Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Ryan Doyle and Jay Maddog Michaels: Toronto Mike'd #319

Episode Date: March 27, 2018

Mike chats with Ryan Doyle and Jay Maddog Michaels about their show The Rush on Newstalk 1010 before they kick out the jams.

Welcome to episode 319 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke. Did you know, Jay and Ryan, that 99.99% of all Great Lakes beer remains here in Ontario? That's a lot. It's a lot of beer. That beer remains here in Ontario. GLB. That's a lot of beer. That can't be true. That's propaganda. That can't be true.

GLB, brewed for you. Ontario and propertyinthesix.com. Toronto real estate done right. And Paytm, an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. Download the app today from paytm.ca. And our newest sponsor, Camp Tournesol, the leading French summer camp provider in Ontario. I'm Mike from torontomike.com. And joining me is News Talk 1010's Jay Bad Dog Michaels and Ryan

Less Mad Dog Doyle. Such an impressive nickname too. Did we drop Mad Dog? I need to know. Is Mad Dog used anymore? I use it in social media. Absolutely. I'd be insane to say goodbye to that audience because people

still know me. I realize as I was saying, Jay Mad Dog Michaels, maybe he's growing up and he's just Jay Michaels now. Maybe the Mad Dog is gone. But I'm glad it's still... That's cute you think he's grown up.

Yeah, right? It's also one of those things, once you have a... It's like Humble. He'll be Humble forever, right? And it's ironic because he's the least humble guy I know. And you're the least mad dog I know.

It's weird, eh? Maybe we pick opposite type monikers. Well, if you have a dog I know. It's weird. Maybe we pick opposite type monikers. Well, if you have a real fat guy and he's got the nickname Slim, or the skinny guy that you call Fats. The ironic nicknames, right? Yeah. So what's the deal with Fat Joe? Sometimes he's just larger. Sometimes they don't get the joke

and they screw it up. Ryan, I've never met you before. This is a pleasure to finally meet you. Yeah, it's good to you before. This is a pleasure to finally meet you. Yeah, it's good to be here. We almost met a few times because you guys did a brew of Great Lakes beer, right? A 1010 brew. Yeah, that's right.

And my buddy Troy there, one day he invited me over because all the 1010 guys were brewing and I went over thinking, oh, I'll finally meet Ryan Doyle. And Jerry Agar was there and Jim Richards is there. Mad Dog was there with his wife and no sign

of Ryan Doyle. You called in sick that day? Yeah, I think there was a maximum capacity of ego and they were at it already and they called me off. I was on the Gardner and I thought, okay, nope, I got to go home. That's because John Downs used up the whole quota. Did I say John Downs? I make that mistake a no, I got to go home. That's because John Downs used up the whole quota. No, did I say John Downs?

I make that mistake a lot. I meant John Moore. Those are two very different people. No, you know what? I apologize. I've dated myself. Back in the day, I would confuse the Johns, but I meant John Moore, Morning Man on 1010.

There's a lot of Johns in radio. A lot of Johns. A lot of Ryans. Yeah, it's true. It's true. Every other producer is named Ryan in AM radio anyway. Yeah, because he had Ryan Bonner for a while. There's a Parker?

Ryan Parker. And there's a... Who's the Stafford guy? Is he Bonner? He was Bonner. I don't think he's there anymore. Okay, okay. You literally know every single person in this industry for the last 20 years, don't you,

Ryan? Pretty much, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's a wealth of knowledge. I know where the bodies are buried. So who knows how this is going to go. Well, that's what we're here for. I need to know where these bodies are buried. But Ryan Doyle, of course, you're from Dublin, right?

If you go far enough back, County Cork, but by way of Boston. My grandfather on my father's side came from County Cork. There you go. That's cool. Now, I need to tell people listening, although it's Ryan's first appearance, it's Jay's third appearance.

So if you're hankering for more Jay Michaels, your episode 92, both episodes were great, but I urge people to go back and listen to episode 92. I'll read my little description for that. Mike chats with Jay Mad Dog Michaels about his life and radio. Why, oh, let me, hold on. Why, well, this is about Mad Dog and Billy's stuff

and then some Dean Blundell stuff and much, much more. So that was episode 92, which still gets rave reviews. Oh, that's great. One of the people's all-time favorites. It was fun. Episode 178, you came back

and we talked about what happened at Virgin Radio and we talked about Today in Radio and we talked about you doing, at the time, you were doing what I called spot duty at News Talk 1010. Yeah, filling in for this guy. Right. Yeah.

So where do we begin? Let's start with, Ryan, let's start by kind of getting to know you, and tell us how you end up at News Talk 1010. Pretty straightforward story. I was in Humber College for the radio program back when I was 18. I was the youngest in the class and didn't really have much direction in my life when it came to what I wanted to do. I actually toyed with the idea of going into the U.S. military because my dad's American

and I thought, I don't really have any life skills, so maybe I'll find some there. That's a desperate move, right? That's a last resort, I think. To be honest, I was not a good student. I had dabbled in DJing and doing some hip-hop DJing and promoting back when I was in high school. So it was either I got into Humber or I was probably going to be in the United States Marine Corps. And listen, I'm 5'7". I weighed practically nothing back then. So that would have been a weird sort of shift

in life. And I should tell people, you may list yourself at 5'7", but you still would bump your head. I just want to point out the 5'7 people still have to duck when they come on. It was a pleasant surprise bump in my head. So yeah, I mean, I did that. I got the letter for Humber College, was very excited to go. And I wasn't the greatest student at Humber. Met some really great people, some people who are still in the industry. Kella, who is on Virgin, she was in the class with me. She was the first person actually I met in college, so it was kind of nice to have somebody with that personality to be able to talk to.

How come when I, because there's a north campus and a south campus for Humber. I know radio's at the north campus by the racetrack, I guess, near Woodbine or whatever. Oh, I know it well. You know it well. That's exactly why Ryan went there. He only looked at programs that were in that part of the city. Only racing programs, really. Near the racetrack. That's exactly why Ryan went there. He only looked at programs that were in that part of the city. Only racing programs, really.

Near the racetrack. Oh, that's funny. But right now, we're very close to the South Campus, so I'm walking by it all the time. And they have these, I guess they just had a big anniversary. Was it the 50th anniversary? What was it? Humber College celebrated a big birthday.

Yeah, I think it was the 50th anniversary. But they have these flags of famous graduates. I always see, oh, there's Dina, for example. And I'll see these people. Where's the Ryan Doyle pennant to celebrate your... You know what? Last year I got into the Humber Radio Hall of Fame. Really? Yeah, which is a big deal. They put you on the wall first

and then you go into the Hall of Fame after that. So that was a big deal. They came in and filmed and hung out. It was great. Yeah. Jay said some kind words. Two or three of them. How much did you pay him for that? That's what I want to know. Oh, and before we proceed, who paid for this coffee? I love it when a guest comes in and brings me a coffee. That was Jay.

Jay, you're a good man. Thank you, sir. I'm going to only give you softball questions. I think you've asked all the questions you can ask anyway. I'm pretty sure you can just talk to Ryan. That's right. Well, we do have to catch up with Ryan, and then I want to find out what's new with you. So, Ryan, you graduate Humber College, but how do you end up at TEL?

No, I put the brakes on that. That was complicated. And I remember sitting in Robert Holiday's class, who's a veteran news guy, who was probably the inspiration for me being surly and opinionated and all those things. And he was doing internships at Newstalk 1010. He was giving them out, basically. You'd get notices like on the bulletin board. And he said, listen, Newstalk 1010. He was giving them out, basically. You'd get notices on the bulletin board, and he said, listen, Newstalk 1010, which was CFRB at the time, they're doing an entertainment internship. Basically, you'd go stand outside of a movie theater

back when people were in the movie theaters more. Well, they're still going. Yeah, but you'd talk to them about how the movie was and that kind of thing. And I thought, okay, well, I'm at the back of this classroom. I had nothing going for me. I didn you know, I'm at the back of this classroom. I had nothing going for me. I didn't know where this radio thing was going to end up. And I ended up putting my hand up, which was unlike me. I was not the kind of guy who would ever volunteer for anything, but I thought, okay, what the hell? And I remember getting to

the Young and Sinclair studios at CFRB and sitting there with about six female students from my class, all very attractive. And I thought, I'm not going to get this job. I know nothing about entertainment. They know everything about movies. The fact that they were good looking, did that work? And did that play into it? But it's radio, right? Like we don't see their beauty.

Sure. But they all had really great voices. And I just thought, I'm just outmatched here. There's no way in hell that I'm going to get this internship. And I didn't. I didn't get the internship. And I remember the executive producer at the time, Trish Raypock, called me and she said, hey, Ryan, you weren't the right guy for that entertainment internship, but how would you like to come and work on the John Oakley show and intern with Richard Serrett,

who was the producer at the time? And I said, yeah, that would be a lot of fun. My dad had listened to CFRB. I had never listened to it. I hated it. I used to turn it off. I'd put it on Buffalo radio stations. It was your dad's station. Yeah, and my dad used to drive me to Humber College

because my dad worked at the airport. He worked for Air Canada out on the ramp. And I remember always turning it off and putting on like 98.5 from the United States or 93.7 WBLK and listening to the hip hop and rap at the time. So I thought, okay, you know what? Maybe this will make my old man happy. So the commitment was five days a week. And I had to job out of school, basically. The program

people, Jerry Shaman and Joe Andrews, weren't happy with the idea of me leaving school. But did you ever go back and get this document? I did get the document. I met Jerry Shaman. I remember it. I met him in a parking lot and had to write an essay about talk radio. And John Oakley was actually the one who helped me write the essay about talk radio that I would hand in. So he's the real graduate. Is that what you're telling us?

Yeah. Oakley basically graduated from Humber College without even knowing. See, I didn't even know that about you. And I also, I did the exact same thing at a Loyalist college. I internships in Nova Scotia, like in my hometown. At the end of it, they offered me a gig and I called my school and they were like, you know what? You can write an essay.

Yeah. And that's what I did because the whole idea is to get a gig, right? And if you're in the door and you're already learning, what else are they going to teach you? That's the best way to learn. I was going to say, because if you never got that piece of paper, I was going to be outraged that they honored you, right? True, right?

They honored you and you didn't graduate. That would be a scandal. We'd be breaking news here on Toronto Mic'd. But thankfully, you got the piece of paper. So I did finish the first year and then started that internship process the second year. And that's how I landed at 1010. And but OK, so you land at 1010, your first radio gig. And here you are, like co-hosting the afternoon drive show, which is one of those two premium spots in the lineup.

That's well done. That's quite the accomplishment. It's been a long journey. It's been a long 22-year trip. I was actually fired for about two weeks in that process, but we can get to that after if you want to talk about that. Well, I'll tell it now because at some point we're going to kick out the jam, so I don't want to forget to come back.

Yeah. So basically I started with John Oakley, worked with him. It was a fascinating and fun experience. We did some really wacky and out there shit. Can I say shit? You can swear. And it was crazy. We did one where I had had a really bad day.

I had fallen down a hill, slipped on some ice. I had lost a lot of money gambling. My girlfriend had just broke up with me. They did a full hour on whether or not I was a born loser. And complete with like, Bex, I'm a loser baby, and that whole thing. And the station was running a promotion for an Oscar party that they were having

at the Palace restaurant just off the Danforth. And basically a girl called in and she said, I would date Ryan. And that's how I sort of developed a bit of a character on the air. So the station paid for a limo, flowers. I picked this girl up. She was invited to the station party. We actually dated a little bit afterward.

All of it was said and done. But then I'd come on the show and sort of do the original Ryan the Intern shtick. You know, my last guest on Toronto Mic'd was Ken Daniels, who actually started working at 1430 doing overnights with John Oakley. Really? So they're, it all, CJ, it's such a small world, this Canadian media world.

It's true. It's remarkable. But you're, maybe tell us, so at 1010, so maybe I'll read a question first because this will tie in nicely. Where is the, Andrew Ward is a big listener of The Rush.

He's the one, okay? And he had a, He's the guy. Thank you, Andrew. Hold on. Bear with me here. I have to reload my notes because this is such breaking news, fresh stuff.

While I reload this, maybe I will ask you about your, what is the question, about the never-ending wheel of co-hosts. At some point, you end up paired with Jay on The Rush, but I'm trying to get you there. I could do a quick fast-forward.

Yeah, do a whole thing while I figure out how to get these Andrew Ward questions. I finally got a full-time job producing with The World Today back in the time. Gene Volitis had just taken over for John Stahl. From Jesse and Gene fame. So my first job was working with Gene Volitis on a news program,

and the job actually included nighttime traffic, which was interesting because I didn't drive. So I was doing the 7.15, 7.30, and 7.45 traffic and producing and doing the morning show producing as well at the time because it was a pretty skeleton staff and what have you. Did that job, got fired because there was just, the show wasn't working.

And Ian Grant, I'm going to shout out a whole bunch of people here. Yeah, go for it. Ian Grant, I was already down in Boston. I had an internship lined up at wei in boston uh was going to do some sports ian called me he said i need you to come back to the radio station he had just taken over as executive producer he said don't worry about the whole firing thing i was literally gone for two weeks so that kind of just got gotcha well you know ian just while you drop the names i'll just say for people like there's that radio forum, Sowny, South Ontario West. The Yellow Board.

The Yellow Board. Is it still yellow? I don't know. But it's yes, the Yellow Board. Exactly. I think he's the moderator of that right now, Ian Grant. I'm sure he regrets that every day. rough the crowd is. So Ian Grant's a name that anyone who's reading what the guys who think radio peaked with 1050 Chum, those are the guys I think that frequent the sounding board. But Ian Grant kind of reigns them in. You're not far off. So I came back because Ian brought me back to Be A Go-Between.

This was a really interesting time period because Charles Adler who was hosting the morning show, the mid-morning show, wasn't getting along with his producer. He was a brand new producer. He had just lost Aaron Saltzman, who's now with the CBC. And he just wasn't getting along with her. And I was basically the go-between. So the producer would sell me the ideas. Then I would walk into Charles Adler's office and tell him what she wanted to talk about. And he'd give me the green light as to what he liked. And then I'd go back to her and I'd screen the calls and that type of thing. So that lasted for a little bit.

Then I think he left and Mike Stafford was doing the 7 to 10 in the evening show. So I took over producing that and worked with Stafford for quite some time and produced this guy who was working from midnight to 3 a.m.

named Jim Richards. Never heard of him. Never. And the two of us really hit it off and we worked together for well over a decade. I produced his stuff. And eventually along the line somewhere, I'm just trying to think if I'm missing anybody

in this whole scenario, I worked in management, I became the executive producer of the radio station under Steve Couch, who was the program director at the time. And I was also doing a Saturday night show for young people, which those are always fun.

For young people? That means 40-something with the old CFRB. Well, it was Saturday night from 8 to 10, really like the dead zone of radio. And it was called Generation Next. And it was myself, Jackie Mahan, Hannah Sung, who worked for iMagazine at the time,

I believe, or Now Magazine, Rachel Saw from the Toronto Sun, and Mike Bendixson, our boss, who is our boss at this point. Wow. So we did a Saturday night show that lasted a couple of years. Am I boring everybody? I'm probably boring.

No, no, I dig it. Do you say Rachel Saw from the Sun? Rachel Saw from the Sun, yeah. I did stuff with her with Kiss 92 because she was like their, she was like. She was like the youth correspondent. Back in the day, like they started hiring her to write when she was like 16. Wow. Yeah.

So, I mean, I did that. And then that kind of went by the wayside because everybody else had lives and things to do and we figured out Saturday night wasn't a lot of fun but I was still a geek. So they gave me the show

by myself, Saturday nights from 8 to 10. And that's a good chance to cut your teeth, like to improve your skills, right? Yeah, but I... It was too early. But they didn't pay you

any money, right, to host a time slot like that? I think I got like 50 bucks. That's what I hear. What do you mean it was too early? It was too early in your... I should never have been near a microphone. You weren't ready?

