Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Dwayne Gretzky: Toronto Mike'd #995

Episode Date: February 8, 2022

In this episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Nick Rose and Tyler Kyte about their band Dwayne Gretzky. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, StickerYou, Ridley Funeral Home and Patrons like you.

Welcome to episode 995 of Toronto Mic'd, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Ridley Funeral Home.

Pillars of the community since 1921. And Canna Cabana. The lowest prices on cannabis. Guaranteed. Over 100 stores across the country. Learn more at cannacabana.com. Joining me this week, from the band Dwayne Gretzky, Tyler Kite, and Nick Rose.

Welcome, guys. Thanks for having us. Hello, hello. It's an absolute pleasure. And just before I press record, well, okay, Tyler was a little late, so I'm kind of off the hook there, but I was also a titch late because as I was mentioning to you guys,

I had to get Donovan Bailey out of my basement. And if I step back, like I've been doing this almost 10 years, but if I go like, let's say I go back, let's say 20 years and I just say, hey, Mike, one day you're going to utter this sentence. You booted, I just booted Donovan Bailey from my basement so I could talk to Dwayne Gretzky.

Like, I just want to tell myself that's a sentence I'll say. And it will mean something at the time. And people will be like, oh yeah, I understand. That's how surreal it all is, right? I can imagine he was out in a flash. I'm taking him home. 9.84 seconds, if I have my math right. Was that right?

I believe that sounds right to me. And just before he left, he wanted to remind me and a gentleman named Jason who's with us, he wanted to remind us that he still holds the record for 50 meters indoors. Like apparently he still has the fastest 50 meters indoors ever, Donovan Bailey. Wow wow that's impressive well you guys are impressive and uh because we mentioned donovan bailey though you each get a shot at a donovan bailey story now because we're locked and loaded okay but we'll

start with nick and nick uh i don't know it's up to you how long you want to make this story but I thought it was interesting you have had an encounter with the one-time world's fastest man Donovan Bailey that's right so in 1996 I was 15 or 16 or so and my family moved to Doha Qatar my dad was a college professor and he got a job there so we lived there for a few years when I was in high school. And so the summer of 96, obviously, was the Atlanta Olympics when he won gold and had the world record. So he was, you know, he was this national hero. And my family, like many others, watched, you know, that race and were super jazzed about it. And so when I moved to Doha, Qatar, I think maybe a year after that, he came to Doha for some race of some kind. I don't remember exactly what it was. And there was only at the time, there was only like one really nice hotel. And my other Canadian friend and I, I remember we were like, let's call this nice hotel and just ask to speak to Donovan Bailey because he's probably staying there. And sure enough, we called and they put us through to his room. And these like two 16 year olds had a

conversation with Donovan Bailey where we were just like, Oh, hey, man, like such big fans. Welcome to Doha. Like if you want to hang out, we'll we'll come to the hotel and hang out. And he was very polite and kind of, you know, nixed the whole hangout idea, probably wisely. But we were just so pumped that we got to chat with Donovan Bailey on the phone. So that's my Donovan Bailey story. Okay, that's a great Donovan Bailey story. And I'm wondering if Tyler's going to beat you here. But before Tyler tells his Donovan Bailey's story. I have a clip. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. So let me check my archive of rare audio and see what I have. Okay, let's listen to this for about a minute here.

Hey. Oh, oh. Find the oil plug, Alicia? Yeah, but I'm having problems. Here, let me give you a hand. Oh! Oh! This is disgusting! If you think this is dirty work, imagine cleaning up after a rhino.

I had to do it. Let me tell you, it can be a really big job, if you know what I mean. Need any help? No, stay away from me. Actually, could you help me bring this out to the front? Yeah, I can. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. bring this out to the front yeah i can oh oops hey please yeah i've never told you in a great cold story. Give me a hug! Okay, Tyler.

The male voice in that duo there, that's you, buddy. That's Puberty Boy, as Alicia would have called me at that time. So before we even find out what the heck that was, and then eventually we'll tie this to your Donovan Bailey story,

but you referred to, and I hope I don't mispronounce her name i should know how to pronounce her name elisha elisha how do we pronounce her name alicia alicia so yeah tell us all who is this alicia in that clip with you um that's alicia cuthbert, who went on to do lots of big movies and now has a family with Dion Phaneuf, former captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Right. Yeah, I remember that day in a garage very well, actually, now that you play it.

But who's doing all the synth work on that? Is that what I want to know? There's so many sounds going on. So what show is that? That's Popular Mechanics for Kids, which I hosted from 1998 to 2001, 2002

pitch. A long time ago now. A positive experience for you? It sounds like fun in the clip. It was an incredible experience. Nick and I both grew up in Lindsay, Ontario and were both actors at a young age and I had an opportunity

I did a bunch of different TV shows but getting booked on Popular Mechanics was like kind of like a dream come true and I got to just abandoned grade 8 for the last two months of school, which was kind of, it was awesome, but it was also hell in grade eight for me at the time. So it was really nice to just leave and do something different. And the very first episode that I shot

of the show, the very first day we flew to Atlanta and I got to race Donovan Bailey. I got to actually one-on-one race him. I had a 15-meter head start, and we ran a 100-meter race, and I think I lost by about 15 meters. Okay, wait. Did you say 15, 1-5, or 5-0? Yeah, 1-5, 15 meters is my head start that I had. I'm actually surprised it would be even close uh at 15 meter head start this was sorry this was 100 meter race 100 meter race i would have had you i would have given you a 50 50 meter head start i'm a pretty quick i'm pretty quick i've seen tyler run and

he's yeah he's he's i mean i didn't see him run when he was 15 how old were you 13 13 wow wow i imagine you were a quick 13 year old i was quick but the amazing thing is when you when you watch that uh episode for those of you out on youtube looking for pmk donovan bailey episode as soon as the soon as the gun goes off to start by the time i'm out of the blocks he's, he's already five meters past the blocks. It's amazing to see what it's like against the best in the world. Oh, and he's not going full out either. I doubt he's giving it his 10 seconds flat all there. But that's my Donovan Bailey story.

I got to race him, but I actually liked Nick's prank call Donovan Bailey story. I don't think I've ever heard that. Well, I'm sitting here now at the TMDS studio, and I'm wondering who had the call Donovan Bailey story. I don't think I've ever heard that. I'm sitting here now at the TMDS studio, and I'm wondering who had the better Donovan Bailey story. Nick's and Qatar calling up and having a conversation with Donovan. There's that. And then you racing him for Popular Mechanics for kids. Honestly, it's a tie.

