Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Sammy Kohn from The Watchmen: Toronto Mike'd #898

Episode Date: August 9, 2021

Mike chats with Sammy Kohn about six bands or artists who played with The Watchmen. Tune in for some great jams and fantastic stories from the drummer of The Watchmen.

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Pillars of the community since 1921. And Mike Majewski. He's the real estate agent who's ripping up the Mimico real estate scene. Learn more at realestatelove.ca. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is the drummer for The Watchman, Sammy Cohn. Welcome, Sammy. Welcome back, buddy. Thanks for having me. My favorite podcast. Is that true or Or is it the, what is it?

What is it? I forgot the name. I'm just saying my favorite podcast. I'm not saying you are my favorite. I'm just saying Mark Maron is my favorite podcast. What the fuck? You know, I love your podcast.

I'm a huge fan. I look forward to seeing what's happening all the time. It's my companion while I walk my dog. Oh, that's nice yeah any recent episodes that uh captured your fancy um i love the art bergman one i enjoyed speaking you know it's always entertaining i thought that was really good um that one sort of sticks out he's tough to interview because he just really goes so off script and and i know you have an arc that you like to follow, but that one was particularly good.

What surprises me and pleasantly surprises me, Mike, is the diversity of your knowledge. We come on and we talk about CanRock and I think, God, this guy knows his CanRock. And then you're with sports people, you're're with media people you're with social media people like you've uh you've got it uh you got a real nice wide range of uh of experience which is uh which is great jack of all trades master of none pretty much yeah that's that's what i was thinking all right so i'm gonna open this uh busting your chops a little bit uh i thought what's what's an appropriate song to open this little discussion off the top? And Cam Gordon, our mutual friend. Yeah.

The ever-handsome Cam Gordon. He came up with the perfect tune. So I'll just play a bit of it and then we'll get this out of the way and then we'll move on to other things. But... Gotta sing my body down Feel it tremble with sounds I'm always speaking Latin now and we'll move on to other things. But... What's the name of this Watchmen song, Sammy?

It's called Zoom, which is very interesting. I hadn't even thought about that, that the world is on Zoom now. There's 3 million people using Zoom as opposed to the 25 that were using it pre-pandemic. So it's, yeah, it's called Zoom. It's as if you guys knew. I don't know how you knew, but you knew. But this conversation we're having now, we're going to kick out some jams and catch up here. We're doing this on Zoom,

but until, I don't know, 20 minutes ago, I was in the backyard with the studio all set up waiting for yourself to stroll into my backyard for an in-person jam kicking, but for very good reasons, we had to, at the last minute, move this thing to Zoom. Yeah, and I appreciate that.

I was honest to God. I was looking forward to coming down there. You know that I'm in real estate, and I've just got a couple of last-minute clients who need me. I need to be sort of at hand by my computer. I actually had an appointment in Etobicoke that I also had to cancel. I had to sort of piggyback that. So I really appreciate you giving me the flexibility. Sorry, I know you're going to give me a sticker.

Yeah. And I've got like three of them in my glove box still. I don't know what to do with them. So you did get, I couldn't remember if you ever got your Toronto Mike sticker. You can also, you could just FedEx me some pasta too. I mean, that works right now. I'm solo, my family's in Winnipeg.

So, I mean, I could use a good meal. So I love Palma Pasta. Honestly, God. Honestly, God. I have a frozen lasagna for you. I was going to give it to you.

I know you do. From Palma Pasta. I know, and I have it all set. And I had fresh craft beer for you from Great Lakes. And I had the Sticker You

Toronto Mike sticker. Like all of this. Can you just fill me in for the funeral home too? Oh, I had hand sanitizer for you from Ridley Funeral Home. It was all locked and loaded. But I guess a Zoom with Sammy Cohn is better than no Sammy Cohn. Is that fair to say?

You know what? I appreciate that. And I love chatting with you because I know you ask great questions. You dig really deep. And I thought we sort of mutually came up with a good idea. I think this is my third or fourth time on the podcast, but I know you're a Watchmen fan, which I appreciate. I mean, you have some great knowledge in terms of our history.

I mean, the truth is we're talking about stuff that happened 20, 30 years ago, but we agree that what might be cool is if I told maybe an anecdote or two about four or five different bands that the Watchmen had played with over the last few years. And so it's not just kicking out the jam, so to speak. Yeah, it's not artists, but there's a, there's a, there's a theme here, a tie in. So. And I can't wait to do this. So I have six,

six jams lined up and we're going to play a bit of it but then you're going to tell us a story but uh off the top real quick and i'll play another watchman song just while we get into this one but Yay! Yay! So we're going to go way back of this because since your last visit to Toronto, Mike, Sammy, I spoke with Chris Wardman. Right. And I have a small favor to ask you, Mike, before we continue. Yeah. Sorry to cut you off,

but I can't concentrate when I talk to you and I hear songs under underneath me. I feel like I, cause I'm so distracted and I've got you and I hear songs underneath me. I feel like, because I'm so distracted and I've got the attention span of a gerbil. That's the problem with me. And so when I hear the Watchmen or music underneath me talking, I can't chew gum and walk either at the same time.

So just a little audio sort of suggestion there to have this be the best. So we'll hear very short bits of these jams and then I'll kill them. But Chris Wardman, so in that episode there was a obviously you know there's lots to cover because we got to talk about like blue peter and we got to talk about chalk circle but uh chris is a key kind of part in the uh the watchman uh origin story right yeah i mean he is i think that's been a little overstated, to be honest,

with all due respect to Chris, I love Chris, I think he's very talented. But we had written in our first bio, I think they were sort of just looking for content, frankly, and they mentioned that he, quote, unquote, discovered us and introduced us to so and so and then, and then that subsequently was repeated in a number of different articles during our first three or four years, people who probably were pretty lazy journalists who just regurgitated our bio. So the legend is that he quote-unquote discovered us. And he certainly, he produced our first album, that song that you just mentioned. That's right. That's right.