No. No. But where do you get better? Like, that's my question. My politics was different. I was very left-wing. I was very Mother Jones. I was very, you know, the capitalist society must all come down, blah, blah, blah.

So Andrew Ward is a diehard fan. He's got several questions, but one of them is about politics. I'll throw it at you now, which is that he says, you're a diehard member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, but you used to be an organizer slash campaign manager for the NDP. Ask what made him NDP friendly, and how did he cross the political Rubicon from left to right, jumping over the liberals, a.k.a. Atari's pitfall. Okay, great question.

So this is interesting. So you were an NDP guy. Now you're a PC guy. Like you said, you leapfrogged the liberals, which is the gateway drug to NDP. So tell me a little bit about this. Yeah, I think in my early 20s, I was a, well, I know in my early 20s, I was a very big contrarian. And I still got a lot of that in me. But I think I just wanted to be different than everybody else that was doing radio.

And the NDP was attractive at the time, or at least the concept and the idea. And I don't do things by half, and J.L. attests to that. Like, I do things fully. Yeah, you're all in. So I got all in with the NDP, and I looked around my neighborhood, and I thought, okay, well, I want to know who the local candidate is. It was in Mississauga, Brampton South, a guy named Larry Taylor. I wanted to just cut my teeth and figure out how politics worked, how the machine worked, and I ended up running an NDP campaign.

It was not a successful one. We finished third. But I learned a lot of lessons. But you beat the Green Party. We beat the Green Party, yeah. They were just in their infancy back then. So I guess that's a small consolation prize. So, yeah, I got involved in that. And, you know, when you're young, you beat the Green Party. Yeah, they were just in their infancy back then. So I guess that's a small consolation prize. So yeah, I got involved in that.

And when you're young, you see the world differently. When you're a little bit older, you mature, you've got more responsibility, you see the world maybe a completely different way. You mean you get bitter and angry. You get bitter, you get angry. Exactly. The weight of the world crushes your soul. And your spirit.

I heard about this. It's going to happen to me one day I'm sure So very quick fast forward I turned 30 I decided I was going to do On air stuff more full time Because I was doing a lot of producing I forgot Bill Carroll I produced with Bill Carroll forever

Him and I worked from a one hour show to a three hour show And all that good stuff But then I turned 30 decided to do the on air stuff full time Did the show by myself at night from 7 to 10, and then they teamed me up with Tarek Fattah, and then Tarek unfortunately came down with cancer and has had a battle with cancer for quite

some time, and he's still a good friend, really good guy, and then they brought John Downs in, and that became Friendly Fire. Who's not John Moore. They're different people, very different people. And this Friendly Fire show was pretty popular too, right? It was, because now he's on the left, and firmly on the left, and I'm now firmly on the right,

and it became a bit of a back-and-forth, argumentative debate kind of show. It was a lot of work, though. Friendly Fire, like the good old Crossfire. Yeah, like Tucker Carlson and the other guy. All the gala. Right, right, right. All right, great.

Now, so now at some point they keep rotating co-hosts, trying to find, I guess you're trying to find, tell me if I skipped any steps. Yeah, I think we might have skipped a pretty important dude. Yeah, so the mayor of the city now, John Torrey, is hosting the afternoon drive show. Right. And I get a phone call one day that he's thinking about running and strongly considering running. He's going to make an announcement. And they decide to give me a call and give me a bit of a trial experience hosting the afternoon drive show in case, you know, if Torrey comes back, if he loses, and that could have been a possibility, if he loses, he's going to come back at his job. I'll go back to Friendly Fire. You're going to keep the seat warm for John Torrey just

in case it doesn't work out for him. So the plan was to host the show with a number of different co-hosts from all walks of life, from chefs to real estate people to politicians, you name it. Right. And this is now, of course, like you mentioned, this is Mike Bendixon now, who's a program director. That's right. At 1010. Yeah.

And it's, first of all, good on Mike for, I want to call it loyalty, because you're a guy who comes in young, and you stick with it, and you do what they ask you to do, and you work to get better, and you're given... This is a great opportunity. They could have gone outside, or got a big name or something, but I think that's very cool that they gave you a shot here. Yeah, he's a guy who likes to take

chances, and I think that's what a lot of people appreciate about him. Certainly, I appreciate that about him, that he takes chances. He doesn't do what's expected. He kind of goes against the grain to see how things work. So, yeah. No, I mean, I wouldn't be here without the guy. There's no doubt about that. And, yeah, it was an interesting experiment to have

that many different co-hosts. Can you name your co-hosts? Do you remember them all? Yeah. Pamela Wallin, Lynn Crawford, who's the chef, Brad Lamb, George Chiavallo. Was George, he had his wits about him? I mean that kindly. Like, I've met him recently, and I'm a little concerned for him.

Yeah, he was still pretty lucid, but there were parts where, you know, it's a funny story because that story sticks out to me because that's the day my dad passed away. Oh, I'm sorry. No, it's interesting, though, because George Chiavallo is a guy who has known so much pain and has gone through so many things that it was almost cathartic in a way to spend that time with him. And my dad was a huge boxing fan, coincidentally, and then go to my dad's bedside in his hospital room and then obviously spend those last moments with him. So I couldn't feel too bad for myself, if that makes any sense. You got a guy like George Chiavallo who's just had so much tragedy in his life. But the funny story about that was, we had a lot of,

we kept the show running with politics and news events, and the things that George Chavala didn't want to talk about, he just didn't. And he sat there for 20 minutes, literally, while I'm doing the show, didn't say a word, and ate a sandwich. Well, that's what Jay's doing right now. You know, but he literally is eating a sandwich and I can hear him chewing, and I just casually

like, turn the microphone button off. Just watching. Now you read the Mary Ormsby article in The Star about Shavalo recently where the concerns that basically that he doesn't he's not a sound mind and body right now and he shouldn't be making certain decisions.

So I read that with great interest, Mary Ormsby article. Then I was invited to a book launch. John Gallagher, Spike Gallagher. You've read the book. Yeah, I read that with great interest, Mary Ormsby article. Then I was invited to a book launch, John Gallagher. Oh, yeah. Spike Gallagher. Yeah. You've read the book. Yeah, I read the book. It's a dandy.

I read the book, too. It's a dandy. Oh, what I want to read, and he's got a version of that book before they make him take stuff out to avoid lawsuits and stuff. Right. I told him, that's the version I want to read. Oh, for sure. Can you imagine?

I'd like an audio book, because he's got such great pipes, too. But make him stay on the mic, because he's very bad. Oh, is he Wander? Oh, yeah. The first time he was in here, I he's very... Oh, is he Wander? Oh, yeah. The first time he was in here, I told him the second time, I'm going to duct tape his head to the microphone. He's a very passionate speaker. But I digress.

So, Chival has had a difficult life. I was glad to see him out and about, and it sounds like you had a good hosting experience. Yeah, and that's how I'll choose to remember him. It is sad, though, to see that he's in that state. But he's still out there, though. He's good for him. He's still out and about, so good for him.

So any others? Well, you mean a lot of broadcasters. Matt Gurney was there for quite some time. He would be coming in. Scott Reid, who's a political commentator on the station. Dean Blundell. Dean Blundell. He did two weeks.

He did. I remember this audition. Okay, well, it's been a long time actually since I asked. You're such a shit disturber. Alright, so I don't think it's an open secret. I don't think it's a secret at all, but Dean has, Dean's father's a long time Rogers guy, Rogers media guy.

I think he might still be, I'm not sure, but there was a couple of what I call auditions with Dean Blundell. He did this stint at 1010, which looked like a Bell Media audition. But he did something, I think it was on The Fan, which looked like a Rogers radio. What are they called? Rogers radio? A Rogers audition or whatever. Right.

So how was it? And obviously, he then went on to become the fan 590 morning show guy. So obviously, he got that gig. But what was it like working with Dean Blundell? It was great. To be honest with you, I didn't know what to expect. I was nervous as hell because the guy comes with a reputation, obviously a larger-than-life reputation.

But we had a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun. We still stay in touch. We still stay in contact with one another. And if I had a short list of people to co-host the show with, Dean would have been on that list. I would never make any secret about that because the guy's a talented broadcaster and he gets the bit. if I had a short list of people to co-host the show with, Dean would have been on that list. And I've, you know,

I would never make any secret about that because the guy's a talented broadcaster and he, he gets the bit. Now, if he was in it for the long haul, you know, do I, did I know if he was in it for the long haul or not?

I didn't, I didn't know whether he was going to go on to bigger things, different things, uh, to do a morning show, you know, sports radio station. Uh,

did I see that coming? No, but at the same time I had fun working with them. I can't, I, there's not really many people that I'll say a lot of bad things about that I've worked with in that time period. I think you get along with everybody, too. It's hard to not get along. Oh, no, there's some people I can't stand. Who are those people, Ryan? Please. Alphabetical order. Not a chance. But in that process, and I think in the sort of wheel of learning the topics and learning talk radio specifically it's hard for anybody coming in that hasn't done it before it really is it's a difficult

it's a difficult thing to do now um going back when you mentioned jim richards could you get jim richards in here do you know i've i've been asking jim richards to come on toronto mic for i think five years now and uh i know he's got close because i met him at great lakes beer which is not very far so he's able to get there. Did he seem skittish when you met him? Was he like, ah! You're Toronto Mike! Was he crying? I met him at an Argos game. I was at the

Eastern Final. And in the clubhouse, what is that called? The club there, I bumped into him with McKay Taggart. Mackay, yeah. I've obviously never heard it said. But yeah, Jim would be a great guest. So see what he can do.

I don't understand why he hasn't done it. Jim, do the pod. You got to do it, buddy. Come on. Jim and I used to party. Come on. He's like Strombo's shadow. I've had Strombo on here.

He can come on. You should just invite Strombo and see if he brings Jim. Jim's the plus one. Yeah, exactly. To everything. Super nice guy, though, Jim Richards. I want to hear a little bit of Jay's voice here for a second, so I'm going to just pause you, Ryan.

We're going to come back. But Jay, before we get an update on you, I've got to ask you about your real last name. Okay, so you're Jay Michaels, but your real last name, it's French, right? It's actually, I just found out that it's actually, yeah, it's actually French-Belgian, but Ryan and I did the Ancestry.ca thing, and I actually

found out that I'm just as Irish as this guy. Is that right? Which my whole life has been a lie. But yeah, but Doodlay is French-Belgian. Right, it sounds French to me. And when I was in Nova Scotia, my air name was McNeil, because McNeil's more of a Scottish name for Nova Scotia, the birthplace of New Scotland.

And then when I came to Toronto, I changed it to Michael's. But do you speak any French? No. No French. So you had, I guess, the birthplace of New Scotland. Then when I came to Toronto, I changed it to Michael's. But do you speak any French? No. No French. So you had, I guess, the mandatory take French until grade 9 going on. Yeah, for me it was grade, I think grade 8 I got to move to art was the option. Art? Yeah.

I'm like, I don't want to do French anymore, man. Can I get into art class? Can I make baskets? Popsicle sticks? I'm like, I don't want to do French anymore, man. Can I get into art class? Can I make baskets? Popsicle sticks?

Well, I wish we could go back and introduce you to Camp Tournesol. So Camp Tournesol, as mentioned, is the largest French camp in Ontario. They got a whole bunch of camps. Yep, this is some Nana Muscuri for you. Yes, I like that. I wish I had a camera in here. So whether you're a child, so if you have a child between the ages of 4 and 14, there's a camp for you at Camp Tournesol.

Basically, it doesn't matter if your kid's francophone or in French immersion or has no French like Jay here. You have a day camp for you. So there's even an overnight experience. Campers in all of their programs enjoy weeks jam-packed with activities designed to support and enrich French learning in Ontario beyond the school walls. Ryan, do you speak any French? You got the grade 9 French like I do. Just like I know, like, pujale de salle de toilette. That got me out to the bathroom so that I didn't have to learn anymore.

Un petit peu. It's just I'm bad at it. I should go to this camp. Sometimes, yeah. Yes, absolutely. Sometimes I'll do the old chacune sans goût. I'll say that. Like, I sound all...

It's not pretentious, right? I throw it out there to each his own. Yeah. Right. But if I could go back in time and be sent, if my parents would send me to one of these French camps, I bet you I'd love the language. It would change my whole path in life.

Agreed. Go to campt.ca. That's the website because I know you don't know how to spell campturnasol.com. Go to campt.ca and use the promo code Mike, M-I-K-E, when you sign up for one of the camps and you save 20 bucks on your first order.

So look at campt.ca and send your kid to French camp this summer. C'est oui. Now's the effing time. Sounds like there was a throat singer in that song. That's cool. Can you do that? There's a throat singer?

This jam is, I'm going to bring this jam back. It's going to reappear on the, whatever, the Billboard 100. Bring back Nana Muscuri. I have a few more questions for you, Jay. So actually, well, come on I hear you're a big, first I gotta go back to Ryan I hear you're a big Bills fan how did you forgive them

for not playing Doug Flutie in that Music City Miracle game? because that was it for me that was where you left? that's when I left you've been through such hardship with the team so I've been a Bills fan my entire life I mentioned my dad, my dad was from Boston

so he's a Patriots fan, I did everything opposite of him I'm a Lakers So I've been a Bills fan my entire life. I mentioned my dad. My dad was from Boston, so he's a Patriots fan. I did everything opposite of him, right? I'm a Lakers fan. He was a Celtics fan. I'm a Yankees fan. He was a Red Sox fan. But the Bills, for me, it was like you've lived through such hardship. Those were my high school years when the Bills were losing those Super Bowls, the four straight. Four in a row. I just can't leave them now.

I can't leave them until we win something. That Super Bowl has to happen before I die or my life won't be complete. That's sad. Yeah, it is. It is. It's interesting the stuff you're sentimental about

because you're such a hard ass, but you're so sentimental about stuff. Is he a hard ass? No, you're kidding. Oh, yeah. I think on the show, for sure. For sure. But in real life, total teddy bear.

Because I just met him, but I got warm fuzzies from the guy. These guys are such liars. He just has a cuddly teddy bear. Because I just met him, but I got warm fuzzies from the guy. These guys are such liars. Cuddly teddy bear, I think. Oh, and Troy has a message for you, Ryan. Apparently, you give props to the beer store on the air. He listens to a lot of 1010, as you know.

Oh, this is Troy from TLB. Troy from Great Lakes Beer, Troy Birch. You've been giving props to the beer store, and he doesn't. Okay, Troy's upset that I gave, I think it was once I gave the beer store props. He'll never forgive you. Because they had a bit of a remodel. Right? The beer store's gone through a bit of a remodel. And you walk in and now it's nice that I actually get to touch and feel the beer and... Tablets? Yeah, there's all

sorts of... Yeah, there's all sorts of just... It feels very tactile and nice. I like it. Disappointing. But I still love GLB. I love going to Great Lakes. I like their storefront at GLB. It's cool. When we did our News Talk 1010 brew, we had pizzas in and we hung out. I bought a growler. Yeah, and they have... That patio is new, so that

patio only showed up, I think, last summer. It was maybe the first summer, but the patio is great, too. I'm just waiting for some patio weather. Yeah, GLB does this thing. It's like a swamp mix, where they take all of the leftovers of all of the brews, and they make them into one brew, and you actually buy a growler a swamp mix where they take all of the leftovers of all of the brews and they make them into one brew and you actually buy

a growler of swamp mix. Really? Was it good? It was cool. Yeah, I liked it. My kid liked it. Everybody thought it was cool. While we're talking about them and they're proud sponsors of this podcast and again as we said off the top, they did that 10-10 brew, but there's some beer for you here. So you're each getting

a six pack of Great Lakes beer. Nice. Cheers. Nice. And enjoy. Enjoy courtesy of Great Lakes Brewery. And there's also a pint glass you each have. So when you're pouring your Great Lakes beer,

that pint glass is courtesy of Brian Gerstein. What a handsome man. Do you see his resemblance to any famous actors? Hmm. I thought Mark Hamill when I first looked at it. I was going to say a Baldwin. Is that flattering? A Baldwin, yeah.

