Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Jake Gold: Toronto Mike'd #438

Episode Date: March 5, 2019

Mike chats with Jake Gold about his 18 years managing The Tragically Hip, his six seasons as a judge on Canadian Idol, other musical acts he's managed and so much more.

Welcome to episode 438 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, Paytm Canada, Palma Pasta, Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair, Buck buckle, and camp turnisels. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me this week is music manager and Canadian Idol judge and a whole bunch of other stuff we're going to discover shortly, Jake Gold. Welcome, Jake. Okay, so seriously, it's supposed to be 440. 438?

I know you're really messed up. Like, I agreed to come here, spend my money on an Uber, because I was going to be 440. 440 was really important. All right, Wink, I can't tell if you're being serious. This is important to me that you be here. No, I'm being serious, because I'll leave and come back if you'd like. Do you want me to redo 440?

Because then I've got to hold on to it for about a week. But is that what you want? We agreed to 440. I know, but I thought you were joking. No, I wasn't joking. I was thinking about it today in the shower. I was thinking 440, that's my number. Do you want me to start again?

No. Okay. today in the shower i was thinking 440 that's my number do you want do you want me to start again no okay if we if we like listen you know i just we agreed but obviously you know it doesn't matter i've noticed this are you friends you're friends with gene volitis is he is he or you know i i i to say i'm friends with gene volitis would be an overstatement i I know Gene Velitis. I've known him for years and years and years from his days at Q107. You know, we go back to the 80s. Do we hang out? No. He works with Jake Edwards,

who I also know for that long. So if we saw each other, we'd say hello, and it'd be great to see you. It's one of those. Would you give him a hug? Probably, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Okay. I bring it up only because on Twitter, I've actually never met Gene, but we did an episode through Skype. Oh, good. On Twitter, he messes me up because apparently everything he tweets at me is a joke, but there's no sign it's a joke, and I actually can't tell. So no emojis? No, nothing. No like nothing to indicate?

No. No winks? So with you and the 440, like initially when you told me at Jasper Dandy, when we were talking about you coming on, you said you wanted 440 and then we booked it. And you are 438, like chronologically. And I thought, okay, Jake's joking about that. You know, we'll be 438. Why are we going to fake this?

And then you had me going there. I was about to hit stop and redo it as 440. Well, no, I was serious, but I've decided that I'm just going to go with it. Okay, good. You got to roll with it. Right. So you mentioned the Uber.

So can we just address this off the top that I tried to get you in here, I don't know, six months ago? No, you've been trying to get me in you in here i don't know six months ago no you've been trying to get me in for six months right starting six months ago when i first became aware of you yeah and uh i know how you became aware of me it turns out i uh work with a client of yours who's that mark hebshire no, I became aware of you before Mark. Okay, tell me how you became aware of me.

Through Splashin' Boots. Oh, of course, yes. Splashin' Boots. Okay, we're going to get to Splashin' Boots. Which is another client of mine because you said a client of mine and I thought you were going to say Splashin' Boots, but then you said Mark Hebbshire.

So really, it's Splashin' Boots. They were doing your podcast. They'd done it a couple of times. And then Mark had come to me and said he was going to do his own thing because he was doing his thing with Liz. And I had actually been on that podcast twice. No fun intended? Yeah, no fun intended.

And then he told me he was going to be working with you. And I said, well, that's great. Everyone has high praise. And then you did, I think you did an interview also with Mo Berg, who's also another client of mine. But you didn't listen to the Mo Berg one. I can tell because you're not sure if I did it or not. No, no. I'm trying to think about the order of it.

I don't remember if you did Mo after I knew who you were or before. After, because it was well after. Or the Hepsher connection was already there. I'm not sure. But I know you did the Moe because I listened to it. So when you listen, are you listening and thinking, oh, I wish Boots didn't say that, or oh, Moe shouldn't be saying that? Or you just listen to.

Never. Okay. Now, in fact, interestingly enough, I like to listen to my clients' podcasts when they're doing interviews with people like you or whatever. Because I actually learn stuff. Because they may not tell me things. because I actually learn stuff. Because they may not tell me things. I don't sit down and interview them and say,

hey, when did you start thinking about music? And those kinds of questions. So you learn stuff about your clients because you're listening to their interviews. It's not about a judgment thing, or you should have said this, you shouldn't. They're all adults. They know what they're doing. I've heard from parents and children of guests who have written me

notes to say they learn things. It's a whole different angle. If someone's going to... You'd be surprised what you can learn by having somebody who, a curious cat, kind of pepper you with questions for 90 minutes. You'll learn a lot.

And also, the people doing the interviews, I think, learn. Because, you know, I've done a lot of guest lectures and classroom stuff, universities, colleges, and I always say every time I do one of those, I learn something. I learn something about myself,

or I learn something about the people I'm talking to, or it brings back a story that I hadn't thought of before I got in the room. Right. You know, something will trigger. Oh yeah, I remember that. Okay. I should tell that story. So, uh, you know, you teach, you learn, you listen, you learn. And I learned that, uh, it only takes six months to get you to agree to come on because we had a,

that was Hebsey pressure, just so you know. To come on? It was Hebsey. Come on, Jake. Do it. Do it. And in a lot of ways, look, you've been a huge supporter of Mark, and I kind of owe it to you to do it.

So how's that? So firstly, let me just say thank you for coming here. I actually hope one day I'm in a place where I can pay for all these Uber rides. Like, that's my goal. I know that was our hang-up, like, about how... Well, I don't drive anymore, right? So I got rid of my car, and I've become a serious urbanite.

And so I live right downtown, so to come all the way out here is a bit of a pain in the ass. No doubt. No doubt. But here you are. So thanks so much for doing that. You got your coffee.

Yeah. I want to ask about Mark Hebsher, but I'm going to let Brian Gerstein introduce this topic. So Brian Gerstein has been sponsoring this show, I think, for I'm going to say like 18 months now. And he records a question for every guest. And he's got a Hebbs-y related question for you. So let's hear from Brian Gerstein. Here from Brian Gerstein. Property in the six dot com.

Hi, Jake. Brian Gerstein here. Sales representative with PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Mike. Phase one of the Galleria Mall redevelopment plan and its condos are being sold exclusively by PSR. Contact me now by phone or text at 416-873-0292. And I can send you high risk pictures and put you on my VIP first access list. We are targeting late spring to sell them with a 2023 completion date. The best part, the park and community center will be completed before then. This area is already shaping up to be the next King West, so get in early. They'll be both investor-friendly priced and also ideal for end

users. Jake, I'm a huge fan of Mark Hepsher, and Fridays and Mondays always have Hebsey on Sports, which he does with Mike, as appointment listening. Have you read Hebsey's book, The Greatest Athlete You've Never Heard Of? And if so, what do you think? Such a diving question. Have I read it? Of course I i've read it i've read it in very different iterations too um i think it's great i think um i guess we're going to get to that question right away um the the thing about the book that uh it doesn't read like a regular sort of biography type book because it's not really a biography. It's really Mark's story of trying to do a documentary that basically failed,

but how he uncovered all this amazing information about this amazing character, Canada's first gold medalist. And so it reads a lot like a detective novel almost, where he's peeling back the onions. And as he's going along, he's finding out more and more and more things about the guy. So that's what I liked about it. And knowing Mark and the fact that most people have grown up

hearing Mark or seeing Mark, when you read the book, you hear his voice because it's it's written in the first person and i learned he's going to record the uh audio version that's correct he's which is cool because i don't want yeah we just we just uh finished that deal so yeah so he's going to do the audio book and of course it's going to be him um i couldn't see anybody else sort of reading his book written in the first person like well you know he couldn't imagine mike boone he asked me to he couldn't afford my rates i'm very expensive to read your book also i'll mispronounce a lot of words well he's getting

paid for it so is he yeah okay good yeah yeah uh now so that book that's i was at that event the book launch was last Tuesday. I saw you there. It was great to see you there. You were on the stage at Jasper Dandy. You were on the stage interviewing Hebsey about the book. And that's when I first learned, I did not know this, I did not know you guys knew each other as kids.

Like, how far back do you go of Hebsey? I was two when he was four. That's amazing. And I'm going to be 61 in a month. And he's 63. Like, were you neighbors? Yeah, we lived literally across the street from each other. And then we moved to a different neighborhood,

but he moved to the same different neighborhood about two blocks away from us. You couldn't escape him. His brother, Stephen, and my brother, Howie, are the same age. So we all grew up together. Like, literally, we lived in one neighborhood. Then we moved to another neighborhood.

And we grew up together. So we went to the same junior high school. We went to the same high school. No, we actually didn't go to the same junior high school. Because then he moved away. But we ended up going to the same high school. So we went to the same public school and the same high school. See, I knew you guys were buddies, obviously,

but I did not know that you went back that far. That's pretty cool that you guys are still tight. Well, it's interesting because we didn't see each other for quite a long time. And I'm going to give you a good segue here, Mike. And we didn't see each other for quite a long time. And, you know, Hebsey was groundbreaking. Him and Jim had a TV sports highlight show when it didn't exist, right? So, you know, being a young sports fan, you'd turn in at 11.30 on Global to watch all the highlights.

And I noticed Mark would always use music from the Tragically Hip underneath a lot of his highlights. Now, I didn't even know if they were paying for it. And I didn't really care. I just thought it was cool. So I called the station and asked for him. And I hadn't talked to him in ages. And it was, you know, this is pre-email. This is like not pre-email existing, but pre-people having email.

Right. Well, pre-Facebook anyway. Well, no. Even this is pre like we're talking like early 90s right so like 90 probably 90 or not probably 91 because because uh road apples came out in 91 and um and i called him and i said uh and he obviously picked up the phone right away it was like you know it was was sort of late morning, early afternoon when I figured he'd be there doing his thing. And I said, I noticed you've been playing a lot of hip music.

He goes, yeah, I love them, Bob. I said, well, I'm their manager. And then he was like, that's so cool. And it was like, here we are, two guys that, you know, grew up together kind of doing what we always. I was always really into music and he was always really into sports. Right. And we were having this moment. Convergence.

On the phone, yeah. So then when we announced the Road Apples tour, I asked him, we decided because of the name of the album referred to, you know. Horseshit? Horseshit. Frozen Horseshit? Horseshit, yeah. Frozen Horseshit. Because the name of the album referred to that, we thought, well, let's announce it at the Hot Stove Lounge at Maple Leaf Gardens,

and we'll get Mark, a sports guy, to do the press announcement. So we assembled everybody for the press conference at the Hot Stove Lounge. And Mark did the press conference. There's a lot of, I mean, I'm thinking of Bob McKenzie. There's a whole bunch of sports media people who just adore the Tragically Hip. Well, I mean, there's a lot of Canadians who adore the Tragically Hip. I'm thinking Ron McClain.

Yeah, we had an early relationship with Bob, and we had an early relationship with Ron and all of those people. I mean, Don Cherry's been in videos. Road Apples, by the way, and we're going to hit the hip later in the chat here, but Road Apples, love that disc. Completely adore Road Apples. My wedding song was Long Time Running. How did I know?

Were you there? No. Which wedding? That's right. The second one. Oh, man. That's right. The second of two, I always say.

But yeah, just Cordelia, one of my favorite hip songs. Me too, by the way. Me too. Yeah, it just kills, man. Great album anyway, but I digress. We'll talk more about this later in the show. It is a great segue, but I'm not ready yet to dive into the Tragically Hip. Okay.

Fantastic. Quick question from a guy who writes on Toronto Mike as basement dweller. Right. He says, recently, Toronto Mike tweeted about the time you, you're you, Jake, picked up Mark Hebbshire for a lunch date at Pantser's Deli after the recording of a Hebbsy on Sports episode. Just wondering, but do you have a standard sandwich order at that great North York deli institution? And where do you rate it against the likes of Katz's Deli, Yitz's Wolfies, or New York Deli?

