Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Jeanne Beker: Toronto Mike'd #1014

Episode Date: March 14, 2022

In this 1014th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike is joined by Jeanne Beker as they talk about her co-hosting The New Music with J.D. Roberts, delivering rock news on Much, hosting FashionTelevision and so much more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, StickerYou, Ridley Funeral Home and RYOBI Tools.

Welcome to episode 1014 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. Palma Pasta.

Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. Canna Cabana. The lowest prices on cannabis, guaranteed. Over 100 stores across the country. Learn more at cannacabana.com. And Ryobi, join the cordless revolution with Ryobi's 18-volt OnePlus system. There are 260 tools in the system, and it's available at Home Depot. Joining me this week, and I am totally stoked about this, Jeannie Becker.

Welcome, Jeannie. Well, howdy. I'm thrilled to be here. What a nice, Jeannie. Well, howdy. I'm thrilled to be here. What a nice warm welcome. Well, I got to tell you, I've been looking forward to this for quite some time. It's been in my calendar for a while and I'm just so glad you're here. And I will tell you this, and this is the truth. You know, I do a lot of these. This is episode 1014.

But rarely do I get the reaction I've been getting when I announced that Jeannie Becker was going to make her Toronto Mike debut. People are very excited about this. Well, that's really nice to hear. I mean, it's not like I totally disappeared, although some people may not be aware that, you know, I'm on TSC and that I have a podcast and that I'm still out and about. But yeah, you know, listen, I miss a lot of people from the good old days. And I certainly had a chance to live some of the best days I think ever. You know, wow.

So we're going to have a lot of fun reminiscing today, I'm sure. We're going to reminisce, but you mentioned a podcast. So maybe off the top, let these podcast listeners know where they can find your podcast. Anywhere you find your podcast. It's a podcast that's produced by Frequency Podcast, which is a company that's owned by Rogers. It's called Beyond Style Matters because I have a weekly series on TSC called Style Matters, because I have a weekly series on TSC called Style Matters, where we talk about style in a very sartorial manner and practical manner, where this is about, you know, way beyond the clothes, what gives people great style,

like that thing that we have that enables us to move through the world with aplomb. that we have that enables us to move through the world with aplomb. And we're starting our fourth season of it, and it's going great guns, and it's lots of fun, and we have a very eclectic mix of people, and yeah. Good for you. I mean, I know nothing about style, which you probably could guess by the fact I'm rocking a Great Lakes Brewery hoodie here for our show.

That style, they're one of your sponsors, right? That's true. How stylish of you to sport their logo. But not only that, I mean, you know, listen, the hoodie rules today. It's all about street wear, right? No, you look fabulous. You have great style because you're a very kind person. I have sensed that about you since you started communicating here.

And that to me is, you know, the absolute, you know, ruler in style is kindness. Well, that's very kind of you to say, Jeannie. And I feel I should disclose to the FOTMs listening that this is the third time we've Zoomed, but the first time that I recorded you for Toronto Mike, because you appeared on, I want to get my podcast, right. But you appeared on the feminine warriors podcast.

Right. Correct. And of course you're the voice of the intro and the outro of the new podcast mind over matter, which is about a woman's brain health from the Women's Brain Health Initiative. And you're the voice of the intro and the outro, like I said. Yeah, very honored to have that gig. Not really a gig, it was just something they asked me to do

and I'm on the advisory board of Women's Brain Health and have been for several years now. So that's just such a great organization, bringing so much important information to women. So that was really nice. Nothing to do with fashion or style in the conventional sense and not really part of the pop culture world that I usually inhabit. But yeah, very, very proud to be associated with that podcast.

We actually dropped episode two this morning. So episode two of the Mind Over Matter podcast, a woman's brain health initiative. And you can hear Jeannie on that. But I got like a great note for you from another client whose podcast I produced, Dana Levinson. I'm going to read it to you. When she heard you were coming on Toronto, Mike,

she wrote me and said, this is amazing. Jeannie Becker is a force and a trailblazer. She paved the way for many women in television. She made it better than OK to be a badass and was a voice for working women. Can't wait for this episode. So you've inspired many, including Dana. Well, that music to my ears, that really means so much.

Now, music to my ears, that really means so much. And yeah, I mean, I got to do some really cool stuff at a time when not as many people were given those platforms. And it was just amazing. We did get to do a lot of trailblazing in the old City TV days, without question. I mean, I even go back to my old days. You know, i started as an actress when i was 16 years old i started acting professionally and then my love of acting took me

to new york to study acting and and i i was getting professional professional gigs i got a union card and the whole deal and then i became intrigued with mime corporal right? Where you don't really have to use words, but you can still really communicate with anyone on the planet because language isn't a barrier. I thought that was really cool. So I went to Paris to study mime with the old man that taught Etienne Ducru. I'm sorry, his name was Etienne Ducru. He was the old man that taught Marcel Marceau.

And he also taught David Bowie mime, if you can believe that um so I ended up then this is going back to the 70s right like 73 74 then I moved um to St. John's Newfoundland in 75 and I was the only trained mime artist in the province but there wasn't much work for mime artists, my dear. So I ended up knocking on the door of CBC Radio and saying, I should be reporting on the arts for you because I've studied art and I understand about the arts and there's no one really doing that, if you can believe that. Because CBC Arts reporting is totally hot and happening now. But in those early years, in the 70s,

there wasn't that much of it going on. So I got a gig on this Radio Noon show, which was basically a consumer show. But I was talking to people about, well, you know, should they spend the five bucks on that theater ticket? Or should they spend the eight bucks on that album? And so I approached it from a consumer's point of view.

I interviewed all kinds of great artists that were on the scene, musicians and storytellers and actors. And I did that for three years, moved back to Toronto, which is so weird, right? I'm like the only mime artist in the province. I get a job in radio. Now I never shut up because I just talk so much.

And I moved back here, got a job at 1050 Chum, which was the station I grew up under the covers with when I was a kid with my transistor radio, right? I couldn't believe I got that gig as their good news girl. And serendipitously, that was the year that Chum Radio bought City TV, this hip little TV station in downtown Toronto, and they decided to cross-promote the radio personalities into the TV end of things. So I got picked up along with J.D. Roberts, now John Roberts of Fox News,

and J.D. and I went over to television to do the show called The New Music, which was, again, of course, so groundbreaking. You know, in those days, no one was really interviewing the rock stars. This was like pre-MTV. This is like 1979. We were going on the road with the rock stars and into the studios with them, into their hotel rooms with them, and into the bathtubs with them. Well, at least I went into a bathtub with one of them. Well, actually, that's a whole other

story. I sat on the edge of the tub. Who was in that bathtub? Andy Summers from the police. There's a cool video on YouTube. If you ever get a chance, just Google Andy Summers hair on fire, and you'll see this whole scenario playing out with me and Andy Summers in a bubble bath. Anyway, I got to do some really cool stuff. We were flying by the seat of our pants and just making it up as we went along. Okay, very, very cool. Well, listen, obviously I have more questions about the new music, and that was fantastic.

That whole mime part of your career is a bit of a mind blow to me. It's just, mime, it just seems rather random. But I mean, if you're into the arts, I guess that's an art. And then why not? But I mean, back in the 70s, I don't know if you remember Shields and Yarnell, this really cool, you know, girl and guy team out of San Francisco. And they were doing, you know, the robotic stuff. Listen, Robin Williams was performing mine, you know, at Washington Square Park in New York.

I mean, it was a cool thing to do know, at Washington Square Park in New York. I mean, it was a cool thing to do. I mean, it sort of got creepy after a while. But it was pure art and it was communication. It was theater. Amazing. Okay, so just before we get you back to the new music there, I mentioned the Dana Levinson praise, right? So Dana's been in the industry for like two decades but also i want to say michelle mackie who is uh fairly new to the industry although she's making her mark at city uh year old stomping grounds there and then 680 news

but she wrote me in to say that when she was 16 years old she was on a flight with you genie becker and she was so excited that after the flight landed, she introduced herself to you and told you that she wanted to be a journalist, and you were so very kind and encouraging, and Michelle never forgot that, and she's living her dream today. Wow, that's so nice. Well, that makes me feel really good, and that's why it pays off to be

kind to people along the way you just never know who you're going to inspire you know I get at least you know five times a week but from people like I meet on the street or what oh wow you inspired me to follow my dreams and pursue a career in fashion. Or, you know, I really get that a lot. And it wasn't me maybe who inspired them. It was the fact that I was with this really fabulous show, Fashion Television, that was reporting on a scene that no one else was really reporting on in that way that we were reporting on it.

