Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Jeremy Taggart: Toronto Mike'd #85

Episode Date: July 18, 2014

Mike chats with Jeremy Taggart about his years drumming for Our Lady Peace, why he left the band, his podcast with Jonathan Torrens, his tryout with the Atlanta Braves and what's next.

Welcome to the 85th episode of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is former Our Lady Peace drummer and co-host of the Taggart and Torrens podcast, Jeremy Taggart. Welcome to the studio, Jeremy. How's it going, Mike? Nice to be here. Thanks for having me here. You know, way back, this is 85, but back in episode 65, your co-host Jonathan Torrens was on. I heard this.

He was on the second floor. I used to have a really nice studio on the second floor before Baby Jarvis showed up, and I got booted to the basement. I'm a fan of the basement. Good things happen in basements. Yeah, that's where the best music is written, right? Yeah, you get your chops dealt with, and you practice down there, and yeah, I like

basements. It's good. Now, you just came here from way up in Richmond Hill. And you got caught in some I like basements. It's good. Now, you just came here from like... Way up in Richmond Hill. And you got caught in some legendary Toronto traffic. I got a real dose. You think that's the Indy? Do you think that's what's going on or is it just normal?

It's just Friday on a weekend and it's beautiful. And everyone's trying to get out and go in at the same time. And you know all the road closures. Everything is closed and being fixed. Well, you're down to two lanes on the Gardiner anyway. And then you got this Molson Indy bogging up, I guess. And you got like an edge fest going on. Yes. So people

are going to like Ontario Place. It's ramp. There's a game at the Dome. Oh, man. Yeah, it's just absolutely ridiculous anywhere. And I kind of had to go via right downtown and right down lakeshore and it took you like hours right about two hours that's insane right yeah sometimes you tweet these uh clever little uh falling down memes yeah yes yes i uh i call him traffic man and uh yeah he he

explains the rage quite quite nicely Twitter and Instagram. I do throw the traffic man out there for if I feel it. And there's different situations where you're like, okay, this is it. I got to say something or someone will tweet something and I'll be like, yes, we're dealing with this right now. And it's just awful.

And this is not getting any better. This is like years, right? No, I think we're going to be the city of traffic for at least two, three more years. And then there'll be so many people that it won't matter anymore. It'll just be constant. I'm at a point now,

I had to go to the beaches for meetings Monday and Tuesday, and I biked. It's an hour each way. And I'd rather bike. It's the same time, but I don't have the frustration. Well, yeah, and you're getting, you're expending the proper energy.

Yeah, that's right. And it lets me eat like a pig and still, you know, I become a fat guy. Yeah. But if I have to, I try not to have, I have to do it sometimes, but I try not to do it. If I can help it, it's just shortening my lifespan. Like it makes me crazy.

Well, yeah, I try not to do it in in peak traffic hours but i mean at least uh this is happening over the traffic so we'll be uh we'll be all right that's right yeah uh did uh just quick story so uh jonathan was actually looking for um jonathan torrence was looking for a recording studio to record the first episode of Torrence and Taggart podcast. So he writes me an email. So he Googles Toronto podcast studio or something. And I'm number one because I wrote about this. Would you call this a studio?

Can I call it a studio if I have professional gear? Absolutely. You have great mics and you have a system right in front of you. Absolutely. I've got actual software. Okay, good. I just want to make sure. You've got three great mics.

I don't want to misrepresent the studio. These are really nice mics, by the way. My buddy, quick shout out to Andrew Stokely, who recommended these things. And they weren't cheap, but it's like go big or go home, right? Exactly. Yeah. So he Googles Toronto Podcast Studio and then comes to my site and there's a contact link. And he's like, how much for an hour to record a podcast and i write back and explain that like i don't really do that and then at some point uh i could like the name's jonathan torrens in this email and i'm like a i'm a big street sense fan from way back like i know jonathan torrens yeah yeah good stuff and then uh at some point i think

i just ask him like are you you know the jonathan torrens and he's like yep and i'm like you got to come on my pot forget your podcast and he's like he's at cbc for something and he's like he's just the nicest guy because he says okay and he hops on a cab and he says it was 40 bucks to get here 40 bucks to get back and he listened to my silly street sense questions for an hour and i remember that day Because we actually taped, I think, an episode I never got the gig, man I never got the He was going to pay for the recording space

I didn't close the deal You didn't close the deal But we would have to come out here all the time I would have said, no way, this is crazy This is too far So how do you I have a lot of questions And lots of some Our Lady P stuff

And some other stuff But I want to start with this podcast. So I actually listen. This is not bullshit. That's good. I know you recorded something yesterday. Yeah, we have. Has it gone live yet?

Last night. No, hopefully we'll get it over the next couple days. Then I'm up to date. I'm current. You're current. Yes. Yeah. Things I love about your podcast is the Canadiana aspect, like these references.

Yeah. Just like I'm a 40-year-old Toronto guy and I love it. That's your ballpark. I'm right in your wheelhouse. For example, you talk about Wheels' dad. I vividly remember the episode.

I remember the sign for Port Hope. Let's not forget the three episodes. The two episodes you're talking about. Where he beats him in Port Hope or whatever he's a dick yeah there's the original one when he's way younger a few years before where wheels dad his mike is being actually like wanting to get to know okay okay and it's actually wheels who disses him so it kind of comes back around so it's actually even more depressing because his parents are...

His fake parents are gone and he goes to Port Hope thinking he can find some new love. Yeah. He's just like, get out of here. I love it. I love it because... Well, first of all, actually, now that we...

I'm laughing at the Wheels storyline, but every time I think of Wheels now, I think of the poor actor. Oh, for sure. Is that the most... Have you ever heard of a story like that where somebody dies and we find out five years later oh it's unbelievable yeah and then nobody knows and the grassy people don't pay for a funeral or even send flowers well it's like nothing i need somebody like you i know maybe this is uh what's the guy from uh

oh crap uh dogma kevin smith maybe he's the guy from, oh, crap. Dogma, Kevin Smith, maybe is the guy for this job. Are you? Somebody's got to get like a documentarian team. We got to dig into this, man. I need the full story. Of the Wheels dad thing? Yeah, no. Or Wheels.

Of Wheels, the actor. Yes. Well, actually, I believe he committed suicide. So it's a very terrible story. I don't even know if I knew that. I assume the family probably just didn't want to talk about it. And that's probably why nobody heard about it. And then I believe it was two years later when I heard about it.

Because Jonathan talks about how he had the reunion special. And I guess they didn't have wheels or did something happen with wheels? He was AWOL at the time. I don't know. Yeah. Who knows? He could have had some issues. You're right.

There should be a documentary. I feel like there's a lot of unanswered questions. Too many. I would watch that. And you should talk to Kevin Smith because he's got money to do stuff like that. For sure. For sure. Cool.

And the other thing I love about the podcast, but yeah, the Canadianisms. You got the candy awards and all this. I just eat that shit up. And your dad, okay? So your dad... My dad, Ron. Ron Taggart. Yeah, he's the genuine article, right?

This is too good to be true. Yeah, it is. Well, I mean, it's when I was, I guess, dealing and seeing the anger when I was a kid. Yeah. He's mellowed out a lot since then. It was one of those things where I was like, this is just so beyond that I have to one day talk about it. And hopefully I will be able to talk about it,

how I am talking about it, where he's still alive and we can kind of laugh about it a little bit. Sure, sure. But at the time it was uh just intense and uh specifically uh the the just like creative rage not just what he said but how he got mad and what he would do and uh to this day it's just a very intelligent man and uh he just takes it to the hilt on every level. And when he gets angry, he just goes over the rails. And he's on, is he on yesterday's episode? No, he hasn't been on in a little while.

We've been doing it. Yeah, how do you tell me this? How do you do it? Because like Jonathan is in like the East Coast. Yeah, he's in Truro, which is about an hour from Halifax. And you're in the GTA. I'm in the GTA. So yeah, we do it from our houses.

Sometimes we've done it in the same room, but we get Tim Oxford, the drummer from the Arkells, who's a great engineer. And he used to do Taggart's Take with me when I used to do another podcast back in the early, when the spawning of podcasts. The early podcast era. And yeah, he worked on that with me.

So he's busy with the band. So sometimes he's not available. So we just record it individually and then send him the files and he edits it. So that's what we do. So it's not, are you like Skyping? No. So it's completely separate?

