Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Lee Aaron: Toronto Mike'd #761

Episode Date: November 30, 2020

Mike chats with Lee Aaron about her very early years in Brampton, becoming Lee Aaron, Metal Queen, her deal with Attic Records, working with Bob Ezrin, touring Europe, the commercial success of Bodyrock, the role of MuchMusic, going independent, working with The Sons of Freedom, the jazz and opera eras, her new Christmas album Almost Christmas and literally being a Karen.

Welcome to episode 761 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. CDN Technologies, your outsourced IT department Joanne Glutish A lifetime member of the National Chairman's Club Awarded to the top 1% of agents At Royal LePage Canada StickerU.com

Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos and decals For your home and your business. Ridley Funeral Home. This year's Holidays in Hope Candlelight Service of Remembrance is December 2nd at 7pm. And Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. I'm Mike. From TorontoMike.com and joining me this week. entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is Canada's metal queen, Leigh Aaron.

Hey, how you doing? Good. Whereabouts in the great country of Canada do we find you today? I live in the Vancouver area. That's all I'm going to say. Well, no. What is your home address, Leigh-Erin? I need to know. You know, that just lets me know that even if there was not a global pandemic, we'd probably be doing this episode via Zoom.

Well, yeah. You're in Toronto. I'm out here. I used to live in Toronto though, and I love, love, love Toronto. I miss my friends, I miss the nightlife and the cosmopolitan aspect of Toronto, but I don't miss the traffic and the humidity in the summer, I have to say. I was going to ask you, why would you ever leave?

I mean, so how long has going to ask you, why would you ever leave? I mean, so how long has it been since you lived in Toronto? I moved to Vancouver in 1995. Oh, wow. You know, pre-COVID, I still go back and forth quite a bit to Toronto and see my friends and play shows. And my guitar player lives in Toronto. Now, I've become good friends with Biff Naked and she lived in Vancouver for something like 35 years and now she's very, very happy living in Mimico here in Toronto. Oh, okay. So she's back.

She's here now, but I guess we've lost Leigh-Erin to the West Coast. Well, yeah, that's the way it is right now. I moved out here and then I met my husband and we have two school age. I still have school age kids. Right. So I'm pretty much tied here until they're like 30. I know what that's like. I know what that's like. I want to shout out a super fan of yours named Gordon Enright. Yes.

Well, we know him better here as Midtown Gord. So shout out to Midtown Gord because he really helped make this happen. So I just want to thank Gord for the fact that I'm now talking to the legendary Lee Aaron. So thank you, Gord. Yes. Gord is, every time I scroll through my Facebook or my Instagram feed, he has like the little badge that says top fan, top fan. And he is, he's a lovely guy. I've met him several times. And whenever I'm playing out east, he's always at

shows and he posts sometimes the funniest memes and the funniest content that I'm reposting because he makes me laugh almost every day. So. Oh, he's going to love hearing this. He might isolate the soundbite and make it his ringtone. So, you know, Lee Aaron saying he's a funny guy. So good stuff. Now, Lee, I have to say, here we are meeting on Zoom and I see the name. It doesn't say Lee Aaron. It says Karen. So I have a question when I talk to, because you're really a Karen, of course. Yeah, but lately that name

has a little bit of a bad reputation. So I'd rather not. That's where I'm going, straight up. You're the first Karen I've had on Trottle Mike since the con. Like, how do you feel that people essentially use your, you know, your given name, your first name as a catch-all for,

I don't know how to surmise it, but like racist white woman, like, like, like, how does it feel to have your name used in that context? Well, you know, I don't personalize it, although I've made a couple of jokes on social media about it. But yeah, it is, when I was shopping for Halloween costumes with my children this year, there was actually a T-shirt in the store. And it was a big it was a black T-shirt and just said, you know, can I speak to the manager? And it was like it was a Karen shirt. Right. You know, and I and I was like, wow, you know, couldn't it be like, you know, Ivanka or Melania or Tiffany? You know, I think those are much better names than Karen.

But anyway. So I feel bad for all you quality Karens out there because this is unfair to you. You know, you lived a whole life with the name Karen and now this nonsense has to tarnish the good name. So I feel bad for you guys. Well, there you go. Speaking of West Coast, you're in Vancouver area and, uh, in White Rock is Neil Morrison. Now we know here in Toronto, we know him better as

brother Bill used to be on a edge one Oh two. Uh, when he found out you were coming on, he wrote me this note. He says the pride of central peel secondary in Brampton. So I guess you lived for a while in Brampton as a youngster. I did. I went to high school there. And yeah, so I think it's probably long since taken down, but I'm on the honor roll somewhere there. I was a bit of a nerd, I have to be honest. But I was really deeply involved in musical theater. It was a great of a nerd, I have to be honest. But I was really, you know, deeply involved in musical theater. It was a great musical theater school. Every year we did a fantastic production. And I was involved from a very young age in almost all of them throughout the years.

And, yeah, it was a great school to go to. I had some wonderful teachers. In fact, I had a music teacher. I had two different music teachers that I loved. One, I think was Mr. Vanderberg. He was who taught me. I mean, I was in the creative course that delved into composition and songwriting. And at that time, I won't tell you how many years ago, I had a four track TAC machine. We all remember those quite well on tape. And I was in a band and I was very young at that point in time. And I did recording and composing and compiling and bouncing tracks. And so I started doing that when I was like 15 years old. So, yeah. Can you say geek?

