Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Jeff Burrows from The Tea Party: Toronto Mike'd #1092

Episode Date: August 5, 2022

In this 1092nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with The Tea Party drummer Jeff Burrows about the band's origin story, their domain name, SARSstock, Crash Karma, 90s CanCon alt rock 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 Electronic Products Recycling Association.

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Learn more at canacabana.com. Today, making his Toronto Mike debut is Jeff Burrows from the Tea Party. Welcome, Jeff, to Toronto Mike. Thanks very much. Whereabouts do we find you in the universe today? We are on our gorgeous West Coast, and I am about smack dab in the middle of Vancouver. Oh, nice.

Nice. So I caught your appearance. I saw the tea party with Moist at History. Yeah. Did you bump into Drake when you were playing History? You know what? He was out at the, I don't know if it was New Kids, or New Kids Touring again, New Kids on the Block. Oh, was it Backstreet Boys or New Kids on the Block?

Backstreet Boys, one of the two, but everywhere we were playing, they were playing the same night because we were there, then they were at Buffalo, but it was crazy. And I'm like, they're following us around and stealing all of our Soccer Mom audience. No, I was thinking in the venn diagram of backstreet boys fans and tea party i wonder who's in the middle there's got to be somebody well that night it was drake because we were at his club and um which is pretty cool by the way i don't know if um many of your listeners have been but oh my so that So that was my introduction to history.

And it is very cool. And I remember that was a great night. I biked to, like, I live in the West End, so I biked all the way to the Coxwell and Queen there. Thanks to history. We'll get into this, my friend, but you guys sounded amazing. I kind of left with a newfound respect for the tea party, which we'll get into, but not that I disrespected you before that, but I had a great time.

Awesome, yeah. What a fun night. Anytime you get to play with guys you kind of grew up with like Moist or even tomorrow night, I'm so crazy jazzed where the Grapes of Wrath are playing and I've got

all their albums. That was before my band even started. It's been such a fun summer. I caught them opening for The Watchmen at Danforth Music Hall just before the pandemic and they still sound great. That song, All the Things

I Wasn't, that still shows up on all my, when I make a playlist for a 90s CanCon alt-rock playlist or whatever, that's a slam dunk. I still love that. And that song, it's just so easy to see in like a soundtrack. Like I can just picture, you know, someone driving on in the Amalfi coast and, and, you know, with the top down and you can hear, you know, tell me all the things I wasn't good. I made a bigger difference. Come on. So beautiful. I think I was warned by the way,

speaking of the Watchmen, uh, their drummer, Sammy Cohen, he told me you're kind of, uh, you know, you're 90s can con alt rock.

So we're going to sprinkle a lot of that throughout because it's still, honestly, don't laugh, don't laugh, but it's still my, my go-to genre is 90s can con alt rock if i can name it that yeah yeah and they're not they're not canadian but eve six i think we're playing with as well tomorrow um which i thought was kind of crazy but they just play the one song over and over and over again. I always think to myself, would

you rather have had a career as an American band with one crazy massive hit in the 90s and then be that sort of legacy act or try to do what we've been trying to do and release new music and still draw a decent crowd. And I

always think to myself, you know what, this has been a wonderful opportunity and a humbling experience think to myself, you know what, this has been a wonderful opportunity and, you know, a humbling experience for a life, you know what I'm saying? So I would never trade that. But you always see, you know, when those bands were hot, America is so big compared to our, our lovely country. It's just, you know, frustrating sometimes. So Jeff, this is all just a great big teaser for the conversation we're about to have. And honestly, and I was thinking, so, so all the things I wasn't by Grapes of Wrath, that goes, by the way, right alongside Treble Chargers Red.

Yeah, Treble Chargers, great band as well. Oh man, they had a Windsor connection, you know, I think they went to university in Windsor, even though they're not from there. went to university in Windsor even though they're not from there and yeah I don't want to say it but I hate it when people say this but I really liked their earlier stuff okay so I just this is it

to me there's two travel chargers and I hope maybe they are listening but I don't think this is disrespectful but you know before the like American Psycho and 100 Million those songs it's a different Before the American Psycho and 100 Million, those songs, it's a different... The pre, before that, there was a sound from Treble Charger. It sort of reminded me of Change of Heart.

I have Change of Heart on the mind right now because Ian Blurton was in my backyard last week. He was the coolest freaking rock star on earth, right? But as Mark Weisblatt on my show yesterday, we do a three-hour deep dive once a month, and Weisblatt comes over from 1236, and then he pointed out that he goes, if you saw Ian walking on the street,

you might cross the street. You might know, oh, this crazy guy might stab me or something. Meanwhile, he's like the nicest human on the planet. Yeah. There's so many yeah there's so many big burly you know tatted not that he's all tatted up or maybe he is i don't know but you know what i mean they're all yeah they're big teddy bears it's just you know he's not even he's not even burly because he's a skinny guy no but he's a little guy but the beard and everything so i was thinking oh maybe i would cross the street i don't know like i kind of like those kind of people but uh they got you know

their characters i think it's awesome so here quick quick off the top uh your name is jeff burrows you know that but now we all know that you're the drummer for uh the tea party were you i know you're you're from windsor so i'm wondering like maybe you were a tigers fan but were you a blue jays fan never no no i'm i'm i still live in our hometown so i live in lasalle and the band grew up in lasalle when it was like a 5 000 little town now it's like 32 000 and expanding sort of thing kind of like you know the sprawl that happens across Canada lately um but no I grew up uh baseball and hockey um baseball was always Tigers when I was hockey um you know when Guy Lafleur was playing I think I was nine or ten of course it was all about the

halves and so on but after that right around 1980 I, I was fully vested in the Red Wings and the Tigers. And more recently, because my kids love football, the Lions. So my condolences. Yeah, my condolences. I know, right? There's nowhere to go but up. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. But yeah, don't hate me.

But I just love, honestly, i love hockey and baseball so much i go to as many games as i can all the time whether it's leafs or tigers because i do love going to see the the leafs play and i do quite a bit with a friend of mine in toronto so okay so why am i bringing up the jays though i figured you were a tigers fan being from Winchester. One of my favorite Blue Jays seasons of all time was 1985. I got very invested in the drive of 85, which is what us Toronto Star readers, it was called that in my Toronto

Star that arrived at my house every morning. The drive of 85. If the game wasn't on TV, I listened to Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth call the game. Every single game. We won 99 games. We won game 7. We lost, you know, game seven. We lost the ALCS. But there was a player on this team named Jeff Burrows.

Yes. Spelled differently, though. Burrows is spelled. O-U-G-H-S. Yeah. Right. So, but then, so I remember Jeff, we literally got him at the very end of a pretty good career.

Like this was his last season and he wasn't particularly good for the Jays, but you know, you go into the history books, you realize Jeff Burrows was the American league MVP back in 1974. So he was, was he, was he with Atlanta? I said,

yeah, I think it was Atlanta or it was a Kansas city. I think maybe it was Atlanta. It could have been Kansas city. I have one of his baseball cards pre Jays era. And I just thought it was funny. Yeah, it's the same name. I was a big ball player.

Okay, so the fun fact about Jeff, people might remember, his son Sean was like a Little League prodigy. He did have a pretty good, you know, he made it to the Major League, so he's no slouch. But his Little League, he won back-to-back Little League World Series titles and he was like a a big great hitter great pitcher but yeah sean burrows so uh there you go yeah that's very cool i i always remember the name when we're talking about i went i went there by the way to the uh the little league world series area i went there for a baseball camp when i was a kid and got to play on all of those fields. But there was a kid named Cody Webster. Do you remember that name?

I remember Mitch Webster. I don't remember Cody Webster. Well, this Cody Webster kid, every at-bat was, you know, he was at least one, two home runs per game. And, you know, Little League. And this kid would just put him like 300 feet just going. It was so much fun to watch anyway well speaking of it no speaking of the tigers right so a former blue jay tiger great cecil fielder there's footage of like little prince fielder's like i don't know what he is eight years old at the dome hitting like 400 feet bombs it was like oh this kid can hit though that was such a cool thing the only disappointing thing between the the assessor and cecil and Prince thing was they didn't get along,

which I didn't know, like in their adult life. And I thought, oh, that's sad because, you know, you see the Griffies and it's just hilarious. Or the Ripkins. Yeah, the Ripkins and stuff. I don't know. Well, yeah. And, you know, you always see Vladdy Sr. encouraging Vladdy. Speaking of young guys who could hit bombs.

You guys have such a fun team. My youngest son is full on Blue Jays. I think just to spite me, but he's really enjoying this year because such a great and exciting fun team to watch. He's even got the official Beaubichette jersey. The whole deal. enjoying this year because such a great and exciting fun team to watch right and i mean

he's even got like the official boba shett jersey like the whole deal right it's such a fun team to watch this year them and the yanks such i hate to say well the yanks are going to win the pennant and then we'll get the first wild card hopefully i'm hoping you guys sleep in the back door just to rub it in the leafs face that they still haven't won. Well, yeah, I would put my money on the Jays winning the World Series before the Leafs winning the San Diego. Okay, so we got to talk rock and roll, buddy. You're Jeff Burrows, remember. Now, whenever I think of the Tea Party over the last, let's say, 15 years,

my initial thought, and this is my opportunity right off the top to ask you a question I've been wondering for a long time. Okay, what's the deal with your domain name so what domain name does the tea party own exactly we own tea party dot com okay so now you know we only uh drop truth bombs on this program here jeff uh yeah what's like what's the most money you've been offered to sell tea party.com? When that whole thing came up, it's a little foggy, um, but it was never as much as everyone was saying or hoping. Um, and it was never really for sale.

I mean, if someone came at us with 10 million or something, I don't know. Right. But, um, let's say we, I think the most we were offered probably was say 330 US. $330,000. Yeah. But after lawyer fees, management commissions, this, that, whatnot, and taxes, you're going to end up with about 50 grand. Right. Which, I mean, sure, that's wonderful.

