Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - John Rowlands: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1632

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

In this 1632nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with famed photographer John Rowlands about photographing the Beatles, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Rush, Kiss, Sam Cooke, Linda Ronstadt, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Glen Campbell, Leonard Cohen, and Elvis Presley. Bob Klanac, author of Shooting Stars, Telling Tales: Behind the Lens of John Rowlands, co-hosts! Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1632 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. Palma pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. RecycleMyElectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of

the past. Building Toronto Skyline, a podcast and book from Nick Aynes, sponsored by Fusion Corp, Construction Management, Inc. and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, making his Toronto Mike debut, is famed photographer John Rollins. But before we call up John, I have here in the TMDS studio with me, Bob Klanick. Bob, welcome back to Toronto Mike. I'm delighted to be back, Mike.

The last time was so much fun. I decided to actually just write another book so I can come back. Well keep doing it man. If you keep writing, here's my pledge to you, if you keep writing these great books about unsung heroes or even the sung heroes I want you to know there's gonna be an open invitation that you can visit the basement so long as we get the subject matter, if they're you know on the right side of the dirt, we get the subject matter if they're you know on the right side of the dirt We get the subject matter on the line to chat about their career at the same time And as I'm sure you're gonna you know appreciate John is far from being on the other side of the dirt. He's his mind is Still crackles with memories and he'll come up with details and you'll see I love details. Okay, so for the listenership, here's where we're at.

So Bob and I are here. We're gonna do like two minutes, maybe two to five minutes. Then I'm gonna phone John and we're gonna see if we connect and then we're gonna like literally, like I have no rapport with John. I've never met John. When did you first meet John? I guess I met John around eight, 10 years ago.

I got to know him and Nick Panaseko, the subject of my last book, Promo Man. Nick and John were kind of joined at the hip I should say since 1975. Joined at the waist doesn't sound as good as joined at the hip. No, no. That's why he never caught on, oddly enough, Mike.

So Nick hired the young John then to be the photographer for Quality Records. And John took Nick around on his various adventures, which kind of led to situations as Nick meeting the prime minister of Canada. And Nick would show up in pictures with Pierre the then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and People would kind of go who is this guy and it was all the connecting tissue. There was John Rollins

So speaking of connecting tissue your first visit was a warmer day. It's not that cold. It's just there's a lot of snow And you know, they're calling for like 40 centimeters on the weekend. I know. I hope no one listens to this in the summer. I like to, you know, this is of the moment and you can remember that, you know, you can appreciate the fact that I'm wondering aloud in my South of Tobaco home studio where I'm going to put that snow because we had so much snow the other day that it piles up on the boulevard and everything and I'm running out of places to put the snow. But you were here in warmer times, July 2022, and it was episode,

I want people to know they can go back and hear more Bob Klanek. And I'm specifically speaking to my dear friend, FOTM Elvis, who I just learned is a buddy of yours. You're a buddy of Elvis. Yes, yes Elvis and I go way back to Western. I laugh because if you've met Elvis and you know why you laugh, he's got a great laugh himself and he and I have an irreverent sense of humor. We just kind of pick the crap out of him. Well if you listen to the the the TMLX recording we did at Palma's Kitchen, by the way you mentioned before I started, I turned you listen to the TMLX recording we did at Palma's Kitchen, by the way, you mentioned before I started, I turned you on to Palma pasta.

Yes, Palma pasta. No, Palma pasta is like giving me a single piece of Palma pasta, which you did last time, a tray of lasagna, was like introducing someone to heroin. It just wasn't fair. It was not fair. I, you know, next time I came back to Toronto, I'd pick up one or two and then I turned other friends onto it and, and they picked up one or

two and yeah, it's, and then it just made me sound like a crazy lunatic going on about palma pasta. Well, as your dealer, let me tell you, I have another lasagna in my freezer from palma pasta. You're going home with another lasagna. My goodness you feed the habit and I love you for it Mike. Are you also a fan of the Great Lakes beer I sent you home with? Yes yes I'm a big fan of Great Lakes Brewer they have so many good beers I last time well I that's one that's my go-to when I'm even

even if I don't I don't come back to your show and I just wait to drink beer every time I come to your show, I actually go to the LCBO. You can't write that fast. I can't write that fast. God knows that's an incentive though, Mike. Because no, their beer is wonderful. So I've given you, I'm gonna give you some more

Fresh Craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery and I'm doing this off the top because I'm gonna, in literally less than two minutes, I'm calling John Rollins and he's not getting any of this because he's on the phone So you're getting all the good stuff including the Ridley funeral home tape measure, but I was gonna say to Elvis Elvis your buddy Bob was on Toronto mic'd in July 2022 and Elvis go back to episode 1075 where we did chat with promo man Nick Panaseko He worked with Freddie Mercury Johnny Cash Keith Richards kiss rush

Some guy named Bill Cosby. Holy who's that liberal? That was not someone he liked Well, he's got to take a number on that one. Yeah Liberace Keith moon and others and you joined course, cause you authored the book, promo man backstage tales from the vinyl jungle. Can people still get that book? Yes, they can. It's still available on Amazon and I think there's still copies at Sonic Boom in Toronto. If you're in Toronto and many London record and bookstores on the

Ontario that is. So I'm about to connect with John, bring him in, but I'm gonna let the listenership know that you are the John Roland subject matter expert because you have written a new book, which is called, Shooting Stars Telling Tales, Behind the Lens of John Roland. So that's the book.

Thank you for my copy, Shooting Stars Telling Tales, Behind the Lens of John Roland. You ready to call John, see if he answers? Let's give my shot Okay, and remember you're my co-host for this episode Bob. So, uh, let's see here Well, you give me lots to chuckle along with so I mean a little bit of Ed McMahon. You're my Elvis. He's my Okay, this exciting right we never I've never talked to John before no

Come on John pick up I Told him you'd be calling. Can we talk? Yes, John Rowlands, we can talk. John, we're actually live on air here with Toronto Mike. Okay. John, how you doing buddy? I'm doing good sir.

Struggling with trying to walk, but other than that, I got a good bed here and watch a lot of TV. And he's got a good head too. A good head for facts, as I was telling Mike just when we started off the show. Your grasp on facts and details astonished me. Well, you know, I loved it so much. It was exciting every day. And those are high points in my life I remember. What got you interested in photography? What made you want to pick up a camera? Well, interestingly enough, I was in love with Brenda Lee and paid a dollar and a half

to go and see her in Ottawa. Everybody left on demand of the promoters. Time to go home, folks. And walking by the hallway to her dressing room, I saw the name Brenda Lee in the casuals and walked in, knocked on the door. Her mother answered and I said to her that I was here to tell Brenda I thought the show was great. And she said, come in here and tell her yourself.

