Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Liona Boyd: Toronto Mike'd #910

Episode Date: September 6, 2021

Mike chats with the First Lady of the Guitar Liona Boyd about her life and career, from Gordon Lightfoot to Popcorn.

Welcome to episode 910 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. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Chef Drop, access top chef and restaurant prepared meal kits shipped across the GTH-A. Save 20% now with promo code FOTM20. McKay CEO Forums, the highest impact and least time intensive peer group for over 1200 CEOs, executives and business owners

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and joining me this week is the first lady of the guitar, Leona Boyd. Thank you. Welcome to Toronto Mic'd, Leona Boyd. Hi, Mike. Nice to meet you. What a pleasure this is for me, and I really appreciate you making some time for me on your Labor Day Monday. Thank you. And thank you for playing Popcorn Remix, even though you didn't play it to the end. Well, actually, it's playing in the background.

You can't hear that on the Zoom because it favors the voice uh the voice over the the music i'm playing but i'm i i played it on the the most recent episode of toronto mic'd with mark weisblot we played it and i also shared it on twitter and i'm being completely honest with you you can ask my wife i have been playing this often i love this can you maybe we open by you sharing with me, like, what inspired you to kind of remix Popcorn? And then if you don't mind, tell me a bit about the video. Well, I never recorded it in the first place. As you know, it was a huge disco hit back in the 60s and 70s. It was all electronic music.

It was kind of revolutionary, written by Gershon Kingsley, who's now no longer with us. And in fact, I tried to get arranging rights, but they wouldn't give it to me. And I had recorded it for an album I was doing many years ago called Camino Latino. But it never made it onto the album because it wasn't really Latin enough. And interestingly enough, I've just finished another whole Latin album. And it's perfect. Even though it's not Latin, it has a Spanish intro, as you just played.

And I always remembered it as such a happy piece. And during this pandemic, Lord knows we need happy music. And I hear disco is coming back. And I thought, oh, this would be really fun to try and redo, rework it all. And my producer, oh, this would be really fun to try and redo, rework it all. And my producer, Peter Bond, I think he did an amazing job just making it, you know, it's beefed up.

It's got more instruments. We did some things. We did a video, and that was a lot of fun. You saw the video, right? I was prancing around in six-inch heels and on the beach here, Palm Beach, but most of it was filmed in Toronto. And the editor was able to incorporate some of my father's art,

some of my art, and we had this funky, I guess it was an art studio. So that wasn't my father's art on the wall. I think they were just basically testing uh cameras whoops my mac seems to have gone out that's okay you sound great uh and i can still see you can you hear me oh i just had to put the password in that's very strange very strange oh well florida power is on and off all the time okay so you're in florida now. I was going to point out the fact that like many Torontonian, you come via London, but not London, Ontario. You're coming from London, England.

London, England. That's why I still say strawberry and water. We came on an ocean line years ago. My parents at first hated Toronto, then they went back again to England with us. And then we all came back and they ended up settling. Sadly, I lost my mother this year. She was 95 and my father a few years ago. But it's sad without parents. I miss them every day. But, you know, I'm a boat person. They were adventurous and I think they instilled in me

the sense of adventure. And so I'm always willing to try something different. Look at my career, it's had so many different phases. I'm always experimenting musically, working on new ideas. Now I'm working with a young singer from Dominican Republic who lives in Toronto, Anna Lea. She's recording on Friday. So I do a lot of virtual and my producer will be recording a new song I wrote. And we'll have this whole new Latin style album. It's almost all instrumental. I'm really pumped up about it because it's so, it's different than anything I've ever done.

And Popcorn's just the first. Universal Music said just release one at a time. There's no rush. So I was thinking it'd be out for Christmas, but they advised me bring it out January, February. Okay. So that's what we're doing. And then I have another, well, I'll talk to you about later,

another whole project after that that's already completed. Okay. Firstly, my condolences on the loss of your mother. I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sorry. It's already completed. Okay. Firstly, my condolences on the loss of your, your mother. I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sorry. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And so she was so involved in my career. I can't imagine. I haven't, I haven't had to go through that yet, but I'm, I'm just so sorry. It's a long time. So sorry to hear that.

But, and also one other thing you mentioned about the boats and I was going to ask you, and even before I ask this question, I will just preface all this to say that as I dive into your life and career, I realize you might be the most, most interesting person in the world.

Like, I mean, we need secret, like, like we don't have time to cover everything in this chat because you probably don't want to sit there for seven hours. So, essentially, I'm going to have... I wrote two books about my life, but I've had more adventures and crazy things than anybody I know.

I've got to say that. Well, I'm surprised. Like, I mean, I'll just pepper you with some random notes here and there, but I'm surprised that you would still love the water so much, considering what happened to you when you were eight years old. Because, right? I was reading. Yeah.

So tell me, like, you're on a Greek ocean liner and with, I guess, the SS Columbia. What happens when you're eight years old? Oh, it's a big adventure. We loved it. But yes, we were in a hurricane. We almost all drowned. And we were with a lot of other immigrant families. We stopped in Ireland and there were so many kids.

And in the middle of the Atlantic, this awful hurricane came and our captain had to make this decision because it was another boat that was going down. And they called, in fact, he got, there was a big trial afterwards. He got court-martialed and the other boat sank and everybody drowned.

But our boat, which was on its last voyage, it was an ancient Greek liner that my parents had got a deal, you know, the post-war mentality. And my mother was that way to the end. She didn't want to spend one penny on anything. She would look aghast at some of the great extravagances that I had, like buying a house in Palm Beach. But she stayed here with me and enjoyed it.

And I took her all over the world, and my father, too. Anyway, but as a kid, you don't worry. You just go with the flow, right? It was an adventure. We used to hang out with the Greek right it was an adventure we used to um hang out with the greek sailors and watch them throwing food over and the swimming pool would slosh around and um i couldn't eat pink ice cream in fact i still don't like it because every night at dinner we we little english kids were given this great tree of pink ice cream.

And then we went back on another ship, and I won first prize and second prize for art. So both my parents are artists. And every trip was sort of an adventure. We had no money at all. My parents had given this guitar that we got in Spain, my mother had had the foresight, no idea that I would ever play it.

She just brought it as a souvenir and asked my father to carry it on his back. Do you have an old instrument like that? I wish, no. That dates back to childhood? It was like $5. And that started it all. But prior to that, right, you and your sister Vivian,

you guys played the Blue Bells of Scotland on your recorders, right? Oh, yes, we did. I must have wanted to be a performer. I didn't really know it because I was a bit nervous. I was sort of indignant when an Irish tenor won and we didn't. And I used to go carol singing in Canada too with my frozen fingers, playing melodica. I never sang um but I was

always wanting new experiences in life and I've had much more scary things than a hurricane I've been I took seven Concorde flights and we lost an engine in the middle of the Atlantic and oh no I've been in earthquakes fires floods the Malibu fire, earthquakes in Tokyo and the Northridge earthquake in LA. That's much more scary than a hurricane. Well, like I said, honestly, your life and times in your career are just fascinating. I'm going to read a question. When I said Leona Boyd's coming on Toronto Mic'd, I got several questions from listeners. And I'm just going to sprinkle them throughout. But this is a good time because here we are talking about the origin story

and you talk about that guitar you received. And I mentioned on that ocean liner sailing from England to Canada, you and Vivian did not win, but you did play the Blue Bells of Scotland in a talent competition. Andrew Ward wants me to ask you about, well, I'll read what he wrote. A single concert changed Leona's life when she saw Julian Bream. Ask her about the experience and ask her if she ever got to meet Julian.

Oh, yes. I met Julian many times after he passed away, sadly, as almost everybody in my autobiography has by now, because a lot were older, of course, all my teachers are dead now. But my mother took me to, it was the Old Eden's Auditorium, what is it, the Carlaw, and we sat there, I'd never heard a whole classical guitar concert. It was half lute and half guitar, and that was the moment.

My life changed. I fell in love with the sound. I loved the shape, the simplicity, and then when I got my own guitar that they gave me for Christmas, my parents gave me that old $5 guitar. I liked the smell of it. I liked the sensuous feel of it, holding it. I loved the repertoire.

It was just my thing, you know. Sure, like I did recorder and I did clarinet and oboe, but none of those felt as romantic and as perfect for me as the guitar. And that guitar, it took me on, got me in trouble. But it introduced me to people all over the world. People, nothing to do with music, like Sir Edmund Hillary and I did a show together or Mike Nichols sat with me on the Concours.

I met movie stars, musicians, politicians. Of course, I played for politicians. I had to state and dictators and princes and kings all over the world because of my music the other day I sent Popcorn my new single to he's like a king in India he owns the palace in the lake have you ever heard of that and he also has another big palace in Udaipur and he said they're all playing it over there I said we'll get it onto some Bollywood film that would be great And he also has another big palace in Udaipur. And he said, they're all playing it over there. I said, well, get it onto some Bollywood film.

That would be great. Wow. All this from the guitar. And you took off like a rocket around the world. But I'm going to just go. So that concert changed my life. Thank you, listener, who asked that. It really was. It was the moment that.