But then what does that really say about you as a person especially considering who you'd be selling the name to like if i owned the name corner gas and they wanted to buy it uh for the show then sure yeah i'll sell corner gas but right you know this has been a part of our life and and and something that has afforded us a lifestyle very much different from a nine to five and i'm grateful for it so you you just can't it's like selling one of your kids it's really weird well i think you made the right call i think you made the right call there were so many i mean even uh what not sctv what's um 22 this hour is 22 minutes we're doing a riff on it and they had they had uh like the likes of

cory heart and different bands like please buy coryheart.com it was one of the funniest things i had seen in a long time and and for for a bunch of guys who you know really didn't do anything for six years um and not talking and stuff like that right it was it was welcome uh uh attention i felt i was like this is great and people are talking about the band it's nothing you know you're right and any awareness is a good thing because then you get the guys like me are like oh i haven't listened to a two party in a while and then we go yeah dust off our old cds and we go to town by the way i mentioned i will sprinkle like 90s can con all Rock in the mix here. So because you said Corner Gas, I

now need to shout out FOTM Craig Northey from The Odds because I'm pretty sure he's doing the music for Corner Gas. Yeah. Remember that band Fastball from the States? Yeah. They sounded like a

B-rate odds to me. And thought to myself why it why do not why did the odds not have that success in the states because they were so much better and such a great band yeah you know totally and uh no listen to me we could we could do a whole several hour episode on the great canadian bands that didn't in the States, but should have because of, and I just had this chat with Gowan. Gowan was my guest earlier this week and we were talking, yeah, Gowan,

another sweetheart, but why, why is criminal mind and strange animal? Why are they not breaking in the States? And he's talking about like the politics of the record labels and how there'd be a trade off and, uh, they would favor one artist in one country and they

treated you know gowan like a foreign entity because he was based in canada and then that's that's true 100 i mean we we got that quite a bit um because we got signed to atlantic at the very same time stp got signed to atlantic and our our&R person was not well liked. And it turns out that the A&R person who obviously picked up SCP, I mean, of course they're a great band and great songs and so on. Um, we were, we literally got bought out of our deal. That's, that's how little was done. So our, our manager just got us out of the deal it was bummer but it is bullshit because it has very little to do with the quality of the music like the the the guy in texas who likes his alt rock and his sensibilities he a jam is a jam right

exactly but i and i agree 100 but what i've become and i'm certainly not jaded it but what I've become, and I'm certainly not jaded, but I've become more and more aware of the fact that music for radio is strictly a ways and a it was never so i always knew it but it was never so painfully obvious that it has nothing to do with anything and it's and it's like oh i could go on and on when we visit this but yeah so you were gonna say it it's it's it's even like when you play casinos it's like you're a ways and means to get them to have people pull out their their money and go gamble like that it's just one thing leading into another it's not you know what i mean that the the corporation doesn't care about you your your fans and friends do but it's not about you selling out this casino or that that casino it's it's about getting people to pull the pull the money out of the wallets and start gambling well listen listen when i was at history to see uh the tea party with uh fotm langer shout

out to langer who has a question for you coming up but like i had to pay 18 bucks for a shitty stella a can of beer okay like you know what when we were loading in that day and i was just i saw i'm walking around the club i'm checking it out it's brand new i thought wow this is amazing and i looked up at the prices and i thought oh my god like that's more than any ball park or arena isn't it it's a lot i mean it's now we're talking tfc prices here but i just want to shout out you know locally brewed fresh craft beer we drink great Lakes beer here on Toronto Mike. So when I meet you, Jeff, I'm going to get you some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes.

Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I've done a couple of beer podcasts and they always have great beers and I've heard of these guys. So yeah. And he's independent too. Like I'm a big fan of the fact that I can go,

it's owned by the Bullet family and I could go see Peter Bullet and I could shake his hand. There's the guy. Try doing that with Labatt's or Molson or whatever. Okay, so I digress here. So shout out to Great Lakes Beer. And we'll get back to it later about the US and all that. But I had

Kim Mitchell on the program. You mentioned you went to radio. Kim Mitchell's a rock star who went to radio for several years, although now he's back to being a rock star. But that's a whole separate story we could get into. But Kim Mitchell's like, yeah, when he had Gopher Soda, which was a good jam, right? Gopher Soda. Oh, yeah.

So Gopher Soda, the label in the U.S. didn't promote it because they were backing Twisted Sisters, We're Not Gonna Take It. So there was a legitimate so there was like a legitimate, like suppressing the Kim Mitchell promotion in the USA in favor of Twisted Sister. Like this was a political decision, business decision made by the label.

And then at some point, you know, Kim Mitchell came home and said, you know, oh, Canada, our home and native land, and he's been a great Canadian rock success here, but that was the moment. If they decided to push that single, Kim Mitchell might be like, he's like Neil Young right now.

And know what's strange is, and I get it, I mean, we're not going to take it as quite the anthem, but think of the marketing opportunities with Go For Soda. And I don't want to turn the art conversation into a business conversation but if they're if they're that business i mean holy hell you could create for publishing rights going for soda would be the easiest thing to sell for any

company choose pepsi or choose coke and off you go right this is so such a no-brainer and there you go another and it's a good jam. The Americans will like it too. The jam is a jam. Life is a Highway did good for our friend Tom, right? That is true. There's examples like that. In the USA, they literally put Tom Cochran on lists of one-hit wonders.

Think about that from a Canadian perspective. I was playing White Hot. I played White Hot on Toronto Mike's yesterday because the guy who produced that from a Canadian perspective. I was playing White Hot. I played White Hot on Toronto Mike yesterday because the guy who produced that album just passed away. His name is Michael Jackson, actually. Michael James Jackson. Yeah. But, like, and I've been thinking, you know,

when you think about, like, forget, you know, Victory Day and the big leagues. But even going back to, like, Lunatic Fringe and all this. Oh, yeah. Anyway, okay. So, Windsor. Yes. Give me the origin story. i need the tea party origin story but you know in part of that i need to know like at what point do you realize that you know you want to be a rock and roll drummer okay so i'll start off when

i was 10 and i'll do this quickly you don't want to take up too much time about this but so i was playing piano uh my sister and i and I think my brother was at that point as well, my sister was very good, I put up with it, my brother didn't care, and then I found, I always knew my dad was a drummer, but he, at this point, he's a cop, right, and under his work bench in the basement, one day I was sniffing around and I found these old drums. And I'm like, wait, what? We've got drums here? So I pull them out. I got in trouble for pulling them out.

But I started banging on them. And then he said, look, if you want to play drums, okay, let's do this. So he made me a practice pad and started teaching me rudiments. Essentially the basic bottom parts of every foundation of drumming. And so I started doing that and i was a paper boy and i found a kit owned by a motown drummer in windsor and my dad and i got that now you spent my paper money on that and then one year later i'm in a split class in elementary school i'm in grade seven and with some grade sixes so half half seven, half sixes. And there's a talent show.

And I always knew there was this one guy named Jeff, Jeff Kribbick. He played guitar and he wore like the ACDC jerseys and stuff like that. So I was like, I wonder if we could put a band together. And I'm just thinking, let's do it. And he said, the first thing out of his mouth, he said, you thing out of his mind is their mouth he said you should

invite that kid and he pointed to this geeky uh dark-haired kid with really puffy hair who i didn't know other than the fact that he played in the church choir that is jeff martin so uh jeff martin and i with this other jeff so there's three jeffs and Dave. And Dave was Jeff Martin's best friend at the time who still plays. And he's, uh, I think he just retired as principal, uh, school principal. High school. But, um, so these, so three Jeffs and a Dave, we started as a little band and then that just kind of morphed into different bands, but we're always Jeff Martin and I were always in a band all the way up until high school. And then we met Stuart Chatwood first year.

So I was in grade 10, Jeff and Stuart came into high school in grade nine. We started continuing in that band. Stuart joined the band, different members, but Stuart and Jeff and I were in that band. And then by the time university happened for me, I went off and those guys started a band with a bunch of our friends from high school, and it morphed into what was known as the Stickmen. And the Stickmen were amazing. The drummer, Tim Lane, was just insane. He's a Toronto guy now.

And Stuart's brother-in-law, Dave Sorin, who I play in another band with, a charity band now with, who is fantastic, the nicest guy, amazing bass player. So they moved to Toronto to try to make it. And they had a condo and they worked at golf courses and they were doing their thing. I was in university, kind of in between there somewhere. Jeff Martin and I had a blues duo while I was in university before he left for Toronto. And I would play drums with bass pedals on my left foot.

So I would play the bass parts with my left foot and drums and Jeff would vocalize and sing. And this was before the sick man left for Toronto and we were making like $600 each then. And this is like 1990 or 89. It was crazy. I was in university making crazy money and it was just a really good time of our lives and then then he left and then i was still in university

gonna become a teacher and then uh just steward and jeff came down and hung out uh with me one night at our local in windsor which was called the coach and horses. And our friend, I think her name was Kathy or Catherine asked Jeff and I, while we were there and Stuart was just hanging with us and we're having some drinks, if we could put our little duo back together because she needed a slot filled three weeks from then. And we looked at Stuart and we said,

well, why don't you just play bass and then we'll just have a fun little jam night and invite all of our friends. And everybody would love to see the guys because they're always away in Toronto now, right? So I went up to Toronto and I jammed with them at Cherry Beach Studios. They had a ton of little rehearsal rooms in there. And from there, we jammed for, I swear to God, 14, 16 hours just nonstop and had such a good time. And at this point, I think they were getting a little bit tired of the stick band and so on and so forth

and the expense of living in Toronto. There's a lot of closed doors when you're in a band trying to make it, even back then. So I convinced them to move to Windsor, back to Windsor, so they can save money and we can really start working on a project. And that's how the Tea Party was born right there. We started playing Thursday nights in Windsor and then we got Thursday, Friday in London at Call the Office. And then we started playing in Toronto on Front Street. And I forget the name of the place. Do you remember the name of that place? I'm asking my wife. No, right on Front Street, and I forget the name of the place. Do you remember the name of that place?

I'm asking my wife. No, right on Front Street. It was tiny. Oh, you have an audience there. Yeah, we had, oh, it was Say What? Yeah, is Say What still there? Do you remember Say What? Of course, Say What's still there, yeah.

