Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Jimmy Holmstrom and Mike Ross: Toronto Mike'd #1099

Episode Date: August 16, 2022

In this 1099th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Maple Leafs organist Jimmy Holmstrom and Maple Leafs PA Announcer Mike Ross about what goes on behind the scenes during Leafs games and the best organ jams. 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.

Welcome to episode 1099 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. Thank you. Electronic Products Recycling Association. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Ridley Funeral Home.

Pillars of the community since 1921. And Canna Cabana. The lowest prices on cannabis. Guaranteed over 100 stores across the country. Learn more at cannacabana.com. Today, making his Toronto Mic debut is organist Jimmy Holmstrom. And returning to Toronto Mic'd

is Maple Leafs PA announcer Mike Ross. Welcome, guys. Thank you. Thank you. Great to be here. Thanks for having us on. Well, Jimmy, since you're the fresh meat here, we're going to get into it with you. But first, I want to remind the FOTMs listening

that if they want that initial deep dive with Mike Ross, there's episode 664. And Mike, we did that via Zoom, right? We did. Yeah, pandemic times and seems like ages ago now. And now that means this is your first time in the studio. What are your initial thoughts here? Is it you said, oh, it looks bigger on TV. What are your thoughts here? I'm taking notes because I've got a little setup at home too, where I do my regular show from. Right. And do a lot of

recording and auditions and stuff like that. And so I'm taking notes. This is a great setup. Well, thank you. I know you're just being nice. No, just kidding. No, no, no. I already asked you, what are these mics?

What brand is this? This is really nice. Yeah, these are Rode Procasters, for those who are curious. And I think, in fact, I know, these are now turning 10 years old, these microphones. Wow. They still sound great but let me finish I'm going to read the description from

664 for people who want that initial deep dive with Mike Mike chats with Mike Ross about getting the Maple Leafs PA announcer gig whether he'll be working the 2020 NHL playoffs because that of course was the bubble

his career in radio and his connection to dozens of FOTMs because you're connected to so many people who have been on this program. But there's one guy I do want to shout out now. He's not an FOTM in that he hasn't been a guest. Although one day maybe we'll get him on these mics. But he's a good client and

a good friend and let's shout out Cooksey. You're buddies with Chris Cooksey. Chris Cooksey and I have been friends for, I think, probably 35 years or so. And he's only 37 years old. It's amazing, isn't it? We met through baseball, our love of baseball.

And then we ended up the last couple of years coaching together. And it's East York, right? Well, it was East York. There's a whole story to that. I'll let Chris tell you. But we're no longer coaching East York. An off-the-record story. That's the good stuff.

Okay, I'll find out from Cooksey what's going on there. But Jimmy, we're going to cover a lot of ground with you because you've been a part of the fabric of this city since the 80s. Okay, lots of ground to cover. We're going to talk about you being an organist at Maple Leaf Gardens and then, of course, at Air Canada Centre, which we now call Scotiabank Arena. But on a very serious tip before we get into it, I want to send my sincere condolences to Hebsey, Mark Hebjer. His mother passed away last night, to Hebsey, Mark Hebjer. His mother passed away last night, 90 years old,

was married to Hebsey's dad for 70 years. And I know, Hebsey, I just want you to know we're thinking about you. There will be no Hebsey on sports this week for obvious reasons. And I'm just sending the condolences to my buddy Hebsey. His mom's name is Sylvia, by the way. And she, on her honeymoon, went to New York and visited all three Major League Baseball stadiums.

So there was Yankee Stadium, but Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds. And I think that's amazing, to have visited those three stadiums. But we're thinking of you, Hebsey, and I look forward to your return. Hopefully, maybe next week, if you're up to an episode, we'll get Hebsey on Sports back on track.

Jimmy. Hello, Mike. So many questions for you off the top here. But one question that came in that I'm curious about is, how many NHL rinks still use live organists? Most of them do. Okay. And it's a surprise to most people.

But there had been an organist webpage. I started before the internet existed, really, and social media and all that. But we did get together several times. Over the years, a lot of changes. We lost our Calgary organist last month. Over the years, a lot of changes. We lost our Calgary organist last month,

but Dieter Ruhl in Los Angeles and Ray Castoldi in New York remain good friends. We chat whenever I have a real serious concern, issue, worry, or I'm looking for a song. I can call either of those guys and bang, they'll be right back within seconds. I'll credit JR with that opening question, but I had Gord Stelic over here. I want to say like four weeks ago, maybe,

Gord Stelic came over. Well, Gord was here with Damien Cox. Okay. Not his brother. Although his brother was on Toronto Legends, but shout out to Bob Stelic. But Gord was here with Damien Cox. And I mentioned that you were coming on

and he said he hired you. Is that right? Is Gord the guy who hired you? That's an absolute fact. And he put me in the booth and shut the door and threw the key away, so that's why I'm still hanging around. And Gord and I, he is a gentleman. He was a great gentleman when I met him,

when I was really long hair and short in brains, and he just invited me into the room and said give it a go I pushed the organist that was there at 1986 or 87 I can't remember but I pushed the organist out of the way and says it's my turn and I had more balls and brains and I sat down in front of 17,000 fans and said let's go and I started playing you know and all this stuff and the other organist said don't play anything too serious or like don't don't worry i i know you're a musician don't play any yes or super tramp like or like anything crazy keep it simple no king crimson i said okay and i immediately went into you know skaters waltz and and then super tramps the fool's overture which was a lot

of fun uh then the other organist kind of pulled me off and Gord said, what are you doing on the weekend? There, I could talk forever. Okay, Gord is the man we have to thank for the Jimmy Holmstrom in our lives. Or blame. So I think it's September 88. Does that sound right? September 88? That's the first day of never having another organist in the building. Oh, okay. So that's the first day you're like,

yeah, so you're flying solo. Yeah, because in 87 there was five or six organists that were kind of on the cusp of being fired by a gentleman that you probably know. Well, we're going to talk about him. Look, Mike will tell you, I did a whole

Mike-umentary on this gentleman. And Ken Daniels, who's a good FOTM, sent me some footage that didn't make the CBC News about Harold, but we'll get to him, our pal Hal later. Yes. Yeah. I heard that episode. I bet you most footage that he was getting of Harold was unfit for televised consumption. I'm sure a lot of people lost their jobs even listening to it, and you can't unhear some stuff.

So we'll get to him, but is it safe to say, so you obviously passed the audition, but was it like, so there was a rotation before you were solo? Yeah, there really was, and no offense to the gentleman we were not going to talk about, Faltimore, no, not Faltimore, anyway,

here's what happened. Real talk. If you played a song on the organ, I mean, that's all we had. There was no tapes. There was no record players. There was nothing. So if you played a song that Harold didn't like, he would phone you.

Wow. And there was a phone right beside the organ. Okay. And how often would that phone ring? Once you're fired, get out. Oh, you don't get like a warning shot. No warning. And so Gord Stelic, in his wisdom,

he had, I think I was the last guy standing. Yeah. I've been said that, said to me before. He said, don't. Don't answer the phone. Thank you, Mike. Yeah. I love this story.

But that's genius because, yeah, if you don't answer the phone, you can't. That's the title of Jimmy's book. Yeah. Don't answer the phone, Jimmy. It'll be out in 2050. And that was Gord's strategy? Gord's strategy.

If that phone rings, don't answer it. Well, I can say it now because he can't get fired. But you know what I mean? Like that was the situation. Because there's a gentleman who's a listener, Steve Hillier, and he asked about organ music back when Gord Stelic was putting in music in there and the fact is Harold did not put in music Gord didn't put in music it was Bob Stelic who finally walked up to me one day in 1992 and said we're gonna hire a DJ and I said

I'm gonna I'm no good what what did I do wrong right and he said why don't insult your intelligence burn your musical intelligence by you know know, giving you a cassette machine. I said, won't bother me at all. I got no pride. I got no chip on my shoulder. I got lots of confidence, but the rest, no. So I said, I'll do it. So in 1992, I got my first cassette player, and it was a two, like a double.

Yeah, dual. Like, wow. Yeah. So I became the organist cassette player and it was a two, like a double. Yeah, dual. Like, wow. Yeah. So I became the organist cassette player, man. So it was everything before from 87 or 86 or whatever, from Ralph Frazier on to 92. It was live music or if you want to call what I played back then live, it was music on the organ nonstop.

That's all there was. Okay, yes. So you mentioned Steve Hillier. So throughout this episode episode a few things are going to happen yep one is that i'm going to at some point i'll start playing songs like 10 10 jams that made for great organ songs and that you'd play on the regular basis sure right so there'll be 10 10 jams i've got loaded up there's a bonus jam that's going to be played off Mike Ross' phone. So there's I think 11 in total. But also I have questions from FOTMs

because they got very excited when they heard you were coming on. Steve Hillier, you just name checked them. So I'll just read his two questions right off the top here. The first one, which you've already addressed there, is back in the Ballard era, there was no pre-recorded music allowed during intermissions.

What was the worst song to try to come up with an arena organ version of? Well, there was a million songs that was impossible because just at that time, hip hop was starting. Now it's like EDM and everything else. I can't do that. it's like EDM and everything else. I can't do that. And some of the rap songs, there's a nice melodic background, but the lead vocal is usually a shout out or a talk or a rap.

And I'm hoping that some organist will tell me how to play rap because I can do the rap beat, but I can't do the music when it's monotone or something. See, I would guess that you would be happy as playing like new wave music, right? Because they always had the keyboardist

as like front and center. Oh yeah, perfect, perfect. But my favorite, of course, was, you know, the 80s music from all those, you know. Well, hey, you can talk about any song as long as it's not one of the 10 that we're going to play. Because then you have to hold your story. I got to remember what songs you're going to play.

I don't even know. So I'm thinking of keyboardists now. Because lately I've had a bunch of different keyboardists on the program. But one guy, his name's Rob Pruce. He's actually coming to town for TMLXX, which is the 10th Toronto Mic Listener Experience, which is September 1st from 6 to 9 p.m. at Great Lakes Brewery in southern Etobicoke.

So Rob's coming to town for that, and he's going to kick out the jams while he's here, but he was the keyboardist for Spoons. Yes. So I'm thinking like a big Spoons jam. You ever kicked out one of those on the organ? I have never, but I got to tell you, that was the day I had a

band, it was called Doc Savage, and we were on the road for 15 years, and we met up more than once, I'm sure. Wonderful musicians that I was able to hang out with because we were in a level from the agency that kept us in with, like, Lawrence

Gowan and Tom Cochran and all these other guys. So I know that I know the spoons and very well at the time. And when they got their success, my band said, we're never going to get it. So I said, I said, well, we got a chance. And they said, Nope, not going to happen. Cause we don't sound like that. Is that the, we don't, well, they're better than us. What's the deal? Well, it's ages and it's alive and well.

And if you're young, like 20s, and you're older, 25, you know what? Well, you're ancient. Yeah,

right. It's just all about that. If you've been around a while and we were known as a bar band and that's what you don't want. Repeat the name of your band again. Doc Savage. Doc,

so you, did you ever get like, did you get played on Q107 and the homegrown thing? No, we, again, this is before social media. It's before you could do your own recording. So did you ever get played on Q107 and the homegrown thing? No. Again, this is before social media. It's before you could do your own recording. It was before mixers.

It was like everything was live. We were really popular all across to the Halifax and back to Thunder Bay. But there was no record avenue for us. What year are we talking about? From 1972 to 1986, i was on the road with that band okay so that'll answer one of my questions which is that like who were you before you became organ guy for the leafs like uh you were an aspiring musician i i have three lifetimes okay i was uh dragged out of school when i was uh seven years old and put in a private music school where I learned theory, harmony, counterpoint, organ, piano to grade eight, and vocal music.

And then I ran away from that private music school because it was also a private boarding school, and it was kind of scary. And it should not be named just like Voldemort. And I just took off and went to Humberside Collegiate and finished and graduated there. And then on to Teachers College and got that degree. And during that time, I was moonlighting with Doc Savage. Right. And getting it started in Toronto and all the clubs down Yonge Street in the mid-70s. Then suddenly, that funny thing called disco came in and we hit the road and boy did we hit the road we hit the road strong six weeks in the north ontario two months in the east coast

but we made an awful lot of friends and off of connections again so i would we would be in like say timmons and i'd be sitting at two o'clock in the morning uh jamming uh on the lawrence audio piano while uh well larry gallen would be playing on the Yamaha Grand, and we would play songs till like four and five in the morning. I mean, it was just like, it was a magic time. Tommy Cochran went to school with my guitar player, so they were best friends, so we were best friends. Jeff Jones, I got so many.