Now remind us, John, how old you were then? 13. 13. Wow. Yes. And she was 15 and still is two years ahead of me. And she's still with us. And she has her hair done

where Ed King of Leonard Skinner's wife Sharon has her hair done and they often go out for lunch together. That's some trivia. See, this is what I'm talking about with having a head for facts, John. Yeah, I haven't forgotten that liaison and hope someday she'll call me and we can talk because she was the match that lit my career.

And then in 65, 63 other bands started seeking me out for pictures. And then I moved to Scarborough and was dealing with Capitol Records because I photographed a band that they signed ultimately in Ottawa. And I already had the shots for their PR and press campaign. That was the Esquires, wasn't it John? Yes, sir. Yes. Yeah.

They were the first band in Canada to have rock videos. Uh, there's a fun fact. In those days. Geez, that is a fun fact. They were the first band in Canada to have rock videos. There's a fun fact. Of those days. Geez, that is a fun fact. Now, and then after that, that led to, was it the Dave Clark Five? Well, they got me on the road with the Dave Clark Five. Sadly, I missed the Beatles that year,

but certainly I got rid of my shyness with the Dave Clark Five because they were all smart, intuitive, and emotional, and regular folks like me. No fear and did the job that make Capitol Records and the Esquire's happy. And then the next year I got the Beatles and the year after that I got the Beatles when they appeared in Toronto. Now remind me, you were 16 when you did

Dave Clark Five or 17? I was 16 and 17 was the Beatles. So John, I just had a visit from Jerry Levitin and he's renowned for being like a 14 year old kid who got to interview John Lennon at the King Eddie Hotel and they made a little animated short that actually got nominated for an Oscar. So he's like a teenager, he's talking to John Lennon, Yoko Ono is there of course. Please slow down with some details on you know, you photographing the Beatles, this little indie band from Liverpool.

Right, well they were, George was backstage talking with the Vox sound guy and I was going from one side of the stage to the other side of the stage backstage. It was much faster than fighting through the crowd and saw them chatting there. So I was, hi George, how you doing? And sat in for a few minutes with the Vox sound guy and I told him, you know, all this sound because nobody had stacks of amplifiers is coming out from the top of Maple Leaf Gardens through Electra Voice

Tin Horns. And in order to hear the band and lyrics I had to go downstairs to the dressing rooms and three cement blocks of concrete would filter out the echo and disturbance that the rest of this din of noise was making. Well of course I could hear the lyrics. And those speakers were made for hockey announcements basically, right? Yeah, of course. Yeah, just like nonsense like that. Yeah, that's crazy. And then of course, you know, in the book we go into it how you and George hit it off

and they invited you to go to their dressing room for rice pudding in between sets? And that gave me a command over the Beatles because I asked my friend George to ask John to slide into a foursome picture instead of all in a line with the tape recorders at the desk the desk and a much better composition for for picture sake and it worked. Of course George looked at his new friend and right into my camera and I got a great picture. That's what makes the photo so great is that the other three Beatles are kind of staring off at what else is going on in the room and the in the press conference and George is looking right at your camera which kind of makes it for a very personal picture and it's still one of my favorite photos of yours. Yeah well the Beatles were in a press conference and run by Brian Epstein who would assign a question to a beetle and They would answer it to the best of their knowledge

Things like you know like it's a John Lennon in a classic How did you find Canada and he said well you turn left at Greenland? Things like that that you know is Ringo really Jewish and all this kind of chatter and this was the comedic aspect of the Beatles and sitting in a line with all these tape recorders, little tiny cassette players and what whatnot, you push the button and record it. Every time a Beatle would answer, the four of them would take the microphone from a tape recorder and thump their fingers on it.

So, Jerry Silver, who was a guy I was working with from Montreal, we took his tape recorder out to the hall after the press conference and listened to it and it was, well, how did you find Canada, John? And he would give the answer and the Beatles would thump his microphone. So all he got was thump, thump, thump, thump to draw his interview and text when he got back to Montreal. He had to remember the questions. J.P. Corder did him no good. Pete Slauson Well, it's one of those things and I've pointed it out in the book and you, Well, it's one of those things and I've pointed it out in the book and you I just think it's phenomenal that

you know, there's a 17 year old kid here with these musicians who are roughly in your it just I know what eight ten years older than you and and so therefore there's more of a connection because the rest of that press conference full of seasoned newsmen and suit and suits and ties and conference full of seasoned newsmen in suit and suits and ties and then there's this kid and the kid was someone who I think that they really paid some attention to you because you weren't just a kid to them. Well it was fantastic. I loved it every second and still do and I do have a picture another photographer friend of mine took showing me and the Beatles in the back of my neck is all he included of me but that's good enough. At least you can say he has the back of my neck you know that's something that I

can't say. Yeah yeah. So John loaded question, but beetles or rolling stones? Rolling stones. Can you share with us, I know you photographed the rolling stones as well, tell me that story. Well it was my friend Phil McDonald, his dad built the 401 from Windsor to Toronto and it was called a million dollars a mile in those days and he got 90 bucks a week allowance so we did a lot of projects on our own and used his dad's desk at home when they went to Florida for three months. Phil would stay behind and I called the owner of London Records in Montreal that had the early Rolling Stones records and asked him if he was going to service the 30 photo VDET magazines in

Montreal and he thought about it and said, well yeah, I think we could do that. If you get yourselves to Montreal, then Iíll cover the rest of the tour through Ontario.î That was Montreal and Toronto. Wherever we went, we had permission to do it. This is up to my friend Stan a Boediak who is the PR guy at the Gardens he would write out a small blue piece of paper with permission to photograph the band. Can you tell the story about what happened in Ottawa with the gang with the gangs fighting and the police having to go on stage and you? Yeah, well in Ottawa they had two factions much like England with the mods and rockers

over there, only they called them in Canada the squirrels and yohucks. And an altercation began in the center of the crowd and spread to the front of the general admissions area. And my instructions was I could go anywhere behind the police lines. So that meant when the police covered the front of the stage, the stones were still playing and I could go anywhere behind them. So I wound up five feet away from Mick, would walk over, take shots of Keith, walk over to the other side and take Brian with his teardrop of guitar and Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts. And same with the press conference, it was three people with the stones in their dressing room. Nobody knew what a press conference was with the stones, but that's what it was.

