Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Kevin Shea: Toronto Mike'd #1459

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

In this 1459th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Kevin Shea about Motley Crue, Guns 'N Roses, Aerosmith, Blue Rodeo, Nirvana, Haywire, Maestro Fresh-Wes and more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Team 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 1459 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. The Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team. The best baseball in the city, outside the dome, with Rod Black's mustache returning for the home opener at Christie Pitts on May 12th.

RecycleMyElectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future, means properly recycling our electronics of the past. The Advantage Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, valuable perspective for Canadian investors who want to remain knowledgeable, informed, and focused on long-term success. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, returning to Toronto miked is FOTM Kevin Shea.

Welcome back, Kevin. Thank you, Mike. So good to be back here. It's great to see you. Let's tell the listenership. So we're changing things up on the fly here because I'm even looking at my intro, which is scripted out.

It's like the only part of Toronto Mike Day script out is that intro. And it says today making his Toronto Mike debut is Jason Wilson. So what's going on? Where's Jason? Jason's tied up. He's doing some music right now, so he's tied

up and we'll have to make an appointment to see you another time, Mike. I bet you you're used to musicians being tied up. He's doing some music right now, so he's tied up and we'll have to make an appointment to see you another time, Mike. I bet you you're used to musicians being tied up with their music. Like I bet you this was your life for decades. Yeah, it's hurry up and wait, no matter where you go when you're a promotion representative in the music industry.

I'll bet. I bet you've got like, okay, you got to, I don't know, I'll make this up and tell me how close I am. I got to get Motley Crue to, I don't know, much music or something, uh, for a. I don't know much music or something for a six, for 4pm or something. You're hurting cats now. Like these musicians are everywhere. They're doing this. They're doing that. Uh, you

know, you've got to get them to a place at a certain time. That's a, that's a tough living. So that's, that's probably the best example you can come up with. Oh my goodness. So we spent the day doing, doing media together and it was going quite well. We split them up so that two of them did much music and some other television and I took care of radio

interviews back at their hotel. And I had Mick Mars and who did I have? Who'd you have? Mick Mars and I think it was Tommy. I could be mistaken. Okay, Tommy Lee. Yeah, I think it was. No, maybe, no, it wasn't. It was Mick Mars I could be mistaken. Okay, Tommy Lee. Yeah, I think it was, but no, maybe, no, it wasn't.

It was Mick Mars and Nicky Six. Okay. And so we had a great day. They did the interviews. There was all kinds of adventure in between, but anyway, they said, you're F'ing awesome. And they didn't use F'ing. You're F'ing awesome, dude. So they said that 4,000 times and I was feeling pretty good about myself as a

promo rep and feeling good for the uh the tour that we put together or at least the agenda we put together. Is this Dr. Feelgood era? Where are we here in the year? Yeah that's exactly it. What an album. Yeah. Loved it. Okay. So uh we made plans to have dinner together and and uh Tommy had returned by this point and he said oh we gotta go gotta go to Yorkville. That's what Leather Heather says. And I'm thinking Leather Heather. Oh, Heather Locklear. Oh, of course, there we go. So she knew the restaurants and she said,

that's the place to go. So I said, okay, you guys freshen up, do what you do and I'll see you back here at six. Well, I came back at six and there's no band. And I came back at 610,'s no band. And it came back at six, 10, six, 15, six, 37, whatever. And finally the lady at the front desk said, are you looking for the band? And I said, yeah, I am.

Yeah. And she said, they weren't supposed to tell. I'm not supposed to tell you, but they bolted. Okay. So I went to Yorkville very quickly, trying to find them. No luck there, but I knew that I had a midnight interview with Joey Vendetta on Q107 and the power factory, right? It was his very, very first show ever.

And the land Motley crew was just a joy that his first Q show, not as far as Q show, but his first power factory show. Gotcha. Gotcha. So that's great. So I'm trying to find them. I keep going back between the hotel and downtown and, and, uh, and the, uh, Q107 building, which was the Hudson Bay building

at the corner of young and Bloor and, or sorry, uh, young and yeah, I guess it was young and Bloor and I keep going and I can't find them. I have no idea. So here we are. It's, uh, it's about 10 to midnight and I still haven't found them. I'm about to go up the elevator to tell Joey that I don't have them.

I'm sorry and apologize profusely. But I, yeah, exactly. I pull in front of the, uh, the Hudson Bay center and sure enough, there's hundreds and hundreds of kids. And I was with the driver of the limousine at the time that was supposed to escort them and the kids are crawling all over the limousine and they're scratching it and going on and on. They think the band's there and I get out wearing a jacket and tie with a briefcase. Looking like Kevin Chang.

Yeah, there we go. And it was Heaven. It was the rock club there and so I thought, I wonder if they might have gone to, yeah, exactly Rock and Roll Heaven. And so I thought maybe they're there. So I went and the security guys, hey, where do you think you're going? I said, I'm here with the band and the way I looked, I guess they figured he wouldn't be

coming to a party. That's for sure. Took me into the, the private room and there were the boys and they were totaled. They were blitzed. They were blotto like Otto. They had what they called the surf Nazis who were supposed to keep them from drinking, but

the surf Nazis hadn't done a very good job that night. And so we got talking, Oh, you're effin awesome, Shay. Oh, you're great. Great. Thanks. Hey, listen, guys, we've got an interview in 10 minutes up at Q107 upstairs. Yeah. Is that young and Norden you had to get them to? No, no. Oh, they were there. Yeah. Okay. And they looked at each other and their faces

dropped and they realized they were in no shape to do an interview. But anyway, they said, let's go. So the surf Nazis propped them up in the elevator and up we went. And Joey had meanwhile started the show and said, sorry everybody, but they, you know, they've let me down.

They're gone. You know, they're not going to be here today. And, uh, those asses and they went on and on. And sure enough, I kind of tap on the door ever so gently and, uh, and Joey got the band here, what get in here right away. So we put them in and for the next four hours, they told tales of debauchery and did all kinds of things

that I can't even talk about on the podcast. But anyway, that's a podcast before podcasting four hour deep dive, all the dirt. It was supposed to be 20 minutes and it turned out to be four and a half hours. Kristi Knight was supposed to follow Joey on the air and, and I had tried to stop them so many times

that they lured Kristi and I into the library to show them some releases and they locked the door. The surf Nazis locked the door so that we couldn't stop the band from telling their stories after that. So all we could do was sit and listen and go from there. So that's one of those babysitting moments that I. Do you think that's where Jason Wilson is right now? He's getting blitzed.

Here, so let's talk a little about Jason. Sure. Since this is actually was gonna be his Toronto Make debut. Right. Then I, it just so happens, as you can imagine, I've got a plenty of Kevin Shea questions. They just build up over the years. And I got to remind people when you've been on before, but you

mentioned Kristy Knight, KK. So I got a note from her cause I've been trying to get her to make her Toronto mic debut for quite some time. And I think this is kind of sad and it kind of speaks to the state of radio, but she has left the industry. Like she she's decided that radio is too toxic an environment for her and she has left the industry And I think as we speak she's looking for you know different Way to make a livelihood outside of radio, but I think it's kind of sad to hear somebody like Kristi Knight Deems that there's no no role for her in radio in 2024.

It's really sad that she's such a wonderful lady. She was a terrific communicator on the air as well. And we keep in touch. She's a dear friend as well. Actually was going through some bins and trying to downsize a little bit. And I found a, an RCA jacket with nipper, the dog on the back. And I said, listen, do you want this by any chance? Are you kidding me? She sent it over. So my gifts, there we go. Oh yeah, actually he? Are you kidding me, Shay? Send it over.

So there we go. Oh yeah, actually, you did give me a gift. So let me tell you, okay, so Kevin Shay, can tell the people like how many you printed and who this was for, but it's called 100 Grades of Shay, which is a very clever title. And am I right, you made a book just for personal friends and family to commemorate your 65th birthday.