Right now, I have more musician friends than I did when I was working full-time as a musician. Wow, okay, so those names you're dropping, let's just let everybody know that Gowan just made his Toronto Mike debut earlier this month. So you guys are debuting in the same month. Oh, I missed it.

Well, I'm going to have to give him a shout-out. Mike, you've got to tell him to listen to some of these episodes. Larry Gowan was great. Yeah, shout-out to Gowan. You know, he's having a bit of a resurgence. Like, of course, he's with Styx, right? But, I mean, his stuff, like, that

You're a Strange Animal is in a popular new movie called Nope, the new Jordan Peele movie, and it's caused a little, like, not quite Kate Bush style, but you know what I mean. Like, it's a... Yeah, sing it, Jimmy. Okay, can you play that one on the keyboard? I can,

but not like him, so I'll never do it the same. He's the best keyboard player. And he's a Die Hard Lee fan, too. Yeah, that it, Jimmy. Okay, can you play that one on the keyboard? I can, but not like him, so I'll never do it the same. He's the best keyboard player. And he's a diehard Leaf fan, too. That's a fact. That's maybe why we get along. When Gord was interviewing you or whatever for the gig, did you have to be a Leafs fan? What if you said, well, I'm a Habs fan?

Would you still get the gig? No, but I spoke to his head of public relations there, Pat Park, and I said, I'll play and I'll celebrate every Leaf goal and I'll let goal Leafs go on it and I'll make noise at sound effects and everything. But if Wayne Gretzky comes to town, I'm going to celebrate his too, okay? And Pat Park smacked me upside the back of the head and said, you will not.

And that was the end of that. So I only had one other favorite player up until that time. The rest of the time, I just blew. It's all been blue. Okay. You bleed blue and white. I'm afraid, like everybody. Now, we're going to fast forward a bit, and then we're going to start getting to these jams and then more questions.

But when Mike Ross got the gig, so this is following the Andy Frost era. So there's, in my lifetime, there's Paul Morris, Andy Frost when the ACC opened, and then Mike Ross. That's it in my entire lifetime. That's a fact. There are three of a kind. And rank them in order of greatness. Mike Ross, Mike Ross, Mike Ross.

He's smart. He's smart. Hey, Paul, I'll be over next week to apologize and bring you some Palma's pizza and stuff. Yeah, it's Palma pasta. And Jimmy, do you eat lasagna? I love lasagna. I love Italian.

Okay, now you live in Mississauga. Okay. Or is that a secret? No, it's not a secret, but I'm still an Etobicoke, Toronto kid. I grew up and I'm born and raised in Toronto. Okay, so welcome home. But Mississauga is the home

of Palma Pasta. So just to let you know that go to palmapasta.com. They have four locations in Mississauga and Oakville, but you're leaving here today with a large lasagna that's in my freezer right now.

So you're taking that home with you. And since Mike Ross had to zoom in for his debut, he didn't get a lasagna, did you, Mike? I did not. Well, that's what you get for zooming in. It's in the mail. That's right.

No one could leave their house ever at that time. Right. That is true. We would have had to. Yeah, that was COVID height. But you're going to finally get, you'll finally find out what all the fuss is about. So you're going home today with a lasagna from Palma Pasta.

Thank you very much. And Great Lakes beer too. I'm going to send you guys home with Great Lakes. Fresh craft beer. That's a Tobacco. Stop, stop, stop. I live for Great Lakes beer. What's your favorite Great Lakes beer? Vienna. And before that it was a leaf, red leaf. But the manager of,

a manager for a short time there is going out with my best friend's daughter. And I give him a shout out, except he left. So I'm not naming his name, Jeremy. And thank you for those free beers. And anyway, Jeremy said to me at the time, there's no more Red Leaf. And I said, that's all I've been drinking for the last five years. You can't do this to me. And he said, take a Vienna.

He said, you're going to love it. I said, well, I only buy 24 at a time. He said take a vienna he said you're gonna love it i said well i don't like i only buy 24 at a time he said here he gave me four or five of them and said try him i was back the next day and that's all i drink is red leaf okay and vienna do you when i do get to the first jam yeah i can let it run for a bit while i get you a cold beer do you want a beer now a vienna no i don't have i do have a lot do have a lager. They have a pompous ass. I have a Canuck Pale Ale. Yeah.

So one of those? You want me to grab you one? Any lager's fine. Okay. I'm going to grab you a lager when I get to that first jam. I'm going to sneak out of here. Okay. Yeah.

So thank you, Great Lakes. They're hosting that event on September 1st. You guys going to come? I'll be there. I'll be there. 6 to 9 p.m. There's going to be some great music. It's good FOTMs.

Yeah, Jimmy, you got to come, man. That's my deal. And I'll introduce you to Rob Pruce, who's going to be there. I'll be there. 6 to 9 p.m. There's going to be some great music. It's good FOTMs. Yeah, Jimmy, you got to come, man. That's my deal. And I'll introduce you to Rob Pruess, who's going to be there from Spoons. I'd be glad to. Oh, my God. But you got to. Long drive for Mike, though. You can't commit.

They better be listening, you know, Great Lakes, because I scream about them. GLB, that's my home. I think they want you to say it over that microphone that Mike has. That's why there's a door on my booth. Jimmy doesn't do free commercials. Well, I swear a lot, too. And I bet you there's one of those huge beers probably has some sponsorship deal.

There are some exclusivity issues that pop up, yeah. Yeah, we'll see what the Budweiser guys feel about it or whatever. I don't even know which beer has it. No, it's not them? No, don't say them. It's okay, this is Toronto Mike, not an official MLSC production here. Oh, my goodness, Jimmy.

So many great things. I'm going to do one more question, get to that first jam, and get you your beer. Okay. So the answer to the question is that your full-time gig is teaching. It was. It was. I took a pass. But how long did you teach for?

Okay. Let's see. Until we figure this out, I'm going to be 110 years old. But that's okay, because I did all these things at the same time. I was in the band, and I was teaching, and I was teaching. I was at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. But basically, I taught for 33 years. Wow. 33 years. And, you know, when I had three specialist degrees in technology,

phys ed, and music. And so when my principal, new principal said, what do you want to do next year? I said, any of the three. She said, that's not on the table. I said, what's my offer? She said, kindergarten. I said, I quit. Is that right?

I quit. You didn't want to teach kindergarten. Um, you know what? Kids are scared of me. Some adults are scared of me. It's the beard actually. No, I'm now, well, my daughter's going to grade one, uh, soon, but, uh, yeah, when she was a couple of years younger, bearded men would scare her to be quite honest with you. Like the beard scares them. Well, I, I have, uh, you always had the beard? No, I just, I just grow it for Christmas. And I dress up as Santa so I can take Mike's gig. And I got a great Santa suit, just like Mike.

And I dress up as Santa and then I shave it off the next day. So Boxing Day... At least you're growing this for December. Just for December, that's all. Amazing. Then I shave it off. Yeah, you look good in a beard. But he knows that.

He looks good in a beard, right? He does. I think that the shape of his beard is a lot like tim allen in the santa claus yes right it's got that same sort of curvature to it mine grows almost as fast so he grew his during covid and so it was under a mask that whole time and then suddenly it came off and i was like oh my god that's a hollywood beard right there well done jimmy I'm just jealous over here. I can't grow a nice thick beard. It just looks bad.

I just look like a homeless dude or something. So I'm jealous. But here's what I'm going to do. One more question. Ask lots. Lots of good questions. Oh, and by the way here, let me do this really quickly here

so I don't forget later, but I'm going into my bag of goodies here and I'm just going to pass over since I'm meeting, I'm not meeting Mike for the first time because I've met him at the Scotiabank Arena but Toronto Mike stickers, this is from stickeru.com so everybody

should get their stickers and decals and everything from stickeru.com and shout out to Ridley Funeral Home I know that Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home is listening because he's a big sports fan and he wants to hear you guys talk about behind the scenes, what's happening during the game, which we're going to talk about.

He's got a great podcast called Life's Undertaking. So subscribe to that. I get to co-host that with Brad. And shout out to Ridley Funeral Home as always. Okay. Can I, can I ask, suggest something? Yeah. There's another musician who's an unbelievably famous musician beneath,

underneath the, you know, nobody notices him. He's kind of hidden. It's Jeff Jones. Jeff Jones would be great on your show because he's got more stories than, than me. Jeff is, plays with Tommy Cochran, Burton Cummings, he's the Red Rider, and he'll have a story about Rush.

So you know what? He'd be a good guy. Jeff Jones, bass player, an awesome human being. Jimmy, you had me at hello. I want what she's having. That was actually, that was, was it Rob Reiner's mom? It was.

Right. That's the trivia. Ever been? You ever been there? No. Katz's Deli? No. They have a sign above the table.

This is where Sally ate. Yeah. When Harry met Sally. Right. Okay. Shout out to Billy Crystal, who's a big sports fan himself. I don't know if he's ever been to a Leafs game though, but. Not my time.

No, I've seen a few people, but I've introduced a few of them over the years. Sting, Will Arnett. Okay. Elizabeth Moss is a regular. See, I feel Will Arnett, he's a local guy, although he's very, very famous,

doesn't really count. Of course he's there. Let's say Mike Myers is here when he's in town or whatever, like a local guy. But keep dropping these keep dropping these well the funniest one was i don't know the actor's name but it was the guy who played mike ross on suits oh there's a i never watched soup yeah neither die okay there's a mike ross people like hey mike ross is here yeah of course i'm here and they're like no no mike ross is here and then they had to explain

to me that there was this character on the show suits and he was in the building. And unfortunately we just, we weren't able to get the two of us together. Cause I thought that would have been a really cool picture for, for the gram, if you will. Uh,

but that didn't happen. That'd be too funny. Um, but yeah, over, uh, over the, I think one of the more interesting ones I think was a couple of years ago

was sting. Yeah. That was pretty cool. Like to, to get to introduce him to, uh couple of years ago was Sting. Yeah. That was pretty cool. Yeah. Like to get to introduce him to the arena was pretty sweet. Yeah. Gordon Sumner. Mm-hmm.

I've got it right. Now, yeah, that's absolutely very, very cool. Absolutely. And Mike, as you might be aware, or maybe not aware, there are guests that, you know, behind the seats guests that often get introduced to us and come up to see Mike and I up in the Argon booth. Right. And the greatest one for me was when Robin Williams was there.

And Robin came in with Paul Giamatti and the group, the people that were doing a movie at Maple Leaf Gardens at the time. Oh. You know what? Cinderella Man. Cinderella Man. And they came in. Yeah. Paul was scared to death.

He wouldn't talk. Robin would never shut up, which was great. But I just happened to have a CD because I was the DJ as well as the organist. And I had a CD by the Beatles, George Martin. Right. And it had Robin Williams' song on it singing, I'm the walrus or something. So I played that during the game because I knew he was there. So that was kind of exciting.

Okay. So Russell Crowe stars in that movie. When my oldest daughter was born, they were filming that scene at Maple Leaf Garden. game because I knew he was there. So that was kind of exciting. Okay. So Russell Crowe stars in that movie. When my oldest daughter was born, they were filming that scene at Maple Leaf Gardens. So I'm at Women's College Hospital in the middle of the night and I'm driving back home on Bay Street and they were, it looked like it was a scene out of the thirties or whatever. Like they had the cars and everything and they,

like Simpsons was made up to look like Madison Square Gardens. But what's interesting is before I press record, you and I were talking, Jimmy, about the junction there, like St. Cecilia's and all that. There's scenes, like they're listening to that boxing match on the radio in St. Cecilia's church.

Like it's all full circle, man. Is that right? Cinderella, man. It's a small world. There's some great visuals in that. And it's a great movie. It didn't get the praise it deserved, I think. I absolutely love that movie. It is one that, if it's a great movie. You know, it didn't, it's a, it didn't get like the, the praise it deserved. I think I absolutely love that movie.

It is one that if it's on, like you stop on it. Like I, I do every time. I just, I just, I'm with you. A great,

great movie and lots of Western Toronto, like scenes you'll recognize, like Jane and Annette areas and things like that, that you'll tell the docs, my, my distillery district. What was that, Jimmy? My stomping grounds you're talking about.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no. Humberside, Western. Yeah, well, my two, well, I have two kids who are through high school now. They went to Humberside. Yeah, as did I. I took the eight-year course.

It was that Tommy boy scene. He's like, lots of people take eight years to get their degree yeah they're called doctors all right we got to get to the first jam here jimmy i'm having too much fun here on a uh tuesday night let's kick this one i'm gonna run and grab us a beer mike do you want a beer i would love one okay we're all three of us are gonna get a beer here we go I would love one.

