Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Kim Mitchell: Toronto Mike'd #679

Episode Date: July 6, 2020

Mike chats with Kim Mitchell about his years in Max Webster, going solo, Go For Soda, Patio Lanterns, and his new album before Kim performs live.

I have great expectations, I can represent this nation, and I'm a wild card, I'm a wild card. Toronto VK on the beat I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm a Toronto Mike, you wanna get the city love My city love me back, for my city love I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love Welcome to episode 679 of Toronto Miked, a weekly podcast about anything and everything.

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making his Toronto Mike debut is Kim Mitchell. Kim. I once told my mom, I was taking her to a Kim Mitchell concert and she said, Oh good. I love her. I thought I'd open with that. No, no, no. It's a good opening because I've been in a record store in America and the same thing happened to me. I said, do you have any Kim Mitchell in the way? Who's she? This is not uncommon. Well, it's funny, right? Because there's that. They think you're a woman because your name is Kim. And then there's the whole people who think your name is Max. Yeah, I get Max a lot too. Or I have had not so much anymore.

I think now that I've been around for a few decades, it's like, oh, oh, it's Kim. Okay. Well, this is an absolute pleasure for me, Kim. So I appreciate you taking some time today to chat with me. Well, nice meeting you as well, finally. Now, throughout this episode, I'm going to drop in some questions from listeners because when people find out Kim Mitchell's

on Toronto Mic'd, rightly so, they get excited. So Steve Molella says he just saw you at Richmond Hill Performing Arts Centre in March, just before the COVID lockdown. You sounded great. The band was tight. It was a fun night.

So, Kim, you played like you literally played on March 12th in front of like a live audience. We did. And we were supposed to play the next night in Kingston and didn't make it. Our crew went, we wanted to go just to be there to show up because we thought we should. And, but we kind of knew the city would, would call it. Yeah. I think it was, and we were on board when they did call it. So it was like, yeah, for sure. You have to call this. So yeah, we did three,

I finished the record before covid and then i also uh we did three weeks of those theaters it was a really nice run really enjoyable and then then the pandemic hit and this is sort of the first time in my life i've been able to drop my shoulders and not do anything i've sort of stepped away from music i rarely play the guitar you know there's there's a lot of people i've run. I don't know about you or you yourself or your friends or your listeners, but there's a pile of us that are the unmotivated bunch, you know, the ones that go, oh, I think we're going to paint the room or yeah, I've got to detail the car. I'm going to do this. Then you start to do it. It's like, man, I don't think I'm think i'm gonna do that well it's kind of like that with music people are like oh i bet you're

like writing another album or practicing and learning how to travis pick or learning jet how to commit jazz like no i look at my guitar and i go yeah yeah still there but uh i rarely pick it up well you're gonna pick it up in about 45 minutes i hope that's cool we're gonna so i just want to let the listeners know we're getting a we're getting a live performance uh at the end of this podcast by kim mitchell so i hope you remember how to play that thing uh i'll give it a shot i'll see how it goes well it's both right it's the voice and the guitar right all i do is talk to my dog mainly so that's not really singing either so it's both right it's the voice and the guitar all i do is talk to my dog mainly so that's not really singing either so it's like hey what you know it's time to pick that up again wow look

at that where's my poo bags i mean that's kind of what my life is these days but it's okay and i'm really average at gardening and cooking well that's funny you're right about the two camps so you got that there's that one camp these like's, I guess, that take this as an opportunity, you're right, to learn Italian or something. And they're building like a new, they're doing their own renovations or something on the house and because they have this time suddenly. And then there's the other camp, you're right, where it's kind of demotivating. Like it's all kind of like, you just want to stop and kind of maybe take a deep breath, walk the dog, smell the roses, and then you're right.

And so you're in one of those two camps, I find. Which one are you? You see, I actually, I think I could be in that first camp if I didn't have... You're working. Yeah. So you're working. So you have a thing going. You have to be motivated. Right. Right. So I feel I could be more in that first camp if the four-year-old and the six-year-old are kind of like anchors that kind of like... i'm blaming them for my lack of motivation but uh uh fotm kim fotm mike zeisberger he uh he's been covering he covered hockey for the toronto sun forever he wrote me a note this morning he wrote uh always look forward to your shows but today is special huge that's in all caps i I got to tell you right now, Kim.

Huge Max Webster fan. One of the most influential bands of my life when I was a teenager. Kim rocks. Toronto Tantos, Hangover, The Party, O'War, and who can forget Only Your Nose Knows. I've been fooling around. Max was truly one of the most underappreciated bands of my lifetime. Have a great show as always. So let's start maybe a little bit of chat about, you know,

you can't have Kim Mitchell on your show and not talk Max Webster. I need to know, I'm a little younger. Like where did the name Max Webster come from? It was the bass player. Mike Tolko was an American moving to, he was a teacher in the States. Or actually he was a teacher in Windsor, Ontario, and he was wanting to move to Toronto to start a band, to give that a shot.

And I was coming back from the Greek Island of Rhodes and we started a band. And of course we were going to need a name for the band. And he had been in a band in Milwaukee called Family at Max. And that band actually had Daryl Stermer in the band. Now, Daryl Stermer is a name that, if you know any of Phil Collins' stuff, Daryl has been with Phil Collins forever. He's a great guitar player.

And they did a song called Song for Webster. So I didn't know any of this. And I just said to Tilke, I said, man, I said, be nice to nice to have like a name of somebody but it's not in the band, like Jethro Tull or something. And he went, well, how about Max Webster? I'm like, sure, let's do that. And there was, it ended up being a Max Webster Boulevard.

I think it was in Brantford. Maybe it was Brantford. He was a horse trainer and there's a street named after him and fans, as the band got more popular, they'd go steal the street sign and they bring it to our gigs so we would get we would get we get visits from the police often saying hey have you guys got the street sign we had a road case like our wardrobe case be like yeah just that we open up a door here's your sign back well you know that's funny because later in this episode i'm going to ask you about the bare naked ladies uh i'm going

to play something you did with them too as speaking of max webster but it's funny when people would go to a bare naked lady show they would all they would throw uh craft dinner boxes but when they go to max webster it's the street sign so yeah no it was it was a great career we we did really well um i'm gonna say from top to bottom of the career we started off doing the bar scene in Toronto. And there was a bar in Toronto called the Gasworks on Yonge Street. And I used to always think, man, if we ever get to play the Gasworks, I've made it. And we did, and we filled it.

