Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Stephen Stohn: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1593

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

In this 1593rd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Order of Canada recipient Stephen Stohn about writing songs with Christopher Ward, marrying Linda Schuyler, his work with Degrassi, and the dream that led to Opus 42 Ode to Summer. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Yes We Are Open podcast from Moneris and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1593 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. Season 7 of Yes We Are Open, an award-winning podcast from Monaris, hosted by FOTM Al Gregor, RecycleMyElectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past, and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community

since 1921. Joining me today, making his Toronto Mike debut, is Order of Canada recipient, Stephen Stone. Welcome, Stephen. Mike, I'm delighted to be here and what a great little studio this is. I don't know whether people realize all the memorabilia around the walls. Do you want to describe it for them? I mean, they don't see it. That's true.

There's no camera on it. You have to sit in the studio to see it. But I sort of surrounded myself with things I often talk about on this very program. Yeah. Well, you've got some, uh, like those bobblehead dolls and yeah, there's a, there's a Doug Flutie gifted to me by Jackie Perez from the Argos. There's a Vlad Guerrero Jr. I think Canada Kev gave me that. Stu Stone.

Okay. So your name is Steven Stone. Yeah. S T O H N and yesterday, yesterday was Stu Stone. Oh you saw that. Now Stu Stone, that's a fake last name. Okay so Stuart Eisenstein adopted the name Stone when he was a young actor. He's got a question for you I'm gonna ask you later. But he gave me that George the Animal Steal wrestling figure. That's my Andre the Giant Cup from 1985 when I was in love with WWF

wrestling. And yeah there's a you know Maestro Fresh West, Tom Wilson, there's a Wendell Clark autograph there. There's the last Pogo, Colin Brunton's film from the horseshoes when the Garys were running it. That's Sam the record man, that's Kurt Swinghammer. That was a birthday gift from Rob Pruse of Spoons. That much music logo, that's a gift from David Kynes. And Ken Daniel sent me a box of old Blue Jays and may believe memorabilia that he held onto for a very long time. And that Shoppers drug mart calendar, I believe that's the 1986 calendar. And I keep it stuck on May because that month featured my favorite Blue J of all all time George Bell. And you are too young to know who George the animal steel is.

No, no, you've got my age way wrong there. Big time wrestler when he would eat the turnbuckles in the mid early mid 80s on WWF wrestling. I think it was it. Who was his manager, the guy of the rubber bands in his face. Who is his manager the guy of the rubber bands in his face Bottom line is I watched a lot of George the animal steel wrestle on Maple Leaf wrestling and the calvocade and no not too young for that Okay, but nice to meet you my friend Excellent to be here. You're a friend of Jeff Rogers. Is that right? A really good friend of Jeff Rogers goes back almost 40 years

So he's on a bit of a roll. I'm gonna pump Jeff Rogers' tires for a moment because he introduced me to, like literally he's a neighbor of mine and he came to my event on Saturday at Palma's Kitchen and his name is Jerry Levitan. Do you know the name Jerry Levitan? Only because Jeff has mentioned it. So he, at 14 years old, he interviews John Lennon

at the King Edward Hotel there on King Street. And he made a documentary about it eventually, and it was nominated for an Oscar. And Jerry was a great guest, and that's because Jeff introduced me to him. But very recently, in fact, you got bumped. You were in my calendar for last week, and Jeff said, oh, Rob Nash is only in Toronto for, I don't know, five days or something. If you want him in the basement, you got to drill a hole in the schedule.

And I'm like, I'm bumping Steven Stone. Oh my God. No, I love Rob Nash. What an incredible person he is. How do you know Rob? Well, through Jeff. And, um, so I followed Rob's career. We've had dinners together.

Uh, and he talks about, I didn't listen to that podcast, but did he tell you about going into prisons and, and, and how he goes in and, and, you know, you've seen him. So he's got tattoos. Six, five. Yeah. He's got a Mohawk. But he's sort of face to face with these hardened criminals and, but he can talk with them.

Yeah. He touched on that remarkable conversation really. And people have told me, hey, I had to watch the documentary. You can see it now, his documentary. That episode really moved me. But I said, it moved me, but I had to move you to make that happen. So I appreciate you accommodating me so I could have Rob Nash down here. Yeah, that was great. Is that the pin I see?

Okay, so can you please tell me, do you get a phone call when, like do you get a call saying, Mr. Stone, we'd like to honor you by, I don't even know the terminology, but tell me, how did you get the order of Canada? Well, I almost didn't, I was always gonna get it,

but I get all these, as you undoubtedly do, random phone calls, they're spam. And because I was an American citizen, I've lived all my life in Toronto, but I happened to be born in Denver, Colorado. So I was always getting these calls from the United States and from weird area codes, and I would never answer them. Right. And so there, I think it was a four seven three. I may have the area code wrong was coming up and it called again and again. I didn't answer it. And one time I accidentally answered it. And this very nice young woman named Emily said, I'm calling from the governor general's office in Ottawa. Yeah.

You know what? That's fantastic. What happens if you never answered? You just eventually get a piece of snail mail saying, hey, here's your pin. Exactly, we hope there's not a postal strike. Oh, that's right, you never get it. Well, okay, so that was, what was that, 2023? When did you get the appointment to the Order of Canada? Yeah, it was over a year ago, and I still haven't had the real ceremony where you go up to Rideau Hall.

My wife has the Order of Canada, so I've been to one of them. Yes, so please tell, because there is a segment. In fact, we have a listener who was going to wake up early to go on the live stream just because of this fun fact. Who's your wife? Linda Schuyler.

That's amazing. That's Degrassi creator Linda Schuyler. Yes, and she created Degrassi almost accidentally back in the late 1970s. She wanted to get into film. And so her friend, she was a teacher at the time who was librarian at the high school ordered all these books, like how to make a film and things like that, and came up with this book, Ida makes

a movie, which he hadn't realized was not about how to make a film. It was a little story about a girl who makes a film. Right. And, but she was charmed by it and she wanted to buy the rights to it. It was a little story about a girl who makes a film. Right. And, but she was charmed by it and she wanted to buy the rights to it.

It was out of print. So she was directed to this young lawyer who just recently graduated from the bar, uh, named Steven Stone. Wow. And I gave her some. Good looking, uh, young lawyer. It, well, it worked out very well because I gave

her some free legal advice, which is you don't need a lawyer, here's a form where you can buy all of your visual rights. You go and negotiate, offer them $200, whatever, and see what happens. And I didn't see her again for a few years. Um, but that little book, she shot it, it was called I to Make Some Movie and it seemed to do fairly well.

