Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Johnny Max: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1889

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

In this 1889th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Johnny Max from the Johnny Max Band about the blues, Daddy's Little Girl, John Prine, The Band, and more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

Hey, I'm Johnny Max lead singer of the Johnny Max band, and I am here on my debut for Toronto Maked, and I am so excited. Johnny, we're worried. Won't you come on home? We're sorry. Welcome to episode 1,889 of Toronto Miked, an award-winning podcast proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at Great LakesBeer.com for free. That's right. 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. Visit palma Pasta.com for more. Fusion Corps own Nick Aienes. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline in Mike and Nick. two podcasts that you ought to listen to. Recycle My Electronics.C.A. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past.

And Redley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, making his Toronto mic to debut better late than never, right, Johnny? That's so true. From the award-winning Johnny Max band. It's Johnny Max. Hey Johnny, how you doing, buddy? Woo! I'm doing all right. It's a sunny day here in the south part of Atobico, where I grew up.

So whereabouts did you grow up? Exactly. I grew up in the rich part. I grew up in a Kingsway. Yeah, you know, those houses are huge. Yeah, well, we didn't have a house. We rented. We're the only renters that I knew of at my school in the King's Way. So. Okay, because I do a bike ride often where I'll do a little loop through the cemetery there. Oh, yeah. Lank Cemetery. And then if you head north, and I'm on those streets. And you know you're, Johnny,

you know you're in a rich neighborhood when they take away the sidewalks. Oh, yeah. What's that about? Like any time you see, oh, there's no sidewalk.

Oh, yeah. Rich people live here and they don't want guys like me waltzing around their neighborhood. No, plus they all drive. They all drive. And they drive, I don't know what it was like when you live down here,

but the cars are getting bigger, Johnny. Well, they are, listen, when I was growing up, it was all bike riding. So it's all my friends out on white Oak and Montgomery and and and oh yeah. Shout out to the Montgomery in. Oh yeah.

There was a kid. As a kid in my school, his dad ran that before before it became run by the city sort of thing. So we used to play ball hockey in the ballroom there. Okay. Well, that's, that's for Jayho. So Jayho, if you're listening, he's the official historian of the Toronto Mike podcast. Let's get a game going at that Montgomery in there on Dundas there.

But the pool, I used to swim at the old. Montgomery pool there. Memorial Pool and Central Arena. I played hockey in Humber Valley. I coached in Humber Valley for about 26 years out of 29. Okay, you're bringing me back. I know this neighborhood well. And I'm going to shout out a listener named Rick A. Rick A is a legend in the TmU, the Toronto Mike Universe. He had a website that would pay tribute to the old, the kid shows you'd watch on TV Ontario back in the 70s. Oh. Shout out to Rick A, only because he lives in one of those giant houses in that neighborhood. So hey, Rick, you can afford a ticket. Okay, Johnny, this is important. I am headlining

at the Elma combo on May 21st. Tickets are now available. Rick A, you can afford a ticket. I've seen your home, buddy. I delivered a sticker to this guy, and I saw the home, and I said, this guy will one day buy a couple of tickets to see me at the Elma combo. So that's happening May 21. Wow. So before we bring it all the way back to you, because I got questions for you, Johnny, Max. Okay. I will just announce to the listenership that there's a, of course, Rob Pruse is on stage of me. He's a keyboardist from Spoons and Honeymoon Suite. So you already have a great musical legend in our midst when I'm performing my one-man show at the El Macomba on May 21. Tickets now available. But I have locked up a very, very special guest. I'm not going to

disclose guests, actually, but this is kind of epic for the TMU. So I just want everybody to know there is a very special guest or two lined up for May 21 beyond Rob Pruse and I. Wow. It sounds very exciting. Well, listen. May 21st, Adela Combo, be there. Did you always have that voice? Yep. How much do you charge for voiceover services, Johnny Max?

I have grown into this voice and this face. I looked like this when I was 14. Really? But did you have that voice when you were 14? No. You had to smoke some sigs for that? Oh, yeah. No, that was 25 years of three packs a day, buddy.

Isn't it kind of a tragic part of life that the only way to get the voice you want is you got to smoke like a chimney? Yep. It's, it's, I got told by, um, uh, Danny B, if, uh, if the listeners remember that. I iconic Toronto blues singer. And when I quit smoking, he said, Johnny, you got to dance with a girl who brought you here. Got to keep going. Yep. Okay.

Well, then if you keep going, you might have to shout out Ridley Funeral Home. Yeah. Been there many's a time. Well, let me, uh, give you a gift from Ridley Funeral Home, Johnny. And then I'm going to get you with the hard hitting questions. But this is a measuring tape for you, courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home. home. They're at 14th in Lake Shore. And they don't want to see any time too soon. So I'm glad you're not smoking anymore.

No, no, no, no. That's, quit that, quit drinking. Quit everything now. Oh, so you don't drink any alcohol. Not anymore. And everyone can thank me for that because apparently there wouldn't have been any left. Well, you know what's in front of you right now? Four cans of fresh craft beer. I know great, I remember when Great Lakes came up. I remember when that was not Great Lakes Brewery. Okay, because they were originally at a different location in 87 when, uh, They launched Great Lakes, and then they moved to the location on Queen Elizabeth Boulevard, which is down the street from the Costco.

That was probably the first craft brewery I ever saw. They were early. Oh, yeah. So I actually know a little of the history here because I produce a show for Great Lakes called Between Two Fermenters. And I believe the first craft brewers in this province, it's a guy named Jim Brickman. Brick? Brick Brewer out of Hamilton.

I think they're out of Waterloo. Oh, it could be. I always thought it was Hamilton, but still. Doesn't matter. Okay, I'll get to check my history. But Brickman, Jim Brickman, was in this basement for an episode of between two fermenters. And it sounds like that comes first, but Great Lakes were early.

Like, 87 was early for craft brewer. They called the microbreweries back now. Yeah. But it's, like, when I quit drinking, the Sleeman was still a craft brewery, right? So you had Sleeman, brick, brickwood just got bought, I think. Yeah. I'm no historian. Okay.

And then there might have been three craft brewers when I quit drinking. Okay. Well, I don't know who you're going to gift that beer to, but you're not allowed to drink it yourself. Oh, I have people. I have people. So thank you to Great Lakes for sending over that beer. That's great.

But in my intro, Johnny, I said you're from the award-winning Johnny Max band. So I must ask you right now, what award are we talking about that? Well, we want, I mean, it's a misnomer. You use that in all the bios and stuff. But we won a Mississippi Arts Council Award. We have won an international songwriting competition award with the wonderful Jesse O'Brien as a co-writer from a song called Daddy's Little Girl. and then we've been up for two Juno's.

Oh, look at you. I was waiting for you to say the magic words. Daddy's little girl. I recognize that voice. Wow, you're good. Talk about being on the spot right there. Well, talk about Daddy's Little Girl. Like, give me the deep dive into this jam, man.

I'm bopping to this bluesy, sweetie here. That was from the album Long Road, which was our second Juno nomination. So that was a song, I saw it. sat in with Jesse O'Brien who plays with everybody out of Hamilton. I'm trying to think of who it is. Junkhouse. I'm going to name Hamilton band. Tom Wilson.

Tom Wilson. Yeah, so he plays with Tom Wilson. I nailed it the first go. I wasn't sure the last name because he goes by his indigenous name now as well, right? Right. I think he still goes by Tom Wilson as well. So Jesse's a big shot in the Hamilton scene and the Canadian scene as well. And we just wrote that song.

