Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Mister Zero and Diamond Dave from The Kings: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1554

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

In this 1554th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mister Zero and Diamond Dave drop by to talk about The Kings, their big hit This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ to Glide, appearing on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, headlining Heatwave at Mosport Park and their new music on The Longest Story Ever Told. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love Welcome to episode 1554 of Toronto Mike'd, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta! Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. The Advantage Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada.

Learn how to plan, invest and live smarter. RecycleMyElectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making their Toronto mic debut are Mr. Zero and Dave Diamond from the Kings. Dave, Mr. Zero, if that is your real name, welcome to Toronto mic guys. Oh, happy to be here. Nice to be here, yes.

I'm gonna jog Mr. Zero's memory off the top here. Okay. We're going back. Shout out to Canada Kev. He was with me actually. We were in Oakville and I'm there to see my dear friend, Rob Pruce. Yep.

So I'm there. And then in the corner of my eye, true story, in the corner of my eye, I see, no, not Mr. Zero. I see Sandy Horn, okay. Who's been on the show, but she's zoomed in because anything to get sandy on the show I had them like many guys my age. I had a massive crush on sandy horn Okay, I go over to take a selfie with sandy

I take this selfie with sandy horn my crush I get home and I look at the photo I have with my crush sandy horn Guess who's photobombing that photo? Guess who's smiling right between our heads? Who photobombed us? Dave, wanna guess who it was? Oh, I think I have a good idea, Zero. Yeah. Yeah. So we've met before, Mr. Zero.

We met at that concert at the, what, the Moonshine Cafe? What's that place called? Yeah, the Moonshine. Yeah, that's, I live in Oakville, so that's my local hang. And unfortunately, they are closing down at the end of November. They're trying to find a new place. And the chap who ran the place passed away, right?

He did, yeah, last year ago, summer. John Marlatt. Yeah, John Marlatt, a great friend and a really wonderful guy. And I played golf with him a lot and You know, it's funny he would He gave a little speech one time and he said, you know zero is He says he always tells me to turn down the radio in the car when we're going to play golf except when his song comes

And that song we got a you, you know, the cold open. I'm thinking you guys are coming to Toronto, New Toronto, to be specific. Now, how comfortable are you two gents with this ugly label some assholes are using, including me calling you one hit wonders? I have new material, great new material from you. I'm going to play on this program. But if people say, oh, the Kings, I love them, and then they name the one song, and then someone says,

okay, go quickly, name another song. A lot of people struggle. They call you One Hit Wonders. How do you guys feel? Let's hear the real talk. Well, we called ourselves that before anybody else did. And that's why we named our documentary Anatomy of a One hit wonder because,

Hey, look at it. Better to be a one hit wonder than a no hit. Nothing's right. Ask me how many hits I have. Is Mr. Zero. We've had people say too, but those guys have made a career out of one song, which is not true, but it's sort of true because it is a segue. There's two songs.

You know what, Greg, you know, I think about that with the Queen is that we are the champions and we will rock you that are kind of like, you never hear them. Like when I listened to the Q107 or whatever and they play, they're stitched together. So again, maybe before we get into this song that we're talking about, and then we will get to the new stuff, I'm kind of interested in the origin story. And most importantly, I consider you guys an Oakville band. You're an Oakville band, right?

Yeah. We would say so. Three of us went to the same high school and our keyboard player, Sonny, was from Victoria. So I met him out there and then we started working on stuff and I said, I know these two other guys back in Oakville, because we were thinking of what could we do for getting a band together?

I said, I know a great singer and a great drummer. So that's what we did and brought Dave and Max into what we were doing. and then it turned out to be a whole other thing when they got involved. It was just an awesome thing to happen. We all sort of knew each other from the Oakville, the early days of us playing in different bands. We never really played in the same band,

but there were so many venues, so many little after-high school gigs and sock hop type of places, not with any heavy drinks or anything, because everybody was too young. So, okay, so as I collect the origin story here, so Mr. Zero, you're in British Columbia hanging out with Victoria native Sonny Keys. Also not his real name. Okay, there's no way that guy's name is Sonny Keys. Okay, let me see that birth certificate. I feel like a birther here. But Sonny Keys, believe it or not, plays keyboards. Okay, shout out to Rob Pruse again. So you guys are in BC and then you guys come back, well it's your home Mr. Zero, Zero Oakville and what already got

David Diamonds doing stuff and other bands. Where does Max Styles come into play? Well, I mean, every high school was so full of bands, right? Every high school at that time, there was many bands forming and I used to go see these guys playing all over town and saw Dave play and saw Max play in different bands and then they were in the same band for a little while and that didn't work out that great. And then I played in a band with Max and then that kind of folded after a while. And then I left, lived in England for a while. Then I went out to live in Vancouver and looking for somebody to collaborate with

because as a songwriter, I'm personally not capable of doing the whole thing by myself. I have one little niche that I can do. And I was lucky enough to meet Sonny Keys, who's an incredible songwriter himself. And so we started working on songs. And then, like I said, we did some demos and then basically said, you know,

I know these guys from back in Oakville and they would be a good band. I always wanted to have keyboards in the band. That was always my goal ever since. You know, Elton John, I mean, Rob Proust would probably tell you the same thing about the inspiration that we all got from Elton John. You're telling me Rob Proust is an Elton John fan?