Yeah, we're talking on the phone and recording it. Okay. We, I mean, it would probably be better if we could see each other, but we're getting to the point now where uh we're understanding uh the the timing and feel of each other so we don't have to interrupt and we allow uh it's been not a problem it's been cool and i know jonathan was very open about the fact that the goal is to get an actual radio gig yeah so how's that going? It's been amazing. I mean, we've had some interest,

and we're talking to some people, and we've been talking for a little while. So I'm sure if anyone knows radio, stuff doesn't happen overnight. There's lots of people that have to get involved, and we have to work it up and make it, because at this point, we're not sure if it's two hours, three hours, one hour daily, two times a week.

So we like it right now as a week and an hour, an hour and a half or whatever. So we're just trying to work it into something and it will come out. It will be on radio at some point. Is this like terrestrial radio or is this Sirius XM? No, it'll be on a network of stations across the country, just like normal ones, yeah.

Not digital, I guess. No, so yeah, terrestrial stuff like an astral or whatever, chorus, whatever the heck. Yeah, for sure. When you say that, I always think like... Like E.T.? Yeah, like just... You mean like all of them at once yeah man just

something like like casey casem yes yeah yeah yeah reach for the sadly taken away yeah but at least we found out like the minute he died i didn't have that five-year wait like with wheels oh i know it was yeah talk about the happier Degrassi memories. Like, all the way with Stephanie Kay. All the way. Remember this? Well, I just appreciate how every single time there was a storyline, it was always so over the top. Like, the guy taking acid.

Oh, yeah. If you do acid once, you're going to jump off a building or some shit like that. Yeah, you have sex with a girl. You either get AIDS or you get pregnant. You're absolutely right. Remember the fight scene? Oh, that's right, yeah. With George Jeremiah and the fat guy?

Yeah, and he punches him and he gets blood and he's like, oh no, I have AIDS. Yeah, yeah. That's just so ridiculous how they would just throw those together. You hear AIDS was in the news, so then they just throw it in the scene and all of a sudden one kid has full--blown AIDS well the best example the best example he's having a fight in the in the in the

bathroom right but the best example and this ties back to your co-host there on the podcast but it's Shane right like Shane so Shane I guess is the guy on the show who's gonna do like illicit drugs or whatever yeah so next thing you know what he had like a stroke or whatever right yes and then i think jonathan torrance yes yes yes plays his dad and no no no plays him always him yeah that's right that's right it's supposed to be the original actor because i get this story fascinating because you know what i didn't i don't watch trailer park boys which i probably shouldn't admit but so i can't really do a lot of trailer park boys talk of jonathan but damn it i watched that uh special or whatever where he played shane so the original actor didn't like the story arc or something yeah and jonathan uh i guess he's blonde and he's close enough yeah

close enough and he comes in and he's still like you saw it i saw it is it classic yeah and it's gotta be on youtube it's classic it's great great. And Jonathan plays him like a challenged individual, you know? Like he's gone off from the LSD? He's had a stroke and he's mentally challenged. Was it because of the LSD? I believe it's because of the LSD. Like he fell off a building or something, right? Something while he was tripping on acid.

But like you said, if anyone touches acid, they're going to fall off a building. Well, because it was that story. It was at the Pink Floyd or the Grateful Dead show. Some guy got killed. He went into the lake or something. My brother took LSD at a Grateful Dead show, James, and he ended up getting in. The cops stuck him in, and my parents had to go get him.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. But he didn't try to fly or anything. No, no. He didn't do anything crazy. He just got... So it's just the two people, the one in the news story and then uh shane yes okay gotcha yes yeah uh cool and i'm just gonna bring in a tune here okay i just gotta just talk to you a little bit about a band you were in oh

yeah am i allowed to talk about this band sure sure. 21 years. You know, I love this tune. I still love this tune. This is from Navi. This is the first album I ever heard. I guess much music picked up on Starseed and all this stuff. Yeah, this was definitely the first record. I think it was the third single or something like that.

Fourth, maybe fourth. So, Jeremy, I want you to please take us back. I understand you were 17 years old. Is that possible? Yes, when I joined and freshly booted out of Emory High School. Where's Emory High School? Finch and Weston area. I did some time there.

And I grew up on the road in a little van and then a tour bus and then flying around in studios. And I got to play with some amazing bands and see some incredible musicians. I love music. Since I was a little kid, I've always loved music and wanted to play drums. And since I was a little kid, I've always loved music and wanted to play drums. And I got to do that in terms of making a body of work with Our Lady Peace and creating music over a long period of time with them was amazing. And I look forward now to continuing music with other people and other projects.

And I just feel it's time to move on. And I did some amazing things with them. It's great. So it was like, was it 93? Yeah. Okay, so back in 93, you're 17 years old. You just try out, is that it? Like the band is looking for a drummer? Yeah, I mean, at that point, it was just in Now Magazine, you know, musicians wanted.

And it was definitely Now, right? Yeah, it was Now. Yeah, back. Those details are important on Toronto Mic. Oh, absolutely. For sure. I mean, back then I was always looking for something. I was auditioning once or twice a month with other bands

and always pretending that I was older. I was 15 or 16 saying I was 19 or 20. Right. This was just another one of them. But this happened to be younger guys. And once we started jamming uh it really there was a feeling and a chemistry and it was easy and i think that's that's that's why we uh i guess decided to go forth as that four piece and we started writing navid about

i don't know a week two after that I was literally growing up on the road. Did you know at the time, did you know when you were writing Navid that you guys were writing hit songs, like songs that 102.1 would play every hour and would be in much music, high rotation? No, no, no. You kind of hope at this,

when you make a record, you just want to be able to make another one and uh if you have a you get a record deal you want to keep a record deal so you're not thinking of stars and trying to sell records because you realize pretty quick how hard that is and how big uh you know how small a percentage of albums that actually become hits. So you think a little more realistically and think to sell enough to make another one. And that's basically what happened. And then it snowballed and the stars aligned in a sense.

And we had hit songs on the radio for a long time. In my opinion, as the de facto surveyor of the CanCon landscape, you guys are next to the Tragically Hip. Okay, so maybe the Hip, number one, but R-Lady P is number two. I'm not kidding. Like in terms of CanCon.

Yeah, if you get out there, if you drive out to the other cities, outside of major cities, you definitely hear a lot of OLP and that's okay. You know, that's, it's definitely for the reason of all those shows and playing to those people because uh every time our lady peace plays in summertime there's a lot of

people yeah singing along and and uh there's not too many days that go by if somebody knows i'm in a room they want to talk about that you know especially out at the cottage or you know at a party or you know at a party or something like that so there's uh it's not like oh i don't remember that band that's definitely no no no no and before i get ahead of myself when you're 17 18 uh you still can play the bars and stuff like this wasn't a problem yeah and i was one of those kind of nerdy geeky musicians that really i wasn't into i didn't drink or do drugs. And I was really straight edged.

And I think that helped me definitely kind of kept me focused and on the right things. I think I didn't drink until I was 28 years old. So I used to have migraines when I was a kid, really bad headaches, like consistently. So I warded off all of these different things. And alcohol was one of the things that apparently can cause a headache. And so I wouldn't eat like everything from chocolate to pineapple to citrus fruits to all these ridiculous things, processed meats. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And alcohol until I felt I'd grown out of the migraines

where I wasn't really getting them that much anymore. So I started testing the waters and drinking. But I spent all those 18 to 28 just kind of focused on, I guess, getting better and, you know, learning because I didn't really know much at the time. And it's funny you mentioned the drinking. We just had Erin Davis was on last week. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And she tells a story about she basically was like a functional alcoholic who now it's eight years now that she hasn't had anything to drink because she won't let

herself have any alcohol. But she talks about how she just uh drove into alcohol as like a solution and it became a problem for her and so she quit cold turkey yeah i i can uh relate to that because i didn't start drinking until i was 28 and i didn't not drink and until i was 33 after so six years ago now i quit drinking okay so Okay, so you're six, she's eight. Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah, I had to stop. So you had to stop because it was a problem or just... It was every day, every night drunk. And if I had an opportunity, I was blackout drunk. You know, there was no have a couple drinks and then take it easy.

No moderation or whatever. Is that a personality trait, Jeremy? Personality trait? Because I know people. My brother's a bit like this. It's all or nothing. Yeah. I think it's...

I liked the taste, the crispness of a beer or whatever, but I wasn't really into the taste of alcohol. So I would just drink it to get a buzz. Right, right. And when you're getting a buzz every day, that buzz increases. And for me, I needed about four or five beers to get a buzz. So a good night had to be 10 or 12 drinks.

That's a lot. Yeah. That's a month for me, by the way. Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah. I mean, one bottle of wine for me, I would be upset. Like, what am I going to do after this? Right, right, right.