It's just a joke song about a gold digger. The joke I use introducing the song is, and this is true, a buddy of mine who was an investor in the album, said, I love that song. I want to use it for my daughter's 21st birthday. We're going to do a big show, and I said, it's not really a song for a 21st birthday. It's a song about a gold digger,

and he said, well, that sounds about right. Perfect, he said, okay. A father's love, you know. So what was the first June O'Nam for? I was for our album, a lesson I've learned. And, yeah, that was a nice little thing getting a Juno nomination, flying out to Calgary and watching the Juno's and sitting beside Randy Bachman, Johnny Reed.

These are big names. One of them's been on this program, except he told me off the top, it's Backman. Oh, well, I know, we've all been saying Bachman forever. It's Scotland. It's always Bachman. Okay, Johnny, that's amazing. So no wins yet, but it's not too late. No, that's okay. Now that you've quit the darts, there's lots of time for you to get.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going back to being a boy band now. You know what? That's where the money is, I think, boy bands. Yeah, I think there should be a senior's boy band. Formerly boy band, whatever. Now it's a geriatric band. An old boy's band.

Let me hear a bit of this on the way out, huh? I'm taking notes here, Johnny. Some of those lines I'm going to use at the Elma Combo and May 21st here, okay? You got a shovel digging out. Okay, so Diggin Daddy's little girl here. I got to shout out somebody, though. Blair Packham.

Blair's a great guy. I love Blair. Blair, actually, he's the guy who told me about you. Well, Blair is the guy who told me about you. Oh, well, so we're both blaming Blair then. So if this goes south, it's Blair's fault. Well, so, actually, furthermore, so Blair said, hey, you got to talk to this Johnny Max guy. He's great.

I said, okay, I like great people. Let me talk to Johnny Max. And we scheduled your Toronto Mike Day, I wasn't sure if I was going to bring this up, but I feel I will just to tell you how Blair plays a role. But you, what happened? Like, you were in the calendar to visit at a certain date at a certain time. We both agreed, I'm prepped. I've got my daddy's little girl loaded up.

I got more audio loaded up. I got my nose. I'm now ready to record of Johnny Max. And what happened? Johnny Max has 12 concussions. And I have a really, really terrible memory, even when stuff is in the calendar. and I noticed it about two hours after we set up the time. Right.

And that's when I phoned you. Right. And then about two hours later, Blair, phoned me, texted me and said, what the hell is going on? Oh, yeah. Because I said to Blair, I said, your Johnny Max ghosted me. I feel so bad. You're not the first one that's happened to. Okay, I didn't know about the 12 concussions.

I feel like I've been overly harsh. I need to consider it. But I'm sorry about those concussions. How did you get these concussions? A bunch from hot. A bunch from soccer. A couple having a bad attitude at work. Okay, you got knocked out at work?

Yeah, pretty much. By a door that I was mad at. Oh. Inanimate objects. Okay, okay. I thought maybe these were ballroom brawls. No, no, no, no, no. No, no.

I am too much of a scaredy cat. I'm a big mouth, but I don't fight very well. Yay, just like me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got a mouth on me. I'm going to go at you. I don't care how big you are, but that when you start throwing punches,

I'm going to jump on my bike and get out of here. Yeah, well, I ended up, I stuck my face in front of a number of fists, a number of times. As my father used to say, you don't have to lead with your face. That explains the concussions. Oh, yeah.

So now I forgive you. I did tell, I think I wrote a snarky comment to Blair. That's okay. He was so excited to come on. He went and did some shopping or something. And then Blair, like, weeks later, Blair's like, why don't you give Johnny Max another shot? Or maybe you wrote me?

Oh, you wrote me. I wrote you. I'm giving Blair too much credit. I was so apologetic because I know what happens and I know what the prep work is like from my radio days, right? And I felt so bad. Okay, we got to get back to those radio days. But I will say happy birthday to Blair. I was at his birthday party on Saturday night in East York.

And I got to say the crew that show, I had a great time. Like there were, I mean, John Douglas Cameron. Is it Cameron Douglas? No, okay. Yeah. The guy who wrote Mona with the children. Do you remember this song? I know the song.

Mona with her children. What a beautiful song. He was there, but he's been down here before with banjo dunk. But I saw Chris Tate from Chalk Circle. Yep. I love Chalk Circle. Love Chris Tate. He's been down here.

Lori Cullen, do you know this name? Mary to Kurt Swinghammer. She's got a great voice. We had the best chat. Hello to Lori. Who's probably not listening, but she's been doing a lot of gardening. I feel like this is a good show to listen to while you garden away there. And I don't want to miss any of it.

for Tim's Chris Finn, who's a good friend of Blair Packams, of course, Blair himself, but also do you know the name Andy Stochansky? No, I do not. Andy's a great singer-songwriter in his own right, and I got quality time with him. So I'm here to say I had a great time at Blair's house, but then what I did because he called me out on it the next day via text,

but I was there like two and a half hours. Yep. So, and now it's a very busy happening home in East York. It is. And I'm in like the living room, chatting up a few people, including Lori Cullen. and I make a decision that I got it. I'm biking home, I should point out. Oh, wow.

I'm biking here. So I know it's an hour, 10 minutes to get home. So I made a decision like at a quarter to 10. I said, okay, let me get home for 11 o'clock. And I didn't go and kiss and hug and say goodbye to everybody. I did what I called the Irish goodbye. The Irish goodbye. Okay.

So I just sort of disappear into the night and then I go get my bike, which was in the backyard and I start, you know, I basically took that. It's Danforth Bluer Bike Lane all the way to Royal York. and then I busted south. But I'm giving you all the details on my ride home. But it was a great ride home. But I didn't say goodbye.

And then the next day, he's like, whatever. But I think that's the move of a busy birthday party like that. I spent two and a half hours. I had a great time. I brought him some Great Lakes beer. But what do you think of the Irish goodbye? I think the Irish goodbye is great because the goodbyes last. Look, I'm from Scotland.

So the longest time anyone spent at a party when I was growing up was the goodbyes. I'll see you later. Oh, don't keep your heart in your pocket. Don't you embarrass me by giving me money? No, no, I have to throw it. It was 20 minutes every person. Right. I've been at Blair's parties, and they're really good.

The diverse people, I was going to go last night, except they shut down the gardener. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, Saturday night, right, right. So they shut down the gardener, so there's no, I wasn't doing it. I live in St. Catherine. Well, that's a long bike ride. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you had gone, though, it would have been like we would have met before today,

and it would have taken away the edge. The edge. I'll say this about Lori Cullen, last word, is that that was the third time I'd ever met her. I met her at another Blair birthday party a couple years ago. And then she came down here for a episode of Toronto Mike, which was great. And then I saw her, Saturday night, but honestly it honestly feels with Laurie Cullen.

I don't know if there's some people like that. It feels like we've known each other for 30 years. I love those people. And that was the third time I met her. I love those people. But it's instant. But then I remember the first time I met her, and it felt like that.

So I don't know. I think she just likes to grind my gears and I sort of dig it. those are all my best friends. That's how it works. As an adult, you either hit it off or you become an acquaintance. That's how I look at it. Are you really a Johnny Max? You might be a Johnny, but you ain't a Johnny Max, right?

I am Johnny Max because when I came over here from Scotland, nobody teachers could pronounce my last name, which is McInney. And it's not phonetic. So it's an Irish name raised in Scotland. Okay. And it was always McKenney. So it just became, from my best friend's mother, I just became Johnny Max when I was five.