I know it's a shock. I had no idea. The thing was Dave Clark V, they had a great keyboard player. Yeah, he was the lead singer too. Days of string bands, it was actually a good rock band with a keyboard. What about the doors, right? I mean.

Oh no, it was great. But Elton was very upfront about his songwriting in the fact that he wrote the music and Bernie wrote the lyrics. So that was kind of an eye opener for somebody who was good at one part of that and maybe not that great at the other. And so, and that way, you know,

you can really focus on what your best ability is. And I think that's what we've done all the way through into the way that the Kings are now. And Dave and I write a lot of, most of the songs now. Yeah. So the original lineup so today for are there any gigs in the schedule when can I see the Kings? Well have you got a any suntan motion because we're playing in Cancun November the 8th. Really? I'm

very interested in this are you kidding me? Cancun in November 8th. Banana hamacana. Are all four of you gonna be in the Cancun in November eight. Banana, ham, a con. Do you have, are all four of you gonna be in the Spoons or any holdouts from the OG lineup? The Spoons? Sorry, you know what, that's cause I'm thinking ahead of what I'm gonna play. You're still thinking of Sandy. Well aren't you?

Sandy's great, we all love Sandy. Yeah, she's a super nice person and so Gord is great as well. Gord Spoon, okay. The original guys, yes. So is Max Stiles gonna be on drums with you guys? super nice person and so Gord is great as well. Gord Spoon, okay, the Kings, my apologies. So the original guys, yes. Yeah, so is Max Stiles gonna be on drums with you guys? No.

He quit the band in 1982. 82, he hasn't been in the band since 1982. We've had about 30 different drummers over the years, but lately, lately meaning since 2007, we have a fantastic drummer, His name is Todd Reynolds and he just fit right in when we needed a... we needed it. We needed it. The thing about Todd and the thing about playing in a band is that you got to know how to hang and you've got to be a good person and an upbeat positive attitude.

Right. Because it's hard enough doing all this stuff. But Todd is a very upbeat, positive person. You know, there's never a negative vibe from him ever. And that's one of the great things about him. Great drummer. But otherwise... He's a great singer too.

I mean, you know, he's a very talented guy. Speaking of drummer. But otherwise. He's a great singer too. I mean, you know, he's a very talented guy. Speaking of great singers, David, you're a great singer. Oh, thank you so much. Your vocals are amazing. And I am going to play new stuff, still sounding great. And Mr. Zero, I mean, you're a legend. So you two, of course, founding members.

And Sonny Keys, he left the band and came back. Is that right? Like, like, so Sonny Keys is on keyboards for you in Cancun? Yes, he is. That's a long story. Yeah. In between. He never officially sort of left the band. He's always been helping hand and working on music, even though it's been,

he's been far away from right when we were. But it was more just life. You know, he got married, had kids and everything. And we just couldn't afford to, he couldn't afford to stay in the band. He had to make a living. And so that's- But we've played with many great keyboard players in between as well.

I think Rob, did we do a thing with Rob for a while? Rob Pruser. I think we, maybe. Maybe, but- So the reason I- Peter, no, go ahead, sorry. No, I'm talking over you, man. I'm the asshat here.

But I gotta say, I called you the spoons because I was looking at the clip I wanted to play. So the kings, not the spoons. I'm well aware of this. But this is why I accidentally called you the spoons because Rob Proust sent in a message and I'm going to play the message. Then we're going to move on from the spoons. But this is from Rob Proust. from the spoons, but this is from Rob Bruce. Hey Toronto Mike, it's Burlington Rob calling. Well, recording, saying hello to you and your special guests today on my birthday. I know you didn't plan it this way, but I just wanted to say hello to Zero and Dave, because well, I've known Mr. Zero for a long time, since like the 1990s, I've known Mr. Zero for a long time. Since like the 1990s, I believe we met at a recording session in Burlington.

And it was with our friend Attila, who's a drummer and ran a studio. And I'm just very happy that you guys are there with Mike today because Mike is a cool guy and you guys are very cool. I was remembering that I saw you play in New York City January 2020 just before the world shut down which is crazy because that's almost five years ago now isn't that weird? But you know like the rest of Canada I've been a huge Kings fan and I saw you guys play at my high school in Burlington and Nelson High School which cracks me up to think about now. I think my friend's band opened as well. And then one of our early spoons gigs, well not too early,

but we opened for you guys in Guelph or London and I always have this memory, zero I'm sure I've mentioned this to you before because the University newspaper, the review, the headline was Fresh Spoons Meet Road Weary Kings. And like they liked us and they thought you guys were okay, but I felt really guilty about that headline. Like I felt like it was weird. It was the first time we had just started getting reviews and stuff and I remember thinking it was so cool to be opening for you guys, which it was.

And I remember your keyword was so cool to be opening for you guys which it was and I remember your keyword player Sonny jump it up and down in a jumpsuit, and he was super cool But I've to this day I think of that headline and it makes me feel guilty because you guys have one of the most timeless fantastic songs to come out of Canada as we all know and as I'm sure you've been talking about, or you've talked about already, or you will talk about, and you should always talk about it, because it's one for the ages, as they would say on the Twilight Zone. And Mr. Zero and I share a common love of Jesus Christ Superstar as well. I know we talk about that all the time.

