Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Tom Wilson: Toronto Mike'd #1356

Episode Date: November 1, 2023

In this 1356th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Tom Wilson about Buffy Sainte-Marie before diving deep into Junkhouse's Strays on its 30th birthday. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Electronic Products Recycling Association, Raymond James Canada and Moneris. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

I'm going to put some of this in here, and that's going to even it out. I could always get you cream, if you want. We got cream. My wife uses cream. I just like it black, because... You know what, it's... Yeah. It should be still hot. Just pour it down. That coffee is delicious. All we need is a pack of floor scrapers now.

All we need is a pack of floor scrapers now. Welcome to episode 1,356 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 Investor Podcast from Raymond James Canada. Valuable perspective for Canadian investors who want to remain knowledgeable, informed, and focused on long-term success. Season five of Yes, We Are Open, an award-winning podcast hosted by FOTM Al Grego from Maneris and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, returning to Toronto Mike

for the third time, hopefully not the last time, it's Tom Wilson. Hi, Toronto Mike. How's it going, Tom Wilson? Well, not bad. Feeling slightly under the weather, Toronto Mike, but you know what? I'm going to perse Wilson? Well, not bad. Feeling slightly under the weather Toronto, Mike, but you know what? I'm going to

persevere, man, just for you. Okay, you're not contagious, are you? Asking for a friend. This I don't know. There's only two of us here, so I don't know where your friend's hiding. Yeah, I was at CP24 really early this morning. How did that go for you?

They were delightful. Delightful folks. Who was it exactly? I can't remember. He used to be on CHTV. Nick Dixon. Yes. What a nice guy.

Okay. What a nice guy. And he, like, he was interviewing me about Junk House. Yeah. And he is one of the few people who come up to me and say, hey, I went to see Junk House and it was great. Usually people come up to see and say, hey, I went to see Junk House, and it was great. Usually people come up to see, hey, man, I went to see Junk House. I got the shit kicked out of me.

Hey, I went to see Junk House. I ended up being thrown out. Hey, I went to see Junk House, and the bouncer put me in a headlock. It's like, you know, those are the constant stories. In fact, I'm going to tell you that years ago I got the Pontiac commercial, and I think that it was a bit of a joke because Hugh Dillon from the Headstones was doing GMC trucks. Right. And I think that the advertisers said, hey, we got the guy from the Headstones.

We should get the guy from Junkhouse. Right. Anyways, I got the commercial. I made ridiculous amounts of money that CRA are still after right now. made ridiculous amounts of money that CRA are still after right now. And so I'm doing that commercial, and all these ad executives come in in their finery, let's say, and they say, oh, man, this is so cool meeting you.

You know, I got beaten up at your show in Vancouver at the town pump. Everybody gets beaten up at a Junkhouse show. But now I feel, you know, Junk House are kind of, we're at a more tender age. I'm 64 years old. I think that the Junk House audience is not going to beat on each other because it's hard to get themselves away from their walkers and their colostomy bags to actually, you know,

start a fight. So, you know. Well, congratulations to Strays. That's the first john kales album 30 years old like last week was like the birthday yeah yeah right okay so congrats on that 30 years and and we're honestly when i booked tom wilson which by the way if you said mike i just want to come over and read the phone book for an hour i would actually say please do like that's how big a fan i am of you your music maximum respect for you but before i get heavy and then we'll get into strays i actually want to dive deep into this uh album that turns 30

years but you have a uh i love stories about p cups okay this is is that fit for public consumption or well yeah i mean it's it should be common knowledge but uh the p cup is uh you hit a certain age and uh i'm going to tell you you've got to have a p cup so you order one of these uh venti americano mistos from star you got your name on yours from starbucks i can't throw this out you buy this cup mike and you don't drink the coffee you just throw it out the window and then you put the cup in the cup holder so that when you're having your seven-hour drive from Hamilton to downtown Toronto, you have something to pee in, Mike.

Okay, so what do you do? You just pee in the cup and then toss it out the window? Is that the move? Well, I mean, you've got to usually maneuver. Like truckers do this, right? Sometimes you're driving, right? Yeah, I know. You've got to like an okay speed.

Then you pull out your baloney, you put her in the cup, and you fill the cup. Then you put the cup gently back into the cup holder. Oh, yeah, you don't want to spill that. And then you find the right place to dump her. Like a sewer or something. Well, a sewer dog park, you know, something like that. Okay, so let me ask you this, Tom.

You're 64 years old, and we all know, I mean, I'm getting there, and I kind of get an idea that the prostate changes, I guess, as you age. But when you were 44 years old, did you need a P-cup then to get from Hamilton to downtown Toronto? I did not. Okay. I did not. But I can tell you that I once had a P-cup story.

And this is going back, though. Yeah. This is a P-cup story. In fact, going to a junk house show at the docks i don't even know even know if the docks is still open it's called the rebel now okay the rebel okay when i was going to the rebel and this is going way way back but we were stuck in traffic and i did have to pee and then we sped up and i peed into a tim hortons cup which is you know what tim hortons cup is a good stand-in for a starbucks venti cup okay not bad i pee into the cup and now we're speeding down the highway in the back seat

i have uh our guitar tech the bass player and my friend uh whose name i'm not going to mention but she's i know it'd be so good if i could mention her name but she said never tell the story she's sitting in the middle seat, okay? Yeah. Now we're speeding down the highway. I just finished peeing into the Tim Hortons cup, and I throw the pee out the window. Now, the pee breaks all common sense.

It breaks all the barriers, right? It comes back into the car, the full thing. Defies the laws of physics. Defy, that's what I was looking for. It defies, my P, defied the laws of physics. Comes back into the car, into the back seat, does not hit the guitar tech sitting on the right. It stops there, makes a hard right turn.

Oh, like in The Matrix where the bullet just stops. I get you. Yeah, and then turns left right into my friend's face. Okay, so first of all, I can't believe I have to educate the great Tom Wilson on the P cup. You're doing it wrong, okay? What you really ought to do is you get your big coffee from Starbucks or whatever, but just say it's hot. Would you put it in two cups, right? They starbucks or whatever but just say it's hot would

you put it in two cups right they'll double cup it because you say it's hot right that way you've got a cup for the p but you can still enjoy the coffee you just paid like three bucks for this is a good idea mike and just before we go any further, you know, you never, I was the voice of Pontiac for four years. You never asked me to do one of the commercials. I was, you know, I was worried I couldn't afford your invoice. Like I was worried, what if Tom sends an invoice? I'm having big trouble here. You know what I would love you to do?

Because I know you legitimately, someone in your family, remind me, who in your family, and I know it might include you, but who specifically adores palma pasta and gets very excited when you bring home the uh large meat lasagna oh my wife okay so shout her out and then do an ad for palma pasta let's go and i'll pay that invoice whatever it is okay let me see uh this this by the way there's even a tag this is empty yeah because it's in the freezer like I didn't want it to thaw. Look, I don't want to be walking out with an empty box, Mike. I promise you won't.

Palma pasta. When I bring it home to my wife, Margo, she is delighted. She puts it into the oven, and a few minutes later, I'm enjoying the best pasta in southern Ontario. Thank you, Palma pasta, and thank you to your kitchen for inventing this incredible... Italian tradition, simply delicious. There's something for you to read in that voice.

Italian tradition, simply delicious. Palma Pasta. Worth every penny. How was that? That was well done. I mean, you got a great voice. That's why I would let you read the phone book on this program. But I want to just shout out my wife who was making coffee and made you a coffee.

And that's like something so rare. Only, I think, Andy Kim? Andy Kim got a coffee. Andy needs a coffee. Are you going to be a part of the Andy Kim Christmas special? I am going to be a part of the Andy Kim Christmas special at Massey Hall.

I'm honored. You know what? I'm not kidding you, Mike. I appreciate all the good things that come my way. And I take on all the challenging things that come my way with respect and love. But being asked by Andy gave me a call from LA, I guess two weeks ago. And yes, I'm honored. Thank you, Andy, for having me on your Andy Kim Christmas this year. Always a great lineup. Do you have any insight into other performers that will be,

because I don't even think he's unveiled the lineup. I think that's an exclusive, Tom Wilson on the bill, and I suspect it as much. But do you know anyone else who's on that Andy Kim lineup? I do not. Okay, I'm going to have to call Andy and find out. These are the kind of questions that my wife Margo asked me. It's like, honey, who else is going to be there?

Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know. Am I not enough? Am I not enough for you? She's probably seen you enough times. She's seen me too many times. She needs some fresh meat. Oh my God, yes.

Quick, I'm going to do a quick little story here. And then I want to talk about a Twitter exchange I witnessed in real time over the last 48 hours. Oh yeah. And I mean, again, I booked you because I wanted to talk about Junk House and strays turning 30. And we will do that. But there is something else I need to talk to you about. I need to see.

I seek your counsel, Tom. But I would just like to say there's this. I don't know who's behind it. I don't know. Don't ask me any questions. I have no answers. But there is something called the Canadian Podcast Awards. And it's existed in the zeitgeist for a few years. And I never get nominated for this thing. And I

kind of poo-poo it as like, oh, who knows who's behind that? It doesn't mean anything. And I kind of like laugh at people who make a lot of noise about being nominated. And then I found out I was not only nominated for one award, I was nominated for two prestigious Canadian Podcast Awards. And I screamed it from the rafters. Like I actually put it on linkedin i put it on twitter i put it on my website like i realized oh i'm doing that thing i laugh at every single year like and then people start to congratulate you i'm getting so many congratulations like well deserved congratulations meanwhile it's like for all we know you are the only guy behind canadian podcast awards tom like we know nothing i think it's wild that i decided to just like right make that it's like bullshit baffles brains i just like like whatever

i'm nominated uh i'm a big deal right we're all punk rock okay mike but you know what it's it's i swear to god and i used to have this attitude too it's better to be nominated than not and it's better to fucking win than not, okay? It's like, once you get nominated, then you can get the Gordie Howe elbows up and just get everybody right out of the way. Get out of my way. Thank you. I'm taking that award.

So you know what? As far as I'm concerned, I've given you the advice you need. You gave me the advice on the P-cup. I'm giving you the advice that you need. Elbows up. Gordie Howe, number nine. Podcast king. Bang, bang, bang.

I used to go see Gordie Howe. They used to play the Detroit Red Wings. Every year would play the Hamilton Red Wings. And there were these young kids. Like, I mean, they're junior A players. They're probably 17, 18 years old, right? Gordie could not give a shit, man. Gordy hit the ice, and these kids were coming off the ice with no teeth,

broken noses, one eye hanging down on their cheek, an ear missing. Like, Gordy would take them on, man. Love it. Great, great entertainment. More good advice. Look, you're full of wisdom, I got to say. Were you this wise at 44, or is this something that came with age? Oh, this has just happened.

This has happened the last 15 minutes I was here. It's the coffee, man. That's French press coffee, okay? That's not from some, they don't put some pot in some machine and spit that out. That's like. I do. I would not throw this out the window to have a pee cup, I'll tell you that. Now that I gave you the pro tip, you'll never have to do that again.

All right. So, yes, I'm nominated for some prestigious awards. Congratulations. Everybody vote for Toronto Mike. Come on now. Thank you. Honestly, thank you very much. And there is one, I do want to shout out Al Grego who hosts a show called Yes, We Are Open because he's also nominated for Best Corporate or Branding

Podcast and they're in Season 5 and Tom Wilson, not only are you getting that lasagna from Palma Pasta but this is a quality wireless speaker for you, courtesy of Mineris, so you can listen to season five of Yes, We Are Open. Mineris, Boxan wireless speaker. You know, when I need a speaker tied to the side of my head, I go with Boxan.

Boxan! Okay, Tom. Yes. Let's get serious, and then we're going we're gonna rock out okay i didn't finish that i didn't finish that expression but we're gonna rock out okay on twitter i uh i tweeted that tom wilson's coming over we're gonna talk junk house but i needed to speak with you about buffy saint marie and then we did get a reply from a woman named Barb who was wondering aloud on Twitter, like, why would I seek Tom Wilson's counsel?

Like, why would I want to talk to Tom about this? Anyway, this went back and forth for a while. I think she's deleted some of the tweets since then, but I'm not using her full name, just calling her Barb. But you did reply. I saw your reply last night, I think it was. I can only tell one story, mine. I am Mohawk.

I was ripped from my territory, Kahnawake? Kahnawake. Thank you. And raised in a white home. I lost everything, my language, my culture, my color. I only know two things, Tom, before I pass the mic to you. I am a white man born into an ancestry that immigrated from Europe many, many moons ago. This I know is true.

Secondly, honestly, and this is why I want to talk to you, my heart was broken at the realization that Buffy St. Marie is a white American woman whose sole verifiable claim to ingenuity is being adopted by the Peapod First Nation as an adult. And I'm just wondering, Tom, what are your thoughts on the Fifth Estate revelations regarding Buffy St. Marie? You know, I haven't commented about this online.

I haven't commented on this in any interviews. I do, not for safety reasons, Mike, because my belief is that I'm entering the indigenous culture. I am a Mohawk in my consciousness for only the last 10 years. So how do I approach being indigenous? With respect and with caution, only because I got two ears and one mouth. I'm here to listen. I'm not here to beak off, okay?

I don't stand for any other nations. I stand by all nations, all indigenous nations across Turtle Island, but I do not stand in the way of someone else's voice that needs to be heard from those nations. That's not my job. I tell my own story. It's a story that in the indigenous world is related to as 60 scoop. I don't call in that tweet, Mike, I didn't say 60 scoop. I said I was ripped from my territory, which I was. So for me to be able to form an

opinion on Buffy St. Marie and the territory that has claimed her, that would be a little unfair. I think that, of course, the white gaze, which is also what this woman was. What's her name? Barb? Barb, yeah. Yeah, it seems to be the white gaze. And people need a platform for their anger, and anybody who gets in their way is going to satisfy that.

And I'm not really interested in being a platform for anybody's anger, but this is a typical example of the white gaze looking in at your tweet and being a gatekeeper for indigenous voices this is a form of the colonial system okay it's uh the the bottom line which has nothing to do with indigenous or colonial worlds mike is my feeling is not enough people got punched in the throat in the schoolyard when they were kids. I'll tell you what, you take one fist to the throat in grade two or three, you learn respect, you learn when to use your mouth, and you learn when not to. And the fact is that that's how I grew up,

and I always approach people with as much love and as much respect and patience as I can. I feel that the Fifth Estate murdered Buffy St. Marie's character. I'm not saying they are right. I'm not saying they are wrong. But once again, three white journalists have stepped up and taken down an indigenous person. That is up to the indigenous world to be doing. That's not up to anybody but us.

If this is true, you know, my joke last week was, I had a bad week last week the cra cra had taken my money uh i had my brand new truck stolen from in front of my house and buffy saint marie's italian it's like how how deflating can that possibly be i know buffy saint marie i interviewed her three weeks ago she's absolutely delightful she has worked hard for our communities and nobody can take that away from her. But the fact is, is that it's an, you know, it's an indigenous voice that has been stifled. Uh, if she's taking space as an Italian woman with feathers. Okay. Right.

Now me, you're speaking to, you know, you mentioned you lived like 54 years thinking you were a white guy. Mm-hmm. And now the last decade, you've been getting back in touch with your Mohawk roots because you learned you were adopted. And all this, by the way, go to the first, Tom Wilson's first appearance, which was epic. The second one was epic as well, but we covered the story in great detail. You've got beautiful scars. It was for the book. I was on the book tour.

Yeah, it was amazing. Thank you for having me. Oh, God. I told you, you can read the story in great detail. You've got beautiful scars. It was for the book. I was on the book tour. Yeah, it was amazing. Thank you for having me. I told you, you can read the phone book here if you want. You can be here every week if you want. I wish you lived next door. I'd just be like, hey, come on over, Tom. We're going to do an episode here. We need to talk about Tears Are Not Enough. Okay, but am I allowed? So if I'm a white Canadian of European ancestry,

am I allowed to have an opinion? Because I did, like everyone, I love Buffy St. Marie, but I am actually hurt. Like, I feel like if everything was built on this lie and that for 20 years she lived her life

as a middle-class white American and suddenly then changed the narrative and it hurts me. Am I entitled to that? Of course you're entitled to that, Mike. There's a big difference between you having your heart broken and you attempting to be a gatekeeper for indigenous voices.