And 2, 3 o'clock in the afternoon, it's like, I want be like upset. Like, what am I going to do after this? You know, so, and, you know, two, three o'clock in the afternoon, it's like, I want to get a drink into me. So did it affect like the music? Did it affect touring and stuff? Like, I mean, you, you spoke of Erin being a functional alcoholic, you know, she was never late or anything. Yeah. I mean, you can, you can kind of build certain amount of hours to be functional, but in music, I mean, it's pretty easy to do it because you don't drink until the show starts.

I couldn't be drunk on four or five beers over the show. And it's part of the culture anyways. Yeah, you get used to just part of the deal. I mean, I'm used to going to Pearl Jam and Ed Vedder's got a bottle of wine. Yeah, he drinks the whole thing. Yeah, it's part of the deal. I mean, I'm used to going to Pearl Jam, and Ed Vedder's got a bottle of wine. Yeah, he drinks the whole thing.

Yeah, it's part of the culture. So you just get into that, and it's fun, and you're socializing, and you're just getting drunk, and that just becomes part of the thing. And then once that becomes a routine, you drink for happiness and when you're bummed out, and it just becomes a terrible cycle that you have to make that choice that if this is going to continue that I have to accept that

it's not going to go on much longer you know I'm going to be dead at 45 or something so if I stop now I have a chance at a normal life so I was lucky enough to see that somehow in a drunken stupor one night. Drunken stupor. That I somehow was, I guess my wife, Lisa, had a lot to do with it just to kind of open my eyes to the situation. But something told me that this isn't a good idea. So I stopped and I somehow, I don't know how I did, but I had no, you know, no realization to want it anymore. I was going to ask if you ever get tempted, like if you had a hot summer day in a beer tent or something. Well, the thing is, it's like, I think when you stop drinking for six years, you think you can have one drink.

But there's something in my head that keeps me from that one drink. Self-preservation. So I don't know what it is, but I just continue to thank somebody for doing that. So do you believe, because you're thanking somebody, do you believe in a higher power? Yeah, I mean, I believe in all kinds of energy, and I think the statistical, I guess, evidence of history of man and the understanding of all pure realization of what a religion is supposed to be across the board, they always have an element of meditation and connection to something. And I know if I'm playing drums, there's something different that happens inside of me.

And I know if I'm playing drums, there's something different that happens inside of me. Our ear canals, there's the cerebellum, which is the, I guess that's what gives us the idea of balance and how to walk. It connects to the ear canal. So, like, there's a reason to have auditory understanding to music, I think for timing, for the same reason of balance. And because, because when you're playing time, you, you,

something happens, you're connecting to something. So I just feel there's far too much energy to deny it. I'm not certain what it is. I'm certainly not going to deny it. I do feel if you close it off, you kind of become a husk in a sense, because you're just closing all kinds of opportunity. And when you're alive and what,

you know, we really don't know what the hell is going on around us, period. You know, even when it's funny when science decides, well, when science finds something out that's factual, even the scientists themselves don't tell you why. They just say that's what's happening. You know what I mean? Like, okay, this is how, but there's no reason why. So don't freak out about saying that this is the be-all, end-all or some secretion of chemical into my brain to tell me something. Yeah, that's why something happens in the physical sense,

but it's not telling me why it's necessary. You know, the fact that we could be, in a sense, wirelessly connected somewhere else, and this is just where we are. It feels like we're inside ourselves. It doesn't feel like we're just pumping. You know what I mean? Do you understand what I'm talking about? Well, I understand this energy, and I understand that,

except how does that tie to religion, though? I just wonder, do you practice a religion? I think when people are praying, when they're doing whatever praying is supposed to be, it's a good thing. And I think when man was first starting, when you did these things, it was a continuation of understanding and just getting better to know yourself and better to allow yourself to think that there's something else,

something else guiding you, instinct, all of these other things. So I just accept those things, and I've put it in the same basket as religion. I've met scientists that are very intelligent, that are very religious in what they're saying and how they talk about how things come about. And I think most of these people are generally open as opposed to closed. You know what I mean?

Well, I guess it's important to keep an open mind to everything. Yeah. I'm sure if I kept a closed mind musically, I wouldn't really be, I couldn't really write. So tell me about when Our Lady Peace is writing these songs, what's your role in that process? Well, I think when you're in any band, it can be a couple chords or a riff on an instrument,

or it could be just a drum beat, or it could be a cool adding your element, making your part of the equation interesting uh everybody has their job and that's kind of like your department has to have a feel and i believe that with any kind of song each instrument should should have its own identity in a way the drums should be catchy the bass should be catchy you should be able to play it alone and get something from it and so being in a band you kind of have to cover that bass as well as uh maybe you know come up with other things to keep momentum going i think that's the most important thing is not allowing it things to bottom out and stop just you know allowing the

the volleying of ideas to continue did rain made a act as uh i don't want to call me alpha male but as the the leader in this writing process with uh well i mean every i think even audio wise when you're the singer of a band you can kind of from day one be you're the soundboard because you're you're sitting and you can kind of, from day one, you're the soundboard because you're sitting and you can hear everybody. Sure. That's kind of how that started, and those roles generally kind of progress. And I think when we're writing as a band,

the singer would have to be that as opposed to someone else just because it's, for one, so loud and hard to hear everybody at once. And recording yourself, of course. But I think still at the end of the day, that's an instant reflection and then you kind of step back and then everybody starts yapping about it anyway. So it just becomes the four-figure heads yapping about decision A to B. So personally, I played Navied earlier,

because on that album, that's actually my go-to track. It still pops up in my shuffle or something. I don't know how many years ago that is, but that's got to be 20 years ago. Yeah, that would be, like I said, and that's 93. This would be 96. So this tune, I mean, this got,

I remember at the time when much music was actually relevant and kids like me actually tuned in. Like, this was played all the frickin' time. And I thought this was, always thought this was a really cool tune. So, any chance you can shed some light,

like some insight into a song like this, the writing of a song like this? Like who brings what parts? This song took a while. I know we worked on it for months and months. I mean, there's elements of parts. Like, for example, this pre-chorus had elements of like Salvador Dream.

I don't know if you remember that band. Not too much. But they would have these really long kind of bass, simple chord structures with like really straight kind of beats. And like that's just an example of like one of those little things where you kind of try and not steal, but take ideas from what you hear. And usually it's like chords or feelings. And there was a band called Shutter to Think at the time

that we kind of would, we loved how they would just suck up and get really quiet all the time. And that had a bit of an influence on the bridge of this song. And even like bands like Gar yeah yeah and uh flaming lips i remember they had a great record at that time we were you know you're listening to to records that are going on around you and you just kind of keep keep the flow of ideas going by playing these records and uh whatever whatever keeps momentum going but those but that was this song for sure. And I remember this album had Superman's song.

Superman's dead. Superman's song with Crash Test Dummies. Do you know those guys from Winnipeg? You all know each other, right? I don't know them, but I think I saw them back in the day at the Much Music Awards. You know, that voice is really deep. Yes, he had a very low voice.

Yeah, I remember they covered the first Noel or something. It hurts for me. You hear my voice. Imagine me trying to do that. I'd hurt myself. Yeah. He should be, I'm sure he's probably doing voice work in Vienna right now. A chocolatier.

Ah, for sure. For sure. Brad something. I actually think his name is Brad. Brad Roberts? That's it. Yeah. Good man. So the other one, though, and I've seen a few Our Lady P shows,

and I always loved it when 4 a.m. would be played, because essentially, I guess rain would start 4 a.m., and then the crowd would sing it. It would always take over. And it's kind of like nowadays they do the Old Canada. That's the big thing now. The Old Canada

is sort of the same spirit but it's always amazing. It's pretty banged up at that point at the end of the night. And we all know the words. Everyone knows the words. It's time to get into things

and yeah, that's it. I remember the Trailer Park Boys, Ricky Bubbles and Julie and JP, Rob and Mike were on tour with us. And they were emceeing the evening. And just that song specifically, I would see occasionally them in the middle of the crowd just hammered and Smith with his glasses on singing with the crowd.

And it was just like, it would add so much, like you said, Canadianity. You got it. When you look out into the crowd, you see the Trailer Park Boys and Bubbles singing 4 a.m. with the crowd. That is just like, you know, you might as well have Bruno Gerussi shirts off right on their shoulders.

Oh, beautiful Beachcombers reference. Nice. I have, my wife had this beautiful cookbook that his wife made after he passed away. It's got some really good recipes that he's put together. You know, I was more of a Relic fan. I thought Relic was the guy on that show. Well, remember, but Bruno had the cooking show.

Yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Andy Kaufman was on that show. I didn't know that. Which is like one of the most bizarre guest appearances in Canadian history. Yeah, Man of the Moon, that's nuts. And it's actually in the movie. They Canadian history. Yeah, Man of the Moon. That's nuts. And it's actually in the movie. They portray that scene in that Man of the Moon.

The Jim Carrey movie. Yeah, they somehow throw him on the Bruno Giarrusso show. I don't know why, but it's great. You know, I got to rewatch. I don't, obviously, miss that. Yeah. I didn't even know that was like a dose of Canadian. He's got the chest going and everything with the

medallion did you watch a danger bay at all I kind of didn't it's a little later it was on it was kind of crap I didn't really like it and it was like all serious and yeah I was more of

like a for danger and younger I was a littlest hobo fan yeah you know that theme song yeah I mean I I even had friends that were on the show as a kid because I used to film some of them.

That's like Degrassi, though. To me, I knew people who knew people on Degrassi. I used to say in early interviews in America that I was on Degrassi. Did you? Yeah. And they just say, why would he lie about that? Yeah, exactly.

And they can't go to IMDb? Totally. Back then, no one cared. I would say, yeah, I was on Degrassi. I was also on the bulk of the series of Littlest Hobo. Oh, that's great. Yeah, just total bullshit. That's fantastic.

Boring days of press, right? So what did you do up in Canada? When I was a kid, I was a child actor, and I was on Degrassi and Littlest Hobo. Well, yeah, I'm trying to think. I did some Sears catalogs and got my way through school. Eden's catalogs would be even better. Oh, yeah, Eden's.

Speaking of Canadiana. Hudson Bay catalogs. That's right. Byway. Oh, you know, there's a... Bargain Herald catalogs. Can I tell you something about Byway? Bargain Herald?

Do you remember that one? Of course I remember. Are you kidding me? That's hard. But Byway, I grew up near a Byway at Jane and Annette. Sure you did. And there's a byway there forever. And then in this neighborhood now,

it took you two hours to get here, but before you leave, there's actually a fake byway on Lakeshore, like right at Islington and Lakeshore. It's not, but it has the same look. It's the same sign. I guess it was a byway. It says byway.

But I guess they closed byways, and this place just kept going. So it's like a rogue byway, and it's there. Wow, I guess it was a byway. It says byway. But I guess they closed byways and this place just kept going. So it's like a rogue byway and it's there. Where is it? It's on Lakeshore on the north side of Lakeshore. Really close to here, like Islington. Yeah. I might have to take a picture of that.

Before you jump on the... I didn't think that, like I thought byway was done, like gone. It was. It's rogue, it's gone for sure. But this is like renegade Byway. You never see that. A bargain heralds I would drive to Martin Grove and steals. Oh, yeah.

That's awesome. I used to play ball on your Martin Grove and steals. That's awesome. Okay, so you spent the time you were 17 until this summer. I want to find out about you leaving Our Lady Peace, but just really quick, I remember the popular song Hero by Chad Kroger and Josie Scott.

This was like the Spider-Man soundtrack. So it got lots of airplay because Spider-Man was a big hit. And you're on drums in the video. Yeah, but not on the song. But not on the song. So what the heck, how'd that happen? Matt Cameron, who's Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Yeah, but not on the song. But not on the song. So what the heck, how'd that happen? Matt Cameron, who's Pearl Jam.

Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Yeah, wonderful drummer. I was with him in the studio recording that song. He was in Vancouver. And I was with him and my friend Greg Keplinger is also from Seattle. And we were just hanging out and Matt's wife April was having a baby at the time and uh there was

some issues and he had to get home and he he couldn't do the video and uh chad asked me to do it cool that's it pretty simple it was fun i mean and we kind of just kidded each other are you friends of chad is this uh yeah no i mean i get along with everybody there's no there's no reason to to uh not like somebody or be like hate somebody just you know even if you're not into their music there's no reason to to not like somebody that's stupid and you know that first okay do you make fun of a guy who does a job that he doesn't like out on the street like oh what are you doing doing picking up the garbage you loser like seriously like if it's music that he doesn't like out on the street. Like, oh, what are you doing? Picking up the garbage, you loser. Like, seriously.

Like, if it's music that you don't like, like, they're selling records. People like it or buy it. It's business. They were printing money for a while. Like, who cares? Like, really? Like, don't listen to it.

Yeah. You know, but I am the guy, and this is, well, on TorontoMic.com, I've written about this in the past, but the first album, I think it was called The State. Yeah. I actually dug that album. Oh, you did? It had The the past, but the first album, I think it was called The State. Yeah. I actually dug that album. You did?

It had The Breathe and it had, actually, this is before I realized you weren't allowed to like Nickelback. So you were like, what happened to Nickelback?

I even saw them at Edgefest. Speaking of Edgefest. I've never seen that thing, like, what happened to Nickelback? Why did they change? They lost their way. Yeah,

like their freestyle. But I saw them at Edgefest two years in a row. They were like on the small stage and they headlined Edgefest. I was at both events, and I'm like, yeah, they're pretty good. But at some point,

you couldn't admit this in public. I mean, I would, because I don't care what people think of me, but you really would lose reps, your integrity with the window, if you admit you liked a Nickelback song. Well, yeah, you don't take that to the, you don't go out wearing a Nickelback song.

No, but was it How You Remind Me? Was that the tipping point? Oh, yeah. When you get too big, it was everywhere. The Remind Me? Was that the tipping point? Oh, yeah. When you get too big. It was everywhere. The photograph one, the check out the Joey's hair, that was over the top, that song. That was so big.

You know, you're right. You could not. It's too big. And it's one of those things where it's like, ah, well, you know, you can make fun of them. But, you know, apparently they got a great life and they all have healthy families. He's with Avril now?

Chadville. Chadville. That's what Torrens calls them, which is pretty funny. That works, yeah. I like that. Which is actually like you might need Advil to hang with Chadville. He's good. He's good.

That's a great one, actually. Chadville, because I'm going to totally steal that. Do it. that's awesome I just wondered if there's some kind of club or something where CanCon and musical acts just get together and hobnob you're there and Chad's there

and Avril's ex well that's the Junos pretty much that's usually it and now it's like younger bands doing the same thing. And, you know, you have some bands talking and hanging out, and then you have other bands ignoring each other, pretending to ignore each other, right?

That's the best. Are they looking at me? Oh, good. I'm not looking. Well, you know, was it Prince who used to send, like, telegrams to people? Like, I heard Weird Al tell this story. Like, he got a telegram from Prince saying, don't make eye contact with me during the Emmys. Not Emmys, the Grammys. Like I heard Weird Al tell this story. Like he got a telegram from Prince saying don't make eye contact

with me during the Emmys or what, not Emmys, the Grammys. Like to everybody? Just to Weird Al because they were going to sit beside each other.

Don't look at me. Just don't make eye contact with Prince. It was a telegram from his lawyer or something. You've ever sent one of those? I've heard of that from people like

Prince does it. Bob Dylan, like you're not allowed to look at him on tour. Well, I think he's just sick of, think about if you're Bob Dylan, like, you're not allowed to look at him on tour. Well, I think he's just sick of... Think about if you're Bob Dylan. Okay.

Because I myself happen to be a massive fan. I really do believe that there's no better, like, lyricist in our time. Right. So imagine that, you know, that's just me. Like, I would have a thousand questions if he were to... Yeah, but questions are different than I can. No, but no, I'm just saying, like, saying like that's just me right that's my own perspective but imagine there's like crazy people yeah like you know we know how wrestling fans can be or something yeah imagine how many people must have

gone up to him like he's some kind of a messiah or something yeah yeah it must be over the top. Like that guy's literally like Elvis for like, you know, hipsters, you know? That's right. So you have this like from 1962, 3, 4, 5, just becoming this icon and these people wanting everything from you. I can understand that. Like I can really, because I've heard that he's cool if you're inside, if everything's like he's feeling comfortable. Dylan, yeah.

And it's all good. He'll start talking normal. He's not Willie Nelson. I heard Willie Nelson is just all day long, happy-go-lucky. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No sweat. But Willie Nelson, as much as I love Willie Nelson, it's not the same. Bob Dylan just affected people in such a way. Yeah.

It's like. Oh, yeah, that's a dope comparison. There's not too many people that are like that or of that ilk that can even be in public without just too much weird attention. You know, like you don't blame Salinger when he was not talking to anybody. Everyone kind of gives him credit for being a recluse, or even like Sandy Koufax in baseball. It's like, well, you know, it's almost cool that he doesn't even want to look at somebody or talk to somebody.