There would be lineups. And then from there, it progressed to recording. And that progressed to opening up for Rush a lot. But that led to opening up for all kinds of bands. Actually, I got to ask Gene Simmons once. I said, how come Max Webster never opened up for Rush a lot, but that led to opening up for all kinds of bands. Actually, I got to ask Gene Simmons once. I said, how come Max Webster never opened up for you? And I quote him. He said, because you guys could play. That's great. Yeah. I mean, of course he's saying it, Jess, but we had a great time opening up for all kinds

of people. One of the scariest ones was opening up in Leeds for Black Sabbath. I'll always remember that night. And just sort of frostbitten Canadians standing backstage. You have to kind of picture almost like an underground parking lot. That was kind of a vibe it reminded me of. And they opened the doors and just the scariest 10,000, 11,000 people started to just swarm the stage. And I went back to the dressing room and crawled up into the fetal position

and told the guy that said, they're going to eat us alive, man. We're not going to be leaving this town alive. And actually we ended up going over great. Okay. I honestly could spend an hour on Max Webster, but I was going to play a little bit of Max Webster before we move on.

But I was planning to play A Million Vacations because when I listen to classic rock, it seems to be that's the Max Webster song I hear most often. But I'm actually going to mix it up, call an audible on the line of scrimmage. Here's a little Max Webster. Thank you. guitar solo I see you there in your satin shirt Unfocused eyes on the ceiling Fluorescent lips on a painted face I think I know what you're feeling This tightrope just begins to feel like home when the wind comes rising from a distant storm and all i know is that tonight i might let go of the line let go of the line Let's go alive.

Kim, is that the first hit? Yeah, it could be. I don't know. It's a long time ago. That song did well. There's a beautiful song by Terry Watkinson. That's Terry singing. And the humorous part about that session that your listeners might find kind of fun,

at least I do as a musician. We're Max Webster. We'll record from two in the morning till six in the morning. We'll go for three days without eating, sleeping, not changing our clothes. Well, that song we had some of the Toronto Symphony on. So we had to do it during the day. And it's a union session and it's all there's contracts and all this stuff and we're tracking we're getting ready to track the song and we're ready to count in the take and on mass they all got up and walked out and had their 15 minute break oh union yeah yeah we started we started yeah the union break I was like okay it's 10 o'clock. Let's go, guys. They didn't even announce it.

Just like, okay, up they got. Wow. We were like, what happened? They haven't even, they ran through it once. Now we're going to record it. What's up? Oh, man. That's frustrating.

That's not rock and roll. No, it was fine. It was fun. It was fun. It wasn't frustrating. We all sort of started to laugh. It was cool, man. Because they played great. No, it was fine. It was fun. It was fun. It wasn't frustrating. We all sort of started to laugh. It was cool, man. Because they played great.

No, it sounds great. It sounds great in the headphones. Tuesday Noon says, Peter Fredette was a big part of Kim's sound, in my opinion. Would like to know how that friendship started and how the vocal sound came together. He's also, Tuesday Noon is also looking forward to the podcast. Hey, Tuesday Noon. So Tuesday noon is also looking forward to the podcast. Hey, Tuesday noon.

That was, I had left Max Webster and was starting to record a mini album. And had Peter and Peter, I was, had another musician in the studio. We were recording in Oshawa, Ontario at a place called Quest. I remember asking this musician, do you know anybody who plays guitar or keyboards or bass and can kind of sing? And he said, yeah, I know this guy named Peter Ferdet. He's in Ottawa. I'll get him down. So Peter comes in and, and I said, you know, we're having a session and lovely guy. And what do you play? He says, well, I play guitar, play bass, play whatever you want. Okay.

Well, let's try this. And we had a bass player at the time. So he played some guitar and keyboards and, and I said, do you play he says well i play guitar play data but you know play whatever you want okay well let's try this and we had a bass player at the time so he played some guitar and keyboards and and i said do you sing at all he goes yeah a little bit and then he started to sing i was like okay this is this is where the whole deal is going to change i'm going to yell brother and you're going to sing so that's kind of was the setup and uh and there was because his big song was called All We Are, which his vocalist featured, and that was a song I had written and shelved because I went, I don't know, I'm going to get either a female to sing this song

or something. Down the line, we'll work it out. Oh, too funny. Somebody here, real quick, I'm skipping ahead, but a guy named Tim, who's a big fan of yours, says, who or what is All We Are about? I think it's pretty self-evident. All We Are is all that love brings.

Come on, Tim. Figure it out, Tim. Come on. We got bigger fish to fry here. Okay, but Tim has a second question, which ties in nicely with the Max Webbs years. Tim Perkis, his name is. Do you remember, here, Kim,

I know you don't like looking back at these details back in the day. It's tough, a long time ago. But do you remember playing Dunbarton High School Pickering, 1976? It was the time of our lives. Do you have any memory of that one? Well, they're all sort of, you know, meshed into one vibe, which was playing high schools for, you know, we'd play them for,

I think it was two, three, five bucks, maybe tops to get into those things, the school dances. But you know, the beautiful thing, Mike, was that they had entertainment and that was awesome. That was, that was a place to play. We would be doing high schools every weekend around here. So yeah. When people say, Hey, do you remember this? I don't remember the specific school, but I remember the names, all the names.

Well, it's funny. Cause, uh, and I, again, I'm, I just turned 46, but I, I, I, a lot of the listeners who are like, for example, if you're in your, like, I don't know, like fifties right now, I got so many people shouting out their high school saying they saw Max Webster in high school. And it was like the highlight, like 50s right now. I got so many people shouting out their high school, saying they saw Max Webster in high school. And it was like the highlight, like people just, the memories. Like, do you ever get tired of somebody, you know, seeing you on the street and just saying, name dropping their high school and asking if you remember playing there?

No, no, not at all. I actually really enjoy that, Mike. I'll be honest with you that one of my band members brought it to my attention once. He says, do you know something that happens to everybody that comes up to you? I said, what's that? He goes, everybody has a Max Webster story. And it's a compliment. It's humbling.

It means just as much sometimes, if not more, than a gold or platinum album or triple platinum album on the wall or a Juno award. not more than a gold or platinum album or triple platinum album on the wall or a Juno award. I mean, it's having a human being come up where you all this, they're telling you about something that you realize that you were a small part of the fabric of their musical lives. So that's, that's quite a compliment. Well, one more here because it ties into, to a band you mentioned, but Jeff Cruz says Max Webster played our high school around 1977 sir alan mcnabb in hamilton shout out to sir alan mcnabb uh first or second song kim does is a spin

move and he hits terry walkinson uh who was sitting uh it was a keyboardist uh square in the face with the neck of his guitar after a brief break everyone returned and the show continued with a roadie reaching out to dab the keyboardist's face to clean up blood for the neck of his guitar. After a brief break, everyone returned, and the show continued with a roadie reaching out to dab the keyboardist's face to clean up blood for the rest of the performance. It was a great show right around the time, he says, high class and borrowed shoes was released. So there's a memory for you.