When you step in and start saying, this indigenous person can speak and this indigenous person can't. Right. And when you try to take the voice away from the indigenous people, now you're out of bounds. To people, now you're out of bounds. To me, now you're out of bounds, okay? We are not to be ruled anymore. We're here to make sure this land is preserved,

to make sure that people on Turtle Island hopefully learn to live in harmony. That's my job anyway. And like I say, Mike, I speak for myself. I cannot speak for you. I cannot speak for anybody else. But growing up, I mean, I just finished writing a play, and the play's opening in April of next of next year yeah i got the musical director from come from away is involved it's very exciting but it's funny that we talk about this because i wrote

a piece about the um perception that we grew up with about what an indian is okay we grew up with the concept of the dead indian which i don't know how you said you're 40 49 49 okay so you're kind of but i'm 64 i definitely you know uh born in 1959 so the dead indians who stitched the decades together with a tapestry of horrors their spirit filling generations of noble warriors who've been stamped into coins, colored in cartoons, mocked by fools, propped up behind glass, shoved in museums, extinct with the Zanzibar leopard and the Falkland wolf. Just another once beautiful creature, stuffed and fucked into place for the amusement of morons. But we're extinct we're alive and vibrant and we stand

in places of prominence and honor your blood will not be ignored my blood will not be ignored and that's where you know i mean mike i'm coming to you as a guy that spent 54 years thinking i joke as a puffy sweaty big sweaty irish guy right so um so i'm on i'm on a massive learning curve uh i am mohawk uh and uh and i have that uh that advantage as far as um what i want to learn and where i want to go and where I'm allowed to go. But it's all our responsibility here in North America to start talking to one another and to start learning from one another. And Twitter or X or whatever it's called, that is, you know, an evil platform for people to be able to display their anger, and most of it is misplaced. You're not mad at me.

What are you mad at me about? You know what? I write books, and I write plays, and I write music, and, you know, come on, man. Speaking of misplaced, I'm going to put a little bit of you in the background, if that's okay.

You know, we can't get enough Tom Wilson. This song, of course, Lee Harvey Osmond. This is Mohawk, just in the background here. But speaking of misplaced anger, I've noticed a sentiment. In fact Mohawk just in the background here. But speaking of misplaced anger, I've noticed a sentiment. In fact, you just used the term, I think you said CBC murdered the character of

Buffy St. Marie. Am I paraphrasing that correctly? Yeah, it's pretty close to what I said. I should have wrote it down. The truth has no compassion, right? Should this be true? And that was a rather compelling episode of The Fifth Estate. I watched it three times. I watched it three times. right like should this be true and that was a rather compelling episode of the fifth estate i watched it three times yeah like i just watched it three times the journalist they may have been

white journalists but they did a great job and we did hear from indigenous people on the episode to give it some context and perspective now i've noticed misplaced anger people are seemed kind of angry at cbc like why would you go after Buffy? Like, everyone loves Buffy St. Marie. She's in her 80s now. And look at the good work she's done. Look at the great art she's created. And CBC, why are you doing this?

Like, I've noticed misplaced anger towards CBC for murdering Buffy's character. That seems misplaced to me. Yeah, I've noticed that too. And I have to agree with you. I mean, I did say what I said. Okay? I recorded it, Tom. That's okay.

I don't back down on that comment. It could have been done with three indigenous faces rather than three white faces. That's all I'm saying. Allow us the opportunity to make our statement, to let our voices be heard. And that would be fair.

As far as the program goes, you know what? I'm going to tell you that I was in New Brunswick lying in a hotel room when I opened up my phone and this was on. And the first thing I thought was, fuck you, CBC. Fuck you, Fifth Estate. And I started getting texts in from people I respect, people I really look to. As I said, I have two ears and one mouth, Mike. People that I respect started getting a hold of me,

and I said that to them. They said, well, wait a minute, Tom. If Buffy St marie is not indigenous she has stolen the voice an important voice of indigenous women in the indigenous world no one can take away what she's done but she has robbed the indigenous world of being of their voices being able to be heard outside of hers so you know what i'm not slamming buffy saint marie and i'm not slamming the cbc but uh you know there's there she's going to be forced to take a dna test and some people in my community are

saying you know that would that would fix it all you know whether she does that or not or whether she has anything to prove is another thing and if she is a italian american who lived 20 years in the united states middle class white christian upbringing she will not take a dna test well maybe you're right i mean as a lawyer i would say don't do that buffy no it would just be like basically marching to the gas chamber wouldn't it you know but you know my feeling at this point, again, I feel, you know, I didn't invite you here to speak for First Nation. You are here to talk Junkhouse. But it was a complete coincidence. I just want to point that out.

It is a coincidence. You were in the calendar before this story. And I'm going to tell you, Mike, I approach this subject cautiously. Okay? And I approach it with as much, I try to portray as much thought as I've put into it. So I'm careful only because I have to be respectful to Buffy St. Marie. I have to be respectful to the CBC, to this story. The story is wide open.

It's not a closed door yet. And I do have to say, one of the reasons I was the F in you and F in this, not you, Mike, was because, you know, it all came down. It all came down to that birth certificate, right? That birth certificate, Mike, I have a birth certificate. It doesn't have my parents' name on it. It doesn't have Jane Lazar or Louis Bova on it. It was forged by the doctor who gave birth to me.

Bunny and George Wilson's names were put on it and nobody blinked an eye. I know this because I talked to the doctor before he died. I talked to him probably nine years ago after I found out I was adopted. And he cried on the phone and he said, yes, he says, I did that. He says, I thought it was the best thing at the time.

He didn't deny that he still thinks it was the best thing at the time. So that's what it was. So birth certificates, any colonial documentation, I'm not buying, because the ability to be able to put down other people's names and a birth certificate is just there also the the idea you know that that she was not of the 60s scoop you know she used that phrase coined that phrase I don't use that phrase I'm very very important that I don't use that phrase. I'm very, very important that I don't use that phrase and just tell my story. But do we think the 60s scoop

just started because they invented a name for it? You know, is it like, okay, you know what, we're going to call this the 60s scoop. Now we have a name for what's going on. It only happened in these years. No, that's not the case. The case is that indigenous children were probably being taken from their homes for three or 400 years. Okay. It's just that we came up with a name 60 scoop for it. That's my take on it. I'm, I'm, uh, I'm available to be corrected on that. No. And I, I value your perspective on this, Tom. You know that. I will say, if people have not seen this episode of The Fifth Estate,

they do address that colonial documentation concern that you just raised there. It is explained why this wasn't recreated after the fact or forged, but that's all addressed in there. But I'm just here to say that I'm glad you're here. As your song winds down in the background, we are going to turn the page here,

and we're going to talk about Junk House. A note came in from Hulk. I've always been a big Tom fan, going back to the Florida Razor days. I'll be tuning in. So thank you, Hulk. Is that his real name, do you think? I think it is.

I need a birth certificate there, thank you, Hulk. Is that his real name? Do you think? I think it is. I need a birth certificate there, I think here. But Hulk, so he brings up Florida Razor Days. I'm going to seek from you very detailed account of basically how does Junk House come to be

and how Strays comes to be. I have a few choice jams pulled that I'm going to play from strays which is 30 years old right now but here we've introduced florida uh razors so give us the specifics like how does tom wilson from florida razors end up forming junk house how does that origin story go well i'll give you i'll give you i'll give you a very long story uh that i'm going to try and make very short for you i'm a a folk singer in the 70s, in my teens. I skip it out of school.

I'm playing the running pump. I was chasing after any gig I could possibly get, any chance to get on stage and play my songs. And I was going to do a gig at a place called, get this, the Pizza Patio in Hamiltonilton it was basically a fern bar but they paid me 600 bucks a week in 1977 to go and play so i was showing up i had a little white shirt and a little blue sweater on right and uh and probably some kind of slacks okay dressy pants and i'm going in there to the pizza patio. I get off the bus

and there's this lineup down the street in front of the pizza patio, right? And it's like, I don't know what this is. They're going into banisters and all these people are my age or older and they've all got, you know, wild hair and ripped clothes and some safety pins in their faces. And I walked through that line. I figured what is going on down that street? It was teenage head. And it was at that moment, Mike, that I looked down at my little white shirt and my, my sweater and my slacks. And I thought, I am doing something wrong here. And, uh, uh, you know, I mean, my, my interest was to communicate with people and to, um, keep, uh, building the ability for me to be able to reach more people.