Um, it wasn't on television, but it got into high schools. So she shot another named, uh, Noel Buys a Suit. And then Casey joins the gang. And then the CBC wanted to broadcast this little series. And they said, well, what do we call it? And it's about Ida and Casey and other,

what the hell do we call it? They may have not said, what the hell do we call it? They said, what appropriate branding do we call it? It's about Ida and Casey and other, what the hell do we call it? They may have not said, what the hell do we call it? They said, what appropriate branding do we give? And she said- Can I guess? Oh no, I don't wanna steal your story. Keep going, I love this story. And she said, you know, I don't know what to call it,

but it's about kids. And we shot at my friend, Bruce, the librarian's house and he lives on Degrassi Street. So why don't we call it the kids of Degrassi Street? Wow. Wow. See, how do I get Linda in this basement? Oh, she'll come. Okay. Will you introduce me to your wife? And Andy, are you listening? I want Linda down here. Get that story. I'm a big, I'm a big fan of, I watched the kids of Degrassi Street. Literally they would, I lived in his, I went to a school near Jane and Bloor

and they would walk us to the Runnamie Library and we'd watch it in the library. Oh my Lord. I know. Well, it became like in the sex education classes and things like that. Right. But then when Degrassi Junior High, I was there, like that was appointment viewing for me.

I'm a big fan of the, well, any listener knows this. So we will get to Degrassi because I have a, I got so much to talk to you about. There's new music I want to talk to you about, but I know where I want to start. Are you ready? Here we go. This is where I want to begin. Let's absorb this for a moment. The sound of goodbye echoes all through the night And I must wait through lost days Like love I have found But I'm trying to find a way to make it alright Maybe your heart will be broken

Waiting for words that are never spoken Maybe your heart will be broken into like mine Now Stephen, sometimes I have to remind myself, not everybody knows all these fun facts like you do, Mike. So I don't want to make any assumptions here, so I'm going to blow some minds. That voice we're hearing right there. I'll point to the Much Music logo on the wall was also the, well, tied with JD Roberts, the first DJ on Much Music. He was, he was not only the first, but even before Much Music,

um, they, they ran a kind of a precursor to it on City TV, just on City TV. And I think it started at one in the morning and ended in four in the morning. And he could do whatever. They didn't have a lot of videos at that time. So Christopher... But he had a good friendship with a guy named Mike Myers who would come on and do Wayne Campbell. Yeah.

And Wayne Campbell, the Wayne character was created during that. There are some really hilarious moments on that City Limit show and because Christopher knew by three o'clock in the morning no one was watching so he could do whatever he wanted. And you're so right that's like the precursors. So John Martin who was the first guy in charge of much music, working with Moses there at Chum City at 99 Queen East before it moved to 299 Queen West. You're absolutely right, that city limits,

that was the sort of the proof of concept. And Christopher and I went back long before then because we went to university together. Okay, let's start there because obviously the mind blow is that, and when Christopher Ward made his Toronto mic debut, we opened as well with his, I called the yacht rock era there, the yacht rock. I am so pleased that you're talking about yacht rock. People do not like the term yacht. I would be so delighted if somebody said,

Oh, the songs you're writing, that's yacht rock. I would go, yes. Because yachts are well-crafted, right? These are well-crafted pieces of music we're listening to here. Yeah, I mean, I don't actually have a desire to have a yacht, but, you know, it's a kind of a dream. You're there, there's people all around, you're having margaritas and it's sunny and it's warm. Yeah.

So, Christopher Ward, yacht rocker, and this is obviously before he's a much music VJ and eventually, you know He'd go on to co-wrote a little song people might know black velvet I think it's called it might have been a hit who remembers right Steven But talk to me about your friendship with Christopher Ward and how you end up you co-wrote that song. Oh, absolutely Well, we became friends in University and Trent University. I'm now the Chancellor at Trent University. Congratulations. I love being the Chancellor. You get to chat with students and chancellors. Nobody knows what a Chancellor does. What does a Chancellor do? All a Chancellor has to do is sort of hang around during convocation time and hand out degrees.

But I'm there every week. I just love the place. Peterburg is a beautiful town. It's a beautiful campus They're great people there, but I was there almost at the very beginning of Trent as a student So we didn't have a student newspaper. We didn't have a student radio station and Christopher and I Co-founded the Trent University radio service Wow And it only went for four hours on Sunday evenings. It was simulcast on two competing radio stations in Peterborough, because they couldn't sell any advertising time

during that time. So we just did it on tape, four hours of tape, and we'd literally bicycle it down to CKPT in downtown Peterborough and to Chex on the Hill. And on Sunday nights, right after, Del Crary and his show was brought to you by the Comstock Funeral Home. And he had one of those beautiful radio voices

and then we would go over to the Trent University radio service for four hours. So that show had a funeral home sponsor? Well the intro to the show had a funeral sponsor. Okay, well that's enough for me to tell you. This show has a funeral home sponsor and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921, have sent over a measuring tape for you, Stephen. So you have the Order of Canada and you have a measuring tape for Ridley Funeral Home.

Is this to measure my coffin? If you wish, absolutely. But good people there. Now Brad Jones was over yesterday, we recorded an episode of his podcast, Life's Undertaking. We dropped it yesterday and we had a great conversation with a woman who lost her brother in war in Afghanistan. And she talks about how when a loved one passes like there's the parents, oh my goodness, you know, you lost a child and then there's, you know, the children,

but the siblings are often kind of, you know, oh, can you can you arrange this and make sure we have sandwiches at the funeral and siblings need to mourn as well and there's a whole different dynamic there and that's the most recent episode of Life's Undertaking with Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home. But is this this radio station at Trent now it would be called CFFFM? I know it's great to say CFFF. That's a lot of F's. I don't need to know what that stands for here. So you go that far back with Christopher Ward. And we started writing songs together. We formed a group called Cookies and Milk. And our log line, of course, was already a household name. And we would sing sweet Everly Brothers songs, you know, with those nice harmonies.

Yes, absolutely. And then we'd get a case of beer and in an afternoon we'd write some songs and they weren't very good songs necessarily, but we really loved doing it. This was all on guitar. Back in the days when you could pull out a guitar at a university or anywhere and people would gather around and they'd sing. And so we wrote more and more songs and eventually

we ended up traveling together in a Volkswagen bus throughout Europe. And we'd to make money, we just go into a local cafe or something and see if we could at least get a meal out of the owner by playing some songs. Unbelievable. And then I guess when Christopher Ward is taking a spin, I wasn't around to appreciate whether that song I just played got heavy Canadian radio play, but you were there, you're a writer of that song. Would that song be played on, I don't know, 1050 Chum? Oh, it absolutely was. And it was a top 10 hit across Canada. It was number one in Quebec City of all places, but it was top ten most of the places. And we started out, there was a period of time when Christopher and I did not get along after we traveled together. That's tough.

I just never wanted to see him again. But one day I was in Peterborough and my friend Cheryl Davies said, oh Christopher Ward is here. You'll really want to come, come on over. And I was like, no, no, I do not want to see Christopher Ward, but suddenly there he was in the door and so I had to be polite. We were Canadians after all. And he came to me and he said, now I know you're a young lawyer.