Well, this leads us to the first mind-blowing fun fact. And this won't be news to the gourds of the world who adore you and know everything about you. won't be news to the gourds of the world who adore you and know everything about you but for the the casual fan who probably just learned you're really a karen uh lee lee aaron like sort of like alice cooper and that'll tie in with a bob ezrin fun fact later but kind of like alice cooper was the name of the band and then vincent fernier just started calling himself alice cooper lee aaron was the name of your first band. Correct. Yeah. So you just liked the name so much, you said, I'm going to start billing myself as Lee Aaron. Is that how that plays out? No, not really. I didn't go into it thinking I was going to become synonymous with Lee Aaron. But because I was, let me explain. My very first band when I

was in high school, I played keyboards 50% of the time. I played saxophone. I mean, let me explain my very first band when I was in high school, I played keyboards 50% of the time. I played saxophone. I mean, we covered super tramp when I was like 15 years old and I was doing, you know, the solos and, um, and the guitar player, George Bernhardt in that band, he was from a, a sister high school, a few, uh, a few miles away. Um, and, uh, he sang half the material as well. So I really wasn't the front person. It was just more of a, I was more like Christine McVie in that band. And, but we, we decided we wanted a band name that was, was a name like Mac, like actually Max Webster was the first band I ever saw in my high school. I was like, they were so amazing. You know, those guys, you know, when I saw Kim Mitchell walk on stage in like high heels with tights, green tights, and like, this crazy hair,

and you know, I was like, yes, you know, nerds of the world unite, I can relate to this, right. But anyway, I wasn't the front person. But when we got taken on by our first manager, I was 17 years old, just out of high school. And the first thing he did was he's like, no, no, no, you're not going to we're not hiding you back there behind the keyboards. He pulled me out front, stuck me in front of a microphone. He said, you need to be the lead singer in this band. This is how we're going to market it. And he took me to see uh bett middler in the rose oh yes of course yes right here you need to learn some stage moves like this so for me much like alice cooper it was i was like okay so this this rock and roll thing it's theater too right right um and that's sort of how i ended up being pulled out front. But once I was the front person and a female, people just went, that's Leigh-Anne. And that's kind of how the whole thing evolved into me being the front person of the band.

Oh, that's amazing. Because it's just such a fun fact. It's great to hear you reference Max Webster because I recently had Kim Mitchell on this program. But just last week, I spoke to Rick Ringer who was a long-time DJ on 104.5 uh Chum FM through well for a long time in the 70s and 80s and he was very close with the guys at Max Webster and we were talking but my guest tomorrow is Erica M from Much Music who also worked for Max Webster like Max Webster is really having its moment on Toronto Mic'd

episodes so I'm glad you could shout them out. That's great. Well, they were great then. Kim is still great now, right? I know he's still, he actually, and he lives, I mentioned Biff Naked moved to Mimico. That's where Max is living right now. So there's a lot of great musicians kind of in that neck of the woods here in Toronto. But okay, I digress. Now, I want to bring us to 1982, because you work with some pretty big names like Rick Emmett and some others. I want you to tell me these stories, because I'm going to play a song from this. But just tell me a little bit about how the Lee Aaron Project comes to be, because you're still a teenager. Yes, indeed. I mean, I had written a few, quite a few songs when I was a kid, but I mean, they were, you know, I wasn't Steve Winwood when I was well. And he put me together with Rick Santers.

He put me together with the guys in Moxie and Frank Soda. And I composed some material with those guys. And that's why it's called The Project, because it was basically me writing with these older, much more experienced rock songwriters. And it was a great experience for me. I learned a lot about, much more about composition and putting together a great song. And of course, my voice was my voice. And he facilitated the entire recording of the first album

with all of these different notable players. Right. And that first album was made of these different notable players. Right. And that first album was made for like $7,000, I think, you know, mix mastered and recorded for that amount of money. And, but it's, you know, it's, it's a seminal record. A lot of people still love it, you know, and it was fun making it. I was going to say, still sounds great. Specifically, I'm going to ask about one song.

Okay. Who wrote Under Your Spell? I wrote that song with a gentleman who was actually playing in my band at that time, a guy named Dave Applin. Okay. And he was a guitar player that I was working with currently. He was in my live band. And yeah, we wrote that song together.

But we, and because I actually didn't write anything with Rick, but my manager had a relationship with Rick Emmett and asked him, would he come in and sing on this? And so Rick added background vocals on this track. And what a voice, eh? Well, here, let me play a little bit of Under Your Spell. And then I'm going to hit you with some real talk and ask you a follow-up question. So here's a great jam from very early Lee Aaron days.

Here's a little bit of Under Your Spell. I was okay till you came along I saw your face and I was gone The world stood still when you were near My heart fell down, did you hear? I'm under your spell. I'm here to tell. I was under your spell. I'm under your spell.

I'm here to tell. I was under your spell. Wow. Okay, listen to those vocals. Let me bring it down so I can hear your voice. But let me ask you straight up. Okay, so do you think possibly Nick Gilder borrows from this great jam? Because he writes The Warrior, which we know by Patti... I think it was for the band Scandal featuring Patti Smith.

But do you hear the similarities? I have never been asked that question. I ask original questions over here, Lee. There's a lot of similarities. I can see Lee thinking about it. I don't know what to say because that song was definitely a bigger hit than Under Your Spell. That's true. uh it's it it's interesting i can't i well now that you're pointing it out yeah i can hear similarities but um wow well let me give some props so uh i was chatting with my friend and listeners of the program no mark wise blot and we were talking about this and this came

from that conversation so shout out to markisblatt from 1236.ca, but it's just interesting. And you know, all these years later, cause you know, Nick is Canadian. Well, yeah, he's Canadian. He's from Vancouver. Like he was in Vancouver. His wife is an amazing photographer and she's taken many, many photographs of me in the past. Anyway, I'm not trying to cause any trouble here, but if you can see him,

if COVID ever ends and you see him at a dinner party, you can have a wink wink. FYI to you anyway. There's a few similarities here. Well, you know what I'm doing when I get off this call now? I'm going to listen to that. I never thought about that.

But, you know, I think that a lot of the material around that time frame had a similar kind of rock pop. Right. I mean, that is the Lee Aaron thing. It's like hard pop with big guitars.