I can't make a choice here. Wow. I was going to say we let the listeners decide but i'm not gonna hold my breath all right tweet at us uh let us know maybe i should do a twitter poll uh so twitter poll would be a shout out to cam gordon who is a frequent guest on toronto mic but uh he often uh appears with his friend his friend from thorn lee whose name is stew stone and when i look at the Tyler Kite IMDB page, it's kind of Stu Stone-esque

because Stu Stone was a very popular child actor who appeared in lots of things. Have you ever heard the name Stu Stone before? I don't know if I have, but I'm looking him up right now. Dude, look it up. He was in Donnie Darkoo for goodness sakes as uh cool jake gyllenhaal's best friend but uh your uh imdb page so let me ask and we're going to get into duane gretzky i have a lot of duane gretzky questions but nick did you eventually uh retire as

an actor to focus on music i i i mean i worked I suppose I worked as an actor, you know, I was a child actor to some degree, the same, the same with Tyler. So I was in like when Tyler was in the, was young Tommy in the musical Tommy. And at the same time I was in the musical rag time in Toronto. Um, so we both kind of had this weird music theater history when we were kids, which is a bit odd that there's not many parts for kid actors in these like big musicals in Toronto. And two sort of like Hicks from Lindsay were like the two kids. And Lindsay, this is near Peterborough, right? Yeah. And then I, you know know i acted a little bit i kind

of came in and out i went to theater school and trained as an actor and i i did lots of uh you know commercials and things and then i i was and some bits on various tv shows and movies i was in the show orphan black that was kind of the last uh big thing that was a critical uh smash or yeah or i can't say it but it's a big hit. Yeah, it was. It was great. It was a great show to be a part of it. I was really proud to be a part of that.

And and then over the past couple of years, Dwayne was getting busier and busier. And I kind of just acting did kind of take a bit of a backseat. I didn't really have time. Which makes sense. And Tyler, you're still you still consider yourself. You're still acting, right? Which makes sense. And Tyler, you still consider yourself, you're still acting, right? Yeah, similar to Nick in our progression of moving from acting towards music full-time and then not having time for it when we send our schedules out to our agents.

When we're busy with Dwayne, there's not really much opportunity, but I still am trying to make sure that I'm in touch with it. It's something that I've been doing since I was 10 years old, so going on 30 years now that I've been acting. And I'm really grateful to be able to do it. And when you get cast in something, it's super fun. It's a rush. So I still want to put myself in a position to be able to book roles. And, yeah, I guess I'm still kind of at it. What's the biggest movie or TV show

in terms of popularity that you think you've ever appeared on? I mean, Popular Mechanics for Kids was like an institution for so many. Nick and I played in a band called Sweet Thing for seven years. And we toured the country lots. We did lots of university shows.

And it was at the time, I would have been between 23 and 26. And the kids who grew up watching Popular Mechanics for Kids were all in university. So there was lots of recognition from that. And because of the success that Alicia Cuthbert and Jay Baruchel have had beyond the show, it's kind of made it a bit of a Canadian institution. So being a part of that is pretty wonderful. I wouldn't know. I'd have to look through, you know, is Due South popular?

Do people love Due South? I think so. I think that's a big deal, Due South. I think because not only is it a big monster hit in Canada, but it had that USA distribution for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's lots of great Canadian shows that I've been able to be a part of.

And I just in 2020 got to shoot a Disney movie called Spin. And it was kind of the first time I was one of the older actors, you know, always being the child actor. This was fun to be on the other side of things. And there was lots of kids in the movie so i just got to shoot that i think it's a really great movie um and i got to play a dj it was super fun amazing okay amazing now were you ever on degrassi the next generation well nick and i were both in a tv show called instant star which was like the CTV show. It was the

same company that did Degrassi that did Instant Star. So we basically, Nick and I actually got to shoot with Aubrey Graham, who is now known as Drake. Wow. Because he came on to Instant Star for a couple episodes. And then I think

for Degrassi, I actually sing the theme song at the end of Degrassi for a bunch of the seasons with this really kind of acoustic, stripped-down version of their theme song. Well, let's hear it now. Let's listen. Of course I'm prepared for this.

Ready, Tyler? Here we go. Oh, goodness. Oh, no. It's short, darn. Sounds Oh, no. It's short, Dory. I know I can make it through Sounds great, Tyler. Thanks, Nick.

And if I hold out I know I can make it through I know I know I can make it through Linda Schuyler. Steven Stone. The quick story that goes with that is I went in to record some songs for Instant Star

and then they had been working on a new theme song for Degrassi with a new singer. And I just said, here, can you send this to them? I had this one simple version of the, and they just sent that like quick one take message. And then they just use it. I thought it was like, Oh great,

let's record it. They were like, no, we're just going to use that version. And I was like, no, that version is like, it's not,

it's not good, but I guess they liked something in the moment about it. And then. Wow. It has a raw vulnerability that appealed to them well done okay so i don't i don't think i i'm checking my archives have i had drake on no apparently i haven't yet had drake on but i have had jay goldsby on so nice fotm jay goldsby and uh melissa demarco played the uh principal on degrassi next generation i believe for a period

of time there so uh there you go that's my connection to that's all i got for Degrassi Next Generation, I believe, for a period of time there. So there you go. That's my connection. That's all I got for Degrassi. But it's great to be a part of the franchise, which is being rebooted yet again. It is. So maybe we'll get both of you guys back

for roles on the new Degrassi. We did in our band Sweet Thing, they did a Derassy movie and we did a little cameo in it where we were buskers in the street playing that song so there's a little that's right so nick and i both appeared in the digrassy movie see i forgot about that this is why you got to do the deep dives to uncover nuggets like that which is amazing okay so it sounds like you're from the same neck of the woods and you're both into like a musical theater. So, and it sounds like sweet thing. Is that the name of the band you guys are? Okay.

So tell me the origin story. Like how does, how does Dwayne Gretzky begin? What is the Superman Dwayne Gretzky origin story? Do you want to, so, okay. So it's a bit, it's a bit convoluted, but I suppose like, so yeah, Tyler and I were in Sweet Thing, and we were signed to EMI, and we toured the country a couple times and put out one record. And then it kind of drifted apart as bands, bands do. But near the end of our Sweet Things time together, Tyler and I were living in the same apartment building downtown toronto and we had some other musician friends who uh you know were also living in that building we were friends with the superintendent so we kind of had the you know run of this building so we were just bringing our friends getting them helping them get apartments in this building and there was in the basement of this building was the old boiler room we sort of

like started this little jam space where we had set up a bunch of gear and we would just go down very casually this group of friends tyler myself and and uh some others actually two of the the two of the people that had rooms there were rich knox who was one of our original drummers who now plays drums in Danko Jones and Brian Murphy who played bass and always. And then his, has his band Kiwi junior. Has a band Kiwi junior. So that was sort of like part of the original crew and we were, we would just go down and for fun we would play and learn like Tom Petty covers and Bruce Springsteen covers just kind of for kicks.

We all had our other things going on. was just like this was for fun it's such wholesome activities like to hear this it's uh it's kind of nice to hear like okay this is the activity these young people choose to partake in you know in the boiler room or whatever like yeah with lots of settlers of Catan going on and lots of watching the Leaf game and just getting together casually. And because I was the drummer in Sweet Thing, it was really fun when we would jam down there in the space. I never really wanted to play drums. I wanted to sing and do that.