It is, it is. And you know, what's that listener's name? Jeff Cruz. Jeff, Jeff, I remember that like it was yesterday, that moment. There are some moments that stick out in your career. And I remember I always did these spins. And for some reason, the stage wasn't as wide as usual. And right as I did that, Terry had sort of leaned over towards me like one of those,

yeah, man, we're digging in moments. And just as he did that, my guitar came around. And the tuning peg that sticks out on the headstock of the guitar lambasted right into his face or on his cheek. And yeah, I felt so bad. Well, look, it's like the Brown M&Ms with Van Halen. That stage was too narrow. I feel like that was...

Yeah, we should have pulled rank. Put that in the rider. Get that was too narrow. I feel like that was... Yeah, we should have pulled rank. Put that in the rider. Get that in the rider. Yeah, I thought that. I'm glad he was okay, though. FU, that's this person's handle on Twitter. FU says... I'm not saying FU to you, Kim, but does anything

scream Canadian summer more than Max Webster at the Rockcliffe Tavern in Minden? Oh, I remember the Rockcliffe for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I remember the Minden Arena as well. Yeah. The Rockcliffe. There's so many of those clubs we played at that they were amazing. And lots and lots of great memories. That's all I can say. No, but that's great to hear.

Because, you know, Kim, it's funny, because we've never met each other. This is the first time we've spoken, but sometimes I'll have a musician I admire on the show, and I get a sense very early on that they don't want to talk about the past. And again, we will. There's a great new Kim Mitchell album

we're going to talk about. I'm totally cool. No, I get that vibe. Good, because we do look back, and then we're going to talk about. I'm totally cool. No, I get that vibe. Good, because we do look back and then we talk about the current day. I would like to ask the listener, I've driven past that where the Rock Cliff was in Minden. I don't think it's there anymore.

No, that's another one. Okay, but FU, who I know is listening, because if you submit a question for Kim Mitchell, you'd listen to that episode. So FU, on Twitter, tweet at the Kim Mitchell and me if you like, and just let us know what's going on at the Rockcliffe Tavern in Minden. Minden. Tough name for me to say.

Steve says, he'd love to hear your take, Kim, regarding the Max Webster years touring with Rush. New Year's Eve opening at Maple Leaf Gardens and recording Battle Scar with them. And just before you answer that, James Edgar says also, a question for Kim.

Ask him if he remembers opening for Rush at the C&E in 1977. That was the first time I bought, and how could you forget, right, Kim? That was the first time I saw Max Webster and they were fantastic. And I bought Max Webster and High Class and Borrowed Shoes within a week. One of my first concerts, exclamation mark. So maybe speak to, if you can uh touring with rush um we were on the same label and managed by the same management company and so it the natural thing to happen and we were starting to do well as rush took us out with him across canada

that was the first tour um we did and i remember the Toronto gigs and we'll, let's address first New Year's Eve. We, we, Max Roester used to play this song called Battle Scar. And for some reason, those guys would come out on stage and watch us every night. We played it from the side of the stage. And as a matter of fact, Neil Peart, when we would tour with them, his drums were scrimmed, meaning a black curtain in front of them and neil would play our whole set with us nobody knew he was up there the mics weren't turned on but he we had two on stage we were hearing two drummers it sounded great and he checked in with us he'd go hey man is it okay if i do we're like yeah absolutely because that was

how he warmed up so by the time rush came on he was all warmed up and comforted up but um rush would watch us play battle scar and then they just said please if you guys ever record that we'd love to record it with you so that happened at at one point and then i think yeah i'm not sure i think it was just getty came out new year's eve to uh to sing it with us i could be wrong on that but um i was used to like uh the people who would go hey i really like that song you did with rush battle start like no it's the other way around sorry i gotta i have to correct you like that they did it with us so it was fun man sounded like a 747 taking off in a recording studio both bands just plowing away loud amplifiers and all that stuff man it's great no wonder so many uh

you know ontario rock and roll lovers in this province are hard of hearing today. It's all you guys. The Rock and Roll Burrito. I love these handles, some of these listeners who got the questions for you, Kim. These are great album titles, man. Are you taking notes?

He says, if you don't plan to already, can you ask Kim if he ever looked at Pi's lyrics and said, what? Pretty much every time. You know, Pi, what was different about Pi Dubois as a lyricist and what set Max Webster into a different category? I thought in part was Pi's lyrics. And that was because most lyricists tell stories pie never told a story ever it was all about images everything was an image everything was painting a picture like a

setting of something um uh yeah so and and he we did get abstract when he showed me toronto tantos a song called toronto yeah i know i, what are you talking about? Frantic Spanish onions, Arctic market, frantic, free publicity is not free when it's public. It was just a bunch of sort of rambling on, but yet there was some kind of images, imagery still with,

with, with in there. So, um, it was great. He was a great lyricist. I was his biggest fan. It was,

it was difficult to slot his stuff into the music because he was a more of a poet and an images. He didn't really know a lot about rhythm, uh, how to fit stuff into a song because we were talking about a song. Now that's, that's a different game. Well,

date on the note of pipe Dubois, uh, Dave D wants me to, wants to make sure I ask you if you know how he's, uh, how he's doing, like is, is, is pie. Okay. Pi okay? Do we know an update on Pi? No, we don't. That's kind of it. Sorry, I don't have an update.

I can say that there was a falling out decades ago and I have not heard from him and most people haven't. But I know him. Now, Kim, before... Interesting like I would call this a fun fact, like before we leave Max Webster and get you solo, is that one of the names you guys had before Max Webster, it's because, because right now in this time of COVID,

you and I are meeting on Zoom, but one of your band names was Zoom, right? So with three, three O's. Yep. With three O's. That was,

when I was 17 years old. I quit home, quit school, and the band I was in was called Zoom. And in Sarnia, Ontario. And they said, we're moving to Toronto. We have a house. Do you want to come? And so I said, well, sure. Yeah.

When are you leaving? They went, we're leaving next week. We've rented the house and we're going to go. So who's coming is coming and who's not. So that's what happened. I had to talk with my parents and they were like, oh, that's nice. You're going to move to Toronto someday. And they said, when's that going to happen?

I said, well, next week. And they're like, ah, as any parent would, right? Right. And we moved to Toronto as Zoom and we got some gigs, and we actually did quite well. As the producer of A Million Vacations, John Tanakbeck, had a studio around the corner from where we lived. We lived on King Street East in Toronto in a house that was $150 a month rent, and we had three guys who just got out of the Don jail living next door to us who decided that they were going to look after us.

