 conditioning. It's like, no, it's actually not standard practice for builders to put air AC in homes out here because, you know, it's very coastal temperate weather. We hardly ever get super hot summers. Believe it or not, it's actually quite dry. It's not humid here. So like I have no air conditioning. So we are like, you know, wow, grab a sleeping bag and go sleep in the basement because it was the only cool place in the house. It was crazy. It was like, you know, yeah, 32, I think. Yeah, you live in a high altitude or do you live in a high altitude or do you live like sort of like we're live by the way, just we're just I don't I actually live more near the about 45 minutes of side van Coover near the US border. Actually, okay, very scenic little place called White Rock. Oh, yeah, sure. Of course. Yeah, it's beautiful here. Yeah. It's here we are on the metal voice today. Yes, Alan. Oh, yep. Yep. Let me look at your cue. That's your cue. Who's on the middle voice today, Alan? That's we got Lee Aaron herself on our very special show here today. Hey, how are you guys doing? All right. Good. Good. We're in Montreal, by the way. Yeah. Very cool city. I love Montreal. Yep. And the new album Radio on and I'm showing it. I'm not sure if everybody could see it, but I'm showing it radio on. I'm presenting it and it's going to be released July 23rd on Meadowville Records. Why not July 21st? Why not my birthday? Yeah, exactly. Why not? You see, you don't remember this. It was my birthday too. Are we do we share a birthday? Oh, well, that's why that's why we're so cool. I don't know. Coolness runs on July 21st. So new album Radio one will be released on the July 23rd on Meadowville. And we also have Sean Kelly, a familiar, a guest to Alan, who's been on this show quite a few times, I think. Yeah. Coney Hatch. Yeah, we just interviewed him with Coney Hatch when they did that live stream. Seems like yesterday was probably eight months ago. So and your drama and the drummer's your your husband, correct? Yes, John Cody is my drummer and my husband and father of our kids and Dave Reimer is my bass player and one of also a co-writer in the band and great singer and Dave's played with Barty Bentall, Brian Adams. So I am such a lucky girl. I have the most gifted bandmates and just the just wonderful guys. And, you know, I just I love working with them. They're so great. Alright, so well, you had me at hello. I just want to talk to every listen to the album. And it seems like this album is like really split down the middle. You got your fun songs like radio on and vamping and great big love with that 80s feel but with a maybe a more mature view. And they've got the introspective stuff like, you know, devil's gold wasted and Russian doll. I mean, it's quite the dichotomy. It was quite the last weekend. There was a lot of going on last weekend. Well, you know, how do I explain, you know, I when I do albums, I like to take the listener on a journey. You know, some of my favorite albums of all time are, you know, those early who albums, you know, Fleetwood Mac Rumors, Fleetwood Mac Rumors, you've got everything from like bluegrass to, you know, blues rock to pop. And, you know, stylistically, it moves or shifts around a bit, but it's all the same players and it's all the same singers. So it ultimately sounds like a Fleetwood Mac record. So, you know, I think every record I've ever done, you know, sounds ultimately like a Lear and record because obviously it's my voice and the production values that I like in the style of music that I like to write. But yeah, I think that, you know, the challenge as I've become, you know, older and more mature person is, you know, how do I, how do I write songs that reflect my worldview now and where I'm not personally and engage my fans, you know, the reality is I think that, you know, my fans have grown up with me, so they're between 40 and 60, most of them too. So these are subject matters that they're going to be, that are going to, you know, reel them in because they're the same things that are on their minds as well. Cool. I would like to know what you tried to, you guys locked yourselves in a room for a weekend and you decided we're just going to write songs all week and have some fun. Well, yeah, that was the basic premise. I can tell you that my husband has been in the band 20 years, Dave has been in the band about 17 years. Sean joined the band about eight years ago. And then we started writing together. And I feel like, you know, on Diamond Baby, we were just, we were just really starting to hit a stride artistically together. And what I knew, what I knew at that point was that when we get together in a room, magic things happen, magic things happen musically. So this idea of sending files back and forth, even though myself, John and Dave are West Coast people, we don't all live in the same city. And Sean, of course, is from Toronto. But this idea of, you know, the modern way of writing, sending files back and forth, putting down demos with drum machines or a click track is, I said, this is, this is crazy. Let's just, let's just all bring our like best three or four ideas and just get together in a room, rehearse a space for the weekend and just go crazy and just see what we can come up with. And our only agenda really was, let's draw off our, the inspirations that we all had when we were teenagers, and all of us have different influences, which I think you're probably hearing on the album, you know, everybody thinks that the music of their teenagerhood is the best music ever, right? And so I'm like, let's just feel inspired by that. And just let's just write some songs that we think, oh, there you go. A little cameo. You know, that just came out on Pink Vinyl, right? So we just wanted to write songs that we thought, you know, we could get our favorite fans or a bunch of our friends in a room and play and we would, they would think these songs are really cool. And that was our only motivation, really, for writing these songs and I'm gonna say something that for those of you who haven't heard the album because it's not released yet. It's it's got a little bit of everything and there's the guitars are really up front and I'm not saying it's metal, but I would consider it like a hard rock album, you know, and your voice kind of always works well with that. Would you agree? Disagree? What's what works well with that? I'm sorry. Your voice. Oh, your voice kind of works well with the harder guitars. And I'm not saying it's metal. I'm just saying it's a hard rock and sound. Yeah, you know, I wouldn't, you know, I know your show is called The Metal Voice, but it seems like most of the outlets doing this type of stuff are covering everything from, you know, just pure rock and roll to, you know, hardcore metal. And I really don't consider my music metal. You know, it might have little elements of that. But yeah, I love loud guitars. But I'm always on. But just so you know, we don't always interview metal acts. Okay, good. That's just kind of like the generic sort of Rick Hammett was really worried when he heard that we were going to interview him with a show called The Metal