So that's why I always want people to bring their kids to concerts because it can change. Even if you don't become a concert artist, they can introduce you to classical music and good music and could change their life too. And even before you're performing at Carnegie Hall, which I've got to ask you how you get to Carnegie Hall. But... Practice.

That's right. Practice. I mean, even little things, like when you're a student, you're busking in Nice and then you're taking the Orient Express to Paris. This is all just like, even before you're a global phenomenon,

you're living this life. Wow. I took a lot of risks. If you read my book, I escaped from this rapist who bolted the door and locked me in almost like a dungeon, but I got out of it. Well, much like your beloved fur baby who was in that video, right? If we watch the video for popcorn, Muffin is in there, right? Yes, my beloved Muffin.

He's on my iPhone. I was going to say you have nine lives as well, but please continue. I have a book I wrote about Muffin called The Cat Who Played Guitar and Laura Fernandez, she hosts a program on Jazz FM in Toronto. And she's a dear friend of mine.

She's from Madrid. She's a fantastic illustrator of cats particularly, but she does everything. And she's illustrated my book. So hopefully by Christmas, the cat who played guitar will be out. Children's book, all in poetry. So I'm very proud of that.

Muffin will live forever well i have a couple of children who would love that book so uh well done the same view a copy absolutely actually i'm i i one of my uh i produce podcasts for other people and one of the gentlemen is peter gross who was forever peter gross was on city tv in toronto and 680 news he wrote a children's book called the boy who Turned Into a Cat. I feel like your book and his book would be a great double feature. Well, in the Canada Reads thing, I picked a book called Cone Cat, and I held that up to try and promote children reading Canadian authors.

Excellent. I mean, I love writing. I've always loved writing. If you look on my website, there's some of my poetry. And I should put some extracts from my book because, I mean, these books took me a long time to write and I got amazing quotes from people. And I was always a top student in English literature.

But songwriting, which I only started, what, just over 10 years ago because I was purely a top student in English literature. But songwriting, which I only started just over 10 years ago because I was purely classical before that, is like telling a story, but you've got to do it in four minutes. Maybe sometimes five, mostly three. And every little word counts. I remember sitting with Leonard Cohen when I lived in L.A. He was a friend of mine, never a romantic connection because I was married then. I used to fantasize about him sometimes.

But we both loved Garcia Lorca poetry and we shared, you know, played each other our latest songs. That's another great one who's gone. And he had translated one, Take This Waltz, and I complimented him because he actually made it better than the original. Some of his imagery, even though I love Spanish, even better. The sound of Spanish, I'm crazy about, I'm fluent in it. But London improved on Garcia Lorke, Spain's greatest poet. I've always loved words and writing. Maybe there'll be another book in future. Well, I was going to say,

depending on how much you enjoyed this experience we're having right now, I can tell you I would do a six-part miniseries with Leona Boyd. That's how many things I want to ask you about. But you mentioned Leonard Cohen, who I love and adore and miss, and what a legend in Canada. So let me ask you about a Canadian musical legend who's still with us. Gordon Lightfoot.

Gordon Lightfoot. It's like you can read my notes over here. Read your mind. I read your mind. Help me with the timelines. You released your first album in 1974. Is that right? Yes.

You played Carnegie Hall in 1975. I'd been studying in Paris before that. Suddenly, when a career takes off, you've got to hang on because suddenly you're all over the world. Is that about when you opened for Gordon Lightfoot? Is that after you performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City?

I think so. I'm not always good at remembering. Yes, it was afterwards, I believe. I had won the Canadian National Music Competition, and Eleanor Snyderman, the wife of Sam Snyderman, Sam the record man, had wanted me to record, but I said I wasn't ready. I'm going to go and study in Paris. And she'd given my LP when it came out to Gordon

and invited me to Junior Awards. And then I think what happened is Colleen Peterson had canceled. Poor thing. I think she was ill ill and he called me. I was in Minneapolis with a boyfriend I had at that time. No, sorry, not Minneapolis. I was in LA, San Francisco. I've got to get these places right. Yes, I was in San Francisco and he wanted me to go to Minneapolis in two days' time and play for 5,000 people twice in a row every night. and play for 5,000 people twice in a row every night.

I'd never played for more than about 300. But I did it. And then he took me on tour for two years for the opening act. It was great. I loved Gordon. I wrote a song called Lightfoot that he appreciated so much, but it had a bad consequence in my life in a way.

Unlucky, unfortunate, but part of life experience. I was so excited, Mike, about having written this song right here in this house. Yes. I went running into my garage with this melody in my head, and life is going to love it. I had the idea of using all these great lines. I got permission later from the publishers.

And I fell on a piece of cardboard that had been left by my handyman who was cutting coconuts earlier that day. I crashed down, broke my shoulder and my knee. It was completely helpless. I couldn't even, I screamed until I was hoarse. They flew me back, and I was operated at St. Mike's. After four days waiting here, they had a learjet waiting to take me back. Bless my insurance company.

And then I had rehab at Bridgepoint, which ironically I played at the opening of Bridgepoint, never thinking I'd be a patient there. Right. And it was really hard. I had pain and, oh God, doing the physiotherapy and my knee was in two parts and my shoulder was in three parts, but at least my hands were okay. And I finished that song actually in Bridgepoint Hospital, a rehab. But no, Gordon is

still going there and he was great to me. He took me on all his shows there in the 70s and always brought me out at the end to thank me and his... You know, these days kids wouldn't listen to classical guitar. I was not playing

anything familiar to them i wasn't even playing malagueño or granada or something like that i was playing debussy and bach and abeynit but very very classical yet in the 70s my generation was open to music and poetry and long classical guitar we had a couple of bad experiences, like Denver when everybody got rained out and a little bit of booing because the sound system broke. Hopefully when things return to normal, we get to enjoy the reopening of Massey Hall with Gordon Lightfoot.

Yes, yes, I played Massey Hall, and I remember one of the moments where I thought I'd really arrived was when my father came very excitedly back to the dressing room where I was tuning my guitar. He said, they're scalping your tickets outside. They're scalpers. Oh, wow. I've had my rock star moments in Lisbon, too. I mean, I had this arena with everybody clapping along. I thought, oh, this is when I went out. Screams. It must be like what Mick Jagger feels when you go out. Or ABBA.

Have you heard the two new ABBA songs? Not the new ones, no. I should check these out. You haven't? I don't think so. They are amazing. They're playing in rotation on my head. I mean, after 40 years, they came back.

My producer told me about them. I looked them up. They're amazing. ABBA was always one of my favorite groups. Oh, for sure. In fact, we had the same promoter, concert promoter, Knud Thornsson, who did my concerts in Denmark and was their agent for a while.

And so I have a postcard to Leona from all the members. Signed it. So I think that's a real treasure. And I've always loved ABBA, especially to do exercises too. Well, here's the connection to what's happening now is that ABBA, of course, recorded Waterloo. And after our conversation today, I'm driving to Waterloo. Oh, yes.

I've done that many times because my sister lives in Kitchener. Oh, yeah. And my mother was living in Kitchener. And my duo partner, Andrew, bless him. Andrew, so sorry we're not touring anymore. We had such a great run. We did the whole PBS Winter Fantasy TV special. Plus Andrew Dawson.

He lives in Waterloo. So I'm well connected with KW and played with the orchestra there many years ago. Take care on that highway. I don't like driving big highways anymore. Oh, I know. I'm with

you, but my boy moved. He's there for school, so he moved yesterday to Waterloo, and I'm there to check out his new digs and take him out for lunch basically oh what a good daddy oh by the way quick side note before i forget i have these little tangents that come to my head but you mentioned eleanor snyderman right that's the uh sam's wife eleanor is also mother to uh a member of jason. Yes, who was a member of Blue Peter, which was a great new wave band here in Canada in the early to mid 80s.

Oh, I don't even know that. Yeah, they... I met the two sons, yeah. Later you can Google Blue Peter and you might walk this, not walk this way, Don't Walk Past is one of their big jams, but check it out.

He's very talented. Oh, wow. Oh, and while we're in the 70s. Those were back in the days. They brought the Toronto Star and the Global Mail Critic to my New York debut. And it's important in a classical career to get those quotes, I guess. Sure. But that all seems so long ago now.

Well, we're going to. My world has changed. Even Prince Philip, my pen pal, passed away this year. He almost made it to 100. I was so privileged to be his pen pal for 35 years. I was going to ask how long did you have that pleasure? So I'm curious with pen pals, because I haven't had one since I was a kid, to be honest with you.

But what is it? How frequently do you send each other a letter with pen pals, because I haven't had one since I was a kid, to be honest with you. But what is it? How frequently do you send each other a letter with pen pals? Well, past tense now. You know, every couple of months, or if I was traveling, I'd send him postcards. I visited a few times at the owner of a play. And when he told me, he didn't think he had long to live, so I rushed over to England and took advantage of being in London to visit all my old childhood places and played for my

old grammar school I took my guitar and played them one of the Canadiana pieces I had composed and they loved it very different going back to your old school. Everything looked smaller. All the girls were in hijabs. Quite different. But the headmistress, remember? And what was I going to say? No, it's just... But you had to say goodbye to a dear friend. I went to Windsor.

