack of mainstream media people covering any sense of the media. Like, there is no one doing it.

Part of that is there's a lack of mainstream media people. Right, you're busy covering the Leafs, right? Our staff has shrunk since I was covering media full-time. Okay, so I have a question on that, too. But let's do Mike's question real quick, which is, so yeah, because back in the day we had, what is it, William Houston was doing it.

You had Selkovich doing it at the start. It just seemed like there were a number of regular people writing about this kind of thing and now there's nobody. So we're like,

people are going to like torontosportsmedia.com because he's got some contacts it seems at Rogers and people, heck, people are coming to me. That's where we're at now. You

know what I mean? Because I'll talk to people. Well, you know all these people. I know. I suddenly know enough people. And I have my, I'm famous from TSN. I think about 10 million people saw me yesterday. So I have that going for me. Oh, sure. So this question from Mike is, as someone that was occasionally on The Reporters, did you see the demise of the show coming? Could the show have continued without Dave Hodge? So tell us what you know about what happened to the reporters, which got cancelled by TSN. Well, it was another example of the industry where it's headed. I guess the most succinct description would be it, like a lot of things, died the death of a thousand little cuts. And for the last couple of years, they'd been sort of,

management had been nibbling away at the show. And Dave has very, very high standards, as anybody who's watched him for any time knows. And so, you know, for a while there, he could stand at him and his producers. There were things like they moved the show from live on Sunday mornings, which was its perfect time slot because you're looking for something to do before the football starts or that sort of thing, to being taped on a Monday and late afternoon, was it?

And then dropped in. They did that for at least one year, maybe two. I lost track. And then, you know, they started then cutting back seriously where they cut the funding that paid for michael farber who was sort of along with dave kind of the backbone of the show but that wasn't cheap to have michael on because he lived in montreal so they once a week fly him in from montreal and he'd do the show and fly home again um so they cut that back. Dave was very unhappy about that and made it clear on the first show after Michael came back, or Michael was lost rather. And that was in September. And then again,

they shuffled the show again, moving it back to Sunday morning. But this time they moved it out of the TV studio and took the cheap route of doing it in the radio studio where the cameras are all basically robot cameras. And so then all kinds of technical issues started because they didn't have camera crews like they used to, and it seemed everything would go wrong. In fact, Dave's last show, I believe for one entire segment, which was something close to 10 minutes, all of their mics were off, or Dave's wasn't, but Bruce Arthur and Steve Simmons

were, and it was just, I gather, quite a shambles. And that was just enough. Dave said, I can't do this anymore, and he went in and told management, you know, that's it. He didn't quit TSN. He quit the show. And then management basically said, well, if you're gone, the show's done, is what happened. And they're going to talk again about what Dave can do. He's got a little bit of time left on his contract. We're not talking multi-years here. And his attitude basically is, I understand why this happened. I mean, he's not pulling any kind of one-man protest here,

and is that, okay, I'll wait and see what sort of ideas they have for me, and then I'll make a decision. He's also not ready to retire, so you could see him, well, who knows where after this. But that's basically what happened, is that all of these companies are getting decreases in revenue. I won't call them losses because they're all still profitable, Bell and Rogers. But if you're a publicly traded company, each division has to pull its own weight. And when it doesn't, cutbacks happen. It doesn't matter if it's a billion-dollar company and this is ch know, this is chump change we're talking about.

This is all monitored by the bean counters. And so when a show isn't pulling its own weight, the cuts come. And that's basically what happened. And, you know, there's really, I don't know what anybody can do about it, really. That's the way of the world now. It's kind of a shame that the reporters were sort of, there's nothing else like that, I'm trying to think, if there's anything like...

Well, it grew out of the same concept was on ESPN for years. I think it was the same name, that obnoxious Mike Lupica was on it. They just canceled it a year or two ago as well. And same reasons, ESPN is, you know, with all the cord cutters and everything, ESPN has just undergone all kinds of shocking drops in revenue over the last five years or more.

By the way, your buddy Steve Simmons is also coming to kick out the jams. I have his jams, in fact, all loaded up. I just need him to come in. Probably heavy on the Springsteen, right? And the Ramones or the he was really a new wave guy when I was his roommate.

Let me just glance at them. There definitely is some Bruce and I'm just reading the rest here. Yeah, and I just need him to get his butt over here and we can play these. But we're going to kick yours in a minute.

Two more questions. One is, former globe hockey writer James Myrtle left for the athletic. Did you know that? I know. Yes. So I don't think that had started up when you were last here. I wanted to know, like, what is your thoughts on that model and approach? Because there's some big quote from the founder that they want to destroy newspapers, which is,

how you're paying your mortgage. So I just wondered what your thoughts were on the athletic. Well, like a lot of guys in the business and women too, I wish them every success because our media business hasn't had any successes in the last 20 years. So, you know, just on that alone, I hope they survive because it means jobs for a certain number of people. That being said, and I wish James Myrtle and everyone else down there, Sean Fitzgerald and all those guys, I wish them all the success too because they're good people and good at their jobs. However, their owner is a twerp.

And, you know, to come out with stuff like that. And then of course, once you see the old thing, there's one thing that hasn't changed. You shoot your mouth off. And then once you see it in black and white, you realize what a complete idiot you were. So then he issues some groveling apology. Well, no, we already know what you really think. So you take that apology and stuff it. And I had more or less said this at the time, was that these guys are going the way it looks to me of the first internet boom, is that they're expanding way too fast. And Myrtle tried to argue this with me after I had said it and written it.

Did I say it? Oh, it was, yeah, Jonah put it on torontosportsmedia.com. I was trying to remember. Wait, David, you're cheating on me with Jonah? Yeah, what can I say? He asked, he asked. But what I said there in a nutshell was that you can't convince me that they're operating now strictly on subscription revenues. They're just hiring way too many people and way too many people who can command, still command a big salary.