Voice. Oh, he was? Yeah, but it's like, like, think of it like the metal queen, you're not always about metal, but that's the title of the song. Yeah, no denying it now. Go ahead. Sorry, cut you off. No, that's okay. We do that from time to time. We cut people off. So you know, we cut each other off. Ha, here. Okay, I got a little show gun thing going on. Go ahead, go ahead. Go ahead. So, you know, I don't think my voice, my music has really been metal for many, many years. Truthfully, there are other females out there like Doro and Lizzie Hale that I think carry that carry that torch far better than I do. You know, I have, I'm just a fan of all kinds of music and I'm influenced by different things. And I think that my, you know, I'm always on the quest for me to write the ultimate great song. And to me, the ultimate great song is something that not only has like the greatest guitar parts and the greatest guitar riff ever, but has a really memorable melody and something that people can latch on to lyrically and melodically and sing along with. You know, if people are tapping their foot, singing along to your music, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Unless you're a super hardcore metal fan and you think that, you know, I'm selling out. So yeah, well, it was a long time ago. Long, long time ago. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of great tunes you want to be driving down the highway listening to on this album. And and also the introspective with great lyrics. There's a lot of great lyrics and lines and a lot of the songs I really, really enjoyed it. You know, I'm a sap for slow songs. And I think the last one was pretty good. The 21, right? Because I guess maybe we're all 21 older and we can all sort of relate to that. You know, just thinking back to 21. Yeah, you know, when I I sat down at the piano to write that song and I had this concept, like sometimes it starts that way for me, sometimes not. There's not really a formula, but I did have this concept that I wanted to write a nostalgic song that was sort of like a love song to my fans that have grown up with me. You know, none of us are 21 anymore, but we all still feel 21, right? I feel 80. Yeah, and you feel 80. Your body feels that way, but you're mine, you know. So it's about being young at heart. It's about reflecting on, you know, the trials and tribulations that we've all lived through because at this point in our lives, you know, we some of us have lived through relationship breakups, divorce, the death of our parents, our children growing up or our children still growing up, which is me right now. You know, I've got young teens and yeah. So, you know, I wanted that song to just touch people's heartstrings in that way to make them feel nostalgic and reflective, but also like, you know, survivors, you know. Well, I was way off base because the lyrics, you know, twenty five years ago, about in London nights, I thought you were writing to the guys in Benham, you know. As a music machine, they're mooning you. Well, you've done your research. Yes, that was one of the most disconcerting moments of my career. It was this crazy. It was called the Music Machine this show. I think so. I just guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was in the UK. And what it was was that there were wrote. I think there were three rotating stages, three or four rotating stages. So, you know, you'd go on and you play one song in the audience would all of like a thousand people would run over here and then and then they do another intro and the whole thing would pivot and the audience would run to the next stage. And so we had watched Venom play a tune or two and another band. I can't remember who was always on the bill at that time. I think it was another more pop band. And then, you know, even back then, those guys didn't think I was real metal, right? So they're like, how can we get Liaran? So here I am. I'm, you know, trying to play, you know, my tune we're playing live and these guys are like full on like ripping their shorts down in front of us. All three of them. All three of them. Totally a couple of them. They were totally trying to throw us off our game. OK, what year was that? What year was that? Eighty. Five. I'm guessing what year was it close to? How's that? OK, 85. All right. That's what we're going to go with. You know what? Here's another great story. I just I didn't even know this and I didn't even realize on scorpion savage amusement that I'm not trying to change subjects, but I am. You sang back vocals. I didn't even know that. I was I didn't even remember that. And here I am, the huge scorpions fan. And it was it was at the whole album or was and I just saw that on your live chat, by the way, that that's where it came from that. So if you want to plug that to go right ahead. Yeah, well, in I believe it was 1987 again, and I just talked about this on my Instagram a couple of days ago. But that's where I saw it. The record label I was signed on Virgin out of Germany, but it was A&R to buy a label called 10 records out of was a division of Virgin out of England. And they were trying to get some stuff for a live record. And they had employed Dieter Dirks, a mobile recording studio to come out and record some of our shows on our German tour that year. And the scorpions in the meantime were in the middle of recording the Savage amusement album with Dieter and who was their long time producer. And they had tried to find somebody who could hit this super high harmony on the song Rhythm of Love. And I mean, if you listen closely, people say you can actually really hear my voice in there. So I'm going to listen to it right after you have to do this right after you have to do the reaction, the reaction video to it. Go ahead. And yeah, and I guess, you know, Udo from Accepted Commune and Trident, Don Dawkins, they'd had a few guys come in and they're they just didn't have that register to sing up there clearly. And Dieter went back to the band. He said, hey, I'm recording this girl right now. And she's from Canada. And she's got this really great rock and roll voice. And we should consider bringing her down to the studio to sing on the song. So I went down there. And and it was just the funnest day because those guys had already come out a few times to see me play in Germany at that time. They I guess were pseudo fans. I know Rudy came out at one point in time and we were hanging out backstage and it was right around the time. Do you remember Klaus Mina in the late 80s got vocal nodules in the end of like a dog collar. Right. Yeah. Before black. That's right. And Rudy was just gave me this huge lecture backstage about like, you're not going to be able to continue to sing this way. You've got to really take care of your voice. And he walked me through doing vocal warm ups and, you know, Rudy Shankar here, right? Rudy Shankar. Yeah. Exactly. He's doing vocal warm ups. He was explaining to me what Klaus you've got to do this. What are you doing? Is that what he's saying? I feel bad. I don't want to imitate him. Yeah. He's like, Lee, your voice is fantastic. Great. That's good. That's really good. That's