And anyways, I'm taking up all your time. And I hope you're having a good time. I can't wait to listen to this when I'm celebrating my birthday. Later on I will tune in and check you guys out. Love y'all. Bye. Happy birthday. Happy birthday Rob. You're getting to be a younger man.

You know the reviewer wasn't reviewing the band. He was in love with Sandy. I'm the reviewer. I'm revealing to you guys. I was the reviewer. Let's face it. It wasn't the band. It was Sandy that he was raving about. I remember that gig in Guelph. Yeah, it was at Guelph. That's funny. And today, I know you said it, but I'm going to echo those sentiments. Happy birthday to Rob Prouse. Yeah. Yeah. And I was great seeing him in New York and we all went out and had a couple of drinks after it was a lot of fun. And of course Rob didn't

mention it, but he obviously he was there at the Moonshine cafe there in Oakville the day that I was photobombed by the legend that is Mr. Zero. Oh just call me Zero. Mr. is uh Mr. is my dad. But I read your writer it says uh call me Mr. isn't it in your writer? No. When you're this big they call you Mr. so yeah that's right. Gents uh quick quick question before I get to the song but uh Whistle King, was this the original name of the Kings? It was. Why?

I don't know why we called it that. It wasn't a very good idea because people were calling us Whistle Dog and all kinds of things. Right. But as we played many of the bars in Toronto in the late 70s. No, you've got to say Tirana. Oh yeah. Tirana.

We're into new Tirana here now. But people just started calling us the Kings, which made total sense instead of Whistle King. And that's when we all became the people that we are. And it's amazing. It's amazing, eh? Soon I'm gonna blow your mind with a gentleman I was on the phone with this morning and I was telling him You know Dave and zero are coming in from the Kings and then he told me how he's connected to you guys and the way

He's connected to you and we'll get to him later, but is through Bob Ezrin. So how does Bob Ezrin? Enter your orbit Well, it's a Nimbus 9 studio in on Hazelton Avenue, which no, the studio is no longer there in the village, right? It's long gone. That's where Bob worked a lot and cut his teeth with Jack Richardson doing many, many great albums there. There's a name for you. Yes. The Guess Who?

And so Bob had worked there many times, met many friends there, and of course he skyrocketed off and was doing the wall. Some obscure band he was working with, some English band. And who had a little bit of money was the King Boys to book late night recording sessions when the studio was down and quiet. And so there we were spending every last cent we had, working on our own album, on our little indie album. And who knows what was going to happen. Well, what happened was Bob came back from finishing up the wall in England. He'd been gone a long time. His family was living in Toronto.

He came into Nimbus to visit friends and check out things. And who happened to be in there working was the Kings. The Kings. I knew that one. And we were just happened to be working on the speak goes on, Switch and the Glide and he got wind of it and listened to it. A rough version of it, took it home, played it for his family, played it for the kids.

The kids liked it. He came back and said, let's do something. And that's sort of how it started. Yeah, that's pretty much what happened. And then we worked out a little thing with him to mix the tracks that we had on this beat switching specifically. And so when he was tearing apart the tracks to do the mix, he realized that while the songs we had were good,

we weren't necessarily that good in the studio and with drum parts and things like that. And unfortunately for a drummer, the thing you know once you get into recording more is that the drums are the hardest thing and the most important thing to record when you're making a record. And he told us stories about Nick Mason and, uh,

Pink Floyd and Peter Chris and kiss. And so drummers really get under the spotlight when you're in that microscopic view when you're in the studio and your timing each hit on the snare has to be the same. I mean it's crazy how important it is and so he was and we ran into this at other times as well was you got to get rid of your drummer. And so we didn't like hearing that. And so we were loyal and we came up together from slugging it out in the bars

and rehearsing for three or four years before we had that opportunity. And so we said, well, can you just work with our drummer and make it good enough to play and record. So he said okay, and that's when. That's when we had to just. We had to go rehearse and drill. Drill for, we practiced and drilled these songs.

At one point, Max and I, I'm the bass player, you have to be super tight with the drums when you're playing and Bob, we were at a rehearsal studio and he said, okay you guys, you just keep practicing that song, you just keep going over it and the other guys, they all left and went for lunch and left Max and I there and you know what Bob pointed at, you just, you keep, you know, when I come back here I want to, it was like one of those things. So they walk out and leave and Max and I look at each other, well, we better get this, we better nail this or we're going to be in shit, you know?

And that's when they came, of course, we had it nailed pretty good then. Okay. So to go back a little bit though, did you submit a song to the Q107 Homegrown contest? Well, actually the first Homegrown contest that was ever in Toronto was from Chum FM. It wasn't Q107, and it was the 100th anniversary of recorded music. 1977. OK.

That's the year of Q107's birth, by the way. That's right. So Q hadn't been actually really super established at that time. And it was at the, at the exhibition, uh, they, uh, the Canadian national exhibition in the automotive building upstairs, they had built a temporary studio. And we, that was after we had won or what song did you submit for the, uh, so sorry, just to understand, was it the Q and 07 homegrown or the chum FM one

that you submitted? Yeah, or the Chum FM one that you submitted your? Yeah, it was Chum FM. Chum FM. And so that was the first one in Toronto. They had over 600 entries sent in by cassette. So you can imagine how much fun that would be to listen to. And then I guess they had finalists.

