Jaymz Bee: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1995
00:00 Hello, this is James B in your ear, noted Canadian surrealist, and I am very happy to be on Toronto Miked once again. Welcome to episode 1,995, 1995 of Toronto Miked, an award-winning podcast, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at Great Lakesbeer.com for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh. Homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit palmapasta.com for more. Fusion Corps, oh, Nick Ieinis, he's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Mike and Nick, two podcasts that you ought to listen to.
01:12 Recycle My Electronics.c.c.a.cicecline.cline.cline.cline for residents, businesses and the environment. Ready to recycle. Bring it. And Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, returning to Toronto Mike,
01:34 it is indeed James B. Welcome back, James. I'm so happy to be here. This is episode 1995. 1995, I was recording my first big band jazz record, the first Royal Jelly Orchestra record. This was when swing music was making a huge comeback. And I remember seeing you on much music at this time.
01:58 You took over much music for some swing thing, right? Yeah, it was called electric cocktail instead of electric circus. We used the same premise. I wrote that special with Paul Myers. From the gravel berries. Yeah, from the gravel berries, who has a terrific podcast out there as well. record store
02:15 record store day we are total music nerds if you put us in the same room together we finish each other's sentences like we get totally whacked out Paul Myers has been on this program but he was he did it via Zoom from his California home
02:31 but of course yeah gravelberries had that one song it'll come to me later that you would hear on the on the radio but that time that you're talking about 1995 do we attribute this comeback to the movie Swingers? Like, what is it that really brought it? Swingers came maybe a year later. Oh, a year later. There was so many things happening at the same time. Jump Jive and Whale? Yeah. Yeah, the guy from Stray Cats. Setser. Brian Setser. Yeah, he had a big hit. Joe Jackson kind of started off in the
03:01 90s with his jump and jive album. That kind of got people into it. Back then, it was almost ironic. By the time Setser came out, it was really good. I met Setser in New York and he told me he loved my record. He'd love that I'm representing the scene for Canada. Okay, you really were representing the scene for Canada. And again, I referenced that electric ballroom. Is that what you called it? Electric Cocktail. Okay, you know what? The electric ballroom is a show on Indy 88
03:28 that my buddy Bob will lead host. So a lot of things going on here. Right. But of course, of course, one of the creators of Electric Circus, the show that you took over and made it you know, your swingers thing. Yeah. Joel Goldberg. I heard his interview with you. It was a great hour spent.
03:47 I mean, this is what I love about your show, Mike, is you have the past episodes up. Yeah, the archives. When I'm doing research, I was writing a story about Joel. Joel's doing a documentary about me, so I wanted to find out more about Joel. So I looked him up and right away,
04:00 oh, he's been on Toronto, Mike. How is that documentary going? I recently ran into Joel and I asked about it, but this is called BeanB, right? Yeah, Being B. Being B. It is now finished. They are only doing some paperwork.
04:13 It's the final edit is done. The television station approved of it. What station? Hollywood Suite. Oh, yeah, David Kines. Yeah, David Kines. Kind of like a Netflix for Canada. Yeah.
04:27 That really is for Canada. Where Netflix, they have a Canadian office, but they don't do anything for Canadian culture. Trust me, my buddy Stu Stone will tell you, the Hollywood Sweet Rock. They were purchased by Anthem, and it includes the game show network and some wrestling and a whole bunch of stuff going on there.
04:43 I'm a huge fan of what's happening with the Hollywood Suite. Yeah, me too. So they're going to air this documentary in what, 2027? I don't know if it comes up sometime in the winter. It could be just before that or just after that. This is big, James. I trust Joel so much and Chris Ramorowski, his partner. I trust them so much.
05:03 I went, look, I don't have to see it. All I'm going to do is help you. If you need to reach somebody, I'll give you their contact info. So they were done. They interviewed David Clayton Thomas before I passed away. They interviewed. It would be weird if they did it after he passed away. Yeah.
05:15 Yeah. There wouldn't be much on tape. Molly Johnson got up. And so we interviewed Molly twice. The first time she was in a really bad mood and really short. And I said, please don't use that. I don't want Molly to look like that. And so they did a reshoot and she came in and she was totally happy and told wacky stories.
05:34 And when she left her like, never saw that side of Molly before. I'm like, well, she doesn't like talking on camera. But if she's telling stories about me, I said, It's, we just got to get her in the right move. But what was wrong the first time? Like how, you got her in just an off day for Molly? Well, it was, she was emceeing a benefit and she was juggling a bunch of things and just wanted to get the hell out of there. Did you know my Molly Johnson story?
05:56 I don't know if you know it or not, but I always think of you. And this is all going to come back to James B. Don't worry. Okay. It's all going to come back to James B. But I invited Molly Johnson over, right. She became available to me because she wanted to talk about the Kensington Market Jazz Festival. Big player in that, of course.
06:11 And then I wanted to talk to her about that and more. I'm a big Molly Johnson fan. So I invited her over. I think it's the worst Toronto-Miked episode of all 2000. I really do. I got her on the wrong day. And she, James, I'm not lying to you. And, you know, I'm not a guy.
06:30 You can maybe not care for me. I might not be your cup of tea, but I don't think you'd hate me, right? Like, I just invited you over to talk about you for 90 minutes or in 60 minutes or whatever. She hated me. Like she hated me from the get-go And it was the I mean if you listen to this episode Because you know
06:47 It's in the archives Like you said You can Right off the top It's not going well It gets worse Then it gets a bit better Then it gets really worse
06:56 Like it hits the floor And then it bounces back And it's kind of fine And it's all there For all eternity But I got her on the wrong day And I think Molly is The type of person
07:06 Where You're playing a little bit of crap Like Russian roulette or something Like, what day is it? Which molly do you get? Right, right. And you had to throw out that first Molly. Yeah.
07:19 And go with the second Molly, which was a completely different Molly. Which was absolutely important for the film. I knew Molly since I moved here. She was already doing well with Altamoto. She was already in a famous rock band when I moved here. So I knew her forever. We were sitting at Mimi's restaurant. I had just made a demo with John O' Grant.
07:37 Look, people had just said it. And I wrote one interesting kind of comedy jazz tune, which we ended up calling it lounge music. But it was basically like jazz. It was about going to a party. And there's free food everywhere. And there's a pool for swimming and a pool for playing billiards. And they don't have any Tony Bennett music, so I leave.
07:58 So we're playing it at Molly's at Mimi's restaurant. And Molly's there. I love this music. Who is it? And Mimi goes, it's that guy. It's James B. She goes, you can sing? I said, yeah, I didn't sing and look people.
08:09 But I kind of like to sing a little bit. And she goes, you should play by Kumbaya. So suddenly I went from making a demo to playing on much music. And Kumbaya was huge. I mean, got her the order of Canada. Yeah. And we played between Mokshi Fruvis and Bare Naked Ladies.
08:25 Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well, that's. Which was totally crazy. Yeah. I mean, I could see that trifecta absolutely right there. But the way you tie back to the Molly Johnson story.
08:34 So I had an awful experience with her. Yeah. And I felt like, I was carrying it like I did something wrong. And I felt like how to, like, Like, how did I do this? How did I go wrong here? And I would listen back and I would try to figure out where I took a misstep. And I learned a lot from that episode because I'm at almost 2000.
08:50 And that was like episode, I think 400 and something. I can't remember. But shortly thereafter on YouTube, I watched James B. and Molly Johnson at a restaurant having a conversation. I think it was, you had a show, you had a YouTube show? Yeah. And she was on chatting at a restaurant. And she was amazing. Right.
09:08 And I actually, it made me feel worse because. I'm like, oh, look at how good Molly is with James B. Right. How lousy was she with me? And it really was like, wow, where was that Molly when I had my episode? So you get, you know, you didn't, you know, you're not batting a thousand. But you're, you had more success getting the one, the Molly that, you know, the wonderful, sweet Molly. Yeah.
09:35 So I, I feel like, sometimes I feel like I should take a second run at Molly, but not that, not that she'd come back. anything but like maybe that day i get the other molly that's right okay i hope so so molly was in it and then at the last minute we were just wrapping it up and uh jol gets a call from michael bublet going i heard you're doing a documentary on b i want to be in it he goes but i'm in l a he goes can you get to a studio because i got a studio here so the studio in toronto talked to him in the studio in l.a and he told a bunch of great stories i haven't seen any of the footage i know i know i know kurt swinghammer did some animation. I haven't seen any of the footage. Kurt Swinghammer did this
10:14 Sam the Record man I'm pointing to right here. Unbelievable. And beside the much music thing, which was a gift from David Kynes. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Everything connects. That's for sure. Unbelievable. Boulblet's a huge name. That'll really help with the doc.
