 Okay. Okay. And we are alive, live in Montreal. Well, not really, three Montrealers, but not really in Montreal. One in the East, one in the West, and one way in the East in Month and New Brunswick. Yeah. And in our difference. And it's bedtime soon. Pretty soon. Yeah. Alan's tired. Alan's tired. Yeah. So, first time in the show. Yeah. It's a thrill to have Brian Greenway from April Wine fame here with us tonight. So, nice to be here. You know, I think, yes, absolutely. Look at that. St. Lazarus. It's all nice and green. The sun's still out at 7 30 Eastern Standard Time. The good news, Brian, you guys are on tour and the shows are just selling out. I love it. Wow. It's, it's, it's. Yeah, that's what, you know, we, we're all about promoting things, but no need to promote April Wine. They're sold out everywhere. Well, it's, I wanted to get some shows on right about, you know, I know you asked me to do this earlier in the year. And I said, let's, let's get something we can really talk about rather than speculate about. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? I think I wore you down. Please. No. I wore you down. You got on the show for me and Alan, you know, we, when you guys were at your peak and I mean real, your real peak me and Alan were like these youngsters and you know, or, you know, we were following you guys throughout our young years to our teenage years. So it's, it's, it's really a thrill to have the guys, the soundtracks to our lives. Thank you. Thank you very much. I mean, I mean, I like to buy too. I had the pleasure to talk to Brian last summer at the one of the Blues festivals locally. And, you know, it was my first concert ever with April Wine, Nature of the Beast with Loverboy opening. And I was lucky enough to have like row F on the floor like six rows from the stage. My first concert ever. And I, I could never forget that as long as I live. What an event. What a great, what a great night. That's we did two nights there, did we? Yeah, I actually, it's the second night. The first night sold out. So we got the, I got the tickets for the second night. That's how I got the such great ticket. So yeah, it was, that was quite the adventure that doing that, walking out knowing your back the next night. Just as in the place was that they were walking down the center, center aisle on the floor and looking around a while. What an amazing evening. Now everything's gone and it'll happen again tomorrow. Brian, were you originally born in Montreal? You were in Ontario, right? Then what age did you come to Montreal? I should ask you. At the tender age of eight. Oh, yeah. I, my family divorced and my parents were originally from Verdun. Oh, okay. But then they moved to Hawksbury. My dad got a job up there and I was born in Hawksbury. Okay. And then, then we moved back to Coast St. Luke and then Montreal West and then out to Dollard and boy, we moved, you know, a lot. And growing up in Montreal, the scene was a lot different back then, right? Compared to today. Oh yeah, it was friendly, you know, it was, here comes an airplane. Tora, tora, tora. Yeah, that's that fast guy that goes around here heading for St. Louis International Airport. Could have been one of those big mosquitoes you have over there, you know, they just come down like planes. They are, they are legendary. Growing up in the city back then, you know, it was, it's different. Montreal West was a small town. I lived in an apartment building across from the Montreal West Town Hall. My grandfather was the caretaker there. And I went to Montreal West High School, elementary school there. And I wanted to be a disc jockey. So I was following around the CKGM satellite remote that they had pestering them and all the time. And here's this kid again. And Ralph Lockwood, John Hart. Oh, geez. Buddy G. Just the Coca-Cola Club 98 on CKGM doing the top 20 countdown on Friday nights. Nothing was better. And the local heroes in Montreal West were JB and the Playboys with Alan Nichols and Doug West and Billy Hill and Louis Atkins. I remember seeing my friends and I seeing them on, on a, on Doug West's little, it was a Honda 125 CC bike. It's Doug West, it's Doug West. We were just so impressed, impressed by all this. Local legends like yourself. Yeah, it was, I wanted to be like them. In high school? High school? Point Claire, John Rene High School. I spent, I think a decade there. Did you repeat it? It only felt like a decade. There's three years, but it felt like a decade. Oh, it was more than three. I, I was terrible. I, I quit and went back and left again and went back. And finally, in my last year, I joined Mash McCann and my classes went from a whole day down to just the morning and eventually just right in classes to get, get me my diploma, get me the hell out of it. Between you and Jerry Moffitt and, sorry, Jerry Mercer and Jerry Moffitt. I mean, was Mash McCann was like a farm team for April Wine? Yeah, it was. Jerry was there before I, I was. And then when they broke up, Pierre Sannical took myself and Steve Lang and Lauren Nearing from a band called Cheek. And that became Mash McCann, along with Mike Schipp and Pierre and his girlfriend, Catherine. Oh God, what's her last name? Kathy Chakral. Yeah. And then with, then it ended up with just Steve Lang and, and Lauren and myself and now Nichols. It was really neat to now I'm playing with one of the JB and the Playboys guys, right? And it was, it was, I'm sorry. So that was, was Steve Lang, he was, God bless him. He's no longer with us, but he, he was in Cheek, got me in there and then Mash McCann were together and then in April Wine, he joined before I did. So it was three, three bands I played with him. It's interesting what he was an old friend from high school, but it's interesting how the people through your life, how they affect what you do. What was your, in your first audition in April Wine, it was in 1973. Is that correct? It is. Yeah. I remember going to, to meet Miles at a specific time for a meeting in Westmount near Westmount Park, you know, an apartment he had there and a very nice one. I guess I didn't pass the audition, but Gary Moffat did and he got, he's a great guitarist as well. Wow. I'm really happy that Gary got the job because he really made April Wine sound a certain way, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I always found that growing up there was, I would say our year, I mean, Allen, since we're born in 1968, our era was the first glance and on where there was this other, that was more hard rocking, I would say more guitar oriented, more triple guitar attack versus sort of the lighter side of April Wine in the earlier years, not saved in rock, but it