And we were amongst the final 10 or whatever it was. And that's when we got to record at this. At this makeshift studio at the automotive building at the exhibition. And it was like a fishbowl. It was like plexiglass all around. So people were, you know, little kids were pushing their noses up against the hang in line.

And in the actual control room, there was like a velvet rope or whatever you call it that you could stand behind and there'd be producers working, mixing and recording and we'd be in the fishbowl there with people. It was quite an experience. It sounds amazing actually. And that's where Jack was too. That's where Jack, we first met Jack Richardson. And so he was brought on board to sort of help steer the, the us at that particular time in that studio. And again,

once again, he's going, you know, you're a drummer. But you're loyal. I love the fact you're loyal to, uh, you guys came up together, but you know, even the Beatles got rid of Pete Best. That's yeah. And the end that happened. Yeah. But the song was called turn My Face To The Wall, which turned, which actually turned into Don't Let Me Know, which is on the first album. And here it is.

Here it is. Still in the set. We still play it every day. We still play it every day. So this is a re-recorded version, right? This was produced by Bob Ezra. Yeah. Let's hear it for them. Baby, it's through Turn my face to the wall Don't wanna see anymore

Baby, when you're on hold Don't let me know You know I heard that story before I can't listen no more Baby, when you're on hold And you guys won the contest. We won it. Yes. What's the prize?

This is a good one. Like you mentioned, Q107, they started having their homegrown contest and it got bigger and bigger and bigger through the 80s and they were given like 50 grand worth of equipment and a recording contract with one of

the Canadian major labels and all this stuff and we got a free lunch. That's hilarious because I'm gonna now reveal the gentleman I was having a long conversation with this morning is Blair Packham from the Jitters and he was telling me about you guys and his experiences and he told me you guys are the meat in the Jitters Pink Floyd sandwich because he says Bob Ezrin does the wall then he works with you guys and then he works with the jitters

this is how Blair remembers it anyway so that's what a small world that is yeah next episode will be Pink Floyd's deep dive obviously but he's he won his group with red hot fools won the homegrown contest on q107 a few years later. Yeah, well, yes. Blair's a good friend and, you know, he was actually at the Heatwave concert. Yes, Doug McClement. That's right. Yeah, that's a whole other part of the longest story ever told. Yeah. Well, we're gonna get to that because I want to talk about Heatwave, but you're right, he was there recording you for the Heatwave. Yeah. Well, Doug was and Blair was... Blair was like an assistant engineer guy there or something with Doug there.

He was there and Doug is a good friend too. What a career he has. I mean, he's just everywhere. He was just at the Olympics. He's done all the Olympics in the last 20 years. You know, I'm a big Tragically Hip fan and I've heard many a recording by Doug McClellan. The guy captures live music like nobody else I've had him in this basement to kind of you know, grill him on all this But yeah, he's he can record a live band like nobody else. Oh, he's great and and he did a great job always a good friend and I was just reached out to him last week about something else that he's he's a photographer as well and so I went to a lot of concerts when I was young and he went to a lot of concerts when he

was young and we were at some of the same concerts and we both geeky nerds I guess in the camera club kind of guys and so he was taking pictures of some of these shows and I got, somehow some guy in Greece reached out to me about a Jimi Hendrix photo that I took when I saw Jimi Hendrix. And he was saying, could you send me a copy of it? And so I sent him a copy of copy of this thing online of the I took a few photos I mean that's the thing you know you want a diversion we

can just this is Toronto Mike go on a tangent yeah cuz I haven't even got to the song yet I digress but you know like you see now when somebody goes to a concert and takes pictures with their digital camera they can take 500 pictures okay and adjust the shutter speed to whatever maxed out kind of, you know, you can get low light photos and all this stuff. You know, we would go with a roll of 20 or 36 tri-X, black and white film because it was 400 ASA faster than the color film, which was like 160 at the time and and even

sometimes you shoot slide film because it was faster than the negative film but anyway Doug took a lot of pictures and I had a couple of decent shots of Jimmy Hendrix but he was shooting in color and he's got some better ones than I did and so I reached out to him last week and I said, there's this guy in Greece that is an amateur but he collects Jimi Hendrix pictures. Would you mind sending him a couple of yours? And so he did and this guy in Greece was super stoked about it.

Amazing, yeah, Doug's a good guy, Blair's a good guy, you guys are good guys. We're all good guys. Can I get to the song already? I feel like... What about Sandy though? Sandy, are you there? Zoom in from Oakville here.

The mic's married now, isn't it? Yes, it is. Is Sandy available? She's not available, right? No, she's going to be. It's never too late. Just keep telling yourselves that. Never too late.

All right, you know what? We got to get to the... There's a Simpsons line. When are they going to get to the fireworks factory? So let's get to this. Now, I'm going to play this. I'm going to play this. I'm going to play this.