Because we were really glamorizing it and reporting on it as a kind of, you know, an entertainment. I was an entertainment reporter. I wasn't like a fashion journalist. I didn't, of course, I grew up loving fashion, as any girl in the 60s, you know, loved fashion. And, you know, I was the first kid on my block with go-go boots, and my mother used to make all our own clothes.

But I did not know about you know who Coco Chanel was and I didn't when I started that fashion television gig it was just like yeah you know pick me and I really lobbied to get that role because they were going to give it to some like you know cute young model or something and I was like no I paid my dues in the rock and roll trenches it's time for the next big thing I want to do a fashion show if you're going to be doing one. We ended up inspiring so many people because we opened up a window onto this world that had not really been exposed at that point. And I had this backstage pass and I was a stranger in a strange land. And I took people every week, you know, by the hand and introduced them to these

larger than life characters and showed them that incredible world so you know especially like a lot of a lot of gay boys growing up in weird little redneck you know towns throughout Canada were watching that show or people even in you know third world countries like that show was being to 130 different countries around the world so a lot of people really all of a sudden identified with that world and said yeah I want to be part of that world too and when I grow up I'm going to live out my dreams because that world seems very accepting of everybody and it's just so uber fabulous now in retrospect I do say I think we created a bit of a monster sometimes I think maybe we shouldn should have inspired that many people to get into

the fashion business because it ain't an easy business to survive in, to say the least. And it's increasingly difficult. And yeah, we created a monster. Well, hey, listen,

Jeannie, hold my hand. We're going on this journey together. And that's a great, great teaser because obviously the new music and fashion television, so much ground to cover. Two super quick notes though. So I did the Dana and because obviously the new music and fashion television, so much ground to cover. Two super quick notes, though. So I did the Dana and I did the Michelle.

And just really quickly, Gear Joyce, also an FOTM, good friend of the program here. He just points out to me, he wrote the book that Private Eyes was based on with Jason Priestley. And he wanted me to know, you guested on Private Eyes? Yes, I did a gig on Private Eyes. I think I maybe played myself. I was just hanging out backstage at a fashion show. It was a scenario. Actually, interesting about Private Eyes,

my ex-beau, Barry Flatman, wonderful Canadian actor, played Jason Priestley's father on that series. Wow! That was after we broke up. Still, that's... we broke up, still. Sure, still.

That's a hot spot for that show because of that. And also, Jason Priestley got his star on Canada's Walk of Fame at the same time that I did. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. So that was a whole. So small world. Shout out to Gare Joyce.

I know they canceled Private Eyes, but big mistake. Private Eyes had a very loyal following, was a great show, and maybe it gets resurrected on some streaming service at some point. But David Amber, so David Amber, you'll see his face on hockey coverage if you ever tune in to Hockey Night in Canada or whatever. And he just, simple

tweet from David when he heard you were coming on Toronto Mike, he said, you're the goat. Now, Jeannie back in the day if I called you a goat you'd be insulted possibly but goat's a good thing it's a good thing yeah the greatest of all time okay so before we get heavy uh I was you know I did a little homework and I realized something which I wonder how much this shapes your um you know trailblazing and your your courage as a woman in a male-dominated field, kicking ass, taking names. But your parents were Jewish Holocaust survivors.

Wow. Yes, they were. And that's in my DNA, you know, and I think for better or worse, because obviously it's a very traumatic thing to grow up as a child of Holocaust survivors, especially my parents, who talked a lot about it. Some people don't talk about it. They won't talk about it. They don't want to go back there. My parents talked about the war incessantly. Both their families were almost entirely decimated and we really went

through some horrible stuff but because they talked about it so much i realized what obviously what a life-altering thing it was for them it made me realize what it took to survive and that was being fearless and being tenacious. That was my dad's motto that saw them through the war, don't be afraid and never give up. And my parents weren't in the camps, you know, luckily, I say, because they were on the run the entire time. As young lovers, they, you know, they grew up in the small little shtetl, the small little town, which is actually now Ukraine, then it was a part of Eastern Poland. And they were on the run.

They hadn't, just depending on the kindness of strangers that would hide them out in their barns and bunkers and cellars. And at one point for like about three months, they lived in a virtual, literally a hole in the ground. Like they lived. So they really, they really had a tough time, but they did come out of it. And like phoenixes from the ashes really rose to come to this new country and establish a great life for themselves,

even though they didn't speak a word of English. They didn't have a nickel to their names. But they worked like the devil, and they raised a family and had a pretty good life. So, you know, how can that not seeing that and knowing that and understanding that and hearing about what it took every step of the way, how can that not do something to you? It's the most exquisite education. And then I also felt that because they had gone through this, because their youth was kind of nipped in the bud in that way,

I had this obligation, this responsibility to them that I didn't want to just have a good life or a great life. I had to have a fabulous life because I had to make up for all that they had missed. Interesting. Very interesting. Right. And then that perspective you had as a young girl where I suppose that when you can survive that, then you can survive being rejected because

you took a risk or something. It's almost like the perspective that would give you. Like I told you, my dad's motto, don't be afraid, never give up. I'd be running after Karl Lagerfeld at a fashion show trying to get like a 30 second soundbite. And, you know, the scrum of the press and like I'd be elbowing my way through the crowds, thinking to myself, hearing my dad's voice, don't be afraid to never give up. Go for it. Go for it. Go for it.

And, you know, it was that kind of chutzpah, which is that Yiddish word for balls, basically. You know, being gutsy. So you got chutzpah. I had that kind of chutzpah. Even as a kid, like when I was 16 years old and I went to audition for this, you know, CBC sitcom. Like, I didn't have any acting experience. I just wanted to be on TV. And I got the role.

We need to name that sitcom because you've referenced it a couple of times. But this is Toby, right? Yeah, Toby. I think it lasted one season, however. Sadly, there's no digital remnant of Toby on YouTube because I searched high and low. I couldn't find it. That's too bad.

I wonder in the archives of the CBC, there must be something. That would be great. There's got to be. I wonder in the archives of the CBC, there must be something that would be great. We'll gotta be, I will ask my friend retro Ontario, if you can find me any, uh, stitch of Toby, I would love to find it,

but this is late sixties. But just before we get you to Toby, uh, there was a question from AG who would basically, the question is, what does she remember from her high school days at William Lyon, McKenzie collegiate? Well, uh, there's a lot I don't remember

because it was the 60s, darling, if you get what I'm saying. And I also skipped out of high school a lot. Apologies to my late great parents. I forged so many notes. Now, my best friend at the time, Jackie Feldman, who was just a real hot babe at the school, she and I would skip out and go down to Yorkville and hang out on the streets of Yorkville at the Riverboat, at the Penny Farthing, at the, you know, Upper Crust, all these cool places that any of you who grew up in that era will remember. Yeah, and we just, you know, we

just had a blast. It was great. But I shouldn't be telling you about that, because that's not about the school. What do I remember? I remember hanging out in the parking lot, you know, having a smoke. Ah, we used to do that a lot. I remember so many of the great characters, so many of the great high school kids, you know, they were just fabulous, fabulous that uh we just felt like such a community back then it was just it was a great time that being said i didn't really do that well in a lot of you know like failed math didn't you know it was just couldn't stand geography you know there's certain subjects that didn't really speak to me and some of the teachers

didn't like them too much. Others were okay. When you were in Yorkville, because when you talk to kids today, they're surprised to learn that Yorkville was like this hippie haven, where the folk singers would perform, right? And it was a whole different vibe back in the 60s. But did you ever go to a coffee house there called the Purple Onion? Yeah, the Purple Onion, that was in New York.