Okay, all three of us are going to get a beer. Here we go. Yeah. I get up And nothing gets me down You got it tough I've seen the toughest around. And I know, baby, just how you feel. You've got to roll with the punches and get to what's real. I can't you see it standing here.

I've got my back against the record machine I ain't the worst that I've seen When I think of organ jams at Maple Leaf Gardens slash ACC SBA, when I think about them, this is the very first one I think about. Like if I were going to come up with my 10 favorite organ jams of all time i'd put van halen's jump number one this is one i've i always love this version of it but there's also on youtube a live recording with sammy hagar uh on the budweiser stage there's a whole concert that Van Halen did

with Sammy Hagar that is online. Van Hagar. Van Hagar. And him on this live? Oh my God. Okay, that's it. On the mic,

I'm going to pop. I know. So, Jimmy, you've got the lager going. You've got the pale ale going. That's their most popular beer, Mike. Okay. The Canuck.

That's Gordy Levesque on the cover. And I'm going to crack open a sunny side. So enjoy, everybody. Thank you, GLB. Thank you very much. And Jimmy, you talked to me. So this is one of your top 10 Oregon jams? It's because back in the day, 89, 88, when the team came on for the warm-ups,

there wasn't the great warm-up mixes that we have today. It was just Jimmy on the organ, and because it had to kind of be the same kind of thing, beat, you didn't have to jump all over the place, and I couldn't change, I couldn't stop and start, so I just set a drum sequencer sound, and then I played every song in the world that I could think of that went to that beat from Dancing in the Dark to Jump

to Eye of the Tiger to Born to be Wild, and I would just play for 18 minutes without coming up for air. Then they would take off, and I would catch my breath, and then Paul Morse would introduce me again. Then I would start playing the elevator music.

Do you, that was the other question from Steve Hillier. So he said, here, let me find it here. His second question was actually that I should, his suggestion was I opened this episode with a recording of Paul Morris saying, we now present Jimmy Holmstrom at the organ. Do you, is such an, is there a recording? Does that exist anywhere in the universe?

I can do it live for you. Okay, yes. We now present Jimmy Holmstrom on the organ. Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Paul. Who needs Paul when you have Mike can do a great Paul Moore impression? And that's consistent, right? I mean, Paul did it.

Andy did it. I'm doing it. It's the same words. So these guys don't make a mistake. I know. It's tough. It's a tough script. So that's where I was going way back when.

Of course, I got sidetracked and I'm back now. But it always eventually comes back. Sometimes I don't. Don't tell anybody because no one's noticed. But, okay. So the three PA announcers of my lifetime. So Paul Morris, Andy Frost, and Mike Ross. How's it going, Will?

He's an FOTM too. Good, good. Now, I'm not going to ask you to really rank, obviously, but what if you had poor chemistry with one of those three people? Don't you have to be in sync of those people to do what you do? No, and no. And I can be absolutely totally honest without ever throwing anybody under a bus. Andy and I had a lot of fun because we were involved in a lot of road trip crew things that we were doing because everybody was younger, including Andy and me.

And so we did a few things, a couple of Virgin Mobile trips on the bus where none of us, I don't know how we ever ended, got home. But Andy was a good friend, his good friend, I mean, his kids. Well, you know his kids, Morgan and Marley. They grew up, you know, coming into the organ room, sitting with me for a while, then going back to Andy when he's live. They come and sit with me because what I do, nobody can see or hear. So I got no microphone so they can make noise or whatever. So he was great.

Paul and I never worked in the same space. Paul was on the opposite side of the room. If you remember Maple Leaf Gardens, Harold Ballard was in the bunker below me. Yeah, with King Clancy. And if he looked up and leaned out, he could see me. That's why I always leaned to the left. So he could never see me. Who the hell is up there, he would say. Right. So, and Paul Morris was on the whole opposite side of the rink. And my trick was just what you just did, Mike, just what you did. Back away from the mic for a second. This is how I play the organ. Watching you.

Now go towards the mic. And I stop. Because as soon as I see him, my only interaction with Paul for years and years and years was when you see me coming towards the microphone, stop the music. And because it was live, I could just pulse up and bang. And then he would talk, and as soon as he'd finished, I could come back in again. But Mike Ross, no, he asked me about the two.

Okay, so right, and now when we moved to the Air Canada Centre in 1999, that's when Andy Frost. Yeah. So Andy Frost so Andy Frost Mike Ross like was there any concern like because I know I've been in the room so you're like right beside each other in the new configuration or whatever like what if you don't have

good chemistry? It wasn't like that before when Andy was there. Andy was at the other end of the ring too. This is what I'm learning now I had no idea I never got the tour until the great FOTM Mike Ross showed me around. So where the off iceice officials sit just past Center Ice, Andy would sit in there with them.

And so that's why he would get, you know, people often ask, you know, why does it take time for a goal to be announced? Well, in this era, it's way different because you know for andy he was sitting right next to the guys who were who were making those calls who were writing down the stats nowadays everything's reviewed before getting announced so there's a there's there's a pause there and unlike other rinks where you know about half the league has or at least had pre-covid their announcer sitting in the penalty box where they just take the information straight from the officials and announce it and then roughly about 40 percent of the time have to issue a correction on that

we don't have that problem but we are i would think one of the rare teams in the nhl whose pa announcer was at least the three that i know of have never been at ice level it's always been sitting upstairs and that that surprises some people yeah the assumption is oh you you sit down in the penalty box and it's like no well maybe now well let's do one more song here actually and then And then I want to paint a picture. Like, now I've seen it because I've had the VIP tour. But I want to paint a picture of like, you know, where, Mike, where you are when you do your thing. Where's Jimmy playing his keyboard? Who else is in that room? Like, who's next door?

We'll tell you. Paint a picture for me. But here's so that we've heard Jump, first song I think of. Here is another great organ jam. The Heat Is On On the street Inside your head On every beat And the beat's alive, deep inside

The pressure's high just to stay alive Cause the heat is on Woo! Yeah! The heat is on Oh, oh, oh Caught up in the action I'm looking out for you Oh, oh, oh Tell me, can you feel it?

Tell me, can you feel it? Tell me, can you feel it? The heat is on The heat is on. The heat is on. Also a great sax jam. Yeah, also a good sax jam. But Jimmy, I could just watch you play the Palma Pasta box. Well, I just need a few more white keys here.

That's amazing. Yeah, it's perfect. You asked a question, Mike, about who's in our room. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm going to close my eyes. Theater of the mind. We'll come back to Glenn Frey in a minute. But paint a picture.

Like, let's all close our eyes and listen to Jimmy as he explains how it's all configured here at the Scotiabank Arena. As the camera comes up, fades up into the Foster Hewitt gondola, you'll first see Mike Ross in a glassed-in window where he has his own private room that's warm and nice and... And cozy. Yeah.

Yeah, that is the real estate term. Cozy. And on the other side of that box, he lives in a box. This is the truth. It's like a small, not a tome, but a tomb. And he lives in this little thing, but it's got a door that we lock from the outside.

And on the other side of the wall behind him is our boss, the game manager, game ops manager, Taylor Dean, who is our boss. She tells us what to do, when to do it, how to do it. And she's the overseer of everything that happens in the game. And directly to her left is one of my keyboards and a computer and a couple sound machines devices and then the other master organs in front of me and the next thing is the wall so you'll if you go the other direction you see jimmy taylor mike all in this one big room how long has taylor had that job this is is, I believe, her seventh year. Yeah, same as me. Her seventh anniversary is Mike.

Seasoned veteran. Okay. She's actually been there longer than that, though. She's been there like 12, 13 years. She started as a member of the game crew. And this is not Taylor Dane, right? No. You ever do a Taylor Dane jam on the...

Taylor Dane's way more talented. Taylor Dane has also worked about the last eight or nine all-star games. So if you're ever looking at the all-star events and you see all the guys on the ice doing stuff, look for a woman about five foot six

who's just beating the crap out of all of them, grabbing them by the beards and pulling their shirts down and saying, get back in line, you over there. She's a tough boss

and just the greatest. She's herding the cats. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. And she started with the cats. Yeah, she's got it. That's it, yeah. Yeah. And she started with the game crew and then moved up through the ranks there

to a floor director. And then my first season, I had first met her during the World Juniors in 2014. She was floor directing there. And then when I started as the piano announcer, then she was making her debut as the game presentation manager. was making her debut as the game presentation manager so it's really only the three of you in that room yeah no there's only there's

only taylor mike and i are allowed in there used to be there used to be a dj when i first started the first season the first two seasons that i was there we had a dj um now the dj Cale Granton and Cale is at one end of the ice next to a private suite. He's got his own little setup there with a digital board and lights and everything. Okay, okay. I can kind of see. And then just because I've been there recently,

my wife and I got a little tour. But next door to your room, that's where like whoever's got the game, if it's 590 or 1050, the radio people are there? No, they're a little further down. Is it TV people? There are a lot of booths. So right next to us are the technicians who run a lot of the graphics,

or all the graphics you see on the ring boards and things like that. Okay. Our good buddy Tim runs that thing. And then there are a couple of rooms for management coaches. And then you get into the section. Oh, yeah. Towards Center Ice. And healthy, not healthy scratches,

but people who are not dressed for the game and in their suits. Okay. Okay. And then. And then near Center Ice is where the broadcast section is. Okay. So you start with the home radio booth. So that'll be either, it'll always be Joe and Jim Ralph.

But as you pointed out, it'll be on the fan or it'll be on TSN. Then you move into the visiting television booth. Then you move into the home booth, which is HockeyNet in Canada, SportsNet, TSN. And then go just a little bit further and around a corner to your left, and you've got the visiting radio booth. And then a little further down that hallway are the off-ice officials. And then you just have more booths. And the booths at the further end are for the healthy scratches from the other team,

management members from the other team, and video replay. The NHL official review booth is down at the very end. And are they reviewing all games? Yeah. Because that's the season. Every arena. Right, right. Amazing.

So in that booth, there's a whole big wall with like a gazillion screens, all the different camera angles that they have available to them for review. And they can feed that. They're in direct communication with the NHL. Okay. i when i was there it was after the game so joe was gone joe bowen but in that room it was a 10 50 crew but it was jim ralph and jim tatty yes as i recall so shout out to sports line okay any comments on glenn fries the heat Is On before I move away from that jam?

Jimmy. Well, I'm a huge, unbelievable huge Eagles fan, have been all my life, ever since, you know, back in Linda Ronstadt's day when she was hanging out with him and all. I'm a Crosby, Stills, Nash, that group of, you know, Dan Fogelberg, that type of music,

I've always been super, super fan. Is that like a Laurel Canyon scene? Or am I? You're getting there, yeah. I'm close. I'm the Desper music. I've always been a super, super fan. Is that like a Laurel Canyon scene? You're getting there, yeah. I'm close. I'm the Desperado. I'm that guy. I'm like a second Seinfeld. That's my song. Okay, that is my

signature tune, absolutely, but can't play it at the arena because it's kind of a little slow. Anyway, that said... You could do a Lane song, Witchy Woman. I'm glad you said witchy. I always get those words, Nick. Anyway, I did, I... You could do a Lane song, Witchy Woman. I'm glad you said witchy. I always get those words, Mick. Anyway, I did see them when they were last in town and I had my back row seats with my buddies, best friends, the Bradleys and my wife and we sat up there in the last row,

watched the Eagles and then Glenn was gone within two months of that concert, literally. Do you remember Danny Heatley? Yeah, of course. That was his goal song. Okay. It is on. Okay, yeah, of course concert, literally. Do you remember Danny Heatley? Yeah, of course. That was his goal song. Okay, yeah, of course I remember Danny Heatley. He scored 50 goals in this league. We don't talk about Ottawa, do we? He played in Atlanta.

Okay, yeah. I didn't know he played in Ottawa, really? Didn't know that. All right, another question for you guys. Let's see here. Let's pick on Arlene. So Arlene says, who's the best Leaf player you've ever seen play, Jimmy? That I've ever seen play, Jimmy. Not play, Jimmy, but comma, Jimmy.

No, I love that. It's the beer. Thank you, GLB. Wow. Immediately, Doug Gilmore jumps out at me. Just jumps out at me. I just jumps out at me, but you got to understand my best friend in the world. The, since I started in again, back in 87, 88 was George Armstrong. He's been my best friend, my mentor, the guy who would always hit me in the back of the head when I made a mistake,

throw popcorn at me during the games, throw airplanes at the end. He was my favorite. Daryl Sittler is, is the biggest gentleman on the planet. And I would, I would walk on glass. So who's my favorite to watch?