And this is like 100 of your greatest stories. Yeah. 100 stories for, for a hundred friends and family members. It just was my gift to them for years and years of friendship. It's beautiful. But I, you spent this much time documenting a hundred stories, which by the way, tells me there's a hundred episodes of Toronto Mike and you, so you'll be back, but like, why not make it available to the public and go on a PR tour and promote this book? You've got great stories, but I'm 100 people got this. I'm, I'm one of the hundred, apparently.

Maybe I'm the 101st. No, you're one of the hundred. I only had a hundred printed, but, but I, but see, I don't have the marquee value that a musician or an actor or whatever. You're not Geddy Lee, but you for sure. But you have the stories. That Motley Crue story right there was great. Well, it was my gift and just a way to put some

of the memoir down and chronicle. Well, thank you because I'm going to go through it and then I'm going to take notes on the ones I need to follow up. Well, you'll enjoy the Motley Crue story in there. It's better told in the book there. Yeah, Christie's a long time friend and it's really sad that her career has come to an end. She was terrific on Q107, on Hits FM, etc.

Hits 97.7, absolutely. Exactly. And so we keep in touch. I know that she's looking at different career possibilities, but she would be wonderful to get in here as well. While I'm working on it, Kevin, keep- I'll mention it to her next time I'm talking to her. Now, Jean here. Okay, so Jason Wilson, I'm gonna read the bio. This is the bio on his website. So this has been, you know what it's like

when you write your own bio, right? That's not what the real talk is about, but I'm gonna read it. Jason Wilson is an award-winning Scottish Canadian musician, best-selling historian and television personality. An important figure in the Canadian reggae music scene. Wilson is a two-time Juno Award nominee, a Canadian reggae music award winner, a four-time reggae music achievements award nominee, and was the first recipient of the Carl Mullins Award for commitment to Canadian reggae. In 2021, Wilson's Ready to Be Loved, hey, I can play it while I talk

about it here, because this is all, you know, we're making this up as we go along. Ready to Be Loved. Hey, I can play it while I talk about it here. This is all, you know, we're making this up as we go along. Ready to Be Loved. Let me just put that in the background here. We'll get back to that. This song in the background topped the Canadian reggae charts. It was produced by Carl Harvey, bandleader to Toots in the Maytals. Harvey, who also co-produced Wilson's Ashara album, which only came out last year. I had songs from that I was going to play with Wilson as well. Is the eldest brother to Rupert Harvey of Mesenja and to Richard, Jason's best friend from his high school days who passed

away in 1986. Wilson's book, King Alpha's Song in a Strange Land, The Roots and Roots, I see what you did there, Jason, very clever, of Canadian reggae won the Ontario Historical Society's Joseph Brandt Award in 2022. Let's listen to a little bit here. ["The Roots and Roots"] The spirit of the Cape Bay, by the heart of the mixed blood. Are you ready? Ready to be loved, to be loved.

So tell me Kevin, how do you know Jason Wilson? It ties everything together Mike, so, and you're going to, I'm going to bring up a couple of names that have already been mentioned as well, but. Yep. I, I oversee the publications for the hockey hall of fame. And one of them is called legends magazine comes out every year. So one of the stories that I wanted to pursue was

the, the parallel lives of hockey and music and how they intersect through the years as well. So I thought that would be great to get Jim Cuddy from blue rodeo to talk about his, his hockey pursuits and his hockey loves and, and Tom Cochran with big league and a Gore Downey or Gord Sinclair from the tragically hip, et cetera, et cetera. So I was just looking around for some

others as well. Just, there's so many who, who. I could collaborate with you on this. I, every time I have a musician in here, we end up talking a little, uh, hockey, I feel. It's, it's true. It's amazing how much intersection there is. So I talked to Cam Carpenter, who was an FOTM as well, and I said, Cam, by any chance at that point,

he was doing his own publicity company. I said, do any of your clients, are they any, uh, are they hockey guys at all? And he said, oh, you got to talk to this guy, Jason Wilson. He's got a reggae album out and whatever. So, you know, I said, sure. Sounds good to me.

So I talked to Jason and found that he was a really curious, had a really curious history and was a really wonderful guy. Here's this. His parents are from Scotland. He's a white gentleman who grew up in the Keele Street region that was very much a black area, a neighborhood at the time. So he grew up with his parents' influence of Scottish folk and with the reggae influence from his neighborhood as well.

He does a really interesting mix of the two, uh, two styles as well as the, you know, his folk music, as well as a little jazz in there too. He's a terrific musician. So we ended up doing the article and, uh, and it worked out so well that we became dear, dear friends as well. And, and so at one point I was doing the, the biography of Lord Stanley, who donated the Stanley Cup. Of course.

And Jason's history background, he's got a degree in Canadian history, I thought would lend beautifully to my hockey instincts. And so, so we wrote the book together and won a couple of awards for that book, Lord Stanley, the man behind the cup. Then later on we did a, a book together about a JP Bickel, who was one of the financial geniuses

behind the forming of the Toronto Maple Leafs. And Jason was the principal writer on that one. And I did much of the research. And, but I guess our modus, our best, our zenith, I guess, was the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club centennial publication, 1917 to 2017. And it's, uh, it's the definitive history of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

And we wrote that together and again, won some awards on that. So amazing. So yeah. So he's a musician first and foremost and the, uh, the hockey side of things. He also teaches hockey. You'll talk hockey from,

we'll get him in here. So let the listeners know Jason Wilson will at some point make his Toronto Mike debut. We'll talk about, and I love talk. I just had Jay Douglas in here. I just had a gentleman in here named, uh, Kevin house who put together a great compilation called, uh, Jamaica to Toronto about these, these great Jamaican artists we have in our own backyard who are kind of some of their music has been almost lost, like underappreciated and he's shining the light on them I'm very keen to talk to you. You know, we all know Scotland hotbed of reggae, right? This is

The birthplace of reggae. I understand this is Scotland. So I'm very I'm very interested now again, I can't wait to meet Jason, but I did read one criticism that Like only at the Junos are you're like your reggae nominees, white guys, right? So you don't like, you know, I know it's just, you know, we got to talk real talk here, but to be discussed with Jason, Jason Wilson, absolutely. I can't wait to have that conversation. But here to let the listenership know, Kevin, we first met each other in February, 2017. Oh, wow. Let me do a little math on that. That's seven years ago. Seven years

ago. That's amazing. Okay. It was episode 216 kind of early days because we're almost at 1500 here. In this episode 206, it's art. I'm gonna read what I wrote at the time. In this 216th episode, Mike chats of Kevin Shea about his years working with weird Al Yankovic and Motley Crue selling Smells Like Teen Spirit to radio and the legend of Bill Borilko in glorious blue and white detail. So we really dove deep into the legend of Bill Borilko because I kind of knew you primarily at the time I knew you as a hockey guy like a guy who would be documenting Barilko stuff and working with the Hall of Fame. And then I sort of started to pull at these threads and realized, Oh, that's actually

not the most interesting thing about Kevin Shea. Okay. And then I learned about Attic Records and then in July, 2022, you returned with Steve Waxman. And here's what I wrote for that return visit in this 1,083rd episode of Toronto Mic'd, Mike chats with Kevin Shea and Steve Waxman about their years babysitting musicians for record labels and what they witnessed. And we talked for almost two hours that day. So I'm glad to get you back because there's so much to cover. We're going to do like a solid hour and I've got some questions that came out of a recent episode and also something that came out of a recent episode and also something

that came out of the recent Juno Awards. So we're going to cover some fun ground here. Are you ready, Kevin? I'll just follow your lead. Follow my lead. By the way, you work a lot of course closely with the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team. I have a beautiful book, a history book about the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. I know it looks amazing. It's yours. Oh, alright. So you gave me a book. I'm giving you one. So that's hard to cover. Thank you very, very much. It's really great. Rob Butler was here yesterday who manages that team. And a great guy. So I run an event or used to run an event called Road Hockey to Conquer Cancer. Yes. And he was one of the celebrities who would come out and play with us as well. And he's just a fabulous guy and just the fact that he was a world, a world champion for the Toronto

Blue Jays is pretty amazing. Yeah. He was on the field when Joe Carter touched them all. And I believe this is kind of a wild fact to me that we're almost at episode 1500. I believe Rob Butler is the first former blue J to be on Toronto Mike. Like I think that's the first one. I know it's not weird. I think that's strange, but I do have a Joe Carter coming up.