was a little on the lighter side, a little more disco influence sometimes in there, a little more of the lighter side of rock. Yeah. The band, so to say, one example of the album Forever For Now, the Charles Garden and a lot of key boards and girls dance and girls singing, background vocals. It was very different from what became Roller and even as far as 21st Century Skit, so in Vancouver. But was that supposed to be Miles first, like one of his first solo albums Forever For Now and they turned into an April Wine album? So I heard it was, yes. Yeah. You know, there's so many people gone through the band over the years. Yeah. It's, I mean, from the Henmans to Jimmy Clench being in it twice. God bless him too. He's no longer with us, as you know, but it's funny that both our bass players are passed away. Everybody else partying survived those years. Put it this way, me and Alan were 54 years old. You've been in the band, I would say, about 46 years. Is that correct? Absolutely. So we were like eight years old when you first joined April Wine. Wow. Make Brian feel good there, Jim. No, my point is, and this ties into everything that we're going to talk about today and the continuation of April Wine. You have been in sort of the, we'll call it the classic era of April Wine. You have been in the band for almost half a century. Right? Wow. And I've got to go to bed now. My point is, you know, like the sort of the naysayers are out there and you know this, right? They're saying, oh yeah, I mean, you can't continue without miles, right? And we're not sort of belittling miles here at any, but there is this beauty of the, you know, Gary Moffat, you, Jerry Mercer, Lang, there is this chemistry that you guys had from when you first joined April Wine. That was what, 77, 78? May of 77. What changed at that point in the sound and sort of the dynamics of these musicians getting together? I'm not sure. I mean, some of the press, if you want to believe your own press says, when I joined the band, I gave it a harder edge, but also the songs that Miles was writing at the time had a harder edge to them. And the three of us on guitars, Miles, Gary, and myself could play completely different styles. So we didn't tread over each other, you know? We, this guy's good at doing this, this guy's good at this. And then together we could have the triple guitar threat, as we called it, three guitars, no waiting. And then we could use it for, say, one guy would play the verses and another guy would come in with the, and double it for the chorus, for somebody doing solos. It gave a lot of dynamics to it. And roller, I mean, that was a global success, right, when that came out? Yeah. We were just about to move to LA because the album wasn't happening. And all of a sudden, I just sagged on Michigan, it started getting some serious airplay and they're a reporting station. And all of a sudden, rollers started getting some serious numbers in the States, courtesy of Mike Diamond in Detroit, the Capitol Records pushing it and pushing it and getting it going. The ball started to roll there. And then once it started, it was hang on for three years. You know, Miles in his autobiography, just between me and you, it's a great, great book, but just a question, you know, we're curious records, he left a bit of a sour taste because they just couldn't break that US market. Did you feel the same way at the time or even now? Well, Aquarius was signed for, it wasn't, it was just Canada. We were signed with Aquarius in Canada, but in the United States was Capitol Records. In Europe, it was EMI, no one in Europe. So they had, we had different teams of people that we didn't know working on behalf of us to get the record going at every place we went to. But Aquarius was just, just Canada. So and Terry Flood, who was the head of Aquarius, was also April Wines manager. No conflict there, you know? No, not at all though. This triple guitar attack. I remember being a young lad at the time and saying, three guitars, was two guitars not enough? I mean, it was, it was like, it was sort of what differentiated you guys, right? And there wasn't a lot of that with the exception of 38 specials later on, I believe. And three guitars was not a commonality in most bands. Did you think it was overkill at the time or not? I didn't think much of it. I thought that it had a neat dynamic. And I was just very happy to be where I was. At that particular point, guitar harmonies were very popular. So if you could do three at once, it was it was kind of like going to 11, you know, one better than 10. Three was one better than two. Let's get a fourth guy. There was more behind the stage. I was watching, you know, I was watching Roller. I think it's I have this bootleg. I'm not sure even, I think it was, remember this live in London in 81. I remember the DVD, right? Yeah, this is a CD, but there's a DVD with it, like a VHS or it was actually a recorded and you guys were in London, you're talking and when this was released or broadcast, I remember this as a kid, right, Alan? I remember when it was broadcast on TV. Me too, me too. And I remember watching Roller and I just, there's nothing like April Wine Live. Like it's one thing to hear the record. It's great. It's nice, beautiful. But when you guys are playing live and you're doing those guitar harmonies, the solo harmonies, it's just wow. It's just it was just as a kid, it was just left that an imprint, you know, we rehearse them quite, quite often and rigorously to get them tight. And that was the part of it. Because any, if you were sloppy, it wouldn't come out the same way, you know, like a sloppy orange section because that's basically what three guitars were. It's like playing orange lines, but simple ones. You know, people think of yourself as guitarist, but Miles has no slouch himself when it comes to the lead guitar work. No, he's very, very talented. Once again, it's different influences growing up in the Maritimes and his influences were a lot of Celtics. Matt Minglewood. Matt Minglewood, yeah. But even the Tommy Hunter stuff, the typical Maritime music that you would get, that was in his soul. And R&B was part of that. There was a lot of R&B bands in the Maritimes. And he loved R&B. And then he was a very staccato player, but he learned his stuff well. He could, he was a natural player. He could play very well. Still, and he still does, you know. Brian, the cover of First Glance with the laser eyes, you know. Was that strictly a Canadian UK thing? And then in the U.S., they go, okay, we'll have none of that. And they changed the cover. Was there any controversy around that? No, I just, I don't remember it. The Capitol wanted