Well, I grew up going to Pansers. And I went with Mark to go to Pansers mostly to go to Pansers. And with Mark, it wasn'tantsers mostly to go to Pantsers and with Mark. It wasn't because I have a favorite sandwich. I used to eat pastrami or a turkey, but I don't eat meat anymore. I just eat fish. So I tend to just have like some eggs or something else when I'm there. So as far as my favorite sandwich back then, it was always a pastrami sandwich.

I like it a little spicier. With mustard, of course. Lorne is the guy who runs Pantsers, right, Lorne? Yeah. I always joke with Hebsey on Hebsey on Sports that they should be naming a sandwich after Hebsey. They have sandwiches named after, I think, is it George Chiavallo? They got different sandwiches, but there should be a Hebsey sandwich, I think. Maybe there will be eventually.

Well, you're the heavy, right? You got to go in there and make it happen. No, no, Mark's got a relationship with, like, again, we all grew up together. Like, we went to Pantsers because, like, we grew up with the Pantsers, all of them, Michael and Lauren, all of them. It's like a little clique you got going there.

Yeah, I mean, it used to be, I think it used to be called Moe Pantsers Deli, so. I want to know about your... You mentioned you're not a sports guy, but every other... No, I am a sports guy. Oh, you are a sports guy. Yeah, I'm just saying... You mentioned you were a music guy, and he's...

Okay. Yeah. Tennis. Every other tweet's about tennis. Have you always loved tennis? Yeah, I got turned on to tennis when I was probably like 9, 10 years old. I got turned on to tennis when I was probably like nine, ten years old. You know, McEnroe, Borg, Connors, those years.

Wood rackets. Yes. I started playing when I was about ten or eleven. I had a court at my apartment building. It was like one of those rental buildings that just happened to have a tennis court. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the wintertime, we played ball hockey on it, you know. And I never had anybody to play with, so I'd just go out and serve balls by myself until I finally had someone to play with, you know.

But I always had a racket, wood racket, Dunlop Maxply. And do you have a favorite professional tennis player today? Like, who's the guy you root for the hardest? Oh, Roger Federer. Yeah. Can't go wrong with that. There's some great young guys playing that I'm really excited about. I think tennis is in really good hands, you know.

I'm a big fan of Nick Kyrgios. Like when he has his shit together, he's as good as anybody on the planet, you know. I watched him last week in Acapulco, and he was unbelievable. He dumbfounds people. Yeah. I don't follow tennis as closely as I used to, but I do know there's a whole bunch of young Canadians coming up, like Sherpo and FAA.

I can't ever say it. Felix Auger Alissime? Alissime? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. FAA? That's what I'm calling ever say it. Felix Auger Alissime. Alissime. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. FAA. That's what I'm calling him.

Yeah. As Brad Gilbert calls him, FAA Schwartz. Right. Right. Right. But I mean, it sounds like we're in good hands. And we have on the woman's side. We have another guy named Braden Schneer who went to the finals a couple of weeks ago in

a tournament. And he's 23, just came out of college, moving up. We have a couple of good female players. Andre Escu? Yeah, Andre Escu. Yeah, yeah. See, look, I listen. I listen when Hebsey talks his tennis

and I'm taking it all in. So we're in good hands there. Let's give you some gifts here. Firstly, there's a six-pack in front of you from Great Lakes Brewery. Great. Craft beer brewed locally. It's always fresh because it all stays

in Ontario. Enjoy that. Please enjoy. It looks like the office from the address here is like a block away from your house. That's true. And it's very close. I bike there in four minutes and it's right down the street from the Colesville. Do you carry all the beer back on

your back on your bike? I've had emergencies where I'm out of beer and a guest is coming in a couple hours where I had to bike over just to get like six cans. That has happened, but I try to stay ahead of it. You'll see there's beers on a little black table there. So I usually can say, oh, I got enough for it because

I probably have enough for like two more guests. And I have the drummer from the Jeff Healy band is coming over this week. Who, Tom? Yes. Yeah, he wrote a book, didn't he? That's exactly right. Best Seat in the House.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's great. Thanks for the beer. You have a great poster up, too. One of my favorite movies of all time. Pulp Fiction? Yeah. Yeah, I think that might be my favorite movie of all time.

I saw that movie the first time. I was setting up, i was in europe going from country to country setting up a hip record it was day for night and i was literally going like you know i flew into london and from london flew to amsterdam from amsterdam flew to paris from paris flew to hamburg then back to london kind of And I was flying, I'd flown from Amsterdam to Paris to meet with the people from France. And the guy who was running France said, I went to meet him at like four o'clock and he goes, oh, we're going to go for dinner, but first we're going to go see this movie. We're doing a screening because at the time the record company had the soundtrack rights.

And it was a great soundtrack, yeah. So we ended up going to see this movie. Now, it was in English, but it had French subtitles for the people. It was in a private screening room because they were screening it for record retails and that. And the opening scene of them talking about being in Amsterdam and then being in Paris was literally my day.

Right, Le Big Mac. Yeah, Le Big Mac, but also talking about being in Amsterdam where you could buy weed and everything. Right in the opening scene, and I thought, this is my day. This is going to be amazing. That's too funny. I heard that there's that joke she tells, Mia Wallace tells the joke

that they wrote for each episode of... Catch up. Right. And I heard somehow it didn't translate into French. There's some story I read, like so for the French market, they had to change the joke or something. Well, see, I couldn't read it.

You can only hear it in English. No, I could have read the French, but I wasn't paying attention. But we were all laughing, so I don't know. Yeah. I love that opening scene. I love that movie. I think I saw it five times in the theater.

Wow. And if it's on TV now, and I'm going through the dial, and there it is, I'll watch it. I'm with you, man. I'm sort of that way with... There's a few movies, but The Godfather, one and two. If I'm flipping around and I stop, I'm done. I'll watch it. I'm with you, man. I'm sort of that way with a few movies, but The Godfather, one and two. If I'm flipping around and I stop, I'm done. I'll finish it.

And Goodfellas. Goodfellas is another movie I'll pick up wherever I pop into it. Most of Tarantino's movies I feel that way about. It happened recently with Reservoir Dogs. Reservoir Dogs, yeah.

Yeah. And I remember when I was in this guy's office, he had this same poster on his wall. Because it had just premiered at Cannes, and it was like a big deal. Yeah, I won the Palme d'Or. Yeah, and he said, today we're going to see this movie.

And I go, oh, what's that about? He goes, oh, it's the guy who did reservoir dogs i said okay that'll be cool but i didn't know anything about it so amazing i love seeing movies like that where you don't know anything about them now yeah if you're going cold and you don't know you just go for the ride now one thing i like about now that i have a couple of teenagers is like these movies we're talking about like doing it with them again like sort of revisiting them through their eyes. So I just, with my 14-year-old daughter, we just watch Reservoir Dogs, and I'm watching it with her,

and it's a really cool experience, this movie that you've loved for decades and kind of seen it through their eyes. 14-year-old daughter seeing Reservoir Dogs, that's a pretty heavy movie. You think so? I think I introduced her. Did she see it?

You've already done this. It's all done, yeah. And what did she think? She loved it, yeah. She thought it was great. What did she think of this stuck-in-the-middle-with-you scene? You know, it's, yeah, they don't show, like I think they're careful of how they show it.

They pan up to the door. Watch your head. Did you notice that? It's really clever. I mean, she's 14. Yeah, except they show after, and they show the guy holding it it's like right but you know they don't make 14 year olds like they used to i think she's seen that it's

an interesting moment in that movie because it kind of changed that song forever for sure right and and and especially with stephen wright as the dj introducing sounds of the 70s. Right. Yeah, Billy. Introducing. Yeah, dude, I could talk to you forever about Tarantino movies here, but let me just tell the people. Isn't that why we're here? Yeah, pretty much. I would happily do that. You can come back anytime, by the way, but maybe we'll work out a deal where I pick you up or something next time,

like some kind of a deal there. Just not on your bike. Not on my bike. I have a cart, like a trailer. I don't know what you weigh, but we can see if you do that. Okay, so let's tell the people. I did get you a vegetarian lasagna from Palma Pasta,

but it's got mushrooms in it. And is it an allergy or just a preference? I just don't like them. Yeah, you know, I'm not a big fan either. I'll take the mushrooms, but I would opt out if I could, I think. But I want to tell everybody, Palma Pasta has four locations in Mississauga and Oakville.

Go to palmapasta.com to find the location near you. They are Mississauga's best fresh pasta in Italian food. I wish I had known about the mushroom thing. I would have tried to score you something else. But we'll get you some Palma Pasta. The box looks amazing. You know what? They really did a good job.

It looks like big and really heavy, too. Like, it's a big, big, big lasagna. No, it is. Maybe I'll take it anyways. I'm having guys over for cards on Friday night, including Hebsey. Maybe I'll make it for them, and I'll have something else.

Hebsey loves his Palma Pasta. Yeah, you can have it. It's yours, my friend. Absolutely. So you got your beer. Right. You got your pasta. Now I'm set for the card game on Friday night.

See, it's worth the drive, right? This is worth the Uber trip. Right. The beer alone, I don't know, it costs, that's about, I think the lasagna is like 33 bucks and the beer is like 30 bucks. This is going to get you more than- Six beer is 30 bucks? I'm just, I'm trying to do the math.

It depends which beer, right? Like the blonde lager is only like $2.80, but there are some premium ones that are closer to like $4. So it all depends on which beers you got in there. I gave you like an assortment there.

Maybe I'll take the meat lasagna for the card guys. Yeah, have these meat lasagna guys. Yeah, maybe I'll take that meat lasagna for the card guys. Yeah, have these meat lasagna guys. Yeah, maybe I'll take that and then I'll make something else. It's okay. I think Ralph Ben-Murgy wants the vegetarian lasagna. Perfect. It's all going to work out. Perfect, perfect. Paytm. I want to thank Paytm. You go to

paytm.ca to download this app. It's where you manage all of your bills in one spot. I sincerely use it to pay all my bills, and I've been doing so for well over a year now. They reward you for doing something you have to do anyways, and they make it really easy. So try it today.

Paytm.ca. Set it up and manage your bills in one spot. You don't own a car, Jake, but when you had a car, it probably broke down now and then. You needed servicing. If you go to buckle.co, that's B-U-K-L dot C-O, you just go there, you enter your car info,

make model, year, whatever, what you need done to it, the servicing you need done. You get instant quotes from shops in your area. You book that appointment. You bring your car in. You get it serviced. You drive away. It's seamless.

You're automatically charged, so you don't have to worry about that aspect. Try it today. B-U-K-L dot C-O. Jake, and just before we, you know, do the deep dive, as I like to say, I want to tell everybody about the next Toronto Mike listener experience.

So that's going to be June 27 at Great Lakes Brewery. Lowest of the low. You've never managed lowest of the low. No, but I know those guys really well. And I saw them way back when in there when they were first starting out. The Shakespeare My Butt Days? Yep. Always a fan.

Love those guys. And they're going to play live at TMLX3 on June 27th. Fantastic. Come with Hebsey. He's coming. 27th. Let me look at my calendar. 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Live music. Let me look at my calendar. Hold on. June 27th. Oh, it looks like I'm busy. What a dick. Oh, my goodness. All right.

Well, anyway, everyone else can. I think actually I just booked something that I swear I did really. It's also my birthday. So I would have liked the Jake Gould hug on that day. Well, I'll give you a virtual one. Send me a text. All right. So let's play a little time machine game here.

On this day 10 years ago, this was the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100. See if you can name that tune, Mr. Music. Well, I don't think this is the original version of this song. Well, this is not the 80s song. No, it's not. No, it's not. So, does it really matter? Like, does it really matter?