Anyway, continue on, Nick. I mean, that's basically it. So for lack of a better word, it started very organically. Like it was just, there wasn't much thought put into it it wasn't like a planned thing we're going to become this cover band it was just friends friends hanging and learning songs and and doing it for fun which is the best right because we hear so many stories of like uh orchestrated bands like i'm not just talking about like the monkeys where you you know you audition for it or the many boy bands from NSYNC to Backstreet Boys to New Kids on the Block where you're like filling the role or whatever

like it's really nice to hear the story of like an authentic organic happening for a band like Dwayne Gretzky and our superintendent uh Mark Frazier um at the time he was our biggest fan of of this bunker bunker band and he was an biggest fan of this bunker band. And he was an actor and was doing a play. And so he asked, they were doing a fundraiser for the play at the Cadillac Lounge. And he said, does this bunker band want to come and play at this event? And so the very first show we ever played with the band that was to become Dwayne Gretzky,

we were called Mark Frazier and the Bunker Boys was our very first title. And that was our first show would have been like 2009. Wow, probably. Wow. And at that point, we had built up a catalog of songs, just because we liked them. So it wasn't like, Oh, what should we learn? You're like, Oh, we have to do my best Friend's Girl by The Cars and we have to do Thunder Road and 10th Avenue Freeze Out by Springsteen

and we have to do, we already had like a bunch of tunes that we loved that we felt connected to as a group. And so even to this day, a lot of that, what Dwayne is, is kind of built on that

original repertoire and the love that we have for those songs. So do you guys have similar tastes in music then? Like you both kind of dig the same jams? Or do you, like, how did that work? I think so, for the most part. At least there's a lot of overlap.

And I think the way that Dwayne Gretzky has evolved in the course of 10 years, we've, you know, we've added a lot of members and people have come in and out of the group. But I think the, one of the sort of sort of connecting tissue things is that we all have a wide array of interests musically. And so there is a lot of overlap. And there's no real music snobbery or we're not really interested in finding this niche little esoteric thing. We all love lots of music, including weird esoteric thing. We all love lots of music,

including weird esoteric things. But we come together to kind of celebrate these like bangers. So I'm going to play just some jams, like just a little bit of it to give people a taste, just in case there are some listeners who are like, you know, what do these Dwayne Gretzky fellows sound like? And we're going to do that. But I do have questions about the name duane gretzky so uh

and then i have a fun little list of similarly named bands that uh the aforementioned cam gordon put together for me just off the top of his head but where like when and where does this bunker band become duane gretzky well we we were were still pretty full time with sweet thing at the time. And, and I remember we just started like wanting to book shows for this bunker band, um, to fill in the gaps because we didn't have like jobs and stuff. And so we, the next show we did, we were called the new twigs, which is an awful name referring to a new hockey stick. Um, and then we did a show at the Dakota where we didn't really, we didn't have a name,

but you could tell that it felt like something was kind of coming together with this. And someone in the audience during that show just said, who are you guys? And Nick just said into the mic, we're Dwayne Gretzky. So you didn't know that was coming, Tyler. Like when Dwayne said that, that's the first time you heard it. When I think back to it, I think it might have been something that Nick had said before at times as like a joke, like it might have come out of your head at some

point saying Dwayne Gretzky for some as like, there were a lot of puns in the band, lots of like, silly puns. And so that wasn't out of the ordinary for Nick to say something like that. But when he said it, it didn't stick with us. It wasn't until someone sent us a YouTube clip of us from that night, and they had labeled it as Dwayne Gretzky, and we kind of saw it written down, and we're just like, I guess we're a band now. It felt like that's what actually made us a band, having that name and seeing it.

So again, it happened very spontaneously, and I think that's a good thing and nick were you just relieved that you know tyler and the rest of the collective uh didn't hate the name like you know i still don't know if they do or not all right for the record then for the record before you continue tyler uh do you love the name dwayne gretzky like are you any regrets about naming your band dwayne Gretzky? Zero. And I think the band named us.

It was great that Nick said that, but when I saw it, I was like, we're a band now. That's a perfect name for a cover band. It's Canadian. It represents greatness. We're playing these songs that are epic and great, but it's not taking itself too seriously. So I think it kind of just hits all the marks.

And it's a cover unto itself. No, I mean, as again, when I first saw Dwayne Gretzky live, like the name was just, oh, that's just the name. So here is a list of similarly named bands and acts. And again, Cam Gordon threw this together and DM'd it to me on Twitter here. So let me move to my Twitter feed here. Okay,wayne gretzky the obvious one and i'm curious how if this is the band that inspired it but the obvious one is gnarles barkley any chance that was sort of

the spark uh maybe subconsciously i think that was a you know sure that was probably like haha that's fun because I go ahead go ahead no no no I think I mean I guess this is the same spirit of like not taking yourself too seriously you know like band names are are really hard like there's some terrible you know it's like it's really hard to think of a cool band name most are lame if they're you know especially if they're taking themselves too seriously so maybe yeah when narls barkley came out it was refreshing like yeah sure whatever narls barkley that's great so yeah it probably did inspire us to some subconsciously but it wasn't it wasn't deliberate remember the original name for pearl jam was mucky blaylock but they they then had then they had a moment right yeah that's true story and that's why the

the debut album's called 10 that was mookie's uh number so they named it 10 after mookie blaylock's number but uh they actually just before i guess they had their main streamer their main label release they changed it because they were worried about you know trouble, trouble from the real Mookie Blaylock would have issues with it. Now, they didn't change it to like Cookie Blaylock. That's not bad. If anybody wants Cookie Blaylock, you can credit me. So, let me just continue the list though. Because Norris Barkley is the big one.

We have Norris Barkley. Hoodie Allen. Chet Faker. Joy Orbison. John Cougar. And I'm just reading this name. I don't, this one's, John Cougar, and I'm just reading this name. I don't, this one's John Cougar Concentration Camp. That's a terrible name.

I just want to say that's a terrible name. I'm just reading the list here. Brutal. But here's a name that, here's a name I know. Here's a name that's more popular that people know. The Dandy Warhols. Oh yeah. So the Dandy Warhols, of course, is a spin on Andy Warhol.

Now I'm just looking down here real quickly. VP of Sales says there's a band named Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., which is funny, and that looks like the end of the story. But again, you call yourself Dwayne Gretzky, so now I need to ask the obligatory follow-up question, which is does Dwayne Gretzky have an opinion on this? Sorry, who? We've been lucky enough to be included in the,

like he booked us, or somebody booked us, for his winery opening in Niagara. So we got to meet him, and he did a speech from the stage where we played with the Dwayne Gretzky kick drum logo behind him, which makes me so happy. And as Nick says, he didn't give us a cease and desist order, so I think it's all good. We dodged a bullet.

It's the opposite of a cease and desist. He's endorsing you by booking you for his sanctioned winery gig. To me, that is his way of not without saying the words, he's basically given you his blessing. Exactly. Thank you, Wayne. We love you. Our godfather.