10:29 You know what it's like. It's celebrity worship. Give me a big fucking name. Yeah, Joel right away said, oh, okay, we're going to slow it down. We're definitely going to interview you. Yeah, you need him. So I didn't remember doing this. I did this everybody. I did it to Michael too. He was going to quit. He was going to go back and fish with his grandpa and go back out west. I said, Mike, you are like, you were like two months away from a
10:49 record deal. I said, everybody in Canada says you should be headlining on a cruise ship. They think you're amazing, but nobody has the vision. So he started writing some original music. And I said, just stay the course, man. I said, you're a couple months away. And when he finally said, hey, I might get discovered. I'm doing a wedding. I said, dude, no one ever got discovered at a wedding. He goes, it's Brian Mulroney's daughter. I said, dude, nobody ever got discovered at a wedding. He goes, David Foster is the musical director of the wedding. I said, oh, if David Foster sees you, that's different.
11:19 Yeah. And so that's exactly what happened. All right, the man produced tears are not enough, James. Yeah. That's all you need to know. At some point when you're talking, I'm going to find my Look People, I have a Look People album in this collection, but it must be behind it. I brought you a Look People album. Okay, so that's the one I have.
11:37 Yeah, that's the one you have. Do you have this one? No. This is the Tiki Collective. This is on heavy, heavy vinyl. This is very, very well pressed.
11:45 Like, do you, I don't, like I, I see it. Do you see it in the corner? Yeah. Okay.
11:50 So, oh, thank you because I don't have this one. I feel like you should give this to somebody else because I have a copy of this. I think I should give it to you to give to somebody else when you ask them, is James B famous on your show? And if they say yes,
12:02 they get a free record. I was going to go there next. James B. I was going to ask you. that was just a thread that was weaving through hundreds of episodes. And people, when they get the question, there's a moment where they stop and think about it. I think you're like the perfect example of somebody who is famous and not famous at the same time.
12:26 Canadian famous. I need a name tag with a little gold star on it and then people will know I'm somebody. Canadian famous and especially Toronto famous. Yeah. So, okay. Well, but it happens in Vancouver and Montreal. I sold more records in Vancouver, and I had way bigger audiences in Montreal than Toronto.
12:42 Toronto is a tough town, even when you live here. But you're a jazz FM guy. Yeah. Which they don't get in Montreal. Maybe online. I'm a CIUT guy now. Yeah, you're a CIUT guy now. So that would be with like Bill King, for example.
12:55 Yeah, exactly. Also great friend of the show. So firstly, with the look people, I will tell you, I had Sylvia Tyson on the program, and we talked about her son. Yeah, Clay. Clay. who was, I lived in her basement for a while.
13:09 Eugene Levy was very confused. Why is there a guy with a Mohawk living in Sylvia's basement? Because I was in Clay's band. And I was hoping she wouldn't know that I was there. But she did. And she would have Hazel, their housekeeper, make me sandwiches and stuff. She was my Kool-Aid mom, my mom away from moms. You're blowing my mind right now.
13:26 Yeah. Okay, wow. And she also had a million jokes. Like she collects jokes. She tells them perfectly dry. Like a martini? She remembers so many jokes all the time. My grandmother was like that.
13:41 Good recall on a joke she heard and can just tell it perfectly. Okay, Sylvia Tyson, really. Now, Great Bob Scott, I think I've taken a few runs at getting this gentleman on Toronto Mike. No success at all. So I don't think Great Bob Scott has any interest in coming on Toronto Mike. But I want to shed out a sweetheart of all sweethearts, currently in the aforementioned Bear Naked Ladies. I think he's one of the nicest guys in music, Kevin Huron. Oh, it's all an act.
14:05 Wolf in sheep's clothing. Do you tell. No, he is actually very, very sweet. There was times on the road where he would be like, oh, I'm so innocent. What's going on, Miss? And so he was always scoring girls being the innocent young boy. And that's why we're always,
14:22 you're a wolf in sheep's clothing. That's funny. He's actually a very sweet guy. And we're still in touch. I'm in touch with all the members of the band still to this day. Clay is out west. When his dad died, he kind of moved out there looking after the,
14:35 state and riding horses and playing music. Great Bob Scott I still talk to quite often. I just saw him last week for his girlfriend's birthday. I saw his ex-wife yesterday for Thanksgiving, brought her some food. And Kevin, I saw also a week ago. So it's interesting. Like everyone's still friends. Everyone still talks to each other.
14:57 A reunion in the works? Yeah, but no. Because I think there's going, I feel like we're on the verge of a James B. Renaissance. I think so, too. Well, there's enough going on. The weirdest thing about, if we did a reunion,
15:12 when the band broke up, Clay left the band in 92, 93. Oh, wait. Yeah, yeah, 93. And then Chris Gartner joined the band. Just a little background here. Yeah.
15:29 This grand old song, come on, everybody. Now. Can't say, Dumasley. Name that tune you, Ah, shuffaic, that's sake.
15:52 Name that tune, James B. Lovely. Lovely. Samba Chicken. Lovely Samba Chicken. The opening track of our album Small Fish Big Pond. In my hand.
16:39 Which was supposed to be a joke on the talking heads. We had a record called Stop Making Cheese instead of Stop Making Sense. Of course. And then we were going to have, our next record was going to be called Remain in Lichtenstein. And our producer, Mike Allionack, said, why that title?
16:58 I said, because Talking Hads have a record called Remain in Light, and we love them, so we thought we'd do another joke. And they said, but what does Remain in Lichtenstein mean? I said, we did a show there and half the country showed up for one show. It was an outdoor festival, and we're like, wow, we got half the country at one gig. But there's only like 20,000 people that live in the country. Still. Yeah. And so he's, I said, you know, we're a small fish in the big pond. He goes, well, that's a better name. So we called it small fish, big pond.
17:26 That's a great story. And I'm now looking at the back, because you handed me a final copy of this album. And I see under special guests, the names I'm seeing under special guests. Yeah. First of all, I used to watch the Ed the Sox show on Cable 10. Yeah. I mean, I will say my favorite co-host, Ed the Sock on Cable 10 was Harland Williams. He was my favorite. Kevin Hearn's cousin.
17:52 He loved our band. He showed up all the time. Yeah, he's one of the special guests I'm looking at here. We had him open for us, and he's on two songs here. He's on, I think, Potato Mangler and Aschew's face. Okay, these are the fun facts. But I also see another FOTM, Holly Cole. Yeah, I got her to sing backups.
18:09 I used to live with Holly Cole. We shared a house in 88, and so she sang backups on a song. That's the only song on the record where I actually sing in. instead of do voices. Okay. And as Molly discovered, you can sing. Another FOTM, Bobby Wiseman. Yeah.
18:24 Love Bobby forever. He's just a brilliant artist. And he added some keyboards on some of our stuff and played with us live in a few occasions. At one point, we couldn't get him. We got his brother Ronnie, who also wanted to play keyboards with a watermelon. Yeah.
18:41 Okay. So we cut from the same cloth. Live shows, we did some stuff with Dave Bedini and Nash the Slash. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I see the Nash the Slash post.
18:55 The Nash to Slash Dock. I see my Ridley Funeral Home Hat just fell. But yeah, and my buddy Rob Proust did the music for that documentary. When I went to see it, I forgot I'm in it. I was watching the documentary. I was like, oh, right. They interviewed me for this. I completely forgot.
19:09 It took a long time to make that dog. And Gigi was still in scale school when they interviewed her. She was probably 20 years old, my best friend. She's also on it talking to. Don Piles in that thing? Yeah, yeah. And interesting, a really well done. Like, man, they spent a lot of time and money on that doc.
19:27 Yeah, and Colin Brunton helped get some of that funding. And that's a legendary story into itself. But one more FOTM I want to name check here, of course, is Richard Underhill. Yep. Look, people did a show with the Shuffle Demons in Calgary once. And I already knew them from before, but when we did the show together, it was sealed. That's the first time I met George Kohler, Rich Underhill. Underhill Stitch, Winson, we did a show together.
19:51 And basically at the end, both bands got on stage for the encore, and we did a parade. And we ended up going out on some balcony. And the security guy's running out. He's turned white. And he said, get off the balcony. So we get off the balcony. I said, what's your problem? He goes, the legal weight for that is like 30 people.
20:07 And you had 100 people on that balcony. The whole thing was going to fall apart. Holy shit. Yeah. So that's my memory with Richard from way back. Okay. Spadina bus. All this.
20:17 This is great stuff here. Now, I'm getting back to that, Are You Famous question, but I thought maybe I should really quickly remind people that this is your third visit to the basement. Your first visit, believe it or not, James, was December 2018. And I think I'll read the description I wrote at the time
20:33 because it will kind of let us do a little bit of greatest hits before we catch up because we got to get into this. We got a lot of ground to cover. We got to talk about your health. I got to find out about your level of fame. But December 2018, it was episode 415. So here you are, it's 1995, but you were here for 415, my friend. This is what I wrote.