Okay, well, yeah, I think they stole the name, of course. Yeah, I think I probably did. But I was hip enough to know because I had an older sister who was, you know, and still is, incredibly hip. And she taught me so much. You know, she was like the original beatnik. And she actually went to William Lyon Mackenzie too too but she was a few years ahead of me and uh so i would have known that the purple onion was a ripoff of the new york one i went to the minor bird yeah it was great and so groups

like luke and the apostles uh rick james rick james and the minor birds he took the name yeah absolutely cool yeah and then and then i got to meet r meet Rick James and become kind of friendly with him. I think there's, I don't know if this is on YouTube, but I definitely remember being in a hot tub with Rick James and being in his swimming pool and riding on his skidoo. And like, I went to visit him in Buffalo with the new music. You know, we did a story on. Right. Yeah. He was a draft.

He was a draft dodger up here from Buffalo, as I recall. Yeah, he was. Yeah, we did a story on right yeah he was a draft he was a draft dodger up here from buffalo as i recall yeah he was uh yeah we did a story on in buffalo like we went down there and you know i got to meet a lot of my you know i danced for ronnie hawkins at the first toronto pop festival in 1969 i was 17 years old i it was at vars Stadium. And I just went to the pop festival with my friends. It was, you know, all fabulous. And I wore this. I remember, I always remember what I was wearing. I guess that's because I'm in the fashion business. Can I guess? Can I guess? Can I guess? A yellow bikini, a yellow bikini. With black pom poms. Yeah. I had a pair of like low cut hip hugger, bell-bottom blue jeans, a pair of Jesus sandals. Anyway, so I was there moving and grooving and, you know, shaking my pom-poms in the audience, pretty close to the stage. There were like 60,000 people there.

And Ronnie was up on stage singing Bo Diddley or something. And he, King Biscuit Boy was, I think, on stage with him playing the harp. He actually pointed at me and said, hey, you, come on up here. Because he saw me, you know, shaking my booty. And I'm like, what? Who, me? And one of my friends, Esther Goldfluss said, yes, he's talking to you. Go, go. And she was a kind of pushy person. She pushed me and a big cop lifted me up on stage and put me up on stage. And before I knew it, I was grooving and, you know, to the Ronnie Hawkins beat, it got captured by photographers. So there are pictures of that all over the place.

You can, and Peter Goddard, who was writing, great rock reporter who was writing for the Toronto Telegram at the time, he had a column called After Four for the youngsters. And there was, so the next day, there's this picture of me in my bikini top, dancing with Ronnie Hawkins on the stage of the pop festival. My mother wasn't happy. My mother was like all those women from her Hadassah chapter were phoning her and oi your genie

is dancing well the reason I knew what you were wearing is because I definitely got a note and it just read this teenaged genie becker clad in a yellow bikini gets down with the sounds of Ronnie Hawkins at the Toronto Pop Festival and then yeah I guess it was

attached to like a photo that appeared in this I don't know the Toronto Star or. And then, yeah, I guess it was attached to like a photo that appeared in this, I don't know, the Toronto Star or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There was like about four photos. I know. It's a great photo. I mean, I haven't, well, I should have brought, I got it in my first book, Jeannie Unbottled, Adventures

in High Style. There is a photo of me doing that thing. Jeannie, I love all this. So you drop any story you want whenever, you drop any name you want. I know some Canadians are like, I don't want a name drop. And I'm like, drop every name in the catalog. Just drop them everywhere.

But okay. So you mentioned this earlier. You get in doing lifestyle and entertainment features for 1050 Chum. Which is great because you were a Chum bug. And then you're in the family of City TV because of the Chum, which is great because you were a Chum bug. And then you're in the family of City TV because of the Chum City merger. And can you give me some specifics

how you are tapped on the shoulder to co-host the new music in 1979? Well, I mean, I was working for Chum Radio, 1978. Like, the big hot story that I got that I thought really earned me the respect of all those guys in the newsroom, because when I walked in, even though I had

three years of experience at the CBC, you know, doing arts documentaries for the network, still, they were like, who is this chick, right? Rod Stewart came, here I am name-dropping it this chick? Right. Rod Stewart came here. I am name dropping it. I love it. Rod Stewart came to Toronto to play a concert. And I thought I'm going to get an interview with Rod Stewart,

no matter what. And I took my little, you know, cassette recorder and I heard that there was going to be some after party at some club in Yorkville. And I pushed my way into this thing after the gig that he played, I guess it was probably at the gardens or something and um I I don't know how I talked myself into this party how I pushed myself in but there I found myself like standing in this club in Yorkville with my little tape recorder cassette tape recorder and there you know at the back of the room was Rod

Stewart surrounded by these gorgeous you know know, like young women who were like crawling all over him and crawling all over the table that he was at. And I just went up to him and stuck my microphone in his face and started interviewing him. And I actually got an interview with Rod Stewart, like, and they were like, wow, they thought that was like the biggest, hottest thing you could do. And the question I have for you you is do you think he's sexy that's my question for ron stewart do you think he's sexy well uh you know i did really like ron stewart again he was very kind very nice guy but i was such an i don't know what to call myself i i really don't know what to call myself was it an idiot or what was i inventive or was i just you you know, didn't know what to say.

Cause I didn't really have any questions prepared for whatever reason, because there were like girls crawling, you know, on his lap under the table. And it was just such a debauchery scene and such a hedonistic moment. I asked him what color underwear he wears. And he replied, underwear he wears and he replied i can't believe i'm even remembering this chewing gum gray and i thought well that's a chic color anyway so um you know i don't know do you think the guy's sexy can you know he's wearing chewing gum gray underwear. Not so much. But Jeannie, you know, the more we chat here,

and I feel like we're just warming up here, but, you know, your former colleague, Denise Donlan, her book is called Fearless. You could borrow that title. I feel like you're cut for it. No, I never borrow titles. She may have borrowed it from something I once said to her. Right.

Who knows? Listen, we all had to be fearless in that business. That's for sure. Especially when you were a girl, you know, and ask Erica M about it too. You know, when you were a chick and I was like the first, standing there with these guys who were, you know, pretty lecherous. I mean, it wasn't just the rock and rollers or the musicians. I mean, everybody, the producers, the store.

I could write a whole book about having to dodge the bullet for all those years that I spent clawing my way to the top. Yeah, I mean, it was a weird scene. You had to be fearless. You know, the fun fact is that Erica's not the first

female VJ. No, she's not. No, no, no. I'm just pointing it out because people think she is no she's not but she was i know no no i'm just pointing it out because uh people think she is because she's the first one many remember but do you know who the first uh yeah uh well i was the first woman on much music okay before when they had the night much music launched i was there with my microphone interviewing eugene levy who was there and uh there's a um oh uh I'm sorry there's there's a clip on YouTube anyway as well that I there's that someone had sent me of me interviewing Eugene Levy and uh what was it someone from Platinum Blonde I'm not

sure but oh Mark Holmes yeah probably exactly Mark yeah. Mark. Yeah. So great guy. That's a whole other story. But there, I, I was doing the news for much music. Rock flash. Rock flash. Exactly.

And it was, and Christopher Ward and JD were the only real DJs right off that, you know, Mike Williams came in shortly after. But Catherine. McClanahan. McClanahan. Um, but, uh, Catherine. McClanahan. McClanahan. Oh,

good, good, good memory. Catherine McClanahan was really, I think the first female, you know, throwing to these, uh,

music videos and stuff. Yeah. Right. Absolutely. It was actually kind of my assistant before they put her on the air at much music. They brought her into, you know, help me. And I was kind of mentoring her. Right put her on the air at Much Music. They brought her in to, you know, help me, and I was kind of mentoring her.

Right, she came over from Montreal. Yes, that's right. Yeah, her mother was best friends with Marilyn Lightstone, which is, of course, Moses Nimer's longtime partner. I love how everything's connected. That's amazing. Okay, so I want to play a little tiny bit of audio just so we get a little feel for uh

the great program the the new music which of course the new music leads eventually to much music but let me uh before i press play the reason i brought up the purple onion is because um the founder of sticker you.com which is a great sponsor of Toronto Mike his father uh so Andrew Witkin is the founder of sticker you.com his father Barry Witkin is a co-founder of the purple onion which was a very cool uh that's where Joni Mitchell would play and Buffy Saint Marie in the early to mid 60s so that's why if you're wondering why I randomly brought up purple onion that's what I was doing there so but okay let's listen to this audio and then I'll talk to you again in about a minute here.