It's been repackaged for a new audience, Jake. Don't you know that's what they're doing? Yeah, I get that. But does it really matter is my point. Like, you're playing me stuff that has stuff that has no cultural importance to me. No, but you... Just because I'm in the music biz, I have to like everything, and I have to think that everything's relevant?

You don't have to think it's relevant, but you have to be aware of these number one billboard hits. No, I don't. Because of your Canadian Idol pedigree. No, I don't. No, I don't. No, I don't. The social contract Canadian Idol pedigree. No, I don't. No, I don't. The social contract. Not at all. Please shut this off. It's annoying.

Poor Flo Rida. Okay, let me just tell the people what they were listening to. I think Kesha's on that too, but that's Right Round by Flo Rida. We'll bring it down. Jake's not a fan. I'm not a fan either, but it was number one on this day. The thing is that if you look at my career

And the groups I worked with I very rarely In fact I don't think ever worked with anybody That could ever be deemed As a pop artist It's not my wheelhouse It's not something I You're right

I've looked at the list and you're absolutely right It's not something I aspire to. I've looked at the list, and you're absolutely right. It's not my thing. Because when you take on an act, do you have to sincerely feel they're good? Like you have to like it and think they're good and worthy of promotion? Yeah, and they have to be amazing live. Right.

So they can't just press play on their MacBook, is what you're telling me. No, they have to be amazing live right so they can't just press play on their macbook is what no no they have to be amazing live i just watched this doc on netflix on avicii you know right so i'm watching the doc and he's he was he was he's passed away of course uh but he was very popular live and he'd go to these big events and really honestly what it was was was essentially he took his MacBook and he plugged it into the speaker, the sound system or whatever, and he'd play files on his laptop. And dance. And yeah, he'd put, yes, he would do this arm thing to get the crowd going. But that was pretty much him playing live, which is kind of amazing when you think about it. Listen, there are people, I'm not going to get down on people who are into that music.

That's for them. It's just not for me. And I understand it because he can take credit with creating it in the first place. Yeah, he put the song together. Right, he created it. So there's something to be said for creators, okay? It's just not my kind of creator. And there's an audience that wants to go

and listen to dance music and the guy who created it stand there and and play it but you know if you look at um you know moby used to do that but he'd also have a band with him at times and sometimes there's a live band and you know dj thing is is that's a thing that's happening and a lot of people go to those festivals and they dig it and and that's for them it's just not really for me um in fact i have some i had some young guys working with me who were managing a bunch of different djs now they still manage one or two but but hey because i used to say to them like look the long-term money is going to be in finding acts that play live that can play big venues. And yes, the DJs can do that, but there wasn't enough of it. And you really need big pop hits if you're going to be a huge DJ.

And they saw the writing on the wall, and they knew that their DJs weren't necessarily making great pop hits. They were doing great DJ music. And so they're now taking on, they're on their own, but they're taking on other bands that actually play live and tour and those kinds of things.

And there are some that do it and some that don't. So Remember the Time, unfortunately we got Flo Rida, we weren't into it, but Remember the Time is brought to you by Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair. They've been doing quality watch

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but again, fast time, watch repair.com for a location near you. So Jake, let's go pre hip here. So of course I, I first knew you as manager of the tragically hip, but tell me like,

but did you actually know me as the manager of the, you know, I was trying to think about this. Like, did I know me as the manager of the Tragically Hip? I was trying to think about this. Did I know it or did I learn it in retrospect when the Canadian Idol stuff broke? I think you learned it after the fact. Do you find that a lot of people think they knew you as manager of the Tragically Hip when in fact they only learned that from Canadian Idol and then went back?

Well, yes and no. I mean, I ran into a guy the other day who said, so what are you doing now? And I'm like, well, what I've always done. Oh, what's that? Like some people just watch the show and had no idea. They never paid attention to the bio. Like they didn't go online to see. They didn't pay attention.

They just, oh, you're that dude, you know? And they just, yeah. And I was like, in my mind, I'm thinking, yeah, the show just put four people on television and said, yeah, you judge. You're right. I guess not everybody will have the interest to learn, like, why is this person a judge? They're just, these are the judges for this reality show.

Yeah, we've been told that you're the experts, so we're going to believe it. Right. Sight unseen. Yeah. Now that you mention it, though, I'm not even sure what Randy was doing on American Idol, now that I think about it. I guess he was also a producer? What was Randy? Oh, very successful producer.

Producer, writer, record guy. Randy was very, very successful. Because you were the Randy, basically. I wouldn't say I was the Randy. Because you weren't the Paul Abdul, because that was sad. Farley was the Randy. say I was the Randy. Because you weren't the Paul Abdul, because that was sad. Farley was the Randy.

Farley was the Randy. Right, because there were only three judges on American Idol? Right. Right, because Zach Werner was the Simon Cowell. Well, trying to be, yeah. Of course. I feel kind of fortunate that I didn't have to live up to sort of a predestined caricature of a person, which they had to, unfortunately for them.

Or fortunately, you know, Sass did her own thing, and they all did their own thing, you know. But I think that people automatically, because American Idol was on before, you know, a season before us, that that's what happened, where I was kind of allowed to sort of just be myself. Right. And what, I mean, I wanted to talk about Canadian Isle separately,

and we will, but I want to know, why did they do four judges instead of three? Well, the original format out of England was four judges. Oh, right. And apparently they had had four judges set up for the American show. But there's a great backstory on the American show where the people at Fox in the U.S. did not want to do the show,

and it was Rupert Murdoch's daughter that kind of forced them to do the show. So they agreed begrudgingly to do it as a summer replacement show, because that was back then when summer shows were like, oh, we'll need to throw something on instead of reruns. And there was a fourth person that was supposed to join the audition, like the cast in the auditions earlier.

But I guess they were shooting with three and they went, oh, this looks pretty good with three. We'll just keep going with it, because the original format was four. If you see the first season, that was the Kelly Clarkson year. I mean, they were sitting literally behind a bridge table with a cloth over it that had a logo on it.

It wasn't in HD. It was pre-HD. It was 2002, was the summer season, the summer of 2002. And what I remember from that first season of American Idol is that it wasn't just Ryan Seacrest. Like, there were two guys. There was two guys. Like, it was a whole... Dunkelman?

Dunkelman? Dunkelman, yeah. Brian Dunkelman. See, I never saw the show in the first season. When we got asked, when I got asked to be on the show and went through the process of, like we auditioned and the whole thing, that's when season two of American Idol started to run. So I started watching it then because I was now going to be a part of the show,

so I thought I should probably see what it's all about. Right. That's the Clay Aiken, Ruben Studdard season. Correctamundo. See, I just happen to know some things. But don't ask me about like season six or seven or eight. I have no idea what happened then.

But okay, let's... It's funny because they just relaunched it again on Sunday night, American Idol, on a different network. I did hear about that. Yeah. But, you know, we're, there's still, I mean, the launch on CTV is, you know, there's still, I mean, the launch on CTV

is, it exists and Bell Media throws a bunch of marketing stuff at it. I always see it promoted everywhere

but I suspect that time has passed. I don't think it's going to get the attention or the traction. Time has passed but who knows?

Time will tell. Okay, let's talk pre-hip here. So, is this the management trust? Is that you and Alan Gregg that formed the management trust? Am I close here in the mid-80s?

I was part of I had a management company and I had different people I was working with back, started in 1981. I didn't meet Alan until December 85. And at the end of January 86, we decided to form a company together.

It wasn't called the Management Trust then. And then we named it the Management Trust probably a couple of years later. So like, is it just you always wanted, what made you think you'd be good at this? Honestly, I didn't. It wasn't a career goal, let's just say. It wasn't like, hey, I'm going to be a manager.

Although I'll tell an interesting story about that after. But I was living in LA at the time i was born in the us so i i could i moved there um for a couple of years came back in 81 and i was asked by a friend of mine to uh tour manage and do lighting for his band and the band broke up a month later and they decided to get a new guitar player and reform and they came to me and they said uh another guy the the guy who was the drummer in the band it's a guy we all grew up with mark including mark we all knew a guy named coleman york and um coleman said we want you to be our manager and i said well i don't know anything about it he said don't worry

you'll be good so that's when I started being, I went, okay. I had nothing else going on. Like, you know, I finished high school, graduated, but never went to university. Had taken a year off to, and went back to like Centennial College for about seven months and got bored. And that's when I started going on the road with bands doing lighting and stuff.

And so that's how I started. I started probably sometime, you know, April, May 1981. But I was reminded by some guys I grew up with, including some of the guys who will be at the card game this Friday, that we were playing cards a few years ago, maybe seven, eight years ago, and one of them said, you know, you and Hebsey are the only guys that actually got to do what they wanted to do. And I was like, what are you talking about?

And they said, well, I said, well, obviously with Mark, because Mark was like encyclopedic sports guy. And they said, no, you too. They said, don't you remember in grade six, they had the talent contest And you rehearsed these three women For two weeks And you basically took them on and rehearsed them And they won the talent contest

And you were their manager And I was like oh yeah right I forgot about that And so I guess when I was 11 Was when I had my first client So tell me How you Can we cut to you hooking up with the Tragically Hip? Is it okay if we skip to that? If I skip over anything interesting, feel free to share.

But you have to understand. Well, you know, it's interesting because a lot of people don't realize that, you know, any business, you're really in a relationship business. And so I had managed this band called New Regime who had a deal with RCA, and I had a relationship with the people at RCA. And through that band, there was a sax player named Earl Seymour who's passed away now now amazing sax player who would you know would would play on our sessions and also sometimes play live with us he grew up in edmonton

he grew up with alan greg alan grace you know had a guy he was investing in uh artist alan had wasn't in the music business and um and uh earl said to him you should meet jake you know he's a trustworthy guy maybe he can help you with this guy so earl set up this meeting that's how i met alan and and uh so when we started working together i was managing new regime you know i had a management company um and it was august of 1986 right after, you know, a few months after Alan and I started the company, that Alan was sent a tape by a friend of his named Hugh Siegel, who was, you know, another politics guy that Alan knew. And Hugh's brother-in-law was friends with the guys in the hip at Queens

and, you know, had a van and he used to get them to gigs and stuff. And so we listened to the tape, and it was a guy named John Paracall who was a radio consultant, friend of Alan's as well, and he happened to be in Alan's office when the tape came in, and he said to Alan, oh, this is really interesting. You should play it for Jake. And then Alan and I went to the Blue Jay game that Sunday,

and he played it for me in his car. This was like on a Friday, and he played it for me on the Sunday and I was like that is really interesting and I was like yeah we should see these guys I said yeah let's set up a gig so a week later like the following Saturday or the Saturday after it was in it was a Saturday night we set up a gig at Larry's Hideaway to see them but you know it all sort of was this relationship thing and then the first ep ended up coming out on rca because no one would sign the band so we made it ourselves paid for it ourselves and uh went to our chains and licensed it to them you know to see you know because we had no one else to put it out so we we put it out ourselves through them so when you saw the band live, can you be completely honest?

Like, was it love at first listen? Like, did you know right away? Less than 30 seconds. Like, it was, you know, I always like to say that you think you know what it is, and you think you know where the bar is until you actually get to see it.

And I had actually said hello to the guys before the show and had, you know, there was nothing for me to judge them on or anything. It was just say, hey, you know, I'm the guy that brought you in for the show. We're here to see you guys. Great. Glad you made it. Bah, bah, bah, bah brought you in for the show. We're here to see you guys. Great. Glad you made it. Ba, ba, ba, ba. See you after the show.

They come on stage. The first thing Gord says is, I can only give you everything. And they go into the them song, I can only give you everything. And he does this jackknife jump that he used to do and opens his mouth, and it was electric. And I looked at Alan, and I went, we're signing these guys tonight. Like, it was that instant.