So I give Bobby D a grain of salt on that. But not Prince. Prince I do, too. I do, because he's such a talented guy. Do you think it's weird that for a long time, Prince was a lot older than us, and now he's younger than us? Does that freak you out a bit? Yeah, for sure.

For sure. And I think there's something with Prince where it's like he must have that too, like people coming up to him thinking he's some kind of angel or something because think about how that guy affected critical people. You always hear like the most cool songwriter guy go, oh my God, if I ever met Prince, I would lose my shit. I remember, I think Jeff Beck was in the studio and Prince just happened to walk in

and Jeff Beck lost his shit. He was like, can you please just play the guitar for me? And he played it and he was like, holy fuck. People have respect for the guy because he's a brilliant musician. All right, and before I... I have a million-dollar question I got to ask you. I'm glad you're comfy now.

You're feeling good? Yeah, you're going to start making me tense. First, I got to ask you, what's your favorite Our Lady Peace song? It's not for reasons other than sentimental. Stealing babies from, uh, from happiness is not a fish that. Which is a great title.

Long, great title. Uh, uh, stealing babies had Elvin Jones, the John Coltrane's drummer. Yeah. Play on it. So I think just for me to, to have that experience of being in the studio with Elvin and getting to, to hang with him and then eventually actually getting to know him and him and Keiko, his wife, really well and going to New York and visit with them and stuff. So

that song definitely like head and shoulders because he's playing on it and he kills it as well. That's actually an awesome reason. Easy. Well thought out answer. Easy. So you're no longer the drummer for Our Lady Peace. Yes. Well thought out answer. Easy. So you're no longer the drummer for Our Lady Peace.

Yes. And this announcement is pretty fresh. Yeah. Like in the last month this came down. Yeah. So what happened?

It was, I wish I had some exciting, like, you know, when Jim Morrison came in with the bikers. I'm looking for like, come on, is there a fight?

This isn't working out with this guy, man. He's crazy. No, there's no exciting, fun story. And to be honest, it's just personal. But is it your decision? Yeah, I'm happy to be moving on. So you walked away. Absolutely, for sure.

You're going to do other things now. Yeah, yeah. And it's a, you know, obviously personal is personal, but you just decided it was time for another chapter in your life absolutely there's and there's no exciting story for everybody listening like there's no fight or fist fight or no no fist fights i mean we've got plenty of uh arguments and yelling matches in our history period we don't need the end of the of me being the drummer to be that situation. So it's definitely amicable.

So it is amicable with you and the guys. Are you on this new album that's out? No, no. I haven't even heard the song that's out. Yeah, I heard The Edge played something. Yeah, so I'm definitely out of the loop. I haven't heard it either. So basically you left the band before this announcement. Yeah, it's been a little while. They've known, obviously we've known. They noticed when there was a different drummer there probably.

Yes, probably. A good tip. Hey! That's not Jeremy. Yeah, exactly. No. But I'm really stoked to be moving on. I've already been enjoying life as a free person from schedule

and not having to, I guess, doing what I do with music and broadcasting. And it's hard to have a schedule and say you're going to be somewhere in three months. But now it's a lot easier. I can commit to things and it's good. Because they're on, I guess they're going on, they're on tour right now,

I think. Yeah. So you would be, it's tough, I guess you're a father. Yeah. How many kids? You got three kids.

Okay. I got three kids too. Yeah. That's tough. I can't imagine because I hate, I got, once in a while

they want to send me somewhere in my job and it's like, fine, except now that I got a young kid and I always have my kids baseball, it's justay and wednesday nights i like to be at the ball diamond with my oldest son and then yeah just i just would be my daughter i like to do things

with her too although sure no i mean it's that's your your that's what life it becomes when you have children you understand what life really is and you forget oh yeah i was a kid too and and uh thank god my parents loved me yeah that's yeah that's yeah unlike uh poor wheels who had the grandkids or yeah or any any kid in in the grass it's true he did have it pretty good remember even at the in the early days he had the rich grandparents yeah oh the loaded fake parents okay yeah remember the, remember the house? I'm trying to remember. The classical music. Okay, yeah. You know what? I do remember.

They died and the drunk driver killed them. I don't remember seeing them. Oh, yeah. That's the wheels from the episode before. Because, of course, because the whole series, this whole thing ends with

wheels killing somebody with a drunk, he caused the drunk, because Lucy goes in the hospital, can't see or something. There you go. Blind or something. Yeah, it all comes full circle. His parents were killed. It goes in the hospital can't see or something. There you go.

Blind or something. Yeah, it all comes full circle. His parents were killed. It's just a train wreck after a train wreck. The cycle continues, man. Imagine that happening in real life to a community.

Just terrible. That's terrible, terrible. All right, so you left Our Lady Peace and you're showing up in lots of different places. Like, I know that you do a lot of stuff

with Jay and Dan on their podcast. Yes, I have a wonderful little segment where they call me and we chat about whatever, either a story that's happened on the road or something with my dad or perhaps just something that happened in the past week. And those guys are like some of my best pals in the world

just because they're where they are and yet they still have that connection with home and they've done amazing things for me personally, just as a friend, for sure. Cool. I was late to the Jay and Dan party. I guess there's a period of my life, maybe I was raising kids or whatever,

I just didn't see them late at night. One in the morning. Yeah, whatever they were on. I think people saw them because they'd tape at one at night, but it would be on all day in the morning, so people got used to having their coffee with with them and laughing but i caught up like i caught up after everybody knew them i caught up on youtube and then when they left canada and they're funny guys they're hilarious yes i mean it makes sense that they ended up in at fox sports one because they're

very talented and uh i mean what they got down there tsn just couldn't compete with with american numbers so and uh like the population down there and just well there's more people in california than in canada yeah the coolest thing is they brought producer tim with them so they didn't tell them to change anything they tell them to just keep doing what you're doing and that's amazing. The fact that they got to grow and make a great show up here and they basically bought that show and took it down there and they're still

doing really well. And good for them because it sounds like they're decent people. They're super decent and they still call me from California, which is nice. Do you think they'd come on my podcast? They probably would if you ask them. That's my secret, actually. I ask.

But I haven't asked them. I came on. You're a good man. I heard you did a thing on Martin Street. That's very cool. I didn't hear it, but I heard about it. I got feedback today, actually, from somebody who said, I have to stop asking guests if they heard episodes, because it becomes awkward when they have it.

Because then they have to either lie to me. Oh, I'm going to lie to you. No, I know. Or they have to tell me they didn't listen and then they feel bad. So I'm not supposed to ask that. But you did bring up the Martin Streak episodes. Yeah, well, I knew Martin pretty well. And I think everybody who has any affiliation with Toronto and The Edge

in the 90s kind of knew Martin. I knew him from not just The Edge, but the Edge in the 90s, kind of knew Martin. I knew him from not just the Edge, but hanging out in the clubs and seeing him work when he was doing Saturday nights or other nights. And we even worked together on a couple. He had his own show just before he passed. The backstage? Yeah, he had kind of like an off-the-record music type show.

I saw one episode with Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker. Yeah, I did one of those. Cool. And I did some radio stuff with him as well. And he was just a really sweet, sweet guy. Always a nice guy. See, I didn't know him personally. I just knew him as a fan.

So putting together this... It was basically in honor of five years since he passed. Yeah. So it was kind of commemorate that. And I talked to people like David Marsden and Alan Cross and just people like Fred Patterson from Humble and Fred. Yeah. Yeah.

And a brother, Bill, who's actually Neil Morrison. Yeah. I know all these folks. All these folks. They're all great people. And actually even like promotions guys.

Like I talked, I talked to Rob Johnston who who produces stuff at The Edge, and I won't drop all the names, but a lot of people. Todd Shapiro. Oh, by the way, I talked to Todd today, and I mentioned you were coming over, and he wanted me to say hi. That's nice.