Let's listen. Okay. Welcome to the new music. I'm J.D. Roberts. And I'm Jeanne Becker. First on the show tonight, one of the most decadent people in the rock world. Since leaving Yes in 1973, Rick Wakeman has undertaken some extravagant tours using 45 piece orchestras and 48 voice choirs. Even though he's lost a small fortune on some ill-advised enterprises, Wakeman's hung in there to produce some of the most commercially successful fusions of

rock and classical music in the 70s. Not only is Rick Wakeman a successful musician, but he's also the director of 11 companies, handling everything from musical instruments and recording studios to renting out his fleet of Rolls Royces. He also owns a racehorse, which he keeps in his stable outside of his mansion in the English countryside.

Here's Rick Wakeman. He's so straight, he's a weirdo. I'm sure you get this question all the time, Jeannie, but here, let me... okay, there it goes. Did you have any inkling, like, that J.D. Roberts wanted to do news, like, when you were working with him? Absolutely. Absolutely. Even though he wasn't, like, you know, he wasn't, like, an intellectual kind of, you know, reader or anything like that.

kind of you know reader or anything like that but he had big big dreams for himself and very often used to say to me one day i'm going to go to the states and i'm going to get a job in network news and i you know would look at him in his mullet and think yeah right and like i you know i just didn't even though he was very good at what he did, he was, we used to, you know, the late great John Martin, who, you know, the new music was his brainchild. He really came up with the whole idea for it and kind of invented that kind of television stylistically too,

that smash and grab kind of television. John Martin used to call a JD like a kamikaze. Like you could drop him into any situation and he'd, you know, he'd run with it. Like, you know, he was very good in live situations. He was very, you know, so, you know, I have a lot of respect for JD, but I didn't, you know, it wasn't because I thought, wow, you know, the guy is like so into world affairs and he's definitely going to be ending up, you know, interviewing presidents and being on the news. No, it was just because he was so determined and so good on his feet. The question about JD that came in from Steve J. I don't even know if you'll be able to speak to this,

but I'll ask it really quickly. He says, ask her about JD Roberts going full Fox News. In hindsight, did she see any hints of his politics? Yeah, no, no, no, absolutely. I didn't see any hints of his politics at all. It was never anything to do with Fox. We weren't in that world at all in those days, especially. You know, it was about rock and roll.

But if anything, I mean, J.D. wasn't the kind of guy that would be, you know, sitting around with the band, you know, smoking doobies at the end of a gig or something. You know, that wasn't him either. So I did think he was sort of conservative. And at one point, I think he said he had started to study dentistry or he was going to be a dentist. And he was, you know, a kid from Mississauga. You know, there was something almost like clean cut about him. So maybe in that way, you know, was he more right than left?

Maybe. But, you know, we never really got into any political right discussions i mean yeah it would have been the last thing on the planet that i would imagine getting into news and has there been like and you know you don't have to answer this but is there any contact at all like any like even a facebook message now and then but any contact now and then there is something on Twitter, a shout out something, you know, a few years back, JD got instated into the broadcasting Canadian broadcasting hall of fame. And there was a nice dinner, I believe at the Royal York hotel or one of the hotels downtown.

And I sat with him at his table and that was really nice, really nice. And, and he's married to gorgeous woman, smart as a whip, Kara Phillips from CNN. you may remember her, Cara Phillips, and they have twin boys, I believe, and, you know, she befriended me almost, because she knew I had this history with J.D., and she would reach out, and once in a while, send a Christmas card, I haven't heard from them in a couple of years now, although I did, I think I got something from J.D., when there was something on twitter about the new music celebrating an anniversary and jd gave me a shout out so

oh and that clip i played so because i i'm like i remember growing up with the new music and it was like pop has got a brand new pig bag was like the jam right but that's that's like a that's a rush that's rush i hear, I know. A rush. You were like a very, yeah. No, actually triumph for real besties. Oh, Rick Emmett's an FOTM. Yeah. They have a new documentary.

I know somebody tipped me off that there's a new triumph documentary on. Yeah, and I heard that JD was in it. Oh, yeah, probably. Oh, yeah, because he was really friends with Rick Emmett. But, yeah, Papa's got a brand-new pig bag. Da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

So that maybe came in a little bit later. I don't know. The new music ran while I was hosting it. It ran much after that, too, but I was there for the first six years. Right. And I think maybe that was just in the really really early days you know listening to that intro what i'm proud of myself i'll blow my own horn we did not have teleprompters and that was delivered you know and i you know there i was rhyming off all the you know the copy that i'd written for the bands or whatever without the help of teleprompters like you had to do it all off by heart.

It was really, and you know, so sometimes it took a few takes, but I'm sort of proud of myself. No, listen. Learned that off by heart and read it out like that. Absolutely. And toot that horn anytime you like there. But I do want to say hi to Tom Jokic,

because Tom Jokic, who was recently made his Toronto Mike debut, he was prompting for the same story you told about Rod Stewart, because he said when you were on, he has a podcast with Christopher Ward, the aforementioned DJ number one there. And it was, he just,

she just wanted me to prompt you for the Rod Stewart story, how you crashed that party and got him. And I'm glad we got that story. And actually Tom found the actual audio of that interview and sent it to me so i do have it somewhere oh okay because if i had it i'd play it right now little interviews there well thanks tom for sending it to me but he did say uh have fun with genie and i am having a good time here so uh you're at the new music a bunch of questions came in about the new music uh one is from uh marg Hebbshire who has a great podcast

called Hebsey on Sports and Hebsey said she did a fantastic interview with Frank Zappa back in the day that's when I first took notice of her do you remember your Frank Zappa chat? Oh I had a great relationship with Frank Zappa he was very

avuncular to me he was like an unclecular to me, you know what I mean? But like, he was like an uncle. Hold on, I'm getting my dictionary out. I need to. I don't know. That's a $5 word there, Gina. It's not a word I use every day, but it's a good description for Frank. He was such a sweetheart. And if you've seen the documentary, quite a good documentary on Frank called Eat That Question.

They use, I don't get one second of credit on it, which is fine. They don't even say where they got the interview from. I don't know if they stole it or whatever, but they use a big deal, a huge deal, a big amount of that interview in that documentary, Eat That Question. I was one of the few journalists, although I didn't even think of

myself as a journalist, and you know, we were very careful not to be that pretentious, and I was a rock reporter, but I was really one of the few in the media that Frank was very, you know, upfront and honest with, and sincere with, and didn't give me a hard time at all. Actually, he took me out to dinner at this wonderful place in Toronto. It used to be very chic called the Three Small Rooms. You know, it was in the Windsor Arms Hotel. And I remember he ordered a bottle of, you know, Chateau's, something, you know, Margot, like one of these really expensive wines. Not that he needed to do that to impress me.

And he never, ever came on to me, even though he did to do that to impress me and he never ever came on to me even though he did invite me up to his hotel room to talk to me about his wife and his family and and what I mean I interviewed him on several occasions and one time when he came to play the CNE and I went to interview him backstage again and he I told him I really wanted to go to LA like I just had this penchant that I thought, you know, I've gone as far as I can go in Toronto. If I really want to go to the next step of my career, I should go to LA. And he probably gave me the best advice ever. You know what he said? What did he say? Darling, you know, if you go to LA, don't forget to bring

sort of, this is gross, but hey, we're on a podcast. We can talk. Don't forget to bring a pair of knee pads and a jar of Vaseline. And I thought, when I heard that, I thought, ah, okay, maybe I won't go to LA because I just, you know, I, I trusted him. So he was so smart and so loving in that way. And just really, I felt he wanted to protect me or something. Anyway, sharp as a tack too. Oh my God.

A genius. Truly. Absolutely. Gone far too soon. Gone far too soon. Uh, now there's another gentleman. I got a hundred questions about someone.

I'm going to save that just for a minute because I'm going to ask you about, uh, a little, uh, band from, uh, Dublin, Ireland.