Like Pierre Lebrun doesn't go over there for peanuts because Pierre doesn't need a job. He wasn't looking for work. Ken Rosenthal, he's an expensive hire. You know, these guys cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a job. He wasn't looking for work. Ken Rosenthal, he's an expensive hire. These guys cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. And you can't tell me you're not dipping into the venture capital because that's their financing, a bunch of venture. And when you're in hock to those guys, boy, oh boy, you better produce quick or you're done. And so that would be my concern that they've expanded too fast and that sooner rather than later, they're going to run out of money. And you, you know, because they, they described

Toronto as the biggest, biggest success. And at time they were talking, they were somewhere, I think around 15,000 subscribers, perhaps. I think if, you know, what we hear is to be believed, they're somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 now. And yeah, that's enough to support the Toronto operation, sure. But the Canadian operation now incorporates a whole bunch of other cities. Every city with an NHL team, for starters. Yeah. And you can't tell me that the numbers in those cities are enough to finance. Like Eric DeHatchick quit the Globe Mail a few months ago to go there. And again, this is not a guy who was out of work and needed

a job. So he's going to be getting a pretty good salary. And you've got other guys, there's guys in Montreal, there's guys in Vancouver, all those guys need to be paid and so i just i'm very skeptical that the numbers right now and again i wish them success so i hope they do soon but i just find it hard to believe that overall the number of subscribers right now is enough to support the operation so well i hope i'm wrong but we'll see johnny says uh with beat writers not being replaced is globe sports shifting to a feature writing to sorry shifting to feature writing rather than traditional beat reporting and then he puts in brackets uh nailer myrtle do hat check uh christy they've all left well i think we've sort of shifted that way over the last several years yeah because not only

because of loss of personnel, but also because of changing, you know, tastes of readers and that sort of thing. So, yeah, I mean, we are not a traditional beat-based sports department where we go to practice every day and follow all the minutiae of who's playing on the fourth line. You know, if you're coming to the Globe

to get that sort of info, you've come to the wrong spot. How's your stand-up career going? Ah, not well, not well. I'm sorry to hear this. Here's my question. Have you ever been paid a penny for stand-up? Yes. Okay, you know what?

That's better than I would have guessed. A little bit more than a penny, but not much more. A very nice woman named Catherine Angel. What's her last name? Is it Pizza? She's in Barrie. And she ran a show up there for a while.

I don't think she is anymore at a pub in Barrie. And she actually paid comics to appear. You got 20 bucks for gas. You got a meal. And you did your eight, nine minutes for that. And so, yeah. She is an angel. She was.

And she's still doing shows, but I don't think she does the regular shows up there. And I also got paid. There's a really good comedy show at the 120 Diner on Church Street downtown. And it's 120 Church. It's a really good show run by Andy Fruman and a couple of his buddies. Every Friday night, I believe it starts around 8.30, and they pay, there's a, I believe a $5 cover. I could be right might be ten but they pay um a percentage of the number of people you bring in so I've gotten paid a couple times on that show and I I tell anyone go see that show it's a really it's a really good show and then they have karaoke after or not karaoke yeah I guess it is karaoke afterwards which is I'm on the better karaoke

I would I would pay to see you do some karaoke. No, no, I'm on the comedy bill. I'm not on the karaoke bill. Do they give you free drinks? Alcoholic beverages? There are places, yeah. There's Einstein Beer Hall on College between Spadina and University.

There's a show there every Sunday night at 8 o'clock, and the comics get a free beer. I've been on that show a few times. Now, my comedy career has sort of gotten interrupted by that book. So I was offstage between April and very recently. I was in a show in Bolton about two weeks ago. And then there was my friend, Gare Joyce, who, by the way, you should have on this show. I do that.

Works for Sportsnet. Just has a book out called Young Leafs about Austin Matthews and Mitch Marner and all those guys. He's the guy who actually got me into comedy. And his book launch was last week. And I made the mistake of going on stage because he had four or five of his, or probably more of his comic buddies get up. And I did not do very well.

It was a stupid idea. Did you wear a Hawaiian shirt when you were on stage? In the summer, yeah. In the summer, okay. Because you're not wearing one now. As I tell everyone, I don't wear them year-round. I only wear it when it's suitable for the weather. But I will wear it after Labor Day.

So some of those venues were giving you free beer. You come here, you definitely get free beer. Yes, I see that. The glass, too. Well, okay, the beer is from Great Lakes Brewery, and there's a six-pack there, and there's a bottle. I think there's some pumpkin ale in the bottle. Oh, my God. One of my bits is about pumpkin.

Now you can hold it up. Do I look like a hipster? This is pumpkin spice stuff. You wish, you wish. Apparently the best pumpkin ale in the city. But enjoy that. Really? Apparently.

Fresh craft beer for you, courtesy of Great Lakes Brewery. You take that home. You enjoy that. You mentioned the pint glass. I'm about to play a personalized message for you from Brian Gerstein. He's at propertyinthesix.com. And that glass is courtesy of propertyinthesix.com. But without further ado, let's hear from Brian.

Brian Gerstein here, sales representative with PSR Brokerage and a huge Dave Schultz fan, who I would love to see back as a regular guest on The Roundtable with Bob. Dave, we need more real journalists like you and less Sportsnet regulars on. And as a FOB, friend of Bob, I know you can make it happen. There is nobody with as much sardonic wit as you and the ability to throw zingers out there that not only keeps Bob in line, but makes The Roundtable entertaining. Dave, I hope you enjoy my pint glass. And when you take a sip out of it with your Great Lakes beer, I want you to mull over how you're going to convince Bob to let you back on PTS. For any real estate needs,

and if you want to chat about sports too, give me a call at 416-873-0292 and check out propertyinthesix.com. My favorite Brian message yet. Does Brian sing too on this? He should, right? That's not him singing at the start. No, that's not him singing. He's a truly brave man. But what we learned earlier in this episode

is that you are not actually an FOB friend of Bob. No, no. So you'll have to update that, Brian, for his next visit. He's not an FOB. But thank you, Brian. That's fantastic. One more note to pass along

before we kick out the jams. I want to tell everybody about Paytm. It's an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. You don't have to visit each separate website to make a payment. All of your bills are on the Paytm app. And the best part is that Paytm pays you

to pay your bills. You get 3% cash back on everyday goods like coffee at Tim Hortons and gas at Esso. So visit Paytm.ca and download the Paytm app for free on your smartphone. Don't forget, if you want $10, $10 off your first bill payment,

use the promo code TORONOMIKE, all one word. That gets you $10 off your first transaction. David Schultz, are you ready to kick out the jams? Well, yeah, yeah. You had so many Twitter questions here. But let's begin. I almost forgot why I was here. Let's go now.

Let's go. guitar solo Go, go, slave ship, avocado fields Sold in the market down in New Orleans Sky don't slave, I know it's doing all right Here in Wiped and Whammy just around midnight Well, sugar, how come you're doing so good? Rolling Stones' Brown Sugar. Can't miss the sax solo here. Oh sugar, how come you dance so good now? Oh sugar, just's a couple reasons. Tell us why you love Brown Sugar. Well, there's a couple reasons.