Oh, okay, that's where we would play. And, you know, it started with 10 people, then it grew to 20 people, and then slowly and slowly and slowly and then one time on the saturday night as we were driving home after playing so what it was two in the morning and we heard our um independent cd version of save me on the one and only cfny and we were flabbergasted. We were literally dying. We pulled over in our mystery machine on the side of the 401, sort of jamming out

and couldn't believe it. And then, you know, things just started happening. You know, the record company started sniffing and Jeff Kieliewicz from Warner Chapel actually offered us a publishing deal before we even had our record deal. So,

that's kind of it in a nutshell, from my view listen Jeff and Stuart will probably have different stories but they will all kind of jive like that yeah okay no amazing that was awesome by the way and you know we'll curve that out and we'll make a little YouTube video and every time you get asked about the band's origin you just tell them the place oh thank you yes that's awesome but i got questions of course first question is uh who named the band the tea party jeff martin named the band and stewart and i were not impressed is it because that name is very american like it's a you know that everyone learns about the boston tea party is that where it's from like what's the origin of it? I don't know. We've said so many things in our

past. I honestly believe it has something to do with when bands would come to Boston, they were notoriously playing two and a half, three and a half hour shows and they would call them the Boston Tea Parties. And I know

the Boss did one, Zeppelin did one. And of course, Jeff is a huge Zeppelin fan. So there's that and there's so many. And then, of course, the Rebellion, because we wanted to be kind of a rebellious sort of band steeped in our blues rock roots, as opposed to playing something that smells like teen spirit, which, you know, no offense to anyone in that era either,

but we just were not that kind of band. We wanted to be a rock band. Also, Kurt Cobain himself said that, because you mentioned, you know, a Boston tea party, and Kurt Cobain himself was worried about smells like teen spirit because it sounds a lot like Boston's more than a feeling. Yeah. Sib Hashim, one of the greatest drummers ever and the coolest

afro you'd ever see in your life i remember that band of boston the most unrecognizable band except the drummer i indicate and so it's okay so jeff martin uh he he names the band you can blame him and you know what you can ask him that okay well can I tell you that then right now, since this is the land of real talk, we only tell the truth here, is that he turned down the opportunity. Jeff Martin, this is actually how I ended up with the tickets to see you.

A little backstory. Jeff Martin declined, through management, declined the invitation to appear on Toronto Mic'd. Well, he's an idiot. I know. And then I said, well, fuck it. Give me the other Jeff.

Yeah, man. You get the conversation. Jeff is a very good interviewer, to be honest, especially when he lets us start. Rub it in, why don't you? No, I know. You know what? I'll talk to him because, honestly, he's got some really great stories, and he's led a very interesting life.

Very different from mine. I'm quite Canadian and plain offstage. Talk to him. And I'm very excited to have Jeff Burrows on the program. But I would also like a Jeff Martin. It's okay, man. I'm playing second fiddle. It's okay, man.

No, man. You're playing drums, man. Oh, yeah. I'm playing second fiddle. It's okay, man. No, man. You're playing drums, man. CFNY. Do you remember the name of the DJ on CFNY who was on the air when your jam was played for the first time? Oh, shoot. If you name some names, I'll remember.

Okay, so what year are we in here? Was it Al? Was it Alan Cross? No, it wasn't Alan. Was there anyone else? Was it Brother Bill? No, it wasn't Alan. Was there anyone else? Was it Brother Bill? No, there wasn't another Alan. No, Billy. We love Billy.

Okay, shout out. Billy is a member of the team here. When we do Progressive Past of Modern Melodies, it's always Brother Bill coming in from where? You're in Vancouver right now. He's in White Rock. Yeah, yeah. He better be here tonight.

Yeah, well, you know, he's a great... But put on the guest list, Neil Morrison. Okay, because that's what his ID says. Yes, put Neil, Brother Neil. Shout out to Brother Bill. Okay, who else? It was one of the older gentlemen. He didn't, he wasn't, I don't think he was around, like, in the 90s era

where everything started really taking off. It's not Scott Turner. No. No. Maybe I'm, maybe I just can't remember. Give me a year. What year are we talking here?

This would be 91. Okay. 91. And it's obviously not Strombo. So it would have been, would that have been a voice recording? I don't think they did that back then. I think in 91 you were live and local all the time, I think.

Yeah, there's no... Those were the good old days, man, before the voice tracking took over. Yeah, yeah. Because I used to have to voice track quite a bit of weekend stuff too. Well, if it comes back to you, let me know. Okay. I got a question for you, though, from the aforementioned Langer, who's a big tea party fan oh by the way how important is the word the the in the name of your band i i don't

know you know because i always put you know if i if i'm tweeting something i'll put my band is and then at and then it comes up the tea party or something right it's redundant yeah i just because some bands don't care like a gourd depth doesn't give a shit if you call them spoons or the spoons he doesn't care but i i once referred to the tragically hip as tragically hip and let's just say i received an email from somebody was it jake or was it a band member jake or a band member's wife no it was jake yeah j Jake Gold reminding me because he's a listener. So hello to Jake right now.

Hi, Jake. You know, we talked about Watchmen earlier. He was a man. Yeah. That's an important word in the name of that band and they care

or at least Jake cares. But I just wondered if you gave a shit if we said the T part. No, I don't care. Okay. So Langer says, how difficult was it?

And you kind of addressed this, but let's get more detail. How difficult was it to get record labels interested in the Tea Party? With a unique sound with Middle Eastern influences and with grunge in full force back then, it seems like the Tea Party was maybe fighting an uphill battle to get recognized.

What say you, Jeff? You know what? I don't remember it being difficult because there was there was a few labels to be honest and and capital which morphed into emi which is gone now um they they were just the the best offer they really wanted us to do what we wanted to do um i remember them hoping that you know maybe possibly we would sell in the amount of 20 000 or something like that and then i remember being in in calgary and and the one guy said i just got an order for 8 000 pieces and i'm like that's a lot isn't he goes uh it's a lot a lot so um so i don't know i i don't remember it being hard. All I remember is doing gig after gig after gig and then doing the shows at,

what was the venue next to Much Music? Upstairs. Oh, I should know this. I used to see Steve Anthony in there all the time. Where are you? I just saw you pick with a Synergy Seeker there, and I can't remember the name of that place. My wife's here.

Ultrasound Shovar. Right. Thank you. My wife's here, by the way, and she just got in. What's your wife's name? Martina. Where is she from?

Is she from Windsor? Where is she from? She's a LaSalle girl. She grew up one street down from me. We started dating on May 10th of 1985. I think that was the day Jeff Burrows hit his last major league home run.

It was. Everything combining into one thing. She's got all the answers for me today. I'm so glad. Okay, I'm glad. I'm glad. Just to let people know. Ultrasound Showbar, wasn't that owned by one of the Blues the blues brothers dan akroyd and john candy okay i believe

it was those guys that owned that then and we did so many showcases and i just remember being there all the time it's you know oh good we get to showcase for these guys and try these guys and boom and finally we did a yeah emi now i mean you said they changed their name but EMI as we refer to them now so in total this is just a quick recap before we get into some more questions but the Tea Party in total you release 8 albums on EMI Music Canada and that's they sell over 3 million copies

worldwide and that and the big fancy talk is that that's 4 double platinum awards platinum and four gold albums in this country of ours. Yeah, we're pretty lucky. Good for you.

Okay, amazing. Pretty awesome, man. So Stuart Chatwood, you might know that guy. He plays bass in the Tea Party. Okay, this is actually Langer again. He says he's down to the right on stage when the Tea Party plays live

and usually the bass is on the left so it's easier for the drummer to see him and stay in time so langer wants to know why does stewart chatwood why is he down to the right on stage when you guys play live um honestly we we've always been like that it could be because he's a left-handed player. I don't know. But he's always told me that as a drummer, because I'm not really schooled. I mean, my dad taught me the foundations. And then I took two lessons from a guy named Jack LaHoo in Windsor, who was awesome.

But I just didn't have time because of baseball and hockey right and then uh um so stewart always tells me that i follow guitar parts more than i don't follow bass parts and or vice versa and i'm like okay and he goes and that's what has become our sound so i can't really argue with what the bass player is saying um and and i guess that's just the way it is. So maybe he just doesn't mind. I don't, I, it would feel really odd if he was on the left-hand side now. Okay.

I like, I like these technical, I'm not a musician. I just, I just play, press play on my CD player. And then that's the book. I play music,

but he's always, he's always looking back and, you know, jumping off my riser and that sort of stuff. So, okay. So now the, the catalog, I mean, number of canadian hits that the tea party responsible is a very lengthy list so i'm going to cherry pick a few and just see if you can share anything so the first song because

uh i remember when i saw this video for the first time on much music and uh this song is called the river what can you tell us about... Is it The River or just River? What's the name of the song? The River, okay. As I said it, it sounded funny when I said it, The River. Well, you're probably used to saying Joni Mitchell's River. They're so similar, those two songs.

But that's... And I think... So River, maybe that's your first Canadian hit, you tell me. But my memory thinks it is. So, uh, yeah. So it was weird.

Cause save me was the first thing played on the indie, but then we rerecorded it and it was the second single off. Right. Splendor solace. Okay. So let's start with river and then we'll talk about save me because I want to ask about Australia as well. Okay.

So the, the river, um, came from a jam upstairs. So our rehearsal space while we're in windsor was above that uh aforementioned bar that i was talking about the the uh coaching horses so um they used to have a restaurant so the coaching horses was in the basement the restaurant was called the fish market the old fish market the old fish market thank you martina and they also had a um a uh an old fish market in toronto and one in london and the one in london

closed and they shipped all these freezer walls that you piece together with allen wrenches so they let us rehearse up there and right up there because we played there every other weekend and you know everything was fine and hunky-dory and it was the 90 early 90s and no one cared so we built like a studio up there using these freezer walls we brought couches and you know flop mattresses for when we rehearsed too late or had too much drink or whatever and that came out of a jam and we just started you know playing it and playing it and playing it uh down in the basement at the coach and horses so that was really cool i remember recording that's the first song we tried to record and that was with and i forget his first name but his last name was

robinson and his dad was the producer for all of the um cory hart hits so this wow i can't remember his for glenn robinson okay who also did um uh 13 engines perpetual motion machine which is more yeah real okay it's such a good that's another 90 that's another that also shows up a lot they they had a war was a song they had and they had a couple other big radio jams that I totally done. Oh man,

such a good band. Such a fun band. We played, we opened for them quite a bit in the early days and they helped us out quite a lot. Like showing us the ropes

and how to do this and how to, what we call throw and go. Like if you don't have time for a monitor check, you just get your gear up there, start playing. Smoke, smoke and ashes was a big one smoke and ashes yes it holds up man that it crashes literally

in my backyard on the weekend that just passed smoke and ashes was being played on my now i've got to pull that up because i haven't listened to that in years and bread and the bone was cool i'm trying to think of all those engines engines. Perpetual Motion Machine was a great song. Yeah. Well, that's one of those, like, there's a few bands I think of from back in the day that seem to be kind of forgotten. And again, we're getting back to the Tea Party. But for my money, like, for my money, give me Rusty's Fluke.