I didn't get to see Daryl. I got to see Boria play because I started the year after. Mark Osborne, I love to watch him. I love the camaraderie we maintain to this day. And this is something about hockey players. When you're a friend with a hockey player, it doesn't matter if you're a doorman, an usher, or a doctor. They treat you like gold

and they never forget your name. I just love that. So that's it, I think. Watching Doug Gilmore in the 92, 93 years, if I wasn't a total 100% fan, he threw me over the edge. And I almost fell over the edge, by the way, in some of those penalties that weren't called.

I almost fell out of the organ. You saw the high stick. I'd like to say I saw it. I just know that as a fan, I just I almost fell out of the organ booth. You saw the high stick. I'd like to say I saw it. I just know that as a fan, I just about fell out of the, right out of the ceiling. I mean, I went right out to hit the ceiling tiles because I jumped up off the organ booth. That said, you asked me a question I wasn't expecting. And I got to think, I love so many of these guys. I mean, I've done commercials with Wendell Clark and Mitch Marner.

I love Mitch. I mean, wow. I know they can't, they're not going to hear me say this because they'll know I'm a fan and they want to do that. But the fact is- I feel like in your role, you're allowed to be a fan for the home team.

Oh, I cheer like crazy. Yeah. But I don't have to- You're not like a journalist for the Toronto, for the Globe and Mail or something. No cheering in the press box. Your job is literally to be like a Leafs cheer.

I'm the joke in that booth, in that entire media gondola. I'm the joke in that booth, in that entire media gondola. I'm the joke. Who is making all that noise? Who is screaming? Who is howling? Who is using that word against the referees? Yeah, that would be me,

and I've been never told to shut up, but I've been asked to back off. That was the most interesting point, I think, during the bubble, right, where there were no fans, and then into, right? Where there were no fans. And then into the next season when there were no fans in the building, Jimmy really had to rein it in. Because then you could hear like a pin drop at times.

Yeah, yeah. He's like, Jimmy, you can't yell at the referees from up here. We're going to hear you. Taylor, Taylor, my boss. That's a good point. Taylor, my boss, threatens to mic me up one night. And I said, no. It's X-rated.

Maybe a secondary audio feed or something for adults only. She'll sneak one in one time and I'll never have a penny because I'll be blackmailed for the rest of my life. Who triggers, like who in that building is triggering the goal horn? My friend right here. That would be me. Okay, can you tell me how that works? Like you're looking at it for once you see a red light, you smack a big button or something.

What's going on here? Oh, I really wish it was that easy because I'm not the guy. You just hit a nerve. Yeah. This is the thing. This is the thing. Like, have you noticed I got a beard, but not so much hair. Are you sure you don't want another beard before you tell?

Let me chug this sucker down. The pressure. The trick, the trick is. Yeah. Ice. There's two ends of the ice. One, I'm right above the goal and the other is like a hundred miles away. So if I see the puck go in the net, okay, I play, I hit the horn and play, you know,

the goal celebration song, whatever it may be. And I'd like to talk about. We'll get to that later. No, I want to talk about goal celebration songs because it's, this is kind of neat. But that said, now and again, somebody will be standing alone in front of the net. The goalie's on the far side. He's on the near side. And the puck comes to a stick, and he snaps at it.

And it hits the outside of the mesh, but the mesh moves, and he's got an open net. I hit the hole. Oh, God. So that has happened once, and my boss said... But only once? Just a second. That was, I'll tell you when that has happened once. And my boss said, but only once, just a second. That was nine. I'll

tell you when that was nine, uh, 2006. And my boss at that time had to pull me off the ceiling because I was stuck up there like a cat. And she said, you get back down here. I said, I can't Nancy. I can't, I can't. Oh my God. You missed. She peeled me off the ceiling, put me back down and said, relax. So then several years went by before i did it again like this making a mistake but it it happens because for a few better part of a year and a half there was no red light at the far end now the far end is really a far end and uh mike and taylor and i are now all on top of it go go, go, go. Or no go, no go, no go. So there is a split second where I have to reach up off the keys of the organ

and reach over to the horn because it's on another little platform. Is it an actual horn? It is a huge horn. Think of a gigantic compressor. It's definitely a truck horn. You know what we just did? Not a digital file. No, no, no, no, no no no no this is the real

thing i did create digital files with my best friend kevin bazak at the time and we had digital organ sounds and horns and sirens and jets taken off at the beginning of their canada center you know like a jet sounding taken off sound so shout out to kevin uh but that said this one it that one i could hit the horn but then turn the volume up or down really quick but this one's unforgiving you push that horn it doesn't shut up it's definitely and as one guy said to me one time an engineer he said um if it gets stuck you just gotta wait till the air goes out of the ballast and it might take a minute might take two minutes so hope it doesn't ever get stuck and what makes your job tough now more than ever is there are no gold judges anymore

you used to have goal judges behind the nets and they would flip the light on or off yeah goal judges then got moved up to press boxes because they wanted to sell those seats right across the league and eventually though even those positions were were basically eliminated and now the the light gets switched on by someone who works in video review who's at the other end of the building or might not turn it on or they might forget or go later better part of a couple years that wasn't even working dan shulman was once here love dan i love dan yeah dan's great and he said he had a rule and i think you might have the same rule now we'll get there but dan's like like, if it's controversial or close,

or he's not sure what's going on, he just calls whatever the umpire called. Yes. Because then at the end of it all, he, the umpire, if the umpire is wrong, it's the umpire that's wrong.

Not Dan Schulman. Right. So like you hit that horn when the red light is on. And that's okay. And if they screwed up, that's fine. You're your job. Yes.

Okay. Okay. So these examples are when you see the mesh move and you're excited because the players are thrown their sticks up in the air they're celebrating but no that happened right this does happen and so there's been more than one mistake i i will i will own it i will own it right but i've you've been there a long time falling asleep and you know just said i think i'll blow the horn now or never had a case of beer up there and said this is gonna be fun now so no but that is i think the big reveal here is uh i don't know why i just assume this is some digital file like on a computer or like on i think your macbook

or something and you're just firing it through like a music player or whatever like the fact it's a real air horn, like this is compressed air. Yes. That's amazing, I think, in 2022. And well, yeah, I think that's amazing. Into gigantic horns. And they were purchased by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Oh boy, several years ago.

But it's on the NHL. Oh, from the Titanic. Oh, you are so mean. I want that edited out. The neat thing is on the NHL, NHL has just put together a list of all the arena horns, all the arena celebrations, and it'll be on an NHL network podcast down the road. Okay, cool.

And how loud is this horn? Like, do we have a decibel count on this thing? 112 is what I was told, but sometimes it feels like when I do it mistakenly, it's 200. When we do the pregame test, it's loud enough that I have to go on the mic

and just advise the building. Your attention, please. We are now testing the goal. Oh, yeah. Or walking on the... Or if they're walking in the catwalk. I was at TFC Saturday night

with my son, and we were there and we're just having a light chat like after the uh anthems or something and then they did the fire like we were right so they did and i guess i wasn't like i jumped scared uh when the fire crackers or fireworks went off and it was like and he jumped a bit too by the way but it was like it was yeah it's your your heart starts racing. It's jolting if you're not braced for it, without a doubt. Well, imagine if you're walking along the catwalk

above the ice, rigging something up, and you're not warned that the horn, which is up there, is about to blast right into your ears. Do you have to pay for your food when you're working your gigs? Or do you get free access to certain foods? If I tell you the truth, I'll have to kill you.

No, we get dinner. We have a pregame meal that's provided. What if you want an ice cream bar during the first intermission? You better be fast. Because there's only a limited amount. And Joe Bowen gets them all, right? Just have to beat Jim Taddy to this machine. You know what? I've rarely seen Joe Bowen gets them all, right? Just have to beat Jim Taddy to this machine. You know what?

I've rarely seen Joe Bowen eating an ice cream bar. No, never. One time before, Mike, before you invited me up there, the only other time I was there, I was invited as a member of the media. John Sinden was there. This is Jonathan Sinden. And he invited me as a blogger.

I didn't even have a podcast yet. I was a blogger. And I remember I took seat 67 and i was covering a game it was like i live blogged it was really fun actually but there what he showed me there was like a little fridge or something with the ice cream bars or whatever and i saw joe bowen leave to get one and that's that's my only person i ever saw eat one of those free i didn't all those things go and now it's like it's like the the ore one. They've got the drumsticks. And you'll notice.

You look down press row, and you'll see them start to get up midway through the first period and start going up and grabbing. They go quick, right? They don't replenish that. That and the pizza. There's popcorn. There's, what's the party mix there from? Oh, like Doritos and pretzels. And there's like sun chips in there.

Yeah. Cheese thingies. That's true. I'm addicted. Get me away from that party mix. And then coffee, soft drinks,

hot chocolate, pretty much, you name it. Okay, so we played the Glen Fry. We're going to do another one here and then I got

so many questions. So Jimmy, you're going to be here all night, so if you have anything going on at 7 or 8 p.m., just cancel it,

okay? Here we go. organ jam and these versions of songs i picked them if anyone has a problem write me jimmy is this an okay version or oh my God, I don't play the mandolin. All right, well, we can talk over it. Maybe you should. Okay, so what song is this? And then we'll turn it up later when... Is it Zorba at the beginning of the...

Yeah. Oh, okay, so yeah, you guys should have sent me links. Okay, hold on here. This is not the part I play, but it sounds like Fiddler on the Roof. Let me try to fast forward a bit here. There you go. There you go. Zorba.

Change key. Please, change key. Not yet. Here we go. Back original. That's how that works. That's enough of that one. Sorba the Greek. And this is just like a staple, right?

Yeah. And you know what I love when you start playing these ones? Yeah. Is I start, I look down, and I just look to see people just clapping or clapping on their knee or whatever and they're just going around with it and you know i i just love seeing people you know reacting to that type of music right i'm too busy looking at the keys speaking of the keys can you shout out the like the specific models making models of these uh electronic keyboards that you use at the scotia bank arena i'm gonna say roland has been a great sponsor of mine for years and years so if

it's a rolling keyboard i got it okay roland because uh if should i ever enter and now that i've had these conversations with people like rob pruse and gowan. Oh, and I got to shout out Mike Boguski, too. He's the keyboardist with Blue Rodeo. Two summers ago, last summer, I think it was, maybe two summers ago, he was in my backyard playing Diamond Mine, and it was amazing. And he brought his own keyboard,

which, of course, was a Roland. They make the best keyboards, right, Jimmy? I'd say that. Except no substitute. Brad Smith, while you're out there, man, I'm still... Motor City Smitty? Motor City Smitty, shout out. Yeah, he's a great one.

Okay, so Zorba the Greek, a staple. So we had a couple of actual pop songs, and then we had this. Where does this come from? Should I know this? This is like a famous... Is this a play? Is it a movie? Is it music? What is Zorba the Greek? I we had this. Where does this come from? Should I know this? This is like a famous, is this a play? Is it a movie? Is it music?

What is Orba the Greek? You know, it's like, I should know this. It's like every song that you hear at baseball games, hockey games, football games, you see it,

you know that little shtick part and then that work. It's just that little whatever 10, 15, 20 second thing that you know people clap to and that's what they did. And when I hear that, I don't know where it's from,

but I think Fiddler in the Roof because they had so many of those typist songs where all the people would stomp and clap and stuff. So that's what I always look for. I feel like Anthony Quinn was Zorba the Greek.

Before my time too. By the way, when Arlene wanted to know the best Leaf player you saw playing, you answered that. But she also wanted to know what's the best Leafs team you've seen since 1988?

Or since you arrived? It's a tie. The one we have right now and the one we had in 92-93. I mean, both of them give... There's a significant difference between those two teams. There's no difference. There's no real difference to me because they both have everything it takes to become champions and

it's just a matter of everything working you know it's kind of like oh get all these ducks in a row and it'll happen these are the best two listen i know and i know you're you're close to the action there i'm a a fan forever like for as long as i can remember i've been a maple leaf fan and i'm still a maple leaf fan absolutely but like it would be nice if this version of the team could win a playoff round. I'm not asking for the cup, okay? No big, don't have to go to the cup. We know they've never been to the finals

since Jimmy, you took over on keyboards back in 87. You should have never said that. In my lifetime. It's my fault. You can blame me. Thank you. In my lifetime. At least you were alive for a Stanley Cup final appearance.

I saw it. Yeah, I saw it. I wasn't around. I was there. Were you there? I was at the parade. I was there. Yeah, I saw it. I wasn't around. I was there. Were you there? I was at the parade. I was there. At the parade,

but were you at the game? Because my buddy Peter Gross tells me he was at the game in 67. Another guy I love. Shout out to Peter. Yeah, that's way, way back. Peter's like a blood brother.

