Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Sean Kelly: Toronto Mike'd #1426

Episode Date: February 11, 2024

In this 1426th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with guitarist Sean Kelly about his years in Crash Kelly and Helix, as well as his years with Nelly Furtado, Lee Aaron, Coney Hatch, Trapper and more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada and Electronic Products Recycling Association. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1426 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. RecycleMyElectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future, means properly recycling our electronics of the past.

The Advantage'd Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada. Valuable perspective for Canadian investors who want to remain knowledgeable, informed, and focused on long-term success. And Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his Toronto Mike debut, his guitar rock on. Is that what it says on your business card?

Sean Kelly, welcome Sean. Thank you Mike, great to be here. I'm on a bit of a Sean kick, but only if Sean is spelled S-E-A-N because I had Sean Barrett on and then I had Sean Burns on to talk about Lost Country and now finally Sean Kelly So thanks for making the trick. Thank you for having me great to be here. I have a IPA from Great Lakes Brewery in my hand. Do you have one as well?

Let's crack these open in front of the mic and let's toast each other to a good rockin episode Okay, Sean's a nice sound and you're gonna enjoy it and you go. Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk. Okay, Sean. That's a nice sound. And you're gonna enjoy it. And you mentioned, and I know you're an East York guy, so that's like home of Troy Burch at Great Lakes Brewery. You probably see his Great Lakes Brewery truck or car or whatever in town.

I do, we do the neighborly wave and everything. So, that's great. I'm thrilled that he's sponsoring the show. So, Great Lakes Brewery turns 37 years old on Monday, and we're going to drop the first episode of their new podcast, Between Two Fermenters, and all listeners of this show should subscribe to that one. And I get to produce that show. So, uh, me and Troy have spent a lot of time this past week together,

putting together episode one, Between Two Fermenters. So you can subscribe to that. I want to shout out a couple of guys that are on the live stream. And when they heard you were coming over, they sent me like detailed show prep. Like, it's like, these guys are just like next level. It's like, it's like Paul McCartney is visiting the basement. I thought this is amazing. Okay. So we're going to learn all about you, but I want to shout out Midtown Gourd.

Do you know Midtown Gourd? Great guy. Sure do. Midtown Gourd, Do you know Midtown Gourd? Great guy. I sure do. Midtown Gourd, who's been telling me literally for years, get Sean Kelly on the program. And I just had to warm up with some lesser Sean's before I got to you. So finally here, there's another guy I'll shout out quickly here on the live stream, Basement Dweller.

Basement Dweller sent me some great notes about you. So I feel like I've got my homework all done for me. Wow. It's the mysterious basement dweller. I don't, I don't know who that is. He likes to remain mysterious. Okay. Okay.

Let's get rocking here with a note from Rob Prus. Oh, Rob, you know, Rob, love Rob. He's a sweetheart, right? Oh yeah. And as talented an individual as you'd ever hope to meet. Okay Well, he's hearing this now and his head's gonna be too big to fit in the basement when he comes over in a couple weeks So slow your roll there. Mr. Kelly. Okay, he goes Sean and I played a Toronto Pride gig with Carole Pope back in 2015 You tell me about this

You played of Carole Pope who's an FOTM as well. That means friend of Toronto Mike and Sean. You're now an FOTM, but Rob Bruce is an FOTM and you guys all played this pride event. Tell me about this. Yes. Well, I've, I've been playing with Carol on and off since 2005 and back then I was playing with her quite a bit. And, um, yes, I, and I know she worked with Rob on one of the albums. I think we're on an album together actually I think we're on This is the bitch one Life's a bitch

It's a different one bitch. That's a god is love. Okay, is that his love? There is it definitely I I want to say something of trees Oh, it'll come I might Google this in a moment But there's a there's a jam I listen to and quite like called Life's a Bitch by Carol Pope. And I think Rob Proust played a role in that one. So, okay, cool. So Carol Pope and you go way back and she's like, I need a guitar rock god for this Pride event. Well, funny, I was actually playing bass on that and I played bass with her because she's got my Toronto guitar hero, Tim Welch, on guitar. And if you have Tim Welch, you don't need another guitar player. Okay, tell me about Tim because I'm like totally just like catching up on all these rock gods that walk amongst us. Tell me about him.

Well, Tim first came to my attention as a guitarist in National Velvet and I was a massive and am a massive National Velvet fan. And I it's funny. I remember going when National Velvet would come to North Bay, where I'm from, and they play at Wilder's. I remember standing outside, I couldn't get in because I was underage, but I could wait for him outside to ask him questions about his guitar rig. And he had such a cool sound. He was such a, you know, had great look and a great player. And it's funny how it worked out years later. He's one of my best friends. We've played together in Carol's band and Rough Trade. He played in my band Crash Kelly

for a bit. And now along with Jerry Finn from the Killer Dwarfs, we're part of a very elite society dedicated to the worship of Ace Fraley and Kiss. Wow. I'm loving this so much. Okay. And I just want to clarify something. Church of Trees is the outfits, the collective or whatever Church of Trees is, but the song was called World's a Bitch. And it was Carol Pope, Rob Proust was involved and I dug it. This is a pandemic release. She's such an amazing artist and Rob, you know, is so gifted and, you know, obviously everything from the work he's done in New York on Broadway to Spoons to Honeymoon Suite. So I was thrilled because I remember seeing Honeymoon Suite when he was in the band at

the North Bay Arts Center and they were doing two shows at the theater and I stayed around, I hid in the bathroom so I could watch the second one. I didn't want to buy another ticket but sorry about that Rob, I probably only had a few bucks there. Rob also, Rob says ask Sean to tell you the story about his last-minute fill-in for Honeymoon Suite. I guess there was a, oh yeah, he says he doesn't, Rob doesn't even remember the details but he wants to hear this story. So with as many details as you can remember you filled in for honeymoon suite at some gig Yeah well I had met Derry and and we had done a little bit of songwriting and I was

Working with them and I actually did co-write a few songs on their hands up album But I got a call I was actually out on tour with my band Trapper with M. Griner. And we were out with Def Leppard. So I'm backstage in London, I think it was last night of the gig on this Def Leppard tour. We were obviously enjoying that, having fun.

And I got a call and it was Derry. And unfortunately, Derry's wife had become ill and he had to leave quickly. He said, dude, we got a gig in Burlington at the arena and I gotta go. Anyway, no rehearsal, but I grew up with those songs and I had an ace in the hole though. My guitar tech in Crash Kelly and someone I'd worked with for years, Damon Enright was guitar teching for them. So I knew he'd have me dialed in, but I used Derry's guitar. I used his amps. Like, I mean, talk about cheeky. That's like using Eddie Van Hamlin's stripe guitar.

I'm using Derry's tread and walking on stage and, but those songs are so in my blood. I just, I could sing those solos. So I, you know, I'm not saying it was perfect, but I probably scraped my knees a few times, but I got in and out pretty quick. And then I ended up subbing in for them for a few dates during the summer. Derry had a big canoe trip with his son.

Okay. And yeah, I did about six or seven shows with him. That was what a thrill. Sounds amazing. Now I understand from my chief researcher, Basement Dweller, that you're trained in classical guitar. Yes, I am at the University of Toronto. Look at you.

You're like more than just a pretty face. Well, I don't know. I'd say I was definitely at the bottom of the rung at the U of T. There are some great players there. But I studied with the great Ellie Kasner, and it was incredible okay wow and you've released some classical guitar albums as well yeah that's because we're gonna talk about a lot of rock and roll on this show and I got clips loaded up and we're gonna get into it but classical

guitar albums you know that's amazing yeah well you know it's amazing what can happen when you have the right haircut all right so to set the stage because we got to walk through this, man. I'm overwhelmed with where I want to go, but OU812, speaking of Eddie Van Halen, okay. Yay, it's about time. This is when I announced on Twitter you were going to come over. Yay, it's about time. I'm guessing you know he's bandmates with Andy Curran in one of a few bands he's in.

I first met him with Carl Dixon when they played at Seneca Casino, when the stage was above the bar. I helped them with carrying stuff back to Carl's van. And then he was at he was in hatch at Taps in the Niagara Falls for springlicious. Great guy, very talented. Oh, well, that's very kind. And yeah, I Carl and I used to do an acoustic thing at the casino. And it was a great gig, amazing. And what was really amazing was Carl Dixon's knowledge of songs. We would play three one-hour sets and never repeat a song. And we would do that over three nights.