I met Mick Jagger in the urinal before the press conference. We walked to the dressing room together and had a great time with them. Brian Jones chasing me around with a toilet plunger full of water, trying to douse my camera. Also, he cooperated enough with the Fox Phantom to pose for me and I got shots of that in the dressing room. And of course, in the dressing room is where he taught you to play what song was it, John? This could be the last time.

He showed you on his guitar how to play the last time. Right. That doesn't happen to everyone. No lineups there Bob. Exactly no lineups. Now John before we called you up I was chatting with Bob about a buddy of his who apparently his name Perry I learned that today his name's Perry but I've been calling him Elvis since I met him because he's the biggest Elvis fan I know. He's gonna love hearing that you photographed the Elvis, and I'm not talking Costello,

although maybe you photographed him too, I don't know. Elvis Presley. Well, yeah. Okay. Did you photograph Elvis Stoico by any chance? No, no. Who was the skater that you did photograph, there was a famous male Canadian skater.

Kurt Browning? Maybe I did do Elvis Stoico in an ice capage I saw. I seem to remember having a shot of him landing, but I was there to shoot Lynn Nightingale and that cute little blonde. You gotta be more specific in the figure skating world. Yeah. Cute little blonde.

Elizabeth Manley, is that her name? Oh yeah. That's pretty good. Silver medalist in the 88 Olympics in Calgary. There you go. That was her. That's a big deal. Very impressive.

Well, we never won a gold in, we, we hosted in Montreal, didn't win gold. We hosted in Calgary, didn't win gold. And finally in 2010 in, you know, Vancouver Whistler, we started winning some gold on home soil. That's how that works. Bob loves these fun facts. But please, back to the OG Elvis here. You met Elvis.

Yes, sir. In the kitchen of the Holiday Memphis Inn. He had the whole 13th floor and I met him getting into the kitchen area, walking through it to the waiting limo and it was a decoy that Colonel Thompson set up because there were 5,000 kids at Graceland wanting to see him leave Graceland for the first show in 11 years in Memphis. So I was there, two girls from Texas told me he's on the right side of the limo, which he always was, and that's in fact how I met him the first time, 1974. Now, which Elvis tour was it that John had a camera that was a very modern, large looking camera and he pulled it out and they thought it was a film camera, so tell them about that

story. Well, it was also in Memphis and that was in 69. I hadn't met Elvis then and two security guards working for Elvis came over and saw my Hasselblad camera with a 250 telephoto lens on it and they took me by the elbows, lifted me over the barricades and took me back to Greg McDonald who was my RCA liaison who was the road manager for Elvis. They get me back there, put me down on the floor and say, �We caught this guy making movies.� Greg looked at them and say, we caught this guy making movies.

And Greg looked at him and said, you silly assholes, this is the guy we hired. So, then they grabbed me by the elbows and took me back over the barricade and let me shoot the pictures. I just, the image of them picking you up over the barricades. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my god. It was pretty comedic. Yeah. Hey John, if I put you on the spot right now and I said of all these I'm looking at so many iconic photos and I can't believe

you took these great shots but if you had to pick one what's the most iconic photograph you've taken in your illustrious career? Well, I have to say the archer with David Bowie in 1976. Bingo has been called. Well, I actually was hoping you'd say that. Okay. So when I went on social, I went on a blue sky and I said, uh, John Rollins is about to make his Toronto Mike debut. By the way, John, you're now an FOTM friend of Toronto Mike.

All right. It's prestigious. Uh, be honored. Okay. Trust me. But Rob FOTM, friend of Toronto Mike. Uh, hey. It's prestigious. Be honored. Okay. Trust me. But Rob Pruss, I don't know, did you ever photograph the spoons? Yes. Oh, yes. Okay. So Rob Pruss was the keyboardist in their heydays and he was, he sent me, I mean, I've seen it before and I can see it on the cover of Bob's book with you, Shooting Stars Telling Tales Behind the Lens of John Roland.

But he wrote, he sent me the photo of David Bowie that he said was taken in Toronto in 76 and he wrote, this iconic image of David Bowie as the thin white Duke was taken in, yeah, he tells me February 26, 1976 at Maple Leaf Gardens. He loves that photo. I'm glad you chose it as your most iconic. Tell me everything you can about taking that photo of David Bowie in 1976. Well, one nice thing about it, A, I saw the show in Montreal the night before and kind of blocked it out in my mind when the archer occurred because that to me was supposed to have. And then I was down front right beside a Rob Bowman, another, uh, local photographer and a

biographer. Oh, you know, I thought you were going to say another local FOTM. That's what I thought you were going to say. Oh, cause he's been over here. He's been on your show. Okay. Of course he has.

Yeah. Everyone's been on your show. But please continue. Guy. Of course he has. Everyone's been on your show. But please continue. Good guy, that's for sure. And I got it with perfect angularity to Rob's shot because he got a slightly different angle on it. But he did get the archer and it was a little different and didn't really work as mathematically as mine did

but mine was Hasselblad and sharp and clear enough you could even define that little swig of hair in the front over his face. Anyway, I asked afterwards what what song it was in he forgot and what was it and he said well it basically it was a clue to his lighting director that when his hand went up and he fired the fictitious arrow the signal was Where was I going with this train of thought? Anyway, this picture was important to David enough that he wrote me a nice autograph on a piece of cardboard I usually carry with me. And without knowing the print that was going on, he wrote on the bottom of it, to John with respect, David Bowie, 1993.

Wow, he wrote, I trust you. Yeah, I trust you. I like the way you see things. And a high compliment over the 19 breakfasts that we had where I would deliver contact sheets to them every morning and have breakfast because I put a dark room into my washroom of the hotel room and process the film, leave it to dry for four hours, catch some sleep and cut up the nags, make the contact sheets on RC paper.

They would dry in five to 10 minutes and then go across the hall to David's room and have a nice English breakfast. Wow, now here's the deal I'm gonna make with Bob because I realize I could easily do this for several hours. I know we've got a book though, right Bob? Yes, absolutely. How do people get this book, Shooting Stars Telling Tales?

Well if you're in the Toronto part of Toronto Mike's show that you can go to Sonic Boom Records with a great store on, not on Queen Street, it's on Spadina and they have copies for sale there and if you're anywhere in the world that of course you can be listening to this you can buy it on Amazon. Amazon Canada, Amazon US, Amazon worldwide. Who's cooler John Leonard Cohen or Bob here? Who is the second name? Me. Or Bob who? Clannock. Oh, okay.