He calls me every Sunday. He doesn't have to duck coming down the stairs. Sorry, Peter. Sorry, Peter. True. That is true. I'll just say to duck coming down the stairs. Sorry, Peter. Sorry, Peter. True. That is true. I'll just say that's a fact. Okay. Just showing I know Peter well, and we've gotten

along for years. I produce his horse racing podcast, Down the Stretch. This is awesome. This is awesome. Please give him my best. I love him. Just saying. No, I love that guy, too. Gosh, he knows it, too. Okay, so shout out to Peter Gross, as we always do. Did I answer the question?

Well, you know, you said it was a tie. Okay. The game seven against the Kings, you talked about the high-sticking call that wasn't called, and Frazier, whatever, didn't call it, even though it happened right in front of him. And that was the closest in my lifetime we've been to the finals. This current team is very talented in the regular season,

but we haven't won a playoff round since 2004, but we won't lay the blame on the organist or the PA announcer. You guys are hoping you can call a second round game one day. We appreciate that, and we will. We will. And you know what? Sometimes the stars are not aligned. Sometimes there's a and we will. We will, and you know what? Sometimes the stars are not aligned, you know? Sometimes there's

a comet in the way or something, and it's just an injury. Look at Johnny last year. True, okay, but if the Johnny injury is the reason you didn't beat the Habs in the first round, maybe you weren't going to win the Cup that year. You have no idea what this does to a team when you see your captain get...

I cried. I mean, I saw him on the ice, and it was the scariest thing I've ever seen. And I don't know John Tavares. I really do not know him. But I just, as a Maple Leaf fan. He seems like a nice guy anyway. I think he's awesome. But seeing that horrible mess on the ice, it busted me up.

So no, I just, and I saw the same thing happen to Matt Sundin and Steve Sullivan. We all, you know what? They say there's a curse of that name that shall not be spoken. But I'm about to say that name. Are you okay?

Because we, you know, this happened, man. This happened. So Barry, I'm going to blame him if you don't like it. Barry. For Jimmy, it would be interesting to find out how his time was under Harold Ballard.

You've teased it a bit, but let's put it all on the line here. Barry, thank you for that question. Thank you. Thank you, Barry. I appreciate that. And it's a very boring answer. I was scared to death of him. Here's how the interview went down

um you want to play organ how much you're going to pay for the seat and that was the last conversation i had with him because i ran out the door i ran they want you to pay no no i'm just saying i'm that's not that's not it's not that's not a true story it's not a true recollection but i told you i was a little, like I was a dumb kid, just a musician off the road, you know, just come fresh out of, you know, capes casing or something and, you know, playing to eight people. And I walked into Maple Leaf Gardens and when he said that I, you know, ran for the hills, said, this is not going to happen. And Gord Stelic didn't catch me that time, but he called me later and said, he's kidding. So, but his tongue was in

his cheek, but who can tell if this guy. And I couldn't because there are comedians that can deliver straight face and, you know, by hand stone. And anyway, he did that. And I went back and then I told you, Gord said, don't answer the phone. So I already was scared to death.

You know, somebody who could be dying and the phone's ringing. I said, I'm not answering it. I don't care. Just let it go. Let it go. And it's so strange when you think about like, if you play a song, he doesn't like, like, so what you got to screen all the songs for him to find out if it's done. No, no. Because if I, if I, if the, any organist were to have played a song and the other team scored a goal immediately after that song was obviously your fault in that stupid right and for the first warnings i were was told about was you don't ever play that this tune or that

tune because they led to goals and so you can't do those because there's no bad luck there's no paranoia back in the we're talking 35 36 years ago wow but i do know for a fact uh because it was in a paper at the time there was no social media but, but the Vancouver organist at the time played Gloria, Gloria, several times in a game. And the owner said, don't play it again. He played it again. He was fired. So that was out there on the wire for a while.

And don't forget Harold also, the whole Paul Morris era as PA announcer, I mean, he was there for 39 years. All started because the previous guy mispronounced the name of prime minister at the time, or at least maybe former prime minister at that point, but Lester Pearson. Pearson. Okay.

He called him, he called him Beerson. He just, he just mispronounced it. He slipped. Yeah. And that cost him his job. Wow. That was it. He slipped, yeah. And that cost him his job. Wow. That was it. He was out on that.

And then Paul Morris happened to work at the Gardens, and he was asked by Harold, do you know how to run that audio system? Yeah. All right, you're the new announcer. Wow. And off he went. So, yeah, I mean, those stories,

there are probably a million of those stories of people who were out of a job just turning on a dime, like one little thing, and you were toast. Yeah, that would have you walking on eggshells. So, again, apologies for not having any other stories because I hid. I cowered in my room. Who can blame you, buddy? Who can blame you? What a crazy time in this city. Okay, now there's a question for Mike Ross, too, from Barry.

How hard was it to replace the legends that you replaced at the Scotiabank? I guess it was the Air Canada Centre at the time. And it's tough. It's the same building, two different names. It's like you repeat it like it's two different buildings. But it's like, this is the same building. But the same when you mentioned Budweiser Stage. You know, the same thing there.

Molson Amphitheatre, Budweiser Stage. Okay. I had to deal with that myself, right? I mean, it was Air Canada Centre when I started. Did you ever slip up? No. Okay, good for you. I do.

Knock on wood. It never happened. I would say, number one, if I didn't have, I don't believe you replace anybody. Because I don't think, Andy Frost could not replace Paul Morris. I cannot replace Andy Frost. And you said it earlier, Mike, where there have been these three voices for the Leafs in your time.

And I remember when I got the job, one of my dearest friends said, you know, for a whole generation of young Leaf fans, you're the voice that they're going to associate with that arena experience. And that's what it was like for me when I went to Maple Leaf Gardens and heard Paul Morris, when I went to Yankee Stadium

and heard Bob Shepard. Like that was the voice that I sort of associated with the team when they get replaced um they're it's just somebody else is doing the job and they they've developed they've got their own style they got their own growing pains into it and people people either get used to it and like it, get used to it, don't like it. Either way, I think if the sound of the PA announcer is your biggest concern, things are going pretty good for your hockey team. But change is hard, no matter what.

You watch your favorite TV show, and the lead character, the actor from that show leaves, and somebody else comes in is now playing that part not everybody loves it so so yeah i mean is it difficult absolutely was it more difficult for me than it might have been for andy i think with social media being what it was that was very difficult there were some people that were very vocal and unhappy about it. But I think I've won people over. They've gotten to know me over six seasons.

I like him. He's my buddy. And I can say that I got my contract for season seven today. So we're coming back. Is that the first time you've said that publicly? Yes. Or have you tweeted that already?

I have not tweeted that. Okay, guys, that's a scoop. That is a scoop. That is. That's a Toronto Mike exclusive. Mike Ross is back 22-23. Yeah. Okay, good.

So you'll finally get to call some games in the second round. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to it. Although in the bubble, right, you got to call other teams. I did other teams. I did.

I did in that bubble. I did every Leaf game. Right. I did every Montreal home game because they needed it to be bilingual. I did some Flyers. Rangers. Bruins. Rangers.

Islanders. Yeah, the Capitals, Penguins. I mean, we did so many. Yeah, Tampa Bay, that's right. We got a buck. Oh, Penguins. I mean, we did so many. Tampa Bay, that's right. We got a buck. Oh my goodness, dude. We did a lot of games over a very short period of time,

but it was, that was quite an experience. I love 18-hour days. Well, especially though, come on, when it's like the middle of summer and we get to go work in a nice air-conditioned arena, that did not stick.

Yeah, it was worse gigs, I guess. Yeah, that did not stick at all. Although were his gigs, I guess. Yeah, that did not stick at all. Although I am curious, are you paid by the game? Or is it, in that instance? You get paid. Exactly. We get all the beer we can drink after the game.

We get those ice cream bars we talked about. Yeah, ice cream bars and popcorn. Free food, free parking. Oh, free parking, you know what? That was something excellent about that time because there was no parking in the arena. And usually the arena is full because the players, the managers, all the coaches, the buses,

but there was nobody there. So we got free parking. Thank you, Taylor, again. Thank you, pandemic. Thank you, COVID-19. Well, I also remember there was this one jerk who said, I'm not coming to any game if I have to walk through Union Station. That would

be me. So the NHL and Taylor said, how about if you park in the building and come straight up in the express elevator to your room? I said, works. Sold. Okay. All right. One of the most frequently asked questions is coming up next here, but one more jam

here. This is for you, Justin. Justin Orff. This is an organ jam. What's the name of this song, Jimmy? Habanagila. And how does this become like an organ staple? I don't know. It's religious, right?

It's a Jewish national anthem, and I've played a few bar mitzvahs in my time. And again, my best friend, Justin Orfas, who happens to be a nephew to Pat Park, who was, again, under Bob Stelik. Of course. He loves that song, and he loved it back in the 90s when he worked.

Justin used to bring me food because I was starving up there, up at the top of the arena, up at the catwalk there when I worked in Maple Leaf Gardens, and Justin would always bring me food. And Justin is 7'12", and I'm 5'10",

and we don't hug anymore because I come to as belly button. But other than that, I love him, and every time I think about this song, I say, oh, this is for you, Justin. Okay. All right, love it. No, love it, and I feel like I'm at the

Leaf game right now. Okay. Every song in the world has a story, and I have no idea how it developed, but after 35 years there's just so many things that just fit. Alright, let's talk about maybe a bit of an elephant in the room here, but I got more questions about this than anything

else. So, who in the organization is responsible for the goal song? We know who has to hit the goal horn. That's who has to hit the goal horn. That's you, Jimmy. But who decides what is the goal song for the Maple Leafs?

Hey, I get to play the goal song celebration too. I get both. I get to do the horn and the music. No, I love to hit. I do them both. I'm glad to do them both. But Mike will talk to you. All right, Mike.

Who's picking the goal song? Anything that we play play anything that i say all is directed by our director of game presentation taylor taylor where where that decision comes from above her i don't know um there are all kinds of stories about how the hollow notes a song you make my dreams come true became the goal song. And I've heard different stories that it was a particular player who was playing it in the dressing room. Guys picked up on it,

kind of like the glorious song with the, with the St. Louis blues on their Stanley cup run. Um, so there's all kinds of origin stories to it. I, I honestly don't know. Um,

but nothing we do is done on a whim like we yeah this isn't there's no ad-libbing inspiring it would be a good goal song and every song that like i will come to jimmy and our dj and say hey i heard this song i think you should play this well it doesn't matter what i think right that then That then gets presented to Taylor, and Taylor listens to it, and she gives it the okay or not. But all those decisions, there's no ad-libbing by any of the production crew. Yeah, it's not spontaneous. No.

No, of course not. Okay. Well said, Mike. See, that's why I don't talk. Why were you reading that? Did I get all the legalese? But I'm going to jump right in. Yes, Jimmy.

Because I've been there from the beginnings when there was no goal celebration song. This could take another three hours. So very quickly, I'll tell you, every year they would give a new goal that we advised about playing a new goal celebration song. And sometimes it was neat, sometimes it wasn't so neat. When did it start? Like when did the goal celebration song start? Well it was neat, sometimes it wasn't so neat. When did it start?

Like when did the goal celebration song start? Well, back in the 80s and 90s, I would just play Go Leafs Go and or like a slide on the organ up and down and up and down and make a horn sound that was horrible until I told you my friend Kevin made me a decent one. However, in 1992, Quality Records came to me and they said, nobody will play our music.

We've got these sounds. They're awesome. And she came to me, came to my house, dropped me sets and CDs and everything. So at the time, I was allowed to play the organ, or I could make a sound effect because I got the cassette deck. Right. I got all the music by 2 Unlimited. All those crazy quality. This explains everything. It's Quality Records. They came to me. I still have the music by 2 Unlimited. All those crazy quality. This explains everything.

It's quality records. They came to me. I still have the letter that says, please, literally, in short, nobody will play this stuff. We need an out. We think this is perfect for Arena. Do it.

So the first night I put down No Limit. Right. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. No Limits. Bob Stella came flying down, said, what the heck is that? And I thought, oh thought oh I blow my job now because I was only there like 4 or 5 years

then he said we love it I said great then I went in to get ready for this then I went into Twilight Zone and I just I didn't play organ for a while I just kept pushing the cassette to the next sound to the next tone to the next tune this explains so much Jimmy like how did those songs become like cause they were there

a long time. Again, because there was not... Okay, in 1992, the Game Operations team was Paul Morse, Jimmy Holmstrom, and Christine Simpson. Oh, who's in FOTM.