I've been offered a deal from Warner Brothers. They want to put out a single. And can you help me? And I said, well, I really can't because I'm just a, you know, I'm not even a real lawyer yet, but my boss could help you. Tell me the story. And he said, well, here it is. There's a song called Lost in a Love Song

that they want to record. It's kind of a country song. Let me play it for you. So now I was trapped. I had to listen to the song. Right. And I listened and I said, let me play it for you. So now I was trapped. I had to listen to the song. Right. And I listened and I said, Christopher,

that is a really good song. I, you know, I, I understand why Warner's wants to sign you. And he, he said, you idiot, you fool. And I thought, now I know why I never want to speak with Christopher world again. And I was getting up to walk out and he said, you wrote that song when we were back playing at the Playboy Club in Ankara, Turkey for six weeks. And it was called, Must Have Lost My Way back then. Now I've written new lyrics to it. It's

called Lost in a Love Song. And that was the first song that we wrote together that got on the radio, an old country song. That's a great story. That's a tremendous story. You idiot, you wrote that song. At that moment, he could have taken full credit for that song. Absolutely. I never would have known. Oh, at least you know you can trust Christopher Warren. He's going to tell it like it is. Okay, so you're essentially his songwriting partner. Absolutely. So we went out and we decided to write some more songs and, um, mostly I would write the melodies

and he would write the lyrics. And we came up with a song called once in a long time that Warners really liked and they, and they put it out as a single. Um, it did very well in Canada, but after it had been out for a while, gotten a lot of radio play, but not a lot of sales, the head of A&R sat us down and he said, you know, we're ready to do the album,

but we need a hit single. Right. And we just don't think it's there. So we were devastated and we walked out and Christopher said, you know, it was kind of gallows humor. Okay, you're going up to your cottage. That was where you wrote once in a long time, come back on Monday with the hit single. And I laughed and I, and I said, yeah, okay,

I'll do that. But by the way, it's going to have, it's going to sound like Barry Manilow, uh, because I knew he didn't like Barry Manilow. And halfway through the song, when we come out of the middle eight, it's going to modulate up just a half tone because that's a songwriting trick that he hated. And so we laughed and then I went up to the cottage and sat down at this

old upright piano and wrote the melody to maybe your heart will be broken. And it does exactly that, you know, it's, you know, it ends up on a really high note at the end with swirling strings but it's a half tone higher by the end of the song. Oh my goodness gracious. So, okay, so what comes first, meeting Linda as a new lawyer or the songwriting success here with Christopher Ward?

The songwriting success was, I was in law school, so it must have been early 80s. I'd already met Linda, but I'd sort of lost her, and it wasn't until Degrassi Junior High came back on, when she said, oh, I really need to, who was that nice young lawyer who never charged me anything? Right. And she called me up and I helped out from then on. And I was the lawyer for Degrassi Junior High. Then we became husband and wife and we co-produced all the Degrassi Next Generation and Instant Star and all of the other things we produced together. Well here, maybe that's a good time for me to, and again, Andy was at TMLX 17. She's been a listener since day one. She's been to all, I think she's been to 16

of the 17 events I've hosted. By the way, Stephen, when I do host the next event, which might not be till June, you're getting an invitation, Great Lakes Brewery. Would be amazing to get you to TMLX 18. And I'll bring my wife Linda. Well, by then she'll be in FOTM because between now and then, Linda is going to make her Toronto Mic debut here.

Wonderful. We're going to make that happen. But here's the song I was going to play. If I hold out, if I do, I know I can make it through Be the best, the best that I can be Hear what I say to you Whatever it may, I can make it through. All right, if you don't recognize that song, you're not a Degrassi head. That's the next generation.

That's Degrassi the next. So you mentioned, okay, so you're basically the lawyer for Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High, which is that's my Degrassi. You know, you're a stone's throw right now from the facade for Degrassi, Junior High, Degrassi High, which is that's my Degrassi. You know, you're a stone's throw right now from the facade for Degrassi, Junior High, which is literally a stone's throw from here. And but I have a gift for you. OK, I love gifts because I will have a gift, more gifts for you shortly. This is my book. OK.

Which talks all about me. And it's called Whatever It Takes. OK. And and of course, I co-wrote the theme song to Degrassi. That's why you played it. So that song I just played, you co-wrote. Yes. Amazing. Yeah, with my friends, Jody Calero and Jim McGraw.

And that song has the distinction of having on YouTube alone more than 162 million streams. Whoa. Because when Aubrey Graham, better known as Drake, did his I'm Upset video, which he shot on the lot of Degrassi, the next generation, because by then we were shooting in a studio and it was a studio my wife and I built.

And so he shot it on the back lot there. And it was a day, I think it was in July, it must've been about five years ago, beautiful summer day, it was over three days. And, um, he did the I'm Upset video with a whole bunch of his Degrassi alum friends. Kevin Smith wrote the, uh, the script for the, uh, video.

Right. And at the end of it, an homage he put that song whatever it takes over the credits and so as a result whatever it takes has 162 million streams isn't that wild isn't that wild now okay so you alluded to the fact you are role in this version of Degrassi the next generation it's a different role than it was during my OG Degrassi years where you were like the lawyer. So in addition to co-writing the theme we just heard, which is a mind blow onto it. So by the way, who's the lead vocalist on that song? Oh, that was, oh, a young woman.

I'm putting you on the spot here. Yes. And I know her very, very well. She won the Juno Award in 1978. You know what? For best new artist. We'll let, Andy will put it in the live chat. There's a live chat here. I will check back in about two minutes because there's a little bit of a delay and we'll find out. Andy will give us that name so we won't need to hang in too long. But what, so what exactly is your role now with Degrassi the next generation? Well, Linda and I brought it back, co-produced it together. We bought this old warehouse that we turned into a studio.

And we had created a soap opera together called Riverdale. Now Linda does the creation. I'm not on that side, on the film side. I love the music side, as you can imagine, but on the creation. I'm not, I'm not on that side on the film side. I love the music side, as you can imagine, but on the creation side. And for three years we shot this soap opera called Riverdale. Do not mistake it for the hit series Riverdale, which has been on more recently. No, that's the Archie's comic river. This is our Riverdale. This is the real Riverdale. This is the authentic Riverdale. And it was a soap opera that went on CBC

that got cancelled, but we had built this entire studio and backlot to accommodate it. And one day, one of our writers said, you know, we've always wanted to bring Degrassi back. The character Emma that you, Mike, would have loved from the OG days. Yes. Yes. She was the baby girl to spike when spike got pregnant when she was only right with the snake's baby. No, no Shane. Shane's baby. Don't mix. No, not Shane. No, that's that's right. I was thinking, sorry, sorry, sorry. That is very weird. No, the names conflated in my head.