Well, you sounded great there. And then a couple years later, now I always tell people who's coming up on Toronto Mic'd, and then just today I had a few conversations, and I said, oh, at two o'clock I'm talking to Lee Aaron and they all said the same two words back to me right away like the same two words so let's just play another song

from another album and then we'll pick it up after a few seconds of this one it's got a slow burn here so I feel like I should be talking up this opening part with an intro but we'll just let it kind of take us in here. And this, of course,

is from 1984. I'm not going to try to hit the post. Forget it. Although you could. We'll be right back. She moves without a sound She holds a passion Like no other could The way she talks The words understood Riding in electric song So get a ticket You've just got to get on

Now or free on Metal Queen Metal Queen Metal Queen Yeah, you tell somebody you're going to talk to Lee Aaron and those were the two words I'd hear back more often than not is Metal queen. So tell

us now 1984 this leads to this so tell me about like the success of this song and if you can speak to the deal with Attic Records if you don't mind. Well you sort of want the industry scoop yeah no i love inside baseball is good here this is

where we we dive into the details so yeah give us the industry scoop of course so we had um recorded this album in its entirety completed produced by Paul Gross, who was, I believe, one of the owners of Phase One Studios in Toronto at that time. And again, the album was written and completed and we recorded the album on spec. So we owed the studio money. And we were trying to get a deal with a U.S. label and we actually had interest from quite a few labels in the states Geffen, Atlantic, Yamai and we flew down to

Los Angeles and we did a showcase at the Troubadour the infamous Troubadour and the next day the phone was ringing off the hook a a lot of american labels but my my manager at the time had entered into a partnership with eddie leffler who was van halen's manager and ed said to my manager don't talk to anybody i have to go to England, make them wait. I will talk to them when I get back." And he went to England, Ed, and slipped on some ice and threw out his back and he ended up laid up in the hospital in London for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks. And in the meantime, I mean, the end result of the story is a positive note. I ended up signing with a Canadian label. The studio was pressuring for money. We had to figure out a solution.

And so we had interest from Canadian labels as well. And Attic had come to the table. And again, I'm not, I was a kid still. So I'm not quite sure of all the details. But Attic had expressed quite a bit of interest and they were going to do great things for us. So we ended up signing with Attic. One of the motivations was we, they were offering us an advance and we had to play back the studio.

So, so that's how that happened. But I, yeah, I ended up entering into a multi-album deal with Attic Records in Canada and the rest is history. Well, maybe we skip ahead then before we go back. So maybe we jump. It's sort of like in Pulp Fiction. They jump time frames here. Because on your own website.

So this is something on. I literally read about this on LeeAaron.com. You did, was it? You must have been doing some deep digging. There's a whole story about, I mean, I'll read a bit of it and then maybe we can hear it in your own words. But as the most prominent artist on the Attic label,

her records were used unsuccessfully as a bargaining chip by the company to acquire a distribution deal for the entire roster. And when that failed, the label tried to get funding to implement the US division, again, holding the Lee Aaron records out of the U.S. market with plans to make her debut, her the debut artist on the new label. But that idea ultimately fails as well. And there's basically it sounds it sounds like this is, you know, a lot of us just want to hear the songs and see you live and rock out.

Right. And then this is the stuff, though. the songs and see you live and rock out, right? And then this is the stuff, though. It sounds like there was some difficulties with the record label that led to you leaving and starting your own label in 1992. So could you speak to that, maybe? How it ends with Attic and that turmoil? Well, I'm not here to say anything negative about anybody. I mean, I have a relationship with Almer to this day. We talk, you know, we exchange messages through social media, and he's a lovely man. And I and I have really like him and respect him a lot. My web master tends to find information in various places and pull it and add it. It's been written somewhere. So it's there. You know, one of the reasons, one of my former manager, Steve Propas,

who's unfortunately no longer with us, but one of the bones of contention that my former management had was that by signing a Canadian deal, and I'm not the only Canadian artist who's had this issue, when you sign with a Canadian label that owns your foreign licensing rights, so they own you for the world. If you get a foreign licensing in another territory, they own the master to license to other territories. There were multiple times throughout my career where it seemed like we were this close to getting a proper US release, especially on Body Rock, which was almost triple platinum in Canada. Some Girls Do was platinum in Canada. We had a lot of interest, but there were various behind the scenes industry complications that prevented that from happening. It wasn't just as simple as we want Leigh-Erin, let's sign.

I didn't have the ability to sign myself independently to a U.S. label. And I know that Attic at one point was trying to get a roster deal and I know that also that they were trying to start Attic America which would have been fantastic for me because I would have certainly been one of the more prominent artists on the label at that time for release in America but they needed a certain amount of funding, startup funding to start that in it. And it just never ended up happening. And unfortunately, once your record is kind of like had its heyday in the sun, its year of being popular,

and then is no longer popular, people aren't as interested in you anymore. So that's what I'll say. So I ended up without a proper US record deal ever. So was Body Rock never released in the U.S.? That's correct. It was not. Okay.

Okay. Yeah. Anyways, like you said, you've said enough, and I appreciate you being candid here. I know that's the other side of the business side of things, and I do appreciate you sharing that much. Cause I can imagine there'd be frustration when you have the, you know,

those songs that we love on body rock and I'm going to play one in a moment, uh, are not just great songs to Canadian ears. Like, it's not like there's some, you know, this,

you know what I mean? There's a, that that's a, that's a sound that would be, uh, loved. I would think just as much by, uh,

you know, California ears and American ears, but, uh, well, think, just as much by California ears and American ears. Well, ironically, I have a Christmas album that I just released. I've been an independent artist since 92. Right. But a lot of my sales are in the US. So I do have fans down there that have somehow discovered me. Well, we can talk more about that later.

Yeah, yes. Because I'm definitely going to play some of the Christmas music. And then we're going to talk about, you know, you're leaving Attic Records and starting your own label. But here's a good chance before I get to Body Rock, maybe ask you if you could just share a little bit about the role of Bob Ezrin in your career. I guess this is the 1985 album called The Wild. Yeah. I guess this is the 1985 album called The Wild. Yeah.