I'm going to show you something that's really funny, Mike, because it's fortuitous. There's two things. First of all, next year, 2022, is going to be the 30th anniversary of our first album, McLaren Furnace Room. Wow. Wow. Isn't it crazy? Because I was five years old when we recorded that album, which is really remarkable. Such a dad joke. That shirt probably was five years old. Such a dad joke. That shirt probably was five years old. I'm sitting in my little home office here and I have a bullet board in front of me with a bunch of sort of bits and pieces from my life. And I saved my first royalty check.

I have it on my bullet board. This is my first royalty check. This was pretty much based on the fact that Cracked got a little bit of airplay. I'll tell you a funny story. This is from SoCan. And it's made out to me for $5.41. Danny Graves, who is my very close friend, I love him to bits. He's the singer for The Watchmen. He and I were texting a little while ago. We have a great text relationship. We just joke back and forth all day long. And I sent this to him not long ago and said you remember this remember we got these and he said yeah i cashed mine so there you go that's uh amazing uh you hear similar

stories about like streaming royalties or whatever like i don't know spotify here's your like 89 cents or whatever but uh that's why and that song i played because that's the album so mclaren furnace room that's the that's the first time we hear The Watchmen. Opening statement. Our opening statement, Mike. But I'm glad we could put on the record the Chris Wardman

facts here, because you're right, once something's kind of in print back then, in a bio, it just gets regurgitated until it ends up on the Wikipedia page, and then guys like me have Chris Wardman on and we, Oh, you discovered the Watchmen. Like this becomes the story.

Like he goes, he calls up Jake or whatever. And it's like, Hey, Jake Gould, like you got to see this band. You got to come out. Like,

like, uh, so basically you give full credit to Chris Wardman, obviously for producing the, uh, album McLaren furnace room, but we've exaggerated through the years, uh,

his role in discovering the Watchmen. With all due respect to Chris, I think one thing I will say is that he took us from, I would say, a little bit of a middle-of-the-road sounding band who was just sort of finding its voice with some great songs to a band that was a little heavier and dare I say grungy. He sort of opened things up in that regard a bit. I know that that was kind of his mandate. He was always, it's too clean.

We're not Steely Dan. It's too clean. So that, that set the tone, which was in hindsight, a really smart thing for him to do. So I gave him full props for that. Okay. But by no means did he discover the Watchmen. I don't know. Nobody discovered the watchman right right okay nobody has yet to discover the watchman yeah well that's that's not true but uh i think there's a story out there about his girlfriend or something said he had to go to the horseshoe and see you or something i don't know but i'm glad we could kind of set the record straight there's another episode that recorded since I last saw you. And it was Ken Tizard.

So, so Ken made his Toronto Mike debut. So that's three of your members. Cause you mentioned Danny. So Danny's been over. He's an FOTM. Ken is now an FOTM. You're a long time FOTM,

been on several times. So I'm almost kind of almost got the set. I just got to get Joey on the, on the show. I think he's in the phone book. You know, you want to look him up and we're going to do it. We're going to do it up and remind me.

So Ken is not a, not an original member of the Watchmen. He's not on the McLaren furnace room. He is not. No, we had, we had a guest above maybe three years prior with a fine gentleman named Pete Lavin,

who was the original bass player. Yeah. And he toured with us and was a good friend and, and waited until we found a replacement member to, to leave. And yeah, so it was, but yeah, he, he is not on the first album. And what happened with Pete? Do we know how he's doing or anything about Pete? And what happened with Pete? Do we know how he's doing or anything about Pete? Pete is living in Winnipeg. I was actually just texting with him about six months ago. I hadn't talked to him in a long time. And I called him up because I hadn't talked to him. I just said it was so spontaneous and it was so good to hear from him. We just sat. I was in my car

and I was just laughing for about an hour. He's a grandfather now. Wow. He remarried and he's got a grandchild. He's got, I think his current wife has several children. He's got his own boy from a first marriage. He sounded great. He was just calling me. I think he might've maybe reached out to me just to see how it's going with the pandemic when we got so much bad press. And then I reached out to him because winnipeg was sort of in the toilet

for a while so it was great to get out we always we have a bond that that will always be there um and and we just uh have many inside jokes and okay yeah i haven't thought about him i haven't thought about him in a long time but he's a wonderful guy oh good now uh we're about to kick out that first of your six let's do it but i don't have till 4 p.m i wish i could uh do i at least find can i at least learn before i do that uh can you at least tell me the the watchman like touring plans like uh what dates are actually in the books like for you guys to play live sure no touring plans uh but we are playing in Edmonton on the August 20th. They are doing this something that's a thing called Together Again. And I think every weekend in August, they're having different lineups. Have you heard of this thing Mike? No but what I was going to say so August 20 when you're playing in Edmonton that happens to be the big 4-0

for my wife who is from Edmonton so you got a I don't know a big shout out to Monica who won't be at that show because she'll be here yeah that's not going to happen but I will be thinking about your young wife okay I'll text it to Danny maybe he'll do it yeah we'll stop the show

we'll have yeah we'll sing happy birthday to Monica. You have a lovely family. I see you have 15 children on Facebook, Twitter. Was it 15 these days? What do you got? I stopped at four. I'm done now, man. I got taken care of in December. We talked about that. It's the second time we've talked about you getting taken care of. Well, because you keep thinking I'm going to have more kids. And if another kid shows up, it ain't mine. That's all I know.

I know. Well, okay. I'll be keeping tabs. But, yeah, and then we're in Regina on the 21st. Okay. Playing with 5440. I think it's a CFL game. So, yeah.