20:54 Mike chats with musician and radio host James B about the look people. Al Waxman, remind us about your relationship with Al Waxman. In 1984 in high school, I founded the Al Waxman fan club. When I found out he had done all this secret work for charity and wasn't getting recognized. And also, I always thought Kensington Market is like a microcosm for Canada. it's where all different cultures can hang out, but they can keep their culture. It's not a melting pot, it's a giant quilt.
21:23 The mosaic. It's a mosaic. Absolutely. It's way cooler. So I decided Al Waxman should be King of Canada. And then I thought, well, we should get King of Kensington back on the air. So we had a march on CBC to get King of Kensington back on the air, which worked six months later, they put it on the air.
21:38 It didn't happen right away. Wow. But Al, and Al at first didn't understand. Our music was like comedy punk rock. Right. He didn't understand the music, but he knew that we were raising money for charity, and he thought we were good kids. Okay, that, yeah, that was a great, there's lots more of that in 415. We talked about Ben Kerr.
21:57 King of Cayenne, I was his campaign manager. I just, all this is fresh in my head because I'm writing for Substack now. Yeah. I just did a big story about Ben Kerr. So I remembered all of the crazy ideas I had. He was already at Young and Bloor singing and meeting people every day. I had a party for him at the Cameron House where he did a few songs. It was like a rally.
22:17 And on all the walls, I did a photo shoot of him with a bunch of models, scantily clad, which was completely politically incorrect. By today's standards, I'd be shunned. But back then,
22:29 it was funny. And he looked like Don Nott's in the love group where he's really skinny and he's wearing my oversized polyester safari suits. I worked. I lived at Charles Street and Young when I was going to U of T. And that means I was that young
22:44 and bluer all the time. And Ben Kerr was a, a staple there. But of course, he ran for mayor how many times, and you talked about being his campaign manager, but we're in, like, currently in election cycle. We have, uh, we're all going to the poll. I've already voted, by the way, but, uh, in, 13 days. So on October 26, it's election day here in the city of Toronto. Any thoughts on the current election before I get back to this? Just that if, if Ben Kerr was here, I would ask him, I would ask him to put in a good word for Olivia. Okay. I said, because I think she's doing a fine job. I think there are
23:16 people out there with some great ideas, but they're not close in the polls. I don't trust, I wrote this recently about Brad. I don't trust. He flip-flops on issues. I don't trust him. He's like a regular politician. Olivia seems like a small town politician, which I like that. Like, just look after the people who live here and do your best. Um, uh, is it, uh, Odessa Parker. Okay. I've read some of her platform and I really like her. And, I'm worried about splitting the vote, but I'm tempted because she's got great ideas, and somebody young and fresh with some new ideas,
23:53 isn't a bad thing. But I have to say, I mean, Olivia is an old friend. We did the 900 sax players at Young Dundas Square, where the Shuffle Demons broke the Guinness Book of World Records. She was my co-host for that. So you kind of bond when you got 900 sax players blowing a free-form jazz for two minutes.
24:13 That's a bonding moment. Absolutely. We also, it turns out we talked to, about Molly Johnson in episode 415. So, of course, Molly always comes up when we talk to James B. we talked about Jazz FM 91.
24:24 What happened with you and Jazz FM? Are you still on 91? No. I stayed. It was really weird. There was a big turnover. There was all kinds of... Well, we can talk about it
24:35 because his lawyer did send me like a nasty... I think I published it and just removed some personal details. But Ross Porter is his name. Ralph Ben Murgie will tell you about his relationship. of Ross Porter. They went way back. But Ross Porter was written up in the Globe and Mail. So there you go. The Globe and Mail. And I was talking about things I read in the Globe and Mail. And then Ross Porter had his lawyer order me to edit a bunch of episodes. And I wasn't going to play that game. But that's, this is a pretty well documented schism in the Jazz FM 91. So you were part of that. Yeah. I felt really bad for him. But the station was going to go tits up if he kept doing what he was doing. So people were crying all.
25:16 the time. I mean, I hope he gets help. I really care for that guy. If I saw him today, I'd want to buy him a beer, but I'm sure he'll blame me for his position. But the problem is, at the time, there was a big kerfuffle, and after they got rid of the people that weren't doing a good job, they came after the people who complained. Only the males. None of the women who worked there ever got in trouble. All the guys got fired. And then the donors had a meeting and and fired the board of directors and said, well, if you're firing the people that did a good job, obviously you're a broken board of directors.
25:53 So they got a new board of directors, and then they brought me back. So when I came back, I didn't have the same job, but I was so happy that the good guys won. When Weird Al heard about this, he said, oh,
26:05 it sounds to me like democracy works in Canada. And I said, yeah, I want to make a feature film. And he said, oh, I can see the headline. The tagline is, hell hath no fury like an angry Canadian jazz fan. Both of them. Exactly.
26:23 So I left, I went back. But when I went back, it was freelance. And as I started making this movie, I realized, I'm just, I'm trying to do everything. And so I said, look, I'm not making any money here. I'm going to go finish my movie. So I finished the movie. And then I went back and said,
26:38 okay, movie's done. Let's get back. And they said, we don't want to do a local show like that anymore. So I went to CIUT and Ken Stauer said yes right away. So when can we hear you on CIUT? Thursday 10 p.m. every week. Thursday at 10 p.m. 10 till midnight.
26:53 Okay. Which was the slot I asked for? Okay. I said 10 o'clock is good because you've got most people are still awake. A lot of my friends go to bed around midnight or maybe start getting ready at 11. Because I'm getting older. Most of my friends are in their 50, 60, 70s. They're not staying up all night.
27:10 but Tanley is a good time to start and mid-by by the last hour people like you my friend are probably listening that's when I can put on stuff that's a little bit weirder but what I love about this is it's like jazz in the city it's called be in the city but I get to play classical
27:26 funk soul it's not just jazz so it's I love doing this show Can you play whatever you want? Absolutely That's amazing Yeah and this is where like to me I was going to say
27:40 go into some Huey Lewis in the news there, the horror to rock and roll. But to me, the sweet spot now is like college, we call college radio, but this is obviously a university radio. But this is where the last bastion of radio freedom in this country. Exactly. Exactly.
27:55 I mean, and also, everybody goes on and about algorithms, but what your suggested music that sounds like the music you already like, how are you going to find new music, like truly new music? Go, I didn't know I love classical so much. What the hell was that?
28:10 You know, Ralph B. Mergie, who I mentioned when we talked about Ross Porter. He's got a show, a podcast he does with Jazz FM called, It's like, I hate jazz. It's like for jazz for people who think they hate jazz. Right. So it's the same kind of idea. So you need a curator, you need a guide or sign. By way, now running Jazz FM is a woman named Sharon Taylor.
28:30 Do you know Sharon at all? I haven't met her. Well, she was the program director at 680 CFTR just before it went all news. And then she was at Kiss 92.5 when it was like the heyday of the, The new country, which gagged me of a spoon. I am really glad that they have someone new jumping in. The person who was there wasn't well.
28:48 I mean, she's a friend, but her health was bad. And the station was suffering. Nobody was actually leading. So Sharon's there, and she came back here from Winnipeg, and she's a dear friend of my dear friend,
29:00 Blair Packam. Love Blair Packam. Okay, shut out Blair Packam, because every quarter he's here for Rewinder and he does a great job. Yeah, it's funny. he's also close with Paul Myers. All of us are just music nerds.
29:12 He hosts it for Paul Myers. Exactly. Very close, actually. Okay. So, funny, I'm going to read the description for the second appearance. So you were on December 2018. In February 2022, that was episode 1001. Wow, we're almost at 2000 now.
29:27 So it's been a while since you've been here. And we'll talk about what might have happened during that. And we're going to definitely dive deep into this movie, which is called Magic Land. Yeah. We're going to get into that. By way, quickly now, before I read this description, James B, tell us the name of your substack
29:40 because I want people to pause the episode and subscribe to your substack. And just my name, James B. James B. Z. J-A-Y-M-Z B-D-E. In a Y, that's right. February 2020, episode 1001, Mike catches up
29:56 with the very famous, so by then we were already doing it. The very famous James B. They discussed the Bean B documentary that's in production, still in production. Kevin Hearn, so we did a deep dive into Kevin Hearn there. The Look people, of course. Music for Secret Agents and so much more. So that was the last time you were on.
30:13 You're back now. This is episode 1995. I quickly thought about the year 1995, and I took a note that that was the year the Toronto Raptors were born. Have you ever been to a Toronto Raptors game? I was that one just recently. And I didn't know how it worked.