You know, a lot of the great rock bands have these charismatic front men, if you will. Well, they kind of have to. It kind of goes with the territory. Yeah, fair enough. Tell me a great rock band that doesn't. Hold on. I'll be thinking about that all night.

Yeah, because it doesn't exist. But, I mean, Gord Downie, he epitomized that. I mean, I could see how you could recognize that within 30 seconds. But how were you able to secure this opportunity, like take advantage of this opportunity? Well, I think that it was one of those that no one was paying attention to them. They were these five guys out of Kingston that were just happy to be playing a gig in Toronto.

They were young guys. We were also a young management company and we sort of melded at the same time. It's just one of those situations. Amazing. Now, I should disclose, or maybe you know this, but I love this

band. There's a bingo card floating around this guy, Al. He's actually a lead singer. He's a charismatic front man for a band called the Royal Pains. So there's this bingo card floating around this guy, Al. He's actually a lead singer. He's a charismatic front man for a band called the Royal Pains. And he's got a, so there's this bingo card and like things I frequently repeat, you get to punch the bingo card.

And one of them is that the Tragically Hip is my favorite band of all time. So I can help him out. I knew that. I knew that coming in. You're even wearing your Jaws. I'm wearing my Jaws shirt. Absolutely.

And I've got the Jenny Wenjack, Gord Downie illustration right there. But love the band. So I'm curious up to here. And again, if I skip over anything you want to share, please do, because I'm very, very interested in this topic, as you can imagine.

I'm not going to give you everything, though, Mike, because I've got to save something for my book, right? Give me almost everything, and then you can save something for the book. Well, you won't know. I won't know what I don't know, which is good. It would upset me if I thought you were withholding here. So up to here, the first time I actually hear the band is,

hey, I have the jam actually, so let's play it. Q107. I listened to a lot of Q107 back then, including the top 10 of 10, and I'm listening to Q as I often did, and this song came on. It was the first single.

Yeah. Of course, Q's playing it, and I listened to it. One listen, okay? One listen, and I said to my buddy at the time, Joe, who I found out he lives five blocks away and we've become close again.

I said, Joe, we got to go downtown. I got to pick up this new hip disc. He picked up some old Alice Cooper album, cooper album billion dollar babies or something like that good record yeah good record but i picked this up played it it was a playthrough i loved every jam on this album and the rest is history tell me about like this album and basically making people like me i was a a teenager at the time, making us all aware of this kick-ass Canadian rock band, Tragically Hip. I don't know how to answer that.

I mean, you know, we put out the EP, we toured it, we were out of our deal with RCA because they wanted to change the deal and we didn't want to do that. We were shopping around for other people, other labels. We had done a showcase in New York City during CMJ, which is a big conference. At the time, it was like a college radio magazine. CMJ stood for College Media Journal.

a college radio magazine. CMJ stood for College Media Journal. And we did a showcase down there, put Small Town Bringdown on their sampler. And someone from MCA heard it and called me after the conference and said, hey, we want to sign your band. When can we come see them? And a lot of these songs were written.

We had been demoing these for other labels. But we had kind of a right to do what we wanted with them. So I don't think this song was written. New Orleans is Sinking was written. A few others were written. And the A&R guy, Bruce Dickinson, recommended this guy named Don Smith to produce the record.

He had worked with Tom Petty previously, and he worked with Keith Richards and the Expensive Winos, and we're all fans of that kind of music. And the decision was made to go to Arden Studios in Memphis and really soak in the South

you know and uh make the record um you know the home of Elvis so and I always so you look back like you mentioned that try to soak in the South there and I mean New Orleans is sinking a on the surface it's as American as any song I would think what What do I know? I'm just a guy from Toronto, but, uh, I'm going to read a quote. So this is actually from a, someone on Twitter named BM or it might've been on the open mic.

I've lost track, but I copied and pasted it. But he says in an interview with art voice magazine, Gord Downie said, quote, we can't draw flies down here. Referring to America. I wonder if Mr.

Gold ever felt desperate enough to pay for play, he's talking payola here, to get the songs, the hip songs at commercial radio. So take BM's question, but let me just ask you, like, was that a, why didn't the hip break in the USA? Okay, this is a, like, first of all, New Orleans is Sinking was the top 10 rock track in America. Okay, in fact, on KTXQ in Dallas, Texas, it was number one 13 weeks in a row.

It actually broke ZZ Top's record for number one, for consecutive number one weeks. So we got a lot of airplay, and I think that to say broke is a... Broke is a... You know, what's the definition of broke? So most bands, if you took the hip's career in America on its own, just on its own, it compared it to most bands in the world,

most bands would give their eye teeth for that career in America to sell out the kind of tickets they were selling and where they were selling and everything else I think compared to their success in Canada was it smaller? Yes was it good? most bands would be able to survive alone on what they were doing

in the United States but people always compared it to what they were doing in Canada but that's like comparing it to what nobody had ever done in Canada. Because I don't think anybody had ever sold as many packages as them. No, that perspective is important. And of course, you are absolutely right. Almost every band would give their right arm to have that level of success. But I guess, because that quote from Gord,

we can't draw flies down here. I mean, I don't know when it was, because we ended up doing really good business in a lot of great markets. Because that quote from Gord, we can't draw flies down here. I mean, I don't know when it was because they actually did. We ended up doing really good business in a lot of great markets. They could probably play the top 30 markets in America and do really good business. But again, they never really wanted to play the game. They wouldn't pose for magazines. They wouldn't go to morning radio shows.

They wouldn't do in-stores at record stores. They didn't play the game. Gord would always say to me, look, I want success on my terms. His terms were he wasn't going to do that. I think they were fairly happy with overall what they chose to do. They also

chose family over that, you know, when the option was to tour like crazy, which we did in the early years. But once they started having families and kids and everything else, it was like, well, I need to spend time at home. I'm not going to be away for that long. When did you stop managing the Tragically Hip?

03. 03. January 03. 03. January 03. Remind me, what album came out before that? That's how I... In Violet Light. In Violet Light. Yeah, very good.

So that was 02. Okay. So interestingly enough, two weeks after we decided we weren't going to work together anymore, well, they decided more or less. My contract was up. So it was like, okay, we're not going to renew the contract. And it had been 18 years. I got a call to do Canadian Idol.

Well, look at how that works out. So back to the hip, though, before we just leave them here. So I'm thinking... Yeah, we haven't really covered much. I mean, there's almost too much if that's possible here. Well, it's 18 years. It's a four-part show, Mike. I know. So maybe here we get

to know each other. I hit you with some high-level stuff, and then I get Hebsey to put the full-core press on to get you back. You just rent me a car, or get me a bed, and I'll just stay here for a week. Well, I can do that. Depends which week, I guess. Some weeks there's no room in the end. Get me a bed and I'll just stay here for a week. Well, I can do that. Yeah. Depends which week, I guess. Yeah.

Some weeks there's no room in the end. But this album, fully, completely, in many ways, and I'm based on nothing more than just living it, this felt like the apex, if you will. This is when all the singles were monster, all over much music and arenas everywhere. And it just seemed like this is when the hip were the de facto biggest band in the country. And maybe you can say that happened earlier, but it just felt like this album is the big band. I think this record put its mark.

Basically, we planted the flag on this record. But I think that continued for quite some time. And in fact, in terms of sales from the get-go, Trouble at the Hen House sold more from the get-go. In terms of in the first month or something like that, Trouble at the Hen House sold more than any of them. And that lead single

was Ahead by a Century. Right, which was a big was the first time we really had sort of ventured into that side of pop. It was definitely a much more commercial, radio-friendly type song. Some of the pop stations actually played it. And they won three Junos for that record. They had never won three Junos for any record.

They won Record of the Year. In fact, that record beat Celine Dion. Junos for any record. They won record of the year. In fact, that record beat Celine Dion. And the record Celine Dion was nominated for was the one that she had Titanic on. That won a Grammy. It won the Grammy for record of the year, but the hip won for Trouble at the Hen House. But that was the first year of another roadside attraction. Fully Completely came out in October 6, 1992. But another roadside attraction the first year was that summer. So we did our own small arena tour, not the big arena tour.

That didn't happen until day for night. But by choice, by the way. We purposely took our time getting there. And then we did another roadside attraction in 93, which I think that's where we sort of planted the flag. And for what it's worth, that was the point in our minds of another roadside attraction. Mine and Alan's was like, we're going to plant the flag this summer. You know, we're going to plant the flag this summer. We're going to let everyone know this is it. Michael Mullin has a great question to follow up on that.

Were there any times when you were told that the hip... Were there any times that you told the hip something was a bad idea, but the band insisted and they were proven right, or the other way around, where you were proven right? Any examples like that? Many. Share some of the spicier ones. I'll just give you one. Okay.

I should be balanced, but I got to think of one where I was wrong. I want one of each now. There was a time where in, I think it was 91, Rush offered us a big arena tour in America to open for Rush. And they loved the hip. Geddy, Alex, Neil. Neil had a really felt a kinship with Gord Downie.

And they just. They're both kind of poets. Yeah, exactly. Totally. They love the hip. And they offered... Ray Daniels, the manager, called me up and said, we want to take you out.

And it was like, how many dates? It was like 30 or 40 arena shows in America. Big, big shows. You know, how much can you pay us? What do you need? It was sort of like, what do you need to make it work? We really want you guys, right? And this is before, because back then Rush had opening acts,

and the band wouldn't do it. They didn't think at the time, at the time. And then we ended up doing a show, a United Way show, with them at Maple Leaf Gardens, and it went over really well, and the Rush guys were great. And then we we're playing in la one day and neil would come out to the shows and gordon i remember pulled me aside one day and he goes that was a mistake we should have done that tour rush are cool yeah like it was just you know and then we'd actually done a tribute to them at the junos which was really cool and uh um you know we ended up having a kinship with them after that um but i think it would have really

helped in breaking the band or at least elevating the band's uh stature and profile at that time yeah no doubt it would have been i think it think it was on the Road Apples tour. Was it primarily they didn't want to, or is it just they didn't want to support Rush, or was it they didn't want to support another band? I don't think they thought Rush were cool then. Interesting. Yeah, I could see that, though. Right?

But they admitted they had made a mistake. And can you have an example, please, of you being wrong, Mr. Gold? You know, you forget that stuff right so you've erased so uh but you know listen i don't think i was right uh i'm not saying i was right on the rush front because i i had asked them to do it thinking that i thought it was a good idea right but um it was still up to them, you know. Yeah, it could have been more forceful. But, you know, you can't just say you have to do this.

It's not going to work. It doesn't work like that. Yeah, you're not the Colonel Tom Parker or whatever. No, no. But even then, you know, like, you know, it's the old adage, you know, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. And you wouldn't want the shows to be shit. So, but then, you know, but then we did some amazing,

like we hadn't really ever really opened for anybody, like ever. So we find ourselves now, you know, in 95, having like the ultimate year of throwback, right? Like it was 70s throwback all at once in 1995 because we headlined our first show at Maple Leaf Gardens February 10th. March 25th played Saturday Night Live. All through May, toured with Paige Plant. In the summer, toured with the Stones in Europe.

Right. Did another roadside attraction in the summer as well. And then in October, went back out with Page Plant and did more arena shows, finishing two nights at Madison Square Gardens.

So, you know, you got Saturday Night Live, Page Plant, and the Stones all in one year. It was kind of a monumental year. Well, tell me about the Saturday Night Live. Who

approached you? Did Dan Aykroyd play a role in making this happen? Yeah, Dan had... It was a time when Saturday Night Live seemed to be in a rut and there was a lot of controversy going around about what was going on with the cast

and blah, blah, blah, blah. And they had reached out to Dan to host. Now, Dan always had his own personal rule that he thought anybody who was part of the cast should never be a host. But he agreed to guest on the show that night. And if you remember, John Goodman was technically the host that night. But Dan... And if you remember, John Goodman was technically the host that night. And but Dan, but there was so much, there was a lot of problems with the cast.