Okay. That's all we have on the schedule. Love those guys. We're going to probably play in Toronto, hopefully this year, still sort of getting that figured out. But right now, in terms of what's on the books, we've got the 20th and 21st, Edmonton and Regina, respectively.

Okay, so here's what I'll do for you, Mr. Can't Chew and Walk at the Same Time, Can't Chew Gum and Walk at the Same Time. So I'm going to play 30 seconds or so of this song, then I'll fade her down into oblivion, and then you'll talk to us. So here's the first sammy jam I'm at the

Bojar's Grill I got the scissors You may make me twing La Verde All right. I could keep going with that great jam. Okay. So tell us what we were listening to there. That was, of course, Kim Mitchell, another great former guest of yours. Oh, they're called FOTM, Sammy.

Oh, sorry. Sorry. I should know that. You should know that by now. Yeah. I am guilty of thinking that in the early 90s that Kim was not cool. I was just like, okay, he's suddenly not cool. And shame on me because I have so much respect for that guy uh given his history

with max webster the songwriting the body of work you know how hard it is in this stupid business to continue year after year decade after decade i have two very quick not really stories but just anecdotes about kim we played with kim mitchell the watchman and that's the point of this is who we've played with i think it might have been 1990 91 it was with our original bass player so it was definitely pre mclaren or right around mclaren and i remember we um we wanted to leave we just figured you know let's go we're in regina there's a thing called buffalo days we just wanted to jump jump in the car after we opened up and leave because kim wasn't cool. Let's not watch him. But I remember driving away and he opened with Lager and Ale and his drummer at the time was lover boys, Matt Frenette.

And I remember it sounded so good and it was so rocking. And it immediately, the second he jumped up on stage, the Watchmen set was just erased from people's memories uh and and he just it was just pure can rock there's every hoser in regina who was raising their fists and i just thought this is so good and then i think it was maybe a few years later and this is funny i saw kim i think it was in regina or something and i i always go up to people when I see them, musicians, I have no shame. I'll just go up and I'll talk to them and I'll tell them I'm a fan and whatever. And I saw Kim Mitchell and I reminded him of the show. And I said, you know, you were a judge when we did a band wars thing. I don't know if you remember that. And I'm always, I'm very earnest when I see people who I like as,

as, as musicians. And I said to him, can you give me a piece of advice? I'm still in the band. Give me a piece of advice, Kim. And he looks at me and he says, you're in the music business? And I go, yeah, yeah. He says, get a good therapist. And I thought, and he was sort of half joking, but he was right. I mean, I had been on the couch off and on over the years. He was absolutely right. And he knew exactly the best thing. Instead of some hackneyed, you know, you know, buy good vintage gear or something. He was he was bang on. So that's my memory of Kim Mitchell. Lots of respect for that guy. Yeah, me too. He lives in Mimico now.

Oh, does he? I thought he was there was a time when I used to see him around Forest Hill. Yeah, I think he had a divorce and then ended up I think he handed up down in my neck of the woods in one of those like condos that came up at like Park Lawn and Lakeshore or whatever. But yeah, Kim Mitchell. Well, yeah, what can you say about Kim Mitchell? He's just, yeah, you're right. Like you said, you got your Max Webster, Kim Mitchell. Then you got your Gopher Soda. Not Gopher A Soda because he chastised me when I called it Gopher A Soda.

It's actually Gopher Soda. And then you've got the whole OPP hat, you know, Patio Lanterns, Wild Party, Kim. Good guy. Yep. Awesome. All right. Another jam.

And again, these are all bands that played with the Watchmen. Shout out to Jakeake gold here we go Sled dogs after dinner Close their eyes on the howling waves. Kurt Cobain reincarnated sighs and licks his face. Then they drift past strips of Serengeti And the gates of sleepy hollow too You can pause and wonder They paused and wondered Yeah, paused and wondered too Don't sounds incredible to me i mean on this little one inch speaker on my phone on my computer

agreed um so that's not a kind of a household name hip song uh you know it's a i think it's a bit of a deep track but what can i say about the hip i mean it's a bit canon to talk about them everybody talks about them but we did play a number of shows with them and there's a few takeaways that i always had when i when i played with this band I mean first of all I remember Jake Gold actually playing me that song he he would always have access to singles and early mixes of songs before they released to the public and we were working together at the time as well and inevitably I'd be in his car and I remember him playing me this song saying this is off the new hip album and the first thing I thought is what a great snare sound

the drums are so loud in the mix I love that and what are what a what a line I'm just on a superficial level Kurt Cobain reincarnated sighs and licks his face I mean that's just it's so clever um there's there's a dog on the front of um trouble at the hen house i think and i and i always thought that he's talking about that dog i know that's kind of strange but well here's what i'll say about the hip mike and what i found fascinating about this band was every time we did a stretch of touring with him in the States. I think it was about maybe about 10 shows around. I don't even remember like around the New York area. And it was at a time when I was at a bit of a low in terms of touring all

the time. I, all I wanted to do was go back to the hotel and speak to my girlfriend at the time. Who's now my wife. And I didn't want to hang out and watch a band at the best of times, when I see a band, I'll see four or five songs. I'm like, okay, I love these guys. I'm done. I'm good.

It's all I need. Inevitably, the hip would kick into Grace 2, or usually Grace 2, and that would just go away. I'd be transfixed by this band who would mix their set list up every night, but there was a, and this is sounds pretty heavy handed here. I've said this before. There was a sort of a, what's the word I'm looking for? Like a Dionysian element to what Downey was doing.

And he was, what he was doing from what I could tell, this is the hardest thing to do as a band and a musician to be in the moment, to be entertaining, to be so unpredictable that people don't know what's going to happen. Obviously, it's something that grabs people because he was so engaging as a front man. Ninety five percent of bands play their songs, get up there, be true to the arrangements of those songs. There's no tightrope rope that's being walked. And to me, what I interpreted is what Downey was doing, conscious or not, was just being so present and so in the moment that it was so engaging for people to watch.