I'm going to play this. I'm going to play this. I'm going to play this. I'm going to play this. I'm going to play this. Alright, you know what? We got to get to the there's a Simpsons line. When are they gonna get to the fireworks factory? So let's get to this now. I'm gonna play this You're welcome to talk over it and I'll bring it down because I mean people can always find this song and people probably have It on their playlist already, but I'm so any I think of that as like pop-up video Okay, so say what you wish during it, but let's get this going here And then I have some questions from listeners about this song. Well that's a great riff was developed by David Diamond at a strip joint in Grimsby on Ontario. The Hunt Club. And he was just, he's just tuning his guitar and he started playing that lick

and Sonny went what is that and Dave said I don't know I'm just tuning my guitar it's not like the origin story Randy Backman tells a similar story of American Woman he's noodling and then he comes on and he starts singing and that's how this song the same part the bass the bass part in the Queen song. Another one bites the dust. It's sort of that sort of thing too. It's a gift. Speaking of a gift, you said gift,

so let me do this now, even though the song's playing and we're gonna talk about it, but you have beer in front of you and I just want you to know if you're thirsty now for a fresh can of craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery, at least a couple of these are cold. I'm trying to open the case here. How do you do it?

Oh, there you go. Well, I might as well have a drink right now while this beat goes on. All right, so crack and open a fresh can of, that's a Canuck Pale Ale. Canuck Pale Ale? So you crack that open, the rest of you guys can bring home. Well we're Canucks and we're pale. That's right. That's why I see a problem. You and I both.

So let me get to the questions and then I uncovered a rare version to discuss but Johnny D wants to know the obvious. I need to know right now. Johnny. Why yeah Johnny wants to know why are there really two songs like Like, this song is two songs. The beat goes on and switch into glide. How did they get merged? Like, what's the story there? Well, let's see. Well, say hi to Johnny.

We love Honeymoon Suite and we did a bunch of shows with them last year. We've known these guys forever and they're an awesome band. And Rob Bruce was in the band for a bit. He was. And Peter Nunn's in that band. And Peter played with us and it's very very tied together in this. Well the song started off with this part, this beat goes on. We didn't know how to end it. Basically, on and on and on and on. What are we gonna do here? And then I came up with this line that, da da da da da da da da da da da da,

walking around my house in the summertime, early summer in Oakville. And Zero, so I said, see I got this lick here, and he said, well I got this idea about switching the glide. And I said, well I thought to myself, I played it on acoustic, da da da da da da da da dum, switch into glide. It just fit like a glove. And all we had to do was try to link the two together and the synth glide came into, I think Sonny came into that idea.

Sonny had a Minimoog synthesizer. Yeah, and then we just, let's glide, make a glide happen and then that's how that got linked together and then that's we could end the this beat goes on. Because otherwise it just ends like this you just keep going. Here we go. Yeah, there's the lick. There's the glide. In that line, if I may, I say that line all the time, nothing matters but the weekend. Who came up with that line? Oh, that's Mr. Zero. That's his brain.

That's why he's here, man. That line came relatively easy and I knew it was good. The melody was strong and the lyrics fit perfect and it was a nice statement. But the line after that gave me headaches for a long time. Because you go, well this is, nothing to do with the juicy point of view, that's really good. But then you go, what can follow that as good as that you know and then I just came up with this like a kettle in the kitchen I feel the steam begin to brew it's just as

good it's just as good as the first one well this song is iconic right like I mean you hear it everywhere and you go we joked off the top one hit wonders I mean so many bands would give their you know left arm for a Frickin hit like this that people decades later are listening to okay. Here's my headphones, and I'm smiling You did this man you did this It's a gift. They tell you from our dads When you perform live you play it twice We have done.

I have somebody who was at a show who I think was Bob Wylat, he said, yeah, you played it twice. I'm like, that's the move, right? That's the power move. We usually, when we play it in clubs, we play it at the end of the first set, then we do it as an encore at the end of the night. People really want it. Actually, we got paid to

play it a third time, I think, when please. I think that was the second time. Would you come to a TMLX event and just play it like six times in a row for me? What's it worth to you? Do you want a large lasagna from Palma Pasta? I got one of my freezer for you. You can each get one here. So I got you. Look, I've already come on.

By the way, I heard you. I heard Dave, you called him Z. I'm a little disappointed. Why not Zed? Oh, because we played in the States a lot. Because you cracked the billboards at home 100. Just to make sure the listenership knows, most of whom are Toronto, sorry, Canada based at least.

This song's not just a hit in Canada, this is a hit in the USA. Yes, and other places other than the USA which is a wonderful thing. And I do have on good authority, my crack research tells me that the particularly big in Chicago, which is a pretty good base to have outside of this country. Yeah. It was really well received at the biggest radio stations there. We got to top five and then we got added to WLS, which this is gigantic AM radio station.

That's a, one of those things they call a clear channel, which means they don't drop the wattage at night so that they could stay with the same 50,000 Watts or whatever it was. Cause at night an AM signal goes further, cover more, more area. And it would be over, you know, two thirds of the U S people would hear it. And, uh, and so when we got added, we were actually at the, uh, electoral office, the record company in New York city.

When they heard that WLS added and they're going, this is, so they broke out the Stoli vodka and everything. We're having a party, right? Any excuse for a party, but then they had really know what it was all about. Really? At that time, we didn't know WLS, but we actually found a chart recently that we got to like number

eight or so on that. Oh, in January 81, on WLS and right next door to John Lennon's feels like, just like starting over, I think. And there's blondie, I think blondies on there and who was it? Police. There was a, you know, the top 10 was an amazing, It's pretty impressive. No, a hundred percent. And it's a great, great song.