I don't know if you ever spun Fluke or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. That single, the hit. Oh, man. Well, was that misogyny or you could no or uh wake me wake me yeah yeah wake me as a wake me as a jam and there's groovy dead is on that and that's a jam yeah in california yeah but anyway uh so yeah the river we digress the river so that was the first song that we recorded.

That was at a place called, oh no, I can't remember the name of the studio. But it was in Burlington, Vermont. So we got to go to Burlington. We stayed at a bed and breakfast. We'd go to this studio. The guy who owned the studio, he came into money. His grandfather, what did he invent uh something to do was it milk cartons he invented the milk carton or his great-grandfather or grandfather invented the

milk carton and he came into all of this money it was so crazy man you think back of all these weird things yeah oh man me and stewart got to fly a cessna plane when we were there it was crazy you know it's not fair like that guy's grandfather invents the milk carton and now he's living off the royalty or whatever. He's living off the royalty. Literally, no joke. I hope so, man. I had this call because my daughter just turned, my daughter turned 18 and my mom was over

and I was trying to find out, like I was asking her questions about her dad and her dad used to deliver milk. So did my grandpa. Okay. So our grandpas were delivering the milk and this guy's grandpa was inventing the milk carton like come on at the same time

I met the person who also invented remember the quick flip cap on toothpastes tubes I met the guy he was Quebecois and he had this really stunning cottage that he had built in Quebec for all his sledding and skiing they should do a heritage moment about that had built in Quebec for all his sledding and skiing.

They should do a heritage moment about that. The Canadian in Quebec, he discovers, oh, there must be a better way. Flips the top. Fiddle with this cap every morning. You have to screw it off, screw it back in. There must be a better way.

I've got toothpaste skin if I keep it off. It's no fun. It'll be like one of those heritage moments. there must be a better way I've got toothpaste skin if I keep it off it's no fun it'll be like one of those heritage I love those heritage moments do you remember the guy burnt toast Dr. Penfield you remember this he was like doing brain surgery

and she could smell burnt toast no Dr. Penfield all these anyway all these great and I mean that's where I learned about the underground railroad to get serious for a minute they were really effective Dr. Penfield. All these great... That's where I learned about the Underground Railroad to get serious for a minute. They were really effective. We had a lot of that in Amherstburg, LaSalle

and Windsor because we were right next to Detroit. Amherstburg is huge in the whole scene for that. It was really cool. In that video for the river. Can I preface this right now?

Of course. I just want to say sorry to everyone for the river video. So many people. But I think, okay, I need you to, this is fine. I'm glad you're here. Listen, I remember I grew up in the West End of Toronto. And I remember, and to this day, I still bike by the old mill all the time. But there's a glimpse of the old mill in that video. day I still bike by the old mill all the time but there's a glimpse of the old mill in that video. Am I wrong?

No, you're right. So what I like about the river and it's almost like you captured this moment just like when the real statics captured the old mill donuts that's at Dundas and Islington because now that's like a Starbucks or something but in the video for the Ballad of

Wendell Clark part part one and two, you get to see it there. And it's like, oh, there it is for all eternity. I can watch the real statics videos. Shout out to the real statics. But your,

your video for the river has the old mill before, at some point shortly thereafter, they renovated it. So that original brick from the old mill, they, they built on it. So today when you go there, it just looks like a old building.

But back then when I was growing up, it was actually like, it looked like a burned down old mill. Like just the wall was there and it was so much cooler, but you capture it for the video. And we, so if, if they were doing focus shots on either Stuart or Jeff or something, I would take off and wander. And it was really neat in there.

Like it was, you know, a lot of kids would obviously hang out there late at night and stuff but the ruined area was so fascinating that's what i missed i missed that yeah yeah that was a crazy that was crazy though because that for us that was our first real video with a real makeup and hair and and wardrobe and and you and some of the most awful ideas we ever came up with. But I remember it because we shot it on June 6th, started at 6 p.m. and finished at 6 a.m. And the amazing Floria Sigismondi, remember Floria? Not too much.

Should I? loria and not too much should i she she well she she went on to huge things so she did quite a few of our stuff she did some mother's stuff um and then she ended up going on to do marilyn manson david bowie like massive massive productions and all through Don Allen, of course. And yeah, it was just it was fantastic. So it was a neat experience. The only bummer part, I thought, was my wife, Martina, was there and EMI had all of these tickets like sixth row or something to go see Paul McCartney. So my wife got to leave and go see Paul McCartney right up front. And I'm like trying to stay awake at three in the morning,

shooting these drum parts in the middle of the middle of that's called King's mill. So it's on the Humber river, but it's called King's mill part. Yeah. That was the only bummer part, but I mean, pretty fun. That's funny. That's funny. That's funny. Sailing down Down the sticks again Without you my love I want you returned And then I see all my friends I want to return But then

I see all my friends They want me to join But then They all melt away Without you alone And the river's running through my veins Lately she don't seem the same And the blood keeps calling out my name I passed by the sins

Left by a different man Tides brought them here Cast by a different hand. In the whispers of the winds, flowing the sticks again. Pushing me on, without you alone. And the river's running through my veins Lately she don't seem the same And the blood keeps calling out my name Oh, oh, oh guitar solo In the railroad, running down

In the railroad, running down In the railroad, running down In the railroad And the road runs My will must be strong She rides with a different life My will must be long I'm still pushing for different heights In the winds of the winds Blowing the sticks again

The river runs red And I'm left alone And the river's running through my veins Lately she don't seem the same And the blood keeps going out my veins And the river's running, yeah Help me, baby Help me baby Help me baby

Help me baby Help me baby Ooh yeah Help me baby Help me baby Help me, baby Help me, baby Yes I have to ask the obvious for people who, you know, the first time many of us hear the Tea Party is the river.

And the first thought is, oh, that's cool. I cool i dig that and man do they sound like the doors yeah so can you just address that because yeah it's like the influence and you can't deny the influence but there is there was a sense and i've kind of come around on this a little bit but that uh the other jeff jeff barden was channeling his inner Jim Morrison early and often. So let's go deep here. So the girl who is a great friend of ours still to this day, who was doing our hair and makeup, is Renee Beach. And she's a model, does hair, and she's stunning and brilliant and so on turns out oh when

we met her i had met her before in detroit and i'm like where did i meet this and this is before i even said hello on site like where did i meet her she's stunning and and and i'm like, this is so strange. And then it turns out she was married to Ian Asbury of the cult. Right. So take a look at the video or take a look if you don't want to. Just take a look at a still of that shot of Jeff in that video and then look back at some of the cult videos. Yeah. And the hat and et cetera, et cetera. And you'll see a big, big resemblance in that sort of thing.

It's all crystallized here because two quick thoughts. One is that Ian actually grew up in Hamilton. He spent a lot of time in Hamilton. Yeah. Like as a younger man just when the cult was starting. Yeah, he was a Hamilton guy for I don't know how many years, but a good chunk of his formative years are in Hamilton or whatever.

But also, he ended up singing for The Doors at some point, right? Exactly. And Jeff had actually been offered that too, and he didn't take it. I don't know why. Oh, I'll bet. He should have been the first call because there's no one better on the planet. He's literally, he's a natural baritone. And

I mean, he can turn on the doors thing very, very well. But to be honest, musically, he's really not a big doors fan. Like at all. Jeff isn't. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's just too carnivory, I guess. But the look wise, I mean, you know, he wanted long hair and his mom gave him curly hair. And that's what he says all the time. But, you know, he wanted long hair, and his mom gave him curly hair, and that's what he says all the time.

But, you know, I don't know. He'd look funny with shorter hair. But this was almost like, I feel like it became a bit of a knock. Like people would kind of, you know, mock the Tea Party and say, like, oh, they're a Doors cover band. Well, and at first I was was because when you get into this thing when you're just a young guy or a young girl and you get into music and all you really want to do is just you know you just want to play and have fun and you want people who do like you to enjoy themselves and you don't think about the people who aren't going to like you but you don't

think that you never think that they're going to have to say something about it you know what i mean like just if you don't have something nice to say but it's a quick it's a quick learn like you really do learn that fast like your your fans are going to not say much they just really love you but those who don't like you are really going to speak up the vocal minority or majority depending um are always going to speak so it was like it's like it's like the doors singing for led zeppelin and then stewart in his wisdom because he's very very smart he said well much better than being compared to the singer from rat uh with poison you know what i mean so i thought that's brilliant chats that's brilliant

i i like that that's a it could be far worse to be compared to and if you're gonna have to do a comparison i'll take the door singer with led Zeppelin over the rat singer from, and the band. Yeah. I'd be asking, is that supposed to be an insult? Like, is that an insult?

You sound like a Jim Morrison. Yeah. He brought that to my attention and it made me feel better. I'm so sensitive. Well, listen, has the other Jeff ever, has he ever like proclaimed in all sincerity that he is the lizard King?

Like, has he ever said this? No, he would joke around and things. And when people would say that, like when we were young, especially be like, hey, Jim Morrison from the crowd. And he goes, and he would say things to the effect of, that's right. I really do not know who my father is. Okay. So again, you're going to need several hours. Tell your wife, you'll beat up with her in several hours.

But no, I'm just kidding. So I try not to take too many long. I got sound checks, man. I got to get the sound checks. Okay. So let's have that very important on-air meeting right now. Okay. I want to make sure I don't leave anything important on the cutting room floor here.