Oh, wow. Thanks to Rod Black. So we're, we're all over the place, but I do want to let you know, Kevin, cause I know you're a fan of history and sports and the other Leafs. I'm sure you love your Toronto Maple Leafs baseball too. I'm here to tell you that on May 12th, a bunch of us, including me, we're all going to come out to Christie Pitts for the home opener. It's at Christie Pitts, 2 PM, May 12th, a whole bunch, I mean, Steve Paikin is going to be there. Mark Hepsher is going to be there. Rick Emmett from Triumph.

Geez. It's all going to come back to Attic. You watch. Okay. We're going to be connecting all the dots here today. Rod Black, of course, some former Leafs are going to be there. Who I was told Rick Vive is going to be there. Rick Vive is going to be there. This I was told Rick Vive is gonna be there, Rick Vive's gonna be there.

This is amazing. This is amazing and of course I'm gonna get Stephen Brunt there, coming all the way from Hamilton, so it's gonna be amazing. Blair Packham's gonna be there from The Jitters, okay, it's all about The Jitters here. May 12, 2 p.m. Christie Pitts, be there. I've just noted it and I will do what I can. Even Jane Harbour is gonna be there and this is gonna tie into the guest I want to talk to you about and I pulled a clip but before I talk about my episode of Bob Roper tell me about this jacket that you helped secure for Felix Potvin back in the day. I follow you in social media you were teasing the story and I saw a photo. So, tell me about it.

The cat, Felix Pawvin, you know, the goaltender from those great runs in 93 and 94. I'm looking at a picture of Wendell Clark from that era right now. Tell me about getting a jacket for Felix. It wasn't a jacket. It was a guitar. Not a, okay, you know what? I wrote Felix Pawvin jacket. It was a guitar.

It's a better story. Yeah, even better. So, another friend of Toronto Mike is Bruce Barker. Yes. And Bruce Barker had, he quite often would bring me to Toronto Maple Leaf practices on Saturday morning and through that got to know, and I'd bring some CDs and there's Gilmore and there's Potvin, there's Wendell and you know, various guys there. Dave Elitz there.

Absolutely. Jamie McCowen. So got to know the guys a fair bit, and I got to know Felix fairly well. And one day he said, listen, is there any chance that you can get me a guitar? Now he was really into punk and hard rock at that time, metal.

And I was giving him all those releases that came on Roadrunner and Metal Blade Records and things of that sort. So I said, well, I have no connections to the music industry that way, but let me see what I can do. So I contacted my guy down at Roadrunner Records and said, look, do any of your musicians have a guitar deal where they might be able to get a guitar that they can trade with Felix Potvan?

He says, are you kidding me? I'd love to get one for you. Let me see what I can do. So he came back a couple of weeks later and said, uh, the lead guitarist from Sepultura has got a guitar deal and he will get you a guitar for Felix Potfan, but in return he wants tickets to a New York Rangers game where the Leafs are playing. He wants a game worn Jersey and he wants an autographed hockey stick and to,

and for helping you out, I would like a, an autographed hockey stick. And for helping you out, I would like an autographed stick as well. I said, well, let me see what I can do. So made the deal with Felix. He says, yeah, I can get you all that stuff. That's great. So it took a while, took an awful long time. I think Felix expected it next week

and it didn't happen that quickly. In fact, it took months to get it. And every time I'd see him, I was a little shy about even venturing into the arena, Maple Leaf Gardens at the time, and because he'd, Kevin, where's my guitar? I said, it's coming, it's coming, but I had no idea and I kept talking to my contact at Roadrunner who said, yeah, yeah, I got it, it'll be there shortly. Finally called and said, it's at Customs at the airport, go pick it up Kevin, there you go and let's get this whole thing

executed. So I picked up the guitar and opened it, and it was unbelievable. Beautiful guitar, and it was signed by every metal, punk, hard rock guitarist that I could think of. And some that I couldn't read, and some that, Eric Clapton, and you know, just there was everybody. Eric Clapton's on there.

Yeah, had signed the black lacquer guitar. Wow. So, next time I saw Felix, he said, if you got the guitar, I said, I do, I've got the guitar. And I handed it to him, and he opened the case, and oh my God, this is amazing. He picked it up and played a couple of rudimentary chords, and said, oh, thank you, that's great.

I said, okay, I'm gonna tell the guys that you'll take care of them for tickets. Yep, yep, I'm gonna get tickets for your friend and for the guitarist and from Sepultura, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, great, so I did that and put it all together and then I went back maybe a month or so later. I don't know if it was that long

and I saw Felix at the next practice that I went to and Felix, how's the guitar? He said, oh it's amazing, but it took me forever to to sand the names off the guitar. I said, what? Well it turns out the guitarist from Sepultura had careered at his own cost all around North America, maybe even Europe to get people to sign it for Felix. And it was signed by 40, I don't know, 40, 30, 40 different guitarists, and Felix had sanded them off. He didn't like the look of it.

Oh my God, Kevin, that story is too good to be true. Imagine that, it took all that time to sand off those autographs. Wow, oh my God, Kevin. I will never tell the guy from road runner for, he thinks that Felix is still playing that guitar. But can you imagine, you know, you, you drop, you know, I'm not a big metal head, but some of these iconic guitar heroes, uh, you know, that

autograph is priceless. Yeah, for sure. Wow. Okay. Speaking, you dropped the name Jim Cuddy earlier in this conversation. We got to go to the main spots I realized because I realized you alone, I could do a four hour Motley Crue-esque conversation here.

But this song... My question, Kevin, off the top is, did you listen to the Bob Roper episode of Toronto Mines? Oh, I sure did. It was outstanding. I really enjoyed it. Bob is a long time friend. He was working in the artist and repertoire department of Warners when I was there as

the national promo guy. And our department was quite small. There was just a handful of us. It was, the company had divided itself just internally. So there was the international side of things, which took care of the international labels and Kim Cook was the national promotions for that side and I was the national promotions guy for the domestic international side which was affiliated labels from Europe but also the Canadian signings as well so it was Blue Rodeo, Brighton Rock. You know I'm doing a

Brighton Rock deep dive. Really? It's in the schedule. Really? Yeah. Who's the main guy from Brighton Rock? Well, Jerry McGee, who's passed away. Who else who's not passed away? Oh my goodness. So there's John Rogers. There's, there's, I mean, I'll get to the game in a minute here, but continue.

But there is a Brighton Rock episode. Greg Fraser probably. That's it. He was the guitarist. Yeah. Greg Fraser is in the calendar to do a, uh, uh, bright and rock stories there too. Ask him about Monica Schnarr.

Okay. Look, I'm taking a note right now. There you go. So I'm taking a note. That's great. Now, uh, I'm going to, I'm not going to totally Robert Lawson. That's what we call me.

Fact check. Okay. We Robert Lawson thing here. I've got to get to the Greg Fraser part of my Google doc here. Uh, Monica. back. Okay, we Robert Lawson thing here. I've got to get to the Greg Frazier, part of my Google doc here, Monica Nar,

okay, I've got it in the can the skit. I'm going to talk to Greg Frazier about Monica, absolutely. She's somebody I had an opportunity to have her on trauma like via zoom and I took a pass and I I just feel like I want Monica in the basement. Is that selfish of me? No it's not at all. She's a lovely, lovely lady.