Sorry, Bob. I don't blame me, John. Absolutely. Man, my daughter is currently in Montreal going to McGill. And I just saw, I was watching the hockey game on a couple of nights ago, Canada versus Sweden. And of course it's in Montreal and then they do that pullout shot and there's that mural of Leonard Cohen, man.

That's cool. Yeah. That's cool. Right. So here's what I'm going to do with Bob. I'm going to get to ask John something and then you get, I pass the baton to you. Okay. Okay.

Like you're, you're Donovan Bailey. Okay. But Donovan never had to pass it back. You have to pass it back. Okay. But maybe tell us a little bit about shooting Leonard Cohen and then it will be Bob's turn and then I have some questions from Listeners who sent in questions. Okay. I was in Montreal and he lived on Westmount on Rue Dominique and he had bought four little homes there and

Knocked down the two on the opposite street to rue Dominique and put it in a garden. So I knocked on the door, a babysitter answered. I said, is Leonard available for the pictures we had arranged to do for CBS? And he said, well, he's just had four wisdom teeth full on his head and is sleeping right now. So I said, no problem. CBS has got me here.

I'll check into the Queen Elizabeth and get sorted out and Leonard can call me when it's time so I went to the Queen Elizabeth did all that and Just as I finished I got a phone call and it was Leonard Cohen Saying come back. We'll do pictures today so I went back Took about 400 shots of him at the house in the garden in the back, and he said, do you like corn on the cob?

And I said, sure, I love corn on the cob. So he grabbed six or seven cobs of corn and brought them in and boiled them for us, and we ate corn on the cob. And then he noticed in my bio that I liked architecture and antiques and he said, I've got some antiques to show you. And we wandered down to a little convenience store near him and there was a big huge copper cash register there that when you push the button down the prices appeared in a window across the top and it was all from modeled copper glass and brass holdings. I saw this thing, took pictures of it, loved it.

And then walking back, we ran into several girls with a come house of Al Leonard and how are you waving from balconies or walking in the street. And he had a sign on the door, no visitors today because I'm taking pictures. We wound up with enough for the tour and more so. I talked to his son who was involved with that mural and the one in Montreal as well

and was very happy to tell me about how his dad visited the house they shared in Greece and had left his guitar in the kitchen. When he saw it after Leonard had passed, he broke into tears. Just a wonderful recollection of a wonderful guy. And the last I saw of him, he played opening act for Paul McCartney at Coachella when I lived in Palm Springs. I think if I had corn on the cob with Leonard Cohen, that would be it for me. Like I would just dine off that story for the rest

of my life. Literally. Yeah. They spared the dine off. And I did, I did, I did, I did, I did, I did, I did, I did, I did. Literally. Yeah, they spared the dine-off, Bob. And I did promise Bob the next, where are you going next, Bob? Where are you taking us?

Well, if you're saying Leonard Cohen, there's a second part of the Leonard Cohen story, which I really liked, which is that later on when John was having, in a Greek restaurant, he's having dinner with a girlfriend, and she was having a new sidewalk, they hired this Buddhist sect just down the street to lay the cement, and he looks up at the guy operating the jig pouring the cement,

and it was Leonard Cohen, because Leonard was part of that Buddhist sect for a period there living in California. So he said something John said, you know, next time he's in the around, let me know. And so John met him up with him in the restaurant. So which is kind of like, and after this is of course, they were able to, you guys were able to talk about the, uh, the sessions you had done. And.

Well, he, uh, he reminded me that I was a guy that photographs them the day he had four wisdom teeth pulled. So. Right. I did make an impression. Yeah. And I chose that story over the one, and you'll have to buy the book for this,

the one where they, John and Leonard were backstage at Massey Hall and they almost met Lou Reed, except that Lou was a little off something that night. So that story's in the book too. So speaking of something, I need a little bit of who talk the who who's Mike talking about, particularly a story in the book about Keith Moon calling the police on our very own John Rollins. Could that be true? Right. Yeah. He, uh, he came out to the parking lot across from Sam, the Chinese food man on young street and was looking at this Opel sports car, saw me and my license plates leaving the parking lot with my secretary and my cousin who had enjoyed

the party because the Who always liked to end their tours of North America and Toronto. Keith had phoned in CB language to the police and fire that my trunk was full of nitroglycerin. So we drove across to University, turned right to go up to Avenue Road and so on. Right in front of the Ontario Museum, fire trucks and police cars come whipping around the corner and surround my car and say, open the trunk at huge volume. And I wonder what the hell, what the hell? And I jumped out of the car and popped the trunk and there's a little Halliburton case in there and screaming at me. They said, open the case, open the case.

And I opened it up and there's two Hasselblad's in there and nothing else. And then the fire chief and the police chief looked at me and said, we've been duped. They apologize. We got in our car and proceeded to drive up Avenue road. And after about six blocks, I had to pull over to the curb and, and look at the girls and say, yeah, do you believe what just happened? Or we were so shocked and in awe of this thing that we really didn't realize it when it was going down how it affected us. But nonetheless, it has happened and really did happen.

So that was that, another Keith Moon adventure. Well, there's one other one that Alice Cooper told you, which is when he was staying at Alice Cooper's house, you're already laughing, John, because I get it. So John, I guess Alice, guess John was sleeping, um, sorry, Keith was sleeping in the garage or something anyway. Alice Cooper and his wife head out down the, uh, do some shopping. They get in their car and you take it from there, John. And, uh, they're going down the street and Keith is

on the roof, uh, looking at them upside down, uh, through the front window and says, where are we going? And this is the, the guy that caused, uh, probably me to an extent and, and, uh, probably me to an extent and, and, uh, Pete Townsend to be deaf in their left ear and, uh, I'm currently coping with tinnitus and, uh, my left ear is going deaf.

So, and that was, uh, thanks to Keith because he did the Smothers Brothers show and put explosives in his drum and when he ended the song the drums blew up. That's famous. Crazy guy, yeah. Loveable but crazy. Here, I'll slip in with a question. I know it's probably Bob's turn, but it's Toronto Mike, not Toronto Bob. Yeah, you're right.