How soon do you have to disconnect from the Zoom? Oh, no, no. I'm okay. Okay, okay, okay. I just want to make sure. All right. Because I will say I saw the Tea Party many, many times in my youth. Be it at Molson Park in Barrie for like an edge fest or something. All the time

I would see you guys. And then I saw you again last month. And I felt very different about you this time. Like, it felt likeff was self-aware i think i used to think maybe he was a titch a titch pretentious with his rock star uh persona jim morrison style and this time it came across very different to me like he was in on that joke and he was actually rather uh charming and charismatic to a point where it's like I felt like I was way wrong about Jeff Martin

as the lead singer of a kick-ass rock and roll band. Yeah, probably. The thing about it is this. A lot of people's perceptions of people are their perceptions of men and women in bands

are their perceptions of what they see in a video or what they see on stage and so on and so forth and if we're going to get deep about it i think that that whole front is you know covering up those not necessarily anxieties but self-doubt or this or are we good enough and and so on and and that's how some people curl up in a ball and die about it. Some people hide from it and just mask it with that. I always felt if he's going to kind of be that and play that persona earlier, at least he's getting by and we're still making great music

and that's what gets him through the day sort of thing. And I think with age, he's just come to the fact that, yeah, you know what? People are allowed their opinions. I don't give a shit. This is me. Does he piss me off sometimes? Of course, almost on a daily basis. But at the end of the day, you know, put anyone in that position to be as

fortunate as we have been and see how they would react to it because everyone is so different. You know what I mean? And I'm not just trying to stick up for him and blah, blah, blah. Like, he's his own man. If you were to talk to him and he wanted to tell you to F off, then, you know, whatever. That's his business. But the thing is, I can't really speak too much for him. All I know is that when you're put in a position of that and you have control of a crowd and you're

the face of the band and the voice of the band, I can only imagine it being a lot. I don't know how I would react. I thoroughly enjoy being relatively anonymous behind the drum kit and doing my things. So, yeah, I don't know how I would react. I thoroughly enjoy being relatively anonymous behind the drum kit and, and doing my thing. So,

yeah, I don't know. And I love your, like, I love, I love it when the origin story is, yeah, a couple of us were buddies in grade school.

We met this third guy and this is almost like the Beatles minus Ringo, right? It's like, yeah, we knew each other, you know, young. And then there's an organic,

like that's, that, that is my favorite, like band origin story. Like we're just buddies. And there's goods organic like that's that that is my favorite like band origin story like we're just and there's goods and bads with that though right because being friends for this long and or enemies or brothers or blah blah blah it's it's very very difficult like it and i hate the analogy but it is like a wedding if you don't communicate it's over well it's like think about real brothers in rock bands.

Like, just think about the kinks or Oasis. Like, I'm just a couple off the top of my head. So speaking of that, I just saw the, um, Black Crows.

So did I. And it wasn't that awkward. I found that so awkward. I found, I was high. Shout out to Canada Cabana. I was pretty high at the show, but I saw that the Budweiser stage.

Well, so was, and I think your show, I think the Toronto show was right after the Windsor show. Cause we're there at the show, but I saw him at the Budweiser stage. Well, so was, and I think your show, I think the Toronto show was right after the Windsor show, because we were there at the casino. Yeah, tell me your thoughts on that. Well, I thought the band sounded great. I thought the mix was not good at all.

I thought the trues blew them away. I didn't understand the deal. Rich, the guitar player, one of the brothers, he was spaced out. Either he was pissed off, or he was just staring at something that no one else could see. It blew my mind. I was like, what is going on with this guy?

And after The Trues, I thought The Trues just killed, and they killed them. I was left a little disappointed with that show, but I'm glad I got to see them. I wish the original drummer was still with them, but I'm glad I got to see them I wish the original drummer was still with them but I'm glad I got to see them anyway and I thought Chris Robinson sang like a motherfucker and killed it

I thought it was great I didn't think the mix was good but you know yeah because that's a good example of brothers in a band and what happened I guess in the kinks is a famous one and Oasis everybody knows what's going on there but so it's tough enough for actual blood brothers and since you guys are like brothers in arms shout out to demonstrate yeah yeah

all right because for uh for time purposes i do want to talk about save me yeah like tell me about uh you know the song save me and then maybe we could talk a little bit about success that the tea party experienced down under yeah so save me started as a song in the stickman without me and that song is actually words written by stewart chatwood and a lot of people don't know that so stewart wrote the words to that song uh probably in i don't know 89 before we were a band right and uh they started working on it and working on it and then when that band crashed they just brought it to us and then we started building it even more from there and then bringing in the tablas and so on and so forth. So, um, it's very different. Uh, I love it.

I still love to play it. And, uh, now we just kind of veer off into it. That song has been as long as 26 minutes, uh, if I recall correctly, um, because we just, we always throw jams in the middle of it. Uh, whether it's Jeff Buckley or, or or you know leonard cohen or whatever and we just it's just a fun song okay so as a as a fan and as a guy who loves live music i absolutely adore when there's one of those jam songs and there's you know you go long and then you embed uh you embed a song in the middle of the song and then you come back to the song i love it

like a cover or whatever I love it Pearl Jam does that a lot during like is it Evenflow I think they'll go Evenflow there's a big jam part

and then Eddie Vedder will sing some I don't know he'll sing like a Who song or whatever and then yeah well he's such a huge

Who fan I think Pearl Jam should cover Temptation or something good after we finish talking about Save Me I'm going to ask you about Temptation.

Okay. But I want to know about Australia. Okay, you're in the middle of the story, so I'll shut up and listen. Oh, no. That's about it. Like the Save Me break, and what happens with Australia in Save Me? I must leave you tonight, my love, remain so faithfully.

I must go so far away I will always love you But you knew it I regret to tell you Your man has died tonight He was a brave man He fought a brave fight

He was killed by the other side He was killed by the other side He was killed by the other man's knives She said save me me save me

why must you love this man? He is your brother This is easy to understand My son, there is no other I cannot pretend To love this man like my father I cannot pretend Mother there is No other

She's the same No other She said save me Save me guitar solo guitar solo Cynhyrchu'r ffwrdd o'r ffwrdd. Cynhyrchu'r ffwrdd o'r ffwrdd. Cynhyrchu'r ffwrdd o'r ffwrdd. Cynhyrchu'r ffwrdd o'r ffwrdd. Cynhyrchu'r ffwrdd o'r ffwrdd. Cynhyrchu'r ffwrdd o'r ffwrdd. Cynhyrchu'r ffwrdd o'r ffwrdd. guitar solo When there is no truth

Let's end this life tonight This is easy to understand Without your best eye But I see a new sun Your best friend But I see a new sun Rising in the east But I see a new sun Rising in the east

She said save me Save me me me me me me me me me me

me me me me me me me me

me me me me me me me me

me me me me me me me me

me me me me me me me me

me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me So Australia, so you're like the CFNY guy, and we all love the edge. And, you know, in the 90s, we all wished that there were and there was an edge in every city in Canada because it was such an amazing, amazing and still is by standard radio station. In Australia, they have, they have national radio. They do have localized radio, but it's primarily universities and so on. But Triple J was literally CFNY Australia. So they had their main headquarters, whether it be Sydney or Melbourne,

and then they had satellite stations uh in perth adelaide brisbane sydney you know up the coast everywhere um and they made our album either album i think it's probably the week i don't i don't think they would have an album of the month so probably an album of the week and um that's the one song that really caught on and how we worked australia was so old school so beatles um that it was incredible it was it hard on my marriage incredibly was it you know hard not being able because back then you'd have to buy a phone card and call home on a you know what i mean just ridiculous memorize that stupid passcode on those cards but anyway so say we were album of the the week or month and so we would do residencies so we would start in sydney let's call it toronto but

in sydney so we'd do a show in maine toronto but then we'd go to oshawa the next night we'd go to hamilton the next night then back then we'd go to brantawa the next night. We'd go to Hamilton the next night, then back. Then we'd go to Brantford, then back. And we would just keep doing these for a month. And they would grow exponentially in each little area. And we'd do that in every city. So we'd be gone two and a half, three and a half months at a time just in Australia, which was smaller than Canada population wise and I think the popularity of the band not notwithstanding the fact that they they really focused on us on the radio station but I think

they loved the fact that we really wanted to break there because they were used to American bands showing up and no disrespect to the American bands but it's a pretty small country right so it's not worth it for a lot of big bands to fly there and do a Sydney and Melbourne show and then leave. Whereas we were willing to put in the time and the effort to go to all the smaller communities along the coast and all the tertiary markets outside of the big cities and really focus on playing the RSLs and stuff. And RSLs were the Retired Soldiers League, so essentially a... Legions.

Legions. And they'd have what they'd call the pokies in there, so everybody's pulling the little gambling machines and stuff like that. And you're loading in amongst all the older guys, and then the older guys are gone by eight, and then a bunch of kids start rolling in. And that's what we did. i think they they respected the fact that we really enjoyed playing

there we we loved seeing how it was happening like literally it's something pretty cool about playing you know a place like in oshawa the one week and and there's 25 people there and then the next week there's 65 people and then by the time you leave there's 300 people there. And then the next week, there's 65 people. And then by the time you leave, there's 300 people on your fourth show. And it was all word of mouth. There's no internet, anything. And it was so old-fashioned. And I hate to sound like, oh, back in my day, because I never want to be that guy. But there was something raw and organic about that.

And I just love it. And I feel bad that some of the young bands that are soulful of talent nowadays don't have that opportunity. It's so internet driven and, you know, face driven and stuff. It's unfortunate. Jeff, you should listen to Toronto Mike.

We talk about this all the time, but like that age of alt weeklies, like be it Now Magazine and then eventually iWeekly shows up. And then, so basically you were hoping to get on like i don't know live in toronto with kim hughes or something and yeah yeah on cf i remember kim yeah kim's awesome so kim's in it so you're now an fotm that means friend of toronto mike so welcome to the club awesome kim hughes a lot of these names were dropping have been over

here so kim hughes has been over here but uh that that dj from uh cfy i'm wondering it wasn't dave bookman by any chance wasn't it wasn't Dave Bookman by any chance, was it? It wasn't Bookie. I miss that guy. He was cool. Well, they just unveiled a plaque for him last... Was it this week? Yeah, it was...