We also got to sing the national anthem at a Leaf game once, which was exciting. We played, I think it was an MLSC party, and Brendan Shanahan was there and i remember he just walked up to the stage during our show and gave was it you nick or yeah he gave you like a piece of paper he gave me a piece of paper like it was his business card it was like brendan shanahan president of mlsc and he had he just he handed it to me and he had written on it uh anthem he and he gave me he gave me the card and just kind of looked me in the eye i think because during that show

we had played and at one point in between songs we were kind of like hey this is really fun if you guys want us to come sing the anthem we will do it and uh and then you know 10 15 minutes later i'd forgotten that one of us had even said that 10 or 15 minutes later brendan shanahan walks up and hands me his business card and on which he'd written the anthem and he sort of just like looks at me in the eye and he nods and he smiles and honestly my first reaction was i looked at this thing in the middle of a show it was brendan shanahan like i was a huge hockey fan growing up i was like this is so cool that he's handing me this thing and he'd written anthem on it i'd completely forgotten we made any mention of singing the national anthem and i honestly in

that moment was like does he want us to sing the anthem right you just break into old canada thank god i didn't but i honestly was like oh my god is this what he wants and then we ended up singing the anthem that's amazing and it ties into where i saw you perform once which i'll get to in just a moment uh but the uh quick brendan shanahan thing is that he was always my very favorite nhl player who never played for my leafs so i don't know if you have one but like you know you always you know you cheer for laundry as jerry seinfeld says so whoever's wearing that Leafs jersey, I would root for it because this was my team.

I grew up here in Toronto. But Shanahan was always the guy. And primarily, not only because I loved how he played, which was kind of that Gordie Howe hat trick style, which is like he'll score the goals. He scored 50 in a season. But he wasn't afraid to get in a fight. He was a tough player.

He would play for Team Canada, whatever, but he went to my high school. That was the big thing that sparked it all. He was a mimico. He was a mimico guy, but Michael Power was at where Dundas and Bluer, but not the one where

Bishop Morocco is. There's two. Let's talk about Toronto geography here. The one in etobicoke uh he went to michael power high school so shout out to shanny there shout out to shanny so where i saw you guys and we're going to start playing some jams here but uh i actually let me show you something all right so i here what can you see here so that's actually a 45 of okay blue jays but here what else what else do i have here what do i have here so this is like a an old 45 of the whole town's talking about the blue jays and then the 10th anniversary talk in baseball long story short is diehard jays fan and so in love with the drive of 85 because I'm older than you guys and 1985 the

drive of 85 that was my team I watched or listened to every game and every time I think about that team I get a like just get happy like that nice nostalgic smile or whatever so when I heard there was a tribute to the drive of 85 happening at the dome. Like I had to be there. Like they were going to reunite as many players as possible. So I'm at the dome and this is only a few years ago. I don't know when we're going back to, you'll know better than me, but playing live at this drive of 85 fest was Dwayne Gretzky.

That was you guys. And you were great. It was crazy. We did. We, I think we played three games, right. And that would have been 2018. Maybe, maybe four, maybe four. I don't know. know, it was crazy. I think we played three games, right? And that would have been 2018? Maybe four, maybe four.

I don't remember. I thought it was three. Yeah, that was a really fun, like that's one of the, you know, my favorite parts of this band is we've got to do so many really cool things that we're so grateful for. Like we went up to Alert.

We played at literally the North Pole once. And the Blue Jays games was another one of those surreal moments where we're there on the flight deck thing, playing Bohemian Rhapsody and looking out and there's 30,000, you know, it's like we're playing in the freaking Coliseum. Right. So, so honored to have gotten to do that. And we're, I'm a big blue Jays fan also. And I,

a friend of mine texted me, I think, shortly after we played and was just like, Buck Martinez just said the words Dwayne Gretzky on air. And honestly, that was like, that's what did it for me. It was like, the experience was amazing. But then I have such admiration for Buck Martinez. I love Buck Martinez. Sure.

The fact that he said Dwayne Gretzky really made my day. That would be it. And this is what made my day. Quick clip. Hi, I'm George Bell. You listen to Toronto Mike. There you go. George Bell says the Toronto Mike.

We used to, growing up, I think my dad called him George Ding-a-ling once, and we thought that was the funniest thing in the world. So we always, and no disrespect to George Bell, but it was just, that got me laughing. Well, he was fiery. You know, George Bell was a fiery guy, and, you know, he's the guy who famously said that the fans could kiss his purple ass, is what he said.

Although I think when that showed up in the newspapers, I think it had been modified to kiss my purple ass is what he said. Although I think when that showed up in the newspapers, I think it had been modified to kiss my purple butt, but it was definitely not butt, he said. But yeah, I loved George Bell growing up. And I'm not sure if it's the same game, that Drive of 85 game. I might've got a, did I get a George Bell jersey that day? Do you have any idea?

Were they handing out like, were they handing out replica, like old school powdered blue jerseys that day? I don't remember. I will say that just a bit of a tangent, but I was always upset with Blue Jays announcers that when Greg Zahn hit a home run, they never said going, going, Zahn.

That was a huge missed opportunity. Greg Zahn. I once saw him. He hit a walk-off grand slam at the Dome on a Father's Day, and it was there with my two oldest kids. And it's like one of those things where that's it. He's off the hook for any indiscretions now or whatever happens going forward because you don't see a lot of walk-off grand slams in Blue Jay history,

but that was one of them. So going, going Zahn would have been fantastic. Similarly, Jake Gardner, the defenseman for the Toronto Maple Leafs, he played for the Leafs for several years and he was a beautiful skater, like really fast skater. Why did the Leaf announcers never refer to him

as the Gardner Expressway? Another like huge missed opportunity, fun nickname. Well, the guy who would have said that would have been Andy Frost. That's my Andy Frost. I'm working on it. I think,

go ahead. Yeah, that is good. Well, you know, he's, his son is in the NHL. So shout out to Morgan Frost of the Philadelphia Flyers.

But yeah. And I didn't know that. Now, you know, he, if you want fun, useless facts, you're on the right podcast here.

Okay, before I go any further, there's so much ground to cover because I want to just give people a little taste and I don't even know. How about you guys choose? Do you want to hear a little... And I love how it sounds live. It captures the energy

and then I want to talk about how badly I miss live music. But Blinded by the Light because I feel like you guys kick ass at all these big Springsteen jams. Or you can call me Al, Paul Simon. Which one would you like me to just spin a bit here before we talk further?

Your choice. Dealer's choice. Shoot from the hip. Wow. Okay, this is from the Dakota Tavern. So quite a while ago. We're going way back on this one. So we'll get a taste of this, and then I'll bring it down and we'll talk.

Is this 2012 or 2011? I don't know. But I love the crowd noise in this mix, because it really does, like, when you hear this, it makes you want to go to a live show. Here we go. And I realize now, did I introduce this? Again, it is a Springsteen song, but of course you're not doing the Springsteen version of Blinded by the Light.

