Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Peter Gross Kicks Out the Jams: Toronto Mike'd #686

Episode Date: July 15, 2020

Mike catches up with Peter Gross before he kicks out the jams.

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The Keitner Group. They love helping buyers find their dream home. Thank you. And we welcome back our friends from Pumpkins After Dark. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com. And joining me is the host of the Down the Stretch podcast and co-host of Gallagher and Gross Save the World, my friend, Peter Gross. Good morning, Mike. I wanted to call this The World According to Gross. Feel free. There's no copyright on it. Well, you stole it from The World According to Gross Feel free, there's no copyright on it

Well, you stole it from The World According to Garb Well yeah, I didn't steal it It was a riff on it But can I just quickly tell the story of John Gallagher also had a He had a segment called The World According to Gallagher And Did he, was there any moment

Where John thought maybe you stole The World According to Gross from The world according to Gallagher? He tells a story that I confronted him and was angry, which is total bullshit. That he stole it from you? Total bullshit. I can't even imagine that. So in John's mind, you saw that he was doing a world according to Gallagher. And you thought that was like ripping off the world according to gross,

even though, and I'm not saying this is what he alleges, even though of course you're both ripping off the very famous world according to garb. Yes. Well, he's entitled to, because his last name begins with a G.

So the, you know, the parody is slightly there. I think at any point, if, if I'd recognize that he was doing something called The World According to Gallagher, I just would have rolled my eyes and said, well, it's fair game because I stole it first, he stole it second. And I'm sure you're not the only two who, as you said, paid homage to The World According to Garp.

That's funny. We're going to talk more John Gallagher later in the program. We're also, and I can't wait for this, we're going to kick out the jams. You ready? I'm more or less ready. You gave me a weird assignment last night. But you don't, I think you might have overthunk it. Like, these are in your heart and in your mind.

Like, you know, you speak from the heart when you speak about songs that mean something to you. My life has only minimally been about the music in my life. I mean, I'm not a big music aficionado. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Elton John. If Lorne Honickman is listening, we need to shout out Bob Dylan. I like Bob Dylan.

Well, I don't see any Bob Dylan on your list. How many times can I? Was I good? That's probably one of the two impressions I can do. Well, maybe instead of kicking out the jams, you just sing your 10 favorite songs. People do not want that want that all right so lots to talk about before we kick out these jams firstly i don't think uh people have seen you in a while uh you know people there's a lot of people that haven't been seen in a while if they're not on like you know tv through their

you know webcams or something so peter tell everybody how are you doing? I'm doing very well, far better physically and emotionally than financially. And by the way, I have had extraordinary television exposure lately. I actually got a part in a commercial for a Rogers 5G product. And the premise of the commercial is that a beautiful woman gets in a taxi and she's late to meet her boyfriend at a concert but the 5g works so well that the artist performing in the concert ends up in the back seat of the taxi and this is airing now no they pulled it because of the corona i think oh it was airing it played for a week or two and and um the interesting thing is that if you watch the commercial, it's 30 seconds,

there's about a one and a half second shot of the woman in the back and you can see the right side of my body out of focus in the front of the taxi. And they sent me a letter saying, you're not getting any residuals because you don't appear in the commercial. And I protested and I said, you can see part of my body in the commercial. And three weeks later, a check for $1,400 showed up. Good for you. But if I had seen this commercial, would I know it was you?

No. If you knew I was in the commercial and knew the exact time to freeze frame it, you might be, I've had people say, oh yeah, I can tell that's you. Okay, so I take, you know what, I'm not even going to take back my statement that you haven't been on TV lately because I don't think this is going to count considering, people are going to see that ad, not that it's airing now, and they're not going to know it's you, so it doesn't count.

But speaking of cab driving, like Andrew Ward heard you were going to kick out, he's a big fan of yours, and he heard you were going to kick out jams, and he wants to know, what did you listen to when you were driving the cab back in the day when i was driving i didn't i didn't listen to music when i was driving a cab i was multitasking because uh i would have the little uh package of three kentucky fried chicken pieces of chicken of course i'd be rolling a joint on on the dashboard is that true yeah i'd have a um the microphone in my hand so so i i uh and and my street guide on on my left leg so um i would be booking a call rolling a joint eating kentucky fried chicken you're the reason we have distracted driving laws now possibly yeah all right speaking of uh health and safety see peter you taught me good segues um we've been living with covid 1919 since mid-March. I think you know that in mid-March I told you the sad news, which is that we can't do down the stretch in the basement anymore.

I got the orders from the health people that I can't have guests in the basement. And your wife. And it was a sensible decision. And I, of course, you know, I want to be sensible. But you said some things before I press record that have me curious. Like, so you said you're not going to get this. And I just want you to elaborate. Like, is it because you're so careful or because you're, you believe you're immune to such things?

I need you to elaborate. It's because I'm indestructible. See, I want you to, some people would say such a thing with a wink. Like, I'm indestructible, wink, wink. And they're doing a bit. I need, is this a bit? I can't tell. It's less of a bit than a reality. First of all, my mother is 97 and in perfect health.

I mean, she's not going to die, so I'm not going to die. Peter, I know you kind of believe what you're saying, because I know you. I should disclose I consider you a friend. We talk a lot, right? We have many phone calls. By the way, let me know. I know at this time of day the sun can go in your eyes. If you want me to go in

and get sunglasses or something. I'm good. Okay. You can still see my beautiful blues? Okay. Your mom, she's in great health at 97, and that's amazing. Those are good genes you're getting. That's like more than half the battle. But your mom won't live forever.

Like, you know that. What? I mean, I just want to be honest with you. You're telling me my mother's going to die? I just want you to know that. What kind of a human being are you that would say something like that? I hope she has another good 20 years in her uh maybe 30 you know what all this talk is reminding me i i i tend to engage in uh battles with people on facebook

the idiots who say you know uh if uh mass work why do we have to close our businesses kind of thing and and there's one meme call it a meme or a meme yeah i mean i mean there's one meme, call it a meme or a meme? Yeah, a meme. There's one meme that shows a picture of a man and it says 1958 to 2020 because he died. And then it shows a piece of audio of him from three weeks ago saying, I'm not going to be one of these idiots who wears a mask. And then he died of the COVID. Yes, I'm going to die. Okay, so you're going to die. And you've been careful. I know that we saw each other briefly in Marie Curtis Park,

which sounds more exciting than it is. And I've got to tell people, before I forget, you rollerbladed here today. You're in my backyard studio. You rollerbladed here. It was delightful, yeah. And how old are you again? I'm six days short of being 70.

Oh, crap. We should have timed this better. You want to do it on my birthday? Yeah. Listen, my plan on my birthday is to rollerblade to my mother's. She lives at Don Mills in Eglinton. It's about 33 kilometers, I think. Oh, that's a very long rollerblade.

That'll be like, I know you do 40 miles on your bike. No, but I'm going to bike. Bicycle's easier than rollerblade. But you're 15. I'm faster on a bike. Yeah. It's easier. You know what's easier on a bike

rollerblade it's harder than walking and it's harder sorry did I say that it's easier than walking easier than running but not as easy as cycling so good on you I think this is tremendous maybe you will live forever okay so

you do respect the COVID you're following all the rules and stuff You just believe that you're not going to get it I think What did I say a story yesterday about It was a sad story A 21-year-old boy went to a party Came home and infected his family with the COVID

But some got it and some didn't Which tells me that some people have a built-in resistance to it Well, that's not necessarily That could tell you that maybe this person only spoke closely to some people But not built-in resistance to it. Well, that's not necessarily, that could tell you that maybe this person only spoke closely to some people, but not because, you know, it's close. I think that some people have a much higher resistance. I could be asymptomatic.

What do you call that? Asymptomatic. Asymptomatic. Thank you. I could have it. I just don't think, I mean, I never get a cold. I never get sick. I mean, I'm talking years and years and years. I feel like we're going to be playing this clip back when you suddenly pass

away. When I die, you'll play this. Have a heart attack in six months and I'll be like, remember this chat? Remember when the Titanic went down and they used the word hubris for that. Right. Well, Peter, you look healthy as heck. You're putting me to shame. Seriously, you look fantastic. You got pipes. You lifting weights? Well, no, I'm not lifting weights. But you were. I was going to the gym, and I really don't want to get into how the gym screwed me because they keep charging me. So you can't.

They won't let me in the gym, and they keep charging my credit card. Oh, that sucks. You should call your credit card company. Oh, I've called the credit card company. I've left angry messages. I like the gym, and I was getting a reasonably good deal there. And I was going two, three times a week. Right, but it closed.