Don't forget that. But James Early is very excited to listen to John Rollins making his Toronto Mike debut. And James Early writes, I just finished reading Man on the Run by Tom Doyle about Paul McCartney in the 1970s. It appeared to be a pot infused period. How often, if at all, did John get caught up in the so-called rock-and-roll

hedonistic lifestyle? Good question. Well, luckily I didn't, because I knew it would affect my work, and I didn't want the work to be jeopardized by my state of sobriety. Hasselblad was pure enough. I met Victor Hasselblad that way and I have a 12-page portfolio in the Hasselblad magazine which is really a book and enjoyed the relationship well, but I never did a Cameron Crowe type of trip

where you assimilate their habits. And although I understood their habits and saw their habits, I didn't indulge from rum and coke with the Beatles to anything you could smoke or ingest. Well, in fact, there's a great anecdote that opens the book, which is where you find yourself at a gold record party with the Who, I think it was in Montreal, and Keith Moon jumps on a table full of crystal glasses, they all go scattering, then Keith starts to rip the wallpaper off the wall.

Yeah, he saw a doggie around the wallpaper, which was a burlap kind of a paper, and pulled on it and stripped it from the wall, just as Pete Townsend came in with a ghetto blaster on his shoulder, playing Dr. John. It must have been the right place, but the wrong time. And my brother was along on the tour because he enjoyed talking with John Entwistle and Roger Daltry. And we went running out to our room after this occurred because there was bound to be a bigger bomb when the police arrived and we heard them run by our room into the party room and they arrested everybody in the room. And that's called wisdom John. Right. But John I did hear you smoked a joint with Tony Bennett. Yes, oh yes.

He was a very cautious man and he took a damp towel and blocked the door at the bottom so no smoke would go out into the hall. We enjoyed a couple of reefers with them up there, CVS guys, and it was part of the CVS convention in 1975. And... Yeah, and at the time, the idea of Tony Bennett smoking joints in 1975, boy, that would've... That's pretty obtuse, that's for sure. Yeah, good way of putting it.

All right, Bob, it's your turn. Okay, I got a story that I really like of John's, and John, you can jump into it as we get along. So John gets a call from James Brown, who he knew and said, I need you to come down to, was it Memphis? I can't recall,

to take a picture of me with my plane. And John shrugs and gets on a plane and goes down and meets James at the airport. And take it from there, John. Well, it was a Toronto appearance that I met James and he said, are you free tomorrow? And I said, well, I'll have to skip school, but I'm free. So I went to the airport, the private end of Pearson, which is some company called Aviation or something. And there's jets there.

It's a black jet with yellow paint on it or green paint and the first note of Papa's got a brand new band down the side and he said that I want a picture of me in the pilot seat, the co-pilot seat, the passenger seat by the door by the jet engines and Please send me the five by five proofs So I did all that and he insisted I probably repeated Make sure you send those proofs. I really need those proofs and I did so and I got them down to him FedEx real quick and then two weeks later I'm reading USA Today and the entertainment section has a big picture of him in the jet and Says the IRS has seized James Brown's jet

So that's why he wanted all the pictures that's why he wanted all the pictures. And shout out to the Mima Combo, which is no long now. It's like a, it's a restaurant, but it's in a MIMICO on Lake shore and it is where James Brown made his Canadian concert. Premier. Wow. Yeah. In 1967.

Yeah. I was there. You were there. What was the other? Yeah. Yeah. The Lake great Peter Goddard. You were there. What was the... Peter Goddard. Yeah, yeah, the late great Peter Goddard, yeah.

Yeah, he was noted for his Toronto Star critiques of entertainers. He didn't even know that James Brown was always on stage as the organ player until he left the organ and did the second half of the show, singing all his songs out front. I was there with John and Lee of the Checkmates, and I processed the film at the Toronto Telegram. They misprocessed it, and I only got a very light rendition of a negative there, but John and Lee with James Brown. And with modern technology today, I recovered that shot. And have it.

John, can you tell me what the Mima Combo was like? Because I know about it from the Flyer Vault, which Rob Bowman was a part of. And so I've seen the posters and I've heard the stories and it's awesome to talk to somebody who was there. Like was it just like a roller rink where artists could... Yeah, a big roller rink with a stage at the far end and a sound booth at the other end opposite it and lots of room for chairs, probably a thousand seats. It was the original flames in a really down and out bus with down and out fender guitars

and so on. That's where I shot them and also later on the Mandela. I did their very first press shot. Listen. It was, you know, it was the night of the blackout was when James played there in 67. The Northeast coast went down because of problems at Niagara Falls.

Wow. I did not even know that detail. Neither did I. I think I'd mentioned to Mike and perhaps before or after you came on here, John, but your ability to recollect things is astonishing, the details. Well, you know, it affected me because I was taking a subway down to Queen Street grabbing a streetcar out to the Nimbukamur roller rink and the only light downtown was I guess a generator or battery storage on a billboard for

O'Keeffe Ale and that was the only lit thing downtown. Wow. And the subway ran out of electricity and coasted into the station at Queen street. Incredible. Incredible. I got a question from Bob Wagner, who, uh, he himself actually made his Toronto mic debut

just about a week or so ago. And he wrote a book about, uh, Max Webster and it's a great book. People should check it out. Heard about this. Yeah. And he wrote to me when he heard that John was coming on, he said, John shot the iconic photo

of mid air, Kim Mitchell for the single release of their biggest song. That's paradise skies. Can you tell us a little bit about that iconic photo of Kim Mitchell? Well, it was the day and age of picture discs and they came out with a 45 of Kim in midair, legs spread apart like Townsend used to do and Tom, a good friend of mine from RCA was taking care of the graphics at Anthem Records and they issued that of Kim flying in the air.

I had a couple of promo pieces but somewhere down the line they've enticed my friends to steal them. Now that happens a lot. I had over 2000 backstage passes that drifted out a year and I'm lucky they end up with a bunch of lanyards and, and memories that way. I didn't know what that part, John. Yeah. I've seen your lanyards of course, but I didn't know idea that, uh, that happened. That's, uh, John. Yeah. I've seen your lanyards, of course, but I didn't, no idea that, uh, that happened. That's, uh, yeah. That's unfortunate. Where did you settle down? Like whereabouts in the province are you, John? Well, I'm in London, Ontario right now because my good

friend, uh, Nick Panasiko, uh, decided to come home and retire here. So I had strokes in Palm Springs and Sedona where I lived and was in the Barrow Institute in Phoenix and they handed me a bill for $438,000. I think they built the sky dome for that much. I got my girlfriend and we flew home. Right. Well, we're glad to have you back and you're on the right side of the 49th parallel now, so stay here. Absolutely. Oh my goodness, geez, I'm gonna let Bob go To where he's wants to go and then I got another question for you on the other side Bob, where do you want to go? Geez, we're in this book. Where can I go? I do like the meatloaf story where john was on tour with meatloaf and they uh at the last gig