I was in London, and I was in Windsor Castle having tea with Prince Philip. And I knew it was the last time I'd ever Windsor. I was in London, and I was in Windsor Castle having tea with Prince Philip, and I knew it was the last time I'd ever see him. I recited him a cynical poem I'd written about Palm Beach, I remember, and I played him a song I'd written called I Prefer the World of Yesterday, and he nodded in agreement. And then he was very kind because he sent a message through his secretary

before he went into the hospital, just sending condolences to my sister and I on the death of our mother. He was so thoughtful. He once sent a telegram to my former husband and I about the earthquake in L.A. and hoped our house was still standing. Of course it was, but we were shaken. our house was still standing. Of course it was, but we were shaken. And you'll soon be so in love with Toronto We'll see Chinatown and Harbourfront and Old Fort York We'll take in Papendam Fort's busy scenes We can sail the lake and stroll the beach's boardwalk

Or bike the Don Valley's beautiful ravines Exciting news for all FOTMs. John Valley's beautiful ravines. Exciting news for all FOTMs. You can save 20% right now on your first order at chefdrop.ca. The promo code is FOTM20. This is valid for the month of September. I urge you to do it now. Never compromise on food quality.

Chef Drop, made with love. Again, 20% off if you use the promo code FOTM20. Tell all your friends. Tell the whole bunch. Did you know Mike Majewski is number 14 in all of Canada when it comes to Remax sales representatives. That's right. The Remax Majeski Group serves the GTA. If you go to realestatelove.ca,

you can reach out to Mike, thank him for buying you a beer at TMLX8, and talk to him about real estate. He helps people buy and sell in the GTA. And he's a good man. Speaking of good people, Ridley Funeral Home. They've been pillars of this community since 1921. Go to RidleyFuneralHome.com.

Reach out to Brad Jones and the group of great people at Ridley. They're there to help. Give them a shout. Ridley. They're there to help. Give them a shout. And finally, I'd like to thank the good people at McKay CEO Forums. They have a fantastic podcast called the CEO Edge Podcast. I post a new episode on torontomike.com every single Wednesday. I urge you to download, subscribe to McKay CEO forums podcast. Nancy McKay has fireside chats with inspiring CEOs and executives. I know you'll love it the way Leona Boyd loves Toronto. Let's get ball. Argos. Rosters. Show me what you want to. Toronto.

Toronto. I love. You love. We love Toronto. Yes, show me what you want to. Toronto. Toronto. We all love Toronto.

So I want to show you Toronto. I want you to know Toronto. Our city welcomes you There's so much you to do And you'll soon be so in love with Toronto Yes, you'll soon be so in love With Toronto With so many of your friends and mentors

and teachers passing away, and now that your parents are gone, does that sense of loss, do you find it cathartic to channel that into your music? Is that where you would compartmentalize that grieving? Well, yes. Thank God I have music. well yes thank god i have music and before my parents before my mother passed away i i held a 90th birthday for her and i wrote a song called thank you for the life you gave to me which i know she appreciated and i'd written a piece called song for my mother so that was something but with my father the song i wrote about him, he never got to hear it.

But yeah, I sometimes feel a bit lost and adrift these days. I've had joint nationality, Canadian and American. The reason I'm not in Canada right now, because usually I would be. I mean, actually, it's the best month, and I'm usually always back. It's just I feel a bit safer with the COVID situation. Not that Florida is a good place to be.

That's why I'm mostly recluse here. I go swimming every day, but I don't socialize a lot. I got my booster shot, by the way. Oh, is that your third? Just recovered. My third, yeah. See, I got mine early in February. Right, right.

And they say it's worn off. Are they going to give third booster shots to you in Canada? They haven't decided, but literally this morning, I was listening to Metro Morning here on CBC Radio, and I was hearing them talk about the difference between those in America who got their vaccinations

three weeks apart in, let's say, February or something. Meanwhile, us Canadians, I got my second shot June, so at some point in June, and there was eight weeks between my first and second shot, and they said that's giving you a lot more coverage against the Delta variant. So I don't think they've made a decision on this in Canada yet. It's just less dire here because of the delay.

Canadians are more compliant than these crazy Americans. Yeah, but you're in Florida. Florida's different. I mean, they had some game yesterday with 87,000 people without masks crammed together in a sports arena. I dread to think.

Yeah, at this point... Hopefully they'll find some antibody cure in the future. I was listening to 60 Minutes last night, and the scientists are working away on something that will eradicate all viruses. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Because it's awful. We can't travel.

I'm usually in Europe, actually, at this time. Well, this is kind of... Yes, music is my therapy. And I've been writing up a storm and I'm delighted how popcorn has sort of taken off and is reaching all over now. And every day it goes up on Spotify, on Amazon, on YouTube. And lots of lovely comments.

So thank you. If any of you have left a comment and a thumbs up, I appreciate it. And I reply to most of the comments. If there's anything detailed, I can... And for the record, while we're talking about your comments, when there's a tweet from your Twitter account, you're the one typing, right?

This is actually you. Yes. Okay. At one point, Eric alpo was posting something but no it's me now it's you now only checking in because you sometimes with these uh global superstars you know you think you're you're hearing from the artist and it turns out it's some team of uh pr people or something but yeah like my friend olivia i shouldn't say this she has people doing it for her. Very common.

It's actually me. Well, I loved your tweet yesterday. I don't do, yeah. It was just you, I guess you were in a hot tub by the beach, and you look so like, no wonder you're staying there during the COVID. Yeah, with my pina colada. I thought, oh, this is a good selfie moment. Hope you don't mind.

No, I loved it. And I love knowing 100% that it's you taking that photo and tweeting. Oh, yeah, that was me. I was with my iPhone like this. Okay. I got my bikini on and I was just taking my legs and my toes and put the pina colada. Beautiful.

All right. Now, Leona, I'm still in the 70s. I know you want me to, I'm going to, trust me, we're going to jump around here. But while we're in the 70s, I have a couple of notes from listeners. One is named Paul. And Paul was telling me all about some incident that happened on the Alan Hamill show, although it might have been the Alan Thicke show.

He can't remember. Oh, I knew both of them, yeah. Yeah, you did right. Now, it was the unknown comic was, I don't know, wanted to, if I may be blunt with you here, wanted to see your breasts behind your guitar, and you were not impressed with this crass behavior. Do you have any memories of this?

Yeah, I vaguely do because your guitar of course covers up it comes up usually um and I think that he made some joke maybe I was wearing a low-cut dress as I'm wants to do over the years until they start hanging down I'd like to have they called Taj like the French women. I remember my grandmother always said, oh, pull your blouse down. Good. She was this feisty old Spanish lady from Bilbao. I used to love staying with my grandmother.

So, yeah, the unknown comic, he probably did do that, but it reminds me, I had so many much, I had so many, much worse than that. God, that was tame. Me Too movements and Me Too incidents. Well, share with me because I'm curious about you because I remember, I'm a little bit younger than you, not much younger than you,

but I do recall growing up in the 80s that you were not like any other classical guitarist. You were the sexy classical guitarist, if I may be. The pioneer. Right. Pioneer. I sat on the white horse. People still remember that and they showed my leg.

I guess it's a thing. I'm still doing it, right? But what a photo. What a photo. Thank you. In Andalusia. I'm still doing it, right? But what a photo. What a photo. Thank you. In Andalusia. I suffered for that photo, sitting on the horse with a little gypsy boy holding the hooves together because he kept wanting to roar. Oh, it was dangerous. Yeah, no.

In Paris, they wouldn't release my album because they thought it was just far too sexy. But, I mean, even in Toronto I had to escape from Super Dave Osborne in his hotel room. Yeah, good old Toronto the Good. So these Me Too things happened to me throughout my entire career. Bob Einstein. So Bob Einstein, who's Albert Brooks' brother,

and of course, yeah, in Aging Court is where he filmed. I guess he started on Bizarre and then he had his own show. I wouldn't tell the story if he hadn't passed away, and I didn't. But do tell, because the Me Too movement, which is now trying to, what's the term, basically create balance in the universe here. Share with us, because it's important we hear this.

So you had an issue with Super Dave Osborne in a Toronto hotel room. Yeah, he lured me over for dinner. I did the show twice. The owner, I've got this idea, I've got this concept, a whole special that you can host on guitar, and you can have different guests, and I have the money to do it, and we'll fund it, and it'll be on network, and I was intrigued, and I have the money to do it and we'll fund it and it'll be on network and I was intrigued

and come over to dinner to discuss it. So naive me, even after all my hundreds of me too moments in the music business because I was basically in a man's world. I naively go to the hotel. I look for him in the restaurant. He's not there.

I called him. Somehow connected. He said, oh, no, I've ordered room service. Immediately the red flag went off. He said, I'm too tired. I'm just going to be in my room. Come up to the room. I thought, oh, dear.