30:29 Luckily, the guy sitting beside me explained to me what was happening. Once I got into it, and it was a close game, and we won. So when I say we, I had nothing to do with the way. recently, you mean the end of the last season? Yeah. Because they have,
30:42 yeah, they're about to start the new season. Okay. End of the last season. Because Kauai Leonard is back and there's a little bit of the excitement in this world. But I just wondered if you are part of the 2019 championship run. I don't mind sports live. If someone invites me and I don't have to spend 80 bucks or 200 bucks on a ticket,
30:58 I'll go see it. I used to go to the Leafs games because I had a friend with the seats number one and two beside the gold judge on the glass. What friend is this? Nelson Thal. Okay. That's an amazing. amazing seat to have access to. Yeah.
31:11 Wow. So he just say, hey, you want a couple of tickets? I can't make it. Wow. I'm like, of course. It's a good friend to have. Yeah, absolutely.
31:17 Okay. So the question that was asked often on Toronto mic, and funny, Joel Goldberg and I laughed about it. He said I was sampled in something, and I still don't know what he's talking about, but he says there's some sample in some song
31:29 of me asking if James B is famous. Like, I need to find out from Joel what the hell we're talking about. I really don't know. But I'm guessing it was Melanie Melody, Melody, Melly Fresh. She's been over here. Yeah, that sounds like the person who would do that
31:42 would sample you asking if I'm famous. Okay, and she's got some of that Melvana money. Good for her. Can I have some? I couldn't answer for her. I'm the treasure of her fan club, but I haven't seen the dime. I just treasure the position. Okay, and Clive
31:58 he rode over here in a motorcycle, Clive Smith, and we talked quite a bit about Nelvana, actually, as I recall. But interesting, interesting couple there. Okay, so, when I ask guests, is James B. famous? They have that moment of, they pause. Earlier today, I had on
32:14 Cliff Hacking from Recycle My Electronics. Dot C.A. And I asked him. And there's a moment of pondering. Like, what is that? And I think the spirit of the question is actually what is fame. It's meant to spark a conversation about what is famous. Because in my world, James B. is very famous.
32:30 But people will sit here and say, who? Right? So, I just think it's an interesting exercise in what is fame. So in your opinion, what is fame? What does it mean to be famous for you, James B? What it used to mean is I'd walk into a bar and someone I don't know would buy me a drink. I always felt like because I have a great memory for faces, not such a great memory for names,
32:56 faces, places, I could even go up to someone say, how's your dog? How do you know I have a dog? Oh, you told me that three years ago. You remember that? Like, okay. Yeah. So my recall is really good. So the fact is, when I know most of the people who know me,
33:10 it just means I get out a lot. It doesn't mean I'm famous. I would say through Jazz FM and Jazz Tours, that was a big thing. The CBC Ben Murgie show, that was a big thing for a little while. Yeah. You know, that show, though, which comes up often because Ralph comes over quite a bit. It ran 18 months, I think. Yeah.
33:31 But when we talk about it now, like, it's just, it's a, in that first episode, You were there for the first episode? First episode of season two. Okay, right, right. So who was doing music season one? Matt Zimble. See, I don't remember. Percussionist with Manteca.
33:47 He's in Montreal now. Okay, okay, so you come in for two. Okay. Yeah, season two. The first one was Don Cherry and Scott Thompson. And I remember the story. Ralph told me after this. Ralph's assistant told me this.
34:01 He was backstage depressed, and they said, that was a killer show. He goes, we just blew our wad. He goes, how are we going to top that? We just got Scott Thompson sitting on Don Cherry's lap and coming on to him. Right. He goes, we're never going to beat that. And so he had Leonard Cohen on the show.
34:17 When we were there, the band played, I had this funny thing. I would cut out the face of, what was his name? He had the... Garth Hudson. Garth Hudson was in cahoots with me. I took a photo of someone who was running for Prime Minister, a male Hurtig. nobody would give him any time on the air, but I liked what he was right.
34:39 I read his book, Feed the kids or pay the red. I loved his book. So I cut out a picture of him, and I stick it on an instrument. Spirit of the West, it was on the accordion. Garth, it was on his keyboard. So basically, when we did the run through, I'd see where the cameras were,
34:55 and then I'd decide what size of a head of mail to stick where. And the people in the control booth would be like, there's that face again. Who's doing that? And they couldn't figure out who, who is the person? Genius. Yeah, yeah. And genius.
35:07 And I will say, I know people will shed out Mike Bullard, who had some success for a run with his show. But, and then occasionally, Ralph, for example, will talk about Strombo show on CBC, the Red Chairs and everything, which was popular for a while. But this country's been unable to do what Ralph was trying to do for 18 months. And if they had just, I think if they had just let Ralph and you creatives do your thing without interference, right? It would be a much longer than 18-month run. The world wanted the Rita McNeil show. They didn't want anybody with a Toronto vibe at all. And it was the critics that were so unreasonable.
35:45 I had a half-page story in the Toronto Star calling me the second coming for alternative music. And then a week later, I was a guy with a hideous grin and a top knot. Who wrote that? Do you remember? Greg Quill. Okay, Greg Quill. He went from...
35:58 He could see his bearded face now. From loving me to hating me. I admit at some point I dated his daughter. One of his daughters moved in with me. electronically, and then I dated his daughter, so he didn't like me. But it's because I was on CBC, that's when he decided to write this negative piece. Why does this country want anything non-Canadian, like Rita McNeil or Tommy Hunter? Why?
36:21 I have no idea. I mean, you think we're... Because you're North Bay, where are you from? Right, I'm from North Bay. I'm a small town guy who lives in a big city. And I'll never lose that ever. Like, when I travel, I talk about it all the time. people don't know that I used to go fishing.
36:35 They're like, that doesn't sound like you. You think I was born with a martini in a cigar? In orange pants? An orange pants? Yeah. You think I was born this way? My mom dressed me funny when I was young. She started it.
36:46 It wasn't me. It was her. You mentioned Mike Bullard. He was in my first short film. He had to fire me. And he goes, and I went to pay him. He goes, you don't have to pay me. I just spent an hour firing you.
36:56 That was fun. I said, no, no. You've got to sign this release and I'm paying you. And when he was done, he said, thanks for the gig, you're a real friend. I said, listen, man,
37:07 your social media, you're blowing it. I said, when was this in the Mike Bullard life? This was, this was like two months before he died. Okay, good. Keep going.
37:16 And then I have some follow-up question. Yeah. So what happened is I explained like, I said, you're doing everything wrong. You're so mad at the industry. I said, you even started a feud with Toronto Mike.
37:27 I said, nobody does that. And he goes, he sure did. He goes, he goes what? I said, you're going to cut that out. I said, Mark Brezin loves you,
37:34 Joel Goldberg loves you, I love you. I said, but you've got to stop picking on people. You've got to stop doing it. It wasn't picking up. It was literally threatening my safety in life. Right. Mike Bullard. He made my life very difficult for a period of time. Right. And for what?
37:49 For falsehoods. He, his buddy, quote unquote buddy, because he wasn't really his buddy, but he thought Dean Blundell was like a supportive buddy. And Dean Blundell learned falsehoods from fearless Fred Kennedy, who's on Q107,
38:05 that I had allegedly, this never happened, by the way. I had photoshopped pictures of his wife's face on gangbang pictures and shared them with my flock of followers, something I would never even... So this is where it happened.
38:20 On a golf course, Fred tells this to Blundell. Blondell goes off on me. I respond by dropping an entire episode of Toronto Mike, responding to Blondell's false allegations. Right. And then that's what triggers Bullard into basically thinking he's defending his friend.
38:35 Didn't he have a whole bunch of allegations himself? Blondell was in trouble for all kinds of things he said. Yeah, no comment for me. But this bottom line was I never photoshopped. And my life, any picture of gangbang anybody. And I would never put on social media anything of that nature and I never have. I like Dean's substack column now. I've changed my opinion of him when he was on the radio.
38:56 See, I'm not even aware of this. You have to educate me. I was not a fan of him on the air at all. but when I read his substock, I mean, his anti-Trump stance is hilarious and relentless, so I respect that. Okay, he's on the right side of history there. Okay.
39:10 Okay, so where were we? Oh, yeah, Mike Bullard. So you, am I hearing correctly, just processing this, Mr. B. You counseled, so to speak, Mike Bullard that maybe threatening Toronto, Mike, isn't great for his career? Right, yeah.
39:27 So did he ever explain, like, did he ever tell you why? why he chose to attack me for so long? He didn't. People like Lauren Honnickman were calling him and saying, are you okay? Yeah. Because I'll go to bed. Yeah.
39:37 Like people sometimes do it, you know, 3 a.m. And then there'll be, they'll wake up and there'll be dozens of tweets at me about how we'll be in the same room someday. There's just basically like what a piece of shit I am. Toronto Mike is a whatever. Like just like dozens, like the voice, the tweets of an unwell mind.