I don't know if you've heard of them. Uh, they're called U2. So two questions. Well, many questions, but I'll read a couple. because I'm going to ask you about a little band from Dublin, Ireland. I don't know if you've heard of them. They're called U2. So two questions. Well, many questions, but I'll read a couple. Andrew Marriott said, what was it like drinking tea with U2 when they were completely unknown? And then Manoj says, there's this great early 80s interview she did with Bono and Adam

at a diner in Toronto. She asks, Bono, will success spoil U2? His answer? I hope so. Did she ever get a chance to interview them again? Did it spoil them? Please speak to us about this U2 interview before they were famous. Yeah, they came to Toronto to play, you know, and it was like, okay, you know, they can talk to you at like, you know, 1230 a.m. You know, in like little donut shop or whatever and i sat there um and i and i actually i think photo had a cold or something at the time

and he just wanted to drink his hot tea love okay first of all i must preface this all by saying i adore the irish absolutely love the irish one of my you know best best friends is an irish designer and i go to Ireland, Ireland. I haven't been there in the last couple of years, obviously, but I've gone there frequently. Absolutely love it. The Irish are just such great salt of the earth people. And that's what I thought of Bono. I mean, I just really, really loved him. Very, very cool guy. You know, you don't know though, like I interviewed so many people some were one hit wonders some you never heard about again some went on to you know huge global stardom so so how do you know at the

time but I interviewed him yes several times after that and actually at we did a story on him between 19 between about 2003 and 2009 I was editing a couple of magazines, editor-in-chief of FQ magazine and Sur magazine, these were big like oversized glossies, and we did an interview with Bono for the Sur magazine, which was the menswear magazine that I was editing. And he came to town around that time too. And we had a big, you know, kind of party at a restaurant with him and he was there and, you know, he was so sweet. I mean, you know, he, he, you know, he just looked at me and I was going through kind of a tough time because my salary had just been slashed in half by the city TV gang, whatever. All of a sudden, it was getting too expensive to, I guess, produce fashion television.

And they decided to cut back on everything. I could maybe sue them for wrongful dismissal because it was like, what? After all these years, you're slashing my salary now? Yeah, constructive dismissal. Yeah was like, what? After all these years, you're slashing my salary now? Yeah, constructive dismissal. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So there was no way I wanted to, you know, leave that show. So I continued on, but that, so I got this other gig to supplement my income, editing the magazine. And I was feeling, but I was feeling kind of bad about myself. And I remember he said, you're a star, you're a star, you know, as the Irish often call people a star. was so lovely and I have a great picture of him hugging me that's on my

piano in my living room to this day um yeah I absolutely love him and saw him several times his wife of course had a clothing line called Eden which is nude backwards they were producing clothes in Africa like trying to stimulate the economy there and so I went to a few fashion shows that you know he was at and his wife would be there and she was lovely too so I always had a great relationship

with Bono, love him to bits Awesome, this is a 30 second promo for this fantastic show, let me just play that Toronto has a lot to say about J.D. Roberts, Jeannie Becker 30-second promo for this fantastic show. Let me just play that. Toronto has a lot to say about J.D. Roberts, Jeannie Becker, and the new music. They cover everything.

I watch it every Saturday night. Well, they know what's happening on the music scene. That's what rock and roll's all about, right? The video's my favorite part. It gives me a chance to see what I'm hearing. I like the sound. I like the fast beat, pace, everything. They're both really good. They look like they really get into it. It really gives a lot of support to

the Toronto music industry. It's the best thing of its kind. The new music, Saturday nights at 10.30. And I'm always wondering while you were in the thick of it with the new music, are you at all aware of what this means?

How groundbreaking it is. This is a time, of course, remember people forget there was no MTV. There was no much music. This to, to have this like insight and to see your music, musical artists and have that kind of,

uh, you know, perspective and, uh, uh, you know, peek into their, their lives was unique and awesome.

Yeah. Well, you know, do you realize that you're in the eye of the storm when you're in the eye of the storm? It's almost like when you get out of it and you look back and you go, hey, I was in the eye of that storm. You know, things were just happening so fast and furious and the media was exploding. You know, television now has become something quite different. You know, it's just different. I'm so, so, so privileged, blessed, lucky, whatever you want to call it,

that I was, you know, in the right place at the right time with the right goods and the right attitude, the right kind of talent, if you want to call it that, with the right abilities to stay afloat in that world and really hang in there. It was magical. It was a dream. It was honestly, you know, I have some really great dreams lately. That's one thing about leading a big, fabulous life, I think. You usually, or for me anyway, because I had such a big, fabulous life

and I've got this great frame of reference, not that I'm still not having a big, fabulous life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you've got uh quite a quite a uh yeah but you know like compared to the way it was popping back in the day you know I really have these great dreams because I've got so much to draw on in my memory bank and I always have these great dreams and when I wake up from them I you know usually have a big smile on my face because I went hey yeah and it's hard sometimes to remember what was the dream and what really happened

because some of that stuff was like a dream like what I'm telling you these stories now Micah it's like wow it's like did that happen it's like yeah it's like surreal I am really enjoying this thank you so much not only are you such a mensch you're a great person.

You're a really great interviewer because you're passionate about what you're talking to me about, or at least you make it sound that way. It's legit. I'm too lazy to fake that. This is real. My big birthday is coming up in just a few days. This next weekend, I don't know when this thing is going to air, but March 19th. It's going to air today.

Like, I'm going to drop this. On Saturday, March 19th, I, Jeannie Becker, turn 70. Wow. Happy birthday. Can you even believe it? And I think this is important for women to be talking about their age all the time. Because the older we get, the hipper we get, the savvier we get the more experienced smarter the more confident and uh yeah so i'm just i've really been doing a lot of uh ruminating uh on the past lately and i've been really thinking a lot

about this amazing ride i've been on and i've had the luxury of being on for so long. Well, hey, this is a good segue because I produce a podcast for somebody you know from your past, Peter Gross. What a cutie! Oh, what a character. So Peter, I was chatting with him on the phone, this is the other day and I mentioned, I said I'm chatting with him on the phone. This is the other day, and I mentioned, I said, I'm chatting with Jeannie Becker on Monday. And Peter pointed, he made sure to let me know how he was always fond of you.

He always admired you. And then he said he went on a date with you. And I won't give any details. It's none of my business. And I'm very happy for both of you. But he was telling me a little bit about, I guess, you were wearing a dress designed by taller Cranston. Like he remembers all these details.

I totally read the minute you said that I thought about what I was wearing. I was wearing it. Okay. Taller Cranston, the great Olympian late great, you know, so sad that taller is gone because he was very, very,

very, very close to me. He was like my confidant and he was my mentor i'm sorry um and taller uh invited me to go to the uh the genie awards with him that that's what they used to call the uh the genie awards were i don't know like they had the gemini awards which were for tv i guess he thinks it was a woodbine uh race no i'm telling you about the dress oh okay sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry yeah okay so taller decided that he was because he was my style mentor he was going to buy me this amazing dress that he

saw in a window it was designed by wayne cl. And it was just looked like something out of, I don't know, like Swan Lake or the Nutcracker Suite, or it had all this tulle and all these, you know, organza and crystals on it. And it was an amazing dress. So I didn't have much of an occasion to wear that. But when Peter Gross, the fabulous Peter Gross, asked me to accompany him to a party at Woodbine Racetrack,

which was like his home away from home. It still is. It still is. I'm sure it is. It is. So I wore that dress. And for some reason I recall meeting his parents, I think.

I think he might've taken me over to his parents' house. You know, his mom's still alive. Something like that. I don't know, but yeah. Okay. So any adventure you have in the mid 80s with peter gross

i always wonder and uh you can plead the fifth on this even though that doesn't actually exist in this country but you can do that but in the mid 80s peter was really uh he was not a fan of pepsi uh peter preferred coke no i said so we can skip over that I think I did mushrooms with them once a bunch of us went to the Woodbine racetrack one afternoon

and did some magic mushrooms some psilocybin okay as heavy as it got okay well plead the fifth it's always safer to do that

but shout out to Peter Gross Down the Stretch is the name of his podcast because he lives at Woodbine as you know so real quick there's an artist that I had

more questions about one artist you spoke to than any other artist, and you could probably guess who it is, but I just want to thank really, really quickly, Palma Pasta and Jeannie, if you were here, and I know we're on Zoom, but should I meet you? I have a lasagna for you from Palma Pasta. They got a delicious

lasagna, and I'd love to gift you one from them. I'd also love to give you, Jeannie, fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. That's good. And I mentioned StickerU.com earlier but I have a nice Toronto Mike sticker for you from StickerU.