But anyway, I wanted the TV special. So there he was in his robe robe just like the other guys had been with the dinner but I was hungry and I thought well damn it surely he's well known he's not going to pounce on me and we spent about an hour discussing all the details of the TV show

me still a little bit alert and sure enough he grabbed me after and I had to fight my way out out of the room and push him away and he's a big big guy so it ended badly and of course i never heard from him i think he invented the whole tv thing just to get me that's awful look leona that's awful that's the better taste yeah but i've had so had so many of those with TV producers and music people and my records didn't come out

in certain countries because I wouldn't comply with the demands of the label people. I must say I'm with a nice team now at Universal Music. They've been doing a great job getting all my music on iTunes and around the world and promoting the video and they made a Vimeo thing.

But in the past, it was really difficult for women, especially in a male-dominated music business. I stormed out of, I remember his name, Robert Pearlstein. He was the little worm of a guy who was the lawyer for CPS Masterworks. And he was just jealous and hated women. And he said, why do you need royalties, Leona? You're a woman. I walked out. I slammed the door.

Good for you. And then when I left CPS, he got fired and he invited me to lunch. And he said, Leona, I want to take you to lunch. I thought, oh, why would I ever want to see that creepy guy again? He said, I'm going to tell you all the royalties we never paid you, and I can represent you to get back all the money. So I thought, you know, I'm not exactly going light for it. It's not millions of dollars.

It's probably a few thousand here and there. And so I, oh, no, I did go to lunch with him, but with a very bad taste in my mouth. And he told me, yes, we keep double books here and blah, blah, blah. And then he sent me the bill for the lunch. Oh! And I never, yeah, I didn't pursue it. Wow.

I wasn't brought up as a really materialist, grabbing every penny. I mean, I'm delighted the way my music has generated royalties. And now with all these streaming services, it's amazing how it's not the same as selling CDs, where I used to, of course. Leona, firstly, I'm sorry. I mean, very lucky, very lucky. I'm sorry for all that you had to endure there and I'm sure you have

a hundred stories like that throughout your career and it hopefully things are improving now here we are talking in 2021

I think I'm sure they are I'm sure they are men are very on guard maybe poor men are afraid to even give you a hug these days I don't like that

when the pendulum swings too far. I just want you to know. Johnny Costner was always pawing people. I remember him pawing Julio Iglesias, who's one of my all-time favorites. Poor guy's pretty old now. He looks as bad as Gordon almost.

But he's very touchy-feely, and the Italians are like that, right? So now men are afraid to be flirtatious and I think that's sad, but I agree. The Bob Weinstein, thank God I never met him. No, yeah. Yeah, Weinstein for sure. I think it's funny. Who's the other one I'm thinking of? The one that used to drug everybody. Bill. Bill Cosby.

Bill Cosby. Oh my God that that is really unforgivable doing that i don't think i've ever been drugged oh my goodness i haven't now here let's let's let's let me read uh this is a quote from you i believe you wrote this it's definitely in your words uh so i'm going to read this verbatim and then we're going to have a little chat about this it's i feel like uh once you put it in your, it becomes fair game to chat about. I don't think it's no longer a secret here. I only tell the truth in my book. Skinny dipping and canoeing with my boyfriend of eight years,

Pierre Trudeau, at his country estate at Harrington Lake, Quebec, sneaking past the press in a dark wig in order to meet up without being recognized and being smuggled out of Sussex Drive one morning under a pile of coats. That's a doozy. That's a doozy, Leona. That was fun.

Yes, we were stopped at the exit from Sussex Drive and the world press around, so I was hiding under all these coats that he and the RCMP, the driver, had put on top of me. And then I emerged once we were on the highway. Pierre and I always had lots of good giggles and the summer conference was fun too because there were all these walkie-talkie

toting secret service people we got we found a backstack case and yeah I used to have to deceive the press because we didn't I mean I I was entitled to date him I was single he was uh he was so why the secrecy like like why why the secrecy at the time? He didn't, well, he was, you know, always in, he just didn't want more distractions. He also was not particularly faithful to me, and that was the reason I left him. See, I ended up leaving them all for one reason or another,

but Pierre, I just really wasn't madly, madly in love. I was very honored that he wanted me to have his daughter. He was convinced I'd have a daughter, not a son. I said, maybe I'll have a son. And I knew all his boys. I knew Justin. We used to go in the woods looking for salamanders and rumping around with his short-lived term.

He had a dog called Newfie. We'd often go in the woods. He was a nature boy. Pierre liked to run around naked. I would love to know if anybody here has parents that remember once we all were naked in Rosedale. I mean, you can't imagine it now in a pool. I had a towel around me and quickly slipped into the pool ASAP.

Pierre was parading around stock naked. And so were lots of other Rosedale society people, but I have no clue where it was or whose home it was. And it must've been in about 77, 78. I don't know. I mean, I was so busy those days. I was dating Pierre and I was touring with Lightfoot. And we were just platonic friends, of course.

And then I was doing lots of international concerts, zooming off to South America and to Europe. I don't know. I just didn't sleep, I think. That's why I crammed so much into those years. My schedule is insane in that time. So to be clear, though, because Jean Valaitis had a question about you and Pierre Trudeau,

but I think you've been very clear here. You were lovers for eight years, you and Pierre Trudeau. Okay. Yeah. And, I mean, you wrote about, you know, in 1981, you performed at the G7 conference, and you talk about basically, you know, sitting at the table with Pierre Trudeau,

who was our prime minister, and Ronald Reagan, who was president of the United States, and Margaret Thatcher would be there. Like, what a life. Yeah, and I was holding hands with Pierre. I was showing his board and Reagan looked over and gave me a wink I was translating

and then I read Margaret's book she'd accused him of having hired his girlfriend to play and he said no no no Margaret I had two so I guess he had something going with Tiago Ster too.

I would get upset about that. He introduced me to two of his other maîtresses. I'm sure Justin is not like that at all. But Pierre, he just felt entitled. So I just couldn't. And also, I didn't like his house in Montreal. It was too cold.

I didn't like his swimming pool. So was too cold I didn't like his swimming pool so after that I lived for eight years after eight years of Pierre I lived with Joel Bell for eight years and Joel was great I was doing so many concerts around the world I play after Kathmandu and he joined me and I did tours all over India and took my mother on a lot of the tours. But no, Pierre, I mean, it was a pretty serious relationship and he was very upset when I decided to leave him. But he would take other lovers and that was like a deal breaker for you at some point, I suppose, that he would have other lovers. Yeah, I got to read in my book with Karen Kane and I still to this day don't really know whether he had an affair with Karen Kane.

He just wanted her as his prima ballerina. But I spent a whole weekend with him. Then he had her. So that was one moment I was just, I started crying. I was furious with Pierre. I didn't think I'd ever see him again. And he's calling up, talking to my mother. Oh, I'm sorry, Leona.

Leona, forgive me. We spoke French. But it was thanks to him I hung out with Fidel Castro for two hours in Havana. Right. And Pierre did help introduce me to all kinds of people. And I played, you know, I met Margot Thatcher. I played, right, the first booking I got was James Callahan uh the Prime Minister of England but since then I played for all kinds of royalty and King and Queen of Spain he started the ball

rolling and then I met some others on my own sure too wow wow others just chance meeting in airports you know um like say Ron McLean and Don Cherry. I just met them in the airport lounge and then Ron was such a sweetheart he came and sang on this patriotic song I did called Canada, My Canada. Anyway, I've had such a varied amount of music but now this

disco-y pop, popcorn hit, I'm going to bring it back to that. People keep saying, this is the best thing you've ever done. And I think, well, I don't know if it's the best thing I've ever done. I've done so many other things. That's not what they mean. I can tell you what they mean. And I'm sorry for interrupting you because I know you're mid-sentence.

But I believe it's one of the most accessible things you've ever done. Yes. I will say it. I listen to a lot of stuff I listen to. It would be like Blue Peter or 90s Canadian alternative rock. Like that's sort of my my sweet spot. I like to listen to lowest of the low and rusty and, you know, I'll listen to like Our Lady Peace or something and and Tragically Hip. But when popcorn is completely catchy and infectious and a reimagining of this, like you right it's about 50 years old that song and it's a reimagining and it's totally accessible whereas i feel sometimes your music is so good but

almost not the word i don't want to i don't want to use a pretentious but i feel intimidated by it not pretentious i feel intimidated by it because it's like it's for people who appreciate this this this true wonderful like i find it intimidating for me who you will love the new album then the new album and the videos a lot of which i filmed here i'm not intimidating they're just great melodies and not pretentious that was the wrong word rhythms no but i know you mean too high brow yes sometimes you don't a little bit like uh a crowd that I don't typically hang with and feel comfortable with. Yeah, no, I get it.