I think it was last week because I saw it and it wasn't when I was on the road. I think it was home. And yeah. It was the day I had Hal Johnson. I remember because I wanted to go and I was going to go with my buddy Cam Gordon there. Oh, you had Hal on.

Hal Johnson was on at the same time, yeah. So cool. And he had a full mustache. He brought it back? He brought it back. And I'm kind of decided in my mind, and this might not be true, I've decided he brought it back for me.

Like he knew. All right. I sound like a creepy stalker. Are you sure you don't want to call this All About Mike? Well, it almost is called that, right? Toronto Mike. Okay. My name is in the title.

Come on, Jeff. Okay. Windsor Jeffed is a whole different program here. Okay. So Jeffrey Chan. It's all about the Jeffs here. Okay. So Jeffrey Chan wants to know what venue is the Tea Party's favorite to perform in?

Oh, there's so many, but, um, well tonight we're at the Commodore in Vancouver, outstanding venue, any Canadian band who has played there or any band who has played here from Pearl Jam to, you know, Nine Inch Nails to whomever, like everybody has played here. Every punk band, every, every band. Well, you know, it's the only. It's the only venue I hear about in Vancouver is the Commodore. Yeah. Is it like a horseshoe tavern?

What would you compare it to? Is it like a Lee's Palace? No, it's bigger. It's about 1400. Like a Danforth music hall? Kind of like a Danforth. It's a dance floor. Although they've redone it. If there aren't more, there used to be tires underneath of it for absorption. And then, um, and then there is a balcony that probably holds 500 and it, but it's

all standing. So standing balcony and standing floor, uh, with the sides have some tables and chairs. And, um, so it's, it's about 1400 i think so yeah you're right uh probably like a danforth but a groovier vibe you know what i mean very vibe i walked by it uh 2019 i walked by it but i didn't get inside but oh man you got it you've never seen a show there no i've only i think in my i mean 98 i was there for a week and i was there for a week in 2019 but i think those are the two weeks of my life. I was in Vancouver. So I just have,

you should do a one week Vancouver mic special old have, have brother, brother bill and, and then make sure, you know, make sure it's a week where like 54, four year playing there. Yes.

You know what I mean? Like just get a week in there or, or you could host the Toronto Mike meets Vancouver week special and all the bands that you want to play there. Oh man, I'm still full of ideas. I should be producing. Honestly, I'm so glad to have you as an FOTM. Change in, no, Neil Osborne, by the way,

and his daughter are also both FOTMs. But okay, this gentleman, Jeffrey Chan, has a follow-up question. This is good stuff. So he was kind of hoping, I think he was hoping Massey Hall would be your answer. Well, so it depends, right? Because also the metropolis in Montreal, which is now called the M-TELUS, is amazing. Massey Hall, of course, but we've only played there twice.

Once was with the Toronto Symphony, which was outstanding. Right. Okay, okay. That's probably. That's the next question from Jeffrey. No, don't apologize because you just the Toronto Symphony, which was outstanding. Right. Okay, okay. That's probably... That's the next question from Jeffrey. No, don't apologize because you just said Toronto Symphony and his question was wishful thinking.

Any thoughts about collaborating with Toronto Symphony Orchestra to perform some Tea Party tracks? Oh, well, we have a whole show already transposed for every instrument up to 78 orchestra members. We did the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, which is the single best Southern Hemisphere orchestra in the world. We played with them. Not the next Australian tour, but in a couple, we fully intend on doing all of Australia with

symphonies. And we do a canadian tour back in the day when cigarette money was allowed to be tossed around and sponsored although none of us were smokers then um we would gladly take it because it paid for all the astounding musicians that we could never afford to find it the art obviously play for you know what i mean right so um we've done it i think it was in 99 yeah 99 2000 and it went right across the country and even did a TV show

a four part series what was that called Planet something or Animal Planet or Planet Science that's amazing but there was these hosts Natasha Stilwell and another guy. She was English.

She was young and he was an older gentleman. And they did a four-part show on us that ended up on, which channel was that? I can't, on Discovery Channel. So if you go on YouTube, you look up Tea Party Orchestra show. Yeah. And it's the ins and outs of um this is when uh in-ear monitor systems were pretty new so i talk about things like that and how that works for me and so it talks about different invention ideas that he had for a half fretless bass half fretted bass um you

know and and it goes through white noise and they talk to music psychologists and stuff. It's a very interesting program. Amazing. So if Jeff Chan, you said? Jeffrey Chan, yes. Yeah, if Jeffrey wants to check that out, it's a pretty good insight as to what it is. And everyone is always asking, why wouldn't you release that as a live album? Which we would. But the problem is the musicians who are performing obviously need to get paid,

and we would never release something that we can't pay them because, A, you can't release it without paying them, and B, it's too much money. So we're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. We'd love to release it. The orchestra would love us to release it, but you can't because, of course, they need to be paid for their time, their effort, everything. And it's expensive enough as it is just to do a live show but to to release a live album which is pretty inexpensive nowadays it would be well into the hundreds of thousands which is we just don't sell

that kind of merch money ruins everything jeff and it really does cindy lopper money changes everything that's right which is a cover by the way i know yeah is it the boss who's who's on is that i don't is that my for some reason i can hear him singing that well here i'll i'll tee up the next question and then i'm gonna find out who's saying that okay so i'll check it out drew mcintyre drew mcintyre says ask him if he enjoyed playing the friendship festival in fort erie in the early 90s. I had a blast! Yes, so the Friendship Festival in Fort Erie was always fun, and I hope it's still going, because they really captured what was,

like all of us young bands at the time, so the Tea Party, the Headstones i'm other earth our lady peace uh etc etc the watchman we were all on that festival all the time so if you if you did it in 93 you'd be back in 95 then you'd be back in 97 and i'm other earth would be on those opposite years that we were not there it was just not moist such great vibe. You know what I mean? Great fun. It sounds amazing. By the way, Money Changes Everything was by The Brains, and it was written by their frontman, Tom Gray.

Wow. Money Changes Everything. So not the boss. Not the boss. Not this time. He did write, well, he wrote that Patti Smith hit, but he wrote Because the Night. That's his.

Because the night. Because the night. And also wrote. Oh, I know. You do it. You know that I know what you're going to say. Manfred Mann. Blinded by the light, of course. Now tell me what that lyric is. Because no one knows it.

Deuce, it's a car. Racked up like a deuce, another runner in the night. I think that's what it is, right? There's a frantics. You know the frantics, right? They have a whole great, yeah, they do a great bit on what the hell is being said in that song. I don't think it has anything to do with douches. I know that's the big urban legend. I know.

It's like, what the hell is he saying? Is it about drugs? Is it about... I like it. It's like, what's the Louis Louis, right? Everybody only argues over what's Louis Louis. Okay, so I'm burning with gas here because I've got to get down to the corner. But Ed here, Ed wants to know, what are your thoughts, Jeff,

on Snowjob 97 at Marble Mountain in Newfoundland? I remember it was really, really loud. Did we do that? Does he have the wrong band? I don't think we did that. Well, you would not forget. You would not forget playing Snow Job in Newfoundland. I'm surprised.

We did. If it was an out, did he say it was cold or loud? He said it was loud. Okay, because we did do a thing, but I think it was, remember when Molson Canadian would do the blind dates and events and stuff like that? 100%. We did one in Newfoundland on a hill overlooking literally the ocean.

And it was us, the mothers and moist. Yeah. And what a time that was. And so it was one of those wind to get in things. So everybody was jazzed to be there and we're all the bands are happy because you're making more money than you normally make. Right.

And we're playing on stage and I look back behind me and I swear to God, it had to be the size of a football field floating by me, this massive iceberg. And you could feel the chill as it's going by. It was just, it was so crazy, but I don't remember, um,

uh, a one, uh, what he said there. You know, memory is a funny thing, right? Jeff,

it's a copy of a copy of a copy. That might have been an indoor thing maybe at Mile One Arena, which is now Mary Brown's Chicken Arena. Too funny, too funny. I was just there. I'm like, Mary Brown's Chicken Arena. The hell is that?

Shout out to Mary Brown. She's a future sponsor. Future sponsor. Hey, can you, please please for me now this is me talking i need to hear what are your memories of sars stock oh man so that what a day um i met so many friends that day um so uh everyone was picked up we were at a hotel downtown toronto everyone was picked up in limos so we're getting there in limos we're like this is insane like oh my god what's gonna happen and you we went to uh

do you remember the station honey what's the station um train station that we went to to get there it starts with a w no it starts with a w uh it's where they do all of the uh maintenance on the trains and so on and so forth nonetheless uh west of toronto and from there we took the train up to downsview and on the train i'm meeting um uh dan akroyd jim belushi all of these stars i'm freaking out right i'm getting pictures this is before the iphones but i'm still i still have pictures like from our digital cameras yeah you know three that's like the beginning of digital cameras yeah and i'm talking to Jim Belushi like we've been friends forever I was just so excited right and then so you get to the venue and you see there's Sam

Roberts and there are those boys are always drinking and having a great time and then you see Jim Cuddy and you're talking to Jim and then the guys from Rush show up. I'm seeing Jim next week, by the way. I'm going to the Blue Rodeo studio to sit down with Jim Cuddy. He's so awesome. Man, what a writer. Tell him you said that. Oh, God. Those records never stopped playing in our vans when we were touring around.

Man, five days in July. Anyway, nonetheless, there we are and they have these makeshift dressing rooms in this big building um and every band is there we got to do a photo shoot with uh everyone from the stones acdc rush everyone was there and for me it was different because so we had to do like a little media scrum so we got off stage and it was funny because someone had asked you know what what has it been like to play in front of that many people and and jeff martin quipped well we've officially played in front of more people

at this point than the rolling stones have ever played in front of so it was fantastic and until the stones went on it was true i think they said 400 000 people or something at that show well when we went on it was about 380 and what i was told is by the time the stones and the acdc were on it was about 480 but who knows i mean i'm sure numbers what was jeff martin's like mark did jeff martin get the hang of acdc i would think that would be... Those guys are so little, man. We're not the tallest band, but we're each over six feet tall. All of these bands,

except us and Rush, were tiny people. It was crazy. I couldn't believe it. The Flaming Lips were on that show, too. I'm trying to think of who else was there. I didn't get to meet those guys. I was pretty bummed. Sass Jordan. Trying to think of who else was there.