And would you refer to it now as a song or is it, we still going with that's two songs because I can't separate the two. It's like, they're like, you know. It's a segue. It is really. Conjoined twins. It is like that, yes. Judy Gambita wrote in when she heard you were coming on

to say that you were one of the few groups with a song. She says, maybe the only one that features my name. She says, she was very excited as a Judy. Well, we've, you know, the thing about when I was writing the lyrics to that song, there was, I remembered the, this old song from the sixties called the name game. Yeah.

And a banner, Bobana, banana, man, a banana. See five, Ophana. And so I I I just remember thinking you know there hasn't been a name song in a while and it wasn't it was another 30 years before it was at Mambo number five with it came out with a little bit of Monica yeah exactly and so that was another guy was Monica that guy was probably thinking the same thing. There hasn't been a name song in a while, but anyway, I just thought that would, that was cool. However, um, there was no real Judy and there was no real Trudy or dog.

There was a Sandy. It didn't rhyme. It was the same, Sandy. It didn't rhyme. Speaking of rhyme, so whose idea was it to make Trana rhyme like it does in this great song? I mean, that was all part of the process. It was lyrics. That's great.

I always got a kick out of hearing Toronto's name in the song. And the reason the hip is on my mind is because I just watched the four series documentary on Prime. So I just watched it this weekend. So they're on my mind. But they have that line in Bob Cajun that night in Toronto.

And it's always fun to hear your home city name checked. Like, for sure. Especially when your song's a hit in the USA, which was not the case for Bob Cajun. No. And I think that's one of their best songs, for sure. It's just a wonderful thing. And such a tragedy with those guys. I know. And I think that's one of their best songs for sure. It's just a wonderful thing

and such a tragedy with those guys. I know, I feel like I just relived it on the weekend. It's like, I was talking to Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home. He came over yesterday and we were talking about it. And just the theme of death permeates that documentary because you know how it ends. You know how the story ends.

So you're kind of watching going through and you're like, I know how this ends you know how the story ends so you're kind of watching going through and you're like I know how this ends and it ain't a happy ending no it's it's the teenage head documentary was on the other night as well on TV oh teenage head drumsticks yeah and we played with them over the years and as I'm sure you know Honeymoon Suite did as well you know and all the Canadian bands we all played with each other at different over the years, as I'm sure Honeymoon Suite did as well, and all the Canadian bands, we all played with each other at different gigs along the way. Yeah, we all, it's a small, actually, it's like a family.

It's a small family of Canadian musicians. Everybody, they all know each other. We've all worked together at one place or another or one spot. And now the attitudes amongst all the bands are so much more friendly, I think, than it was. Kind of a competition there for a long time. But then like there's the survivors, there's some of survivors and there is a lot of that I've got.

I feel like, do you guys have any relationship at all with a gentleman named Ed Souza? Only because I had him over recently and he's been putting on shows with Gord Spoon and Honeymoon Suite and these guys Benjamin buttons of the Canadian I feel like he gets younger. Well, this is zero king. I'm Dave King And Honeymoon Suite guys, they all have slang names for all the different bands Peter was telling us what do they call you guys I forget I think but some of them are pretty rude and I think that's the whole idea but wait on you the kings the king the thing about the Kings which I'm sure whoever

so when you decided to name yourselves the Kings, I'm sure it was a great idea at the time, but you didn't have a crystal ball to tell you one day it'll be very difficult for people to Google you. Like the name Kings is, you know what I mean? You didn't, who saw the, oh yeah, you know, hey, maybe we should give ourselves a more unique name. One day people are going to go to this web browser and they're gonna search for bands and it's gonna be tough to find the kings.

The kings are here.com. Kings are here.com. The kings are here on Facebook. The kings are here, this kings are here. But you know, all you have to do is Google switching. That's true. Switching to Glide and you're way to go. What does that mean, switching to Glide?

Oh, it's, Zero came up again with this, the family thing. Wow, a Z? Zed, you mean? A Zed. I'm rebranding him. The Zed came up again with this the family Zed you mean? I'm rebranding is that came up with this. Yes It was just a That's what everybody did actually been but is he had it. Well The idea kind of came from when we were kids we would Go on a family vacation. I'm the youngest of three kids, my sister, mother, older than me.

We go on these camping trips or whatever and one time we were in the, I think Allegheny State Park in New York State and it's kind of hilly and my dad for fun, when he got to the top of a hill, would put the car in neutral. Coast down. And go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go a really dumb idea. I thought what would be like if a pilot did that up in the sky?

Like just turn off the engines and I mean of course it's a really bad idea but come a glider then yeah yeah and drop like a stone. Switching the glide. So that was kind of the idea behind that and it's a it's as the lyrics say it's a it's a positive thing. Energy can be directed I'm turning it up and turning it down you know and so it's just it's a statement thing. Energy can be directed and turning it up and turning it down, you know. And so it's just a statement about trying to have a positive idea towards the world in general. But those lyrics, Switching to Glide,

was pretty much the same as it went through the process. We had to rewrite, when we started working with Bob Ezrin, which is indicative of the way that he works, he'll listen to your song until he doesn't like it, until it's not working and he goes, okay, stop. He goes, stop, stop. Okay, there's something wrong here. Yeah.

There's a work here. This is where it goes wrong. And so. So he did that in the, this beat goes on part of the segway. Then he goes, go fix it. And it's like, okay, well thanks. At one one point he did. Who produced the demo of that song? Yes we did. That's right yeah when Bob heard it then he was going to remix it as he said this is awful we got to redo the whole thing. Do you want to hear a little bit of the demo? Yeah sure.