So I just rollerblade as much as I can, which is still good for the legs and the muscular vascular. Here's a fun fact. To my left, at least 10 feet away, is Mary Dartis, who is very good friends with, uh, who's the gentleman who's got your spot on 680 news. Give me the name of this guy. John Sisco's? No. Simon Bennett. Oh, Simon. Yeah. Simon Bennett. That son of a bitch who stole my job. Simon will probably. At 680 news, probably one of the nastiest people in the world. He plotted for months. He, what he would do is he would listen to every one of my sportscasts and record every mistake and then file it off to the producers and say, why

have you got that idiot on the air? And they finally decided they would get that idiot off. No, I'm not, but I'm making all that shit up. You're making that up. So he did not like slip like a sleeping pills into your, cause you would, you fell asleep on the air a couple of times. There were two occasions, quarter to 10. My last sportscast, I put my feet up and I fell asleep. You know... Do you ever, like, meet somebody, and I know we're not meeting anybody these days,

but do you ever encounter somebody who thinks you're still on 680 News? No. No, so people realize Peter's gone from 680 News. And we're all worse off for it, by the way. Do you remember, you had her on a show, Erin from CHFI? Erin Davis.

Erin Davis. Been on twice. They fired her several years ago, and there was this massive outpouring of outrage, so much so that they had to hire her back, and it turned out to be a good marketing ploy. There was no massive outrage when I was fired. You and Bobcat both, right?

You guys both kind of at the top of your game, cast aside, but no offers came back from Rogers for either of you. Talk to me, my friend, about what's been keeping you busy because you're still broadcasting. You're doing two fantastic podcasts. So I want to start by talking about Down the Stretch, and then I need to talk about our mutual friend, John Gallagher and Gallagher and Girls Save the World.

So tell us about why we should pause this right now and subscribe to Down the Stretch, the podcast. Oh, that's a tough question. That should be tough. It's a good show. subscribe to Down the Stretch, the podcast? How? Oh, that's a tough question. That should be tough. It's a good show. Yeah, I'm very proud of Down the Stretch, but if you don't love horse racing,

you know, it's like, why would anybody who didn't care about chess tune into a chess podcast? Okay, but let's do a caveat like this. Like, if you have even a casual interest in horse racing, like, you don't need to be, if you just, even if you're like, oh, I horse racing, like you don't need to be, if you just, even if you're like,

oh, I watched the Kentucky Derby or whatever, because it's you and your Peter grossness, it's very entertaining. Like it's very, very well produced and very, you're, you've got a great writing style.

It's got great clips. You really kind of surmise the Ontario horse racing scene nicely in like a 30 minute package every week. So if you have even a casual interest in horse racing, you really need to subscribe and listen to down the stretch. I approve that message. No, I'm having a good time. And you know what? Anything I've ever done in the media comes with the caveat that I'm so easily bored and I bore myself. And so if you're making something, the onus is on you to make it as interesting as possible. So that's what I'm trying to do. I don't have images that can go with this podcast. So I have to make

the audio as interesting as possible. So I'll put in, I in, I mean, I had, uh, I ran a horse race that was won by a horse named Tokyo secret or something. And so I, behind it, I, I ran, uh, the vapors. I think I'm turning Japanese and I actually use that as the theme music through the whole show because it fits. So, um, I, I love the gag whenever I can, I can throw in the gag and keep it as entertaining as possible. I was interviewing a Hall of Fame trainer named Josie Carroll. She's won the Queen's Plate twice. She's the only woman to win the Queen's Plate as a trainer. And we were talking about a horse that she has, Curlin's Voyage, I think is the name of it,

a filly that is favored to win the Canadian Oaks. The Canadian Oaks is the biggest race for female horses in Canada. And in Canada, you can run your horse, you can run your filly in the Canadian Oaks, and if she wins and you think she's good enough, you can put her in the Queen's Plate. And we've had a lot of cases of horses that won the Oaks and then beat the boys in the Queen's Plate.

So I said to her, don't you think that's outrageous that the girl horses are allowed to run in both of these major races, but the boy horses can't? And shouldn't we march, all of us men and all of us colts, we should march in this day and age where we protest these inequalities? And she just laughed and she said, no, I had a horse named Inglorious that won both, so I'm kind of biased. So that's the kind of thing I try to do as often as possible.

I'm learning a lot from your podcast. And a quick question I have off the top of my head here is like a male horse and a female horse. Does one have an advantage over the other? Well, strangely, a female horse, if it goes in the queen's plate, gets a five-pound weight allowance. So all of the male horses have to carry 126 pounds. So if the jockey weighs 110, they give him an extra 15 pounds in lead weights. So the female horse, and there was a horse called La Prevoyante that ran, and we're going back 30, 40 years. This horse was like a foot bigger than all the boys,

was by far the superior athlete, and she got to carry less weight than the boys. That's another sexist, chauvinistic thing. I don't know if it applies to animals. I mean, we're animals, don't get me wrong, but other animals, I should say. But this is interesting. I never even considered this,

that female horse versus male horse for you know what i'm gonna maybe i because in the uh the human in our species homo sapiens uh the the men run faster times than the woman due to testosterone and such and i think i might have thought the same might have applied somehow to horses mike one one of the most appealing things and it's a theme that i pound on, is in horse racing, it's the only professional sport in which the women compete on a level playing table. There's a woman named Emma Jane Wilson who's one of the finest jockeys. I've recorded calls with you and Emma Jane Wilson. She's a great interviewer, too.

I've told her that I'm in love with her. She's happily married. You're not her type, I hear. No, I'm not her type. But Emma Jane Wilson beats the men. Every time she wins a race, she beats the men, and she wins a lot of races. Women like Josie Carroll, Catherine Day,

are wonderful trainers. You know, and the Phillies run against the boys and often beat them. So it's, you can't name a sport. I know sometimes they have these curling matches, the men against the women. But in no professional sport other than horse racing do the women compete head-to-head, level playing table, and beat the men as often as the men beat the women compete head-to-head level playing table and beat the men as often as the men beat the women interesting interesting more reason to subscribe to down the stretch so that's a great show and again you don't need to be like a at the you know betting on horses every

day to you know if you do that for sure you're already subscribed to down the stretch so what do you do you go to toronto mike and you just well first of all how do you subscribe you can cut out that step people listening to us right now likely already subscribed to podcasts because this is a podcast so let's say somebody is an apple podcast person that's like number one that person can search for down the stretch in their podcatcher called apple podcast you can search for down the stretch and make sure you get the down the stretch of peter gross you'll know in 10 seconds it's the right one and you subscribe like if you're listening to me now and you're i don't know you're a spotify user you're on that too you can search for down the stretch and spotify and

subscribe there so you're now sort of you're now speaking to podcast listeners so they know how to get their podcasts now you have another podcast uh, which I'm madly in love. I love Down the Stretch, but I'm madly in love with this other podcast. Gallagher and Gross Save the World. Firstly, he's not here today. I wish he was, but in fact, you can tell the people I invited him into this backyard yesterday for 4 p.m., and he declined. But how's John Gallagher doing?

Oh, he's doing fine. Gallagher's one of a type. Gallagher's one of a type. Let me say just generally, he likes his wine. As you know from working with him, you sit him down in front of a mic and you give him a topic like grain of rice you know luggage grapefruit whatever and and he's got a story and he's got a story no matter what celebrity

you name no matter what hockey star you name uh what no matter what astronaut you name he's got a story he partied with them he slept with them. And some of these stories were lucky enough to get several times. I'm thinking of a couple of people in particular, David Bowie and Stevie Nicks. And I love those stories. I even read them in his great book, the Babylon book, Big League Babylon. Big League Babylon. It's a surprisingly good book, by the way. And that last chapter hits you pretty good.

I talked to John about that once. But I mean, if you bring up just, if anything about David Bowie comes up in natural conversation, we're going to get that story. It's almost like a jukebox. I'm a bit like this too, but Stevie Nicks,

oh, did I tell you about this? Like, it's like, he lit, he once lit David Bowie's cigarette. You know, big deal. I once handed Johnny Bauer his false teeth.

Is that true? That's a true story. Not George Armstrong. I once handed Johnny Bauer his false teeth. Wow. To me, that's a better story than lighting David Bowie's cigarette, I think. We're going to get a lot more Peter Gross stories soon because I think they're going to come out as we kick out these gems. But Gallagher and Gross saved the world. When COVID cigarette, I think. We're going to get a lot more Peter Gross stories soon because I think they're going to come out

as we kick out these gems. But Gallagher and Gross saved the world. When COVID hit, I would say, I produce a number of podcasts and the podcast that seemed to, the only podcast that seemed to kind of pause when COVID hit was Gallagher and Gross saved the world. And I think that was primarily because of John.

Like, I think you were game. We recorded, I think five of them we recorded over the phone. And unfortunately, the sound quality is poor. But just to clarify, like, literally, you called John and recorded it. This isn't like some Zoom thing I was doing or something. I have an app on my phone that allows me to record. You cut me out, basically. And we all suffered.

Yeah. I see that. it's funny we had uh i have to admit that when we did our first episode there was discussion about well should we have the the third person should we have mike boone interjecting and for whatever reason i said no that's a that's a bad idea and and then i rethought it. And then we, you were so sad. It was kind of pathetic. So we, and it turns out to be a really good idea to have you interjecting from time to time, especially when we can't finish our sentences. I do, I have to admit, you're right.

The first, I don't know, the first 20 or so episodes or something, you had me muted. And I respect that. Every client wants a different thing. And Mark Hebbshire likes me talking. And Ralph Ben-Murgy likes me muted. Like everyone's different.