She helped out with this Road Hockey to Conquer Cancer event as well. But she was involved with, I'm making it sound more scurrilous than it was, but she was involved with Brighton Rock's video One More Try. Oh I can imagine. Michelle McAdory, her album actually look oh her albums right here because she dropped by she was involved in this band right now so it's all coming a full circle Michelle McAdory of course in the video for try let's just correct the record here so I had Bob Roper on and we talked about you know

Blue Rodeo they didn't sign at first and then they signed and blah blah blah we got a couple of details wrong, right? Because I know in that I'm hearing real time from Bob Roper, he talks about two singles coming out before Try. But Kevin, you were there. That's not true, right? Try is the second single released by Blue Rodeo, right? Right, right, right.

Well, it was so traditional thinking is that you put out two up tempo tracks or somewhat up tempo tracks and you come back with the ballad as track number three. That was the template at Once Upon a Time. But with Blue Rodeo, they insisted on going with the track first. And we weren't sure that that was the right way to go. We didn't know if it was radio friendly enough. And sure enough, when we delivered it to radio, they told us it wasn't radio friendly enough. And that's called Outskirts.

Right, Outskirts. That's the song Outskirts. Great track, the title track to that album. Right. The debut album. So it's Sinks Like a Lead Balloon here. You can't get any traction from Outskirts. Yeah, one radio station played it. It was an important one, Chum FM. They played it in a day parted role.

Okay. And we need to disclose something, right? Of course, uh, one of the announcers at Chum FM was married to the band's drummer. Right. Ingrid Schumacher was married to, to the drummer of the band and, and, uh, we got some great support from Chum FM, but that was it. We couldn't get radio to play that track, no matter what we did, maybe some college play, I'm

not sure, but as far as, as mainstream radio play, it just didn't come up at all. we started to panic we thought okay what do we do now and we knew that the track when the band played live when Blue Rodeo played live at the Horseshoe and other places the main track was Try the song that you just played this one right here this yeah absolutely it was the magic song it's the one that everybody demanded and and so we talked about it internally and the band insisted as well that, uh, that try be the next single. And so we girded our loins and thought, okay, we'll go.

Now we mounted a really strong marketing plan as well. But the great news was that Jim was able to call in his, his favors as Bob talked about on the podcast and he was working at a film company at the time, and he got all kinds of friends and equipment to help him make a video for try and much music came to the party and added it into heavy rotation with no radio play. Excuse me. I'm sorry about that. That's okay.

With no radio play, they added into heavy rotation, right? Radio station started playing it, but then with the influx of, of much music's penetration across the country, it just became a monster, monster hit. And you mentioned that Michelle McAdory. Yes. She appeared in the video and she was wonderful that way. It was a great, great video. And so she was dating Greg Keeler.

Right. Exactly. See this all, but like in Ingrid Schumacher, a great FOTM herself, long time. I think she spent over like four decades at Chum FM, but she, it was a Cleve Anderson was her husband at the time. And then the, the great story is a Cleve, uh, at the time he chose a career with a Canada post and he left blue rodeo for a career at the post office essentially. But at that time, Try, that's him on drums.

It's funny because we're going to come to Rush. We're going to talk a little Russian a moment here. But Rutsi was the original drummer, and he's the drummer who you hear on Working Man. Neil Peart doesn't join until the next album, but we'll get to that in a minute. Stick with Blue Rodeo here for a minute. So when I talked to Bob Roper, he remembered it incorrectly and this happens, shout out to Robert Lawson.

So he remembered Rose Colored Glasses as being released before Try. But you, as the promotion guy there at the time, you know that's not true. The fact is Rose Colored Glasses was the third single and Try was the second single. That's exactly right. And the way that it went to, and the band

insisted and it worked out really well was that one Jim Cuddy song, one Greg Keeler song, one Jim Cuddy song, et cetera, et cetera. So the Rose Colored Glasses track was a Greg Keeler track and it followed Try and did very, very well. It certainly had the momentum of Try before it. Good song on its own as well.

And we did very well in the album went on to great heights as far as sales and radio play and helping break the band. Now, you know, I love to cover the ongoing history of CFNY. It is all coming back to Rush because Spirit of Radio, it's all coming back to David Marsden. Okay. So that album outskirts by Blue Rodeo, which breaks when Try becomes a big hit in this country, not played at all by CFNY, right? They didn't touch

that album. No, no, it was, I think too mainstream for what they were doing at that time. So mainstream or to country. Well, maybe when I say mainstream, mainstream as far as other radio formats and, and that's exactly right. So I mean, we tried, there were other tracks that we tried to introduce as well and not singles, but other tracks from the album, but had no success that way. But it turned out to be a, an AOR album oriented

rock, a favourite, a, an adult contemporary AC track and the top 40 hit as well. Certainly I'm talking about try and then later with rose colored glasses. Now I need to talk about the next album because my all time favorite blue rodeo song is diamond mine. And in my, in the way I listened to diamond mine is that, that big part in the middle that the, cause

it's a long song, right? Right. Uh, I don't know. I don't have it in front of me, but it's, it's a long song. I wish it was longer. Like I just wish that part would keep going kind of like a Leonard Skinner's free bird.

Okay. Let, let's stretch this thing. So see if and why did they play diamond mine? I don't recall my, you don't recall. Okay. You're tapping out there. Okay. So, but can I tell a story about that album too?

Well, yes, because I want to hear, uh, cause Bob Wiseman is an FOTM. Right. Okay. So he's, he's playing long in the middle there. And, uh, you tell me your story and then let me know, uh, how the hell you got that played on radio con, and I'll find out how long it is.

Go ahead. So they insisted, the band insisted that Diamond Mine, the title track for the second album, be the first single. And as the promotion guy, I thought, oh my God, my sensibilities are that first of all, it's way too long, but I'm just not sure that, I thought, Oh my God, my sensibilities are that first of all, it's way too long, but I'm just not sure that it's a, it's a great radio track. Well, I was actually quite wrong, but, but of course there

were some, a few things that we manipulated to help that way. So as far as the single goes, so we had an edit done where Bobby's middle trap middle portion was taken out. 818. Okay. On the album the album, Diamond Mine, the single Diamond Mind is eight minutes and 18 seconds long. That is long. Well, we took out the middle portion and even though it was whatever it was at that point on

the single release, we put 397. So that radio thought that it was under four minutes long, but in fact, it was probably more 457 or something like that. Well yeah, how dumb are people in radio? I mean, cause there's 60 seconds in a minute, people are getting fooled by this. Well, and it was a disc, it was vinyl at that time as well. But the most important thing is the video.

The video, so first of all the band shot it at a abandoned movie theater just off the Danforth. Don Lans theater, if I recall correctly, I could be wrong about that. But anyway, they loaded the equipment in and they recorded it off the floor that way and it was just a wonderful, wonderful album. We went by several times to watch as they recorded. And then they shot the video and it was shot in color and then something happened in the processing where the color was extracted from the video. video and it was shot in color and then something happened in the processing

where the color was extracted from the video and we were going to scrap it entirely but but somebody took it I think was Dave Tollington from our office at Warner's took it to much music just to show them what would you do with it and they they loved it the way it was they loved the video so much even though it was going to be scrapped at one point entirely. And so the diamond mind video again, being supported by much music was a great, a great lead for rock radio.

And then later on we got top 40 radio as well. So it was a great story. By that point, cleave had left the band and there was a gentleman named Mark French who was playing drums at that point. He had come from a band with a great name, the street walk and Barbies. And then Mattel sent them a season to that.

I think that's true too. Mark was the drummer on that album. He didn't last beyond that album, but he was the drummer on that album following Cleve's leaving. Love it. Yeah. And I will just quickly shout out the current keyboardist, cause he went to my high school and he's an FOTM, Mike Boguski.