Say hi to Todd. Let's say hi to Todd right now. Hi, Todd. Hi, Todd. Nice to see you. So just talking to people about Martin Streak, he paints this picture of a guy larger than life, just a great guy. He would do anything to

help you. And he was really good at his job. Yeah, absolutely. That guy could talk up a song like nobody and he just had a great vibe. He was just like the perfect kind of dark, cool guy and you don't hear that you hear guys try

to be like how Martinin is and it just never works but he actually had he's a genuine article absolutely he was really special but what i you know you mentioned the backstage pass work he was doing it sounds like he had things on the go and and high hopes for the future yep and it was kind of sad well it kind of happened when you hear that you know he was optimistic about what's next and then, of course, he so deliberately takes his own life, it's just tough to comprehend. It's sad, especially, you know,

and he was kind of one of those guys who, he was really close to that company, you know, and that company started getting really big and really corporate and things changed and I think that had a lot to do with the way he felt about the business and kind of maybe put him in a bad way a little bit because it was kind of a bummer how his relationship ended with all the things that he had going and idea-wise

and just, I don't know, people pare down at stations, but that guy had a lot to do with what, like the evenings on that station. So it's kind of sad. Yeah, definitely. Very sad. I have a few questions. So I posted something on the website, questions for Jeremy, and I have a series of questions and I'm just going to rattle them off and you can chew on them for a bit.

Okay. All right. What's the best band, in your opinion, I guess, since best is the opinion question, what's the best band you've ever opened for? Cool. And then the question's got two parts because they want to know in terms of the music

and in terms of the personalities. Yeah, no, I could do a couple. The Ramones, that was cool. So when was this? 94, 95. Like two or three times. The fact that they were them and they were still trying to get things going

and they were really professional and super nice guys. I remember Joey doing sound check one day by himself just like at the center of the stage yelling, hey. Oh, that's perfect. Yeah, it was just like, and then they all kind of died. You know, they're all gone. One after the other. It was unbelievable how fast that happened.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Ramones were a classic. They were just such an amazing, impactful band, not just for rock music, but for looks of bands, the way a band looks, artwork, all those things. I consider them sort of a gateway band to punk because there's a melody there. They're kind of poppy, catchy stuff.

And they loved 50s rock. Yes. So it had that kind of element really happening. It's interesting that they ended up working with Phil Spector because that's what they were kind of like, like an early 50s total rockabilly group that turned into New York punk rock, which is awesome. There's Stones, Rolling Stones.

Which tour was this? We did the Bridges to Babylon tour, and maybe it was a couple different shows and two different records, but we did that really big show out in Moncton with like 80,000 people. Okay, yeah. With The Hip and a bunch of other bands

and got to meet them there. That was kind of cool. And The Stones is just amazing because it's The Stones. No, you'd say no more. That's quite the catalog. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy.

Excellent. And do you have any stories? This guy's a big fan of Ned's Atomic Dustbin, so he wants to know if you have any stories about Ned's Atomic Dustbin. I saw the breakup of Ned's Atomic Dustbin happen in front of my eyes. Do I need to play the breaking news music?

Yeah, exactly. We were, I think, in Arizona in Phoenix or something like that, and we were playing a strip mall. We were on tour with them for, I don't know, like three weeks or something, and it was, I guess, their last American tour on an album,

and they kind of weren't doing that well at radio and there was like 13 of them on one little bus and uh they were having problems there was like technical issues on at shows and then literally the well there was one show in phoenix where like the gear stopped working and then just like the show was like they started fighting and after the show they were all arguing and they like went home and that was it. Like we heard they were done. Wow.

Yeah. And that was like 1995 or something like that. Did you have like a favorite Ned's Atomic Dustbin song? Was it Kill Your Television? I remember them a little bit. That was their big hit. They were cool. I thought they were cool.

Their thing was they had two bass players. That was a big deal. They were kind of one of the originators of using electronic samples and stuff with it, but that was the early days of that stuff and it was interesting to see how that stuff wouldn't work sometimes on stage in a live setting.

Here's a question about the business promoter side of things. So basically it's about somersaults. I actually went to one. I saw the one with the farewell tour of no, 2000, the farewell tour of Smashing Pumpkins. Which by the way, I didn farewell tour of Smashing Pumpkins yeah

which by the way I didn't like the Smashing Pumpkins set that night because it seemed like he didn't give a shit and he was not even trying like it just

it was really I felt off to me yeah maybe I don't know and he did variants I don't know if you caught it but he did variants on his hits

and I know that's fine but the farewell tour they play everything really fast I remember that yeah it just didn't sound like the song I

no encore I don't really you know I know Billy. Yeah, it just didn't sound like the song. No encore? I don't really, you know, I know Billy a tiny, like we met a couple times and he probably wouldn't remember me from Adam, but I remember them being really loud and really fast. And I had, I was, I think their records were great. But I mean, they kind of. Yeah, the records were great.

Like Gish and Siamese Dream. Like these are even the double album. She just kind of kept continuing. And I don't know who's in the band now. He's the only one I think. They're still there, right? Because Darcy's long gone. It's still the Smashing Pumpkins.

Yeah, he kept the name. Yeah, yeah. With a bunch of people. So is it... It's Our Lady Peace that put Somersault together. Yes. So you guys, like, how did that work? You guys...

Well, we were the first ones to take Edge Fest across the country. And we wanted to not do Edge Fest again. We wanted to do something different. And they wanted to do Edge Fest, so we just did Somersault. And I think we did it off years. Yeah, it was very Edge Fest-esque. Like, it's basically just different branding, but same kind of collection. It was just bands that we liked.

And I think we ended up just getting lucky with all just bands that we liked and I think we ended up just getting lucky with all the bands that we got. I mean, we had Perfect Circle and Deftones and Sum 41 were just kids on that tour. I remember it being,

like I remember going to it at Molson Park in Barrie and that you guys were great and I enjoyed the whole show. The only band I was disappointed in, I think, was Smashing Pumpkins. Foo Fighters were always good on the tour. Right?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. It was fun. It was a really fun tour. In 98, I think I was going to go in 98, and then I actually never went, but I went to Pearl Jam in 98, which was like, I think, a week before or something. I remember, yeah. A day before or something.

I went to that show, too. Yeah. At Molson Park. Because he had the Dream Police Cheat Trick opened, yeah. But the side stage had some good stuff I remember, yeah. The day before or something? I went to that show too at Molson Park. Yeah, because he had the Dream Police Cheap Trick opened, yeah. But the side stage had some good stuff

going on too. Cracker was on the side stage and Matthew Goode was there. I remember they had, I remember talking and meeting Bunny Carlos, the drummer from Cheap Trick. Yeah.

That was quite good. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh... I remember that show. Cool, yeah. That was one of my favorite Pearl Jam shows, by the way. That was a good show. They were good, uh, I remember that show. Cool. Yeah. That was one of my favorite Pearl Jam shows.

That was a good show. They were good that night. They were really on. I still have my yield t-shirt. That was, that's actually, I think the first couple of weeks, Matt,

I was there with, because Matt Cameron just joined the band at that point. Okay. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Jack Irons had left.

There was a, I think it was Bipolar Disorder. Who I still feel is like the, you know, no offense to Matt, who's awesome. I just loved the way Jack Irons played drums. There was a bipolar disorder. Who I still feel is like, you know, no offense to Matt, he's awesome. I just loved the way Jack Irons played drums.

Like he was, he's still an amazing drummer. It's too bad that he couldn't continue because of his mental disorder. Yeah, the bipolar disorder. But a very creative guy. And I think one of those things where everybody kind of just

had to allow him to do his thing. Well, creativity is... Same thing with the Peppers too, right? He had an issue with them as well where he couldn't tour. But yeah, great drummer. That tour was the Yield tour and I bought a t-shirt. And actually, I think you can hear some crying maybe in the background. But when that guy was born on April 9th of this year,

I was wearing my Yield t-shirt from the 98 Pearl Jam tour. That's what I was wearing, okay? That's a nice one. True story. I like that record. I got photos to prove it. Yeah, that's a good album, that Yield. Although, Given to Fly, because that is a great album,

but Given to Fly is Going to California by Led Zeppelin. Sure it is. But it's got the cool drum beat that Jack Irons wrote. It's true. It's true. It's true. All right. So, oh, why were there no more Summer Salt tours after 2000? It was really hard to put that together.

And when you got, you know, the lineup that we did in 2000, it's hard to recreate that. So I'm sure there was attempts, but until we got the right bands, it wasn't going to work. So, I mean, it might happen again. Who knows? But it's always got to do with putting on a good show for everybody. If you're going to cross this country,

you better have a lot of firepower. That's right. So did you choose the cities, too? You choose the bands? You choose the cities? Well, I mean, the cities kind of choose themselves based on the bands. If you put a good bill together,

then you can guarantee those major markets. And if it's a really good bill, then you can hopefully get some secondary markets out of that too. But it's really hard to bring 23,000 people out every night to cross the country. And that has a lot to do. You know, you need to bring 10 to 15

to 20,000 or else it's not worth it because you're paying a lot of bands a lot of money. Did you ever see Hardcore Logo? I did. I didn't like that movie. You didn't like it? I loved it, but I saw it in the theaters too. And I was like, ah. Maybe because you're too close to it.