Of course it was Shane's baby. Yeah. Emma would be almost ready to go to Degrassi Junior High now. Why don't we do a kind of a soap opera, but it would be Degrassi. We'd bring back Degrassi. And I immediately blurted out, I think that's a fantastic idea. And I'm a Star Trek fan.

So I said, yeah, it's Degrassi, the next generation. And it sort of grew from there. By the way, I know we're jumping all over. No, it's okay, because I'm gonna bring you back to Riverdale in a minute, but I keep going. The name Emma came from the fact it was Linda and her then partner, Kit Hood, were nominated for and won an international Emmy

for, uh, one of the episodes. Or in fact, I think for that episode for it's too late, which was the episode in which Spike gets pregnant and decides, um, you know, later on to, uh, to keep the child. And they said, oh, we won an Emmy for this. We should name the child because the child at the time didn't have a name. Right. We'll name the child Emmy, Emma. I love those fun facts here.

Okay, so I have a question. I've always wondered this. So I had Jonathan Torrance on this program, early guest actually, he was amazing. He's a sweetheart, but he plays Shane in the, is it a movie? Oh, no, it was, we brought him back, but the original. Right, this is where I'm going.

Why did we change Shane's? I've been wondering this for decades now. We had signed actually the original actor who played Shane, whose name I do not remember now. Right, I'll do that one. And at the last moment, for whatever reason, this was fairly early on when we brought Degrassi, the next generation back.

He just didn't want to do it. And we had a contract, but what are you going to do? Oh, so the actor who, the original Shane didn't want to come back. That's right. So he needed to recast the role. So we recast the role and Jonathan had been very involved with, first of all, he's a wonderful guy. I'm sure you have you had him on?

Yeah, he's been here. Oh yeah. Um, and Degrassi in reruns, your Degrassi had been in reruns all through the nineties at about four o'clock in the afternoon on CBC and Jonathan Torrens had done some specials with Degrassi. So we had like John O'Vision. Exactly. And I think he'd done a Degrassi special.

Anyway, somebody said, why doesn't Jonathan do the role? Because we were, you know, it was kind of very last moment. And he said, yes. And we were delighted. He would love that. And the actor who turned down,

returning thank you to Andy on the live stream is Bill Parrott. Bill Parrott, exactly. That's the name. And the singer of that theme song, I believe is Lisa DelBello. It is Lisa DelBello. And the singer of that theme song, I believe is Lisa Del Bello. It is Lisa Del Bello. And maybe your listeners can verify

that she won the best new artist Juno back in, I'm gonna say 1978. More work for you, Andy. Let us know. Lisa Del Bello's sister-in-law has been on the program. This is how I'm gonna connect. Danny Elwell, who married Lisa's brother. And I had I had been trying actually I've been actively trying to get Lisa Del Bello over here because she sings on

Tears are not enough and I'm trying to collect all the living legends I can Neil Young hasn't returned my call yet, but nor is Joni Mitchell actually But I'm trying to collect these these tears are not enough performers, but quick back to Riverdale Then we're gonna I got more Degrassi things and then I have new music for you. I can't wait to play. And I wanna thank you before I forget. Thank you for the gift.

I'm gonna give you some more gifts as well. I will read whatever it takes. And then I will, I'm sure Andy's got a copy, but I'll lend it to her if she doesn't. So I'm just looking at the cast of Riverdale. And here's a fun fact. So the late great Paul Soles was in the cast

and Paul's nephews, the Cowens, Ellie Cowen and Rob Cowen, they have been over talking about their dad, Bernard Cowen. So Bernard Cowen, I guess, Paul Soles' brother, I suppose is how that works. And I wanna shout out Jane Eastwood who has been on Toronto Miked because I see Jane Eastwood was in this cast and Melissa Del Marco has been here as well.

She's also in The Next Generation, of course, but just checking quickly who I met from this cast. But Riverdale, we're moving on for all the Riverdale heads. We'll have to wait for Steven Stone's next appearance because I got to get back to Degrassi. Would you share a little bit about, like, did you at any point realize this kid playing Jimmy Brooks might have something, like maybe he's got some music talent? Was there any hint of that on set? Oh, there was more than a hint. I still have in storage some early mix tapes from him. And we all were really tried to talk him into getting

his music into Degrassi and to have him rapping and dancing. Now, listen, I'm 76 years old now. I'm an old white guy. I don't pretend to be an aficionado of rap music, but Aubrey had it. He just had that sense of vulnerability and charm. And when he walked into a room, he sort of captured the room and his music Captured the room as well, and he he resisted very much now. We did manage to talk him into

occasional performances of his music And particularly in webisodes that we do because that was a little bit the webisodes were of course on the web, not on the main show. But it was right near the end of his, because he was with us for seven and a half years, I'll say, because at the end, he was heading off into his career in music. And he, there's a funny story that he would show up would show up late, uh, or sleepy to, uh, his shows later on.

And we had to call him into the principal's office, which meant he had to go into Linda's office and Linda would say, Aubrey, we just don't work this way. You have to show up on time. And after that, to give Aubrey total credit, he was there bang on time every night. But what we didn't learn out till later that

what he was doing was he was going into the studio until late at night and he, and he would just crash and he would just, you know, be late in the morning. How he solved it, we didn't know this was he, uh, made a pact with the security guards and he would sleep on set in one of the bedroom sets. And then they would wake him up just in time to get on the set and to get into hair and makeup for his appearance.

That's amazing. But the real mind blow is that you might have in your personal collection somewhere early Drake mixtapes. We got to dig those up. I'll try digging them up. After I get Lindov, I'm going to just come over and rummage through the crates and I'm gonna see what I can find. There might be some valuable gems in there. Not really, although he did appear as I recall. So I wanna ask you about an actor who we lost far too soon under some sad circumstances

because you might be my closest link to having this discussion to like Lind on. But I wanna ask you about Neil Hope. So Neil Hope, of course, for us OG Degrassi heads, what a key part of that cast in he played wheels and of course the zit remedy, okay. Remind me to get back to the zit remedy, not, not yacht rock, but I have a question about that song too. So let me make sure I get back to that.

But the way we fans found out that Neil Hope had passed away, and then I remember the announcement that, oh, but he's actually passed, been gone for several years. Like I can't remember if it was five years, but something that very strange because he was such a part of our lives, our weekly lives. We would spend a half an hour with this man. Remember the zit remedy that school is out special. Oh, you know, I got to get back to that. But again, I promised you an hour. So this might be part two, but could you say a few words about Neil hope? It was, uh, Neil and Linda were very close.

Uh, and Neil had a, a difficult upbringing. Um, his parents, uh, were alcoholics. Uh, and he, he was, he was troubled, but he and Linda became very close. And then, um, after the, after the OG, after school's out, he, he would go away for long periods of time, but then he'd come back. And in the next generation, we did talk him into coming back for one of the early episodes.