What else do I got for Jeannie? I got a flashlight for you from Ridley Funeral Home. Speaking of great podcasts, Brad Jones at Ridley Funeral Home has a great podcast called Life's Undertaking. People should check that out from Brad Jones. Yeah, I know him. Speaking of

you were doing shrooms, but believe it or not, cannabis is now legal, Jeannie. Don't I know it? I live in Northumberland County and we have on Highway 45 there's a whole stretch of cannabis shops. We call it the Green Mile.

There's like about 35 of them. So like it's very accessible. I know it well. So if you are shopping for cannabis and cannabis accessories, you need to go to Canna Cabana. They've got over 100 locations in this fine country.

You can go to cannacabana.com to sign up for the Cabana Club and be first in the know when there's a sale going on. They have unbeatable prices, of course, on cannabis and smoking accessories. And should you need any work done

on your home there or you want to do any woodworking projects, the only tools I recommend are from Ryobi. The Ryobi 18-volt, one-plus high-capacity lithium-plus battery. It's four times more runtime, four times longer-lasting charge.

It's 20% lighter than the NiCad batteries. The fuel gauge will tell you what your battery status is before the work begins. And of course, the Ryobi 18-volt 1-plus system of tools and chargers, they all work together. You can have the one charger for all the tools. My wife swears by it. She loves it. Shout out to Ryobi. Okay. Do you want to

guess the artist that I got the most Jeannie Becker questions related to? That's a good guess. It should be Sting. I did get Adrian did want to know what you thought

of the first police picnic. Maybe, maybe we do that before I tell you about this other artist, but what did you think of the first police picnic? Well,

I love the police. I mean, I went on the road with them when, just after they released In a God of Davida, In a God of Davida, what am I talking about?

Iron Butterfly. I'm getting my eras mixed up. Zenyatta Mandata. Remember that mixed up. Zenyatta Mandata. Remember that police album? Zenyatta Mandata. Anyway, I went to Regina, Saskatchewan with the police and rode on a tour bus with them.

And I was always very, very friendly with Sting. We had a great relationship. And the big answer to that question is no. And it's not that you posed it, but I know a lot of people thought I was doing it with Sting. I wish. No, I never had sex with Sting. Sorry to tell you that. It would take too much time, right? It's tantric. It takes a long time.

Yeah, exactly. Anyway, what can I tell you about the police picnic? We actually won an award, the new music for covering the police picnic, and I guess that was the Garys. Yes, it was the Garys. Gary Topp, it was the Gary's. Um, and which Gary, Gary top, what a lovely guy he continues to be. He's a fan of my daughter. So my daughter's a musician,

Joey O'Neill in the Yukon. And, uh, Gary, uh, sends me notes once in a while about her music. So that's cool. Yeah.

Anyway, sting. That's all I have to say about him. Love him, loved him. And we'll always love him. Okay. So the artist, maybe I'll play this clip and then I'll ask you about it.

So if you don't mind, let's listen to what I have. And it's a potato quality, but it's all I have. Let's listen. I think what I want to do or what I don't want to do, that's what's important. Not what I can do best or worst. Whereas, you know, someone with your limitations would stick to what they do best or worst. Whereas, you know, someone with a girl imitation can stick to what they do best

very carefully. You really are something else. Yeah. In other words, you're about to say I'm a c**k. No, I'm not saying anything. What are you into? I can't believe it, man.

Okay, that's a wrap. Cut. Cut. Gee, Iggy. I'm happy to talk to you. I know, I can tell. I'm not insulting you. No, I know. Come on, Iggy.

Give me a good break. No, I'm honoring you. You're honoring me? I don't think so. Okay, that's Iggy Pop with Eugenie Becker. Tell us what the heck was going on there. Oh, jeez. Okay, first of all, for all those of you who really want to know,

I have video proof of Iggy Pop coming on to me like gangbusters at the Heat Wave Music Festival, which was probably about a year before, which, of course, I rejected his advances, as all smart young women would have, you know, so Iggy, I think, had a bit of a bone to pick with me, because of that, and I actually, on my, I've got a demo reel, a new music demo reel, it's on my website, my website's terribly out of date, but if you go to geniebecker.com and you go to, there's a portion that's called video, I think, and then there's, if you go to the new music sizzle reel, it's, there's a, you'll see Iggy Pop putting his hand on my ass, or I don't know if I captured that part of it, but he's actually, you know, telling

me that he was trying to pick me up. So here is that undercurrent. I get it. I was at my parents having a Friday night dinner and it was really late at night. And I get a call from John Martin, who was the producer of the new music saying, can you go down to the Danforth music hall? Cause we got an interview with Iggy Pop, like after the show, it'll probably be like two in the morning by the time he's ready to do it,

but please go. And I went, i'll go i was dressed because i was at a friday night dinner with my parents so i probably wasn't wearing the sexy you know vinyl jeans or the kind of you know i didn't look as rock and roll as maybe i normally looked when i was doing the show but whatever right i got to the danforth music hall i go into the dressing room. Iggy's sitting there. Like, I don't know what kind of gig he had because I missed the gig. You know, I wasn't there for it. And he's, like, drinking out of a Mickey of Jack Daniels, so he was really, you know, drunk.

I mean, he was. He'd been drinking a lot. And he was just into this very dark thing. And he just started, because I I said in the most innocent way he told me that he was writing something writing a book and I said oh is that your first attempt at writing and he got really pissed off that I used the word attempt he goes attempt I don't attempt anything I do it and then he got into this really I am now listening to that because that was so many years ago like I don't even know.

I was maybe like 28 years old or something. I thought, you know what? I handled myself pretty well. You can imagine, Mike, how many interviews I've done in my years, like, you know, since starting my interviewing thing in the media, like in 1975 in Newfoundland. I honestly tell you that I have never walked out of an interview. I've never shut down an interview.

I've never said, you know what? I'm out of here. But that was, he was so insulting, rude and creepy. I just said, I'm out of here and that's it. So, you know, what can I say? That was a non, I hope we're not ending the podcast now because I don't want to end on that note. No, no, no, no.

Because I want to talk about fashion television, okay? Are you kidding me? Absolutely. Yeah, we're not ending on that note except that I'll just shout out these kind FOTMs who sent in questions. Soccer Canuck said, oh, ask her about Iggy Pop and then Adrienne said, please ask her how many times did Iggy Pop hit on her over

the years? Did you have any encounters with him after that? After that? I can't remember, but if I did I wouldn't have given him after that after that i can't remember but if i did i wouldn't have given him the time speaking of the damn fashion show in new york uh new york fashion week after that and i didn't even want to go up to him and say hey remember me good for you like i just thought what a jerk good for you speaking of danforth music hall last time i was there i think i saw the watchman and their drummer is Sammy Cohn and he wanted me to ask you about the infamous Iggy Pop interview

and Steel City Music wanted me to ask you if you ever had the chance to interview Iggy Pop after he acted like an asshole to you would you even want to and it sounds like you don't want to Yeah, I had the chance and I didn't want to and last but not least

I'll be seeing this gentleman Thursday when he visits for the second you don't want to so yeah i had the chance and i didn't want to so and last but not least uh i'll be seeing this gentleman thursday when he visits for the second uh is it second or third episode third episode of toast cam gordon wants me to ask you uh was iggy like that when the camera was off as well or was that some kind of a thing he put on for the camera like to try to be like a cool punk well i mean when i when i told my cameraman to stop rolling and i was just you know packed up and put my coat on and he you know he was like oh what did i do wrong why is she leaving why i didn't do anything you know so who knows if he was part of it was for show of course yeah well that's all the sex pistols fault i feel like the sex pistols were like behind that whole like embarrass the interviewer and be like a douche or whatever for the cameras. And it makes you,

gives you some kind of cred or something. I also remember waiting for Johnny Lydon at the Danforth music hall for like about five hours one night in the middle of the night. And he kept saying, Oh yeah, just another few minutes, just another few minutes. And they never gave me the interview,

but just like, yeah, that's just kept me waiting. I'm not even surprised. Okay. Here's a song. I'm not even surprised. Okay. Here's a song. I'm just going to play a bit of it and then we're going to talk about it. This is a big one.