Did I introduce it as a Springsteen jam? Well, it is. He wrote it. No, he wrote it. We're doing the Manfred Mann version. You're definitely doing the Manfred Mann version, which, epic. But when you take on these big Bruce Springsteen jams that you do take on uh honestly like you know sure there's bruce springsteen and you can go see bruce but when

you're at a live show just the whole participation like the back and forth with the audience as i hear in this crowd like awesome that's awesome i mean i feel like these shows this was our very first summer playing as dwayne gretzky and i feel like this is where Dwayne Gretzky was born in a lot of ways. And we were discovering who we were, what was working, how to surprise the audience, how to challenge ourselves. And the joy is there. Those were Tuesday nights. Every one of those nights, that's a Tuesday night. And we did, I think we did 12 Tuesday nights in a row at the Dakota.

We sold the very first one out, and that blew our minds, and then every single one after that sold out with a lineup down the street, and it was just something that it was the right time. It was the right place. We had the right group of people. During that summer, we had many band members join because they were just there, and it felt like it was like all of a sudden a sax player's on stage.

We didn't even know. I met Edwin Sheard, who was playing sax with us at that time, when he just got up on stage one time to play because he knew somebody else there. And it was just like those were really fun times, and we all made like $20 each for those shows. But I can hear in my voice that I'm trying so hard at that time, and I feel like in a lot of ways we've gotten better as musicians.

I will play some more recent performances before we say goodbye. There's something about that spirit that's infectious and that's what it's all about still in a lot of ways. Love it so much. And here, so again, we'll talk more about the band and and where it's going i have a question about uh the material authorship etc but quick note here i know you guys are toronto-based right are you yes maybe you're not yeah tyler lives in hamilton but we're toronto-based okay uh shout out to the hammer by the way tom wilson was just over here i feel like he's the

honorary mayor of hamilton so he really is have you how like i know kovitz kind of messed a lot of this up and we'll get to that as well but would you like is it fair to say you could bump into uh you could bump into tom wilson just randomly walking the streets of hamilton on a yeah he's he's a pretty available guy i see him at lots of events he's really generous and kind with his time and uh he's not too cool for school you know like he's he's very sweet and endearing and he's bigger than life you know and um he's yeah he brings a lot of confidence to to the people that he's around in Hamilton. I've been able to... I got to play drums with him for a show in Hamilton, and he's awesome.

And his voice, he doesn't need a microphone or a PA system. He's the loudest guy in the room. And yeah, he's fantastic. No argument from me. I'm a big Tom... Great guy, but great, great great great performer as well and uh love that guy and you know what he he visited i think he visited and i'm just pointing out like you're toronto based only because we're doing this on zoom today but when i do finally meet you guys

uh just like tom wilson you're gonna get a large lasagna from palma pasta so a frozen lasagna will be yours from palma Pasta. Thank you, Palma. And Tom Wilson himself will tell you, I can't do it, Tom. I don't know if you guys... I can't do it. Can you? I can't... I don't have that register in my voice. You've got a good Andy Frost, but your Tom Wilson

leaves a little to be desired. Because Andy Frost is Tom Wilson plus Kermit the Frog. That's Andy Frost. That makes sense. I hope he doesn't hear that. Okay. So also I'll have some fresh craft beer for you from Great Lakes Brewery. They're a Southern Etobicoke brewery here and they brew some delicious beers.

So you're going to get some GLB. Amazing. Thank you. I have Toronto Mike stickers for you guys. Courtesy of sticker you.com. So when you guys make up your Dwayne Gretzky stickers and decals and such, I highly recommend the good people at sticker you.com. They're in Liberty Village, but they'll ship it anywhere, even Hamilton.

So beautiful. Check that out. Thank you so much. And I'm not done yet here, because luckily I picked a long song to talk over, so we have lots of time for me to tell you about Ridley Funeral Home. They've helped support this show for many years now, and I want to say Brad Jones at Ridley Funeral Home

just launched a podcast called Life's Undertaking, and I urge you to check it out, because the first episode is actually me interviewing Brad about being a funeral director in Toronto, and it's Undertaking. And I urge you to check it out because the first episode is actually me interviewing Brad about being a funeral director in Toronto. And it's very interesting. So much love to Ridley Funeral Home. And then of course, last but not least, Canna Cabana created by and for people who love weed,

love to smoke it, buy it, chat about it and share it with their friends. But they've got more than just weed at Canna Cabana. They've got bongs and pipes and vapes and dab rigs and grinders and anything else a smoker could ever want. I know they have a Hamilton location. They have a few Toronto locations. There's 100 across the country.

There's always a sale going on. Sign up to the Cabana Club and be the first in the know. So I'm going to turn this up. Actually, we're at the very end, but let's hear it finish. The Dakota Choir. And so I'm listening to this the other day, and it really does a good job of capturing the kind of the live experience with the crowd singing along. And, you know, you got all that participation part.

And then I'm desperately missing live music. I'm wondering what has it been like for you two? and then I'm desperately missing live music. I'm wondering what has it been like for you two? I can only imagine what the COVID-19 pandemic has done to your schedule in terms of playing live with, not with Norils Barkley, but with Dwayne Gretzky. So like, what have you guys been up to during the pandemic? Well, we've been actually, we've been lucky

in a lot of ways because um we had just moved into this new rehearsal space uh at the end of 2019 and when the pandemic hit just like everyone in the world we all had an opportunity to stand back take a deep breath and recalibrate a lot of things in our lives and everybody kind of took interests in different ways, which was kind of cool to see. But we also got to continue to do some Dwayne Gretzky things. And we started live streaming shows from our space. And we were lucky to be somewhat busy in December of 2020. We did a bunch of shows for different events that wanted live stream music. And then we did a New Year's Eve show, which we kind of went all in on,

no idea what to expect. And it ended up being the biggest show we've ever done. We reached more people that night than we've ever reached, opened up new audiences and new markets. And so that's a real silver lining for us. And it came from tons and tons of hard work on everyone's part to just keep this big bombastic band going in a new and different way. And so we took a big chance and it really paid off.

And so, you know, we miss playing 80 to 100 shows every year. And hopefully we'll be back to like a schedule that resembles that soon. But yeah, I mean, I think we were lucky. A lot of bands weren't able to do anything and we were able to continue to do something. So that was nice. It sounds like you made some lemonade there. Yeah. And we were in a privileged position to do that. We had this space that we had just moved into that was big enough that we could accommodate this sort of live stream. At first, when the pandemic hit, we were kind of like, oh God, what have we done? We've just moved into this big space that costs quite a bit of money in rent and how can we afford to keep

this up? But then we found a way to know it turned into a blessing to have this space that we could work work continue to work from so so we're very fortunate yeah and the most recent uh new year's eve special you did i suppose you call it by the year that it's becoming right that's where it gets a little confusing because it's new year's eve 2022 and i won't be the first to tell you that technically it's like the millennium and Kramer got it wrong. No, who got it right? Oh yeah, that's right. Jerry got it right. Right. Although we didn't actually celebrate it properly anyway, right? Because we celebrated 2000. We should have celebrated 2001, but okay. But New Year's Eve 2022 technically is going to be the next one, but naming wise, okay, I understand. So, Fred Patterson from Humble and Fred.