Yeah. And during the pandemic, when he couldn't see any live music, we set up his keyboard in my backyard and he did this rousing, uh, rendition of diamond mine on his keyboard and neighbors were like popping their head over the fences. Like, is that live music? What a time where it was just such a magical,

great afternoon in my backyard and the whole, you know, the atmosphere in New Toronto like, is that live music? What a time where it was just such a magical, great, uh, afternoon in my backyard and the whole, you know, the atmosphere in new Toronto filled with diamond mine as Mike Boguski played it. It was wild. Wow. It was very cool. It was, I got to do more backyard episodes with, uh, with Mike Boguski and get, get more jams there. So thank you for correcting the record there. The Bob Roper episode also there's a great Rush talk in there and we talk about how Bob

Roper sends the debut album by Rush which is 50 years ago this month. 50 years ago Rush comes out named by the drummer's, Rutsi's brother named the band Rush. I did not know that. That's a great story. It's a great story. So, and Rutsi no longer with us, shout out to Ridley funeral home, but, and Neil Peart no longer with us, of course. Yeah.

So yeah. Wow. Okay. But this is a story that there's a woman named Donna Halper and Donna Halper is the pro music director at the station in Cleveland that Bob Roper sent the rush debut album to and Donna Halper is the woman who heard working man liked working man and put it on the air

and Cleveland being a blue collar town. The people loved working man. They were requesting it and this is sort of the spark that lights the the rush fire, like Donna help her putting that song on the air in Cleveland. No Cleveland, no rush. Yeah. W M M S they were a legendary rock station and Donna was the person. Bob wasn't even working for the band at that time. She has, she was just looking for great rock tracks to play Hunter on her station. Right. And, uh, he sent the album over with, I don't

think a great deal of expectation, but sure enough. Uh, she, she heard something she liked. She sure did. Wow. What a great song. And this is Michael Williams talking about a different artist. No Cleveland, no Bowie.

But I think absolutely you can apply that to rush. No Cleveland, no rush. The rest is history, but all this long winded buildup is to say, I'm going to have a conversation with Donna Halper. That's amazing. All about this moment because she listened as

well. She loved the Bob Roper. I feel like the people in the industry all listen to the Bob Roper episode and loved it. And, uh, if you're looking for Bob Roper deep dives, there's nowhere else to go. I'm literally the only podcast he's ever done. So well received.

Funnily enough here, but I think, okay, I was at the Harris Institute yesterday. I biked over it said like Sherborne in Richmond, because I had to deliver a palma pasta lasagna to Jane Harbury because she couldn't carry it. It's very heavy and she was taking the TTC. So I delivered it to the Harris Institute yesterday. I took a photo. I tweeted it. Hey, here's Jane Harbury getting her Palma pasta lasagna. She told a story Jane when she was on Toronto Mike, she talked about being gifted these tickets to Blue Jays games. And she would get a ticket every spring to see a Blue Jays game, good seats, of course. And she would go, she would go with Bob Roper,

like these, they would go together, Bob Roper and no, no one wanted to tell me this mystery person who was gifting the tickets, but I've done some homework. I'm ready to announce it now. You ready, Kevin? Shea? I'm ready. Let's hear some guy named Getty Lee. Oh, I didn't know that.

So I don't even know if Jane, Jane, I hope Jane's not listening. I don't listen to Jane and Jane didn't tell me this. I had the, so Jane never revealed the source, but this, uh, mysterious person that neither wanted to name and and oh, he knows who he is and we're grateful and all this. So I had to do a little digging, Kevin. Good for you. Geddy Lee is the saint and Geddy Lee, of course,

thanking Bob Roper for sending that album to Donna Halper who will soon be an FOTM like you. So that conversation coming very soon for all the Rush fanatics, we're going to get the, the real story about working man breaking in Cleveland, thanks to Donna Halper and Bob Roper. Well done, Mike. That's great stuff.

Well, Getty had great, so I don't know Getty. I've met him once, I think, or maybe a couple times, but, but he had great baseball tickets. He's a huge baseball fan and has followed the Negro baseball league, which I'm really interested in as well. So, so there's a lot of parallels that way as well. Well, I got to get Geddy Lee on Toronto Mike.

Oh, you must. If only I knew his lawyer. Hmm. If only I was friendly. If only his lawyer was an FOTM and I can make that magic happen. Let me see what I can do here. So I'm going to play something that I thought of

watching the Juneau awards on Sunday. Did you watch the Junos on Sunday? I watched some, there was the leaf game at the same time, but I was back and forth. Okay. So I'm going to play something I thought of watching. So I thought of you, Kevin, while I was watching this leaf game and I'll explain all in a moment, but I have some fresh craft beer for you

from great lakes brewery. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. And I did deliver the lasagna to Jane, but I don't have to go to you because you're going to bring it home with you. You're getting a large, uh, it's frozen in my freezer and you're leaving with that lasagna. And you know, I have two, I made sure I got one

for our special guest, Jason Wilson, who is not here, so maybe I'll be eating that. There you go. It'll keep, it'll keep. It'll keep. I'll stick that in the freezer until I, uh, until I see him. I also want to recommend a great podcast for you Kevin It's called the advantaged investor podcast and if you listen to this podcast you'll it won't even matter whether you're doing your own

Investments or you have somebody who manages your financial investments. You're gonna get best practices great tips from from Wonderful experts and analysts at Raymond James Canada. It's a great free podcast hosted by Chris Cooksy. So you're going to subscribe to the advantage investor podcast. Duly noted. Thank you. Look at that.

You're good. You do everything I tell you to do. I love it. So this is another, uh, request, which is that you do not throw out the old devices, the old electronics, the old cables you have collecting in your home, Kevin. You go to recyclemyelectronics.ca, put in your address and it'll tell you a place near you,

you could drop that off to be properly recycled so the chemicals do not end up in our landfill. You got your marching orders? That's important. It's important. And make sure I grab one of these here. Let me do it now quickly. Go off mic for a second. It's a measuring tape from Ridley funeral home.

So you can use it every day. Well, you got, I truly do. Okay. You got another one now. Just in case you were very, very much just in case. Okay. Let me kick out.

Uh, I could do hours with you, uh, on Attic records alone. Oh, do you? Sadly, we've lost both founders now. Yes. I broke the news to Jane on that episode about Tom Willie and I felt awful because I thought it like, you know, so she starts

talking about him and I said something to the effect of like, sadly we lost both him and Al Mare and I could tell instantly like she had no idea. And she's like, what, what do you mean? And then I, I just felt awful. Like you never want to break that news to somebody, right? A tragic story. And because's like, what, what do you mean? And then I, I just felt awful. Like you never want to break that news to somebody. Right.

And it's a tragic story. And because the music industry is so incestuous, they certainly would be friends or certainly acquaintances through the years. She said she just saw him at Hughes room. She still works close with Hughes room. And then it's like, she was going to invite him to something at Hughes room.

And then she learns he's no longer with us. Al Mayer did appear on Toronto mic. So that was fantastic. So he, he was an FOTM. We lost him of course, but here's the song I'm going toikes, that was fantastic, so he was an FOTM. We lost him of course. But here's the song I'm going to play that I was thinking about when I was watching FOTM Maestro Fresh West at the Junos. I saw something inside of you I wanted to get through to you The only thing I knew

Talked about danger, the lust for sin Honey, you were what I've been looking for Baby, cross right in Ooh, watch over me, baby Smile, smile, let it dream Feel warm, feel crazy Is that taking you back, Kevin? It sure does. Wow. One of our domestic signings, Haywire out

of Prince Edward Island. And ours, you mean Attic right? Like I said, I would like to do like a five hour episode with you one day on Attic Records here. I feel like I've done it a few times. A lot to tell. Okay, so Haywire, they're from East Coast right? Yeah, Prince Edward Island. As far as you go over there. there. So Haywire is an Attic Records signing. This was one of their big Much Music hits, I remember, Dance Desire. And I'm watching Maestro Fresh, well deserved. I have all the time in the world for Maestro Fresh West, big fan of this guy. He is a great guy.