The Rolling Stones are probably my favorite rock and roll band. I'm a big blues guy, and I don't think anyone, any of the rock guys, did a better job of translating the blues into rock and roll. And they also did right by a lot of the blues players that had sort of been neglected in the years leading up to that. And the other reason was that great sax solo you just heard was by a guy named Bobby Keys, who, a pretty amazing story in his own right.

If anybody is interested in a really good book, they should go get his autobiography. It's called Every Night is a Saturday Night. Because he had one hell of a life. He was from Texas. He died three years ago of liver cancer. But he started touring at the age of 15, in the late 50s,

with Buddy Holly and Bobby V. He played with him for a long time. He's played with all kinds of different amazing people. And on a tour he met in England, I guess, he met the Stones. And he really is the one sort of unrecognized musician who was actually, you know, for all intents and purposes, he was a member of that band. He toured with them. He did all their big sax songs. And he had a falling out with Mick Jagger

in the early 70s on a tour. And so they were estranged for a number. He and Keith Richards were really, really good friends. And Keith eventually got him back in the band. And he was just an amazing guy. And in rock just an amazing guy. And in rock and roll, before Clarence Clemons, the big man, came along, Bobby Keys was the big stud when it came to playing the sax, as you heard there. Another album he's on that I just love, it was my favorite John Lennon solo album, and thank God there was no sign of Yoko Ono

anywhere near it. It came out in 1975 called Rock and Roll. He just did a cover of a bunch of old rock and roll songs. Stand By Me turned out to be a big single from that. I think that album hit platinum. I certainly bought it the year it came out and Stand By Me

turned out to be the big single. However, he did another song on there called Whatever Gets You Through the Night, and Bobby Keys did the sax solo on that one, which was just another tremendous sax solo. And the interesting thing about Bobby Keys is that he was a big guy, like Clarence Clemens, and he lived life, as we used to say, to the fullest in those days, which meant he had any number of substance abuse problems, the worst of which was heroin, which he talked about a lot in his book. And there are two versions of why he got fired by the Stones. One is that when they got to Paris, he filled up a bathtub with Dom Perignon champagne

and drank most of it. And Mick Jagger, who was, despite his image, a very business-like guy, and fired him. Bobby Keyes said in his book, the true story was he actually, he quit because his heroin addiction was getting out of control and he realized he had to get away from that lifestyle. And they patched things up, I think, again in the early 80s. And he started touring with them again,

and probably right up until he died in 2014. So that is why I just, I love the Stones, and I love anything they do that has Bobby Keys on it. Well, that's a sexy track. Young Mike, when he was listening to Hot Rocks, the double album, that was on that.

That's in my collection, yeah. That Brown Sugar is a sexy track. That is just a great air guitar song. It's just a great rock and good time sort of song. You put it in your car and try not to drive 100 miles an hour with that thing on. The other thing I meant to say when we started all this off is that it's really not fair you limit me to 10 songs. That's the joy. Because depending on when you ask, I could come up with 10 different songs.

Right. The list I've got now, it doesn't really represent my 10 favorite songs of all time. They're just songs that sort of mean something to me right now or have for a long time. And I mean, if you ask me next week, I could probably walk in here with another 10 pretty easy. Nobody said it would be easy. That's for sure. Let's kick out another jam. I'm gonna get up in the morning

Hit Highway 49 I'm gonna get up in the morning Hit Highway 49 I'll be looking for my baby Melvita down on my mind First I'm gonna stop at the Whistler Store I'm gonna buy me a jug of wine First I'm gonna stop at the Whistler Store

I'm gonna buy me a jug of wine I'm gonna hit the highway They call Highway 49 Highway 49, Howlin' Wolf guitar solo It'll be soon in the morning When I go rollin' in Jackson town It'll be soon in the morning when I go rolling in Jackson town. It'll be soon in the morning when I go rolling in Jackson town. I've been looking for Mel Friday.

She said she can't be found. Mel Friday, my sweet woman You know she stayed on my mind Mel Vardy, my sweet woman You know she stayed on my mind If I can't find that woman I'm gonna sit down and drink my wine Did I get the right version? Yes, you did.

Phew. This album is called The London Sessions. It was made in 1971. It was one of the first big super blues sessions albums where the contemporary rock stars sat down with the legendary blues artists and put out an album that would do well commercially because it had their names on it, and these blues guys would make some serious coin off it.

Eric Clapton played on this although i believe the uh the guitar player was the lead guitar was uh howland wolf chester burnett was howland wolf's name uh was his regular guitar player uh hubert sumlin which i'll talk more about in a minute um just a tremendous guitarist that Clapton and all those other guys worshipped because of the way he played. And Highway 49 is, as blues fans will know, runs down through the Mississippi Delta through Clarksdale. And that is one part of the legendary crossroads, I believe. I've drawn a blank here, but I think Highway 65 is the other one. And about three years ago, my wife and I went down through there. We went to Memphis and Clarksdale, and it just turned out to be a tremendous vacation.

And of course, like any number of jerks before me, I had a picture taken of myself holding a guitar at the crossroads. Nice. They have a little stand set up there, so all the idiot tourists can do that. But Howlin' Wolf really was my introduction to the blues. When I was a first year university or second year university student back at University of Waterloo in the mid-70s, I went to visit a friend of mine who was going to Western. And at that time, there was a club in Western called Fry Fogles, which was a legendary club because the guy who owned it was a pretty smart guy,

and he knew that the really good blues acts would drive from Chicago to Detroit to Toronto because a lot of clubs in Toronto would have them. So he would get them to stop halfway between Detroit and Toronto and play a date at his club in London. So he would get guys like Howlin' Wolf on a regular basis. Buddy Waters played there. You know, you name a Chicago Blues act, he probably played at Fry Fogles in the late 60s and through the 70s. So when we were going down to Western, my buddy said, hey, we're going to go to Fry Fogel's because

Saturday night Howlin' Wolf was playing. And I was only sort of vaguely aware who Howlin' Wolf was at that time. So we went and it was mesmerizing. It is still all these years later, the best concert I've ever been to. Even, you know, including Springsteen in 84 at the Exhibition Place, Van Morrison and Maple Leaf Gardens. Van, you know, including Springsteen in 84 at the Exhibition Place, Van Morrison and Maple Leaf Gardens. Van, by the way, who's not in any of these songs, is probably my favorite all-time artist, but a lot of the stuff just didn't fit in

with what I was feeling this time. But this night at Fry Fogel's, I have never forgotten, even though it was over 40 years ago. This was about two years before he died. He died at around the age of 65. I mean, like a lot of blues guys, he didn't look after himself too well, and he had a number of heart problems.