39:58 Right. Yeah, he wasn't well. So tell me. He's not here. You can't, you know, he's no longer with it. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home.
40:04 But why don't you tell us what was going on with that guy that made him behave that way? I couldn't tell you because I'm not a psychiatrist, but I could tell you he had a restraining order from a girl and he kept going to her house. Cynthia Mulligan. This is well documented in the papers. And I said, what's up with that?
40:24 And he said, you know in Hollywood where you just keep trying and you get the girl at the end? he goes, in this case, that's not happening. I said, no, no means no. I said, you have to cut this out. Obviously, she's now worried about you. She went from loving you to being afraid of you. So that's on you.
40:41 That's not on her. There is a OPP sergeant who loves Toronto Mike and saw the attacks I was getting from Bullard, who urged me to talk to Toronto Police Services to file a complaint because it may violate some kind of parole. And I had a moment, James, I'm telling you now, Bullard is gone. Yeah. He is dead. But I'm telling you now, went for a bike ride and thought about everything going on and I decided this is a unwell man and my
41:08 official complaint to TPS could be a last straw in his life and I decided not to go to the police and report what was the threats he was making towards me to and I'm not even asking for any accolades or anything but I didn't want this unwell this obviously unwell man to die as a result of me filing this complaint and I chose not to report it. On the shoot, he started ad-libbing and my cinematographer said, oh, that's not going to work. And he just went off on him. And he was like, you weren't even born when I was famous. He goes, you don't know shit.
41:44 And he got really upset. I said, Mike, listen, I know he didn't say it right, but he's right. I said, we're shooting on film, not video. We don't have enough money for you to ad lib. It's not that it's not funny. It's just your scene. So he's in this movie? Yeah, no, no, not in the feature.
42:00 Oh, what? In my first short film called Wild Music. Gotcha. His job was to fire me, and so he started coming up with all this new stuff. I'm like, no, it's one scene. You fire me. Right, and you paid him. And I paid him.
42:11 I'm catching up to you. See, all this stuff. Between the Molly and the Bullard, I feel like this should be episode 2000. Right. It's basically, here are where the minds you've got to dodge and the cradfalls and everything. Okay. So I mentioned the passing of, Bullard, but somebody I had maximum respect for who's being here multiple times.
42:33 I was a big fan of him personally and professionally. And I know, I read your substack and I know you have words to say about him. So I'm hoping, before we get into this film, if you would speak about David Marsden. Yeah, he was a sweetheart. He was the first person who wasn't afraid of my band Look People. He was the first person that they played the song from that first record. Gwito. They played all the time. We were nominated for five Caspies that year. And I just always got along with him. I didn't see a lot of him, but I always loved him on the radio. And when I saw him,
43:10 maybe a month or two before he died, I was backstage with him. And we were just talking about health and how important health is. And it was wonderful to see he looked forever young. I'm like, wow, that guy's going to live forever. Oops. I was so wrong. Good hair, though. I was so wrong. but hanging with him was great and what the spirit of radio did for music in Toronto and Canada and around the world that's why the police came here that's why cult came here
43:37 all these bands before they were famous they would come to Toronto because of David Morrison now I'm gonna uh you might know this but Ian Asprey from the cult was living in Hamilton as a teenager you know this and was buddies with Chris Shepard any idea where Shep is I know no he is definitely MIA on purpose even we have mutual best friends
43:58 and even his best friends don't know where he is. They couldn't find him for the CFNY doc. They couldn't find him for the Plady Record doc. And I've been told by a couple of people looking for him, I'm like, good luck. If they didn't find him for the CF and Y doc, I don't think he wants to be found. That's right.
44:14 Very interesting guy. I would love to talk to the guy. I would love to talk to the guy. Your album Small Fish, Big Pond, which we talk quite a bit about. I love that it was embraced by CFNY, right? because I mentioned Rob Pruse and he was with Spoons and Mars then also took a shine to the Spoons music
44:31 that was coming out of Burlington there. Five Casby nominations is amazing and I understand from your substack that you played a Casby Award at the concert hall and that's where great Bob Scott and Don Burns became fast friends. Don Burns came out in a Superman outfit with a giant cucumber in tinfoil in his crotch
44:51 and Bob just thought that was so cool and they just started goofing off immediately. Don Burns was hilarious. He had a wicked sense of humor. Good pipes on that guy too. Don Burns. Wow, gone too soon. And you mentioned Superman.
45:04 That makes me think of Rob Salem. Did he write anything ill about James B? Never. Never. Only good stuff. We did a tour together at Daytona Beach Spring Break, and he wrote about what a hilarious party consultant I was. I was the DJ on the bus with all the jocks
45:22 from the airport to the airport to the, the hotel and I played the weirdest music I could find the stuff they would never these are the people that beat me up when I was in school these are the jocks that are getting drunk and and womenizing so I'm like I'm going to play the worst music I can find and Rob fell in love with it he just thought it was hilarious well good to hear because he's it but he's Superman fanatic Rob Rob Salem you mentioned Superman with uh yeah with him with him and me it's B movies it's not music so much it's about really bad movies Okay. So we're going to get to a really good movie here at a moment here.
45:56 But I need to ask you about your health because I follow you on social media. And we talked about quite a gap between your second visit and your third visit. But I do remember you had some serious health challenges. So please bury us in private health information, James B. And tell us exactly how you're doing today. October 16th, I did a show at Kerner Hall for Genevieve-Mir-Mir-on-Tat CD launch. It was sold out. I risked $30,000.
46:23 And we got like 32 grand. So I got to donate a couple grand to Jazz FM. I got to pay all the bills. And I was so worried I was going to lose my shirt. And I had already booked a flight to L.A. with my best friend, Jessica. This is 2025? It's 2024.
46:37 Four. Yeah. So we get on the plane. Oh, and I had a flood in my house. Sewage backed up. So I rented a hotel. The hotel was more expensive than any hotel on our trip in L.A. Or in Vegas.
46:51 Like the one we, it was. right across the street from Kerner Hall. So we had this great party, went across the street, and the next day on the plane, I just passed out for the whole thing. And suddenly we're in L.A. I'm like, that was easy. And I got to stand up, and I couldn't stand up.
47:07 I said, oh, my legs asleep. So I had to walk like Tim Conway in the Carol Burnett show, really, really slow. Right. And she's like, are you okay? And then when I went to tie my shoe, I fell over. And I laughed. I'm like, no, I'm fine.
47:19 Just my legs asleep. She goes, I don't think that's it. I think you should get a check. up. I'm like, I don't have insurance and we're in L.A. for a week and I'm not spending $100,000 on a band-aid. So the rule was we were going to do everything that we had planned and that I was going to, as soon as I got home, go from the airport right to emergency. So I did that. And they did a quick CT scan. Yeah, cat scan, sure. And said, oh, you need a proper MRI. They said, you have little white little dots on your brain.
47:53 So you might have, I've had a stroke. I said a stroke. Well, a microstroke, a very small stroke. Because obviously your face isn't frozen. Your left hand works, but your left hand works. TIA is what they call these, right? Yeah. Yeah.
48:07 So then I got to my house and I found that my landlords were really cool. They had cleaned up the backed up sewage from my house, but they didn't do a good enough job. So we found black mold and right away, I have to leave. I could barely walk, but I have to leave. had to move to a new house. So I put everything away. I went up north to a friend's house up north near Hanover, out in the woods,
48:29 a six-bedroom bungalow with nothing but windows looking at nature. It was the most beautiful place to heal, you can imagine. And so Gigi arranged a bunch of fake nurses for me. I had all these different girls taking turns looking after me. Wow. And one of them I was with, so we'd cook healthy food, no smoke of any kind, no drinking of any kind. I didn't even take the CBD oil because I'm like, I didn't want anything. Clean living. A hundred percent clean. And we cooked all of our own food. So once a week we go get groceries
49:02 and that was our big exciting. We're going to leave this place. And then I would chop firewood. So at the end of the Bingbee documentary, Goldberg calls up, Joel calls up and says, hey, we're going to come up with her crew and shoot you chopping wood and making dinner. I'm like, oh, this is perfect. This is like a real story. Instead of every footage is immediately. being happy and crazy and dancing around. Let's get to the real stuff. My body revolted and said, you better calm down now.
49:29 So I did that. So for the whole year, last year, I was coming back little by little. It wasn't until this time last year that I actually, the doctor said, you can have wine with dinner
49:41 or sake if it's Japanese, no hard liquor, and it's great that you're not smoking. And it's great that you joined a gym. I joined a gym in December, and I go three times a week. I still go. Good.
49:51 Never did that before. Well, you sound good. Yeah. Although you never had a problem with your speech. Right. Because these were small strokes. Yeah. Okay, it sounds sexy when you say that way, but okay.
50:02 And you look good. Thank you. So you're on the mend here. 100%. Do you find you have the same energy you had? No, no. I mean, that's an age thing anyway. So how old are you?