So everyone who knows that song from the radio that I just played can hear this and you can hear differences But let me load this up here That's it. There's the lick There's the kick the kick and the lick That's different and I came up with that the Oregon part is like 96 tears or a runaway del Sean it's out Santa's it's not you the same keyboard line, it's just on a different instrument. Yeah. Slower too.

Drums. This is a drum. You can see a lot of the bones are still there. Absolutely. A lot of that. Here's where we change the chord progression. This is where it's different. Bob didn't like the way it went this way. The lyrics are different. So he said to me, fix this. And he didn't say what to do. He said, it doesn't go right here in this part. But he was right. He was right. You improved it. So I took an acoustic guitar and went and sat in the front of the studio in the lobby and just worked on it. What does he mean?

You know, what is he... Oh! I tried a few different things and it was very easy fix. I came back and said, what about this? And he goes, that's it. Okay, since we mentioned Honeymoon Suite earlier, the fun story, because I just had the guys here, and the original version was cold winter nights. Oh. And I played the demo and then they,

can you make it a summer song or whatever? Hot summer nights. And it completely improved the song. Oh yeah. It's fun to go back and hear like the original demo and then the song you've heard a million times and the lyrics here got changed that's a good drum fill though you gotta give them credit that's a good drum fill And do your one thing right As my sight is red I'm all alone

Together we're all alone Together we're all alone Together we're all alone Together we're all alone And then I rewrote the entire song pretty much. And the message of it as well. But the whole switch and the glide part of the Segway, Bob didn't touch it. It was all there. It was all what he wanted, what we wanted. And he really did produce the front half of this.

This beat goes on. He really did his work. That's what they pay, that's what you pay him for. Well exactly, like that's his job man. He's like, yeah you did a great job. Like that's just like my job man. You know, come on Bobby. Yeah, one job to do and just do it right. Let me hear the segue again. This beat goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and This is Bob's mix though. Yeah, Bob's mix. I was gonna ask you to do this.

But all our music. Okay, so I was wondering if this existed, like was this formed before Ezrin touched it like this? This is Bob's mix. Yeah, this is the mix. But we had the glide, we it like this. Yeah just the mix but we had the glide we had this is we had all this. Just needed a little uh little little lipstick maybe but it was there man the song was there. So what changes for you though I want to know what it's like to hear your suddenly you're hearing

your song on the radio and all that like what changes for the kings when this song breaks on the radio? Well, we had, I mean, the thing was that Bob believed in us and was able to go to LA and like a Cinderella story, as they say, and get us a international major label recording contract. And the money to re-record the album and the money to go in and rehearse for a month or whatever it was with making it all tight to his standards. And with our drummer, which is, you know, again, the loyalty thing, but, you know, it was worth it. Yeah, and you gotta remember this is pre-digitization. This is all on two-inch tape. Right, 1980. And, uh, oh yeah.

And so there was cutting and splicing of these little pieces. We were watching, you know, you, you watched how fast those tapes would run. How long did they last? A couple of minutes or? Well, they're 30 inches per second. And so a two inch tape would last 15 minutes. Okay. So you don't, $300. 300 bucks a piece. We winch tape would last 15 minutes. Okay, so you don't need $300

300 bucks a piece so you'd see Bob would be cutting and splicing pieces six inches long of this tape some places sometimes and other ones that were three feet long and he'd be splicing and changing because you can't just go edit edit click click in this next you had to actually do it by the it turned Turned that the the reels back and forth. You find a spot and then cut, you know, and then you hope you cut it in the right spot. Does this song still make cash money for you, gentlemen? Yeah. Can I see your financial statement?

Did you bring your financial statement? All right. Piece of advice for you gentlemen, since you've got a little cash to flash there, thanks to having a hit, which is why it's wonderful to have a hit, right? You tell all those many, many musicians who have no hits and most don't have any hits, you're like, oh, it's good to have a hit. Okay. But if you listen to a podcast called the Advantage Investor podcast from Raymond James

Canada, you'll learn best practices and Investor Podcast from Raymond James Canada. You'll learn best practices and good investment advice from people who know. So I highly recommend to all my dear friends, all FOTMs to subscribe and listen to the Advantage Investor Podcast from Raymond James Canada. Okay. You got your marching orders.

A lot of people, as you know, are selling their publishing catalogs. I mean, Springsteen did it, Bob Dylan did it. A lot of people are doing it. And I don't know if we necessarily agree with that. We talked about it, but you know, we. Selling ours, but. But you know, this is good beer.

Okay, let's talk for a moment. I was gonna ask you, I was gonna ask you the moment. I was gonna ask you I was gonna ask you The dime I was gonna ask you about your name first of all, so obviously you guys got these cool handles here I feel like I'm with the Ramones or whatever but That's exactly what happened was that around the time we were playing in the bars and The Ramones were out and then a little band called you two came along The edge with all these funny names and we thought, I mean, but it goes back much further than that.