Love you, Chris. Anyway, that said... She's great. She's the best Anyway we would do this and I was allowed Free reign to play any music I wanted So my other good friend Alan Bradley gave me his entire

Record collection Well not Gord Downie But his manager Jake Yeah Jake Old Gave me all of the Tragically Hip songs Everything That's the one I played first But I had a whole bunch Yeah, Jay Gould. See, gave me all of the Tragically Hip songs, everything. Well, 50 Mission Captain Natural. That's the one I played first, but I had a whole bunch.

I mean, oh my God, Bob Cajun. There's so many songs that are just great. Anyway, that said, these people gave me all the music, and I would sit at home for hours and hours in editing from cassette to cassette, you know, the dual cassette machine that I had, right? And I would get to the parts that I thought would be best. So I did that for years and years.

Suddenly, maybe it was Bob Stelic, but somebody suggested, let's do Get Ready For This as your goal song. So I did Get Ready For This. You'll know this song. And I used that

as the goal song. Are you ready for this? Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Close. Let me just off a little bit. Yes, I know this song because they were literally playing it at the arena my kid plays at,

which is Mimico Arena. They're still playing that song. Then years later, well, then in the mid to late 90s, we started getting more overseers, people involved in the decision making and the music, which is great because then it protected me from any blame.

I got an awful lot of credit through the Contact CD collection, Kevin Shea and all these people involved in that. There we go. This was the longest goal celebration song we ever had. Kevin Shea was over here, I'm I'm going to say two weeks ago. He was in this basement. Kevin Shea is a good guy, too. No, he's the best.

He's one of our best friends. Okay, now this is not an official Jimmy Holmstrom jam on his top ten. It's like a bonus. But, yeah, this one, definitely an arena jam. Okay. And we got the Quality records rep who did that. She get a bonus because. Yes.

And imagine giving me those on cassettes, but that's how it worked. No social media, no EDMs, no electronic, no little discs. Back then, where were they going to get that played anyway? Right? It's not like there were a ton of radio outlets that were playing that type of music yet.

Yeah. I'm thinking energy 108 or something like, yeah, you're right. There's a two, two unlimited. Two limited. Okay.

So I'm going to come back to the goal song, but this is a quick one here. Alright, we've got words in this, but this is, of course, the Adams family. I don't use those words, but the people will clap. They'll snap. They'll do it. And that's what some of the music, organ music, is all about.

Getting the people to make noise, which will, in effect, make crowd noise, make the players be aware that there's a crowd there in case they didn't hear them, and get involved. Are you, Jimmy, a teenage head fan? are you Jimmy a teenage head fan I'm gonna say I was in the bar scene when they were in the bar scene so we were definitely competitors that said we also used their song as a goal song well that's where I'm going with the Jimmy I'm setting you up here buddy this is how it works because we just lost Gord Lewis yes we did And it's under unbelievable circumstances. Tragic. Absolutely tragic. I just re-watched.

There's a documentary on TVO. Yep. Yep. You can stream it online at TVO.org. And yeah, it's all about kind of like, the bulk of that is about Gord Lewis. He has his own psychological issues he's overcoming. And it's kind of inspiring how he kind of comes back and then you kind of watch that doc

knowing how it ends for Gord. It's very tragic, very, very, very sad. But yeah, Let's Shake, which is probably the most popular teenage head song, was the goal song for a while. Okay, so how many goal songs can you remember?

Okay, lots, but because my friend Rob Sutzka was in germany and he found this unbelievable tune and he's he couldn't send it to me like we do now you know there's no social like network for that but he sent me a cassette and so for a long time in the late 90s into the early hundreds a zombie nation was our goal song and we did it first and we had, I had to see again, again, I only had the cassette, but again, one of my bosses later said, no, that's Boston's goal celebration after a couple of years of using it. And there's no, there's somebody else uses your tune or somebody else uses a tune that you think is your tune, right? You got to stop because. It's like it's burnt.

Yeah, exactly. So I had to stop that. Rob was really upset because he said, no, Jimmy, you're the only guy in Canada who's got this song because it was done in Europe. He got a European mix and sent it to me. That said, the best song ever as a goal song lasted six, no, six games. No, five games. What was that? Here we go.

You ready? Yeah. Cassette, armed and ready to. What was that? Here we go. You ready? Yeah. Cassette, armed and ready to go at all times on the left side. Remember I got two cassettes, right? Yep, two cassettes. So one's for any goal. And I would go, Leafs scored. Honk.

Who's better than the Leafs? Nobody. Mel Lastman. That was our goal celebration. How about that? Oh, man. That's the truth. I had no memory of that at all. That was our goal celebration. How about that? Oh, man. That's the truth. I had no memory of that at all.

That is wild here. I'm still in therapy. When do they announce, or do we have to find out, I guess, in the preseason, I guess, we find out what the hell gets played when they leave score, I guess. Is it going to be Hall & Oates again? Do they make an announcement? How does that work? You'll know when we know. You'll know when you know.

All right. I love the goal stuff. A lot of questions came in about the goal song and Greg made an observation and don't take this the wrong way, anybody. But the he says that the Leafs have not won a playoff round since we switched to that foghorn. He says we he says we switched in 2005. Now that's a dead season, right? Like, 04, and then 05's a lockout year. Like, there is no 05. So is it when we come back, I think there's no season in 05. Correct. When we come back in 06, that's when the

air horn, or he calls it the fog horn, but whatever, we know what we're talking about. Is that when that's in place? That's ballpark correct. Yeah, I'm going to say that probably was right. So this is it, man. We're looking, we're pointing fingers. What's going on? The last playoff round we won was in the first round of 04.

Pat Quinn was the coach. And Ed Belfort was between the pipes. That's what we're talking about here. We beat, I think, Ottawa in the first round in seven games or something. And then we lost to the Flyers in the second round. That's 04. We have not won a playoff round since. And now we know who to blame.

This air horn. Thank you, Greg. Okay, let me move on here. Jimmy. I'm taking him off my list. This is Andrew Ward, who's a good FOTM. He wants to know, what were your influences growing up as a musician

wanting to play the organ? He says, he mentions guys, and I got to plead ignorance on these names. I'll just read them. Virgil Fox? No. Or Simon Preston? No. Or did you just come to play the organ through school or through teaching?

What got you to learn the organ in the first place? I was in a private school. I was taught piano and organ and vocal music for eight, nine years. I became like Royal Conservatory organist. I became a church organist because that's what they expected me to become. But then I, my schoolmates, I know they're older than me, much older than me because the school was grade three to grade 13. But at the time, we all lived in, there was only about 60 or 70 of us in this private school. So we all knew each other.

David McMorrow, Sandy McMorrow was one of them. He was the piano player, organist for Rough Trade. Joey Chorowski, I got a picture of him on my wall with me singing in grade three. He's the organist for Alice Cooper. Michael Burgess, famous, famous, famous. Michael has been my best friend and mentor for my entire life. And that's how you know Gowan. They're all, you're on that click. We're all in John McDermott, Doug Tranquata. We were all choir school alumni. And because of that, uh, I, I learned how to play. And again, back before I became a,

the organist of, of the Leafs, I was an organist in several churches and, uh, I do weddings. I do funerals, hopefully not my own. Um,

shout out to Ridley funeral. There you go. All right. Will they give me a break when it's my time? Yes. FOTMs do get a break. Okay. Perfect.

Okay. I'll be in tomorrow. I'll bring my time. Yes. FOTMs do get a break. Okay. Perfect. Okay. I'll be in tomorrow. I'll bring my ashes. Hopefully not tomorrow. Anyway, that's the truth. Let's win the cup first, and then you can go. All right. I've just been trained, and I've done it all my life.

Back in the day, in my band, we played in these kind of arena things where there's lots of bands. I played with the Tragically Hip. I played with Burton. I played with lots of different people in these kind of arena things where there's lots of bands. I played with the Tragically Hip. I played with Burton. I played with lots of different people in these different situations. But I played with Vanilla Fudge once. Okay. And, oh, my God, so many other people. David Clayton Thomas and his groups.

And I watched the organists play. Now, again, I'm younger. I'm a kid. But as a kid, you think you're the best in the world and you're looking at these guys and you think, I can do that. But you can't. But just watching some of these organists do their thing,

Billy Preston type of stuff. Yes. And all the organists that, like Hammond B3s. I had a Hammond B3 for a long time until I couldn't carry it up a flight of stairs anymore. But that said, they all inspired me so much that I don't play organ like a person plays a piano as a trained piano player. I play organ, my body's moving everywhere. Like I'm,

I'm nuts because I just feel like I'm trying to, you know, embody what they did and what they made me do. Amazing. Okay. That's it. I hope I'm answering that. Absolutely. That's great answer and amazing. And, uh, I'm going to, before I kick kick out this next jam that is one of your organ jams, I'm dedicating it to Stu Stone because this is by his, I think it's his favorite band of all time, and he loves this song. And I'll just remind the FOTMs that Toast with Stu Stone and Cam Gordon returns this coming Thursday. So Thursday, 8 p.m., we'll be at live.torontomike.com,

So Thursday, 8 p.m., we'll be at live.torontomike.com, kicking out our favorite jams from cartoon characters or puppets. That is the order of the day, so tune in to hear that. And this jam is for Stu Stone. Thank you. It's not in the way you say you care It's not in the way you've been treating my friends It's not in the way that you stare to the end It's not in the way you look or the things that you say that you do Oh, the lie Love isn't always on time For the life

Love isn't always on time Mike, Jimmy, we're not in Kansas anymore. It's Toto. Isn't that amazing? Hold the line. Those ones never, ever get old. I don't care. Because they're not in Kansas anymore. It's Toto. Isn't that amazing? Hold the line. Those ones never, ever get old. I don't care. Because they're well-crafted.

They're so well put together. Like a yacht, right? Yacht. Yeah. Awesome band. Awesome, awesome. And great for sports. They're great driving tunes, but they're just a bunch of songs, right, that you play at

sporting events, and you can play them for 30 years and it doesn't matter. They just get everybody going every time. I used to always play this song on one of our penalties. Our penalty, not theirs. Hold the line, boys. Hold the line. I used to play that so much. I'm sure people were getting sick of it

so I stopped playing it for about 8 years. But I always played that one back at the Gardens. Back by popular demand. Wonder what Harold Ballard thought of this jam. The phone never rang after you played this, did it? I'm just going to say I wouldn't know. Took out that hearing aid. Took the ringer out of it.

Yeah, there was that dial. I remember the old landline dial. You can bring it right down, man. We all remember old phones, old rotary phones. So, yeah, Toto, Stu is adamant that they should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Now, I personally am not so sure about that. They got a few good jams or whatever. This is one of them.

But shout out to Yacht Rock. You got it. Can't go wrong with Yacht Rock, right? British prog rock, you know, and none of them will ever make the Hall of Fame, it seems. Who knows? Who knows? I mean, you know, Genesis made the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

They did change their style after. Well, you got Disney on your side. You're laughing. Okay. What's that? Is that Phil Collins on the hercules soundtrack every soundtrack you name tarzan that's the one okay oh yeah shout out to phil collins if he's listening okay so lots of questions about that goal song and i by the way i don't even have an opinion on it like it's

whatever hollow notes i like that song speak they're not quite yacht rock but they're in the neighborhood okay fine hello says is jimmy changing the goal song music from Hall & Oates to something different this season? We've established that you play what you're handed by. It sounds like Taylor says this is the song, and that's what you fire off. Taylor gets that information.

I think I heard Shani decides. He's listening in his cottage. I'm not throwing Taylor under any bus. No, I mean, there's nothing wrong with who knows where it comes from. Who knows? Maybe we'll be surprised of a new one. Who knows? Listen, play nothing as long as they're scoring.

I don't care what you play. Just keep scoring. Right. Bring back two unlimited. We don't care. Just score. Just score, baby. Okay.

Another more. Lots of questions about Mike. How do you feel replacing a household name like Andy Frost? And you've kind of addressed that, I suppose. But I want to shout out Andrew Winkles. do you feel replacing a household name like Andy Frost? And you've kind of addressed that, I suppose. But I want to shout out Andrew Winkles. I think that's a cool name. Andrew Winkles wanted to know what it was like.

But I feel like this question's been asked. So I won't make you answer the same question 100 times. But Andrew Ward has another question. He's a very thoughtful question. Did Jimmy ever get to play on the big pipe organs in Toronto's old churches or just in stadiums? And what are the difference between playing like timber-wise and coloristically? I don't even know what that means, okay?