Of course. I've lived in this rarefied world that very few people have had the privilege to live in. Well, even talking to you on Zoom. Last night when I was going to bed, I actually had this, and I never have this. This is episode 910, and I think I rarely have this feeling, but I had this whole, like, I hope I don't disappoint Leona Boyd, because you're in this stratosphere

that I rarely, like, typically, I will have a, Ron McLean will come over and chat with me for a couple of hours, and I'm comfortable there. But now, now this is like, this is the big leagues here. We got to talk to Leona Boyd today. The Order of Canada and everything. Oh, my goodness. No, to talk to Leo Nagoi today. Order of Canada and everything. Oh my goodness. No, I never became a prima donna.

I'm just a little immigrant kid who fell in love with music and I've had this amazing life. And yeah, they should do a documentary on me. By the way, if anybody listening here knows how to get onto TikTok, I have a cute little video of my niece dancing to TikTok in a little t-shirt with a pink guitar, and she's pointing to it. She's not even two years old yet,

but I haven't a clue how to get onto TikTok. Oh, I'm sure an FOTM. So you're now an FOTM, Leona, which means Friend of Toronto Mic'd. Other FOTMs listening, somebody will be able to step up and help you here. By the way, we have an election in a couple of weeks, I suppose, and the son of your lover of eight years is, of course, the leader of the Liberal Party still,

the Prime Minister of Canada. You don't have to tell me how you're going to vote, but considering you have these, you know, these experiences with Justin when he was very young I was reading about He was such a sweet little boy, I used to watch him sleeping He even brought my mother and I into Sussex Drive to see all three of them sleeping And I was reading about Jamaica

like you were playing Jam Fest and then you were on the beach for an afternoon with all three of Pierre's sons Yeah, my mother was teaching them about insects, I remember. And she was surprised because she always loved biology and we all always knew a lot about insects and animals, and they didn't. So is it fair to say that you'll cast your vote

for your MP of the Liberal Party? I'm not getting into politics. Don't ask me about politics or hockey. I'm not getting into politics. Don't ask me if politics or hockey. I'm not an expert. Okay, no more Ron and Don talk. This is an important segment because on Toronto Mic'd, we speak often about the Tears Are Not Enough charity single. In fact, Cam Gordon from Twitter Canada and I did,

I believe it was a 2.5-hour deep dive into Tears Are Not Enough. This is how 2.5 hour deep dive into Tears Are Not Enough. This is how passionate we are on this program about Tears Are Not Enough. So multiple questions came in about this. I want to say hi to Jerry the Garbage Man who just wanted to know, can you share Leona any Tears Are Not Enough memories? And then Cam Gordon himself says, and I'm going to read this verbatim, can you ask Leona Boyd if she was approached to be in the Northern Lights? Rosie Gray Teo, which is, by the way, somebody who comments on Wikipedia, is on standby to update Wikipedia based on your response. So no pressure, Leona, but whatever you say is going to end up on Wikipedia.

Also, if you have any good anecdotes about working with Zamfir, like did you, you anyway I won't he swears about I do hard liquor all his music yeah okay he forgot his whole music when we were with the Vancouver Symphony so he overnight learned my concerto he didn't really ask he said I'm gonna play your concerto with you okay I'm like, okay. That's Zamfir. He was a little nuts, but I love him. Okay, so did you get a phone call from anybody about, like, tears are not enough?

Probably Bernie Fiedler, who was my manager at the time, approached me, and he knew Bruce Allen, who almost caused my career to collapse. Well, we need that story, because Bruce, I've seen documentaries where Bruce is like, he'll be calling up like Bruce Coburn or something like,

Brucey baby, we need you in Toronto this afternoon. Like it's like, I don't know if it was staged or not, but it's like he's pulling all these strings on Tears and Hustles. So please continue with your story and then we'll need that story about Bruce Allen.

And I think he also says, we know Liana can't sing to save a life, but we need her in the front row or something like that. I can't remember. But it's true. I really could not sing at all. I want you to hear, well, you will hear my new album, where I sound amazing now.

I've really learned how to sing finally. But it's true. I couldn't even sing Happy Birthday. And I was wedged in between, what was I, Light and anne murray and carol pope i can't remember the i remember we all came together if anybody knows the guy on whose arm i was escorted you see the video i'm escorted into manta sound where we recorded it i have no clue and shame on me i was wearing a fur coat. I haven't worn fur. I would never wear fur these days. Not for many, many years.

But mid-80s, it was okay. I educated him. Oh, no, it was never okay. I'm so ashamed that animals suffered for that. But there was this guy. I just don't recognize him at all. Bringing me into Manda Sound. So if any of you can figure out who he was, I would love to know it.

You've come to the right place. In fact, the minute this drops, and again, we're recording in the morning, but then I'm going to go to Waterloo, and this will drop later this afternoon. I bet you within an hour, because it takes an hour to get to this point in the podcast, within an hour, somebody will tell me who escorted you in and I will send you an email right away. You have come to the right place. Okay. Okay. Thank you. So I don't really have any other anecdotes. I remember being impressed with David Foster. Of course, I've known him since. I've been in his house, his studio

in Malibu. He introduced me to Barbara Streisand. I have a funny anecdote. Barbara, I said, hey, I'm very pleased to meet you. I love your singing. I said, we shared a boyfriend, and she sort of drew back. I said, yes, I was after Margaret, and you were before. Then she suddenly realized what I was talking about then my husband was with me, my husband who has his birthday in a few days and still lives in Beverly Hills. He said, gosh, you look awful. And I said, darling, it's called being in a studio without makeup. Right.

He was Mr. Beverly Hills. We were the Beverly Hills couple for a while with Ozzy Osbourne as the neighbor and all that. Wow. After a while, that's society life. Even here in Palm Beach, you get tired of it. I love being a bit of a recluse. COVID has actually helped in a strange way.

It's inspired so many songs that I've written. Just being here, living alone. I have my three guitars. It's not ideal. It's far from ideal, but I have been creative. I haven't let the grass grow into my feet. And the music I'm most excited about, Mike, none of you have heard anything. I played some to Vangelis, the amazing composer over in Paris. He was just stunned. My producer, Peter Bond, has done music. I'm thinking of using some of it for the Olympics, which is great. I wrote these melodies and

productions. It's very different. It's on the bigger scale. And so I have this other album that's going to come out sometime next year, after the Latin one, because I got distracted by the Latin one and popcorn and all that. I shouldn't call it popcorn. I should call it popcorn remix because there are many different versions of popcorn, but I really do think mine's the best because I've got, I should have told you all the little tricks. I learned a trick in Paris to put the little finger to dampen the strings, so you've got this pizzicato effect.

Years ago, Chopin said it was like a miniature orchestra. Well, the guitar is like a miniature orchestra, and I exploited every tonality using the very metallic sound down by the bridge and then a more mellow sound and then the sound of the thumbnail and different angles of the nail. So I'm really proud of it. And did you notice that I cut the hole out of the back of one of the guitars in the video?

I sacrificed the guitar that I bought in Istanbul. It's a really crappy sounding guitar. So we drilled a hole in the back, a big square in the back, so the camera could get in and see my fingers from, you know, the other angle that you don't usually see from inside a guitar. And there were all kinds of interesting tricks that we used on that video. And the pink guitar that everybody's always commenting on from Long and McQuaid. And then, of course, my LA guitars, Vasquez guitars.

How many guitars do you own? I've cut down, actually. I've still got one of the special Yamaha guitars they made for me, especially. I want to get rid of it, actually. They don't play it, but it's a beauty. But the name doesn't help in selling it. I have quite a few Vasquez rebuild guitars in Toronto,

and I've got some down here. But not as many as I used to. It's too much to keep them humidified in the winter. With the Canadian climate, it's not easy. For sure, for sure. But what else in that video? Well, all kinds of different effects.

On the beach, of course, unfortunately, there was seaweed that had washed up on the beach, in course. Unfortunately, there was seaweed that had washed up on the beach, in Palm Beach. And so I had to just accept that was part of the shoot. We had a drone. Yeah, I put a lot of effort into that video with different people and different outfits that I used. And I loved that the editor was able to use some little bits of the past too.

Right. Anyway, it's a fun video. And your oil paintings. We're not comfortable. How long have you been, is it a lifelong passion, the paintings? Yeah, I must get back to it. I just have been so consumed with music. I've got art all over my place here.

Some of my oil paintings in Toronto, along with art all over my place here. Some of my old paintings are in Toronto along with the Juno Awards. And how many Junos have you won? Five. That's all? Five Junos, five honorary degrees, five

guitar players, all the same thing. You have to be five times. Five's my lucky number, but I love to get a six. And of course, let me not bury this lead here, but not only did you receive the Order of Canada, but the Order of Ontario. So is it, please, I have asked a few people who have won this prestigious award, if you will,

but is it like a medal? Like, what is the Order of Canada, a medal? Yes, and you have a little pin you can wear too right because americans just think i'm wearing a cute little maple leaf um oh it's so cute that's a medal um yeah i got mine in 82 can you believe so wow wow so long ago yeah a lot of medals one One of the best awards I had was being named, what was I, Artist of the Year? No, Artist of the...