Okay, so it's, there's a, so it's not just an invented thing. Nope. There's an origin story there. Okay, I was going to make you show me your driver's license to confirm if you're a Johnny Max or not, because that name's kind of perfect here. It's not bad. Take me back.

So let's go back, learn some Johnny Max, and I got some more music later. But what made you, Johnny Max, fall in love with music? Ooh, that's a big one. That is a big one. I'll tell you this, the short end is I grew up in a household with Irish music and jazz music, traditional Irish music and jazz music. Not a lot of pop music, but I became a pop guy.

And oddly enough, my first album that I ever bought with my money was a Sunny Terry Brownie McGee album from a Becker store because I like the CPia cover, right? And, I mean, I like blues, but I grew up with 1050 Chum and Chum FM and, Q107 when it came on the air. Sure. 77 for Q. Oh, was it? 77?

Okay. Yeah. It was so completely different, man. But, you know, I used to go to City Hall with CFTR and 1050 chum concerts and stuff like that. But I was just a song lover, music lover like we all were, and became a record collector. And I didn't get into music until I was 35. Wow. That's late.

Oh, yeah. Okay. By the way, record collector, there's an episode for you recorded last Wednesday. Alan Zweig, you know this name? Yes. So he made the documentary vinyl. He made it about 25 years ago. Is that the Toronto one?

Yeah. Yes, it's a Toronto. Yeah, he's a Toronto guy, Alan Swig, and this is a documentary about vinyl collectors. And he was over here on Wednesday to play 10 of his favorite songs from his personal vinyl collection. And I'm telling you, if you want to hear from a vinyl collection. And I'm telling you, if you want to hear from a vinyl collector, I thought it was fascinating. Like, I highly recommend for your drive back west.

Maybe you tune into some Alan's Y on front of a bit. Yeah, no, if it's the same documentary, it was based around this area. There was three or four guys. You had, was it Peter Duns, the vinyl museum across the road? Well, I know that's, but this talk is about more like talking to people about why they collect and how they collect. and just heard the characters. But it aired a lot on TV, Ontario. That's when I used to see it.

And it's pretty cool. He's got a screening at the review cinema. And there's a Q&A afterwards with Swig. It's the record collecting I did. There was guys who were right into it. Mine was all garage sales. And it was getting albums. I think a lot of it was, like I loved music.

I loved listen to albums. And I think it was just like I collected comics as well, it was just quantity. So I got a lot. Like I still have 3,500 albums, but they're not all perfect grade sort of thing. That's a lot of albums. But at your peak, what was the most, do you think, at your peak, the most number of? All about 4,800.

Wow. And what kind of storage space does that occupy? IKEA shelvings. So it takes up about, it takes up now about half of my basement. But I also have 5,000 CDs too, right? So. Oh my goodness. Okay.

This is, I mean, I don't, I never had anything close to it. I didn't see. I had a lot of CDs myself. But in the early 2000s, I decided, my job right now is to digitize this collection.

Nowadays, I'm, it's sitting on a hard drive somewhere, but like this world is such a streaming world. Like now it's like, oh, I got a YouTube premium account and that's how I'm listening to most of my music. But I do miss the date.

I like the idea of tangible media for my collection of music. My, my youngest son, is into it now, so he's got his albums. Okay. So same sort of thing. So more than just the blues. Oh, yeah, it's everything, man. Everything. Like from Irish traditional bands like Plankste and the Dubliners to the

sex pistols and the clash to suiting the band she's all the way through to Sam Cook, Solomon Burke, all the blues guys, Sinatra, Dean Martin, all that. Do you think the sex pistols are the greatest one and done band of all time? I've never had that question pretty much because they weren't really talented they just had a movement you know and that movement changed really quickly

so like it wasn't around for a long time because then that new it went from punk to new wave right because uh like talking heads and yeah yeah so I mean it begat a lot of other great bands that would not have had any chance because record companies were not going to change

I don't think but there are it's hard to find examples of bands that put out one album that is that acclaimed and that beloved and there is no follow-up. No, it is amazing. I never thought of it that way. I did when my oldest son came in with a Green Day album, go, this is punk, this is punk, come downstairs. Pop punk. Yeah. I put the sex pistols on and go, that's punk. That's punk son. Wow, yeah, maybe he would, maybe the pop punk is there was that, definitely that movement for sure. Ducky is still one of my favorite albums of all time, though. Maybe I was the right age for Dookie.

I was like 19 years old. I'm listening to Docky from Green Day, and it's like, wow. Still love that album, actually. I just, I, I think I'd lost interest in the new music, the pop end of it by that time. You know, it's, my theory is this. It's why you have lots of tribute bands out there. At about the age of 30, you've listened to everything new you want to listen to. And the tribute bands come out and you go, oh, it's nostalgia.

I want to hear that again. You make a good point. Just last summer, I went to see a pearl jam tribute band called Pearl Jamming. And I saw a tragically hip tribute band took my kid to see them because I can't take them to see the tragically hip. And yeah, there's something about the tribute bands where you can kind of like close your eyes and just sort of like, you know, pretend you're seeing the real band. The good ones. The good one. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. There's a lot of schlop out there. Like anything else, you got to wade through some schlop. But okay, you said you're 35 years old when you become a musician. Yeah. Like, so what, like, what sparked that? I'll tell you that story. I need it.

I was a really bad wedding DJ in that, uh, I was doing weddings and, and I wouldn't, I wouldn't play Celine Dion or Madonna. So. Well, you can't have to be a wedding DJ without Celine Dion. I know. I know. That's why I was a bad wedding DJ. Well, you had, uh, you had standards. Yeah.

So it's, it was just the way it was. But what had happened was one of the bars I drank in after. work. They had karaoke there. I did a karaoke thing one night for a guy or for the owner and she came up and said, can you do that again? I said, okay, I can do that. And I sang another song. I ran around the bar and made everybody laugh and made people, in essence, buy more drinks and stay there. And that became a regular occurrence. And one of those nights, my original guitar player's guitar student heard it. And he was looking for a singer and he went over to, I was Kevin Higgins, was a guitar player and went over to Kevin and said, I know this guy and I saw him at karaoke and you're

looking for a singer and he's perfect. And I did a two song audition and he went, we have a gig in two weeks here to learn these 25 songs. Well, when I listen to your, you know, award winning song, Daddy's little girl, like I'm listening to him like, yeah, like this guy, this guy gets the blues. This guy's got the pipes. The first band was straight ahead blues. It was all Hallam Wolf and Solomon Burke and Muddy Waters and we'd try and pick songs that were less obvious obviously and then we'd mix in some Nadine and Chuck Berry and Sam Cook and all sorts of stuff like that and we quickly became like a well-known band in the Toronto Bar scene when you could name of this band it was the Johnny Max band of course so you were always the Johnny Max band for decades yeah so I took over I ended up

taking over this band and we couldn't figure out a name and I suggested let's just call it the Johnny Max band until we figure out a name. And nobody bothered figuring out a name. Which, at least you're the singer, right? Like, there are bands out there named after, like,

a different member of the band. I always find that interesting. Like, and I'm, like, Van Halen, obviously. Jay Giles.