And I didn't get to meet those guys. I was pretty bummed. Sass Jordan. Yes. Gosh. ACDC, Rush, Stones. Flaming Lips, I remember watching. Oh, Justin Timberlake, as I recall.

Oh, I was so bummed when people started throwing shit at him because he's such a cool guy. I got a picture with him too. Cool guy, but not a match for that crowd. You can't say, oh, come and see ACdc and rolling stones and then throw yeah they got him right well were you there because he went on stage with the stones and was like scatting when they were doing like shattered or something like that wasn't there i don't even ask me i think i wasn't there because i heard 500 000 people were gonna be there and i said that's it for me. Where am I going to go pee? I'll take a pass on this one. So backstage

I'll cut to the chase really quick with this part. Aside from seeing everyone, I made it a point I started doing some charity work at that time and I just, because being grateful, right? I thought what better way to meet some of my favorite drummers ever than to

ask them if I can get their drumsticks that they used for the show and if they could sign them. So I collected about eight different drumsticks from Neil to Charlie to, I forget who was playing drums. I don't think it was Phil Rudd back with ACDC yet. I think it was still that bald gentleman the tall guy but anyway um got all these drumsticks and i hosted an auction and i raised something like eight thousand dollars from these drumsticks for a local charity in our hometown that refurbishes uh hospital rooms for children with cancer so they make them more family style they they stole the idea from a hospital setting in toronto and these two girls that my wife and i know very well put this charity together and it's called transition to betterness and

so in the kids rooms they'd have big screen tvs all of their favorite plush toys that they can take home you know there'd be a snack cart that has you know edible snacks on it as opposed to the crap that they feed you and and so on and so forth so i did that and then it blew up because they had asked me during that media scrum a solo like i think it was the toronto star or the globe and mail um or the national post sorry um what i'd been doing with my day there so that was one of the things and and they felt like printing it and then all of a sudden transition to betterness we're getting bombarded with these phone calls about how cool they think the the idea amazing of what they're doing in windsor so for me it was that day really changed

my life in more ways than one first if you just looked out while you were playing if you just looked out straight it looked like an edge fest. Because the crowd ends, for me, bad eyes, about 400 feet out anyway. I can't really see too much past that. But then when you looked to the left and the right, it was endless. So that's when it became scary. And then you'd see people's heads move in different time, like a wave that they're jumping up and down. It was the most bizarre thing. Oh, right, because the sound has to get to them yeah although they did have sound like every 200 meters you could still see this slight delay which was fantastic to me and then

just seeing what i was able to do using you know the the tiny the modicum amount of celebrity that i had to to do some good um that changed my life that day so then i really became heavy duty into charity and and at that time our manager steve hoffman was dying of cancer and he was only 38 years old and he passed away uh probably three months after that, four months after that. And we really wanted him there. And his brother flew up from New York and he was there on his behalf. And he's the one who really, really inspired me to get into charity. And I ended up naming one of the rooms that I raised enough money for after him.

He was my first name of one of the bedrooms for the kids. So it changed a lot that day. Like, you know, I seem to be having these existential moments throughout my life, just not when you turn 40 or when you turn 50. And that was one of them. It was like, you're up there and I'm playing and I'm just like, I can't believe my life right now because I'm shocked. Like, it's so stunning. And at the same time, being able to do something, which to me was so stunning, and to be able to pull it off. Like, because you don't think like that. Again, you're just a guy who was fortunate enough to get a little bit of success.

And it's still shocking. You know, it's still, it's hard to explain. And I couldn't imagine being, you know it's still it's hard to explain and and i couldn't imagine being you know dave grohl i mean he's he's so kind and he's so giving and so on and so forth well that's why because he's got all that to give and he's got the the platform and the persona and so on so it was just a very existential day and then at the end of the day i met the vice president on the way back the vice president of via rail and he's been a great one of my best friends since then and i just he just sat down next to me he's this very vicarious or no sorry wrong word vivacious character

and um his name is pierre santoni and he goes so you like the train? And I, at that time, all I did was take the train from Windsor to Toronto because the other two guys were still, were living back up here. So I said, I take the train three times a week. And he just literally said, here's my card. Don't pay for the train anymore. Wow. Wow. So I joined his club so it was me

ty domey a couple of the other a couple wings that were up you know back and forth toronto and i'd see these guys all the time like you're heading up yeah yeah pass that card over here my daughter's moving to montreal okay i gotta take a lot of trips from toronto to montreal so so what that turned into, again, I would be like, hey, Pierre, I'm having a charity event. Can you shoot me some gift cards? And he'll throw $3,000 worth of gift cards, and then I raise money from that, and it goes to the charities.

So, yeah, that was my day in a nutshell. My wife and I had so much fun. What a day. And my guy, me and the band were sitting. When ACDC was on, we went right in front of the soundboard and there was this little bench and we just sat there drinking beer going holy shit look at this it's just insane it was so much fun okay what a day what a day honestly what a day it changed your life forever now um you mentioned you know the edge vests you can only see the 400 meters or whatever, but Barry Kroll is curious,

do you miss playing the summer outdoor circuit from the 90s, like the Molson Park and Barry games and other all-day festivals like edge vests? Yeah, so this summer has been all about, for us, has been mostly about festivals, which we've missed. And I think the Canadian government gave a lot of people a lot of money to put on these festivals because there were so many this year. And we loved it because you get to see all the bands you haven't seen in forever.

And, you know, you're playing catch, you're playing air hockey or whatever. You're just backstage having a great time. And so, yes, the short answer is yes. The longer answer is we had a solution to that right when COVID hit, is we were going to do the Saints and Sinners tour, which featured the Headstones, Moist, Big Wreck, and the Tea Party. And it got canceled because of COVID. Then we put it back together.

Then it got canceled again. Then Big Wreck said, eh, enough. We're going to do our own thing. So then we brought in the guys from Sloan and then we were just about ready to do it. Then it got canceled again. So then we were like, okay, forget it. We just won't do this now. But I think it's, I think the agency is catching on as to how big this could actually be.

So I'm not discounting, perhaps not on the same level. I mean, that was a lot of people. We were 25,000 to 45,000 people a day in all those cities. So Toronto, Montreal, those would be your big, big cities. But you'd play somewhere like Saskatoon, it'd be 30,000 people. Like, holy hell, that's a lot of people in Saskatoon. So I can easily see this happening. Again, maybe in arenas, maybe in the winter,

or maybe outdoors. Maybe they can do a cheap ticket. And I just liked the fact that, I mean, for us, we have the Saints and Sinners thing going on. It was a hundred bucks a ticket for four bands and make it like an event. So we get paid. The fans have an amazing experience at a relatively inexpensive cost when you're considering four bands and the amount of time. And so, great question. And I think it's going to happen.

I hope. Well, count me in, man. You're preaching to the choir. I love a nice outdoor festival show like that. I love the holiday trip. See? And Toronto Mike could be the emcee. Travel across the country.

And you know what? Great Lakes Brewery can have their beer tent and they can get, you know, they got Palma Pasta could feed everybody. Shout out to Palma Pasta. Hell yeah, man. It's all coming together. All right, now I realize I asked for an hour

and I'm being an ass here. No, that's okay. But okay. Ed Flynn wants to know, and it's funny you just mentioned Big Wreck, but he says, do you remember a 2000-ish gig at the government? Shout out to the government. It's no longer there.

Yeah. When Ian Thornley got up during the encore, and they busted into When the Levee Breaks. Maybe it's a Big Sugar gig or something. Do you have any memory of this at all from Ed Flynn? Was the tea party playing playing and Ian came up? I don't know. It sounds like a Big Sugar was playing and Ian got up.

Was I there? I don't know. I mean, I've played with Big Wreck and I've played with Big Sugar and both guys have played with us. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't remember that one specifically, but... But you play with all the big bands, right? Big Wreck, Big Sugar.

Big Sugar, yeah. Zucker Baby. Mr. Big. Oh, Andromeda, right? That's a song that's forgotten to time. You never hear Zucker Baby's Andromeda, but when you hear it, you're like, fucking, that was a great jam.

Exactly. There really ought to be a radio station honestly like there should you know how so the edge is the edge now it does what it does and that's great but i don't know if in canada but i live next to detroit and and all of the so like there's a rock station wrif it's eighth largest rock station in america but now there's wrRIF and WRIF2 and WRIF3 on your digital channels. There really ought to be an Edge 90s channel. Okay. You know what? I mean, you know, I'm with you. Like sort of like an adult alternative or whatever they call this.

Like for us Gen Xers who are looking to, we want to revisit. Dude, when we were kids there were 60 stations for our dads and moms well why isn't there a 90 station you know what I'm saying I think it's going to happen because there's nowhere else to go but really because so many people miss so many of those songs

like a Zooka Baby right out of the air you never hear that Did he just say that because I was listening to Andromeda the other day. And my thought as I listened was, I don't remember the last time somebody said Zucker baby. Like I can't, I can't honestly,

don't ask me to name a second jam. I'm sure it's a great band. What a great, what a great name too. Zucker baby. I mean, that's fucking cool, man.

Oh man. I love all this. Sammy Cohn was right. There's going to be some nineties rock talk here. Okay. But okay. Speaking of 102.1, the edge 1984,

Leifer sent in a question. Did the band really get mad at Barry Taylor for the, he in quotes, you bit there a bit from Barry Taylor would do. And maybe there was a part of the, I remember that, that that that lasted a few months at least tell the people what we're talking about i'm barry taylor by the way also an fotm but tell us um what are we talking about didn't he he would all always he would always take the clip of

the beginning of fire in the head which is you stay silent knowing um he would always he had like a hot key with you on it right so if he was saying a sentence and like oh come on in here you are more than welcome kind of thing and i just thought it was hilarious i don't think jeff ever got no one got mad about it no god no just quite funny to be honest well i could tell from i could tell from the last time i saw him he seemed to have a good sense of humor about everything. Yeah, yeah. I like that. So I'm glad we could put that to rest.