Like Jim Morrison would do that to a certain extent. You never knew what you were going to get. He understood how attractive that was to people. Iggy Pop does that. You don't know what you're going to get. And Gord did that. And every night I would say to myself, I'm like, I'm going to go back to the hotel guys. I've just, I've had it. I got to just, you know, sit up, sit with a slice of pizza and my phone. And, but I, but I'll stick around for one song and that,

but I would stay for the whole set. I'd be like, I can't leave. So anyway, that that's my memory of, of, of, of Gord. And, and I, uh, I can't hear you. You're muted now, Mike. I think. No, I haven't spoken in a little bit. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. You don't interrupt people, right? I was listening to Sammy Cohn. Okay. Drummer from the Watchmen. You kidding me? I don't know. What do you think about that? Does that make sense to you? Oh my God. Well, I'm a big,

I'm a big fan of the Watchmen, but I'm also a very big fan of the Tragically Hip. Just a few quick things. One is we never actually named the song for those listening and they want to check it out. Of course that's Don't Wake Daddy. Yes. So that's the name of that great jam from the Tragically Hip.

Every time Gord comes up now on Toronto Mike for a little bit, I have to just cross promote a talk I had with Kevin Hearn. So, Kevin Hearn, we did a two-parter but part two was all about Gord and his work on The Secret Path. And honestly,

this was such an emotional episode as Kevin kind of, he was with Gord in his final months and weeks and sadly days. So, if you want to hear kind of Kevin he was with Gord in his, you know, final months and weeks and sadly days. So if you want to hear kind of Kevin open up about his experience of Gord Downie at the end of his life, check out that part two of the Kevin Hearn episode, but part one's good too.

And the last thing I'm going to say to you, Sammy, is that I, my son, my firstborn, who's now like 19 and a half, he was very, very young when I went to the molson amphitheater to see the watchman open for the tragically hip and and i have distinct memories of you guys in the watchman covering uh james taylor's sweet baby james and it was a beautiful night and i just my son's name is james and basically he's named James because I love Sweet Baby James. And it was, I remember this very emotional moment.

Like I was out on the lawns at the Molson Amphitheater and Danny was doing such a beautiful job singing Sweet Baby James as he does. And I just never forget that moment. And you guys were great. The Tragically Hip was great. And I don't know when that was, 03 or something. But James was young.

And there you go. That's cool. Yeah, I mean mean people remember how shows make make them feel you know you don't remember the set you don't remember what you're wearing you just remember how it made you feel and the good shows have that long uh tail for sure so that's that's great all right we're cooking with gas here sammy here's jam number three. Well, I won't come back and I won't say no But that new circle around us will cut a little more Like you said One plain new, you seem so surprised At least inside you get that pretty little nightmare

It comes alive Baby ran, she ran away Why she ran, I got to say I'm lonesome all the time Baby ran, she ran away Why she ran, I got to say I know. Reason why. That's a re-record.

That's not the original version. Oh, that's from my personal. So sometimes I have to seek out a jam because I don't have it. But for, I think, almost all but one of yours, I had them in my personal. I just grabbed it from my collection. So I don't know what that is it's sitting there that's not the original that they must have re-recorded that um at some point uh which that's not uncommon for bands who want to get back their ownership and their masters 5440 baby ran uh first song off their green album um my memory of those guys another band i have so much respect for uh

just if nothing else because they're still together and they've been doing it for 35 years maybe more which which to stay together is is very very challenging as a band with one lineup change uh one small lineup change for 54 still making records every couple years people take for granted these great bands after a while. Oh, another 54 40 album. It's you know how hard it is to put 12 songs together on an album and communicate with, with people you've been working with for years and years and just give

yourself up to that process. It's, it's very hard. So what I'll say about 54 4040 just very quickly is for me, there's a footprint of their music in my brain because I went from, I think it might've been 1989 or 1990 or something. I remember going to see them at a place called the Rendezvous in Winnipeg with a buddy of mine. And we got stoned in the car I hope my mom's not listening to this and um and and we went to we sat in Le Rendezvous and and I was very high uncomfortably high and they opened with a song called Here in My House uh from an

album called I think it's from Show Me maybe, or fight for love or something. I don't remember, but they were the best band in the world that night. It was just magical. It was a great opener. They had sort of some smoke and it was some smoke. That's all it took, I guess. And then, and then cut to maybe less than two years later, the Watchmen were doing a nation a national tour with them so i was a 20 years old at the time 21 something like that and i was very uh starstruck it was our first taste at a national tour with a band that knew how to to really

properly uh tour with with set times and just professional uh loadout times and all those little details that you just take you just don't know about um and they taught us a lot and uh it was just to me it was very exciting to go from sitting in an audience watching these guys as a fan to a few years later being on stage opening up for them them. So I will say when I, I've seen them a few times, but, uh, I guess about five years ago I saw 5440 and realized like there is, there's a sneaky number of radio hits from that band. Like you, you sort of like you go to a concert, like, like every jam, they could, they could do a full set and play every song you've heard on the

radio, which is pretty awesome. Yeah. Yeah. No, there are another another another great canadian band who uh i'm excited to see they're not to mention they're fine people too we're going to see them in august so i'm looking forward to it well when you see uh neil uh you and neil osborne are fellow fotm so you can do the secret handshake and by the way when neil osborne came on Toronto Mike, which was also via Zoom due to geography, he came on with his daughter, Candle, who's quite the musician. Yeah, I've seen on social media, Neil and I are friends on Facebook. So I've seen he sometimes posts stuff about his daughter. So he's very creative. He's always doing something kind of wacky on Facebook. But great songwriter, great front man, you know, has that sort of mystique about him and he's, he's great. So shout out to 50 for 40. Now,

just before I play your next jam, since we're moving very quickly, cause I know you've got deals to close. I just want to remind everybody that you Sammy Cohn guested on a pandemic Friday episode of Toronto mic'd because we were kicking out. And we save these types of episodes for weeks when Stu Stone is in LA and can't record with us because for some reason he doesn't like them. But Cam and I are in love with these episodes. But this was a favorite Canadian jams from west of Ontario.