And by the time I saw him, he was the guy, one of the guys in the 40s and 50s who would run around, he'd play the guitar and he played the harp, would run around offstage and carry on, you know, and sort of gave Mick Jagger the idea for what he did. But by this time, his health was such, I think he had bad circulation in his feet because of his heart. He sat in a chair all night, but he was still amazing. He could, his, as you heard, that kind of really hoarse, raspy blues, perfect blues voice. Absolutely. And he had a real snap and snarl to it.

Probably was aided, I'll never forget this part, is that shortly before he started performing, he was coming out on stage and somebody, some idiot close to the stage, called him Sonny Boy. And now there was a Sonny Boy Wilson. For all I know, if you give this goof the benefit of the doubt, maybe he confused him. Why you would confuse a legend? Well, they were both sort of legends in their own time.

But if you knew anything about the blues, how could you mix them up? Or he was just an idiot who called this very dignified black man, Sonny Boy. And, you know, I didn't really hear the first part of the exchange. I just heard the rejoinder. He was known for, Alan Wolfe was known to have a pretty sharp temper. And I just heard suddenly he snapped, my name's not Sonny Boy, it's Wolfe. And boy, everybody's head in the club snapped up at that one. And I'll tell you what, he delivered just a tremendous couple of sets.

And the other real revelation for me at that show was his guitar player, who I'd certainly never heard of, Hubert Sumlin. And this guy was a magician. He was mesmerizing, too, along with Wolf, the way he could play. And then I subsequently found out, of course, that he was considered one of the great guitarists in the world, and that people like Eric Clapton worshipped him. They called Eric Clapton the guitar god. Well, this was the guy that Eric Clapton kind of thought was a guitar god. There's a sort of sad postscript to this. Howlin' Wolf died a couple of years, or within a couple of years of when I saw him, which would have been, I think, September

of 1974 is when I saw him. And then, oh, about four or five years ago, maybe longer, Hubert Sumlin was sort of touring playing the clubs and the Silver Dollar in Toronto was still a blues club at that time and he had finally he had been trying for years to put out a CD with all of these guys like Eric Clapton

that loved him and for various reasons I think mainly because they all work for different record companies that sorting out the royalties was a huge undertaking he finally got this CD put together and was sort of touring the clubs because stadiums aren't real friendly to blues guitarists.

And so I made sure I was there when he went to the Silver Dollar. And I went with a guy named Brad, I went with, I think I dragged along Pierre Lebrun and a couple other people. I remember it was just in the middle of a heat wave in July. And it was standing room only in the club because Hubert Sumlin was no dummy. And the Rolling Stones happened to be in Toronto rehearsing for a tour at the time. Right. And of course, so Hubert was interviewed by one of the local bugles and made sure to drop a mention in that, yeah, Mick and Keith are in town, and, yeah, you never know, I think they'll probably show up.

And so you couldn't move in that club. And most of those people had no idea who Hubert Sumlin was. They were just there on the off chance that Jagger and Richards would show up, which they never did. But the big disappointment, I also dragged along, he was there, it was Brad Wheeler, who writes about, at that time, wrote blues music reviews for our paper, The Globe.

And so we're all sitting at a table, and Hubert comes out and plays, and it was so disappointing because he was singing he wasn't playing much guitar and he was a terrible singer he was in his early 70s by then and he too uh passed probably some year a few years after that and i couldn't figure it out why are you singing and not playing he only played a few chords a few licks on his guitar. And the funny thing was that his band, when they warmed up the crowd with five or six numbers, they had a very good blues vocalist with them. So I'm thinking, you're here to play the guitar. And so I was ranting all through his set and half of my

ranting turned up in Brad's review. But's great. But yeah, but I did get Hubert to, I got to say hello and shake his hand and he signed the CD for me and it is a tremendous CD. The name of it's gone right out of my head, but I believe it's the only one that he ever put out under his own name and he had a bunch

of guys like Eric Clapton playing on it. I know Clapton did the vocals for two or three songs on it. And it's a really good CD because he actually does play guitar on that one. But if you really want to hear good guitar playing, just go listen to some old early Howlin' Wolf albums and that's Hubert Sumlin wailing away on his guitar. Nice. Let's kick out another jam.

Well, I got a woman mean as she can be. Nice. Let's kick out another jam. She got a ruby lip, she got shapely hips, yeah Boy, she makes a royal ass kiss But I got a woman, me and I, she can be A couple times I think she's all for me and me Well, I ain't bragging, it's understood Everything I do, well, I sure do it good Yeah, I got a woman, mean as she can be And sometimes I think, oh, I'm feeling weak

Well Roy Orbison, Mean Woman Blues. Well, I always said if you've got a great voice, you can sing the blues, even if that's not your regular thing, and he sure proved that. Ooh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Now let's go one time. They called, well, you can see why they called him the voice. Elvis Presley used to say he had the greatest voice in rock and roll, and I think so too. I, like for different categories, I think there's different voices. Like the greatest pop singers of all time to me were Frank Sinatra

and Tide, maybe a little ahead of him, Sam Cook. Nobody could sing like Sam Cook. Actually, I had an early gospel song from Sam Cook on the list until I had to pare it down at the last minute. And so I would advise anyone, if you want to hear something amazing, Sam Cook was the son of a preacher, like a lot of singers were. would advise anyone, if you want to hear some real, something amazing, Sam Cooke was the son of a preacher, like a lot of singers were. There's another guy coming up who was the son of a

preacher and became a great, great blues vocalist. But so he started out singing gospel and first came to attention in a group. It was a very legendary gospel group called the Soul Stirrers. And he was their lead singer at the age of 19. And I've got a CD of him singing things like Peace in the Valley, Free at Last. And you just marvel that this sound is coming out of a guy who's 19 years old. And so I put Roy in that category because the power of his voice is just amazing. power of his voice is just amazing. And I've got a couple of stories about Roy. He had some real ups and downs in his career and personal tragedies. He lost his family in a house fire in the late 60s. He died young. I think he was 54 because he had heart troubles for most of his life.