Jay Giles, a good example. What, was Jay Giles? Was he the guitar? And the Man for a band? He wasn't. Yeah,

he was a keyboard player. But even Van Halen, right? Like, Van Halen, okay, the guitarist is named after the guitarist, not, you know,

It's not David Lee Roth, whoever's the OG there. Who's your favorite singer of Van Halen? Oh, I take Sammy any day. So you're a Sammy guy. Oh, yeah. David Lee Ralph was great, but I mean, to me, so my cousins brought me on to Van Halen down and Chattelham when they came out. And their biggest thing was he, look at how high he can kick.

Who cares, right? But Sammy, and I never really knew Sammy before he joined Van Halen, but man, the songs were so much better, I thought. Okay, interesting. And I've heard that from other, you know, musicians too. But for me, it was like, it's got to be Dave Lee Roth because that's the guy from the big albums I liked as a kid. So it's almost like, for your first exposure is what you love. You don't want that to change.

Well, there's no right or wrong, right? I get told by a friend of mine years ago, we're talking, people are talking about, this guy's better than that guy. It's art. Nobody's better. Right. Different, not better. And you can have preferences.

Sure. You're right. You can't better. So does anybody ever answer the Van Haling question? and say Gary Saron from... Oh, wow, no. From extreme. Not that I've, I forgot he was there for about a week and a half, wasn't he?

At least one album, though. Yeah, yeah. At least one album. So if anybody answers that, then you just call the mental health line. You just say, we have a pickup. There's a mop-up in aisle three, okay? That's funny. So the, okay, the Johnny Max band is a going concern here. So over 30 years, I guess.

Yep. With about six or seven different, completely different lineups because apparently I'm a prick when the albums come out. So can you elaborate? Well, bands split up, right? So the first band went for about 11 years, and it was just, I wanted to go to festivals and theaters and stuff like that, and the other guys really didn't want to travel.

So we imploded the band. I started up another one. We did another album. We got some notoriety. That lasted about five or six years and not imploded again because in the Toronto scene at a certain level, you either want to travel and you have a job that can allow you to travel or you can't. And Cleve Anderson is a perfect example of that. Love Cleve.

He's been over here. Cleve's great guy. The battered wives. Yeah. But it's, you know, there's a commitment that that's got to be made, right? And do you want to do original music or do you want to do covers? And, you know, there's just, it's not always a great fit. The guys I have now, I've been together with most of them for five or six years now as well.

So they still like you? They say it. They say they like me. Tough to have the, is there any example? Here's a question. I know you're not here as a musical historian, okay, but off the lid here. Like, are there any bands named after a member and that's the person who's kicked out of the band? Jay Giles.

Okay, well, tell me. Maybe my, I only remember centerfold and all this, but I don't know if I know the history of Jay Gals. So Giles was kicked out. I didn't know about that. Sorry, Jay Gals been imploded because they had the hit, right? My angel is a center fold. I think so. Before that, they were like, they were a straight ahead 30 old blues band that had a great reputation.

In fact, I saw Peter Wolf, their singer, open up for Tom Petty the last time he's in Toronto. And he is what Mick Jagger should have been. Like he was so... Mick never did make it, did he? Yeah, yeah, I know. He played the Elmo, too. Yeah, yeah. But Peter Wolf just blew me away for an opener.

And I didn't know the history of Jay Giles before that. But all the guys I hung out with, they all loved Jay Giles. Fascinating. I just was thinking, like, it's kind of funny. Like, if you kick Eddie Van Halen out of Van Halen, he's like, wait a minute, this is my band. You can't kick me out of my band or whatever, but just it. Or John Bon Jovi getting, you know, I know he owns that band. It's a whole day.

So that's the move, right? right? Bon Jovi did this move where he's Bon Jovi, the band. Yeah. And he hires musicians to play with him. I don't think that's the way it was at the start. It became that at some, you know, I don't know how it started. At some point, yeah. At some point.

So, but it is interesting to think, so, I don't know, Richie Sanbor or whatever, they're just like employees of Bon Jovi, Inc. Well, the Eagles, Eagles are like that now. The Eagles were Glenn Fry and Don Henley because, you know, they bought out, um, but they started as a conglomerate of five guys who owned the band. But sort of soulless way to go, right? Right, brother? Because like, I'm just going to pick on a band I already mentioned, but Pearl Jam, for example, right?

This is, although they keep changing the drummer. But the other four guys are OGs, like Day 1 guys, and they have an equal, equal partnership in Pearl Jam. Are you sure about that? I think so. Okay. I believe that is, and again, it's proved me wrong, everybody, but I believe it's equal Pearl Jam. I don't think it's Eddie Vedder's band with these guys. I think, I don't know.

Again, they're drummerless as far as I know. But then look at when Wings went out with McCartney, right, he paid everybody and said this is what we're going to do. Right. And that's why you get the lineup changes. Yeah, yeah. I just saw that doc. Yeah, it was great. Yeah, man on the run.

Yep. Have you seen the Art Gallery of Ontario exhibit? No, I want to go see it, though. I mean, I love McCartney. I love Lent. I mean, I'm a Beatles guy. I grew up with the Beatles and it was just everything Beatles is good for me. Well, then I'm recommending another recent episode with Dear Dr.

Kelly, he wrote at the Globe of Mail for 30 years. And she wrote a book about the Beatles. and their influence over style. And she has a role at this art gallery where all the photographs that Paul McCartney took for a few years. I guess the first trip to America, the Ed Sullivan Show thing. He had like a camera with him for the first couple of years

and he snapped like a thousand photos and makes for a great exhibit. Yeah, he was, I mean, I think he was passed by in the thought process of who was the avant-garde guy at some point with the Beatles and everybody. thought it was Lenin and I think it was I think it was both of them I think McCartney had a hand in a lot of that as well so I think you're right I think you're right now we're gonna get into more Johnny Max band stuff and I want you mentioned radio I got to ask you about that radio but I know you're not going to drink the beer I gave you but somebody you know and love is going

to enjoy the fresh craft beer but can you have you quit Italian food no I have not who who in the right mind would quit Italian food once in a while I have a guest like I'm thinking Biff naked okay Do you know Biff naked? Yeah, I know I've Biff naked. So I'll have Biff over and I'll realize, okay, she's what's called... She's vegan, isn't she? Yeah, there's a word for her.

She's... I can't believe I'm forgetting the word. Straight something. There's a term for her, which I'll have to Google in a minute. But basically it means like no drugs, no alcohol, no smoking. But she's gone, she's vegan, yes? So that means, yeah. But I can't even...

She's not even consuming like cheese, okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I can get you a vegetarian lasagna. But I can't get a lasagna from palm pasta with no cheese. That sort of sounds like my mother. My mother was vegetarian for a long time before she passed away. Straight edge. Yeah, but she's Scottish, so vegetarian means something different.

So my mother would say something like, I'm a vegetarian. I love it, but you know what? I do love my chicken. And every now and then I'll have a bit of fish. Right. So then you're not a vegetarian. Right, right. By the way, the name is straight edge.

Straight edge, okay. Okay. So you're not a straight edge, which means you can, consume my lasagna. Oh yeah. I know. I'm digging into that, buddy. It's in my freezer. So that's empty. Don't bring the box. But I'm going to get it to you from the freezer. So thank you to Paul Mopasta, though. I had a good chat with Anthony Petrucci. He was telling me how much he enjoyed the Warren Cancela Toronto Mike debut. Oh, wow.

Last week. Yeah, he was down here last week. And it was really interesting because he's an OG Western Canadian punker. So you talked about, you know, we talked about sex pistols. Yep. And then we talked about the battered wives, one of the great names for a Toronto punk band. but out west one of the very first punk bands was and I'm forgetting the name off the top of my head but it is a Warren Canceles band Really? Yeah. I did not know that.