So, uh, I realized that I was trading in $600 a week for my own, uh, youthful integrity. So I formed the Florida Razors. We, uh, we survived around Southern Ontario as a 401 band. We went from Detroit, Michigan to Montreal, Quebec. And then when we got to Montreal, Quebec, we went back. And back in those days, you were doing five, six nights a week in a bar. So that was about, you know, that was half your year of work going from Detroit all the way to Montreal. You know, it's like every, you know, chat.

We went through the tobacco country and we learned to survive. I went to play the tobacco bars, right, around the Tilsonburgs and Simcoes and things, and I looked out in the audience, and I saw all these migrant workers and young people working, and I thought to myself, these people are in need of two things, weed and speed.

So in order to keep the band on the road, you know, there was a lot of parking lot deals that went on, Mike, you know, that was survival. Florida Razors broke up and, uh, and I was, uh, at a party for, uh, an art party at an artist loft and Daniel Lanois and Dave Rave and Tim Gibbons were also at the party all all wonderful musicians and friends of mine and uh they said hey tom grab a guitar we're going to play a few songs at this party and we played we ended up playing uh you know songs lanois songs off his new record we did like joely louise how do you do and uh under a stormy sky and the maker and um then we went into this closet we were using as a little change room

it was you know we were just hanging out and having a beer and dan was talking about recording he was going to be recording the neville brothers in new orleans and i was just oh man i was working a construction job you know i was dirty all the time i was getting up at five in the morning i was going to work. I was basically killing myself because my desire was to create and to be an artist of some kind. And, uh, he looked at me, he even says in the documentary on my book on the, on the beautiful scars documentary goes, he goes, you know, he's, I think the paraphrases, I looked at the guy and he looked like a guy that needed to get out of Dodge. And so, um, he invited me down to new Orleans and I went down there and all of a sudden,

you know, there was like the Neville brothers were hanging around. Bob Dylan had just left, you know, people were making records. Mark Howard on this trip. Mark Howard was living there already. Yeah. Mark Howard was down there. Yeah. Mark Howard was a guy that used to be, uh, i don't want to get off course we will get back this

is what we do we'll come back of course but mark howard has been over with i love mark howard hamilton guy little guy you know what he used to do he used to be the guy that pulled the truck up in front of the the venue and loaded upstairs martin pas and total production set up for the night for us right we'd go and play. Nobody would show up. And then we'd leave, and he'd be there till like three in the morning loading this truck again, and he'd put his back out. Now, urban myth is that Ray Ferugia,

the drummer from Junkhouse, said, man, you should go down to Grand Avenue, and they might need you to do something. He said, what am I going to do down there? And Ray said, well, you're probably going to be making coffee, but at some point they're going to say, hey, do you know how to handle a board? I can't say that's exactly what happened, but that's what ended up happening, you know, without any specifics.

So that's Mark, you know, so Mark Howard, yeah, I'm so glad that you interviewed him. He's a genius and an interesting guy. Anyway, so I'm in New Orleans, come back home. I want to start a vehicle for my songwriting, but records that I love Toronto Mike are, um, kind of blue by Miles Davis, muddy waters, folk singer, and this record that had just come out by the cowboy junkies called the Trinity sessions. And when I saw, when I heard the Trinity Sessions, I recognized it as people that were treating the songs. There was no fancy playing. There was no guitar solos. There was no showing off. It was just a display of the true love for playing these

songs. And, uh, that's what I wanted to do. So I put Junk House together with Ray Ferugia at my kitchen table. And we had a bunch of songs we went out and played nobody liked us and uh then we started you know we started drinking a little bit and taking some of those pills that we were trying to sell down in tobacco country 10 years before all of a sudden we were turning up our amps and we were loud and we were fighting on stage and there was always a scene and then everybody started to love us they thought well that's kind of interesting so a junk house came out at a time uh but you got to remember the most important part of that story mike is that uh it was a vehicle for

the songwriting so it was meant to be songs that can be played around your kitchen table upstairs you and i could go upstairs with a guitar. I could play that whole record and it would translate to you because it's just me and a guitar. That's what those songs were. So we were not interested in being a rock and roll band. We had never even heard of alternative music, alternative music. Obviously we were alternative music. And then there was indie music i was selling vinyl records of the florida razors and bags of weed out of the trunk of my car in the early 80s don't talk to me about indie music you know what i mean so junk house uh uh gets signed by sony music and

uh they put this record out they're going to make this record with us. And some of the band were saying, I don't know, we don't want to sign with a major label. And Sony had said they're going to spend half a million dollars on us in the first six months promoting the band. And I thought, bingo. You know what? Half a million dollars spent on us.

If nothing happens with this record, we're at least going to have that advertising, that marketing, and we're going to have some kind of audience to play for, for the coming years. As it turned out, we ended up with a bunch of hits on the radio here in Canada and Europe and Australia and Japan. And, uh, you know, we got to play rock star for a couple of years there, Mike, that's, uh, that's the answer to all the other questions that you have. Look, Junk House made an impression on this guy right here. It's possible you're sitting in my basement now

for the third time enjoying that delicious coffee because of Junkhouse, right? Okay, thank you. It was all worth it. All right, we're going to get back to strays now. So many questions here, but Hamilton Mike did chime in, and we love the Hamilton questions because you're Hamilton Tom. So many questions here, but Hamilton Mike did chime in and we love the Hamilton questions because you're Hamilton Tom.

But Hamilton Mike says, what I absolutely love about Tom is that he never sheds identities to become another. He adds and builds on them, whether voluntarily assumed or thrust onto him, doing his damnedest

to be the best version of them. A rocker, a folky, a proud Hamiltonian, a proud Mohawk. Yeah, I like that guy. Thank you, Hamilton Mike. I was going to say, did you write this? I know who Hamilton Mike is

because he comes to TMLX events. What would it take for me to get Tom Wilson to TMLX 14 on December 9th? I don't even know what that is. At Palmer's Kitchen. We'll talk offline about that, but everyone's invited, including Mike. Is that Palmer's Kitchen? We'll talk offline about that, but everyone's invited. Is that Palmer's Kitchen? Yeah. Oh, good.

Just ask me. Are you kidding me? I'll be texting you about this. Absolutely. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community. Oh, yeah. I've got their tape measure. Yeah, you gotta measure stuff. Okay, so, you know, I mean, I respect funeral homes. One place I don't want to visit, I'll tell you that, but

or spend any long-term, you know, stays, but a tape measuring. Yeah, it comes in handy. You never know. I know, but what are they measuring down there? That is the thing. Use your imagination, absolutely. I don't even want to. They give out full chocolate bars on

Halloween at Ridley Funeral Home. That's a true story. Because they're trying to kill you. Yeah, absolutely. It's an investment in the future. Hey, I want to spend a moment on, you mentioned, I think you mentioned substance abuse and you mentioned the pills and the booze and at this period in your life. For the record, please, I'm not giving you any Great Lakes beer.

How long have you been clean and sober, Tom? On December 12th, I'll be 24 years. Congratulations, man. Thank you. But Jeremy Taggart. Oh, Jeremy! I love Jeremy! Oh, how nice. He says, the first time I met Tom Wilson, he was under a table complaining that

he shit himself and wanted to know when he was going on. So maybe we talk about this period here, because obviously, good on you, man. 24 years clean and sober. What a wonderful change in your life. And I'm sure your loved ones appreciate it. But let's face it, there were times like this in the Junkhouse days where you might be under a table complaining that you shit yourself.

Yeah, definitely. In fact, that was a standard practice for me back then. That was a good day. That was probably a good day. Well, I love Jeremy and that band was really good. He was in Our Lady Peace, you know.

But Jeremy, there's an example, you know, I mean, we're going back to Junk House compared to the rest of the musical world, right? Right. I was 33 years old when Strays came out. Jeremy was probably... 19? 18, 19. You know, I sat on a TV show and people called me out for it.

I said, well, we were playing. Our peers were all children. You know what I mean? That doesn't mean they were childish. They were brilliant artists. Right. Just that they were children compared to us. They were like, you know, late teens, early 20s.