Well, the way that Bob Ezrin got involved with that album is that, again, we were in the studio producing the third album with Paul Gross again, who had produced Metal Queen. And Bob was in, we were like in Studio A and he was in Studio B. And he was doing, I don't remember the actual name of it, but he was doing a project with a whole bunch of notable U.S. artists. It was like a hard rock compilation thing. It had Alice Cooper, Dee Snider, Lita Ford, a bunch of very notable hard rock artists from the States involved in it. And he, he just kept coming over into Studio A and popping his ear in and listening to what we were doing. He was very curious in who I was. He really liked my voice. And unfortunately, Paul Gross had a bad racquetball accident.

The racquetball hit him right in the eye and he was off for like six weeks he was out of commission and we we were in a position where we needed to finish this album and my understanding from the label was that Bob came into Attic and said let me finish producing this record and then the next thing you know I was doing an album with Bob Ezra wow and um, you know, what a what a what a coup for me. Here's this guy has done Pink Floyd and Alice Cooper and Meatloaf and all these amazing, amazing artists. And I have to be honest, I was really intimidated at first working with him. I was like 22 years old. And I'm working with one of the world's biggest producers, but I learned a lot from working with him. I learned a lot about, um, you know, vocal technique and breathing. He showed me a lot of breathing stuff to do in the studio, how to use my voice in, in various different ways. And, um, that way it was, uh, it was, you know, definitely, Oh, that's my phone. Sorry. Should have turned my ringer off. Uh-oh. That's my phone. Should have turned my ringer off.

Yeah, learn my voice. You use my voice in a lot of different ways. One sec. That's okay. Yeah, yeah. Take care of that if you need to. That's okay. Growing up you were taught to believe That everyone was created equal in the master plan the world's a place of heroes and villains

you better watch out or you'll end up killing what you don't understand while you laugh you ain't never had nothing to call you on And the dreams you hold so close

Are being raped and torn And you're barely holding on You're barely holding on Oh, I'm sick and tired of waiting Okay, I need to take a quick break from this great chat with Lee Aaron, or should I say Karen. I want to thank some partners

that make all of this possible. Great Lakes Brewery. If you want fresh craft beer, you got to go to the fiercely independent family-run craft beer. Giants in this city. Great Lakes. Palma Pasta. I had a great chat with Anthony Petrucci on the weekend.

We talked about how we need to better support small businesses in our community during this pandemic. palmapasta.com is also a family-run business. Support them. They're in Mississauga and Oakville. And the food is delicious. StickerU.com, yet another wonderful homegrown company. They're in Liberty Village, but you can find them online.

StickerU.com. Get your decals, your stickers, your temporary tattoos, a whole bunch of great stuff you can get delivered safely to your door. Joanne Glutish, her full-time focus is Toronto real estate, especially Etobicoke where she lives, but the West End, Mississauga and Oakville. She knows every neighborhood inside out. She's constantly in the community, volunteering at events and working to find out what her clients need to know to make real estate

decisions. Support Joanne Glutish because she supports the real talk here on Toronto Mic'd. joanneglutish.com is where you go to reach out to her. Speaking of women in our community making a difference, Barb Paluskiewicz, she's the CEO of CDN Technologies. If you have any issues with your network, your computer network, even if you just need a second opinion, you can bring in the good people at CDN Technologies to perform a network assessment. Reach out to Barb. She's Barb at at cdn technologies or you can call her 905-542-9759.

And speaking of community builders, a fixture of my community is Ridley Funeral Home. This year's Holidays and Hope Candlelight Service of Remembrance will be a live online event. You can join the good people at Ridley Funeral Home to receive comforting messages, enjoy live music, and reflect on your loved one's life and legacy. It's happening Wednesday, December 2nd. That's two days from today at 7pm. To attend, simply RSVP at 416-259-3705 or write them. Contact us at RidleyFuneralHome.com.

Now back to episode 761 of Toronto Mic'd. The world's a place of heroes and villains You better watch out A treasured experience. I've really been fortunate to work with some amazing producers and I've learned so much from them. Very cool. Very recently, friends of this program,

there are children's entertainers called Splashin' Boots. And my kids are just that kind of, I'm sad because I have four kids, but my two youngest kids have aged out of the Splashin' Boots demo. Like now they're, I know it's a sad time, right? So there's no more Treehouse TV here. But I just took note that Bob Ezrin got Alice Cooper to sing on a Splash and Boots song.

And this was just released. And I just thought that was kind of cool that Bob could get Alice Cooper to sing on this children's entertainment duo that are here in Toronto. But okay, I digress. So shout out to Bob. I want to play the massive hit all of us MuchMusic watchers saw over and over again. And we never got tired of it. So let's kick out that jam. One, two, three, all on.

Pick up that drumstick. One, two, three, four. guitar solo Call it love, call it lust Animal, you're dangerous Tigers on the run, better get out the gun Could be trouble Got me chained, got me tied One look, I was hypnotized Fever's warm and hot

Better give me a shot on the double Feeling intensity Like what you do to me I'm burning up, can't you see? I had to play a little more of this one. I mean, it's like you got to give the people the hits, right, Lee? Here we go. Okay. You alluded to the commercial success, but like, what's it like for you? You're still very young.

I mean, you're still very young today as I speak to you, but you were really young when Body Rock gets released in 89. Like, I mean, so many hits in the only country I care about Canada like what's it like for you in this as all this is kind of happening with what you do to my body and then of course hands-on and all the other hits that come off of Body Rock um I mean it was it was it was you know, on my, how do I explain it? You know, earlier, pre-Body Rock, I mean, right around the time of Body Rock, we had like Sass Jordan and Alana Miles coming out as well, right?

Right. So they were kind of, the world, or Canada as we know it, was finally ready for women who were doing a slightly more passionate and aggressive form of music. But prior to that, I couldn't play on radio. It was really hard. I remember driving across Canada on Call of the Wild with my promotions rep from Attic, Ralph Alfonso, and trying to get Call of the Wild played. And they were we were just like, they were like, it's way too heavy for Canadian radio.