pictures of the band. I guess that was the market. People wanted to see what we looked like, rather than two Easter Island guys with lasers pointed at each other. Easter Island guys. You know, then we get the harder, faster. And during the pandemic, you know, I was texting all my friends, give me your top 10 list. Here's my top 10 songs. And one thing that came back when we did the top 10 April Wine songs, it was unanimous. Before the dawn made everybody's top 10 list when it came to April Wine songs. All right. I think that's still a showstopper as far as I'm concerned. We turned it into a showstopper on those tours with the percussion bombs that were set off when we go into the chorus, slow chorus after the solo. We blew a few roofs off of places actually. You don't have to have license for pyro back then. So some people, sometimes it just was a little overdone, but a big boom on day. It's like, even, even sometimes, I jumped, you know. Now you mentioned Jerry Mercer is one of my all time favorite drummers. What was it like playing with him? It was like watching a machine, you know, he just behind those drums, the image that he had in his very powerful boom, boom, boom, boom. His nickname was Mad Dog, like Mad Dog Bash on the rest amongst some other names we all had for everybody. That was Mad Dog. He, he, a very impressive figure and that single stroke wall, you know, with the strobe lights and the, and the drum solo was just, that was his invention and that was a showstopper. That was just amazing. I used to love Wash. I never could get enough of that. I didn't Jerry throw away his sticks and started going with his hands. Just one hand after the other there with the strobe. It just looked like it was, yeah, I forget you never forget it. I forget who started doing that. It had happened. I think that was back in the get to stand back to a days. They actually had a chrome looking cannon that would fire confetti, burning confetti over the front of the audience. And I think it started back then. So it might have been junior doing, doing the lights on that or, or I forget who it was because I wasn't there. But I remember seeing it for the first time and I said, the image was just spectacular. Whose idea was it for a 21st century schizoid man doing that cover, which is probably a better version than the original? If you listen, I think that was Steve Lang. It starts a long time ago and I'll say that because Steve was in a band called, in Montreal called Devotion, after he left Manchester, Canada, Progressive Rock and they did yes in Genesis and they had a Melotron in the band and they sounded incredible. And they were doing, they did that song. So I think Steve said, let's try doing this. And we had to fight the record come. They didn't want it on the record, but we finally got it on and we're still fighting it to play it. So, some Marcus, you know, the promoter will say, please don't play that song. I see people walk out when you say, when you play it. And it's, for a lot of people, it's very difficult to dance to. Just a bit, just a bit, just a bit. We played in 1982, I think it was, midnight summer festivals in Nuremberg, Germany, and Hamburg, and not Frankfurt, Germany. The headlining was nearly young. And then there was Jethro Tell, King Crimson, us, Michael Shanker, and nearly young had his own big stage, you know, the big festival stage. And then it was a middle stack of PA. And then it was another big stage for everybody else. And in Nuremberg, we played at, I think was called Zeppelin's Field. Famous, I guess, where Hitler used to give his big speeches back in World War II. There was about 125,000 people there. And we were on in the daytime. And we were on before King Crimson. And Bill Buford was there and Tony Levin, and Robert Fripp, and Adrian Balu. And we asked them, are you guys doing 21st Century in your show? They said, no, it says, well, we're doing it. And they all came on the stage. And Fripp was on the other side with the monitor board just while we played it. And I'm singing it. And I'm recording it in the studio, in the studio in More Heights. The engineer was Nick Lagona, a God bless him, great guy. And I said, Nick, how do you want me to sing this? He says, I want to hear teeth. Yeah. But Nick had worked in the studio when King Crimson had recorded Schizoid Man. So he sort of knew how the song was put together. He says, well, you guys did it in 13 edits, King Crimson did it in 12 edits for the basic track. And the snare, the guitars, the guitars were like a noise gate to the snare drum. So the guitars would only open up when the snare hit on the record. So it made it very tight. That showcased the sort of the musician side of you guys that really like blew that up. I mean, and that was like the cred, right? That everybody said, no, these guys could not only rock, but these guys can seriously play. Yeah, we were good players, you know, we were playing rock music, we're playing what we're trying to get that brass ring, you know, and, and doing so we got to open for Fauner and Rush and Nazareth and headline the LA Forum and the Montreal Forum and the Roman Forum and everywhere else, you know, I guess it was permanent waves, right? You opened up for Rush? Oh, it might have been. I heard it every night for three months. And you know, you know, Power Play was a great success, too. I saw that tour. It was Harlequin opened for you guys there at the Montreal Forum. And you know, that's, that's something you go out of your way to do to promote the Canadian bands is opening acts. Back then, yes, we would do that. And, or like one time we had Johnny Winter open for us there, that was, that was a bit of a coup. I said, wow, Johnny Winter opened for us. He's an icon. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I didn't meet him. I didn't meet him, at least I remember. I didn't meet him. I don't like to meet people I really like in case I'm disappointed, you know, don't meet your heroes. And then the success, I mean, were you expecting the success on Harder Faster? Because I think that went gold in the US. Now you've cracked the US market in a sense, or you're getting in there, right? Yeah, the second album went on, sell more on based on on the first one, first glance, and the same thing happened with Nature of the Beast. It was that boom, boom, boom. Because that's when this kicked in. I remember when Nature of the Beast came out, then you had Live in London, and then it just went off into the UK right now, you're hitting the markets in the UK as well, right? Yeah, we did, we did London, we did a lot of towns, I guess all the big cities. I remember we were driving around the bus, I remember playing in Newcastle, I think it was City Hall, Jory Land, our lighting director was from X, Pink Floyd was from Newcastle. And I remember going too close to the front of the stage, and some kids in the front grabbed my shoes and untied them, and detuned my guitar. Well, I was trying to play rockstar. The punters got me. I mean, that's still like my favorite album covers to this day, Nature of the Beast. We're far cry from those feet on the first album, right? There we go, there we go. And who was that? Was that you or was that Miles? Who was that? That was a model. Oh, okay. The Beast. Yeah, with a tiger's head, like resting on his shoulder, that we got from a taxidermist, I guess, from Tarzan Lafave. And the picture was taken that way with him posing with the tiger head there. Yeah, yeah. Was Jerry there or was that just a fill-in? That was a fill-in. I mean, I would not have a fill-in. I think that was a photograph superimposed over it. Now you just, you cut and paste, but it might have been a set of drums. I wasn't there for the session. It just came out, well, Bob Lem would do the artwork. That picture was taken after- Who's that young fella? Who's that young fella right there? That was taken after too many Baileys waiting for everybody to think they look good in the picture on the corner of Sherbrooke and Guy Street in a photography studio. Yeah, you look like your brother. You're pretty much ready to go home at that point. We were. Yeah. Okay, it's done. You know what I loved about when I was a kid, and I used to open this up. You had the poster. Where's the poster? Well, no, there's no poster on this one. It's harder, faster. No, there's no poster. But they had, like, when you're looking at the lyrics, right, they also at the top of it, if you remember this or not, Brian, they said, first solo by, I don't know, Gary Moffitt, then Brian, and each song they would pinpoint or they would explain to you or you'd know who does the solo. Then you have Sign of the Gypsy Queen with that sort of famous muted sort of slow solo that you've done, which is sort of iconic to this day. No, thank you. I remember fighting Miles to get that solo. I wanted to do it. I said, I want to do that solo. Okay. And he said, okay, we'll see. And after I was doing it, Mike Stone was the producer at that time. And Miles would come in another studio just to bother us, you know, just to listen, just with plastic grapes hanging out of his pockets. And Mark Hume in his hand was just saying, it doesn't sound that good yet. Well, yeah, so we kicked him out and we did that solo. We worked on it. I'm a spontaneous soloist. I don't plan on what I'm going to do before I go in. I have sort of a starting point and I'll just see what comes out in me. Just the instant spontaneity. Have it just come out of my heart, my hands, you know, and then try to repeat it because you blew one note. Well, I mean, that iconic, you know, like that kind of muted last note that you got, you got it perfectly. I wonder their harmonic little note there at the end on that solo. Yeah, sometimes they just accidentally happened in the studio. That's right. Off of that album. We will call that fairy dust. Off of that album. Sorry, Alex. One of my favorite deep tracks of April Wine on that album is One More Time. I just can't get enough of that song. The way there's the break and then the drums and it goes back into One More Time. It's such a good feel, good song. Have you ever played that live? I spent years. We did it. The album first came out, but not since then. Also, a lot of people don't know that Sign of the Gypsy Queen, which at the time I thought it was an original by April Wine. It was actually a cover, right? Yeah. And a lot of people don't know that because April Wine does such a great job with it. I mean, whose idea was it? Was that Miles? I think it was Miles, right? I think so. April Wine always had some success with covers of other songs that might have been a local hit or a hit in one country, but not another. It had a lot of potential. It could have been a lady with hot chocolate, that side of the moon, Elton John, and... If you see K? If you see K, tell her I love her. Yeah. If you see K? Yeah. There I said, though. You know what? I remember the power play tour, and Miles was like, yeah, we got a little bit of trouble for this song. I was so young at the time. I didn't realize what the letters or what the words spelled out in letters. And with what controversy? It's a great song. They're playing it on Schrohm all over the place. And then years later, they're like, okay, now I got it. Yeah. It was a clever way of the writer getting to say the F word on radio. It was a very clever way. I was like, I was like, what? But then I was going, yeah, this is cool. Wow. That's really cool, right? Yeah. Steve was dead set against it. He says, I, if this becomes a hit, I'm going to be missed because I don't want to be the band that's their popularity is based on the Fox song. Were you like at that point, we're talking about, you know, the nature of the beast is probably the peak of all peaks, right? Globally, or were you like so, was it a pleasant surprise that you see it coming or you didn't see it coming at all? You're blindsided by it? Well, we were always hoping, right? Yeah. And when it started happening, you, wow, because there's so many disappointments in this business where you've promised, yeah, this is the best album, you know, we're going to put so much money in it and then nothing happens. So it was, there's a lot of luck involved. It's kind of like the Pink Floyd song, you know, everybody's got to put it together and become a team. All the different reps in every city. And back then you visited. Have a cigar. Yeah, back then you visited radio stations and you saw the GJ and there was a lot of gifts, I think, exchanged by record people to radio stations or disc jockeys in the day. They came up with a word for it back in the 60s. They called it Peola, but I don't know what it was called in the 70s. It was, I think it was. Yeah, it was. But, you know, you're talking about that in the 80s. For you, you know, you guys are pumping out albums almost every year. At what point do you say, guys, maybe we should take a break and sit back and, you know, I don't know what, there was any chemicals or any bending of the elbows back in the day. But, you know, was there a point for you, you say, listen, maybe we're on the downside here. Maybe we should take a break and then we focus. The record company kept on pressing, okay, we've got to follow up this. We've got to follow it up. So, in between being home, we'd record. And then Nature of the Beast, we actually took a