You guys want to be muted. But at some point, I was allowed to unmute myself and I felt like it was fun to help pull certain stories out and tie things together. Like I really liked the role. And then COVID hit. Like it's like we just found our groove,

the three of us. COVID hit. I mean, I'm not involved in these phone calls that get recorded. They're like emergency measures during a pandemic. But I'm really hopeful we can get you two safely separated here in the backyard to get that true live on the floor Gallagher and Gross treatment because it's really, you guys have something special there. This is a really, really fun.

Listen, Mary told me she wasn't expecting to like it mary dartis to my left and she listened to gallagher and grow save the world and she's like this is good stuff you guys are great together not to disparage john but uh if the opportunity availed itself i would be here every single day recording episodes of gallagher go save the world and he's just he's a little hard to pin down but he can't zoom i mean i i recorded yesterday with ralph ben murgy and tom wilson from junkhouse and they were both in hamilton but they sounded really good coming in through the zoom like john you could be in this backyard and john could be on zoom well i don't i don't want to pick on him too much.

We love John. I should point it out. We're lucky to have John, and John just turned the big 6-0. The truth is I can't think of, you know, short of someone like Dennis Miller, I couldn't think of anyone that I could possibly do a show that was as electric because John's one of a kind and he's devastatingly good radio. And you're both very good.

You're good together. And it's funny because you don't really overlap that much in your careers, but you both have that, you know, City TV pedigree. And it's what always attracted me to the Moses moses era of city tv is the characters this is what i was attracted to and i still am and i'm still i'm still hunting them down because i'm i need more i need more there was a wonderful 10 15 year period where and moses admitted that he he didn't hire people he cast them yeah uh the the living called it the living city and like that all of us were were players in the themes in the stories well cfto was not gonna hire peter gross am i right

why would you say something so mean what i just said i meant like you were literally this you were kind of rough around the edges cabby kind of you had a persona to you and moses said that that's that's uh a, that's a character. That's a character of this city. And he cast you. And you were brilliant in the role. There was a writer for the Toronto Star named Ron Bass who described me as an acne-scarred fire hydrant.

That's mean. I would never say such a thing. I like that. Okay, well, if you like it, you can own it. We can rename the podcast. So long story short is that Gallagher and Gross are good together, and if you're not subscribed, you should subscribe because we will get more episodes.

We need to get more episodes. Gallagher is the bottleneck, if you will, and he did phone us the other day. Well, we had a call the other day, us three. Pretty long call. He had an epiphany. He had an epiphany, and that's his words. So he had an epiphany.

I guess three months of drinking wine outside, and he had a moment of like, you know, shit or get off the pot or something. His epiphany is that his money's running out. And it's been a long, long time since John Gallagher has been involved in any kind of mainstream project, television or radio. Right, he does voiceover work, but you're right. Okay, so on that note, if anybody is interested in sponsoring Gallagher and Gross Save the World,

Peter would love to talk to you. And I want to thank those who have stepped up to help fuel this real talk, because we're about to kick out some jams and hear some more Peter Gross stories. So in front of you, this is actually exciting because this is the first time since March 13th that I've given

a large lasagna frozen lasagna from palma pasta to a guest peter when you rollerblade home to mississauga yeah okay beautiful yeah right to the camera beautiful that is it was just delivered yesterday that uh i'm so i had a good chat with palma and i said look guests are coming back in bob weeks if you're listening when you come back to kick out the jams, I promise you're getting a lasagna. But I can tell you, because Tom Wilson and I chatted the other day, and Tom Wilson said that was the best lasagna he ever had. And I wish it was on the recording, but he said it to me.

And, Peter, you've had Palma in the past. What do you think? Let me riff a little on lasagna. I love this Palma's lasagna. I think I got it once earlier from you. I live with my 27-year-old son who can eat anything. And this is about two servings for the two of us. It's wonderful.

But I can't talk about the Palma's lasagna without mentioning a friend of mine named Garnet Barnsdale, who contributes to my Down the Stretch podcast. And who's been over. I know Garnet. And he makes lasagna where instead of the ground meat, he puts in meatballs. So as you're cutting through the lasagna, you find a whole meatball. And twice in the last month or so,'s made a a whole afternoon of making lasagna gets in his car and he lives at like western road in the 401 and delivered it to me and it's

fantastic too but love i love the palma so garnett speaking of garnett whose son has actually been over yeah uh ace barnesdale right when i and he's a well-spoken young man himself there but when garnett i i guess we took a photo outside after one of the down-the-stretch episodes of Garnet Barnsdale. And I think Jennifer Morrison's in the picture. Shout out to Jennifer, who you keep forgetting to tag her on the Twitter. That has to do with my incompetence. We've got to fix that.

Because Jennifer's a key part of the family here. We love you, Jennifer. But I posted the picture of Garnet. And then an FOTM wrote me to say, oh my God, that's my cousin. I want to say cousin. So Beck, shout out to FOTM Beck, who is Garnet Barnstall's cousin and recognized him from the picture.

Good. Okay, there you go. But yeah, you got a lasagna. Great Lakes beer. Enjoy your Great Lakes beer. I'll probably be drinking this when I rollerblast. I'm rollerblading. Put it in your thermos. Drinking and blading.

Hey, I got a... You drive, right? So I have a... This is exciting. Soon I'll have the promo code that'll save you money, but the good people at Pumpkins After Dark are back. So it's going to be driving route this time. You drive this... What is it? 88 acres. It's a 2.5

kilometer driving route. There's a tunnel and everything. There's 150 jack-o'-lantern sculptures that light up the night sky. 7,000 pumpkins. I mean, you know, you got a grandson, right? How old's your grandson? Graham's five. Okay. So this would be a dream.

You don't go in the car. It's safe. I know you're not going to get COVID anyways, but you sure won't because you buy the tickets online and they scan it through the window and then you drive. It's contactless. So this is coming. so heads up everybody this is coming peter if you're looking to move closer to me maybe uh i don't know i recommend uh mimico or long branch even new toronto a lovely place to live but anywhere in the gta you got to text toronto mike to 59559 to talk to aust Keitner from the Keitner Group.

Peter, I'm sure you've already subscribed to Garbage Day. I had an episode last week in this very backyard just before the skies opened up and the storms came with the good developers at Garbage Day.

Garbage Day ends the guesswork related to the collection of waste and recycling. So you don't have to worry about missing a collection. It's my garbage day today. I got my text notification at 7 p.m last night because i subscribe for free at garbage day.com slash toronto mike everybody should do that if anyone listening has a uh an

immediate it need uh issues with your work network or your home network or you just want to talk about some it issue or you think you have malware. Peter, I'm talking to you. I know you've had your share of issues. Call Barb at 905. What's that number again? 905 542 9759.

I'm actually going to bike to visit outside safely outdoors with Barb Paluskowicz shortly after this episode. So I'll be talking to Barb very soon. And I put a sticker. I know you've got your fair share of Toronto Mike stickers, Peter, but I gave you another one because StickerU.com are great sponsors of the program. And I want to remind everybody that you can go to StickerU.com. And if you're ordering stickers, decals, buttons, so many interesting things.

You just got to upload the image and you pick your quantity and your sizes and it safely arrives. It's e-commerce and they're wonderful people. So, shout out. The great thing about these stickers, you know what the great thing about these stickers? There's so many great things. They stick. You take the thing off the back and they stick to the thing. Peter's a pro.

I should be putting stickers on the Palma's Kitchen lasagna box now that I think about it. You should have Palma's Kitchen stickers. Can StickerU make Palma stickers? Can they make down-the-stretch stickers? Of course. This is the idea. I'm telling you, down-the-stretch stickers, you could post them all around Woodbine. I know that... Are people going to the, no.

So hopefully next year their people are back. There's 800 copies of down the stretch still sitting in the bins because when we published the March issue, we put them in the bins and two days later they closed the truck down. Yeah, this is a major disruption for us, Peter. We got to just survive, man. Just survive and then we'll progress once this thing clears up. They're making some progress on some vaccinations

and cross your fingers we have something, you know, maybe early 2021, which would be amazing. So let's just hope. I don't have a crystal ball. Let's hope it all works out there. Let's kick out these damn jams. So the big question, Peter Gross,

are you ready? Yes!'s kick out these damn jams. So the big question, Peter Gross, are you ready? Yes. To kick out the jams. I'm so ready. I'm so ready. She was as nervous as she could be. She was afraid to come out of the locker. She was afraid that somebody would see. Two, three, four, tell the people what she wore. It was an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow polka-dot bikini

that she wore for the first time today. An itsy-bitsy, teeny- teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini. So in the locker she wanted to stay. Two, three, four, stick around. Peter Gross, I got to hear the story around this wonderful jam. Itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini. How many times have you done kicking out the jams with guests? I'm going to guess around 75 times.