Uh, so the, in effect, the zit remedy could get back together. Uh, and, uh, and so we saw him then and then he disappeared again. And we weren't, you know, all that, uh, upset and because he had this habit of disappearing, but it went on and on. And as you say, sort of five years and then the tragic death, he died on his own in a rooming

house in Hamilton. And it was just extraordinarily upsetting. And you know, when you've got a difficult upbringing and, and you battle demons, um, it's nowadays we talk about mental health a lot more than even we did back then. Um, and certainly more than we did, you know, 25, 30 years ago, it's a crisis that we face.

Um, and you had Rob Nash on. Yes. And, um, kids help phone now is something very close to Rob and to us. I'll give you a fun fact about kids help phone. Before, uh, COVID they interacted with, um, and I'll say kids, um, but up to about age 25, about 1.4 million times a year.

And if you think about that in the terms of Canada having 40 million people, how many of those are in that demographic and how many of those are having difficulty, that's a huge number. It's now up closer to 5 million since COVID. The mental health crisis is enormous. Well, I've gotten off track on that because you were asking about.

No, I'm glad you did that though, because that was, I mean, people really do need to listen to Rob Nash on Toronto mic. It was, it's only a week ago we recorded that one and it's still getting notes from people who were saying, I listened on the subway. I was weeping. There's moments in that when he pulls out the suicide notes that the kids give him, there's moments in that episode where I'm, I'm speechless to be quite honest honest. So listen to that. But for Neil Hope, and I always wondered like, okay, so the character, the fictional character wheels has such a tragic arc, right? Like, like I'm, the school is out with the, he's drinking and driving and the accident and he goes to

jail and then we do see him come back in the next generation. I remember tuning in just because it was going to be as, as it remedy. Uh, but I always wondered if he, maybe he carried some of that with him. I don't know. I always, I just, I don't know. You may be sort of being a true fan and sort of imposing your thoughts on the character. Absolutely. We used to get fans, I forgot I have a lawyer here. Yeah am doing that. Absolutely. I'm speckling. We used to get fans.

I forgot I have a lawyer here. Of course. Who would send, when Spike got pregnant, the postman would come with these huge bags of mail and they would have little, they'd have presents for Amanda Steptoe because she'd been- You can get confused, right? You can get confused. And in fact, all the way through,

and the cast were very forgiving of me. I was 50-50 whether I would call them by their real name or their character name. Joey, Joey! That's right exactly. It's Pat Stephen, it's Pat, it's Joey. Oh Joey Jerry. He's also, Joey, Caitlin they've been on love it so much but uh who wrote the Zit Remedy song? I believe it was there was some close friends of ours, Wendy and Lou, who, and I think it was Wendy's or Lou's brother, who wrote maybe the melody and did, Everybody wants something they'll never give up. And certainly the arrangement of it, like Pat Mastroianni and the Zit Remedy themselves sort of took

the words and the lyrics and then sort of made it their own. So here's my beef. What's your beef? That was Street Sense, another Jonathan Torren's product I used to watch there, Street Sense, on CBC. But if you want to hear that song for nostalgia purposes, because nostalgia is the drug of choice around here, you got to go to YouTube and you get a rip from the show,

I don't know, recorded from CBC and then ripped from VHS. It's potato quality and it cuts out. Why didn't, why did we never get a studio, we needed a studio properly produced version of the Zit Remedies. Everybody wants something. I am so impressed with you. What an incredible fan you are. Why did you not consider this, Mr. Musician,

lawyer, producer, come on. That was your, you were the one to say, Linda, we gotta get them in the studio now. I have to admit, picturing the ZIT Remedy on top of the billboard charts. Oh, maybe a 680 CFTR might have played it. Who knows? Okay, so moving on from the ZIT Remedy on top of the Billboard charts. Oh, maybe a 680 CFTR might have played it. Who knows? OK, so moving on from the Zit Remedy. Oh, last question and Degrassi, I'll save the rest for Linda,

because I want to get to the I want to get to the new music. And Andy, you will be back here. I'm only addressing Andy right now because she's on the live stream. Come back for the Linda episode, and that'll be much more Degrassi. Obviously, I could do 90 minutes with Stephen here on Degrassi, but schools out. I mentioned it several times. I did a two and a half hour episode about schools out with Cam Gordon. It has F bombs in it. Yes. Okay. So how'd you get it? Like, how was that process? Like who did Linda say? Hey, I think we can do this in prime time or whatever?

Can you tell me how the heck F-bombs made their way to CBC? I don't know what that ended at 8 o'clock, I guess. Well, and it was the first and last time that the F-bomb was on CBC. But you know, Degrassi, Linda really tried to make Degrassi as authentic as possible. And I use authentic in a sense in quotes because if anybody, if any parent were sending their kids to a real live Degrassi school, they would be run away, run away. You do not want to go there. All these horrible things happen.

Right. I mean, there's fun things, but there's funny things, but there's a lot of horrible things. But- Bathroom violence. Right. I mean, there's fun things, but there's funny things, but there's a lot of horrible things. But bathroom violence. Yes. There is so much that goes on, but trying to be authentic and in the moment when, you know, somebody is finding out that, you know, you fuck Tessa, Tessa Campanelli, it is just what you would say. And so of course it was filmed both ways,

but CBC decided, you know what? This is just what somebody would say. They are so overwrought, they are so caught up in the moment, this is what they would say, so they let it go. And I think in reruns, they used the alternate version. I think it only went on the air once. You know, give me the OG version every single time here. Okay.

Well done. I'm glad you did that. And it's wild that it never happened again. So that was it, I guess. It's like we're doing this once. That's amazing. Certainly would never happen in the, in the U S version. Right now you mentioned Aubrey Graham, Drake.

We talked about him, uh, whatever became a him. I don't know, Google him, see what he's up to these days, but, uh, Stu Stone, who we talked about, but it was Stu Stone, a huge fan of Yacht Rock. We did a whole episode with Stu Stone, uh, about his love of Yacht Rock. And now there's a documentary series on HBO, like Yacht Rock is having a moment. And I'm going to give Stu partial credit for bringing that bag back. He's a big Michael McDonald head. He wants me to ask you a question, Steven, do you know Aubrey Winfield? Oh, I certainly know Aubrey Winfield.

So who's Aubrey Winfield? I had breakfast with Aubrey Winfield yesterday. Get out of here. Yes. While we were talking about you and Aubrey Winfield, you were having breakfast with, who is Aubrey Winfield? Well, he runs a wonderful little studio called the Orange Lounge.