lot of time off to go into the studio. And we went to England to do it at the Manor Studios, just outside Oxford, England, which was owned by what's his face? Virgin? Virgin, yeah, Richard Branson. Yeah, that's what I thought. And he would come up there and go fly fishing in the big pond that he made there and stocked with fish. And Miles and him would actually go fly fishing together on his property. It was three of the longest months I've ever spent because it was like a 14th century castle, Manor home been added and added onto this little tiny town of Chypton-on-Truwell, about eight miles outside Oxford. And the band didn't have any cars. So once we got there, we stayed there. Jerry took a bicycle and every day he would go pedal to a golf course and play golf and then pedal back again. There was a go-kart track on the studio property and I would race around there until I flipped one on top of me and had to go to the hospital. And then that was banned. I guess there was a little pub down the canal, those little canals with long boats, but it would close at nine o'clock at night. And at back home, I was just going out at nine o'clock. So being the age I was and I found it rather boring. Now I probably love it and explore the area more. When you're young and focused on one thing, it's hard to be introduced to something else. How did that compare to recording? Okay, you did List Studio Powerplay, you did Harder Faster, you did First Clance. How did that compare to the North of Montreal, where so many iconic albums, Rush albums, Queens Right Albums, so many iconic albums were recorded there? That is in the woods. I go like Pilgrim there every year, Brian. And I just see nothing now, but I go, I breathe in the air, swat a couple of mosquitoes and I go back home. So how does that compare? Well, it wasn't far from home, right? Yeah. So everything felt normal. You didn't feel like you were in a foreign country. Everything was what you'd expect. You had friends you could go visit. You could go back home if you weren't recording. There was a band house we stayed in there. And that was encouraged, I guess, because we get up every morning and we're spoiled because they had a cook in the band house. It was a very nice house. And we'd start and then seven o'clock at night, we'd say, okay, we're going for dinner. We'd pile in the cars and go to Saint-Severre and have an expensive steak dinner with a lot of bottles of wine, and that was the end of the day for us. And repeat the next day. Okay. You couldn't do that. It was more serious in England. We were there to do a job. And everything was different there. The rooms were cold. They didn't have heat. They gave you a little bucket of coal to put in your fire little coal fireplace to keep warm. Mrs. P would make tea for you in the morning instead of coffee. It was very, very British and very small town. I would appreciate it now. But back then, I said, good God, give me a nice hotel. But limo to go out with afterwards. Now, I'd love it. Now you live it, right? You live it now. Well, yeah, I'm still at home though, right? Yeah. All right. So let's fast forward to April wine today. There's sort of a lot of, and this is the original question at the beginning. Okay. So Miles has decided that he's part of the band, but he's not going to be touring with the band. You want to clarify what's going on there? Absolutely true. He's given us blessing. He's given us blessing. He wanted to get off the road for years. He hates playing and traveling. He's got some health problems, as he would say on stage. He's got diabetes and recently, the founder, he had a type of diabetes, I think it's called brittle, but your numbers are always moving. No matter how you try to treat it with insulin or diet, they're always moving. So you're going up and down and on a roller coaster. When, you know, just imagine the mood swings and the worries about traveling in delayed flights. Do I have food with me stuck in an airplane or a car for hours and hours when you don't feel good or even on stage, you start to go places. We say, okay, make sure he's got orange juice or something. Otherwise, he used to say, I'll start singing trooper songs. I wish he could have done that sometime. So we got off the road. He wanted to retire going back to 2014. He finally found somebody that could do it in Mark Parent or Mark Paton, as they say in here in Montreal. Mark, incidentally, was going to audition back in 2014 for it, but he decided he couldn't because he had young children and he could not leave home to go on the road with us. Now, fast forward it, you know, many years and he's, he can do it. So we, last August, he, Richard Launcier suggested him and we auditioned him and my God, he sounded a lot like Miles singing and guitar wise, he's got the chops and learning. I sat down with him at his house last summer for, you know, the fall for two or three months every, but two days a week, every week for that time. And we'd go over the songs and practice the guitar solos and the lines and I would show him the little lins and outs of the songs where they're not so simple as they sound sometimes. We had the expression, oh, that's the same, but different, isn't it? Yes, it is. Just a little feel that makes the song different. So you can't cut and paste like they can do today. And he had this uncanny ability of sitting down and learning very difficult solos, like from crash and burn and smiles and so on and having them sound just like the record, I would say, oh my God, this is going to be fun. So we rehearsed for eight months and I was left to sort of be the band leader and in Mark learning the songs, we discovered that we had let the arrangements slide a little bit over the years. So we weren't exactly playing the record the way it was. So we decided let's take it back to how the record sounded because that's what people expect to hear when they go to hear a band. I know I do. And so we rehearsed it that way and we became very, very tight and I said let's rehearse so we just know it in our sleep. So when we get on that stage, we won't freak out. And we even had a dress rehearsal at Basement Studios in Montreal for three days where we set up like we were on stage and it's stage volume. Not the moves, we just concentrated on the music. And when we got on stage, all of a sudden this chemistry started happening, running around stage and having fun and everybody smiling and having a great time. Chemistry took over. You know what happens then. It's just that you're having a good time and it showed in the audience we were tight and we're having fun and people are smiling and age. It's not the same band I saw last time. You know what's