First of all, that is because literally in the movie Clueless, they called handsome guys Baldwins. That was the term. So that's a super, super flattering thing to say. Who does Brian think he looks like? Well, speaking of Troy at Great Lakes Beer, he says, and he sent me a picture, and I now agree, Bill Pullman.

Bill Pullman, yeah. Independence Day, Bill Pullman, the president. I see that. But he's also a fine real estate agent, and he's recorded a message for you guys. So listen up and hear from Brian Gerstein. Property in the six dot com. guys. So listen up and hear from Brian Gerstein. over also for Toronto Mike's listeners. In order to get one, just give me a call at 416-873-0292 to meet and discuss any real estate needs you have as spring has sprung and now is the best

time to list and buy. This past weekend, I had two different clients sell and buy homes with me. Ryan and Jay, on August the 16th, 2017, a smoldering fire at the CN Tower's main antenna mast was put out and crews had turned off power for the antenna, which affected some local TV and radio signals, including CFRB and TSN radio, which had both just been added on in HD quality. I lost my perfect signal. Now listen to you guys a lot less as a result. What do you know? And is it ever going to be fixed? That's a hard-hitting question here. I did not see that.

That came out of nowhere. I was ready to say, Brian does Toronto real estate. It's done right. I was going to tell him that. That's all I had for you, Brian. Wow. I was going to say, I said I'd throw you the softballs, but I didn't say Brian would throw you the softballs.

He's throwing heat. So there's some issue with the HD signal of these Bell Media radio stations. Do you know anything about this? I only know about the HD, that it was done as a test, and that it was done on Virgin, and we were tested. I think Chum FM might have been tested. That's about as much as I know about it. This one's so far off my pay grade, I have no idea how to answer the question.

Are you now referring, Brian to uh bell media pr is that those would be the best people to answer those type of questions i mean a complete coincidence by completely coincidental yesterday and i tweeted this uh because i found it amusing but i was carbon copied on an email a listener sent to a bell media person whose name I won't say on the air, but basically complaining about this exact topic. He says there was a press release that there was HD signals from Bell Media radio stations, and then they went offline and they haven't been back. So to me, that's the first time I heard of this was yesterday.

And then coincidentally, Brian, this is the question he wants to ask because he's a big listener of your station. I just find it interesting that in two days in a row, i've heard things about the bell media hd signal so there's something going on there but you guys obviously it's above your pay grade well listen i would only say that if you're listening the best way to do it is the iheart radio 2.0 app and that's downloadable now that's right that's a great way you can't upgrade the first one you have to delete it and then re-download the 2.0. That's right. You guys are putting on your PR

hats here. Holy smokes! I had to do a quick regroup there. I'm like, how would I answer this question? By the way, as far as the HD signal goes, the better we sound, the more I'm for it. Because when we sit in our studios, in all honesty, and I listen on the headphones, I'm like, oh, this is a big,

nice, fat FM sound that I'm used to. Then if I'm out of my car and I hear a rebroadcast of us, I'm like, oh. Oh, yeah, we're on AM. That signal's not as good. And it's hard to get in the downtown core. Streetcar tracks. The streetcar tracks and stuff like that. So when we get people, so many people that come up to us and say they like the show,

I'm like, that's great because we actually have a couple of strikes against us already. And the fact that we reach so many people is pretty awesome. So, yeah, we'll do some more digging brian but uh thank you sorry brian that's a great question i have a question uh don't worry it's not as difficult as that one but a listener named eric rosenheck wants me to ask you this jay did you prefer power 92 or kiss 92 power 92 was before me power 92 was when they rebranded kiss country they became power 92. And I think KJ did mornings there initially. And what happened was the Power 92 brand was owned by somebody else

as I remember it. I think it was out West. So they flipped it to the Kiss. So when I actually came to Toronto, it had already been rebranded Kiss. And I remember because when Julie Adam hired me, she sent a giant box of swag to my house in Halifax where I was doing a classic rock morning show. She sent jackets and hats for my kids and beer koozies. I remember thinking, this is going to be cool.

I hear classy things about Julie Adam. Julie's the best. Only one misstep in that entire career, which is still ongoing, when she fired Aaron Davis. Which everybody brings up. That's a pretty big asterisk, unfortunately. But she made up for it by bringing her back. So she called a mulligan on that one.

And firing Billy and I, which we don't hold against her, and I still love her today. That tells you a lot. Well, you're a generous man. Not everybody says, good natured as Jay here. I think Ryan and I are very similar as far as the business goes. You have to be able to look outside yourself a little bit, put yourself in the third person when you negotiate, I think. You have to put yourself in the third person because that will be used against you and they'll play to your insecurities.

And I think as far as the realities of the business, we're both very well versed in it. And I get it. It really is a business. I mean, they fire you and two weeks later they bring you back. I'm back in the exact same building. Well, you know, that tells you everything you need to know above virgin radio i go fill in on chum fm and i see the guy that replaced me so and we chat in the hallway in the break room who replaced you you know is that the uh best kept secret and like nobody i don't see anyone any billboards or

anything for tucker he's got in a deal where he doesn't get promotion is that the deal with tucker virgin hasn't done personality branding i think I think, in a really long time. So I think they do a lot of that. You know, they do a lot of that on CHFI, for example. I see Maureen Holloway all over the place. You know, I feel like she's living here. But I think Rogers has always done a great job of branding their personalities. And often I still get recognized in public from billboards that they did.

Like Mad Dog and Billy, right? Mad Dog and Billy billboards, like the big Roots one. We had the giant round one in Yonge-Dundas Square for a while. I remember my mom was in town and I drove her down Yonge purposely to see if she'd notice.

And she's like, oh, that's you. I was like, I forgot that was you. That's great. No, that's great. I was so proud to show it to my mom. You're right, because Rogers also has the big Bob McCowan one near the ACC. And note to all other broadcast companies, that stuff works.

Well, I think it's a clash of ideals, right? I mean, do you sell the brand or do you sell the people? Okay, so I bike the Waterfront Trail a lot, and they have that Queen's Key, the streetcar there. I see more Roz and Mocha, okay? Roz and Mocha are all over this street car and i'm like oh yeah ross and mocha now the rogers station and i you know i don't have a play favorites in the rogers versus bell i love you all equally and i dislike you all equally that's what i always say but i have no horse in the race but i i think that it there's something to the personality is

i feel when i tune into a radio station, I'm tuning in for the personality, not the station. To me, I feel like it's almost like you're afraid to boost the personality because then you've got to retain them and pay them more where you own your brand. If you just promote your brand, you own that. To me, it's kind of a way to slight the talent, possibly. But does it create a disconnect between the people listening and the station itself? I think it's an age-old question, and you could have the debate on one end, I get it, I get the idea of supporting just the brand and let's say the shield, like the shield of the radio station, the shield of the company, but on the other hand, are you missing a step because you're not making that personal

connection with the people who are listening? In talk radio, it's a very interesting type of thing because I can't remember the last time I saw a talk radio host, you know, outside of Matt Galloway and the CBC, that was advertised front and center as the voice of the station or the face of the station. Yeah, John's getting some stuff. He's got some stuff on The Gardener. They've been doing that last couple of years.

John Moore, not John Downs. John Moore, yeah. Yeah, it's got that black and white silhouette where he's looking down. It's kind of a cool shot. A little bit of John Moore. We need a little more of this personality. Boo! Boo!

I'll boo myself. That was horrible. You know what's interesting, though, Mike, real quick about the Razamoka thing? Yeah, yeah. When I was at Bell, and I tried to communicate this to my management at the time, I said, guys, like, Billy and I come from Rogers. They had just paired Razamoka up. I said, here's what they're going to do.

I said, they're going to start immediately advertising their faces everywhere. It's going to be on TTC, it's going to be on billboards, and it's going to be we are the number one morning show in Toronto. And they will billboard them that way until they become the number one morning show in Toronto. Now, you have to have faith in your talent, and Razamoka, both

immensely talented guys, and great chemistry. Love them both, work with them both. And I knew that was how they'd be branded, and they did. And that has not stopped. And there's a reason they are as successful as they are, because that branding works, and that branding is also working with CHFI. And I realize I'm sitting with two happily employed Bell Media people, so I understand that completely. But just in my unbiased opinion, that is a very, very interesting difference that I never really tied that these personalities seem to be coming from the Rogers Radio and that the branding, like you said, a virgin.

Although they do, I mean, Bell Media has Chum, and they're still doing the Marilyn and Roger promotion, I think. But then again, this is a great segue to a question I have for you, Jay. So, Jay, I've been hearing you filling in for Roger Ashby on 104.5. I have. So you and Marilyn would co-host together. Yeah. Now, how do I put this?

Roger's, he's not as young as you guys, okay? And I like Roger's been here. Wow. He's got the personality of a 30-year-old. He does. And I don't know his real age. I guess he's around 70. That's just a guess,

but he's, because he's been around forever. But at some point, Roger might want to retire. He might get the, what I call the Mike Cooper package, which is lots of cake and presents and a long farewell. Thank you for an amazing X number of decades of service because he was at 1050 chum and then he moved over to 104.5 chum, but he's been there forever. Is there any succession plan here

that you slide into the chair beside Marilyn because you guys have good chemistry and sound great together? Anything to this? If there is any type of plan afoot, I have not been privy to it i mean it was literally presented to me as hey would you like the opportunity to fill in for roger when he's on vacation and just to go in even that very first day was canada day last summer the monday

after the canada day long weekend i remember um just to be able to say 104.5 chum fm into that microphone if i had to leave after that break and never go back i would have been okay with that that would have been a bucket list moment for me every jock in the world certainly in canada has dreamt of being on chum fm so i got to do that so when they bring me back now it literally is just that because i've learned i was here i think a year and and and somebody said to me um hey you might be the next roger ashby and then once i was here a I think, a year, and somebody said to me, hey, you might be the next Roger Ashby. And then once I was here a while, and I met with other morning guys,

it was like, yeah, I've been told that too. I've been told that too. And every year, year after year after year, the next Roger Ashby is always Roger Ashby. So I don't even think about it. I just fill in downstairs when I want to, and Mike Bendixson is cool enough to let me do it because he knows I love doing it,

and it's a lot of fun. But this is the show that's the priority for me. It's The Rush. Oh, and we're so close to rushing this up. Yeah, I'm all set. I can't wait to talk about The Rush. But one more question. So Steve Anthony just, well, his last day is Thursday.

So he just announced he's leaving CP24 Breakfast. Yeah. He was just here like two weeks ago to kick out the jams himself. Yeah. In fact, I think he's the last jam kicker. I heard that one. I got, and I've said this on the air, I've said it in my blog,

but I've only met Steve twice when he came over to do a couple of episodes. And I'm telling you, I love how honest and warm he is. Like I got just, it's like a friend. Like I just think he's the greatest. I have all the time in the world for Steve Anthony. But he's decided he's leaving CP24 Breakfast.

Is there any truth to the rumor that I'm going to start right now that you would be an ideal replacement for Steve Anthony on CP24 Breakfast? Wow. That's a lot of love. I'm glad Mike is asking you these questions, by the way. It's going to make our car trip a lot more quiet. We actually decided

we're going to record our podcast in the car on the way back into the city to talk about this podcast. That would be awesome. That's so meta. Again, that's super flattering, but that's the very first I've heard of it. I did Breakfast Television on the East Coast, and my producer, his name is Jeff Semple, was Steve Anthony's producer in Toronto. And I grew up idolizing Steve Anthony on Much Music. He was the guy that would golf through the front window and smash things and just had a manic energy. And then I got to meet him through Jeff, and then we've become friends over the years,

him and his wife Tanya, and my wife and I have gone over to their place for dinner and stuff like that. And everything he said about him is true. The guy is super honest, and he's got great stories. And the fact that he's leaving Breakfast Television, having achieved his...

Well, not breakfast television. I'm sorry. See, I did the same mistake everybody makes. Everyone makes that mistake. The fact that he gets to leave CP24 breakfast with the achievement of the mandate that he set out to do, which was to beat breakfast television, his previous incarnation back in the late 80s,

the fact that he's going out on top makes a lot of sense. And I also think that Steve's really tired of getting up at 3 o'clock in the morning. Jeff Semple, like CBC's Jeff Semple? I don't know if it's the same guy or not. This guy has black beard glasses? No, not him at all. Two guys named Jeff Semple?

The chances. But again, if you're starting that rumor, that's very kind. Well, I remember a fateful day. I remember because my wife was pregnant with Jarvis, who's turning four next week. And I was out at the distillery district to have like a Christmas dinner with Humble and Fred, of all people.

And we're there and Humble says to me, hey, we're going to Maura Gearson's house. I'm going to Maura Gearson's house. And I'm like, oh, I think I would enjoy that. I've never met Maura. That may be kind of cool. And he's like, yeah, yeah, come, come, come. Like we were going to go straight from the Distillery District.

And then my wife, who is very... I remember that night. It was a Friday night. And my wife was really pregnant at the time. And she was tired from being pregnant. And she looked at me and said, I want to go home. And I said, okay, we're going home. And then I remember that night,

Humble posted a picture somewhere or whatever. And you were in it. And Steve I remember that night, Humble posted a picture somewhere or whatever, and you were in it, and Steve Anthony was in it. What a night I missed, right? You're like, damn it! That was Margariton's Christmas party. I remember that night. Yeah, so I missed out on all that excitement. So I knew you and Steve were friendly friends, and I

know he doesn't have a say in who replaces him, and I'm pretty sure they're going to just have Gurdeep and... My money's on Jamie Goodfroyd. That's who I think they'll tap to do it. That guy's remarkably handsome. Yeah, and he's a guitar player in a band. He's got a great personality.

He's been doing... Listen to me, bigging him up. He's been doing the weekend anchoring, and if it was my call to make, that's a pretty seamless transition. This is a really good way to deflect a rumor, Jake. You're doing a great job. That rumor that I just started.

So we're going to see how that goes. That's one of the great things about this industry, and I don't know if it's the same way around the country. I hope it is because my brother is a jock out west. But there is a real mutual admiration society that goes on. Like, I will write other jocks that I know personally and go, I just heard that break. That was great.

I've said on this podcast, KJ the DJ, my favorite DJ in the city. Like, all right, Ryan, after the show and go, dude, you were great today. I see humble all the time and it's a big hug. And we talk about each other's process. Like we really do give a shit about what everybody else does. Cause, cause to us, it's, it's more than just, you know, it's a craft. Like it's like, for me, I take it very seriously and it's something I always strive to get better at every day. And it's just, it's a craft like it's in like for me i take it very seriously and it's something i always strive to get better at every day and it's just it's such an important thing to me to be able to share that with the people that i work with cool man and that ties andrew had another question about uh how do you compare how do you guys both compare the state of the industry now versus then

would you recommend careers in radio to aspiring people slash students and what made you interested in radio oh there's a lot of stuff here. But basically, what do you tell somebody who wants to go to Humber College and start a career in radio in 2018? What do you look them in the eyes and tell them? I never subscribe to the idea for obvious reasons that you have to go to a smaller market to come back and be big in a market. I think if you're bold, if you're passionate, if you're committed. If you're Ryan Doyle?

No, listen, if you're willing to work. I mean, I'm only mean now, but, you know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, God, I was just, you know, working 12, 14 hour days, trying to be the best I possibly could be so that people would pay attention and notice me. And I think it's the hard work. I don't think that's ever changed, that the hard work and the work ethic is what's going to get you in the door and it's what's going to keep you there. And I believe that. And when I go to Humber and I go back and talk to classes, that's always what it is. It's just the hard work. What say you, Jay?

I think it's always a great industry to get into if you're passionate about it, because if you're passionate and you're talented, you will always work. I think today I would recommend women and women of color, especially to get into broadcasting. Well, people of color, right? People of color straight across the board, but specifically women of color, especially, to get into broadcasting. Well, people of color, right? People of color all straight across the board, but specifically women as well, because I think there's a real shortage of those people in our industry.