If anybody bothered us, if anybody bothered us about jamming or anything, they're like, you just tell us. Okay. Okay. You know, right now there's a bunch of aspiring musicians yelling at their smartphones

because there's like, those are the days when an artist could afford to starve and live in the city like 150 bucks. And I know that's different, you know, different dollars, but still, if you did the math, I'm sure you'd realize that's a reasonable amount for a house where a band could, you know, you know, cut their chops and develop their craft. But now you've got to move to Timbuktu or something. Yeah. You make a good point. We had one of those

Victorian homes on King Street around Parliament. We set up in the dining room. I think it was a five-bedroom house. We had ourselves and one crew guy. That's what we did, man. We jammed. We ate really seriously. It was bad. It was really bad it was craft dinner or rice and maybe a little bit of meat the refrigerator was outside the back door because it didn't work so in the summer the band had to break up because we couldn't eat ourselves anymore so everybody moved back to everybody moved back to sarnia except me i stayed for a little bit

ended up getting some work with Jack Richardson a producer playing on a few commercials and then I went back and started my show band days let me play now that we've kind of moved on from Max Webster by the way when I hear you talk about

that house and the guys at Max Webster I think about the band in that pink house you see the documentaries about the band all living together in that house and uh next thing you know what you get the weight but we we don't have to wait long to hear our uh our canadian weight here well that is almost all canadian band i think we have one american in the in the band but here let's play a let's play a big one. I got questions about this. Let's play a big one. Nobody drowns and nobody dies. I like how you get straight to that chorus, right? Don't bore us, Kim.

Get to the chorus. You give it to us right off the top there. Well, yeah, let's open up with it, in fact. I mean, there's a few songs that did that. Paperback Writer. Paperback Writer. Just open up with it in fact i mean there's a few songs that did that uh paperback writer paperback right here just open up to that thing oh that's really not the chorus but there was no problem in opening up with a chorus and letting him have it um yeah all right first i got a few questions here um one is uh the video okay so can you tell us a little bit about the video? It's honestly one of my first much music memories. I don't know if it was Toronto Rocks or if it was much music or what.

Toronto Rocks, yeah. Yeah, Toronto Rocks. And this video was iconic at the time. And firstly, do you have any idea? Tell me about the video and the guy in the video. I think it's his only ever acting performance. I did a little digging on IMDB and I was wondering, who are the dudes that you picked? Tell me anything you can about the Gophers. Okay, sure.

It was just a production company we hired to do the video because we wanted to try this new technology. It was just right before green screen where you could place anything. It was just right before green screen where you could place anything. So when we did that, when we were in the fridge, we were shooting that and the end product was actually happening. So when we shot it, they had some sort of double camera thing going on where it wasn't like, OK, in post, we're going to put you in the fridge. It was like we go watch the playback and we're in the fridge. So it was kind of neat. The dude was just they were just cast you know that's casting call a kind of old-fashioned casting call but he was cool i really really liked him ran into him years years later i came to some gig or something what hi do you remember me and i'm like no i don't know because i'm the dude

go for soda i'm like oh my god Come on in Okay so you might have Saw a bit of this I saw you chime in On Twitter But because this song Was like used for Mothers against drunk drivers In the states at least

I always I always took this Because I have a sponsor Great Lakes Brewery And somebody Al suggested You use go for a soda Because he thought

Soda was a euphemism For beer Where I took it The opposite For the record you tell us what go for a soda is about well first of all it's go for soda it's not go for a soda which i like i always like to correct people it's a small point um right so it's it's really insignificant because it does sound like we're saying might as well go for a soda song um the songs in when we wrote the song

the intention was two people in conflict when you listen to the verse it's so you're in one of your blue moods you want to have it your way and i want it mine all this debating going around in a blue moon makes me thirsty for love the second verse is life seems to be a bomb inside your head well the bomb in my head is love all this debating going around in a blue moon makes me thirsty for love. Might as well go for soda. No, it's better than slander. They're being nasty, two people being nasty to each other, and they're not getting anywhere, and they finally just throw their arms up and go.

It's another way of saying, we're not getting anywhere. Let's just go have a drink or something but because of the word soda in america they adopted that as an anti-drinking and driving song and there were always remember the moment of the record company going in the states going yeah mothers against this is huge i'm like well the song's not about that he goes don't ever say that. So I didn't. But it made sense to me because I could see their point, and music is for your interpretation. So far be it from me, all I can say is our intention writing it was that. But it ended up being about that.

So that's okay. Sort of like when Ronald Reagan decides Born in the USA will be his re-election song. It's not about that, Ronald, but okay. So this go for, and again, that's amazing. That's a revelation itself because forever I've been calling this go for a soda. That's okay. That's all right. No, I like details matter. I got to get this right. Go for soda.

Yeah, even now it's tough for me to say. Go for soda. That's your biggest hit outside of Canada. Yes, you're right. Yeah, go ahead. Well, there's a funny story about that. We were on the same

label as Twisted Sister. And both songs came out pretty much the same week, I think maybe a week apart. We're not going to take it and go for soda. And it was literally just like a horse race or snakes and ladders or some kind of game you'd play at a casino. It's like this song edges up in the city. Okay, then it's that one. And then it up in the city okay then it's that one and then it's this one that's that one and all of a sudden twisted sister kind of exploded in a few markets and the company just looked at gopher soda my yeah let's drop it they just flushed it down the toilet but by that time it had made some noise anyway so i got on an

episode of miami vice it did it got used and you know for For me, if Paul Stanley walks off an elevator and someone goes, hey, this is Kim Mitchell, and he goes, oh, go for soda. Man, I love your work. That, to me, was a huge moment. Oh, man. You know, I'll walk around. I'm a pretty self-deprecating cat. But when some people, musicians that i look up to i think well they

don't even know who i am and of course my band members like to correct me on that we're playing with journey once and we're having a crew dinner and there's neil shawn sitting at the next table they were all eating and i went oh man i'd love to go over and say hi to him and my drummer went he probably knows you man like go say hi to him so just as i got up he got up yeah and came over and went kim mitchell i just want to say man i really love your work and blah blah blah amazing amazing yeah kind of nice stuff like that it's always nice you know paradise skies a great max webster jam we'll get back to Kim in a moment, but I wanted to briefly pause

and shout out all the fantastic Toronto Mike partners. Maybe I should have played some lager and ale for Great Lakes Brewery. Great Lakes, they have the blonde lager, the Canuck Pale Ale. It's all brewed locally and always fresh. Pick up some GLB today, won't you? For authentic Italian food,

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after dark they're completely contactless this year. I mean, you even get your tickets scanned through your car window. It's 2.5 kilometers of driving through an 88-acre farm at scenic Country Heritage Park in Milton. It's bigger and better than ever. And this event will sell out, so stay tuned for info on how you can save on tickets because you have great taste in podcasts.