I know like a lot of people don't realize his punk pedigree that he was there. He only quit punk and became like a lawyer-journalist guy because the racists moved in. So at some point the punk movement, the skinheads, but skinhead with the ideology of like basically like the Nazi ideology was seeping in and he wanted nothing to do with that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So that's when he left. That was the odd thing with the skinheads in Britain, to a certain extent, was they belonged with the ska movement as well because that was a punkish sort of movement until everything else sort of changed. But it is interesting because the ska movement comes from the Jamaicans moving to England. Yeah. Right? in the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, they're

you, uh, they, they were, they were, they were different types of, I mean, they were both skinheads, but one, some, uh, one part of it were punk and this, and the, and the nationalists were a completely different thing, because their music went completely the other way as well. Right, right. But, what, interesting how it all kind of, kind of, there's a bit of a stew there. It's that rebel thing, right? It's what rock and roll was at the start, you know. And then that's what, I think that's what made punk so appealing to everybody was. The time in Britain, you know, the minor strike and everything else and Thatcher,

and it's just people fighting back and not to defend ultranasas, but they have the same idea. They'd go about it completely wrong. But how do you, how do you rectify the fact, like just in your mind that, that punk is so like do it yourself, right? You know, safety pins. It's just, just this whole ethos, right? But sex pistols are like a guy has a fashion store.

Yep. And Vivian Westwood and the sex store. And he just sort of like, you guys, I like your look and I want to create a band out of you. Like it's so opposite of punk and that it's so manufactured. It was the monkeys. Yeah. But how do you like, you know, how do you adjust? justify that when it's supposed to be like organic.

We met at this concert. We couldn't play instruments, but we were shitty together and we played and we got better. And this is like the movement. The odd thing was that it created a movement where you had great bands after that. Like Paul Weller came out of that. The clash came out of that. Talking Heads came out of that.

Ramones, everything. I mean, punk was essentially the Ramones and he got transferred over. Right. But that's the odd thing is that like the monkeys, which were manufactured, didn't change or create a new type of music. It just made more money for the corporations. Right.

Wow. The monkeys, yeah, were response to the Beatles. Yeah. They were exactly the same thing as the Sex Pistols. But the Sex Pistols created something completely different. I think by mistake. Fascinating timing. We talked about one and done,

but how many great bands came out of the Sex Pistols and being influenced by that album and seeing that band live? Yeah, yeah. No, I mean... Unbelievable. I have a buddy of mine is from Dublin. Neville Behan is his name. And a great guy played soccer with him over here.

And he was into that punk scene and knew every band coming out of Northern Ireland and Dublin and UK, like from Fargo Sharkey and the undertones and all that stuff. That was his thing, right? So it was amazing. Amazing time. Okay, so that's a punk talk here. But back to the blues. So my question about the blues,

and I do want to talk about your radio career and I have some interesting musical elements for you. but does Canada, Johnny, this is my big question, does Canada get the blues? Sure does. So Canada has, I will say off the cuff, approximately 400 blues festivals across the country. So blues is, it might be a gateway to get into live music. I do think that the music theater is changing

just because of rap and hip hop or whatever is being called and the corporate end of music. but there is definitely a blues and roots thing going on in Canada has been for 40 years that I know. I mean, Toronto was a blue center at one point as Montreal was a jazz center, right, as Toronto was as well. But the blues thing, with the guys at Dutch Mason down east, you had Downchild here, you had powdered blues out west, guys at David Gogo and that come across. And 400 blues festivals, there's probably another thing. 300 jazz festivals, there's at least another 300 roots in Americana festivals in Canada.

So people are looking for live music. I just don't think they know where to go because we've lost, regionally anyway, we've lost newspapers where you could go open up the back two pages and find out what was going on that weekend and the next weekend. Yeah, like you're talking about like now and all that, the star, the Sunday, all had it. Right? So, and it's the same nationwide, where do you go to find out what's going on? Because everybody's doing their own promotion now, right? So where do you go?

Well, in Toronto, you can go to Toronto Blue Society because they put up a schedule of what's going on that week. I don't know enough people know about it. And I think people stick to their favorite bars or the favorite venues or their favorite bands and look for them on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, whatever. So how many gigs a year will the Johnny Max band play? Well, this year without finalizing summer, I think, the amount of shows I have, and other different shows, I had 42 to 50. I'll play between 50 and 60 a year.

And that's what the John Prime show I have. I'm in The Last Wall show, Johnny Max Band, Johnny Max Double Bills, and my Christmas bluesy shows. So, you know, so we're pretty busy. And then, like, for the Johnny Max band, I just looked to go. to Europe and we go to Europe almost every year. This year's a bit of a change, but it's just I find people appreciate the music more in Europe. Why is that? I will be very facetious because there's two places in the world that don't consider music culture and that's Canada and the US. Everywhere else, music is culture, art is culture. And governments jump in on that.

and we don't have that support. And I think it's all corporate. And I think music is treated as a hobby by most people who aren't in the music business. So you mentioned those two countries. Is it possible that one of those countries is such a pop culture juggernaut that we're just too influenced by them? Oh, absolutely. As is Scotland and Ireland with Britain. Right.

So it's proximity does that. However, there are major blues festivals all through the. the U.S. You could go to the U.S. and just stay there and play and be fine. That's not the case in Canada. Our population doesn't cover it. The linear, the way our country is set up straight across the border, it's hard. Like, I can, I can, I just came back from Dublin and Poland. I can go to Dublin for $600. And I go emcee at a festival in Calgary. That's $800. It's crazy because we don't have the population, I don't think, and we don't have the wherewithal from the companies to allow us to travel.

It's funny you mentioned that my wife's family's in Edmonton, and every summer they go to Edmonton for a couple of weeks with my two youngest kids. And so I was asking, like, oh, what dates are you going or whatever? And she's still waiting to buy these tickets because of how much higher those tickets are than ever before. And she told me how much it would cost for the three of them to fly to Edmonton and back. And it's like, I'm going to have to start charging my clients more money because it's unbelievable. And that's going to Alberta. Yeah.

So the cheap way out and people forget about it. If you're in Toronto, you want to go from Pearson, go to Hamilton or go to Kitchener. And you'll save a couple hundred. Save a bit there. So, but it's so expensive. Like, I'm trying to get out west for next year. It's going to cost me thousands. Jeez.

Okay. You got to bike out west. Yeah. It won't cost you thousands. It'll just cost you time. Okay. So I have more music for us. You ready?

Yep. Dear adie, dear, I'll feel too long. My hair's falling out. Emma writes are all wrong. Well, friends, they all tell me. I have no friends at all. Would you write me a letter? Won't you give me a call?

Side. You sing it. Listen to. I don't know how I did that now. I wonder where it's gone. Must be spent the way I went for the dawn In the eyes I was screaming Take me back to sunny countryside

There's a holding that he's on where all the money goes Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose is happy beers Don't stop to count the years Sweet songs never last too long All right

That is our John Prime Tribute show Called in spite of ourselves and the evening of John Prine with the absolute amazing baritone of Bill Craig, the aforementioned Mr. Blair Packham, and one of the finest voices in Canadian folk music, I think, Mr. Kirsten Jones. And we've been doing that show for three years,

and we're going out this year to do what would have been John's 80th birthday. So we have about eight or, I think, 10 or 12 shows, four in the East Coast and another six or so in Southern Ontario, all through starting in August. Well, that's amazing. But I heard you say Blair Packam's involved. Is Blair playing any of these upcoming dates? Oh, yeah. Blair plays in all of them.