Coloristically? What does that mean, Jimmy? You're the prodigy. I'm going to have to answer that question. I answered this to Taylor Dean there just not about six weeks ago. I played the St. Michael's Cathedral Choir School, Oregon, choir, excuse me, the St. Michael's Cathedral, Oregon in the church downtown Bond Street. It has five manuals and bass pedals. And I had to play one, one mass. And I was all, I'm five foot gym, ladies and gentlemen, I am not going to complain about my size. As I said, I don't want my head coming down.

You made fun of Peter Gross earlier. Yeah. Peter and I are the same size. Anyway, I, no, not true. I got,

I got on the organ and my, my, my teacher, his name was Armstrong, not my friend George, but it was another Armstrong. He said, you got to go up to the top manual because that's where

the flute sounds are and I reached up to it and stepped on the bass pedal wrong and then I couldn't reach the top bottom line is I could not play

a pipe organ a five manual or three manual pipe organ my arms aren't long enough my legs aren't long enough and my stocky stocky frame

would not allow it. Your old buddy Leo Routens could play it, though. Leo, Leo, yes. You and your brother, George, who I loved all growing up. The kid from Keele Street, they called him. The kid from Keele Street. Because Leo, from 6 o'clock in the morning till 8 at night, till it got dark, he'd be shooting hoops in the Keele School yard. And it all paid off for him.

It paid off well. First Canadian drafted in the first round. Kudos, Leo. George was my buddy. Actually, Leo was ten times my size even before he was five. Listen, again, we just shout out Stu Stone.

Why am I mentioning him? I'm mentioning Irish wash. Okay, here, let me play it. Let me play this jam. Why are you saying the name before you play it? Come on. No spoilers on this program. I had no idea what the song was called. I had no idea.

It was the Irish Washer Woman. I think we used that as the goal song for the St. Patrick's Day. Yeah, well, St. Pat's Games, yeah. I feel like we should be wearing our St. Pat's jerseys right now. I got to change the screen. Yeah, come back on March 17th. That's it. Yeah, St. Pat's, a former name of the Maple.

It was Arenas, then St. Pat's, and then Leafs, I think. Correct, yeah. You got it. It's the order. Right order and everything. was Arenas, then St. Pat's, and then Leafs, I think. Correct. Yeah. You got it. It's the order. Right order and everything. Yeah. See, I don't know. You must be a Leaf fan.

I'm so old. I remember watching the Toronto Arenas. Although I will say the jersey, the logo thing, it looks like the team is called the Aretnas because it's A-R-E and then the T and then N-A-S. I've been asked, how did it feel working for the Arenas back in the day? Well, how about that? We play on St. Patrick's Day this year. Excellent.

You'll hear the song again. Friday night. And you two are going to... We're going to be in green. You've accessed any free tickets or no? Once I get them, maybe you'll get them. Cooksey and I want to go. So get two tickets and Cooksey and I will go.

Cooksey's been. Cooksey's been. Cooksey's been. He goes to more games. If I wasn't working there, he'd be going to more games than I do. So Mike, serious question. Not that these aren't serious questions, of course. Everything's serious here on Toronto Mic'd. But how good a player is that Cole Cooksey?

Oh my goodness. Because I've seen footage. Wow. And I read the news. Yeah. So I'm thoroughly impressed. And I can't believe this Chris Cooksey produced such a good hockey player. How good is he from your perspective?

I think he's, I've seen him play live once. And he was dominant then. The thing that blows me away about Cole is he is one of those guys who knows how talented he is and knows how much energy he needs to expend in order to play his full game. So he's not a guy who's out there burning energy uselessly and then he's going to fade in the second period. He'll last the whole game

and you'll get 100% out of him the whole game because he knows how to manage it. And he's only 15 now? Is he 15? Or am I... No, he should to manage it and he's only 15 now is he 15 or am i no he should be i believe he's seven 16 17 okay okay but i mean here here's a perfect example i'm playing golf in uh in ottawa this past summer and my brother-in-law and i are paired up with a couple of guys and one of them happens to be a scout for a junior team in Trenton. Okay. And I said, oh, that's cool.

My buddy's kid just got drafted by Sarnia in the OHL, and he's going to a couple of different camps and stuff. And he said, oh, who is he? I said, oh, Cole Cooksey. And he said, oh, we tried to get him. Wow. Right? Like, that was so random for me,

and I talked to a lot of people who've watched him. Yeah. And he's, he's a really talented kid. I'm so, I'm so happy for him. Like, well,

his dad, I don't know him that well, but because my daughter who's six years old, just scored four goals in her last house league soccer game. And I felt like I was like Walter Gretzky. This is how I felt, okay? She got ice cream, four goals. It was a 5-1 game.

She scored these four beautiful goals. Six-year-old girl, under-six girls soccer. And that's how proud I was. I can't imagine what Chris must feel. The thing about Chris, though, is he is not... I've never thought of him as sort of your typical hockey dad. Even of those who have a kid who you know is trending towards a career in pro hockey. Right.

Right? He goes to the rink. Like your predecessor. Right. With Andy, right? And so for Chris, he's the type of guy who goes to the rink, sits in the corner, watches the kid play, and that's that. But what I've seen in the two years that I've known Cole more

is just how hard he's worked, like how much he works out. He's got the gym. Like the joke at Cooksey's house is the gym that's set up in the backyard. Like I always make the joke that we're in a prison yard like kids working in the yard today huh um but this kid's going somewhere and whether whether he ends up being a pro hockey player or not he I'm almost a hundred percent convinced he's at least going to get a full ride in college like if he doesn't go the OHL route he's going to play college hockey but But there's a possibility down the line

at some point that you're saying this person's name. What's that moment going to be like if you ever say Cole Cooksey over the... Well, here's the thing. If he's not playing for the Maple Leafs, it's going to be kind of depressing because I put no emphasis, no excitement into announcing another team.

Maybe you give a little zest to it. Like a little zest. That was my joke. Then Taylor's like, what are you doing here? I know this guy's dad. That was my joke to him too, was that I'll have to put a little bit of something into it. But no, that would be amazing.

I'm getting goosebumps, so I got to move on. So you took care of the Irish, but now the Scots are upset. So what's going to be our next jam here? Let's see. Opening night every year. Shout out to Glenn Healy. Bingo. Yeah.

That's his favorite song. That's why I learned it. Okay. Well, well. One of my proudest moments every year is introducing the 48th Islanders. I'll bet. Yeah. They march out onto the ice playing Scotland the Brave. Love it.

Outstanding. Tell me the Glenn, because Glenn Healy is yet to become an FOTM, but I actually really would like to get him on the show. I was a big Glenn Healy fan, and I didn't understand when they removed him because he was actually saying something. It was interesting. I love Glenn.

He's been great with me all the time. But more than once, he'd say, why did you stop playing Scotland the Brave? Why did you stop playing that? And I didn't realize I'd stopped playing it until he mentioned it. So every time I saw him in the suicide box there, I would say, okay.

And I would wait for a moment where I want the fans to clap. And I would do this song, Scotland Brave, but a little quicker so that it would go and add the drums and stuff. And yeah, that was for Glenn, just for Glenn. So Glenn, if you're listening, get your butt on Toronto Mike here

and your buddy Jimmy. Do you give a thumbs up to this experience? It's not quite over yet, but how's it going for you so far? Thank you, Mike, and I love the GLBs and I love the pasta. It's all good. I wish you'd said something before about Glenn. I would have brought him with me because he lives about, I don't know, a good drive, a good one-wood drive away from my place out in the Jets.

But then those are the guys I get worried about because they're the guys who are like, oh, that's a long drive for me because I'm impressed you made the drive. Like, I'm thinking in my head, that's a long drive for you home, right, Mike? But you're here because you wanted to live on here. Because my best buddy, my best friend, and I don't want to share my beer with anybody. My best friend, and I don't want to share my beer with anybody. People even around the Leafs often note how tight we are. Joined at the hip.

Yeah, but I love it. It started even before I was with the Leafs, because I was working the World Junior Championship in 2014, and Jimmy was there. I'm in my 50th year now yeah and uh walk into um this boardroom where all the staff for the tournament are meeting for the first time and i don't know anybody i know average age 16 yeah i know taylor who was part of my interview process but that was it and so i see see Jimmy sitting there, and I just said, well, there's the oldest guy in the room. I'm going to gravitate over to him.

And we just started chatting it up, and the next thing I know, every day we're having dinner together. And when I got the gig. Road trips. Yeah, great road trips. Well, Oh, yeah. Great road trips. Well, look, I've only spent, here, let me tell you exactly. I have spent an hour and 40 minutes with this gentleman, Jimmy Holmes. I already dig him, too.

Right? He's a likable chap. He is. And from then on, that was it. Like, when I got the Leafs gig, we're back in that same boardroom. Right. And I look around, and Jimmy's, again, one of the only faces I know. I'm waving.

But at that point, it's like, yeah, at that point, it's like, sweet, I know somebody, and made me feel immediately welcome, and now I get to work 10 feet away from him every game. And he also sends me song inspirations all the time. Play this for that. This is something that maybe I didn't even mention. Every time a team comes to town in intermission time, I play a song that has something to do with that team. So like if Boston comes, you'll play the cheers theme.

Yep. Exactly. Benny and the Jets for Winnipeg. Right. These Eyes because you made me learn it. That's right. For the Winnipeg. Yeah. These Eyes because you made me learn it. That's right. For the Winnipeg. Yeah.

You should do a Watchmen song. They're talking about the tragedy. For the Rangers. Yes. I like this game. Every team. Arizona. What do you play for the Canucks if they come to town?

Okay, anything by Brian Adams. Sure. This Land is Your Land because Ian and Sylvia wrote it for one of his girlfriends out west, both in Edmonton and in Vancouver. But these are Jimmy deep tracks, which is great. No, I know, because you've got to be paying attention, and you've got to be like, oh. And people do, which is, I love it.

I didn't know. Lance, right? I didn't know. Lance Hornby at the Toronto Sun. He'll come by. Yeah, he'll pop in and say, like, why did you play that one tonight? Or other times he'll come in and say,

I know, like, like Oh Darling by the Beatles when Buffalo's in town because of Ted Darling. Yeah, Ted Darling. Nice. I would like to, it's like a game. We should make a game.

Engineer. How does this song apply to this team? And then, you know, you got to get. Well, this is before, there's no hockey players around. It's just the fans who are just having their beer

and popcorn and whatever. So I play some stuff for fun. Like a lot of Katy Perry songs, believe it or not, are like one of the weekend songs. Like I can play anything by the weekend because it's the weekend. Look, Saturday night. Saturday night by Elton John. Saturday night's all right for fighting. Yeah, because it fits for me.

Ruby Tuesday on a Tuesday game. If the team's from like Washington, the only thing I know is a song by Presidents of the United States. But you have to dig. And sometimes I dig really deep's from, like, Washington. The only thing I know is a song by presidents of the United States. But, you know, you have to dig. And sometimes I dig really deep. Anyway, back to you. That's it. That's it. baseball player back in high school He could throw that

steamball by you Make you look like a fool, boy Saw him the other night at this roadside bar I was walking in, he was walking out We went back inside, sat down

Had a few drinks. But all we kept talking about was glory days. Well, let's pass you by glory days. The boss. You can play this when the devils come to town. I love this. And the reason I learned it is because I've got Bill Harris' book, Billy Harris, the lead, again, the 60s.

I got his autograph around the corner on this picture. Yeah, yeah. Well, I got his book, and he autographed it for me, and it's called Glory Days. And I think of this song every time I, for George Armstrong and all the other great players that I grew up idolizing, this has got to work. And so a song I often play in the first period, just on the organ, like the 10 or 20 seconds I get before the referee drops the puck.

And that's what that, that's basically, this is my song to throw kudos to the 60s, the teams, the Leaf teams of the 60s. Love it. Now we got the origin story. Why? But it's a great jam regardless. But I'm trying to think of which question here. Andrew Winkles again wants to know, Love it. Now we got the origin story. Why? But it's a great jam regardless.

But I'm trying to think of which question here. Andrew Winkles again wants to know, Jimmy, what gets a better response? Classics or TV themes or modern songs on the organ? He's put them into these three categories here. That's great. The new songs I love to play because they're a challenge to me to learn. And that would be like a weekend song. Like a weekend.

Anything by the weekend. Again, I said Katy Perry or JT, you know, Timberlake. They're fun to play, but the people don't react to them. But when you do something like even Glory Days, something that's got that kick, bass, drum, and snare, they always work. Like I play Green Acres, da-da-da-da-da. Everybody does

that. I mean, it does Addams Family, these type of things. So they work, as long as they work. When they don't work, I stop playing them. And that's what I said about the, you know, a couple of songs ago, if I don't think there's any reaction, I would just stop playing them. Right. Interesting. Okay. Love it.