So we're talking like hundreds of songs. And he was calling out the... And he goes, you remember this one? I'm going, no, I don't. But it was too late because we'd started it. And it was such an education. Like it was great fun. Okay. And I'm going to read you the note I got

from Midtown Gourd. And again, we can't address all this off the top. We will walk through a lot of this. Like I'm just letting the listenership know that these are like teasers more than anything. But he goes, Sean Kelly, never thought of having him as a guest. Which is a very funny joke

because Midtown Gourd has been telling me to get Sean Kelly, never thought of having him as a guest. Which is a very funny joke because Midtown Gore has been telling me to get Sean Kelly for years. I'd love to hear stories about, and these are the topics we're gonna cover in this. Hopefully you've got a little time here. Crash Kelly, the band and the man, we'll open with that in a moment. Working with Nelly Furtado and FOTM Carol Pope,

we just touched on that actually, Midtown Gourd gourd M groiner, which you mentioned trapper. I've got a trapper jam. We're going to talk about Brian Volmer, who's an FOTM Alan Frew and of course Lee Aaron. So I've got some the Aaron metal on ice. Don't call it here metal and his new upcoming book. I can't wait for new crash Kelly material, new Lee Aaron and to see the gang on my birthday weekend. Look forward to the chat. It could last four hours. Oh, and he also throws it at the end. Midtown Gord wants to make sure we cover it. We need thoughts on new opening for Alice Cooper and you mentioned you open for Def Leppard. He wants to hear more details on that. So

now you know what's in store, Mr. Kelly. Okay. So you comfortable? No problem. How's the beer? I've already told you more than I know. So the beer is great. Beer. Okay. So you comfortable? No problem. How's the beer? I've already told you more than I know. So the beer is great. Beer is great. I've got, and I got Robert Lawson in the bushes outside to fact check everything you say, Sean. So if there's any bullshit,

he's going to come in through the side door. He's going to hop on this third mic and let us know he's the official fact checker of the Toronto mic podcast. Okay. So you're from North Bay. You're going to U of T Ellie Casner. This is a big deal training in classical guitar. So maybe I play a little bit of crash Kelly and we start there. Does that sound cool? Wonderful. Wonderful. Okay. So everybody, there's going to be rock and roll. There's a trigger warning. If you don't want rock and roll, this is not your episode, but let's But let's dive into some Crash Kelly. I hear the smack of your bubble gum chew I see you make a mess out of everything that you do I get a little nervous when I smell your perfume I can taste the trouble when you walk in the room When you touch me, I forget

You're the kind of woman that I wish I'd never met When you touch me, you're all I wanna do And I want you to touch me Alright, I have your consent, I'm gonna touch you now Are you ready, Sean Kelly? Okay, tell me about, okay, where do we start? What is Crash Kelly? Who is Crash Kelly? Bury me in information. Well, I'll start with who is Crash Kelly. Crash Kelly was my uncle Orville, who was

a professional hockey player. He played in the American league for the Hershey Bears and he played in the Eastern Hockey League with the Johnstown Jets with my dad, Dez Kelly. So they were two hockey players and I don't know if you know this but the Johnstown Jets was an inspiration. Let me guess. You got it. Of course. This is a tough league. Well it was like all the stories that you know you've heard are true and it's funny it wasn't my dad who ever told me it was they came down the pipe through other people but but Uncle Orv was a real inspiration he you know he lived life to the fullest he had an adult-sized portion of fun and was a tough hockey player and I thought it was a

nice tribute he had passed fairly recently just before the time of me forming the band. So little tribute to him and it's a cool glam rock name. It's just a cool name. So it's kind of like you know kind of reminds me of Crash Vegas right? You had Crash Vegas going on. You got yeah Crash yeah I dig it. Yeah man it's got it kind of had that glam rock feel and that's what Crash Kelly was. 70s and 80s influenced hard rock. So when do you, so where in your career are you? Like what happens pre Crash Kelly and then what era, where are we when Crash Kelly's formed? Well you know it's funny Crash Kelly came out of my despair because I'd

given up. I'd been in a band that was signed to Aquarius Records. I'd tried, I'd failed. What was the name of that band? It was an artist, I'd been in a band that was signed to Aquarius Records. I'd tried, I'd failed. What was the name of that band? It was an artist. I shouldn't say he failed. His name was Chad Richardson. He made a beautiful album and he was very successful. Went on to star in Rent on Broadway and have an illustrious career as a music

publisher and did all sorts of great things and still does great things. But you know, it was, it was eye opening because I remember working at Tower Records at the time, and I remember pricing that record to go out in the shelves and being so excited, and I also remember putting it back and sending it away, because that was the way it was. What year are we in here? That was 1997.

Okay, post-grunge. Yeah. All right. And it's a beautiful record, by the way. And Chad had won the Q107 Homegrown Contest. He'd had a success, for sure. But in terms of making a living as a guy playing as a side guy to him, I was like, ooh.

You were giving up. You were done. You were gonna just be a teacher. You know what? I said, I'm gonna go to teacher's college. At least I can supply teach to figure this out. And also, the music that I loved had fallen so far out of fashion and the way I'd learned to play guitar and the way I related to the instrument was just the uncoolest thing ever. Like, when I

moved here in 91, there was still a glimmer of hope. There was still a Gasworks, there was still a Rock and Roll Heaven. We had, you know, I found some guys who with long hair who were from New Jersey, which was so exotic to me. And, you know, we had the bass player from the cult, Jamie Stewart, came and saw us and he ended up producing a record. We've had a manager. I said, we're going to be rock stars. Like, this is amazing. And I didn't know that I was uncool. And then I found out when I heard Nirvana, how cool I was. That's it, right? It smells like teen spirit, kills that form of rock, right? Yeah. Like for at least for a period of time. It certainly, it right smells like teen spirit kills that form of rock, right? Yeah, like at least for a period of time It's certainly it certainly felt like things had changed I became very aware that there was something different that I wasn't doing and then and then it was like, you know a series

of I don't know I remember polyester shirts and weird shoes and short haircuts and and and me which I'm grateful for because it actually made me get a bit of diversity in my playing and figure out a way to still be part of the scene. But I definitely said, you know, I'm going to go to teachers college and, you know, take a break. Get a haircut and get a real job. Yeah. Shout out to George Thorogood.

But that freed me, right? Because when you're not worried about paying the bills bills all of a sudden, well, why the hell can I do what I want? And I did, I made a record that I thought sounded like what I didn't have on my shelf, a mix of my favorite seventies glam and eighties hard rock. Yeah. Crash Kelly is a glam rock band and no shame in that

game. And you know, I want to get more details on Crash Kelly, but I'm just going to play one more. I've loaded up a bunch of songs, but one more Crash Kelly jam. ["Crash Kelly Jam"] Smooth on the rocks, you're the drink of a pour And you're a plasticine idol girl you got me adoring

Everything you're doing, everything you wanna be All of me, never were but I stay over Tennessee, I love you! I love you! Tennessee, junkie running short on your leash I can't see! T e l l i c Junkie running short on your leash You take a mile per every inch and now I'm six foot deep

Suffer jet silhouette, I'll follow you around Postmortem state of affairs, I've been keeping you down You think I need another reason to cry And I know you're not hurt for a reason to lie Still I can't understand it while you slip through my hands I don't know what I can do about it, I'm not surprised There's nothing new about it, she gets away and I cannot make this day And I can now make this day, yeah ["I Can Now Make This Day", by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of Us, by The Bunch of So tell me okay, so just for those to be clear for the listenership, so you found this band But also you're the this is your voice. This is your the lead singer of this band. Yeah, you know and like

At that point no one else was stepping up for the job. So I I did it and you sound good Well, thank you boys. Thank you. You know, I will tell you something I played with Gilby Clark from Guns N' Roses for a while. Don't worry, my researchers have a note about this. But we used to say, hey man, we sing pretty bad, pretty good together. It was kind of like, listen, I know I'm not the best singer in the world, but I wanted to move it forward and I just figured out on the fly.

I wish I sang like Dylan, listen. I don't know what I can do about it. I'm not surprised. There's nothing new about it. She gets away and I can now make it stay. I'm making it stay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, man, you got good pipes on you. And then the note I got from, this one's from, I don't gotta give right, man. You got good pipes on you. And then- Bless you.