Now back to Kim. Happiness is beginning to rise From the streets into paradise skies The magic of sleep The magic is free The magic is free From the streets into paradise skies The magic is free The magic is free From the streets into paradise skies

The magic is free The magic of dreams. The magic of dreams. The magic of dreams. From the streets into paradise skies. Well, hey, this is a Toronto podcast. We're in Canada here. And as you know, we're in the middle of and it we're in as you know we're in the middle of a nice uh a nice heat wave you know 30 degree days here and uh middle of summer

middle of summer early summer hopefully it's still early summer but here's a song okay here i think this should be like canada's national summer anthem but let's let's play another kim mitchell solo song. We had patio lanterns I'd spend half the night Making lemonade Which we drank a lot Cause we were all so shy Shy and nervous

Who was gonna be Who would be the first to dance Who was gonna be Also, Kim, when I tell people Kim Mitchell's going to be on the show Monday, I can't tell you how many told me to put up the patio lanterns. Yeah, so where are they? I'm looking at your set. Hey, I actually was thinking I would put them up and we do this in the backyard. So next time you're coming to the backyard studio.

But just talk to anything you can share about patio lanterns, which is, like I said, like a summer anthem around these parts and uh even now i had i couldn't help but sing along all these years later it's uh just just lovely thank you thank you mike um what uh you know you never know what's going to happen when you're writing a song just you should know and your listeners should know that a lot of times our heads are just down. We're writing something and the idea is to get a song to where you love it.

Beyond that, you have no idea what's going to happen. I can tell you that in Toronto, a long time ago, I owned a really old passenger van. And it had well over 300,000 kilometers on it. I think it was maybe 375 or something like that. I remember selling it to a contractor in Midland, Ontario for 425,000. He goes, yeah, I'm just going to start driving it backwards. So anyway, Pi, I picked him up one day because he was going somewhere and I was going to my management office. So I said, OK, sure, I'll drive you to such and such because he didn't drive

and he would always have pieces of paper with him as my co-writer he said I'm before I get out I'm going to hand you something it's a lyric he says but it's really straight he says it's not something that I normally I've been hesitating giving it to you. So I said, yeah, sure. And it was the verses, the Patio Landrons. And he just sort of put it on the engine mount and went, okay, man, see you later. And I pull up into the management office, five, you know, Queen and Sherbourne area, and I sort of look at it.

My guitar was in the back. I went, wow, I really like that. And all of a sudden I heard these chords and I just liked that. And all of a sudden, I heard these chords, and I just started going. On the guitar. And I just, our house had the biggest patio. And I wrote the verses right there. I didn't have the choruses until later, but that's just kind of how the song sort of started.

In my van, which was 375,000 kilometers. Every once in a while, you just, on a windy day, you'd open up the door in some place and stuff would fly out, all kinds of stuff would drop out of it and kind of sweep it up and put it in the garbage. Where did you get the OPP hat you wear in the video? That was from a cousin i remember being in a restaurant with my family and a cousin i had not seen in a long time uh walked up to me and hey how you doing you know you're sitting eating your dinner it's like oh wow great it's great i looked at him like i was looking at he was wearing an opp hat i was like man i really like your hat. And he goes, if you wear it on your next album cover, I'll give it to you. One of those moments.

So I said, okay, done. Done deal. That's how the whole thing started. And, you know, a funny thing. I haven't worn that in decades. I have not worn it in decades. A buddy of mine who used to be a hairdresser, he's got some really good hair, really amazing hair,

and an OPP hat. And he made me the hat with the hair and we went walking and he goes what's just for a laugh you haven't looked like this in days we went we went to yorkville uh somewhere i put the hat on we're walking around and i swear there was 10 people like kind of turning their heads going well kim vichel i haven't seen him in a couple decades i i didn't even know he was still around. That's hilarious. Oh my God.

You know, it's almost like, and I'm going to psychoanalyze you for a minute now that you're an FOTM and we're buddies here. That means friend of Toronto Mike,

by the way. Not flavor of the month as Danko Jones thought it meant. It's friend of Toronto Mike. But I got to psychoanalyze it. It's almost like you're making a statement

on this album with Patio Lanterns. You're wearing the OPP hat, so prevalent. It's like you're saying, you know, I don't, US success is not everything to my art. I'm really on a psycho, I'm a armchair psychiatrist here though

because you had that experience, go for a soda. It did crack the top 100 on Billboard but then you had that experience and then now like it's it's so tell me correctly if i'm wrong but it's it's it's okay to be a big fucking deal uh in canada am i reading too much into this yes tell me no no no no no you're actually making a good point is that it which is the attitude that songwriters and musicians in my opinion need to have which is the attitude that songwriters and musicians, in my opinion, need to have,

which is get your music to where you love it and then accept whatever that brings you. Not everybody's going to play in the NHL. Not everybody's going to play in U2. But you can love what you're doing and hopefully make it some gas money to, uh, so that, so what you're saying is no, you as a songwriter, as I go back to that, I have my head down, I'm writing a song and I just want to get it to where I love it. And when that arrives, I go, okay, that's, that's it. You let it go.

And there's nothing you can do to control what's going to happen or not going to happen to it. My dog's coming over. Like I have to go outside. Uh, yeah. Cause he's, he's got some bad digestion. Do you want to, do you want to pause? No, no, no. Just one second here. I'll open the back door. Come here. Webster. Yeah. Yeah. No worries. There's raccoons out there. Go see the raccoon. Oh, the dog's name is Webster.

Come on, go outside. There's raccoons out there. Go see the raccoons. Oh, the dog's name is Webster? He came like that. He was a rescue. I was in a relationship at the time and wanted to get a dog. We went to see this dog online. Of course, we're standing there.

So, does the dog have a name or do we name it? She goes, no, no, the dog's name is Webster. That's too funny. We kind of look at each other and go, okay. It was meant to be. Yeah. So you're okay? Okay, so I don't know.

Yeah, I'm fine. Okay, good. Oh, yeah, I don't apologize. Dogs and children come first. I always say that. So one quick thought. So as your patio lanterns heavy airplay on the radio and, of course, much music

and becomes like as a canada's summer anthem uh and it ended up being on a record that won album of the year at the junos oh yeah of course yeah yeah and uh absolutely and i'm i i mean as a toronto guy i would you know hear that song on q107 for for example, but you would never, and then I'm sure they did play it, but in my years listening, like you, there was,

I would never hear Kim Mitchell or Max Webster in my years, uh, on, on CFNY, for example, did you find like, uh, I,

I was found this growing up, the bands were kind of slotted. Like they were either going to be like a Q107 band, or they were going to be like a, a 102.1 band. I just wondered as a musician, if you had any thoughts on that. That's how I saw it broke down. Well, as someone who did 11 years in radio and someone had their whole career visited radio

stations, I understand that stations have formats. They're going after a certain age group, you're going after a certain audience. And that's what CFNY did. We were more of a classic band, veteran band. I don't know, whatever you want to call it. It was just- You were a rock band. Yeah. I mean, I have no attitude towards any of that. Like, whoa, how come they didn't play?