I produced their program and we were chatting about what we did on New Year's Eve or whatever and Fred was telling me about the Dwayne Gretzky live stream and he was going on and then we were talking about like, okay, it sounds like, and again, I want to get into the specifics as to this

collective because it's not just Nick and Tyler here, but it sounds like you two are the uh what would you call yourselves co-founders what is your title at duane gretzky enterprises yeah i guess co co-founders make sense and then we've kind of been trying to just guide it along and but yeah it is it is a big collective and we totally we have a really wonderful group of of people in the band that you know it is that that's what we totally, we have a really wonderful group of, of people in the band that, you know, it is that,

that that's what Dwayne Gretzky is, is this big collective. We're just kind of trying to help steer it. But you're the, is it fair to say you two are the official spokespeople for Dwayne Gretzky? Yeah, I think so. Like if I had approached a couple of other members,

would you be like, Hey, wait a minute, where are the spokespeople here? No, that would be, would you be like, hey, wait a minute, we're the spokespeople here? No, that would be lovely. Nick and I are partners, and we run the band. So that is kind of how it works. You're like the Bon Jovi of Bon Jovi, you know, John Bon Jovi.

That's his band. He has other people in the band. He's Bon Jovi. You can be in Bon Jovi, but, you know, John Bon Jovi has to hire you to be in Bon Jovi like that's how it works but once we get onto the stage it feels like what makes the band so good is how we share the spotlight with everybody and how we feature everybody that's what it's all about so I'm gonna play a jam that definitely features others and in a moment here but okay so where am I going

with that yeah so Freddie's like hey we should talk to Nick and Tyler. So I reached out to you guys to book you on Humble and Fred. But then I'm like, wait a minute. I like Dwayne Gretzky. I want to talk to them too. So I'm like, hey, maybe we'll do it too for us. So good on you guys for jumping on in the morning on Humble and Fred. You were great.

And now you're all mine. So I'm going to hold you here. i gotta say i mean very so thanks so much for for having us and i'm i'm ashamed to admit i i wasn't familiar with your your podcast beforehand but i listened to a bunch of episodes um when you reached out and i was really super into them i listened to the one up your episode with hoxley Workman and I thought it was so, so awesome. So, uh, um, and congrats on a thousand episodes. That's insane. Thank you. Thanks for having us on. And it's, you know, it's really a big thrill for us to be, to be here. Well, the Hawk has become a good,

speaking of the Kawarthas cause he lives in Peterborough now. Uh, and there's multiple. So you got more where that came from. Cause Hawk is a regular, if you will, because he's become a good friend. But he's also, he's got a good rap on him, as people might say. And I told him he really does need his own podcast, to be quite honest, because he's a... He does.

He's a remarkable speaker and has a really interesting brain. I think that, you know, I would tune in. Well, there I'm going to tell him. You got at least two members of duane gretzky tuning in there but thank you for the kind words uh i'm always curious when because i will ask guests on and they're like who the hell is toronto mike and then they go and look at the there's a notable guests page on torontomike.com typically someone like looks at the list and then

they might cherry pick an app to see what they're in for and i'm always curious what episode did you cherry pick like this is uh i just had terry david mulligan on and he did the same deal like he listened to a bunch and he said that he thought they were great which meant a lot to me but i'm like what did you cherry pick first or whatever and he chose kim clark champness and i always find it just interesting like what is your first taste and you chose hoxley workman i guess i did yeah and tyler hasn't listened to any toronto mics yet is that correct uh that is correct and this will be the first one you might check this one out maybe just uh but uh for what it's worth huge hoxley workman fan yes when i yeah first moved to toronto i he was like my hero and his album last night in the delicious

wolves was like i thought that was just the greatest record that I had ever heard at that time and I still probably know how to play five or six of those songs love it love it and I hope Hawk is listening to this now let's talk about the like who writes the songs etc because there's a

term I'm going to use and I don't mean this to be derogatory or negative but I'm sure you've heard this term that Dwayne Gretzky is a covers band. It is. It's hard to argue, right? Because the songs you perform are covers of well-known songs, typically. But what about, like, have you ever considered writing your own material? ever considered writing your own material? I guess, I guess we have. And for, you know, in my mind, everyone in, in the band, Dwayne Gretzky has other creative projects that they do outside of Dwayne. And right from when this, when this band started picking up steam, it became sort of this really fun make work operation where it was like, oh, the people are digging this.

And there's an appetite for these like big bombastic sort of very faithful and energetic covers project. And it can allow us in many ways to make a living doing this and have free up time to do creative projects. Instead of us toiling away, you know, working as a barback or something, no disrespect to barbacks, but, you know, we, I think that was kind of the foundation of doing Gretzky. So at this point now, 10 years into our career, I think maybe pivoting to do originals might, I think that if we were to do that, it would be a

separate entity, but I don't know. What do you think, Tyler? Yeah. I mean, yeah, similar. It's nice for people to know what they're getting into. And with Dwayne Gretzky, this is this all in celebration of nostalgia and music that is, it's a specific thing that we do and it's a cover band. And you know, Nick has a band called Teen Ravine that he's worked on for years. That is incredible original music music and it's separate from duane jill and lydia lydia prasad has her own um solo project that is doing quite well she's

fantastic and together jill and lydia are in a band called the au pairs which is amazing so there is like one of the benefits of duane is that people can kind of step out and do these other things and and kind of come in i've collaborated with a songwriter who is from the uk who lives in berlin named ryan o'reilly and we write and i've toured with him across europe a bunch of times and it feels like a nice break to go away and do these kinds of things but then come back to duane and it gives me a real appreciation for what we do and the harmony that we sort of have within the band and this high-impact show. For me, creatively, I am satisfied with doing Dwayne Gretzky and constantly one-upping ourselves and doing these things, and there is a creative itch that gets scratched.

So it is really nice, but not to confuse Dwayne Gretzky with an originals band. We did go into the studio and recorded an album, but instead of recording faithful covers or originals we did reinterpreted versions of covers that people know and for us that was a nice opportunity to work together in the studio we have so many hours of stage time together and to go into a studio we recorded at the the bath house which is the tragically hip studio of course we got to spend time there and that was like a a dream. And being creative on these, reinterpreting these songs felt like a natural segue for

Dwayne and a way to release an album, which was super fun. And we're really proud of that record. Yeah, and I think the other creative element of Dwayne is, yes, we're covering other people's songs. No doubt about that. But the curation of the night and the way that we sequence songs and the choices we're making and how it flows together and the kind of general sort of narrative that we're telling, I think there is a creative element in that that I think we're very,

I think that's something we've gotten better and better at. And I think that's one of the reasons why it's resonated with people is that it's the curation of this material that's just like a dj would curate a dj set um it's not it's not wholly dissimilar to that no good points good points i think there's something uh as a as a lifelong hockey fan i think it's kind of something about the fact that the guy from duane gretzky would tour with a guy named Ryan O'Reilly. Like, it just... And they did a little... There was a piece on that. You can look it up and see. Because Ryan O'Reilly, the hockey player,

plays guitar, and he knows about Ryan O'Reilly and has, like, covered one of his songs, which is a song that I wrote with Ryan. So, yeah, it's very fun. Very fun. Love it, love it. Now, it's funny.