The note I got from, this one's from, I don't know if I can give right credit, Basement Dweller. His glam rock band, Crash Kelly, worked with Gilby Clark on their 2006 album, Electric Satisfaction. Yeah, man. Yeah, that was, you know, Gilby made an album in 1994 called, Pond Shop Guitars, which was like a Lifeline to me to rock and roll in the midst of music. I really wasn't digging all that much I was like, okay, this guy's still doing it. I maybe maybe there's some hope and

And I love that record so much. I loved his whole aesthetic. So You know when I did this first Crash Kelly record, I produced that along with a guy named Kai Anto. But I knew that down the road I wanted to work with Kelly. I just shot an email out to his manager, you know, it was early days of the internet, I guess, early-ish, and you could still reach out to people on websites and- You can still do it. I guess you can.

The other day, we were having a chat, there's an FOTM group on WhatsApp and we were talking about tears are not enough and there's a there's a verse there by a Alfie Zappa Costa. Okay. I don't know if you've ever bumped into Alfie Zappa Costa out there. He doesn't quite do the glam rock, but he's out there and I had this like just in the moment I kind of Google them a bit and then I I sent him, I found out how to get an email to him and he replied right away.

And anyways, so you can still do this. I mean, you know, the Zappa Costas of the world anyways. What a world. I remember when I was a kid, being up in my cottage and like trying to think how I could possibly connect with Brian Adams. Like, do you think he'll canoe up the lake? Like maybe he'll vacation.

Well, you need to talk to your buddy, Alan Frew, right? they were hanging out in the mid 80s. Yeah man yeah. That's him on Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone that's Bryan Adams right well Jim Valens wrote that song right or co-wrote it. Yeah co-wrote it anyway yeah. So with Jim comes Bryan that's the way it works. Exactly exactly at that stage of the game anyway. So Crash Kelly signs a multi-album deal with liquor and poker music. Yeah. Okay, so tell me a little bit about like, so is Crash Kelly still active? What's the current status of Crash Kelly?

It's funny you mention that. Today, just today... Is this breaking news? It is breaking news. Today we just announced on Rock Paper Merch, where you can go to my Sean Kelly merch store the new crash Kelly record called mixtape volume one will be released on April 5th but you can pre-order it from rock paper merch calm and it's a collection of cover songs of 80s and 70s glam that serves as a playlist for my book don't call it hair metal don't Metal. So this, okay, this is the recent new book. Don't Call It Hair Metal.

Yeah, that's right. And is that out now? It's that one's out now. Okay. So amazing. So you're an author, you're a guitarist, you're a singer. There's a lot of ground to cover here. But when you make that announcement about the new album mixtape, it reminds me of like at the Grammys, when Taylor Swift takes a moment

to let everybody know she's dropping a new album. So it's kind of the same thing. Yeah a little bit. I kind of had that in my back pocket. Well we did that at the end to remind everybody after they if they hadn't heard of you before Sean Kelly, at the end of this they'll be in love with you and say how do I get my mitts on this? They will have had enough. You, it was alluded to earlier, but you opened for Alice Cooper? Yes. So okay, and Black Crows too.

Shout out to Canada Kev who's listening. I saw the Black Crows of Canada Kev a couple of summers ago. But tell me if you don't mind, what is it like working, like he's a great golfer. Did he go golfing with you? What's going on with Alice? Oh, we were told very early on, you can go golfing with Alice if you can golf, but he's good. Do not go if you are not amazing. Like just don't go down that road where you

slow him down. Right. But the offer was there if you were good. But yeah, he's a wonderful guy. That was a highlight, a career highlight. I watched that show every night, front to back. Incredible. He cares. He still cares. I've always liked him. I've always liked Mr. Fernier. Yes. I'll tell you one thing though. There's a transformation that happens with that guy where he goes from nice Uncle Alice to when he's walking on stage. I turned a corner, I think we're in St. Louis, and I turned a corner and he was walking towards the stage and my blood froze and I was like, I'm terrified. Why am I terrified?

He's in character. And it is powerful stuff, man. Powerful stuff. Right. Here's a piece of rock and roll history for you Sean Kelly What does Alice Cooper have in common with Lee Aaron who will talk about later in this podcast? They both worked with Bob Ezra That's actually is that true is that silly? Okay. Well, that's actually another fun fact. I have an additional fun Oh, okay about these two. Yeah, there's another similarity they have. Uh, okay. So both of these artists, Alice Cooper and Lee Aaron, I know where you're going. Yeah. Took the name of their bands. So Alice Cooper was the band and then Alice went solo and kept the name and then Lee Aaron was the band. And then, uh,

Karen took the name and became Lee Aaron. So they both kind of copied the same blueprint there. Yep. Yep. They did. And they both like Sean Kelly. I hope so, I hope so. It's been a while since I saw Alice but you know what they liked best about Crash Kelly? The tournament said we like you guys, we never noticed you're around. And I was like okay that's why we kept getting asked back. Somehow they knew an opening ban had been on and off and they didn't have to deal with it. I love it so much. Okay.

So we have Crash Kelly going Concern touring internationally. You got Alice Cooper and you got, you were Enough's Enough in the UK and in the US, Backyard Babies. I actually have to plead a little bit, don't make fun of me. I'm not even sure I know Backyard Babies. Well they are in Stockholm, a huge thing. In Sweden they're a really big rock band and Dragon the guitarist was a founding member of Helicopter so there was a whole underground rock thing and they're not that underground.

Midtown Gord would know this band right like it's just I'm just... I don't know if they'd be on Gord's radar. Gord let us know if you're in the live chat we We are live at live.torontomike.com. And Gord, let us know if you know, I almost called them billion dollar babies, but they are not billion dollar babies. Shout out to Alice Cooper. They are, what babies are there again?

They're backyard babies. Gord, let us know. Yeah, that was quite the tour. The tour bus that we were on was bigger than most of the venues we ended up laying at. And we saw, we went right across the states, man. It was the full on coast to coast, playing all the dives. And every once in a while, you hit the New Yorks and the LAs

and you get the glamour show with the Troubadour or the Mercury Lounge. And yeah, it was great. It was rock and roll. I got another slice of rock and roll here to talk about a different band, but I want to ask you a quick question about your dietary habits. Do you enjoy Italian food, Sean? Do I ever? Yes, I'm a big fan.

Okay. I have the most delicious lasagna in my freezer right now. Frozen solid. You can take that back to East York and it's from Palma Pasta. You're taking that home with you today. Oh, that is so kind. And I have to tell you, I have sampled the wares from Palma Pasta. You're taking that home with you today. Oh, that is so kind. And I have to tell you, I have sampled the wares of Palma Pasta. Tell me where was this? Did you go to the Mississauga or Oakville location or where did you get this? No, Alan Frew prepared it for us at a band.

We had a little holiday get together for the Alan Frew. You know where he got that from, right? I think he got it from here, right? 100% Alan. Cause I, you know, it's just a fun story. get together for the Allen fruit. You know where he got that from, right? I think he got it from here, right? 100%. Allen, cause I, you know, it's just a fun story. So Allen's been over a couple of times in the past year, but he got, he loved this lasagna from Palma pasta. And it sounds like you got a slice or two

and he got it here. And I mean, this is it. So he's glass tigers getting the rock of fame. Yeah. So this is, there's an event at Massey hall. And for whatever reason, Toronto Mike, that's me, I'm talking about myself and the third person, I get a spot on the red carpet for this event.

Like there's a spot on the red carpet for me to interview people going into the Rock of Fame. And then, so I'm in the elevator to go up to this in Massey Hall, I'm in the elevator and I'm in the elevator of Glass Tiger and Alan's there and I look over and I go, Alan, how's it going? And he looks at me and he goes like this with his finger,

and he says, you're the lasagna guy. Like this is, I'm the lasagna guy. I'm like, yeah, I'm the lasagna guy, you know? So that's a, what a small world story that you got some palma pasta that Alan Fru got on this very podcast. Yeah, man. You know, I gotta tell you, life felt pretty good.

You know, you got this guy that you've listened to, you were a fan of, you paid money to go see and he's serving you up a little lasagna while he pours you a beer and you're in his band. Oh you're part of his 80's? Yeah man. Cause he told me about that last night but tell us about that again. Well we're actually next Saturday, February 17th at the Opera House in Toronto. It's 80 to 90 rewind and it's an amazing show and Alan is just such a world-class singer performer.

I don't have to tell everybody that, they know. And he just makes these songs his own and he is the consummate showman, the consummate party host and yeah man I'm stoked. We got three guitar players on this gig too, which is amazing. Well, you know. Everyone was available, two keyboardists, three guitars. I actually tried to sell them on Rob Proust as an additional keyboardist.

