Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Tyler Stewart from BNL: Toronto Mike'd #420

Episode Date: January 10, 2019

Mike chats with Tyler Stewart about a million things Barenaked Ladies related and otherwise.

Welcome to episode 420 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, Paytm Canada, Palma Pasta, Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair, and our newest sponsor, Buckle. That's B-U-K-L. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me is Barenaked Ladies drummer, Tyler Stewart. Welcome, Tyler. Good to be in the basement once again. You've been here before.

I had, no. I mean, you know, just back in the basement. You know, the lore of Barenaked mean you know just back in the basement You know if you The lore of Barenaked Ladies is that we started In basements so we're back Back to our roots That's where all the great creative Bursts sort of the origin

That's where the spark is lit is in basements Yes the spark is lit on 420 Episode 420 That is correct sir It's funny that you're 420 Because you were originally going to be 419 and then we swapped you and Joel Goldberg. Joel Goldberg is going to be 420,

but you're 420. I want to ask you right off the top, if you ever cross paths with Custom, do you remember Hey Mister? Yeah. Do you ever cross paths ever in Barenaked Lady's career with Custom? With Custom.

I bet you probably at some point or other when we were playing every festival there was, whether it was the World Wildlife Benefit at Asperger's Bay, we probably crossed paths with Custom at some point. He's a Calgary guy. He's a Canadian, although he's in Manhattan for a long time, but for like the past 15 years or so, he would send me like unreleased stuff that he would cook up.

And he sent me this song years ago. Like he sent me this like, I don't know, 12 years ago or something. This is called Bong Bubble. And I stick it on a bunch of mixes of mine. I dig it. It never got released or anything, but I just thought I'd play it on 420.

Bongo. Yeah, 420. You know, it's a good thing you have me here, Mike, because I'm such a stoner. Actually, I'm not. But, you know, it's so funny how 420 has taken on this huge significance. I guess it's just like a buzzword, right?

But, you know, and it's a time of day where everybody gets high. Are you like a buzzword, right? But, you know, and it's a time of day where everybody gets high. Are you an imbiber, Mike? No, I'm not, but I was going to ask you if you're a friend of Mary Jane. You know, I'm not an enemy of Mary Jane.

I'm an acquaintance of Mary Jane because, well, I'm in a rock band, and, you know, there are various members of our industry yes but there's also like I mean Biff Naked came on to tell me she's straight edge do you know yes yeah so straight edge is like that's like super straight edge I guess you know drinking no drugs no diet coke no nothing I don't think you get to have anything when you're straight edge but well Biff is you know she is a very uh driven and determined woman and uh

also you know i met her probably i'm gonna say about 30 plus years ago when she was in a band called gorilla gorilla and she was like a punk rock kid you know like uh living in the back of a van traveling around those guys they they did shows with like green day back of a van, traveling around. Those guys, they did shows with Green Day back of the day and No Effects and all them. She was probably one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen in my life. She still is, man. She's got this exotic beauty.

She's tremendous. Eyeballs. Her eyeballs are enormous. You're right. Enormous eyeballs. Big, beautiful eyeballs. She's coming in to kick out the jams next month. So listeners should be aware. Biff's going to kick out the jams next month. So listeners should be aware.

Biff's going to kick out the jams. One day if this goes well, you should come back and kick out the jams. For sure. Absolutely. Biff naked ladies. Honestly, that would be amazing. Let's do that. Just a little Cypress Hill, a little more conventional 420 music. But now that I find out you're not

a friend of Mary Jane, not that you're an enemy of Mary Jane, but you don't partake. Our 420 chat is pretty boring. Two guys who don't partake. Yeah, if there's anyone tuning in for episode 420 and we're like, oh, right on, we're going to talk skanky bud the entire time, sorry, I apologize. But are you glad it's legal? Is this something you're pleased with, that it's legal to partake? I find myself going back and forth on that because I have

teenagers and I was a teenager once who imbibed in some marijuana and the studies are out there that it could be potentially harmful to developing minds. But it's not legal for them though. Not legal for them, exactly. But easier access in general. And there's also studies. But it's not legal for them, though. Oh, not legal for them, exactly.

But easier access in general. And there's also studies that say it cures and helps ease the symptoms of a myriad of diseases and ailments. So I'm on the fence. I'm back and forth. I really, I think it's, the more legal something is, perhaps the criminal activity surrounding it will diminish. How old are your teenagers exactly?

19 and 17. Okay, so my boy will be 17 in a week. So I've had the conversation with him that like, go nuts, but wait till you're like 21. Let the brain, because I'm with you. I've read these same studies. Developing brain. I don't like the idea of them. I'm not anti-marijuana.

I just be 21, let the brain finish growing and then enjoy. Also, there's levels of like the stuff that's being smoked. The stuff that's being smoked today is much more potent, I think, than anything before, plus synthetic elements. And you don't know what you're getting. One of the good things about legalization, though, is probably like a sommelier of weed experiences. You know, you go and have a delicious dinner at a restaurant, and there's somebody who can guide you through wines. A sommelier will say, you're having roast pork. Really, you should have this delicious Pinot Noir.

Right. I think maybe knowledge of marijuana strains, et cetera, is a good thing. And perhaps trained experts will help with your experience. Do you, Tyler, do you know what sparked this moment right now? Do you know what sparked your visit today? Are you even aware? Like, I need to give you a little backstory here. Well, I got the, on Twitter. Yeah.

Yeah. So Mr. Weisblot, Mark Weisblot, the one of the 1236 experience. Do you subscribe? Yes, I do the 1236 experience. Do you subscribe? Yes, I do. Okay. Do you know he's here every quarter? Yes. So four times.

He only comes for the beer, I think, but it's always a fun time when he's here. So are you aware that, well, there was a, in fact, I want to play a clip. I almost think I should play the clip first to set this up, but let me just say that we lost a great comedic genius. We lost Bob Einstein. Yes. Super Dave

Osborne. Yes, indeed. So I'm chatting with me and Mark Weisblatt chat all the time because there's nobody in the city who's more in touch with the zeitgeist, like what's going on, than Mark Weisblatt. There's no one geekier and more into information than Mark Weisblatt. That's what I geekier and more into information than Mark Weisblot.

That's what I meant. So he gave me a little 411 and I said, really? And then, okay, first of all, I'm a lifelong fan who bought the yellow tape and loves Barenaked Ladies

and I've seen them as recently as that last stop at Massey Hall. I was there. Yeah. I love your band. Thank you. And I think you're great.

But what sparked your appearance was none of that. Right. I was there. Yeah. I love your band. Thank you. And I think you're great. But what sparked your appearance was none of that. Right. It was a tidbit that Mark Weisblatt shared with me about you and Super Dave. So what I'm going to do

is I'm going to play a little bit. I hope I'm allowed to play him now. Gian Gomeschi. Oh, yeah. On cue. So let's listen to this. Now, let me tell you

something else. What's that? Do you know the other great Canadian rock group? I don't know. No, give me one. I can't tell you something else. What's that? Do you know the other great Canadian rock group? I don't know. No, give me one. I can't even think of it. Rush, the Tragically Hit? No, the one that was just kind of. Nickelback. No, keep going.

Guess who? Nope. Sam Peters? They were famous kind of for a minute. Lumber Boy? No. When were they famous? A couple of years ago. You know it if I said it in a minute. But he was my driver when I did Super Dave. Really?

Yes. And he was a great kid, but a whore. He would come late. He'd pick me up from the airport, and we're driving back to my hotel, and I've got meetings and casting. He turned left, and we were in a parade. We rode for three hours. Was it Tyler Stewart? No, I don a parade. It was a Tyler Stewart. No,

I don't know if Tyler, Tyler was Tyler. There's Tyler, but he must've been really young. Yeah. Tyler. What's the name? Yeah.

That son of a bitch. He left me at the airport for two hours. I said, where are you? All the traffic was, and I left late. Uh, okay. And we, you know,? All the traffic was, and I left late. Okay.

You know that Puerto Rican parade? Puerto Rican parade. Well, they have a parade every year. I was in the middle of it. Okay, we're going 10 seconds. Here we go. Yeah. Amazing. Amazing.

Yeah, I got so many questions. Why don't we start by you were his personal assistant? Yeah, Amazing. Amazing. Yeah, I got so many questions. Why don't we start by, you were his personal assistant? Yeah, yeah. I was his driver slash personal assistant. I love, first of all, let's talk about the comedic genius of Bob Einstein. He wouldn't give the name of the band. He knew my name, and he knew the name of the band, but he wanted to... He was pulling Gian along, right?

He always knew what made a good, funny moment. He's really good at that. And he's also the master of the uncomfortable, right? So he would just string that out anyway. But that wasn't part of the show. That was the pre-show chatter. So still he's on, right? Even though he knows he's not live anywhere. Absolutely absolutely well he he and i had a very contentious relationship because listen i'm

i was probably uh well that's 1988 so i was 20 years old um and uh i had just i was in the middle of taking radio and television arts at ryerson so So I got the summer job working on the Super Dave Osborne show. A lot of it was just, you know, moving chairs around at tapings or driving scripts. This is pre-internet, so driving script revisions around. And then when Bob came to town, like two days, sorry, two weeks into the job, they said, well, Tyler, I think you're going to be his driver. I was like, great. I went and picked up a Cadillac a freaking gray cadillac seville wow at uh at the rental place and went to the airport and what happened was i picked him up and i missed the turnoff for south on um 427 down to the uh you know the gardener there i know know it well. Yeah. So instead, I ended up having to go across the 401.

And I got to the 401, and then I went down, I don't know, Bayview or something. We were never in the Carabana Parade. Oh, yeah, because when he talks about the Puerto Rican Parade, he clearly means the Carabana Parade. Yeah, but never, never were we in that parade. But see, that's comedy right just change the story a little bit yeah yeah make you know made made me that son of a bitch i love that

that's so it's so him but at the same time he's a guy that off stage or you know when you're working for him he's an asshole like straight up he's and that's his his shtick is i am an asshole and i swear every man and woman i've ever come across who worked on that show with me told me that bob einstein didn't like me because i was funnier than he was you yeah yeah so you know i mean i'm not sure how to take that you, whether just being funny because I was inept at my job. Let's just say, thank God I'm a rock star now. Thank God I found another career other than driving Super Dave Osborne around. resurfaced with the sad passing of Bob Einstein. You know, everyone he works for, everyone who hires him, is in awe of him because he's a guy who managed to take

one joke, essentially reinventing Bugs Bunny Roadrunner cartoons, and making a show out of it. But also because he has such a rich history, whether it's Laugh-In, or the 60s just smothers brothers all these kind of groundbreaking comedy shows where he was a head

writer and uh you know he worked with steve martin back in the day on laughing and so he and being on larry david's show he's like comedy royalty but you know him and i when he'd come to canada to shoot bizarre or uh you know super dave osborneborne Show, he was up here doing his thing. And his thing, he's famous for that, but I'm way more in awe of him for what he did in the past. Yeah, and his brother's damn funny, too. Oh, Christ, Albert. He's amazing. Well, imagine that.

The Einstein Bros' dad was a comedian. Well, I guess you've heard the story that the dad passed away on stage or in a performance. Park your carcass. It was his nickname. But imagine him being a comedian with the last name Einstein and of course you name your kid Albert.

Right. As the ultimate joke. So anyway, there you go. So Albert Einstein became Albert Brooks. The rest is history. But I'm going to just play a little bit of Super Dave Osborne just to get a taste for what that was. Hello, everybody. This is Mike Walden. Welcome to the Super Dave Osborne Show.

That guy was a sweetheart, by the way. The greatest daredevil entertainer of our day, the one and the only Super Dave Osborne. Unfortunately, as can happen on any show, we've got a little bit of a problem tonight. The Super One has yet to arrive. Now, I know this has to be killing him because he's waited for this moment his whole life. Maybe because you were driving him. That's a shame because he had such a terrific show planned for you. Could be.

With a special guest star, the one and the only Ray Charles, and some great surprises. Frankly, I have no idea why the Super 1 is so late. But please stay tuned because I am certain he's going to be along any moment now. In all of the years that we have been working together, he has yet to miss a show. Tonight will be no exception, I am sure. Wait a minute. What's that I hear now? Hey, get the cameras over there right now.

You know what? The Super 1 is surprising us with the stunt of his life. Wow. What an incredible human being. Whoa. Look out. Ha ha. It's a little visual.

What's he going to do now? I'll bring it down. I can spend the whole hour here. TV on the radio. You got a thing here. You got a thing here, Mike. You got something. Maybe, yeah. We just play old TV like that and you and I just react to it, a clip or whatever. But that's the first episode.

So, again, his, what, the Bizarre was like a CTV show done in Agincourt with John Biner. Right. And this is actually the show that Global produced, right? Where did they film it? We had a couple of different filming locations. The studio stuff at one

point was done up at CTV and then later on the Markham Theatre. Okay, yeah. Yes, that's where they shot for a bunch of years after that. But a good buddy of mine was the location manager on the show and he actually was in the car once when I was really late

picking up Bob Einstein when he was reaming me out. Just totally like berating me. I'm sitting there in my shorts. Anyway, but my buddy was a location manager, and they shot all over the GTA. And whatever stunt, whatever way he was going to be crushed that particular week. It all over the gta and you know whatever stunt whatever way he was going to be crushed that particular week it all ended the same way mike walden the guy who was doing the announcing yeah he's a great guy he was a sweetheart of a guy he was the a sportscaster

for uh usc um uh football team usc trojans he He called the football games in the United States and University of Southern California. He lucked into that job and spent whatever it is, five years or six years of that show just being a man

on the spot kind of guy. He was so grateful for the opportunity. He never complained about anything. If it was a really hot day, he'd turn to me and say, Hey, Tyler, give me a little club soda. A little zip. A little zip, I'd say.

So I'd have club soda, and I'd just hand it to him while I was holding an umbrella over Bob Einstein's head because it was sunny out. And I'd hand him a water, and if it was cold because of his voice, his voice is kind of blown out. And I'd hand him a water, and if it was cold because of his voice, his voice is kind of blown out. Sure. And he'd be like, this water is ice cold.

Yeah, it's really hot out. He didn't like cold water because it made his voice worse. Man, I hear you, did you do other, you did other lesser Canadian shows, I'll call them, like pre-BNL.

Yeah. Can you just name drop a few? Yeah, Mosquito Lake. Oh, yeah. With Mike McDonald and Dan Redican. Yes, indeed. Good times. I worked on a show called Eric's World, a children's show with Eric Nagler.

That was actually fun because he was cool. He would make his own instruments. I don't remember Eric's World. I can't quite place it. Actually, B&L used to rehearse on the set when I first joined the band. When I first was joining the group, we used to rehearse on the set there.