And we wanted to have somebody on the show that we knew and loved who was, you know, a great musician from west of Ontario. And that's you, buddy. I was going to say, I can't think of anybody. And a great time. So I think Cam was in the backyard. You were, oh, the zooming again, Sammy?

Is there a trend here? But you were great on that episode. And I just want to tell the world. the world oh by the way last week when uh when stew was out of town we did the other one which is uh our favorite canadian jams from east of ontario and the two guests one in the backyard one on zoom were ben rayner formerly of the toronto star and jay ferguson from sloan so you were like the jay ferguson equivalent jay knows his stuff his stuff. He's a muso for sure. And I've also enjoyed your Van Rainer episodes too. Those are also some good ones.

He brings it. He brings it. And I'm inviting you, Sammy, and you can tell me in a minute that you'll be out of town or whatever, but I'm inviting you and everyone listening to the Pandemic Friday finale, which will be on August 27.

That's a Friday. We're going to do it from 6 to 9 p.m. Again, a Friday evening. This is prime time. We'll be on the patio. We'll be outdoors. That's important for people who are worried about COVID-19, etc. We'll be outdoors on the patio of Great Lakes Brewery.

Everyone's invited. Palma Pasta is going to feed us on them. And not only is Great Lakes going to host this event, but they're going to buy all FOTMs their first fresh craft beer pour. So the first drink is on them. And I really do want to see all the FOTMs come out. So Sammy, if you're in town,

we would love to see you on August 27th. I like it. What's the topic? The finale topic is essentially like farewell jams with an open mic, a fourth mic for people like yourself to pop on and say a few words. And we're going to hear from everybody who wants to jump on the mic and comes out.

So it's going to be pretty awesome, I think. Sounds great. All right, let's kick- Let me know when you're going to plug your advertisers because I have to use the bathroom. All right, go use the bathroom right now because we have three jams to go. Go use, let's kick. Let me know when you're going to plug your advertisers because I have to use the bathroom. All right, go use the bathroom right now because we have three jams to go. Go use the bathroom right now.

I have a couple of sponsors I want to shout out. McKay CEO Forums. Again, as I say in the introduction, every single week that they're the highest impact and least time intensive peer group for over 1 over 1200 CEOs, executives and business owners around the world, but specifically on this podcast all summer long. And again, thank you McKay CEO forums for stepping up to to help fuel the real talk.

I like to sort of cap the number of sponsors that we chat about each episode at six. And it's awesome this month to have six. And if anyone's interested in advertising on Toronto Mike, of course, I'd love to chat. It's Mike at TorontoMike.com or DM me on Twitter at Toronto Mike. But McKay has a great podcast I'd love for you to check out. It's called the CEO Edge Podcast Fireside Chats with Inspiring CEOs and thought leaders. So give it a go. I post each new episode on torontomike.com and give it a spin. It's fantastic.

Nancy McKay hosts. And I'd like to say hello to Mike Majewski, or as I sometimes call him, Mimico Mike. But he's the real estate agent who's ripping up the Mimico real estate scene. His motto is in the know in Mimico. And he certainly is. Check him out at realestatelove.ca. Here is Sammy Cohn's fourth of six jams. Oh, I got the long, I like this opening,

so I'm going to stick with this version. The radio edit likes to start with the jam, but I've always, always loved this version better. American Woman Say R Say I C Say A M American woman Gonna mess your mind American woman

Gonna mess your mind American woman Gonna mess your back American woman Gonna miss your back American Woman Stay away from me American Woman Mama, let me be Don't come a-hanging around my door I don't wanna see your face no more I think that's the second biggest thing. Listen what I say. I think that's the second biggest band to come out of Winnipeg.

That was Zed Leplin with Whole Lotta Love Backwards. Is that right? No, you know, no introduction needed. Guess who, obviously, with Randy Backman on guitar. So here's my thinking about these guys. I mean, they basically blazed the trail for all of Winnipeg rock bands. So it's hard to overstate the impact they had in the 60s when they were, I think, number one at Billboard pre-internet just i mean that song went to number one on the billboard hot 100 in a time when canadian bands simply didn't do that yeah so if they could have retired after that and would

have made their mark but there was a time when they did something called a kumbaya festival in toronto i don't know if you remember that. Oh, Molly Johnson. Was she the kind of the purveyor? I feel like she was the, yeah, she's the one who basically reaches out to like a Jake Gold and tells them what she needs. Like she was the organizer, I think. I think it got her the Order of Canada.

Okay, okay. Well, in any case, in 1994, the Watchmen were invited to play at the Kumbaya Festival at the Ontario Police Forum, the revolving stage place that most of your listeners probably remember. Yeah. And they were teaming up sort of bands at the time. I don't remember who played with whom, but we were asked to play a song with Randy. were asked to play a song with Randy. So 23 years old at the time, and we were touring pretty heavily. And we thought, okay, let's work up a version of American Woman.