Lifetime Achievement, yeah, from the National Guitar Museum here in the US. Congratulations, but here's what I need to know. And the first, when you go in the museum, you see me playing Malagaña, sorry. I want to know, when will the people behind the Juno Awards wake up and give you a Lifetime Achievement Award?

I feel like that's a slam dunk. I feel like this is my mission. We're going to get Leona Boyd a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Junos. That would be really cool. It's well overdue. And a Walk of Fame. People keep saying, why aren't you on the Walk of Fame? So I said, I guess because I left and lived in the U.S. for a while,

and they forgot me for a little bit. But, oh, God, I deserved it. You have no idea, Mike, how many thousands and thousands and thousands of miles I have driven all over Canada and flown in dangerous little aircraft up to the Tar Sands and every fishing village, some places I'd never even had a concert before, and every prairie town. I mean, in between doing the big capitals where I'd play with orchestras and all solo, I'd play all these little tiny places in British Columbia, for instance,

Hundred Mile House and Kitty Mad and Prince Rupert and usually in the middle of winter because that was the touring season and driving through blizzards and getting in the ditch. I remember in Brandon, Manitoba.

I mean, I put in years and years and years of touring Canada. So yeah, I've put in years and years and years of touring Canada. So, yeah, I do deserve a medal because so many people hadn't really heard of classical guitar so much. But then when I started getting on The Tonight Show, you know, three times, people, I remember Conrad Black told me, he said, oh, God, you were so great on The Tonight Show. He sort of became a fan. But those shows, or the, oh, God, you were so great on the Tonight Show. He sort of became a fan.

But those shows, or the Today Show on NBC, they reach millions of people. Yes, yes. And they did every Canadian show, of course. Well, we talked about Alan Hamill. So did you appear on Ralph Ben-Murray's late Friday night show that he had in the early 90s? No, no. I go back to the days of Peter Zaski.

Sure, sure. But no, I did an awful lot of radio and TV and, of course, much music. Moses, all those shows. And then toured twice with the band. It was fun. I had like a rock band. We had semi-trucks and dry ice band. Yeah, it was fun. I had like a rock band. We had semi trucks and dry ice machines. Wow.

That was crazy. That was when Goose Island was. I hope you're enjoying my conversation with Leona Boyd. I sure am. I want to take a moment to thank StickerU, StickerU.com, all the decals I have in the back of my studio wall, all the Toronto Mike stickers I've been giving out these past couple of years. They're courtesy of StickerU.com.

Get your decals, your stickers, your temporary tattoos, and more online, StickerU.com. Great Lakes Brewery. You can find them in LCBOs across this fine province of Ontario, some grocery stores, and of course the retail store. That's where we held TMLX 8 just a little over a week ago.

Thank you Great Lakes for hosting such a wonderful event. Their patio is now open. Support local. They're fiercely independent. And we're honored to be partnered with them. Thank you, Great Lakes. And Palma Pasta. I wish Leona were here in person. I'd be giving her a large frozen meat lasagna or vegetarian if that's her preference. Delicious, authentic Italian food from a great family-run business. Much love to Palma Pasta. Go to palmapasta.com. And now, back to our conversation with Leona Boyd,

winner of five Juno Awards, five Guitar Player Magazine's Classical Guitar Musician of the year awards the vanier award woman who make a difference award pre-esprit de cycle and artist of the year and honorary mayor of san antonio texas plus four honorary doctorate of law degrees and an honorary doctorate of music degree. She's received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Guitar Museum, joining the accolades ranks among fellow peers B.B. King, Glen Campbell, Bonnie Raitt, and more, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Joanne Folletta International Guitar Competition.

And she's been inducted into Guitar Player Magazine's Gallery of Greats. Let's get back to Leona Boyd. Now, one concert in particular I want to ask you about is in Moose Factory, Northern Ontario. So this was for the Cree people, our indigenous people of Cree. And tell me, to get there, it was an ordeal to even get there, right? Well, the whole concept was to have city slickers like me paddle the great Canadian rivers. That was the pilot project. So I paddled the Missinabee

along with my fiancé, Joel, who was a good canoeist, and four other couples. And we went to camp. Oh boy, those muddy portages, the bugs, they chose to do it in June. In my book, I called it the ultimate Canadian experience. And never again.

But it gave me, I'm so glad I did it. I had such appreciation for the pioneers, the people, the voyagers, the people that did that under much worse circumstances. I mean, we had a bear come into the camp the very first night. Only I heard it. Joel thought I was imagining it. And the next morning, all the food tent was completely torn apart. Yeah, you can't leave that.

And a bear had come in. I heard him petting around the tent. I was getting ready to clobber him with my guitar and yell. Oh, my God. I don't know who I had yelled to. It's dangerous. It's like rule number one is no food in the tent because it'll attract the bears. I was getting ready to clobber him with my guitar and yell. Oh, my God. I don't know who I'd have yelled to. That's really dangerous. It's like rule number one is no food in the tent because it'll attract the bears.

Yeah, and there were bear footprints around. But the worst were the bugs because we had to eat through bug hats. They made it into a film that Will Weillich took called Pictures on Water. But it was wonderful in Moose Factory. All the Cree people came and sang in the little Anglican church. And I met the medicine man in the teepee eating bannock bread. It was a true Canadian experience. And I got talked into this by Pietro D'Oro, of course, who always went on these great canoe trips.

In fact, one of his friends, David Silcox, and his wife came along. They were in charge of the food, actually. And Christina Jannings, who's very important in the film world now, is a producer and runs the Norman Jewess. By the way, we got our orders of Canada together, Norman and I, way back in the day. We were both sponsored by beer companies, by the way. I see you're sponsored by Great Lakes Brewing.

That's right. Well, I was sponsored by Molson. And of course, my band absolutely loved that. I don't really drink beer, but they just loved it. Free product. Yeah. Well done. Now, Leona, okay, I'm worried about your timelines here.

Do you have a little more time for me? Just because I want to do a rapid fire. Okay. Sure, sure. Because I am hoping for a sequel with you, but that'll be, of course, up to you if you bless me with another episode for all the questions I don't get to.

But here's a couple of quick hits I want to do. Can you please tell us about performing 10 sold-out shows in Germany with Tracy Chapman the week the Berlin Wall came down. Was it 10 in Germany? I performed 10 sold-out shows in Tokyo on my own. But you were, I did some homework here, and you did play with Tracy Chapman in Germany the week that the Berlin Wall came down.

I just wondered what it was like. Yes, that's absolutely true, but it wasn't 10 shows in Germany. Well, there was so much electricity in the air, but Tracy was absolutely awful to work with. She didn't talk to any of us, including the band. And Elliot White, no, who was the manager? Elliot, Elliot something. Anyway, he just said,

well, it's just because she's going through a very tough time in life. She's a radical lesbian. And I said, well, that's okay. I don't mind her. I'll talk to her. Why doesn't she talk to anybody? And she wouldn't take photos with us. So I have no photos from that.

Scarlett Rivera, Bob Dylan's violinist was there. But no, it was a fantastic feeling in Germany. I met Boris Becker. He came backstage, I remember. But yeah, obviously it was a very exciting time. I've been in moments of history like the Kremlin. I was there that night the Soviet Union split up and I performed. And one of the pinch me moments is when the Soviet army chorus was singing

God bless America. That was really unreal. Wow. Yeah. 1991. I was there with my husband. Wow. And the fireworks,

it's brought me forever because they were so spectacular. I mean, scary, spectacular. Yeah. You've been in some key places at key times in our, in our history here. Here's a, here's a big one though. Speaking some key places at key times in our history here. Here's a big one, though.

Speaking of key places at key times, I need to know, you were smuggled into the L.A. courthouse to play a private concert for the sequestered O.J. Simpson jury. And they gave you a standing. So how does that come to be? They just wanted to entertain the jury because they had been sequestered so long? Tell me about this. Yeah, they were getting bored.

And Lance Ito, who happened to be a fan of mine, had this idea. Ask Cole Leone to see if she'll come in. It was a Saturday morning. So we had to go into this secret door and not tell anybody. Of course, I told my mother and father. And so I played for like, I don't know,

it seemed like 45 minutes, an hour. And I stopped and went to an encore and they kept wanting me to play more. So they obviously absolutely stopped. They gave you a... Well, no, I think they... Sorry, go ahead. Go ahead.

I brought some CDs to give them. So they all gathered around and I said, you know, what's your name? And they all gave me numbers I hadn't thought. They're not allowed to give them. So they all gathered around and I said, you know, what's your name? And they all gave me numbers I hadn't thought. They're not allowed to give their names. So I signed to 0439 Best Wishes. That's right, they can't give their names.

I was in Prince Rupert BC when the verdict came down and I was so relieved because remember they threatened to burn Beverly Hills where's my husband and my cat. I was so relieved because remember they threatened to burn Beverly Hills, who was my husband and my cat. I was very concerned. But he got away with murder, that's for sure.

Now, here's a gentleman you alluded to earlier, but I just wondered if you could share a bit more detail of what it was like to spend time. I suppose it was like one-on-one time with Fidel Castro in Havana. What was that night like? Two hours. Wow. Well, thanks to Pierre. He'd sent one of my albums over to his diving buddy, Fidel.