And in fact, I'm a part owner of the Orange Lounge. I'm the chair of the board the Orange Lounge. Uh, and in fact, I'm a part owner of the Orange Lounge. I'm the chair of the board of Orange Lounge. It is a nondescript, I call it a nondescript oasis on the third floor, uh, of a building on Queen Street West. You would not know it. There's no sign out front that says Orange Lounge. You would not know how to get there, but everybody from Amy Winehouse to Katy Perry,

to Kanye West, there's Drake, of course. And, uh, tragically hip, tragically hip, actually had an office on the fourth floor there for a long while. And we're doing songwriting there. Um, Nelly Furtado, tons of stuff there. Imagine Dragons, imagine dragons. Um, Ellie Goulding,

it just goes on and on and on, have appeared in the Orange Line and it's only got one main studio but it's got a good old Neve board and candles all around and a kind of Moroccan theme. So artists just like, speaking of Imagine Dragons, their manager had said, we, you know, we have to have a certain type of food.

It has to be Thai food, this, that, and the other. So Aubrey gets all the Thai food and they're in the studio, but he's making grilled cheese sandwiches for, you know, the, you know, his gang. And, uh, and they smell the grilled cheese sandwiches and they come out and they say What is this Thai food? We'd like can you make us those grilled cheese sandwiches? Food right there. Yeah, so thank you stewstone once again for the perfect perfect segue

So we're gonna get back to the orange lounge. We're gonna talk about the orange sessions I'm just gonna give you a few gifts right now because then maybe you'll give me another gift, Stephen. No pressure, okay? But I do have in my freezer upstairs a large frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta. They sent it over for you, Stephen. It's delicious Italian authentic food from Palma Pasta. I love it. Thank you so much. And thank you again to Palma's Kitchen for hosting us on Saturday. We'll be back in about a year's time for what might be TMLX. Let me do the math in my head. 20. So thank you, Palma Pasta. This wireless speaker right there, that's courtesy of

Minaris. Oh, wow. Because with that quality wireless speaker, Stephen, you're going to listen to season seven of Yes, We Are Open. This is an award-winning podcast hosted by Al Grego. Al was here two days ago. We played songs reminiscent of each episode from this season seven. And the final episode of season seven features an FOTM. That means friend of Toronto Mike. Stephen, you're now an FOTM.

Soon Linda will be an FOTM. But Tyler friend of Toronto Mike. Stephen, you're now an FOTM, soon Linda will be an FOTM. But Tyler Schwartz and Jordy Schwartz, they run RetroFestive, which is a unique pop culture and Christmas store, so they're hopping right now. They're in Oakville, Ontario, and they were the subjects of season seven's finale of Yes We Are Open, and you've got a wireless speaker there to listen to. Yacht Rock and this wonderful podcast.

I'm so thankful. And I am impressed how you weave product placement so organically and seamlessly throughout the podcast. Well, it took me 1,593 episodes to get it right, Steven, but I'm, I'm auditioning for a role. Maybe I could be a teacher if there's ever another, I will say that I, there will be another Degrassi. It won't be Linda and I producing them, but, um,

dashing my hopes and dreams here. We'd love to be consultants on it, but the world needs Degrassi right now. It in everything that's going on, artificial intelligence, all the divisiveness, yeah. Social media, all this. Yeah. So we need, we need. Social media, all this. So wait, but who owns Degrassi? A company called Wild Brain.

They do everything from Teletubbies to peanuts. They're mainly an animation company, but they bought us, oh, a number of years ago. Okay, hopefully you did well in that transaction. Did okay. I'll get to see what car you're driving. Okay. Fresh craft beer courtesy of Great Lakes Brewery.

They brew here in Southern Etobicoke. They actually sent beer over to the event we had on Saturday. Everybody got a can of fresh craft beer from Great Lakes. That's also a parting gift for you, Stephen. Thank you so much. And of course, I have a gift for you. Oh my goodness. Another gift because you've already given me whatever it takes.

This is a book everybody should check out here. And I see here's Christopher Ward got a much smaller font than Stephen Stone. Well, what happened? I was writing the story of, you know, basically my life, right? Um, although I call the book, um, this book will change the way you think about success because call the book, um, this book will

change the way you think about success because I do have, uh, there's a chapter in there where I talk about dreams and planning and which I see to me is the most important chapter, but it's got a lot of the things that we, we talk about, but because I'm a lawyer, there are some of the stories that I could not tell because it would be a breach of solicitor client privilege.

So what I would do, Christopher said, well, what I'll do is I'll interview the client and then you can just quote them and you can get the story out that way. So that's what he did. Amazing. He provided the interviews. So whatever it takes,

and so before you give me the last gift, I'm just gonna give you one little piece of advice, which is if you, Stephen, and maybe Lyndonon you have a whole room full of old electronics old cables maybe laptops that haven't been booted up in 15 years who knows what's going on over there but you don't throw that in the garbage because then the chemicals end up in our landfill you actually go to recycle my electronics dot CA put in your postal code and you find out a place near you you can drop it off where it will be properly

Recycled and we want to thank recycle my electronics.ca. They just renewed For another 12 months of sponsoring this program to keep it going so we can have conversations like this They are great people. We have actually just done exactly that and somebody recommended that we send it over to there We had a whole bunch of old electronics. What, what do we do with them? Right. Don't throw it in the garbage. Everyone go to recycle my electronics.ca. So I'm eager to talk about Opus 42 Ode to Summer, but maybe you give me a gift that maybe I play a song and then maybe we talk about how perfect that Aubrey Winfield segue was from Stu Stone

in the Orange Lounge and we're going to get into this to take us home. And then your job when you leave, of course, is you're going to get Linda to visit me at some point. Hi, I will speak to her as soon as I get back. You know, I don't need to just call on the phone on the drive home. And of course, the gift is called the orange sessions recorded at the orange lounge, that beautiful Oasis in downtown Toronto. And here you go. Was it like, uh, what is it?

Jake gold had an office there or something? Like, what do you mean the tragically hip? I need to it wasn't Jake note was the guys themselves. They used it as a songwriter. Cause Gord moved here, but the guys stayed in, uh, Kingston. So, so Gord Downey was living in Toronto and the rest of the guys stayed in Kingston, Ontario

So maybe they needed a home base here. Yeah amazing So the what am I holding exactly so this is well, you know what? Let me play some music and then you can tell me exactly what I have here GTA rhythm section The orange side by was beautiful and I love it, you know And again in a moment it'll make sense if there's a Beach Boys Vibe going on here that's gonna make sense in just one moment here But let's play it because I will tell you I've been using it as like I so I start the live streams early Live dot Toronto Mike comm but I need something usually I play music for airports by Brian Eno

Like I'll just let it play. It's perfect kind of background music or whatever. But what I started to yesterday I started looping this and my goodness, it's excellent. So let's listen to some of this, then I'll bring it down and we'll talk about it. ["The Moon Shines"] The moon shines softly on my broken heart But I will love again

I will love again The girls on the beach All khakis and peach The one with the wavy hair And all that you want is fun and lies, hoping your heart ain't bare Donna is here in blueberry skies, taking your breath away All that you need, all that you want Summer is here to stay

Have you seen her? Writing letters in the sand, in Ventura Bay She's my girlfriend But she doesn't know what yet she may I dream to hear She's my secret I need to hear my soul breathe I need to figure out a plan, make her mind someday And get my nerve up, write her letters and listen However, find myself

End up walking hand in hand I've got to find myself How it takes you over though you don't know why Wind just whispers under moonlit skies You can't shake it off, you gotta let it fly again All the girls go east of Laurel Canyon Starlight in their hair And the boys all follow one way All the girls call the East of Loracay All the girls call the East of Loracay All the girls call the East of Loracay Starlight in the air

And the boys all fall so far away I don't even want to fade this down. This is really an opus, my friend. Holy smokes. Opus 42, Ode to Summer. Tell me everything. What the heck are we listening to? It's great. It started 60 years ago. I was chatting with the uncle of one of my friends and he told me a story.