We got tons of airplay and it was amazing. I'm grateful for all of that. Like, whoa, how come they didn't play? We got tons of airplay. It was amazing. I'm grateful for all of it. Is it your quote when you won? Oh, here it comes. It's not back to haunt me. White boy yelling? I got to get the right quote. No, I'm not going there. Okay, that's okay. No, I didn't think there was a controversial. I was, I was all,

I was the statement I was trying to make was just, I'm not sure why I'm getting this vocalist. I don't really, I've never been a trained singer. Right. And, and I just kind of, as I said, when Peter came into the band, I said, Peter, you, you're such a great singer. I'll yell and you sing. I was just being funny. No, I thought it was, I know. I didn't think there was anything controversial about it. Just, uh,

it's a funny line that like only it sounded to me almost like you were saying that, uh, yeah, like in, uh, you can win a Juno by just kind of being a rock guy who kind of yells like, uh, where, where, as opposed to a refined, you know, a Juno by just kind of being a rock guy who kind of yells like, uh, where, where, as opposed to a refined, you know,

a refined rock and roll. Mike rock and roll is played below the belt. It's, uh, it's, it's, it's stems from, it comes from rhythm and blues.

It starts from there. So, you know, all right, you got a big fan. You got a, you got a big fan and Jake, the snake and Jake,

the snake. Uh, I'm going to a few questions, but the big one years, uh, in, uh, uh, what is it?'ve got a few questions, but the big one here is in I Am a Wild Party, there's that refrain, where does that come from?

It was just a lyric that we put in the song. That song, when we recorded it for a live album, that was actually done in a rehearsal studio live we did one take we sang it live and then we realized that okay we want to get the audience so i think it was make leaf

gardens and guelph guelph university where we recorded the the rah-rah olays and slotted them in. Nice. Which is funny on, what's the song that has the applause? Is it Limelight by Rush? There's applause? Oh, maybe. Yeah, I think there's applause. In any case, that's applause from one of our shows. Oh, get out of here. Yeah, there's a little trivia for you.

I remember Terry Brown saying, Hey, we need some applause. Can we use your applause from Guelph University? No, that's a fantastic fun fact there. Now, Jake,

the snake says when you won male vocalist of the year in 1990, what was Peter's reaction? This is Jake, the snake's question for you. I'm not sure. I don't remember a reaction from peter peter's always been a dude full of love and appreciation and we work together so um yeah peter peter peter's had a couple great opportunities do he auditioned for shania twain uh kind of stuff and played with tom cochran for a little bit too as well uh hades dweller. These are great handles.

Hades Dweller. These are good album titles. Hades Dweller says, what was it like working with the now sadly deceased great producer, Joe Hardy? And he wants to know, did you hear any great Billy F Gibbons stories from him? For sure.

I used to hear all kinds of stuff. Joe Hardy was, was an amazing record producer engineer. He was a, a Rhodes scholar that decided to go into the music business and just knocked it out of the park. He was the funniest guy ever. His humor was ridiculous and his sounds were great. The first album that he mixed was Oral Fixations for me

and recorded a little bit of it. And then he did the whole album itch and mixed and we recorded ain't life amazing. So he was involved in three records of mine. And Joe was just a great friend. We, we, we used to him and the drummer I used and Joe, we called ourself Los Bozos, like sort of like Los Lobos, but Los Bozos.

And, and both of them, the drummer is a Nashville drummer named Greg Morrow, beautiful cat. He's actually, you know, he's actually played on some Billy F Gibbons stuff, but yeah,

I'd hear, I'd hear Billy F Gibbons stories all the time. And I, you know, the only one I can remember off the top of my head, it was Billy was a real night owl. He would go into like Walmarts at three in the morning and go look at the guitar section

and buy these wacky, cheap, weird guitars that would stay in tune for maybe 30 seconds. He'd play like the riff and then loop it. It was a very creative dude. A sweetheart of a dude, too. Hades Dweller also wants me to wish you a happy birthday in advance. Because you, Kim, you share a birthday with Hades Dweller's deceased father, as well as Rick Emmett.

That's right. Rick and I share the same birthday. He's smarter than me, more and uh better guitar players all to be debated all to be debated no no rick's a good guy we rick and i have been at a couple gentlemen's dinners a bunch of musicians we get together now and we go to a sort of a restaurant here in Toronto. We're not anymore, but we'd get together, and Rick came to one once, and what we'd do is we'd look at each other, and we'd go, okay, we each get one and a half minutes

talking about our health and medication, and we're moving on, okay? Talk about your arthritis setting in, yeah. Oh, totally. Because Rick has had some problems with vertigo and stuff like that he's kind of retired out of it okay so i'm about to play a very cool uh thing you did with bare naked ladies and ask you quickly about them but first i want to talk about this uh you you mentioned your uh

years on radio so of course we all know you were uh on q107 as the afternoon drive guy so i'm curious uh how that came to be and then i need to know why it came to an end sure um it came to be because i was looking for something to do and basically on sunday nights i thought well this would be talk to my manager and like sunday nights be nice do a little radio show people are coming back from the cottage i played all these to most of these people um that are coming back from toronto and met with a q107 i thought it would be a good fit and they said yeah this would be great men didn't hear from them they thought it was an awesome idea and then they i didn't hear

from for months and then they contacted me and went our afternoon drive guy quit do you want a full-time job and of course i'm like does it are you saying like i need to come in every day is that what you're saying i've never done this and they went well yeah as a matter of fact you would so i was like okay i thought about it like all right sure yeah and i made it a priority i pushed my musical career sort of live playing to weekends only and dove into it. And really, you know, honestly, this will be no surprise to your listeners, but I sucked bad for the first year. I think we all suck at something when we've never done it before. So many of us are in a corner or a little construction site

or in an office somewhere where we can make our mistakes, you know, only the boss or something. But, you know, you're on the radio and you're trying to find your way and the listeners really let me have it for about a year there's one guy even made a email address called i hate so and you're not just on the radio you're your afternoon drive which is one of the two big spots and uh you're on a big toronto station like So you have nowhere to hide. No, no, no. But here's the deal, Mike,

is that you quickly realize that this is a craft that needs a lot, that I quickly respected and realized that I have a lot of work to do. And fortunately, I had a great boss who at four months, I walked into his office and went, I'm going to quit. I'm not cut

out for this. And he goes, no, no, you have something. Let's stick with it. Give it a year. And then if you feel like quitting, go ahead. And we worked hard and it turned into something. And I sort of won the love of a few listeners and the show ended up doing really well. So for 11 years. And then at the end, a lot of people were being let go. Of course, the president had left. They had a new president in. And they were making a lot of changes. They were hacking, you know, downsizing.

Every company, it's a big company. It's a public company. And every company was leaning up their, their programs and cutting people. And one day they said, Hey, you want to come down to the office? You know, so-and-so wants to talk to you.