Oh man, Rob, to the man are born, he'd be perfect for that. Romantic, he's got a co-write, Rob Proust has a co-writing credit on romantic traffic. Okay, let's stop right there. Amazing. Amazing. Everything's stop right there. Amazing Everything's amazing. And by the way, you're taking home some more Great Lakes beer with you I don't know if Alan shared his stash with you that I think he did and I'm tearing through this

So I basically catered that event, but I didn't get an invitation. Is that what I'm understanding here? Well, what do you play? I Play on the cassette here. I press play. That's what I do. But okay. What do I play? I could pick cowbell. That was like the early days of background tapes. I guess they had to, they cassette you hope it wouldn't break or no one put tape over or something. I, you know what? I provide the food and drink. I expect an invitation. I'll be reaching out to Alan to voice my concerns here. I would like to hang out with rock stars. You know, I never get to hang out with rock stars unless I'm stuck in an elevator with them and then they have no they can't escape. OK, so I promised you another rock song that's going to introduce a new band

we're going to talk about, but let's listen to this one. Yeah, man. No shortcuts or no quick picks So pay your dues, take your licks If you're looking for a soft, easy ride Listen, motherfucker, better step aside Go hard, I'll go home Take your little, whiny, candy ass and go hard I'll go home Go hard, go hard I'll go home Go hard or go home, Sean. Who are we listening to here?

Dude, this is giving me chills because we are listening to Helix, but it's the guys I saw at the arena. And I got co-wrote this song, dude, with Brian. Like, we wrote this like I got to be in the two bands the first two bands I ever saw I got to play with Honeymoon Sweet and Helix like that's insane and I'm not bragging I am marveling at my luck because yeah when I listen to this I'm so proud of this record Vagabond Bones we wrote a really good record and you know it was great we had two top 30 radio hits on it. Like it was, you know, pretty amazing that that could happen. And that's a testament to Brian Vollmer's writing ability.

He taught me so much and he sounds incredible on this. So I had him on Toronto Mike, I don't know, a few years ago. And he breaks into opera at the end of the chat. He just breaks into opera. Like this man can sing oh yeah he's he's a gifted gifted artist and and an incredible singer and so you played bass with them right i did i i got the gig playing bass i would have washed windows to be in helix you know but i i did and that was my buddy mitch lefoe helped me uh helped me get in there because i bugged valmer for years to be in helix and he'd be like, listen kid, I got a guitar player.

And eventually I wore him down. I went and auditioned and got the gig on bass, but the first thing he told me and he goes, listen, you're not going to play on any records and you won't be doing any songwriting. And the only thing I heard was, I can't wait to write songs with you and we're gonna make a record and I wasn't too subtle about it. Every time we'd be backstage I'd grab a guitar and play some riffs and eventually one caught his ear and that started our writing relationship. That's awesome that you were essentially a member of Helix. For how long were you a member? I was only a member for a few months really.

2009 maybe. Yeah because I got the gig with Nelly Furtado soon after but it started a writing relationship and what's cool about this record I got to co-produce it and play a lot of guitar on it. So on this track it's you know the great Paul Hackman passed away unfortunately unfortunately, but it's me, Darryl Gray, Greg Fritz-Hines on drums, Brent the Dr. Durner on guitar and well, I'm in the band, man. Like that's it. And we're, and on this track, I'm so glad you picked this one. I remember being in the studio with Durner and we're trading guitar

solos and I'm going, am I really going back and forth with Brent Turner playing guitar solos right now? Like, unbelievable. Pinch yourself, Sean, man. You're living the dream. Dude, but this band, the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my career was lead this band, even though the Nellie thing was such a great thing. I'm going to play a little Nellie and I want to talk about that. It's almost like when, you know, Taylor Hawkins was drumming for Alanis Morissette. And then he got the call, like from Dave Grohl and it's like, you want to be in a rock band and he's like, yeah, he had to make that

call and say, Alanis, big fucking deal, but he had to go live that dream or whatever. But what is it like to, okay, well, let's play a little bit of, and I try to pick these songs. So the reason I pick Go Hard, Go Home, I'm trying to pick songs. I could play a classic Helix track that was fucking recorded when you were just learning guitar or something like, but we're going to kick out stuff that you were involved in. So great song, a little change of pace for us here. Don't sell me no pipe dreams

Down a lane in a kaleidoscope Don't sell me no pipe dreams Wanna be the one to spin the wheel I know that we can only give When we have hope But I wanna live Without any ghosts Can't protect me from nothing Can't protect me from nothing

Can't save me from the truth You can't even save me from you So don't sell me no pipe dreams I wanna feel the good environment with you What a nice vibe, man. So what, Nelly Furtado needs a guitar player and she's like, who's good? And they're like, Sean fucking Kelly's good. No, man. It's funny.

Oh man, why isn't that true? Okay, tell me the story. I like that version. But what happened there was my friend Damon, who was a guitar tech for Crash Kelly and Honeymoon Suite, was Nelly's guitar tech. And he, we were gonna go for a beer. So we're still talking, hey man, wanna go for a beer?

Yeah, he goes, dude, do you play a Spanish guitar? And I went, yeah, I play classical. He goes, hold on. And he hung up on me. And next thing you know, I'm getting a phone call from Nelly's music director. And I'm going, what? And listen, I am in Helix, I'm liking my life.

I'm a hard rock guy. I obviously knew who Nelly Furtado was, but I couldn't name yet another song past I'm Like a Bird and Turn Off the Light. I just didn't know it. Right, right. Yeah, those are two big ones. But I said, I don't know if I'm the right guy for this. And Damon, the guitar tech phone guy goes, no, dude, she just did a Spanish album. She needs someone who plays nylon string. And it turned out the guy who was going who was leaving was James

Brian a guy I went to university with So he put in a word for me Damon put in a word for me Dean was willing to try me out But funny Dean Dean was you know in the scene the 80s he goes helix goes hey I don't know if you're the right guy. I said well, I don't know either So I went down and I remember will you cut your hair? I was like, no, I'm not doing that. But I played some classical. I'm surprised they asked you if you cut your hair. Yeah. Well, you know, I think, I think they were just like trying to feel me out, you know, like, like, and he goes, well, maybe I'll sell you like a Jesse Cook guy. I think at one point Nellie

thought maybe I was Jesse Cook. There was some confusion there, but trust me, if you heard me play, you know, I wasn't Jesse Cook. But, uh, you know what trust me, if you heard me play, you know I wasn't Jesse Cook. But you know what? I just went in and it was funny. At first I was just so lost. It was all new to me. They use in-ear monitors, the big production. It was overwhelming.

She's no Helix, right? Well, eventually I had to go a little full Helix on it because I just said, fuck this, give me, sorry, pardon my language. No, you can actually say fuck on this program. We encourage it. Yeah, I said, fuck this, give me a Marshall. And I my language. No, you can actually say fuck on this program. We encourage it. Yeah, I said, fuck this, give me a Marshall, and I turned up the amp and I just played the way I play.

And then the music director goes, oh, you can play. And I'm like, oh, okay, lesson learned, be yourself. So I learned so much though on that gig. I learned a ton, and the biggest lesson I learned was what a great artist she is. She truly is a pure artist who follows her news and it was wonderful. And because you're playing with Nelly Furtado, you get to appear on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in LA.

Dude, we got to do with Conan and I got to do with Leno too. So I got to, and we did Fallon, but he wasn't hosting Tonight Show yet, but we did all that stuff. It was yeah, man You know what? The coolest thing was my dad got to see me shake hands with Ted Danson There are two moments. I think me and all my dad rest in peace Sam Malone himself Where it kicked in for him that this was cool The one was when I got to play the Ryman with Alice Cooper where we opened and he went Johnny Cash played the right

good job and with Alice Cooper where we opened and he went, Johnny Cash played the rhyme. Good job. And the other one, I think seeing, he was very proud of that and I appreciate that. And man, I'll tell you, I don't get too nervous, but I was nervous that day playing. I was like, oh man, the studio gets cold in here. There's a lot of people watching. Oh, am I starting this one?

But I mean, you gotta, you gotta just dive in and go for it. What the hell. Okay. So, so you're with her like for, for years, right? Like, I mean, you're on 2017 released the ride. You're, you're on that. Yeah, man. And, uh, and, and that was such a cool record.

She did that with John Congleton, you know, who produced St. Vincent and, and, uh, you know, which was a a cool record. She did that with John Congleton, you know, who produced St. Vincent and, you know, which was a very different thing. And the band, most of the band, they were American guys, they were guys from Dallas, and she brought me in to play guitar. And yeah, it was cool. And I have some great memories. I'm really proud to be on that record.