Sloan and, you know, I don't know who, Da T Party. You know, most of those, a lot of those bands. iMotherEarth. iMotherEarth, you know. I mean, I had a mortgage and I had two kids at home. And I was serious, you know. So when I was kind of, you know what, I was a little bit like Toronto Mike at the podcast awards. I was elbows up and get out of my way.

Toronto Mike at the podcast awards. I was elbows up and get out of my way. And Steve Cole chimes in here before I play the, one of the big singles of strays. And we can talk about that, but Steve Cole chimes in to say, Tom Wilson has a voice and presence that commands attention. I love him. Oh,

so thank you very much. That's beautiful, Steve. Okay. Steve had, I had a Randy Backman on the program which was exciting to have randy backman and uh steve cole had all these old like 19 early 70s clips of when randy lost his uh gretch guitar like it was it was in the papers how he his guitar was

stolen and uh steve cole had kept all these clippings like a like he was documenting that for uh for randy That's pretty cool. Randy's, I like Randy a lot. I don't know Randy that well. I know Burton. Burton is like, I can say this, Burton's a big fan of mine. I'll bet.

Which is crazy, because Toronto Mike, when I was a kid, I'd go to baseball practice. I'd have a transistor radio in the glove, in my baseball glove, and the three, the holy trinity of voices were Gordon Lightfoot, John Fogerty, and Burton Cummings. They were the voices coming through on the radio. So Gordon Lightfoot, I became good friends with him, you know, in his final years. And Burton Cummings, like this is like my childhood dream come true. Cummings, this is like my childhood dream come true.

Randy Bachman, though, is a hustler. Randy Bachman is going to be a hustler to the day he drops. Because the guy, like the guitar player Dan Aiken who passed away from Junkhouse, he would tour, Randy Bachman would go through the paper

and see who was selling guitars. And he collected, he had that incredible Gretsch collection, which I don't think he has anymore. He sold it to the guy who invented it. Like the guy, Gretsch guy. Like he sold him to make a museum or whatever. Mr. Gretsch.

He tells that whole story to Mr. Gretsch. Yeah, I don't know his first name. Okay. So this is called Buskin in the Subway. And this is the guy, do you know the band Moby Grape? Yeah, I sure do. So Don Stevenson, who was the drummer in

Moby Grape, he actually lives in Toronto. He made his Massey Hall debut like last week, which was at 82 years young. Oh, wow. That's wonderful. Yeah, and he dropped by and I only bring it up because Burden Cumming appears on his song that he gave me, the CD

and he, Buskin in the Subway is one of the songs and Burden makes a guest appearance on it. and that Don Stevenson episode I think you'd love it man he played live by the tree outside it was amazing it's amazing oh okay I'll

tune in but this is amazing too so let's get this going here yeah I've been wasted, wasted I've been drowned in your arms I can't run With both legs broken on the ground I paint her face on every wall

I shout her name down empty halls And I'm going right out, right out of my head Going right out, right out of my head Going right out, right out of my head Going right out, right out of my head All right, I'll tell you, Tom, I think out of my head, hit me in the head when I first heard it, and it's like, okay, who are these guys? Like, this thing, couldn't miss it in this country,

and, you know, big jam for you guys, big breakout for Junkhouse. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's funny. I haven't listened to this for decades, right? What, they didn't play it on CP24 this morning? Yeah, but you don't get to hear anything. You just get to see the videos they're showing, right? You don't

really get any of the audio. That voice, that was me channeling Howlin' Wolf. And when Colin James met me, we've been writing songs since 1994 or 5. Anyways, when he met me, he goes, when I heard that song, he says,

I thought Howlin' Wolf had like a rock and roll record, you know? So that, I love that vocal, that vocal approaches. Did they play this song out of my head on CFNY 102.1? Fuck them. Well, let's talk about that because that was my primary station, but I diversified my portfolio. Well, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. We were, there was nothing groovy about our foreheads and we didn't have the right pants.

And so we didn't get played on CFNY and that was it. I took, I remember taking this record in with the uh record rep to cfny we took it to the music director there and he put it on and he stopped it like after before the first chorus even hit and he said uh yeah he says listen he says when's the new ren and stimpy cd coming out and it was was just like, I'm in the wrong place here. Who was that? Do you remember that guy's name? Don't remember,

but I pissed behind his couch. Good on you, man. Yeah. This is a song, you know what, Toronto Mike, we were taken to, when we were touring in Australia,

we were taken to an Australian Rules football game, which is basically going to be you at the podcast awards. And in between every play, they were playing this song. Really? Out of my head was blasting. And it's like this, you know, like 100,000 people all like,

they didn't know necessarily us that much, but they knew this song, you know. That's cool. I thought that was really cool. It was a great moment. Okay. So I wanted to address that they didn't it was a great moment so I wanted to address that they didn't play this

on CFNY because I know in 1993 it didn't make sense to me like why isn't out of my head on high rotation

at CFNY like it's bullshit I don't know I think it might be I will say my thought is that observing the industry so closely Tom

is that there seemed to be at that time they weren't owned by the same companies you had a CFNY and a Q10 that there seemed to be, at that time, they weren't owned by the same companies. You had a CFNY and a Q107 rivalry. And I feel like at that time, some bands were labeled one.

Some did cross over, like the hip would be played on both, et cetera. But some bands were like, okay, that's a Q band. That's a CFNY band. And I think that maybe you got labeled Q band. That's okay. Q107 did beautiful things for us.

Listen, in reality, at the age of 64, Toronto Mike, what are we talking about? It doesn't matter. You know what? I'm in this game. I was in the game then, and I'm in the game now to create. The reward is not if CFNY played my music. The reward is not in money. The reward is not in fame.

The reward is to be able to get through today and wake up tomorrow morning and have the opportunity to create something new that wasn't there yesterday. That is what this game is for me. I don't want to pretend. You know what? I'm recording right now in LA. Daniel Lanois is mixing a song that he and Tara Lightfoot and I wrote, you know, and he's going to make it fantastic. And my expectations are we wrote a great song. Daniel Lanois gave us everything he got in studio to make this song happen. Tara Lightfoot sang like an angel on this song.

Yeah. That's what this is about. It's about that human interaction and the art that you can create when people drop their egos and just step forward and open up their hearts. I swear to God. And it's still what it is for me. It's what it was in junk house, even though we were labeled, whatever we were labeled. And even though, you know, uh, I got to play and as I say, I put it under this umbrella, I got to play rock star for a little while, Mike, you know, so crucify me.

Spend another minute, if you will, as you, you sip that coffee there, uh, praising Tara Lightfoot. I feel she's underappreciated. What an artist. Yeah, she's brilliant. She's recognized by everyone who sees her, you know, and she's loved. And by the way, I'm going to say this honestly, Mike, one of the best people I've ever met in my life. She is a wonderful, wonderful person.

Why wasn't Out of My Head on high rotation in the United States of America? Yeah, that's a good question because we toured down there, you know. We toured down there with Green Day and Collective Soul and, geez, a bunch of other bands. It was the American, I mean, it was a big deal. We were on the cover of Billboard magazine and for about three minutes, I mean, it was a big deal. We were on the cover of Billboard magazine, and for about three minutes, Toronto Mike, I thought, oh, this is really going to happen.

Right. And it didn't happen. It didn't get the response that it was supposed to, that they hoped it would get in the first week. So it was just kind of forgotten, and that was it. And that's business that has nothing to do with art mike that has nothing to do with you liking this song and turning up the radio in your parents car when it came no i could give a fuck if this is played in

the states i didn't care that it wasn't played on cfny although i noticed shine was played on cfny like so late it's not like they had a no junk house policy they just uh denied strays for some reason yeah well they couldn't deny a shine that that's uh i co-wrote that with colin crips who you might see in blue rodeo uh and uh that's just a great song i'm sorry mike you know what it's uh i'm not being uh i'm not putting my ego forward i'm just saying i'm separating me my writing credit from that song that's a great song you know you write so many of your songs are great uh i will say i know you you've shared this story previously on toronto mic'd about writing uh burned out car with marie mclaughlin

yeah you know in the pre-sober days but as i recall but man that song and sarah mclaughlin's vocals on it that's a gorgeous song like i, you're just a talented artist in different genres. You can slow it down, you can rock it up. Just good on you, man. I wish I had, you know, one-tenth the talent of a Tom Wells. Oh, come on now, Toronto Mike. And that hair's great, too, and I noticed you're letting it go a little bit white, like you're starting to, I noticed. Well, this is a

process, Mike, okay, and I'm glad you brought it up for all of our listeners at home. So what was happening was yes, I mean, it's like I was dying my hair because I didn't want to look like Willie Nelson, okay? Not that there's anything wrong with the way Willie Nelson looks, but I wasn't ready for it. You weren't ready for it.