good. Yeah. And I'm like, I'm like, oh, I love this. But don't talk to me about my brother. Go ahead. Yeah. OK. Yeah. So he showed me some. He said like Klaus was doing these vocal warm ups now and stuff. And it really, you know, I have gotten some great advice from rock stars over the years. And that was certainly one of those wonderful times. And and the other joke is they they joked around for for years after that, because I guess when I was in the studio recording the vocal track, I had these high heel boots on and they had marble floors in the studio. And when I was trying to hit that note, I was stomping my foot on the floor over and over again. And they said that I actually chipped the marble underneath where the microphone was. So anyway, they said it was like a rock and roll memento that that cracked marble was from Lear and stomping her boot on the floor. So you know, it's very cool, very cool, very cool. I know you said the story, but I thought people who didn't hear it would be cool. So if I remember if this was recorded after Life Studio, which was formerly known as Mushroom Studio and correctly, if I'm wrong, I think that's where Hart made their first albums. If I if I remember correctly. Yes, yes. It's been since then. But yes, it is still the same studio. So, you know, we got Marta Gabriel from Crystal Bipers. You just released an album called Metal Queens. It covers and I guess it's an homage to you. I mean, I know one of the songs on there is Metal Queen and you had mentioned Lizzie Hale. So, you know, the generation that's coming up now, you know, you spoke about yourself in Doro back in the 80s. Do you think they have an easier time than maybe you guys did back back then? Like you said, I mean, the Hart Wilson sisters are saying, you know, are you really playing your guitar? You know, that's what they live through back in the day. So I was just wondering if you think the next generation is having a little bit of an easier time than what you guys went through. I think definitely so. I mean, does some sexism still exist in the industry? Of course it does. Does it still exist within the genre of hard rock more so? I would say a little bit. Yes. You know, and again, I don't want to be negative here, but sometimes when things get picked up and reposted places, the whole world is social media. It's kind of a place, it's a forum where people can post comments without filters. And so to this day, even like I have read comments about myself, criticisms, people I've been called a milf. I've been called like things that honestly, it's just not acceptable anymore. But it still does tend to happen. That said, I do think it's better. I think that, you know, when it comes to the 80s, you know, I came up even after, you know, obviously the Wilson sisters. So Wilson sisters maybe want to become a girl rocker. Joan Jet and the Runaways wanted me, you know, influenced me to become a girl rocker, Susie Quatro. And we were all fighting. Leather Tescadero, I like to call her. Yes. If anybody remembers that, going back to Happy Days, Leather Tescadero. So we were sorry, I'd like to cut people off. That's my thing. Yes, comic relief. Yeah, you know, so. You know, there were, you know, women were kind of relegated to certain categories in the 80s. It was sort of like you were like a groupie. You were, you know, the girlfriend of the guy in the band. You were the girl, the beautiful model in the video that was making the the male rock stars look more masculine. And so there weren't very many of us who were actually rocking out and picking up guitars and doing our own thing. And there was a lot of there was a lot of questioning, you know, who wrote the songs for them and who's the man behind the curtain that's making it all happen for them. And it used to make me so mad. I used to go like I write my songs. I'm involved in the production of my records. I'm doing I'm the woman behind the curtain. Do you know what I mean? And but I think that, you know, that opened a lot of doors for women to pick up guitars in the 90s and write angry songs and be taken seriously. And so I think that's definitely translated over into the field of hard rock. And I think that there is it's a lot easier for women to be, you know, respected for their art and their craft these days. Although it's not that often that you see female hard rock bands headlining festivals, though I think we're still underrepresented in that case, in that way. So there you go. That got my two cents. No, it's a good answer. It's a great answer. I mean, I, you know, look, we're old enough to see the evolution, right? And when hard was like, wow, they, you know, they play. Oh my God, and and Nancy Wilson's playing guitar like what what she can't play guitar like that. That's that was crazy, like to see her play barracuda. And, you know, just why? What? It's just and, you know, they were they were the first and they're from Vancouver, too. But even though they're really originally from the U.S. When you had bands, bands like Vixen that weren't, you know, they're opening for all these big bands and they they're like your groupies, you're not getting into the venue. You don't know where the opening act, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, things have changed. Things have changed so much. All right, so let's see what else we got here. We got a lot of questions. You know, Sean Kelly's been with you. Well, you said like a dozen years now. So, you know, he's a great guy. We got to interview him recently. You know, what about compare him and your relationship with him? Maybe to John Albini from the early 80s in the 80s. What how did the two compare and working with you? Um. Well, this is that that's no one's ever actually asked me that question. There you go. There you go. That's why you're on the show. I don't like to compare talent or human beings. I will tell you this, that John made a decision in the mid 90s to leave the band. His father was a was a well known hockey player. And his dad always said no when to quit. And I don't know if that stuck with him as sort of a legacy saying or something. But he he wanted to get more involved in production. So he moved to Nashville and he opened up a studio that he still runs and is quite successful at. We've had a lot of conversations actually just recently. And he's a great guy. Great talent. I loved working with him in the 80s and early 90s. You know, back then we didn't have families, right? We were just able to be totally self absorbed. I would go over to John's project studio every single day when we weren't touring and we would work on songs. Sometimes we would fight like brother and sister over things because we were younger and more immature and, you know, had different ideas about things. You know, it's it's a different working relationship with Sean because obviously we're older. Sean's a family man. I have my own family. You know, I think that we've grown up a lot. We treat each other with a different kind of modicum of sensitivity and respect. But I can tell you that this that I I looked for a long time to find a person that could replace John as a permanent member of my band