It was a record that she put out independently and it kind of just went under the radar but I listened to it and I think it's just got a lot of depth and a lot of really interesting things and I'm really proud to be part of that. What is she like Nelly Furtado? Lovely. I mean she's I really think she's a pure heart you know and and she she knows what she wants. She's a she's a great boss because she knows what she wants. There's no fooling around, but at the same time, she encourages you to be you and to bring your best ideas forward. And, and, um, she really is tireless when she's in the creative mode. I like, we, I remember once we were in, in LA and I just get this call, dude, there's gonna be a car out front,

we're going to Santa Monica, we're going to the studio. And she wants to do a full acoustic version of the Spirit Indestructible album. And we did, like we went in and Tom Pannuzio, guy who's worked, Vice President of Geffen Records, he's produced like, worked with like Deep Purple and Black Sabbath and like you know Tom Petty all these he's in there and I haven't even heard the whole album yet. I had to sign a waiver saying

like you know you know you won't do this you won't I was like yeah and they play me the record I make charts and we just go in and play acoustically and cut that whole record. And that whole record never came out, but like the B it would come out on B sides. I found it in Germany on CD singles and stuff, but just she sang all night and we had to be do Leno the next day and they had to pull her away from the studio because she was just in that creative mode. She's amazing. Okay. I root for her primarily because she is Canadian. So I root for the Canadian, the Canadian artists. I'm glad to hear that she's a sounds like primarily because she is Canadian. So I root for the Canadian the Canadian artists Yeah, I'm glad to hear that. She's a sounds like a nice nice woman. So a good human being good to hear good to hear now

I'm I need to ask you exactly what this is. I apologize. I didn't actually have a chance to to read the book But but tell us about metal on ice That was my attempt to tell the story of bands I felt never got their due in the overall history of rock and roll in this country. See, I would do an episode, I would have you back and just do an episode on like, I kind of did this with Sean Burns, we talked about lost country in this country. Country in this country sounds weird to say, but the country music that has been forgotten or underappreciated in this country and he focuses on that. I would do an episode on the hard rock and heavy metal unsung heroes in this country that are overlooked.

Totally, man. And they're real pioneers too, like a band like Helix and the inroads they made in the US, you know, or Coney Hatch, you know, same thing. Well, when I ask you about Coney Hatch, but we'll get back to Coney Hatch, but just continue. So I wanted to- Andy Curren's an FOTM, so we got to talk about Coney Hatch. Yeah, I was just talking, Andy. You know, basically Metal on Ice was me trying to tell the story of bands that I never got a chance to read about in Canadian music history books. I just, they get lost over. Helix for example, was all over Toronto Rocks

because I grew up, you're only a year older than me. Give me an R. Like we were here in, Helix was like on high rotation on Toronto Rocks. Yeah. And I would tune in and see JD Roberts doing Toronto Rocks. So not exactly like, overlooked. Are you talking about overlooked

outside of this country? I'm talking about overlooked culturally in terms of like in the history book. If you read a history book you'll see and there was also Honeymoon Sweet and Helix. Right. Well no. Those bands sold hundreds of thousands of records, millions around the world. They were selling it, you know, playing arenas and you don't they don't get the same kind of respect. They don't get the flowers that they, you're right. Can you name check a couple more Canadian artists that you write about in metal and ice? I find this fascinating. Yeah. Well, like, I mean, Lee Aaron was one kick-axe, uh, white wolf. Uh,

like these are bands that would come through town, right? And white wolf was on RCA records. Can we talk about like, like, like slick toxic? Yeah, we definitely can talk about slick. I think slick toxic, that debut slick toxic record is one of the great hard rock records of all time for me. And I got to be in a band with Nick, Nick Walsh actually the singer. We were in a band called Revolver together.

And Killer Dwarfs you were talking about earlier. Yeah, Killer Dwarfs. There's another one, right? Yeah, man, the dwarfs. I mean, you know. Pepsi Power Hour, man, I would tune in. Yeah, and the Thrash Bands, there's Sacrifice,, man. I would tune in. Yeah. And the thrash bands are sacrifice. There's razor. There's exciter. You know, there's so many great, great Canadian bands, you know,

like you come back in the summer and kick out 10 songs by, uh, can get Canadian hard rock and heavy metal artists that never got their due flowers. Oh yeah. Yeah. This is a commitment. You'll get another lasagna and you'll get more beer. Big house. Let's just make the whole episode about big house. The big house EP I bought. I'm ready to be educated because I don't remember big house. Oh man. They wrote the best, I think the best Canadian heart rock song of all time, dollar in my pocket. And Moberg would agree with me, I think. And I love Moberg and I trust the man's opinion on these. Yeah, love this guy. Okay, Metal on Ice is not only a book from 2013, but you also put together a seven song tribute EP

that accompanies this book. Yeah, I was working at Coalition Music at the time, which is a management company that manages Simple Plan and Our Lady Peace and Finger Eleven. And the two founders, Eric and Rob, Eric Lawrence and Rob Lanny, they were saying, they got wind that I was writing this book and they said, oh man, we should do something around this.

Cause they, you know, they grew up with that stuff too. And this is related to Ernie, of course. Yeah, that's Arnold's brother, Rob. Of course, of course. I knew he had a big role in the Our Lady piece, origin story. Okay, go on. Yeah, so I was working in another division,

artist, entrepreneur, artist development program, but I would do some music directing for them or do some jobs for them. And so this came up and they came on board and you know, we put out a record through Coalition Records and Warner Music and we ended up putting on a show and doing a big pledge music campaign. You know, I owe those guys a lot for having some belief in that project and they felt the same way that those bands deserved their due. And I think we honored them. We did a big Canadian Music Week showcase. It was wonderful. Okay. Tell me a bit, because I got a note, of course, we all know you, you know,

you're lead guitarist for Coney Hatch. So let's talk about that. I just want to read a note that came in from Basement Dweller. He says, currently serves uh, currently serves, serves as a lead guitarist for FOTM's Lee Aaron. We'll get to that later. And Coney Hatch and with bassist and vocalist, Andy Curran, having been a past guest, speaking of Coney Hatch, Carl Dixon, who is in his prime could vocally go head to toe with the incomparable Lou Graham has an awesome backstory and would make a great FOTM. So this is all to say, Basement Dweller, I promise I will reach out to Carl Dixon and ask him if he wants to chat because I'm sold much like Midtown Gord sold me on having Sean Kelly on as a guest and I'm glad I did. And we're just warming up here. But

what can you tell us about playing with Coney Hatch? Oh, it's amazing. To me, that's like being in primary Finn Lizzie or UFO. It's a force of nature. You've got these two dichotomous but totally complimentary lead singers, you got Carl Dixon, who's this, you know, incredible melodic, anthemic, emotionally connected, AOR vocalist vibe. You got Andy Kerns, got this angular Robin Zander, cheap trick, art rock vibe, and together that combination of songwriting acumen and both of them world-class vocalists, they're both great players. Carl's an amazing guitar player. Andy's

great bass player. He got Dave Thumper catching him on drums. To me, that fills such a musical, satisfies such a big part of my musical yearning being in that band. We just played in Oakville, and it was funny because we were like, oh man, we're playing we're playing a theater. It seems you know, like you know, we're used to playing and you know, kind of festivals or rock club, but but playing with that band in the theater where you could actually hear everything. Unbelievable man. And you know, I grew up with the hatch, you know, I was a fan and I get a chance to play the parts of the great Steve Schelsky like incredibly innovative guitar

player and I tried my best to honor them while still being me. Amazing. Okay. I want to ask you about 69 Duster. Tell me, because your guitarist for 69 Duster, which is kind of like a supergroup, right? Well, you know, that was a band. I met Dale Martindale from Images in Vogue back in the early 90s and it's funny, I heard him singing. I was in an apartment, I was living on Markham Avenue, I was living in an apartment with a couple of guys. Oh, and you're Honest Eds? Is that in your own? Yeah, yeah. I was in an apartment, I was living on Markham Avenue, I was living in an apartment with a couple of guys. Oh, and you're Honest Eds? Is that in your house?

Yeah, yeah. Of course, yeah. And I hear this voice, it sounds like Bowie or, you know, guy from the psychedelic furs or something. Like, it's like, what is that sound? I went up and knocked on the door and he was writing songs with another guy. And I said, oh, I'm gonna take your singer. And I weaseled my way in there.