So it was growing all up at the top, right? And it was all kind of gray, this mushroom of gray hair on the top. So when I was on stage, it was like blinding. It was like I actually had gone to the hairdresser and got like this hombre, you know, dye job. And so I got in the habit of wearing hats and toques and stuff just to,

anyways, my wife said, you got to do something about this. So she took me to Adriano down at, uh, Madison Avenue on lock street in Hamilton, and he ran a bunch of gray through it. So now it's going to, now I'm going to be gray. I'm going to be gray like Leon Russell or Johnny winner or somebody. And, and it's going to happen naturally. Mike, it's going to be something you won't even notice.

In fact, it's going more gray right now. Every time you visit, it'll be whiter and whiter. It'll be whiter and whiter. I'm glad you've accepted this reality because that's who you are, Tom. Be natural. I will say, if you talk to your good friend, Colin James, because when he came over, the first thing I noticed was, oh, the guy at my door has white hair. And I'm like, oh, but the guy I

know from The Pighead has black hair. And he's like, Mike, he goes, I started to look like a magician. This is what Colin James told me. And he said, I got to be natural. Now, I am also natural. I'm not saying you have to be natural. You look great, Mike. Honestly, it takes one to know one.

Thank you for the kind words. But this is completely natural. I'm not doing anything to this hair. I did have a shower before you came over, which is how much I care about you. You smell fantastic. Yeah, so it's still wet. So once it dries, it'll start like puffing up. Toronto Mike,

Toronto Mike, I don't want to interfere with this important information that you're throwing out right now, but I've really got to go pee. No, no. Go pee. I'm going to play a song.

I've got the cop, Mike. I've got the cop. You know what? You're worthy of the toilet. So take off the headphones. Go use the can. I'm going to just shout out a couple of sponsors very quickly

before I get to Gimme the Love, another standout track on Strays. I'm going to just shout out a couple of sponsors very quickly before I get to give me the love, another standout track on strays. But I want to tell everybody, if they have old electronics, old devices, old tech, go to recyclemyelectronics.ca to find out where you can drop it off to be properly recycled.

I do have a gentleman from recyclemyelectronics.ca coming over soon, Cliff Hacking. We're going to kick out the recycling jams i wonder if i'll hear any junk house there and i know tom alluded to some cra problems i hope he's put some money into good investments that he learned about from the advantaged investor podcast from raymond james canada that's valuable perspective for canadian investors who want to remain knowledgeable informed and focused on long-term success. It's hosted by Chris Cooksey, who's a great guy.

I went to the Danforth Music Hall to see who band did I see? The Watchmen. That's it. I was there to see The Watchmen. I think Grapes of Wrath were there. So shout out to all the great Canadian 90s rock. While we wait for Tom, I'm going to start playing Gimme

the Love. Thank you. Give me some time to understand What makes woman and what makes man Give me some paper to read this news Give me some money to buy new shoes Give me the love Give me the love Give me the love Give me the love Give me the cross and holy water

Give me a dime or give me a dollar Give me some space to breathe some air Give me the street to grow my hair Give me the life that I ask for Give me the light to reach the dawn Give me the love, man. And this speaks, I think, I mean, again, I'm going to play a couple more jams before you escape.

By the way, do you have, you mentioned CP24, now Toronto Mike, some of the biggest venues we have in this country for people like Tom Wilson. But do you have a hard out? Here we are. It's almost 11 o'clock. I never asked you this. I should have done it before.

But are you like, Mike, I got to blow it, 11 o'clock? Now's the time to tell me. No, I'm a musician. I don't have anything to do, Mike. Come on. The CBC is not waiting for you to come in for a panel discussion right now? No, I actually have a after this, I have a Zoom meeting with

the guys from Marquee who are the producers of my play. Okay, so I want to hear about Give Me the Love, but I also want a little more detail. So I can see this play next year, 2024? 2024, Theatre Aquarius. Theatre Aquarius is in Hamilton, and

it is the launching pad for all Canadian musicals now. So if you are writing a play, a musical, and it gets any kind of traction, it gets launched at Theater Aquarius, which is pretty cool. I'd drive to Hamilton for that. Well, I hope you do. Be my guest. I would love it. I'm going to make a trip to Hamilton soon to see Skydiggers. Oh, yeah. They're at the Westdale, aren't they? I ought to check my Google calendar to tell you where they are. I think they're at the Westdale.

I'll be there. I have it in my calendar too. Want to sit beside me? Yes, I do. I want to sit beside you. We can compare our hair colors. Give me the love. You know what? I'm not even reading the title of that song. I'm looking at you, Tom, and I'm just saying, give me the love, man. Yeah.

Dig it. Like, I want to be, when can I see Junk House live again? What's going on with Junk House? Well, December 2nd, we're going back to our old stomping ground, the horseshoe, and we're doing one show. So, Sony Music, who were really good to us back in the day. $500,000 good. Wow, that's just for starters, right? You know, I mean, as I joke, you know, I made so much money in that era, and good. Wow, that's just for starters, right?

I mean, as I joke, I made so much money in that era, and then I spent all that money on drugs, which is why I'm here talking to you today, Matrona Mike. It's a poor investment. It's a poor investment for sure. Sony decided to release Strays for Record Store Day, and I was completely surprised. In fact,

I was overjoyed because I love vinyl and I'm going around the corner to the vinyl place after I leave. Love that place. Yeah. On the way home. What's the name of it? Vinyl. I almost called it the vinyl cafe,

but it's the vinyl something. I'll Google the name, but yeah, just around the corner. Vinyl place. The vinyl cafe.'s the Vinyl something. I'll Google the name, but yeah, just around the corner. The Vinyl Place. The Vinyl Cafe. Okay. The Vinyl something.

Anyways, so we thought, well, let's do a couple shows, you know, so we're going. Vinyl Village. No,

Village Vinyl. Village Vinyl. Village Vinyl. Village Vinyl on the lakeshore in Etobicoke. It's the place I go for my vinyl. 2925 Lakeshore Boulevard. 2925 Lakeshore Boulevard. Shout out to them.

Okay. Yeah. Pete Fowler did a fundraising thing for them during the pandemic, which is side story. But okay. Wonderful. Wonderful. And okay. So it's funny.

I'm going to be at Horseshoe tomorrow night. Yeah. Tomorrow night I'm at Horseshoe to see Art Bergman. Oh, wow. That's great. And Art just wrote a, you know, he's a great artist too. We both have the Order of Canada, by the way. I'm glad you brought up the Order of Canada.

You're wearing that. That's what the pin is, I see, by the pop? Yes, I was actually in line for an order of fries, but they gave me this instead, so I went to house. I know. I know. I said we're moving on from Buffy and we're getting back to Junk House, but there were calls for a couple of things I noticed. Like, for example,

she won a Juno. How many Junos do you have, Tom? Five. Good on you. You got those in your pocket? Or are they in the car? I'd wear them around my neck. I'll tell you what, they've been in pawn shops before. When things were a little rough. I'm sorry. Next time, let me know.

I'll email you a hundred bucks. Not enough. What does a Juno go for these days? know. I'll email you a hundred bucks. And we don't want to. Not enough. Not enough. What does the Juno go for these days? I got problems worth more than a hundred bucks. You know where I'm going with this, but there's a call, Buffy St. Marie won an award for indigenous art. And that stops an actual indigenous person

from winning that award because she won it. And they're saying she should give it back and we should reward the true person who deserved that award. What are your thoughts on that? I think it's over. It's history. Come on. It's petty shit. Um, let's stop. Uh, let's stop, uh, using these formats, uh, social media or just our big mouths to, uh, to concentrate on, on petty negativeness um let's move forward you know what um buffy hopefully will help us move forward if not we're going to move forward without her okay um the thing is that uh now uh the indigenous voice has been watered down by this. Space has been taken. An 11-year-old girl committed suicide

on a reserve here in Canada. Nobody has talked about that, but everybody is still talking about Buffy because it indulges an anger in people that they got to release somewhere. But what about the heart and the love and the understanding? What about an 11-year-old girl who is so desperate that she takes her own life?