50:15 63. Okay, 63. I think when I was young man, 603. He was like, oh yeah, that is older. And now where I sit, 63 is like, oh, you're just a kid. Right, right. Yeah. Just a kid.
50:26 So, I mean, I don't go out to five shows. The main thing is I don't drink. I used to have two drinks before I went out. I drink in every club, one drink. Go to five clubs. So I'm more drinks. Come home and have a couple of nightcaps. Right.
50:39 I get tired just thinking about how much I used to drink. The thing is, but I was a happy drunk. I was not a sad drunk. Right. I was never a violent drunk. Right. But it was just not. healthy. So the health thing has changed. I get tired. Like I did, I did my caravan show at Old Mill.
50:59 Every year I do a huge party for Unison Fund. Right. And last year, I really enjoyed it. The year before, I thought I'd enjoy it, but I got wiped out way too early. Right. Right. Right. Well, okay, so you're back living in Toronto? Yeah. Okay. And glad you're on the mend. I was reading health updates and that You were out chopping wood in the middle of nowhere. And I'm like, oh, I hope James B is okay because he's very famous. It was a 10-minute walk to the mailbox. The driveway was 10-minute. It was a long, long road.
51:32 Right. And so I would walk to the mailbox three times a day. I know mail only comes once a day, but that was my way of getting exercise. 20 minutes three times a day, chopping wood, cooking food, reading books. We'd watch a movie at night. There was lots of rules. Gigi is like, you can do one hour. of computing.
51:52 I said, no, no, I need two hours. She goes, okay, two hours. Okay, so I said, an hour is to answer email and just be alive. Right. And an hour is to be creative. I said, if I'm not creative, I'm going to go crazy. And she goes, but just do one thing. Don't do everything.
52:07 Just do one thing. And all those script writing started during COVID. That's when I said, I always wanted to make films. I'm going to go over my footage, the old script. I'm going to spruce them up and make them better. Magic Land, a mythological, musical comedy, your first feature film. I'm going to get all the details, all the details, but I'm just going to take a moment. You've quit drinking.
52:36 So this is for your friends, okay? I have fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery going home with you, James B. Gift them to somebody you love who enjoys fresh craft beer. Yep. My neighbors are super quiet and respectful. I'm very lucky. I live in the quietest neighborhood imaginable, almost like where you are,
52:54 super quiet. Everyone's nice. At first I said, where's all the crack cores? Where's all the alcoholics? I miss my old neighborhood, but I don't at all. And what part of the city is this in?
53:04 You don't have to be too specific. I'm near Broadview and north of Danforth. Okay, you're east of young. Okay. So you've got the beer going home with you. I have in my freezer. It was just delivered this morning. And I remember delivering this to that cool house
53:18 that had the mold. I remember delivering it to you. but I have a large frozen lasagna from Palma pasta. That's yours, buddy. That's an empty box, but it's in my freezer. And this is also a chance for me to tell you, James B, all your friends, Gigi, everybody, and anyone listening, including Joel Goldberg, because I know you're listening, Joel. I have an event, TMLX-24, taking place at Palma's Kitchen in Mississauga.
53:45 This is happening November 28th at noon, noon to 3 p.m. I'm recording live from Palma's Kitchen and Palmapasta will feed everybody who comes out and I'm going to bring fresh craft beer for everybody. And RetroFestive is giving everybody an amazing gift. Everyone's invited. Is that amazing or what? I'm going to have to check my calendar. Check your calendar. November 28th, noon to 3 p.m.
54:08 I want to give some love to recycle my electronics.ca. Safe, secure recycling for residents, businesses, and the environment. Recycling electronics. and appliances with local recycle my electronics programs is free, fast, and easy. Ready to recycle James? Bring it! I like saying it like that. Bring it.
54:30 Find out what and where to recycle at recycle myelectronics.ca. Is that in your calendar yet? If James B shows up at TMLX-24. I am checking the 28th. It's a Saturday. It looks like I'm free. Okay, put it in there. Palma's Kitchen.
54:43 Palmis Kitchen noon to three, James B. Okay. Now, and shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. A great podcast from Brad Jones is called Life's Undertaking. I get to co-host that, and it's a wonderful experience. Every two weeks, we record a new episode. Thank you for your support, Brad Jones. Okay.
55:03 May I borrow one of these here? Okay, okay, I'm trying not to dog ear. This poster I'm now holding here. There's a lot to take in here. A new feature film from James B. Magic Land. give me the 4-1-1. Like, I see FOTM Robert Priest is involved.
55:22 Yeah. I like him very much. I met him through Blair Packham as well, by the way. Robert helped me on a short film. He came out to visit me while I was ill also. But this was many years ago. I was working on a short film. It was a sci-fi, and he asked me a few questions.
55:41 And the questions he asked me kind of changed the ending of the film. Oh. well he's a poet you know yeah and then i said listen um i have an alien uh who's supposed to be a little alien who turns into a poet why don't you write the poem for the alien so he wrote it so i gave him a credit as a co-writer on the on the short and then the feet when the feature came up um i knew i had the story written from years ago i tried to make a a soundtrack and my buddy dave howard said uh that's gonna take you two years. He goes, we're ready to make a record. Let's just go make a record right now. I said, well, you're right. It is going to take a long time. And so I shelved it. And when the money
56:22 came for this film, which is another story, as soon as I found it I could afford to do a movie, right away, I called up Robert Priest and said, I need you to help me pump up my script. I said, it's really funny and weird. I said, but it has no heart in it. You've got to give it some heart. Are you surprised this film is done before the documentary? I'm shocked. I'm shocked that it's done at all. I'm shocked that I got to make a movie. When, okay, so is it COVID? When did you realize you wanted to write a film? Like, where did Magic Land come from?
56:52 Well, COVID, when COVID happened, I just, I had nothing to do. I mean, I was watching Barnaby Jones reruns and Mr. Motel films and Charlie Chan movies. And after a while, I'm like, okay, I got to stop watching stuff. I got to write again. And so I just looked through old writing and I went, oh, there's a film I never made. so I started writing screenplays and luckily uh carrie king an old friend of mine from many years ago called me up out of the blue and said i have a friend who wants to invest in movies i said oh that's
57:25 funny i have a script so i got her online and i tried to pitch her on a feature and it was going to be 20,000 for the script and she's like oh no no i don't want to make a script i i just want to make a movie so when i asked her what exactly do you want to do she goes i go to film festivals all the time i'd like to have a, I'd like to have something in it. I said, what about a short film? And she goes, how would that work? I'm like, a short film would be 20 minutes long, but it only cost you 40 grand, and I already have a script.
57:49 So I told her the idea and she said yes. And when I made the first film, I shot it on actual film, the film Wild Music, and she couldn't believe how good it was. So then I did two more shorts with her. After three short films, she goes, I think you're ready for a feature. And when I told her that I had some people who were willing to invest, like 50 grand, but if I used their money. I had to hire their friend to be my cameraman. I had to hire her daughter or granddaughter to be the star of the movie. And then she said, no, no, no. The reason your movies are
58:20 good is because I just give you money and leave you alone. Right. So I'll, I'll help you finance your movie if you don't have anybody else that tells you what to do. That's amazing, James. Like that's a benefactor like in the olden days. Like the Medici. Yeah. Yeah, it's a patron of the arts more than a producer. Go be an artist. Here's some money to make your art and no interference. And she loves the movie, which means the world to me. I would, I would hate it if after she saw this, she went, yeah, whatever. But she's like, no, this is a great story. It's well told. It's fun. It's funny. It's more fun than funny. It's not, it's a comedy, but it's not meant to be 100% comedy. It has a lot of heart in it. All of my films, no swearing, no violence, no sex. All of my films.
59:05 I mean, I think not having an edge is really edgy these days. No, you might be right. I have the same thought when I'm on the waterfront trail, and I think, oh, I'm the only one here without a bunch of tattoos. Right. Because that's the true rebellion. Right. Not getting ink.
59:20 Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. If everyone's doing this, then the alternative is the rebel action. Don't do it. Okay. So, God, there's a lot going on in the poster. So if you had to describe this, obviously, the byline that I just read is, oh,
59:35 not on this one. Oh yeah. Yeah. Where's the myth? Where did I read that? Hold on. Myth illogical. That's right. It's in this poster I'm looking at now. It's mythological, but it's myth and it's illogical because I have a genie. I have a pirate and a couple of leprechauns. They do not belong in Greek mythology. No. Somebody saw it and said, yeah, there's a leprechaun. Somebody saw it and said, if the Odyssey was created by Pee Wee Herman, it might look something like this. This is like the Sargent Pepper cover or whatever. I got to start. I recognize some of these. people, by the way. My goodness, does Lori Cullen make an appearance in this?