The first song I played was a Bruce Springsteen song that is better known for being performed, uh, covered if you will, by another band. And I'm just going to play a little bit of another, uh, Dwayne Gretzky song that is okay.

This song is written by a great Canadian musician whose face is actually in the hanging, not literally, but a portrait of him is hanging in my hallway upstairs. And this song is much better known for being recorded by somebody else. So that's your clue if you want to guess

what I'm going to play next. So don't tell me, but do you have a guess of what I'm going to play next? No, I don't. Again, the clues, to recap, the clues are

written by a Canadian musical legend, but the version we to recap, the clues are written by a Canadian musical legend, but the version we all know from the radio is performed by somebody else. Okay. I don't know yet, but I will in a second. Maybe an FOTM, you will

exactly in seconds, but maybe an FOTM listening on their Sony Walkman right now because I like to pretend people hear this show on their Sony Walkman will be guessing guessing out loud but here we go okay obviously gordon highland on the saxophone there. Wow. Jill Harris singing. This is like pop-up video. I just like hearing your voices over the song.

This is our famous soundcheck song. It's one of these songs that we would always play in soundcheck, and for whatever reason, sometimes we'd skip over during the show, and we're're always like it's just the song we soundcheck. So I wanted to play something where it wasn't your voices being spotlighted. No offense taken. Right. Yeah. And also that this song is an example of a song that was everywhere on the radio in this city

because it was CanCon. Like Nicolette Larson, who's no longer with us, sadly, but she recorded this and had a hit with it. But it was always played, and as a kid, you don't know why you're hearing it all the time. It was easy listening, nice and easy to listen to, whatever, but you find out later, like, oh, yeah, that satisfied the CanCon requirements

that we have in this country, but of course, this is a Neil Young song, for those who don't know. Neil Young wrote this song. Yeah, it was on Comes a Time, wasn't it? His original? See, I feel like he never recorded, i could have this wrong by the way but i feel like neil done neil diamond neil diamond that's a whole different story uh but neil young maybe he wrote it and then nicolette larson

recorded it i'm not certain about neil's he recorded He's got a version of it, for sure. I think it is on Comes a Time. 1974, but maybe Nicola... There it is. That's like my sound, man. That's the... Get us through the night. Maybe her version was released before his or something? Or after, I think. Maybe I've got it all wrong.

I do know, though, that I think I would feel like... That feels like late 70s to me, I think. Maybe I've got it all wrong. I do know, though, that I think I would feel like that feels like late 70s to me, that song. Maybe it's 78. We'd have to ask Adam. So Adam Hindle, one of our drummers, is our in-house musical

music encyclopedia. He knows all. So we'll consult with Adam and get back to you on that. I've been neglecting, like I have questions from listeners that I've actually screwed up.

So I want to say, back when I asked you how you got the name Dwayne Gretzky, I should have shouted out DJ Dream Doctor because he sent in the big question, what inspired the band name? And we got a pretty good answer from you guys. So thank you, DJ Dream Doctor. But here's an interesting one that came in from Rob Clark Williams. He says, do they have to pay ABBA royalties? So what I,

what I'd like to just extrapolate from that is the big question. Like when you do a concert, like you charge money for people to be entertained by you guys and you play songs that you didn't write. How does it work in terms of like, do you, is there some compensation to the person who wrote the song? How does that all work? Next question. No, I'm just kidding.

It's fine. You can tap out if you want. It's okay. No, no, no. I mean, generally how it works, and I'm not the expert on this, but generally how it works is venues pay a license to sort of have to cover music, to have whoever is coming in to perform. That's just kind of generally how that works.

And when you record, when you put out recorded music, like when we released our interpreted covers album, it split into two chunks. There's the publishing side of things and there's the mechanical side of things. So we would have the mechanical Royal, we'd get the mechanical royalties from sales of our record of our, the thing we recorded, but the publishing side goes to the record, of the thing we recorded. But the publishing side goes to the original authors of the song.

So live and recorded are kind of two different beasts. But in short, no, we don't have to pay ABBA royalties when we play a cover, nor does anyone, when you play live a cover in a venue that already is paying this license to kind of compensate for that if that makes sense no that does someone can can explain that in a more articulate way that actually makes complete sense for venues that are like whatever typical venues for such thing i guess i i guess if you go to a local park and i guess that would be a free concert so there's no commercial part anyway anyway we'll abort this because my uh fotm lauren honickman says i'm on a shaky ground he's he's my my lawyer so i know it's okay oh it's fine it's all good but it sounds it's that's how yes

you're right when you sell so and maybe this is a good opportunity to those listening who want to pick up this new uh album that you guys the interpolations of the songs you love, where would you direct them to grab this right now? You can go to duanegritskyband.com, our website, and I believe you can just order our merch. We have shirts and the record we made. And we even have CDs if you still like CDs. Oh, Tyler's showing.

I mean, it's the, yeah, for those of you who. I love it. Look at that. Whose artwork is that? It was a company from Australia that we worked with and they were fantastic. Cool. Called IO Studio. It was going to be a scandal.

You couldn't find a Canadian company to work with on this. I know. Sorry about that. It's weird that in Canada, we're all wearing Australian made boots in the winter. you couldn't find a Canadian company to work with on this Twinkies. I know. Sorry about that. It's weird that in Canada, we're all wearing Australian made boots in the winter. Just that is a weird one too. The Blundstones. It's like,

don't we have a boot company that can understand our needs as Canadians better? Like, anyway. No, I'm with you, man. When I'm watching these Olympic games and I'll see like a snowboarder from

Australia and she'll like kick ass and she'll medal. And I'll turn to my wife and say, wait a minute here that this is the winter Olympics. I don't want to be upstaged by these, uh, our, uh, our Australian brothers and sisters here. That doesn't, cause they all go to Banff and they just hang out in Banff. That's right. They just bum in Banff or maybe in a Whistler or something, but, uh, awesome. Now I want to talk about this wonderful night of June 29th. And you'll remind me of the year. It wasn't that long ago. But the Burles Creek Event Grounds in Oro Medante.

This was, of course, the scene of the big Rolling Stones concert. Was that 2019? Yeah. Okay. So before the before times, as I refer to it. A thousand years ago. But this is exciting. I'm sure you guys, you'll speak for yourselves.

That's why you're on the Zoom here. But I can't imagine what it's like that you're like technically, and I know there's a little gray here, but technically you're opening for the Rolling Stones, for goodness sakes. Well, technically they opened for us. Oh, yeah. Because we were the after party okay but how much time between the last licks from keith richards guitar and the vocal tones of uh stylings of uh dwayne gretzky well it was instant and so the fun thing was is that we were told by the um

stage director all right get on stage we don't know how long the rolling stones are going to play for they might do x amount of encores they might just be done right away so we had to be ready and as soon as they were done we had to start playing and so there's a moment where we were all on stage and we're i don't know how far away we are from the stage but we're a little ways but we can hear obviously the rolling stones playing right and uh they were playingaction, and the band just started jamming along and playing along. And I was like, the band is actually jamming Satisfaction along with the Rolling Stones. And so as soon as they were done, we just started playing.