Is that not worth talking about? Glad you're talking about it. Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that. Did not hear that. All right. Back to strays. to Strays. I'm going to see if I can imitate this voice now.

Okay, I think I can do it. Big sun setting on the field. I can't sleep in this tractor wheel. I put a seed into the earth Not bad. Brand for the rain. So I do this once a month. I have Rob Proust. He was a keyboardist in The Spoons.

Yeah. Burlington band, not a Hamilton band. Colin Kripps was in that band. Really? Maybe he took over for Rob Proust. Yeah. He ended up in Hollywood, Honeymoon, I almost called it Hollywood Suite.

Yeah. That's something else, Honeymoon Suite. Okay. But anyway, we were going to kick out Rain Jams next month, because November rain, whatever, and then we changed it to Radio Jams. But if we were kicking out Rain Jams, I'd kick out Praying for the Rain.

Yeah, it's a good song, eh? Yeah, and it's like, you know, you hear it out of my head, and then you hear this, and it's like showing off a little versatility here. This has got a little slower, more melancholic sound. Digging it. Yeah, that was written about Highway 6. That was actually written about, you know, tobacco country just south of Hamilton. It was actually written about, you know, tobacco country to south of Hamilton.

It was written about the Mystic Highway, Highway 6 that runs from Hamilton down to Lake Erie. I was being interviewed by the BBC in London, England. And they said, well, you certainly have a southern sound. And I said, you mean like southern Ontario? And they said, well, I don't know what you mean. I said, well, let me tell you what I mean. And I told them about the Mystic Highway, about that Highway 6, where Robbie Robertson spent his summers on the Six Nations, and where there's this mixture of Mohawk culture and migrant workers and fields of tobacco and people getting it on. Summer Gardens, you know, where everybody from Suzy Quatro to Crowbar played in that little dance hall in Port Dover.

And it's where Ronnie Hawkins, when he had to fire his drunken bass player Rebel Payne, found a kid in Turkey Point who grew up shitting in a Crisco can named Rick Danko and had him join his band. Canadian music? Sure. Americana music changed on that highway when all those guys met. Wow. Here's the phone book. Read that now. That was well done.

Okay. Shout out to Hamilton. So this album you mentioned, available in vinyl, like somebody right now can pick up strays on vinyl. Maybe, yeah. I hope so. It'd be nice if they did. Absolutely.

I'm going to give you one. I got one in the trunk of my rental car. As you see, you've given me vinyl before. You've got to have a junk house. It'll get a prominent spot in the TMDS studio here. I love your setup here. You've got a have a junk house. It'll get a prominent spot in the TMDS studio here. I love your setup here. You got Hulk Hogan. No, not Hulk Hogan.

Andre the Giant. Yeah. You got Brian Linehan, which is like a Hamilton guy. And we lost him, didn't we? He's long. Yeah, sadly, we lost him long ago. He was a great interviewer. He was like he knew.

He looked up the asshole of everybody he talked to, man. He knew so much. Well, that's here because the watchmen know that I was inspired by Brian Linehan and I tried to bring a little Brian Linehan research to the Toronto Mike experience. So they wanted to gift me this and tell me that Brian would be proud of me.

You can now imagine Brian could hear about my Canadian podcast award nomination. I know. Well, you're winning this year. You got to win, Mike. Too many people love you. My brother-in-law, Andrew Brunel, once again, says hello. He loves this show.

Come on. It only took you an hour to shout him out. I was hoping you'd lead with that. Are you kidding me? Okay. I'm going to play. I know you're a busy guy. You've got to get on this Zoom call.

I'm going to play one more song from Strays. And then you have to promise me this will not be your last appearance. I need you to come back and kick out the jams with me. Today, you started talking about a lot of the artists that influenced you. And imagine if you took some time and assembled a list of the 10 songs that

made Tom Wilson. And then we played them and talked about those 10 songs. I'll do that with you, Mike. Because there's a lot of music that influenced me as a kid. I'll do that with you, Mike, because there's a lot of music that influenced me as a kid. As I told you a little bit about the Holy Trinity and my baseball glove. Yeah.

I'm writing book two right now, too. After this week, tomorrow, just to let you, I don't know when this is aired. Is this live now? It's technically live, but the podcast, because you can't have a live podcast, the podcast will be in the feed by noon today. Okay.

Well, then tomorrow I'm at the Glenn Gould Theatre joining Barty Benton for his Caribou review, which is going to be really exciting. Last year I went there and interviewed him backstage. He's a great guy. Yeah. He's a great guy. You know that there's like the tallest building

for decades in Vancouver was the Bentall building. Did not know that. Yeah, he's from the construction. His family's a construction company. Basically built Vancouver. Okay, so Barney is a fantastic guy. An unbelievable talent. And once again, we talked about people who are overlooked.

Yeah. There's a guy that's overlooked who should not be overlooked because he picks up a guitar and sings He Melts Your Heart. So I'm going to be with Barney, and then I'm doing a clothing store. I've got to actually look it up. I'm doing a clothing store in Queen Street with The Trues and Tara Lightfoot. And I don't know who else is doing this, but it's going to be exciting. 18, what is it, 18, I don't even know else is doing this, but it's going to be exciting.

18, what is it? 18, I don't even know what it's called. I can't be responsible. Well, do you want me to start playing the song? I want to get to... Yeah, yeah, yeah. You do your show. I'll start this. Enjoy your show.

I want you to enjoy yourself more. Oh, 18 Waits. 18 Watts. Tom Waits? Okay, 18 watts. 18 watts? Tom Waits? Okay, 18 watts. What you got there? Ha. What you got there? Oh. Oh.

I'm just laughing about this song. Okay. No, I'm not. I'm paying attention to you. It's like we're on a date. I shouldn't be on my phone. Are you filing your taxes right now? I wish I would.

I've learned my lesson. So you just didn't pay taxes? You just ignored the income? Yeah, I fought the law, and the law won. No wonder Jesus is singing the blues. Come on. Afternoon strong with the pirates And it's Jesus that sings the blues

It's Jesus that sings the blues. It's Jesus that sings the blues. With ether the hymns play through. The devil gets all the glory. But it's Jesus that sings the blues.

I wrote this song in Amigos, the first Amigos in Hess Village in Hamilton. I used to do every Wednesday night. And I'd just sit with a guitar and play songs for like, you know, four hours. And as I was sitting there, I was starting writing songs. And this is one of the songs I wrote.

And this is, of course, the song. And I've told the Bruce Springsteen story on your show before. I love that story. Yeah, so this is the song that put me in a dressing room meeting Bruce Springsteen because he loved this song. And you were staring at his tits. I looked at his tits. There's a rule, Mike.

You know the rule. Guys have a rule. You never get caught staring at another man's tits. And I got caught. So we didn't have that blue-collar bond that I was dreaming about. But he said to me, this is Tom Wilson.

He wrote Jesus Sings the Blues. He said, yeah, yeah, I love that song. You know, if Jesus sang, Tom, he'd certainly sing the blues. I said, all right, Bruce. Nail on the head, buddy. I was supposed to see Bruce Springsteen

for the first time this month, and he's, of course, postponed his show, so I will see him in November 2024. Yeah, he's not feeling well, I guess.

An ulcer is what I read. Oh, man. Well, the guy's a nervous wreck, eh? How are you feeling these days? I'm tired. You know, my wife's got me going to hot yoga. And now I don't want to stand, you know,

I'm not the yoga guy that stands on one foot with a bowl of fruit on his head, right? I'm the yoga guy that hits the mat and does all those stretches for my hips, my lower back, my neck, my knee. But I'm seriously considering getting this knee looked at because I think I'm going to need knee surgery. You know, I played hockey as a kid like we all did. And I fell downstairs. And, you know, lots of things happened

to me physically that happened to us when we're either playing sports or we're drunk. And I have both those injuries going on. So I got to take care of my body right now, Toronto Mike, because you know what? I don't want to lose mobility.