And we communicated to his manager that we're going to do American Woman. And it sounds good. And we'll play a song and then we'll call Randy out and he'll play it with us. And I remember sound checking. We sort of worked up this version with kind of a bit of a unique intro to it. And then we'd kick into the song. sort of worked up this version with kind of a bit of a unique intro to it and then we'd kick into the song we got to the ontario place forum and in boxing randy and you know he's this big guy and uh he had a big presence about him and hi guys you know welcome how are how are you guys doing

how are you kids doing we sort of talked to him and said you know randy we're really excited to do this you know we've sort of made a bit of a change to the beginning do you think that we could talk about no no no guys guys i've done this song a thousand times with a thousand bands let's just go out there and and and see how it goes and we'll rock it and we're like well but to be honest with you randy we just there's a little no no no no let's just go out there and do it. So, okay, we go out there and we're playing the song, our song. We play a song called 34 Dead Street. It opens in the trees. And then Danny introduces, he said, here's the mayor of Winnipeg. It's Randy Backman. Randy comes out. And I think we got the first real response of the day. It was a bit sleepy up until then. And people stood up and we had a lot of people responding. It was a bit sleepy up until then. And people stood up and we had a lot of people responding. It was a great moment, a lot of energy. We kick into our version of American Woman.

And Randy's, you know, standing by to do his. And we're, you know, a minute in, we're doing it. And we do our little intro thing. We cut to Randy and he comes in on the wrong key. And he looked at us with a, with a, uh, just a sheer panic. And in front of a live audience of maybe 15,000 people, we were, uh, we were train wrecking. It ended up that he just didn't get that cue that we were anxiously hoping he would listen to and uh cut to we landed on our feet and in his

uh almighty guitar wisdom killed it after just completely redeemed himself and it ended up being three minutes of of magic now what's funny about this is a few years later no number of years later we played at the uh uh you know trainer amps i'll give them a little plug here there's an amp it's called it's a very well-known amp called trainer and we played the 50th anniversary of trainer okay at a brewery that is not not great lakes brewery not great not great lakes some other brewery some other brewery and Some other brewery. And we were playing at this thing and it turns out Randy Backman was going to be at it. So somehow we got connected with him again through his management company and we're going to play American Woman with Randy again.

We thought, okay, this is exciting. We're going to get to do this again 15 years later. Saw Randy backstage beforehand and I think I went up to him and I had seen him a few times since anyway I said to him Randy we're gonna do this again this is great you know you you you lead we'll follow kind of thing he was he he had really um become quite a bit more successful since that time in 94 when when he was I think a bit of a valley with his career to be honest sure anyway he was full of confidence and he's a wonderful guy and i said do you remember that time at the kumbaya festival when you you you kind of misstepped at the beginning and he looks at me just dead on he says you don't forget that

stuff and and uh and he kind of smiled and and i kind of dropped it. Anyway, we went and did American Woman at the festival. Excuse me, at this former brewery's 50th anniversary trainer. And it was great. It's on YouTube if anybody wants to check it out. The Watchmen of American Woman. So that's my Randy Bachman story. It was great. Love it.

Love it so much. I saw Randy Bachman because he guested at a Neil Young concert I was at. I was there to see Neil. But Prairie Town to me is like this Winnipeg song. It's like so Winnipeg. And I always loved Prairie Town when Neil Young and Randy Bachman did it. But I have a question. Maybe you don't even have the answer.

But I always thought it was Portage, a main, 50 below. Like 50, 5-0. But then as I was thinking about it now, it is 50 below, not 15 below, right? Do you know? Because I can't, is it 15 below or 50 below? I think it would probably be... Portage, Maine, 50 below. Because it's not really...

I thought it was 50. I always thought it was 50. Okay, I always thought it was 50 because I figured, oh, what an extreme cold for Winnipeg. Like, we don't get 50 below in Toronto. Like, and I'm sure you probably... We don't get, Winnipeg doesn't get 50 below, but I think for the purposes of... Hyperbole.

Creation and hyperbole for what is arguably the most on-the-nose song ever written. But great jam, right? I don't know. Maybe I was the right age or something. Chris Wardman produced. Okay, that's right. You know what? You're absolutely right.

Because we brought up Molly Johnson, I just need to ask you as a listener of Toronto Mic'd, if you ever heard the Molly Johnson episode of Toronto Mic'd. I haven't. Okay, you know what? I don't know her stuff. I know she's well-respected, and I remember her band Infidels. I know nothing about Molly Johnson.

That's not the reason to listen to this episode. As a fan of Toronto Mic'd, you need to listen to Molly Johnson on Toronto Mic'd just to like uh dissect what goes wrong was it saved how did it go south again and how was it redeemed like it really is like like college kids are writing essays about this episode of Toronto Mike so it may be on the flight to Winnipeg or something uh you listen to Molly Johnson on Toronto Mike and then send me a note when you go.

Sorry, I missed that, Mike. How was what saved, redeemed? Like I'm not, you were creative? Well, no, no, the interview. Oh, I see. Like it almost doesn't matter. Did you put your foot in your mouth? You gotta, sort of, but not really, but maybe.

And that's why you need to listen and give the feedback. Honestly, this is like a homework assignment for you i'm intrigued i'm all over it i like your um carol pope episode too there's another good one that's another one where we i almost lost it because that internet was really shitty and then i almost lost it because she but then uh pulled it out of the she lost her page she was impatient i think i remember that yeah i remember and sometimes you know those big stars like her right they they think they're to just talk for five minutes about the latest song. Like, so she's saying, I think sometimes they think, okay, this is five to seven minutes about this new song I just did.

And then this guy wants to talk about like creaming your pants or whatever. Like, and they're like, I think, you know, this guy wants to talk about Dusty Springfield. So I think there's a little bit of... They don't know that you're the Brian Linehan of podcasts. Highest praise. The highest praise. And on that note, what are we here? Five of six.

Look at us cooking with gas. Here we go, buddy. She came from nowhere, she was nobody's daughter Black eyes and raven hair, she felt but no one caught her I saw her standing there, she pulled me underwater She says you're only sheep, you're all just cannon fodder She said I belong to no one I'll be nobody's child But you could take me dancing

Then we're gonna take Montreal Even now I can hear her say There's only one winner in the games we play And now, girl, listen Hey, on five is your head on fire Is there room for another in the broken block? Forgive me, baby, if I steal a kiss What else could I do on a night like this?