amazing? I know what you're going to say Alan. I was sort of saying oh man Miles is gone. Like everyone, right? It's the heart and soul. Miles has been there from the beginning. But then I saw some video clips of you guys and you know what? Marc Perron, he's got this enthusiasm when he plays and everything you're saying right now. And I go you know what? This could work. This could work. And the songs just take over. The songs take over and you could see you guys are really well rehearsed. And I could see why the shows are being sold out because there's a hunger, of course, for April wine. But you guys, if you suck, the souls wouldn't be sold out like this. You guys are a spot on. And you know what? I was pretty impressed with those live recordings I've seen. And that was just YouTube, right? And Facebook. Yeah, that was just but lucky that the fellow in the Arcada Theater in St. Charles at Chicago put that on YouTube and people started responding to it. And then through Fast and Canada, Marco came down and saw the band and Bill Hattus saw the band and started posting. And people that were saying no, no, no in the beginning, nobody could defend what it became. Now there's the proofs and the pudding, as you say. I know I cut you off, Alan. Go ahead. The reincarnation, you know, when you guys did the attitude to launch and you had Steve Segal on guitar, I mean, you know, you had to reinvent yourselves. And that was, again, people were looking for you guys were back, you had a new album out and the fans have been with you for decades now. It's nice to see that they're still supporting you. I think that this the playlist, the songbook of April Wine is one that will survive time. And people still want to hear it no matter who's playing it, as long as it still projects that memory to them when they're hearing it and at the show that they wanted to feel and hear, then it's going to work. And that's what we try for. Because it's, you're playing to them. And people always say, you know, it's just my childhood growing up like you both said tonight. Or we, this was my summer, this was it. And it means all the same for me too, except I'm in it, not watching it. And it's a give and take with the audience. And just, if you're having fun with them, they see it and they give back, you know, and in the shows have been that way. I just, I reinvented myself by accident. Mark didn't want to take his expensive guitars in the road anymore, because the horrors are flying these days. So I said, yeah, me neither. So I went back and I bought a cheaper Les Paul, which I was using in April 1 for all those records. And I was playing 10 years with a Stratocaster. And I had some nice strats, but I was always fighting the guitar to get that April wine sound that I had in the studio. And so I went down along in McQuaid and tried out a couple of Les Pauls. And they let me into a little private room with an amplifier. They set up for me Marshall. All of a sudden I had all those sounds back. And I said, what have I been doing with this Stratocaster nice guitars, but it's not the sound I need. And then I went wireless against now I got freedom. So we're all wireless in the stage running around just like having kids and I had a picnic again. So what kind of set list can people expect? No covers. No sign of the Gypsy Queen. Yeah, no trooper. What's going on? Maybe a little, you know, we have the 21 songs we're playing. And I wanted to, we even brought back songs like Hot in the Wheels of Love. Oh, yeah. The Harder, Faster album. Yeah. And one from the Horwitz going crazy, which was a big hit in St. Louis, in St. Louis, Missouri, Missouri. And it was called Shot Down. And we had a request from some of the bookers in the states, buyers, if we're going to play Shot Down, and I decided we're going to learn that song. So we learned it. And it's going over great. So and we're jumping quickly from song to song, you know, there's an energy to go through through the show. And just want to keep it going. Just not stopping because we, our shows had gotten to the point where we play a song, take a drink, we're talking, oh yeah, play a song, tie your shoelaces. Yeah. Have a little nap. What's that on my mic? But not only is it great, and not only is the best, the best April wine songs, but you're also being packaged. I mean, I know there's some shows with Aldo, right, in Western Canada, or there's Aldo Nova, I think it was Lita Ford, was it Lita Ford? Yeah, we play with Lita in Chicago. So there's like some great packages happening too, as you're touring across North America, correct? There is. A lot of the times we buy ourselves. In the States, we're usually a package. The Arcada was sweet. Lita was in Manistee, yeah, the Manistee, Michigan, which is just north of Grand Rapids, which is north of blah, blah, on the lake. It's a nice big casino on the lake, but they took forever to get there. If they don't pay us to play, they pay us to travel. What about, okay, go, Goala. I just want to know who, you know, who are the other members in the band? You mentioned Mark, and who are the other members? Well, on bass for the past, now it's the 12 or 14 years, is Richard Lontier. He's from Prevo, Quebec, just north of Montreal by Saint Severe. He also plays in a tribute band called Premier Ciel, which does all of harmonium songs. And I've been to their shows and they do it well. It's such a treat because the audience really gets into it. Those days of listening to show them when they were doing bilingual broadcasts and harmonium was a big staple back then. I loved it. It's too bad that radio got messed up because bilingualism in this province really was working well. Let the people work it out. Don't let governments get in the way. We could go on for an hour now. No, I won't do that. Call the city of Hampstead. I don't live in this country or I don't live in this province. So I'm not going to get on anything. You know, it is what it is and time changes everything, but the pendulum always swings back and forth. And on drums? Oh yeah, we do have a drummer. His name, he's a great guy. Roy Nickel from Cornwall, Ontario. And Roy is not only a great drummer, he's a fine guitar player, a good singer, a keyboard player. He's an engineer in the studio. He also does, he has a journey tribute that he sings. He's the singer. He puts on a wig and sings. And he's always doing something musical. Him and his brother are very good at it. They're just, they just record stuff just to record it, to have fun doing it. He's been with us, I guess, for 10 years now, 11 years, maybe 12. You know how time goes. So he's singing backing vocals while you're playing. He's doing like the Steve