They just wouldn't touch it. And so it was kind of, you know, I think Only Human on the fourth album kind of opened that door because they chose to release something that was more of a ballad fare for a single. But it was kind of like, wow, you know, great. Like, finally,

I was enjoying my sort of time in the sun, right, in Canada. Because prior to that, I had spent a lot of time pounding the pavement, touring Europe, you know, because I was appreciated over there.

Well, tell me a bit about that. I had Danko Jones on the program and he straight up said he's a much bigger deal in europe than he is in canada and he can tour europe and i mean i think he's you know the number metrics will tell you he's right he gets a lot more airplay and a lot more love and a lot more you know people at it he could play bigger venues in europe than he can in canada so what was it like? You're playing UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland. All those places. I played

with Danko a couple years ago actually in Sweden. So yeah, we had my third album, Call of the Wild which is still beloved over there. It didn't do hardly anything in Canada but we were on a small label called Roadrunner out of Belgium.

They were a small label at that time out of Belgium called Roadrunner. And we got on the Bon Jovi tour in the spring of that year. Nice. And we toured with Bon Jovi. And by the end of that tour, that was a six-week tour, that album exploded. In six weeks, we'd sold over 100,000 albums. Oh, my apologies.

I actually, I'll bring that way down. I slipped my finger, like a trigger finger here. That's hands-on, of course. Another, I would call that a much music smash, because just like what you do to my body. But we're going to get to much music in a moment, but please talk more about Europe before I bring us back to Canada. So yeah, we were doing really well over there.

So we spent quite a bit of, I spent a lot of time between 1985 and 1992 touring over there. But yeah, when Body rock hit big in canada um and i think a lot of that too had to do with the the fact that much music was coming into its heyday as well and um artists were you know finding a way if you could um sell your music with visuals as well and interject you some of your own personality into that which video provided a medium to be able to do that it was even that more powerful and so it was kind of weird it's like I was like the it girl on much music for a couple of years too without a doubt I mean I

live this and I was gonna comment comment like, you know, video is a visual presentation and you're an aesthetically pleasing artist, Leigh-Anne. Can I say that? I suppose. So, I mean, video agreed with you and you looked great, but you sounded great. You know, it's not you weren't just a visual presentation. You sounded fantastic. great you know it's not you weren't just a visual presentation you sounded fantastic and I mean it's funny that tomorrow's guest is Erica M because I wonder how many times Erica M as a VJ in Much Music threw to one of the videos from Body Rock like you know it's uh yeah it was uh ubiquitous right it was everywhere that's right so how so so how important you know uh do you

think i mean i mean q107 was playing these songs of course i'm speaking locally here in toronto because you're on toronto mic right now so that's all i really know but i mean how important was it and you you mentioned double platinum or maybe i just read you were certified double platinum in canada but how key was it that you could you know be in living rooms across this vast country because much music put these videos on high rotation what what exactly is the question oh I guess uh like like I know you already kind of referenced this but like like how significant really like I can imagine it was extremely significant that you had such high rotation of your videos on MuchMusic, which led people in, like, you know, in Newfoundland, you know,

and in, you know, Edmonton, all kind of have constant access to your big hits on Body Rock. So, no question, I guess I'm looking for... Oh, no, you know, we don't come up to touring. You know, I was touring across Canada that, you know, and, you know, we went, you know, from being sort of a nightclub act to a very large nightclub slash arena act. Right. At that point in time. So there was that there was a lot of all of a sudden it was like all of the press that would never talk to me before. I was, you know their

favorite now it was so it was kind of honestly for me it was a little bit of a a lesson in how incredibly fickle the media can be as well right it's sort of like oh well that's popular let's jump on that all of a sudden i was getting the the respect and and the uh attention that i I was getting the respect and the attention that I, you know, had hoped for before, right? And yeah, and everyone was interested, but I couldn't go into the grocery store and buy a toilet paper. I was getting recognized everywhere. So that was a little bit hard because I am a bit of a private person and like like i don't do every interview on the planet and i don't uh you know i don't um you know i i'm not the kind of person that's like hey you know every day i'm doing a

little facebook live thing right because i want to let people into my life i like to have a little keep a little bit of that you know with my privacy and my family life right for myself right well for sure and it seems to me that you know as you started your and my family life for myself, right? Well, for sure. And it seems to me that, you know, as you started your family and your kids were younger, that you really did keep it low key. Like you were out of the public eye for a while during this recent period of your life. Yeah, well, you know, the funny thing is I had this crazy idea that because I, I put out Beautiful Things, which was my second jazz infused album in 2004. And I toured across Canada. Seven months pregnant. I was, there's video out there. I'm huge.

And I had this crazy idea, well, I will just, you know, have this baby, and then I will make this little baby fit into my life, and I will take this baby on tour. And, you know, I just didn't really have a clue that it was going to upend my life so severely. And we had this baby that screamed all the way to Safeway in her car seat. And I was just like, I was a nervous wreck for the first year. And it was really a very big growing personal growth period for me because I realized within that first year that, you know, being Le'Aaron means nothing. Being a mother is the most important role I'm ever going to have in my life. And, you know, we decided to have another baby right away.