If you go back to that time, there was a lot of stuff written about, you know, the show may close, this and this, the rating. It was all kinds of stuff like that. So and so there was, I think Dan sort of wielded a lot of clout in coming on the show with Lauren. And he said, sure, I'll come on the show, but you got to have my friends perform that night. And all of a sudden, we're signed to Atlantic Records and someone from Atlantic Records calls.

Now, we kind of knew it was sort of going to happen anyways. And they called and they said, Saturday Night Live just called. They want you on this date. Oh, really? I'm surprised. Isn't that cool? Well, it's amazing, right? Because I remember, I mean, of course, I watched it.

I heard bars were shut down here. Like, everything stopped. People were like, I mean, we were there, right? Right. But I always wondered, now, the two big the day for night was the album you were pushing right so is there was there a rule i was curious about this i'm no there wasn't and i know you're gonna ask me you're gonna ask me why did they play two songs why didn't they play like new orleans is sinking or something like that i wondered it when i watched

it live i wondered it too and i had um it had entered my mind but it was kind of like, no, I'm not going to. I could say that to them, and they weren't going to listen anyways. And I think we were going to play the songs off our new record, which is kind of a hip thing to do, meaning the band, the hip, not necessarily a hip thing to do. Well, it's authentic, I guess that instead of like playing, you don't want to, I guess instead of playing like your greatest hits or whatever,

but it would be a way to like reach a, not a new audience, because we've had this discussion that they had some level of, but they never had, I guess what they never, what they lacked in the USA was I guess like a bonafide hit, whereas like I always, I just talked to Tyler Stewart

from the Barenaked Ladies, and we talked about how one week, like, when one week, that was like, this was a big US hit. They had a big pop hit. Yeah. It wasn't something that we ever played in. We never played in that world.

They had a lot of success. Courage was top 10 on Alternative and Rock. Ahead by Century was a top 10 AAA track. So Poets was a top 10 AAA track. Day for Night wasn't really a radio record. It didn't have like, you know, there's some amazing songs on Day for Night and to some people it's their best record.

But I wouldn't call it, it didn't have the sing-songy type songs like completely or trouble at the hen house had no you're right in fact uh so nautical disaster which is one of my favorite tragically hip songs of all time uh there's really it's really structured interestingly like it comes in these waves like there is no like verse chorus verse kind of structured right right and grace too yeah you know But it's funny, when we toured with Paige Plant, Robert Plant loved Grace 2, and he loved that they opened the show with it every night. And in his mind, it was like, he goes,

the first line, you say, I'm fabulously rich. And in Robert's mind, that was like the greatest way to open the show. It's funny, because on Saturday Night Live, he changes that line. Well, he didn't change it consciously. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Because I'm hearing, oh. He didn't intend to change it.

And it was a really funny moment because afterwards, we all knew he did it. Yeah. And we were in the dressing room and he goes, I can't believe I did that. And I was like, well, what happened? And he goes, I heard Dan Ay dan akroyd say tragically hip and i kept hearing it in my head and i just said it that's an interesting little uh detail there

mr gold yeah i love that stuff i had no idea i just think he intentionally no no he introduced the band or something he would never do that he would never do that that's so bizarre that's the thing gord was always in the moment that's what the thing. Gord was always in the moment. That's what made him so great. He was always in the moment. So like he wasn't the guy who could say, hey, don't forget to thank the radio station. And like that would never happen.

Interesting. Right? So he literally was in the moment and he heard Dan introduce the band's name and he just heard it in his head and he just spurted it out. That's very interesting. Yeah. So the Saturday Night Live, which we were all it in his head, and he just spurted it out. That's very interesting. So the Saturday Night Live, which we were all very proud.

We were proud Canadians here that, hey, there's our band. It was interesting for me because it was my mother's birthday, and my mother was from New York. So we brought her to New York. Oh, yeah, cool. To come to the show because it was on her birthday. Very cool. March 25th.

Very cool. Yeah. Now was there any noticeable bump of any kind? I know you're the manager. You're always looking for these things. There was a 60% bump in sales the following week. And I think we probably would have had a bigger bump, but I don't think the record company had enough records in the stores.

That's interesting, too. Yeah, I don't think they kind of capitalized on it enough. And we didn't have a radio hit going on, but what it did do is it enabled us to, we got asked in February at Maple Leaf Gardens if we would tour with the Stones in the summer. But after playing Saturday Night Live, we got on the radar of the guys from Page Plant.

Now, we had never really opened for anybody. Maybe done a couple of festivals here and there, but not in a true sort of headline opening at type thing. But it was like, you don't really say no to the Stones. You don't say no to Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. So that's true. There's probably a law about that. You don't say no to those guys.

Now, I'll at least introduce this question by playing a little bit of this unreleased track. So this is called Get Back Again. Yeah. I'll play it for a moment. What's the deal with your dad? He don't even know my name. Didn't know he'd be back.

Didn't know we'd been back. Didn't know we'd been back. No one stayed to share the blame. I didn't mean to do that. She won't even come around. Every time I look back Didn't realize that I was better off then Now

Mothers came and cried forever Brother came to life a century's end All the time that I thought was my friend Be alright till we get back again Get Back Again, in my humble opinion, is a beautiful song, and it was never released, and I'm wondering why it was never released. Do you have an answer for me? I'm trying to remember.

When was that recorded? I don't remember the answer. It must say on it. No. It's a live cut from a CBC thing. So this is like a live recording for a CBC show.

Hmm. But the question that comes from Patrick Bales is related to that. He wants to know what are your favorite songs from the hip

that were never released? like is there I guess let you answer the get back back again question just let me know if there's any other great hip tracks that maybe you felt should have been released or no i think i think the choices uh there was never songs that i can remember that i was like oh we have to put this on and they were like no we're not not. There was never that. And I think in terms of Get Back Again, I think whenever it was recorded,

I forget when it was recorded. After Road Apples? I think it may have been. Road Apples? It may have been for Road Apples, and it just didn't fit. Or it may have been for Fully Completely, and it sort of didn't fit that record.

And maybe Gord didn't like the lyrics at the time and hadn't finished it yet, or, you know. There was so many different reasons. They used to play it live, though. I remember hearing it live a lot. The Kumbaya Festival. So let's give a little context here. So this was, was it on MuchMusic?

With your good friend. With my dear friend, Holly want molly johnson right right so molly johnson yeah she puts together this uh kumbaya festival for uh for aids awareness or yeah yeah and uh it was broadcast so much i know denise donlon played a role and it was broadcast so much music and the hip played this. So when Molly was on, I can't remember, I asked her something about the hip being at Kubaia and she made a crack and I didn't pull the clip

but there's already a bingo carp space for the Molly Johnson references but something about Ask Jay Gold about that. Is there anything you can tell me about working with Molly Johnson

on the hip being involved in Kubaia? Well, it wasn't a matter of anything. They asked us to do it. We said, sure, we'll,

you know, we'll do it. And, um, the moment we were announced, the thing, the thing always did well. I'm not gonna take anything away from what Molly did.

It was, they did a, they did a great job. And I think we thought, let's, uh, elevate it. Let's sell it out and make it a big deal.

And so, you know, we, uh, it was on Ontario place forum with that revolving, We thought, let's elevate it. Let's sell it out and make it a big deal. It was on Ontario Place Forum with that revolving stage. There was a lot of great artists on it. I think the following year or maybe the same year, I'm not sure because I have a picture of it. The Watchmen, who I also managed at the time, they got up and played with Randy Bachman. They played American Woman with Randy Bachman, both bands being from Winnipeg.

So that was a good, that was a moment. I'm not sure which year it was. Because it was, I think Kumbaya did three years, maybe four years. I'm not sure. I can't remember, but I took a note after the Molly episode. If I ever get Jake Gold in here, I'm going to find out if there's some story there.

She may have a story that I don't even remember. All I know is they were trying to get us, and we finally agreed to do it, and we did it. Boom. Boom. Boom goes the dynamite. Right, exactly. Good for you. Now, this question's a little inside baseball for me here.

Ian Service, who actually owns the company that's hosting this MP3 file right now, he also does the same for the Humble and Fred podcast. And I'm friends with Humble and Fred. We go way back. And there's a story Howard likes to tell about you roughing him up. Deservedly so. likes to tell about you roughing him up. Deservedly so.

So would you, and so Ian Service wants me to see if you'll tell the tale of how you met him. You know, Howard remembers it so much better than I do. And every time I see him, he reminds me of it, right? But I think it was one of those where we were doing one of those surprise shows and then where we would just announce it and you had to stand in line at the venue to get in. I think it may have been at the concert hall.

It was like we were doing a surprise charity show. And Howard shows up trying to do an interview. And we're not doing interviews. And he's getting belligerent with me. And I'm just like, you know what? Just get the fuck out of here. We don't want to talk to you. And I think he got heavy.

And so it's like, OK, you're going to get heavy. I'll get heavy, too. And it was like, you know, it was one of of those there was a lot going on sure right so um in terms of you know a lot of people there were trying to keep everything in order and then you got these this radio guy kind of getting in the way and being belligerent and you know it was it was uh you know sort of let us do our job here and you're coming in to mess our job up kind of thing. Because he thinks it's more related to the fact that he, after every, they played a lot, as you know,

they played a lot of hip on 102.1. Right. So every morning, you know, Humble and Fred were playing a hip song. So they're doing lots of intros and extras, whatever they did, the back selling, whatever. And he would jokingly say that every hip song sounds the same. Erroneously, I'll point out, this is not true. But to his ears, every Tragically Hip song sounds the same.

That tells you more about him than it does about the band. Agreed. And you may have called him up or something. I can't remember. No, I don't. If I called him up, fuck, I don't remember that. Maybe I did. You know, it's amazing the stuff I hear I did.

And I was like, really, I did that? Oh, okay. I must have been like, but I don't think I ever called him up. I don't think I had a giant love for Howard. I don't think I had a giant love for Howard. I kind of, you know, most of the morning show guys at the time, it was all about let's be more, you know, outrageous than the next guy. Like shock jock Howard Stern style? Yeah, but even Howard softened, right?

You listen to Howard now and, like he's he gets a listers on like you know there's there's no place better to if you want to promote something there's no place better to be than howard right that's true but um but uh i just i found that they all were looking for a way to kind of light the phones up so if it was like you know let's tall down let's chop down the tall trees. Okay, the hip are a huge band, so let's try and take them down and then people are going to phone us and give a shit for it

and then we have controversy and that was the MO. It was like, okay, if that's going to help your ratings, if that's what you need instead of being creative and different, then go for it. 18 years you said you managed the Tragically Hip.

Yeah. Now, how was the breakup? Well, they sat me down. They said, look, we're not going to renew, and we're going to look for someone else to work with us. We were in a hotel room in downtown Toronto. I was like, we're in a hotel room in downtown Toronto. I was like, okay, see ya. Do you have any idea what caused them to make that decision?

Yeah, I think I'll save that for the book. Saving that one for the book, eh? The relationship, I'm curious about your relationship with the band in the years after. Well, I continued to manage Gord and his solo stuff for the next two solo albums, right? For Coke Machine Glow and the book launch and all that, and then Battle of the Nudes.

Great albums. And then it just became sort of untenable to kind of not for him to sort of be managed separately and blah blah blah so you know by then they had found uh new managers and um because they had gone to one company after me and then left that company and i i remember warning them i said this is not going to be good for you guys right and it was mostly because because I still gave a shit, right?