because he was not easy to replace. He was pretty irreplaceable. He was a formidable talent and just a great guy, again, like a brother. And when Sean joined the band, let me explain that how that happened is Sean was writing Metal on Ice. The book. Oh, yes. Oh, that's right. You know, elevates all those wonderful Canadian rock and roll bands from the 80s that have kind of been written out of Canadian rock rock and roll history books, right? Kickaxe. Yeah, you know, so we met that way. We got on like a house on fire as people. And Sean had mentioned he said, hey, you know, if you ever I was had a different guitar player at the time and Vancouver player, lovely guy. But he said, if you ever need somebody to sub for you, if they can't make it and I'm in Toronto, if you ever got a gig here, I'd love to do it. It just turned out a couple months later, my guitarist because he had a bunch of other stuff projects going on couldn't make it. And I called up Sean. I said, hey, if you want to learn my set, the gig is yours. And he was careful what you asked for. He was so excited to do it. And I was, you know, and I just love Sean's excitement his enthusiasm just for life. He's a good guy. He's he's just so positive. And yeah, that's the word. Yeah, we we so we ended up in Toronto. He walks we get into a rehearsal space the night before the show and I'm like, OK, we're going to go for it here. And literally halfway through the first song, Sean has a swagger and a feel and a vibe to his playing that is unlike so many guitar players I've ever played with it. It just became so obvious to us halfway through the first song. We're like, dude, you have to join our band. I mean, it's just not an option at this point. Halfway through the first song. Yeah, and we're like, he's like, OK, I'm you know, and basically that was it. He joined the band that night, you know, and and it wasn't long thereafter that we started to start writing some songs together, started creating together. And I don't know. We we haven't looked back. It's been a really successful partnership. That's very cool. Here's some questions. I could take a couple of questions. People are typing stuff. OK, the first question is this actually live. I go, yes, it's live. It's live. The answer. All right. When are you going to tour the United States? That's art. Are you will you ever tour the US? I would love to have a more solid answer for that question. It's really about demand, right? I unfortunately, one of the detriments that plagued my career back in the 80s. And again, I don't I'm not. It's not a criticism. It was the record contract I signed back in 1983 with Attic Records, but they own my worldwide rights to basically license me in other territories. And for one reason or another, and again, I could go into a lot more detail on this. I, I, in fact, recently had a Facebook conversation with Al Mair, who was the former head of my label about this, and he explained to me in more detail why that never happened. A lot of hands were tied financially and politically. I never ended up with a full on American release, not because my albums weren't good enough or because people weren't interested. It had to do with the other big licensing agreements. Like I was I was on Virgin in the in Europe and various other territories. And so when it came down to dividing up that piece of pie with, I believe it was Atlantic out of New York that wanted to sign me at the time, the lawyers advised them that, you know, by the time we slice it all up, you know, this artist would be getting four percent of the pie and all of the everything would need to get recouped out of her end. And it would just be impossible. And so there's political reasons why that never happened. And as a result, it's only been my last few records that have had real releases in the US. But releases in the US, you know, there you go, virtual now, right? Yeah, that's right. You know, it's it's everywhere. So yeah, you know, if there's interest from a big festival or something, we would love to get to the States to play. And it's definitely on our My Manager's agenda to try to get us down there. OK, well, here's the follow up question to that. Sure. And I'm sure people have talked about this, you get like Lita Ford, you get Doro, and you get yourself in sort of like the three. Alan, what are we going to call it? We're going to call the three Divas, the three. Well, no, that's been done. That's been done. Divas. I don't know about Divas. The three, if I say metal queens, you know, it's, you know, the three something. The three the three ladies of rock, you know, something like that. OK, something like that. I guess it's going to be a little more sizzle than the ladies of rock. I don't know. Women of rock. But what do you think about that idea? Has it ever been discussed? Oh, you mean a triple bill? Like like a triple bill, like Lita Ford. It goes back to what you were saying earlier, there's no females headlining festivals and Queens of Rock, Queens of Rock. That's what Patrick Kelly said. Queens of Rock. I like that. Yeah, again, that is as much as I'd love to see that happen. It's really about a promoter grabbing on to that idea and deciding to put it together and taking the risk, right? I've done things across Canada. I've done shows with head pins in Toronto. I've done things with Sass Jordan. I've done, in fact, here's an interesting story. I did do a show with Lita Ford a couple of years ago. We played a big showroom in Winnipeg together and it was it was probably one of my best shows ever. See, see, throw in Doro and you got yourself a show. Well, I understand. I understand. I understand the business perspective. Don't worry. We're just tossing it out there. Right. So I ended up, Lita, Lita was excited to work with me and I was excited to work with her because it was actually the very first time in all of these years we'd ever shared a stage. And of course, she knew of me and I knew of her because obviously, you know, in the eighties and early nineties, it would, you know, would often be gracing the cover of, you know, these rock magazines together. There was her. There was me, you know. And so she invited me to come on stage and sing a song. So we decided we were going to do Cherry Mom together. So there is a live footage of that out there on YouTube. If you want to go Google it, I thought I'd be real cool and I would, you know, get huge credibility with my young teenage children by showing them me singing the song from Guardians of the Galaxy because that's how they know it, right? They know it, you know, singing or Shrek Shrek, too, I think it was in Shrek also. No, that was a. That was the other runaway song. So I'm thinking I'm going to get huge credit and I'm like, come on, you're going to see this. Like I play like the first 30 seconds and, you know, you know, you realize how ultimately uncool you are when you finally have young teenagers because my son watched like 30 seconds. He's like, oh, mom, oh, you're embarrassing. He said, that's just. I'm like, OK. I give up. You know, I know that. Jimmy, weren't you in a movie from the 70s when you were a kid? That's what somebody asked