So my son was born 18 months later and I really just laid low for about a decade really after my son was born. I, I did a few concerts here and there when I, when my agent came and he said, you know, you've got a big like I think it was 2006 my son was about six months old but it was an opportunity to play a festival in Canada with heart some of my idols and I was like yeah I'm gonna do that but I just you know I did a smattering of festivals here and there but I didn't actually write a record or do any recording for a decade I focused on my creative energy into being a mother oh beautiful, beautiful. And they really do give you perspective on everything. Cause like,

I feel the same way. Like you're building things, you're an entrepreneur, you're, you know, trying to, you know, do this, that, the other. And that's important. Cause you know, it helps you put food on the table and pay the mortgage and all these things that are key. But at the end of the day, as you said, so eloquently, like it's, it's how, you know, creating well-adjusted adults out of your children is like, this is like priority one, two, three, four, five, and six. Like this is everything. So that's great that you have such perspective there. Well, ironically, I've since gone, because our son had some learning issues, gone back to college and gotten a degree in special education. And the reality is between zero and seven, if you don't do your job right,

your kids are going to be messed up for life. And I really realized that later, you know, and ironically, my, my son is now our son. I'm sorry. My husband, John is the drummer. He plays in my band. He's 14, almost 15 years old and he's got a job at a local restaurant as a busser because he loves money. Because he can buy, he goes on Steam and he gets all his video game stuff. Of course, of course. But he comes home the other day, he goes, Mom, I found a $50 bill underneath the table and I wasn't sure.

I said, I gave it to, I said, I turned it into the manager right away. And I went, you know, as much as I argue with him sometimes and he's pigheaded and, you know, he's a typical 14 year old boy. I'm going at that moment, I was just swelling with pride. Like, yes, I have raised a decent human being. You know, he's just like found 50 bucks. He knew he had to give it in right away, you know, and that's what you hope for. Right. Like to me, that's a bigger, as big an accomplishment as having a gold record. That's it. That's even an honest person, right?

No, exactly. And that story is wonderful to hear. Because, you know, that's my hope is that, you know, when my 18 year old finds a $50 bill, he doesn't just sneak it in his pocket and say, yeah, I scored, you know, you know, I love the fact that what your son did there, because it just shows that's a that's a good human being. That's a decent person. And you are you and your husband are responsible for that. So well, good on you. But hey, you know, you were saying when your kids grew up grew treehouse. Yeah, I totally I remember the first day my children are now 14 and 16. The first day driving them both to high school i was just like this is like what when did this happen it's so surreal right well wait till one of them goes to university like

that happened to me in september like my son's at laurier he's living in waterloo and it's it's a whole like yeah it's yeah it's coming lee get ready brace yourself well my my daughter i've been pretty good being able to help them with almost all of their schoolwork. Because, again, I've gone back to college and done some other things. But this year, my daughter's in. She's grade 11 pre-calculus. And I was just like, don't ask me at the last minute to help you study for your exam. Unless I'm following along with all these lessons, it's not going to happen this year.

Well, you're better than I am. I'm like, don't even try. I don't know what this calculus is. It's so good on you. I want to get to the Christmas stuff, so I'm going to just be quick here. I want to just ask you about that moment in 1992. So you leave Attic Records,

and we talked about that earlier in this program, and your own label, it's Hip Chic Music? Hip Chic, yeah. Oh. Or Hip Chic, whatever you want to call it. about that earlier in this program and your own label it's uh hip chic music hip chick yeah oh or hip chic whatever i read it as hip chic i feel like chick needs a k at the end am i crazy there hip chick music okay and uh i also read a note and just you know you can speak this if you want but there's a period in the mid 90s i guess, you, you don't want to play metal queen and you don't want to be Lee Aaron and you, you become Karen again. Uh,

it'll, it'll like, like, like speak to, uh, and I never, I don't even, I never know how to say this title of this album,

but, uh, precious. What's it, how do you say that title? Too precious. Too precious. It's like,

you need me to put my, the sun's beaming in on my face here. Do you want me to put, Oh no, only if it's bothering you. Like it's not bothering me because I'm all, I'm on, it's like, I. You need me to put my, the sun's beaming in on my face here. Do you want me to put my hand? Oh, no. Only if it's bothering you. Like, it's not bothering me because I'm on. It's like, I have no nose, right? No, it's okay.

I'm not even going to. Yeah, don't worry about the video because I'm just capturing the audio anyways. Don't worry about that. Oh, is it just audio? Yeah, it's just audio. I like to, you know, peek in and see, make sure you haven't fallen asleep on me. I recorded once with Maestro Fresh West in my studio, and his eyes were closed for a long time,

but he was answering my questions, and I was worried I had put the man to sleep, so I don't want to see a repeat here. Okay, so one of the questions I have, actually specific questions, is from Adrian Strickland, who's a big fan of yours, and he wants to know, what was it like playing with the Sons of Freedom dudes?

It was great. to know, what was it like playing with the Sons of Freedom dudes? It was great. You know, the way that ended up coming about is that in 1994, when I was recording Emotional Rain, it was just an interesting time because John Albany who had been my partner and co-writer for not my romantic partner but um my my you know musical partner and co-writer for 11 years um he was moving more into an area of production and he wanted to was making noise about wanting to kind of leave the band and move to Nashville and start his own studio up. And so, and, you know, the whole grunge movement, it was all simultaneously happening at the same time, the whole grunge thing started to happen. And because I was still relatively quite young, I really embraced the grunge thing. I thought I loved Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and Nirvana and Green Day and all these bands that were coming out of that Seattle movement. like another way I could, you know, you know, sell my own brand again of rock was just to incorporate a little bit of this

sound into my own sound because I, it was genuine inspiration for me. I really enjoyed it. And so I made this record, Emotional Rain in 94 with, and I, I, I loved the Sons of Freedom that, you know, and they were one of my, out of that movement, the one of the Canadian bands that I really adored and just made some phone calls. And I asked the rhythm section, Don Binns and Don Short, if they wanted to fly to Toronto and play on my album. And they were totally game. So they came out for that album. I brought up Nox Chandler

from the Psychedelic Furs from New York, because I wanted some different guitar tones and flavors on that album. And we made this really cool album called Emotional Rain. Out of that spawned a friendship with the Dons, the two Dons. And they said, if you ever want to do something completely different, come to Vancouver, meet Don Harrison. Another Don? How many Dons are there here? They're all called Don. Sorry, those are my dogs. That's okay. Your dog's not named Don too. I must be getting an Amazon package or something. Anyway, they said if you ever want to do something completely different, come out to Vancouver. In 1995, they said if you ever want to do something completely different come out to vancouver so in 1995 um i decided that that was a move i wanted to make you know after emotional rain um and you know the reception was a bit lukewarm for that album um