And I mean, I'm talking. No, that's everything. I'm actually telling you what's on my mind. I'm just saying things now, but this is what's been on my mind. The drive from CP24 at the old City TV to here, that's what I was thinking about. I saw it at Massey Hall. I guess it was about a year ago, I saw Bruce Colburn at Massey Hall,

and he doesn't have mobility now, he just sits down and plays the whole show. I would go see Tom Wilson just sitting there playing. I don't want that. You know, and Bruce, God love Bruce, you know what, he's, God, the poor, you know, he's just kind of crippled up. I saw him in Hamilton Place earlier this month.

He has two canes he walks out with, and then he sits down, and then that claw of a hand comes out, and he starts playing. And it's like, you know, do you know when Eddie Van Halen got hailed as the greatest guitar player in the world? They said, how does it feel to be the greatest guitar player in the world, Eddie Van Halen? And he said, I don't know. Why don't you go ask Bruce Colbert? Wow.

You know. Love it so much. Okay, so Jesus Sings the Blues. This is the lead track. How much did you give a shit about sequencing? I'm always curious. This is the first song on Strays. Not out of my head. It's this one.

Is this to set the mood? Who chooses the sequencing for an album? Well, I probably sequence part of it, you know. There was a big argument in New York. I didn't go to New York to the mastering, but there was a big argument between the producer and the record company. Which producer?

Because there's a few guys. Malcolm. Malcolm Byrne was the only producer on this record. Okay, not Mike Roth or Gary Furness. Well, Mike Roth was in there, right? I guess that he and Malcolm got into it. And then Dan Aiken, the late Dan Aiken, he got into it too. And I was getting phone calls from New York saying,

they want to do this and they want to do that. And then I get a call from somebody else saying, they're trying to push this and I don't want that. And it's just like, all right, you know what? How many songs do we record? We're putting everyone on the record. And I just said, I'm like, all right, you know what? How many songs do we record? We're putting everyone on the record. And I just said, I'm not fighting about this. You know what?

If somebody wants to hear, you know, out of my head, they can play that over and over and over again if they want. But if they want to sit down and listen to a record, just listen to the record. But I do believe in 10-song records, Mike. I think that it's bullshit that the the digital format led us to uh over extend ourselves artistically and as a result water down our messaging so future tom wilson uh projects we'll see oh 10 songs i got them you know what you know what i should mention this there's a couple things okay so here so this is the i'm gonna play some lowest of the low and play us

out but i please let's drain the swamp here. Wait a minute. You've got to know about this album that's coming out with my son and I. Tell me. It's very simple. It's an ambient record. It sounds like this.

I guarantee you, you're going to put this record on, you're going to be asleep in seven minutes. Kind of like Brian Eno. More, yeah, well, sure. Just a sec. But it's like, this is, so I made this record. It's for my art exhibits. All instrumental.

My son and I. Beautiful. Yeah, thanks. So that is going, that's a companion to a book that's being published in my artwork. So that's coming out in the new year. Love the lowest of the low. I never knew those guys that well. Oh, they're here next week.

You can come over and hang with them if you want. I had Amy from Stars come by. Oh, Amy Milan? Yeah. Is she not delightful? Oh, my God. What a wonderful person. Oh, no.

She was awesome. She's hilarious. She was over at my house. I gave her a piece of art. Get out of here. Okay, yeah. She was just here. I hilarious. She was over at my house. I gave her a piece of art. Get out of here. Okay, yeah. She was just here. And I'm playing a song because...

Since you've been gone I've been selling all my clothes I needed money, honey So do I. Cause I can't go back where I came from So do I. This is a song for my mother. And every night I love her From star to star Three thousand miles through these empty bars

And I end up sleeping Out in my car. It's nice. It's gorgeous. I've got to start listening to my music or music in general on headphones. It's a good thing. Or here, like when you have new music, just drop by. We'll listen together through the headphones and you'll...

Well, you know what? I think you should probably take something from this for exhibit record and make it like part of your thing. Send it over, buddy. I'm happily doing it. You can get it on Spotify. Just go get it. Oh, City in Color. Yeah. This song was written with my son, Thompson.

He's really good, man. Beautiful Scars. What strikes me is your fantastic book is called Beautiful Scars. This song is called Beautiful Scars, and what strikes me is, so your fantastic book is called Beautiful Scars. This song is called Beautiful Scars. I guess technically this is a Blackie and the Rodeo Kings song, right? Yeah, written by Thompson, Wilson, and myself. Okay, how many things in the Tom Wilson repertoire,

the catalog, are called Beautiful Scars at this point? Okay, there's an album, a Lee Harvey Osmond album, that didn't have a song called Beautiful Scars on it. Then there was the Blackie and the Rodeo King album, and City and Color and I sang a song that my son and I wrote called Beautiful Scars. Then I wrote a book called Beautiful Scars. It became a bestseller, and then it became a documentary movie called Beautiful Scars.

Congrats on that, too. Unbelievable. And now we have a musical, a play, opening up in April called Beautiful Scars. It's kind of a Beautiful Scars decade, isn't it? Yeah, I was going to say, what's next? Are you going to open up a pizzeria and call it Beautiful Scars?

I don't know. Is there any money in it? Well, I'll talk to the Picucci family at Palma Pasta. Maybe we can do a... They're only in Mississauga and Oakville and Palma Pasta

should be in Hamilton too. I think Palma Pasta should be in Hamilton although there is some competition there. There's some good North End Italian grocery stores

and restaurants dishing out food. So you and I are going to hang out at the Sky Digger show soon? Yeah, you know, I'm going to tell you there's a place to eat right next door called Nana.

It's a Persian restaurant. And you know what? If you don't eat before you leave home, Toronto Mike, it's two doors over from the Westdale Theatre. So think about that, will you? And I want to see you at Horseshoe Tavern early December. December 2nd, Junk House at the Horseshoe Tavern, yeah. I'll be there.

Okay, I can't wait. Amazing. And you're amazing. And I really appreciate chatting with me, not only about strays, which turns 30 people, you can get it on vinyl now, but also Buffy St. Maria.

I need, I feel the need to talk about it. Thank you, my friend. Before we go, I'm just going to say, anytime I get a microphone in front of me, I encourage people to open up their hearts and show love and patience and respect

to everybody that they meet every day. We have the power to make this a better world for the seven generations coming. We can't rely on churches or governments or corporations to do it. Open up your hearts, everybody, and offer the love that you have inside you. it. Open up your hearts, everybody, and offer the love that you have inside you. And that brings us to the end of our 1,356th

show. You can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky. I'm at Toronto Mike. Tom is at Lee Harvey Osmond on Twitter. Anywhere else you want to send people? Instagram. I don't know. You can look at pictures of my grandkids or my

art there. Amazing. Or you can go on Twitter and see people being rude to me. You know, it's great. Shout out to Barb. And much love to all who made this award nominated podcast. That's what I'm going to start saying. Yeah, do it.

It's true. Award nominated podcast possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta. Tom, you're getting your lasagna. It's in the freezer. Thank you. Raymond James Canada, Moneris, Recycle My Electronics, and

Ridley Funeral Home. See you all tomorrow when I'm speaking with Globe and Mail great author Roy McGregor. He makes his Toronto Mike debut. He's also got the Order of Canada. Oh, right. That's back-to-back Order of Canada. We'll say hi to him.

It's a secret society. Like the Masons? Yeah, we all go and have, we go through fast food drive-thrus. That's the thing when you have the Order of Canada. So, you know, if Leonard Cohen was still alive, it would be like me and Leonard. We'd team up. Me, Leonard Cohen, Lorne Michaels, Neil Young going for the drive-thru, right? That's our thing.

Molly Johnson in that club. Molly Johnson would be there for sure. I love Molly. Love her too. Denise Donlan. Okay, I'm just shouting out all the Donovan Bailey's now in that club. Good. Good.

Denise is a friend of mine, so yes. She tells me... Well, because Murray McLaughlin... Bernie Finkelstein. Also an FOTM. Yeah. See how this works? But Bruce is not.

Springsteen's not, and neither is Bruce Colburn, even though Bernie Finkelstein is, and loved the experience. Listen, all I can say, if they're giving me the Order of Canada, you're not far behind me, Tron. I'm like... Rosie and Gray Yeah the wind is cold But the smell of snow

Warms me today And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is Rosie and Gray Well I've kissed you in France And I've kissed you in Spain

And I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain And I've kissed you in places I've been