And as the crowd kind of like, you know, most of the people leave, I don't know how many people stayed and watched us. It was a huge crowd. It was very much fun. Maybe like 5,000 or so, maybe maybe more that was a night to remember for us and when we got the call that that was an offer for us that was like a really really satisfying and it felt really good to get that call i remember i was coming back i was up at my family cottage up north where i don't have a like you, you know, it's pretty off the grid kind of in Killarney Provincial Park. I just want to say I love Killarney Provincial Park.

Love it. Yeah. Oh, so do I. It's so dear to my heart. And my great-grandfather built like a shack in the woods in what is now Killarney Provincial Park. Right. And it's my family cottage. So it kind of got grandfathered in when it became a provincial park.

That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing. If this whole, you know, hour chat was just about that. That's amazing. That's amazing. You'll have to come up and visit. Come up and visit. Yeah, come visit.

It's amazing. Honestly, if I got a, you know, I've been burned before. I was offered a Byway t-shirt by Eric Bauza, who's the voice of Bugs Bunny. He was on the show. And then it was only after when I never received this t-shirt, I realized he was just doing like performance, performance shtick and art. Like it wasn't sincere. So now I know there's the on podcast offers, which are part of the show, but that does not necessarily mean I'm going to get an invitation to the Calarney Cotton. Translate.

You can, sure. Why not? August 24th for Nick's birthday uh you got an invitation i'm there but anyway i was i was driving back from my cottage and pulled over at a gas station you know like a couple hours into the drive yeah and i better check my phone because i've been haven't you checked my phone in several days to see catch up on emails and sure enough there was just headline like rolling stones offer from you know our our manager and i clicked on it i'm just standing there in this parking lot in in like wherever um and you know rural ontario just kind of utterly flabbergasted so we've had so many of

those surreal moments and that's been another one of the real blessings of being in this fun band well listen i know we're winding down here but uh i'm gonna just play another because i i've been playing these songs and a lot of these songs are like 70s songs like it seems like that's a sweet spot for duane gretzky is like uh interpreting these great 70s songs but i just want to play something that's a more recent song and And you know, it's from a band I quite like. So let's hear something covered from a more recent artist. Let's hear it. You want to know if I know why I can't say that I do Don't understand the you or I or how one becomes two I just can't recall what started off or how to begin again

I ain't here to break you, just see how far it will bend I'm out. I wanna make it I wanna make it with you Sometimes I think it's different Whose lead vocals on this track? So that's Jill Harris, who's a wonderful singer, has been with us for several years. And that's a song from our album of reinterpreted covers. So the sort of a concept of that record as tyler mentioned earlier was that you know live we we do faithful renditions of

these songs but for this particular project we we kind of the the jumping off point the original idea was like let's do um song a by artist b so it'll like, let's take a song we love, like Make It With You by Queens of the Stone Age, which is the sludgy sort of groovy stoner rock song. And how would it sound if Kylie Minogue slash Daft Punk did the cover? So that was kind of the approach was like, just turn it on its head, do a cover by a different and because because

we had just performed a kylie minogue song and a daft punk song it was it was just it was everybody had this sort of uh flavors and the sort of ingredients to try and make that uh mashup happen well and then that was that was great sorry no go ahead uh that was the original seed of the idea and then when we got in the studio we just kind of let it happen as as it would like as a normal band would try to let a song evolve and not be too pedantic about this idea of like doing so we did a beach boy songs in the style of the strokes for instance but then we let it become our own thing love it man it's just no it's. I'm listening in the cans right here like you are. And it sounds amazing. Just a great interpretation of a fantastic Queens of the Stone Age jam.

Well done. So this is the kind of material you get on the new album. And again, you know how to find it online and pick that up. But well done. So, I mean, what's the future here? Are you just going to keep it? And you guys have been very, um, very clear that this is, uh, something that allows you to do other things concurrently,

which I think that's a big part of, uh, the allure, the, the scratching that creative itch that you can do this, and then you can do your other projects and whatever other creative projects you have going on. But I'm just, just before we say goodbye here, keep on keeping on as Kim Clark champness would say, is that the goal? Or do you have some other vision for where to take Dwayne Gretzky? I mean,

the fun thing about this whole journey so far is that we've never tried to, to make decisions too far in advance and And being present and trying to adapt is really fun. And so I'd say for the future for us, we want to keep this going, continue to celebrate. And now with the pandemic, I feel like anything pre-pandemic is even more nostalgic.

It's like, so I think there's just, we can continue to challenge ourselves with learning more material, collaborating with other artists and celebrating really great music in different ways and hopefully open up new markets and continue to travel and make music with the people that we love. And maybe there will be another record of some sort, but that's, that's all.

We're just going to wait and see. Nick Tyler, you're now a FOTM is friends of Toronto Mike. And it was a great pleasure chatting with you here. Like just love the whole story of Dwayne Gretzky. And I just think you guys are not only great artists, but you seem to be pretty damn sweet people too so thanks

for doing this well thanks so much for having us honestly it's a really really sweet and it's a great thrill for us thank you so much Mike we appreciate it oh before I end that you were you in D2 the Mighty Ducks Tyler this keeps coming up but

I'm gonna just let this rumor fly maybe i was no i wasn't i know but you know the why the rumor persists it's somewhere there's some you know when you google tyler kite bio or something and i don't know if i don't think it's it might be wikipedia but somewhere it says that you were in the mighty ducks but then i would see like official biographies that you guys would put on on your website and stuff, which wouldn't mention it. So I was like, there's no way he's skipping that. And like, like, no, it's,

I think it mentioned that I was in the loop group, loop group where you like put in the audio for all the people in the background. And I've done lots of loop group in my, in my life, you know, for movies and TV shows where you just go in an ADR, the extras in the background with whatever they might be saying, which is kind of the most fun job in the world, actually.

But I didn't do that for D2, so I don't know how that happened. But I do kind of want to keep it going because I think it looks good on my IMDb profile. Let's just keep this. Well, the problem is now that you've set the record straight, Rosie Gray TO, the Wikipedia editor, is going gray to the wikipedia and uh uh editor is going to correct the wiki page so well that's okay i'm happy with that rather was in the original mighty ducks and he was in the third mighty ducks but he wasn't in d2 that's the thing that needs to be corrected well joshua jackson is a fellow canuck and uh he was in those as well as i as not that you were but okay so now we're ready you ready ready and that brings us to

the end of our 995th show you can follow me on Twitter I'm at Toronto Mike tell me your band's handle on Twitter and then if either of you two gentlemen are actually

on Twitter as well I'm on Twitter at Nick Rose music and Dwayne isn't super as you know is super active on Twitter at Nick Rose Music and Dwayne isn't super as you know, super active on Twitter but we do have, it's at Dwayne underscore Gretzky, that's our band's Twitter handle even though we're not terribly active

to be perfectly honest no shame in that game, and Tyler, are you on Twitter? I am not our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are on Twitter. They're at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U.

Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley FH. And Canna Cabana are at Canna Cabana underscore. See you all next week.