And you've never played Itsy Bitsy TV? This was a novelty song from 1960. I can't even tell you the name of the artist. Oh, I can. It's Brian Highland. Oh, very good. You asked me to name some songs that kind of paint my life. This song came out in 1960. In the late 50s and early 60s,

my parents used to drive us from Toronto to New Brunswick. So it would be a two-day stretch. We'd drive 500 miles, and the next day 500. My grandparents owned a beautiful cottage in the Bay of Fundy, and one night, I had a transistor radio, and I was twiddling the dial, and I found Chum Toronto in Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, playing that song. This is like a Moncton area, maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wow. About 1,000 miles. Wow. Wow. So I never forgot that. And that was a very popular little ditty at the time. Takes you right back.

Bay of Fundy. I walked on the Bay of Fundy. They have that area where you can walk on the ocean floor before the tide goes up. Because the tides go up. Yeah, we did that. It's called the reversing tides. Right, a few years ago. That's near Moncton, yeah. This song, by the way,

what happened to novelty songs? Like, there seem to always be, you know, people. Harry the Harry Ape, remember that? Ray Stevens, I think. Oh, that's, okay, I know the streak. Because Ray Stevens did the streak, right? Yeah, Ray Stevens. And then Weird Al Yankovic, I suppose, was the one person of that.

Oh, he's more like, yeah, he's not so novelty as he is like parody. Yeah, and he's the cream of the crop. Funny, just yesterday I was chatting with my buddy Chris about we had a guest on his podcast I produced and the guest's name is Spencer Barnes. And then I went into this diatribe about

Barnes and Barnes. You remember Barnes and Barnes? No. Their big hit that was probably the most played song in Dr. Demento history was Fish heads, fish heads, roll it. I can't do it. So Barnes and Barnes is the fish heads guys. And that's, anyway,

speaking of novelty songs, I guess that's one right there. Do you remember a song that went something like, they're coming to take me away again. They're coming to take me away. No, but I don't remember that one. My interpretation of it is so accurate. I'm sure. Oh, and I'm excited to kick out this next jam

because I got a sneak preview about this story because I do these F-O-T-M-K-O-T-J episodes where if anyone listening can do this, Mary, you could do this too. You record yourself on your phone or whatever. You record yourself talking about a song you love for 30 to 60 seconds and then you email that audio file to mike at torontomike.com and every once i get 10 of them

and i actually have 10 right now so i got to get working on one soon once i have 10 of these i put together a fotm kotj volume i think i've had like so many letters i'm really big on the letters like tmlx are the events trying fo'm still trying FO. FOTM. Why would you tell anyone to FO? Just yesterday, I was chatting with Adam Groh, who's an FOTM. You know Cash Cab? Cash Cab, Adam Groh, yeah. By the way, how did he get that gig, and how did you not get

that gig? That gig was custom-made for you. Cash Cab. You would think. No, he's very good. By the way, I don't think they've done a new episode in years. Like, I think you're only seeing reruns now. The truth is, he actually has a cab license. Oh, Peter's going to get stung by it. A wasp in my face.

He has a cab. Yeah, he had to get a cab license, but you would get one. Anyway, Adam Groh, Peter Gross is coming for you. But all this is to say, he didn't know what FOTM stood for, but you know what FOTM stands for, right? Friends of Toronto Mike, but it took me a long time to figure it out. But isn't that part of the fun? Like, it's not obvious and you have to work for it.

Like, I feel like that's part of being inside a club. I guess so. You have your own language. FOTM KOTJ. Yeah, and that's obvious, right? Kick out the jams. No, it wasn't obvious. I think it's obvious.

I was working on Sudoku earlier today, and after about half an hour, it came to me. So this jam, I know you kicked out this jam for a volume of FOTM KOTJ, and I'm excited you're going to do it again. So let's play a little bit of it because it's beautiful, and I want to hear that great story again, and then tell you about the number of people who told me you were wrong. So let's listen to this. All the leaves are brown And the sky is gray

I've been for a while On a winter's day I'd be safe and warm If I was in L.A. If I was in L.A. California dreamin' On such a winter's day Stop into a church

I was not alive in the late 60s, but I get nostalgia for that era by listening to this song. Can you have nostalgia for an era you didn't lose? Yes, yes. Well, you're taking me back 55 years, and I know that when I first did it for you, I think I said it was 1960 or 61. Yeah, right, right.

This was 1965. Oh, okay. And I had a newspaper route, so I would get up 5.30 or so every morning and go deliver newspapers. And I just remember, and I had a newspaper route so I would get up 5.30 or so every morning and go deliver newspapers and I had a little transistor radio and I just remember a bitterly cold December morning

delivering papers and hearing this song and it just really impacted me and every time I hear this song I see myself physically riding my bike and I could ride my bike and roll the paper up and toss it without getting off the bike. So let me get this straight. Back then, you were rolling

the paper while you rode the bike, and then later you'd be rolling the joint while you drove the cab. Kind of symmetry, isn't it? I love it. I love that story because this is like an episode of Wonder Years Come to Life. Right?

Yeah. I don't know. I think it's great. So this song, on a cold winter, I can see a young Peter Gross. You were probably the same height, right? You're on your bicycle. I know. I peaked at 13.

I can joke about it because I'm not a tall guy. Maybe you're not a tall guy. I'm not a tall guy. You're a freaking giant. Relatively speaking. Relatively speaking I've been to Amsterdam I might as well have been a little person

When I was walking the streets They're giants in the Netherlands So shout out to Lieve Vamka and the Dutch But all this is to say I love the thought of you On a cold winter's day You're listening to California Dreamin' And it's warm in your heart almost And you can hear the song day, you're listening to California Dreamin' and it's warming your heart almost.

Yeah. And you can hear the song now and you're back there. Yes, very much so. And that's why I kick out the jams. I'm tearing up now. For that moment right there. That's priceless, my friend. Okay.

It's going to be, when you die, I'm going to play that clip of us listening to California Dreamin'. And it's going to be a very... I'm going to outlive you guys, so... Maybe. I may not get that opportunity. Maybe. I wouldn't bet a game state.

Oh, my goodness. Here's a jam. Twist and shout, twist and shout Come on, come on, come on, come on baby Come on baby Come on and work it on out, work it on out Work it on out, work it on out You know you look so good, look so good You know you got me going now, got me going Just like I knew you would, like I knew you would There's a Beatles cover of Isley Brothers.

It's strange that that's such a great Beatles song because it's one of the few they didn't write. But I just the Beatles had such a profound effect on me. You know, if I had to crystallize one moment from the Beatles, it's when they were being interviewed after they'd come for the Ed Sullivan show, and they were asked, how did you find America? And John Lennon said, to live the Greenland. That's right. He was the funny Beatle. America and John Lennon said to lift the Greenland. He was the funny beetle.

He had the good one. Well, George Harrison was very funny too. Because John's the one who said the rich people shake your jewelry. One thing that makes me very sad is to just try and think of the impact John Lennon would have had on the world if he hadn't been killed. Yeah, but you don't know. For all you know, he took an alt-right turn in his 60s. You have no idea what happened. Did you see Yesterday?

Of course, yes, I did, yeah. Do you remember that scene at the end where the character visits John Lennon? Yeah, that was a great scene. That was the best scene in the movie. Oh, I was just weeping. But we don't, you don't know, all because we know what John was like at 40.

We actually don't know what happens to John's outlook on the world, his perspective, his thoughts. Like how many people, if you look back, how many people did you kind of respect their opinions and then they took a strange, a strange alt-right turn? We just don't know. We don't know. We need to make the movie.

If John Lennon had lived, I would go to that movie. Well, maybe you should make that. You've made, you've produced, you've directed things before. I remember, don't tell me, Butter, Butter, Butter Bumpin' the 8th. Butter Bumpin' the 8th. And you, that theme song featured,

am I right? That has Laurie Brown on the theme song? Laurie Brown, yeah. Opportunity Knocks. And it's a great jam. Too bad you're not kicking that one out. But there is a, well, I don't want to spoil anything,

but there's a bonus jam at the end of this, at the end of this episode. I'm just seeing news on Twitter, by the way, that FOTM Paul Hendrick is no longer with MLSE. I thought you were going to tell us he was no longer with us. No, I would have a different tone for that. But I just had a recent, Paul came over pre-COVID, and really an amazing 90 minutes with the man. Very interesting. And he's had such a long career.

He was at CHCH forever. And just another industry vet like yourself, Peter, who will be doing something else. And you heard, I don't know if you were friendly with Roger Peterson. Yes. So he got news his services were no longer required at Breakfast Television. Well, that's happening to a lot of us. You, him, and Bob McAllen. So to me, that's the big three.

I don't know how I fit in with those two. I don't even know. I made that up. There's many of you. But yeah, that's just sad news in the industry as it sort of shrinks, I guess. But let's lighten things up. So tell me, that song I would know, I would have nostalgia for that song

from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Because in the parade, that's the song. So my first twist and shout exposure would probably be Ferris Bueller. Okay, so the Beatles, I guess we got our first taste of the Beatles in 1962, and I'm 12. So the Beatles, puberty, I was always kind of a creative guy

and it really stamped the authority that I should continue to be creative because I identified with these guys so much and I loved everything they did and there was about a four-year period about every nine months the Beatles would put out a new album and that nothing nothing mattered more than getting that album going down to Sam, the record man, buying that album, putting it on the turntable and playing it 25 times a day. Do you,

I mean, you already disclosed off the top. You're not a big music guy, but does that ritual, like, do you miss that ritual? Yes. Yeah.