And I have the story for multiple, I've had Al Mayer on and I had you on and Steve Waxman. You ever heard of that guy? I've had Maestro Fresh West on. Okay, so I've covered this from all angles. I think no one's covered this story more than me, but I love it so much. So I'm actually gonna fade it down elegantly here and I'm gonna play this the first five seconds again. This is of course that same song I just played. This is Dance Desire by Haywire. Okay, that's it. That's all you need. The first five seconds here. And now I will play the the second big hit from Maestro Fresh Wes.

Very cultured. Fresh Wets The Symphony Is it full of fat? Let your backbone slide Let it slip, let the rhythm rip While my lyrics leave my lips laid- You can rap with me, Kevin, I know the words I know you know the words The bell from stage to stage, province to province And you can't escape, here's radius of margin I know the words, I? That drop the needle, that's pulled directly from dance desire.

That's it. That's a sample. It's quite a story, isn't it? Okay, so to set the table and then I'll shut up because everybody's like, let Kevin talk. This is his story. So, because I live this in real time. OK, let your backbone slide. Just takes off. It was all over my high school. It was big. And I'm this is 89. So I am like 15 years old or something. I'm kind of just kind of starting to dive into the world of hip hop.

And I literally said these words. I think Maestro must have heard me because he ended up naming an album. This or whatever. Nah, this kid can't be from Canada. OK, I think I said that. OK, I'm like, what do you mean this guy's from Toronto? Like, this is amazing. Before I knew he was from Toronto, I was loving Let Your Backbone Slide. That goes nuts. We could reiterate the story. It's been documented in Toronto Mic a hundred times. In fact, Michael Williams ties in this story. He takes credit at Electric Circus for introducing Maestro to Stevie B. Stevie B, LMR I believe in the United States,

is the label that signs Maestro. Meanwhile, there's a second single that's coming out off Symphony in Effect. It's taken off, it's called Drop the Needle. It's got that great sample from Haywire's Dance Desire. This is where I want you, Kevin, to pick up the story. So. Well, it's actually more of a Steve Waxman story.

I wasn't with the label at the time, but although I did come and join the label later on. Don't let the story. So. Well, it's actually more of a Steve Waxman story. I wasn't with the label at the time, but although I did come in and join the label later on. Don't let the facts come out. Okay, fair enough. I'm not Robert Lawson. Do I look like Robert Lawson? Okay. You are adjacent to Attic at all times, and this is an Attic story. For sure.

But Steve Waxman has probably told the story to me already, but let's hear it again. Well, and Steve is a dear, dear friend. And so he was working at Attic at the time. I was at Warner's. We were both going to the dance pools, which was a collection of, of club DJs. And there were several of these dance pool organizations. So on Saturday mornings, for example, all of the record reps would come out and play their dance material for the club DJs.

And so Steve was telling me about this, this track that, uh, that he was quite interested in. It was the Maestro Fresh West track, but the way that it came to Attic was strange because he had been at a dance pool meeting where he had heard the track and he heard the haywire drop in it. Yeah. You can't miss it. Well, exactly.

If you know dance desire, you can't miss it. Yeah. And so he went back to, uh, Al Mayer, the president of Attic and said, there's a track out there, a rap track out there from this Scarborough kid, and he uses some, uh, some of the material from haywire and Al, wait a minute, you know, Al was all business at that point.

Hang on, hang on. We got to figure this out. So, so they negotiated and, uh, what ended up happening was in return for being able to use the drop without having to pay for it, we got to sign Maestro for distribution in Canada. And when I say we, I meant Attic. And so that's the way he ended up on Attic Records and was with us for five or six albums I think. And just was a great guy to deal with, just a wonderful, wonderful guy.

Um, I took him to his first Maple Leaf game. And he always thanked me for that. And he was on the ice just not that long ago, uh, doing the anthem and doing a special between, uh, special set between first and second period as well. But it's just a wonderful guy now living in St. John, New Brunswick. Absolutely.

So Maestro Fresh West, I'm holding in my hand. I bought this in 1989. This is the 12 inch single for Let Your Backbone Slide. I bought it and he signed it in 2016 when he visited the first time. But I'm looking at the back of it now. Okay. So we've got here at the bottom of this 12 inch,

which I bought in 89, there's a logo for LMR. Do you know what LMR stands for? I don't know. Lefman Moalas Records. I did not know that either. I'm just reading it right now. Okay. But then I see it there, Attic.

There we go. The Attic logo. So Attic had, so how did it sell? Like simply in effect. I mean, I had a copy, so you can add one right there, but like how did Maestro sell back then? Well, so it ended up being a double platinum album, which was 200,000 copies in Canada.

But kudos to Steve Waxman once again, because at that time, Top 40 Radio was not playing rap music. It was certainly anathema to all of the listeners, they felt. And Steve was able to convince CFTR radio here in Toronto, Sharon Taylor, the programmer at the time. FOTM Sharon Taylor. To try the song out and it started to take off from there. So there were a number of top 40 stations who dipped their toe in the water and started to play, let your backbone slide and then it started to take off.

It was also a great video too, so that all worked out too. Of course, Dwight Drummins and that thing. Yep, for sure. And so it ended up being a top 40 hit, sold a ton of records through the clubs, through top 40 radio as well, and ended up selling 200,000 albums, which was just unprecedented for a Canadian rap album

to sell in that volume without any predecessors who could open some doors was astounding. So that's why they call them the Godfather. No, well, well learned. Uh, you know, we love Michigan on this show too. I think Michigan fantastic, but let your backbone slide opens that door. And that, yeah, 200,000 units of that. And you know, you can't do that without top 40 radio in this country.

That's for sure. And yeah, I was listening to CFTR at the time and of course, uh, listening to let your backbone slide on, uh, on that station and, uh, watching how much music and I was all in. I'm like, this, this kid is from Canada. Let's go. Yeah.

Let's go. And then subsequent there were, you know, that A&M signed Kish shortly thereafter, a number of different. Love Kish. Yeah. Uh, started to get out of this world. You know, I know this is the real talk too.

Like when, oh, you know, we should talk about this, but Kish has been on Toronto mic'd and loved it so much. But he says, I forget the number now, but he says at the end of it, when all said and done from Order from Chaos, which was his big album I owned, he said he's on like, oh, I made like $16 and 37 cents or something like that. Like, like the Kish star, he's a boy, a successful voiceover actor in California now, but he basically made nothing from his music

career here in Canada before he went to California. I don't know how much Maestro would make into my business anyway, but I would have to think that when you start looking at advanced royalties, the recording of the album, the videos, the marketing that went into it. I don't know that he made a whole lot of money.

I don't think so either. I don't know. Is, was there even a, I mean, maybe blue rodeo and the tragically hip are exceptions here, but can you make, can our artists who are big in Canada, but not at any of the markets, uh, are they able to make a, like a great living in this country or is it a very

modest hustle? Well, not from album sales, not from radio play necessarily, but it's the touring that would help them out. Certainly now anyway, but I think it took Blue Rodeo years, even though they were a monster band at the time, it took them several years to finally get out of royalty hell and they could start making

some money from there or advanced royalty hell and go from there just because the videos, the marketing all cost a great deal of money and they go against the ledger towards the band so the record company isn't on the hook for that. No, you're right and the more I learn about that the more it seems a little crooked here. I mean it feels like these are just loans and then exorbitant loans that are difficult to pay back. No wonder these artists pursue so heavily U.S. success. Like the difference between being, I'm thinking of my buddies in Sloan, right? Can you think of a bigger rock band in this country?

But unfortunately for their bank accounts and their accountants, only really big in one country, this one we're in right now. And those guys, you know, you'll see Chris Murphy taking the subway and they're living like you and I. Maybe not as good as Kevin, who knows. I don't know about that. But that's our biggest rock band that didn't have success outside of this country.