And anyway, we started writing and put a band together called 69 Duster. We ended up moving out to Vancouver and kind of wrote a bunch of songs out there and realized the music industry was back in Toronto. So we moved back and yeah, put out a couple of records. Dale is amazing. We actually had just before the pandemic, we had an amazing Dale sings Bowie, David Bowie tribute. And that thing was just taken off and that pandemic kind of stopped it. But Dale's a dear friend, killing it with images and Vogue and incredible.

Now the David Bowie reference is an amazing segue for me to talk to you about Trapper, but I'm actually going to close with Trapper. So this is a teaser. What does David Bowie have to do with Trapper? Keep tuned in. You're going to find out later. That's what they do on radio. They're always back selling like a so yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's such bullshit for a podcast to do that, but I'm doing it. It did anyways. Hey, I want to let you know, Sean, that there is another podcast that you should subscribe to. It's from Raymond James Canada, and it's called The Advantage Investor. And it's hosted by a great FOTM named Chris Cooksey. Whether you already work with a trusted financial advisor or currently manage your own investment

plans, The Advantage Investor provides the engaging wealth management information you value as you pursue your most important goals. So you've got a lot of stuff you got to do. Yeah. Between a lot of home mentors, you got to subscribe to the advantage investor. There's life's undertaking hosted by Brad Jones, who's the funeral director at Ridley Funeral Home. And he sent over a measuring tape for you, Sean, take this home with you with the lasagna and the beer measure what you wish. It's none of my business, but that's courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home, Pillars of the Community since 1921. Thank you.

And when you die, I expect to see you over there. Just kidding. You're only a year older than me. I'm going first. Don't worry here. Okay. So one last shout out, which is recyclemyelectronics.ca. If you, Sean, I know, cause you're, you probably have a drawer full of old cables or old electronics that don't work.

Am I right? Yeah, yeah, I'm listening to this. Multiple drawers. Okay. Don't, don't you dare. I feel like I'm going to do a macho man. Randy Savage got a promo. Don't you dare throw that in the garbage. The chemicals end up in our landfill. Go to recycle my electronics dot CA and put in your poster code and the good people at EPRA have accredited a place near you where you drop that off and it's properly recycled so that it's funny because the the album you made of Carole Pope was landfall right mm-hmm well the landfill

will not have the bad chemicals that's right that's right like my electronics dot CA okay a few places I want to go with you Sean how is this going for you will not have the bad chemicals that's right to recycle my electronics dot see a okay few places I want to go with you Sean how is this going for you so far lovely I'm having a great time by the way Jake the snake I forgot to shout out Jake the snake when we were talking about helix he's a from the hammer he loves all things Hamilton he's a huge helix fan he wrote me to say I'd be interested in hearing how Sean Kelly got hooked into Helix and how he convinced the members to record the unplugged album and I love the metal on ice book exclamation mark so I'm gonna I know

we've done the Helix portion but let's revisit Helix and make Jake the Snakes day how did you convince them to do the unplugged album? Well because hearing them sing, hearing Darryl and Brent and Brian harmonize together, I was like, these songs are strong, your vocals are strong. I said, guys, we got to do an acoustic record. So I got to co-produce that along with a very gifted young producer named Aaron Murray and Brian. And that was so much fun, man. Like, you know, Caleb Duck, who was a young guitarist at the time playing with them, he did an amazing job.

And we all went in, Caleb, Brent, I played guitar, played some banjo, Darrell and Brian and Fritz. And we went in and we played it live, man. And that record ended up coming out on a major label. Which- And this is called Smash Hits, right? Smash Hits, unplugged. Right. And you know, like for that to come up and it came out on EMI, which was capital records basically, right?

So it was full circle. Like I'm telling you that the stars lined up my rock and roll dream kind of, it worked in patchwork. It did. It wasn't a linear shot, but it all kind of came full circle. And this also speaks to the fact that when you leave Helix for Nelly Furtado, like how amicable that is. Like I actually pulled a quote.

There's a quote here from Brian Vollmer, F-O-T-M Brian, I give Sean my blessings, no worries. As long as we continue to write together, I am happy. And evidence that everything's super cool is that you come back to co-produce and play on the Smash Hits Unplugged release. Yeah, I remember going from Nelly rehearsals down at the old Sony sound stage and driving to London and just throwing an acoustic guitar on and jumping into that session. And yeah, like we, you know what? He was so supportive and he understood that was an opportunity I needed to take and and you know we still talk all the time and and we've we've continued to write you know I was even

on their most recent one of their most recent singles not my circus he just wants you to keep writing with him for sure now let's get to the metal queen shall we? You know this song it's called metal queen! She'll bring you under, she moves without a sound She holds her power like no other man I want your arms, got to rebuke it Ride, electric storm So get him sick and you've got to get on Metal Queen Come on! Battle Queen Like she's so

Battle Queen Take control She come to see her move across the stage One single motion turns them to rage And this is you, you on lead guitar here. Yeah, just me and 20,000 of our closest German friends. So you know, I love the live cut and I pulled this simply because of course, this is from Power Soul Rock and Roll, Live Live in Germany which came out in 2019 and one of the Lee Aaron albums that features Sean fucking Kelly on lead

guitar. Cheers man. Wow. That was a great show that was so much fun and 20,000 people there. Yeah man it was a bang your head festival and it was heads were banged heads were banged. I can imagine. Yeah. That, that live record, some of the show, a good portion of the show comes from a club show we did in Nuremberg. But then we had a few of the big, the big numbers we actually took from the big, you know, the big rock show, right? And, and man, that's, that's her singing live man. She's another one just like Brian Balmer. You know, Lee Erin has a fantastic voice and she's done those

jazz standards and all the jazz stuff. Like she's just a bona fide, a great singer. Yep. Yeah. Great producer, great writer, great singer, like just a true musician. And when I listen to that, like you can hear me squonking along, but I hear the great background vocals of Dave Reimer, the bass player, and Kevin Todd Sainte who was playing keys and rhythm guitar with us. And let me hear a bit more here. That's live all right. You know I wish I could play guitar is it too late for me? Pushing 50 is it too late for me? Pushing 50? Is it too late for me? No, man, you only can be half my career. I've been playing three songs.

Three chords, I should say. Three chords. Right, right. Okay, so how do you hook up with LeAaron? Through the Metal on Ice book. I, you know, I remember sitting around with the guys at coalition going, Do you think LeAaron would be interviewed? And I reached out and here's my you think LeAaron would be interviewed? And I reached out and my, here's my in with LeAaron. I sent her a video I did with Nelly Furtado where we recorded at the old Camden Pallee in Camden town in London. And I knew that LeAaron had recorded a concert video. So I said, look, look how much we have in common. Well, that know. Well, that'll do it. Yeah. Anyway.

Well, she's a sweetheart anyway. She is. And you know, but you know, she gets tons of requests all the time. Right. She said yes to me. OK, she better say fucking yes to Sean Kelly. Hey, man, who wouldn't say yes to you? But she.

We want the list or you want me to give it to her later. But anyway, she agreed and gave a great interview. And then when this, the album project came up, to my great surprise, she said she'd be into it. And I ended up flying, I had a workshop I was doing in Vancouver. So we cut her vocal together in the studio and worked together. And we found out, I remember we were talking and then she turned around, she goes, you're a geek. And I went, yeah. She goes, oh, it's good. I'm a geek too. Because we realized how much we loved being in the studio

making music. There was no trying to be cooler than school. No, if I may, it's better to be a nerd than a geek, OK? Because nerds are smart. Yeah, yeah. She made no intimation that I was smart. She just thought I was a geek. Wow. But that was was it and then an opera

Like how cool is that donkey shin because because we. Cause we're in Germany. Of course. No, well done. Well done. And you new album, new Lee Aaron album coming. Yeah. New album, a tattoo me and it's all covers. Yeah. Okay. And I can't wait for people to hear the cover, the song she's taken on and what she's done with them. Okay. So watch out Dolly Parton. Lee Aaron's here. Oh yeah. Man. Dolly just had an album where it's all like rock

and roll covers or whatever. And watch it. LeAaron is a rock and roll Dolly Parton, man. You might be, no, listen, you're preaching to the choir on this one. I'm a big LeAaron fan. She has an FOTM. And if she wants to come in and talk about the new

covers album, time, cause she actually zoomed in from BC. I need to get LeAaron in the basement. You think she'd ever say yes to a trip to the basement here? Well, you know what? Maybe we'll have to find another gig in Toronto. We played at the El Macombo a couple of years ago. That was amazing. And yeah, man, we're actually playing at Ed Souza's Rock and Bowl in May, the May long weekend. So I don't know. We'll work on it. And like literally, because I hear from lots of artists about the Ed Souza rock and bowl. Like it's literally a bowling alley, right? So you just play a bowling alley.