Ramel says, what's your... Oh oh this is a great question and then mike i got one for you but what is your favorite song to play on the organ like your number one favorite it's called go leafs go okay okay well you want to do that now okay well actually hold that one so we should hold that question i'll pretend i i would would say the joke I say is I'll fix it in post because, of course, I never will do such a thing. That would be terrible of me. But here, let me go to this one then. Mike, what is the all-time most difficult player name

you've had to pronounce on that PA? I think I'd have to go back to the first World Juniors I did and the only reason there was a Russian player who is still in the NHL Pavel Buchnevich I think I told you this story when I was when we spoke the first time

only because again it's one of those names where there's just a little bit of nuance. It's not Buchnevich. It's Buchnevich. And I found the Russian PR guy was all over me the first game. And, like, burst into my booth. And it was like, it's not Buchnevich.

It's Buchnevich. Buchnevich. burst into my booth and was like, it's not Bucznewicz, it's Bucznewicz, Bucznewicz. And I was kind of like Jimmy with Ballard, right? I was like, what's this guy yelling at me for? Bucznewicz. And so when I learn about the... because a lot of players

just say, whatever, it doesn't matter. And no, it does matter. It matters to me. Ilya Mikheyev, for example, right? Not Mikheyev, it doesn't matter. And no, it does matter. It matters to me. Ilya Mikheyev, for example, right? Right. Not Mikheyev, Mikheyev. You're good at this, Mike. This is how you got the gig, man.

Well, that's, I mean. This is why I don't get that gig. And this is, it's so important to me because, I don't know, maybe this is the first time this player's ever played in front of his family and friends in the NHL. Well, it's a respect thing, right? It is. It's just, it might be the only time he hears, his family hears his name announced. What if it's his first goal ever?

Like, it's got to be special. This is why I was always so, like, I knew it was part of his shtick, but I hated the shtick from Don Cherry to purposely mispronounce names. Like, Patty Roy. Like, to me, it was like so disrespectful. So Roberto Lelongo, like that one always drove me nuts. You know, he's doing it like he's leaning in and he's doing it intentionally. But like, like, like Patty Roy, like there's, that's how to honor the guy's heritage, his family, you know, his language.

Give me a break, Patty Roy. Okay. We digress here. Okay. I'm going to play another jam. Let's do this and then a couple of cleanup questions and then you have one on your phone, Mike. Here we go. Hopefully this is

a decent version of this. You can tell me if I'm out to lunch, by the way. It's better with bagpipes. Right. Right. Da, da, da Da, da, da, da, da The maple leaf Forever I don't play it like that. That sounds like something they might play in school.

Here we go, Here we go. Let's just open it. All right, Mike, whip out that organ. This sounds dirty, whip out that organ. This sounds dirty, but it's not. And let's hear your version here. But okay, the Maple Leaf Forever. Very patriotic, beautiful.

And another one that the 48th Islanders play, they play that one on the way off the ice. They've done every opening night since the opening of Maple Leaf Garden. Wow. Yeah. And the cool thing about that is there are members of that band today who are second or third generation Pipers in that band. So their fathers, their grandfathers played before they did

at opening nights for the Maple Leafs. I love that. The Highlanders. Hey, let me shout out because we talked about how in my lifetime there's only three PA announcers for Maple Leaf hockey games in my lifetime. The only lifetime that matters, by the way. But lest we forget, there's only been two, two PA announcers for the Toronto Blue Jays in my lifetime.

two PA announcers for the Toronto Blue Jays in my lifetime. Marie Eldon, who was there forever, and now FOTM Tim Langton. And that's it. It's only been the two, I believe.

So now again, there was no Jays till 77, but I just wanted to shout that out. There's a commitment there. That's a tough gig because you're there every day for like two weeks at a time. 81 home games, I guess. It's not like two weeks at a time 80 81 home it's not like

like we get three games in a week and it's like whoo that was a busy week for us these guys are there every like i worked in baseball and in pr and my goodness you get to the end like i remember when i got the gig and somebody said on my first day oh thank god i think we're getting a rain out tonight and i was like what are you kidding me we work in pro sports this is fantastic after about a month it's like oh thank god we got a rain out tonight cheering for rain yeah okay jimmy here's a question uh last question here from uh andrew uh vancouver's mike kenny was organist for the canucks he got dumped because the organ doesn't fit with everything else the Canucks are doing to create a boisterous atmosphere in Rogers Arena.

Is this bullshit? Pardon my French. That's Andrew saying that. And is this sort of thing going to happen in Toronto? Well, for my sake, I sure hope not. I was going to say, I hope not. That's all I can say. But nobody can.

I'm just a hired hand. I was going to say, I hope not. That's all I can say. But nobody can, I'm just a hired hand. I'm an employee. Whatever the powers to be decide is the focus or the moon. Ask Lisa Laflamme. Like, you just don't know what's going to happen down the road. Right, like who saw that coming? Nobody. So if that can happen, anything can happen. So it's like asking me to predict the outcome of a war

or the outcome of a Pepsi Coke generation. Like, seriously. Anything can happen. That's a fact. But if you look inside the arena, if you look inside the collar of the players' jerseys, the word tradition is there. And that's one of the things that the Maple Leafs do

better than anybody in the league, bar maybe a couple of people that are up there with us. And that is just you know just traditional things that we do in hockey the highlanders is a perfect example every opening night since the since the opening of the gardens in the 30s like that's huge and i talk to people who are in that band and who are second and third generation it's a big deal for their families that tradition means something and that uh you know, you could say, well, who listens to bagpipe music anymore?

Well, we do. Opening night every year, and it's phenomenal. And people, they got their cameras out. They're taking videos. They're taking pictures. Tradition is a big part of the history of the team. So it's great to be part of that tradition. And the question was also about the Vancouver Canucks.

I mean, they fired their anthem singer, their organist. I mean, who knows? Who knows what's going on out there? A different whole group. Well, they're smoking a lot of weed out there in Vancouver. And if you're going to be smoking weed, just remember, Canna Cabana, because they won't be undersold

on cannabis or cannabis accessories. So much love to Canna Cabana. I'm actually going to talk to Andy from Canna Cabana about what we can do for TMLXX on September 1st. And that's, again, everyone invited to TMLXX. So smoke them if you got them. All right, we're winding down now. I've thoroughly enjoyed this.

I don't know if Jimmy knew this was going to be two hours, but it was two hours. And we're going to play one hours, but it was two hours. And we're going to play one more song off Mike Ross's phone. But I remember FOTM Alan Cross came in here and he talked about this new company he had started. It was going

to be like in arena music he was going to do. And I know he had at least a couple of seasons at the what was then called the Air Canada Centre, where Alan Cross was like responsible for the music you heard in the arena. I'll address that. Yeah.

Like I'm dying to know some, like what was that? That was the introduction of a DJ, not just Jimmy doing all the music. And Alan is a friend and I respect him and love him. And I'm going to go on record as that. And if you see him again, you just tell him that and tell him I still love him. Well, I see him a lot. I just him and love him and I'm going to go on record as that and if you see him again you just tell him that and tell him I still got Well I see him a lot

I just saw him actually the other day Well tell him I still got these two giant Beatle autographed album covers that I wanted to show him I was going to set them take them down

and hang them up down there but another friend said they're too valuable because I got them from Abbey Road Studios when they sold everything in the Abbey Road Studios and just saying

Alan is a gentleman and a scholar, and he had nothing but nice things to say to me where other people maybe not so much. But that said, you just tell Alan that I just respect him because he came in, and he made sure he wasn't stepping on anybody's toes, but here's what he was going to do. He brought in a DJ, and he said,

you're going to work with Jimmy, and it's going to be like this. You go, Jimmy goes, you go, Jimmy goes, do you go, Jimmy go. And that was before Taylor's time, who I told you was my game operations manager. And it did work out for two years. And I was weaned off of doing a lot of the sound, mixing the DJ, like the audio, recorded audio tracks. mixing the DJ, like the audio, the recorded audio tracks. But then I do not know what happened, but at the end of the day,

Alan and the group were parted ways, and Taylor Dean came in and immediately threw me under the bus about, you're going to do a lot more music again. So I said, Taylor, no, I like this. I like this like sitting there watching the game. You know, like there's nothing wrong with being the organist if you only play two songs a night. You know, that's not true.

But just saying. Then I got a bunch back. But we've got Cale, who's a DJ, who does a lot of the work. And that's wonderful because, you know, I might be able to do this till I'm 110. Well, that's actually really my final question here because, you know, Rommel wants to know your favorite song to play on the organ.

And we're about to hear it off Mike's uh phone because i couldn't find it uh myself but mike has found it but how long will you do this jimmy like i mean i'm looking at you you look fit you look like you look like you got another 30 years in you how many push-ups you want to see i can do peter gross could do 100 i'll pete oh i have it on video actually he did it on the deck and I did it on video I haven't seen him lately no I have no full length or just like upper body

no man I'll show you the video the real deal there might be a physics advantage if you're only 5 feet tall I'm not here to judge any of that but that might give you an advantage not to worry you'll go that, but that might give you an advantage. I don't know. Not to worry.

But you'll go as long as they'll let you? Until they take away your pass card or whatever? Yeah, as long as I'm loving it, what the heck. And as long as I don't mess up, too many goal horns. Okay, because my wish for you, this is my wish for you before we hear this song from Mike and then we say goodbye.

My wish for you is that you get to play the organ during a Stanley Cup final clinching game where this blue and white team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, finally win the Stanley Cup again for the first time since 1967. And I want Mike

Ross to be making the announcement. I don't know what you'll have there. You're 2046 Stanley Cup champions. I don't know what year that'll be, but you're calling it, Mike, and you're on the Oregon Jimmy, and all is well in the world. Cooksey and I are there.

The question is, is the intro going to be, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner Gary Bettman? Is Gary still going to be there? I don't know. Who knows? He's not going to live to be 200 years old.

I don't know. I don't know. My age. But this is what I hope. I hope that that does happen. want that listen i want that for me no doubt but almost to a person we all want it for jimmy because jimmy's been there jimmy like i hate to i hate to rub it in buddy but jimmy started with the Maple Leafs. I was in high school. I was 14 years old. Yeah, like Wendell Clark was new in the league. Yeah.

Most of the group I work with say, I wasn't even born, ha, ha, ha. He's a Canadian tuxedo walking downtown. Oh, my God. So, yeah. I mean, you talk to anybody who's worked with this guy in any venue at any point, and we all want it. We all want it as any point. And we all want it.

We all want it as Leaf fans. But we all want it for Jimmy. Like, there's no doubt about that. For Jimmy. Let's win it for Jimmy. Yeah. Fire off that song on your phone right against the mic there, Mike. Josh! And when he does that,

like we do pre-game tours where fans get a chance to come in and meet him. And when he plays that, the oldest of fans, like their jaw drops, their eyes are as big as saucers. They're like little kids. It's awesome. It's not a button.

Like you're pushing, Mike. If I had 1% of the talent of a Jimmy Holmstrom, I'm telling you. Listen, Jimmy, what a pleasure it is to finally meet you proper and to get you on the program. You're now an FOTM. That's Friend of Toronto, Mike. You've joined this exclusive club that has such esteemed people as Mike Ross in it. Thanks so much for coming by today.

And before we get our photo, make sure you get your palm apostolos on. I can't wait. And thank you again for having me. And now you've got about a million friends of yours to say hi and love from me too. And Mike, thanks for making this happen. You're the orchestrator of this beautiful episode.

Two hours. I'm so glad I got to do this. You made it orchestrator of this beautiful episode. Two hours. I'm so glad I got to do this. You made it happen, man. My pleasure. Anytime I can hang out with my friend Jimmy and share him with the world, I am thrilled to do so. So thanks for having me be a part of it. And that

brings us to the end of our 1099th show. 1099. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Okay, let's start with you, Jimmy. Are you at Jimmy Holmstrom on Twitter? Is that your Twitter handle?

Jimmy underscore Holmstrom. Jimmy underscore Holmstrom. Follow him. Mike, remind me, what is that? R-O-S-S-Y. Rossi on the mic, M-I-Cy Rossi on the mic m-i-c Rossi on the mic follow Mike Ross on Twitter

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Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH. And Canna Cabana are at Canna Cabana underscore. See you all Thursday night. The return of Toast. Toast. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow won't speed a day. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy and gray. Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day. But I wonder who.

Yeah, I wonder who. Maybe the one who doesn't realize there's a thousand shades of gray. Because I know that's true. Yes, I do.