I think it was in texas or uh or something ballast texas. There we go. And uh, and They uh at the end the crew had a surprise made up for him because meat. Yeah. When working with Meatloaf, and I forget his name, Harold or something. Adey I think it is. He was out of air a lot and quite wiped out, so he'd go behind the amps and suck an oxygen tube. So their little trick was introducing Carla DeVito and the hook line was, ladies and gentlemen from Toronto, Ontario or Dallas or Cleveland or wherever we played,

Carla comes from your town. And the crowd of course was screaming because she's a particularly good looking girl. And then we ended up in Dallas, Texas, and as a surprise to meet the cast and crew of the whole show when we're introducing the lineup and the band, they introduced the rest of the support and gave us all many oxygen tanks that we would hold up to our mouth and breathe as we took a bow. That's, I love that story. The idea of the entire casting of the entire crew coming out with these masks on and so and of course Mr. Lowe seeing it and

by the way Michael Lee a day I think is how we go. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Mr. A Lee Aday, I think is how he. There we go, yes. Yeah. Mr. Aday, yeah, I do like that story. Now I feel like it's been a bit of a sausage fest. Like I wanna ask about Dolly Parton if we can. There's an iconic photo there of Dolly. Well, she's a doll everywhere she goes. And because I was tight with RCA thanks to Scott Richards and Ed Preston instrumental also in the meeting with the Elvis people and of

course Dolly the horseshoe was a much bigger venue than it is now. People sought out the horseshoe in Toronto to do any kind of performance there from Gordon Lightfoot to Doug Kershaw, Willie Nelson and so on. Nonetheless, Dolly was a big mainstay and we did a lot of television with her here with Nashville North and was sitting there talking with Barry Hogan from RCA and Dolly looking towards us and around the corner behind the audience comes this big camera boom that probably weighs two tons with a crane on it with the camera up above it heading straight for us and Barry and I jumped out of the way and before I got to jump I grabbed Dolly by the boobs and pulled her aside. It was all in a split second of emergence. He's living the dream over here. Let me tell you.

And she probably thanked you for it too. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. It was like holy smokes. And this camera just kept on going while they blocked the show. Wow. Incredible. you know this camera just kept on going while they blocked the show. You didn't you didn't you didn't grab uh Ann Marie by the boobs did you? No oh no no she was uh you know I I did a lot of things with her and Jean McClellan

uh I even did a real nice portrait of her for Rolling Stone in the window of her house in Forest Hill. I got to the house to do the picture and she and Bill Langstroth were in bed and she got up, got changed into a sweater with a locket on and I did available light for Rolling Stone in the window and it's just a mesmerizing shot to see this girl. She really rode high and well and as a maritime era I really liked her. It did a lot of her charitable photography appearances at O'Keeffe and on the Steads and so on and so forth and enjoyed her. And then at a reunion of Paul Weitz a few years ago and met her again and she didn't

remember me. That was very interesting to me because Leonard Rambo, her manager certainly did. My dad was in radio in Moncton, New Brunswick, so I have the ties of being a maritimer myself and knowing all the ropes and strings and connections with Mark Osborne and the Jubilee down there. It was all fun in the early and innocent days. Sounds amazing. Sounds amazing. John, you've lived quite a life and we're only gonna like, you know, just touch the surface here

because people gotta get this book. Bob, we gotta get people to read this book. There's so many stories in there. Mike, I could not agree with you more. As you can appreciate. We're in simpatico here. We are, absolutely. We agree that if you don't,

I think if you don't buy Shooting Stars Telling Tales behind the lens of John Rollins, you're just not doing it right. Exactly. It's not fair to say. If you can, support local and go to Sonic Boom. Yeah. I love that idea. Go to Sonic Boom. Okay. And book books made in Canada, right? Not in the USA. Okay. That's important to me. That's important to me. So I'm going to we got it. We got to stop the old Trump and the excise tax and tariffs and stuff. How do we do that?

John, I look to you for the wisdom here, okay? Since you were there when David Bowie had his wisdom teeth removed, I feel like you know the wisdom. Leonard Cohen. Leonard Cohen, yeah, not David Bowie. Yeah. That's another dental story, but what do we do?

I've heard people give me good advice. Some people say ignore him. Some people say fight back with all the weapons in your arsenal. What do you think we should do, John? About Trump? Yeah. What do we do? He continues to threaten our sovereignty. Well, just live your life. 77% say Canada will stay independent and let's hope we can get it around to 100. And don't fight anybody or challenge anybody, just do it. Find a way to buy Canadian again.

I remember the logo that Canada put out a long time ago saying exactly that. It's a heart with a bi-Canadian on it and we'll have to do that and that's fine. Buy the food, buy the products made in Canada even if they're a little lesser in value or not as strong or as solid because of the steel and aluminum, but, uh, just live your life and, and as happy as you can be. And, uh, like one of the things I developed a long time ago was just saying, uh, I don't want to be on my death bed and, and close to passing away and look up into the sky and go, holy shit, I blew it.

And that, you know, your purpose in life is to leave a mark and hopefully my photography is doing that. And that's all I'm happy about and it's hard to find a girlfriend when you're laid up with strokes and a bad ankle for damage done with a frontal lobe stroke. But you're doing pretty good these days. Yeah, you're doing pretty good these days, John. And for my part, it's it's that legacy piece is something that I wanted this book to do for you. So, you know, thank you, Bob.

Do you think Bob did did a justice? Did he do an okay job here? Yeah, he sure did. There's only half a book here because as you can tell, there's more stories, I think. Well, there's more stories and more pictures, Bob. So well, as we just discussed, yeah. When John and I just in terms of creating the book sat down, we looked at 650 photos over 650 photos.

We went through each one of them. There's sort of talk about them and figure out which ones we would, uh, we'll be able to cover. Well, I got four and a half million shots. So I had, I had, I had no chance. Four and a half million shots. So I had no chance. Four and a half million shots. Yeah. It's tough to process that number.

It's like when somebody says, oh yeah, our budget is a, you know, 8.9 billion. It's like, I can't really like comprehend that. Yeah. Well, it's a with these modern Nikon cameras and the motor drives and I also had a motor drive on the blad but you push the button till you get the right shot and often I'd come home with 2,000 shots from a Neil Young gig where I'm 30, 40 rows back with a 300 mil telly on it. And then edit to maybe six good ones. And that's what made me happy.