And I said, it's not really going to be good for you guys. That's not a good move where you're going. And a year and a half later, they realized I was right, and they went to somewhere else. There was a moment there where they were going to come back, but I don't think they could all agree on it, because we were approached by some of the band members if we'd reconsider working with them again,

and that never happened. But I have a good relationship with them. I talk to Johnny more often than anybody because he lives in Toronto, and we get together for dinner every once in a while. So I'm looking for... I have a soundtrack. Okay, so I was curious if you were working with Gord when he recorded the cover of Hallelujah

for the movie St. Ralph. I don't think so. Okay. I was always forever curious why that his cover of Hallelujah was never released in any proper format. Maybe there was no rights to. Sometimes when you do stuff for movies, you're doing it only for the movie

and you don't grant them rights to release it. So that happens often. But, you know, knowing Gordy, he's like, I'll do it for the movie, but I don't want this ever being released because he probably thought, wow, like there's about a million versions of this song out there. I don't need to be another one. He's right there's about a million versions of this song out there.

I don't need to be another one. He's right. There is a million versions of that song. I always blame Jeff Buckley for that. He did that one version for Grace or whatever, and now everyone does a version. Well, Katie Lang did a pretty good version. No, hers is great too.

Hers is great too. Those are the two definitive versions besides Leonard. But I managed Adam Cohen for a while, and Adam used to always say that, he said, there should be a sign in every venue, no matter what size venue's dressing room, that says, Mr. Leonard Cohen requests

that you not perform Hallelujah tonight. That's like in Wayne's World when it says no stairway. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Oh, that's funny. Anyway, he does, I do have a copy if you ever want to hear it, but when Gord records this Hallelujah, I was told by the guy who put the music together for the music that Gord's watching

the footage. It's a wonderful Canadian movie, a wonderful little Canadian film. In fact, Gord appeared in another movie by this director. He was in one week. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure. So this is the same guy. But that's all after me. All after you.

Okay. So I won't. I was always curious. I got a copy because the person knew I was a fan from my blog. And it's amazing. But let me ask you about Gord just before we move on here. And I don't want to get too personal. Or maudlin.

Maudlin. Is that the word I'm looking for? Yeah. My vocabulary isn't what it used to be. But can you share a little bit about, like, did you have a chance to say goodbye to Gord? Not really. I wouldn't say no. I went to six of the shows on their final tour.

So I got to see him during those shows. I got to spend some time with him in Vancouver, beginning of the tour. And then when things, you know, him and I would communicate via text a lot, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Every year on my birthday, I would get a note from him. And then it was, I went to the premiere of the documentary at TIFF, and I was with Robbie and the guys, and Robbie pulled me

aside. He said, if you haven't had a chance to see gourd i suggest you go see him now because it's not good so i i talked to pat his brother and we were going back and forth on when i was going to come visit him and i we had a date set and i was supposed to come that day because pat was basically managing the schedule and then pat wrote me he says look all the kids are coming today not a good day okay let's try next week and and then it never happened and this was all like happening in like a two three four week period where never got a chance like he wasn't even on his phone because he wasn't he was at the stage where he wasn't even communicative on the phone um in terms of texting like pat i think pat had his phone because uh

he wasn't able to really communicate that way so so no i did i get a chance to say goodbye not in the not in the truer sense of the word, no. The outpouring of shared grief, like the collective mourning that this country... Well, I think it's interesting because I felt like the country mourned twice. They mourned when it was announced that he was terminal and that he was going to do this tour, and so the tour felt like one big long goodbye

and then when he died it was sort of an inevitability and um uh i think it was sort of like okay it wasn't a matter of if it was a matter of when so um yeah it was it was a sad day it is unique that fans are given an opportunity to say goodbye like that this is a very unique I can't think of a comparable really but we essentially

all knew we were going to see one of our favorite bands my favorite band to to say goodbye. And for that, I mean, that's remarkable, but you're right. Even though you know what's coming when you hear the news, and I'm speaking

as a gentleman who was just a fan. You had a personal relationship with Gord, which I can only imagine how it affected you, but I can tell you it's the only celebrity death I ever cried like a baby upon learning that he had passed. It's the only one in my life that evoked that reaction. So yeah, I feel even hearing his voice now in this episode,

though, it's like we still have the songs, but you kind of realize he's no longer with us and we're worse off because of that fact. Yeah, I think, but he left enough good to remember him by. So, you know, listen, I mean, you can't really put those kinds of things into words. Everybody feels differently, feels not differently about him, but how it affects them is different. And everybody felt they had a relationship with Gord. I mean,

I had a 30-year relationship with him. And not all of it was like, you know, roses and candy. And there was a lot of like, you know, screaming moments, let's just say. But hey, you know, that's when you have people that are passionate about what they do and believe in what they do. So you're going to have those kind of sparks. But that was okay. It was part of what we did. I remember when I saw him in Vancouver, and I hadn't seen him in a while, and this is, you know, beginning of the tour, it's the second night of the tour, after the first show in Vancouver,

and he goes, it's good to see you, man. He goes, the best thing about what's happening to me is I don't remember any of the bad stuff. And I went, well, that's good, Gord. Well, you know, when you work that closely with somebody, you're like brothers, right? Brothers are going to fight. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, they were more brothers. I was more like uncle. Right, Uncle Jake. Yeah. That's good. Now, you mentioned another band you were managing. So I also enjoy this band. Uncle Jake. Yeah. That's good. Now, you mentioned another band you were managing. So I also enjoy this band.

Where are you there? Oh, there you are. It's a slow build. That's right. One of my favorite songs from the Watchmen. So how did you become involved with the Watchmen? Oh, Ralph James, who's still their agent, was an agent at a Winnipeg at the time. He loved them, thought I should, he badgered me to come and see them over and over until finally I saw them and I went, okay, these guys are ready.

And I took them on. They were sort of my next big act after The Hip. And we made the first record and the rest is history. We worked together about 14 years. They're still out playing live, still doing shows. Yeah, they were at the Danforth musical not that long ago. My buddy was there, and I kicked myself. I didn't go. But yeah, I've seen them open for the hip at the amphitheater.

Yeah, for sure. This is what I would say a great Canadian band, wonderful ensemble, great songs, and maybe never reached the heights of a Tragically Hip, but tremendous, good stuff, very good. Yeah, I think there was an era when there were a lot of bands coming up that had sort of that same thing going on. In fact, there was a festival, a festival of friends once,

out near Niagara region. And it was like, you know, Tea Party, OLP, 5440, The Watchmen, Moist. It was like all in one lineup. And it was, you know, the who's who of sort of Canadian can rock from the 90s. Yeah. All in one bill. Oh, you throw a little Rusty on that bill and we're good to go. Yeah.

I love those guys rusty. They needed some Jay Gould management. I knew those guys. They actually opened for the hip in 1988. Wow. That's pre-fluke. 1988 in Montreal at the Fufun Electric. And I think the date to to be exact, was June 7th.

I like exact. And then June 16th, nine days later, we opened for 5440 at the Spectrum. And the rest is history in Montreal. Spectrum. And the rest is history in Montreal because we came back that New Year's and did two nights at the original Club Soda over New Year's Eve. Did you manage Big Rec?

I signed them. I executive produced the first record and I co-managed them. We had brought in a young guy to look after. We started another division, and he sort of ran that division, and we handed him Big Wreck. So I would say, yes, I managed Big Wreck for the first record, but not the second record.

Did you manage Sass Jordan? When did you manage Sass Jordan? So I met Sass when we were doing Idol, and she didn't have anybody looking after her. So I became the ipso facto guy to look after it. So we worked together for nine years. Still really good friends. I just saw her in December, went up to her place.

She always has sort of a Christmas slash Sass birthday party because her birthday falls on the 23rd of December. So she always has a big daytime event up there. Okay, let's do the Canadian Idol part then right now because I have some Canadian Idol questions here. I'll bring down Sass. That was a great, great single though. But there we go. Sass. That was a great, great single though. But there we go. Tell me about

how, you kind of alluded to it earlier, but you just auditioned for Canadian Idol? Yeah. I got my audition call. And you got the gig. Well, I first had told them I didn't want to do it. I got a call from an agent who asked me if I wanted to do it. And it was right after the hip

split and I was sort of not in the mood to do anything, to be honest with you. So I said, okay, no, I don't think I want to do this. And I went home, and I mentioned to my now ex-wife, who was my wife at the time, I said, these guys asked me to do this TV show. And she was like, you'd be good at it. You should do it. And I was like, you think so?

And she goes, yeah. I was like, okay, I'll call them back. So I called the guy back. I said, sure, I'll take a meeting. And so I took a meeting with these guys. And what was interesting was I got there and they were, you know, talking to me about what we were going to do and what it was about. And I sort of knew the production team because they had worked on the Junos

and various other things. And then they were like, well, do you want to hear some singers? And I was like, what do you mean? Oh, we have a little studio downstairs and and we can sit you at a desk, and we can bring some people in. And I went, oh, okay. So no one told me this was going to happen, but they had prepared it.

So two of the production people sat beside me at a desk, and we had notes, which turned out to be the same kind of notes we would get on the show, like, this is Susie from Saskatchewan. And she's going to sing this. And this is, you know, watch for this. She's going to sing Hallelujah.

Right. And so they had cameras set up. And they brought in singers after singers. And Susie from Saskatchewan turned out not to be Susie from Saskatchewan. I found out after that Susie from Saskatchewan was actually a musical theater actor. And that's who they had hired to play. This one's going to sing bad. This one's going to sing good.

It was just to gauge my reactions and what I was going to say and so on and so forth. So you passed the audition. Well, we actually had that audition. And then we had a second one where it was down to six of us. None of us knew who they were going to pick. And in fact, they did sneaky stuff. They negotiated with all six before they told you whether you got the gig.

Interesting. Because what you were demanding or what they negotiated with you could somehow affect whether you end up getting the gig or not? Is that the idea there? So they know what it costs to get a J gold versus a farley flex no no they negotiated with uh because they didn't want you to have any leverage in other words if they told you you had the gig you had more leverage than if they told you well let's see how much you're going to charge before we decide if you're going to have the gig right of course of course and i didn't didn't matter to me because it wasn't like life or death for me

in terms of whether I wanted to do it or not. So I just decided that this is what I want and that's what I'm going to get. And if you don't want to pay me that, then I'm not going to do it. But you did it in how many seasons? Six seasons. All six. Yeah. it in how many seasons? Six seasons.

All six, yeah. And looking back now, names like Kalen Porter, was it Red Goody? What's his name? Rex Gowdy. Rex Gowdy. Red Goody. Don't tell Red. That sounds like a cheese. Hockey player. Red Gouda.

Well, Ryan Malcolm, I can't mess up that name. But all these guys, for what it's worth, they've all left the industry. I just wonder, looking back at the whole Canadian Idol thing, it was sort of an interesting time. These guys would have radio play, and they would get Juno nominations, and then they would go become software developers. Not necessarily Juno nominations. Yeah, but that was only the winners.

But let's look at the full list, right? You have to bring it up because there was some success. Obviously, there's some controversy now with this guy, but Jacob Hogart. Well, let me play, just give everyone a taste. I'm sorry for interrupting, except that right on that note, if we can just get a, how did you sound? How did Jake Gould sound on Canadian Idol? Well, I pulled a very short clip here. I've got to say that, you know, I've seen American Idol, I've seen some of the shows from around the world, and nobody has ever

used props and taken it the way you have to a performance level. You know, I thought, You know, I thought, while I thought some of the interpreted dance was a little iffy for me, I will say that David Bowie would have been really proud that you sang his song. So that's Jacob Hogard. Doing Space Oddity. Right. Yeah. That's how you said it. First show of season two of the top ten.

And Jacob, you're right. Of course, now there's a notoriety at play here. Yeah. I believe he's been arrested. That's too bad. But prior to this... But if you think about it, there's a full list. Like, I'm actually going to see Come From Away this Saturday night.