Out on the cold, we'll be shaking our fists at the world You know that song? Yeah. Sam Roberts, it's funny to think, just because we mentioned the hip a lot here, is I think there was a period of time, like a couple of years, where I would see every hip concert, and I think I saw Sam Roberts on like three or four times

just opening for the Tragically Hip. Yeah, there was a time there when there was a lot of that. Yeah, I think the Hip were fans. So what's not to like? I mean, just there's no real story with these guys. We played with them in Newfoundland a couple of years ago. So we have played with them. It does fit the criteria here but as you know i i work in real

estate now and i'm helping the drummer uh find a place really nice guy named josh trager i'll give him a shout out and his really sweet wife erin who's an actress a very successful actress so um yeah josh and i hit it off his he's this jewish drummer his father was a dentist. And just like we ended up sort of having a lot in common. But this sort of harkens back to my appreciation for bands who've stayed together for 15, 20 years and have a body of work. They must have seven or eight, 10 albums at this point. I'm not even sure. And I don't know all their stuff, but that's from a record. I can't remember the name of the album.

I apologize to Josh and the Sam Roberts Band. What's the album called? The song's called Rogue Empire. I apologize to Josh and the Sam Roberts band. What's the album called? The song's called Rogue Empire. I'll Google it while you continue your story. So just at the risk of rambling on, they're a rock band, and there's very few rock bands around these days.

They did a record with a producer called Youth a number of years ago, who is in another band called Killing Joke, who I'm a big fan of he's also in the orb terraform terraform terraform yeah yeah so um when i mentioned this record to josh uh he he alluded to me that it really didn't meet expectations in terms of success and whatever else i'm just like that's my favorite record of yours so anyway shout out to sammy roberts and the boys and my friend josh trager is that okay because there's an album they recorded in i think it was in australia uh apparently sam roberts is pretty pretty big in australia like that's like his second biggest market oh is that right i think so i had mark howard on the show mark howard came

on and he produced an album for i think he was telling me that and he produced an album for, I think he was telling me that, and he produced an album for Sam Roberts in Australia. It wasn't a commercial success, but anyway, I think I remember him being fairly big in Australia. Oh, nice. I could remember. Well, that's great that they worked. Mark Howard's amazing. And for any of your listeners who want to just Google youth,

who, again, is a phenomenal producer who was a bass player in killing joke he did one of their albums and again i don't know the name of the album terrible sometimes with titles but um that's a big coup he did like the verve urban hymns and he's just a very well-known that's a big one respected producer in the UK. So yeah, Sam Roberts. Remember, Urban Hymns gave the Rolling Stones their biggest hit since 1989. So shout out to Urban Hymns. Yeah.

Although apparently they gave it back at some point. But why not? What took you so long? Like why all those years where they were generating revenue for the world's richest rock band? But anyway. Yeah, that was a weird...

They looked... It made them look bad bad i think probably as a pr move they had to they had to sort of indicate that they were giving back to the uh the the david and the david and goliath story of uh bittersweet symphony right right right but what a jam that bittersweet symphony was holy smokes okay so i've down to your final, because we're only doing six. People are used to 10, but this is six. Sammy's got deals to close, okay? We don't have time for 10 jams.

Last jam. What an artist. Let me just play it and bring it down, and then we'll talk. But one of my favorite artists of all time. Here we go. She used to work in a diner Never saw a woman look finer I used to order just to watch her float across the floor

She grew up in a small town Never put her roots down Never put her roots down. Daddy always kept moving, so she did too. Somewhere on a desert highway, she rides a Harley Davidson. Her long, long hair flying in the wind She's been running half her life The chrome and steel she rides Colliding with the very air she breathes The air she breathes. The air she breathes.

I mean, that song makes me feel like I'm floating on a cloud. The production of that album, do you know what I mean? The reverb-y, kind of echo-y i don't i don't know what it is but it's so beautiful i could have picked a thousand neil young songs but that's unknown legend uh what can i say about neil i mean he is the he is the professor of canadian songwriting of songwriting in general and when did you play with neil so here's, here's, I'm glad you, you, you presented this last.

We didn't play with Neil, but I do have a Neil Young story. Wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on. You never played with Neil Young.

Never played with Neil Young. Even though we're kicking out jams from bands you played with. I cannot tell a lie, Michael. And that, and that, well, wait, because I want to hear the Neil story. Cause wait because I want to hear

the Neil story because of course I want to hear all the Neil stories but I do also want to ask have you ever played with Blackie and the Rodeo Kings

no not specifically we've played with Tom Wilson okay okay I feel like that's enough so here we're going to hear the Neil story

I'm just going to play because I have you now what are you going to do hang up on me I'm just going to play like 45 seconds of Blackie and the Rodeo King so we'll hear Tom Wilson.

What a freaking voice that man has. Just a little bit because you might have heard Borrowed Tunes, right, where all those great Canadian bands covered Neil.

So I'm just doing a bit of this because I'm hijacking your jam and then we're going back to Neil. But I love Tom Wilson's voice

on this jam here. so give it like 45 seconds this is from wario tunes yeah the second one they did two the second one Great. She used to work in a diner Never saw a woman look finer I used to order just to watch her float across the floor She used to water just to watch her float across the floor. She grew up in a small town. Never put her roots down. Daddy always kept on moving, so she did too.

Somewhere on a desert highway She rides a Harley Davidson Her long blonde hair Flying in the wind Oh man, I'm sorry. I had to hijack your jam there. Long hair flying in the wind. Oh, man, I'm sorry. I had to hijack your jam there, but I really do love the cover by Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. And again, there's the two borrowed tunes albums.