Yeah. And it's amazing. It's I got, I got to play with Harlequin once and I had Carol Pope and with Dale Martindale's Bowie thing. I love it. He's getting all his favorite bands and stuff to play his bowling alley. Like that's a, he's a curator man. Ed Souza is on it. And you know what? He curates it. He's got a great spirit for it. He does it for the right reasons. There's this wonderful charitable element to it all. And you know what the best thing is? It's the friendship of the people who come and support that. Like you look out in the crowd and you know everybody. How wonderful is that? And okay, I threatened to close with some

trappers. So before we get there, don't call it hair metal art in the excess of 80s rock. This one came out last year, right? Yes, it came out. Yeah. In 20, 23. Yeah. Okay. So you're the new one that you just teased earlier. That's your third book. Yes. I don't think I've read three books. I'm impressed, Sean. So tell us, so this is your memoir? Well, the one from last year. Don't call it Here Metal. You know what?

I realized, I guess I must be a narcissist. It all ends up about me. It's all about me at the end of the day. But you know what? That's the prism through which I listen, right? Because it meant so much to my whole life. I can't separate it from my experiences. And I got bad it from my experiences.

And I got bad news from my publisher. The new one's going to be like that too. It's going down that road. Sorry, Michael Holmes. I'll talk to you about it later. But you know what? That's the way it goes. Any relation to Mark Holmes there from platinum blonde? Oh, probably spiritually or something, but it doesn't really matter. Well done. I think I opened this episode early in well done. I'm here all week folks. I think I opened this episode early in this episode. You might be at this rate.

Okay. So tears are not enough. I revisited it and then I'm like, I want some Zappa cost in my life. And then I also had the same thing with Liberty silver. I'm like, I want Liberty silver in the basement. So we're working on that. Okay.

But who are we, who did you just, who are we just talking about? Oh my God, just left my head. I was going somewhere just, uh, who are we just talking about? Oh my God. Just left my head. I was going somewhere of tears are not enough. And what was the, what did you just say before I interrupted with the tears are not enough? This is terrible.

I got to go back and play the fucking tape. So is it all platinum blonde? Oh yeah, that's what it is. Thank you. You were talking about Mark Holmes and platinum blonde. Okay. Michael Holmes, my editor. Yeah.

Your editor is not Mark Holmes, but Mark Holmes from platinum blind arrives at this. This is again, where we leave your egos at the door. This is a, uh, song to raise funds to feed hungry people in Africa. Okay. And Mark Holmes arrives in a limousine, a stretch limo. Like, isn't that a boy? I know. Every even Neil Young and then they're all like in Jane, Johnny Mitchell. They all arrive in a taxi cab or whatever. And then the stretch limo shows up and mark holmes gets out. So that's platinum blind in the eighties. Love it. Okay, so let's play a little bit

of this trapper song and then let's talk about FOTM M Griner and then we'll learn why the hell what the hell does david boy have to do it at all. Here we go. Yeah Deep beneath the lakeside pines Up the road from where Dudley died There's a place where hell's hard to see Dressed up in the surf and the sand And mode of Lexa Dance And I've been to Avenger Attack Life was tough then it went down Going on a grand bender till I get found On the strip, gotta let you live So I pulled Grand Bender for a reason, which is that I've got four kids and all four to

a tee are madly in love when I take them camping at the Pinery, which is like right beside Grand Bend, Ontario, there on Lake Huron. And it was, you have to book six months out. So I've got my orders to book another week for the youngest two. And if any of the older two want to join us, but yeah, I know, I know Grand Bend, I'm a Grand Bender.

What can you, tell us about Trapper. Well, Trapper, I thank Twitter for Trapper because I forget how it happened but somehow Em made a connection. Oh, I had tweeted, I heard this song called North that was on one of Em's solo records on CBC and it just brought me back to being in Northern Ontario growing up. And I just tweeted it out. I said, I just heard the most beautiful song in CBC and she wrote back she goes I've got to be friends

with the guy who plays with Helix and Nelly Furtado. Right. So we made this it was something like that so we made this connection and just started talking and then found out we have this mutual love of 80s rock and this song actually has its genesis in Singapore. I was in Singapore with Nelly Furtado and I was sending, I had my little rig in my hotel room and I was sending ideas and this was the one that stuck with her and I remember getting an early demo version of the melody she put on top of this riff and I was like oh this is great and this one said, hey, you know what we'll do?

We'll go make a, we'll record a cassette. We're gonna make a single. And we did, and we sold like 200 of them like that through Maple Music. You know, when they still had music at Universal Music or physical product, I don't know. Anyway, we went up and I remember like, oh, there's something here, right?

And then Def Leppard was coming through town. I said, oh, I knew she knew those guys, right? And after the Bowie thing, and anyway, long story short, I said, I want it to be funny if we went on tour with them. She goes, well, let me phone Joe. Wow. And she phoned Joe, and then we had to figure out how to throw a band together, and we did.

And we lived out the ultimate teenage rock and roll fantasy together. And this is wild. Incredible. So let's just, for those who don't know, M. Griner literally sang in David Bowie's band for a period of time. Like keywords too?

Yeah, so yeah. And it's not interesting. It's kind of interesting that when M. Griner came over, so M. Griner also wrote a song for my dear friend who was dying of cancer. And she wrote this beautiful song and then so she came over and we closed the episode with this song called The Waiting Room. And basically, like literally, I think two or three days after M's visit, David Bowie passed away. And yeah, so we were kind of talking about that coincidence because we talked quite a bit about David Bowie.

But so so M Griner, I'm a big fan of M Griner. I love I just digger. And you guys are trapper. But essentially, this is Sean Kelly and M Griner. And then you add other parts for live live performances. Well, out of trapper, so many beautiful things happen like so many great things happen like she brought her brother Frank and who eventually who initially was you know, he's he's a world beautiful things happen, like so many great things happen. Like she brought her brother, Frank, in to eventually, who initially was, you know, he's, he's a world famous mixer,

engineer, producer. So he was going to mix it, but he ended up playing guitar in the band. And I brought my friend, Tim Timlick from who played with Carol and, and, and crash Kelly and bunch of other bands. But through that, Frank ended up making videos for deaf leopard, which turned into videos for Def Leppard, which turned into videos for Alice Cooper,

which turned into videos for Mariah Carey, Ian Hunter. Like, this whole other thing happened. You know, Em is married to Michael Holmes, who is the editor of my books. Like, you know, like, like this synergy of good things happen because of and we and listen, M Frank and Mike and I, we can still get together and just riff on hair metal puns forever. And the depth of it is stunning. It's still my fantasy that we have this podcast, where we just literally throw winger down on the table and go. Every time I hear winger,

I think of Beavis and Butthead because the loser kid always had the winger when yes Stewart always had Spencer or whatever his name was okay so beavers and butthead because this is a throwback to the 90s and you heard it on much music but I have discovered on a free app called and it's not a paid ad they didn't give me any money but Pluto TV oh I just. Okay, so you go to Pluto So it's free. They do drop ads in periodically. That's the let's that's because it's free and You can watch and I've been doing this like I watch Beavis and butthead and the episodes are there completely and of course all the videos there's an R lady piece video and there's a

Pursuit of happiness video and a bunch of these. Yeah, so you get the whole intact Video part, which I just love it when they watch the videos and comment on it a pursuit of happiness video and a bunch of these. Yeah. So you get the whole intact video part, which I just love it when they watch the videos and comment on it. Like I just fucking love it, but I always loved Beavis and butthead and I'm kind of revisiting it all lately with this Pluto app. So anyway, unpaid ad for me where you can watch Beavis and butthead and if you prefer nine oh two and oh, that's there too. But all about the Beavis and butthead there. Yeah, there you go. So and trapper is a kind of an eighties hard rock throwback band. When like is

there any more trapper coming? No, that's a one off twenty because that was twenty sixteen. Yeah, we made we made an e p c d to sell at the arena shows with deaf leopard and then we made one final cassette, Tales from the Electric North or Songs from the Electric North and that's it because M is doing such an amazing job. She's got her solo stuff, her coaching, but you know the reward of all of that was the friendship. And it got opened for Def Leppard. Yeah. What was that like like? It was everything you wanted to be. Like it was just unbelievable. But I'll tell you, the one thing that saved our bacon, you know, look, we've all been to a show is when the opening act, you're waiting for the headliner, you know, the best you're

hoping for is polite applause. But we had an ace in the hole. I can't remember who suggested, I think Sass Jordan suggested to Em, we said, what's a good French cover we could play? And she suggested a song called Illegal by the band Corbeau. And you know, our first three songs, boom boom, golf clap, you know? But we kick into this song, Illegal, which we ended up recording on the songs from Electric North EP. Dun dun! The minute we played the riff, the arena erupts! And I'm not joking, dude. Like, it erupts.