He said, I had a dream a few years ago and in the dream I was walking down a street I hadn't walked down before and I saw this library and in the dream I went into the library and he was very it was a very specific dream because I went to the third row down and then down at the bottom shelf there was this yellow book and that was the end of the dream well the next day I took a different route home from school and in fact I was going past this library that I had never been in. And so I went into the library and I was a little bit apprehensive. I didn't know whether I needed a card or whatever.

But I thought I'm going to go to the third row and see what is there. And sure enough there was a yellow book in the bottom shelf. What? And he said, this is my gift to you today. This is a copy of a book called An Experiment with Time by J.W. Dunn. It was written in 1927.

And J.W. Dunn's theory was that when we dream, we dream about a whole bunch of things, wish fulfillment, all the things we know we dream about. But quite often we're influenced by things that have happened, say in the past 24, 48, 72 hours, and little bits of it will go into the dream. His theory was we also dream about things that happen in the next 24 to 48 to 72 hours. So I became

fascinated by dreams. I used to write down the dreams and I have had and I won't go into this now because it just sound people talking about dreams are very boring, but I have had dreams that unquestionably it could not be coincidence that I've dreamt about something like turkeys flying with seven heads and but the next day I would be strangely never in a butcher shop or something like this and there on the ice

is seven headed turkey. What? It's like. Yeah that can't be a coincidence. So I've always believed in dreams. I believe very strongly in goal setting and trying to figure out what it is you, uh, you want with your life and using your dreams to help you move forward. So long story short, about two years ago, I had a series of very vivid dreams, and in them, I was very naturally a singer, songwriter.

So I'd be called up on stage and I would have no problem, I'd been doing this for years and years and years, clearly, and I would sing this song. And when I woke up, I would have this melody in my head and this kind of nonsense lyrics. And eventually I thought, I've got to do something with this. So I would just wake up and then in my iPhone, I would just sing, you know, Oh, the girls go East of Laurel Canyon, just in a very cracked voice because it's that time of the morning. of Laurel Canyon, just in a very cracked voice, because it's that time of the morning. And, uh, after about six months of this, I thought,

what am I going to do with it? I thought, surely there's something, there's a song in here. Well, I tried, um, writing a song, but nothing really came together. And then a friend of mine was talking about the Ableton software program, which is sort of like Pro Tools. You would probably use Pro Tools. I use Audacity. Okay. But I know of Pro Tools for sure. Yeah and up until now I'd never had the chance to actually do my own demos but I learned the Ableton software program. It took months and I was very feeble at it. And I started

laying down one of these and then another and then I thought there's nine different fragments here. There was about 20 in total but there's nine and they sort of tell a story. They sort of tell a journey of summer and what I now call it is the phrase that I use is summer comes and goes but always comes back and if we're lucky love is the same and I was able to string them together in this weird way because they were all different tempos different time signatures and should not have been fit together and, but in fitting them together, they didn't have the recurring chorus that we

know that we know the three minute pop song. We know there has to be a recurring course. Didn't have that, but nevertheless, it seemed to hold itself together. And so you talked about Jeff Rogers. I was chatting with him one day and I played him this demo that I'd made with me singing the harmonies as chirping away in my my dining room really, just you know me on a Macintosh computer and and I said to him this is a song

that should never have been written because it defies all the rules of songwriting and besides it's written by a 76 year old and it's nine minutes long and should never be recorded and if recorded should never be released and we laughed about that and he said yeah you're absolutely right when are we going into the studio to record it. So that's. Okay now I have so many questions but one is that there's this Beach Boys-esque harmony. And then I dig into, like, who am I hearing here? And tell us, like...

Well, this, and it's a wonderful thing, and I'll give great credit to Jeff Rogers about this. Yes, it's Beach Boys. My idol is Brian Wilson. I have flown to London. I've flown to Los Angeles. I've flown to Vancouver to see Brian Wilson, not because his performances are great.

I mean, he could barely sing in his later years. But just as an homage to his great harmonies and his terrific melodies. So yes, I would love people to say, hey, that sounds a little bit like, you know, Brian Wilson could have written it. Absolutely. And Jeff came to me one day,

he actually just sent me a YouTube link of this guy, Matthew Jardine. I know that surname. And he said, listen to this guy. And it was in concert, Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, two of the original Beach Boys, and they're in concert. They don't play as the Beach Boys because I think Mike Love has the trademark for the Beach Boys.

So I hear. But they had a thing, I forget, it was something in Friends or Brian and Friends or whatever, and they would go around and they perform under that. But they were old enough, and Brian no longer performed, but up until a couple of years ago he did and Al would be there, but neither of them could really hit the high notes anymore. So Al's son, Matt Jardine, Matthew Jardine, would sing the high notes and Brian, so on the YouTube video it's like Brian saying, hey, now we've got a song you might remember,

Matthew Jardine, come out and tell us, wouldn't it be nice? And he go, wouldn't it be nice? And so Jeff, we got this demo tape that we'd recorded at the Orin, thinking it was just a demo tape to Matt. And he loved it. And he said, yeah, I'll sing it. and I'll do the background harmonies as well. So that is Matthew Jardine, son of Beach Boy, Al Jardine. Talk about dreams coming.