But towards the end of his life, about a year or two before he died, I was fortunate enough, I was the CFL beat writer at the time at the Globe and Mail. This would have been either 87 or 88, and I didn't have time to go look, pin it down. Roy died in early December of 1988.

So this would have been in the summertime, either that same year or the year before. And his career was on the upswing again. People were starting to, he was reassuring the old stuff. And in 1988, Jeff Lynn and Tom Petty wrote some stuff for him, and he put out an album called Mystery Girl. And he had a real comeback single on it called You Got It that was written by Petty and Lynn.

And that put him on the top, on the pop charts in the top 25 for the, or the top 100, I forget. It was the first time in 20. Several, a few radio hits, as I recall. Like Mystery Girl got radio play and the one that was covered by Cindy Law. Anyways, there's another one. Yeah, but yes.

But the biggest hit off that was You Got It. And that was his first time on the pop charts in 25 years. It was amazing. So also, happy coincidence, around that time, CFL teams were experimenting with putting on concerts to draw in people as a marketing gesture, either before or after the game, mostly before. And I remember the first one may have been the Winnipeg Blue Bombers brought in the Miami Sound Machine before a game. So then I see that the Ottawa Rough Riders, for one of their earliest league games, but maybe even their first league game, because this was in July,

as I recall, brought in Roy Orbison to play before a game. And I said right then, I've got to, I haven't, you know, I blew one or two chances in the 70s to see him live. And I said, I'm not letting this one go. So I went to my boss at the time and said, look, this, you may have noticed, is a big marketing thing with the CFL because they're desperate to sell tickets. And I think I should go up to Ottawa and do a story on this. So he agreed. Nice. So I got to go up and sit there with, oh, there were probably 20,000. They got a pretty good crowd because it was Roy.

And he put on one hell of a show, played all of his old hits. I don't recall him playing anything off Mystery Girl. So it may have been 87 rather than 88. And it was just a great day. And then one odd thing about Mystery Girl, he only performed You Got It once in public. Because the album came out towards the end of 1988. And about 17 days before he died, he died of a heart attack, I believe.

He performed You Got It in Belgium at a concert, and that's the only time he ever did that song in public. And then, oh, about two years ago, my daughter is a publicist in Toronto. Right now, she works for a company that does the publicity for Warner Brothers Pictures, and they also handle Fox Searchlight Pictures. But at this time, she was working for a small independent agency, and Roy's sons, three of his sons are musicians, and they put together a documentary and a soundtrack on Mystery Girl, how it was made, how all these other big musicians got interested, and how Roy really embraced it. And they put together the money and had it funded. And my daughter's agency handled the publicity.

So my wife and I had the privilege of going to the Toronto launch of this. And his three sons were in the audience, did a Q&A. So it was really neat. Were his sons wearing sunglasses? That's what I want to know. No, no. Okay. Well, that's the other question they always ask about Roy is, was he blind?

And no, he wasn't. He left his, he was touring with the Beatles in 1963. And at that time, Roy would have been the headliner. This was how his career, and he left his glasses on the plane. And all he had to go on stage, because he was very nearsighted, were his ugly-looking horn-rimmed prescription sunglasses. And voila, an instant trademark was created. He always wore them after that.

I interrupted you there. You were finishing that story with the three sons? No, I think I did finish it. I remember at this time also when he passed away, the traveling Wilburys were having great success, too. That's the thing. It was all happening at once for him. I think the traveling Wilburys were having great success too. It was all, that's the thing, it was all happening at once for him. I think the Traveling Wilburys came first.

Because Handel of Care, he's in that video, but the second big hit, End of the Line, they don't, he's no longer living, so they have like a picture of Roy in that video. Yeah, I'm not sure, because it all sort of happened at once, I'm not sure of the exact timing. But you're right, because I was a teenager at this time,

and I can tell you, there was a big resurgence not only the old stuff like the only the lonely and pretty woman and all this stuff was coming up but yeah we the current hits were on the radio like q107 was playing the heck out of it and then you had the traveling wilburys which was like handled with care and to the line was was was stuff all over much music so yeah yeah it's really too bad and But at least, you know, his career ended on a high, and it was really good to see. Let's kick out another jam. Let's jam. I'm a worried man with a worried mind

No one in front of me and nothing behind There's a woman on my lap and she's Drinking champagne Got white skin, got assassin's eyes I'm looking up into the sapphire tinted skies I'm well dressed Waiting on the last train Standing on the gallows with my head in the news

Any minute now I'm expecting all hell to break loose People are crazy and times are strange I'm locked in time, I'm out of range I used to care but things have changed. Bob Dylan, speaking of the traveling Wilburys, things have changed. This place ain't doing me any good. I'm in the wrong town.

I'll sit're in Hollywood Just for a second there I Thought I saw something move Gonna take dancing lessons To the jitterbug ride Ain't no shortcuts Gonna dress in drag Only a fool in here would

Think he's got anything to food. A lot of water under the bridge, a lot of other stuff too. Don't get up, gentlemen, I'm only passing through. People are crazy Times are strange I'm locked in time Out of range

I used to care But things have changed I've been walking 40 miles, a bad road If the Bible is right, the world will explode I've been trying to get as far away from myself as I can Some things are too hard to touch The human mind can only stand so much You can't win with the losing hand I feel like falling in love

With the first woman I meet Putting her in a wheelbarrow And wheeling her down the street People are crazy Times are strange I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range I used to care, but things have changed You know, David, you're the second jam kicker in a row

to bring a Bob Dylan track to his list. I had heard some of your jams, and I thought, I actually had planned to do Sunday Morning Coming Down by Johnny Cash as one of my songs. And then you had Mike Stafford, who happens to be one of my favorite talk show hosts in here, and he did it, so I thought, oh no, I better do it. But you know, someone has done this song. Yeah, I wasn't 100% sure, but this song, it's one of the ones I was talking about where it can come and go on the list, but right now it really speaks to me and where things are in my professional and, to a certain extent, my personal life.

And it's, you know, I'm locked in tight, I'm out of rage. I used to care, but things have changed. And in our business, things have changed so much that my job now even though it's still enjoyable it bears no resemblance really to what it used to be and the whole business is different and you're seeing friends tossed out of work and uh it's yeah it's sometimes it's really hard to maintain your enthusiasm. And this song really kind of sums it up for me. This song won Bobby an Oscar.