I think everybody predicted that Sloan was going to blow up because it was right during the grunge era. What can we talk here? So before we say goodbye I know you said you have an hour so we have like five more minutes or so here. Okay let's revisit your work of Nirvana because in 1991 they put out now again they had an album before that called Bleach but that wasn't that was a sub pop right and now this is their big major label debut Never Okay. Everyone, if you're listening to this show, you're well aware of what happens with Nirvana in 1991. But remind us, because this came up recently on

Toronto Mike, you wearing a diaper. What's going on Kevin? Well, sometimes promotion people will do any, any manner of things to, to get their records played. So nobody was playing anything from the Nirvana album. There was certainly some college play and that sort of thing.

But to be specific, because I was listening to 102.1 at the time. So you're telling me there was a period of time before 102.1 would play Smells Like Teen Spirit? Yeah, I can't remember exactly, but yes. Robert Lawson, come on in Robert. Yes, exactly. They would have been an early adopter for sure,

but we were trying to get rock radio because we just heard this track, track, Smells Like Teen Spirit, and we thought it was a magical track, but it just wasn't like anything else that was being played on the radio at the time. It was all Cherry Pie by Warren and bands of that. Poison.

Yes, exactly. The hair bands of the time. Unskinny Bop, I remember that one. Exactly, there we go. And so we had this song. The hair bands of the time. Unskinny Bop, I remember that one. Exactly. There we go. And so we had this song and I thought, okay, how can we get it played? And we sat in our marketing meetings and discussed it and they said, well, Kevin, you're overseeing

the promotion department. What do you think? I said, well, we got to take it to rock radio. But you know what? I think I can find, I think I might be able to get Showman Montreal to play it. They are the most adventurous of the programmers. Let me see what I can find, I think I might be able to get Showmen Montreal to play it. They are the most adventurous of the programmers. Let me see what I can do. And I've got an idea, it's wacky,

but let me throw it at you. I think what I'll do is play on the front cover of the Nirvana album, and it's a baby swimming towards a dollar bill on a hook, but I think if I were to go to the station from six until 10 in the morning I will get all of the staff on their way in to work that day. I'll dress like a baby.

I'll put a baby blanket outside of the radio station. I'll wear a diaper and a soother and booties and a bonnet and a big sign and I think I'll put, smells like teen spirit, this baby needs a home on Shome and I'm going to play the track nonstop from 6 in the morning until 10. And they all looked at me and said, if you think it'll work, go for it. But they shook their head. Different people have done stunts in the past, but this was a little bit on the larger side of things.

So I did exactly that. I flew into Montreal the night before and asked them for a wake-up call for five o'clock at the hotel and that was fine and the alarm didn't, I didn't get a call. And all of a sudden it's six o'clock and oh my god, so I dress really quickly, throw, you know, have my shower, throw on the baby stuff, get a taxi over, but I go to the front desk and in my broken French I'm trying to reprimand them because I never got a phone call and of course they're trying to keep a straight face because there's an adult in a baby diaper.

Yeah, like Barney Gumbel, yeah. So I whipped over to Show Me FM, set myself up, and started playing the cassette. And it was just a nonstop showing of Smells Like Teen Spirit. Well, that was great. I see the staff coming in. What are you doing, Shay?

Who's this guy out front? But what was magical was the fact that Dawson College was around the corner. And as the students were on their way into school, they wanted to find out what was going on. They hear the track, they love the track, and so they started to congregate, and as they congregated, more of their friends did too.

Next thing you knew, the street was blocked off. That led to traffic copters saying, there's a traffic blockage on Green Avenue in Westmount, and we don't know what's going on, but we'll find out. And then the newspaper reporters came over to find out what the problem was, and they see a man with a diaper on and want to know the story behind the story. So it ended up working out very well without meaning to. They went back to Music Plues which was the parallel to Much Music and they

did the story on their news show and of course the the radio stations talking about the the traffic blockage anyway the program director from from Shome came out Ian McLean and Ian said look at Kevin I appreciate your passion on this project and and I'll tell you what I'm gonna do a strike a deal with you if we're gonna play it one night evening rather, one play on this evening show with Too Tall Wagner and if it gets calls, we will continue to play it. But if we get complaints, you are never to mention the word Nirvana ever to us, ever again. I said, okay, great.

So I went back to the hotel and changed. I ended up getting pneumonia. Oh no. Oh yeah. It was November, late November in Montreal or early November in Montreal. I can't remember. Well, the things you do for Kurt Cobain. And they played the track and the phones blew up.

And I would have to think that a lot of them were the Dawson college students who got cassette singles that I was handing out at the same time as playing it and saw this guy out there and liked the song. And anyway, it blew up and they added the song and subsequent to that Q107 and City FM in Winnipeg, CFOX in Vancouver added it. Those were the majors and then the secondary markets added it as well and it ended up being okay. So I wasn't the only one, it started to blow up in the states as well, not because of a guy in a diaper

but it started to blow up there too. And speaking of great videos, what a great video that was. Fantastic. Wow. Perfect storm there. Okay, so before again, you'll be back Kevin, cause I literally have hours of stuff I want to talk to you about, you'll be back.

But you know, we did touch off the top. We talked a bit about Motley Crue, but I want to ask you about one of my favorite hair metal, rock and roll bands, guns and N' Fuckin' Roses. You don't mind if I swear on my own show, do you? Okay. Fine by me. So Guns N' Fuckin' Roses, okay, you're at MCA?

Yeah. Okay. And tell me how this works, cause they're Geffen? Like what's going on? How are you, so you- Geffen was distributed in Canada by MCA. Okay, that's a good detail.

Okay. And MCA was just going through the the ownership change to become Universal Music Okay so I did I had come from Warner Music where I did national promotion and I went over to MCA to do to be the director of national promotion there and one of the things I think that that MCA liked was the fact that Geffen had been on Warner's just before that and that that MCA liked was the fact that Geffen had been on Warners just before that and I had been the national promo for Geffen at that point. Now Geffen was being picked up and that was a major label with Elton John and Sharon, Don Henley and Guns N' Roses and you name it. They had a lot of big acts at the time and they had the Tragically Hip on the other side on the domestic signing too

and I'd worked with them as well. So anyway so anyway, I got hired by MCA and we get this, this album and it's got a, Mike Clink is the producer and, and it's, it looks like it's going to be huge and we listened to it and it sounded amazing. And, and we put it out and it was just the, the magical touch. It was just the right song at the right time, but it took some time. Joey Vendetta we mentioned from Q107 and the Power Factory, he was an early adopter. And this album of course is Appetite for Destruction. Right, sorry, yes I should mention that.

No, I just wanna make sure the listenership knows cause man I should run around the corner and show you the pennant I still have. I bought it in 88 at a head shop downtown and it's the Appetite for Destruction pennant, I still have it. And radio adopted it immediately. It was great. We did very, very well with Welcome to the Jungle. But then the tour came through. I think the boy, oh boy, if I have it right, I might not. Playing with the cult at the C&E Grandstand. That sounds right to me. I think it was but the band's reputation turned out to be a

forerunner of what they were all about. We had a number of radio programmers that we were bringing back to see the show. They watched the show then they wanted to come back and meet the band and we never did get the lead singer ever to come back. We waited for hours. Slash came out for a little while and Duff, the bass player, came out for a little while, but we never got Axl to come out at all. Everybody wanted to meet Axl.

He just refused to come out. So all of these programmers went home, got their album signed by either Duff or Slash, but that was it. But the album was a monstrous album and it was just the opening of their monstrous career for a few years anyway. What an album. Like these are big, you know, Nevermind, Appetite for Destruction. These are such big albums that you're involved with.

Like it must be, at least it must be easier to push these great albums. I mean, you got to, I'm sure there's how many steaming piles of shit have you had to try to shovel into radio stations, right? Well, you have to prioritize and there are some that you know are going to be really big, some that already have, have a track records. And then there are others that you just think are magical and you go forward from there and that was, that was one of them guns and' Roses was too heavy for a lot of the rock stations so they would day part it to play just in the evenings

and then as it started to find its legs. And Sweet Child of Mine I feel was like their big, their balladly like accessible song. Welcome to the Jungle is like, it hits you hard, right? Yeah, for sure. But Sweet Child of Mine is sort of, it's kind of sweet and ballad like you know, moms are digging it, You know what I mean?