I started 60 years ago with dreams and using dreams and, and making dreams come true. And, uh, here's Matthew Jardine, beach boy the son of the beach boy singing my song so we did that and then my friend Jim McGraw with whom I and Jody Calero wrote the Degrassi theme song I went to Jim and said and he'd written some he does terrific orchestrations he'd done orchestrations for the tragically hip and others he'd'd done all the score for the Degrassi series. And I said, Jim, could I hire you

to do some instrumental orchestrations? And he said, no, you cannot hire me. We've worked too closely together in the past. I will do whatever for you. We're friends. You can't hire me. I'm happy to do the orchestrations. But I do have one requirement of you. And that is we have to use real strings in horns. These

will not be synthesized. But I've got some great guys who will do it for you. Bless Jim. Glad to hear this. Okay. So then it all, and now you've played it. You hear those real strings and you hear those real strings. It's like George Martin or something was behind this. Well, I know where Paul Buckmaster, one of those people. Yeah, it's extraordinary. And I couldn't kind of believe it's one of those things where it's like,

what do I compare it to? But it's like, there's I don't have anywhere really to fade down because it's sort of like it's it's it's these segments. And I don't I don't have a music vocabulary or whatnot, but it's sort of like an opera, an opus. It is appropriately named. It is fantastic and it sounds great. And you hear this Beach Boys sound

and the fact that it's Al Jardine's son, it's sort of like it all comes full circle and makes complete sense. Yes, and of course the title Opus 42, which is this, you know, a fanciful thing. 42, as we know, is the meaning of life. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy I thought it was an homage to the summer and 42 for summer 42 here okay so Opus 42 ode to summer and this like how can somebody get their admits on the orange sessions here well the

the signal that you just played is available everywhere like Spotify and Amazon and Apple and all that. The vinyl, if you go to stevenstone.ca, but it's in weird spelling because it's my name, so it's S-T-E-P-H-E-N-S-T-O-H-N.ca, you can actually get the vinyl edition there. And next Sunday, another song will come, Falling All Over Again, which I will just say

is a real song, it's three minutes and 25 seconds long. It's not nine minutes long. And by the way, when I say nine, we say nine, we're not rounding that number down. No, no, it's exactly nine minutes long. It's exactly nine minutes. That's wild, too. Falling All Over Again, I started writing

30 years ago for Linda. It was a song, we hadn't was a song we hadn't gotten together, we hadn't gotten married, and I wrote part of the song then and played it for her. And she was very moved by it. And then when we were in the studio doing the opus, we thought, hey, we've got some time. Why don't we, we could record this too.

So I quickly wrote a new middle aid and changed it around. And we came up with falling all over again, which I love. And, uh, and then we said, you know, once in a long time, that was a song that came out 50 years ago and was one of the big hits for Christopher ward. Let's rerecord that. But back in the day, it was more like a Barry Manilow kind of thing. Let's make it more like Lizzo.

So we put, we recorded that. So it's really just the three songs on the A side. Amazing. And am I right that, so that music's amazing and that story is unbelievable. And I'm so glad I got to meet you, but I was reading the notes. So Jeff, Jeff sent me some notes and it says you you have been nominated 28 times for a At the in Canada's national television awards ceremony That's the Canadian screened awards, which we used to know as the Gemini Awards, but you've won 14 So do you have 14 trophies on display somewhere? Oh, absolutely And we love having the trophy and of, between Linda and I and Degrassi,

we've got a whole bunch of awards, like Emmys and Peabodies. And we were recently inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. Wow. Yeah, so you sort of... But, you know, each award is meaningful. You love it. My favorite award, by the way.

I mean, the Peabody is pretty cool. But we got a surfboard for a teen choice award for Degrassi way back in the day. And it's an actual surfboard, but it's got, it's hand painted by an artist and it's awarded Degrassi. So we've got that up in our kitchen at home. I got to, I got to see this home.

Okay. Holy smokes. I got to see these trophies, but Steven Stone, my brother does the pH on Steven as well. So that's like my default setting. So I think the other guy's got it wrong. I think it should be pH, but little bias. Thank you. Well, thank you.

Cause what a pleasure it was to meet you and thank you for the gifts. Whatever it takes is the book. People can get that book. And of course, so the title, it's the Orange Sessions and you call yourselves the GTA Rhythm Section? That just came out of nowhere. Somebody said, you know, what is the name of the group? And it's not me singing or whatever. And I thought, I know the Atlanta Rhythm Section, the Wrecking Crew, you know, great studio musicians. We've got our own version of it. It's called the GTA Rhythm Section. Well, I love that song. I'm

glad it's, I feel like it might be a little short, the nine minutes. So if you have like an 18 minute Indigada De Vida version or something, I would play that while we start the live stream before we get rocking here today. By the way, if you're ever looking for a keyboardist, I'm just going to throw this in the universe because he just re-recorded this song for the closing theme. Rob Pruss, he was the keyboardist with the Spoons during their heyday. He co-wrote Romantic Traffic for goodness sakes, but he was a 15-year-old teenage phenom when he made his debut. By the way, this is kind of a full...

I have a... This is kind of a little... I got time because it gave me room in this intro here. But he made his Spoons debut on December 8th, 1980 at The Edge. It was a Gary's presentation. You might know something else happened on December 8th, 1980. John Lennon was murdered that night. And that was the night that Rob Bruce will never forget for that reason and the fact he was on stage of the Spoons as a 15 year old making his debut. But Rob Proust took a song called Rosie and Grave from the lowest of the low and he covered it and he added these wonderful Easter eggs

at the end and that's how we close every episode. And I'm actually sorry to be closing with you because I'm enjoying this chat. I could have gone another two hours. But we're going to get Linda down here and I will see you again, my friend. Thank you so much for this. Thank you, Mike. And by the way, I know the music is still playing so I can keep on talking. The first gold record that I ever received, because back in the day, lawyers would get gold records with their clients. Ready Records was one of my very first music clients and the first artist that they signed was The Spoons and Nova Heart. And so I've got the gold record for Nova Heart on my wall.

I'm gonna need a moment, Stephen. You might have to take over. I can't do the extra. That is a mind blow. I'm gonna cut that out of play because Rob comes here every month for toast. He drives all the way from New York to do that. Rob's fantastic.

So I would have known him way back in the day. Like, that must have been 1980 or something. He's on Nova Heart. Yeah. So absolutely. In fact, like, I must have been 1980 or something. He's on that album. He's on Novaheart. Yeah. So absolutely. In fact, Gore Depp composed Novaheart on a keyboard he borrowed from Rob Bruce. Cool. What a small world we live in. And that brings us to the end of our 1593rd show.

Go to torontomic.com for all your Toronto Mic needs. I'm on Blue Sky enjoying that. I'm at torontomike.com there. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery. Here's the Easter eggs. It's Palma Pasta. It's recyclemyelectronics.ca.

It's Minaris and it's Ridley Funeral Home. Do you recognize this song? That's the friendly giant theme. Oh my Lord. Do you recognize this song? That's the friendly giant theme. Oh my lord. Do you recognize this one? I do, but why do I recognize it? This is the jingle for Pizzanova that Alfie Zappa Costa made. Yes, of course.

Oh, it's a great jingle too when they go into that huge, it's not on here, but the huge vocal chorus. Yeah, I've had Alfie on just to talk about it. Can you name this song? This is Romantic Traffic by The Spoons, Rob co-wrote. And I think we got one more coming up. Okay, this is the theme song for Kids in the Hole. Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet's Having an Average Weekend. Thanks, Stephen.

Thank you so much.