And I've got a bootleg recording of that, which I listen to when I feel bad about myself. When do you feel bad about yourself? Oh yeah, more often than I care to admit. But anyway, I got an ego room I go down to too where I look at pictures of my past glores but anyway that's that's an embarrassing thing. I played with helix for fuck's sake. I was in helix it says so right in that picture. Carol pope considers me a friend that's what I was saying you know I made carol pope creamer fucking jeans. I wouldn't go that far but uh but I definitely it's true definitely well like know, that was the thing that saved, and I remember,

like I think, I'm pretty sure Joe Elliott came in like, do you guys have a hit song or something? Like we never heard an opening band get that before. It was great. So, you know, funny, it didn't go over as well in London, Ontario when we played the French song. But anyway. I love, let's get you a political here. Okay, so I'm just I'm gonna walk through because we're winding down You've been amazing Sean I just realized we took the photo before the recording because there was a little bit of light left and now it's pitch dark So I never recorded a Saturday night, but this was great fun. I'm enjoying my Great Lakes beer. We're playing rock and roll We're talking about these great stories. So midtown Gordon, I'm gonna walk through to make sure we covered all these bases

Okay, so he said he'd love to hear stories about crash Kelly, the band and the man check, right? We did that. Okay. Working with Nellie Furtado, check and FOTM Carol Pope check. Why is it Nellie Furtado and FOTM? Let me, let me talk to her manager. Okay. I got you on that. M. Griner who's an FOTM check Brian Balmer who's an FOTM check. Alan Frew. We talked about that. I got you on that. M. Griner, who's an FOTM check. Brian Vollmer, who's an FOTM check. Alan Frew, we talked about that. He got you the Palma pasta check. And of course, FOTM Lee Aaron.

Okay. Check. Metal on Ice. We talked about that. Check. Don't call it hair metal. Check. His new upcoming book. So remind us again, the name, what it's about

and when it's available. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you the working title. I don't know if I'm supposed to or not, but. Just do it. Yeah, I'm gonna do it. Be a rebel. Yeah Battle Axes. Battle Axes hopefully that name sticks. It's about pointy guitars it says like a love letter to the pointy guitars that I still covet and will do anything to obtain my precious you know like I need I need those pointing guitars in fact yesterday I got another one my signature model guitar by Godfrey guitars less Godfrey it is so pink it hurts your eyes but that's the right color of pink okay no

there's I would accept no other shade of pink to be honest with you okay so that's coming what when's that coming we're looking at 2025 so just for some reason I thought it was sooner than that. Okay, but 2025, Battle Actors. I gotta write it. Right now I'm just... You haven't written it yet. No, right now I'm just reading books about pointing guitars and buying them.

But that's research. Well, you know what? You can always collaborate with Sean, the other Sean, Sean Barrett. Oh, he's amazing. He wrote the guitar book. I'm so honored to be in his book and I love his book. He... Sean's such a great guy.

Well, you're a North Bay guy. He's a Sudbury guy, right? He's from the big city. Okay, that's Sudbury. Yeah, that's right. Just taking a note over here. All right, love it, love it up there. Okay, hold on.

We're back to Gord here. This is important. I do not, listen, I live my life not to disappoint Midtown Gord. I'm kind of afraid of him. I'll be honest with you. Okay, so can't wait for new Crash Kelly material. When's the new crash Kelly coming out April 5th but available for preorder on rock paper. That's the one that's coming

soon. Yeah, but that's twenty twenty four. Okay, newly Aaron April twenty six worldwide on vinyl CD and digital via metal bill records and he says he's gonna see Lee Aaron on his birthday weekend. So when is this show? When is the birthday weekend? When's his Lee Aaron performance? He his birthday weekend. So when is this show? When is the birthday weekend? When's his Lee Aaron performance? He's gonna be oh, is it me it made 24th or 25th on at? Ed Susa's the Rock and Boy right now. Okay interesting venue man. I gotta talk to this Ed Susa guy I gotta get him over here. Yeah with honeymoon Sweden Street art gonna be a great great night Wow Okay, you know in Toronto did I feel like that's a West coast thing.

Street Art, like they weren't as big here, right? I know you're from North Bay, but. Yeah, they, like I was familiar, but you know, it was mostly like cover of- They're much bigger in West coast. Oh yeah, yeah, definitely. Oh, the Rolling Stones cover. Prairies. Yeah, that is right.

That's right. With Spider Sunnee, basal. Cause I remember someone from Street Art passed away and then I kind of dove in down the rabbit hole. Yeah, Kenny. Yeah, Kenny, to learn more. And I realized like what a blind spot Street Heart is to me and somebody said Oh, yeah, they were much bigger out west like they just weren't big. Yeah, Prairies and...

Like Q107 didn't play it. It was tough for me to see it unless it got played on the Pepsi Power Hour. Yeah, yeah, same. Yeah, what was the... North Bay would have played that that under my thumb. I remember. Yeah, yeah, that's yeah. Snow White too would have been played a little bit Oh, I know what kind of love is this you you know, what kind of love is I might if I played it I might know okay

So we we satisfied Midtown Gourd because we talked about Alice Cooper and Def Leppard as well now Basement Weller has one more song for you on our way out here He's and you can think about it some of that Great Lakes and let's hear what you say He says he wants to know what earth what are your three favorite? some of that Great Lakes and let's hear what you say. He says he wants to know what are your three favorite obscure hair metal hard rock songs from the eighties or early nineties. So do you want to shout out like three metal slash hard rock songs from the eighties or early nineties that are more up? It doesn't mean it doesn't mean they have to be songs I've never heard of just songs that are under the radar. Okay, well, I'll start with that big house song dollar in my pocket. Okay. Um, let's go to

um It's funny one by a band considered a hard rock band, but it's not a hard rock song It's called one for rock and roll by cinderella. That means I like the uh, Bad seamstress blues. Oh, yeah I had a skip in my record my copy copy of Long Cold Winter had a skip. So I learned it wrong. Oh, I missed like two. I didn't learn it at all. So feel bad. I remember trying to learn it when I was a kid and then years later I was like, Oh, I like it. It has that kind of bluesy kind of it's slow and then it's falling apart the seams and it gets harder. I

just always like dug that as a looking on back when I was young. I tried to sing it by my songs. But song. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well well who was the third one so that's two great ones so that's two great ones and I mean there's so many but let's go with um oh man obscure what's obscure I mean oh geez oh geez let's go Svengali under the influence let's keep it Canadian. Okay. Is there any ground we didn't cover that you're like, I'm not leaving this, although I'm going to get you back to do that obscure, the like, give them their flowers episode

of Canadian hard rock and metal. But any subject that you, any story you wanted to tell and that you'll be driving home going, damn it, I didn't get to tell that story. No, man, I think we covered a lot of ground. Look, I hope you live another 50 years, but when you die, I just want you to know, this will be the episode people go to

to learn about Sean Kelly. It's all in this episode. All the best parts, thanks to you. Ha ha ha. And that brings us to the end of our 1426th show. You can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky. I'm at Toronto Mike. You're at Sean Kelly guitar. Am I right? Yeah at Sean Kelly guitar on my socials. Yeah. Follow Sean Kelly. He's got a lot going on man. He's got a lot going on, man.

He's got a lot going on here. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery. Don't forget to bring your beer home with you there, Sean. Palma Pasta, I've got the lasagna in the freezer. Don't leave without it. Recycle My Electronics. Raymond James Canada.

And of course, Ridley Funeral Home. You've got the measuring tape there. See you all Monday when we're diving deep into the history of Teenage Head. Were you a Teenage Head band? We covered, Crash Kelly covered Disgusting. We recorded it live in England. I'm a huge fan.

Okay, Dave Rave dropping by the studio on Monday. And we're gonna just talk teenage head. Can't wait for that. That's happening Monday. Long overdue, much like this episode of Sean Kelly. Thanks for doing this, buddy. See you all with a new episode Monday. It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears.

And I don't know what the future can hold or will do for me and you But I'm a much better man for having known you Oh, you know that's true because Everything is coming up rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold with the smell of snow, it warms me today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away.

Because everything is rolling in.