And I went through, I think we're moving on to Elton John at some point. I did the same thing. Back to back actually. Yeah. I did the same with Elton John, had to have to Elton John at some point. Back to back, actually. I did the same with Elton John. Had to have everything Elton John made. Okay, well, want to play an Elton Jam? Sure.

Okay, so here we go. What do you got? I got a couple for you. Let's start with this one. This is not one of his greatest hits or one of his better known songs, but... It's a deep cut from Peter Gross. Thank you. We'll be right back. Washing out the cattle town And she's far away somewhere In her eye of the dam And she dreams of crystal strings

Of days gone by when we would leave Laughing fit to burst upon each other I can see you sitting eating All right, talk to me about Elton John. I've always liked music that was catchy and had great lyrics. And, of course, Bernie Taupin, and there's very few examples of this in pop music. Bernie Taupin would write the lyrics and give them to Elton John. There was no connection between the lyrics and the music. And Elton John would look at the lyrics and create the song out of the lyrics.

And the thing about, I just loved Amarina for whatever reason. I can't even tell you why. And I could play guitar very badly. And I think I got a book that showed me the chords. And I just remember one night there was a group of people at my house, and I don't think they so much begged me to play as I said, let me play something for you. And I remember playing Amorina very, very badly. And I can still feel the tension in the room. If you've ever been in a room where someone is trying to perform and they're very, very bad at it.

Right. Because you feel secondhand embarrassment for that person. Yeah, well, I felt the first hand embarrassment. So, yeah, so a long, long time ago, I gave up any hopes of being a pop performer. But I love this song, and I love virtually everything that Elton John's done. I believe I've been to two or three elton john concerts he had that imperial period in the uh

the 70s where he was just he could do no wrong like albums would debut number one back when elms didn't do that like yeah he was uh top of the heap he He could do sweet, romantic melodies and hard rock, but they always had these fantastic lyrics. And his interpretation of the lyrics. That relationship between Bernie and Elton, it reminds me a little bit about a story Kim Mitchell told me last week. I think it was last week.

I'm not dropping names. Well, that's what I do. FOTM Kim Mitchell, was telling a story about how Pi Dubois handed him a piece of paper in his car and said,

hey, I hear some lyrics I've been working on for you. Like, just lyrics. There's no music to this, obviously. Pi just wrote the lyrics. And it was the lyrics

to Patio Lanterns. And Kim had these lyrics now and he starts strumming on his guitar and he kind of discovers this lick thing and the next thing you know it, Patio Lanterns and Kim had these lyrics now and he starts strumming on his guitar and he kind of discovers this lick thing and the next thing you know it, Patio Lanterns is played every hour on the hour on

most of Canada's radio stations but yeah, you're right, usually the lyrics, well I don't know some bands have it set up that way, like Russian stuff where the lyrics kind of but yeah, that's a unique relationship Bernie and Elton have that's for sure i have an encyclopedia of lyrics i've written for songs and my dream is to run into

elton john and give him the lyrics and have him perform them so you think elton's gonna be like screw you bernie i know we've had some success, but this... No, no, no. He has recorded songs that were not written by... So he would pick one. And in his last concert in Toronto say, does anybody out there know Peter Gross? You know, and... And everybody says, yeah. Everyone roars, you know.

And then he says, Peter Gross wrote this song. That's my dream. We're going to go right into another Elton Jam, so buckle up, Peter. It's my dream. We're going to go right into another Elton Jam, so buckle up, Peter. I'm gonna be high as a kite light then. I miss the earth so much. I miss my wife.

It's lonely out in space On such a timeless flight And I think it's gonna be a long, long time Till touchdown brings me round again to find I'm not the man they think I am at home No, no, no, no I'm a rocket man Rocket man Burning out his fuse I've held on

So the first jam was a deep cut, and this is a very shallow cut. Everybody loves this song. Arguably one of his greatest songs, sure. I bet you, I'm not going to go by sales, because then it has to go to a candle in the wind, I'm sure, but if you just went on a poll of a thousand music fans and said, what's your favorite Elton John song? I'm going to bet this one wins.

That's my feeling. It would certainly be up there. Have you ever heard a song called Social Disease? Another little ditty that he did. It's wonderful. You know, I don't know the deep cuts from Elton John. Look up Social Disease. It's just a lot of fun.

I have it on a disc that I play in my car. Rocket Man, okay, 1975. I had a little Volkswagen and an 8-track. State of the art. And I'd smoke a joint and drive around in that car. I was driving a taxi at the time, too. When this song came on and I was high, I was Rocket Man. And for the record, you don't get high anymore.

No. No, just wanted to throw it. But for the record, I've got a huge cannabis plant growing in my garden, but I can't smoke it. You probably have lots of friends who would help you, I'm sure. But it's funny how you grew it because you could, right? This is your own little political statement, like, now I can grow this legally.

Yeah, well, it's a throwback to me because in 1977, I got busted for growing pot in my backyard. It's full circle now. Did they arrest you or did you eventually, they drop those charges? Five giant cops wearing Farrah Fawcett t-shirts

barged into my house. They'd gotten some tip that there was an enormous amount of drugs. They went into my backyard. I had 50 marijuana plants growing in my backyard. Five-zero. Fifty. Fifty.

I put fifty. And it was June, so they weren't nearly fully grown or smokable. And one of the cops comes back in and says to me, I'm really impressed. And long and short, went to court with the great lawyer Walter Fox, got a conditional discharge. And one of the, the condition of the discharge

was that I couldn't be in possession of any illegal narcotics. Like, how is that different from any other people? So, which is, which is really interesting because there are people,

you know, a lot of black men in jail for the last 20 years. Well, let me ask you this. If you're Peter Gross, black man, do you think you get a conditional sentence like that? I mean, we'll never know. I'm just wondering what you think. Well, certainly not in Alabama. You know, not in Texas.

What about in Toronto? Very hard to say. I was just very fortunate. And at this time, were you a known person? I had just started. Very interesting side story to this. So they arrested me. They took me across the street to 52 Division at Coxwell and Dundas.

I lived 50 yards away, which just shows how ridiculous I was. They released me on the charge of possessing marijuana, but they made me stay overnight at the Don Jail because I owed several hundred dollars in parking tickets. Oh, wow. Yeah. And I had just started at City TV, so it was kind of a story for the media if they'd found out.

But the next day when I walked out of the Don jail, there was a media gathering because a member of parliament named Ed Ziemba had gone to jail for a day for failing to reveal his sources on some big scandal. And I just sort of walked by all these reporters. That's funny. They were there on another matter. And that's a great little... Do you have more on the Elton?

Because I don't want to take you on to the next jam. Because that's funny how you talk about the beginning of your City TV, and then I'm going to play this jam, and then I know the significance of this next jam. Well, just let me say that Rocket Man, the movie, I would watch it 20 times, and it brought back to me all my experiences in the 70s and 80s when Elton John was sensational. I know the city of Toronto at Ontario Place, I think it's a city.

Well, Ontario Place anyways, is going to have a drive-in movie event. And they're going to play Rocketman. And I know these details in my email but uh if you have interest in that and you can order food and this food kind of gets delivered to your car or whatever and then you stay in the car um and you watch this movie at ontario place and it might be kind of neat for people and families and rocket man would be a fun movie to see are you sponsored by ontario place maybe you should i do bike there a lot, but I'm not sponsored. But, you know, I like to support these city events and such,

even if there's no money changing hands. But I want to get to this jam because I want to hear this story and its glory. And I have seen, thanks to FOTM Retro Ontario, I've seen the clip, but I'm going to play it and then let you tell the story. Here we go. I'm singing in the rain. Just singing in the rain Just singing in the rain What a glorious feeling

I'm happy again I'm laughing at clouds So dark up above The sun's in my heart And I'm ready for love Nothing but blue skies today in the TMDS Backyard Studio. So there'll be no singing in the rain here. But tell me the significance of this song. Well, if I don't break down while telling this. Please break down.

It's good for the camera. Yeah, I understand. We've discussed on Toronto Mic some of my bad behavior in the mid-80s that distracted me from doing the best work that I could possibly do. And thanks to my own personal immaturity, etc., etc., etc., I kind of destroyed what was going on at City TV. And I was not fired by City TV. I tried to pull a big bluff and it didn't work, essentially.

And so I had to do my final story. And it was a message story which was, I know I'm a mess but there should be a happy ending and it's a really visually stunning piece of video where in every scene water is pouring on me I got Dave Steeb down at Old Exhibition Stadium with a hose I got Paul Godfrey dousing me

I went through a car wash down at Old Exhibition Stadium with a hose. I got Paul Godfrey dousing me. I went through a car wash. And at the end, I'm at a, what would you call it? Waterfall? Thank you. It's some kind of a waterfall. And then I dissolve into the waterfall. So it was a way of me saying to everybody,

I'm singing in the rain. It's pouring in my life right now, but soon, you know, maybe we'll look back one day and laugh at the mess I'd made, which I guess is exactly what we're doing now. It was all worth it for this. 35 years ago, 34 years ago. And you've opened up about this in the past on Toronto Mic. And if people think this is Peter's first appearance on Toronto Mike,

they'd be sadly mistaken. There's been several and they're all gems. They're all gems. But this is your cocaine period, right? Like this is your... No, no, no. No? I was hoping we could avoid using that word.