And Steffi D., who was on season five, who we always thought had a great, would have a great career in musical theater, who turned out to have an amazing career in musical theater. She's been in tons and tons of stuff, commercials, been in tons of TV shows, acting, singing,

everything. And she's playing one of the leads in Come From Away. And she has a really successful career that started when she was like really young. I think she was like really young i think she was 17 or 18 on on idol um and there's been a lot of that happening uh tara oram um there's there's been a a lot of people that have had a lot of success from the show um and i don't know if they would have had the same success had they not had that exposure. Right.

And then there's this example here. So you just can't wait to do the example. You're not actually listening to me. You're just queuing up. No, I'm listening to everybody. Now I'm thinking I want to see that come from away. I want to go see this now. Yeah, she kind of had a bit of success, this girl. What place did she finish?

Do you remember? Third. Third. Carly Rae Jepsen. have had a bit of success this girl what place did she finish do you remember third third carly ray jebson which is a i think with uh without a doubt the the biggest success story from the canadian idol franchise i would say it's an earworm that's what that maybe It's an earworm. That's what that is. It's an earworm. Very catchy. But Carly Rae Jepsen. And she's awesome.

And it's interesting because her most recent records have been more kind of what we saw her as, which was she was sort of this Nora Jones, sort of jazz, kind of folky type,

almost alternative type artist. And her last two records were more like that. And in fact maybe not the most recent one but the one before that got nominated for Polaris Prize well she's played on 88.1 Indie 88

so she's not just yeah that's what I mean I think that Call Me Maybe was an anomaly which was great to put her in the you know the public eye it was like what 2010 was like the song of the year, without a doubt. Right.

I remember sitting in a room with a whole bunch of people in the industry at a Juno meeting, and I said to them all, nobody around the table knew what was going on. I said, this is the number one song on iTunesunes yet it's not even on the radio yet like hardly anyone's playing it on the radio it's the number one song on itunes and and and i was talking to the people who produced idol i said do you know who this is this is carly ray jepsen like remember her from our show um because they were doing the junos i said and they all looked at me and they go, really?

I'm like, yeah, she's got the number one song on iTunes. And she's got no airplay right now. Like radio had not picked up on the record. But because of the tweets from Bieber and Ariana Grande and other people, all of a sudden she was like blowing up. Right. No, it wasn't Ariana Grande. No, but it was definitely bieber i know no

what was what was bieber's girlfriend at the time oh it's uh selena gomez yeah selena gomez and bieber had both tweeted about it and done like that done sort of takeoffs on it video takeoffs on it but but that was i think before bieber's uh management like on the record side, because they released it in the States, got involved. The song was just blowing up. It was that good a song. But from what I understand, Carly Rae brought this in to her producer,

the guy who was producing the record. She played it for him as an acoustic song, like she normally would. And he turned it into this okay we can get this off you don't love the uh you don't love those no this song i i actually really want the acoustic i know no i i really like that song. And Carly Rae's awesome. Like, any time I've ever seen her, she's so genuine. She truly is awesome. What was it like being, I guess, when Idol breaks, you're in your 40s?

You're in your 40s, and all of a sudden, now you're being recognized, right? Like, teenage girls are recognizing J. Cole. What was that like? Well, you know, you spend most of your career behind the camera, and then now you're on camera. You know, it teaches you a lot, to be honest with you. You know, you have to be much more conscious of everything. You know, you can't be pushing around guys like humble howard anymore that's right those days are gone yeah those days are gone and that was pre-social media

oh yeah he'd be on twitter right right away uh jake gold just are you kidding it would be a video on youtube and uh it would be everywhere so it would be the best thing that ever happened to him yeah to be honest but that but i mean, that's where things have changed, right? Although we weren't doing a lot of social media at the time. What are we listening to now? Nanomascuri. I was looking at your glasses and I was thinking, they're nice. I like

those glasses. They're good frames. Nanomascuri or similar. Seriously, Nanomascuri. Nanomascuri. Bear with me, nanomascury. Nanomascury. Bear with me, Jake. This is very important. I just need to do this. I want to thank Camp Tournesol for coming back to the program.

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There's day camp for children and Francophone children and French immersion children ages 6 to 12. And again, you get that introduction to French for kids as young as 4. So your 4- and 5-year-old kids can go to the day camp. And it's amazing. Watch them blossom. They have a new thing this year this is for their uh out of their concern for the environment they're launching a new english camp called love my planet eco camps and they're fun engaging hands-on activities so go to camp t.ca and use the promo promo code Mike2019. That's Mike2019, and you get $20 off your first order.

Again, Mike2019. Did you ever see Nana Muscuri in concert, Jake? No, I never did. I think it'll be better than Flo Rida, though. Come on, you can't go wrong with Nana Muscuri. Okay, Bob Lefsetz. I've listened to you on the Bob Lefsetz i've listened to you yeah on the bob lefsetz uh podcast yep very i always it's very interesting it's uh it's my cup of tea you know

uh interesting conversation between you both uh what's your relationship with bob lefsetz exactly you just are you friends or uh we met um well we met way back in like late 80s when I used to get his letter and we talked on the phone. But then we met officially in 1996 at a conference in Aspen that we still both go to. It goes on every year in December. It used to be called the Aspen Artist Development Conference, and now it's called Aspen Live. It's kind of an invite-only music industry thing. And it's kind of an invite-only music industry thing. And we met in 1996.

And we met, you know, it was like I knew who he was. He didn't know who I was. Well, he sort of knew who I was. And, you know, we met and we're talking music. And we start talking Genesis. You know, I'm wearing my Genesis Broadway T-shirt today. And he loved Genesis too, that era of Genesis. And we really got into it.

And then we became fast friends. And we've been friends ever since. And we're personal friends. When he turned 50, I flew to LA for his big surprise birthday party. And he flew up when it was a surprise party for me when I turned 50. And we're good friends. I've interviewed him a lot in front of audiences at Canadian Music Week. I interviewed him at the Aspen Conference once.

I've done his podcast a bunch of times. Did I remember there was an episode where you guys were both riding the TTC? Am I misremembering? Was that on his podcast? No, no, it was in his letter. In his letter. He came in for CMW.

We had to go somewhere. And I was like, let's just take the King Street car. It's so much quicker, right? So we took the King car. We went for dinner. I forget where we were going, but we were going somewhere along King Street. It was easier to take the King car. Right.

So that's cool. Where did you say Bob, like what state does he live in uh he's in california california okay okay yeah he lives in in uh los angeles santa monica um actually um but he's from connecticut splashing boots i love these guys uh my kids love these guys my kids love these guys which is how you end up liking people but then I got to meet Tess and Nick Splashin' Boots

they came over they did an episode and then they came back and kicked out the jams how did you get involved with Splashin' Boots it's a great jam this is my favorite Splashin' Boots

oh really yeah we have the CD in the car my two year old just they love singing this Shake Your Bum well you're gonna come It's a great jam. This is my favorite Spice Shrew. Really? Yeah. We have the CD in the car. It's my two-year-old. They love singing this Shake Your Bum song. Well, you're going to bring them up on March the 12th, I guess, to the Rose Theater in Brampton. Yeah, I got that Laura Armstrong episode.

I just have to figure if I can move that. But, yeah, somebody's going to go there. Well, the show's at 11, so, you know, you get Laura in later in the afternoon, maybe. Well, the show's at 11, so you could get Laura in later in the afternoon, maybe. So I actually met them. I met Tess first. We were at a Juno press conference a couple of years ago, standing in line getting coffee.

She knew who I was, I guess, from TV. I didn't know who she was. And it wasn't really something I paid much attention to, especially not having any kids myself. And we just started talking. I said, oh, what do you do? Oh, really? Oh, cool. How many records?

You sell a lot of records. And before I knew it, it was like, oh, I have some ideas for you guys. And it was just literally going to help them. Just like, have you thought about this? Maybe you should be applying to this organization to get some money for yourselves. Or, you know, you qualify for this. Or have you thought about this?

And so then they started bringing me deals that other people were offering them to look at for them, to see if they were good deals, like other production companies and management companies. And it was all altruistic on my end. I just thought they were good deals, like other production companies and management companies. And it was all altruistic on my end. I just thought they were really wonderful people that I was going to help just for the sake of it. And none of it seemed right for them.

And then finally, it was about six months after we were having this relationship where they said, well, why don't you manage us? And that was about a year and a half ago, a little more than that. I was like, I never really thought of that. Okay, I'll do that. And that's what we've been doing ever since.

They're pretty amazing people. I think it's my retribution client. But they're going to march on Queens Park this Thursday. You should come. You should come do Twitter Live. The autism.

Yeah. I'm all over it. A dear friend of mine has a child on the spectrum. Are you coming? Are you coming? It's not on my calendar yet. Well, no, you should put it on your calendar. And you should do Twitter Live.

You have all those Twitter followers. You should do Twitter live. You have all those Twitter followers. And we should do Toronto Mic'd live from the actual Autism March. They're going to play a bunch of songs for all the families. They do a lot of work with autistic kids and their families, and they've been inundated with letters from all these parents since Ontario has changed the laws or the program, I guess, changed the program. And they wrote me last week and said, we want to do this. And I was like, I wrote them back.

I said, well, I was wondering when, we want to do this. And I was like, I wrote them back and said, well, I was wondering when I was going to get this note from you because I wouldn't be one to tell them, hey, you should go do this. It would be, has to come from them. But I knew eventually they'd have to get involved. Good for them. I think that's great that they're getting involved because, I mean, only my dear friend

who tells me exactly how this is affecting her, they're looking at leaving the province. That's how... Well, we're hearing that a lot. And, you know, my brother was telling me, a friend of his, that she's spending like, you know, six, high six figures to look after her son. And he's an adult and he's basically aged out, but he may as well be five. You know, he's nonverbal. Well, the thing about that spectrum is it's so vast, right?

Well, that's the thing is they're just saying, okay, everybody gets this much money for this many years and that's it. It's like, that's not how this stuff works. And so they're pretty adamant about it. You know, they started a thing called Lucas's Letters, which you're aware of, which is like a pen pal club for autistic kids.

And so they're very invested in this particular thing. And so I'm really proud that they're going out there and I'm going to be there with them. And you're coming too. I might i mean i no no what i say yes uh what day is it two two days from today right now we'd be there in two days and that's a weekday that's a i i honestly here's the i'll tell you i look in the eyes my sense if i can do it like if there's not a work thing i can't get out of or whatever. It's Thursday. It's Thursday, March 7th.

Okay. I would totally be there. And it's like at this time, it's, yes. I think it's going to be like 10 or 11 around then. I'm just, you know, I have to look at the schedule.

Right afterwards, I will look at my calendar, but I'm 90% sure. Here it is. I'm looking at the schedule. It says right here. Arrive by 1045 or earlier. We'll be set up in front of Queen's Park. I'm looking at the schedule. Yeah. It says right here. And I will cover it. Arrive by 1045 or earlier.

We'll be set up in front of Queen's Park, 11 a.m. Intro, right? And the whole rally's supposed to wrap by 1.15. If I can cover this, I'll be there. But we actually play around 11.05. That's what I'm seeing here. I mean, I'll bike over, I'll document everything, and I'll write up a whole thing on it. Yeah, I'm happy to do that.05. That's what I'm seeing here. I'll bike over, I'll document everything, and I'll write up a whole thing on it.

Yeah, I'm happy to do that. Absolutely. It's an organized thing. It's not like a whole bunch of people just showing up and going. You know what I'm saying, right? That's what people need to understand. There's a lot of really important, but everybody's important in terms of the families and the kids.

But this is real. This isn't like, well, let's just all show up at Queen's Park and jam and hold up a bunch of signs. And sing Kumbaya.