What else did I work on? I worked on Witness to Survival. It was like horrendous things happening to people and they got through it. Supermodel had her face slashed and she got through it and all that kind of stuff. But basically, back in the day, RTA, Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson Polytechnical, now university,

in the summertime, you could do jobs that were kind of related to the business, if you're lucky. Intern at a radio station or work on TV commercials and stuff like that. So I was doing all those things thinking that one day I was going to get into the TV business. But also, I was in a comedy troupe and I was playing music with a band called Three Day Bender. And also, I'd met the ladies after my final year of school. So I was always playing music on the side and also doing fun things like being in a comedy troupe. But is it true you worked on a pre-teen dance show on Global?

Dude, what is that? You're the Brian Linehan of podcasts. That's the greatest compliment you could have paid me. I loved the way he conducted interviews because he pulled out shit that would shock his... Yeah, what you're doing there right now. Yes, I worked on Dance Mix, I think it was called. Yeah, that's what it was called.

Dance Mix. And the host was Justin Lewis, who was a famous Canadian actor, really, while now he is. He's a dramatic actor. And is this like... Yeah, I'll take your word for it on that one. But Dance Mix, was it this is like a precursor to Electric Circus or is this at, yeah, I'll take your word for it on that one, but dance mix, was it, this is like a precursor to electric circus, or is this at all like that?

I think it was just trying to cash in on that whole teen dance thing. I remember, that's so hilarious. We shot that up at Global. Dance mix. Did you find that on the internet? Mark Weisblatt tipped me off. Mark Weisblatt knows all, eh? Holy crap.

What I do now is when I have somebody like yourself coming on, I do my notes and my homework and I'm ready. And then I'll go to Mark and I'll be like, is there anything that I don't know that I should know that would be interesting? And he'll be like, oh, you got to ask him about this. I remember this show and he's telling me there's a pre-teen dance show on Global

and then a little internet digging and you find out it's Dance Mix. Wow. But he must have read the credits, right? I believe he saw your name in the credits. Yeah, he saw my name in the credits. Weisblot scares me, man. As a guy, he's got a lot of

time on his hands, but I love it. I love the fact that he knows that kind of stuff. I think my purpose in life, there's a couple of guys, I just want to give them a microphone and exposure. Like Mark Weisblot, at least once a quarter. I would do it once a month.

I told him, I'd get him in once a month for like two hour deep dives into what's going on. But the other guy, Ed Retro Ontario Conroy. Oh, yeah. Those guys,

to me, they're like, if you have a Mount Rushmore, keeping like the history alive, it's these guys. I've spent many hours, you know, going through those old clips and watching

Night Ride. That was global too. Okay, so Wiseblot and what's the other guy's name? Ed Conroy. And it's funny because you are one of the other guys who gives a shit. It's us three, that's it.

Can I be sort of the fourth member of the ridiculous trivia from the television 80s? I'll do better than that. I got four microphones, okay? One day, all of us together, we go. We just riff on ancient stuff that only we care about. Amazing.

It's true. I'm in, I'm in. It's true. So yeah, Dance Mix, fantastic. Hey, let me get you some gifts here. Let's do this now. And I know you have a gift for me too. I love it. I'm in. It's true. So yeah, Dance Mix. Fantastic. Hey, let me get you some gifts here. Let's do this now. And I have a gift for me too. I love it.

I love receiving gifts. So for you, a six pack of fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. Right there. That goes home with you. Amazing. Fresh beer. Way better than stale beer. Craft beer.

Better than arts beer. That's right. And 99% of all great lakes beer remains here in ontario that's how fresh it is it does it it stays here where it can stay fresh uh brewed for you ontario so great lakes i want to mention uh that they are having this event called uh live at five this is live acoustic jams at great lakes brewery which is not far from here uh every friday So look for that. Go to greatlakesbeer.com.

Every Friday, they're going to do Live at Five Acoustic Jams. I love that the modern craft brewing industry has embraced the arts as much as they have. So you're not just some faceless beer maker. You're affiliated with chefs, or you have rock bands or acoustic knights playing at your brewery, you sponsor podcasts. I love the arts element of craft brewing. It's great. They're fiercely independent

and that's code for Labatt's and Molson haven't bought us. So these guys are fiercely independent and they love to promote other fiercely independent artists, etc. Nice. Nice people. Speaking of nice people, the guys at Palma Pasta are amazing. Do you live in Toronto? I do, yes.

Okay. So Palma Pasta has locations in Mississauga and Oakville. I just took that out of the freezer when I saw your car pull up. That is a lasagna for you to take home. Frozen meat lasagna from Palma's Pasta. Are you sure you didn't have Garfield in mind? You thought your guest today on 420 was Garfield, a lasagna-loving cat.

Thank you, Mike, for that. I love lasagna. Is it meat lasagna or vegetarian lasagna? That depends. Are you a vegetarian? Well, in my house, there's two vegetarians, three meat eaters, but we always find that we like the veggie lasagna better.

Is that a thing, ladies and gentlemen? Are you with me? I hear you. And that way you can all share the same pie or whatever, the same lasagna. Now, that is a meat lasagna, I believe. Now, you have two options. You can take that or I can hook you up with a veggie lasagna. Hook me up with the veggie, man.

I'll be more popular at home when I get there. Well, let's do that. Yeah. So thank you to Palma Pasta. That's Mississauga's best fresh, fresh. Fresh. Frashta. Fresh pasta and Italian food.

Go to palmapasta.com to find a location near you. Their Palma's Kitchen is a brand new, amazing location. That's near Mavis and Burnhamthorpe if you're in Mississauga. So thank you, Palma's Pasta. Let me play for you, Tyler, a good question that came from Brian Gerstein. He's a sponsor of this podcast. He fuels the real talk.

So let's hear from Brian. Hey, Tyler. Brian Gerstein here, sales representative with PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Mike. Any first-time homebuyers out there in Toronto Mike land? Because if so, I am teaming up with CIBC and one of their mortgage brokers, Tuesday evening, January 29th from 6 to 8 p.m. at Young & York Meals,

and Wednesday, January 30th from 5.30 to 7.30 p.m. in Liberty Village. Space is limited, so call or text me at 416-873-0292 to reserve your spot. That's not a question, Brian. On Sunday, January 20th, 1.30 p.m. at Scotiabank Arena, you are singing the Canadian anthem with Barenaked Ladies for the Canadian Women's League All-Star Game, which is very cool. Tickets are only $20, so I encourage all to attend. As a huge hockey fan, what arena that you sang at was the most memorable and why?

Well, Brian, first of all, thank you very much. And I've never been asked about real estate, actually, or told about real estate before I've been asked a question about hockey before. That's a first. Yes, singing the anthem at the CWHL All-Star Game. Awesome. I have a number of friends from over the years who have been members of either the CWHL or the National Women's Hockey Team. Good buddies of mine.

They are amazing women. They do nothing but win. Well, occasionally they come in second, but they train their whole lives. They work their butts off. They represent the country. Most of them are really cool people as well, like just really gals you want to hang out with, regular gals kind of deal, you know.

And but also incredible athletes and they sacrifice so much. So I always, you know, I always do what I can to try to support them and their endeavors. So when Jaina Hefford asked me to sing the national anthem, I thought, you know I'm the drummer, right? And first of all, no. And secondly, I figured I'd ask the guys because they've also been with me on this women's hockey support bandwagon over the years. So we agreed to do it and we're going to sing it. We're looking forward to that.

For us, we've sung anthems everywhere. I was going to say, you must have performed O Canada like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times. Yeah, and the Star-Spangled Banner. Right, right, right. I'll give you my inside anthem singing shtick here. One of the things you'll notice, if you go to a Leafs game, Martina Louise Ortiz, I believe is her name.

I believe so, yeah. She's a great singer, and she's been singing the anthem now for a few years, since she was like 15 years old, and she's probably, what, 18 now. She's a really powerful singer, a great singer, and one of the things I notice is two things. One, she oversings the U.S. national anthem. Now, the problem is, the Star-Spangled Banner is a much more exciting song than O Canada. It's got exploding

rockets. It's got bombs. It's got early light, dawn, all kinds of exciting things going on in it. And it's easy to sing the crap out of it. So what happens is then you follow it with O Canada. That's right.

It's a little bit boring. Even though your nationalistic pride wells up, et cetera. So I'd say to Martina, if Martina's listening, chances are about one in 100 million, under-sing the Star-Spangled Banner slightly. That's what we always do. Because the song kind of speaks for itself. And then with O Canada, you just add a little bit more adrenaline.

Here's something Martina does do though. She does a slight key change at the end. She goes up a semitone so that she can have the big exploding ending. Now, Mike, what you need to do is find an example of her singing like this or next time your listeners are watching the game and Martina's singing O Canada, notice right at the very

before the last little refrain we stand on guard for thee she does that God keep our land, so at the end she goes, Oada we stand on guard like she goes way up to the sky right right she does it way better than me by the way um

and that's a good little trick like that's but if she does that trick combined with under singing slightly on Star Spangled Banner, she'll have a... She's already sang way more anthems than we have. What am I talking about? She'll have a great career. It's at least her third season, at least. I think when they got rid of Andy Frost, when they brought in the new...

Toronto Goals scored by number 27, Max Webster. Assist number 25, Pink Floyd. I love... I miss Andy. Anyway, Martina, or sorry, I'm not talking about her anymore. I'm talking about the anthem.

Brian's question. What is the most exciting building? Well, the Leafs, Air Canada Centre, during the 2001 or 2001 playoffs against the Carolina Hurricanes. It's a conference final.

Game six. Yeah, Jeff O'Neill's on that Carolina team. Yeah, Jeff O'Neill. Oh, dog. Thanks for crushing our dreams. We really loved it. And then he comes in as a career broadcaster in Toronto.

Every day, I've got to be reminded. That's right. Well, first he played here. Yeah, of course. But it wasn't Martin Jelena, at least, who got the career here. He got the goal. But that night was an exciting night. And then also, I think earlier in the series,

we sang when they beat the Islanders. And they beat the Senators. So we were there a lot in that year singing and i was extra excited because my buddy curtis joseph was in net and you know it'd be like we got to go to every game because we were singing the freaking anthem and you know we're all diehard leaf fans and looks like we're finally going to go to the stan Cup final. But then Mats got hurt. A couple other people got hurt.

Mats came back for that game after Alan McCauley had been owning it at center. Mats came back and played in the fourth line for a bit. Chemistry seemed a bit off, but then he got the tying goal with about 80 seconds left, I think. Right.

That sent us to overtime where Gelina scored the last game of Kujo's career in Toronto. Now, there's an actual question, so I took notes of some questions for you, but there's a Duncan Krierar, hope I said that right, he wants me to ask you about your friendship with Kujo.

Could you just elaborate a bit on your friendship with Kujo? Was it C-R-I-B-A-R? I have C-R-E-R-A-R. Oh, Crierar. Okay, I don't know. I know a Duncan Cribber from way back. Oh, no, no, no. There's no B in this one. Okay. My friendship with Cujo. What does he

want to know? He wanted me to ask you about it. You're tight with Cujo? He and I went to high school together and were friends then and then we followed each other's careers coming up. You know, the early days of Bare Naked Ladies,

the Gordon era, touring across Canada, was his breakout with the St. Louis Blues and we were always good pals. We always kept in touch. I went to his wedding recently, about five or six years ago um we've our families are pals uh we hung out a lot and uh yeah he he's a he's a close friend of mine and he's also somebody who i've always rooted for because we you know we come from similar similar backgrounds in in in the fact that fact that we grew up in the suburbs.

And he also grew up with, he was adopted and grew up in a black family. And I am half black and I grew up in a white family. So we had some similarities in that respect. So I think we always got along well because we had a shared, you know, shared background that way. Now, were you conflicted when Gilmore scores the wraparound goal? Oh. Where you had a moment of, like, conflict?

Let's just say it was way easier when Curtis was a Leaf. Yeah. Yeah, that was a crazy series for me because, first of all, we were on the east coast of Canada at the Gordon Tour, playing arenas, screaming girls, the whole deal. It was like big times for us. We'd all race back to the hotel to watch on a big

tube TV these games that were happening or on nights off. Every time we made an amazing save, I was cheering and freaking out. But every time the Leafs scored, I was also cheering. Yeah, I can imagine. It was crazy, man.

The best of world's worst. Yeah, the worst. But can I ask you about how old were you when you learned that your dad was black? I was 12 years old. Is that interesting? To be that sort of a 12, you're already, you know, pre-teen, you've kind of already kind of working on your identity, and then to find out that you're half black? Is that an interesting, I can't imagine, I just know, just tied into something that's

completely different, but similar. Tom Wilson, I'm pointing to his artwork right now, but Tom Wilson found out in his 50s that he was a Mohawk Indian. Yes. Which is very different, but at the same time, it's learning about ancestry that you didn't know about. Well, I just finished Tom's book about a month or so, two months ago, and it blew my mind. The book was like an arrow shot into my heart. It was incredible. And I got to tell Tom that,

so I'm really happy that he wrote the book. And just everything he went through, it's so, what a beautiful story, what a heartbreaking story. You know, for those of you who don't know, he essentially grew up in a family. He was adopted, and his mother was... Well, both actually, the way he displayed it,

because he was just here for $3.99. Yeah. Great, great conversation. Amazing. He's amazing. But he thought he was this big sweaty Irishman. Right. His whole life.

And then he learned he was a big sweaty Mohawk. Yeah, a half Mohawk guy. I think he's full Mohawk. Is he Mohawk? Full Mohawk, yeah. Well, to discover that late in life and also just more so the secrets the things that you know people carry with them and they don't think that kids can handle and right things like i think that's that's for me that was the biggest revelation

when i was 12 and found out because here i am in some of the pictures when i'm a kid like at this like giant afro and brown skin and there was there was my blonde-haired, blue-eyed sister and my blonde-haired, blue-eyed mom and my very white Scottish dad. So I was always like, what's going on here? And plus, kids, being kids, they call you names or certain things or ask the questions. Like, why do you look like Michael Jackson

on the cover of Off the Wall and your sisters? And me having to answer, I don't know. I don't really know. And, you know, later on in life, it definitely became an issue where there's this whole part of my identity that I didn't know. And then I met my biological father

when I was 20 years old. And that was amazing. That was like, wow, okay. I met this guy who's outgoing and funny and everyone, he's always late. Super Dave. I come by it honestly. I was going to say.

Anyway, that was, yeah. So I think, you know, especially in the suburbs where there's a certain cookie cutter-ness to things, you know, I stood out. But I'm kind of glad that I stood out because it got me everywhere. Like my social skills or my musical ability or just my general extrovertedness, which in some ways I think was a search for answers. Like, who am I? Somebody tell me who I am. What if I'm this guy? What if I'm this guy? And that led me into the arts. Yeah, unbelievable. We're going to get into that. But first, I want to answer a couple more

listener questions here. There's a Michael Lang. Michael Lang says, if you get a chance, can you ask Tyler which drummers he admired when he started playing and what songs he played along with when practicing? He's now sharing that he's had his drum kit for four months now, and in his practice list are Enid,

Lovers in a Dangerous Time, and Brian Wilson. Interesting choices there, Michael. I, like you, did the same thing. I got my first drum kit for Christmas from my parents, Bob and Sandy Stewart, in Newmarket, Ontario, Christmas 1980. I was in eighth grade.

And I would put on headphones and drum along to Chum A.M. So whatever was on the radio is what I was playing at the time. I remember Cruel to be Kind was a big hit in 1980. I remember Tom Petty. I was also a huge Rush fan, right? So every teenage Canadian boy has to have a Rush phase of that era, right? And until you realize all the girls usually left the room when the Rush came on. That's right.

And so you stopped being into Rush so much. And then the police as well. So back then, the drummers that I admired were Neil Peart from Rush and Stuart Copeland from the police. Also, my parents are young. So they're only less than 20 years older than me. So their record collection was pretty hip.

And my dad had like Zeppelin and The Who. So I liked Keith Moon and I liked John Bonham. And my mom was really into like R&B and Motown and things like that. So James Brown and Tina Turner and Otis Redding, people like that. Four Tops, Marvin Gaye. That kind of stuff was on at our house.

That's good stuff. A lot of people's parents were listening to lousy, awful stuff. You're a lucky guy. Yeah, well, definitely. I mean, I think that's... Having parents who you're into the same kind of music as is it was amazing plus all the top 40 of the time like fleetwood

mac and you know all the huge up peter frampton comes like super tramp all those bands so i would be drumming along to pop music and you know i i was also in a drum and bugle corps so uh ambassadors from new market ontario and i learned a lot of rudimentary drumming that way so i applied I was also in a drum and bugle corps, so ambassadors from New Market, Ontario, and I learned a lot of rudimentary drumming that way, so I applied that to my love of pop music and what have you. Patrick Bales wants me to ask you about your teachers at Huron Heights and the impact of the school and its art program on you becoming a musician.

That's a good question. Huron Heights now has become this arts powerhouse, Arts Huron, I think they call it. So there's like, you know, drama and music and musical theater, and there's costume design and production and all that stuff, which is cool. It's kind of like a topical school of the arts or a Rosedale up in New York region. My experience there was varied. I think that more than any particular teacher, I had a group of teachers who were really instrumental in my becoming who I am. And I also played on the football team team and I played on the baseball team. And I was really involved in that aspect as well, as well as playing recreational hockey.

But music, there's a guy named Dennis Karras who was only there from grade 9 to 11 for me. And he was awesome. He was a former gym teacher who took over the music program because back in the day, there was nobody to teach music. And he was awesome. He gave me a great opportunity when I was in grade 9 to be in the senior band and the stage band. And so I was hanging out with the older kids.

I was playing stage band drum kit, which was really cool. And he was always very kind to me. Um, also there's a dude, uh, Lockie McPherson, who he's this guy who was a history teacher,

but he also coached both like boys and girls basketball. He coached volleyball. He's coached the baseball team that I, that I was on. He was, and he also ran the student council, He coached volleyball. He coached the baseball team that I was on. He was, and he also ran the student council, which I was president of one year in grade 12. So he was awesome. And then there was this crazy, freaky alternative woman named Glenna Ross, who was the drama teacher.

And she was out of her mind like just a regular a regular sort of you know woman in terms of like a teacher you know teaching but absolutely determined to do things differently so it's like come into the classroom and uh starry starry night by don mclean is playing. And you lie on the floor. Yeah. And you talk about how the song makes you feel. And for most teens, it's like, I don't know, it makes me feel like going to sleep. This is gay. Or something like that. I remember.

Stupid. But if you embraced what she was offering, it was like, wow, I've never heard music. And then you find out the song's about Vincent van Gogh. Right. And the song's about madness. madness and the songs about having a dual personality and you know she's trying to to show that to to teenagers so glenna was was awesome she was very um she didn't get a lot of um respect from the from the kids but the people who got her she was important so she was important to me. And there's one other.

Yeah. See, I remember all this. There's a woman named Julia Monroe, and she ended up being like a member of parliament or an MPP for, I think, in Harris's government. So that's a strike against her in my book. But at the same time, she was a history teacher as well. But she really encouraged me to interpret history through a lens that, not just reciting facts, but how does it apply to today? Are there movements happening today that were similar to, say, the French Revolution?

Does the FLQ have anything to do with... Things like that. How to look at left and right, how to look at economics, supply side, all that kind of stuff. And she challenged me and said, hey, you're really smart. I think you can do this. I think you can really grasp this. So she was great. She's encouraging.

Awesome. There she was great. She's encouraging. Awesome. There's the teachers. Tyler, it's time for Remember the Time. On this day, 40 years ago, so exactly 40 years ago, the number one song on the billboard hot 100 was this nobody gets too much heaven no more look at you that's awesome because uh this is not one of the bigger no bg songs just it's a great example of Barry Gibb's voice.

Very good. Nobody gets too much love anymore. It's as high as a mountain and harder to collide. Oh, yeah, Barry. Were they playing this one on 1050 Chum? Oh, they sure were. I might have been like at a noon hour dance at Meadowbrook Public School. Because I was 12

40 years ago. Might have even been in grade 9. No, I think in grade 8. And dancing with Lisa Drakeup. Lisa Drakeup, are you a listener? I loved you back then, baby. I'm just saying. probably is you think so

if she's in the GTA maybe anyway remember the time is brought to you by fast time watch and jewelry repair they've been doing quality watch and jewelry repairs for over 30 years Tyler you might remember like they used to have these watch repair shops in the Sears

that's them so Sears left yeah Sears. Yeah. That's them. So Sears left. Yeah, Sears is no longer. Boom. But these guys, 30 years experience of fixing watches and jewelry, now they had no outlets, so they've been opening up their own stores.

30 years, great experience. And if you go to FastTimeWatchRepair.com, you can find a location near you. Their newest location is in Richmond Hill. And this is cool. If you mention that you heard about them on Toronto Mike, you get 15% off any regular priced watch battery installation. So, Tyler, now you know where to go if your watch battery dies

or you need a new band or something. If I want to get on a time machine and wear a watch, go way back. They're making a comeback. I said the same ignorant statement myself, and I was back. They're making a comeback. I said the same ignorant statement myself and I was educated. They're making a comeback. The anachronism of Sears,

of the Bee Gees, and of Lisa Drake up. Well, listen. All in one segment. It's amazing. Well, that's what this show's about, man. We go back, we go forward,

we're all over the place. And I can't wait to get to my questions. They're coming up next. But first, please let me just tell everybody how they can get $10 right now. So Paytm will give you $10. Paytm is the app I use to pay all my bills.

I pay all my bills in one spot with Paytm. You go to paytm.ca, download the app, and when you make your very first bill payment, use the promo code TorontoMike, all one word, and they give you $10 in Paytm cash. And you can use that towards another bill payment. Use the promo code TorontoMike, all one word, and they give you $10 in Paytm cash, and you can use that towards another bill payment or a reward purchase.

And one more sponsor I want to thank, and then we're going to get into my questions, which might even include some questions about a certain band that Bob Einstein pretended he couldn't remember. Black Sabbath. Yeah, that's right. Some Aussie questions.

All right, buckle.co. I keep saying CA, but it's actually CO. So B-U-K-L.co. This is a brand new app for car repairs. If you need any work done at all on your automobile, you go to buckle.co. You enter your car model and make and year, and then what service you need. It looks for instant quotes from shops in your area so it knows what's near you this is what it costs to fix you

find a good deal and then you can book the appointment right away you just bring in your car they service your car and then you drive away you don't even have to pay because you'll automatically get charged this is a seamless uh this is seamless. You got to try this out. B-U-K-L dot C-O. Use that for all your car service requirements. So now we're all set. So how about some mic questions? Let's talk, let's talk about you joining Bare Naked Ladies. So before you join BNL, they're already like making. I think before you joined them, they won the YTV Youth Achievement Award. Yes. That was literally, they won it and then they accepted it after I'd played maybe one

or two gigs with them. And I remember watching it on YTV. And the thing that struck me the most, obviously, they wrapped their acceptance speech. You know, like that was Stephen and Ed wrapped it and Jim danced. And, you know, watching Jim Cregan dance is still one of my favorite things to do because he's all legs and arms. He's like a Czech marionette. You know, those are the great animations from the Czech, whatever, the brothers who made this great. Anyway. Kind of.

Kind of. I'm trying to remember. How about just a marionette? Not as specific as a Czech marionette. Okay. But, you know, watching it, they won the YTV Achievement Award. Yeah. 1990.

1990. There was a bunch of other people who won awards for bravery. There was a dance group, the Farazan Dancers. Was PJ Fresh Phil involved in this? No, this is pre-PJ. Pre-PJ Fresh Phil. Fresh Phil. Gotcha.

So what was my point? My point is there was a group of teens, a football team from Bothwell, Ontario, who lifted a car, a burning car, off a woman and rescued her. Wow. And so they were driving along, going to their game. Accident happens. Car turns over.

It's flaming. And they lifted it, you know, anyway. Wow. So they won an award for that. They won an award for that. And there's a guy who did the talking for the group. He was a giant man. Not boy, really.

Like high school kid. And he was squinting into the sun. And he said, oh, we're just driving along. And now the car flipped. And we got out. And we just lifted the car off. And I'm giving him a southern accent. I don't know why.

Southern Ontario. Underneath on the chyron says you know, Bothwell High School student, Chad Tunks. His name was Chad Tunks. And so the next gig I played with the guys, I said, ah, I saw the

YTV Awards. You guys were awesome. And I said, who was that guy? He had the best name in unison, both Steve and Edric. Chad Dunks. We met him. He was huge.

There you go. You've got great, you're a great podcast guest because you have good recall. Some guests, surprisingly, I'm like, I'm telling them

about their past. I'm like, you know, then you do this, like, oh, did I? Okay.

I have a mind full of useless information, Mike. That's my gig. I told you that. Four of us, we can get together, talk about anything. Some kinship. Like, you understand this burden, all this useless information. Now, okay, tell us how you hook up with, how do you end up in Bare Naked Ladies?

So I met them randomly. Like, I was playing with some friends from Guelph, Ontario, Chris Reynolds and Christine Brubaker, who were buddies with my ex-girlfriend at the time. My girlfriend at the time. Now my ex-girlfriend. And, you know, we hung out a lot that summer. And Christine is an actor, a musical actor.

I think now she's a professor out in Calgary at the University of Alberta uh or somewhere University of Calgary sorry because it's in Edmonton um and Chris Reynolds was a guitar player and a singer and they just sort of did this acoustic thing and I just sat in with them a few times playing brushes on it like a guitar case is this the would-be. Is this the would-be goods? That's the would-be goods. That's correct. And so I was playing with them and they were like, oh, we got this gig coming up.

You want to play with us? It sure will help to have some drums. And it's the Waterloo Buskers Carnival in downtown Waterloo. So I'm like, at the time working in television, I was working on Eric's World. And I thought, yeah, sure, what the heck heck i'll come down there and we'll uh i'll sit in so we we we did it we rehearsed a bunch of acoustic songs some neil young songs some you know uh i think song by the washington squares and some other folk music and just played fun music and lo and behold, Barenaked Ladies are also featured performers at the Waterloo Buskers Carnival. So at the time, it's Stephen and Ed and Jim Cregan.

Andy Cregan, who was in the band, who was playing congas, was away at the time on a Canada World Youth Exchange in South America. So he wasn't around. So here I was, and here's this trio. I'm playing with a trio, and I saw them perform, and they just held the attention of everybody on the street. Like, they were so funny. The songs were great. Like, they were just uninhibited.

The dancing was awesome. The harmonies are awesome. I was like, wow, those guys are amazing. And so one time they were walking by us while we're performing, and I had a microphone. I just gave them a shout. I was like, Barenaked Ladies, what's up? And they looked over, and Ed, I think, recognized me.

Ed had seen me with a comedy troupe, with Cow Tools, featuring the late Dennis McGrath, who was an amazing Toronto writer, comedian guy who passed away last year. But that was... He's not the secret identity guy. He's not Dennis McGrath. No, that's a different...

No, that's Derek McGrath. Derek McGrath. Yeah, yeah, no, that's not... Yeah, anyway. I was going to say. Because I think that Derek McGrath, I think that's the reason, who's Edith Prickley again?

Andrea Martin. I believe the reason she came to Toronto in the first place was because she was dating Derek McGrath. That's the whole reason she came to Toronto. Wow. So there you go. There you go.

So without Derek McGrath, there is no SCTV. Right. Okay. And without Dennis McGrath, no relation. There was no Cow Tools when Edward Robertson would never have seen a...

Anyway, Ed recognized me from that, and I think what he said to me is, I remember your giant head. You have the biggest head I've ever seen. And I was like, yeah, I'm glad you remember that. Anyway, over the course of the weekend of the Busker's Carnival, we ended up sitting in with each other. So we would join them on songs, and they would join us,

and we just had a great time. I went for a beer with Steve, and we were chatting, and then Jim as well, and I said, well, I should sit in with you guys sometime in Toronto because we ended up just playing on the street. I didn't even know their songs, but I would just sit in and have a great time and laugh at their dancing and everything. And so I said, I should sit in

sometime with you in Toronto. And so I did. And we didn't even rehearse. It was like at Clinton's or something. And Ed was just calling out the changes. And it was great. I had a great time. After about two or three gigs, they said, we should rehearse. And so we did. On the set of Eric's World, we had a rehearsal. And we got to know the songs. And eventually, Ed, I think, one day said to me, it's not out of the question that you can be in the band.

And I'm like, OK. Because the songs, we're talking at the time, Blame It On Me and The Flag and Brian Wilson and Be My Okuono, all the songs that, you know, were hits from Gordon were also on the yellow tape were being performed then. And I was just amazed at the songwriting and the singing. So, you know, I brought my... Each week I would play with them.

It started out with like a snare drum or something or a suitcase. Next week I got out a kick drum. Next week I'd add a cymbal and eventually kind of made my way up to a whole drum kit. Wow. Because they were an acoustic band. We rehearsed in living rooms, you know.

And all acoustic instruments. Operate bass an acoustic band. We rehearsed in living rooms. And all acoustic instruments. Operate bass, acoustic guitars. So for me, it was a bit of a honing or reining in my rock instincts to play the shit out of everything, play really loud. I had to do that to play with these guys. But at the same time, I learned much about uh musicality and uh you know subtlety and things like that so um it was amazing it was a it was a departure for me uh stylistically but i i totally loved it embraced it i want to ask you about the yellow tape but first

yeah let's go. I loved, I mean, we all did, I think. We all loved the yellow tape. Wow. 1989. Another number, another summer. Get down. Sound of the funky drummer.

Music getting you hard because I know you got soul. From the Power. Now, at the time, I was a massive, I still am a massive Public Enemy fan. Look, I've got the T-shirt up here. I love, this is from, it takes a nation of millions. No, Fight the Power, that's from Fear of a Black Planet. Fear of a Black Planet. Of course, yeah. Fear of a Black Planet. And I already love Public Enemy, and then here you are covering it.

Could you, be honest with me, could you get away with this today? I mean, you can claim you're half half black so maybe that's the license yeah i remember once actually uh lou from dream warriors king lou was uh he said i don't know if these guys can do this you know i i know the drummer's half black but i i'm not sure how i feel about it he asked that question to us. And we're like, you know what? We're just huge fans. Like yourself, right? Also, I think if you look at it through a Scarborough lens,

where at the time, you know, late 90s or late 80s, early 90s, sorry, late 80s, early 90s, you know, the convergence there, the cultural diaspora of Scarborough scar and now it's even more extreme that way right i looked at it as like wow this music is incredible and really ed robertson was the biggest public enemy fan in the band he turned me on to he made me a mixtape of p.e i was aware of them but I was more into like Tribe Called Quest and Beastie Boys and stuff like that

but the Public Enemy once you get deep on Public Enemy you go deep because it's so incredible and I think the sheer audacity of just playing that song for us on an acoustic guitar and then getting into it, it always blew my mind.

I was like, yeah, let's do this. And then later we did a way better recording of that for the Conehead soundtrack. And then live it became, we just burnt the house down with it live. And I'm happy we did it. I love that it's on the yellow tape, which was our first foray in, you know, that's how people got to know us, really, right? Absolutely. So two things. I want to ask about how the yellow tape comes to be. I bought it at, I can't remember if I got it at HMV or Sam the Record Man, because they were right beside each other at Young and Dundas.

It was one of the, I can't remember which one. A&A's are Sam the record band. Oh, right. A&A's, right. Yeah. Can I, was there ever, Mark Wiseblood and I have this disagreement. I remember a short period of time

when all three were open. Did they ever open up? HMV was just south of there. 333. Yeah. So between Dundas and Gould. Yeah. Right?

Yeah. And then A&A's and Sam were just north of Gould on Yonge. So I remember... All on the same side of the street. I distinctly remember, because I used to go downtown just to go to the record shops, and I remember distinctly a period of time

when I could get to all three on the same visit, okay? And Mark Weisblatt says, no, A&A closed down before HMV opened. Not the way I remember it, but you're agreeing with me, I think? Or are you changing your mind? You know, you have to give a minute to pause with Wiseblot. He's probably got some archival research.

He has the census from 1989. He gets the microfiche, right? He goes to... Seriously, some days he sends me the microfiche. Microfiche? Yeah. From the library. Yes, of course. Oh my God. Has that guy ever had a job? Has he ever had a...

I think that is his job. I know. 100% research. know? I think that is his job. I know. A hundred percent research. Perhaps, you know, I think they were all open at the same time for a little while, unless. That's how I remember it. Unless, because HMV moved from there into the Eaton Center, the corner of the Eaton Center, right? Well, it was in both, right? Oh no, was that the Tower? That was Tower in the Eaton Center, right? Well, it was in both, right? Oh, no. Was that the Tower? That was Tower in the Eaton Center.

Yeah. Tower was, yeah. So, HMV was on Young. HMV was 333. And, of course, we know the Stanley Record, man. And A&A was really close. But regardless, my memory, I can't remember where I bought it. But I bought it.

I loved it. Periodically, I'll still tweet about it. Like, I loved it it and i was a big listener of cfny 102.1 and 102.1 picked up on you guys early and often i like to say because and i said the same thing to ron hawkins who's been here a few times and i close every episode with the lowest of low track but they played the shite out of bare nakedaked Ladies and Shakespeare My Butt. Yeah. So tell me a bit about the origin there with the yellow tape and then how 102.1 helped you guys. So I joined the band in this fall of 90.

And in that little period there, we start doing things like playing the ultrasound every Monday night. Now at Chavello's at the corner of Queen and John. We played that every single Monday for probably about two or three months in late 1990. And that's

when we really started to get this following. And Yvonne Matzell would book us and pay us $25. I always bug Yvonne about that. She's amazing. She was responsible for a lot of bands getting breaks in Toronto. I love Yvonne.

Anyway, $25 aside, we would do that. And then we started to just sort of become this live phenomenon. So we'd move up, play the El Macombo, play the Horseshoe, play the Rivoli. We're just always playing. And then we started to get out of town a little bit. We went out with the Sky Diggers to the East Coast. Love the Sky Diggers. Andy Mays has been here.

What a guy. Yeah. Right before we went out on the East Coast with the Sky Diggers, and right before we did South by Southwest in March of 1991, we went into the recording studio to make the yellow tape. Now, they had the pink tape, which is a bunch of the same songs, but it was recorded or dubbed at a high speed. And so everything was a little bit faster and and steven and ed both sounded like the chipmunks at times it was just a little too you know the pitch was too high and so we decided let's go ahead and make a better recording um went to what the hell was the name of the studio

on wells wellesley studios maybe even wellesley street yeah went in there and uh recorded did had the midnight shift back when recording studios cost a thousand dollar an hour you know like that kind of thing like ten thousand bucks a day to go in the studio now every laptop has a recording studio in it this is one right yeah well exactly but you know, the overnight shift, midnight till 8 a.m., and we just fired the songs off, and we used the old recording of Be My Okuono, which the guys had recorded for the CFMY New Music Search. Right.

They needed a version of that that was better, and they, like, a gazillion tracked the vocals. So that song interestingly enough on the yellow tape is i'm not on that okay there's no drum kit that predates you yeah there's no drum kit but on the rest of the songs i'm on um and uh so the thing about the cassette too right is five songs on the same side so an auto reverse-reverse. So people would just put it in and just cycle back and forth. You know, they'd play the whole song

and then it would reverse and play the same songs again. So I think a lot of people just listen to the crap out of that, you know? And I love the Fight the Powers on there. It was like a palate cleanse or something. No, I loved, actually, every cut on that yellow tape was stellar,

like great stuff. And I think other than Fight the Power, I think they all were like singles on 102.1, I think. Yeah, they played all the songs, right? I don't remember them playing maybe a little bit of Fight the Power, but there's a cut they played a lot at the same period we're talking about. They played a song that wasn't on the yellow tape

and I have a great question from Blind Derek Welsman about it. So let me just start it here i know what's coming it's not a great recording uh that's because there isn't one out there that i could find well this is live from the cfy mobile you know I fall practice every night It's getting dark with the gold And I just light up your way I turn the corner at the traffic light I count my money and then I rehearse What I'm gonna say

Like an order of fries A quarter pounder with cheese I love the light in your eyes Will you go out with me please I am in love with a McDonald's girl She has a smile of innocence So tender and warm I am in love with a McDonald's girl Now blind Eric Welsman is wondering the same thing we're all wondering, which is why did Barenaked Ladies not release McDonald's Girl as a single once you guys hit the big time?

Is it strictly because you didn't write the song? Yeah, it's a cover. It's a Dean Friedman song. Also, I think we were aware of the extreme novelty of the song. Even though we had songs that were reference pop cultural figures

like whether it's Beastie Boys Break. you know, like whether it's Beastie Boys Break. See, that kind of sampling that we used to do where we just throw verses of other songs into... There was nothing off-limits to the band. I loved that about it. We just do anything at all times. But any concern, not that this...

Any concern you'd be lumped in with the Corky and the Juice Pigs as opposed to like real... Yeah, as opposed to the Crowded House or the Beastie Boys or... It's a little Weird Al-ish. I love Weird Al Yankovic, but

was there any danger of becoming like a comedy rock band? Well, people always, you know, anyone who didn't care to dive deep into the band just wrote us off like that anyway, like we're a comedy act. The thing is that Stephen and Ed both were very serious songwriters and very good songwriters. I will maintain that perhaps the two of them are the most underrated songwriters in Canada ever.

Because they, you know, for every Be My Oku Ono, there's a Blame It On Me. Or, you know, for every, you know, another postcard from Chimpanzees, there's a For You from our later years. Both Ed and Stephen, very capable songwriters and very expressive and interesting songwriters. I think we were always afraid that McDonald's Girl would be

it would probably be a big hit, but I'm not sure we'd ever recover from it. Yeah, it makes sense. And again, maybe it would be different if you wrote the song, but considering you didn't write the song, maybe that was like... Well, an ironic thing there is, we didn't write Lovers in a Dangerous

Time either. No, you didn't. Which came out before the yellow, or after the yellow tape, but it was our first kind of, before the yellow tape? Or at the same time? It was our first kind of radio hit. Okay, or at the same time. It was our first kind of radio hit. Okay, we have to talk about that because earlier today,

Joel Goldberg's here. He did a big documentary about Bruce Colburn. So he was kicking out the jams and he kicked out a Bruce Colburn jam. And we briefly just discussed this cover. Yeah. By the way, you said Ed and Steve

were Canada's most underrated songwriters. Well, we declared earlier today on episode 419 that Bruce Colburn was Canada's most underrated songwriters so I don't know if you can share the title I don't think he's underrated I think he's I think he gets all the accolades that he deserves I think he's

he's up there anything you can share just because we all I mean even when I kick out the jams with people, as you know, like Freddie P from Humble and Fred Show, for example, when he kicked out the jams, this was one of his 10 favorite songs of all time, your cover of the Bruce Colburn song.

I think for some reason we just really, we really made it our own. And it was funny when this concept for a tribute to Bruce Coburn came out. It was Intrepid Records. Stuart Ravenhill was the guy running it and another guy named Graham Stairs. And they were an independent label in Toronto and they were putting this record out, this tribute. So all kinds of people were on it.

Luminaries from the Toronto scene at the time. I was a big Coburn fan. Huge Coburn fan. And so I knew a big Coburn fan. Huge Coburn fan. And so I knew a lot of his songs. And so I brought to the table some more obscure stuff. But the guys knew Bruce Coburn. I'm the oldest member of Barenaked Ladies

by about two years in some cases, by four years in the other. And five years, actually, older than Ed. And Stephen and Ed knew the hits. They knew If I Had a Rocket Launcher, Leverage the Dangerous Time. They might have known Tokyo or something like that. But If a Tree falls in the forest,

you know, those, those kinds of songs. So we decided to go with something that we, that everybody knew and it was lovers. And we just sort of, I don't even remember how we hit on. Ed just started,

you know, that strumming, that style. He's got a very distinctive strumming style. And at this time, our sound really had that folk music country beat in it and then of course you add jim's bass solo you know bowed bass solo and obviously andy cregan's piano playing he wasn't playing a lot of piano with the band yet he was still playing percussion

and congas and singing and you, he's all over this track. His voice, the piano playing. And for me, I just kind of like tried to propel it forward in the bare naked style at the time,

which was energetic folk music. And I know that when it came out, Bruce didn't like it too much. Really? Yeah. I think his comment was, it reminds me of a lot of what I don't like about folk music from the 60s.

And I can see that. It's like Peter, Paul, and Mary meets Pete Seeger or something. But at the same time, it really struck a note with people. I also think, you know, let's give props to our man Joel Goldberg in music videos as a pioneer of music. I think this song,

the video, shot for $11,000 in Scarborough, our hometown. Speaking of A&A, right? The old A&A's records. Yeah, it was Zounds before that. On the two coldest days of the year, in early December, by the way,

Tim Hamilton, the director, he went on to make commercials and films, but I think the video really had a certain charm about it as well. And all these things came together. And that was our first hit, really. And so there was that, and there was McDonald's Girl. And I think we were really, really...

And there's Fight the Power. We were known for our covers, but we really wanted to make a statement of our own. And I think that led to the decision to never put McDonald's Girl out. I want to just get this before we move on, but you won the Caspi Award, right? You guys won a Caspi in 1991.

Yes. Of course, that's a Canadian artist selected by you. Yeah, David Marsden, I think, is the guy responsible for the name change, I think. Yeah, well, they used to be called the You Knows, right? That's the first time I ever saw sloan that night and uh murphy they seemed like rock stars that night murphy jumped onto the table our table was you're sitting near the front he said i'm gonna go rock out to bare-necked ladies and he walked off the stage

jumped on our table and and you know blistered some guitar solo and strutted around like a a rock star i was like i like, I like this guy. Oh, man. I love Sloan, man. I love that scene. Let me just get the right name of the award. Okay, so Steve and Ed won the Most Promising Songwriter Award. And the Yellow Tape became, oh, yeah, the Yellow Tape became the first indie release to go gold in Canada.

Yeah. Amazing. That night when they won that award, they both started crying. They couldn't even look at each other because they were so overwhelmed. I think that was the moment where they went, wow, us screwing around in the

basement and making four-track tapes has led to this. I think it was a real moment. After that, they became uncaring, unfeeling, you know, pop automatons. But right at that moment. There was a moment in 1991.

Yeah, it was great. Oh, man. So we're talking about like, okay, Lovers in a Dangerous Time is on much music, and you got CFNY is playing the mess out of your yellow tape stuff, and all this is going on.

But then this was going on. I was a big fan of Speaker's Corner, and I didn't cut... Well, this audio is embedded around a bunch of other audio, but let's listen to all of this. Hi! We're Barenaked Ladies. Speaker's Corner, Speaker's Corner,

go ahead and try your luck. We're a little too cheap to make our own videos. Be my, be my, be my, be my, be my, be my, be my, be my, be my, be my, We're a little too cheap to make our own videos. Remember, it's intimate and interactive. I believe the first time I ever heard and saw the Barenaked Ladies, I believe it was on Speaker's Corner. Yeah. Wow. It's funny because we're doing that Speaker's Corner theme song that we saw these two dudes from, I think they're from London or something.

Twas Now, they were called. And they went in there and did that. We thought, wow, that's cool they do that. So we were kind of paying tribute to them, and then we kind of stole their mojo right going in it was amazing okay so i i always marvel at that because for a dollar we went in and made a music video now that's what it took then to have access you know you take a chance some editor you record you record your thing, put your dollar in, record your thing, some editor decides, hey, that's pretty good, puts it on a television show or a clip of it on the weekly digest of, you know,

I'm sure thousands of hours of stuff, and they get it down to this 29-minute show, and then, so we happen to get on. Now, every single person has a camera and access to the whole world. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Back then, you had to go to the corner of John and friggin' Queen and John. And sit in the booth. And it's amazing how what we've seen, how things have changed since then. I came within a whisker. So I have these Toronto Mike Lissiter experiences. There have been two. I say like I have them, like I've been doing them for 100 years.

But the third one was going to happen around Christmas time. But it was going to be excerpts, like outtakes of Speaker's Corner. Because Ed Conroy hooked me up with all this video footage that they used to show at the City TV Christmas parties. Yeah, well, I'm sure they show the X-rated stuff

as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's all the stuff that basically they couldn't put on TV, but they put together this whole reel to play internal Christmas movies. Yeah, I remember that. So we have this. Oh, great. So at some point, probably next December,

which would make it TMLX4, we are going to view this collectively. All the listeners, we're all going to get together at Great Lakes Brewery and watch these outtakes from Speaker's Corner. You're invited, my friend. Okay. Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun,takes from Speaker's Corner. You're invited, my friend. Okay. Yeah, that sounds

like a lot of fun, actually. So that's happening. So, yeah, so what else do I want to pick up here? Okay, I want to thank you. I want to thank you real quick, because today, I know Drake gets a lot of credit for dropping, he'll drop a reference to like Jane and Weston or something in a song. Yeah. And we all get like so excited, and there's a million

articles written about it, and like whatever. But I want to say thanks to you guys because I personally absolutely love it and Lois DeLoe does this too and a lot of local bands do this, but you guys did an exceptional job of referencing local things, local Toronto stuff. Well, we weren't

afraid of that back in the day and we still do it, but it's interesting because I think at that period of you know the early days of bare naked ladies we were definitely a very civic band and also sort of wore scarborough on our on our sleeves um and uh you know um my scarborough roots i left when i was five but my you know steven and ed went to the same high school as my dad for instance um and you know my my mom my both sets the same high school as my dad, for instance. Um, and you know,

my, my mom, my both sets of grandparents lived in Scarborough. So I was always going there. And, uh, but you know, I, so I, it wasn't foreign to me. Newmarket wasn't, you know, lesser Scarborough by, by a long shot, but, um, I totally related to the, the suburban garbage culture in a way, you know, like just 7-Elevens and super big gulps and, you know, like things like that. Cassettes, going to the mall, going to the record shop, you know, Jane and St. Clair, things like that.

I totally related to the local references and the Scarborough angle. Jane and St. Clair, there's not much there, but Jane and Dundas had the Dairy Queen forever. I know. I knew every location of a Dairy Queen in Toronto for a long time. There was that one that was on Weston Road,

just right of Black Creek. It's gone too. The late lamented Dairy Queen. It's so funny. the Jane St. Clair thing is, you know, because Stephen Duffy who wrote the song with Paige, he said, oh, Jane St. I don't know, Stephen Duffy, you should meet him.

He's such an Englishman. And he was like, oh, it sounds like the most romantic intersection in the world. You should say, I drive by it all the time because my boy plays at George Bell Arena. Oh yeah, and back in the day. You should say, I drive by it all the time because my boy plays at George Bell Arena. Oh, yeah. And back in the day, there was the stockyards there. The whole area just

smelled like slaughter. So it's not a romantic place at all. I love that they were able to sort of turn it around in that song and make it this... I actually played that for Jewel when we were talking about you guys earlier. Earlier today, we played Jane. Very funny. Now,

I want to ask you about the so many things. I just want to keep track of them all, but 90210. Oh, yeah. And maybe tie this together with Jason Priestley. Speaking of Toronto references, man, I loved it when you guys, like, you bought

an old house on the Danforth, but, like, today that house would be, like, two million bucks, right? Yeah, or more. Four million bucks. Yeah, I know. It's funny, because the priest, as we, his cronies, call him, he was

always very supportive of us, so we work a lot in the United States, and we did then, too, so whenever we would play in Los Angeles, he would be there, And there was this cadre of TV people, comedians, actors, etc. It's a lot with Canadian roots or people who hung out with Canadians. So we met a lot of

people back then. And the kids in the hall guys were down there at the time so we hung with Foley. It was a good time um so priestly one time he came to one of our shows and we were complaining about our music videos and how we spend so much freaking money and we get something that we don't like and he was like dude i'll come up to toronto i'll direct a video it'll be great and then I'll march it into MuchMusic and MTV and say, hey, I'm Jason Priestley. Play this. I made it.

Lo and behold, if he didn't do exactly that. Priestley, so the priest, as I don't get to call him, but I'll call him that anyways. The priest spends a lot of time in Toronto right now because he films at Private Eyes here. Yes. And Gare Joyce wrote that book. He actually did stand-up at a TMLX.

He's a great sports writer. I know Gare Joyce. Gare Joyce, yeah. So The Priest, do you still hang out with The Priest? I see him every so often. We're not as close as he was. He came to my wedding and he made the documentary Bare Naked in America, which just was finally re-released on our 20th anniversary

of Stunt that came out last year. Jason was very gracious and very excited and just a great guy. He's one of us, really. He could come in here, he could do this podcast, and you would have a great time. Could he hang with us? Oh, easily.

Easily. And he's a very gracious to us in those days. So this song, Old Apartment, it got MTV Play. Yeah. So was this a turning point for the band in terms of American success? Definitely. It's funny, when we recorded this song,

we recorded it at a place called The Gas Station. It doesn't exist anymore. I think now it might be, it's like a dot-com place or something. It doesn't exist anymore. I think now it might be what, it's like a dot-com place or something. It's in Liberty Village. And you look out the window and there's the big Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket lit up, you know, from the side of the Gardner there. And it was a real kind of live room,

kind of grimy, run by a guy named Dale Morningstar. And Don Kerr was also involved, the great Don Kerr. He's a drummer, has communism. He played with Ron Sexman. He was in the real statics. Great guy. So they ran the studio together, and it was a great place.

It was a real... Back in the day when a loft was an abandoned place that you could go in and create things in, and it didn't cost $6 million. Yeah, exactly. Well, they had a whole... Pat Mastroianni, his post-Degrassi role was in that show, Liberty Street?

Yeah. Totally. Which I dug, but apparently I was the only one I thought. I dug it. Good old Wheels. Like I said, because it was five years before we knew he was gone. I know. Wheels, Joey, Snake. Pat was... Joey. Joey Jeremiah he was gone. I know. Pat was Joey.

The zit remedy, man. Before Barenaked Ladies, we had zit remedy. Everybody wants something. Anyway. Similar to, by the way, because I'm going to forget to come back to this, but do you have a good recording of McDonald's Girl? That's the one. The one that you played is the one.

We have no studio version of it. Even that's... Potato quality, as my kids would tell me. Going back to that time. Recorded. Amazing place. Love the gas station. It has a sound. You played a live version there, but there's a studio version where the room

sounds like that. Our whole Born on a Pirate Ship album was recorded then. It was an interesting time. It was a tough time for Steve. He just had kind of a bit of a nervous breakdown, really. And, you know, he struggled with mental health issues his whole life. And I think that was a real, it was a tough time there for him. And he was, you know, spending a lot of time taking naps on the couch.

And, you know, we were making a record and he was doing his best, but he would jump up every so often and that vocal performance on that song, he sang his ass off. And I think that's the hardest we'd rocked on a record ever. And I remember we're in the control room afterwards listening to the playback and I was just like, this is the shit.

And the guys made fun of me because I raised my fingers up room afterwards listening to the playback and I was just like, this is the shit. The guys made fun of me because I raised my fingers up and was doing hands over the head at the City of Toronto, which you could see out the windows of the gas station. I was sort of like saying, yeah, motherfuckers, we've arrived. Check this shit out. And just loving it. It's like that scene in The Wire with

Stringer Bell and Avon Barksdale. We don't have to dream no more. We don't got to dream no Avon Barksdale. We don't have to dream no more. We don't got to dream no more. That's right. We don't got to dream no more. Oh, Stringer. How shocking was that turn of events at the end of the season? I don't think it was even the end.

Was that the end? Of third. Season three. Anyway, we'll get back to The Wire. Get back to The Wire. So we're recording this, and I know, I've got a feeling in my heart that this is one of the greatest recordings we've ever made as a band. We're also a four-piece now, because Andy Cregan had left.

He left the band. Wait, is Kevin Hearn on board yet? Not yet. Okay. Not there. He's in the look people, you know. Yeah, he's in the look people all the time. Exactly.

They were in LA doing crazy things. Right. They were in L.A. doing crazy things. Right. So that song comes out, and it stays on the U.S. Top 40. Sorry, in the U.S. Top 100 for a year, a full year, and finally makes it into the Top 40. Casey Kasem, we made that, and we used to,

it made number 40 on the top. So there was this thing we got from the radio. It was like, number 40. He's a band from Toronto, Canada. They rock, rock, rock, and they're rocking the socks off. He's the old department. And that happens. And we used that as our intro live for that for a number of years.

We just played that recording. That would be my ringtone today, man. A year. A year on the charts, and it finally breaks top 40. And then things are looking pretty good for the band. And then we put a live record out, which had a live version of it. Rock Spectacular. Yeah, which kept it on the charts.

And it sort of set the whole stunt thing up. So from 95, when we record Old Apartment, Born on a a pirate ship record um we switch management to terry mcbride um we kevin hearn joins the band huge huge impact immediately and uh we you know we go on the road for three solid years, 95 to 98. Record stunt. Debut's at number four. We get a number one single with one week. Boom. It's been one week since you looked at me. A number one single with three.

It's been five days since you laughed at me. Step together, come back and see me. Three days to the living room. Yeah, this is number one, man. When I record the Remember the Time for Fast Time in the future, I'll be talking about on this day in 20... When was it? 1998? Yeah, I think it's October...

It might be October 1998 that it was number one for one week. How appropriate. But it was everywhere. So this is your biggest hit ever. Yes. A song that Ed Robertson improvised, essentially,

into a video camera. He had a bunch of other verses as well, and it was kind of an afterthought for the record, for the stunt record. He's got the Soul Wr Rider credit on it as well, which is interesting because he just went for it,

and here it is. And I remember recording it. Rehearsing it was like, yeah, okay, we're going to put all these funky loops behind it, and we're going to make it like a Beastie Boys type. And so we got to the studio in Austin, Texas with Susan Rogers, who had recorded Prince, among others,

and David Byrne and a bunch of great bands. And we're trying to figure out what to do for the rhythm track. And I tried everything. I'm playing percussion, bongos, playing heavy beats, no beats. Eventually I come, you know, I leave the studio in frustration. I actually pulled a hissy fit mic.

I totally split. Like a diva moment? Yeah, because I tried everything and they didn't like anything. So I was like, ah, fuck it. And I left. And I got on my bike and I rode around Austin. And I came back and we said, why don't you just try the simplest possible thing here let's let's you know what do a cross stick thing and and I said okay well I'm gonna do the

one the one drop open the hi-hat on the one like Parliament Funkadelic and uh let me what do you know they love it they start dancing around the studio. And I was like, okay, great. I'm glad I got it. Then I left again. And I came back that night and they added all this crazy stuff on it. And I was like, what do you think? I was like, I don't know, man. It's too busy and self-indulgent. I don't know, man.

I don't know, man. And they're like, we love it. And of course, everyone loved it. Yeah. So that was example number one of if Tyler hates it, it's going to be huge. See, I think I know what another example is, but we'll get to that shortly. Yeah. A certain theme song we'll talk about later.

But man, okay, so it was everywhere one week. And then that was a moment, I will tell you, as a guy who had the yellow tape, there was a weird sensation of like, damn, we got to share them now. Like there was a weird dynamic there because I was always a tragically hip fan and I felt like they're ours. Hip are ours. And suddenly, Bare Naked Ladies weren't ours anymore. I don't know if there's a word for this. Maybe the Germans have a word

for this, but they aren't yours anymore. Einen Frude. I don't know. I think, you know what, you're touching on something, Mike, that I think is unfortunately a Canadian kind of pathology where we they're ours we love them we haven't bought an album since the yellow tape but we love them never i know those guys i went to high school with those guys

they used to be on my house all the time oh really i love that don't change man don't sell out don't go to the United States oh you got any Barenaked Ladies I got Gordon right right what about the three in between

like so for us we always felt like Canada is so weird for this band because we love we all live here we love it we're part of this

we know everybody you're dropping Danforth references exactly but really our success has been the United States and England. And

here, it's, yeah, we're in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. I wouldn't take it. But that is the nature of Canada. Where there's a band that can be big for a certain amount of time and then the next thing comes along. But it seems to be a little bit uniquely yours. I think it's because of that origin story

of B&L and only because if I think of a band like, for example, Rush or if I think of Sarah McLachlan, who you guys have performed with and stuff, it doesn't seem to stick to them that way. It's funny. Those are two examples of exactly the same thing we went through because Rush, yeah, they're a Canada's band, but they

were huge in the US. Absolutely. And pretty big in England and Europe too. Sarah McLachlan, entirely the United States. She can still sell shows here, but I think it's the population of Canada and the sort of the smallness of it. One of the things we did on our last Canadian tour was we went back to smaller places

on our fake nudes tour and we loved it. tour was we went back to smaller places on our fake nudes tour and we loved it you know we went to uh you know um grand prairie you know and we went to uh fort saskatchewan and you know places like that you know trail bc things and played these shows because that's what you got that's what canada is it's not whereas in the States, every 20 miles is a major city. So, but I think that Canadian-ness, that don't change, we love you,

but then we'll be broke if we don't. No, it's stupid because I mean, I've had Chris Murphy on and we've had like really heart-to-heart discussions where he explained

like his financial situation and stuff. Yeah. He doesn't own a car and we were going on and it's like, yeah, they were big fucking rock stars in this country. where he explained his financial situation and stuff. He doesn't own a car. And we were going on and it's like, yeah, they were big fucking rock stars in this country. All over much music and all over 102.1,

but the guy can't pay rent in the city. It's a messed up system. Well, nowadays especially, where you're making fractions of a cent on every play. Back in the day, we were fortunate, and Chris was fortunate too, I got to add, to sell records and to be around at the height of the music industry and probably have our biggest hits

at the time where there was still that business where you're getting screwed a little bit less. I like to say we're getting screwed pretty hard now, but at least back then they used lube. Well, you nailed it. Back then, if we wanted, and a lot of us did, I bought a lot of Barenaked Ladies and a lot of Sloan, but if you wanted to buy, you bought physical medium.

You might shell out 20 bucks for a CD, and I don't know how many of those dollars might go to you guys, but today you're right. I don't know what you guys get paid for a Spotify stream. 0.007 cents. That's awful. But I think the record companies are still making money

that's the interesting thing there anyway without getting into the woe is me starving artist scenario but one week was a big success

which everybody is by the way you should check out Danny Michelle's post of a while ago I read it I read it yeah yeah

only it was really key in my mind because I had just had Lois DeLaloe on and we had a frank discussion about it and i had molly johnson on yes and she well i'm gonna be blunt about this she went off about this like oh yeah you know if she if this was america she'd have a bentley and this and that but you know in canada she doesn't have a driver's license and she went off on this and it's yeah yeah well there's so it helps to have a one week success well i mean that

it's amazing what one huge hit single will do um we also you know we haven't had a number of hits we've nominated for three grammys so i think the fact that that uh um you know to explode into the consciousness like that uh was incredible for us and so so then we played everywhere. We sold out Madison Square Garden. We played all over the United States. We played the Albert Hall in London. And things are great. And the great thing about, for me, always with this band is that we always backed it up.

We always gave great live shows, and we still do. That's our calling card. I can vouch for that. It was only two, I want to say two Decembers ago that I saw you at Massey Hall, and it was awesome. Yeah, you were awesome. Yeah, well, and I think that's the only thing you can control as an artist.

Your performance is the only thing, because you put your music out there, you spend a lot of money, it might flop. No one may ever hear it. But if you're putting on a concert, you know that there's people in front of you, they lot of money, it might flop. No one may ever hear it. But if you're putting on a concert, you know that there's people in front of you, they're responding immediately, and if you're great, the chances are

they're going to come back again. But how important, like for record companies, your record company, how much money and effort was kind of spent kind of trying to get you another one week, like trying to duplicate that success? I have no complaints about our record company then, Reprise Records, and under the Warner umbrella. Particularly in the United States,

they worked us amazingly. They loved the band. We did everything. We played boardrooms. We played malls. We played TV shows, morning radio, because we just did it. And we gave them the tools so they could go into a station and say, hey, look at this.

Here's the new one from Barenaked Ladies. Play it. And for about three years there, everything we put out got played. Well, we skimmed over it. I mentioned it. We never touched on it. But yeah, so Jason Priestley helps you with the old apartment, but you're also playing the Peach Pit.

Peach Pit After Dark, 902. Yes. I had never, at that point, I'd never been as close to as many super round fake breasts as that day when we shot. Oh, yeah, Tori's not. Yeah, Tori, Tiffany, and Jenny Garth,

and Kathleen Robinson as well. Okay, Ii, Tiffany, and Jenny Garth. And Kathleen Robertson as well. Okay, I didn't know. She's Canadian, right? Yeah. Well, Kathleen Robertson's Canadian. And it was just like, wow, amazing. We had a great time.

It was so funny because when you think about that whole concept, they had a lot of bands on there like Colored Me Bad and Barenaked Lady. The Flaming Lips were on 90210. So I loved the... I always remember when you're filming, you can't make any noise when there's a dialogue part. You have to be rocking out. I think we were playing Brian Wilson and totally... And I had a bass drum pedal on the kit, but I'd taken the beater out,

so there was no sound, right? But just the mechanism of it was like, and they're like, cut. What is that sound? It's squeaking. I'm like, oh, I'm sorry. That can't be happening. Take that.

So the grip comes over, grabs my pedal, throws it in the corner. It was a big deal when, I don't know why I watched the damn show, but I watched both of those. I watched 90210 and I watched Melrose Place. I don't know. There was no other options back then. But I remember it was a big deal when B&L was going to play Peach Pit after Dark.

It's those opportunities, Mike, that we've had over the years. Those little pop culture, like we were on Charmed. You know, I was on like Hollywood Squares once. We, you know, the theme song. Bruce Valanche on that? Bruce Valanche was on the show. Totally. And Whoopi Goldberg was on the show.

Okay, the Whoopi era. She invited me to come play poker at her house on Wednesdays. Crazy. Anyway, that happened. And we've had things like, you know, and we've had things like, you know, the theme song to Big Bang Theory or, you know, one week's been in a bunch of movies.

Yeah. You know, we've just always been there and that has a lot to do with our fan base who contains a lot of Hollywood writers, comedians, and people who like good music. I see what I did there. I did see that. So the priest is the guy who got you on After Dark, Peach Pit After Dark.

Yeah, definitely the priest. And we got to know those folks and hung out with them a bit. One of the people who saw us on that show went on to fame was Mark Burnett. Oh, yeah. And fortunately, he gave us the new president. He did, absolutely.

But he also gave BNL a bunch, like we were on that show with Trump. We were on The Apprentice. Okay. We were on a show called Casino, which was a reality show set in Las Vegas. And so we were on The Apprentice twice in the casino. And Mark loved us.

Oh, cool. And so also Mark, I think, produced the Olympics, Olympic broadcast from NBC at Salt Lake. So he had us in a primetime slot there where we brought up Saleh and Pelletier after they'd been screwed by the Russian judge. Right. So we have these moments of showing up in mass culture and kind of nailing it.

And it's memorable. So the brand, to use crass advertising terms, the brand is alive and well. Absolutely. Now, Basement, we got to go back. We're a little bit back to the middle 90s here because Basement Dweller says, We're a little bit back to the middle 90s here because Basement Dweller says, hey, please be sure to ask Mr. Stewart about his great 1995 Don't Talk Dance album

collaboration with Gordie Johnson and Chris Brown. I really enjoyed the self-titled track and their amazing take on Quincy Jones' theme from Sanford and Son. Yeah. Does Tyler have any interesting stories relating back to that particular time period? And before you answer it,

I tried to dig up some, again, sorry for the potato quality, but this is the theme from Don't Talk Dance. Yes. It sure is. Wow. Little Beastie Boys influence going on.

Definitely. Well, Even with the rapping. This is the first time other than the Fight the Power cover that Ed gets to rap a significant portion of a song. I listened to this recently because I did a verse of it at a

recent tribute concert to Gary Lowe with Big Sugar. Right, which I'm going to right next. Okay. Yeah, yeah. There's me trying to do my best MC imitation. This is my favorite line coming up. Our chips are smoky bacon. Our chips are smoky bacon.

This is an example of Barenaked Ladies being the biggest band in Canada in about 1993. We got a record contract Out of a party That we threw The party was actually thrown by the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir One of the greatest Local bands ever Here's Ed Nailing it Dancer.

Enhancer. I love this line here. I did it at a party. Okay, so Don't Talk Dance happens because we're jamming late at night. We used to do that. We used to go out and stay out all night and play music. Myself, Chris Brown, Gordy Johnson Ken Meyer who was a guitar player

played with Jane Sibri I think Buddy from the Headstones was there singer, Hugh, actor guy Hugh Dillon was there a bunch of the real statics were there you know people just hanging out in the basement at the Bourbon House and the basement

and it always ended up people just hanging out in the basement at the bourbon house and the basement and uh it always ended up at the jams that gordy was always on bass and gordy at the time was a guitar player and a singer with big sugar right but he started as a bass player and we just did a bunch of stupid shit like television theme songs, you know, rapping, interspersing other songs. You know, we did the Fred and Barney Miller, where we played the Barney Miller theme, but we played the Flintstones theme at the same time.

Stupid shit. And then we got a record deal out of it because we decided to throw a party. Kim Cook from Warners Canada was like, yeah, let's put this out. It was so fun. So I think he was at the party. And so then it was like, okay, let's get the mobile truck

and throw a gig at Ultrasound. And Doug McClement from whatever that amazing recording studio was called, he had a mobile truck. And he was out in the alleyway, and we recorded a party. And we invited our friend Ian Blurton from Change Your Heart came and played guitar. Wow. Members of the Bourbon Timer Knocker Choir.

And Ed from our band. And it was just a nuts, fun time time and then we mixed it and put a record out and we did a couple of studio tracks um and uh there it was there was a super group album and i it got deleted pretty quickly from their you know warner's catalog but it was just such a lark that turned into an album wow and. And I think at the time... 95, the good old days. Yeah, sold about 11,000 copies, which was not as many as the million that Gordon had sold,

but it was pretty incredible for a joke of a project. And so, well, one of the great things about it was I got to be in a band with the two most dictatorial band leaders in Toronto and I say that because they're you know they cared Gordy is a notoriously tough band leader an amazing one because Big Sugar are incredible and Chris Brown was the same in the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir and then there was me the drummer who I kind of led the band right and those guys were in it because they got to laugh. All they,

Gordie Johnson is one of the funniest mofos you'll ever meet. You don't really know that from the, from the imaging, you know. Right. He's fucking hilarious. And,

and, and Chris Brown as well has a really great sense of humor. So, it was a lot of fun making that record and, and making the most silly,

if you can find the video to theme from Don't Talk Dance, that is some silly fun stuff and yeah, there it is. That's the story. So you mentioned Big Sugar and Gary Lowe was a member of Big Sugar who sadly passed away in 2018 and there was

a tribute at the Danforth Music Hall. Yes. Oh my god, is this? I've got a little audio from it but I want to ask you about this. A lot of my friends were there tribute at the Danforth Music Hall? Yes. Oh my god, is this... I've got a little audio from it, but I want to ask you about this. A lot of my friends were there, because... It's me and Lee Vocals, huh? Oh boy. So tell me who you're playing with here.

Best audio I could find. Pretty good. Is this from like locally? Is this like a... Yeah, it's a YouTube. Just a fan. Yeah, it's a fan. Wow. Amazing what a condenser mic can do, right?

A condenser mic. You know what? Yeah. That's what you should call your show of like rapid fire clips of the best of Toronto mic'd. Condenser mic. Condenser mic. Anyway. I actually considered calling this show Tangents.

It was just going to be a show of just tangents. Yeah, that's where easily apparently apparently, we can all do that. This show, I'm playing with Gordie Johnson on guitar and vocals. Paul Brennan, one of the original drummers of, one of the many drummers, shall I say, of Big Sugar. I think Chris Murphy might be playing bass. I believe so. And then there's Gene, the great percussionist,

other people all over the stage. Now this is a major, like the people who performed this night, there's a lengthy list of great Canadian artists, but it was the night before Maestro came here, so Maestro was telling me. He was there. Yeah, Maestro was there.

Some great moments that night, just like one of the things about big sugar is they're a genre bending band and i think i go on a rant about that in the middle of this song too where i'm just talking about you know there's a lot of talk of appropriation here's the don't talk dance verse Dance first. I'm running out of breath, I can tell. It's not easy being an MC. No.

Yeah, what Wes does is amazing. I know. Anyway, back to the story. Genre bending, you're saying. I know this because... Go ahead, sir. Well, because here's a band led by a guy who grew up on the prairies and also in Detroit, or sorry, Windsor, Gordie Johnson. And on bass was a Jamaican man, Gary Lowe, an incredible rasta,

an incredible bass player, and a huge part of the sound. And elements of dub, elements of reggae, plus elements of just hard rock. And this is a Caribbean man bringing his gift of music and his friends, because a lot of Gary's co-conspirators are also on Big Char Sugar Records. This is not appropriation. This is sharing of music. They're doing things together and they're bringing the music to people. And that's my problem with cultural appropriation, that term, is music

and the arts seem to be the place where you can share these things because there's amazing elements to everything and when you can bring them together you know i never understood the the criticism of paul simon's uh you know graceland record right he brought lady smith black mambazo to popular culture right and are they amazing yes should they have been there before paul simon yes but they weren't because they're from south africa in a in a marginalized society so i think sharing not appropriating but sharing and and collaboration and that is a very canadian thing you know and that's what that's what this rant is about

you're right on cue man you know uh when uh i had a very interesting experience with molly johnson on this show and uh one of the bright spot you heard it did you so one of the bright spots of the episode though was when we talked about this band and her experience you know we talked about Gary and Big Sugar

and I know she was at that show Danforth Music do you want to share briefly do you have any opinion on the Molly Johnson episode that you want to put on the record here? I just think it took her

a while to warm up to the basement honestly if I'm looking around I'm looking at the Jason mask over here and your mud covered bicycle and you know I think Molly's

Molly has some toad and Molly is a bit of an acquired taste. So she didn't know what she was she didn't know what she got herself into. I don't think so. And Molly is you, she's been around. She has done everything in this business. And as she probably said, sometimes for very little recognition or monetary.

And so I get that. But at the same time, I'm wondering if this is the avenue for i guess you know it's real talk right so my my feeling in hindsight and i've reflected on this quite a bit uh because i want to learn from it so that doesn't happen again one of the things i think is i think she anticipated uh two to five minutes about the kensington market jazz festival right and then of course that's not what i'm going to do we're going going to talk about Kensington Market Jazz Festival for maybe more than two to five minutes, but it's going to be embedded in

our deep dive. It's going to be, yeah, it's going to be embedded in reminiscence of King of Kensington. We're going to talk about who played King of Kensington's wife, Fiona Reid, my former name. Did you bring up King of Kensington just randomly? Because you do know the president of the fan club

was James B. from Look People. He was the president. Of the King of Kensington fan club. It figures. We played the theme song for him. Maybe that was 10 days ago or something like that. By the way, for the record, I would love another chance of Molly.

I don't know if that could ever happen, but I feel like we need a redo. You know what? I don't think you do. I think it got better. Honestly, like most things, you know, it takes a while to warm up. Now I'm curious as we close off this

Big Sugar, the tribute to Gary Lowe. I'm curious, like, you've listened to a bunch of Toronto Mike's episodes, or I need to know now. I may have listened to a few Toronto Mike's. Yeah. My problem is

here's one comment. When you and Wiseblot are on together, you guys tend to end up sounding like each other because the excitement level keeps on amping up whether you're talking about 19, Scruff Connors career on the radio, what kind of an announcer.

You both get excited about these landmark childhood things, and then I can't tell you guys apart anymore. Which is interesting, because I find he's got a very distinctive... Of course he does. It's a bit of Gilbert Gottfried, a little bit of a tinge of Gottfried, but it's very distinctive, and I enjoy it. He also sounds like an old-timey radio host. You know, it's like,

Toronto Mike, brought to you by Stokely Van Camp. You know, like, brought to you by Imperial Oil. When he starts to get a little more excited, it amps up a little bit. Oh, man. He's going to nail me now, isn't he, in his 1236. He's going to listen to this at twice the speed, too. He says he has a thousand podcasts, but I did the math.

He doesn't have enough time in the day to listen to that many podcasts. But let's get this out of the way here. Yeah. How the hell did this happen? And before you answer that, because Jeff McFarlane asked the question and a lot of people are curious, do you collect royalties every time a Big Bang episode airs? Yes.

Wow. Yes, thank God. My children thank the Big Bang people every day. Yes, that song, a terribly energetic awesome song like ed wrote it in the shower okay so that's the kind of guy ed robertson is right he dreamed a song once he dreamed that song green christmas oh yeah yeah uh which is on the uh the grinch soundtrack and also on our christmas album so he that guy is so incredibly creative without even trying half the time.

That's what I loved about this band, actually, when I first saw them. Between Robertson's musicality and quickness and Page's kind of acerbic observational stuff and incredible voice. It was like, these guys are the most talented mofos I've ever seen. And I just wanted to hang out with them, you know? And not to mention, you know, the music element.

If you look at the members these days with, you know, Kevin and Jim, they're so incredibly musically literate there's nothing that can't be pulled off any style, any anything and their own voices, what they bring to the table are incredible so this song to me is an example of that

it sounds like Barenaked Ladies you know who that is when you hear it, that's a band but it's the intro to a show It sounds like Barenaked Ladies. You know who that is. When you hear it, that's a band. But it's the intro to a show that is larger, bigger than we'll ever be. It's larger than life. It's the most popular sitcom of all time. Is that true?

All time. Is that right? It's the longest running, most popular sitcom ever. Wow. Okay, wow. I mean, I'll take your word for it. That's surprising to me in this fragmented universe that it could be happening now. But it's definitely the most popular sitcom now. And I think I've actually heard you tell the story about how you didn't want to record it.

Yeah. You didn't want to drive home from the cottage. I didn't want to come back from the cottage. It's lower now. The crazy thing about this is, okay, so you mentioned this fragmented universe and where we're at. Let's rewind back to 2007. We're very busy. We're a very busy band.

And we're deciding to, it's right before we decide to, is it 2007 or six? I don't know. Six maybe. Could be six or seven. We're deciding to kind of pull things back a little bit in the summer times because we all have young children and we're away all the time and it's Canada so we want to enjoy cottages or summer.

And so we made a conscious effort to work a little bit less in the summers, which is ridiculous because that's when you have to make hay. But we needed to do it because we'd been pretty much on the road for 17 years of constant work. So we decided to pull it back a little.

And I was at the cottage. I was in probably, we had two weeks booked up there. And we probably had some gigs here and there kind of thing. But mostly it seemed like that two weeks was really sacred. And previous to that, Ed had been working with Bill Prady and Chuck Lorre, the producers, creators of The Big Bang Theory, and they had seen us play in Los Angeles. I mentioned before how we had a lot of TV types

and producers, actors, et cetera, come to our shows. They saw us at the Greek Theater, and Ed happened to improv a rap that night in between a song about fractals because that's the kind of guy he is. We just started talking about fractals.

Anyway, they turned to each other. They were at the show and they said, these guys have to write the theme song to this show we're working on. They approached us about it. Then it kind of sat dormant for a number of months, almost a year. And then finally said, we need you to do this. And Ed had been working with them a little bit.

And he came up with that song in the shower. And he sent it to them. And they said, we love it. And then they said, well, what do you want me to change? And they said, nothing. Wow. Because also, it's a minute long, 30 seconds. I'm not sure how long the actual theme is.

Yeah, the one I played is not the one they played. Yeah, that's the longer version. That's the controversial version later on. But the original... Like 30 seconds, I think. Yeah, I think maybe less than 60 anyway. Yeah. So, you know, Ed's like,

okay, they'd sent out a VHS tape of the pilot and there was no laugh track or anything on it, which is fine, but it's essentially a three-camera, essentially a three camera old school sitcom. I hadn't watched one of those since like WKRP in Cincinnati. Right, right, right. I wasn't watching.

I just had no idea. And I also thought, I couldn't figure out whether they were making fun of smart people or they were revering. I just didn't connect with me at all.

And I was like, yeah, okay, whatever. Day two of vacation at the cottage, I'm just starting to fucking unwind, like day three maybe. And Ed says, and our management, they want this now. The studio's gonna be booked for tomorrow

or the next day, and we've gotta be there. And I was like, yeah, fuck it. I'm just starting to relax. I don't want to do a theme song for a show that I'm sure is not going to last a minute. I didn't think it was any good. And I remember on the phone, Ed said, Ty, I need you to come down.

I was like, I can't. You just play drums on it, man. I don't care. I don't give a shit. He goes, look, man, these guys have been great to deal with. Chuck and Bill have been amazing. This could be a really great opportunity for us down the road. The show actually is funny if you give it some time.

And I worked hard on this. So come on, man. I just need you to play a kick-ass drum set, drum track. And I was like, OK, I'll come in. But this better be the next fucking Seinfeld he's like alright and I hang the phone up go and reluctantly speed to Toronto the next day and I almost played

pissed off on it because it's so fast but it's a killer drum track because I'm like fuck you you know and it's frenetic and nuts and stuff anyway story's bananas man boom one season it's a huge hit nuts and stuff. Anyway. The story's bananas, man. Boom. Yeah.

One season, it's a huge hit. Ah, it's picked up for another season. They have us come down and play their 100th episode party. We meet the cast. They're all really great. Everyone's having an amazing time because it's a hit show. Bill Prady is a really awesome guy. He works for the Anti-Defamation League as a volunteer.

He's from Detroit originally, knows a lot about, he's from Detroit originally, knows a lot about Detroit, had some great conversations with him about architecture in Detroit and the sort of the decaying city that the sort of interesting conundrum that is Detroit. Chuck Lorre had a band, you know, plays guitar, sat in with us.

We played on the set met the cast was amazing was so fun right to rewind though you didn't think one week was any good you didn't want to come home and do this big bang theory nonsense yeah exactly so that's two for two

right I'm two for the two biggest things in our career I'm not sure so now the band has the Tyler test, which is like, does he hate it? Okay, it's fucking great. It's going to be gold. It's going to be gold. That's funny, man.

That's amazing. I love that story. That's fantastic. A good friend of mine is Jason Agnew, and you might know him from live audio wrestling or many Swiss Chalet commercials or whatever. Right on. Yeah.

But let me let him tell the story. Hi, Tyler. Jason Agnew here from News Talk 1010 and Tiny Talent Time. Now, I was going to ask you how garbage a hockey player Gary Rideout actually is, but instead I'll ask something that other people might be interested in as well. I was on your Ships and Dip 5 cruise,

so I believe that makes it the third one, right? Which is very funny yes you guys played a gig i believe it was the last night before we were getting off the boat and it was in the bar of the boat and you invited all the other musicians that were on the cruise up you played till about 3 30 in the morning it was a whole bunch of 70s and 80s covers it was a super fun time intimate interactive just a great time. You played till about 3.30, and the only reason why you stopped is because you blew a fuse and the instruments didn't work anymore. You had no power. Ed had to hold up a sign and tell everyone the show was done.

Now, my question about this is, after that cruise, Steve left the band. So I've always been curious, is after that cruise, Steve left the band. So I've always been curious, was that the final show that the five Barenaked Ladies jammed out and played together for an audience? That's my question. Oh, and come down to Comedy Bar and judge Catch-23 with me sometimes.

Gary Rideout would like that, even though I'll continue to believe he's a terrible hockey player. Why, thank you, Jason. Gary Rideout is actually one of the better players on the Joker's Hockey Club, which I'm a member of. Yes, that cruise was the last time we played with Steve before, of course, our Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.

So that was in 2009 uh 2008 2009 um i just i don't remember i i remember those late night jams they're so fun such a great time but that cruise was weird it was a weird time because you know we knew that uh things were going south uh with steven and uh that his mind was elsewhere. And so it was a weird time. And now it's 10 years ago now. So it's funny because whenever I do an interview anywhere in Canada, that's all anyone wants to talk about. Oh, Stephen, is Stephen coming back?

We didn't talk about it until two hours and five minutes in. Thank you. No one gives a shit in the States. They just don't care. But, you know, obviously it's Canada, it's the, you know, the creation story and everything else. That was the last time, yeah. And then that was, that was it.

And so since then, we've only played one other gig with them. There it is. The Junos, right? Yes. Now, that was a big deal. That was recent, too. Was that a one-off, or is there any plans to do anything with Steven?

It was a one-off. I thought it was a one-off, and Wiseblood said no. You probably heard that, right? I did. Or is it the other way around? No, no, no. It's that way.

I got the recorded evidence. Okay. I felt it was a one-off, and Wiseblood was sure that the album was coming with the reunited tour or whatever. He's got a whole thing. Yeah, I think I heard him say something along the lines of there's a big payday to be happened. But the thing is, there's lots of other paydays that are still happening.

So there's no real impetus to do it other than the hopes and dreams of this entire nation, other than the hopes and dreams of this entire nation, which, you know, our mandate when we parted ways was, let's make this a healthy workplace, and let's do things because we want to do them and because we're all into it. And it's been that way for 10 years, and I have no complaints about it. I mean, there's always ups and downs when you're working with other people. It's like that way for 10 years, and I have no complaints about it. I mean, there's always ups and downs when you're working with other people.

It's like being married. And so this whole Hall of Fame induction was amazing, great honor, incredible. Geddy Lee inducting us, being out there with all our families. We joined some pretty incredible company you know in in the canadian music hall of fame uh it was also good to see steven and to sit around and talk about our kids and see his kids again i haven't seen him in 10 years and we had a nice time together at the rehearsal it was like the old days we laughed we snacked and we sang some songs and that was really easy.

You know, the hardest part was just answering all the questions all the time. Sure. And my favorite terrible moment was Marsha Lederman. She's a reporter for the Globe and Mail. Love Marsha. Went to Ryerson with her. She's a really good writer

and really understands the arts and is great. But she would not lay... So does this mean you're getting back together? She would not, on the red carpet, she wouldn't lay off me. But I said, oh, it's been great. We're trying to be diplomatic about it, trying to keep the good vibe going,

trying to keep the focus on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, not the reunion of the... But three times she asked me. And finally I said, yes, Martha. Sorry, your name's Marsha. I said, yes, Martha. Sorry, your name's Marsha. I said, yes, Marsha. Yes, Martha, you changed your name. Yes, Marsha.

Yes. And Santa Claus is real. And so is the Easter Bunny. And you know what? Mom and dad are getting back together after 20 years of divorce. And everything's going to be great. We're going to live in the same house. And yeah. and everything's going to be great. We're going to live in the same house.

And yeah, so I just, I ended up saying that to her because there is a certain element of that. There's a lot of that kind of, you know, just because, just think about your, let's say your kid graduated university with honors and your parents, you've been divorced from your partner who created this kid for a number of years. Because they, doesn't mean you're getting back together. Right. you've been divorced from your partner who created this kid for a number of years. Because they doesn't mean you're getting back together.

Right. It's crazy. When I asked for questions for this, I said, do you have a question for Tyler? I said, I'd like the quirky and the obscure as opposed to the questions they get asked every single... Everyone's going to want to know, are you guys getting back together? No, I wasn't going to ask.

Do you know what former Toronto Mike to guest and sports writer is Stephen Page's cousin? Steve Simmons. Oh, of course you know that. Yes, he of the hot dog story. What do you think of the hot dog story? I thought it was bullshit. I thought you're way better than that, Steve, you idiot.

And I'm so glad that... No, seriously, that was a shit story. I know. I gave him a chance to call it back a bit. I was trying to give him a little help, but he didn't want it. He just doubled down. Oh, yeah, doubled down, yeah.

Phil won two Stanley Cups in a row. I posted that on Twitter. Hey, Steve, look how many hot dogs get you the Stanley Cup twice. Just a stupid, typical Canadian media thing to do is to tear somebody down like that and I hated that now

it's funny because again I tried to give him a chance to bring it back or whatever and he basically put it all on his son's friend so that was the source of the story, his son's friend. It's all on Toronto Mike. Like any good journalist blames their kid, first of all, and their kid's friend.

Well, his kid, the funny thing is, his kid is booked to come on this show in a couple of weeks, Jeff Simmons. Nice. We'll talk about that. But going back to Steven for one second. Paige, right? Yeah, not Steve Simmons.

The great thing is that i believe we're all in better places and uh that was that was a nice part about the juno uh weekend there was to to just sit and chat with a guy who you know at one point was one of my closest friends. And, you know, he was a very important person to me. You know, we hung out a lot on the road. He can be a very sympathetic and understanding guy. We spent a lot of time drinking and talking because, you know, being in a multi-million selling, very popular rock band, you know, it a in a multi-million selling very popular rock band you know it can do a number on anyone's head and uh so you know i would say over the years

we were definitely there for each other on a number of occasions just as you know ed robertson was there for me and kevin hearn and and jim cregan and Andrew Cregan, all those guys, we share so much because we're in a band and we're together a lot. But I think time heals a lot of things. And when it comes to Steven, we never say never, but we're all awfully happy where we're at now. And I know Steve is having a career of his own and he has a good little band

together and he's enjoying it. And he's still the great singer and songwriter. And we're doing our thing. We've made five albums since he's left. We've played to hundreds of thousands of people. It's been 10 years and we're stopping. And we're happy doing it. And I don't think the band would have lasted if we were still a five piece. Now, I know I've taken way too much of your time, so I'm going to wrap this up very fast. I'm good.

Oh, you're good? Yeah, I'm good, man. Then I'll slow down. I'll run out of hard drive space. I got a question about this jam, which is a great little cut from the most recent album. Is it still the most recent album? It sure is, yeah.

Fake nudes, yep. Chicken and egg question. Okay, so, and I've seen you perform it live, and it was all over the place, but it's also in an ad for Canada Dry, so here's my question. Chicken and egg, what came first, the, hey, we write a song about Canada Dry,

or we get a song called Canada Dry, like, which came first? Definitely not the song. The song didn't come about because of the soft drink company. The song is about a good friend leaving Canada. Not being around anymore. And all of the great things about being Canadian are still there, but you're not around.

So, you know, listening to Neil is making me cry. Listening to Joni is making me cry. And finally, listening to Gord is making me cry. And, you know, everybody knows who we're talking about there right well I'm wearing the shirt today he's right there but I think it's one of the most

Canadian songs ever written it has a million Canadian references in it and I think the idea is lamenting losing a Canadian friend. And it's not really about ginger ale. I'm just going to say that out loud.

The people from Canada Dry loved it. They love the song. And it's funny. It's a sad song, but it has a happy kind of refrain, which is a Barenaked Ladies hallmark, really. So, yeah, there you go. It's a great, great song. May we take a moment and chat about Gord?

Yes. Now, do I need to disclose it? This is my favorite band of all time. Barenaked Ladies is one of my favorite bands of all time, but the Tragically Hip is my favorite band of all time. Bare Naked Ladies is one of my favorite bands of all time, but the Tragically Hip is my favorite band of all time. Tom Wilson, I wanted to mention him because he was at the Danforth Music Hall for Gary Lowe as well. Yes.

He's on stage with me, actually, too. Yeah, there's another guy on stage. What a guy. So he read an excerpt from his book, Beautiful Scars is the name of that book, by the way, that you referenced earlier, and he talked about meeting the Tragically It for the first time. And

could you share any memories or any thoughts at all about Gord Downie? Yeah. Gord astounded me when I first met him because we were opening for them at the University of Western Ontario in 1991, I believe.

And you know, they were an awesome rock band. I saw him do his thing, which is be the greatest front man in Canadian rock history. And he asked a lot of questions. Where are you from originally? What's your wife's name? You know, you got any kids yet?

And I didn't at the time. You know, just a few things like, you know, what would you like to do? And then over the years, we just have conversations. And then I would see him, you know, it's the rock business. So you see him at award shows

or you see him sometimes on the ice because we played hockey together occasionally. He was a goaltender. And, you know, he'd ask, he'd say, how's Jill doing? Or something like that along those lines. Are you still cooking? Still cooking. I'd never had him over

for dinner or anything, but he knew. He just remembered things about you. And I think to a man, every guy who ever met the guy will say a similar thing you know he is very good like that and it's i i found it so ironic that the thing that would take away gordon was a disease of the brain and he had such a big brain you know he He remembered things about you. He sang about

important things, cerebral things, simple things. And yeah, so I think that was the most ironic thing about his death. As a fan, I found it interesting that when Gord, we knew Gord was dying. We all knew he was dying.

And then we got news that morning that he had passed away. And I cry like a baby. And I've never in my life cried because of a celebrity death. Right. I mean, I paid tickets and watched him in concert like over a dozen times, but I had never met the guy. But I cried like I lost a family member. Yeah, well, I think that speaks to the nature

of celebrity in Canada what is it really I mean it's more like a guy you know you're getting emotional right now talking about it and that that's just the effect that he had and I think you know he's been certainly canonized in in some ways you know like all of the great things he did you know we don't know the other stuff, and thankfully, because ultimately he's a public figure in doing his job. He was really good at his job, and he really, you know, struck a nerve in this country like no other artist, I think, has.

For me, too, there's a close connection in that Kevin from our band played in his band at the end and also played on what I think is his greatest album Coke Machine Glow. Solo record, not a hip record. But the hip also went through that biggest band in Canada phase that we went through where you know you have to do things to serve that so they did their festivals you know roadside attraction which was I thought was great because they brought in all

these different midnight oil and Los Lobos and all these cool bands right and then they sort of went dormant for a while you know where they put records out and they they weren't selling as well and and, you know, where they put records out and they weren't selling as well. And then, you know, the resurgence, obviously, when Gord got sick and, you know, that tour, the opportunity to go across and say goodbye. I think people appreciated that, even though it was impossible to get tickets for, but they appreciated that gesture of, I'm not gone yet. Thank you. that gesture of I'm not gone yet,

thank you. And, you know, as soon as that was done, though, he just threw himself into the Chaney-Wenjack stuff, secret path stuff, which is also beautiful. You know,

it's interesting to have something like that to see you through at the end, kind of, you know, where I think a lot of people would just retreat and, but he just worked until he couldn't work anymore. Man, I miss that guy.

Yeah. Now, Michael Barclay, he wrote a book about the hip, actually, but he had a question just to turn channels here. Yeah. Rockfest 2000, he says. Ask him about Rockfest 2000 in Chicago. Yeah. Is there a story there? Yeah.

Oh, that's good for Michael. That is a hilarious story in some respects because back when they had, when radio stations threw these big festivals, kind of Lollapalooza and those types of fests uh coachella and stuff they didn't really exist as much then uh lollapalooza did but it kind of went by the wayside mostly it was radio stations like edge fest yeah putting these things on now largely the performers weren't paid a ton to do these shows, right? It was a guarantee of airplay.

And so bands often went to do it because that's pre-internet. That's what you did. So Rockfest 2000 has an interesting and eclectic lineup. There is Metallica. There is Stone Temple Pilots. There's Kid Rock. There is Bare Naked Ladies. There's Kid Rock. There is Bare Naked Ladies. There's Third Eye Blind.

Guster. And that's your lineup. Problematic. Now, the first time that I ever saw Scott Weiland play was at that show, and I thought, that's actually a rock star. Just everything. The way he moved, the way he engaged the crowd.

He's got that Mick Jagger kind of swagger. He had it going on. It was amazing. And also, that was a time in 2000 when we were on our Maroon record, we were wearing matching outfits. And we were wearing kind of like, we were trying to ape

a certain Prada look at the time where it was a lot of pastels. And so we had like baby blue pants on with like a canary yellow top. And we were all wearing the same outfits. It was a bit of a concept. And failed, perhaps. I don't know. Anyway, we get out there in front of these fucking Metallica fans who are just rabid.

They've already had to sit through Third Eye Blind and Guster, and I remember our friends Guster got in trouble because the whole festival was sponsored by Oldsmobile. There's all these rock bands on the show, Oldsmobile,

and our friend Ryan Miller from Guster said, I'm not your dad, Zoesmobile. And they got off stage and said, we're not paying you. We're not. Get out of here now. The station is never going to play your music again. You've offended the sponsor. Like it was this big wrist slap thing. And he's like, all I did was make a funny comment. Anyway,

we get on stage in our pastel outfits and there's these just rabid Metallica fans just fucking giving us the finger. Like, just screaming, throwing shit at us. Dude, I was at an Edge Fest that Nickelback was headlining, and before Nickelback, they had some genius idea to put cake out there. Yeah. Cake got berated with bottles.

They ended up, after two songs, they said, we're leaving the stage. It's not safe. And I don't know if the fans thought, if you get rid of cake, Nickelback comes on earlier or something. But, like, no, that's not how it works. I was at an Edge Fest where that happened to Dan Lanois, who was opening, it was before the hip, right? Right. So, yeah, it happens.

But I remember my enduring image, there's two things. First of all, these guys started fighting in front of us, like, moshing and fighting when we were in the middle of like i don't know some song like uh too little too late or something like that and steve stopped the song and just i was whoa whoa and then ed started playing the chords to say you say me by lionel richie right Right, right, right. Say you, say me. And so Steve started singing it. So we started playing this totally slow jam and they stopped fighting. And that was amazing.

But then another one was, it was a totally packed mosh pit at a raceway. Yeah. And it was just, there was probably about 20,000 people there all pressed, more, 50, pressed up against the stage. It was a mosh pit.

It was nuts. Kid Rock crowd surfed during our set, which was amazing. But there's a guy pinned to the front, and he only had one arm free, and he was giving us the finger like, you fucking... It's just totally going for it, right? And I remember him struggling, struggling, and then finally frees his other hand, and it's just totally going for it right just like and I remember him struggling struggling and then finally frees his other hand

and it's like and it's double finger he struggled because he was so and freed it and it was like the double like yeah double fuck you guys and it was amazing and but you know being on a bill like that and then

and Stone Temple Pilots blew away Metallica, actually it might have been even just the Scott Weiland band at the time for a great band that really I've seen them several times Stone Temple Pilots and they actually, I was always surprised how often they were

not the headliner, like I saw them open for Red Hot Chili Peppers and then I saw them open for Linkin Park. Yeah. And Scott never seemed, he always seemed kind of pissed off that they weren't the headliner. I don't know if that was a rock host.

He had a certain rock swagger. The Hip were on that show too. I'm forgetting to mention. Yeah, on the Rock Fest in 2000. Yeah, Trash Ski Hip were on that show as well. It was a time when they had Kate Fenner and Chris Brown singing with them at the time. But what a crazy gig.

Like, what a weird-ass combo of people. Well, you're going to get a bunch of Metallica fans, and there's an aggressive nature to these Metallica fans where I don't think the Barenaked Lady vibe would be. It's not. Especially a bunch of dudes in pastels up there. It's hilarious, really. Oh, man.

Anyway. By the way, do you want another wise blot nugget? I got another wise blot nugget. Okay, let's hear it. He wants me to ask you about the, he heard that you run a street party every year by your house and that Mark once saw a real estate ad that

mentioned this as a perk. Is there some legendary Tyler Stewart? No. The street party, that's hilarious. That's funny. A couple of times, I think, in our neighborhood, it's like, you know, whatever, Victorian house, three stories, five bathrooms,

close to subway. Amenities include blah, blah, blah. And a bare-naked ladies drummer lives next door. That happened once. Okay, then maybe that's what he's... That's what he's... But I think he's remarking... He's talking about the Wanda Street Party,

which does happen every year. It's not run by me. It's run by a place called Romero House, which does amazing work with refugees who come to the country and are waiting for citizenship. And they live in that house around the corner from me.

And every year, the people who have gone on to become great Canadian citizens come back to this party. And there's usually a band playing. Sometimes Bob Wiseman is a neighbour of mine as well from Blue Rodeo in the day. And he does the sound

and I sometimes host the kids' talent show. All right. Which is a lot of fun. And funny, the stage is in front of Fiona Reed's old house from King of Kensington. She was my neighbor for a number of years.

We've come full circle on the Canadian television retro Ontario vibe. Brother Neil wants me to ask you if you knew Beard Guy from Walk Off the Earth. He sadly passed away just around Christmas time. Yes.

We're actually playing The Benefit on Sunday in Burlington or the Memorial, sorry. I did not know Mike. Kevin in our band, his mother and Mike's mother were our best pals. Oh, wow. So Kevin knew Mike, and that's why we're involved. It's sort of a nice gesture for us to go down there. Walk Off the Earth are an interesting band to me because they're obviously incredibly unique and talented,

and to be known for their covers more than they are for their own tunes. But they're not just covers. They're like reinventions of the song and the cool videos and what an interesting group that is. I don't know anything else about them other than my buddy Howie Beck mixed a couple of their

tracks, but I think we're going to play with I think Max from Markel's might be joining us and we've got some, yeah, we're going to play a couple of songs out in Burlington. Sunday, right? Yeah, Sunday. Okay, wow.

A couple of quick final thoughts here. Let me just pick up, hold on here. James Patterson wants me to ask you, how do you feel about touring with Hootie? Hootie and the Blowfish, yeah. Interesting time for us because those guys, they sold a gazillion records 25 years ago with their Cracked Rearview album. At the time, we had released Maybe You Should Drive,

our second album featuring the song Jane, which we heard earlier. And I remember at our label in the US, we were on sire at the time um sires under the warner and everything was hootie that the whole world was like all the attention so we didn't get any attention really on our second record and uh i remember our manager at the time was english guy named Nigel Best. He's actually Canadian, but he had an English accent because his name was Nigel, of course. He was like, who?

Like Chris Shepard? Yeah, Chris Shepard. Brothers and sisters. The Wolf Child. Skinny puppy on a Friday night. Yeah, RPM. Oh, my God. Good old Shep.

Often imitated, never duplicated. Yeah, I'd like to thank Sam the Record Man. I think I stole some of my first cassettes there. Yeah, so Hootie and the Blowfish. You'd get so mad. Hootie. Hootie and the fucking Blowfish. Who are Hootie and the fucking Blowfish?

Anyway, they sell a zillion records. We run into them over the years, here and there, gigs. Always friendly. They partied like mofos back in the day. But then I think for a while, they didn't really care about music as much as they did about golf and sports and things like that. Darius goes on and has this great career. He's a great singer. He's a great singer.

He's a country guy, right? Yeah, country singer. They're planning their 25th Cracked Rearview Tour and we have the opportunity. They asked if we want to come along and we're like, yeah. This tour this summer is 46 shows across America.

It's sold out almost immediately as we're doing two nights at Madison Square Garden. We're doing the Hollywood Bowl. So we play an hour a night and opening for them. And what a great opportunity to get in front of a lot of eyeballs. And I think people are really looking forward to the combo.

I guess it reminds them of a certain mid-'90s dorm room where they were rocking out. Nostalgia is a potent drug, man. I'm telling you. Yep. We mentioned Chris Shepard, and then I started thinking, well, the guy you replaced,

because Chris Shepard went to 108, Energy 108, and the guy you replaced him on those live-to-airs was Martin Streak. Oh, Marty. I wondered if you had any interaction with Marty. We loved Marty. Marty was always around the station, even when we were playing in the hallway

in CFNY. It seemed like every week we were in the hallway at CFNY playing. And we touched on it a little bit earlier at the beginning of the podcast where they played us in Lowest of the Low and they supported the hell out of local indie music and they had their new music search

which funded our first album. We got $100,000 from them to make Gordon, and we were also signed to Sire. So we immediately recouped our first album, and I bought a car and Ed bought a car. Nice. I bought a Ford Escort in 1993. My first car was a Ford Escort.

A Ford Escort. But an 85 Ford Escort. Ed bought a convertible cabriolet. Oh, yeah. Volkswagen Rabbit cabriolet. But I digress. When we were playing in the hallways at CFY, Marty was around because he used to do the,

I remember the first time I ever met him, it was called Marty Roadshow. Yeah, he did the remotes the uh the the remotes where the community cruiser thing where you at your high school would have them whatever that was called exactly yeah he did those well he did those and then because a guy another guy that i went to ryerson with kevin brock also drinking robot now he said he was uh a co-host on iron chef uh great guy brosh, Kevin Brosh. He also did that kind of mobile reporting stuff for a bit.

But then Marty was doing it, and then Marty started doing shifts. And I remember when we went to the New Music Seminar in 1991 with Danny Elwell and Live World Jive, and Marty was there. And then over the years, I know him and george were tight uh strombo big time and uh yeah i i always liked seeing more i thought he was doing a great thing

and i was absolutely shocked when uh when i heard the news that he decided to leave us 10 years ago this coming july time she fly. Yeah, time flies, man, because could you believe you did two and a half hours? That's too long. Too long. Boring. Nobody's listening anymore. So the final thing I'll say... Except Wiseblood. Yeah, Wiseblood's still listening, but he listens at twice the speed, so it only takes him like

an hour and 25 or whatever. So Crunch says he doesn't have a question for you, but he just wants to say he finds it interesting that a simple Google search of bare naked ladies is actually safe for work. Not one nipple, he says. We bought the domain a long time ago when it used to definitely, you know, other sites would pop up. But now I think we're, you know, it's a known name. And thank goodness.

Well, thank goodness for Barenaked Ladies. Although nipples aren't so bad. No, I mean. I'm just saying. I'm pro-nipple. Yeah, absolutely. My children were raised on them. That's right.

They play a very important role in the ecosystem. Yes. Tyler Stewart, I can't believe how much awesome content we squeezed into two and a half hours, man. That was a true pleasure. My pleasure, too, Mike. And thanks for inviting me. And thanks to, you know, Wiseblood kind of dangled the carrot. And Super Dave Osborne passing, or Bob Einstein passing.

You know, I sent a note to his daughter, Erin, who was a 15-year-old at the time when we shot that show back in 88. And then I got to know her over the years in Los Angeles. And one of the things I said to her was, your dad was funny on his own terms. And I guess that's kind of the sign of a genius. And I hope you're remembering the good times. Sitting around talking about that experience there with the benefit of years

reminds me that I had a lot of good times on that show and I met a lot of great people. I thank you for resurrecting the good times for me. That brings us to the end of our 420th show.

You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at TorontoMike. Tyler is at Baldi67. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Tyler is at Baldi67. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptors Devotee. Palmapasta is at Palmapasta. Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair

is at Fast Time WJR. And PayTM is at PayTM Canada. See you all next week. What the future can hold or do For me and you But I'm a much better man For having known you Oh, you know that's true Because everything is coming up Rosy and gray

Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Won't stay today And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away We'll see you next time.