And I know that Ryan and I are always looking for bright female minds to put on things like the roundtable, because quite frankly, it's a lot of white dudes sitting around talking about stuff. And whenever we bring women into the mix, it's just that much better. Yeah, and it's not a thing against old white dudes or white dudes sitting around talking about stuff. And whenever we bring women into the mix, it's just that much better. Yeah, and it's not a thing against old white dudes or white dudes in particular,

but at some point you sit in a room with everybody and you think to yourself, is there no other, there's got to be another voice out there. Okay, but now that you've opened this door, I have to ask, Barb DiGiulio, who's been on this show, is a lovely, lovely woman.

I enjoyed my time with her. She's a great broadcaster, long time on The Fan, now hosts a show on The Fan, now hosts a show on 1010, nighttime, like 7pm. 710, right after us, yeah. Right. The night side. Other than, please correct me if I'm wrong,

but I'm talking weekday shows on 1010. Is she the only non-white dude with a show at 1010 right now? No, Desmond Cole has a show. No, a weekday. Oh, a weekday. Yeah, I mean, a weekday at this point, yeah.

No, no, no. Just because you're not alone. The same thing's happening on the Fan 590. Although, Supriya Dwivedi is co-hosting with Mike Stafford

at 640, and there's some more women I've noticed on 640 lately. But do you think that's a problem that you live in a city where half of the city is non-white, and all of you are white, and you have one woman late at night at 7 p.m.?

Is that something that you should address? Well, I think it is being addressed. I think if you look at the morning show roundtables, I think if you look at our roundtable, I know Jerry Agar's got a roundtable from 9 until 10. There are a lot of female voices. There are a lot of visible minority voices. There are a lot of people of color on those roundtables. It would be great if we could transfer that into a five-day-a-week show for anybody who would be interested. But people have to be interested.

They have to want it. We can get people in the door, but ultimately they may go back to the jobs that they're doing in the world of law and the world of politics and that type of thing. So people have to want it, and I think that goes back to Jay's point about going to school. And if you're in that category and you're thinking about radio, you've got to go and get it because it's there for you right now. And I think that would be phenomenal.

So people have to want to make that step up. It's also a great gig. It's just so much fun. This is all I've ever done my entire adult life. I had a few Joe jobs before I started, but this is all I've ever done, and it's such an incredible outlet. Because when you get in there and you start the show and the cans go on, the whole world goes away. Because it doesn't matter the crap you're dealing with in your real life. You got to focus on the show. And it's a performance.

And I love it. Such a rush. No pun intended. All the puns intended. I'm all queued up with rush here. Hold on. One last. So just to follow up on Ryan's point there, though. So you're suggesting that the pool from which you draw from, like the pool of people, broadcasters who are interested in being on the radio, it's a very white male pool. So hence, the reflection on the actual on-air becomes a very... I think for years, talk radio has had that stigma, and perhaps that has turned some people off of wanting to get into that pool. And I think the pool is wide open. I think if you talk to Mike Bendixson and you had him in here in this seat, he would tell you... I'd invite him on, but he hasn't taken me up. He would love to see people

of all walks of life come in and be hungry for a show and want to get a show. And he would be the first guy to give people that opportunity. You know, Jay mentioned Desmond Cole. Desmond Cole runs, whether you agree or disagree with him, runs a phenomenal talk show. He gets a lot of people talking in the city. I think the guy will be mayor of this city someday. Whether it, it probably won't be this time around, but next time around, I think he'd be the

odds-on favorite for it. So, identifying his voice, putting it on the radio, and giving him a show every week, that has certainly helped him and his brand. I know, but I gotta be devil's advocate advocate and point out that the weekend show, which we already talked about, is not a lot of listeners, less money. It's not the same as a weekday program for yourself. This is fun because I like a good debate.

Because you keep talking about the round table. Next you're going to tell me you have a person of color giving you traffic updates. You know what I mean? No, what I'm saying is that that's the first step, right? Just like me being an intern and working overnights was the first step. Now, overnights don't exist anymore. And that's part of it as well. The training ground for it doesn't necessarily exist overnight five days a week.

It exists on the weekend. But Desmond's got a whole lot of other things going on and doesn't really have time to do a five-day-a-week talk show. He's an activist. He's a writer. He's written books and done documentaries. He doesn't have time to sit in a radio studio five days a week so that's part of the narrative as well okay i sorry i'm all fired up i mean i'm the outsider but uh i just look at the and this

started with the fan because they published a photo of everybody like almost like a uh last supper photo with bob in the middle like uh and it was all white guys and they were telling me something and then they have a whole thing there. They talk about diversity is our strength or something. I hope I didn't butcher their hashtag or whatever. But I just laugh out loud. All perspectives are from middle-aged white guys, a couple of younger guys, but they're still white guys.

And then you look at 640 as Supriya is now in the morning show and they've added some female voices to their lineup. But that's a good step in our direction. Supriya is now in the morning show, and they've added some female voices to their lineup, but that's a good step in our direction. Supriya is a great example. Supriya was on our roundtable as a panelist and took a job at another radio station when she felt that there was an opening. Would that opening have happened at 1010?

No doubt it would have when somebody is either canned or when they decide to leave on their own accord. The openings have to be there too. Crack that up. A Monday warrior mean, mean stride. Today's time so you mean, mean

pride. The Rush. How did The Rush come to be? You want this one? From where I sit, it started when I was on that rotating list that went on forever of co-hosts to go in with Ryan. Mike Bendixon sent me an email and said,

hey, do you want to come in next week and do a show with Ryan? I think it was a Wednesday. It was Tuesday. And I did one show with Ryan. And the next day, they shuffled the chairs at Virgin and I was let go. So I had done that one show with Ryan.

And I remember I went to West Virginia and I was helping my kid move into school. And I got a text from Ryan saying, hey, man, sorry about what happened. By the way, I heard about a gig. I've recommended you for it. It was a TV gig. And we just kept in touch.

And then like a year goes by and I decide to decamp from Toronto to my place on the East Coast. And everybody said to me, you know, as soon as you leave town, you're going to get asked to work, right? You know that, right? I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Drive to the cottage. I'm there for like a week. Mike Bendixon sends me an email and says, hey, we're kicking to get asked to work, right? You know that, right? I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Drive to the cottage. I'm there for like a week. Mike Bendixon sends me an email and says, hey, we're kicking around names for summer fill-in.

Do you want to come up and fill in for Ryan? Fly up, fill in for Ryan for a week, and then go back to Nova Scotia, and then get another email. Do you want to come back and do some more fill-in, and more fill-in, and more fill-in? And then at the end of the summer, just literally just before Labor Day, I think five days before,

Mike said, hey, I had lunch with Ryan and we think you might be the guy to fill in permanently to be the co-host of what's even called The Rush at the time.

Do you want the gig? And I was like, yeah, I want the gig. Absolutely. And then next thing I know, I'm out in the back screen porch and Ryan and I are talking

and we're both super, super jazzed and away we go. You had a instant chemistry. Is that fair to say? Uh, yeah. Jay and I have known each other for over 20 years.

So in, when I was telling the story about producing on the AM side of things, Jay was always the guy down the hall. We'd talk in the hallways, we'd get wasted at the Christmas party. Uh, there are pictures that I can't show you. Oh,

I have those pictures. Uh, and you know, from my point of view, we had a situation where I had got the job at that point. John Torrey was mayor of the city. So I was confirmed and locked in one seat. But the rotation and wheel of hosts still kept going. And it was exhausting. And I went to Mike and I said, we have to figure out what we're doing here, because I think the listeners might be getting sick of me talking to a different person every single day and that's when we

kind of did a little bit of a short list, had that lunch and Jay was the natural choice for it. Andrew Ward says you both have great chemistry on air. In order to maintain that chemistry a lot of acts keep their relationship in quotes only on air and don't socialize off air.

For example he mentions Pete and Geetz. Is it that way with you guys? No. Not at all. No, we get along really good. And because we had that history beforehand, we already were friends. So we probably socialize just as much. I mean, we don't get together on the weekend all the time.

Probably because we spend five days a week together. Right after this, we're going to grab lunch together. Then we'll go to work together and we'll do the meeting. And then we'll do our podcast. Yeah, and then we'll do our podcast. So by the end of the week, we're ready to delve back into our own lives, which is, I think, only natural. But no, we text each other in the weekend. If I see something on TV or I'm reading a cool book or watching

a TV show or a movie, we'll just shoot texts back and forth. That's great. Even before the show, we go for walks through the city and just kind of holding hands, I hope. We walk down an empty King Street together. Yeah. Sometimes take pictures

of one another in the middle of King Street to demonstrate the lack of traffic. That's funny. That's when you play ball hockey out there too, right? Now, Jay,

how was the transition from a adult contemporary to talk? Is it like developing a muscle? This is still Andrew Ward, I should point out. Is it like developing a muscle in such is still Andrew Ward I should point out. Is it like developing a muscle in such a way

that for the first book you were totally exhausted? Oh yeah, going from CHR to well I had a little bit of time to sort of kind of at least get my feet wet doing all the fill in for Ryan because I probably did 40 shows that summer. And I worked with Darren Jones and I worked with Sam Houston

and I worked with Tim Hudak and I did the same thing Ryan does. I had a different co-host every day. For one of the weeks, Mike Ben Dixon put me on with every other personality on the radio station to do the show. And I was just so intimidated, but it was also new to me. But it sounds the same in the headphones, no matter where you are, no matter what format you're doing, it's still your own voice in your own head. So I learned to enjoy it pretty quick, but I do remember the first probably six months, and I've had this conversation with Ryan, the first six months of doing the show, I probably for the first 15 minutes of the show

was in the midst of a full-blown panic attack to where the point I would flop sweat. And during the first commercial break, I would grab paper towels and I would towel off my chest because I was just so incredibly nervous. And that eventually went away. But I've always thought too, if you're not nervous, there's probably something wrong.

If you don't care enough about it to be nervous about it, there's probably something wrong. But that went away pretty quick. I mean, I think we're, anybody that listens now would probably say that we were really comfortable

right out of the gate, but now it's almost telepathic at this point. And Ryan, you used to have the Ryan Doyle show, which is great for job security. This is, again, this is Andrew talking. Then it went to Friendly Fire, then

The Live Drive. Have people gotten used to the name The Rush, or are they still calling it Live Drive? Since the name amplifies Rush Hour and rushing to get infotainment to listeners, have you thought of using the music of Rush as an intro? Andrew spent some time listeners have you thought of using the music of rush as an intro uh where's the rest of the question yeah i know even on uh later days uh like fridays uh and actually i just you know i never

read this question until now this part i copy and pasted the whole thing and then i just got to this now i coincidentally chose uh rush as uh tom sawyer but uh yeah um yeah i think the thoughts on that the name name has definitely stuck. I mean, obviously, when you're going through these conversations, you try to figure out exactly what's going to work and what's going to stick with the most people and resonate with the most people. And I think the live drive is sort of a thing way back in the rearview mirror for a lot

of people at this point. As far as using Rush, I don't know. We kind of toy around with the music quite a bit on the show. You know what? I'll just be frank. Playing Rush would be dated and obvious. You know? It's too old. It's too old.

It's too old. And we're not, you know, we're not 55-year-old classic rock bands. Yeah, like two on the nose, I suppose. Yeah, two on the nose. I would listen to Rush maybe once and then not have to listen to Rush for another three months. No offense to Geddy Lee and Neil Peart. Yeah, if it comes on the radio, I'll crank it.

Sure. When Colleen Rushholm was here recently, she came in to kick out the jams. I played like the top five Rush songs, not by the Rush the band, but songs of Rush in the title. Rush Rush by Paula Abdul. That was on the list for sure. Rush by Big Audio Dynamite.

Big Audio Dynamite, which is actually technically Big Audio Dynamite 2. There you go. When you do Rush. Jay and I have the same fun facts. It's no fun. But let's talk. I heard another rumor.

I'm hearing all these rumors, but I've been told that you guys are kicking some ass in the ratings. Can you comment on how the rush is doing in these numerous PPM rating books that come out? Yeah, we've seen a lot of success with this show. There's no doubt about that. I mean, we are on level and rising against some of the big FM players. We've left some of the AM players behind us now.

Which is mind-blowing. Yeah. Because you're not supposed to do that. That's not supposed to happen. Wait, wait. So wait, just slow down. Slow down here. So we're talking about in your targeted demo, because I know when you guys all... Because everybody's number one, because it's like, yeah, in our targeted demo of like 18-year-old females. When you look at the 25 to 54 and the 35 to 54 and even the 18 to, what are they? Yeah, I can answer to that. I can answer to that. So the 25 to 54 demo, adults, males, females, all lumped together is considered your talk radio demo.

That's your older demo. And we're massive there, which was this incredible thing. And then all of a sudden, it started to creep down to the demo that I came from, which is 1834. That was my target demo at Virgin Radio and at Kiss 92.5. So it almost seemed as if those people were sort of discovering us as well. And then we started to dominate in that demographic as well, which is when we started beating all the big FMs. And someone kind of put it into perspective for me because I was having this conversation with them. And I said, you know, it's crazy. Like we're this AM signal that's fighting streetcar noise. And all of a sudden we're kicking the asses of FMs.

How does that happen? And this person said to me, they said, it's because you guys sound like a podcast. And it was like this light bulb went off in my head. And it was like, we do sound like a podcast. We do. We're like a podcast on the radio. We're clearly not. I mean, if I had to make an analogy of the rush, it would be sort of to use a classic rock analogy. If we were Van Halen, Ryan is Eddie Van Halen, who just is brilliant every day. And I'm David Lee Roth in the background going, do you know what I mean?

Like I bring that flavor. I bring that sort of that color. And, you know, obviously I don't take myself seriously. I'm not afraid to look stupid or to ask questions. And I think that's part of the appeal. And I think that's why we sort of brought in this whole new audience of people that don't feel like they're being talked down to. They don't feel like they need to be well-versed in politics because Jay will be the guy that goes, what's a filibuster? Or explain how the voting system works with the PC party and stuff like that. So I think that's probably part of it. But it's so incredibly humbling and overwhelming.

I mean, you know when it sounds good in your headphones. Like, we know the show is good. We love the show. We'll leave the studio and we're like, dude, that was so much fun today. Or we'll talk on the weekend like, holy shit, that was so much fun this week. But then you see the numbers and you're like, it's incredible. Now for us dummies who don't see these books, because I never get access to these books.

They're held lock and key. It's impossible. So your show is what, 4 to 7? Yeah. Okay, so let's say 5 p.m. on, I don't know, a Tuesday afternoon. How many radio shows have more ears tuned in than yours? Can you put it into that perspective?

I would say two or three. Yeah, usually I think one or two. Okay, so you're like the second or third most listened to radio program at that time of weekday. So if CHFI is dominating in the afternoon because they're at the workstation and they do the no-repeat 9-to-5 workday and it's really

good to play in an office because they're safe and there's not a lot of talking, say they're number one. So then we end up being number two, which is crazy to me. Because usually, you know, usually afternoon shows that are musical, they become wallpaper, right? And they pull huge numbers because you're safe to have on at the dollar store. You're safe to have on at the dentist. Yeah.

So the fact that we're pulling ears when we're definitely not that. We talk so much. Like, we're commercial-free from 5 to like 6.25 at night. So with the exception of stopping for traffic, it is literally non-stop talk. But just because a lot of the listeners of Toronto Mic are sports media people.

So let's talk about this guy, Bobcat. So Bob McCowan's got a show, Primetime Sports. Everybody talks about how it's the country's most listened to sports presentation program. But in terms of actual Ears in Toronto, because you're not a sports presentation program, but at Ears in Toronto, there's more people tuned into the rush with Jay and Ryan than Primetime Sports, according to these recent books. Yeah, definitely. Correct.

Definitely. I don't think... It's not nuts? I think i was surprised and is this something like you know i've heard because mike richards has been on the show and he's not a big fan of the uh process for uh ratings because he says he has how many ppm devices who has them how so have you sustained this like this isn't like i remember steve anthony even said this like sure you get the one book that says you're beating breakfast. You have to show you can repeat that.