Guys like me liked it because we didn't know what it was like. At the time, Headstones were a band would like break into our room and steal our rider and it was like fucking you fuck that guy you know uh humble howard tells a story like he wouldn't go on stage for some humble and fred thing he was doing until he got his weed or something and they were trying to find weed for the guy yeah he was a pain in the ass when he was messed up and he i think he goes around apologizing for being such an asshole but he was a fucking in the ass when he was messed up. And I think he goes around apologizing for being such an asshole, but he was a fucking prick back then. And at the time when that movie came out, I was like, who cares?

What, you can act? You still drank all our beer last summer and fucking ate all our sandwiches while we were playing. That's funny. No offense to the other guys. I'm sure they had to deal with him for a long time. And then he got his shit together, and now he's probably awesome. Yeah, and now he's all cleaned up and in all these TV shows.

That's the way it works. We kind of touched on this, why you left Our Lady Peace, but there's some follow-up questions. Are you going to play with someone else? Have you hung up your sticks forever? Yeah, no, absolutely not. I mean, I'm always going to drum. And I'm already playing with a couple guys,

Kurt Godwin, who's an amazing singer, guitar player, and Alex St. Kitts, who's an incredible bass player. So we're actually getting together tonight to write some more. We've been getting together for a couple months now. So yeah, there's a little power trio for fun. Cool. And, you know, future of Jeremy Taggart.

So we talked a bit about you doing radio stuff. You were doing some like 1010 thing. Am I right? I still am, yes. So what's happening with 1010? Well, I just, I do the panels. I do John Moore. You can tell I don't listen to 1010, but I do hear things.

I'm actually co-hosting the live drive the week after next. Okay. I believe it's from two. Wait, you co-host with John Downs? Who is it there? With Ryan Doyle. Ryan Doyle, okay. Yeah, so that'll be the afternoon drive, I believe, the week of the 28th.

So I will be on 1010 that week every day. And is this because you're, I don't want to call it an audition, but I know. Well, I mean, I've, I've been doing a little things here and there and I have a great

relationship with the station. I don't think this means I'm trying out for the live drive. It just means that I'm doing this and I still maintain a relationship. I actually, you know, I've, I've even got a home line now for panels and stuff, so it sounds better.

Cool. So who knows? When you're on, because I, okay, speaking of Humble and Fred, okay, so they often speak about how when they go on 1010, they do things like that too. They'll do a guest appearance on 1010. Yeah, I think they're this week right now. Yeah, they're doing this week, I think.

Or, yeah, next week. Next week, you're right. Right, next, yeah. And they talk about the struggle because they have their own thing, which is a lot of, like, fart jokes and silliness. And then on 1010, there's a different type of style they expect on that station.

Yeah. And then they sort of have to try to, they don't like, they're really big in now and being who they are. And they struggle with the fact 10 10 has some different expectations do you find because i'm the torns and you know you've got this you know this great laugh when you do the canadiana stuff but you find you got to start kind of being all like topical and well yeah i mean i can't i can't talk

i mean i i have you can't spend it all on wheels his dad i do though i think that's why they like me i have had i've actually had Christy Blatchford say banged up. I'm infiltrating slightly. I think that they like that I'm not a political analyst. They're not

expecting that when I walk in there. I'm in Toronto. I live here. I love the city. I'm aware of what's happening. I know who's doing things. You know who the mayor is? Are you familiar with the mayor? Yeah, exactly.

Do you have an opinion on this mayor? You mean Mr. Kelly? Yeah. Yeah, no. I mean, you know, from Twitter, you know I'm all over Rob Ford in terms of even the first day he got in, I knew he was going to be a big mess. I can point you to Ark. When he was a counselor, I hated him.

Well, for sure. Anybody who knows, I was born in Etobicoke, and I have friends that grew up with Rob Ford. You know, I went to high school at Michael Power. I don't know, just throwing it out there because it's a popular Etobicoke school. But what part of Etobicoke? You're north, right?

I was born in Etobicoke. Oh, you were born, but you didn't live. You didn't grow up there. Well, I lived in Ontario housing until I was five up at Rexdale. Yeah, near the big Sears depot. My dad worked at that Sears for 22 years. I know that Sears very well. You get a good deal on a coffee table.

And we moved back to the city to right, I think it's Allenby, which is right across the street from that, Sears and Rexdale, not far from State Queen. Yeah, the infamous State Queen. Okay, so on 1010, will you share your feelings about their love, their Rob Ford? Well, I mean, absolutely. And there's always a Rob Ford talk.

There's something going on. Actually, it's kind of interesting because he's for once failing or fading a little little bit being he's third in the polls and uh people are caring less and less about him which is actually outrageously great for for the future of toronto but uh not great for people who like to hear the the hoopla well you know i just can't wait for him to fade further because he pollutes my Twitter stream. I follow a lot of different analysts. Yeah, that's all they talk about. I can't take it.

And today, his nephew, I guess, it's his nephew, said he'll run in Doug Ford's counselor seat. So Doug's not going to run. It's like the Bushes now. It's like, yeah. His name's Mike, of all things, which is my name. But Mike Ford, it's like a dynasty. It's got to be a Ford. Apparently, they just reelected Fords in that riding, number two.

Rexdale. That doesn't mean they're going to have the same. I think you can only go get that once. Okay, well, we're two for two, so we'll see. Well, the other thing, yeah, I don't know. I just knew him to be growing up kind of this big, tough guy that kind of did whatever he wanted anyway and had an entitled lifestyle that

he pretends that he doesn't. He says he's a common man but I don't believe that's true. And I don't believe he's saving taxpayers money. Property taxes have not gone down anywhere. I just paid two-man transfer taxes for this place. Somebody show me where the taxes actually

have gone down. It's full of shit. It's a shell game. It's all BS. And his only power as mayor anyways is getting consensus on council and compromising. And he alienated the entire council. And possible deals for his own coffers and his label company.

I know. It's ridiculous. No more, I can't take it. This guy, I cannot wait till these elections are over and he is out of office. Well, you're not supposed to be hearing about the mayor every day anyway. You're just supposed to be hearing stuff going as planned. Like it's a mayor.

It's not supposed to be some like worthy of note. It's like the penguin or something. You don't need to hear this. You're right. Hey, you're a baseball nut as I am. So you tried out for a baseball team? I did. Tell you tried out for a baseball team? I did. Tell me the story.

I went to an Atlanta Braves training camp in the summer of 92, or just before I joined the band. They were in the World Series with us in 92. Well, this was their farm system, so it wasn't that big. I was playing with the York Bantam at the time. We were a great team. I was a pitcher. I was also a really good hitter.

And, uh, I tried out for, for, uh, to pitch. And, uh,

I, I got, uh, I got some, some, some love from them, but that this, that this point,

uh, this was right at the time when I was like trying to get out of baseball. I'd been playing drums for about two years and, I was really like kind of out. I fell out of baseball. I'd been playing drums for about two years and, uh, I was really like kind of out. I fell out of love. I didn't, I didn't care about it. And I was afraid to tell my parents cause we'd been so involved and invested.

My father and I like practicing for, for like since I was six years old, like almost every single day, like Tiger Woods style, like hardcore after school, three hours a single day practicing like crazy Woods style, like hardcore after school, three hours every single day, practicing like crazy. That's hardcore.

Yeah, and that went till I was 16, and I was like, I'm done. I hate this game. I'm done with this. Because it was all the political stuff was starting to come into play and playing and not getting to play and playing really well and then not getting to play. And I believe there was a tournament I went 11 for 13, and I had a bad relationship with my coach,

and he didn't even hand in my stats. I'm watching this MVP of the tournament winning the batting title, and he went 8 for 12. And I'm like, come on, man, I just killed him. He's like, what? There was issues that were already starting where where I was like I don't like this and drums at the time I loved because it was just an individual thing and

you don't really have to think about anything else what's it like to be so good at so many different things man how come I you know you're trying to open a brave you're playing drums come on no but don't forget this was after 10 years of practicing my ass off and my the only reason they liked me was because I didn't have like a 95 mile an hour fastball.

I had like an 86 mile an hour fastball, but I was very accurate. That was the only reason that they liked me. I didn't have enough real strength to compete. I don't think I was going to go anywhere, maybe get some schooling out of the team. Yeah, usually you get like a scholarship to some American college. Yeah, but I didn't even have freaking grade 10. Now what am I going to do? Go to Temple? Yeah, you do grade 10. Yeah, usually you get like a scholarship to some American college. Yeah, but I didn't even have freaking grade 10. Now what am I going to do? Go to Temple?