Well, incredible. Incredible. I was gonna ask Bob if you wanted to spark one more story, but I actually have one I want go ahead It's your show Mike. It's my thanks. Thank you. You know what? I forgot that for a moment I thought this is Toronto Bob for a moment here, but I want the Rod Stewart Story, I actually just watched the fire aid which was a benefit for relief for the Los Angeles fires and

which was a benefit for relief for the Los Angeles fires. And I saw Rod performing there and I was thinking, dudes looking and sounding pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, well, it's, Bob has printed a picture of him in 1974 and we're out at the airport waiting for him to arrive with limos for him and the band. And he's not on five flights, so we wonder what the hell's up.

And finally when he does come in, we find that he instructed all of the band members to light their rooms on fire because when they returned the night before from the concert, they had to run up to their room on the 19th or 39th floor and they were all beat to shit about that and they made it, but they made it with an increasing vengeance towards the hotel and the fire is erupted and they got arrested and then when he finally made it on the sixth flight we looked at each other and we already dismissed the limos because they charged by the hour and I had the newest car of the bunch of promo men.

So I got Rodman as manager in my car. We drove to the in on the park. Um, he changed into the, uh, stage outfit he was going to wear. And we had time to have a drink at the bar upstairs at the end on the park. time to have a drink at the bar upstairs at the Inn on the Park. We tried to walk in and we got stopped by the Major D who said, sorry guys, you're not coming in here without a tie. And Rod had a soccer scarf on and part of his outfit and he said, well, doesn't a scarf qualifies a tie? And then they made her D said, sorry, sir. And Rod turned and went down to the main lobby to get in my car. And there was a Christmas tree up. So he, he's side kicked it sideways. And the whole thing 30 feet high fell into the lobby, smashing it

up and jamming the lobby with everybody dodging this great tree. Jumped in my car and we drove right into the backstage area at the gardens. Merry Christmas to all. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's funny, I wonder, it's too bad that wasn't that this story wasn't in the Lyre notes for the Rod Stewart Christmas album. All right. Should be.

You're always thinking of promo promotion. That's what I like about you, Bob. Okay. So now Bob, yeah, again, we can't read every story in this darn book. There's 600 and something. What did you say? Or did I? No, it's based on 650 photos, but yeah. And the photos are in the book, so you can see these photos as you read about them, and it's incredible. Yeah, it's interesting, because the book,

John has put together photo books before, and they showcase the photos to the absolute best in terms of technical quality, color, black and white. And this isn't that book. This is the book about the stories behind the photos and the photos are there to sort of serve the stories. But on the other hand though, the story, the photos, there's a section at the back where he just called the work, which is to say just photos he's taken without much context.

And that's where I see the Elvis Costello photo from the Elma Combo in 78. So there's the other Elvis. Okay. Yeah, it was a big year for CBS that year. Cindy Lauper and Elvis Costello. Wow. A huge year. And I shot them before that at Massy Hall and he had that classic

Tele not Telecaster Jazzmaster of his guitar, opened by what's the little guy's name? Mark Boland from T-Rex, who said to me, so Johnny, you like Popstar's cock? And that was the rudest thing anybody ever said to me in my life. Wow. Okay, I feel like we're going off in a high note here. Okay, so Bob, you get to prompt, the final story. John, you've been incredible, man. I really, really appreciated this conversation.

That was great. Yeah, well, I think- Bob, you had a home run, man. This is the bottom of the ninth. There's two on. I got one. We're down by- I got one for you. I got one for you. And this is one I really liked when John had to go undercover. John had to go undercover.

He was shooting Bruce Springsteen. He was asked by CBS to shoot Bruce Springsteen, but it was all done under the table because Bruce Springsteen's girlfriend at the time was a photographer, noted one, good one, Lynn Goldsmith. And so Lynn was officially the photographer, but the thing is she kind of, as John pointed out, I think made him look like a puppy dog, you know?

And they wanted a tougher looking thing. So they sent John off with some money to buy some tickets and John taped up his camera so they looked, so they couldn't really be seen, and hired kids to... Yeah, no Chrome cars could show up, and two kids in front, I'd shoot between them, and I had my telephoto in my boot, the camera around my neck under my jacket,

and shot them in Syracuse and Albany and a couple of other cities up there in the Northeast. And CBS would disavow any knowledge about it if I got caught. Or Bruce spotted me because he's very fussy about his likeness. Okay, so Bruce's girlfriend was a photographer at the time. Yeah, Lynn Goldsmith.

Yeah, Lynn Goldsmith. Yeah, Lynn Goldsmith. Right. It ties in nicely with the final question submitted by listeners. So there's a great local band, we had them over recently, they're called Altered by Mom. So I don't know who in Altered by Mom sent this in, but Altered by Mom wrote, how does John feel about famous musicians like Brian Adams invading the photography world? Oh Because he's a photographer Certainly I like him and Jim balances tunes and

You know a tune like the only thing that looks good on me is you Is a navigational tool in my life. I used to play it all the time. One time when I had a drag race with Stephen King in Palm Springs, I had that tune blasting away while we raced. But inspirational stuff and too bad he has to screen it by shooting him on the non-acne side of his face. But you know, he's not a bad photographer either. Well, you know, it's funny, just when you were telling that story, both Mike and I looked at each other going, racing with Stephen King.

Drag racing with Stephen King. It's like we buried the lead on that one. Exactly. Like I told you, John's got more stories that are in this book. But more than musicians which kind of maybe since I'm going to steal an extra two minutes but I was reading you know Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman apparently at each other's throats and you're kind of the you come in and I was the mediator and they didn't know me so that it was an innocent thing and Mo Levine who hired me through his PR girl for films was watching from a top to the Niagara Fallsout and when I got back because I also service the American wire services, I got a case of scotch and what you didn't know John was that Chris and Gene don't get along and here you are asking them to fake a little tussle to get to the top of the hill at the bottom of

the falls. And they did that all completely by choice and with no problem at all. And we won the day with that and the wire services went well and I enjoyed my scotch. And of course Christopher Reeve playing Superman and Gene Hackman Lex Luthor. Right. Oh okay and Gene's still with us by the way. Yes that's right. Gene Hackman still with us. He's a real senior. Yeah he's up there in his 90s now. I flew with Christopher because he took his family up in a helicopter which was verboten for movie starts due to. I was up there with a backup box of film in my jacket pocket on the outside and there

was so much breeze across the cockpit because I had the door taken off. A good safety belt kept me in, but the breeze sucked that box of film right out of my pocket. Oh. Ouch. We need a sequel book here. Absolutely, oh yes. So we'll say goodbye to John.