me. No, I wasn't. Sorry. No. No, I was in that that the narrow pick. OK, well, I caught I caught you here at the Montreal Jazz Festival. I think it was you were promoting this album at the time. Yeah. It seems like forever now and probably only about three or four years ago. And then that was your warm up to trying to go going over to Europe and playing some festivals there. So how did those festivals go over there at that time? Well, they went extremely well. We did a string of shows and one of them was Bangerhead Festival, which was huge festival in front of like 50,000 people. And then we did a few more intimate shows when we were over there as well. And we ended up with a couple of them filmed live and we ended up being able to put together the first live, live, live CD DVD set that I had put out in since live in London years ago and that came out in 2019. So it's called the Iran Power Soul Rock and Roll Live in Germany. And that's also available right now. And it's a complete live concert. It's really cool put together by Frank Reiner, who is well known for his work with Alice Cooper and Duff Leppard and Rob Zombie and a super talented guy. He also did all of the videos for the radio on all of them, which just here's a great question. Richard says, have your kids ever seen the music video for Metal Queen? And if so, how do they react? Their mom running around in animal skins and a sword? I'm sure my kids would. So what's the reaction? Give us the reaction, mom, oh, mom. No, or they're like, oh, mom, that's cool. You know, like what's your rock mom? There's this thing. I mean, my son is seeing Thor and all of those, you know, Ragnarok, all those movies. Right. And so, you know, the era in which that video was made, all of that, that like crazy, you know, hand painted stupid laser beam that comes into the video. Yes. Yes. It's cool. I like it. It's cool. But I mean, there's this thing called CGI now. So that just looks so antiquated. So I remember when he was I don't know four or five, he came home and he said, mom, there's a kid at my school. And, you know, he said that his mom showed him a video of you in and there was like a big like a big robot thingy. And I was trying to figure out what did he was he talk about? He must be talking about metal queen with that, the big gigantic, you know, metal spider thing drum riser. And so I should he, again, he lasted like 30 seconds and it was just nothing compared to, you know, the new superhero films out there. So can't compete. Unfortunately, you know, but they think you're cool, right? Your kids think you're cool. Like you're, you know, a celebrity, right? So they must think there's a cool factor. They're just they're just not saying it. They're keeping it secret. You know, it's it's an interesting dynamic because, you know, when you've grown up in this family with your kids, you're like the lady that makes crop dinner, right? You're like, you know, so I think that they're sort of seeing a little bit now that maybe mom and dad are pretty cool, but, you know, they certainly don't want to admit it. Yeah. Yeah. I noticed that about my kids and Alan's, so they don't want to admit how cool we are. Maybe we're deleting ourselves, but. Yes. Yeah. So, you know, just 21, that's one of the I think both Jimmy and I's favorite song off the album. And I just got a two part question here. What advice would you give Lee Aaron, a 21 year old Lee Aaron, if you were able to speak to her today? And the follow up question, what would you advice would you give Karen Greening 21 at 21 years old? Well, the advice. That's a good question, you know. The advice I would give to my personal and professional self really would be to. Trust your instincts and trust your gut. If something, you know, it's no. Think about having a super long career and the good thing in the the upside in the downside is the upside is a tenacious and I'm here and I'm still at it. The downside is that I did a lot of my growing up in the public eye and it was filmed and it's all out there. And so I went through some really awkward years of stumbling through sexualized marketing and all that stuff in the, you know, between like 17 and 21 years old. And that girl, I would say, don't do anything you don't feel comfortable with and don't feel pressured because I just didn't really understand at that age and stage that I could say no to the powers that be. You know, when I wasn't comfortable with something and I totally understand now that yeah, I can totally set boundaries and do things like that. But it took me a while to learn those things. You know, it's interesting even if you explain that to your daughter or I'm not sure if you have a daughter, but if you explain it to your daughter, she still wouldn't wouldn't register, you know, until they went through that experience themselves, you know, it's it that's just 20 years old, right? It's just well, and I expect them fully to make their own mistakes. But you know, I didn't have a mom that had any clue about the music industry of the rock and roll world. And that's wasn't her fault, right? Well, my daughter does have a mom that does know because I've made those mistakes, you know, so I can say to her, you know, just so you know, those shorts are a little bit short. And when you wear something like that, think of the message that you're sending to the world, right? Because everything we do and everything we say is a reflection of our character and the message that we're sending to the world. And, you know, it takes you years sometimes to learn that, but you do. And this is why people, you know, and I lecture my kids to about social media because, you know, don't think that it like once my son posted, I think something that had, and I don't even want to say the word. It wasn't, it wasn't a bad word, but it was a body part word. And he didn't realize it was a rhyme with Venus. It rhymes with Venus. And I and he was making a joke with his friends. He's 15. I don't think that he realized that he wasn't meant to be malicious or even it was just a joke between his buddies. I said, don't ever post anything like that. Don't ever post anything that a boss that might hire you in the future can go back and look at your Facebook feed or look at your Instagram and go, ooh, yeah, that's right. That kid said that thing when he was 15. I said, you so they do have parents that are very aware of that world. And, you know, so yeah, there you go. You're a good mom. It sounds like you're a good mom. That's good. Alan Bob Ezrin. Bob Ezrin Lee, tell us about working with the famous, you know, Pink Floyd, Al Scooper kiss. Working with Bob Ezrin. What was it like? Well, I was, I was crapping my pants really? And just so everybody knows he's Canadian. Just so I was so intimidated by him initially because he was like this production God, right? Yeah, I was 22 years old and I was recording at Phasel Studios in Toronto. He was next door in like studio. I think we were in studio B. He was in studio A. And he was doing some big project with Motley Crue and Lee to Ford and Ozzy Osbourne and all these big monstrous acts like he was mixing it or something. And but he kept popping