But then my Spanish was not so good. It was learned off the streets of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where I used to live with my parents as a teenager. in New Mexico where I used to live with my parents as a teenager. But he was utterly charming and just telling story after story. We were looking at the globe, and he was telling anecdotes. I write all about it in my book. And he had this big, fat cigar and kept blowing smoke in my face,

and my eyes were just streaming. And I just can't tell him as I say in my book it was like you can't ask Churchill to butt out his cigar now I'm so mad at myself why didn't I pick up that cigar it would have been such a trophy after he left I could have taken it right you know but he didn't smoke cigars in his latter years. He was very entertaining, but boy, he talked nonstop. My mother was there too. I wouldn't let my girlfriend in because I brought a girlfriend from Vancouver to come with me for the experience, but she wasn't allowed. And it was just a very small gathering in the Canadian embassy.

But as we were leaving, he kissed me on both cheeks. And that was on the national news in Cuba. And people were running out in the streets to kiss me oh you're the girl that Fidel kissed last night because I think the truth what it was

the French Canadian ambassador's wife had kissed him on the cheeks so he thought it was okay maybe that's what inspired him to be brave enough had kissed him on the cheeks. So he thought it was okay. Maybe that's what inspired him to be brave enough to kiss me on the cheek. Well, here's another gentleman. You know Latin men, they do like blondes.

That's right. Well, so do all of us, I suppose. Now, Chet Atkins, you recorded an LP with Chet Atkins, who, of course a country music legend and you did this at his home in Nashville what can you share with us about that experience? Oh dear Chet that seems a long time ago

he came to visit our home in Beverly Hills and I went with him to his recording on the Tonight Show met all kinds of people like Warren Beatty you know Chet was Mr. Country Gentleman and crazy about guitar. He'd introduced me to Lenny Brough. And it was all because this guy who ran the Classical Guitar Society in Nashville

many years ago. My career was just in its infancy. And he was called Bunyan Webb. Bunyan invited me to play for the Nashville Guitar Society and the Knoxville Guitar Society. And a Canadian reporter came down, and he dubbed me the first lady of the guitar, and that seemed to stick still to this day.

And I remember right after that, I had to go and play with the symphony orchestra in Calgary. Oh, boy, disaster, one of my disaster stories. But Chet was always fascinated with learning new things on the guitar. He was a total guitar addict. I met his wife Leona, L-E-O-N-A, and he'd always call me Li-ona, just because mine is with an I. So when he'd call my Beverly Hills house and ask, is La Iona there? My husband, who had gone to Duke University and quite liked that style of music for a while,

he said, oh, it's Chad on the phone for you, Leona. I like the way different people pronounce my name. The Spanish, they say Yona, Leona. I like the way different people pronounce my name. The Spanish, they say Yona. Pierre used to say Yona. Chet said La Yona. I don't like Leona.

And so many people misspell my name. But yeah, Chet was one of a kind. I read his autobiography and hung out with him. And he was a guest on some of my TV specials, which was very nice. We did some shows together. He introduced me to characters like Boxcar Willie

in Nashville. I loved going to Nashville. I kind of miss those days when I could just fly down there and hang out with other guitar pickers and learn from each other. Those days will return. Yeah, that First National Guitar Quartet was actually the idea of Charles Silverstein.

Do you know who he is? Of course, a boy named Sue. Yeah, of course. Yeah, a boy named Sue. Of course. Oh, he was great. I did my first country demo there using another singer. I wrote all these country songs, and it's lost.

A lot of my masters seem to have been lost over the years. But why are they lost? Was that the fire, or is that something unrelated? Too many moves. I moved house so many times, I think they got mixed up in the wrong boxes. Hey, if anybody has a copy of my cuban special we're desperately looking for that or my julian bream special when i was just 17 i i walked on the stage in stratford and played a little bach etude and we don't have a copy cbc lost their copy the people in england

the bbc lost their copy okay, CBC didn't lose their copy. They recorded over that to save a few bucks. That's what happened. Probably, yeah, which is really, it's a historic thing that when Brim came to, Julian Brim, my idol, my god, came to teach at Stratford and did this master class.

And I was the first one to perform. I'd sat at the end thinking I'd be the last one. And then he switched around and made me play the chaconne before everybody. Oh, dear. I come out in my little red dress. But now it's lost to the archives of history, unless somebody taped it years ago. I'd pay anything to get a VHS of that.

We have one horrible copy that somebody has. It's unwatchable. What year was this again? It was 1968. Yeah, it's tough. Yeah, it's tough. I will say though,

an FOTM, so you're an FOTM, but a fellow FOTM now that you're in this prestigious club is retro Ontario. And although that is going to be tough because it's, it's before everybody had the VCRs in their home and everything, but if it does exist in the universe, uh, Ed retro Ontario Conroy,

we'll track it down. I'll send him a note. We'll do our best. That'll be a tough one. No promises. That is a tough one. Um, okay. Wait, while you're at it, a tough one. Thank you very much. No promises. That is a tough one. Okay.

Wait, while you're at it, also my first music video has gone missing. I remember that Much Music used to have it. It's called If Only Love, and we filmed it in Palm Springs, and it's such a pretty video. Well, there's more hope for that one. I feel more optimistic about that one. I feel more optimistic about

that one. No, I can't find it anywhere. They've all lost it. It's called If Only Love. Oh, please, if Retro Ed could... Retro Ed, I think Retro Ontario Ed. Let me talk to him for sure. Robert Redford, Robert Redford

and you. Okay, let me read your words about this. Sitting in the darkened studio with Robert Redford and you. Okay, let me read your words about this. Sitting in the darkened studio with Robert Redford, a guitar fan, feeling the calluses on my fingertips and waxing poetic about music as the soundtrack to Quiz Show was being scored. What a picture you just painted there. Wow. I was married. I was married and he was probably in a relationship

with nothing romantic but i thought all women would just die to have wait a minute though experience leona i'm a big fan of the movie pulp fiction and there's a great scene in the opening where they talk about like is it is it unfaithful to be giving another woman a foot massage that's the discussion okay oh i see i, I see. I don't know how your husband would feel about Robert Redford. He knew. He'd met Redford with me and he was

thrilled. He said, there's Redford on the line for you. I think they made a movie about this, Indecent Proposal. I believe that's something like that. It never went anymore more than feeling calluses and you he wanted to put my music into his motorcycle diaries but then they they went with authentic peruvian music unfortunately but what a what a great guy

robert was i met him at the living euston john's house i love i love house. I love these name drops because here's another name I'm going to drop because you're... He always wanted to play guitar, you know? When he first met me, he didn't know who I was and then later he called and he applauded,

oh my God, I've been collecting your albums for years. So I was so thrilled. How could he not know who you were? You are one of the most recognizable guitarists on the planet. Just another Hollywood blonde over there in the corner. Okay, well, speaking of blondes here,

I know another gentleman who likes blondes is Rod Stewart. So please tell me about disco dancing. I don't think he's sexy. I don't think he's sexy. Okay. Oh, no, I wasn't going to ask you that, but you did dance, you disco danced with him at a Malibu Christmas party once.

Yeah, at the home of DeJoria, who made that shampoo. He had his home up in the hills. We went to the Malibu fire. I think his house burned to the ground. Was it on DeJoria? Yeah, there was Rod in his k bed. Ron DeGioia? Yeah, there was Ron in his

kilt. Dancing. And I danced with him and his wife would dance with somebody else. But you didn't find him sexy as he asks in his big hit. I better be careful. He lives here in Palm Beach. I see him sometimes at the local

cafes. I haven't seen him this year. A lot of the cafes are reopened, but I don't like to go to crowded places with COVID around. I was so sick the day after getting that vaccine on Saturday. I had a headache. I got the COVID on, not this time,

but I got a red arm from the Moderna shot on the second shot. The second one. Okay, I will just tell you. But it didn't come this time. I don't have the third, obviously. But my first two, and I mixed and matched, because that's what a lot of us generation Xers in this country,

a lot of us mixed and matched, because they let us in on the AstraZeneca early. So I pounced on it to do my part. And then they basically were like, okay, now do Pfizer. So I did AstraZeneca, Pfizer. And both times, I had about a day and a half or two days where I was knocked on my butt, like fever dreams. And like I was pretty, yeah.

And I'm not complaining. Yeah, a lot of people here didn't seem to have any reaction. So I'm sorry you went through that too. Yeah, I was feeling miserable. I had a fever of 101 each time and just aching. And I never get headaches, never. So I knew this too shall pass. But it took one really bad day.

And the next day I was still not that energetic. It's a small price to pay. Hey, anybody listening who doesn't believe in vaccinations, and I'm from a family that used to belong to the Anti-Vaccination League. My parents in England belonged to that, and we didn't have the smallpox vaccination. But now I see the sense. I'm believing the science.