So this is not a one-off that might be some kind of fluke because somebody manipulated it. I can tell you that when we first started the show, we waited a couple of months. We made a few different tweaks. And since then, those numbers have been pretty much sustained, if not increased. Yeah. Since we've made those tiny tweaks. And, you know, Jay mentions the commercial free right till 625. Dave McKee comes in, our newscaster, at six o'clock and gives us a way different look at the

news than you're getting anywhere else. And that tends to run about 15, 20 minutes. And he's part of that sort of conversation podcast style delivery, which helps. We'll ask Dave, who did you call to do this story? How many of these stories do you get a day? Why would you not do this story? Who didn't call you back? What do you hate about this story? Yeah. Who's a dick to you on the phone? Like all of that stuff,

which is great. It's like, we call it the information sandwich or three men in a newscast because we're literally just two. It's like this conversation. Yeah. Very similar.

Wow. Okay. This is great. First of all, I'm happy for you guys. Thank you. Thanks. Ryan,

you seem like a nice guy. Jay, I always root for your success. One of my favorite Toronto Mic'd guests. Thanks, brother. So this is really cool. And of all, I'm happy for you guys. Thank you. Nice. Ryan, you seem like a nice guy. Jay, I always root for your success. One of my favorite Toronto Mic'd guests. Thanks, brother. So this is really cool. And I mean, it's only going to get better as you guys keep, you have found your groove and you're just building upon it. And it sounds like it's, you got the momentum now and just keep rocking. And we're having fun, which is the key. I can't get lost. I don't want that to get lost in the whole thing because we're having so much fun doing this show.

As Jay said, you know, we walk out of that studio and we're like, wow, that was a great time. What a great week. Yeah, absolutely. Wicked awesome. Also wicked awesome is Paytm. Paytm is an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. You don't have to visit each separate website to make a payment. All of your bills

are on the Paytm app. And the best part is that Paytm pays you to pay your bills. You get 3% cash back on everyday goods like coffee at Tim Hortons and gas at Esso. So visit paytm.ca and download the Paytm app for free on your smartphone. And when you make your first bill payment, use the promo code Toronto Mike. That's one word. You get $10 in Paytm cash you can put towards a future bill. So it's just $10 sitting there, free money just for using the promo code

Toronto Mike. So do it. It's a no-brainer, right Ryan? Absolutely. No-brainer. Bills all paid in one spot? Could be better. No, it's really, actually, I really, sincerely, like that is a little scripted there, but I sincerely use that app and I swear by it. I pay all my bills

because I slap it on my MasterCard and I get the groceries because I have the President's Choice MasterCard. So I go, I get free groceries because I built up points there.

I get Paytm cash because I'm using this app and it's just convenient. Like property taxes, you can't go to the Toronto website and use your credit card to pay these property taxes, but you can do it through the Paytm app.

Plus you got 10 free dollars sitting on the table. Take it. I took it. I took my, I used my own promo code. Damn right I used my own promo code. Are you kidding me?

Of course, of course I did. Now, yes, you're here to kick out the jams. You know, we've gone over an hour. Do you know we haven't even started

kicking out the jams? Here's how we're going to do this. You're only the second duo to kick out the jams. A couple of guys from lowest to the low came in and did it. So we're going to start with one of the jams. Here's how we're going to do this. You're only the second duo to kick out the jams. A couple of guys from lowest to the low came in and did it. So we're going to start

with one of your jams, Ryan, and then we're going to do one of yours, Jay's, and we're just going to keep flipping until you each get five jams. That's how we're going to do it. So let me look in your eyes, Ryan. Beautiful eyes, by the way.

Thanks, buddy. Are you ready to kick out the jams? I'm ready. Yet our best trained, best educated, best equipped, best prepared troops refuse to fight. Matter of fact, it's safe to say that they would rather switch than fight. Let's go. Ryan, how do you resist rapping along? I'm so tempted right now. Because Jay says when I rap, I get really intense and look at people. So do I.

Yeah. Now I feel bad since he's pointed it out. But is your heart rate up now? So mine's up. I'm jacked up right now. Honestly, because even that opening, I know this album, Fear of a Black Planet. And I know it's your jam.

Why am I talking so much? Except to say you're the first person to kick out a Public Enemy jam. There's a shirt up to pay homage here in the studio tonight. You know, I got like three bands I listen to all the time. They're one of my big three. I absolutely love the band. This is a great jam.

I'm so glad you picked a PE track. Yeah, this is one of my, you know, when I talk about being contrarian or against the system, I was very much into the Black Power movement of the early 1990s, obviously with the Rodney King beating.

This song was recorded in the 1980s, but then came back to mean something else for a different generation as a result of all of that. And you think of the time period. I was actually down in the Toronto riots when they happened after the LA riots. I remember. And just to kind of witness all of that and

show solidarity towards the Black movement at the time. This song, I mean, when you hear Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me. Straight up sucker was racist and plain. Motherfuck him and John Wayne. Because I'm black and I'm proud. I'm ready. I'm hyped because most of my heroes don't appear on those stamps.

Are you kidding me? I mean, it's like that is as much poetry and as much symbolism and meaning as you could pack into one line of a song. Preaching to the choir here. Oh, my goodness. And, you know, they were the first concert I ever saw. Is it? First concert I ever saw.

Kingswood Music Theater. Candice Wonderland. Flavor Flav got stopped at the border. It took, I think the concert was delayed by three hours. No one laughed. Everybody waited. We waited around to hear them come out. I got a chance to interview

Professor Griff from Public Enemy. He told me a lot of great stories about the band. I've kept in touch with him on and off over time. Did you see the little bit of the anti-Semitism smear on him? I remember that going on too. Because in Welcome to the Terror Dome, there's that line

about still they killed him like Jesus. Yeah, that's right. going on too because in Welcome to the Terror Dome there's that line about still to kill them like Jesus right yeah that's right and he took a lot of flack for that type of thing but you know the band

one black mark I'd say but yeah if you think about this song is just symbolic of all of their songs you know by the time they get to Arizona here it comes

hold on so is this so when you had to choose a Public Enemy jam, how did you choose this one? Because I think that this one's got that beat and it's got that build-up that you hear. They don't start at the right part of the song, if you hear it. You wait a couple steps before he goes,

1989, the number. Another summer. I always think of Sam Jackson when I hear that because Sam Jackson's in the video. He's the DJ in Do the Right Thing, Sam Jackson. That movie too kicks ass. Well, Sal, you know, Sal's Famous Pizza. And think about

how prolific that was. That's out in 1989 with the Spike Lee movie. The Spike Lee joint. Years later, you're watching that happen on television. You're watching people... Oh, and Mookie throws the garbage can in the window? I'm fucking right. You're watching people burn buildings down the garbage can in the window I'm fucking right yeah you're watching people even burn buildings down and burn businesses down

and start to loot and that went on for days and days and days and days and you know it's just such a big part of not where I came from but what I witnessed and what I was so empathetic

and sort of integrated in when I was growing up and that whole bomb squad layering like the whole James Brown and the whole just the whole the bomb squad and uh i'm listening to terminator x who's now he's like an ostrich farmer yeah which is so bizarre and dj lord when you see him now yeah and uh did you have uh terminator x in the valley of the g

beats okay i think i may have so i had that too like and i fucking pump that all the time too yo hold on here okay talk to me about the future of Public Enemy. Future of Public Enemy, got it. And I liked Fear of a Black Planet because there was no space between songs. It was all interwoven. And that was a real precursor to a lot of the hip-hop albums that would come afterwards, right?

And you had songs like 9-1-1 is a Joke, which was such a commentary on how late response times from 9-1-1 happened only in black communities. They were saying something. This band was saying something. Right, from the get-go. Black Steel and the Hour of Chaos,

which... Probably my favorite Public Enemy song of all time. If you ever watched much music back in the day, Rap City, that was a video I couldn't wait to have on.

Yeah, because he's in the jail selling, he's got the mirror, and yeah... And he's planning a prison riot. And it's just wild to watch and think about in that time period, man. It's not going to be

replicated anytime soon. Jay, you got a couple of P.E. fans here. Holy smokes. You guys can do your own not going to be replicated anytime soon. Jay, you got a couple of PE fans here. Holy smokes. You guys can do your own sidecast. I am so glad. Honestly, God. That shirt, I got kicked out of elementary school

for wearing that shirt. Is that right? Really? That's not what people think it is. People think it's a cop in a crosshair. Well, they think it's somebody holding a gun, I think is the... It looks like.

So Chuck D designed that because he's an artistic designer or a graphic artist or something. Chuck D. That is like a... Like a B-boy stance. Yeah, yes, exactly. A B-boy stance.

Security of the First World with S1Ws. It's like an S1W in like a pose like this. A lot of people confused it though at the time, at least my elementary

school teachers did, thinking that that was a cop in the crosshairs. But it's the guys that stand in the background of the videos, right? Yeah, the S1Ws. The guys standing like this. But great. I always thought it was a great logo the crosshairs. But it's the guys that stand in the background of the videos, right? Yeah, it's the guys standing like this.

But great, great. I always thought it was a great logo. It's a great logo. From Yo Bummer to Show. Even, yeah, like, throw it down. You're throat like Barkley. Like the whole, just that. Letter to the New York Post.

They wrote a whole letter to the New York Post. No, that was in Apocalypse 91, the Enemy Strikes Black. When he basically, they basically put all of the New York media, the Daily News, New York Post, and Jet Magazine on notice. Hey, listen, we read what you're writing about us, so don't screw this up, and don't keep spreading rumors that aren't true. That's awesome.

It's really good stuff. I'm learning something today. Yeah, we should at some point. We'll talk more Public Enemy maybe off air, because I could go on and on and on, and I'm boring everybody. But Jay, are you ready to kick on and on and I'm boring everybody but Jay are you ready

to kick out the jam? I'm ready I'm ready In the days of my youth I was told what it means to be a man Now I've reached that age I've tried to do All those things the best I can No matter how I try I find my way

To the same old jam Good times, bad times You know I had my share When my woman left home For a brown-eyed man I still don't seem to care Led Zeppelin, Good Times, Bad Times. Led Zeppelin, good times, bad times. Led Zeppelin won, side won, song won.

Album came out the year I was born, 1969. My dad's a drummer, and I always remember this story he told me. He saw Zeppelin at Maple Leaf Gardens, and he said, the next day, he said, here's how excited I was for the show, Jay. I didn't even smoke weed before I went. And it was like the early 70s. And he said, I didn't touch my drums for a month and a half because I thought, what's the point? That's how amazing he thought John Bonham was.

When I first heard this song, I was, I don't know, I guess 10 or 11. And I've been listening to a lot of AM radio. And my dad was like, oh, no, this isn't music. And he was like, and he dropped the needle on that song. So I always go right back to that moment, which I think is the key to your favorite jams, right? So important. And Robert Plant was 19 years old when he recorded this.

19 years old. Just unbelievable. And it's such a great jam. Great jam and legendary band. Q10 Zeppelin would feast on these guys. Oh yeah, right? Man.

Now Ryan, we're a little bit younger than Jay, but when I was in high school, the first Zeppelin album I bought was 4. Led Zeppelin 4. And it seemed like in my circle, that was like the first one people usually bought because it had all the Black Dog and, of course, Stairway to Heaven. Was it rock and roll?

Yeah. It had all these kind of like staples. But then, so you start at 4, then you come back, and then you go forward. Kind of weird. But yeah, this is starting with one. Excellent. Yeah, listen, I love Zeppelin. Is it Dearmaker or Dymaker? I never got that right. That's got to be my favorite.

It's Jermaker. Jermaker? Jermaker, yeah. It's interpretive. How do you want to pronounce the D and the Y? It's interesting, because we've done it a few times during the podcast today, but when you have only ever read something, you hear it in your head differently. Yeah, like McKay. How do you say McKay again? Mackay. Yeah, I only ever read something, you hear it in your head differently. Yeah, like McKay. How do you say McKay again?

McKay. Yeah, I only ever read it on Twitter. McKay. I do this new thing now, TMI. So it's like two and a half minutes, three minutes. Every single weekday morning, I drop it and I basically share five things I think you should know over top a song

that relates to one of the news items or whatever. So it's just something I wanted to try something different. And so I'm reading a lot of names and I realize as I kind of of the news items or whatever. So it's just something I wanted to try something different. And so I'm reading a lot of names, and I realize as I kind of collect the news and I read it, there's a lot of words I don't know how to pronounce. Well, Jay would know this. Peter McKay, the politician. Yes.

His last name is pronounced McKay, but I think because that's an East Coast thing, he just kind of changed it to McKay because people always called him that anyway. That's right. Yeah, he's from my hometown in Nova Scotia, New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. Cool.

Yeah, his dad was a big politician there too. It's Elmer. Elmer. We got to jump into Ryan's second jam because it's about 45 minutes long

so we can chat during that. In fact, if you see on my screen here, I had to take it out of soundboard because it's too long for soundboard. There's some 10-minute

capper sign. So let's start your second jam and then we'll chat through it here. They're selling postcards of the hanging. They're painting the

passports brown. The beauty parlor is filled with sailors. The circus is in town. Here comes the blind commissioner. They've got him in a trance. One hand is tied to the tightrope walker The other is in his pants And the riot squad

they're restless They need somewhere to go As Lady and I look out tonight from Desolation Row Desolation Row, Bob Dylan. Yeah, I'm a huge Dylan fan. It's hard to narrow down which song I would have probably even put on there

as far as a Dylan track is concerned. But this one, I don't think gets enough love because of how long it is, as you point out. 11.20. 11.20, right? of how long it is, as you point out. But also... 11.20, right? I mean, it's a storytelling song, though. And I love, you know, Dylan part of the counterculture, but also the ability to turn a phrase and conjure up such pictures. Like, I really would love to smoke a joint right now and listen to this.

And it goes, you know, it goes back to my dad. I think we've got a lot of links to our parents in the music that you choose. My dad was a huge Dylan fan. My dad was actually at Woodstock. Not that Dylan was, but my dad was at Woodstock. Wow. Never ripped the tickets. The Toronto Star did a big piece on my dad years and years ago.

Oh, sweet. And he never ripped the tickets, so he still had the ticket stubs and the program because he hopped over the fence with everybody else. But he was a big Dylan fan and obviously exposed me to stuff like this. But it's just such magic and such art. You're in good company because you're not the first jam kicker to choose this song. Really? Yeah, I know.

So the gentleman who chose Desolation Row as one of his jams is the original guitarist for Lowest of the Low, Stephen Stanley. So a musician, in fact fact no one can see this because it's a podcast but there's the new stephen stanley uh jimmy and the moon and he's great and yeah he loves this song too it's like a singer songwriter's song yeah and i think that's my attraction to it right like i think because you're in talk radio and because our job is to paint pictures and tell stories i would recommend people who do what we do just listen to this is to paint pictures and tell stories.

I would recommend people who do what we do, just listen to this once every six months, just to remember how it is to tell a story and to conjure up pictures into people's heads.

Because people who only know, you know, I don't want to say the hits, I guess, I guess how you say it, but people only know the greatest hits of Bob Dylan. Like,

Lay, Lady, Lay, Tangled Up in Blue. Everybody must get stoned. You know, like the Rainy Day Woman and all that stuff. And I'll throw myself in that category. I didn't know this song

until I kicked it out with Stephen Stanley. It's not a well-known... Even songs like Hurricane and stuff, you know these songs for various reasons, but this song is obscure of sorts. Yeah, if I'm going to go on Dylan, this would be the first song I would choose to listen to. And then if I were going to go for a full session,

let's say Jay's coming over. We're going to sit. We're going to listen to some Dylan. It would be the Royal Albert Hall tapes. I don't know if you've ever heard those, but he makes the switch from the folksy Bob Dylan to electric. With the band behind him. Yeah, and the crowd loses it, right?