Yeah, exactly. This is an organized effort. I care about the cause. I care about Splashin' Boots. I care about Jake Gold. This is a slam dunk. I'm going to be there. Well, thank you.

I'm going to be there. I have a question about managing Splashin' Boots and at what level you get involved. This is regarding the second Toronto Mic listener experience. This was happening last September

at Great Lakes Brewery. And I had actually asked, I think I dealt with Tess, and I said, would you guys be interested? Because they had expressed interest earlier. They said, would you be interested in just playing some 90s songs for us on the brewery? And I was curious, do they run that by you to get like a...

Well, they did. And, well, it wasn't approval. They did. And I said, as long as you're sort of going as Tess and Nick and you're not promoting it as Splashin' Boots, you're not showing up in costume. And because, you know, you have to protect your markets. You can't just be playing every other day in Toronto, you know.

And that's part of what I'm bringing to the table is trying to raise their profile and lift everything. We just made a deal with Universal Kids, so now they're going to be on TV in America. There's a lot of great things happening.

We have a new production deal, so we're going to be developing a new TV show soon. We're going to tour America in the fall. Do a Splash Boots tour then. And big stuff. We're playing on some big festivals this summer. We're actually not just playing the kids' tent. We're playing on the main stage.

Oh, wow. Yeah. Doing some big stuff. And are you going to finally win a Juno Splashin' Boots? Well, you know what? You've nominated many times. Six times in a row. We'll find out a week this Saturday, if we will.

The Junos are in London. We're actually playing a big show Friday at noon in London, the opening of their Dundas Square, I guess they're calling it, and Fanshawe College is putting on a big show of a bunch of acts, and we're going to be the first act to play on the new stage

where they've revamped this whole downtown core, and then we're playing the Junior Junos the next day, which is all the acts nominated for Children's Album performed for the kids. Now, there's no Fred Penner nominated this year. I know Fred is. But there is Rafi.

There is a Rafi. I saw that. Yeah, we kind of owe him. He mailed it in, though. I listened to it. He's mailing it in. I think this is the year for Splashin' Boots. Listen, they made an amazing record, right?

Well, they never did play. We should tell people. They never did show up at the Toronto Mic Listener Experience because I got a lovely note from test that they really wanted to and they were asked by alan doyle of great big c to spend another night in newfoundland i guess this is where this album was so they never showed up and i i did tell all the listeners no not your fault this is a good excuse i'm not upset it's all wonderful but i did tell everybody splash and boots are going to play some 90s jams everyone's excited and then i had to

sadly break the news that i got a note they can't make it see i didn't even know they didn't show up never showed but uh yeah no alan um uh i have a relationship with alan for so many years and and his manager louis and um alan and i sat on a couple of industry boards together. And Nick had always talked about how, oh, I just love Great Big Sea and I really want to work with Alan one day. And I said, well, I know Alan. And they had tweeted back and forth to each other. I said, well, Alan's a friend of mine.

Let me ask him. So I asked him one day at one of these board meetings. I said, do you want to – I'd like to work on a kid's record. You know, I think you've heard of them. They've been tweeting out. And he says, yeah, I'd like to meet them. And I put together the meeting. And before you knew it, they were flying to Newfoundland

and they were making a record with them. And he co-wrote it and produced it and performed on one track. And he's got his son Henry performing on another track. We're actually shooting a video for the song he performed on on the 14th, right before we head out to the Junos. We're shooting a video that afternoon. So is Alan Doyle going to be in town? He's going to be making the video that day.

In Toronto? Yeah, but he won't be coming here. I was going to say, I'll pay for that Uber. No, no, he's got a board meeting that day, that same board we sit on, and then he's coming over making the video. Then he's flying back to Newfoundland that night, and then he's flying from Newfoundland on the Saturday

into the Junos. See, I'm always trying to make a deal here, Jake. I had Heather Bambrick trying to. Apparently, she's buddies with Alan, too, because she's a fellow Newfoundlander. I hope that they win. It's not

a do or die moment if they don't. But our latest hashtag is six times a charm. We'll see. I don't think there's ever been anybody nominated in the same categories

that many years in a row. I think there's maybe a reggae artist that's been nominated that many years in a row. I was thinking like a Polka album by, who's the Polka King? No, but you'd still have to put one out every year. Yeah, you have to put one out every year. Right? That's true. They've put one out every year.

They're prolific. What's your relationship like with Moe Berg and the Pursuit of Happiness? Well, I've been managing Moe as a producer for, I don't know, maybe 14 years, 15 years. I'm not sure. And I've known Moe forever. You know, Pursuit used to play with the hip back in the 90s. I've known him forever and ever. And so I've been managing him as a producer,

but there's always been, you know, pursuit business because he kind of is the guy that it all comes to. So I look after all the pursuit business, and then, you know, with this 30th anniversary release of Love Junk and, you know, remastered and the double, you know, theastered and the double, you know, the double vinyl and the double CD set and everything. We've decided to like just do a bunch of shows and play in all the major markets.

And so far it's been really fun and successful. We just announced an Ottawa show. We're playing in Ottawa on the, what date is it? I think it's the 25th or 26th of April. What's the date? It's the 25th of April. And it's been fun. I mean, they're great people.

They're an amazing live band. Amazing live band. We just sold out the Danforth Music Hall. Everyone was like, what? It's like, yeah. And it's been really fun. We've done Winnipeg. We've played Edmonton. We've played Vancouver, Toronto, London.

We're going to play Ottawa. We'll probably put a Calgary show in there. We're looking to do some festivals this summer. It's not, you know, Brad works at Jazz FM, so he's got a job. Everyone's sort of got a job. Mo teaches at Fanshawe. Andene's a WestJet flight attendant. So, you know, we're basically, we work weekends when we can

and it's fun. And that's, you know, if it's not fun, we're not doing it. So it's a great way to be. Love those guys. And of course, you know, the parking lot where the video for I'm an Adult Now is now the new location. Not that it's opened yet, but the Mountain Co-op.

And they literally built the most ugly building ever. Right? We talked about this. You build a building from scratch, right? Yeah. And you're Mountain, what is it? Mech. M-E-C, Mountain Equipment Co-op.

And you're like supposed to be this outdoorsy kind of place. And you build this building from scratch. And it's literally a brown gray box. It's a box. Yeah. And of course it's Queen Street. It is so fucking ugly. It is like the worst piece of architecture imaginable.

Like, the worst piece of architecture imaginable. I feel like it looks like communism Russia when they were building everything from gray and brown brick. Wait, they call it brutalism? Is that the term? Brutalism. It's fucking horrible. It's a horrible... Architecture and design are a big hobby of mine.

And this has got to be the worst ever. Ever. They could have done so much more with timbers and... You know what I mean? Really made it special. And it's just ugly. That's too bad.

That's too bad. You've seen it, right? I've seen photos of it. People hate it. People hate it. On the last episode with 1236, Mark Weissblatt from 1236, we talked about the outcry

that it's ruined Queen Street and whether Queen Street wasn't ruined a long time ago. But yeah, it's not a pretty building. Not a pretty building. So here, let me just wrap up with a few questions, lingering questions I forgot to get to from fans. We'll burn this off real quick. Yvonne, this is a question about

the Tragically Hip again, but it's not really. She asks, when the Hip would sign contracts with, say, Ticketmaster or Live Nation, did Ticketmaster Live Nation include in the contract that they as a promoter could sell tickets outside of the Ticketmaster platform? That's kind of part A, and then part B is, that is, does Live Nation Ticketmaster state

they will sell some tickets directly to the secondary market? First of all, all of that controversy happened after us. Right. After I was involved, right? Right. I never saw a contract. Our contracts were with the promoters. Okay.

Do you know what I mean? There was nothing in there about them selling tickets on the secondary market. We didn't have a contract with Ticketmaster. The promoter has the contract with Ticketmaster. Yeah, I think Yvonne's doing some research here. She's trying to dig up... Well, this is all that controversy about on their last tour, you know, that may have been handled better.

I got one ticket. I don't think anybody... I think at the time no one... I would have handled it differently because I think I would have anticipated how many tickets they were going to sell. For anybody to not know that the thing was going to go like that,

they maybe could have handled how they were going to sell the tickets in a better way, understanding that it was going to blow up the way it did and then subsequently create such a demand on the secondary market. Like, how did the scalpers all know? James Patterson wants to know. James, he's the guy on Twitter that communicates with me and with you a lot. Yeah, I definitely hear from James a lot on Twitter.

I'd like to know what the highlight and low point of his career has been thus far. Do you have a high point and a low point? Low point right now. You knew that was coming, didn't you? He's such a... Yeah, I knew. And I'm taking back that beer, Jake.

No, I'm just kidding. Oh, there's so many. There's so many. While I tell stories about things that have happened I don't actually live in that world I don't live in the past so the highlight and the low point

are insignificant to me because I don't live that way it's not part of my how I it's not my philosophy. My philosophy is always about, you know, now and moving forward. So I don't look at any of them as anything worse or better than anything else. They're all just moments in time. Jill LeBlanc gets the last question here.

Of course, Jill. Jill, his tweets seem to be mostly political these days. Does he wish he chose a different career path as North America could sure use some of his insightful level-headedness were he in government instead? Well, I actually answered him on Twitter this morning because he put that question on Twitter.

I'm surprised he tagged me in it because then I never would have seen it. Then it would have been a fresh question now. But since I already saw it this morning. Spoiler alert. Yeah, yeah. He tagged me. You know, I answer that I'm just a citizen who's trying to like bring some common sense to this craziness that's out there today. The amount of madness that's going on. And I think, look, I also think

that social media amplifies the madness. But on the other side, it kind of lets us know it's there. Because otherwise, we don't know about it. It shines a light on it. The amount of people that do the most stupid, fucked up things, knowing that someone else is filming them.

Right. And then surprised when people take them to task on it. Just is mind blowing to me. And you're American. I was born there. I'm a dual citizen. But it gives you a little more license, I think, to criticize Trump than... No, I think everybody has a license to. I think that when you're a country that's the biggest exporter of culture in the world,

that everybody is allowed to make a comment on what you do and how you affect the world. a comment on what you do and how you affect the world. You know, so, you know, when you think about the inventions that came out of America, Apple comes out of America, Microsoft comes out of America, the car came out of America, like we could go on and on and on. Baseball, jazz. There's an argument that says baseball didn't, but... Where did baseball come from? I don't know.

I think it started as a sport called rounders, I think. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I always thought that was still like New York or something. I thought it was still America, but yeah. Yeah. So I think everybody has a right to comment on anything, any country. Just like we have a right to comment on what's going on in Venezuela and what's going on in Yemen and what's going on in Syria.

And the Saudis. We're a world we're more connected as a world than we ever were before. I think we owe the world a responsibility to be conscious citizens. So that's all I'm doing. But would I ever want to be in politics? No. That's a microscope I definitely don't ever want to be under.

Thanks for doing this, man. I hope you enjoyed it. Always fun, Mike. Always nice to take a morning, almost afternoon off. I did ask you how long I had and you said just go, brother. That's what I did. That's what I did. And how long I had, and you said, just go, brother. Yeah.

That's what I did. That's what I did. And that brings us to the end of our 438th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Jake, what's your Twitter handle? Because you're a good follow on Twitter. Jake0458.

Jake0458. Same on Twitter as on Instagram. Although Instagram, I'm private, so I have to let you in. But it's all public on Twitter, so make sure you follow Jake there. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptor's Devotee. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair is at Fast Time WJR

Paytm is at Paytm Canada and Camp Turnasol is at Camp Turnasol See you all next week! But I'm a much better man And I don't know what the future can hold or do for me and you. But I'm a much better man for having known you. Oh, you know that's true because everything is coming up.