01:00:10 She's an angel. I know. I see her. And her song is, first song in the movie, it's so touching. Robert Priest wrote the lyrics and sent it to her,
01:00:19 and she goes, oh, I love these lyrics so much. I'm not even going to touch him. I'm just going to write music. And so she is a fantastic angel. And when I showed the film to Gigi, she goes, how the hell did you know Lori Cullen could act?
01:00:32 I said, I didn't know anybody could act. I said, I cast all my friends. And I said, and I just imagine her singing a song as an angel because she has a voice like a beautiful voice. Yeah. And so, and I mean, Bob Scott and John Finley as leprechauns. That's basically typecasting. You sent John Finley over here. Yeah, exactly. It was great. Yeah. And Seraphon was the big surprise for me. Seraphon played the Cyclops and played it so beautifully and a sad, empathetic cyclops who starts off really rude. And I'm like, where did you draw that from?
01:01:08 And Sarahman says, oh, I just thought about an Air Canada flight attendant. I wanted to be surly and dismissive and rude. That's funny. And I see you gave yourself a six pack here. Yeah. Is that what I see here? Why not? You're making it.
01:01:20 Give yourself abs of steel. Okay. November 9th, you can see this film at the Fox Theater. November 11th, the Royal Theater. and of course November 20th, the Redwood, doors open at 7 p.m. The show begins at 8 p.m. And you can go to James B.com right now. I guess you can buy tickets there, right?
01:01:44 J-A-Y-M-Z-B-E.com. If you go to my sub-sac, I've written stories about it. There's links there as well. But my website is the easiest way because all of the films are there and links to all of the tickets are there. One-stop shopping for all your James B requirements. And the soundtrack is up on band camp right now. So there are 29 songs.
01:02:05 Most of them are a minute to two minutes. And every genre of music, there's a country tune, there's a couple of jazz tunes, there's a rock tune. I got to sing a great rock tune. I didn't want to play Zeus. I actually wanted Jeff Goldblum to play Zeus. And my producer said, I know you sang with him in L.A.
01:02:24 I know you know him. She said, but he's going to cost more than the entire movie. How do you know him, though? from being in L.A. I was at a restaurant. He just stopped, and he looked at me and he said, I love what you're wearing. What's your story?
01:02:36 Where are you from? I'm from Canada. I used to play your record on Jazz Avenue. He goes, oh, which record? And I told him the record. Born freaky, I mean uniquely. Pass the torch. And I don't mean Tiki.
01:02:46 And so he goes, do you sing? I said a little bit. He goes, oh, I want you to sing. I'm playing at this club. So I got up on stage with him, and he played piano and I sang. James, you were so concerned with whether you could make this movie. right you never stopped to consider whether you should make this movie
01:03:03 and I'm sure I put you in the quote but it was off the lid here but that's how I remember it. Shut up to Stephen Spielberg and Jurassic Park okay so this thing's done it's now like people can literally buy a ticket and see it as early as November 9th yeah where so where does it go like I'm curious when you make a film like this like so it just plays like does it play festivals does it play art houses
01:03:32 does it eventually stream somewhere well the trick about this there are many tricks about this what I want to do for the first while is actually for Wallet where I go into a theater I'll do a Q&A afterwards I'd like to get the reaction of people
01:03:47 I am waiting for someone whether it's Netflix or crave someone to wake up and go oh this will work what about Jem shouldn't this be a Canadian treasure Yeah, yeah. If someone from Gem would answer, but getting a hold of people is really hard.
01:04:03 Well, what about Hollywood Suite? You can get a hold of David Kinds. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'm waiting to see what happens with the doc. And also, Joel wants to do a documentary on Look People, which he'd be the guy to do that. Which would be a reason for the band to get back together. I was saying earlier, like Clay left the band a couple years early,
01:04:21 so we did one reunion for a benefit, and it was with Chris Gartner, the bass player that was in the, the band when we actually stopped the band. So if we did get back together, it would be with Chris on base. I mean, I would love it if we got both of them involved. But Chris was the guy in the band on our last album, which was our worst selling record,
01:04:42 but definitely one of the most fun recordings we ever made called Crazy Eggs. You know, I'm thinking about all the activity in the James B universe right now. First of all, you bounced off the mat and you're getting healthy again. Yeah. You're working out, you sound good,
01:04:57 you're back at it. So hopefully the energy levels continue to improve, but you're getting your health back. That is, of course, the most important thing. But Joel Goldberg, at some point, I know we've been talking about this for a decade, I think. It's like the movie Boyhood. It's like, okay, it's just going to take a while.
01:05:14 But at some point, being B is going to be available to see, and I can't wait to see this documentary. Well, when the doc happens, I think there will be a lot more interest, And I think I'll probably get more interest in Magic Land once the doc gets. Yeah, it's going to feed itself, right? Because it'll be just James B will be in the universe. You'll be making appearances. We'll be tuning into Breakfast Television and Dina Pulezi.
01:05:37 We'll be chatting you up, okay, about Bean B. Who knows what a lot of people will want to talk to you about the dock being B. Then then that's an opportunity to talk about Magic Land. And then they'll say, oh my God, what a great episode 1995 of Toronto Mike. It was James B and look at this great conversation. like this is we're on we're late 2026 but I'm going to declare it now 2027 is going to be the year of James B you will be more famous than ever I'm going to I'm going to agree with that yeah I'm just going to agree with that it makes logical sense to me
01:06:08 what I love is I did this movie with Jason Brown he's out of Hamilton he did all the backdrops he spent a year doing the backdrops and he kept saying I don't need a bigger crew I don't need more money I just need more time he's like this is the best thing I've ever worked on. We did a bunch of music videos together when he goes, this is the best project I've ever had. He said, just give me more time. So we have both played the long game and we are calm about it.
01:06:35 And we're like, David Amram is 96 now. Wow. He did the music for the Manchurian candidate, the original version. He played with Dizzy Gillespie back in the day. And he wrote to me, he goes, I saw your movie. I sent him a secret screening with a code on Vimeo so he could see it. And he goes, I know the music. I know the film industry sucks right now.
01:07:00 He goes, but you made something forever. It's never going to go away. People are going to love this forever. Sarah Waxman saw it and said, oh, the message is so good. The message is like, be yourself. She's a goddess. She wants to be a human so she can have a boyfriend. And then she finds out the guy's a narcissist.
01:07:16 He's actually narcissist. So she goes, I'm a virgin. Narcissist sleeps with himself. she goes home. You know what? I need one of those secret Vimeo links with a code. I got to see this thing, James B. I'll review this thing.
01:07:29 Excellent that this exists now and people can see it. We talked quite a bit of a moment ago about music and rock and roll. And I got to ask a question from Midtown Gord. I put in the FOTM WhatsApp chat that James B will be here at 2.30. And Midtown Gord said, I'm not sure if it's too late. But wondering if you can ask the famous James B, if he has a connection with Queens Reich's
01:07:53 Operation, I said Queenswrecks, is I going to say it? Queenswreck, this is a bad I never heard it said in the while. I got to listen to more Pepsi Power Hour. Okay. Queens Reich's Operation Mine Crime. I seem to recall seeing interviews
01:08:04 of Jeff Tate, whom I will be seen on November 5th, and Chris de Garmo that James had something to do with that legendary album or tour. What say you, famous James B,
01:08:18 about Queens Reich's Operation mind crime. I have a good one. I took Chris and Jeff to a fetish night for northbound leather. They didn't know it was an anniversary and it was a big event. They thought this was Toronto on a Tuesday night. They thought it was the coolest thing ever. Everyone's in leather at the party. There's a girl shaved from head to toe, chained to a wall covered in syrup and people can go up and lick the birthday cake. And it was her idea. That was her fantasy. She wanted it. Wow. Literally. That's called consent. Exactly. So they came in and at the time they were freaked out
01:08:51 and everybody was hitting on Chris. He looked really good in leather. Jeff, Jeff gave off the vibe of do not talk to me. And anyway, at the time, they weren't liking it and the next day they said, we should do a concept album about that club. Toronto's cool. We had no idea. I never told them that it was a once a year event.
01:09:09 Right. It was in a regular Tuesday night party. But I directed their videos and the way that happened is I was at the Electric Ecclectics Festival I broke my camera. I was tripping on mushrooms and I just kept shooting anyway. So when I looked at the footage, it was really psychedelic, like nothing worked. And so, oh, I'm going to put some new age music on this.
01:09:31 I'm going to turn this into an art project. So I sent it to Nilvana to see if I can get a job directing for them. And they were looking at it when Queens Reich walked into the office and saw the screen, they go, oh, what's that? And they, oh, we're just checking out a demo reel. That's okay. So they showed them all these professional things. and Queenswreck said,
01:09:51 I like that first thing I saw. Who's that guy? And Clive knew me and Clive's like, oh, I know this guy. If you want, I can call him. So he called me. I'm like, what?