This is the Jeannie Becker anthem. As far as I listen to this in my headphones, I only think of you. Thank you. I'm glad I'm your obsession, as opposed to Calvin Klein's perfume obsession. Yeah, Obsession by Atomotion. I think we made a lot of money for that band.

We played that song for years. I know, and it's funny because I think you're probably familiar with Retro Ontario because he's really helping to archive a lot of this good stuff. But he was telling me a story. Now, you can tell me if this is true. That you just, not you, but I guess the people at City Much there, or whatever you were called, for fashion television, which we're going to get into fashion television here,

that this song was used like an 85 as the theme without any kind of licensing or permission. It was just, no, no, no, I can't believe that, that they would never,

you know, we did in the early days of the show, use some music without proper licensing. And that's why you don't see reruns of fashion television because some of that music, we did not have the rights to but that song as a theme we would have thought it had the right to and i actually even um uh maury um sherman i don't know if you know him a great radio producer in toronto um had me on uh one of his radio shows um on my birthday birthday quite a few years back,

but he actually had the lead singer from Animotion call in to surprise me to sing Jeannie Becker, You're an Obsession. Wow. Okay. Well, that sounds like... So those guys, I think, appreciated the money they gave off royalties for fashion television. Well, they should. And I'm glad you cleared that up because I had heard that from Ed Conroy from Retro Ontario, but this was sort of the way

like he would tell me stories about, I don't know, Deanie Petty show would have like a, you know, Elton John song or I'm Still Standing or something. No, I mean, listen,

we, in the early, early days of the show, like we started producing at 85. Yes. For those first couple of seasons, we did use music arbitrarily that was fabulous, but

we probably didn't clear it and now probably would have gotten into trouble for it. But as the show began to be syndicated around the world, we were in 130 countries, we definitely got clearance. And then sadly the music, then we had to go to a bank of music. We couldn't use a lot of the

hot and happening hits. You know, we had to use some of this. Yeah, the canned royalty-free nonsense. But Mike Rogotsky, who's a great FOTM, he says, I know this will come up, but I have to ask, did she have a hand in picking Obsession by Animotion for the theme song? No.

That would have been, we had, one of our producers on the show, Howard Brule, was amazing. He produced the show with Jay Levine, who masterminded fashion television and created it in the first place, Jay Levine. But Howard Brule was, in the early days of the show, was our editor and then became one of the major producers. He picked a lot of the music and he had a great ear. So it probably would have been him. So I now need

to ask the million dollar question. How do you switch from a rock flash and being like a rock reporter to suddenly hosting fashion television, which I would argue today, even though I think of you as new music because I have no fashion sense, but that this is the role basically that defines your career. You are the host of fashion television. Well, you know, I thought if I had to interview Rod Stewart once more,

I was going to lose it because after, you know, six years of that steady rock and roll diet, I was looking for the next big thing. And I heard a buzz around the station, around City TV, that they were going to put together a little fashion video show hoping that maybe you know a few designers were hoping that they would produce these little fashion videos and they would do for the fashion industry what music videos had done for the music industry of course the fashion videos don't have that kind of shelf life as the music videos do because

every six months it had to be changing you you know, and the seasons are very important in fashion. Anyway, but we did have a whole bunch of these fashion videos that started coming into City TV and we, at that time I was hosting the show with Daniel Richler. JD had already gone off into the news and we would put some of these, Moses would come, Moses Neimer, you know, come to us and say, you know, here's these videos that have come in, you know, put them on your show. And we put, but it didn't really feel right. So there was a young producer, Jay Labine, who worked in the promotions department at Citi, and he decided he wanted to do a fashion video show. And he wanted to get a hot young model to be the fashion BJ for the show. You know, well, I got wind of this and I thought, hot young model to be a fashion BJ.

No, I'm looking for the next big thing. I love fashion. I think we should not only show fashion videos, but talk to the designers the way I talk to the rock stars. Because all of a sudden, you know, this was an era when Versace was hanging out with Elton John and Terry Mugler was hanging out with David Bowie and Madonna was hanging out with Jean-Paul Gaultier. And it was really that whole thing was bubbling up where the rock stars really were on the same par as the designers. It was like the designers were becoming the new rock stars. So I thought I'd love to explore these egos and icons and, you know, let's do the show that way.

So I really, I walked into the station one day and there were like about 35, you know, sweet young things there from the modeling world. They were having open auditions for this new fashion video pilot, this new show. And I'm like, hold on a minute. I want this job. And I just marched up to the station manager, you know, took the elevator up to the third floor, whatever it was. Maybe I took the stairs.

And I said, you got to let me in. You know, I paid my dues here. If you're doing a show like this, I want to be on it. They went, well, we don't really care about talking heads. We don't want interviews. We just want you to show the sexy fashion videos. I said, I'll do whatever, but you just got to let me on the show. And for some reason, they said, okay, I don't know how happy Jay Levine was about it. Like, you know, at one

point, Christopher Ward's girlfriend, who was Alana Miles, she was auditioning or something, or they were thinking of making her the fashion BJ. But anyway, I got the gig and after the first episode aired, which was just me and all these outfits introducing these fashion videos for the most part, they said, you know what, let's go to New York and interview designers and really get behind the scenes with designers and do basically what I had kind of suggested in the first place. And it was a smash hit. The show just went on and on and on. And you mentioned the global reach. How many countries? 130.

Wow. Okay. So great question from YYZGord. Don't call him YYZGord. It's got to be YYZ. Don't ask me. That's just the way it has to be. He says, I'd be curious to know, given the global reach of fashion television,

what was the most far off place that you jeannie becker have ever been recognized from fashion television i was uh recognized at red square uh in moscow yeah we were in moscow shooting fashion in red square and uh someone you know said hey you you know so many places i mean there are very few places that i've gone where I don't get recognized, at least by someone maybe from Canada or, or maybe, you know, not necessarily kids. I grew up in, uh, you know, Bolivia or wherever the show was so many random countries, you know, like, uh, so I definitely, uh,

have been recognized in a lot of places around the world. And I'm sure you're still like when you go to, I don't know, you go to the grocery store or something, you must still be recognized today. Well, yeah, but I'm still on the air today. Like I have a weekly series on the ESC, the Shopee channel, which goes across the country. I have a pretty substantial following on my Instagram and people, you know, I don't feel like I've gone away. I mean, I may, for some people, if you're not following

me or following that scene, it's like, oh yeah, whatever happened to Jeannie Becker? Well, I'm still here. I'm still standing. And I didn't mean any insult there. It's literally, I'm such an awful, I'm just not a consumer. So it's sort of a black, you know, and I know that's a very popular forum. It's just not targeting guys like me who just wear free hoodies. No, no, you're right. I'm not in that music world anymore.

So for a lot of you, you know, the music fans may think, oh, yeah, where is she or what happened to her? They don't see, you know, because I'm still writing for a lot of publications. Oh, for sure. I mean, still kicking ass at 70. This is why you're inspiring. Oh, yeah. I'm planning to kick a whole lot more.

So look out. Okay. Well, we're almost done. I know you're like, hey, Mike, this is more than an hour. But trust me, we're almost done. But it's been great. Mark D. wants to know, what's the craziest thing that ever happened on fashion television? Oh, I can't answer questions like that.

You know, after 27 years and we did 39 episodes a year, can you imagine how much I was out in the field and we would be shooting our brains out, like just shooting, shooting so much stuff that only precious you know, precious minutes of it would surface like on the show. There are just like too many crazy things happen. I could never, even when people say to me, who's the best interview?

What's the best interview you ever did? I hate to answer questions like that because it's just too many, too much. Well, maybe you'll tackle this one. So I know we will get to the fact that after 27 glorious years, fashion. But I'm due for another, can I, do you mind me calling my producer? Cause I'm supposed to be doing,

Oh my God. Podcast. And now 1215. Okay. Yeah. I'm running a couple. Okay. And then I promise I'll try not to keep you too long. And I'm sorry.