And I kind of knew right then it's like, okay, cause my contract's coming up. I thought, I don't think this is going to be for a contract renewal this time. So, and that's what they said. They said,

we're all done with you. And, um, we want to, uh, you know, we'd like to make it you know make it a nice thing so yeah they've treated me well i have nothing bad to say and i had a pity party for a couple

weeks like wow that was my first job and i just lost it well you had 11 years in radio i lost it and i lost it when the show was doing really well. That's too bad. But, you know, well, no, radio looks ahead five years. They want to just sort of change stuff up. So that's cool. Anyway, it was a good time. It sounds like you're now truly, you can truly say you're in the radio fraternity because you are a victim of budget cuts. And I think almost every radio personality in the country has experienced that one or three or ten times. You're right.

is experience that one or three or ten times. You're right. And most people I have met in radio, in my musical career, they would always be like, oh yeah, I met you before at such and such a station five years ago. They move around a lot. So that happened to me

and after a couple of weeks I went, well, I'm going to go back to being a rock guitar player. How bad is that? So I had a music career to fall back on. Seriously. I saw you shortly thereafter, and yeah, I mean, the best thing that could have happened to you was not having your contract renewed at QN07, because you're a goddamn rock star, and we need you focused on being a rock star. I'm just going to say that Stu, I mean, many people chimed in to say

they loved you on Q&A. Firstly, when we were playing... Thank you very much, by the way, for those people. I appreciate it. And when we were talking about patio lanterns and suddenly you pulled out a guitar and kind of telling that story, I mean, that's what you bring to,

I mean, a broadcast. I won't say radio because I'm a podcaster and you could have a podcast, for example. But that's something you bring. You're not just a voice. You lived it. You bought the T-shirt. That's the kind of perspective you can't find from somebody in Humber College taking radio right now.

That's an interesting point. You can have the radio. I didn't study. I didn't have anything. But that's what my boss. Actually, there was a radio kind of guru guy who would come and tune up. You may know his name is Tracy Johnson. He was sort of a dude that radio stations would pull in and go, listen to our shows.

What can we improve upon? He knew the craft really well. And he listened to my show and he goes, don't change this guy. Don't turn him into like a schooled radio dude. He said, he's bringing something really natural. And yeah, he trained Rex once in a while, but it's all like natural.

And it just, he's a human being. Don't turn him into one of the radio guys. Seriously. I was listening to Randy Bachman on CBC the other night. And what I like about his show is that, you know, like, like yourself,

he's been on that stage. He's met these musicians. He knows, he knows how he knows that world. And again, you might have a great voice and you might be able to think quick on your feet, but that doesn't make you Kim Mitchell.

You know what I mean? Like to me, anyway, great job. We miss you on your feet. But that doesn't make you Kim Mitchell. You know what I mean? Like to me, anyway, great job. We miss you on the radio. But Stu Gatz, that's right. Can I just say one last thing? Of course. People would bust my chops when a Kim Mitchell song would come on.

They go, there you are playing your own stuff again. In the radio business, the show's done before I even show, walk through the door. It's a music programmer. It's a computer. It's spitting out music.

This song needs to be played at this time. So when that stuff would be on my show, I never would draw attention to it. I'd just go, there's such and such, and you heard from that, and move on. I just want listeners to know that DJs aren't sitting there playing their own stuff. You are, because you're a podcaster. You're right. You're right. And if anyone out there thinks as recently as then when you were on cue

that DJs were still picking their own music, that's a lot of naivety. Haven't for decades, right? No, except for I think Strombo gets to play his own stuff on CBC Radio 2 on Sunday nights. But you're right. Maybe Randy Bachman too, but few and far between. Well, yeah. And having said that, you know, there's little deviations.

I'll be like, hey, this just happened, so let's play this song. Right. Okay. That's one thing automation has. Quick aside on radio, because I love radio. But you can be exposed. Like, I believe, I'm trying to to think when a major death happens in the same rock and roll world,

somebody passes away and for you're listening to Q and Oh seven and it takes hours before they play a song from that artist that they always play. It's kind of like a FYI. It's a sign that this has been automated this show and it's been preloaded. And back in the day, you know, when John Lennon died that night, you know when john lennon died that night you know chum fm and q107 and these kind of stations all night long they were live with beatles and john lennon music and talking about it like it's uh sort of what's nice about radio

is it's live and yeah i i agree i i do like radio for that you can be local you can talk about something that's going on in the city whereas other formats that are pre-programmed shows, it's not local. I mean, yeah, you're not getting commercials or whatever. Anyways, we miss you on the radio. So Stu Gatz, who also loved you. Stu Gatz, another great great animal.

He's actually pissed that you're not on Q2.7, but Stu Gatz has to write the chorus people about that. But I will just say a second question from Stu. You mentioned the song earlier. He wants to know, Kim, why you won't play Toronto Tontos in concert anymore. Because nine times out of ten people leave. What you're talking about is a good question.

It has to do with writing a set list, putting on a show. What do people want to hear? And I know there's people who want to hear Toronto Tantos. We've played it a couple times, and it works. It'll work in like a Toronto or something. If we're in Winnipeg or Calgary or something, people are looking at us like, what the heck is this? So it's just not a trial and error.

You get to know what's working generally and what's not working generally and what to stay away from. And it's not a case of I don't want to play the song. I'd play it if it got a reaction. But I can see people. They're not reacting, except Stu. Right, right. And again, if you're going to see Kim Mitchell in concert, there are certain songs, it's almost like you have to give them some,

you got to give them the hits, right? Like this is sort of like. Customer service and rock and roll, dude. Customer service and rock and roll. If you don't play Patio Lanterns, there's going to be an uproar. Protests in the street, maybe. Okay, so I want to play this Barenaked Ladies jam. We'll do just a bit of it.

And then that's the last song I'm going to play until we hear you, because you're going to play some wishes at the end of this. But I need to know your health. Are you okay? I know you had a heart episode. Are you okay?

Yeah, four years ago. It was a four or five year old. I had a heart attack, major heart attack. And I'm okay, I think. We never know from day to day. There's something going on in the universe that goes, this is how long you're going to have and that's it. So we don't know.

I'm okay, though. Well, good. I know that when you perform as recently, I can't believe you were in front of real people as recently as March 12th it feels like that was 100 years ago but you were strong so hopefully the ticker is okay there

alright here's a bit of the song I keep teasing let's play a little bit of Diamonds Diamonds She comes across like diamonds, diamonds Easy eating love when the lights are low She comes into focus, focus. The closer she gets, the more I know. She takes more whiskey than I wine, I wine. She comes across like diamonds, diamonds Easy to love when the nights are low

Never wanna be lost without you Honestly, it's like listening to the Beach Boys in the 60s here. That's Barenaked Ladies. Yeah, Barenaked Ladies. Yes, it is. So I need to know how this came to be. And then if there was no COVID right now, you were going to open for Barenaked Ladies, right?