his head into our studio. We were recording with Paul Gross, who had recorded Metal Queen with us. And then on for he kept popping his head and was very curious about me and my voice and, you know, who I was and what I was doing is very intrigued and then Paul had an unfortunate racket ball accident and couldn't see at a one eye and he had to take a sabbatical from working on the album. But we had a deadline and we had to get the album done because we had a European tour booked. And Bob went into the label and he said, oh, I want to go I want to finish this production. So that's how we ended up working with him. Bob inserted himself into our project, which was very flattering. And he brought our Dick Wagner, whom he worked with with Alice. Another great yeah, another great great. And Dick was amazing, Dick. We got to work with Dick and he was, you know, he worked with us on some of the arrangements and, you know, brought in correct wrote a couple of the tunes with us and worked them into shape. And so that was a real great experience getting to work with him. You know, it was still the 80s. It was still a bit of a crazy time. I know at one point in time, and I've told the story Bob and Dick were, you know, you know, they were woodshedding together and they walked me and John Albany out of the control room and they were working on a mix for barely holding on, which was the big European single that came out. And John and I are like twiddling our thumbs, drinking coffee in the control, you know, back in the lounge wondering what what the heck are they doing in there? Why won't they let us back in and you know. And anyway, I don't know what to say what exactly went on in that control room, what they brought us back in. Bob had my voice up really loud with a bunch of reverb and just a quick track for the opening of the song. And John and I were like scratching our heads going, what have you guys been doing in here for three hours? Needless to say, that ended up not being the intro of the tune, but it was it was interesting to watch his process. And and he again, Bob was one of the guys that actually personally showed me some vocal warmup exercises on how to get my voice in shape. And I learned a lot from working he was quite the discipline, disciplinarian. Is that what the word is? He was at least from what the kids, the kiss guy say, right? He was very sort of strict and just don't call him a functioning addict. Do not call him that. We found that out this week. Who was talking about that? That was Paul Stanley. Paul Stanley was saying that kiss biography. Yeah, he misspoke. He misspoke. But he misspoke. He misspoke. Yeah, I'm trying not to misspeak. But yes, you know, you know, I got to give you credit 80s and some there was definitely some shenanigans Peruvian flavor to that recording. OK, Alan, show the metal queen. Is this a curse or a blessing? Like, you know, everybody keeps saying metal queen, metal queen. Is this and I know you've answered this question a thousand times. But in your mind, like when you look back, is that a curse or a blessing? Good question, because it doesn't let you go further. But at the same time, it gives you those those great gigs, right? I got the old and I got the new. Yeah, you know. Oh, my. You've got your you got a collection. We're serious. We're serious collectors here. Arsenal of Lear and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's a great question. And actually, there's a fall question. What did it feel like when you were dressed up and they were doing that photo shoot? What was going through your head? But go ahead. Did you think, oh, my God, what am I doing? Or this is so cool. Or like, what were your thoughts? I was kind of going, I didn't pick this outfit and, you know, what outfit did you want to wear? Where did all these guys come from all of a sudden? It was a male art director. And yeah, so I have to say that the whole image was somewhat crafted for me. And it was very much designed to reach 14 year old boys. And obviously it did because here you are. You're making us blush. So what can I say about that? You know, I'd say a blessing and a curse. For those that don't ever want to see me be able to do anything or be labeled as anything but metal, it's a curse. You know, I got angry for a few years. I didn't want to play the song live. Because I was like, you know, I need to be allowed artistically to be able to expand beyond this little pigeonhole box that you guys have put me in. So artistically, I found it very constricting. And that is why I'm like, screw everybody, I'm going to sing jazz and blues for a while. You know, which, by the way, are the roots of hard rock and rock and roll. For those of you that need to do a little bit of a history lesson here, you know, but so yeah, and I did an opera. I did. I continue to do things that artistically where I can step outside the box. I recently, Sean Kelly and I worked together on this. He was, I think, music directing a project for Canadian brass. And he said, you want to sing on this album and it's all brass instruments doing popular songs. He said, do you want to sing on Lightfoot, Neil Young or The Weeknd? I'm like, oh, I'm so down with Blonde in Lights. I'm doing a weekend song with Canadian brass because what could be further from being the metal queen than doing something like that? I just worked with Toronto artist named James B. I don't know if you know him, the look people, very, very different alternative scene. He's working on an album called Secret Agents. I just sang a version of Goldfinger, you know. My own rock and roll version of that. And so I'm very, very excited. But again, like, I don't know what they're going to be really successful. But artistically, I love taking these diversions. I love to step away from that whole metal queen image thing. But you know, maybe it opened all the doors so you can do all this. You know, there's always different ways to look at it. Like metal queen opened those all those doors and all the eyes and all the ears. And as it constricted you, it sort of opened a hold. You know, in the blessing part of it, let me tell you is that people now are now coming full circle because, you know, I think I mentioned a few times in the past that, you know, I stumbled through some awkward marketing years. And when I wrote metal queen, you know, it was released when I was 22 years old. I wrote it when I was 21. You know, it was me pushing back against that stuff. It was maybe inspired by that. I was inspired by that heavy metal video. You know, the woman who takes control and is, you know, pushing back against all of that sexualization. And people now, I think, see the song for what like lyrically, it's a song of it's a feminist statement. It's a song of empowerment. It's about, you know, being able to be the woman in the woman in charge, you know. And so I get asked a lot about that now. And I think that, you know, so that that, I think, is a blessing, the fact that that message is now getting across and the fact that the fact that, you know, the term metal queen has become the queen, the sorry, the moniker that labels all of the great women are rock, you