Oh, I didn't know. Because you've been so honest about it so many times. The beautiful thing about turning 70 and being extremely straight, both sexually and drug-wise, by the way, is that you can look back at this stuff. At the time, you're in major denial that you've got a problem. It's really difficult if you're doing a lot of cocaine and drugs and shit, uh, at the time to say, boy, am I ever screwed up? But you know,

35 years later, you can say that was, that was a problem for me that, um, I know that, uh, as, as the years went on after that,

um, more so than having wasted an awful lot of money, uh, doing drugs. I really regretted that I had this amazing circumstance at City TV where it was my job every day to go out and just make a film about anything I wanted. It wasn't like someone said to me,

you know, do the protest at Queen's Park or go talk to the teachers about the contract. I could do anything I wanted and I could execute it the way that I wanted. And every once in a while, there were some lovely stuff there. And I screwed that up and I agonized over it for a long, long time. And every five years or so, I would beg Moses to bring me back. And they did eventually bring me back in the year 2000.

I stopped all drugs in 1986 and went back in the year 2000. I only lasted four years, but I'm quite satisfied. The one thing I accomplished was I want to go in there and just do the work and show people that I'm not distracted, that I can produce the stuff. For another reason, that all went terribly wrong, but not because I wasn't committed to the product. So in a way, I vanquished a few demons with my second go-round at City TV. Now, Peter, addiction is a disease.

So you were sick. Okay. No, you don't. I mean, you were addicted to cocaine. I accept that, but that's a bit that's a bit of a cop out. And I like to tell me why, because I prefer to say that I was immature and irresponsible, that I was just an asshole. Um, and I've proven that to myself because I don't do any drugs now.

I don't have to do any drugs now. Um, and I, I just wasn't bright enough at the time to see how stupid it was, how expensive it was, how destructive it was. And I lost this fantastic podium that I had because of the drugs. And it's a bad thing to do if you're trying to live forever. Well, that's the big surprise. I'll tell you that I think when I was 60, when I was 60, I submitted myself to a barrage of doctors and I said, look, I've done this and I've done this and give me the bad news. Look at my heart. mess and your brain's falling apart, I might have just jumped back into the deep end. But the

prognosis afterwards was every part of your body is in fantastic shape. You're one notch below professional athlete. Wow. And that's helped me in the last 10, 15 years. You know, I have read things about, for example, Ozzy Osbourne, like why is he still alive, right? And there is some thoughts that maybe there is a DNA, a certain DNA that makes you sort of, like, almost resistant to the, uh, what, you know, regular person

heart might give out at 16 if they did a mountain of coke. But, uh, you might be the lucky one. And I'm glad that you've been clean and sober for so long. Like, 1986 is a long time ago now, so good on you. It's easier to talk about it now. I think in 1988, you would have gotten a different story from me.

Well, that's why I didn't have you on Toronto Mic in 1988. No matter how many times I called you back then to put me on. All right. Okay, I love this jam. Let's enjoy. Gene Kelly? David Cassidy? All the greats. I think I love you.

Oh, you were on the Perry Lefkoe episode of Toronto Mic'd. Were you there for that? I can't remember now. I just know Perry Lefkoe has been on my show, and maybe he was here alone, and it was a great episode. Yeah, Perry Lefkoe is my connection. Yeah, go ahead. Tell your story. I love this story. To David Cassidy. is my connection.

Yeah, go ahead. Tell your story. I love this story. To David Cassidy. Just to tell you that, the Parches family, very big in the 70s. David Cassidy probably got laid more than any other teenager

in the history of... I mean, he was a very, very attractive, talented guy. But the thing about David Cassidy is even when he was a kid, he loved horse racing. And he became one of the finest broodmare developers. A broodmare is a female horse that creates racehorses.

And he knew the science. He did the research. And he actually won an Eclipse Award for having the finest broodmare in America one year. So he had a horse that a Woodbine trainer called Arthur Silvero was training. David sent his horse to Woodbine because anyone in the United States knows that Woodbine's a major, major track. And so sometimes they send their horses up to Woodbine. And Arthur Silvero was looking for a name for the horse. And for whatever reason, he knew Perry Lefkoe. And Lefkoe said, call it Peter the Gross. Right.

Well, one of the best moments of my life was Peter the Gross was in a race, his first race at Woodbine. And Dan Loisel is calling it, you know. Who's also been over. Yeah, Dan Loisel is a wonderful man. And in the one call, when he's calling Peter the Gross, he says, And Peter the Gross, with short, choppy strides like his namesake. So that was a connection with David Cassidy. So we've talked about how Jim McKinney and I went to Saratoga every year.

And one year, David Cassidy is at Saratoga. And it's not the teenage girls swarming to see him. It's the 75-year-old millionaires in suits want to talk to David Cassidy about broodmares, not about I think I love you. I wanted to talk to him about Susan Day, but that's a whole other thing. And I interviewed David Cassidy,

and it was a lovely interview. He's a sweet, sweet guy. And a couple years after that, he's playing Casino Rama. And so they arranged for passes for us. So Perry Lefkoe and his wife and myself and my friend Eleanor LeBlanc, off we go to Casino Rama. And we're in his dressing room chatting with him. We take out a copy of the Down the Stretch newspaper and he poses with it.

And we're all feeling like we know the big star. And it's Casino Rama. i want to play blackjack i don't want to listen to david cassie so my plan was i'll be polite i'll uh i'll listen to a couple of the songs because i'm yeah i'm really not a big fan uh and then i'll go play some blackjack well uh he gets on the stage and he's terrific. It's like fantastic. And it's always very exciting to see musicians creating music live. So I stayed for the whole concert. And it cost me an hour or two of playing blackjack. And unfortunately, David Cassidy, because of alcoholism, died a few years ago. That's a hell of a connection.

I mean, he named his horse after you. Yeah, yeah. Peter the Gross. And that explains, of course, your Twitter handle. Peter the Gross. So, shout out to FOTM Perry Lefkoe. I've got his Ed Olchek book. It's very good.

And he's working on it. Do you know who he's got? I know he's working on a new book. I know I should ask him. I guess you don't have a heads up on what the new book is about. But Perry's very good, so it'll be a very good book. But I want to ask about Jim McKinney. How's Jim doing? He's been on the show.

I've had him in my basement since then because he was down the stretch. I miss those days when we could all get down there, Garnet Barnsdale. They'll be back. They'll be back. Jim McKinney is one of the most wonderful people. Is that Jim? If it's Jim, put it on speakerphone. Hang on, hang on.

Peter Gross is getting a phone call. No, it's Eleanor. Oh, did she hear her name? Maybe ask her if she's watching the Periscope. Are you watching the podcast right now? No, I'm in my car. Because we just mentioned you on the podcast. I'm on Toronto mic right now.

Are you picking up her audio mic? Yeah, a little bit, yeah. You've got 10 minutes to talk about your relationship with me. How many times have we had sex? You're just talking Monday. You don't usually do that on Monday. No, I'm doing the Toronto mic podcast as opposed to the Down the Stretch podcast. No, it was actually pretty convenient.

He just asked me a question of Jim McKinney and the phone started ringing. We were hoping it was Jim, not that we're disappointed with you. But why don't I call you later? She never answered how many times did we have sex. Yeah, I was waiting for a number. Yeah, we. You can do that. She never answered. How many times did we have? Yeah, I was waiting for a number. We're waiting for an answer, but it's a more than zero.

There you go. I'm going to call you later. Okay. Bye. Bye. Peter. She, I could tell by her voice.

She, she's very fond of you. We, um, I don't know if you want to hear the whole story, how we met, but I'm going to tell you anyways, I was, I, I, I had a, uh, uh, a vehicle that was falling apart and I was trying to drive up to Orangeville to do a story on, on a stallion for one of my writing projects.

And my car broke down in front of Eleanor's property on Stouffville Crossroad or whatever. And there was black smoke billowing up and I was unshaven and I've got grease all over my face. And I knock on her door and she's a very attractive woman, more or less my age, which was really good. And she looks at me and she goes, I know you, you're Peter Gross. That's good. God, that was 12, 13, 14 years ago.

And she's now the proofreader, the associate editor on my newspaper down the stretch. Wow, that's great. And we got her on the program so she can listen back. But you were asking me about Jim McKinney. Yeah, how's Jim doing? Jim's doing okay. He had a terrible heart attack many years ago.

And right now he's been told by his doctors that his heart operates at 18%. So he does have to be careful. Can we fix that? Like, can we go in there and do something? No, no. When you have a heart attack, part of your heart dies and it can't be resuscitated. So you just have to live with that. He's got a pacemaker.