I remember he, you know, one of the sponsors of this program, Canna Cabana, they sell weed. And I always remember Barry Taylor had the 420 thought of the day. I remember. Very, very, very interesting, he would say. Okay, so burning with gas here,

but I do want to shout out StickerU really quick because if you want to get your Tea Party stickers, go to stickeru.com. You, stickeru.com. What can you tell me? You mentioned earlier, you know, Rush played that Sarastok, of course, and you kind of, you joined,

I'm trying to think, it was a one-off project called big dirty band i'm wondering if you could just tell us what the heck that was about so the trailer park boys had their movie coming out and alex of rush uh who's become a great friend um he he was on their show he had made multiple appearances on the show itself. And then when the movie came out, Neil, of course, living in California and so on, and we were with SRO management, so they also obviously had Rush. And they said, look, we want to throw together a project. Would you be interested in doing this? And I'm like, are you kidding? So it was Adam Gontier on vocals um ian thornley on

vocals care failure another great singer um and then of course getty on bass alex on guitar was there anyone else i can't really remember but all i remember about that day um because i have bad lungs so i i've never been like a pot smoker right if i do i feel shitty and whatever i do enjoy my oil to go to sleep but that's about it right um but uh after i had finished the drum so and it was rich chicky who was producing this and engineering it he's done all the rush stuff right so i'm in there and i'm crapping my pants and playing on neil's dws like his warm-up kit and i'm in alex's studio so it's at that point it's just me alex rich uh ian wasn't there yet that might have been it maybe one other person another engineer perhaps so i get done the set uh or sorry get done the song we do a couple cleanups on it and I'm just sitting there and I'm like,

holy shit. Alex looks at me and he goes, here you go. And he sparks up this huge, huge joint. And I'm like, wow, Alex, if Alex Lifeson hands you a joint, you haul on that sucker. Oh, no doubt. No doubt. I took a big haul and I was dying man i almost threw up but i was high after that i couldn't believe it and then everybody started coming in and i'm literally just sitting in a chair smiling the whole time ian's singing and playing guitar and alex just picks up his guitar starting to jamming and i'm just thinking what is going on

if i could replay any moment in my life, except the birth of our children and our marriage, honey, I would definitely go back to that day. It was so freaking good. That day. And then a few weeks later, we shot the video, which was even more fun because, you know, it's just ridiculous.

Ridiculous. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. And Basement Dweller wrote me an email. Listeners of this program, remember Basement Dweller? Good to hear he's doing all right. Basement Dweller wrote, What was it like working with the legendary producer Terry Brown

on the second Crash Karma album, Rock Music Deluxe? Okay, so maybe tell us firstly remind everybody i remember but remind everybody who was crash karma and then tell us about uh working with terry brown okay so um the tea party wasn't doing anything i was in radio at the time i got uh an outreach from andy curran who everyone knows from um coney Coney hatch. Coney hatch. He's an FOTM Andy. Good man. Good man.

He is an amazing man. One of the, if not the nicest, one of the nicest people you'll ever meet in your life. Um, so he said, Hey, um,

I've produced this guy before and his name's Amir Epstein and he's going to reach out. He's got a couple of questions for you and I wouldn't do this if it wasn't serious. And I'm like, Oh, of course, bud.

So I get a call from this guy named amir epstein who i've never met before apparently he's a bass player played in a band who you may know called zygote yes remember zygote uh but i but don't ask me to name a jam from zygote i just remember the name yeah so so he played in this band so he called me and he said hey i want to put together a band i've already secured mike turner of olp and edwin of my mother earth i later find out mike got a phone call hey i want to put together a band i've already secured jeff burrows and edwin of my mother earth and edwin said i got a phone call that said hey i'm putting together a band with mike turner and jeff bros and it worked tea party i'm like you son of a bitch but he was very smart and a great songwriter um and the band

got together and and we got some good grant money from the radio station i was actually working at which was awesome uh rest in peace um uh now i forget his name honey what was his name richard blackburn radio i'm sorry that's horrible but anyway he ended up passing away great guy supported us and um so we did the first album it was really good and we had a lot of fun and you get to tour but you just don't make you don't make a living like it's so tough for young bands. I couldn't imagine. And we were an old guys, young band. And then rock music deluxe came and Jake gold, speaking of which, what also may still manage, uh,

Terry Brown. So for me, I mean, I got pictures and, and the whole thing. And that, that album particularly, I think,

and I'm not one to say, Oh, that's one of my best pieces of work. But for me, that album is easily the most diverse drumming I think I got to do on any album, even the Tea Party, on just the kit. The Tea Party stuff is cool for me because I get to do a lot more than just your standard kit because we bring in my electronics and then I get to do all of the skinned instruments and so on and so forth but as variety on your western rock kit yeah that album is so much fun for me to play and and those guys were pushing me Amir would say I want it to sound like this and I want you to do

this and I said but it doesn't make sense drumming like that and he goes make it happen just do it and I worked around it and it was actually really good and then when terry brown came into the mix um he he's not a technical savvy guy he's not the kind of guy who goes into the studio and says all right i want to do this and let's set up this this isn't he's literally behind the board just listening with his eyes closed and then he'll stop it and say okay don't try this i like the way this is going here but do that one again can you hit that fill again? And I think I got pushed on that album more than any other album. And again, another great opportunity. And I ripped those off in like two days, the whole album.

And I only stopped on the first day because I wanted something to do on the second day. Okay, so speaking of Blue Rodeo, and we always speak fondly of blue rodeo but you didn't think uh the band name was too similar to crash vegas oh well no what no what's really strange is there is a crash karma out there as well okay okay i always got i used because i mean we all all remember Inside Out and some Crash Vegas jams. Oh, must have been the smoke inside my eyes. That's another one. Such a good track. Inside Out.

Good cover. Okay, yeah. Right, right, right. We played with them once. Okay, so you played with everybody at this point. Yeah, we were quite young. Yeah, no, I don't even know how the band name came up. I think we were all on the phone together, and I think we were just ripping around names and I don't know that's kind of what

happened I think two cool words to come uh tied together yeah why not okay uh why not yeah so uh we're wrapping up here you've been amazing like you kick you hit it out of the park I know you're a baseball guy you hit it out of the park here amazing uh where well we could oh heck i guess uh i guess i you know if you have to go now we could literally wrap right now and i'm so satisfied by this amazing debut by you uh yeah yeah i need you gotta go okay so let me just say thank you for all the charity work you're doing. Langer pointed out that the Jeff Burrows 24-hour drum marathon for charity is absolutely awesome. And you host Good Time Charlie's in Windsor. And he says he remembers when that was Charlie's Brew Pub.

So thank you for the charity work. And he wonders if that's still a dive, Charlie's. No, no. My friend Costa owns it. You'll get the best gyros And best wings There in Windsor So that's really good

And I've done that 17 years in a row so far So I'm only doing it 20 years And then we're wrapping it up And then I'm going on to more like a Jerry Lewis style 24 hour thing where I can sleep in the back And come out and say a few words Okay, so maybe your final words here, uh, and then, uh, we say goodbye for now, but you'll be back cause you're amazing. But, uh, do you want to tell us what is this Jeff Burrows 24 hour drum

marathon? Oh, so every year I, I, my friend and my friend Gary and I, who is literally the first tea party. He was my boss when I was working in university. I used to work midnights at the post office processing plant. And he's the first one who bought the CD and he bought it right from me. So anyway, we've been friends forever and he pulls together all the bands, duos, solo artists, and we create a 24 hour set that I start at midnight. So what he does now to make even more money is he starts it on the Friday at around 4 p.m. I show up around and all these bands play and they all try to solicit money and bring it in for the funds. And then I show up around 1130 after getting a few hours sleep and I start. And each hour we have a different artist playing.

So if it's a band, I'm playing with the band and their drummer plays tambourine. I'm, if it's a band, I'm playing with the band and their drummer plays tambourine, then there's a five minute changeover. So I can run and go pee or grab a diet Pepsi and water and come back. And then we do that for the 24 hours. And then I have one band kind of wrap it up for the last two hours and all the money goes to, uh, six different mental health charities. Good for you. Honestly, uh, love it. Good for you. Amazing. You mentioned the post office, so let's shout out

fellow drummer Cleve Anderson. Yeah. Who left Blue Rodeo for Canada Post. But Ingrid Schumacher was on this program from Chum FM and she was married to Cleve

and she pointed out that that was not the Blue Rodeo we think of now. That was not the post-try Blue Rodeo. So that decision would be, I think would be understandable in the moment.

And of course, Cleve would take the dependable job. I'm sure they have a good benefits and pension package. So, you know, that's what you got to look after sometimes. All right. Thank you so much,

Jeff Burrows. Thanks so much. I thought I was talking to the former Toronto blue J Jeff Burrows, but you did fine in his stead. So thanks so much for doing this. Thanks so much. And Toronto Mike, I can't wait till you expand to Montreal, Mike. Saskatoon, Mike.

We're taking this across the country, babe. It's going to be great. Thank you. Hwyl. and that brings us to the end of our 1090 second show You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Jeff Burrows is at Burrows Drums. Follow him on Twitter. He's a good follow. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. They're hosting TMLXX on September 1st

from 6 to 9 p.m. Be there or be square. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. They're feeding us at TMLXX. Seriously, all FOTMs are welcome. No charge. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Electronic Products Recycling Association are at

EPRA underscore Canada. EPRA underscore Canada. Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH and Canna Cabana are at Canna Cabana underscore. See you all Sunday when my special guest is CBC Radio's Marcia Young. And I don't know what the future can hold or do for me and you But I'm a much better man for having known you Oh, you know that's true because Everything is coming up rosy and green

Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow Wants me to date 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 been told That there's a sucker born every day But I wonder who 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 gray. Because I know that's true. Yes, I do. I know it's true. Yeah. I know it's true Yeah I know it's true How about you?

I've been picking up trash And then putting down ropes And they're brokering stocks The class struggle explodes And I'll 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 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 Cause everything is rosy now Everything is rosy Yeah, everything is rosy and everything is rosy and gray.