know. And that's true. That's something. So you wrote that song. You know, you started a. I don't know the statement. A movement. Yes, a movement. I like that. The metal queen movement. I like that. And I mean, I'm waiting for the leader for Doro Pesh, Lee Aaron tour. That's next on my my agenda. But going back to even body talk, you know, on this album, too, you got those kaketish lyrics, you know, you're kind of teasing. There's always some great lines. I like pushing, I think, is one of the terms. And, you know, that's where we come to expect from Lee Aaron, you know. And it's nice to see that you're still incorporating that in some of your music today. So. Yeah, well, and there's a nice. I haven't lost my sassy attitude. That doesn't appear so. No. It's it's ingrained, you know, and I think it's called. It's it's just from years of of being a fighter and and not losing your sense of humor, you know. You know. And just from today, then going back to the album now, Radio On, you know, the first song, Vampan, I thought it was like an ace freely solo like, you know, Sean Kelly, I don't know if you if you hear maybe Jimmy Page, Ace freely around there. But, you know, that's a nice hard rock and tune. I really enjoyed this album. It's very versatile. It's a hard rock album. It's not a metal Queen album, but, you know, really showcases your voice really well. The producer, and this is what I was getting to the producer is what's his name from ACDC there, the mixer, right? Lee produced it. Thank you. Yes. Oh, no, you produced it, but he mixed it, right? Mike, Mike Frazier, Mike Frazier. That's the name I was thinking of, Mike Frazier and, you know, who just did the recent ACDC album. It sounds great, the album. It sounds and a lot of people don't know this about you and they should know that you write your own songs, you play guitar and you play piano, right? You sing, we know that it's obvious. And you're a producer and a songwriter. So you just sort of got the whole sort of everything. You're wearing all the hats. Well, it's evolved into that, right? And listen, I have to preface this place. I'm the first person to say I'm a hack on guitar. I know enough to write a song, but I'm no Sean Kelly, let me tell you. That's why I hire and he's the maestro, right? Yeah, sure, sure. But yeah, you know, I it's evolved into that over the years. And I guess it's it's been a gradual evolution into all those roles for me. After just having moments of dissatisfaction, dissatisfaction being dissatisfied in my life, is what I'm trying to say with, you know, maybe the end result on, you know, you know, I you always go back and you reflect on these things, you go, yeah, you know, like some girls do, like I like that album and I like some of the songs, but I didn't like all the songs and I really didn't like the mixes in the end. Even though that album was platinum and it was successful, you know, and I so it's it's really just been an evolution into learning all those crafts over the years and also necessity. You know, when the whole music industry for hard rock fell apart in the nineties with the advent of grunge, I'm sure many of the artists you've interviewed have talked about this. Unfortunately, like I thought, wow, I was so excited. I love grunge music. This is going to be a new direction. I can take my own brand of rock and it's like I made emotional rain. I made the two precious record and I couldn't get arrested. Nobody wanted to hear about it. They're like, no, sorry. The media went, you are part of the old school. This is the new school. Doesn't really matter. Oh, we've heard that we hear that, you know, we hear that from everyone. Oh, yeah. You know, I have many fans tell me that emotional rain is their favorite record. And it was not a big commercial success. I thought I wrote some of my greatest songs at that point in time. But when that happened in 1996, mine basically things fell apart, you know, for the labels they fell apart for the labels that were promoting that kind of music for management teams. My manager took a job working with Koch America as their foreign licensing rep. And all of a sudden I showed up in 96 in my new home in Vancouver and a bunch of banker boxes on my doorstep and I was in $483,000 worth of debt because we had spent so much money making those records and they just they didn't reach the pinnacle of success that my former albums had. I had to go bankrupt. So a lot of these skills were developed out of necessity. It was like I ended up when I rose from the phoenix from the ashes, got myself back on my feet a little bit financially. I bought Pro Tools and I got a recording. We started a small home studio and I started to learn how to record myself because I couldn't afford to go back into a big studio anymore and do this. So really a lot of these skills have developed out of necessity. But I'm so glad I have them now because I I really like the records I'm making and I want the people I'm working with. And I feel like, you know, I know a lot of artists say this, but I feel like I'm doing some of my best work right now. Isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing? Yeah. And I'm so sorry. You and so many others. You and so many others. Who would have thought, right? Late in the game. I'm not saying we're old, but I'm saying later in the game people are artists are making their best music of their lives. It's like a painting. I think Aaron Lee, it's like a painting. You just get better as an artist to, you know, like, I remember Elvis was washed up at 20, you know, at least they said he was washed up. But the reality is art is a craft that you can develop over time and you get better at it. Well, you're two fellow Canucks like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. They're the perfect example of that. Right. I mean, the painting and music and it was well into their late 70s. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Neil Young astounds me, you know, he's amazing. And of course, I love Joni as well. But yeah. Yeah. All right. A couple of few last questions here, your favorite tour, like a big band that you toured with that you said, wow, that was a great tour. My favorite tour. Your favorite tour. Like, I mean, maybe you supported or somebody supported you and you certainly went on. OK, you went with Bon Jovi. But was there anybody else that you said, wow, that was a great tour? I loved it. I mean, I've had that. That's a hard question to answer because I've done some really, really great shows. And I a lot of the times when I toured, it also hasn't just been one particular band that I toured with. I love touring with Kim Mitchell. There's Kim Mitchell. Sure, I bet. Kim Mitchell and I think early 90s maybe and just great guys, great, great artist. And here's an interesting story. Kim Mitchell, Max Webster, that band did a series of high school shows when I was in high school. And so I know word of a lie. The first real rock concert I ever saw. Max Webster played by high school. And I was like, you know, seeing, you know, and here is this guy with like crazy long hair and a crop top and nylons and high heel shoes playing. And I was