As does Kirsten and Bill Craig. Oh, yeah, no, Blair is a huge part of this show. Because him and Bill are the only two guys who've seen John Prine. I never got to see John Prine. I had my chances, but I think I chose alcohol a couple times because he was at Ontario Place. But, and Bill Craig, who's an Irish singer of some note, and he turned me on to John Prine back in my drinking days when I was 17 or 18 at a pub in the West End of Toronto called the Old Sod.

I know it well, very close to us. My mother worked at and four of my sisters worked at. Well, we could walk there. Yeah, yes. Okay. So I know the old sod. Well, that's so you all work there. That's unbelievable here.

So I feel John Prine, and this was true for me personally, but John Prine is. an artist, I think far more appreciated and respected in death than he was in life. What do you think? Oh, I'm not so sure about that. I think he was one of those guys, much like Dylan, after all the hits, where you have no airplane, people just go after you. Oh, geez. Steve Earl is one of those.

But Steve Earl did, like, I'm thinking like Copperhead Road, for example. Like, yes, one hit shoe, but Q107, because I was a big cue listener at the time, played the hell out of that song. So at least there, you can point to the song. With John Prine, you'd have to look at a cover of Angel of Montgomery, for example, or whatever. But I can't think of a John Prine song that got high rotation on commercial radio. None of them.

None of them. But that's a beautiful. The band was the same. The band had no hits, right? But everybody. But even the, what about the band? We're going to get to the band a minute. Yeah, absolutely.

But what about Crip? Not a hit. Not a hit. Really? Yeah. I didn't realize the weight wasn't a hit because I'm too young. I'm ignorant. Well, Neil Young had, what, two top ten songs?

Well, you had a number one. Yeah. Heart of gold. Yeah. And then nothing. So my joke about Canadian radio, of which I was part of, is if you listen to it, mainstream Canadian radio, not to go against them. I mean, it's all advertising.

You would think Neil Young had two songs. The band had one. The guess who had one and Randy Bachman had four. You know. Okay, well, I'm just processing all this Johnny Max because I mentioned that was a cue listener when Copperhead Road came on. Around the same era, that's when Rocking and the Free World was played every other hour on that. That was MTV. That was all that did that.

And then they hooked up with Pearl Jam and the rest is history. MTV and much music, they were great for the older artists because you'd do live concert videos or the like. And they would get tons of rotation because the radio stopped playing. them, I think. Okay, well. I'm slightly opinionated. I feel like, I hear you. No, I love hearing it.

Again, we're going to get to your radio soon. But you mentioned the band. So actually, so John Prine, people can see the John Prine. What's it called again, the John Prine? In spite of ourselves, an evening of John Prine. So not only do you get Johnny Max, but you get Blair Packum, too. But you mentioned the band. So actually, let me play just a little bit.

Well, people who ask me why we've done this, why we do these shows. And, well, the first reason was that I was asked to do it for the Kitchen of Blues Festival. And they wanted a special event, and I thought, well, why don't we do music from the last waltz? Well, when we did it, not only did the audience like it a lot, but we really like playing this music. And then we realized again that, well, this is really a great part of our shared Canadian musical heritage. I mean, the music that these four Canadians and the one American that they made really, touch us home to us. Okay, this is...

The last waltz, of course. We already named-dropped Bob Dylan. We named-dropped Neil Young. I've seen The Last Waltz. So this is the last waltz, a musical celebration, and we've been doing this as Lance Anderson so eloquently put since, for about 16 years now. It started with the Kitchener Blues Festival,

and I was on that one, and that included Chris Whiteley and Dana Braithwaite. Paul James was in that. We've had guests such as Jimmy Bowskill, the Weber brothers coming through. Fantastic Matt Widenger is there, Keisha Wint, and Chuck Jackson from Downchild. So there's a rotation of lead singers along with Lance. The beauty of this show, outside of the fact that I know people who've seen it 14 times, is the drummer is Jerome Levon Avis, and that is Levin Helms God's son.

Okay. Because Jerome's dad was Levin's best friend. And that's Bill Davis, who was the road manager for the band in Ronnie Hawkins and Dylan. So he comes on stage and tells at least one story. And it's fantastic. Absolutely. Now, I'm still processing this whole no-hits thing because what about the night they drove old Dixie down? Not a hit?

Probably with Joan Baez. Okay, that's how you cover. Okay. Okay. See, because I just was raised, like, you know, I grew up and you'd hear like Q107, for example. You just assume they're, they played a lot of the weight. for example, or Cripple Creek. Well, I mean, so we all have those.

I mean, I'm a big Genesis fan. Genesis didn't hit till Trick of the Tail and it was one song, right? So Gabriel never had hits. Not over here. But, you know, when you go to Long Form FM, you get to play a lot. But the charts didn't mean as much then, I don't think. But there were the Phil Collins. The Phil Collins later.

They had a lot of hits, right? Like, I'm thinking, you know, it's just the same. That's all. Yeah. No, listen to you here. Genesis. I mean, I'm a fan of yes, had a couple of hits, but they had like 10 albums. Fleetwood Mac had five albums before they even hit. Oh, yeah, before rumors.

Yeah, way before. Yeah. You tell that to people. You talk about Jeremy Spencer and Peter Green and they're going, what are you talking about? Okay, and you mentioned Jimmy Bostkill, and that gives me a chance to say later this week, because he's now playing a blue rodeo. Yeah. And later this week, Colin Cripps will be in this very TMDS basement studio. to kick out the jams with me.

So that's going to be the return of Colin Crips. He's also a Blue Rodeo. You have, you have like the crem de la Crem. I got Johnny Max. Yeah, man, listen, I wouldn't even go see him. Listen, the blues, listen, one of my favorite bands of all time, the tragically hip. In springtime in Vienna, Gord sings that the blues are still required.

So there you go. Okay. You mentioned Chuck Jackson, okay? So they've hung up their microphones. No more Downchild Blues band. Okay. Chuck, did you know Chuck Jackson's brother? Mike Bullard.

Mike Bullard. Yeah, and Sean Bullard, who's a writer in Hollywood. Oh, it's Pat Bullard. Oh, Pat Bullard. Sorry, yeah. All these Irish names sound the same, right? Okay. So there's Chuck Jackson.

Mike Bullard's, they share one parent at least, their siblings, which I think of the late Mike Bullard. Okay. But if you didn't know that, once you're told that, you can see it in their faces. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Wow. So Downchild, did they, how many times did they play?

open mic with Mike Bullard. Do they get... They played a couple. Bullard was great with that with the Toronto scene with Paul Redick played and a bunch of other guys in the Toronto scene.

He was fantastic for that. As were guys, as were guys like Bob McAdory when he had an afternoon show, all the Toronto guys. City TV had Toronto bands come in no matter what the genre was. Can I blow your mind here

of tying things together, which is what we do in Toronto Mike? So you just said Bob Mcadory. Yep. Okay. Well, I grew up seeing on global television in the entertainment, right? But Bob McIdoory's niece

is Michelle McIdory who was in Crash Vegas with Colin Cripps. Really? Wow. Ooh. I'm telling you, brother, I'm telling you it's all coming. And speaking of Blue Rodeo, Greg Keeler started in that band

before they booted him because he had some side project called Blue Rodeo that was distracting him. And at the time, Greg Keeler was in a relationship with Michelle McAdory. And if you you remember the popular video for Try. Yeah. If you can think of watching much music and Try by Blue Rodeo's playing.