Yeah, you do grade 10. Yeah, sorry, bud. I went to the University of Life. Correspondence and fun jail cell styles. See, on that note, though, since we got to wrap up, I promised you an hour and I think I'm a little over right now.

So two things. I wanted to know how the Jays are going to do this year. I'm actually going with my eldest son tomorrow. We're going to go to wrap up. I promised you an hour, and I think I'm a little over right now. So two things. I wanted to know how the Jays are going to do this year. I'm actually going with my eldest son tomorrow. We're going to go to the game. Nice. This game is Texas, so hopeful. We have some weak teams in the next stretch. Yeah.

Well, yeah. Texas are one of those teams where they just happen to get weak. Just fell off. Yeah, but they still have a lot of talented people. So how are the Jays going to do? It has a lot to do with right now. If they continue the way they have, it's going to be the same old, same old. But if they turn, they really have to start doing better.

They have to show up again. The May, June Jays have to come back. Right now, we're seeing the Jays of last year, these great players that can't play as a team. I think... Although a lot of the great players aren't playing at all. Well, yeah, you can't blame Double E. I think some of the players are getting frustrated

because they're bringing up not great players. And Joey Jeremiah keeps getting at bats. He can't hit, right? Joey Jeremiah. I love saying that. No, I love it when you say that. It's funny because I think I've only tweeted twice that Joey Jeremiah got a hit because he's only got two hits.

Yeah, he doesn't get hits. It's true. Yeah, he got an infield single, I think, on the replay. They said he was safe. He's awful. I just think that with this AAA infield, I know Edwin's out and Lowry's out. It's really bizarre.

And Rasmus, all of a sudden he went from being like yeah but remember last year rasmus like come on you can't uh expect that guy to be jose reyes that's not gonna happen so um i think uh oh my goodness i think i think we have to realize that that uh there's still a lot of bats that can make runs happen they're just starting to be but you're right we have exposed a little bit more, and that's not a good thing, but they have to continue to get back. We have to take advantage of the weak teams

we have in the next few series. Yes, if not, it's over. I agree. And I was really thinking that they were going to get into the playoffs. What are we out now? Is it five games? How many games do we have?

Yeah, I think it's five games, but the thing is they have to win this division. They can't rely on a wild card. There's two now, but we still can't win it. I don't think it's going to happen. There's too many good teams, man. It's scary stuff. But this is the year because the AL East took the year off.

Yeah, it's not going to next year. Boston will probably be better. Boston will be back, right? Yeah. New York will have to. Tampa, they'll figure it out. They'll figure it out. It's just, it's an anomaly season

where they could have had an opportunity and they should realize that, hopefully. But, you know, there's no reason why they couldn't have bulked up a little bit more either. You know, they're not necessarily doing that. They did get Mills, right? That pitcher they brought up. Yeah, I saw Wilner tweeted about it or something. So, You know, they're not necessarily doing that. They did get Mills, right? That pitcher they brought up. Yeah, I saw Wilner tweeted about it or something like that.

So, I mean, they're trying. I was hoping, like, I'm hoping Price. Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen. It's not going to happen, but I'm saying something like that. Because Oakland did that big move, but they had all these, Oakland has these prospects people want. We have some semi-decent prospects,

but no blue chippers or anything. No, it's a money thing. Yeah, they got to throw down, but that's not going to happen, I don't think. Even though it seemed like last year they had these open coffers. That's right. Maybe they're saving it for the Leafs.

Well, that's, yeah, Rodgers, I guess. Sure. But we have a salary cap in the nhl so we're sort of done there and we give it we gave it all to mimico's uh mimico's own i know i said but we didn't give it to uh thankfully we did not give it all to boland yeah i know because he wanted big bucks too they shipped him off and it's in florida and we're gonna be be eating Clarkson sandwiches. You know what? My normal co-host, David Clarkson,

he just hates David Clarkson. Well, yeah. The contract is the worst contract in the league. And he did all that stupid fighting, acting like an idiot. Like, who are you? Are you supposed to score goals or beat the crap out of people? He's the third line checker making big time cash.

He's like, I'm passionate. I'm into this. Oh, man. And don't forget now Brendan Shanahan's in charge of this team or whatever. So Mimico gets you bonus points with him. He's like a Mimico boy too. I thought he's Etobicoke. Well, Mimico's in Etobicoke.

This is the thing. Yeah. Mimico is in Etobicoke. It just is. But it's like fake Etobicoke. It's like they think they're special, but they're just Etobicoke. Does that mean Adam Oates is coming back? Because he's Etobicoke.

You know, Adam Oates looks like Ray Liotta. He does. Do you see that? He really does look like Ray Liotta. Maybe that's why he's not allowed in here. Yeah, he's a good fellow. Last thing, do you have any kick-ass story from the road that you can share before I play out?

A kick-ass story from the road? Well, you before I play out? A kick-ass story from the road? Well, you know, you're not too far from Apache Burger here. No, very close. I could tell my famous Apache Burger story. Tell me Apache Burger. I love that place. And by the way, that's down the street from the old Michael Power I went to high school in. Nice, nice.

And I believe it's only about 10 minutes from here, right? It's really close, yeah. Kipling and Dundas. I'm surprised it's not a Rob Ford Apache Burger story. It's inevitable. Give it a couple of weeks. I was there with my cousin, and we were hanging out. I was about 14 years old. And you know how they're cheap there,

and they turn the lights off in the bathrooms when you're not in there? Okay, yeah, I noticed that. Well, you know, this was before the time of the light that goes on by itself right so i open the door and it's dark and i step in and i step and my foot kind of steps on this thing that's like kind of hard and soft but like big and i like turn the light on and i'm stepping on this big like 12 inch double-ended dildo. Oh! Like, huge. And as my foot's on it, and I'm like, what the fuck? And, like, my back, my foot off, and I'm like, I'm only 14 years old.

I've only, like, seen, maybe seen these, like, in the adult store in the window or something walking on Yonge Street. So it's like, first first i'm thinking okay what what the hell is this doing in here something like there's a strip joint across the street uh like clearly an act has happened and it was like such a such as yeah i don't remember the club i'm all said that such a dirty act that they left it yeah you know like they didn't it was big they didn't take it with them like it so it's so gross that they had to fucking leave it there so like that's going through my head i'm

like what like what's on this fucking thing and like why is it like kind of soft but not and then i'm like i i still had to take a fucking piss yeah so i'm like this is just like terrible situation so i you know you step off it and step on it and take a piss and just leave leave it there and turn the light back off and get out of there but that's my apache burger story first of all i hope you tell this story on 10 10 i think it'd be perfect it's perfect and what was you so i'm a i don't think i'm think i'm your age maybe a year younger i don't know but uh i don't think I'm your age. Maybe a year younger. I don't know. But I don't remember the strip club across the street from Apache Burger. Oh, yeah.

No, man. It's still there, I think. Like right across the way. No. I know that. Because on, there's like a wall of fame with like all the hockey players like in history there. That's right.

And you know they're like, we're just at it. Dundas doesn't have one, man. Are you thinking of like on Queensway, they got House of Lancaster. Are you thinking Queensway? That's the one. The Apache Burger. The Apache Burger is on Dundas near Kipling. I know that well.

That's near rural York on Queensway. What? At Apache Burger? No, the strip club is near rural York between rural York and Islington on Queensway. It's close enough. It's close. It's not, nearby. It's close enough. Sorry. I thought you meant like near, yeah. It's close. It's close. Yeah, you're right.

It's not far away. I thought you meant like right across the street. Well, it's pretty much right. Is it not right across the street? Yeah, maybe, but it's not even the same street, man, because it's Dundas and this is Queensway. Yeah. No, no, I'm not talking about anywhere.

It's okay. But Apache Burger. They have a wall of banged up hockey players that are definitely at that Ripper joint. That's awesome. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. That's awesome. That's a good story, man.

That's some good CanCon, too. It is. It is. Thanks for having me, Mike. Jeremy, you were awesome, and I'm going to tune in 10-10 just to hear you tell that story about the Apache Burger dildo.

And make sure you work Wheels' dad into it somewhere. I will. Do it for me. Do you follow the Wheels dad on Twitter? No. Do you run that account?

No. Wink at me if it's true. I won't tell. Okay. But you should follow it because it's pretty funny. No, I will for sure. And that brings us

to the end of our 85th show. You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike and Jeremy at Taggart seven. That's numeric seven. Yes. See you all next week.