just like, fly your freak fat flag, baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jersey Rush, Rush in the Olden Days. Rush in Toronto in the olden days at the gasworks and Jersey Rush. I wasn't old enough. No, no, I was like, but I've got to tell you when Fly By Night came on my little transistor radio when I was like 11 or 12 when I was riding to the park, I almost fell off my bike because I was just like, who's this band? Who's this amazing band? I think I'm like, you know, I'm like, I think I'm like one of like two girl Prague fans out there. Triumph? I mean, OK. Rick Emmett produced your first first album. But did you see Triumph in the early days? I did not. But I got to. Oh, really? I didn't. It's OK. It's all right. You're not disappointing us. It's OK. When I was, I think I was. What part of Toronto did you grow up in? I grew up in the Brampton area, which is a suburb of Coulomb. And the first. Like the only rock concerts I saw were like Goddow played an all ages show at Hot Rocks in Brampton, and I went there. Kim Mitchell played on high school. Then I played a I played a few concerts. I played a concert at the band shell locally when I was with my high school band when I was 17, picked up on my first manager and I ended up on the road. The first real big rock show, big rock concert I ever saw. I think I was 20 years old and my boyfriend at the time took me to see Black Sabbath with Ronnie Dio. I made. Oh, very cool. That was the first real big rock show I went and saw. And so I was pretty. I was just sort of doing my mind was a lover boy. Ah, and Brian Adams opened up. I saw Brian Adams play rock and roll heaven. Oh, and I think well, if we're going to do this, mine was a wine nature, the B store with lover boy opening their first. Oh, look at that, Alan. I like that show here today. The Canadian show here today. Montreal Forum. But Brian Adams was this young punk and he was opening up for Lover Boy. So that's cool. That's I must have saw him around the same time at playing at Rock and Roll Heaven, like this far away. It was pretty cool. What about your voice, Lee? Like, like, obviously, Rudy's suggestions pay it off because you still got a fantastic voice. Do the Rudy thing. Do the Rudy thing. Do the Rudy thing. The accent. Do it. Your voice is fantastic. Great. Say something. My brother, you know, there's the him and his brother are like knocking heads. I know the difference would be the difference would be between your voice today and maybe back back then. Well, OK, that's a great question because nobody really asked me that. People say, oh, you still sound great, but, you know. But pause for a sec. I heard your first album today and I go, there is a difference. But go ahead. Because I let her answer the question. No, it's more there's as a voice ages, it gets more rich. And there's like a darker tone to it like a and it's it's good. But go ahead. I don't want to answer the question for you. It's like, you know, you don't go to the gym and look 300 pounds over your head without working up to it. Right. So go ahead. Like muscles that develop obviously over time. The difference, I think, you know, like I can still sing as high as I used to sing. But I I've realized over time that I don't have to be screaming on 10 all the time that I've developed a lot more nuance and subtlety with my voice and the way I use it as my instrument. Right. I I don't want to be screaming on 10 all the time. You know, it's there can be a lot of power in holding back. I think that's what I've learned. Yeah, you know, I notice you sounded like you could tell that was like a young lady singing versus today and more of a mature voice. And again, it's it's it's a more of a rich voice. Anyways, let's let's plug your album once again, unless there's anything else you want to tell everybody. What do you want? You want to plug anything other than your album? Um, well, we have the album dropping on July 23rd. There's some pre-sale links. If you go to my website or if you link in to the bio on Facebook and or my Instagram, there are some by links. Right now, we have a problem with unfortunately, the CDs being sold out at Amazon and we're trying to get Amazon to switch it, but the vinyl is available Amazon.ca. But there's a whole bunch of other retailers that are carrying it right now. So yeah, I'm excited about that. The videos are out on YouTube and you can also link to them through my website or my socials. Vampin was the latest single 21. Come on. And other than that, you know, it looks like shows are going to start to open up. I I've just booked a show in October. I if all things go where what part of the world? Calgary Calgary once. OK, Calgary is good. So I don't know how there I'm sure there's going to be some safety protocols. I'm not quite sure. It's an indoor show at the Chrome showroom. I play their bring your masks. Yes, you know, I always got my mask handy. OK, go ahead. Sorry. So keep your keep your eyes posted for shows, more shows to be announced, you know, and the other little secret thing I'm going to tell you is that our Christmas album that came out independently last year. Well, that's another thing we did during covid because we were bored. We said, let's make a Christmas record. We wrote two new songs in February for it. It's got been picked up again by Metalville. It's coming out this Christmas globally with two new tracks and a new cover. So that's that's cool writing as well. Christmas albums always tend to do well, like those two months there, they just they repeat. And every year people just keep buying them. So it's a good idea. It's always a good idea. And it's not a typical Christmas record. It's not just us rehashing Silent Night in all the Christmas standards. It's there's a couple of standards on there, but it's a bunch of really cool Christmas rock and roll songs that I went and, you know, spent a lost weekend researching. So you got to hear it. There we go. We can forward to it. Alan, you got any last comments? Just, you know, if you to quote from your song, radio on, if you've got to go, baby, go out strong. Here's your chance to go out with a song, whatever you want to plug, whatever you want to just go right ahead. That was pretty much it. You know, we are done. Yeah. All right. Apologize for Jimmy having eight cups of coffee before the interview. You know, I just did my covid shot. It kind of reacts the same way. It gives me this is this hyper. He kills Jim. I did my second covid shot. And yeah, I wasn't feeling too good last night. No. I didn't feel great. I felt fine, except for the sort of arm up to the first one, but the second one, I felt, yeah, almost weird and tingly like a flu was going to come, but then it didn't come. And then I just kind of felt general malaise for a day. So yeah, it goes away. Hey, yeah. Yeah. So it's all good. All right. It's been a pleasure with the ages. Wonder, LeAaron herself. So thank you. Thank you for spending time with us here today on the Middle Moist. Hey, it was a pleasure talking to you guys and hanging out. You guys take care. All right. All right. Thanks very much. I hope you make it to Montreal soon. I hope so. Bye.