We've captured these amazing stories. I only wish I had recorded them, John. I'm sorry, you know, we'll say goodbye to John. We've captured these amazing stories. I only wish I had recorded them, John. I'm sorry. No, just kidding. Just kidding. I recorded them, but we'll mop up and see. We'll do the extra without John. We'll let him go here.

Sounds good. Good luck with your recovery. You, I will say your brain is as sharp as a tack. I hope I'm like 40% as sharp when I'm your age. Well, thank you so much and pleasure talking with you my friend and we'll do it again. And say hi to FOTM Promo Man for me. Okay, I sure will.

That's right. Alright, thanks John. Thank you. Bye bye. There you go. What a great conversation. Okay, so now we can talk about him. He's not here.

We can talk about him. Absolutely. Sharp as a tack. Absolutely, you know, I mean, I told you, and even today, he's pulling stories out I haven't heard, like Stephen King. You know what, before you wrote your book, you should have had him here first,

and then I'll extract all the stories and you could write it up. I'm not laughing too hard at that. It's, it's, uh, I think, you know, your next book should be just based on the, I don't know, by that point, maybe the 2000 episodes of Toronto Mike to, uh, and the real talk that spilled into the microphone.

There we go. Then it can be like so meta cause you can come on this show to promote your book about the show, about your book, about the show, about your book, about this show, about your book, about this show, about your book, about this show, about your book, about this show. There's an echo in here, I think. I'm not sure, but I'm absolutely.

Here's my chance. John was amazing, so I'm giving it 10 out of 10. No notes. I wouldn't have changed a thing. I love that he's so real because he's got a, what I noticed people of that vintage in that scene, there's a lot of talk about girls and and the only thing that looks good on me is you like there's that whole Austin Powers vibe going on like you know what I mean? He had an ability this does strike up a conversation with anybody and he had no

fear and I think you know and I he even said it like Dave Clark five kind of taught him that yeah and he never lost it, like Dave Clark V kind of taught him that. And he never lost it. Some of these stories just come out of him going up to someone and saying, hey, nice to meet you. And he's got this affability to it. No, Charming AF, as the kids would say.

And I think it's saying that Austin Power charisma where it's like, you can tell, you know, I want to say, the British would say the birds I feel like he likes the birds and He didn't he didn't change a thing about John Rollins when he I feel like we got John Rollins authentic John Rollins And he's got great recall on the stories and we the artists we left on the cutting room floor because we literally could have taken I mean, there's a picture of Jimi Hendrix on the cover, right? Exactly.

The big names we didn't actually bring up that, you know, I was going to ask him about right after we talked about Max Webster, I was going to roll into Rush and then I got distracted, but so many big stars, Grace Slick we could have talked about. Oh, the Grace Slick, that's the one, it's on the cover. She liked this photo so much when that we printed up He printed up a copy for and she thanked him by sticking her tongue down his throat and I bet you he loved it Yeah, I think he did it seems howlin for sure. He's a ladies man, you know howlin wolf Little Richard the vibe I got from our guest today is a little bit of a Richard flow hill vibe and like you know

I mean, yes, right back yeah okay Rack on Tour okay shout out to Jack White and the Rack on Tour's Chuck Berry I mean oh the Chuck Berry story so many great stories so again congrats on the book thanks Mike I hope Elvis buys multiple copies he will I go cuz I'm gonna tell him to you can buy a copy for Rob Butler, their neighbors. Okay. So shooting stars telling tales behind the lens of John Rollins. I did want to thank Nick Aynes for sponsoring the show. He's with Fusion Corp. Developments, Inc. And I'll take this moment to encourage you to listen to Nick Aynes on Toronto Mic. We recorded

it last week. Again, an authentic guy. Like he doesn't come on and say, I'm going to present this PR version of myself for the masses. Now you come on, you get Nick. We just got John. So listen to Nick from Fusion Corp Developments Inc. on Toronto Mike. He was a couple of weeks ago. And I want to remind people that recycle my electronics dot CA is where we go. if we have old electronics old devices old you know typewriters we need to get rid of don't throw it in the garbage go to recycle my electronics dot CA put in your poster code and drop it off and I want to thank Bob Bob Klanek thank you you're two for two now thanks Mike I got now I have to get to work on another

book we were gonna write a book about the Toronto Mike real talk. Isn't that the done deal? And then of course, don't be going to do this again. We're going to keep reading it over and over again. We'll keep, we'll keep doing the show over and over again. I would do it. Oh, we didn't talk about Sam cook. No Bob Dylan. Who's so hot right now. My goodness. Gordon Lightfoot. We could have talked more about Glen Campbell. Oh my God. Yeah. Just your books full of these stories. People should check it out.

And, uh, John Rollins now in FOTM. Oh, he broke up a fist fight between the Everly brothers. Yes, he did. And it didn't even make our, our chat with John. Yeah. And that was another one. Exactly.

There's so once again, you know, listen to this podcast, listen to it again, get a copy of the book, and then after that, listen to it again. And that. Brings us to the end of our 1,632nd show. Go to torontomike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. Go to Sonic Boom and if you're able to or go to, where is the online? Is it Amazon? Amazon.com. And if you're in London, London Ontario lots of books and record shops there have it

and it was made in Bolton Ontario yes it is made in Canada absolutely pick it up Bob will be back after he writes his next book so he'll be back in a couple of weeks he's prolific so much love to all who made this possible that's Great Lakes Brewery Palma pasta don't leave without your lasagna. No way. RecycleMyElectronics.ca, Building Toronto Skyline, and Ridley Funeral Home.

I got to get you right now. A measuring tape, you said. This is your Ridley Funeral Home measuring tape, okay, Bob? My God, okay, you know what? What are you gonna measure of that? I'm gonna go and look at some caskets tomorrow I think. You know what you couldn't do and all the caskets I learned this yesterday on life's undertaking Bob Jones. Brad Jones who is the owner of Ridley funeral home for several years now they only sell caskets made in Canada.

A lot of Toronto funeral homes are not only owned by American companies, but they're selling caskets made in the USA, but Ridley funeral home owned and operated by somebody who lives there in South Etobicoke and all caskets made in Canada. So that's kind of awesome, right? It is really awesome. That's great. It's good to know that you're a true Canadian right to the end.

Just like the friendly giant. See you all Tuesday. So we have family day Mondays. I'm not going to record. I'm going to family it up. Then Tuesday, we record an episode of Toast with Rob Proust, who you photographed. John photographed in the past.

I don't know if you have Bob. And Bob Willett, another Bob on the, Rob at a Bob at a Bob. See you all Tuesday for Toast. Live stream at 10 30 AM live.torontomike.com. See you then. You