This is the second one. Love the, not, doesn't take me away like Neil's version does. Gotta be honest. Yeah, well, you know, it's tough to fall on those footsteps, but I do like, I just like the timber or the timbre. i don't even know how you say that word but the tambour of uh of tom wilson's isn't it isn't it tumbour no it's i'm just i think it's tumbour yeah okay there's a question that tom wilson is a serious talent um when when i was it was 1996 and neil was promoting a crazy horse album and i can't remember the name of it it had the song called big time on it that was the first song um i don't know if you want to google that mike but while i ramble i'll google while you ramble he he was

doing his first canadian tour many years, a national tour. And at that point, it was 1996, and I had started to understand the nuances of the record industry in Canada. And I'd grown slightly cynical. What's the name of the record, Mike? Broken Arrow. Right, Broken Arrow. So he was promoting Broken Arrow. I'd grown slightly cynical of the music business i have to admit and when i learned that moist was going to be the opening band on their national tour i was very this is a horrible

horrible emotion i'm not a perfect human i was very jealous right and i thought we're a winnipeg band we're better than moist and that was just my ego at the time um nothing against moist um and i was it it hurt me because i said there's no bigger neil young fan than than me and we all loved him in the in the watchman and we're from winnipeg and anyway they did that tour and i felt like understanding um i understood that a lot of that was probably management and record labels and a lot of sort of nuance uh as far as how they got him at bill as opposed to neil i i kind of doubt he cherry picked moist as his opening band he's a big david usher fan don't you know that yeah i i don't want to get in any trouble mike you might cut this thing up and put it out on uh you know and wicked oh i only do that with lowest of the low that's the only time i did that i'm not going to bring up

lowest to the low okay promise i won't but that is the next jam i'm going to play so talk about lowest to the low on this podcast i will not mention but you will say it's big time toronto band big time toronto band so anyway they're in the middle of this tour. And I, it took me a long time. I was heartbroken that we couldn't get on that tour. I love Neil Young. I was dating a girl at the time who was working at an expensive restaurant in Winnipeg called highs. Okay. And this is my story. She had called me and said, you're never going to guess who's in the restaurant right now. And I'm like, who Bob Barker's in the restaurant right now. And I'm like, who, Bob Barker, who? Neil Young. Come down. And I'm like, no, I'm not going to come down. What am I going to do? Crash his table? So she bothered me. She said, come down. You'll regret it.

So I go down there with a buddy of mine, a friend of my name, Sean, old friend, still a good friend. And I have my copy of Zuma in one hand and I have my camera on the other. This is pre-cell phone. And we sat downstairs and Heise was a restaurant where you have to walk up this long flight of stairs when you walk in at street level to get to this fancy restaurant. And we sat there for 15 minutes and 30 minutes and 45 minutes. And you could tell, you knew that Neil was in the restaurant because there was a certain energy. People would come downstairs and they'd be buzzing about it and neil was in the restaurant right so we waited and waited and waited had my camera had it all

prepared as far as what i was going to say to neil and what i'm going to do and lo and behold about an hour after sitting there i see billy talbot coming down his bass player from crazy horse i'm like holy shit they're He looked, he looked pretty sauced. He looked like he had a few and about two seconds later, Neil comes down plaid shirt, just looked like Neil Young disheveled hair. And he was with his longtime manager, Elliot Roberts. Okay. Who, uh, rest in peace, uh, managed him for many, many years. And they, they,

they walk right by us. It's me and my buddy and my girlfriend at the time were standing there. She was the co-check girl. Neil walks right by us and Elliot Roberts walked right by us as manager. They're all, I think they're pretty drunk. I froze, completely blanked. Didn't know what, I had my Zuma record in one hand, I had my camera in the other Elliot Roberts, who's a mensch and your look up mensch. If you need to, he looks at me and says, what's your name? Said it's Sammy. He said, you know, Sammy, can we get a picture with you and Neil? It really mean a lot to me. Wow.

Wow. And I thought, okay, this guy saw the blank look on my face and knew how how excited i was and how much of a fanboy i had turned into so i've got this great picture of me and neil and billy talbot and my buddy and my ex-girlfriend wow what a mensch i do know that word i even use it uh hebsey uses it a lot so i've been starting to use it as well he's he's given me license to use it it's a great word and uh that is truly a mensch because uh the the solid that that he did for you wow that's eternal that you'll have that memory that's amazing yeah it was uh it was pretty cool because they were just kind of goofing i think they were just kind of goofing on the fact that it was so clearly obvious that we were a little

shell-shocked by the whole thing and uh so i never got a chance to ask neil why he was working with moist and not the russian i will shout out to david usher uh sammy i know you got a jet but dude that was great fun but next time you're on, Mike, it's got to be in the backyard, man. It's just we got to capture that awesome Sammy energy back there. You promise? I hear you, Mike. Do you promise? I appreciate you accommodating.

I promise. I promise. Okay, I recorded that, so I'll use that against you in the court of law. So good. Awesome, Sammy. Great stories. You're a good man. Great FOTM.

And I hope I see you on August 27th. If you're in town man a great FOTM and I hope I see you on August 27 if you're in town buddy yes I I'm sure I'll see it on your socials if I'm around I'll pop in I was gonna say your buddy Cam Gordon's has to be there because he's co-hosting that episode so shout out to Cam

and that and that you want to do the end that and that and that brings us to the end of our 898th show you can follow me on twitter I'm at Toronto Mike Sammy is it at Sammy Cohn K-O-H-N

follow Sammy he's a good man and a great musician our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer McKay's CEO Forums are at McKay's CEO Forums Pal at McKay's CEO Forums. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U.

Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley FH. And Mimico Mike, he's at Majeski Group Homes on Instagram. See you all next week. This podcast is just like mine and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy and green. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls.

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