i i felt a little angry i have to honest, at the media and the industry, because it was sort of like, no, you are part of the old school hair metal 80s rock, you are not allowed to become, you are not allowed to continue into the 90s with a modern sound. And I'm going, God, like, I'm not even 30 yet. I'm still in my 20s. You know, how is this possible that I can be dismissed at this point? So I felt a little very disenfranchised by that. And I basically sold everything except my guitar and went out to Vancouver and wrote an album with the Sons of Freedom. So we lost you because of the Dons, essentially. The Dons are the reason that,

you know, we in the GTA lost Lee Aaron to Vancouver. Yeah, it was a variety of factors. But yeah, I just thought, you know what, I wasn't so concerned with commercial success at that point. I've made a lot of choices throughout the course of my career that weren't were me choosing not to just toe the party line you know um i have made some creative decisions that some people thought maybe were career disaster i you know i did jazz yeah yeah i was gonna say because there's the there's the this kind of just before the jazz era if you will of lee erin and then evelyn macko who's a radio personality in this neck of the woods who heard you were coming on also wanted me to know you like you were trained opera as well like you're not you know we think of you as this hard rock gal but you're far more eclectic than

that well again i went and made this kind of very very um alt rock record with Sons of Freedom called Too Precious. I'm still really proud of that record. I think it's some of the best writing that I ever did. And yeah, and then I did a jazz, more of a pure jazz record in 2000. I did it up like a more of a jazz hybrid kind of thing in 2004. In 2002, I was approached to be in a 12 tone Baroque opera. And yeah, I took that on as well. It's, you know, so I've made some interesting choices, which, you know, definitely took me out of sorry, my dog, you're gonna have to wait to go outside. Go away. Go lay down. It's okay. It's all part of the my dogs have to wait to go outside go away go lay down it's like it's okay it's all part of the my dogs are bothering me to go outside right now part of the pandemic charm

tell your dogs dogs we need just 10 minutes and then you'll be uh you'll be free to uh frolic but yeah you know i uh people that are in the know that they know that i've done some of this stuff you know um i think that in a weird way, it's part of the reason that I still have a career today is because people know that I'm not necessarily just a one trick pony, right, that I am capable of doing other things. And, you know, I'm also, you know, kind of a little bit of an engineering geek lately, too. You know, a lot of, I'm not, you know, I can't twiddle all the knobs on an SSL. But you know, I can work in logic, I've not many people know that I've produced my last five albums, you know. And that's sort of another thing that I am very, very interested in. I mean, I've learned from the best people in the

world, right. So, you know, and I think, I think all of that stuff has made me a better writer, a better singer, an all around better artist, because I've, I'm able to draw on many more influences than just, you know, my Motley Crue and Led Zeppelin records, you know? I know, I hear you. Amazing. Now, what inspired the Christmas album? Tell me about Almost Christmas. Well, I have many people to thank for the Christmas album. You know, number one, Sean Kelly, my guitar player,

phoned me up halfway through September. He says, oh, you know, like I'm bored, you know, and I'm like, I'm bored, too. You know, what are we going to do? We've done a few rocking from home videos. And he's like, let's make a Christmas album. Let's make that Christmas album we keep talking about. And I'm like, Yeah, let's do it. The problem is, we really should have started earlier. But we were like, can we pull this off? In six weeks? Can we do it? And we're like, okay, let's get to it. And then, of course, my husband is a musicologist.

He's got a record collection with, you know, thousands of – like we have about a quarter million vinyl albums in our home. What? What? Yes. How much space does that take up? We have a – well, we have a man cave like 250 000 albums are in your husband's collection i'm sorry a 250 000 albums are in your husband's collection yeah and probably about 20

000 cds and wow i don't know 10 000 classic films on dvd like it's uh when we're done i could take the computer in there and show you the room it's uh it's it's pretty insane it's we we had a we moved into a house that had a helicopter garage and then we blew that garage out another thousand square feet. And, um, wow. It's now a music library slash media room with a big, like a projection screen. And it's our, it's where we sort of, yeah, hang out as a family. So anyway, my husband has this immense library. Um, and, um, I, the first thing I said to him was I don't want to make no one needs to hear Leigh Aron sing Silent Night

again no one needs to hear me do Holly Jolly Christmas I mean these songs are done so many times so many different ways by so many different artists and yes there's that Christmas charm because they're tunes with familiarity,

but I figured if I was going to make a Christmas album, it had to be a cool little rock and roll Christmas record. And so I spent a weekend with John, just going through tunes until I landed on, you know, a curated selection of material that I felt was this was the record I wanted to make so I have John to thank for that because he had access to all this material I did pick the songs but right and then um and then yeah you know my everyone did their part we all recorded the tracks

in our own we all have pretty much the same setup in our homes for recording. And, and of course, my bass player, Dave, who's also a fantastic singer, I have to thank him because he came over to my house on a few occasions. And we, we did all the background vocals together. And yeah, and then of course, the wizard kid, Frank Greiner, Frank Greiner, you can Google him. He's M. Greiner's brother. I actually was about to say, any relation to M. Greiner, who's a good friend of the show? Wow. They're an uber-talented family. And I asked him when we first decided to do this, I said, look, we need somebody who's going to mix, master, do a video, put together, like he's put together all those composite Rockin' From Home videos for us and do the alum artwork.

And he's, honestly, he's like a genius boy. He can do it all. He's amazing. And so I have him to thank. He did that. Now there's a Rockin' From Home video for It Doesn't Often Snow at Christmas, which people can literally watch right now at leeharen.com. It's right there.