The pretty gal in that video is the aforementioned Michelle McIntyre. Wow. This is becoming serendipitous with Toronto Mike. Blowing my mind right now. Okay, so let's talk about you in radio here. Okay. So obviously the award-winning Johnny Max band, which you lead, you're touring all the time. So what website can somebody go to if they say, I got to check out the Johnny Max Band?

Johnny Max Band.com. They make it easy for guys like me. And you do have new music, right? We just come out with a brand new album, which, by the way, I will say on the air, Little Mayaculp, I forgot to bring to you. I dare you. I know.

But I know where you live now. I can drop it off. That's right. Yeah, the brand new album is number two or three on the blues, roots, and radio charts in Canada. It's called Johnny Max and the so-called friends and has a big Toronto connection to that as well with guys like Neil Chapman from the Puckold.

orchestra playing on it. Yeah, Puck of Orchestra. Okay. They did Cherry Beach Express, right? They did Cherry Beach Express. They did. What a song. Might as well be on Mars, which is the one we cover.

Okay. And Spirit, was it Spirit of the Radio or play it on the radio? On the radio was a cover, though. But yeah, that was a big song on CFN Y. Yeah. That was a cover. I remember thinking that was a Puckett Orchestra. Yeah, that was a cover.

I can dig up the original artist. But I always liked that song. I'd hear it on CF and Y. Yeah, I found, I was outside the, might have been the mod club for a benefit. And Neil Chapman, who's become a friend of mine, I was talking to him and we're talking about music. And I said, you know what I want,

this is 15 years ago or so. I said, I really want to do a puck orchestra song? He goes, oh, really? Which one? I said, it might as well be a march. He goes, that's my song. Shut up. Yeah, so we have him playing the big,

the big rock ending solo on it. Oh, amazing. I'm here to tell you the original artist in the songs called Listen to the radio. Listen to the radio. Listen to the radio. It's a guy named, oh crap, I just had it.

Give me a second. No, I just had it. I just had this. Robinson. So Robinson. What's Robinson's first name? Not Tom Robinson. It's Tom Robinson.

Really? Yes. So listen to the radio is a Tom Robinson song. Covered by Pucka Orchestra. And then like I said, one of the big Pucka Orchestra, probably their biggest radio hit. I think so. I think so too.

Because even though was Michael Barker, Clay was introducing me to the Cherry Beach Express because it's such an important song. It's a great song. And it's such a great song. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Toronto had a lot of really good new wave stuff coming out at that time, I thought. And again, big thanks to much music because without the much music in the videos, I don't think the cues and the Chum of FMs would have played it.

I think you're right. Yeah, she'll always a big shout out to them. And we got a shout out now, not Toronto, but Burlington, which is close enough, right? The Spoons. Yes. It's, you know, Nova Heart and romantic traffic. Romantic traffic. So many great songs.

I love that groove in romantic traffic. Absolutely love it. So last mind blow before we talk radio. I mentioned I'm at the Alma Combo on May 21st, and I have on stage of me a keyboardist named Rob Pruse, co-writer of Romantic Traffic. He was, wasn't he like 14 or 15 in that band? Yeah, 15 when he made his...

In fact, the first appearance with the spoons was at the edge. Gary's presentation, the night John Lennon was killed. Ooh, I was watching Monday night football with my dad. And my dad being the lovely Scotsman that he was with, who the hell's that?

Oh, my goodness. Talk to your son more often. My dad did not like rock and roll at all. He's a big jazz guy. And I guess we can, that night also on Chum FM, I played footage, Ingrid Schumacher was on the air. Oh, wow.

And she came over. And of course, she was married to Cleve Anderson. Oh, really? She was married to Cleve, and Cleave quit Blue Rodeo. So Cleave played for me, through Kevin Higgins, my original guitar player, at the Markland Pub, like a Saturday afternoon showcase, and Cleave, I was talking about hockey, and he goes, oh, I played in Humber Valley.

He played for the same coach that I played for, and whom I ended up coaching with and taking over his clinic, and whom my second son is named after. Wow. That was completely just, yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of this going on. It's a small world after all. It really is, but I wouldn't want to paint it.

That's right here. So here, then since we're going to close, I want to talk radio and then do a little wrap up here, but I want to make sure I've shouted out Nick Iini's, because just on Friday, we recorded a new episode of Building Toronto Skyline and a new episode of Mike and Nick, and they're both available wherever you got this podcast.

Okay, so shout out to Nick Iini's, a proud sponsor of the, the program and I want to tell you Johnny Max about Recycle My Electronics.C.A. Because if you have old electronics, old devices, old cables, I don't know if you have a drawer full of them or a closet full of them or a room full of them or a floor full of them. We all do. Don't throw them in the garbage. Where can we go?

Those chemicals will end up at our landfill. Go to Recyclemyelectronics.c.c.a.c.com. Nice. It's May. It's almost May. Almost May. It's almost May. Okay.

May Day. May Day. But the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team, they made a big signing, a big splash, and they play at Christy Pitts, and I'm urging the listenership to make their way to Christy Pitts and check out a Leafs game this summer, get a beer,

get a hot dog, just take it all in, fill the hill. No ticket required. It's far more expensive to see me at the Elma Combo than it is to see the Toronto Maple Leafs at Christy Pitts. I have a book for you, Johnny Max, the history of Toronto Maple Leafs baseball.

Did they still pass the hat around? No, that's actually the old ownership. So the new ownership found that a little cringy. It does not do that. So no hat gets passed around. Oh, okay. That's great baseball. We go down, because I'm in St. Catharines, go see the Welland, what's that?

Something fish. Something fish. Yeah. White fish? I'm not sure. Anyways, the Welland fish. Catfish? It could be catfish.

But they're good, right? Yeah, yeah. No, it's great baseball. story. We just signed, it's a very controversial signing because he's got some baggage. But the best player,

possibly because he's only 35 and he's still great and the only reason he's not a major league baseball is due to the baggage that I mentioned. But this gentleman, UCL Pugig, he, you could argue, could be the best,

the highest skilled baseball player to play in this league. Wow. that's something. Yeah, that is something. So, again, there's some baggage there. It's not all so clean.

But it's one of those things where the only reason you're able to sign this guy is because of the baggage. Yeah, yeah. But, of course, there's baggage. And some people... We all have baggage. We all... That's what makes great songwriters. Everyone's going through something, right?

Absolutely. Everyone's just keep trying to improve yourself here. Okay. We used to get told... So I've been ref in hockey for 20 years. Okay. And we used to get told, come around mid-November, big meeting is, remember Christmas time you have no idea what sort of pressure other guys are going through

so just take it a little easy everyone's going through something and you have no idea yep good good attitude there okay good outlook now you mentioned you were on the radio I'm dying to know where and what and when when were you on the mic on the radio I've been off for I think six years and I did 15 years before that so I started with there was a buddy of mine in the Irish scene. Amon O'Lockland's passed away since. Great guy. And we're sitting at a bar one day.

And I'd listen to him on the radio as well as my buddy Hugo Stranny. And, you know, I grew up with Irish radio on chin and stuff like that. So we're sitting at the bar and I said, man, I'd love to get in the radio. I remember to listen to, you know, Wolfman Jack when he was in Toronto, Don Danard, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he says, I do a show in 1430. I'll get you in there. So I asked and they went, sure.