01:10:00 I'm directing a Queenswreck video? This is unbelievable this story. It was a Midtown Gord, what a great question, and this is a great story. It was a couple of hundred thousand dollar budget. I mean, that included all the Nelvana animation.
01:10:11 I looked after the live stuff. So I would come up with backgrounds, the basement of my apartment had a giant, like, bizarre-looking furnace with like a light bulb from the late 1800s. It was part of the Massey Ferguson complex just down from the keg. Sure.
01:10:27 414 Jarvis in the basement. So we shot in the basement of 414 Jarvis. And then we went over to U of T to shoot the gargoyles in the church. And so basically it was an amazing time. Our editing suite was Skydome. And so it looked like the man who fell to Earth with Bowie with a million TV monitors. They had all the money in the world there.
01:10:49 Wow. And they'd give you, like, you could go. Don't Productions. Yeah, Dome Productions. I know them well. You could go for sandwiches. You could go for massages. Like, they just wanted you to stay as long as you can because they were charging so much per hour.
01:11:01 Right. So, and I went up to the restaurant to have some food and Steve Paken, some member of the founders club. He's like, what are you doing here? And I thought, you don't know who I am. So Steve and I get along right now, but at the time, he was like, how did James B get into this private party? That's funny because I'm trying to think of how he would, because I would say Paken is the biggest Frank Sinatra fan I know. And Sinatra was kind of a jazz swinger type thing. And then James B was, we talked about 1995 and the swinger resurgence and how you were a key part of that.
01:11:36 So really, it's not that hard to connect Paken to James B when you think about Frank Sinatra being the gateway. He started coming on Jazz FM with Ralph and I when we were doing fundraising. And so we got to be pals after that. And when that crazy woman said that he was inappropriate, I knew she was lying. I'm like, Paken did not do that. Did she ever suffer any consequences for trying to ruin a good man's career? Yeah.
01:12:02 Luckily, TVO looked into it and said, oh, there's nothing to this story. Luckily, they looked into it. She also made allegations against Rob Ford of a similar nature. And I found it, you know, I find it interesting that she never seemed to suffer any consequences is for really giving all the women who are telling the truth, when you have a woman making things up, it doesn't help. Right. I just, and I purpose, I've talked to Pacon,
01:12:27 almost many times I talk to Ben Murgie. He's been on a million heads. I've never asked him about that story because it's not fair that somebody can invent something. And then for the rest of your life, you've got a few old questions about this thing that never happened. A friend of mine played the race card on the wrong person, said someone was a racist who wasn't.
01:12:43 And I said, now look, look, you've got to take it. that back. I said, if you believe that, you need, you need, you need some proof. I said, you have no proof because you're lying. And I said, now what you've done is now I'm going to question every time someone plays the race card. James B 100%. Now I have to question. Because there are a lot of racists out there who deserve to be, you know, called out. And the, you're right. Don't, don't invent racism. Don't invite, vent misogyny. Don't invent harassment and assault. Because there's enough legit examples out there in the universe. Exactly. Right. By the way, I have.
01:13:16 just had to do, and Midtown Gord, forgive me. But I'm so oblivious to what the hell a Queenswreck is and what is Operation Mind Crime. So I went to the Wikipedia page. I'm just going to like, for others like me who are like, what are we talking about now? This is, because that's a great story. But Operation Mind Crime is the third studio album by Progressive Metal Band Queensreich originally released on May 3rd, 1988. The album was reissued on May 6th, 2003. Okay, okay. That's interesting.
01:13:47 But Operation Mind Crime is a concept album and a rock opera. It follows Nikki, a drug addict who becomes disillusioned with the corrupt society of his time and reluctantly becomes involved with a revolutionary group as an assassin of political leaders. And I'll tell you this, Karang magazine, which I have heard of, ranked it as the 34th greatest heavy metal album of all time. This is wild to me. And you play your role in this is immense. Yeah. It, they called it thinking man's metal, which sounds like an oxymoron to me.
01:14:25 I mean, rush, sure. Jumbo shrimp. Rush, you can say that, but you can't say that for Queens Wright. Queens Wright are not America's Rush at all. I didn't really, I liked the storyline. I thought it was funny and lame. Like, I like Spinal Tap. I had a band called Gulpe, which was basically Guelph with an umlaut.
01:14:43 Oh, yeah. Look people's alter ego band. Right. We had songs like sex slaves of the astromutans. And if Mars needs women, Uranus needs men. I can't hear you. You're breaking up. Come in.
01:14:55 Come in, Uranus. Yeah. We had Joe Heavy Metal. So I thought, they're not trying to be funny. I said, but really, it's a assassin who falls in love with a nun. And there's an evil doctor, Dr. X who's doing brain experiments. It's like, no, this is a terrible, terrible plot. The music was okay.
01:15:15 while we were shooting 34th best heavy metal album all the time apparently said somebody corang! While we were shooting it Silent Lucidity came out which was like a pink Floyd tune and it shot to number one
01:15:28 I missed you know what's funny that was a huge hit by all accounts and somehow it alluded me they became super famous while they were in Toronto shooting this video wow and I had respect for Chris and for Jeff for spending that kind of money I know they had some kind of falling out
01:15:45 the band kind of divided somehow. Queens Reich went without Jeff, which I mean, blood, sweat and tears without David Clayton Thomas is not blood sweat and tears. You're right. And Queensreich without Jeff Tate, it's not Queensrike.
01:15:59 But I don't know what happened to that band. I hadn't heard of them. This is the first time I've heard of this for years and years and years. Well, Midtown Gord on the case here. I would love to find out what's going on with Queensrike. That's another episode. Maybe I've got to get a...
01:16:15 Midtown Gord to fill me in and what's going on there. But I'll tell you this, James B. This is your third visit. It won't be your last visit. But again, we're coming up to the year of James B. I can't wait to see Magic Land. And I absolutely can't wait to see the documentary that Joel Goldberg has been making about you for the last 25 years. So maybe Joel and I will have to come in together when we're talking Being B.
01:16:37 When I can see Bean B, Joel Goldberg and James B together in the basement, that is a slam dunk. My friend. I got a lasagna for you upstairs. You're bringing this beer for your neighbor and Ridley Funeral Home sent over it's like a one part flashlight, one part measuring tape,
01:17:00 one part bottle opener, one part level. That's for you from Ridley Funeral Home. I forgot to give that to you. All right. Anything you wanted to share that I didn't prompt for or we didn't get to? I mean,
01:17:14 oh, really the soundtrack to Magic Land is on band camp and I think it's at least one Friday every month all the money goes to the artist but anytime you pick up the band camp album it would mean a lot to me what I'm hoping is that people will familiar
01:17:31 be familiar with the music before they get to the theater at some point this could be a bit like Rocky Horre the show we're doing at Redwood Theater November 20th it's a Friday night that's a costume contest we're showing the film It's the only one that's a giant warehouse club,
01:17:51 not a regular movie theater. But I tested the film in there, and it looks and sounds fantastic. So that's going to be a party. I'm hoping that people will want to get dressed up as their favorite mythological creature or Greek god or goddess and show up. I'll be a leprechaun.
01:18:08 Yeah, absolutely. Okay. And I got to see this film, just to count the number of FOTMs. I see in this movie. I can see a bunch in the poster here. Thank you, James B. You are indeed a very famous man.
01:18:22 And that brings us to the end of our 1,995th show, 1995. Go to Torontomike.com for all your Toronto mic needs. It's James B.com for all your James B needs. Much love to all who made this possible. Again, that is Great Lakes Brewery. Their podcast is called Between Two Fermenters. It is very good. Palma Pasta.
01:18:50 They don't have a podcast, but they have delicious Italian food. Go to palma pasta.com. Nick Iini's, his podcast, is called Building Toronto Skyline. Recycle My Electronics.com. Cliff Hacking was the guest before James. Check it out. And Ridley Funeral Home,
01:19:06 Brad Jones has an excellent podcast called Life's Undertaking. See you all. I got to check my calendar. James, who is next on Toronto Mike? Oh my goodness. Is this true? Bruce Colburn is my next guest. Bruce Colburn.
01:19:24 Hey, I grew up listening to that music. I only met him once. You got a few more seconds? Was he nice to you? He was. Very shy and very sincere. I just heard a little bit of Mr. Dress-Up background.
01:19:37 Yeah, this is the Easter eggs. Broad Proof put in the things that get referenced on Toronto Mike. This is the Zit Remedy from DeGrasy, junior high right there. I was at the reunion last week to Grassy reunion. Shaddo Dandy Pandy. That is amazing. We're going to get you back for a fourth episode because there's so much. But here's some polka dot door. That's how amazing as always. So I'll see you all with Bruce Colburn tomorrow. Peace and love.
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