Perry back vocals. Yeah, it's, we, all the harmonies, we really worked on those two. We marked his degree in music. So he really wanted us to work on the harmonies, because you thought that was listening to the old live tapes or shows. So that was your weak point. So we worked on them and now we're really solid in that and we're liking it because we're singing parts that we can sing rather than I'll try this. So no Carl Dixon? No. No, we were going to have another guitar player. This was our plan to have three guitars again. And Gary Borden, who plays with Toronto and a bunch of other bands in Ontario, was chosen. But he lives in Niagara Falls. It was very difficult to get him down here for rehearsing because he was still playing shows. So we decided to expedite things and get it going because we were kind of stalling. Let's just do the four because we're all in the same town. I'm going to drive to rehearsal rather than hotel and fly and arrange. So unfortunately for Gary, it didn't happen for him. You're back to the four piece like they did when he started out at any point. Yeah, that's what I thought. It's sort of gone right around the circle. I'm the last guy there, but now it's back to how it started. It always does. It always goes back to where it started. What about, okay, so you got this new band, you line up more or less. Is there new music in the future that's going to be stamped? April Wine is Miles going to sing on it or is it Mark going to sing on it or together? I don't know. We were working on a track in March just after Miles' last show in Truro. We stayed a few days and went to Halifax and went into the studio and put down drums, bass and guitar for a new song. And I don't know what's happened to it, I guess because we've been busy. And Mark, I think, would be singing on it. Okay, so what's Miles' role? He's just kind of giving the approvals on what you can and he thinks is the right decision or is he managing? He's the godfather. Yeah, he's just sitting there in his chair and just going like this, cracking his knuckles. He's trying to step back at this point and he was guiding us and this and that and handed the reins to me. He says, on our last show, he says, Brian, I'm handing the reins over to you. I said, thank you. But he's still doing, taking care of all the business and approving the show. So he's he's still very much involved in what we're doing, just not how we're doing it, I guess, on stage. He left that to us. I mean, you know, I said it years ago, you know, you listen to guys like Elton John or Billy Joel and Miles is right there with them. These guys know how to write a hit. Miles Goodman is up there with anybody else in Canada or even worldwide. I mean, he's a great hit writer. Yeah, he just got into the songwriter solo thing in Canada. Oh, good, good. I thought and congratulations to him for doing that. But I try writing and I just get stalled, you know, but he can write lyrics and have them make sense and have people like them where I find myself having to explain my lyrics. You know what, growing up with April Wine, you know, not only did you guys wear a professional solid band like no other band, you know, like all the other big, big bands. But we also said, you know, these guys are from Montreal, at least most of them are from Montreal, right? They lived in Montreal. So there was also that sort of the proud to, you know, that they come from the same city that we come from. And now they're on the big stages and they're the big hits. And so there was a, you know, another layer to that sort of world, you know, you know, it's like your favorite hockey team, you know, just winning the Stanley Cup kind of thing, right? It was and it was interesting being in the band at that time with with friends or people I knew because we were doing very well. So there were people that were maybe a little jealous of that and then they'd see you went, you know, April, look and wine, man. And although sometimes April fucking wine would be a guy, I mean, it's not some April fucking wine. I love you. That's when you're in St. Leonard, you know, that's what happens when you're in St. Leonard. It actually happened to me. By the way, I worked at Air Canada and we went up there and then and her boss came up to me, Joey is an April fucking wine. And it was another lady in New Brunswick, just April wine. That's when swearing is fun because it comes from the heart. That's right. That's right. So, you know, I saw you with the serious business at Club Soda, that tour you did, that John McKaylee, I believe was on the great John McKaylee, may he rest in peace as well. You know, what else you have going on? What's what's happening besides the wine and greenways in life? I put together a blues band before COVID and probably on 2015. And I had Gary Moffat in the band for a little while until he he had a problem with his hand. He's got something called Vikings disease where the little finger wouldn't retract all the way, which makes it difficult to play on the guitar, you know, and he found it only bothered him when he would play electric and playing solos. If he just played acoustic and just took it easy, it wouldn't bother him at all. So he said, I'm sorry, but I have to leave. And we have, we're playing this Chicago and British blues great harp player Craig Miller, originally from Chicago, living in Alexandria, Ontario, and Mark Higdon on drums and Lloyd DeLair on bass. And with Gary, the five of us, we were playing just music we loved, you know, and it would sound good for rehearsed hard and just had a lot of fun with it. And then COVID hit and we didn't play a lot of places closed. We played Poincaré last September, I guess. And you closed with could have been a lady. I did. Yeah, we did cover. Well, we would call it classic American and British blues served with a touch of wine. There you go. Here's a question from does Brian remember Susan Daley, my cousin who worked for Donald K. Donald? Absolutely. Yes. I know. So I saw her last time I saw her was at Calistoga when they were open when I played there in my little solo acoustic act. And she was saying sound sucks. I know. Thanks. But it wasn't my it wasn't my sound says by members. So yeah, she was she was a woman of no filters. And I always love to hear what she had to say. Here's a last question. What would you have changed on your musical journey? Maybe that's another hour. But what would you know, like right off top of your head? What would you have changed in your journey with April wine or just your musical journey in general? I would have learned how to read music. I just play by ear. You put music in front of me. I'm a literate. I'm an illiterate