And the funny thing was, it was me and Chuck Jack. And we were the English language programming. But wait, when you say so, I'm worried because somewhere here, oh, yeah. When you say 1430. 1430, yep. Not station. CJCL. Yep.

It was C.H.K.T. at that point. So CJCL, it was also, it was Foster Hewitt's radio, CKFH at one point, too. Right. Yeah. Right. CKFH. So that was a multi-language radio.

It was on Chinese-owned. people brought me in. We were right after the Greek show. The day would be I would have hockey practice at nine on a Sunday. I would then coach a clinic to 11 or 1130. Come home, drop the kids off, pick up gear, go do my matinee in Burlington, and then leave that at eight, go pick checkup at Rock and Docks. He'd finish and then we drive up to Richmond Hill and get on the radio. We get to the station about five minutes before. We're going on air and then play. And Chuck lasted about three and a half months and I lasted eight years after that.

Wow. And then, because I absolutely loved it, had great festivals back in me for some sponsorship, which you need. And then finally, I just sort of had enough. But then a year later, a buddy mine opened up an online station called Hayes FM in Port Credit. And I became the blues show. Did that for another eight years. and then started my own, through Peter Whitaker,

started my own radio station called Blues in Canada. Blues in Canada, blues Canada, something like that. You've got to know the name of your own show. It's a long time. Johnny Max. Oh yeah, but this is the concussions, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And what happened was I brought in 14 other radio shows

and played it, you know, an eight-hour loop, right, and did that for five years. But I couldn't make any money at that, and that was draining the other show. Maybe it should be a podcast. I was thinking about that, but I'm not even sure I have the time for that anymore. Well, you're a busy man, Johnny Max.

You're a busy man. You've got a tough choices here. Yeah, I love radio, man. Radio, I heard so many great blues artists, soul artist, country artists. I play almost anything. And man, it was just, it's shocking how many people don't get to hear this music. And like one of my taglines was, this ain't your daddy's blues. Right.

Right? So it was, it's just so good. No, it sounds amazing. And because of our, you know, our time together here, I can hear, A, you got the great pipes, but you got the great stories. Like, you know the history of different genres and you're a good guy to just rap with about music. Don't let that get out to the public. They won't.

Too late. Yeah. We have to listen to him again. But Johnny, did we miss anything? So I know you get a long drive ahead of you, even though you're leaving with some delicious polo pasta lasagna, okay? more than that, but you're going to, you won't be, you won't be drinking that beer because you're clean and sober now.

No, but I have a Toronto Maple Leafs history right here. You love the history. The Butler brothers, it's all in there. Wow. That was Jack Domenico, right? Right. So that was the gentleman, yeah. The Domenico family, they still call it Domenico Field.

Okay. The Domenical family sold it to the current ownership. And I think this is now the third season with the new ownership. So Jack sadly passed away and the family decided to sell the, the team. But now you do one other thing there. It was the inner county baseball league. Yes. Forever. It's now the Canadian Baseball League. There's been a change and we'll see what

that resolves in. But I think the Leafs are the only team that don't have ticketed. You can't buy a ticket to see them. Is it still is it still Southern Ontario based? Yeah. So still the same teams. I don't know what the plans for expansion are in the future. I'm sure they'll have to leave Ontario. Now that it's a Canadian, they'll have to add new teams. Maybe that's the long range plan. But yeah, there's, still the same, you got your Barry

Big hats and you got your... Brantford Red Sox. Yes, and the Hamilton Cardinals, I believe. Oh, okay. You got your, yeah, London. London's got a team. Guelph as a team? Yeah, Guelph Royals, I think, or something like that. But yeah, great baseball. But again,

no ticket required. Just get your butts of Christy pits and sit on the hill of a hot dog and a beer. You can drink beer there without having to hide it. Good times, man. For everyone but you who can't drink here. But is there anything you wanted to say to the listenership and then you'll be driving home going, I never got to say this.

It took us a long time to make this happen. You're now an FOTM. That means friend of Toronto, Mike. Okay. And I enjoyed this thoroughly. Love talking about the blues with you and, you know, people should check it out. Look, it's shows like this are what allow people to find out what else is going on because we're all busy.

I love what you do here. I mean, when Blair told me about it, I thought it's perfect. I, you know, you've done 1,800 shows. I only did 15 years. Well, I'm catching up to you because I feel like 2012. I know I started 22. I'm not thinking about it. So 2012, I started.

So for me to, it's 2027. I will finally catch you 15 years. No, no. I would do, I do 50 shows a year. So 750 year way past me. Well, okay, on that, yes. But I want the other record. You know, like, come on.

You know, I want the other record here, Johnny. Johnny, I want all the records. Okay. You're the vinyl collector. I collect records of a different nature. Oh, nice, nice segue. I like that. It's been an absolute pleasure, brother, and I do apologize on air for missing the first time.

Well, 12 concussions will do that to you, man. I feel bad I gave you a hard time. Those are only the ones I can remember. Also, I'm glad I wasn't so stubborn that I'm like, this asshole stood me up. He's never coming on Toronto, Mike. And then I would have missed this great conversation. You're not that Scottish. But my grandmother on my father's side was Scottish.

Yeah, that's what we do as Scots people. She was a morrison. Yeah, we hold a grudge until you're dead, and even then we're not sure if we let it go. Shout out to groundskeeper Willie. All right, that's brilliant. It ain't more than what God gave me, you pyrrits and puks. I didn't cry when my dad was hung for stealing a pig.

I got to cry now. Scott's guys don't cry because we get our tear ducts removed when we're one. Let's enjoy some hogg us together one day. Absolutely. Oh man, this was great. Johnny Max, I'll let you know what Blair thought of this episode. This John Pryne thing of Blair Packham sounds amazing, so people should go to your Johnny Max. Everybody can find out where we're playing at Johnny Max Band.com.

It has all the John Prime shows, the bluesy Christmas shows, and the Last Wall shows, as well as Johnny Max Band shows, and where you can get the brand new music. I love it all. Who plays the role of Mavis Staples in the wait? Nobody plays a role, but we do. do the song. So that would be the amazing Keisha Wint for the most part. Love it. I love it when the staple singers and

do the last waltz with the band. Love it. Love it. Love it. Can't beat Mavis. Still with us, thankfully, but she's amazing. Okay. And that what an awkward segue into. I'm like, Mike, you're just going to do it? Yeah, just say the words, man.

And that brings us to the end of our 1,889th show. that number. Okay, go to Torontomike.com for all your Toronto mic needs, including tickets to the Elmo gig at the top of Torontomike.com.

You can click Elmo gig and buy a couple of tickets. May 21st, the Starlight Room at the Elma Combo, Rob Proust, and a very special guest. That's all I can say. I'm not going to tell you what, but something awesome is planned.

Much love to all who made this possible. Again, that's Great Lakes Brewery. Palma Pasta, don't leave about your lasagna. Nikainis, Recycle MyElectronics.C.A. and Ridley Funeral Home, you got your measuring tape.

I got it. Got to go to my calendar, Johnny. Hold on here. Who's up next? Who's next? Oh. I actually kind of dig this week because not only did we just talk

to Johnny Max, but tomorrow there's a deep dive into Nirvana, the Band. And we'll talk about Nirvana the Band, the show. And we'll talk about Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. And my guest is the Globe and Mail's Barry Hertz, your subject matter expert. And then Wednesday, I mentioned Colin Cripps is back to kick out the jams.

And then Thursday, it's the Toronto mic debut of Paris Black. See you all then.