This is the Wonder Boys soundtrack. You know what? I probably did listen to it. Who was it? You know what? I have to Google this during the next song. Because that strings right. Did you talk about that with your guest?

Yeah. Because it seems to me that. I know that because it's in my head. So I know it would have been in my head then. You know what I mean? I must have heard it. And so that's why I kept it though, because it really sums up a lot of the things I feel now about how things are going.

And whereas before in my first draft of my top 10, I do like country music, certain country music. I'm a huge Johnny Cash fan. And Sunday morning coming down is, I always call it the sports writer's anthem because it's about a guy who's just gotten wasted on Saturday night and is staggering around on a Sunday morning trying to feel half human. So then I subbed it with Cold Cold Heart by Hank Williams. Spoiler alert. Oh, no. To me, that's another of the ultimate country songs, even though Hank was no model husband,

about a mean, cruel woman who treated him bad. Sort of the typical country lament. But your cold, cold heart demanded 10 songs, so I eventually dropped it. You know, you're really good. I thought when Stafford kicked out the jams, I had the same thought, which is, he's really good at this, but you're

good at this. Because what we're getting is... Well, I love music. You know, and it's coming across and it's like, this is a genre I'm not as like, I don't know a lot about Howlin' Wolf and this is like, I'm being as like, I don't know a lot about Howlin' Wolf and this is like, I'm being educated here. So this is fantastic. Well, I hope so, yeah. Yeah, I always sort of prided myself

that my tastes are not quite in the mainstream. I always tell people, I don't know anything in pop culture that happened after 1982. Oh, that's funny. Although that Bob Dylan song's after 1982. Yes, yes. But let's kick out another jam

and while this jam is kicking out I will find out who chose Things Have Changed as one of their jams prior to you so I'll come back with that intelligence here's another David Schultz jam you push me when I'm falling And you kick me when I'm down I guess I miss my calling

Cause I should have been a clown How much more How much more Could I stand When you pour in water On a driving man I like that Put me on the right track

And then you let me down Stab me in the back Yes you do baby Every time I turn around Put a smile on my face Won't you try Just try to understand You're falling for Pouring water on a drowning man, James Carr. Well, you talked about the quintessential country lyrics.

These are the quintessential blues lyrics. I was going to say, are you the drowning man? Sometimes I feel like it, yeah. This man's vocals, and I have to plead ignorance. I don't know James Carr. A lot of people don't, and I came to him late. He's considered, again, one of the great unknown vocalists. But he had some personal issues

which worked against his commercial success. Just listen to that. I'm a drowning man. Don't let me drown. Oh, baby, I'm a drowning man. So it was a blues guy, no surprise. He grew up in Memphis, and he was the one I was talking about earlier. He's the son of a Baptist preacher, and that's how he got into music. And he became semi-well-known or semi-known in the mid-60s. His career success was fairly brief, mid to late 60s.

That wasn't his biggest hit. It was a song called The Dark End of the Street, which was more soulful. And that really, really showed off his vocals as well as a real sort of soulful sort of song. And he unfortunately was bipolar, which wasn't really treated well even in the 60s. And it affected his career to a great degree. You can buy, as a matter of fact, because his career, his recording career was so relatively short that basically all of his recorded output fits on one CD of about 25 songs. And you can get it online, I think the usual sources, and it's called the Complete Gold Wax

Recordings. And so his illness got such, his recording output kind of dried up in the early seventies and he continued to tour. And then in 1979 in Japan, he froze on stage. I think it was a combination of his bipolar disorder and, um, a few too many antidepressants. And he went, uh, back home and lived with his sister for a number of years in, uh, I think Memphis. And he was in and out of the hospital, too, because of his bipolar. And then a guy, a well-known writer, Peter Juralnik, who's written a number of seminal books on music.

He wrote a book called Sweet Soul Music about a bunch of, I think, unknown acts. And that got him back in the public eye, and he started touring again in the late 80s. And he continued to tour for a number of years and um i believe he died in 2001 in his late 50s of liver cancer so he had a you know kind of a tragic personal life but uh gosh what a talent if i had uh pipes like that i would never shut up oh yeah yeah i mean he mean, he's one of my favorite vocalists. He belongs right up there with guys like Roy Orbison and Sam Cooke. Now, here's the

another jam. It's the aforementioned Cooled Cooled Heart Hank Williams. Did I leave that on the list? Yeah. I'm staring right at it. Are you kidding? Yeah, that's why I said spoiler alert. I still got 10. I'm like, yeah. Oh, my. I thought you knew that. Sorry.

Yeah, it's on your list here. Well, it's being played, and you'll have to talk about it again. Yeah. I try so hard, my dear, to show that you were my every dream yet you're afraid each thing I do is just some evil scheme a memory from your lonesome past keeps us so far apart Why can't I free your doubtful mind And melt your cold, cold heart Another love before my time Made your heart sad and blue

And so my heart is paying now for things i didn't do in anger unkind words are said that make the teardrops Why can't I free your doubtful mind And melt your cold, cold heart Tell us again why you love Cold, Cold Heart by Hank Williams. You don't get any more country than this. As I said, Hank was not the greatest husband. He had too many other problems going on, one of which was, well, he was quite a womanizer, I guess.

And that's why, you know, along with his other substance abuse issues. But, yeah, I mean, that sort of sums up country music to me, that this cold, cruel woman won't warm up to poor Hank. I have another, well, Hank is one of my favorite country music performers, but

in the 80s, there was a tremendous TV movie made about Hank called The Show He Never Gave. And it was about what would have happened if he hadn't died in the backseat of his limo on the afternoon of New Year's Eve in, what, 1981?

He was 29 years old. That still kills me. He was 29 years old, and he'd already written over 500 songs. And he died of a drug overdose in the back of his car on the way to a concert somewhere in the southern U.S. for New Year's Eve. And this movie sprang from a stage play of the same name,

which was basically would have Hank if he had survived and given this concert. And so in between songs, all this little personal drama of his life was sort of brought out. It was just a wonderful movie. And the guys who did the movie were smart enough to hire the singer and actor who played him on stage, who was a guy named Sneezy Waters,

who's a folk musician from Ottawa. And I've forgotten his real name, but you can find him. It's not Sneezy? He's still performing in Ottawa. You can find him online as Sneezy Waters. I think it's Sneezy Waters and his either wonderful band or magnificent band. It's some sort of kind of irony there. But this would have been in the mid-'80s because I hadn't been married very long.