They still are by the way. I feel like that that's, that's a song today that, you know, you play that right now and everyone's singing along to a sweet child of mine. And when November rain came out, that wasn't that album. No, that was the double album. Right.

Exactly. But then I thought it's way too long, you know, but we released it to adult contemporary and top 40 with the wish that maybe a few adult contemporary stations would play it. And it turned out to be a monstrous track in all formats, rock, but again, video played a key role. Right? Like video can't play a role anymore. I don't think it was a million dollar video. It was amazing video. November rain, you know, wow. Like I, I remember I buying, that was a,

use your illusion one and two. And that was back when I had to have like that album, I had to have first day, like first day of sale. Yeah. But unlike Appetite of Instruction, you're not there first day because you don't know about them yet. Like, it's like, right. You need the, it's the follow-up hits that you're there. It's like, you're not there for 10 first day, but you're there for versus first day. We can never overestimate the importance of much music at that, during that era, they really,

really did a job for the number of the bands that we've talked about blue rodeo the tragically hip certainly Aerosmith and Aerosmith too. Absolutely. Yeah Well, do you want to take us home by just sharing a little bit about how are you? How are you Kevin Shea connected to Aerosmith? I mean, I have a note here that you were taking Aerosmith to see like a Aerosmith tribute band. Yeah I mean, I have a note here that you were taking Aerosmith to see like a Aerosmith tribute band. Yeah. That's so we did some interviews with, uh, with

much music, Denise Donlon playing, playing pool with Steve Perry and, and, uh, Joe Perry rather and Steve Tyler. And, and the day went very, very well and they were very pleased with the day and, and we hit it off quite well. And they said, uh, listen, we want to go to, we got a couple days off before we play live here, is there any way we can get

to a gym? And I said well, my girlfriend's gym is just around the corner, I think we can arrange it if you're into it. They said we just don't want a lot of people to hang all over us, we just want to work out and then maybe later in the day we can get together and have some dinner or do something.

I said, well, that sounds great. So we arranged to go to the gym. It was on, on Yonge street, right near Bloor. I can't remember the name of it, but it's long gone now. And they worked out there. I was, I was there as was my girlfriend of the time and, and we worked out together and Joe

Perry especially was really an avid gym rat. And so we did that and they said, that's great. Listen, what's to do in the city? What can we do that would be fun and different, Kevin? I said, oh geez, I don't know. There's so many things we can do. We could go for dinner if you want or we could, you know what, here's an idea.

This is probably ridiculous, but there's a band called Toys in the Attic. They're an Aerosmith tribute band and they're playing at the Hard Rock Cafe. Would you guys be open to go into something like that? And they looked at each other and the smiles were massive. They said, we've never seen an Aerosmith tribute band. We got to go.

But Kevin, we're dry at this time. We're not drinking at all. So we have to have a special section and only peri-ay. I said, well, I'll see what I can do. So I talked to the folks at the Hard Rock. They said, are you kidding me? Okay. I said, you got to keep it quiet. We can't make a big deal about it. I don't know if it's going to be all the band or just some of them, but we have to

have a, a, a stanchioned off area for them only. And some peri. They said, well, we don't carry periods. I said, if I buy a couple of cases across the street and bring it over, you bet. That'd be fine. So I did exactly that. We had the limo, we brought them over to the hard rock cafe and the band was buy a couple of cases across the street and bring it over. You bet. That'd be fine. So I did exactly that. We had the limo, we brought them over to the

hard rock cafe and the band was already on the stage. But does the band, does Toys in the Attic know that Aerosmith is there? Not at that point. No. Okay. We snuck them in, got in the back, found their

place, they're enjoying their time. And then the word started to spread that, wait a minute. And the, the nice thing too, the funny thing actually to me was that Toys in the Attic was already playing tracks from the new album. And Perry said, this is amazing, they're already playing our new material.

And Steven Tyler said, is that lead singer supposed to look like me? Because he's ugly like you, Perry. And they were laughing back and forth, and whatever. And they had a few Perriers's and, and they were there. It was just the two guys from the band, but some of their, their affiliate help as it were, assistance. And, and, uh, they stayed for a little while, but then as soon as the

word started to spread around, uh, they said, we got to get out of here. So we never did get a chance to introduce the toys in the attic to Aerosmith, which would have been nice, but Aerosmith loved it and they loved the fact that they were already playing the new album. If I'm the lead singer of Toys in the Attic and I hear Steve Tyler is in the audience, like I'm gonna need that diaper you were wearing for the band. No kidding, absolutely! I can't imagine what that's like and it sounds like they didn't disappoint. It sounds like a fantastic night with Aerosmith and then you got this great story.

You can live off this story for the rest of your life Kevin. And get free pasta as a result. Thank you Palmas. So is that one of your 100 stories? It is indeed. Okay. I can't wait to dive in. I wish I could tell people to buy a copy, but no, you've got to be one of the special

100 people. So 100 shades, grades of Shay, great title. And it's so well made, like, I'm impressed. Self-published and just had some fun doing it. I'm going to do this. I'm going to write a book and I'm just going to give you a copy. Oh, I would love that. That'd be great.

Very good. Thanks for doing this. Again, if you're listening at home, Mr. Wilson, Jason Wilson, this was your episode and we'll get you back for a one-on-one, but Kevin always loved talking to you, man. You're a, you got the music stuff. We could talk Leafs, we could talk Hockey

Hall of Fame. You're all over the place. You're still working with the Hockey Hall of Fame. I sure am. Yep. Love it. Love it. Love it.

Can you do anything about, I know there's a, one of the Stanley Cups is in the hockey hall of fame, right? Can we get Phil Pritchard to come by? I've been working on that for a year and I'll start working again. Why is he so hard to get? Just he's on the road so much.

I think that's the biggest part. He's actually somewhere now. He's not even around in the office today, so I'll have to catch up with him later on. That might be the closest Toronto gets to a Stanley Cup so we got to get Phil Pritchard the keeper of the Cup we got to get him on Toronto. In all seriousness in this neck of the woods the closest we've ever got in my lifetime is Dave Boland did a he brought the Stanley Cup when he went with Chicago to the the Blue Goose and Mimico and that

was pretty much the closest we all got to seeing the Stanley Cup. That's right geez. Thank you Dave Boland and thank you Kevin Shea and that brings us to the end of our 1459th show. You can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky. I'm at Toronto Mike. What's the best way? I follow you in a few different social media places and I love your stories, Kevin, but is there one place you would send people to, I don't know, to learn more about you and everything? Just on Facebook.

That's my principal social media. That's where you get these great stories so I can document them and get Kevin over here to pick at those threads. Thank you. And thank you to the great Robert Lawson, who's always in my mind now when I talk to somebody. If Bob Roper gets it wrong, Kevin Shea will come in and get it right. So always seeking the truth here on Toronto Miked. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, don't leave without your lasagna, Recyclemyelectronics.ca, Raymond James Canada, the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team.

Kevin, I want to see you. Hey 12th, I'm looking forward to it. And you can see your old bud Rick Emmett. Absolutely. Okay, I want to witness that moment. I'm very excited. And Blair Packham is going to drive him there. He's a great guy too.

He's a great guy too. See you all. So I'm recording this afternoon with Donna Halper about Rush's Working Man and Bob Roper but I'm actually not dropping that today. So who is the next episode of Toronto Mic? It is Sean Clark. Okay good, the return of Sean Clark. He's a great singer-songwriter. He'll be here Thursday and then Friday it's Toast with Rob Pruse and Bob Ouellette. That's a holiday by the way and we'll be doing that at, let's see, noon at live.torontomike.com

if you want to join us've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Shakalakour But I like it much better going down on you Yeah, you know that's true because Everything is coming up rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow warms us today