18%? I feel like it's low. Yeah, it is. When we've gone to the races together and it's warm, he has to leave and go back to the air conditioning. But during this period where nothing's happening, I've had to stop gambling because I don't have income i don't have much income so i'm not gambling well good that's good you can do that but jim's playing the races every day he's pounding like crazy and i get a vicarious thrill he phones me every 15 minutes

he says i'm on the three and the one here i feel it's dangerous for him to have such excitement in his life he's gonna get his horse is gonna come in it's gonna be like to have such excitement in his life. His horse is going to come in. It's going to be like, I don't know, 30 to 1 or something is going to come in, and that 18% is going to get tested. Well, I think he's going to. He goes golfing several days a week. Like today might not be a good idea because I think it's going to be very warm out. Right.

Well, that's been the new normal this summer. It's very warm out. But I'm glad that Jim's enjoying the races, and I'm actually really glad to hear that when you have no money to gamble with, you're able to stop. That is the sign. It's the people who can't stop when they have no money. You know, it's funny.

I get in these uncomfortable conversations with Jim because he's a drug counselor now. He takes people under his wings. Jim was a chronic. He'll say he still is a chronic alcoholic. He hasn't drunk for 30 years or so. And we were both up to our eyeballs on all kinds of crap in the mid-80s. He's got a slightly different attitude about it. It's the 12-step program, give yourself to God. And I simply look at the harm I've done

myself and others, and I don't want to be there again. You're able to kind of quit cold turkey, if you will. Do you believe in God? No. Well, that's part of it, I think. I believe in good. Right, but I think it would be difficult to do the 12-step, give yourself to God, if you didn't believe in God. I feel that's a deal-breaker. No, I find it would be difficult to do the 12-step, give yourself to God if you didn't believe in God. I feel that's a deal-breaker. No, I find it difficult to believe in God. You know how the Jews call themselves the chosen people? If Jews are the chosen people,

why did God allow what happened during the Holocaust? It just makes me say that there can't be a God if he allows that to happen. There can't be a God who allows all these dreadful things to happen on the Holocaust. It just makes me say that there can't be a God if he allows that to happen. There can't be a God who allows all these dreadful things to happen on the planet. I was going to say, you're preaching to the converted here, Peter,

but yeah, the 12 steps, I think you have to believe in God. There should be an atheist. But what's the catcher in the rye? Is there a line in Catcher in the Rye where the character says, I don't believe in God, but if he's looking down at me, he knows I'm a good guy. I don't know if I'm extracting that from

Catcher in the Rye. I don't believe in God, but if God's looking down, he's going to see me and he says, I don't have a problem with that guy. I got bigger fish to fry than what Peter Gross is doing. Alright, let's hear another Peter Gross jam. Let's do it. Some folks are born

Made to wave the flag Ooh, they're red, white, and blue And when the band plays Hail to the chief Ooh, that's what the candidate You love It ain't me It ain't me I ain't no senator So I feel like we're in a Vietnam movie.

Anytime I hear that song, I think of my brother Dan. Dan died about six years ago, and he was not a fortunate son. Do you know what Tourette's Syndrome is? Yes. And he had Tourette's Syndrome in the late 50s and early 60s, when it was barely diagnosed. And the experts told my parents to put him in an asylum. And of course they refused. The experts told my parents to put him in an asylum, and of course they refused.

But there were people with Tourette's Syndrome bark and make sounds and do have strange... He used to jam sharp things into his ears until they bled. He used to tap on windows until he put his hand through the window. He couldn't go to school because he would bark out swear words. So a very, very unpleasant upbringing. But my parents just refused to give up on him. And to summarize it, he ended up going to college, getting a degree. He worked for many, many years as one of those substitute teachers, lived with a woman for 30 years,

had a very fulfilling, happy life, died suddenly of some kind of heart thing six years ago. So, he loved Creedence Clearwater. Played it constantly. I was not a big... I like this song, by the way. Played it constantly when we were teenagers, ad nauseum. So, in that sense, I was not a, by the way. Played it constantly when we were teenagers to ad nauseum.

So in that sense, I was not a big CCR fan, but Dan loved CCR. So I was asked to speak at the funeral site. And I'm thinking, you know what? I should play some CCR. Dan would like that. And I go into, I don't know, a future shop at the Dixie Mall. He's got a contraption. So the guy gives me a little bowl-shaped contraption,

and he shows me how it works. And it plays very – I could find the song on my phone, plug it in the contraption, and play it. So that's what I was going to do. I was going to put it on his coffin. And he says, but it needs to be charged. I said, well, I need it right away. He says, well, give me half an hour. I said, fine. So I walk across the, the,

the parking lot into a no frills. And as soon as I step into the no frills, I swear on the loud speaker, they're playing fortunate son. I mean, what, what were the odds of that? I, I nearly, I nearly lost it. So, uh, that means that song means something to me. So that song means something to me. Yeah, I'm sorry for your loss, Peter. And I love hearing that your parents didn't give up, and I'm glad that they kept the faith and worked with your brother. So maybe in some sense he was a fortunate son. Yeah, yeah.

Dan's very heroic in, in that, um, he overcame that. And, and it's strange. I, I, I really don't know the experiences of other people with Tourette's syndrome.

Dan figured out a way of controlling. He did not have symptoms. He still had the disease till the day he died. But for the last 30 years, you would have had to pay very, very close attention to say, Oh, this guy's got some issue. Because he didn't exhibit all the signs of it. He knew how to control it.

I read the news today, oh boy About a lucky man who made the grade And though the news was rather sad Well, I just had to laugh. I saw the photograph. He blew his mind out in a car. He didn't notice that the lights had changed A crowd of people stood and stared They'd seen his face before Nobody was really sure he was from a house of law I saw a film today, oh boy The English Army had just won the war

A crowd of people turned away But I just have to look Having read the book Did not to tell you Thank you. I'm going to go. Found my way downstairs and drank a cup And looking up, I noticed I was late Found my coat and grabbed my hat Made the bus in seconds flat Found my way upstairs and had a smoke And somebody spoke and I went into a dream I read the news today, oh boy

This is my favorite Beatles song. It's my favorite song of all time, maybe. Although I've got conflict. I don't know. Are we doing sultans of singing? Yeah, spoiler alert, Peter. Okay, sorry. That is the most brilliant pop song ever recorded. Are we doing Sultans of Swing? Yeah, spoiler alert, Peter. Okay, sorry.

That is the most brilliant pop song ever recorded. I'm not equivocating on that. I think it's the most brilliant. I could listen to the song a million times. Just the production and the performance. The George Martin, yeah. I don't like cliches. I'm not interested in, and the Beatles did a lot of this, love and above and thinking of you.

This is the polar opposite of that kind of a song. And you know, this is a useless little fact. I can't think of any song except for this one in which the title, Day in the Life, never occurs in the song. Hold on, big finish and we'll continue. This famous chorus. Boom!

I actually didn't want to interrupt this song because I agree with everything you said there. I think the production, that song, if I had to pick, you know, I didn't live the Beatles like you did, but if I were to pick one song from that catalog,

A Day in the Life. Beautiful. The Beatles, as I referred to earlier, because they occurred as I was going through puberty and then as I became a young adult, because they occurred as I was going through puberty and then as I became a young adult. I credit two people with promoting and lighting my creative spark, the Beatles and Moses Neimer.

Because when I came to City TV in the fall, the late fall, the early winter of 1975, Moses almost immediately recognized something in me. He saw what I was capable of, and he saw me as an example of... Moses wanted to break all of the rules of conventional broadcasting, and maybe I'm elevating this too much, but he saw that I was an example of that, that I didn't look like a television broadcaster. Gord Martineau? Yeah, I didn't look like Gord Martineau.

I didn't look like all of the stiffs at the CBC at the time. And he knew that if his original premise was, well, I want my reporters to be part of the story. I don't know if i've told the story before one of the very first assignments he gave me where there was a fellow named damian lee who was a promoter and he was promoting something called the great cross canada race and to promote this great cross canada race where any vehicle you know if you wanted a roller blade across canada if you want to take a skateboard across can, whatever, you know. He was promoting this with a belly flop contest at the Inn on the Park.

So Moses sent me to that, and I wore my bar mitzvah suit and jumped into the pool doing a belly flop in the suit, and he loved that. Right. And that was back many, many years before. And, you know, now every sports reporter is an idiot. I was the first. I was the first idiot reporter who would do anything stupid for a laugh. So, Day in the Life, just to attribute to the Beatles,

that song really evokes a lot of emotions in me. And it sounds like it's neck and neck with this jam in terms of what's your favorite of all time. Yes. So, let's get to it. It's raining in the park, but meantime Sound of the river, you stop and you hold everything A band is blowing Dixie, double ball time You feel alright when you hear the music ring You hear the music ring.

Now you step inside, but you don't see too many faces. Coming in out of the rain, they hear the jazz go down. Competition in other places But the horns, they blow in that sound Way on down south Way on down south London town Tell us why you love this song, Peter. Well, it's different from Day in the Life because it doesn't evoke anything emotional in me.

I just love it as a piece of music. The presentation, Knopfler, Eric Knopfler? Mark. Mark Knopfler. The guitar work is sensational. I don't know if the guitar work in this is better than in Hotel California. Both sensational.