He did the same thing at the Newport Festival, but he did it at Royal Albert Hall, and it was just like you could hear a pin drop. I'm thinking, what the hell is this guy doing? It's crazy. I can't remember the last time I sat in a basement with two dudes listening to tunes. Isn't that the best? Awesome.

You crack open some Great Lakes beer and you're there, man. Oh, that's good times. So part of the reason maybe we don't know the song is because radio doesn't play a lot of 11 minute and 20 minute. I don't know if there's a radio edit. I don't think there is, but I don't know. Yeah, I don't think there's a shorter version of this song. It's really nice, the version you're playing, because it's a little cleaner than the one that I've heard before.

Have you ever seen Bob Dylan in concert? Yeah, three times. Twice with my dad. He played the most in amphitheater. I think the one time he opened for Phil Lesh of The Grateful Dead. Can't remember who was opening the first time. And then the third time I saw him was at the ACC, and the Foo Fighters played their acoustic album

and opened for Dylan, who also played acoustic. Oh, that's cool. It was just a little intimate setting. They were in the middle of the ACC. Did they back up Dylan? No, they never crossed over. They never crossed over, but they did their whole

acoustic Skin and Bones album. And it was just like throw cushions, and they had all their acoustic equipment. Then he came out and did a set, and it was just phenomenal.

Probably the best concert I've ever been to of that genre of music. To come back to your first jam, do you know what? And I've been to a lot of shows in my life, but you know what I think might be the most fun i've ever had in my life at a concert i think it

was public enemy just being there uh they're they're on their game and you're just you because you know every word to every song that's bringing it back to jam one uh it's something about being in that crowd and just jumping up and just just go singing along with chuck uh it's amazing yeah i always say to people like if you've you've never, I don't know. Have you ever been to a hip-hop or rap show? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Like, in the crowd, you are, oh, yeah, because we've talked about some of the others. It'll come up later.

But you get there, and you're just, like, the adrenaline rush of it is phenomenal. Yeah, yeah. But Dylan's a legend. This guy's a legend. And I get different accounts from people who love him and see him live. They say it's like a box of chocolates. You don't know which Dylan you're going to get because there's different Dylans in concert depending on his mood.

Yeah, the first time I saw him, and again, I can't remember what it was. I think it was the Molson Amphitheater. It might have been the ACC. He mumbled, and he just kind of wasn't present and didn't really give off a good interpretation of himself. Did you have difficulty knowing which song he was playing? Yeah, you didn't know which song he was doing, even though it would be one of those that would be very familiar.

He could do Lay Lady Lay six different ways, but the sixth one, you'd have no idea what song you were hearing. You couldn't sing along. So he can be difficult, but I think that's the beauty of Bob Dylan. He can be difficult because he's Bob Dylan, and he's doing it for himself. It's hard that in the beauty of Bob Dylan. It can be difficult because he's Bob Dylan and he doesn't really, he's doing it for himself. It's hard that in the day of polished pop performers that we actually have an artist

that someone would actually pay good money to go see not knowing if they're going to be on that night. Just take that gamble, right? Tell me you're going to get that at a Pink show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or Timberlake. See, right? The joy of Pink is you know exactly what you're going to get.

You're going to get all the hits and she's going to do some acrobatic stuff and it's going to to get. You're going to get all the hits, and she's going to do some acrobatic stuff, and it's going to sound good. You're right. It's very predictable, whereas this is kind of exciting almost. Like, what Bob Dylan am I getting tonight? Will I even recognize the songs he's singing? And he's even within the concert.

He can be a person that pops back into his old self, and you're like, oh, yeah, damn. Okay, now I know the track. And then he goes right back to the mumbly guy, and you're thinking, I don't know what's coming okay. Now I know the track. And then he goes right back to the mumbly guy. And you're thinking, I don't know what's coming next, but I'm going to go get another beer and I'm going to sit down back in my seat.

Cause my buddies just saw him like small town, Ontario at some small club or whatever. Like to me, it's like, and I said to him, I said, so the Bob Dylan, like this was the Bob Dylan at this small,

I don't know, near Peterborough or something. It wasn't, it wasn't Bobby Dylan from Timmons. Right. I love his act playing the Legion, I don't know, near Peterborough or something. It wasn't Bobby Dylan from Timmons? Right. I love his act. Playing the Legion. But that's kind of like he's out there doing small show stuff all over the place

because he just wants to tour and sing. It's kind of amazing. You can't break it out. He's not a young man here anymore. Amazing. For guys like me, I always think, I need to see this guy while I can because when he's done, I'm going to regret that I never did it.

You know what? It's interesting you say that because, not to change it completely, but I saw Prince when he was in Toronto the last time he played, basically. I would never be a guy who would sign up for Prince. He probably wouldn't be in the top of my catalog of people to see, but would I have regretted that, not going and having my finger on the Ticketmaster buy button

and taking it off and thinking, I'll see him next time. And then there is no next time. And that was the Sony Center for the Performing Arts. That's right. Yeah, I heard of that. It was a great show, right? It was an amazing show. It was acoustic.

It was acoustic. He played the piano. He played his guitar. He was just phenomenal. For the Maritimer here, so Keegan Matheson covers the Blue Jays. He's a sports writer. He's based at torontobaseball.com, I think. Keegan's from Nova Scotia.

I forget where specifically, actually. But he's from Nova Scotia. Apparently, in Halifax, Prince came to Halifax at some point, which surprised me in the first. Prince came to Halifax, yeah. Keegan went to that show. And it's like the greatest show Keegan's ever seen.

And I remember, so he kicked out, when he kicked out the jams, he kicked out a Prince song. And just hearing him talk about Prince performing in Halifax, and I realized I miss Prince. Like, just like you said, I miss Prince. I saw Prince in Oakville. Wow. Yeah, he played like the Oakville Living Arts Center. And it was like when he was in his Mormon bent when he lived on the bridal path

and it was a full-on electric show and I'm a huge Prince fan and it was funky. It was funky. It was so good.

Man, we're losing our musical geniuses so you gotta catch them while you can. Who's like, since we have this ample time as Bob's still

going here, who's the artist, a living artist who's still performing you have not seen, but you feel you should see while you can? I know Ryan. Do you? Yeah. Is it Brian Wilson?

Yeah, he's on the list. Yeah, it would be a tie. It would be Brian Wilson and Buddy Guy. And Buddy Guy's actually here in Toronto, I think, in the next couple weeks. Dude, go see him. I can't get tickets to it. If anybody knows where I can get tickets to it. But you are Ryan Doyle from 1010. That means nothing. That certainly means nothing.

You can't even get a media pass. No. Do you have any rules at 1010 about taking media passes? I guess you would talk about them on the ride. That's the thing. I would talk about it on the show the next day. But I've been trying to get tickets to it. It's at Roy Thompson Hall, I think.

Right. And just to see Buddy Guy. Depends on the venue. Yeah, Buddy Guy's awesome. But Brian Wilson would be my other one. I don't know. I'm trying to think if there's anybody that... Have you, Jay? Brian Wilson would be my other one. I don't know. I'm trying to think if there's anybody that... Have you seen Paul McCartney in concert?

No, and I don't want to. You don't want to. I don't want to. I love Paul McCartney, and I love Paul McCartney and Wings, and I absolutely fanatically love the Beatles. So why don't you want to? Because he's not the same artist he used to be, and it's just like I want to see Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden,

but I want to see that show because it's a show my wife really wants to go see. She's like, please take me to go see Elton John she wants to see and Billy Joel she wants to see. Oh, yeah, and Elton's rapping. Oh, they both rap. Oh, no, Elton's announced he's doing one last tour. Yeah, and there's a lot of artists that I won't go see anymore because they just don't.

And it's a reflection on me. Their age is a reflection on me. It's like, you're not the band I remember. The last time I went to see Def Leppard, I left. Did you? Because I was there. With Hurt, right? No, it was the show previous to that. I still listen to them regularly, but I won't go see them live anymore because it's...

The guitar player's covered in baby oil, and it's just like, dude, I just... Because I saw them on the Pyromania tour, the Hysteria Tour, the Slang Tour. I won't go see them anymore. So certain nostalgic acts I don't want to see. I'd rather go see somebody. I haven't seen Muse. I really want to see Muse.

I haven't seen Arctic Monkeys live. I really, really want to see them. Kid Koala, who's a turntablist, is coming back to town. He only plays small shows. He's a genius. I want to see them. Kid Koala, who's a turntablist, is coming back to town. He only plays small shows. He's a genius. I want to see him. Bob has completed his Desolation Row. That's a

song, though, where you have to be one of those... My wife likes music, but she doesn't really hear... She doesn't really hear lyrics. This is a strange thing. Women are usually the ones that say to us, do you hear what he said? Somehow, it's all about the melody with her. Wow.

Yeah. There's a jam where if you don't hear lyrics, it's going to be an awfully repetitive. It'd be wasted on you, yeah. You've got to listen to the story. But yeah, I was just thinking of her when we kicked that out. All right, Jay, let's kick out your second jam. Time to fall down the line Give him that woman just one more chance Give it to him one more time

Engineer wishing he was home in bed Dreaming about Casey Jones Wide-eyed woman having my head Think about broken bones It's your love that I want It's your love that I want It's your love that I need It's your love got to help It's your love

Everybody flying across the sky Superman was out of town Come on, honey, gotta change your tune Cause it's a long way down Talking, looking for a free ride I realize now I don't know this jam because I don't know when he does his chorus. Have we missed the chorus?

It's coming up, right? Okay, it's coming up, right. Suicide And that'd be a shame It's the love that I want It's the love that I need That's it. That's what I was waiting for. ACDC, What's Next to the Moon? Yeah, it's from an album called Powerage.

And I think what's lost for fans of ACDC that came into the game, Brian Johnson, is ACDC used to be a dangerous band. Like, your parents did not want you to listen to ACDC because it was biker music. It was drug music It was booze music They talked about sex Like big balls from the Dirty Deeds album

Even Dirty Deeds done dirt cheap You know, hire me, I'll be a hitman I'll be your backdoor man Like there's just so much imagery there And that kind of gets lost But this is one of the first jams, again I tried to pick jams today that sort of represent certain points in my life This was the first

real jam that I found dangerous. Like that it kind of almost scared me a little bit. And ACDC had that quality, like If You Want Blood, the live album with Angus with the neck of the guitar through his chest. Blood and tattoos and piss and sweat and vomit. It was just

dangerous music. Dude, I know exactly what you're talking about. A couple of things. I remember listening to Ozzy Osbourne. What was the one with the Charlie Manson song? Diary of a Madman? Yeah, and also You're Coming Home. There's blood on the walls and Charlie and his family. Anyways, there's this jam about

it'll come to me. The one with the marathon man on it. Remember? I'm looking for a marathon. Miracle man. Whatever. So I remember thinking at that time as a teenager how dangerous Ozzy sounded. Like he was, it was dangerous.

But then I was talking to my buddy Elvis. We saw Guns N' Roses recently and we went back to Appetite for Destruction and how that was a, when I bought the cassette for Appetite for Destruction, I felt I was like,

oh my God, like the stuff that you're hearing on this album, this is a dangerous band. Did you have the original gatefold sleeve that was inside? Yes, with the cartoon. And it was a woman with her panties around her feet, and it was like a robot that it looked like.

And I remember Laurie Brown on Much Music challenging Slash and Duff about the imagery of that cover, and they were both just so coked out. And they're like, not expecting this pushback? And they're like, oh, well, you know, they did not know what to do. And I remember thinking about Laurie Brown at the time. I'm like, good for you, because they did not see that coming. But I saw that tour.

I saw the Appetite for Destruction tour in Halifax. I had just moved from Edmonton to Halifax. I went by myself. And I had my cult shirt from when the cult was in Edmonton. I had the sleeves cut off, and this new band, Guns N' Roses, was opening up for the cult, and it was their third show in Canada.

And after the show was over, they were out front by their bus, and I stood and had a smoke with Slash. Wow. That's pretty cool. That's how new they... And I remember them saying, oh, this song's about the brown stuff,

the H stuff. I don't know if you got heard in Canada. It's heroin. It's called Mr. Brownstone. And all that stuff still comes back to me when I hear the songs on the radio. Because at the time, I remember hearing them going, yeah, they're kind of like Aerosmith. They're a little bit like Aerosmith. And they're obviously one of their influences.

The Toxic Twins. That's right. That's right, the Toxic Twins. Well, that's great, man. Have a smoke of Slash. It was cool. He's a good guy. I got to interview him when he did his um he did his book tour and i didn't get that slash i got very lucid very coherent slash and he's super i'm sure he's super clean now yeah but just a super articulate guy and i remember him talking about his mom and growing

up in california and in san francisco and uh just some of the wild times he had but his mom did album covers right she did album covers, right? She did album covers, yeah. And he met so many musical superstars. I wish I could remember some of the names, but so many musical superstars at the time. And I think that became a big influence in his life. And the book is well worth it because it's one hell of a...

I read it. It's so good. He's read every book, by the way, that has to do with an actor or a musician. He has biographies. Biographies, yeah. Yeah, I love them. Yeah, no, I saw him with Velvet Revolver. Remember, he was with Scott Weiland.

Yeah, it was fantastic. They were a great band. I know, great band, and they would play some guns. They would play some STP, and they would do a bunch of their own stuff. It was fucking amazing. All right, my friend, let's kick out Ryan's third jam. jam I may not always love you But long as there are stars above you

You never need to doubt it I'll make you so sure about it God only knows what I'd be without you God only knows Beach Boys. Yeah, this is probably the most beautiful song that's ever been written. Just in my opinion, you know, music is subjective,

but I mean, the backstory of the album, of the Pet Sounds album, the idea that, you know, he was on another wavelength, Brian Wilson was, from the rest of the band who had been touring in Asia. He had left that tour and came back to the United States and started experimenting with all sorts of different sounds. And you hear it there. The rest of the album doesn't sound like this song, which I really appreciate.

But it's just the simplicity of the lyrics of this song. It's just fucking phenomenal. And I don't know, if it doesn't hit you in the heart, maybe you're not breathing. No argument from me. This is the harmonies. This is a gorgeous song. And speaking of dangerous songs,

apparently, because I wasn't around, but having God in the name of your song on the radio me this is the harmonies just this is a gorgeous song and speaking of dangerous songs apparently uh because i wasn't around but having god in the name of your song on the radio was a big big deal back then well look at now with sweet jesus ice cream is still getting getting heat in the united states of america so imagine you rewind that 30 40 years and you've got a mainstream band that people knew from like surf and safari, putting something out that would be deemed to be blasphemous. Like how dare you put the Lord's name in the title of this song, even though the context is all positive. This is a, you know, God only knows.

But I don't, I think the next guy to do it would be Kid Rock, right? Only God knows why. Yeah, that's right. Different context completely. But you hear Brian, like you hear his voice in this, like just what he does with it. Gorgeous, Jay. How do you feel Ryan

knowing that a lot of people hear this song and go oh that's from Love Actually I loved Love Actually as a movie so for me

I'm okay with it but you need to do your research I was thinking Big Love okay so I've I've only seen that Love Actually once

and thought it was like overrated never went back okay I know I'm not one of those guys but it's a great Christmas movie

Big Love is a Big Love the Italian restaurant is that Big but Big Love is a... Big Love. The Italian restaurant movie. Is that Big Love? Big Love is a TV show. TV show on HBO. Oh, Blamey. Right. With Bill Paxton. And this was the theme song. Right, so Bill Pullman's alive, Bill Paxton has passed away. Correct.

That's how you keep track of them. But great jam and you're not... It's interesting that you had a jam earlier that was kicked out by Stephen Stanley, original guitarist of lowest of the low because the current guitarist with lowest of the low uh lawrence nichols came in with the original singer-songwriter ron hawkins and they kicked out the jams and i can't remember which one but one of them kicked out god only knows by the beach i'm like two for two in the music world yeah that's great it's always more of a compliment too when musicians like yeah right it was like okay, you do this for a living.