And my wife and I went to a little club on Eglinton. It was Don Mills and Eglinton, roughly the Inn on the Park Hotel and it was in a little building and at that time was sort of a nice little folk club and we went because Sneezy Waters was playing and this was probably a little before the movie came out and a little after he'd been touring with his play. So that night in this little club, he did most, a lot of Hank Williams songs. And I actually got to meet him, although the circumstances of our meeting were a little unusual. We were standing next to each other at the urinals. That's always awkward, right?

Yeah. So I sort of got talking to him and told him how much I enjoyed his playing Hank Williams. So he was a very nice fellow. And I never, just one of those things I haven't forgotten. Oh, that's great. Just to circle back a bit here, the other gentleman who played Things Have Changed during his jam kicking was Larry Fedorek.

That's right, that's right. I remember listening to that now because I don't know Larry, but I loved his picks on kicking out the jams. Yeah, actually, you're right. He's right in the up with the Mount Rushmore of jam kickers. You're on there now. Stafford's on there.

And yes, Larry Fedorek is on there. But let us kick out another David Schultz jam. I've been blowing I've been going Burning up the highway Never slowing down Always doing things my way Oh yes I did I want the drummer

To play that funky beat I want him to hit it like a Mississippi mule Everybody Just keep the groove We got to keep it old school Cause I'm a soul survivor I'm the last of my breed Cause I'm a soul survivor

I'll give you what you need Cause I'm a soul survivor Johnny Rawls, Soul Survivor With a kick in bang Yeah, the lyrics sort of speak to me And the beat too, it's a great beat And it's sort of a great theme to the song This guy's been around, he's still going, he's old school And I'll stay all night, look at you This guy's been around. He's still going. He's old school.

There's a common thread throughout some of your jams here, Dave. I don't want it to be the third episode in a row where I put on my psychiatrist hat. I guess it's my age. I'm the last of my breed Cause I'm a sole survivor I'll give you what you need Cause I'm a sole survivor Let me set you free Oh, I'm a soul Survivor Come on And go with me

We'll be right But you've got a Got a lot of years left in you there, David Unless there's something I don't know You've got a long way to go here Maybe not in my working life I don't know So you won't be caught by surprise, though.

You're ready for anything in that front. Because then I'd be, you didn't see that coming, David? The writing was on the wall, but... My only surprise would be that it took so long.

Earlier we talked about Howard Berger, and so we talked a little bit about Norm Womack and how tough it is to be a certain age and sort of find yourself outside your chosen profession where you've been for decades. It's not easy, but there's a lot of good you can continue to put into the world,

and you've just got to find your place should that happen. Well, some people don't find it or aren't able to find it. I'm lucky enough that I've advanced far enough down the road that when push comes to shove, I could probably survive without having to change careers. I can't say that for sure for a few more years, anyway. I can pay you in beer I can pay you in Great Lakes beer if you come here and co-host with me

well I don't know if you can afford to give out that much beer I'll have to talk to my friends at GLB, Peter Bullitt I'm a survivor oh yes I am since a year ago I'm still going strong I'm a survivor oh yes I am. Six a year though, I'm still going strong. I'm a survivor.

Oh, yes, I am. I'm a survivor. Is this going to be one of those things where it's like, last one out, turn off the lights? Is that what it is in your newspaper world? It seems to be getting that way, doesn't it? Now, the thing about Johnny Rawls that appeals to me, other than

the message in the song, and the fact that it's just a great soul song with a really good beat, is it sort of commercial success or renown, not that he's now a big star or anything,

came sort of late in his life. He was a kind of working, sort of a working stiff, you might call him, in the music business. He was Ovi, the other, he mentions Ovi Wright by name and Little Johnny Taylor. Ovi Wright was a sort of fairly well-known soul act in the 60s and early 70s. Little Johnny Taylor was a blues magician. And Johnny Rawls was a guitarist. I don't believe he's any relation to Lou Rawls, who most people would know.

But Johnny Rawls was a guitarist, and he ran the band for both of those guys. He was kind of their music director. And then later, O.B. Wright died at an early age, and they sort of made the band an act. And Johnny Rawls didn't produce his first solo album until 1996. And he does mention his real age in that song, where he said, 60 years old and still going strong.

And that album was released in 2012. And he put out a number of albums in that period leading up to it. And every one of them was nominated for major blues awards. I don't know if he got a Grammy, but he really got some, not mainstream success, but success in the business. Some recognition. Yeah, it was really good to see. He sounds like, to my ears, there's a little Sam and Dave going on there.

Maybe you're looking for soul man. That sort of soul sort of music. on there? Maybe you're looking for Soul Man. That sort of soul music. The one album I went out and got was that one, Soul Survivor, and there's a number of really good tunes on there. But he's gone in that sort of five-year period,

but leading up to that, a bunch of really good albums came out. Let's kick out another jam. Rock and roll! ¶¶ It's Johnny Winter with Johnny B. Goode. In a lot of ways, this song is a sort of cliché because everybody who wants to be a big guitarist likes to play this song for good reason. And so to me, you've got one of the great guitarists of all time,

one of my favorites, just playing the... Well, we use this word a lot today, but it's not a quintessential guitar song. And, yeah, I was always a big fan of Chuck Berry, too. Both of those guys have passed on in the last couple of years. Chuck Berry, the most recent. Bye-bye. guitar solo And this is the live version. Yeah, this is... I don't know if he ever did a studio version of this song.

Okay, I want to make sure I got the right version here. No, no. He's just showing off there. Come on. Well, hey, who can shred it like Johnny Winter? Wow. I only

got to see him live once. And it was at the height of his career, though. I was lucky. It was in the late 70s at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium. And James Cotton opened for him. One of the great harp players. That was a privilege, too, just to see him plus Johnny Winterfield. So I think the crowd kind of liked that.

So I think the crowd kind of liked that. The other thing Johnny did that maybe he didn't get enough recognition for was that he also was a guy that helped revive or support blues musicians. I think he revived Muddy Waters' career in the late 70s when he produced an album and played guitar on a bunch of Muddy Waters old hits. And the album came to be called Hard Again, and it was sort of inadvertently named by Muddy Waters. It was Johnny's idea, and he went up to Chicago and he got Muddy Waters and his band together.