That's right, yeah. They're fans. I got murmured, you know, running into them and running into people who know them like, oh, Barenaked Ladies, do this song on the soundcheck, you know, it's my Max Webster tune or whatever. And they're just good dudes. They're good family guys. They're good men, good musicians, a cool band. And as a creative person, I was going, I was in the middle of recording this record and thought about re-recording something and contacted Ed and went,

would you be up to doing something together? Because Greg Wells is in town and we could just put something out. And he goes, yeah, yeah, sure. He says, what do you want to do? We're there. We'll do anything. Like, okay. So I think about it. I thought, well, maybe a remake of Diamonds, paying sort of a nod to the original, but not sounding like a period piece. And I mentioned that to him. He goes, as long as I get the same part of the part that goes, never want to be lost, don't you? And they just came in.

It was just a beautiful session. One of the highlights of the session during the day was that Gord Downie came in to visit us in the control room. He was in the other studio finishing up what would be his last recording. Wow. I know that disease. Another friend of mine, close friend of mine died from it. I could sort of see where he was at with it.

And it was just a beautiful visit. He hugged us all and listened to a playback. with it and it was just a beautiful visit he hugged us all listened to a playback and and uh it's on film but and the family had our blessings to put it in the video we did a little video of that uh that release but i decided not to at the end because i didn't want to take any heat from people going oh you're exploiting gordon to get some hits on the video. And I was like, you know, I don't just want to go there. Let's just leave it as we had this beautiful moment in the studio, Baird Acre Ladies and myself with a visit from the late and great Gord Downie. I did not know this story.

And that's amazing. And the song's great. And Baird Acre Ladies, you're right. They're just good people. I mean, I've had great. Yeah, it is. Yeah. And, and I love your take that it's a little Beach Boys. It does have a little bit of that. They sing great. As soon as they light up, I'm like, wow, I feel like I'm in Beach Boys. Which we opened for the Beach Boys once, but.

Oh really? But which version? The Mike Love version? I can't even remember. All I remember is it was outdoors and a big storm was coming. Oh, maybe it was Canada's Wonderland, maybe. But go ahead, sir. No, no, it was out west. It was out west somewhere, probably Manitoba somewhere, because they had crazy-ass storms up there.

And it was out in the field, and we were about to go on, and the road manager came up and went, get your gear off the stage. We're going on. We're like, what? We're going on and we were about to go on. And then the road manager came up and went, get your gear off the stage. We're going on. We're like, what we're like going on. We're walking to the stage that I don't care what you do. Get your gear off the stage.

We're going on now. So because the storm was coming. So we struck our gear. We left. Wow. Well, two quick hits before you play us. And I want to hear about the new album.

And then I want to hear some wishes, which I've been watching the video on YouTube. It's beautiful song. But one quick thing is uh of course now it's leaving my head my two quick things but uh one is that i that video with with gourd uh i really actually i would just say there are people out there who hate everything like whatever you do you say wear a mask they hate you you say don't wear a mask they hate you i think that the uh most of us reasonable people would absolutely love to see that moment. So we would love to see that.

I can see your point. And there's also things in my life and Barenaked Ladies and as people and as human beings, you and everyone else, that it doesn't have to be public. That's true. And we can have private moments or So touching private moments, right? And that was one of them. And maybe at some point it will, but that's just kind of how I felt. It was like, you know what?

This was a good little private sweet moment that happened with us. So let's just leave it. Anyway. And the big thing is, one last thing is, just so you know, I play a lot of Euchre

and my Euchre song, which is dangerous at times because you cannot communicate in Euchre. You cannot even drop clues. This is against all the rules. But every time I play Euchre, the song in my head anyways is Diamonds, Diamonds. So I just want to throw that out there.

I love that song. Okay, tell me everything you can about the big fantasize. I'm very interested in the fact it's El Macombo Records. Talk to me. This is fantastic. Yeah, El Macombo Records. I liked what they had to say um and so we signed with them i had recorded an album of full-length studio record and have some live tracks and it's going uh just after 13 years of new music no new music

i'm doing that and uh so it's full-length studio record at least wishes wishes was a song that i saw the lyrics 10 years ago and wrote the verses for. It was in a book of poetry in a waiting room. The lyric reached really deep within, and I thought, I have to turn this into a song. It took a long time to finish because I realized if it's a complete poem, it's not a complete song. So that took a long time. And I'm really proud of it. I'm really, really proud of it.

I got to work with my bud, Greg Wells, who was in the band at 17. And he's now a big hotshot producer in Los Angeles. And he had his studio. And it sounds awesome. So I'm proud of it. That's all I can say. Now I'm going to play a little bit of the song on zoom which kind of sounds like ass because it's just you know zoom is you know it's a little bit of the space station sound i like to say it's not

really when you were playing the song they were like when i was listening to them they're jumping ahead and falling back they're phasing weird i'll play a little bit of wishes i'll play a second verse, of course. Give me God's green countryside With blue skies overhead A tiny shack, white curtain All my silver flower red A laughing baby playing inside on the floor Tiny flower garden growing outside my open door These are the things that I wish for

These are the things that I'll wish for. These are the things I'll wish for. These are the things that I'll wish for you and me. There you go. Kim, I'm thinking of Wayne's World when Alice Cooper shows up and they go, we're not worthy, We're not worthy. Lovely. And again, I think I owe Mike Myers a bit of dough.

I had a drink with him once and I walked out and stiffed him for the bill. I think he can handle it. You know, it's funny. We opened this. You talked about if you could play the gas works, you've made it. And of course the gas works was sort of memorialized in Wayne's world

because Mike Myers loved it so much. Kim, honestly, thank you so much for this. Good luck with everything. Everybody should go get the big fantasize, the new album from Kim Mitchell. It's from El Macombo records.

And that song again, that was from the man who was in zoom, played it on zoom. It sounds, it sounded great via zoom. It sounds so much better if you pick it up. Wishes, beautiful song. It sounds, it sounded great via Zoom. It sounds so much better if you pick it up. Wishes.

Beautiful song. Thank you, Kim. Thanks, Mike. Have a good day. Take care, my friend. Bye-bye. And that brings us to the end of our 679th show.

You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Kim is at the Kim Mitchell or the Kim Mitchell, whichever you prefer. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U.

The Keitner Group are at The Keitner Group. Pumpkins After Dark are at Pumpkins Dark. And Garbage Day are at Pumpkins Dark and Garbage Day are at GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike See you all next week Read Andrew Miller and wander around.

And drink some Guinness from a tin. Cause my UI check has just come in. Ah, where you been? Because everything is kind of rosy and green. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Rome Phone. Rome Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RomePhone.ca to get started.