And it's just such a terrific song. So those are my two favorites, Day in the Life and The Sultans of Swing. Day in the Life makes me for for clem the sultans of swing just takes me back to smoking a joint in my taxi i guess and getting high and just feeling everything in life is perfect man uh you've got these cannabis plants in the backyard you don't smoke anymore but you ever consider maybe one nice night just lighting one up complete it's completely legal i did uh last year i had to test my own plant uh i pulled the plant and what i did i pulled the plant and i sort of wrapped the leaves tightly together and put

them in a bag and hang them up so that i ideally i guess the the THC dribbles down. I'm learning right now. I've got to plead complete ignorance. And then after a couple of weeks, the leaves were dry enough to kind of crumble, and I had like a quarter pound of pot, so I had to test it. And I took about four or five puffs,

got extremely high, got extremely paranoid, didn't enjoy it. I still have him for a month. Anyone want to call me? I got some free weed at my house. I'm giving it away. It doesn't have to be free. Follow me home, Mary.

Mary Jane? Is that your middle name, Jane? I think you guys can make a deal. But, I mean, I had a – there's a famous story about 1975 when I was growing pot and I went down to City TV. This was actually my first appearance on City TV. William Ronald hosted a show. Was it called Anything Goes? I don't remember. I think it was called Anything Goes.

And I brought the marijuana plant and I covered it with a green garbage bag and he invites me on. And he was very curious about what I had in the bag. And when I pulled the bag off and he invites me on and he was very curious about what I had in the bag when I pulled the bag off and showed him a plant he got very nervous and I'd brought a hot plate and my intention was to pick leaves off of the plant dry it on the hot plate roll a joint and smoke it on tv I thought I would I would be like Rosa Parks you know making history well look where we are today. It only took how many years? I wanted to

ask you about somebody you worked with. Morden Schulman. Morden, yeah. On Friday, so we're now speaking on a Wednesday morning. On Friday afternoon, I'm going to be in the backyard of Dr. Diane Sachs. She's a globally famous environmental lawyer,

and she was Ontario's first and so far last environment commissioner. And her name, Sachs is her married name, but she was Diane Schulman, and but she was Diane Shulman. And her father was Morty Shulman. Morty Shulman was a remarkable man. Like anything, because I literally, I might even pull this clip and play it for her Friday. So be eloquent. Like, share anything you can about Morty.

I think younger people listening are like, who's that? Well, there's that? Well, there's a funny story. Morty was a wonderful television host. Before City Pulse, there was a 90-minute show on City TV that would go from 6 to 9.30. And it was mostly an interview. And Morty was a very confrontational kind of interviewer. Very uninhibited, very dynamic. And then they would throw in three minutes of news every half hour. And the producer

of the show was a woman named Joan Schaefer, and she decided that I should give horse racing tips on the show. And after the horse racing tip, Morty would come on and go, I don't know why we're doing it. I hate that. It's so sleazy. So one day I did a tip where Morty had written a book, Anyone Can Make a Million Dollars in the Stock Market, something like that. So I did the whole horse racing tip as a comparison between buying and selling short and buying. You know, when you buy a ticket to win on a horse, you're making an investment in a stock that in the next three minutes is either going to rise or fall. And all the racetrack is is is a speed speeded up stock market. And I think when when I came out of that story, they went back to Morty and he was laughing and I won him over.

So there's going to be more Morty talk on on Friday. Morty Shulman. That'll be a good episode because he was quite the character. I mean, I was on his wiki page and he's a broadcaster, he's a politician, he's a... Chief coroner? He was the city's chief coroner. He's a doctor, I guess. I mean, think about all those hats he's wearing. I've got to find out more from his daughter.

Sorry, Diane, I know you're a globally famous environmental lawyer and we're in a climate crisis, but we're going to spend 90 minutes talking about your dad, Morty. I hope that's okay. Hey, one more jam. That's 10. We're done. But do we call this a bonus song? Okay. It needs a bit of an introduction. Go ahead. In my life, I've had many brilliant ideas. None of them come to fruition. And this is a song I wrote 30 years ago, a marijuana song, and didn't know what to do with it. I'm not a very strong performer, as I've sort of illustrated earlier in this.

But in this age of YouTube and things you can do with your computer, I thought, and marijuana being legalized, I thought, you know what? I've got to do something with this. And I have a musician friend named Eric Mahar who's wonderful. And I went to him and I recorded this because the brilliant idea was, put it on YouTube. It's a marijuana anthem. In this day and age, it's going to get a million hits.

So now play the song and I'll tell you what happened. All right, here we go. This is the marijuana song. Well, you're my very special plant. You do something for me that others can't One thing I want you to know It won't make me grieve Wherever you spurt your leaves

So grow, marijuana, grow Grow, grow, marijuana Any anywhere that you wanna i'll just sit and play some honky-tonk yeah i'm sitting here thinking oh man if this turns out to be good cannabis i'm really gonna Really gonna get zonked So grow, grow, get on up Don't ever think you've had enough Pretty soon you'll get the point For the fertilizers and the sprays The plant food that I bought today Is just so you'd end up inside my joint

You know what? This is the only format in the universe today is just so you end up inside my joint. You know what? This is the only format in the universe in which you hear songs by the Beatles, the Mamas and the Papas, Elton John, Gene Kelly, David Cassidy, and Peter Gross.

And that's what I'm here for. So anyways, this is wonderful. It's fantastic. Who wouldn't want to listen to this? I checked yesterday.. And so anyways, this is wonderful. It's fantastic. Who wouldn't want to listen to this? I checked yesterday. This has been on YouTube for five months. 56 hits. 12 of which were mine.

Peter Gross, if I may be the devil's advocate here. Why did you think it was going to get a million views? Because it's about marijuana? Yeah. I just thought in this day and age... I don't know. You've been out of touch of pop culture lately, but the honky-tonk sound is not exactly

big with the kids these days. No? Well, I wasn't going to rap it. Now I'm thinking maybe, yeah. I mean, it's a great song. Honestly, I could not put together a song this good. I couldn't write a song this good. I guess, okay, I'll tell you why I thought it would get a lot of hits.

With the same musician, Eric Mehar, I did a spoof of the Gordon Lightfoot song, Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. We changed the lyrics to The Wreck of the Maple Leaf Season. And we did it right at a time when the Leafs were really going down the tank. And within about 30 hours, it got 100,000 hits. Yeah, but at least that you're tapping into a fervent, feverish fan base, right? Whereas this one, I don't think, I always wonder,

did anyone start smoking marijuana because it was legal? I feel like those who partake in enjoying cannabis were likely doing it before it was legalized. They might have just been hiding it more, and maybe now they can get it from somewhere. The whole point of bringing this up is to show you that what I thought was a brilliant idea wasn't. You don't have to rub it in.

The proof is in the pudding. 56 hits, and the three hits we'll get after the show, and we might be... No, because they just got it right now, and they don't need to go to YouTube for it. They have it in this episode, which, by the way, Peter, I thoroughly enjoyed. I mean, we've had so many visits together,

and I always wanted to kick out the jams with you. And I can't imagine a better time and place than this backyard on this beautiful sunny Wednesday. I loved it, man. How long did that go? Because it just flew by. An hour and 36 minutes. Really? Yeah.

Is there any human being on the planet who will spend 96 minutes listening to this? They're going to beg for more. They're going to be screaming, give me more Peter Gross stories. I enjoyed it. I got to go someplace and cry now because you basically brought up a catalog of my whole life. I opened the vault. Yeah, now it's all going to flush back. So when you're rollerblading home, you're going to have thoughts of young Peter,

and you'll be thinking about your brother and your parents, and you're rollerblading home, you're going to have thoughts of young Peter and you'll be thinking about your brother and your parents and it's going to... You're right. So if you're... Just know you can call me anytime, Peter, if you need to talk about anything. And you're always welcome back here. And I can't wait to be doing the Down the Stretch back at the TMDS studio and I cannot wait to see that

beautiful face of John Gallagher in my backyard as we record some new Gallagher and Gross Save the World. That's what we're going to do. Fantastic. There's always the future to look forward to, even when you're 70. And congrats that you're six days away,

so I'll be tweeting on your birthday. I'm expecting multiple gifts. Well, I already gave you beer and pasta. I'm sure that you guys get two meals each out of that Palma Pasta lasagna. So thank you, Palma Pasta, for the delivery. And that brings us to the end of our 686th show. You can follow me on Twitter.

I'm at Toronto Mike. Peter is at Peter the Gross. And we learn the story of the origin story of where that handle comes from. Thank you, David Cassidy, wherever you are. the gross and we learn the story of the origin story of where that handle comes from thank you david cassidy wherever you are our friends i think he's six feet under probably i don't know our friends at great lakes brewery are at great lakes beer palma pasta they're at palma pasta sticker you they're at sticker you the kaitner group are at the kaitner group pumpkins after dark are at pumpkins dark and garbage day are at garbage dayitner Group. Pumpkins After Dark are at Pumpkins Dark. And Garbage Day are at GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike.

See you all next week. 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 and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RoamPhone.ca to get started.