Yeah. Well, let's say this. Two of your jams, musicians picked as well, and then the third jam is Fight the Power by Public Enemy. So I'm all right. Ryan's doing all right on his jam. He's welcome back anytime. It also speaks to the contrast between myself and Jay

when you go from ACDC to the B-Choice. Let's hear another G-Jam. You say times are tough We've got the best of both worlds here Things are rough We've got the best of both worlds here Times are tough We've got the best of both worlds here Times are tough We've got the best of both worlds here Midnight Oil, the best of both worlds.

Yeah, if you've ever only known Midnight Oil for Beds Are Burning, go back in the discography, go to Red Sails in the Sunset, go to the Countdown album, some of the earlier stuff. Just this guitar here, crank it up. There. So for me, Midnight Oil was like a high school band. It was when I discovered like Early in Excess, Bauhaus, The Cramps, Skinny Puppy.

So I went from punk into this sort of new wave thing, and Midnight Oil was one of those bands. And I remember my buddy, Dave LaTondra, my best friends were both named Dave, in his basement we would watch a lot of concerts. And one of the concerts, and I still can't find it today, it's a live Midnight Oil show. And the drum solo in, it's either The Power and the Passion

or this song, is so phenomenal that I've never been able to find that exact, even with YouTube, that exact performance. And I'm sort of still on the hunt for it. It's fun to have something to hunt for, though. Totally. I find it's fun. And then you find it and it's almost like the search is over. There's a sadness there. Yeah.

Because I've had a few hunts in my day. And yeah, it's fun to have one that lingers. And back in the day, you'd have to hunt through bootlegs and go to other people's houses. And now it's just sort of you just go to the basement and you get on YouTube. But these guys, Australia, just killer, killer live band. And this is one I'd still put on in the car if I want to jam out. There was a cover recently of the Dead Heart. Was it Alexis on Fire?

Yeah. Right? So there was like a recent, like, for younger people, they sort of got a taste of Midnight Oil with Alexis on Fire. Yeah. But you're right. A lot of us just think of, like, that song and Beds are Burning. Yeah, Beds are Burning.

Crank this up. Right here. And then you can shut it off. This riff. This riff. Listenank this up. Right here. And then you can shut it off. This riff, listen, right here. Right here. You can see Jay's air. I know, right? It's pretty stellar.

I'm making the hair on my arms stand up. Such a great song. But when you Google the best of both worlds, be careful. The Hannah Montana song is not the same as this. Oh, yes. Okay, don't make that mistake. The Van Hagar version is pretty good. Best of both worlds.

Yeah. Great tune. That's really good. It builds really nicely. You like Aussie? Well, ACDC's technically, they're a British band, but from Australia.

How did that work? They're an Aussie band though, right? Yeah, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's Australia. Yeah, they're Australian. Yeah, I think most of it, but they moved there

with their families. Because you're heavy on the Aussie. Yeah, I didn't even think about it. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. I'm here. That's what I do when I kick up the jams. I can now psychoanalyze you

based on your jams. There's a great book when I kick up the jams. I can now psychoanalyze you based on your jam selection. There's a great book that I just finished reading that is essentially the whole, it's called Highway to Hell, the story of Bon Scott and ACDC's Back in Black. And it's this whole conspiracy theory that when Bon Scott died, all of the lyrics to Back in Black were written by him.

And the band went right into the studio with Brian Johnson and recorded the album and then said that Brian Johnson wrote all of the lyrics for Back in Black, which if you look at Brian Johnson's further contributions to ACDC down the road, they don't really make sense. And lyrically, it feels more like Bon Scott. So it's this whole thing.

They're still paying the estate of Bon Scott money, royalties from that album. Why would you do that if you didn't have anything to do with the lyrics? And it's a really cool book. Go check it out if you get a chance and uh just like i mentioned in my cohort uh in high school we got introduced to led zeppelin by number four that was like the first acdc we got introduced to acdc by back in black yeah that was the big uh big album even i still remember at like the high school dances they would kick out like uh shook me all

night long and back in black. It's my every wedding nightmare for me. It's like, oh God. See, I had to relearn a lot of this stuff because I was so immersed in hip hop and rap music. Even Nirvana passed me by

the first time and I had to go back and relearn them. I relearned the Tragic Hip. But I did both. Like I was really into hip hop from like early days like Run DMC

and Beastie Boys and like pretty early days. I think it was like mid-80s. I was pretty, I listened to a lot of hip hop, but I still listened to a lot of rock. See, I didn't do that.

I didn't make the crossover. So like when Appetite for Destruction came out, I was like, yeah, no chance I'm listening to that because that's what people on the other side of the cafeteria

are listening to. Gotcha. The metalheads, the stoners. This was my crowd, right? Well, speaking of hip hop, let's hear your next jam. And whatever.

Another jam I want to rap along to. Let's see if we can resist the temptation. Don't look at Jay. It's weird. This song is for anyone. Fuck it. Shut up and listen Ayo I sit back with this pack of zigzags

In this bag of this weed It gives me the shit needed to be The most meanest MC on this On this earth and since birth I've been cursed with this curse To just curse and just flirt This berserk and bizarre shit that works And it sells and it helps

And it sells to relieve All this tension dispensing these sentences Getting the stress that's been eating me recently off of this chest And I rest again peacefully But at least have the decency in you to leave me alone When you freaks see me out in the streets when I'm eating or feeding My daughter to not come and speak to me I don't know you and no, I don't owe you a motherfucking thing.

I'm not Mr. Insync. I'm not what your friends think. I'm not Mr. Friendly. I can be a brick. If you tip me, my tank is on empty.

No patience is in me. And if you offend me, I'm lifting you 10 feet in the air. I don't care who was there and who saw me. Just draw you. We'll call you a lawyer. File you a lawsuit. I'll smile you a lawyer, file you a lawsuit. I'll smile in the courtroom and buy you a wardrobe.

I'm tired of all you. I don't mean to be mean, but that's all I can be is just me. And I am whatever you say I am. If I wasn't, then why would I say I am? In the paper, the news, every day I am. Radio won't even play my jam. Because I am whatever you say I am. Eminem.

So good. That's the best cut on that album, too. And that is the best Eminem album of all time. There's no doubt. No argument. And yeah. People told me for years cut on that album too. And that is the best Eminem album of all time. There's no doubt going on. And yeah, people told me for years I couldn't rap

because I was white and clearly I can't. But didn't Third Bass teach you you could? That's what taught me. Third Bass and Kish and I mean Beastie Boys. Kish,

he's a big time voiceover actor for cartoons and stuff in LA. Is he really? Yeah. I follow him on Twitter and I tell him all the time

Order from Chaos. I spun, I almost feel embarrassed. Is it really? Yeah. I follow him on Twitter and I tell him all the time, order from chaos. I almost feel embarrassed. Is that a guilty pleasure? I spun order from chaos like crazy, but back to Eminem. Yeah, I mean, listen, Eminem came out at a

time period where I was working in radio and I was told by a particular head of the company that I was working for that he hated my voice, that he didn't like me on the radio.

Program directors believed in me. This guy didn't believe in me. And I didn't believe in me. I've always worked with a chip on my shoulder and this just fed the fucking chip on my shoulder so much. You're like Marcus Stroman of radio. Yeah, like I hear this and I'm just like,

you know what? I'm going to get this done. I'm going to do this whether or not you like it, whether or not you own the radio station, doesn't matter. And that guy now is dead. No, he's not. He's a good guy. He's a good guy, obviously, and we know who I'm talking about, so I don't have to say his name.

But at that time, I was in my 20s, and this guy comes out, he's white, and he can rap, and he's fucking angry about everything, and I'm angry about everything, and we're angry together about things, and we're yelling really loud. Speaking of Dangerous Bands,

the Kim and the Trunk and all that shit, this things and we're yelling really loud. Speaking of dangerous bands, like the Kim and the Trunk and all that shit, like this was like, did he really say that? Like that's fucking dangerous shit right there. So I remember I was producing the Mots, who are great Paul Carroll, of course, Paul Carroll, they're great people and I remember the big controversy at the time was that song, and I was on the air almost

daily, I think, when this record was out defending him and defending free speech and defending the album as, you know, art, because it was art, I think, when this record was out, defending him and defending free speech and defending the album as art. Because it was art and it is art. Right, like Ice-T's Cop Killer.

Yeah, same deal. It was interesting. We were talking about Ice-T today. Fucking love Ice-T. He actually liked one of my tweets today and I lost my mind.

What's the thing he does? Delusional Tuesday? He does Delusional Tuesdays where people basically ask him for money or to pay off their credit card bills. He's like,

yeah, absolutely. Just direct message me. I'll send credit card bills. He's like, yeah, absolutely. Just direct message me. I'll send you the money. He never does. He never does. Dude, don't get me started on Original Gangster. Also, I spun like crazy.

The Power album with Original Gangster and I'm Your Pusher and all those great tracks from back in the day. I got to be careful when I rap that one. Yeah.

I just got myself. But Eminem, okay. It's funny. I just did an episode of my buddy Elvis where we kicked out Guilty Pleasure Jams because I'm not ashamed

to admit that I will kick out the cover of Faith by Limp Bizkit. Sure. Okay. And I still like it. I know it's not cool. I like it better

than the George Michael version. I'm okay to say that. Great tune. I feel better now. When he yells get the fuck up at the end of that. Oh my God.

Okay, okay, okay. Fred Durst. Oh my God. I was at the show at the Dome when Eminem opened for Limp Bizkit, and it was on the heels of this album, this Marshall Mathers album. I was at that show, too. Anger Management. Yeah, because Papa Roach

opened the fucking thing. They got right into the crowd. Cut my life in two pieces. I was right at the front of that stage. Honestly, and I remember I think Fred Durst invited everybody in the cheap seats to come down and it was like a security nightmare for a little bit uh yeah because everybody came rushing down from the back yeah yeah and they had to stop things and was that the one or was it i want to say was was it one of eminem's other concerts where he had the log cabin from the no he had a log

cabin yeah he came out with the chainsaw yeah yeah so i was there uh fucking always eminem's been great and it's funny when you look back when he, My Name Is, so when My Name Is gets, much music plays the hell out of My Name Is

and you're like, well, that's interesting. Like he can turn a phrase kind of into, but you're like, in my mind, it's like, I had him already pegged

as a one hit wonder with My Name Is. But then you go deeper even on that album and it's got some pretty interesting stuff. Right, but if you could go back

and if I could go back in time and tell Mike who's watching My Name Is and you know, but Monica I could go back in time and tell Mike, who's watching, my name is, and you know, but Monica Lewinsky and all that stuff, and tell him what Eminem would do, it was like, it would blow his mind. Yeah, and I mean, it's unfortunate now

that his hits aren't as prominent. But I still, like, Rap God has that part that, I can't even do it, but me and my son, my son's a big hip-hop head. That's all he listens to, actually. God bless him. Yeah, a huge hip-hop head but uh way cooler stuff than i but even the stuff with ed sheeran that he just came out with i like it you know it might not be as mainstream and as as marketable as as people had hoped it would be but you know i love it it's not as angry

though he's past his angry phase which you know i guess i'm supposed to be past my angry face no he was really pissed like he was pissed at his mom he was pissed at his mom. He was pissed at Kim. He was pissed all over the place. He's less angry. I interviewed Eminem's mom once. It was actually myself and Mike Bendixon interviewed Eminem's mom, and it was a great 20-minute interview. And this is when she was red hot,

so we were really lucky to have her on the show. And an intern was manning the board at that point in time. And we were like, oh, that was great. It was so much fun. Didn't record. And we had like, oh, that was great. It was so much fun. Didn't record. And we had to call her back, and then she just hung up on us. That's my worst. By the way, you guys, so she hung up on you?

Because this is episode 219, no, 319. I think it's 319. So that means I've done this 319 times. And my biggest fear, because it hasn't happened yet, but one day I'm going to turn around, and those squiggly lines will be gone. It won't save. Right, just something will happen.

Something will crash. Because what we just did now, we've been doing this, and I shouldn't jinx it with this, but I don't believe in jinxes, but we've done an hour and 53 minutes of amazing chatter here. Imagine I tell you now that,

oh, it didn't record. What did that suck? We'd have to come back. We'd recreate it like paint by numbers, but oh my God, why didn't that suck? I had one of those moments where something crashed on me. It was when I was doing mornings

at Q104 in Halifax, and I was asked to send a demo tape to Kiss FM to audition for the morning gig. And I just finished my morning show, and we had a smoker of a show. I thought from start to finish, it was great. I'm not going to have to chop this up. It'll give them a real interpretation of what I do. So I dub it over into a production studio, and

I literally, Mike, am about to hit save and the power went out in the building. And it was like, boom. And it wasn't, like at least, let's say the power

goes out right now. Everything to this moment is okay because that's got a battery so I can save it here. This guy goes down so we stop but we have what we did so far.

Mine was gone and I just remember thinking, oh God, that was my moment. Like, what am I going to do? Yeah, what am I going to do now? And I ended up just sending the next day. So I was like, screw it. I'll just say whatever I got.

But another inspired choice by Ryan. Great tune, Ryan. Still, but I love... Even just the crackle on that. If I could just say like that crackle of like it's on an actual record. Yeah. And you hear that... You even heard it trailing off there when we were talking over it.

It's just phenomenal. Is it fair to say that since you and I have started doing The Rush together that people have far more of a grasp of your musical leanings? Or did you share that with other people before? No, I think you've brought a lot of that out of me. You've brought a lot of that out of me, for sure. Because I think people listen to you and they're like, I had no idea Ryan was such a huge hip-hop head.

And I didn't from listening to you from before, but obviously I'm your friend, so I kind of knew. Well, I'm glad, because I think that's important. Yeah, no. And it's a good compliment, because Jay's a rock guy, like a hard rock guy. You can tell by his choice of jams. He's a rock guy. And you're a hip-hop guy.

Yeah. Everybody's happy. Yeah, yeah. All the worlds, man. We got our coverage. So where do you meet? The Judgment Night soundtrack. Did you have the Judgment Night soundtrack?

I had the Judgment Night. Onyx is on that. Yeah, Onyx is on that. Onyx is heavyweights and still undisputed. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No. Slam? Slam?

Slam was the hit, but yeah, not another body murder that was Booyah Tribe, but there's a... What was on the... There was an Onyx tune on there that's actually... Cypress Hills on there. Yeah. But all that merging, the merging of like, well, Anthrax and Public Enemy might have said...

Bring the noise. Well, they always talk about Aerosmith and Run DMC because that's kind of the first big whatever. Right. But that Bring the Noise. That drum beat on the Bring the Noise, it's the remix of the song. The drum beat on that song is just phenomenal.

And Chuck D leans right into the nice parts of that drum playing. It's pretty great stuff. We could talk merger. So you take the rock and the rap and put it together, and I'm really fucking happy. I always love, because like I said, I grew up listening to both styles, and when they come together, it's like, that's great. I love that judgment I sent back. Go further back, Aerosmith and Run DMC.

I think you're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's the first big, big hit anyways. But remember when that came out, and you thought to yourself, like, what are they... Is this allowed? Are they allowed to say Room together? Right. Aerosmith and Run DMC, they're busting that wall down. So Run DMC and Aerosmith get the props for being the pioneers, but Anthrax and Public Enemy get props for taking it to that next level.

Like, holy shit, what is this? And now it's kind of commonplace. Linkin Park and Jay-Z had that thing. That crossover. Collision course. Which is still great. And sometimes when I hear one of the jams in my head

I glue them together because they're so good yeah when I hear Encore on its own it's not the same right no Chester Bennington what a shame

yeah I was just telling I saw I was just telling on the blog Toronto Mike I was talking today about how I saw Stone Temple Pilots

open for Lincoln Park at Downsview Park or something like that and because I love Stone Temple Pilots but yeah Lincoln Park fucking rocked I Park or something like that. Because I love Stone Temple Pilots. But yeah, Lincoln Park fucking rocked. I don't care how uncool that is. They just rock. It doesn't have to. It's not about you. That's the beauty of the

music genre. It doesn't have to be cool. Listen, speaking of not cool, don't worry. Jay's last jam. Oh no. We'll settle that. But let's hear this cool jam by Jay. Before we get to my final jam, and I know we're not there yet, you have to let me set it up before your class plays. I promise. I've prepared an intro for it.