I didn't know about the, uh, other recording. Yeah, no, I'm sorry. Um, it's okay.

Do what you got to do there absolutely okay continue okay sorry i will continue while genie's gonna buy me just a little more time here which is great 10 minutes is that okay uh like if i if i i can do this in 15 minutes because i'll wrap do a few questions that's i can't because the person is coming okay then i will just burn through real quick here we'll do it in 10 here. And I'll even do the extra without you. Jim Slow Tech just says, I want to ask you really quickly about 9-11.

I know that's a big thing. Oh, that's a big thing. A big thing. I wrote a whole chapter about it in my book. The second autobiography, which was Finding Myself in Fashion. It was, you know, we were there for Fashion Week. We thought we were covering a Fashion Week. all of a sudden I'm in my hotel

room getting ready for the Oscar de la Renta show. And I see this, you know, madness unfolding on the today show. Cause I'm watching TV as I was getting ready. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I saw that second plane actually hit the building. And at that point they were still saying a small plane has gone into, they didn't realize it was a big you know jet airliner and um i got a call from the city pulse newsroom saying oh you're there with a cameraman perfect could you please go down to ground zero and find out what's going on

and i phoned my cameraman arthur presick in his hotel room and i said god the newsroom wants us to go down and cover this thing he goes i'm not going down there are you kidding that's like that looks like insanity so we went out onto the street and as we were head walking south i said let's go just as far as bryant park where the fashion week tents were erected to find out what's going on with fashion week because that's going to probably be cancelled and as we're walking south there's like streams of people walking north and some of them were like are sobbing and some of them look like they were covered in ash and they're like crying and they're like on cell phones or they're or they're or the groups of people were listening to boom boxes there were no cars in the streets

at all except for the odd ambulance that you heard like a police car sirens were everywhere it was just it was pandemonium it It was crazy. And I was getting increasingly scared as I continued marching down the street. And there were all kinds of rumors running rampant, like people were saying, oh yeah, they, you know, like only four jets are, you know, are accounted for. And then there's, there were seven that got hijacked and they're going to, it could be here at any minute. And we're looking up at the sky and watching for, it was absolute chaos pandemonium panic all i wanted to do was phone my kids i found a phone booth and i ran to it and of course all the lines were dead and i couldn't get through to my family and i never felt so alone and so scared

and it reminded me of all the stories that my parents had told me about you know living through the war and and then the stuff that went on where you'd run into some people that you knew randomly, but there was all this misinformation and it was just ultimately horrifying. And I thought, no one is ever going to care about fashion again. No one would ever care about something

as frivolous and stupid and banal as fashion. So I thought that whole scene was over and my life in fashion was over. But, you know, the next season, it came back and we're still doing it. So Jeannie, you've been very generous with your time and you have to leave me now.

So here, we'll wrap with this. In 2012, fashion television comes to an end. Why does it end after 27 glorious years? Because fashion had changed. The industry had changed. Television had changed tremendously. They weren't making the kind of money on the show, I guess, that they wanted to.

You know, yes, we were syndicated in 130 countries, but we probably charged like $1.98 to each country to air it. I don't think it was ever a huge moneymaker. You know, we had the sponsorship, you know, things got a little crazy in the whole TV world, as you know, and until this whole branded content thing came into play, a lot of TV shows were struggling. And there were new people, you know, running the show.

It was, you know, it just, it became a very different world it started to become very corporate and uh it got axed i mean i knew that they wanted to make some changes to the show and i was all for that and on board with them to try and you know maybe reimagine the show in a way but sadly uh they just decided to ax the whole thing and I was devastated because you know I found out like that minute like I showed up to the station you know and I was supposed to be there to record some voiceovers for the show that week and there was a woman who was you know one of the top execs at the time who's running things and her assistant came down to meet me at the you know one of the top execs at the time was running things and her assistant came down to meet me at the you know at the back door of the station saying uh you just don't go to the office

don't go to the fashion television office right now you know i won't say the person's name but she wants you to come to her office instead she has to talk to you because the show's just been canceled i went the show's been canceled what are you talking about the show's been's been cancelled? We had this great episode lined up to go to air that week. Nope, that's it. They just totally axed the show. And every... I'm sorry. I haven't talked about this that much or really.

It's very emotional because those kids that were on that show were so passionate about it. And Jay Levine, who was a brilliant know, a brilliant guy who started that show, really from nothing, and was the producer of that show for 27 years. And they just, they came in and they told him to, you know, like, okay, clean out your desks. And it's, everyone has to leave. And they handed everybody, you know, the people from HR, you know, when something gets to act. It's terrible. It's horrible.

And I thought, okay, well, I'm toast as well. And I went into the office of this person, and she reached across her desk, and she held my hand. She goes, I promise you, nothing's going to happen to you. We really value you. You're going to stay here. You're not because I had worked there. You know,

I had started in 1978 with Chum, and then it went into City TV, and then City TV was taken over by Bell Media and CTV, and so I had been there for decades, and my life was in the archives. And she said, I promise you, we're going to do a new show with you, and we're going to do new projects with you, and you're not losing your job. You're still here. Don't worry.

She said, I swear on my children's grave. You're going gonna be here and so uh she was right because i did get to stay for an extra two years as you know whatever contributing to different shows just like merely anyway that was the sad saga of the end of fashion television okay i feel bad listen i don't want you to leave with that people come up to me and say you know you should revive fashion television. Like, let's bring it back. And I have to tell people, you have to understand. Like I say, television has changed.

The media has changed. The fashion scene has changed. You can't go back sometimes. You can't do these things again. It's different. The world has changed. And we all have to be thankful that we have this glorious chapter

and me especially that I got to live and witness those times like wow! It's something that will stay with me forever certainly. On behalf of your fans and those who admire you and there are many of us, I just want to say thank you. Being a trailblazer

you're still kicking ass. You're not done yet. this week i feel like you've just you're just warming up here this is your and i know you have to go but okay darling you go i'll do the extra about you but here i'm going to take a photo of us right so i'm going to let you i'm going to count down from three only only if i can put lipstick on oh my god yeah yeah long for an hour and a half listen this is a you know a fashion talk of course do what you got to do there so i will go three Okay, only if I can put lipstick on. Oh my God, yeah. I'm long for an hour and a half. Listen, this is a fashion talk, of course. Do what you got to do there. So I will go three, two, one. I'm ready for my close-up.

Okay, you ready? Three, two. You go, you were a darling. Maybe one day we can do a sequel, but thanks so much for this. I'll do the extra without you. You go to your other podcast. You're very important.

You're a rock star. You are. Thank you, darling. Thanks so much. Thank. I'll do the extra without you. You go to your other podcast. You're very important. You're a rock star. You are. Thank you, darling. Thanks so much. Thank you, Jeannie Becker. Unbelievable here. Say goodbye to you. What a pleasure that was.

And I feel like we just scratched the surface. I'm going to predict that Jeannie Becker will make a second appearance on Toronto Mic'd. After all, as you heard her say, we're both rock stars. So we're going to make that happen. And that brings us to the end of our 1014th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Jeannie is at Jeannie underscore Becker.

Follow her on Twitter. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley FH. Canna Cabana are at Canna Cabana underscore. And Ryobi,

they're at Ryobi Tools USA. See you all tomorrow when we dive deep into the history of Massey Hall. The wind is cold, but the snow wants me today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy and green. Well, you've been under my skin for more than eight years. It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears And I don't know what the future

can hold or will 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 rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow won't stay today.

And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy and gray. Everything is rosy and green Well, I've been told That there's a sucker born every day But I wonder who Yeah, I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize There's a thousand shades of green

Cause I know that's true Yes, grey Cause I know that's true Yes I do I know it's true Yeah I know it's true How about you? Are they picking up trash And they're putting down roads

And they're brokering stocks The class struggle explodes And I play this guitar just the best that I can Maybe I'm not and maybe I am But who gives a damn because Everything is coming up rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow

warms me today And your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and gray Well, I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain

And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Chaclacour But I like it much better going down on you Yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up Rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow

Warms us today And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Because everything is rosy now Everything is rosy and Everything is rosy and gray Thank you.