And sort of Muddy's career, he was getting on, he was probably in his mid-60s then, I think. And his career had been sliding a bit in that, you know, he wasn't playing, getting the big gigs anymore. So Johnny brought them into the studio, and Johnny played guitar, and they went through a bunch of Muddy's old hits. And on that album is a killer version of Manish Povoy with Johnny supplying the guitar. And after the first session, Muddy Waters said, boy, that made my little pee-pee heart again.

Someone said, I think we have a title. That's great. That's great. All right, let's hear your penultimate jam. to me Hey Let your mind go Let yourself be free Let's go back Let's go back Let's go We're on the way back

when I didn't even know you You couldn't have been too much more than 10 I ain't no psychiatrist I ain't no doctor with degrees But it don't take

too much time to see what you're doing to me You better think Think about what you're trying to do to me, yeah. Think, think, think, let your mind go, let yourself be free. Oh, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, Think. I love big voices. I'm not if you keep doing things I don't do Now think, think, think about what you're trying to do to me Oh, oh, oh, think, think, let your mind go, let yourself be free People walk around every day playing games and taking scores

Trying to make other people lose their minds Well, be careful you don't lose your mind Think, think, think about what you're trying to do to me Oh, oh, oh, think, think, let you're trying to do to me Think, think, think about your life to set me free You need me, and I need you Without each other, ain't nothing even possible Think about it baby, what you're trying to do to me Come on baby, think about that one.

Yeah, she was really the queen of soul. Probably, you could say, the queen of rock and roll, too. Just a fabulous voice. I just love her voice. And other singers like Etta James. Etta James, I'd Rather Go Blind, was a late scratch for this one. I'd Rather Go Blind was a late scratch for this one. And this really sort of sums up those kind of real soulful,

powerful voices that I love. I'm a hip-hop fan, and I can tell you the number of songs that have sampled Think are numerous. I mean, it shows up in Public Enemy tracks, a third bass, all over the place. That song gets sampled. It's a classic. Well, it has, you know, it just got so much going for it from lyrics about this sort of wandering man who wants to do what he wants, but just sort of the music to it, the

driving beat, which would certainly suit a lot of the What Little I Know About Mixed Tracks. Quick observation, are you familiar with Brad Fay from Sportsnet? Yes, I know. I don't know him personally, but I know who he is. So he kicked out the jams. And the average length of his jams, I'm going to say he has these epic big jams. They were all like the average length was like eight minutes. Okay. These are big, big jams he brought. But your jams, these blues tracks, sometimes they're just a couple minutes long. Yeah. You get it down and get on to the next one.

Keep people in the blues clubs in the old days, the idea was you had to keep everybody up dancing, playing that devil's music. Well, we say all killer, no filler, I think is what we say. Let's kick out your final jam. me seems every mistake I've made standing here with me. Yeah, I had my moments. I sure didn't make him smile before. This time I said something wrong and he walked right out my door.

Standing here, I feel the air just leave the room he was everything to me let me breathe just let me breathe for a moment Lord, I can't catch my breath since the day he left Won't you bring him home to me? Oh, let me breathe Just let me breathe for a minute Lord, I can't catch my breath since the day he left

Won't you bring him home to me? I know I had reasons Let me breathe, Geneva Magnus. Geneva. And again, just another big voice. Somebody who should have, She's still active. She's about my age. And someone who should have a lot more commercial success than she does,

although she does have a very good career. This album was her first album of original material. It was nominated for a Grammy three years ago. standing there i felt the air just leave the room now i'm down here on my knees let me breathe just let me breathe for a moment lord I can't catch my breath since the day he left. Won't you bring him home to me? Oh, let me breathe. Let me breathe. Just let me breathe for a moment.

Lord, I can't catch my breath since the day he left. Won't you bring him home to me? Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Yeah, let me breathe Just let me breathe for a minute I just can't catch my breath since the day he left Won't you bring him home to me Won't you bring him home to me

Please God, bring him home to me. Please God, bring him home to me. I really struggled whether I should include this song or not. It's very personal. And nobody can speak about grief like Jennifer Magnus. I mean, this song is about a love affair that she ruined, but to me it really talks about grief. She lost both her parents when she was in her teens. She's from the Detroit area, and she was on the streets and in and out of foster homes until a foster mother got her straightened out,

and she eventually had a great career. And this was her, as I said, her first album of original material that came out about three years ago. And I could tell as soon as I heard the song, this is somebody who really knew about grief because, as I said, I struggled whether I should include this because this is the worst week of my year. On November 25th, on Saturday, is my son's birthday. And on November 29th, next Wednesday, is the fifth anniversary of his passing. the fifth anniversary of his passing.

And this song just, it's so accurate on what grief is like. It does take the breath right out of you. And so it, you know, sort of for me this week, it's suitable. And there's a, you know, I'm not the only one that's in this position. You know, obviously my wife. This song, it speaks to her as well, or for her. But there's other people in our business that do the same thing. They've lost sons at an early age. There's Ken Daniels, most recent. Brian Burke.

Grant Kerr, a guy I worked with for years at the Globe and Mail. He lost his son. Dean McNulty, who was the dean of speed over at the Toronto Sun, he lost his son. And now he's doing his own battle with cancer. Scott Oak. So Brian Burke, you know, the list sort of goes on. Even Aaron Davis. And Aaron Davis, her daughter was about the same age as my son.

My son was four days past his 21st birthday. And it just, you know, you develop scar tissue, but it never goes away. And to me, closure is just sort of stupid, empty word. And so I and that's why I asked for this to go last. I didn't know if I could get through it. But this song, it's not something I can listen to go last. I didn't know if I could get through it. But this song, it's not something I can listen to every day, but to me, it's really personal

and has a great deal of meaning for me. Listening to that song and knowing your story, which, by the way, you've been here three times and we've never ever spoken about it. And I just, I'm so sorry. Like, I'm just so sorry that that happened. Yeah, I know.

And I don't, I've never spoken about it much. It's still too difficult for me. And it, you know, but you asked me for songs that meant something. So I thought in the end I'd better include it. When she's singing, yeah, yeah. What's her line before, bring him home to me? Yes, and it's, you know, the air just went out of the room. I'm down on my knees.

Help me breathe. And yeah, there are times when that's exactly how you feel. Thank you for doing this. You're quite welcome. It was my pleasure. you're quite welcome it was my pleasure almost played us out with some Pink Floyd

but I don't do that that brings us to the end of our 284th show you can follow me on Twitter I'm at Toronto Mike and David is at D Schultz. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Brian Gerstein and Paytm is at Paytm Canada.

See you all next week. Thank you.