musician. I would have learned how to read because it's music is a language that you can put on paper. And I probably would have understood it more. And it would have made maybe more sense understanding that the mechanics and the mathematics of music because it's all mathematics. And it would have led to maybe more studio work and and being more how I'm not more able to diverse diverse and able to believe myself having the confidence because sometimes I would suffer from that, you know, imposter syndrome because I would believe, okay, you're talented. What you do and you can play well and people respond to it. But you can't play music. You couldn't go into the studio and hear some charts and play it. You know, I really admire people that do that. That's what I would have done. But I think 90% of the musicians from your generation, they were the same thing, right? Very few of them could have read music. Exactly. That's how we all started. We just all by ear. I want to be a Beatles. So we just picked up a tennis racket or a baseball bat or whatever. And that turned into a stringed instrument. And we just taught each other by lifting a needle on the on the records and going to see other bands play and watching. I remember going to see Eric Clapton and John Mayo with when that McTaylor was playing with him in the blues breakers at the Miguel Student Union ballroom. And I sat right in the floor in front of them because there was no seats and no stage. And I watched like how he played. And I got my vibrato that night from watching them play and going to see Hendricks at the Paul Sove arena in 1968 or 69. I was You know what, you probably learned more because the YouTube generations don't understand you had a record and you have to bring it back. And you have to bring it back. What was that? What was that? You have to bring the record back or bring, you know, to learn a song. You had to sit there with the record, the vinyl. And you had to like keep bringing it back to what was that little guitar right there? What happened there? What happened there? So that took a lot of patience and that looked a lot of tuning in to the song and understanding it. And like you said, watching somebody actually play it, but not like on YouTube. You could just rewind on YouTube, right? This is happening in real time, right? So it has a place. So and I've used it, the YouTube people that's sure for you how to play a solo or how to play a song. When we were rehearsing, say hello. After not playing it for a while, I couldn't remember my solo. So instead of moving the needle or whatever, I just went to YouTube. There was a guy playing it. So I, oh, that's what I did. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Little does that guy know, right? Little does that guy know. Brian said them alike. Yeah, I did. I said them alike. Here's a question. Actually, I should ask you this. Will there be a back catalog remaster to the albums? We're selling them in merch at shows of a remaster. I don't, I guess the remaster, but the album covers are beautiful. And you're talking about all of them? Oh, I don't know. Yeah. All the big ones are there. Yeah, because I know I sign them every night before a show. They go out to the merch table. Who else are there? Are there 15? 23, I think. 23, geez. Including all the comps. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the compilations and the hits. Okay. Yeah. Okay, so people could get them there. Unfortunately, I'm in a hotel room, but if I was at home, I'd be pulling out all 23 because that's how big of a label I am. Thank you, Al. Well, on that note, everybody, I even have roughly speaking. Roughly speaking. Yeah. Is there anything else you like to add, Brian? Oh, I just like to say I'm so happy to be doing this still, you know, at my age. We're happier on the show. Don't ask me to get up. During COVID, all I did was sit in the basement and practice and practice. And I really honed my, you know, the talent and did a couple acoustic shows for three months on Saturday nights. And I felt that I really got my playing a lot better now. I want to go out and play that every night on stage and having so much fun doing it. And I'm so happy that the audiences and the fans are accepting this new lineup the way it is because it's longevity for the songs because once the band's gone, the songs are gone. And that'll be a shame because people still love to hear them live. Mark Perron says he's texted in, such an honor dreams come true for me guys. So I guess I look at Mark, like me and Alan, like if we joined April wine, you know what I mean? The enthusiasm. You wouldn't want that. Well, you wouldn't want that. But I'm just saying if we could actually play, then that's the enthusiasm we'd have on stage, right? So that's what I'm getting at. Mark already had, it's a taste of success when he was in a band called Eight Seconds. They were from Elmer, Quebec in Ottawa area and they had a hit in the 80s. I think I'll kiss you where it's dangerous or when it's dangerous. And they were on tour with Wang Chung and other bands from the 80s and they had a hit in Canada with us. So he's so happy to be back on the big stages again. He's a terrific guy and he blends in perfectly and he adds a lot to the band. Him and I became friends the first time we met each other. Well, you know what? I know the Montreal show is sold out, but you know what? There's a lot more shows coming up all across the United States and Canada too. I mean, go check April wine out. If you want to bring back the good old memories. That's where they're at. And next year we're cruise. The cruise. The Rock cruise with Oh, yes. Queen's right. Yeah. Yeah, there's a whole bunch of them. I know. Boy, there's a lot. I just saw that poster of the monsters of rock and yeah, you're on it. That's amazing. Yeah, it's great. You'll be our second cruise. They're a lot of fun. Good, good. And on that note, you know what? Congrats again. Lots of sold out shows. We wish they all sold out. I'm sure they will because the songs live on forever and they're such great songs and I'm glad you're out there and still playing them because people want to hear them obviously. They do and I'm happy to be doing it and having just a lot of fun doing it. And if this is how my career ends this way, take me away. I'm happy. All right. And on that note, Brian, good luck. And you know what? We're not going to see you in one show, but I think I'm going to go to the Ottawa show, which is happening in October as you're spinning around to Ottawa. You're coming back there. We are. Yeah. Well, thank you, Jimmy. Thank you, Alan. It was really nice chatting with you. Yeah. It's an honor, Brian.