This is really a very serious situation. So please get vaccinated. Glad to hear that. And I'm about to set you free here you've gone above and beyond in your debut here but the last uh well in fact real quick side on rod stewart is that because rod stewart had a hit with a song called young turks in the 80s and every time i hear the weekend's blinding lights which i believe is now in the record book as i believe the the longest time on the billboard hot 100 or something something. It set some record for biggest hit ever in some regard,

even though streaming has changed the game completely. Even past Despacito. I believe so. Seven billion streams. And shout out to Stratford native Justin Bieber, who's on the remix of that song. I will just say, whenever I hear Blinding Lights by The Weeknd, I hear Young Turks by Rod Stewart.

I don't know what it is that my brain, I find them to be eerily similar. So if Rod is listening, I just want him to know, I think he should have a share of The Weeknd's royalties on that. Yeah. All right, we're going to close with this. Again, I'm hoping at some point you'll actually Zoom with me again, maybe on another morning and uh so many things

i'm leaving on the cutting room floor here but uh i want to get a little personal here uh because you've alluded to your your ex-husband uh what why is he why is he an ex-husband uh like why did it not work out for you two uh long term because he was jealous of the guitar and he used to say there's three of us in the marriage you me and the guitar leona i said well the guitar is not going and he said the guitar has to go you know i had this problem it wasn't a physical problem with my my fingers really it was um it's actually the brain when you've overdone something golfers get it by what if they overdo any motion you overdo is this focal dystonia yeah musicians focal dystonia so i

quit for almost 10 years and he said oh great now the guitar can go and i said no i'm going to do something insane i'm going to learn to sing and i'm going to become a singer songwriter in my 50s so if i get any medal for anything, it's having either the foolishness or the bravery to do something completely different from someone who couldn't even sing a third without going flat, you know. So I want to thank all the audiences across Canada

that came to my early vocal concerts, and my show got upgraded a lot over the years. So what was the question again? Well, basically, I was reading that you would see a psychic regarding your love life issues. No, I only went to one psychic. Okay, one psychic. For the focal dystonia, I went to witch doctors

and acupuncturists and chiropractors, everything. My love life, no, right now I don't have a love life. I wish. Well, you're still with your guitar. I sleep with my teddy bear. Yeah, I'm still with my guitar. And by the way, just, and again, when you marry Leona Boyd,

I feel like there's a social contract at play where you realize that you're also going to marry Leona's guitar. I feel like he should have been aware of the deal. You can't ask Leona Boyd to divorce herself from her guitar. He gave me a great life. We traveled the world. He was a wonderful, generous, fantastic looking six, four. I got the prize at Beverly Hills, as Zsa Zsa Gabor told me. And I had a lovely chapter in my life, but I wanted a different chapter. I wanted a few more adventures. He didn't want to travel so much. A few years older than me. We were still friends.

I've left them all, starting at 16. I left my 16-year-old boyfriend for Jack Grunsky, who I was crazy about, another guitar player when I was 17. All these stories. Some of them have ended up in songs, like

Living My Life Alone. What's the one? Oh, I have one that and all these stories some of them have ended up in songs like um living my life alone or no what's the one oh i have one that was inspired by abba actually it's called near to you yeah near to you is very much in the abba style you've got to listen to two new songs i promise i will and it's possible i did like you know a lot of things come my way and i always i died they just came out just came out then i haven't done it yet. Okay. But I love that story of reinvention. Maybe because I identify a little bit.

Sure. I reinvented myself. They're just amazing. And they're not that much older than me. And I think the two guys are geniuses and the girls sound great. Anyway, reinvention. We've all got to reinvent ourselves. Listen, you've been reinventing yourself for decades

here. I mean, there was a time in the mid-80s when you were basically with Eric Clapton and David Gilmour, you were a rock star. Rocker. Yeah. And then I was a biker for a while because I biked over with my boyfriend in Paris, clinging

onto the back of him, tearing around Paris and London on a bike. God, I must have been crazy. Born to be wild. You were born to be wild. I know your memoir. I want to shout out your memoir before we say goodbye here because I think everybody should seek it out.

And it's called In My Own Key. Oh, it's an audio book too, by the way, Mike. I know you can get the old copies are on ebay for next to nothing but try and get the real the redone one that dunburn dunder and brought out not this is the old one actually okay um because it's been a better index and corrections um and this is the no remedy for love one and maybe there'll be another in future but the the audio book, I did it all myself. I read the whole 400 and whatever it was pages. I love audio books. Oh, by the way, I want to get in touch with Mike Myers.

Do you know how, I loved his book. Oh, I know his brother. Okay, I can hook you up with his brother who could then hook you up with him. His brother, Paul Myers, who, by the way, wrote the book on kids in the hall. I'm a huge fan of kids in the hall. I don't know if you ever played,

if you ever shared a stage with Kids in the Hall. Yes, but the book was so funny and it was his childhood in Canada. It was sort of... Okay, so I can hook you up with Paul and then Paul can hook you up with Mike, his brother. British immigrant. Thank you.

Oh, that would be so great. I don't know how to reach him where he is, but I just wanted to tell him how much I loved his audio book. Okay, well, when Paul knows it's Leona Boyd, I'm sure he'll give you a, he'll pass that on to Mike. Absolutely. And I just want to make sure I've got this right. This Focal Dystonia, which sounds like a

horrific thing that happens to somebody as prolific as you. I mean, almost 30 albums, and you had to change the way you play guitar. So how are you today? Like, how are you today with the vocal dystonia? Yeah, it's not that there's anything physically wrong with the hands at all. I just couldn't do tremolo as well as I used to.

And arpeggios. So I simplified my technique. But it opened up this whole world of songwriting. And I've written hundreds of songs. And, you know, sometimes you think it's your own personal tragedy at the time, but I didn't want to be playing Malagaña until I was 90. No, this has been an exciting new chapter. I've met new people.

I've got completely different repertoire. I've been working with Peter Bond now for over 10 years. We did a beautiful new agey album called Seven Journeys, so very meditative um but i'm frustrated because i've got two almost three new albums worth that haven't come out yet the new videos the popcorn is just the beginning of the rollout of all this stuff i've done i would say popcorn is the beginning i'll never i'll never get back quite the virtuoso i don't want to it's you have to play 10 hours a day. Who wants to do that these days?

I've got other things to do. Well, you have virgin pina coladas to enjoy in the hot tub, which I think is well-deserved. And again, I'm now going to focus my energies on getting you the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Juno people. Thank you. This has to happen.

It's so overdue, and we're going to make this happen. All I ask though, just cause sometimes the June awards are actually in Toronto where I live. And I know you, you would love to live. I was going to say, cause when I meet you earlier, you said, you know, people are not hugging anymore because of the me too. And they've gone swung the other way. I just want you to know when I meet you, I'm hoping I'm, I'm, I'm allowed to give you a hug. Can we do that?

Yes. I hope we don't have to wear masks. Definitely a hug. I'm going to send you a virtual hug now. A cyber hug. Big hug from Toronto. We miss you here. Thank you. It's been fun. I've been out of practice, but I've got

some others. I've got Humble and Fred coming up. Yeah. I told you all the stories, and I've got some others. Well, listen. Another one. Eric Alford got me. I produced the Humble and Fred show, and so I booked that with Eric.

I know, a small world, right? And I send the show notes to Humble and Fred, so I'll make sure that, A, I'll make sure they play some popcorn and we talk a lot about popcorn. But there's, you know, there's no shortage of things. Again, I left several hours worth of content

on the cutting room floor here because I think I said I can't take more than 90 minutes of Leona Boyd's time. So at some point, yes, you're doing Humble and Fred next week, which I'll be listening because that's my show there.

Oh, I think it's this, isn't it this week? Oh, yeah. You know what? I forgot this is Monday because my brain thinks this is like, yeah, because it's a holiday. Okay. Yes. You're on it, I think Thursday, Thursday morning. So I'll be listening of course. And I also will be peppering you at some point. I'll give you a little time and then I'm going to be like, we got to do a sequel, Leona Boyd. I would love it. Thanks so much for this, though. This was just a treat. Thank you. It's been great fun. Now I'll go and have my breakfast.

Enjoy. Okay. And that brings us to the end of our 910th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Leona is at Leona Boyd. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer.

Chef Drop is at GetChefDrop. McKay's CEO Forums are at McKay's CEO Forums. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley fh and mike majeski he's on instagram at majeski group homes see you all next week and drink some goodness from a tin Cause my UI check has just come in Ah, where you been? Because everything is kind of rosy and green

Yeah, the wind is cold but the snow wants me today And your smile is fine and it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and green Smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away. Cause everything is rosy and green. Well, you've been under my skin for more than eight years. It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears. And I don't know what the future can hold or will do for me and you. Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow Won't stay today And your smile is fine and it's just like mine

And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and gray Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day But I wonder who 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 gray. Because I know that's true.

Yes, I do. I know it's true. Yeah, I know it's true, yeah I know it's true How about you? I'm picking up trash and then putting down roads And they're broken 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, it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause 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. Because everything is rosy now. Everything is rosy, yeah. Everything is rosy. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business

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