There you go. No, I'm looking forward to that. So let's hear your fourth jam now. Let's do it. Confidence is a preference for the habitual boyette of what is known as A morning soup can be avoided if you take a route straight through what is known as... John Scott Brewer's group, he gets intimidated by the dirty pigeons. They love a bit of him. Who's that couple all marching? You should cut down on your pork life, mate. Get some exercise.

All the people So many people Like all of you Hand in hand Hand in hand We're there Online Blur, Park Life. I just bought this CD at Value Village

and it's the only CD I have on my car. Like when we leave, I'll pop it on because I need to hear it on CD because hearing it on Sirius or the radio or streaming it, it's not the same, so I have to have a physical copy of it. But I kind of came to the whole Britpop scene later than most, like you talked about a lot of the scenes for you. And so I've been listening to a lot. I think 24-Hour Party People had a lot to do with it for me.

I ended up listening to a lot of Happy Mondays and Spiral Carpets, bands like that, stereo MCs I was kind of into for a while. And now Blur and Oasis. Love Oasis. Watch the Supersonic documentary if you haven't seen it. Yeah, it's great. But as far as the Blur thing goes, I kind of lean towards Blur, I think, because they're more melodic.

And through Blur and through Damon Albarn, I then became a massive, massive fan of Gorillaz. Absolutely. Which I think only makes sense. But this is just one of those jams my kids make fun of me all the time. They're like, we ever have a house party? They know at some point when they hear Parklife,

they're like, yeah, yeah, dad's at that point in the night where he's ripping Parklife. Oh, that's funny. For me, it's such a happy... I listen to this probably 10 or 12 times a week. I refuse to take sides in the Blur Oasis thing. And you shouldn't. And people had that with... I talked to some people who rejected

Pearl Jam because they were Nirvana people, and I'm like, are you kidding me? Oh, dude, Stone Temple Pilots had that whole tag that was sounding like Pearl Jam. Because Plush was so Eddie style. Yeah. I hear this reminds me of the streets. The streets.

It was supposed to be so easy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They got that kind of... We listened to that in the car one day. We did, yeah. One of our other road trips. No, I love it. And you mentioned gorillas.

My soon-to-be four-year-old loves a Gorillaz jam because it's in the movie Trolls. Really? Is it feel-good ink? No, Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood. Yeah. And so he'll, like, and I play him the Gorillaz version

because I'm like, you know, oh, Daddy likes that song, and I play my version, and he's all into it because it's, yeah, it's a part of Trolls. So it's interesting how, like... Which is kind of cool how that can cross generational...

Well, let me know real quick just because these kids are freaking interesting. But they're into a movie called Sing is the big popular one. The one with the pig. Right. Yes, yes, exactly. And the main jam, because now my four-year-old, his songs are called jams because I've started calling songs jams

because of kicking out the jams. He says, Daddy, this is your jam. It's Elton John's I'm Still Standing. It's like the pivotal song in this movie. And he's all in Elton John's I'm Still Standing. That's Daddy's jam. So it's just funny how kids discover the music through these cartoons.

Whatever it takes, though. Whatever the gateway is to get them in there, as long as they're in, and discovering music early, it's great. A lot of times, I think, for us, too, growing up, it was like a lot of movies. I remember I bought one of the first albums I ever bought was the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack. It had Jackson Browne on it, Somebody's Baby. It had a Waffle Stomp by Joe Walsh.

It had Fast Times at Ridgemont High by Sammy Hagar. And so much of that stuff informed what I would listen to later on. See, that's weird, because my movies would have been something like New Jack City. It would have been Juice. It would have been... Tupac. What's the other one? Friday?

Something Park. Juice has the Cypress Hill, How I Could Just Kill a Man. That soundtrack is underrated. I will tell you though, because I was into Cypress Hill already, but then I watched Juice and there's that scene

of How I Could Just Kill a Man. I'm like, that fucking takes it to the next level. Every time Tupac calls somebody Patna in that movie, those hair on the back of my neck stands up. I love Tupac. I mean, he was...

How about Poetic Justice with Janet Jackson? Janet Jackson, yeah. Was that a good soundtrack? It was. She was great in that soundtrack. Because she was considered soft at the time, right? Wasn't she? For Tupac to be in a movie with her,

wasn't that weird? It was weird, and there was some controversy around that movie with the Hughes brothers and him getting a little too physical, I think, with one of the Hughes brothers who did that movie. But it was a nice softer side of Tupac. He played a mailman.

Welcome back to the softer side of Tupac. Good to know there was a softer side of Tupac. That's what I'm here for. Let's, oh, I got a little story on this one. So let's play your last jam, Ryan. Great tune. ¶¶ Well, I look at you all See the love there that's sleeping While my guitar gently weeps I look at the floor

And I see it needs sweeping But still my guitar gently weeps I don't know why Nobody told you How to unfold your love Jeff Healy's cover of While My Guitar Gently Weeps. It had to be that version too for a number of different reasons. I'm going to tell you right now, if I had like two scotches in me, I would be in fucking tears right now

because there's something about the way he plays this song, about that one note where we just kind of pointed that out, it goes a little higher, and the way he kicks the shit out of the guitar. He just does. And it's no disrespect to the original version of this song, but I've met Jeff, had met Jeff a few times and seen him perform.

And my favorite Jeff Healy story is the first time I met him, he was on Bill Carroll's show and he was really good friends with Bill for quite a while up until the point where he passed away. I want to hear this part here. I don't know why talking, talking, talking, talking. I said, okay, great. Let's get you in the studio and we'll go from there. I walked through the doors, which actually would lock behind you,

about 20 steps ahead of Jeff, and all I hear is, Ryan, I'm going to need a little help here. I'm fucking blind. And I had just become so enamored by the conversation we were having and how much fun, and I was nervous, man.

I was nervous. This is Jeff Ely. I'm thinking, wow, he's a big deal. That I had forgot he was blind. So I came back and I said, sorry, man. He's like, it happens more than you think. That's so awesome. And, you know.

You know, he's buried really not too far from here at Park Lawn Sanitary. Yeah, really. I visited his grave. There's a park named after him nearby, too. I think he's a self-catamulical guy. Yeah, he was and you know

such a big heart and such a nice man and such a great smile and my grandmother told me because I bought I heard Confidence Man on Q107

and I went in and bought that album and I fucking loved it it's good well that's see the lights on there holy smokes but my grandmother

told me that I was Jeff Healy's second cousin that's what I was told and I don't know if it's true like I don't have any proof of this except that my grandmother told me I'm Jeff Healy's second cousin. That's what I was told. And I don't know if it's true. I don't have any proof of this except that my grandmother told me I'm Jeff Healy's second cousin.

You've got to get on Ancestry.com or something. Figure that out. Well, when they become a Toronto Mike sponsor, I'm going to definitely check that out. One of the things I like about Mike is that there's people that know Toronto. Mike does the Toronto stuff. Like, he bikes. Yeah. And he goes to all the concerts, and he goes to shows, and he goes he goes to events and he goes to parks and he looks at Toronto landmarks.

And I take photos of Jeff Healy's grave. Yeah. And I've seen you do that with buildings where you're like, this was the original this back in the day. And I can't believe they're tearing that down. And I think that's kind of lost for a lot of people. So that's kind of cool. As Retro Ontario told me, we're, what did he say? We're nostalgia merchants, he said.

There you go. See, it's a big industry, man. Keepers of the faith. Not a lucrative one, though. But so on that same cemetery, the same Park Lawn Cemetery that has Jeff Healy, that's where Harold Ballard is. And Jeff Merrick, who we all know now from Rogers Hockey,

but he was working, and I told this story a lot, so people are probably bored of hearing it, but he's the one who shoveled the dirt onto Harold Ballard's casket because he was working at Park Lawn Cemetery. Really? Oh, so there was no hockey tie-in. He was working there. One of the many jobs he had at that point in his life,

including working at Great Lakes Brewery. It all comes full circle. Merrick worked there? Oh, wow. He was buddies with Mike Lackey, who's now the brewmaster over there. So you might have met Mike Lackey when you were... Jeff Merrick's a great guy, too. There's a lot of great people in this business. Yeah, I only talk to the great ones.

That's all. I only invite the great ones over here. Jeff fucking Healy, gone too soon. Wow, was he great. And I love the way he played the guitar, too, in his lap. That guy was just great blues. And he did a cover... He was in the Patrick Swayze movie.

Roadhouse. You know what? He played my pub at Loyalist College in our CAF. It was three months after Roadhouse wrapped filming.

And he was like, anyway, we're going to play something from a movie I just did with Patrick Swayze. It's called Roadhouse. This is the Doors Roadhouse Blues.

And he played that role. That's a jam. Everything he played in the movie, he played live. And everything he said about Jeff live, I mean, I didn't have the pleasure of meeting him, but just magnetic on stage. That's a jam. Everything he played in the movie, he played live. And everything he said about Jeff live, I mean, I didn't have the pleasure of meeting him,

but just magnetic on stage. Just so crazy. And I mean, his bar downtown, Healy's, he believed a lot in bringing in new talent and having that new talent up on stage and really got into the music that the people played for him that came in. So, you know, tremendous loss, no doubt.

Angel, that was another jam on that. Angel, like I said to my wife, we were getting married, we were, no doubt. Angel, that was another jam on that. Angel, like I said to my wife, we were getting married, we were picking our music. It was my second wedding, so I'm like, I'm going to get this music down here. I'm going to get it right. I didn't have any music the first time, but that's another story. But I did a pitch

for Angel. I didn't end up making it, but... You mean Angel Eyes? Angel Eyes. Angel Eyes, okay. No, no, I thought it might be another song. Angel Eyes. I just thought it. No, no, no. I thought it might be another song. Angel Eyes. I just thought it's such a beautiful, beautiful song. Beautiful, gorgeous song. Jay, you wanted to do a little intro preamble

before we play your final jam. Just before I play my fifth and final jam, I was a little bit worried, Mike, that you, after this podcast and posted it, might not get nearly enough comments. So what I thought I would do is pick a song that is not only unapologetically one of my favorite bands in the world which i'll defend in momentarily not that i should have to but i knew this would guarantee a lot of comments

on the website a lot of them probably directed directly at me and i've seen this band live twice so i'm in no place to judge here i I saw them headline once at Molson Park, and I saw them on the small stage at Molson Park the year before. It was quite the rise back then. But let's kick out your final jam. Oh. I was like, wait a minute. It's stuck.

Oh. Rock and roll. It's too bad I don't edit. I would clean that up. No, it's better. It's great. It's better. I was like, He just stole mine. That's all he did.

Can you imagine? We rave about Jeff Healy and then we're all embarrassed about this guilty pleasure. While you're queuing the other one up, if there's a second version, I think, of While My Guitar Gently Weeps that people should probably check out,

it's got to be George Harrison's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Right, because Prince is on that. Because Prince slays. And at the end, he just drops the guitar and leaves. It's the best. But here's the real final gem from J. Michaels. I'm driving black on black

Just got my license back I've got this feeling in my face This train is coming off the track I'll ask the light if the devil needs a ride. Because the angel on my ride ain't hanging out with me tonight. I'm driving past your house while you were sneaking out. I got the car door opened up so you can jump in on the run. Your mom don't know that you were missing.

She'd be pissed if she could see the parts of you that I've been kissing, screaming. No, we're never gonna quit. Ain't nothing wrong with it. Just acting like we're animals. No, no matter where we go. Nickelback Animals. A young, unsigned Nickelback, a band you've probably never heard of. Ryan was laughing at me the entire time. Is this what it's like to be waterboarded? Is this like what it's like in Guantanamo?

I'm not sure. It must be weird. And I had this conversation with Chad and so many people have asked him, can you imagine being in a band where the opening question every time an interviewer talks to you is, so people really hate you. Can you imagine having to deal with that? And Chad came in the news talk to talk about the new album with the band. And before we started, I said, hey, I'm not going to ask you this on tape,

but I'm curious. He just had vocal surgery. How you doing? He goes, it's good. It's good. My voice is great. He said, the only problem is I sound like that douchebag from Nickelback now. And I laughed.

And he goes, and that's why I tell that joke. But I came into Nickelback sort of how I laughed and he goes, and that's why I tell that joke. But I came into Nickelback sort of how you remind me was big. I was working at Kiss at the time and I did a video show on YTV called What the hell's the name of my show? Come on. I just brain farted. Chart Attack. Chart Attack on

YTV. And I interviewed Chad and the bass player at the time from Nickelback, still the bass player. And he was wearing a shirt with a pot leaf on it. And he said, who's this interview for? I said, YTV. He goes, oh, dude, I got to change my shirt. I'm like, you don't have to change your shirt.

He goes, no, no, no, man. I want to change my shirt. It's a younger audience. I don't want to put that out there. That's cool. And he was super cool about it. And whenever people ask me, because you get this question too, who's the nicest person you've ever interviewed?

Hands down, Chad from Nickelback. And if you are of that camp that hates nickelback go see them live oh yeah just go see them live and tell me it isn't the kind of show that you want to go to it's just such a my kid laughs a lot because he used to laugh at me for playing them all the time he's like oh dad is goddamn nickelback and then he started to get into it a little bit when he was going to school in the states because they're huge in America. And we just went to see them on their last tour together

at the Amphitheater, and it went full circle. And after it was over, he said, I knew this would be good, but he's like, I had no idea how great it would be live. But you're welcome for the comments. Just definitely a comment below. Can I take this face cloth off now? You know, I mean, again, I said,

I voluntarily went to Molson Park and Barry and watched these guys headline and they really were good. Was it an edge fest? It was an edge fest, yes. They headlined an edge fest. And the previous year, I'd seen them on the small stage. So they went from the small stage at Molson Park and Barry to headlining

one year later. It was a rapid rise with How You Remind Me when that broke. But my unpopular opinion, and I'm with you, Jay, my unpopular opinion is that The State, this is the album before the album that had How You Remind Me when that broke. But my unpopular opinion, and I'm with you, Jay, my unpopular opinion is that The State, this is the album before the album

that had How You Remind Me, is a great fucking album. Like way before I ever heard How You Remind Me, I was digging that album, The State. It's really good. Like this whole backlash,

like Creed, it's kind of like they've lumped them in with Creed or something as a big behemoth rock band that's not cool. Nah, it's just straight up good rock. And that's the thing.

I mean, I remember being into, like, when I was in high school, I liked the stuff I played in the jams today. But I also liked Duran Duran. But I remember, I think because my dad was a musician, he just instilled in me early. He was like, it doesn't matter the genre. It doesn't matter what people think. If you like it, you like it. And, you know, screw people if they don't. Your jams are your jams. Your j't matter what people think. If you like it, you like it. And screw people if they don't. Your jams are your jams.

Your jams are your jams. Trust me, somebody tuning in to this episode of Toronto Mic was thinking what you were thinking during that Nickelback song. They were thinking about that when Eminem was rapping. Oh, for sure. So subjective. And if I hear one more

rap's crap, I'm going to blow because that's so ridiculous. And it was this little thing that has now taken over the world, folks. I think it's the most popular form of music in the world right now, right? By far. And it's not even as good as it used to be. I'm going to sound like an old man. Back in my day.

Back in my day. It peaked with It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. That was a long time ago now. Guys, Ryan, it was great to meet you. Jay, third time's a charm. Another great episode. Would love to have you guys back anytime. Thanks, Mike, for having us. It was fun. And this closing jam, by the way, is lowest of the low. Ryan shares

a couple of things in common with these guys. And that brings us to the end of our 319th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Jay is Jay on the Rush TO. Ryan is at Ryan Doyle Show.

Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Property in the 6.com is at Raptors Devotee. PayTM is at PayTM Canada. And Camp Turnasol is at Camp Turnasol. See you all next week. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy and green.

Well, you've been under my skin for more than eight years. Well, you've been under my skin for more than eight years. It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears.