0:08

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the

0:10

Bob Left Set's podcast. My

0:13

guest today is Paul Dean of

0:15

lover Boy. Paul, do

0:17

you have a new lover Boy movie?

0:19

Tell me about it. You

0:21

know, we recorded this back in

0:24

eighty eighty one, I guess

0:27

eighty two, yeah, because it's called Live in eighty two.

0:29

So yeah, it was eighty two in Vancouver

0:31

where I am right now, and

0:34

we recorded it on film.

0:36

I think that probably the only thing that we've

0:38

ever recorded on film, other than

0:41

maybe a local thing boy back, but nothing

0:43

that I had had access to. And

0:46

it was it was released

0:49

back in the day on super

0:51

low Deth. You know what it was like back back

0:53

in eighty two. It was one

0:57

dot per inch kind of definition

0:59

of pretty low. And I

1:02

somehow got hold of the film. There

1:04

was something like fifteen cans

1:07

of film, and I can't

1:10

remember how I got them. And I carried them around

1:13

and I lived in I

1:16

lived in Calgary, and I lived it,

1:18

I lived everywhere, and I carried these things

1:20

around with me. Moved four or five houses.

1:22

And what am I carrying? These big

1:24

can It was like three big cans,

1:27

like massive cans with all these little

1:29

guys inside I don't even think I looked inside them all.

1:31

I thought I had three majrou

1:33

you know, two inch. I didn't know what

1:36

was in them. So anyway, I opened them up and I went,

1:38

oh, that's cool. And

1:41

I didn't really know what to do with it, but you

1:43

know, I was keeping kept getting these messages

1:46

on Facebook going,

1:50

how come you guys don't have a you

1:53

never released a live DVD or

1:56

and I it was just that was

1:58

a great idea. I don't

2:01

know why. So I

2:04

took the film out and I found a

2:06

place here in Vancouver and they

2:09

transferred it. It took me two or three places

2:12

to find the right place, and they

2:14

took it and they transferred it.

2:16

This is to It

2:19

was sixteen milimeter film to digital,

2:23

and that was great.

2:25

And the beauty of it was we

2:28

recorded twenty four track at the same

2:30

time and for

2:33

the original recording, so and somehow

2:35

I had that tape too, and

2:37

I had that transferred

2:40

to digital when I was in Calgary,

2:43

not knowing what I was going to do it along with my

2:45

other two hundred and thirty

2:47

two inch tapes from the Lover, but I

2:50

had the whole archive that I

2:52

once again carried it around with these

2:54

three tape cans from town to

2:56

town, and

2:58

so yeah, I found a studio they gave me a great rate

3:00

in Calgary and we bounced

3:03

it or recorded it on the digital.

3:05

So I had forty

3:08

years of music, including fairly

3:10

relative you know, the last what

3:13

do you call it? The analog recordings

3:15

I did on two track or two inches,

3:18

and that was what year would I don't

3:20

know, eighty something. So

3:23

I had all those and I put them

3:25

on one hard drive. So from two

3:27

hundred and thirty tapes to one little

3:29

hard drive. It's like insane and

3:32

super high deft as well.

3:35

So I had

3:37

that and I just

3:39

had this idea says, you know, this is let

3:42

me see what it looks like. I didn't even I had no idea

3:44

what ook. I knew what was on it because I'd

3:46

seen it before. Obviously it was I've seen the laser

3:48

disc and it's pretty low deaf, and

3:52

of course there was on It's still on

3:54

YouTube and it's super low deaf. So

3:57

I figured, let me see what I can do

3:59

with this, and so

4:02

I got brought it all

4:04

home. I learned how to edit

4:07

it. And the kicker

4:10

was, there was no this is getting

4:12

a little high tech stuff. But

4:14

there was no timecode on any of the

4:17

songs, so I had to read Reno's

4:19

lips to find out even what song

4:22

we were in little you know, and then what section? And

4:24

okay, there's a solo? What am I playing?

4:27

What song is this? And there's Matt doing

4:29

this amazing drum fill and I

4:31

think that might be you know, it's

4:33

your life or something. So that

4:35

was a real that was a big job. It

4:38

was during the pandemic,

4:40

so by nothing but time anyway, So that was

4:42

cool, but it

4:44

was it was a real mind burner.

4:47

You know. I'd work on it for like

4:49

twenty minutes at a time and I'd

4:52

just get I'd get brainedd for it after twenty

4:54

minutes agoing, Okay, what song

4:56

is this? Where's it going? Nudget a little

4:58

bit, get it in time with it with the try and

5:00

it's a little bit slower. Now I got to just move it

5:02

a little bit. And it

5:05

was, it was, it was. It was a great

5:07

learning experience, but man, it was a it

5:10

was a brain frier. But it took

5:12

me a long time to do it. It took me. I don't know

5:14

how many hours I put in it. But once again,

5:16

like I said, I was the pandemic and I wasn't

5:18

playing live, and I wasn't seeing any

5:20

of my friends. We're homebound,

5:22

house bound for like whatever.

5:24

It was two years unreal. So

5:27

I learned how to edit it in Da

5:30

vinci uh

5:33

and I uh also learned

5:35

how to do a surround sound mix

5:38

with in logic, So

5:40

it was like a I was self

5:42

taught. I went back. I went back to school for a couple

5:44

of years and learned all this high tech stuff

5:47

how to do it, and I

5:50

finally got it to where I thought it worked

5:52

well. I got all the edits and give everybody

5:54

in the band equal time as

5:57

much as I could and uh

6:00

uh. Then I found a couple of

6:02

places here in town in Vancouver, one

6:04

that that, like as I say, did the transfer.

6:07

And then I took it to this studio and

6:09

they did a thing what they call color correction. They

6:11

make the blacks black instead of gray, and the reds

6:15

like everything really bright and

6:18

and uh vibrants. So they

6:20

did that and uh the same place

6:23

they did the

6:24

h I gave

6:26

him my what they call stamps. I gave

6:28

him the six stamps, two surround

6:30

tracks and the left right and then the

6:32

center for Reno and me singing, and

6:35

and then the sub for the kick drum,

6:37

a little bit of bass, a little bit of synthesizer,

6:39

and they they

6:41

took all that, all the elements, all the

6:44

the place called it is called the elemental Posts. It's

6:47

a funny thing to be coincidentally

6:50

called that. So I took all the elements there, and they

6:53

put it together and gave

6:55

me a reference. Try a reference. Blu Ray

6:58

finally had a blue ray, not just a DVD,

7:01

but a blue ray, so full Death, and

7:03

I just thought it was time to do it,

7:06

and that we shopped

7:08

it around and ear music out

7:10

of Germany loves it. Then we're

7:13

putting it out in June.

7:16

Okay, so you have a

7:18

band. A lot of this you

7:20

did at home, but how do you agree

7:23

to get the band to pay for it?

7:25

And how does the band ultimately

7:28

approve it.

7:33

I started to Reno that I paid for

7:35

it. It was it wasn't that much

7:37

money. It was like two sessions,

7:40

one session to do the transfer, and

7:42

then a couple of sessions, and then I went back and we

7:44

retouched it and I played

7:46

it for Reno and he blew him away, and

7:50

that's it.

7:52

Okay, So you talk

7:54

about Facebook. How active

7:57

are you on social media and how active

7:59

are the over Boy fans? Well,

8:03

pretty active. I have my own

8:06

my own Facebook page. I'm

8:09

very rarely on it, but I

8:11

got a couple of things to talk about, so I'm going to probably

8:14

get back on it again shortly. When

8:17

you say you have a couple of things, talk about

8:19

the movie, what else.

8:24

I'm working on a instrumental album

8:27

myself. It's it's going

8:29

to be we're going to call it lover Boy Instrumental,

8:33

which is it's kind of these songs

8:35

are instrumental to my

8:37

success, and I wanted to record

8:41

them soundtracks see

8:43

if anybody wanted to use it,

8:45

because you know, a lot of times when you

8:47

have a like if you have working for the weekend

8:49

or something on a movie they

8:52

want they got to turn it way down because they don't want

8:54

it to interfere with the dialogue. So I figured,

8:57

let me see if anybody's interested, and

9:00

and it plus, it's for our fans.

9:03

It's all lover boys playing on it. The only one who's

9:05

not on it, ironically is Reno, and

9:08

he's totally he's done with it. He's totally cool

9:11

with it. With their concept

9:13

and some that's that's in the works.

9:15

That's been in the works for a while. I started recording it on

9:17

the road last summer with Foreigner in my hotel

9:20

room and I

9:23

once again, it's took a lot of those

9:25

tracks off that one hard drive

9:28

from from a lot from our archives

9:30

from way back. There's two

9:32

or three tracks with Scott Smith playing bass on

9:34

it, and uh so

9:36

I'm doing that and I have a I have another band

9:39

that I that.

9:40

Were wait before we get to the other

9:42

band. Yeah, yeah, this is an

9:44

instrumental version of lover

9:47

boy music. Is it stuff

9:49

that was all previously recorded

9:51

or you re recording it?

9:53

It's all been it was all it was

9:55

all recorded. It was

9:58

it's all live recordings that

10:00

I've recorded over the years.

10:01

Okay, but they're without vocals,

10:04

correct. And you

10:07

say there's a demand for

10:09

this with stinks, with movies, et

10:11

cetera.

10:13

I'm hoping. I mean, we've working

10:15

for the weekend and Jemy Lucy has been a lot

10:17

of movies and a lot of commercials and

10:19

stuff like that, and it's just

10:21

something once again that you know, when

10:24

I'm not touring or even what I am to and it's

10:26

just something I like to do. I like to really like to keep busy.

10:28

I'm a bit of a I

10:32

guess you could call me a workaholic perhaps.

10:37

Okay, since you're a workaholic. Are you married?

10:40

Oh? I am, and I have a son, and yeah.

10:43

How many times you've been married?

10:46

Well, you know what, I got to admit it, we're

10:49

not really married. We've been living

10:51

together for fifty one years.

10:56

Okay, So just to stop here

10:58

for a second, as your has

11:00

your partner ever been married before

11:03

she was with you?

11:04

Nope?

11:05

Have you ever been married before

11:07

you were with her?

11:08

Nope?

11:10

And you choose not to get married

11:12

because.

11:16

I don't want to be rude here, but none of your goddamn business,

11:18

Bob, No, that's not Wait.

11:21

If you don't have to answer anything, you don't want to answer them. I

11:23

have been married, and I am divorced,

11:26

and my girlfriend is

11:29

has been divorced twice. We

11:31

lived together, it's been nineteen years,

11:33

and we're not married.

11:35

There you go.

11:36

So on

11:39

some level, I don't want to go through another divorce.

11:42

On another level, I come from

11:44

the Joni Mitchell school. If we don't need no

11:46

piece of paper from the upstairs choir keeping

11:48

his tide and true.

11:50

So I was just asking.

11:54

Okay, that's why I was asking. I'm not probing

11:56

for any dirty.

11:57

I know, I'm just giving you a hard time, but

11:59

the exactly how I feel it's really it's it's

12:02

between Denise and me. It's got nothing to do with anybody

12:04

else, you know. And I don't need

12:06

to go and take a bow,

12:08

and I make my bow to her. I don't make it to anybody

12:11

else.

12:12

Well, the reason I bring up marriage, you say you're

12:14

a workaholic, You're a touring

12:16

musician that is hard

12:18

on relationships. So how

12:20

does it end up working in your relationship

12:23

which obviously works for fifty one years?

12:28

Hey, Denise, no,

12:32

wow. I like

12:35

to think that we're pretty reasonable

12:37

people. And she is really Denise

12:39

is really giving, and she understands

12:42

and she wants she's a fan. She

12:44

wants me to succeed she and

12:46

she supports me in whatever I do. And

12:49

I call her level one. She's she's

12:53

kind of you know, what do you think about this idea?

12:55

And she'll just she'll either love it or she'll

12:58

luke warm it or she'll hate it. And I

13:01

really lean on that on those those

13:03

decisions, you know those She's pretty

13:06

smart cookie.

13:07

And what is your son up to.

13:11

He's right now. He's

13:13

working on getting

13:15

a making a board

13:17

game. He's written that board game

13:20

and he's a he said, he said artist as

13:22

well, and he's worked. That's

13:24

what he's working on. So we'll see where that comes.

13:26

I support him on that. I think it would

13:28

be pretty cool. He bought

13:30

a Dungeons and Dragons game I

13:33

think it was, AND's this massive

13:35

box in all this friends play it and

13:37

everybody has fun. And this you know, it comes with three

13:40

hundred pieces of men and

13:42

and maps and a rule book

13:44

like like like the Bible. And he's

13:47

basically he's written the rule book. And

13:50

I'm you know, supporting them. And I'm saying, come

13:52

on, if this, if these guys can put

13:54

this box out, I look, I tell

13:56

him. He says, you know, I started as

13:58

a as a guitar player, but I started as a songwriter.

14:01

I didn't have anything. I didn't know what I was doing. I

14:03

just started doing it. Eventually I figured

14:05

it out, and this is a really good start. I said, I

14:07

support this creative thing because

14:11

either or do you know you want to work a Best

14:13

Buy again? And no,

14:16

Dad, So that's what

14:18

he's doing.

14:20

Okay, let's go back to the sync your

14:23

songs? Do you own your rights

14:25

in your songs?

14:29

I own all the rights to the

14:32

live recordings.

14:35

I guess, so, I guess

14:37

what I'm saying is the songs themselves turn it

14:39

loose, working for the weekend, etc.

14:42

There's a right in the song. Sometimes

14:45

people have publishing deals

14:47

so they just have the writers share. There

14:49

could be in America there's a reversion.

14:51

Right.

14:52

Then there are people who sell the rights.

14:55

So at this point in time those songs, who

14:57

owns those songs?

15:02

Sony owns the masters, the original

15:05

masters that we recorded in up until

15:07

eighty what was eighty five?

15:10

I guess Love and Every Minute of It, or maybe

15:13

maybe a couple albums after that, they owned the rights of

15:15

those because we were under contract with them. But

15:17

since then we own everything. We own all the

15:20

all the rights, all the publishing, all the masters, all

15:22

everything.

15:23

Well, the songs are a separate right

15:25

from the albums.

15:27

That's right.

15:27

Does Sony own the songs or do you own

15:29

the songs?

15:31

We have? We share them with Sony? Okay,

15:35

but I think maybe you're you

15:38

might be getting at Do I want to sell my catalog?

15:40

How come I haven't sold my cattle? I don't know

15:42

if you wanted to go there or not, but.

15:44

Well I wanted to go there. That was not where

15:46

they You know, I was asking earlier because

15:48

a lot of people have been through twists and turns.

15:50

They've given up things they didn't want to give, et

15:53

cetera. But since you brought it up,

15:55

would you sell your rights?

15:58

I don't think it's worth it, really, to be honest.

16:01

Plus, the way I look at it, my

16:04

son he's young enough,

16:06

and he would he can benefit from this

16:09

fifteen, eighteen, twenty years old. Whatever

16:11

is the going rate, and they're

16:13

not from my experience or from

16:15

what I've looked into, is you're going

16:18

to get what you make times those years.

16:21

And then in other words,

16:23

if you make I won't

16:25

throw any figures out, but whatever you make,

16:27

if you multiply that times twenty

16:30

or fifteen or whatever, that's the size

16:32

of your check, and then you give a big chunk

16:34

of that to the government, then well you do that anyway,

16:36

that's no big deal. But in twenty years

16:38

from now, when my son is, you

16:41

know, still going he's going to

16:43

you're twenty one, he's still going to be making the

16:46

same amount of money tax wise,

16:48

it's a little different, but there's

16:50

still going to be an income coming from that.

16:53

So that's that's kind of how I look at it.

16:55

I don't believe in selling either. Are

16:58

your songs lucrative enough that

17:00

you don't have to have other sources

17:02

of income?

17:06

Yeah? I make a

17:09

really good living off my publishing for

17:11

sure, off of my song working for the Weekend in

17:13

particular, it's ridiculous how much a song

17:16

that's forty years old can still generate.

17:18

It's really great, amazing.

17:20

Okay, talking about record royalties,

17:24

you know, people are bitching about Spotify

17:26

payments and in truth, a lot of people

17:28

never even made it into royalties in

17:30

the old days. Do you still get

17:32

royalties on the records that Sony

17:34

owns or do they say you're still in a negative

17:37

position.

17:38

No. I think the negative

17:41

position would be you haven't recouped

17:43

yet, you haven't paid back what invest And

17:45

that was long ago, like that was the first

17:47

six months the way they were recouped. And

17:51

so yeah, we get paid from Sony

17:53

and from all these different collection

17:55

agencies for sure.

17:58

And now that COVID is over, when

18:02

or how frequently might people

18:04

be able to see lover Boy?

18:07

We have right now, we're sitting at close

18:10

to fifty shows coming up, and

18:12

we typically in

18:14

non COVID years will play fifty

18:16

shows. Fifties pretty comfy. Sixties

18:19

Still okay, we did. We did a tour,

18:22

We did eighty shows, and I

18:24

really didn't want to play Turn Me Loose again that

18:26

year. By the end of the hour, I

18:29

was pretty much done, for

18:31

example. But fifty or

18:33

sixty plus it. You know, if you're on the if you've got

18:35

eighty shows, that means you're and

18:38

getting back to marriage and

18:40

everything. That means you're on the road for

18:43

more than half the year. And if

18:46

it's if it's in the States, then then

18:49

immigration doesn't smile too kindly if

18:51

you're If you're more than half a year in

18:53

the US, there it's not a good thing.

18:55

So

19:03

at this point, how do the members of the band

19:05

get along? There are a lot of bands where they hate

19:07

each other, but they do it for the money. How

19:09

about Lover Boy.

19:12

I'm sure the money is a factor, there's no question

19:15

about it. But I can

19:17

only speak for myself. I just love to play,

19:19

and

19:21

I'm not real crazy

19:24

about the hours in spent

19:26

flying around and busting around,

19:28

but that's the price should pay

19:30

for the joy of playing

19:33

music. I love to play guitar,

19:35

and I love to play. My songs

19:37

are songs, I should say, and I love

19:40

to play with these guys. I mean, it's a hell of a band.

19:42

It's a really good band. And I

19:45

make sure it's different every night. For

19:47

me, it's different every night, even though we

19:49

play basically the same songs

19:52

forever, you know, but

19:54

there's little things and

19:57

different different crowds and

19:59

different mixes, and but

20:02

I try to play it

20:05

slightly different every day. There's certain things that

20:07

you don't want to mess with, you know, don down

20:10

down, down down down. You don't you know, you got to

20:12

play the theme. But the rest of it

20:14

it's pretty much open, open season,

20:16

you know.

20:18

And do you rehearse when you're not on the road.

20:20

Do you play the guitar?

20:22

I practice at home. I working

20:25

on new songs, griffs, physically

20:29

working on my guitar. I'm a I'm

20:32

a tinkerer. I guess I'm called. I built

20:34

my first guitar in the twelfth grade and

20:38

the teacher

20:40

said, if it works, you pass, and I

20:42

passed. So that was but I'd already

20:44

been playing guitar. I remember

20:46

I bought a Fender jazz Master was

20:49

five hundred and forty bucks, and this is in

20:51

nineteen sixty two. I bought

20:54

a brand new, brand new jazz Master.

20:57

I was. I was raised in the in the in

20:59

the mountains of British Columbia, and we

21:01

used to go into Calgary twice a year

21:04

and one of those times I went, I was looking for a

21:06

strat like the I wanted to

21:08

get a salmon colored strat like the Shadows

21:11

played. At the time. I was ah still ambit

21:13

was a huge Shadows fan, but they

21:15

didn't have any so they had a jazz Matter which was

21:17

kind of a Ventures guitar, and I was a big fan of the Adventures

21:20

too, so I brought bought that guitar

21:22

with my I

21:25

the way I got paid working for my parents

21:27

at this twenty two acre

21:30

resort that they bought

21:32

for forty thousand dollars in nineteen

21:34

fifty three on the

21:36

on the lake front, if you can imagine

21:38

that forty grand but

21:41

anyway, and we had we

21:44

had sixteen cabins and a campground

21:46

and my job was to deliver

21:49

They all had wood stove, so my job was to deliver

21:52

paper and kindling and a little

21:54

bit of wood and take the garbage out every day.

21:56

That would be the thing. And I had this cart that I would carry

21:58

around shard, I should say.

22:01

And the and the way I got paid was I would

22:03

collect all the beer bottles. And

22:06

my dad said, you can have all the money

22:08

from the beer bottles. And

22:10

so I was making, you know, through four hundred dollars

22:12

a summer, just a kid,

22:15

a kid, A seventeen year old kid, sixteen year

22:17

old kid, you know, uh, throw

22:19

out of money back then. Plus I was living at home or

22:21

whatever. And I remember

22:25

I brought that I had

22:27

the jazz Master. Man I wanted to figure out how

22:30

it worked, so I took it all apart complete.

22:33

Since since we're on the jazz Master, what were you

22:35

doing for an amp if you had what.

22:38

I started out with a with a silver

22:41

tone amp that I got from

22:43

the catalog the Eating series. It

22:46

was just actually it was called I think it's either Sears

22:49

or Eating. So I can't remember, but we'll

22:51

say serious because it's a everybody can

22:53

relate to what that is. So I had a

22:55

harmony guitar, a two pickup

22:57

harmony guitar like a guitar, and uh,

23:01

this this amplifier, and

23:03

so I graduated to this this jazz master,

23:06

and I brought it home and I took it all apart, and

23:08

my mom and dad came in, and my mom

23:10

and she was freaking, what have

23:12

you done. You've taken this five hundred

23:14

and forty dollars guitar and you're completely apart? Are

23:16

you insane? Well? And

23:19

then I, I was working in an industrial

23:21

arts and I painted it. I repainted

23:23

it, I painted it. I don't

23:25

know. I painted a baby

23:28

blue to start with, and I went and I put it back

23:30

together. I went, oh, that sucks. And then

23:32

I painted it red and I went, yeah, that's

23:34

the that's that's me, that's

23:36

a that's a good good color for me. So and

23:39

that I had that guitar for

23:42

for a long time.

23:43

Okay, you brought the guitar home,

23:46

you stripped it all down. There

23:49

was no fear, no hesitation

23:52

in the process, no worry that you might

23:54

have screwed it up.

23:56

No, And that's what That's exactly

23:58

what my mom was saying. I'm sure is what have you done?

24:01

You idiot? And she didn't

24:03

say that, but she was cool if you never said that. But yeah,

24:07

I wasn't worried about it. So

24:10

on the strength of that knowing how the mechanics

24:12

work. I was confident in building

24:14

a guitar and industrial arts in grade twelve.

24:17

Okay, let's go back to the beginning. Did

24:19

your parents bought this resort

24:22

at age seven? Where did you live

24:24

before that?

24:26

Born in Vancouver, lived here for

24:28

two years, for two

24:31

or four years, I don't know, and then we moved to Calgary.

24:34

My dad was a salesman for Johnson's

24:36

Wax. He was a traveling salesman. He would

24:38

take the train from Calgary to Edmonton

24:41

and Regina and Saskatoon, and I don't

24:43

know if you got as far as Winnipeg. But that was his gig.

24:45

And he was like me, except him I

24:48

work on the weekends. He would be working

24:50

for the weekend. He would be out selling

24:52

this Johnson's wax and he would come home every

24:55

weekend and he went Eventually,

24:59

I guess we're speaking to continuing the

25:01

marriage thing. I don't know whether

25:03

my mom and he had a serious talk

25:05

and my mom took him to task and say, look, look,

25:08

pal, it's either

25:10

you start staying home with the family

25:13

or we're out of here. I really doubt it,

25:15

but who knows. But they

25:17

had this discussion unbeknownst to me,

25:19

but they must have had it because we

25:22

stayed at this resort. We had two weeks. So we stayed

25:24

at this resort in I think in fifty two and fifty

25:26

three, and then I guess

25:29

it was in fifty four. Maybe I can't remember.

25:31

It was fifty three or fifty four that they said,

25:34

let's see if this place is for sale where we always

25:36

stayed these cabins. Let me let's see if

25:38

we can if the guys would sell it,

25:41

and they the guy says

25:43

forty K and my dad somehow

25:46

raised the down payment and made

25:48

pay You know, I what did I know. I was just a kid. I

25:51

wasn't tuned into that stuff at all, So I

25:53

just I had my daily

25:55

chores of delivering kindling.

25:58

Okay, not everybody south of the border

26:00

is super sophisticated about Canada

26:02

in general, never mind the geography. So

26:06

from this camp, how

26:09

far to the nearest town,

26:11

how far to the next major town?

26:15

Calgary was a major town, three hour drive, and

26:19

that's where we went. We would we would go into Calgary,

26:22

or in Spokane, we would go down to Spokane.

26:24

It was pretty much the same distance.

26:26

So if you could kind of triangulate that it's

26:29

on the It's in the Columbia River Valley

26:31

on the Columbia River in British Columbia,

26:33

in between the Selkirk and Rocky Mountains.

26:36

Okay, so you're living there. Is there

26:39

a community? What about school,

26:41

et cetera. Yeah, we had a school.

26:43

We had a school bus that I would walk

26:45

up the hill fifty five below fahrenheit

26:48

one morning, I remember the coldest day I

26:50

have every experienced walking up the hill. It was a

26:52

quarter mile walk from the lake where we lived

26:55

up to the highway and I would catch the school bus

26:57

and I would do that except

27:00

on my fourteenth birthday. I missed

27:02

the Boss because on my fourteenth

27:04

birthday was my parents gave me

27:06

an acoustic guitar, and I'm

27:09

probably, I'm sure I missed the Boss that day.

27:12

I was over the moon on this finally

27:15

got a guitar. And Okay,

27:19

well, let's let's stay on that topic. So

27:22

was there music in the house. When did

27:24

you become enamored of music?

27:27

My mom got her

27:30

singing voice from her

27:32

dad, my grandpa, and

27:35

she's a pretty good, really nice voice, and could

27:37

play the piano a little bit. And my sister

27:39

could play the piano a little bit.

27:41

She could do a little bit of the left hand, do it

27:46

that kind of rock and thing, you know, And

27:49

she and I would play some tunes soil. We'd

27:51

play these old folk songs and

27:54

so that that's kind of how I got my

27:56

feet got started in you

27:58

know, playing with other people. But before

28:00

that, I was just playing the records like the aforementioned

28:03

Shadows and Ventures and Johnny

28:06

the Hurricanes.

28:06

And okay, you're in the

28:09

hinter lands. Most people in that era

28:11

learnt about music from the radio. What was

28:13

the radio situation.

28:15

K x l Y Spokane was a country station

28:19

and the only station we could get, and

28:21

that was only on a clear night, and you

28:23

know, it would fade out during the day. So

28:25

that was that was my That was

28:27

my first real you

28:29

know, Johnny Cash and uh

28:33

Don't take your Guns to Town and and uh

28:36

walk the Line and those

28:38

those two. I learned how to play all those instrumentally.

28:43

It wasn't it wasn't any singing at the time. I just

28:45

was into learning how to play guitar

28:47

boogyrself down and

28:50

and probably a lot slower than that. But that's

28:53

that's how where I started playing, and

28:57

and then I then then on one of those

28:59

trips to Calgary, I would I hit

29:01

one of the music stores and I discovered

29:03

the Ventures and the Shadows

29:07

and the what

29:09

was that other band? Oh

29:12

man, it'll come

29:14

to me there was an another band from I think

29:16

sata Fe someplace. Anyway,

29:19

it'll it'll spring into spring to mind,

29:22

hopefully. And I just learned learned

29:24

all those twos. I learned all the parts. I had a set of drums

29:26

set up. I learned how to how to play

29:29

drums. Much to my parents'

29:31

chagrin. They moved me out out of the house into

29:33

the shed in the back. But at

29:35

least I got the Actually I ended

29:38

up playing one gig on drums.

29:40

I only had one gig on drums as a drummer

29:43

when I moved to Vancouver years later.

29:46

But so I

29:48

you know, I dissected these instrumental albums.

29:51

There are two guitars, bass and drums, all of

29:53

them, and maybe they one of them would have a sax,

29:56

and one of them and they might have an organ.

29:58

But mainly my favorite get our favorite,

30:01

I should say, bands two guitarist, bas

30:03

and drums. And of course the Beatles said the

30:05

same thing, and I learned the Beatles songs.

30:07

Oh okay, so you didn't play

30:09

an instrument until you were fourteen.

30:12

I got a I gotta wind up ukulele,

30:15

I think for my thirteenth

30:17

Christmas, I'm guessing, which

30:19

is two months before my birthday. It was the weirdest

30:22

thing. It had a little crank on it. It would you turn

30:24

and god that

30:28

it was, and it had a cowboy motif on it.

30:30

It was the crazy. But at least

30:32

they played. They had nylon strings, and I learned

30:34

how to play oh

30:36

my dar and oh my d like

30:39

these two chord songs, learned how

30:41

to pick those out. It

30:43

kind of went from there.

30:45

So you didn't play any bands in high school?

30:47

I did. I was in two bands.

30:50

Okay. How many people lived

30:52

in this community? About

30:55

a thousand maybe, Okay,

30:57

so people from the community, you put together a band

31:00

of music. We're playing instrumentals,

31:02

surf music, it's all all. We

31:05

didn't have a bass player. We had two guitars and

31:07

drums. But the first man I was in we were

31:10

called Chicks Country Gentleman, and

31:12

he was the guitar player, a

31:14

guitar that he built and he played through

31:16

an amplifier that he built. So that

31:18

was a real inspiration to me.

31:21

And I was playing excuse

31:23

me, I was playing a bass that he built through

31:25

and once again an amplifier that

31:27

he built. And he took what he

31:29

did. He took a he took a juke

31:31

box apart to build to make the bass

31:33

app and then build a little box of the speaker and used

31:36

to use the app for the from

31:38

the from the jukebox. So I played bass

31:41

and when he would he would play

31:43

trumpet on one tun and then I would move over to guitar

31:45

and we would do it

31:48

was called we would play the twist or

31:50

something like that. It's we're talking the

31:53

Chubby Checker era. And uh

31:55

so I played bass and I think

31:57

I played sacks in one track on one cut

31:59

too one one song, and that

32:01

was that was And

32:03

then then then we rebelled that the drummer

32:06

was his son, and he we

32:08

rebelled. We got we hired another guitar,

32:10

got a whole of another guitar player, so

32:12

we had two guitars and drums, and we started another

32:15

band called the Twilighters because

32:17

we wanted to do something a little

32:19

more current. Back in Chicks

32:21

Kunter Gentlemen, we were playing red

32:23

sales in the sun set that

32:28

sleepy time. But we wanted

32:30

a rock out, so we we got the two

32:32

guitars and drums.

32:33

So how did you first hear the Beatles?

32:40

Had to be radio. But that's

32:43

a really good question. Wow.

32:47

I just remember hearing I

32:49

Want to Hold Your Hand and being blown away

32:52

by the rhythm track. I guess

32:54

it was Lennon playing rhythm. It was

32:56

so cooking. We

33:00

we had we used to have saw cops at

33:02

the school and I was the I was the empty

33:04

I would, I was I would, that was the jock

33:08

jockey, and we had the we had

33:10

the house PA set the gym PA, and

33:12

we had a little turntable on I remember

33:15

where it was a saw cop at noon.

33:17

We'd have them every Thursday or every Friday

33:19

in the gym for an hour and

33:21

at noon. And so I remember,

33:24

I can't remember what tune it was, but I remember playing the Beatles

33:27

and I couldn't believe it. You know, you

33:30

know how the Beatles would

33:32

be playing along you you you'd be watching a video today,

33:34

you watch a video and they'd

33:36

be playing a long and then this this tension

33:38

would build up with the girls and it

33:40

would build and build and building. Then it was the explode

33:42

into a scream. Everybody would scream at the same time,

33:45

and then I would kind of die die down on

33:47

it. Then it would slowly build up again.

33:49

So three or four times during the tune, whether

33:52

it was Paul McCartney doing the high

33:54

falsetto scream or or they can

33:57

imagine, well I don't. I

33:59

don't even know if they must have

34:01

been on Ed Sullivan, so maybe they imagine

34:04

it was Ringo shaking his head in

34:06

this part. But so I'm playing

34:08

the record and there's no other reference.

34:10

It's not live, there's no video to go

34:12

by, and the tension is building, and

34:15

I swear to god, all the girls

34:17

screaming at the same time. I

34:19

want what is going on here? And

34:24

it's just just an observation. I just it

34:26

was just blew me away. The psychology,

34:28

I guess of it. How that can

34:31

how how does that happen? You know?

34:33

And Okay, so you graduate from high

34:36

school, what's your next move?

34:39

Or do UBC said goodbye

34:41

to my mom, got on the my mom and

34:43

dad. My mom was had tears,

34:46

you know, because her little boy was leaving forever,

34:50

as it turns out, And so

34:53

I

34:55

I got to got to my

34:57

staying at a friend's place, and

35:00

I went to a I guess they call it

35:02

a mixer where it's like a frost

35:04

week of freshman week. I don't know what

35:06

what do you guys call it, but call it Frost

35:08

week. So the big big community,

35:11

the big hall at the UBC, and

35:14

I'm there and uh,

35:16

there's a band play and then they're you know, there are me

35:18

band And I have no idea

35:20

what rhythm and blues is. I don't have a clue about

35:23

that. I'm a surf guy. I've been playing surf

35:25

for three four

35:27

years something like that. And uh,

35:31

and I knew the sax player. He

35:33

was a friend of the family of Brian Tansley,

35:36

and he, you

35:38

know, we started talking to me. He said, he says, you

35:40

know, I play guitar. Now he says, really, he says, we're

35:42

actually looking for a guitar player or this guitar player.

35:44

Our guitar players quitting next week. Would

35:47

you want to check it out? So

35:49

I joined that band, the

35:51

band with the three Bryan's and

35:54

and me and me and the drummer, and

35:58

did that end try to figure

36:00

out what R and B was, what that groove

36:03

was, and how

36:05

to play rhythm guitar. I didn't really

36:07

have a clue. I was into playing

36:09

lead, you know, and just

36:11

soul look, but I didn't know how to play a hold on a rhythm.

36:14

But I figured it out, you

36:16

know, and they were really patient with me. And

36:19

we did that for a while, and then we got

36:21

a singer, Kenny Steele, so we were

36:23

called Kenny Steele and the Chantells. Jamaican

36:26

guy. He funny, hilarious guy and

36:29

a great He was a James Brown fan

36:32

and he would do all James Brown steps

36:35

and the splits and I'm

36:37

sure he split his fans more than once doing that on

36:39

stage. And we were part

36:41

of the R and B scene in Vancouver. There was

36:44

probably eight of us

36:46

or something eight of these bands, and we'd do

36:48

the circuit. We'd play, we'd play

36:50

at the UBC, at the frats and those

36:52

were a blast. You'd get just

36:55

ship faced at those. There was a

36:57

lot of fun and

37:01

and we played we played the arenas,

37:05

uh with multi band things.

37:07

I promoted one when I was in with

37:10

Candy Steel. I promoted it Kendy Soon

37:12

I promoted it and we hired the other

37:14

bands and we hired a hall and it's

37:17

called Land

37:19

of a Thousand Dances or something after the after

37:22

the Wilson Pickett song. I can't remember what

37:24

what they what they gig was called, but it caught on,

37:27

and I think we might have even got a bet of radio

37:30

radio stuff. And we hired it. Like I said,

37:32

we hired this hall and we there was like four

37:34

or five R and B bands, and we

37:37

probably I'm pretty sure we headlined it. I mean,

37:39

why wouldn't we.

37:41

We took a big chance. But and

37:43

it worked out great. Yeah, So that was that was

37:45

a fun thing to do. I've ember doing that.

37:47

And what about school? Were you going to school?

37:50

Yeah? Kind of, you know, I

37:54

want to you. I went to UBC. You

37:56

know, I figured since I'm a writer, I

37:59

was. I figured I was pretty literate kind of guy

38:01

at the time, so I didn't really pay much attention

38:03

to English, but I aced everything

38:05

else. I'd ace it. I passed everything else at physics

38:08

and history and all this other stuff. But

38:10

I didn't pay attention to English, so I flunked

38:13

English, so I couldn't go on the

38:15

second year. So I went. So

38:18

I I think it

38:20

was it was something like that's a long time ago about

38:22

it's a really long time ago. But

38:25

so I I did that, but it wasn't

38:27

it wasn't happening. I my heart

38:29

wasn't it. I just wanted to play music. And

38:33

from there I went to UH. I went

38:35

to b C i T, and I was I wanted to get

38:37

into I

38:39

wanted to get into into it's a

38:41

British Columbia Institute Technology. I wanted to

38:43

be a cameraman, like in a

38:46

TV studio. That's kind of what I thought would be a

38:48

really cool, cool show, cool gig dab.

38:51

But I couldn't. I couldn't get into b C I

38:53

T because my marks weren't good enough in high

38:55

school. I guess that's yeah. That was

38:57

after after UBC, so I

39:00

enrolled in a night class. Of

39:04

the task was create

39:07

a campaign to sell craft

39:09

peanut butter and jel jam. So

39:11

that was you know, me and my three

39:14

partners. We came up with this this

39:16

this I don't know thing

39:19

to do, not a great story.

39:28

So you wanted to become a cameraman. You were

39:30

playing this R and B band. At

39:33

what point do you say, no, I'm just going to focus

39:35

on the music.

39:37

You know. I had a lot of a lot of jobs

39:41

I I went. I had my

39:43

last job. I was working on a bunch of

39:45

warehouses. My last job, I was working

39:48

for the Coca Cola company. Were delivering I was

39:50

the delivery guy and six

39:53

o'clock wake up and seven

39:56

o'clock start and we would drive her on in the truck

39:58

and you know, all these cases

40:00

of Fanta and whatever and take

40:02

him into the local stores. And

40:07

I, because I was playing at night,

40:09

I would had had a gig. I

40:11

don't think it was with the Chantellas, there was. It was

40:13

a splinter group from that, and

40:15

I was playing. I got a gig playing six nights

40:17

a week in a club in Vancouver,

40:20

well Ken Harry's. We had a we

40:22

had a trio, guitar, bass and drums,

40:25

really great band. And I

40:27

was doing that every night. And then I was driving home, uh,

40:31

staying with my aunt uncles, and that was like a

40:34

half hour drive or whatever. Get into

40:36

bed at three, up at six. You

40:38

know how long that lasted. So I

40:41

fell asleep in the cab and then the guy

40:44

they fired me right there on the spot and

40:46

I'm you're useless, get out here.

40:48

That was my last gig. I went, you know

40:50

what, I'm just gonna I'll

40:52

be okay, I'm just going to play this, play these

40:54

six nights a week, having a blast loving

40:57

it. What do I want to have a street gig

40:59

for? Okay,

41:03

So what's the next band? Well

41:08

I got I got a job playing bass

41:10

again in a in a band called

41:12

Glasshouse, and we were playing the what

41:15

was the name of it, I can't remember the name of

41:17

the club, and six nights a week we

41:19

had. There's no shortage of work in Vancouver

41:22

at the time. There were so many clubs playing

41:24

six nights a week, three sets. It was fantastic

41:27

never you know, and then Sunday off and

41:29

then back at it. And so

41:33

this this trio that I had it, uh,

41:37

I don't really I can't remember the timeline if if

41:40

the trio was before it, or I suspect

41:42

it was probably after. But anyway, I had this gig,

41:46

and now it's coming to me. I had this gig with the

41:48

drummer and I was playing

41:50

bass with the guitar player. There's probably a key

41:52

opener or something, and the

41:55

guitar player wanted to go on

41:57

holidays, so we went on holidays per week and

42:00

I moved over to guitar and

42:02

somebody else played bass and the guitar player

42:04

came back, and unfortunately he didn't have a gig anymore,

42:07

and it was his gig. So I

42:10

feel a little bit bad about that, but that's

42:12

kind of how it works, you know. And

42:14

I hooked up with the drummer, and

42:17

so the drummer and I we

42:20

moved from from that club to All

42:22

Kind Harry's and

42:25

we were we had a band called Fat Soul, and

42:28

we had two big

42:31

guys sitting up singing out front,

42:33

and so we call ourselves Fat Soul. And

42:38

then that

42:40

didn't work out for whatever reason. I think one

42:42

of the guys maybe went to jail and got deported

42:45

or something, and so it's

42:49

kind of it's a little bit gray for

42:52

me in that how that all

42:54

came about. But suffice to say

42:57

that, and this is going to lead me up

42:59

to my original co about that other

43:01

band. So

43:04

we we were building back,

43:06

the drummer and I were playing together,

43:08

and then I guess for somehow

43:11

Brian Newcomb came onto the scene. He was the bass

43:13

player and we had a

43:15

different keyboard player, and then that keyboard player

43:17

went away and we got we got this

43:19

dude from Tacoma, Clyde Harvey, playing

43:21

keyboards and singing, and all

43:24

of a sudden we were doing we were really doing

43:26

it. We started doing all original tunes

43:29

we do. We did a couple of covers. We

43:31

did a really cool combination

43:33

of of day Tripper into Lickingstick

43:35

James Brown song, and

43:38

we did a we did a cover of sing

43:40

a simple song. But

43:42

we had an albums with the stuff, so we

43:46

rehearsed it and we

43:49

ended up got

43:51

together Maca. We ended up we toured

43:53

across Canada. We played in calg

43:55

We opened for Steppenwolf and

43:58

we and we opened for the Get Sue, who

44:01

were humongous at the time, and

44:03

UH in Edmonton and

44:06

UH we played the what's

44:08

called the Festival Express in Calgary with

44:10

Janis Joppelin and Grateful Dad. That was

44:13

unreal, and

44:15

then UH we we moved

44:17

to Toronto and we started playing around

44:19

there. We had I

44:21

was in charge of accommodations,

44:24

so somehow I had a knack for finding

44:27

houses that were either free or

44:30

two hundred bucks a month or three hundred bucks a

44:32

month. And we're there's five guys

44:34

in the band. We had two ladies living with our manager

44:36

Lou Blair, so we had to it had to

44:38

be a pretty big house. But I found I

44:40

found a condemned house that we all lived

44:42

in. It was in

44:45

Toronto, and uh so

44:47

we're you know, we used to practice. We set up in there

44:49

and we'd played. We had a few gigs. We

44:52

then one time we got a gig in in Ottawa.

44:55

It was it was playing at the at the

44:57

university there, and

45:00

so we went up there. It was two nights, so we went up there

45:02

and stayed overnight and did the two nights

45:04

and we came back to our house

45:07

that was free. And the reason it was

45:09

free was because there was no plumbing, but

45:11

it had electricity for some reason. So

45:14

we had a hot we had a hot plate, and we

45:16

had a milk cooler

45:18

you know where they put the big jugs and milk in for in

45:21

a restaurant. That was our fridge. I don't know

45:23

how we got that. And there was a this

45:26

is pretty yeah,

45:30

this this is really down. But yeah,

45:32

I mean we were, we were. We didn't care. We

45:34

really had no pride. We didn't care. And

45:37

the only running water was at the gas station on

45:39

the corner. And we used to go down there every morning

45:41

a night or whatever and get our get

45:44

our water for our our coffee and stuff

45:46

and so, and

45:48

we would we would practice in there,

45:50

and we would jam. We would jam for hours. And

45:53

so we finally got this gig up and up and in

45:57

Ottawa and Carl

46:00

to the university. So we're up there and we come back and

46:02

our house free house that we're

46:04

not paying any rents, so we have absolutely no claim to

46:07

has been taken over by

46:10

four or five speed dealers and

46:12

fetamine dealers. And

46:15

I was a little freaky if they'd taken

46:18

all our stuff and moved it into one of the bedrooms

46:20

and set up their their place. And

46:23

Lou Blair, if if anybody knows Lou

46:25

Blair, Lou is a wass

46:28

his bless his heart. He's a

46:30

big guy. He's like six three and he's a big

46:32

guy and you don't mess with Lou and a real

46:35

he could bust balls. So anyway,

46:37

I just remember him taking a mic stand,

46:41

because we had everything in our in our van, taking

46:43

a mic stand into the into

46:46

the house, and that

46:49

kind of solved the problem for us and we

46:51

were able to move back in the house again. So

46:54

and of course the irony is that we ended

46:56

up driving these guys

46:59

to their next house. They found another dilapidated

47:03

place where they could take over. So we

47:05

ended up driving them and their gear back and

47:07

then we were back in our free

47:09

house.

47:11

Okay, And how does this eventually

47:13

turn into lover Boy?

47:15

Just just let me let me say so. We

47:18

we were lucky enough to get a recording deal with

47:20

Louis lou Blair as well, and we recorded an

47:22

album and that

47:24

album is going to be released shortly if

47:26

I did a complete restoration on it, like over

47:29

the Pandemic, like I did on the Live in eighty

47:31

two, and that's that's going to come out shortly.

47:35

So from there I

47:38

joined a band called Scrubble Okaine and

47:41

it was in that band for three years and we played

47:43

Toronto in Winnipeg and that and also

47:45

recorded an album for the same company RCA,

47:47

which became Sony, And

47:52

from that I then I moved to Then

47:56

that band sort of fell apart, and

47:58

then I met Matt for

48:01

Nat Loveboy drummer. He's

48:03

playing in a band called Great Canadian River Race

48:05

in Edmonton. And I had no no gigs.

48:08

I was I was phoning all the agents around

48:10

Canada wondering if any if they knew

48:12

anybody that was looking for a guitar player, and

48:17

they they said, the Great Canadian River

48:19

it is is looking for guitar players. So I

48:22

went and auditioned them as they auditioned me, and

48:24

uh it was. The music was a

48:26

bit of a stretch. There was a couple of the originals

48:29

and was Stevie Wonder, which I'd never

48:31

done to Steely Dan, which I'd never played that

48:33

kind of a little more jazzy.

48:36

But I was up for the challenge. But the main

48:38

thing is I wanted to play with Matt, because

48:41

Matt. When I played with Matt,

48:43

it was like an automatic thing. It was we

48:46

locked into the groove, no

48:48

question, like no other drummer I'd never

48:50

played with. So I went, well,

48:52

you know, let's see where it goes. So

48:55

we rolled that for a couple of years and

48:58

then I got a call late night from

49:01

the Streetheart Guys and Matt and I

49:03

joined that band for I

49:05

guess a couple of years. So

49:07

I was fired from that band, but I was

49:09

still working with Lou Blair, the manager. He

49:12

was he was a huge support of me all through my whole

49:14

career and he

49:17

had this nightclub

49:19

called the Refinery Club in Calgary, and behind

49:21

it was a body an old body shop was It wasn't

49:23

a body shopping, but it was a shell of a body

49:25

shop. And he said,

49:29

I was working on a solo album at the time. To

49:31

be honest, I had been fed up with working the lead

49:33

singers and have him quit or

49:35

fire me or do something, you know. So I said,

49:38

you know what, I'm going to beat the singer hell with it.

49:40

So I started working on tunes and singing them

49:42

and doing demos for them. I got a hold of

49:44

a four track in this warehouse,

49:47

and then I got I had

49:50

this gig once again, a bass

49:52

player working for the

49:54

a CDC cover band. And we

49:56

were rehearsing one night in this warehouse in

49:58

the monkst you know, in between me working on my

50:00

own stuff, and Mike

50:03

Reno came by and he used

50:05

to work with the guitar player

50:08

and yeah, because

50:10

he just left his band Moxie in Toronto, just

50:14

just right right then, so

50:16

he was he was at odds and so was

50:18

I. We didn't have anything going on really, so

50:21

he would he and uh. Then the guitar

50:23

player were in the in the second room.

50:26

They were jamming, and I heard Mike sing

50:29

and I said to myself, you know, this

50:32

guy has got an amazing voice. Wow. I

50:34

was like, he blew me away. It's kind of like when

50:36

I played with Matt. It was like an automatic. This

50:39

is amazing, This is like, this is where

50:41

I'm at. And I heard him sing and

50:46

I approached him and I says, you know, blah

50:48

blah blah, you're what an amazing singer. We

50:50

shouldn't you want to get together and see if we can

50:53

you know, do something. He says, yeah, sir,

50:55

he says, I'll come back tomorrow. So he came back tomorrow

50:58

the next day, I should say, and we

51:00

wrote two songs together on the first night, and

51:03

that was That was the beginning of That

51:06

was it. It's never never turned

51:08

back and never looked back.

51:11

Okay, prior to this, how

51:13

do you view yourself as an itinerant

51:16

musician or are you still looking

51:18

for your one big break to become famous?

51:23

Well you mean at that point, yeah,

51:27

I would. I had this naive thing that every

51:29

band I was in right from the get go, well

51:31

maybe not the first of the three I was in

51:33

and WHINEVERBC. But when

51:35

I moved to Vancouver, you know, we did some recording

51:37

there. I figured this is great. We got

51:40

all the elements. You know, we got good songs,

51:43

good players, decent image,

51:45

this is this is going to be great. And

51:47

then that was in every band I was in. I was always

51:49

that belief that I'm

51:52

gonna this, this band is going

51:54

to take me over the dog. And I

51:57

typically I would give a band three years

51:59

to arvich like the time, and

52:01

if it didn't happen for whatever reason,

52:03

because there's conflicts or we just

52:06

couldn't get up, people didn't

52:08

like it enough, they weren't really responding

52:10

to it, or you know, and

52:14

I would move on. And uh, and

52:17

I was I guess I was probably thinking

52:19

the same thing with working with Mike. We'll

52:22

give it see where it goes. And

52:26

we we just we started playing together

52:29

and we auditioning drummers, and uh, Doug

52:32

Johnson was already I'd already done some of

52:34

those demos before I met Mike. He and

52:36

I Doug Johnson, the loved Boy keyboard player.

52:39

He and I did some demos together,

52:41

so I knew Doug and it was the same thing.

52:43

Doug was it is It wasn't is the

52:45

most amazing creator.

52:48

It's so creative and a great technician

52:51

and great sounds and really good player,

52:54

so you know, and then we we auditioned

52:57

Mike and I. We auditioned a bunch of bass players,

53:00

a bunch of drummers, and finally,

53:03

just you know, Matt left

53:05

Streetheart after I

53:07

got the boot from it. He stayed

53:10

around for a year, a year or two, and

53:13

I guess he finally got disillusioned. Then

53:15

he moved back to Vancouver, where he was

53:17

from and where Mike

53:19

and I and Doug had moved to. We moved to be

53:22

near Bruce Allen, who I

53:24

think you might know who. He is pretty famous

53:26

dude manager

53:29

Michael Buble and Exit

53:32

Bran Adams, and he

53:35

was managing us, so we wanted to be near him, so

53:37

we moved.

53:37

Wa wa wa. Believe me, I know Bruce

53:40

a little bit slower. Lou

53:43

Blair is working with you. How

53:45

do you end up working with Bruce?

53:48

Bruce and Lou knew each other from

53:50

the clubs in Vancouver.

53:53

I know that we

53:55

were working one club called

53:57

the Cave and Lou was a

53:59

bounce there. That's when I met him.

54:02

Yeah, this is way back. They knew

54:04

each other forever, and uh

54:07

so we were we put the band together. We had Doug

54:10

and Mike and me and

54:12

then we had a phil and bass

54:14

player who later quit what he wanted to

54:16

be a stockbroker and said, which is cool, but

54:18

we never really had a drummer. But

54:22

Lou in his wish and said, you know, I

54:25

got a lot of connections, but I don't have Bruce

54:27

Allen's connections. I want to bring Bruce

54:29

Allen in on this and co manage you guys. If

54:31

you're cool with that, well, I don't know. You're

54:34

the manager, dude, You need you

54:36

think you should do?

54:37

You know?

54:39

So I didn't know Bruce and Lou

54:41

suggested that we moved to Vancouver so that we

54:43

could be available should something

54:46

happen. Plus, It's was much more

54:48

of a center for musicians and studios

54:50

and everything. It was a center

54:53

of Western Canada still is. So

54:56

we moved there and Uh,

54:58

then we we got to play, used to rehearse. Uh

55:02

we had. We had the most amazing

55:05

drummer before Matt left Streetheart, Brian

55:07

to Loud McLeod. He was

55:10

the guitar player, drummer from Chilliwac

55:13

uh and incredibly

55:16

talented guy. He produced

55:18

my first solo album, Actually Hardcore with

55:22

and Uh taught me a lot of stuff.

55:26

He had, he had a he had a great boat. He used to

55:28

record on his boat, and he

55:30

used to live on his boat, and he had his amplifier,

55:33

his marshall amp in the hold

55:35

of the boat with the with the cover

55:38

over it, and he would record on this boat.

55:40

Can't imagine his neighbors at the you

55:42

know, at the marina. McCleod shut

55:44

up, you know, but so

55:48

he was anyway, he decided, Brian

55:51

decided that he didn't want to be a drummer.

55:53

He didn't want to be our drummer. Or he didn't want to be a drummer,

55:56

and he gave

55:59

us his notice. But we weren't playing. We were just

56:01

learning. Still, we were writing songs.

56:03

I think we're probably up to maybe

56:05

ten songs by then, and

56:07

Brian Brian walked, so

56:10

we didn't have a drummer. But right at

56:12

that point, Matt moved back

56:14

to Vancouver. So Mike

56:16

and I went and we wooed him back into you

56:18

know, well let's try it. Come

56:20

on, man, try it. You might try it, you might

56:22

like it. And he was really,

56:25

really reticent. He was like, I

56:28

don't want to I don't know if I want to be in a band again.

56:30

And I just got went through this street yard

56:32

thing and it was a nightmare. I don't want

56:35

but anyway, we well what he got to lose.

56:38

Plus he had a house that

56:40

we could rehearse in, so that was a that's

56:42

a real bonus force and

56:44

uh we but

56:47

before that, before we moved into his house to

56:49

we had this rehearsal place

56:52

in North Vancouver somewhere. And

56:55

the bass player at the time, Vern

56:57

Wills. He amazing

57:01

singer and amazing bass player, but he

57:03

wanted to be a guitar player and he wanted to front

57:05

his own band, which he's totally capable

57:07

of doing. So that fell

57:09

apart. So we didn't have a bass player or a drummer,

57:12

but we still let the core, the writing

57:14

core, Doug and Mike and me, and

57:16

we wrote basically all the songs. We've

57:19

done a couple of covers in our career, but mainly

57:21

it's the three of us would do all the rating.

57:24

Okay, you're living in Vancouver,

57:27

Blue hooks you up with Bruce. What

57:29

happens after that career

57:31

wise.

57:33

Well, just to cut the shory,

57:35

start Matt. Now we had Matt, and then

57:37

we needed a drummer, and Mike and I

57:39

went to we heard about this great funky

57:41

bass player played with it, an act got a tronic

57:44

called Lisa DelBello, and I

57:46

think this is way back. We were

57:48

still living in Calgary at the time, because it was in Red

57:50

Deer, which is just about I don't

57:52

know, sixty miles or something north

57:54

of Calgary. So we drove up there and we

57:57

were blown away by this guy. And we

57:59

didn't meet him. Wait, I think we just watched him. Yeah, this

58:01

guy's cool. So we

58:03

we called him up afterwards

58:06

and invited him to come out to Calgary, and

58:08

I just remember when I picked him

58:11

up at the airport, and I remember meeting Scott uh

58:14

dearly departed Scott Smith, and it

58:17

was like a long lost brother meeting him with the right

58:19

off the bat. It was like instant ease.

58:22

Just couldn't have a better rapport with the

58:24

guy. It was just magic. Same

58:26

with all the other guys. It was just just magic,

58:29

totally on the same pH musically. So

58:33

then we started rehearsing for real

58:35

once we had We're all in Vancouver by

58:37

this time, and

58:39

we had some of that. We had every

58:42

record company come up and come

58:44

to our rehearsals. I remember a

58:46

couple of guys that come up and they're in they're New

58:48

York big for coats, and they're standing around

58:50

and looking all ritzy and and

58:53

stuck up and holier than now. And

58:56

it passed and you know,

58:58

they don't have any attitude. They suck or

59:01

I don't know, we don't get it. So

59:04

that was that we

59:07

we just we decided though, that

59:09

we we figured we had

59:11

what it. We had enough songs,

59:14

we had definitely had the band. We had had

59:16

had the songs. We had an

59:18

offer from Capitol Records, and

59:21

they said,

59:25

here's X number of dollars, which

59:27

was really not very

59:30

much money, not enough to finish the album.

59:32

Here's X number of dollars. And we figured

59:34

it three albums, you'll probably be

59:36

you know, you might get a hit, you might hopefully

59:39

you'll have a hit by three. And we said,

59:42

excuse me, no,

59:46

we were we were pretty cocky. You know,

59:48

we figured we weren't going to wait on

59:50

for three. So Columbia

59:53

came to the party with some decent

59:55

money, and but we hadn't

59:57

signed the deal yet, and we were talking about we're going

59:59

through negotiations back and forth, lawyer

1:00:01

to lawyer or whatever, I don't know, or

1:00:04

manager to lawyer, I have no idea, but

1:00:07

we booked the studio and we started recording

1:00:10

before we had a contract. That's how cocky

1:00:12

we were, how sure we were that

1:00:14

we were had something going on. So

1:00:18

that was the first album we recorded.

1:00:20

Well, okay, wait, wait, wait, you

1:00:22

meet Mike Reno. How

1:00:25

long after that do you go

1:00:27

into the studio that you're just talking about.

1:00:30

Well, it's probably a year and a half. It

1:00:33

seems longer than that, but when I'm trying to do

1:00:35

the math, you know, I met him in seventy

1:00:38

eight, and we recorded in seventy

1:00:40

nine and it came out in eighty you know, so somewhere

1:00:42

on there.

1:00:43

Okay, was the band

1:00:46

ever playing live or were you just wood

1:00:48

shedding writing songs and

1:00:50

rehearse.

1:00:51

We were playing live. Our very first

1:00:53

show, we opened for Kiss at the coliseum

1:00:57

or one of the big rooms in back

1:00:59

in those days in Vancouver, opened

1:01:01

for Kiss, and I guess their opening

1:01:04

act got busted at the border

1:01:06

or couldn't get across the border or something like

1:01:08

that. And Bruce Allen

1:01:11

being tied in the way he is and

1:01:13

was at the time, I mean he was he had

1:01:15

just come off off of bto

1:01:19

so huge, humongous

1:01:21

talk about contacts. He knew

1:01:23

everybody, every promoter in every room to

1:01:25

play, and he knew

1:01:27

the promoter and he says, I got the perfect thing for

1:01:29

it. We love her, boy? What okay? Whatever

1:01:32

do you say? So Bruce and we

1:01:35

that was our first show and

1:01:37

after so that opened the door for us. It's like, here

1:01:40

they are the band that opened for Kiss,

1:01:42

playing at your local bar six nights a week.

1:01:45

How can you how can you know? How can you miss this?

1:01:47

You know? So that was

1:01:50

then we started playing. We played in

1:01:52

a bunch of club shows,

1:01:54

club dates. The night that we were

1:01:57

auditioning for columb

1:02:00

be A, the A

1:02:02

and R guy Jeff Burns came out

1:02:04

to see us in the he

1:02:07

work he worked for Columbia Records in Toronto.

1:02:09

He came out to see us, and he

1:02:13

loved it. He basically

1:02:15

signed us. And then, as I say, we had to

1:02:17

work out the details. But I remember

1:02:20

at that same show, or maybe the

1:02:22

next night or something, I pulled

1:02:24

all our fans. I

1:02:27

said, here's the list of the songs we just played. Pick

1:02:29

your favorite ten and

1:02:31

I gave it to everybody, I don't know, maybe thirty

1:02:33

people and just random like

1:02:36

and everybody was cool with it, and they ticked

1:02:38

it off and I went, okay, well then this one, this

1:02:40

one, there's our ten right there, and

1:02:42

we that's the songs that we recorded.

1:02:52

Okay, there's a lot going on here in the background.

1:02:55

Bruce.

1:02:56

Now, Bruce.

1:03:00

Being to the Canadian label.

1:03:02

If you remember, we

1:03:05

auditioned, as I were saying, we auditioned for

1:03:07

every label either it was sending

1:03:09

them tapes, showing up in their office.

1:03:11

Me and Mike we did a thing at Capitol Records.

1:03:14

Uh, just the two of us with

1:03:16

Lou and we we uh

1:03:20

we used to record on this little ghetto blaster, just

1:03:23

the guitar and vocals, and we took that in and we

1:03:25

played it for Capital. The guy

1:03:27

at Capitol us and he passed. He says, there's

1:03:29

no attitude. I don't hear it. Whis fair

1:03:31

enough? I mean it was, you know, it was a live

1:03:34

to guys singing and a little an electric guitar.

1:03:37

Let's go to the recording. You end up

1:03:39

working with a murderer's row

1:03:42

of talent behind the board. You

1:03:44

are the first band that works with

1:03:47

all these people. Bruce Fairbairn,

1:03:50

Bob Rock, Mike Frasier, bit

1:03:52

around how did that all come together?

1:03:55

We actually, we weren't the first we were.

1:03:58

We followed prism Oh

1:04:00

right, yeah, and I and

1:04:02

Bruce laid that album on. He says,

1:04:04

check out this album. It sounds pretty good. And

1:04:07

I know the team. You know, I'm I'm I'm

1:04:09

tied into the team. What do you think? And Mike

1:04:11

and I listen and we went, yeah, this is amazing,

1:04:14

uh, song wise whatever, But technically

1:04:17

it sounded great. You know, the drums,

1:04:20

all the instruments sounded really killer. So

1:04:22

we said, let's go. That

1:04:25

was that and they were you know, so they

1:04:27

were, they were. Everybody was on board. Those three

1:04:29

guys that you mentioned were we

1:04:32

recorded the album with, and then we recorded the second

1:04:34

album with him as well.

1:04:37

Okay, let's start with the first album. What

1:04:40

was the process? What did Bruce

1:04:43

and Bob ad if anything?

1:04:45

At the time, Bruce

1:04:49

is a he is a

1:04:51

uh his real

1:04:53

love, I think besides being a producer

1:04:56

of US infantile rock

1:05:01

and Rollers, he his

1:05:03

gig was it was a

1:05:05

soccer coach for kids, so he

1:05:07

knew how to manipulate kids.

1:05:10

And we weren't far from that.

1:05:13

Even though I was thirty three at the time,

1:05:16

it still had that fourteen year old mentality,

1:05:19

you know, and all of us were like that,

1:05:21

cocky and disrespectful

1:05:23

and just rock and roll guys and didn't

1:05:25

want to hear from me, hear anything. But Bruce

1:05:28

had this way of getting

1:05:31

the best out of Matt. That was

1:05:33

his main thing, you know. He would

1:05:35

I don't know what he said to him, but he would go out and he would he

1:05:37

would crank him out, just like he would crank up the forward

1:05:40

and the soccer team or whatever. I don't even

1:05:42

know what if there are forwards in a soccer team,

1:05:45

but he would. He would use

1:05:47

that psychology, his his child psychology,

1:05:49

honestly, and it worked great, and

1:05:52

we would once we had the drums down,

1:05:55

then it was it was and usually

1:05:57

typically I would I would guess that Matt

1:06:00

probably spent two days in

1:06:02

the studio maybe three to get

1:06:04

all that the nine tracks down,

1:06:07

and of course I being a co producer, I

1:06:09

would be in there for the next two

1:06:11

months every day, you know. But Matt

1:06:13

did his three days and see you thanks suckers,

1:06:15

and he'd be gone, which

1:06:17

is fine because we had it down, and then we

1:06:20

would then we would go and we would you know, patch

1:06:22

up everything that if we screwed up.

1:06:24

And to what degree did Bruce work

1:06:27

with or change the material?

1:06:30

I think the main thing, the coolest, one of the coolest

1:06:33

things he did was he said, the

1:06:35

kid is hot tonight is too fast. It

1:06:37

needs to be slower, and we're going, oh, come on, man,

1:06:39

really no, he says, no here and I'd probably

1:06:41

click it on the mic. He says, doubt dun dun

1:06:44

dun dun dun dun dun da da da da dun

1:06:46

dun da and we're going dun dun dun dun dun dwn.

1:06:48

I rock on around and frantic, you know, and

1:06:50

he says, you gotta sit back. It's gotta be rent

1:06:52

dun da da da dun dun. So

1:06:54

we recorded it like

1:06:57

like Bruce said, basically the

1:07:02

that was that was a huge contribution.

1:07:05

Okay, what about turn me loose? That

1:07:07

sounds like to a degree a

1:07:09

studio creation with the synth intro.

1:07:12

When you went into the

1:07:14

studio, how much of that track was

1:07:16

already established.

1:07:18

Hundred percent because we had played

1:07:20

it live, we'd already demoed it with a

1:07:22

different drummer. We demoed it on

1:07:25

an eight track exactly like that, Exactly.

1:07:27

Like that with the synth intro and everything.

1:07:30

Synth intro, dun Da Dunda on the bass,

1:07:33

and with Verne playing

1:07:35

bass and another drummer uh

1:07:37

playing drums who I forgot Bernie

1:07:40

Auvin. He plays with the headbins now

1:07:43

and a real good friend. He was our drummer for

1:07:45

a while and he so we cut that demo.

1:07:48

And the funny thing is that Reno

1:07:50

did that flame anyway, that really high

1:07:52

fly with my way. He did it off

1:07:55

the cuff. It's like, okay, what

1:07:57

wasn't thinking about it? He just came out and

1:08:00

then he had to reproduce it.

1:08:04

Okay. So how long did it take to do the album

1:08:07

from start to finish?

1:08:09

I don't know, probably

1:08:11

a month, it wasn't that long.

1:08:14

How long after that month was

1:08:16

it released.

1:08:18

It wasn't very long because it was only released in Canada.

1:08:20

That's getting back to an earlier question. We

1:08:24

auditioned all these US labels

1:08:27

and they all passed, so we said,

1:08:29

well, screw it, we'll release

1:08:32

it in Canada. We'll do so much

1:08:34

damage in Canada they

1:08:37

don't they won't be able to refuse

1:08:39

us. That was our cock sure

1:08:42

method, you know, that's how we felt. That's

1:08:44

truly how we felt, we're not going to wait around.

1:08:47

We want to get this out now, get it out while

1:08:49

it's fresh, and get and

1:08:51

then on to the next one, you know. And

1:08:53

if it's not going to be in the States, so be it. But

1:08:55

we wanted to get it out. But we figured it's

1:08:59

got to get it released in the States because Mike

1:09:01

and I went to this the same the day before

1:09:03

we went to Capitol Records with our little ghetto

1:09:06

blass or cassette demo. We

1:09:08

went to this big thing in La It

1:09:11

was with Van Halen and and uh

1:09:14

Oh Cheap Trick and

1:09:17

Oh Addy Money, all these great

1:09:19

bands at the coliseum I think it's called

1:09:22

with that big huge outdoor.

1:09:26

M is it still called that? Yeah,

1:09:29

okay, And we looked at each

1:09:31

other half with you and she's, yeah,

1:09:33

well, this is what we do. We're

1:09:37

right in there with these guys. I mean, we

1:09:39

have our own unique slant on it, but

1:09:42

we're not We're not like a

1:09:44

country band, We're not a we're not a

1:09:46

ballad band. We're not an R and B band or

1:09:48

a rock band. This is what we do. We could

1:09:51

open play with these guys any

1:09:53

day. When turns out we actually had

1:09:55

but over the years.

1:09:57

But okay, the album is

1:09:59

done before where it's released. All

1:10:01

I remember is that summer

1:10:04

of nineteen eighty, Turn

1:10:06

Me Loose is like a one list

1:10:08

in Smash. You only have to hear

1:10:11

it once. Did you guys

1:10:13

know that hearing the track

1:10:16

before it was released?

1:10:19

Well, we

1:10:22

put it it opened. It opened the

1:10:24

album, so I

1:10:26

think it opened out.

1:10:27

No, the kid is hot, the kid is hot today.

1:10:29

That opened the album. Oh, you're right, You're right. Because

1:10:31

we had that, we had to pace it fast slow, fast, low

1:10:33

fast slow. Yeah, like we still

1:10:36

do, like we do live still, fast, slow, fast,

1:10:38

slow. I

1:10:40

don't know. I mean, I

1:10:43

guess we're pretty

1:10:46

happy with it. And everybody we played it for we're like, yeah,

1:10:50

you know what. What really gave me an indication

1:10:52

that we were doing something right. There's a

1:10:54

record store called it, I think A and A Records

1:10:56

here in Vancouver down on Seymour

1:10:59

and or Gramble

1:11:01

and something long gone.

1:11:04

Somebody painted the album cover on

1:11:06

the outside wall.

1:11:09

I went, what are they doing? This

1:11:11

is what a huge honor for somebody to do

1:11:13

this. And I don't know whether it was

1:11:15

the record got the record promotion

1:11:17

guys said let's do this, or if it's

1:11:19

just some fan or

1:11:22

the owner. They just they you know. So

1:11:25

not only did we get front Rock, but we had

1:11:27

a freaking album cover on the side

1:11:29

of the like a billboard that somebody painted

1:11:31

on the side of their building. That blew me

1:11:33

away.

1:11:35

Okay, what about the video that

1:11:38

was one of the first videos before MTV.

1:11:43

Well, you know, it was just

1:11:45

just when MTV came out. We

1:11:47

had a gig in Wichita, opening for

1:11:50

probably opening for Kansas, and

1:11:52

we hadn't done any videos. What's a video? What

1:11:55

do you do? You know, there's

1:11:57

no shindig or anything like that, or

1:11:59

you know, to do a video

1:12:02

for So I

1:12:04

remember flicking around

1:12:07

board out of my brains on a day off and stumbling

1:12:09

across MTV. I couldn't believe

1:12:11

it. I probably watched it all day. I

1:12:14

was just blown away. And I

1:12:17

swear probably the next week,

1:12:19

Columbia was calling us up saying, we

1:12:22

want you guys to do a video. We've got a

1:12:24

storyline for it. We want you

1:12:26

to come to New York. I think it was a Beacon theater.

1:12:29

We want you to come to the theater and

1:12:32

we're gonna shoot the video. So

1:12:34

we we just we got the video

1:12:36

and we got a lot of flak

1:12:38

for the slapstick

1:12:41

of it, but we didn't care. This this

1:12:43

is our big chance. And I knew who We

1:12:46

all knew who MTV was. They'd all been

1:12:48

out maybe for I don't know, maybe

1:12:50

a month or something, but we were

1:12:52

we were ready. I mean, we're

1:12:55

crank to do that. So we

1:12:58

were happy.

1:13:00

Okay, from the outside it

1:13:02

looks like overnight success.

1:13:04

What was it like?

1:13:05

From the inside,

1:13:09

it was overnight success. It really

1:13:11

was another indication of

1:13:14

our early you know, something was

1:13:16

really happening. Was We're playing a club

1:13:18

in Lethbridge, Alberta. And we

1:13:21

had a gig opening for Toronto

1:13:24

in Edmonton. So it was like a four

1:13:26

hour driver or whatever it was. It was a long

1:13:28

ass drive to get and I remember

1:13:31

pulling into Edmonton on

1:13:34

the day of the show and they were

1:13:36

playing the Kid Is Hot Tonight on

1:13:38

the radio. I've never heard any

1:13:40

of my songs ever, and I've been in the

1:13:42

business. I was thirty three at the time, and

1:13:45

I'd done so many recordings with different bands.

1:13:48

I might have heard on a

1:13:50

special show. I think they had a streetheart.

1:13:53

They played a couple of days, but this was the first

1:13:55

thing, the first lover by we'd

1:13:57

heard and I was, this

1:14:00

is it, baby, we're there, you

1:14:03

know, And then we do

1:14:05

and did our show and whatever. But that it

1:14:07

was a great thing, no real landmark,

1:14:09

you know.

1:14:10

Okay, the first album comes

1:14:12

out, it's gigantic. Do

1:14:14

you have to sit down and write the songs

1:14:16

for the second album? Where do you get these songs

1:14:18

for the second album?

1:14:20

We had a lot of them written, and

1:14:23

we were we were playing the clubs and

1:14:25

we would try them out. I

1:14:27

remember one day we were

1:14:29

playing I don't know if we were warming up, but we

1:14:31

were playing in

1:14:34

a fairly big room in

1:14:36

Vancouver, and we were working on trying to work out

1:14:38

the bugs and working for the weekend. And we

1:14:40

were doing it at sound check and I remember Lou

1:14:43

standing there listening and he came up to me

1:14:45

and he was rating about it, said

1:14:48

this is this is great. So

1:14:50

he got it right away. But

1:14:54

we were writing on the road. We were we were rehearsing

1:14:58

as we're opening for probably opening for Easy

1:15:00

Top, we're playing the arenas. I

1:15:02

can remember setting up getting

1:15:04

the crew accept all the drums and keyboards and

1:15:06

guitars and amps and everything in the shower

1:15:09

of the gig. The shower room.

1:15:12

You know, it's where the where the basketball

1:15:14

players or whatever would would

1:15:17

get chased, and we

1:15:20

were rehearsing Lucky Ones and

1:15:22

the Lucky Ones that the intro came from

1:15:24

a jam on stage in Montreal when

1:15:27

before, you know, when we were touring on the first

1:15:29

album, so we were writing on the road. We knew

1:15:32

what we had to do and we were

1:15:36

we had it down though, but you

1:15:38

know, by the time we went in to the studio, we

1:15:40

had three weeks to

1:15:43

mix it, to record it, and mix it

1:15:45

three weeks complete because

1:15:47

we had a gig opening

1:15:50

for Journey and we wanted it. We had to make that deadline.

1:15:52

I mean, who wouldn't pass up

1:15:54

a gig opening for Journey?

1:15:57

So what's the backstory? How

1:15:59

did you I'm up with working for the weekend.

1:16:04

I was walking down to the beach where

1:16:06

I lived. Uh, it

1:16:08

was a Wednesday, and I'm walking

1:16:10

along and I'm what the hell is everybody? This place is

1:16:12

usually packed and there's nobody

1:16:15

on the beach, nice decent day,

1:16:17

no one on the streets. Well, I guess everybody's waiting

1:16:19

for the weekend. Oh hello, that's

1:16:22

kind of a cool line. So I've you know, packed

1:16:24

that away. In my p brain and

1:16:26

uh so that was the start of it.

1:16:29

And uh then

1:16:31

I took it and I was working

1:16:34

at in my in my house on

1:16:36

my ghetto blaster once again, and my I used a

1:16:38

metronome for the drums, and I

1:16:41

left to guitar through a tiny little lamp, and I would

1:16:43

just sing the song, and I

1:16:45

had dad

1:16:49

they call the chords and the melody and and

1:16:51

the and the and then the beast the

1:16:53

beepart waiting for the weekend.

1:16:56

And then, uh,

1:16:58

I didn't know what the words were dead, and I had h and

1:17:02

I had a kind of roughed out. I had all the

1:17:04

all the bits and pieces, but that I didn't have him

1:17:06

in the proper order. And just

1:17:09

speaking about that time in Montreal when I

1:17:11

wrote that that the intro

1:17:13

the Lucky Ones on stage,

1:17:16

and remember of going to Doug and saying,

1:17:18

what are these notes? I don't have my

1:17:20

recorder, Dan, what

1:17:24

are these notes? So he wrote it out on a

1:17:26

napkin for my reference down the

1:17:28

road. So I had that part. But

1:17:31

so it's either later that night or maybe the

1:17:33

next night in Montreal, and I had

1:17:36

I had my ghetto blaster around my guitar,

1:17:38

my whatever, and

1:17:41

I remember finally putting

1:17:43

it together, the puzzle together, all

1:17:45

the parts, all the key changes and

1:17:46

the breakdowns and the little

1:17:49

the little wah wah part

1:17:51

in the in the middle, and all

1:17:53

the parts Kiss came together. I still didn't have the lyrics,

1:17:55

but I had all the music and most of the

1:17:58

lyrics done. It's so

1:18:00

at that point I'd spring

1:18:03

it on Reno. Then he goes, well,

1:18:06

what about working for the weekend? And I

1:18:08

went okay,

1:18:12

not knowing, not thinking, what a brilliant line

1:18:14

that was, what a great although

1:18:16

I still think everybody's waiting for the weekend,

1:18:19

which is also true, but working gives

1:18:21

it a different, completely different slant.

1:18:23

So uh, thank you, Reno.

1:18:26

Good good one. And then we

1:18:28

needed we needed We were recording it actually,

1:18:31

and we had all the lyrics and we needed one

1:18:34

more line. And I remember sitting here at Mushroom

1:18:36

Studios. I know earlier I said we recorded

1:18:38

the second album at Little Mountain, But we

1:18:40

recorded the album at Mushroom and mixed it at

1:18:42

Little Mountain with that same team.

1:18:47

Okay, you do three albums

1:18:49

with that same team. Their biggest

1:18:51

successful. There are a lot of bands.

1:18:54

They're working so hard on the road, they're

1:18:56

recording songs. They really don't

1:18:59

know what the hell is going going on. They don't

1:19:01

know if they're being ripped off, they're making

1:19:03

any money. What was your experience?

1:19:07

We had and still have total

1:19:10

trust in Low and Bruce that they would take

1:19:12

care of us. They invested

1:19:14

twenty thousand dollars into us before we were

1:19:16

working. They were

1:19:18

I was making like, not a whole lot,

1:19:20

but I was making subsistence. I was making They

1:19:23

were paying everybody in the band like a hundred

1:19:25

bucks or two hundred bucks a week. I can't remember

1:19:27

what. It was enough to pay the rent and you

1:19:29

know, help out out of their pockets, out

1:19:31

of their faith. And they

1:19:34

we did that for over a year of writing

1:19:37

the first and part of the second album, and

1:19:41

and then they you know, they made they took care

1:19:43

of us. They made sure that that we

1:19:45

got paid and they and Bruce

1:19:48

already knew all the promoters and he wasn't going

1:19:50

to work with anybody shady. That said,

1:19:52

we have had a couple of promoters bail

1:19:54

on us, but in you know, not that

1:19:56

many considering the thousands of

1:19:58

shows we done. I can remember two instances

1:20:01

where the promoter was

1:20:03

this, you know crook.

1:20:06

So When did you finally

1:20:08

see some money.

1:20:13

I guess it was probably after

1:20:15

Get Lucky, because we'd sold

1:20:18

We sold five hundred thousand albums

1:20:20

of the first album in Canada alone, which

1:20:23

is five times platinum. Maybe it's

1:20:25

six times plat. I don't know what it is now, but pretty

1:20:27

amazing. And

1:20:31

we'd been so we were touring,

1:20:33

but you know, it was really expensive because we were as a warm

1:20:35

up situation. But we started

1:20:37

getting a bit of relative money. And I remember the first thing

1:20:39

I bought about a Harley and

1:20:43

paid cash for and I was so proud of that.

1:20:45

It was like thirteen thirteen

1:20:47

thousand dollars on the barrel and I

1:20:49

was like wow. And I

1:20:51

think Reno bought the two of us

1:20:53

bought Harley's on the same day from the same

1:20:55

dealer cash.

1:20:58

Okay, okay. If I

1:21:00

don't know anybody who's on the motors, likely luas

1:21:03

and dumped it, whether it be their fault or somebody

1:21:05

else's.

1:21:05

What was your experience, I'm

1:21:09

alive and kicking, still

1:21:11

here to tell the tale. No, I never

1:21:14

one time, one time I had

1:21:17

a bagger. It's kind of

1:21:19

the big extra faring on the front and the

1:21:21

big bags on the back. And the humongous

1:21:23

seat, and my wife Denise was

1:21:25

on the back, and we were going to one of the

1:21:27

dealerships here in Vancouver

1:21:30

just to check out the new bikes. It was like, I don't know,

1:21:33

demo day at their local Harley

1:21:35

dealer. I remember pulling up around the

1:21:37

corner and we kind of had to hurry because there

1:21:39

was a bus coming up the lane. So we had a

1:21:41

scooter around the corner and we got caught in a kind

1:21:45

of a groove for somehow, and

1:21:48

of course everybody, all the bikers are lined up

1:21:50

waiting for their turn. They're all standing

1:21:53

outside the store watching me dump

1:21:55

the bike with my wife on the back. That

1:21:59

that was pretty pretty humiliating, but

1:22:01

whatever, you know, at least we didn't we didn't

1:22:03

get hurt. I mean, we got hurt, but I wasn't bad. You know, It's

1:22:05

not like we broke anything that we had Bruce's and egos

1:22:08

mainly, but that's

1:22:11

really touchwood. That's

1:22:13

the only time I've really, you know, dumped

1:22:15

the bike a motor tircle.

1:22:25

Okay, the fourth album, you switch it up,

1:22:27

you don't work with Bruce and Bob anymore,

1:22:30

and you have a song written by Butt

1:22:33

laying so what's the backstory there?

1:22:36

Personally I wanted and I don't know how it happened,

1:22:38

but I really wanted to do and this is this goes

1:22:40

back to a night that I spent with Billy

1:22:42

Gibbons when he got me my

1:22:45

first guitar deal and

1:22:48

he arranged that. But we were we

1:22:50

were talking about his album and he

1:22:52

was saying, I just wanted to have more guitar

1:22:55

man, more guitar. Of course, what

1:22:57

else is he gonna have. He's a guitar band. There's no keyboards

1:22:59

in that. So I just took that

1:23:01

to heart and I went, yeah, I like that

1:23:04

content. I'd like to make a more of a guitar

1:23:06

album, more of a guitar riff album as opposed

1:23:08

to do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do

1:23:10

Do Do Do Do, some

1:23:14

kind of guitar riff based album.

1:23:17

And so we

1:23:19

we started doing that and we figured who's

1:23:22

the guy, who's the who's the guitar

1:23:24

producer? Who

1:23:26

would who could? Actually

1:23:31

this came it was Tom album,

1:23:33

of course, but before that we

1:23:36

wanted to do we still want to do a guitar album,

1:23:38

and we wanted to who can we get

1:23:40

to produce and engineer this

1:23:42

album that is from that school, and

1:23:45

we thought, why

1:23:47

don't we see if we can get Mutt Lang And

1:23:51

Mutt Lange went, no, I'm busy

1:23:53

or whatnot interested not whatever reason,

1:23:56

you know, but he somehow

1:23:58

he said, but you could, you

1:24:00

could use my engineer, Mike Shipley, who's

1:24:02

also a producer in his own right and

1:24:05

an amazing engineer. And I went

1:24:07

close enough, it's really

1:24:10

really great. So we worked with Mike and

1:24:13

we worked at the studio in Montreal,

1:24:16

and we worked there for a month and

1:24:20

it didn't work out.

1:24:21

I won't get into any

1:24:23

further, but it didn't have the groove,

1:24:26

it didn't have the production. It had the sound,

1:24:29

but we just couldn't get the groove going.

1:24:31

There was something to do with the sampling of the dramas

1:24:34

and it was too weird. So

1:24:37

we took those demos as

1:24:40

it turned out to be demos, back

1:24:42

to Vancouver. So we had all a bunch

1:24:44

of the tunes ready to go written

1:24:48

well at least, and then

1:24:50

we went, okay, well, let's let's

1:24:53

go here in Vancouver. Let's

1:24:55

try somebody else. So we

1:24:58

called up Tom l and he

1:25:00

came and produce go produce

1:25:02

the album and that's

1:25:05

that's what happened there.

1:25:07

And where did the butt laning song come from?

1:25:09

Ah? From

1:25:12

Mike Shipley. Mike,

1:25:15

in his wisdom, said, you

1:25:17

don't have it. You don't have the single. Guys, you got

1:25:19

a lot of really good songs, I guess, but

1:25:22

you don't have the single. He says,

1:25:24

let me call Mutt and see what he can come up

1:25:26

with. So Mutt

1:25:30

does his absolute total magic

1:25:33

and he calls us in the studio. So I'm on the

1:25:35

phone and he says, check it out, and

1:25:37

he plays, and I went, holy crap, this is amazing.

1:25:40

Can you can you phone me back

1:25:42

in ten minutes? I want to set up a recording for

1:25:44

it with it throughout the tech here at the studio.

1:25:47

So they set up and they could record off the phone

1:25:49

onto a I don't know, some cassette player

1:25:51

or something. So he did that.

1:25:53

He called us back and so

1:25:56

but it was a real crap because the telephone

1:25:59

only goes down, so you don't get any

1:26:01

low, low and low, and we couldn't hear what the base

1:26:03

was doing. So we went all

1:26:06

right, but at least we can cut it. So

1:26:08

we took that track that

1:26:11

cassette and Matt and

1:26:13

what we all we played along to that and cut

1:26:15

the track playing along the Mutts

1:26:17

demo. That was kind of our click

1:26:19

track, just played along to that, but we still couldn't

1:26:21

hear the bottom, so we waited. We put it in

1:26:23

a request of Mike, can you please send us a

1:26:26

quarter into the real tape, full frequency

1:26:28

tape so we can hear what the hell's on the track,

1:26:30

so we can duplicate it. And

1:26:33

he was very gracious and send it

1:26:35

to us, And

1:26:38

so that was one track we ended up re

1:26:40

recording it, but at least we had we

1:26:44

had the anchor for that album.

1:26:48

Okay, So then the next album you go back

1:26:50

to Bruce and Fairburn,

1:26:53

and this time

1:26:55

John bon Jovi and Richie Sambora

1:26:59

help you write. Note Warrius was the hit track.

1:27:01

How does that come together?

1:27:06

I don't know how I got John's phone number,

1:27:10

probably through maybe through Bruce. I

1:27:12

don't know. It was slipper slippery when we out

1:27:15

then, I don't think so I

1:27:19

can't you know, I don't slippery when Wet

1:27:21

was already out by that point. Yeah, okay,

1:27:25

so through through Bruce, Bruce

1:27:27

Fairburn's connection through with Slippery when wet,

1:27:30

Uh, he gave me John

1:27:32

summer and I call up John and he said, yeah,

1:27:34

come on out. So I I think I

1:27:36

stayed at his place and where I was there for

1:27:39

two or three days and we wrote Notorious

1:27:42

and a couple other things didn't make the grade, but we

1:27:45

we wrote it with Richie and Desmond

1:27:47

Child came in on the second day. If

1:27:50

you could imagine that being in the room with

1:27:52

Desmond Child. That guy is a monster.

1:27:54

He's had so many well, so it's

1:27:56

towards John and Richie obviously,

1:27:59

so you know, I was in a really

1:28:01

good company with those guys. But that's

1:28:05

funny because Desmond

1:28:08

gave me sword and Stone.

1:28:11

He says, you should you should take this to the guys

1:28:13

see if Brino wants to sing that. And

1:28:16

I didn't know that Kiss had written it, or

1:28:19

or that it had all been already been released, but

1:28:21

didn't matter. I thought it was a great song. And

1:28:24

I took it to Mic and he went out, it's too

1:28:27

something. I can't remember what he said, but it just

1:28:29

wasn't it wasn't up his up his alley,

1:28:31

you know. So anyway, I've recorded

1:28:33

it myself on hardcore.

1:28:35

But okay, so

1:28:38

how do you decide to go back to Bruce after Tom.

1:28:42

I have no idea. That's

1:28:45

a really good question. I

1:28:50

don't know. Maybe maybe

1:28:52

because we thought he could

1:28:54

connect with Matt or he

1:28:57

was a he was a he

1:28:59

he you could get it done on budget. That

1:29:02

was probably it because they're they're

1:29:04

loving every minute of an album. Cost us a

1:29:07

ton of money because we did that whole

1:29:09

session a month at the

1:29:11

studio and didn't get anything out of it, so

1:29:14

that was really expensive. And

1:29:17

I'm sure that's what I was. So probably

1:29:19

Bruce and Lou, Bruce, Allen

1:29:22

and Lou are going, We're

1:29:24

not going to spend that kind of money, are we please?

1:29:28

And yeah, okay, So I'm sure that's

1:29:30

why we went because we knew that Bruce could do it

1:29:32

on time and on budget, and

1:29:35

Bruce agreed. But the

1:29:37

one cavity he says, you don't have the songs, but

1:29:40

once again, you don't have the anchor, So

1:29:44

come up with one more song. So

1:29:47

I wrote Hometown

1:29:50

Hero and

1:29:53

that was that was enough for Bruce to

1:29:55

commit.

1:29:56

Okay, so you make five albums

1:29:58

with Columbia, they

1:30:00

all have status gold better

1:30:04

then for ten years you don't make another

1:30:06

record. What happened with the band.

1:30:10

Just got other interests. I guess

1:30:13

got some just other interests,

1:30:18

who knows. I mean, I kept writing, but

1:30:21

I don't know, just distractions. Living

1:30:25

just didn't have that that

1:30:28

that desire for.

1:30:29

Well, well, did the band have a meeting and break

1:30:32

up?

1:30:35

We had a meeting with Bruce

1:30:38

when when uh Nirvana

1:30:41

hit and he said,

1:30:44

we were we were in the throws of planning

1:30:46

of our biggest tour ever

1:30:49

for us. It was gonna we were gonna have moving

1:30:52

stages and I mean the whole not

1:30:55

the big production, and Nirvana

1:30:58

came out and completely stole our thumb and

1:31:00

everybody else who had big

1:31:02

hair basically, and

1:31:07

so that was that was pretty

1:31:09

much that and we and Bruce said,

1:31:12

you know, radio stations

1:31:14

aren't going to play your ship. They're they're

1:31:16

not into that. They're into there in the grunge

1:31:18

you guys are You don't. They're not going to play your

1:31:20

stuff, So why

1:31:24

why bother? I guess it's like you're

1:31:26

wasting your time. You're not going to get any airplay.

1:31:30

I kept writing in that, but we never it

1:31:33

just kind of I'm

1:31:36

trying to think of the timeline on that. If

1:31:39

we stopped touring, if we just I

1:31:42

guess we did I guess we just

1:31:44

it took the win out of completely out of ourselves. Oh

1:31:46

well, I guess we'll hang it up then. And

1:31:49

that's and then I went. Mike did a couple

1:31:52

of solo albums. I did, uh

1:31:55

some solo stuff. I put a band together, played

1:31:57

around Western Canada, Matt

1:32:00

and played with Tom cochran and

1:32:05

Kim Mitchell and

1:32:07

Doug who is an amazing He

1:32:10

does soundtracks, he always has done and

1:32:12

still is. So he just did that. He didn't care.

1:32:15

So we were basically

1:32:18

finished. You know, we're all kind of like. It's

1:32:22

not like we hate each other or we were broken

1:32:24

heart at It was just like, okay, well that was a

1:32:26

fantastic run. And

1:32:28

then Brian Adams called us

1:32:30

up and he said, you

1:32:33

know, Brian McLeod has cancer

1:32:36

and he can't he needs some

1:32:38

funds. He needs some help financially

1:32:41

so he can get the treatment. And

1:32:43

I want to throw a fundraiser

1:32:47

for him at eighty six Street here in Vancouver,

1:32:49

and would you guys play? And one time

1:32:51

we hadn't played together in more than two years

1:32:54

or three years, can't remember, and

1:32:57

of course what a great idea.

1:33:00

So we put it back together again.

1:33:02

I remember we didn't actually

1:33:04

rehearse, but I got together with

1:33:07

Doug to figure out just

1:33:09

to kind of brush up on our parts, the

1:33:11

guitar versus keyboards, what we were

1:33:13

doing, what we did live, because it was

1:33:16

a little bit different on the record. And that wait,

1:33:18

so that was one after and I think we did maybe four songs

1:33:21

and Bto was there. I mean, I

1:33:23

mean a member standing on stage with Fred

1:33:25

Turner, who was one of my all time idols,

1:33:28

and hearing him sing the

1:33:30

hot those screaming ie notes and me

1:33:32

standing right beside him and probably no louder than

1:33:34

what I'm talking right now, and this blood

1:33:37

curdling scream is coming out of him, and I went, Wow,

1:33:40

such a great singer. And

1:33:44

we raised a bunch of money. But the

1:33:47

thing is, we had such a

1:33:49

good time doing it. We went, well,

1:33:51

that was dumb. What the hell did

1:33:53

we hang it? This is too much fun. We

1:33:56

forgot it. We forgot about that aspect. Guys,

1:33:58

this is really fun to do. What a

1:34:00

great thing to go out and play music. Why

1:34:03

don't we test the waters.

1:34:06

Let's get a little tour. We'll play

1:34:08

the interior of which

1:34:10

is a Canadian way of saying what I

1:34:13

don't know. Well, maybe you say it. Every

1:34:15

time I say it, people go the interior. Yeah,

1:34:17

the interior British Columbia. That's Kamloops

1:34:20

and Cologna and there's small towns and just you

1:34:22

know, not make it, keep it low key

1:34:24

and just feel it out. See how we feel

1:34:26

about it, See if we enjoy it as much

1:34:28

as we think we might. And we had a blast,

1:34:31

and that was in ninety two and

1:34:33

we never stopped. We just

1:34:36

kept going, never stopped. Well,

1:34:38

pandemic, we stopped.

1:34:41

Do you think if Lover

1:34:43

Boy was an American band, people's

1:34:46

attitudes towards it and its legacy

1:34:48

would be different.

1:34:52

I don't think so, because haters are going to hate and fans

1:34:55

are going to love you no matter what. I don't know we

1:34:57

got. I don't

1:35:00

I think so because people

1:35:02

that come to our shows are the same everywhere,

1:35:05

everywhere in Canada or you know,

1:35:08

it's still they respond

1:35:10

the same way. So it's

1:35:13

we communicate to them and they communicate

1:35:15

back. It's the same thing. And

1:35:17

they're limited tours in Europe.

1:35:20

Same thing.

1:35:21

Okay, at the end of the day, decades

1:35:24

later, lover Boy the

1:35:27

name plus minus

1:35:29

or irrelevant.

1:35:32

You know, I thought the Beatles was a weird name, Rolling

1:35:35

Stones? What what is what kind

1:35:37

of name for a band is that? You know, we're

1:35:40

back in my day everybody who had named

1:35:42

a for cars Chevelle's and whatever

1:35:45

and surf names, and

1:35:47

the Beatles came out. I want that sowhere. But

1:35:50

you know, first first

1:35:52

gig we had, we were called lover Boy. We're

1:35:55

playing all original music and the

1:35:57

people in the audience were pelting us with

1:35:59

whatever they had, mainly ice cubes.

1:36:01

They hated it. But it

1:36:04

just becomes it's like Kleenex,

1:36:07

you know what, You

1:36:09

got to know what the product is. Kleenex by itself

1:36:12

is what is that? You've

1:36:14

scrubbed your house with it? You know?

1:36:17

And so it's it's just a brand. It's

1:36:20

a pretty cool brand. It's because it does elicit

1:36:23

you know, either they hate it

1:36:25

or they love it, or they don't care. They just they

1:36:28

just remember the music and they don't associate

1:36:30

the name just with anything else.

1:36:32

Okay, coming up with the band name is not

1:36:35

easy. Usually come up with

1:36:37

list and people say yes, and people say

1:36:40

no, how did you come up with lover Boy?

1:36:42

And how hard was it to get the band to

1:36:44

agree on it?

1:36:45

Well, it's just Mike Mike and Doug. I

1:36:47

mean, so it wasn't really a band. We

1:36:50

were thinking of calling a Dean Renal band or

1:36:52

a Renal Dean band, because it was just Mike

1:36:54

and me. And Doug was kind of he was working

1:36:56

with another band. He wasn't really committed, but

1:36:58

he had helped me out on so he was in

1:37:01

our minds he was part of the band, but in his

1:37:03

mind he wasn't really part of the band yet. So

1:37:05

it's just Mike and I had to make all the decisions.

1:37:08

And I tried it out on Denise's

1:37:11

my wife, Denise's younger brother. He was,

1:37:14

I don't know, fifteen or

1:37:16

whatever, and I said, so

1:37:19

with your back off, and I went Dean Ring. Nobody

1:37:21

went okay, complete like

1:37:23

over whatever kind of name.

1:37:26

I went, well, that ain't gonna fly. So

1:37:29

I'm looking at

1:37:31

my at at Denise's magazines, and she's

1:37:33

got Chateolaine and all

1:37:36

these Vogue and all

1:37:38

these Girl Lady magazines.

1:37:40

And on the back cover is

1:37:43

a ad for cover

1:37:45

girl. I want cover girl,

1:37:47

cover cover boy, cover boy. Oh

1:37:50

that's a great wait cover we don't

1:37:52

want to be doing Wait, obviously, what the

1:37:54

next step is the lover boy? So I went, this

1:37:56

is a good name. This is what my mommy used to tease

1:37:58

me with when I was a kid. Hey, lover boy,

1:38:01

let's go. I don't know why,

1:38:03

but that's stuck in my head. And

1:38:06

I sprung it on a Reno and

1:38:09

Lou and everybody went, fine,

1:38:12

now we know who we are.

1:38:14

Okay to what

1:38:16

the degree did being Canadian

1:38:18

in the Canadian scene contribute

1:38:22

to the success of the band or

1:38:25

the success of your career you

1:38:27

personally?

1:38:33

Well, I've always said that it's just a line

1:38:35

on a map. We're so close

1:38:38

musically. I don't know political

1:38:40

whatever, but musically we're so close

1:38:43

to people in every

1:38:45

place. Why is this border

1:38:47

here? Why don't have to be Canadian and

1:38:49

you guys have to be American? And I got to jump

1:38:52

through all these hoops to come down and play for you and

1:38:55

try and get all the business

1:38:57

done, and that it was just it was. It

1:39:00

was frustrating, but at the

1:39:02

time, but I wasn't worthy, you know, all

1:39:04

the other stuff I'd done wasn't worthy of

1:39:07

of. We could barely get a recording

1:39:09

deal in Canada, let alone breach

1:39:12

the Great Divide and get into into

1:39:14

the States or UK or wherever

1:39:16

else. So I

1:39:19

just remember our first show in

1:39:22

the States was at the Tacoma

1:39:24

Dome, opening for Sammy Hagar. It's

1:39:26

funny, and here we are. We're back playing with

1:39:28

him again this summer, but opening for Sammy

1:39:31

and Mike and me getting

1:39:34

dressed and we're in the shower because

1:39:37

they all they have this the best sound and

1:39:39

we're singing, we're singing your national

1:39:41

anthem. I mean, we probably didn't know the words for it. I

1:39:43

still don't, but we're

1:39:46

singing, we're singing your

1:39:48

national anthem in the soul blown

1:39:51

away that we're finally here, we are,

1:39:53

we made it. We're playing the USA. Man.

1:39:56

Wow, it was a big deal

1:39:58

for us. It really was, because we'd been

1:40:00

stuck and not stuck. We

1:40:04

were always doing what we wanted to do, and we're

1:40:07

never tied down by being Canadian. There

1:40:09

was always acceptance. Not I mean if we

1:40:11

suck, we suck, but any of the good stuff

1:40:13

we did, there was always acceptance. Far it.

1:40:17

Well, you certainly have success. And it's

1:40:19

funny because from bands of that era, you

1:40:21

know a number of your songs have lived

1:40:23

on where those have died. So

1:40:26

Paul, I want to thank you so much for taking

1:40:28

this time to speak with my audience.

1:40:31

Well, it's been an honor and I've

1:40:33

I've been following your days in Aspen. And let

1:40:36

me tell you one thing that you taught me, Bob. The

1:40:38

best thing I think you taught me. People

1:40:41

don't want albums, they would just

1:40:43

want singles. And that's been my mantra for

1:40:46

ten years. That's why we don't

1:40:48

have hardly any albums. We just keep throwing

1:40:50

singles out when we get around to it, you know, so

1:40:53

thank you for It's

1:40:55

made so much sense to me. I mean,

1:40:57

i'll score, I'll look for an album, i'll

1:41:00

play, I'll whip through bam bam, bam

1:41:02

bam bam. Oh there's one song that like and

1:41:04

get rid of the rest of the playlist, you know. So

1:41:07

it's really if you can get put out one song.

1:41:09

What a great song. Wow.

1:41:13

I think I'll leave it at that. Thanks so much

1:41:15

for any

1:41:19

event. Until next time. This is Bob

1:41:22

left Sets