Can I play a bit of that just before I ask you a couple more Christmas album questions here? Just play a little bit of that. Sure, absolutely. guitar solo Christmas is not all it's cracked up to be Families fighting around a plastic tree There's nothing on the TV that you'd want to see

a TV that you'd want to see And it's hardly ever snowing the way it's meant to be Like in white Christmas year after year Bing Crosby Bing Crosby

Are you listening to me? It doesn't It sounds fantastic. And that's a Pet Shop Boys song it is I didn't know that until I heard your version and then I went back and then listened to Pet Shop Boys but it sounds great it's kind of amazing for someone like me who's not a musician to think that you guys are

building this song more or less like virtually like remotely like someone's doing one part and then somebody puts it together. Like it just sounds fantastic. Oh, thank you. Well, there were some challenges with doing it this way because,

um, you know, we were like, okay, where do we start? You know, and you know, my guitar player,

I said, well, what if you cut some tracks to a click track, then you send it out here and then I'll take it into to John and then all my, you know, I'll get it ready and I'll record the drum track. So I recorded drums here with John. Then I, you know, dumped all the tracks into my system. Then I put vocals on it. Then I sent it to Dave and Dave added a bass track. Then he sent it back to me. Then we had the everything. And then I said, now you need to come over and now we need to sing background vocals. And, uh, and as we were doing that,

Sean was also adding a few extra guitar parts as well. And then, uh, when all of that was done, then the final step was, um, when all the tracks were mostly done, then I sat down and listened to them all. And between Sean and I, we did all the keyboard parts on everything as well. So yeah, it was fun. Well done. Now, if somebody listening wants to hear more

and purchase some more of some Almost Christmas, is it leeharon.com where you'd like them to go? Yes. Well, for this year, because the album was just barely finished by the end of October, and then it went into manufacturing, like the actual album wasn't even, I wasn't able to pick up the actual discs from the manufacturer until like the 21st of November. And I'd already gotten a ton of pre-orders. We didn't have time to actually seek out a distribution deal this year

right um so what we decided to do this year was it's more of a gift for fans and friends if you want the album it's reasonably priced you can just go to learon.com and i we have fan packs and things available there um i think we are going to look for more widespread distribution for this album next christmas because when you make a christmas album it's evergreen you can sell it every year right right but um again it was sort of a special gift for fans and friends this year um so leon.com is where you can go to get that um but you yeah you can watch the video and i believe that our uh the single which is what you just played it goes live on Spotify tomorrow. Well, the timing's perfect here. And since we're now winding down, because I know your dogs need you, I do want to shout out DJ Dream Doctor, who's a listener of the program, who just wanted to

share with you, Lee, that he saw you at the Metal on Ice concert, and you were better than ever. He said you sounded amazing. So some nice words for you, DJ Dream Doctor. That's a great compliment. Thank you so much. It was a super fun project to do, that thing. And here's hoping that this awful pandemic subsides at some point in 2021. Maybe we all get vaccinated and we can start doing some things together where we all collect because I know a lot of your fans would love to see you live again. And I know all that is on hold temporarily. So hopefully there's a point in 2021 when we can all collect

and listen to see you live. That's the hardest thing I think about this pandemic. Well, besides, obviously, the industry being decimated right now and so much income loss for people. But someone asked me a couple of days ago, they said, oh, you know, they were talking to the gentleman that runs the Yamakamo. And he's like, oh, live streaming, you know, that's going to be the future. And I'm like, do you think that could be the future?

He asked me. I said, well, I think it's a temporary fix for the future. But there's, you know, there's an exchange of energy that happens between a live audience and a performer. And that's absolutely 100% irreplaceable. We need live music. I can't wait till it comes back. No, great point.

I close every episode of Toronto Mic'd with a song from a local band, Lowest of the Low, that was on Shakespeare My Butt. And I love seeing them live whenever they, you know, they play Toronto often. But they played the Horseshoe Tavern in a virtual show yesterday. And I actually like, I feel bad saying this because they're such good friends of the show and they know how much I love their music. And Ron Hawkins, I think it was his birthday yesterday,

of all things. But I simply don't, I love it live. Like, I just love that energy you describe. I love being there with everybody. We're all singing along. We all know the lyrics. We're all, like, one with the artist. There's something magic that happens

at a live musical event. I can't wait till it returns. I 100, it's called your mirror neurons in your brain. Oh, you're so smart. Like when you, yeah, when you're feeding off a real human and you can make eye contact, there's something that happens in your brain

that cannot happen with a screen. And I know this because I've studied a little brain science. So there you go. Lee, Erin, thanks so much for spending time with me today. You gave me over an hour, and I'm grateful. So thanks so much for this. Hey, it was an absolute pleasure. Let's do it again sometime.

Oh, we'd love to. Thank you. Okay, Take care. And that brings us to the end of our 761st show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Lee Aaron is at Lee Aaron Music. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta Sticker U is at Sticker U CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies Joanne Glutish is at J Glutish

That's G-L-U-D-I-S-H And Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley F-H See you all Tomorrow when my special guest is Erica M. Everything is kind of rosy and green. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the snow, snow, wants me to dance. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy and green. Well, you've been under my skin for more than eight years. Thank you. For me and you But I'm a much better man For having known you Oh, you know that's true

Because everything is coming up Rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Won't speed the day And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away

Because everything is Rosy and green And your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away. Cause everything is rosy and green. Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day. But I wonder who, yeah, I wonder who. Maybe the one who doesn't realize There's a thousand shades of grey Cause I know that's true Yes, I do I know it's true, yeah

I know it's true How about you? Are they picking up trash And then putting down ropes? And they're brokering stocks, the class struggle explodes And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can Maybe I'm not and maybe I am But who gives a damn? Because everything is coming up

Rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Warms me today And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Because everything is

Rosy and green Well I've kissed you in France And I've kissed you in Spain And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down On Chaclacour But I like it much better going down on you

Yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up Rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Warms us today And your smile is fine and it's just like mine And it won't go away

Cause everything is rosy now Everything is rosy, yeah Everything is rosy and gray, yeah, yeah