I mean, Judy Garland's name is Francis Gumm. John Wayne, John Wayne was Marion, I believe, John Wayne. Marion Morrison is his real name. Frank Sinatra's real name is? Francis. Oh yeah, he's Francis Albert. That's right. Sinatra, but you know, Engelbert Humperding,

not his real name. That's okay, you're blowing my mind right now, but David Diamond, was there already the known entity, David Lee Roth in the universe at this point? Was it? I feel like 79 or something for David Lee Roth. So I was ahead of the, You were ahead of him?

Just by a tad, I don't know. I have a lawyer who you could get some cash out of him maybe. He's Diamond Dave, I'm Dave Diamond. You're Dave Diamond, I know. I just wanted to, do people wanna call you Diamond Dave? I've heard that before, but most people don't. Does your rider ask that the brown M&Ms be removed from the bowl? Can I see?

Our rider was just lots of beer. We like Smarties. Down in the States, I know you know this, but in the States our Rockets are their Smarties. They don't have our Smarties. They have M&Ms. They don't have our Smarties. Very good. And you know they don't have, we call it grade 12 or grade 11. It's 11th grade to them.

They don't know what they're doing down there. Okay. So we got to figure it out here, but they do have, well, they had a great show called American bandstand, Dick Clark's American bandstand. Please tell me about your experience. That's big fricking deal for a band out of Oakville. You're on Dick Clark's American bandstand. What do you remember about that?

Well, I was... That was scary. The album was, the single was doing well at that point. That was the fall, late fall of 1980. And so it was really doing well. And our manager, Randy Phillips. And that's another, I mean, the album, our new album's called The Longest Story Ever Told because there's just so many aspects to this whole thing.

And everything, you know everything has an explanation. And we've been going around, we've been around since water. But the song was climbing the chart and then one day, Dave and I actually lived in Bob Ezrin's old apartment up in Mount Pleasant in St. Clair. And one day there was a knock at the door

and there was this guy there and he says, you know, I've, you know, do you guys have any idea what you're doing in the States? I'm a manager and I came up, I came up here to see you guys because I want to manage you guys. And it turned out his name was Randy Phillips and he went on to manage Rod Stewart and Prince and huge artists. Michael Jackson. Never heard of him. He's actually the guy that kind of did Michael Jackson in. But anyway. That's the real talk right there. He said, I can help you guys and I can help you make money. And I know what I'm doing in the US, I know people. And he's very, just the kind of guy you want,

a very aggressive, doesn't take no for an answer. And he used to put on concerts at Stanford University where he went and was very young and eager and so we knew at the time going to the States that our Canadian team was out of their league basically. And unfortunately, you know, it wasn't again, a loyalty thing. It was like a business decision that we had to make to move the needle up because you know there are a bunch of sharks down there and the record company you got

to know how to deal with them and all this other kind of thing and he was very good at that and so when the record company originally released Switchin' the Glide on its own without This Beat Goes On and then it didn't do much and then we were serving to them, the promo department, you know, you gotta release the segue and then some people in the promo department believed that as well because you know, that's the magic is both songs together. 100%.

And so then they did that and that's when the phones started to ring at the radio stations. And our friend Bob Stroud in Chicago, he was at one of these stations and he said he was in the cart room. I don't know if anybody knows what a cart room is. It's when they used to play songs on the radio, it was on like an eight-track, remember those?

Cassette. And they would have every song on a cart. They recorded in their own radio station from the album and put it on a cart so you can just jam it in there and play it. And stack them up and just put them in there. Instead of having to drop a needle on an album or something like that, they could just put this

eight-track type cassette in there. Anyway, Bob, who's a super famous DJ legendary guy in Chicago and a good friend. He said I put on that thing and we we actually had lunch with him a few years ago, and I've stayed in touch with him a lot, but I Loved his line. He says I got hit ears and I knew instantly that that was a hit. And it turned out to be true. He's just that riff started and this dumb, Hey Judy stuff and everything else. And then it grabbed people's ears. Right. And so, you know,

it was 2024 you're in my basement right now and it's grabbing my ears as we speak. So, uh, but do you remember, do you have any mem sorry, go ahead. I mean, I can pass that. Yeah. Well, we're gonna get to American Bandstand before I get to American Bandstand because, uh, I'm going to surprise you with a little clip here, but I wondered, do you have any recollection of the first time you heard your music on the radio in the wild? Like, do you have any memory of like what it's like? I just, I always imagine what is it like when, I don't know, you're driving on Yonge Street and somebody's driving the strip, the convertible, the roof is down and they're blasting that song.

It's always a thrill. Um, for now. Yeah. Even now. And now the first time I remember I was with a girlfriend in with Sega beach or bomb beach. One of those summer, early summer or mid summerummer and walking along the beach is back then you can park your cars right on the sand. I see these photos. Yeah you know that kind of stuff everybody the tailgate parties only like with the you know like at the back the doors open of cars and vans and everybody with their big boombox boom boxes and I remember walking with her and all of a sudden from somebody's car you know there was this beat goes on

switching the glide and I just remember looking at her and go there it is. Isn't that amazing? It's really amazing. How proud do you feel when you hear that like you're hearing that you're like all right that's my voice. That's it yes. It was an awesome feeling. We just looked at each other and gave her a big kiss. I said, here we go, honey. Well. That was a long time ago. That girl's long, long gone.

But I remember. I remember being. It wasn't Sandy Horn, was it? Oh no, it wasn't Sandy. I remember being at the Swiss Chalet at Yonge and St. Clair, which was a notorious place. I remember having dinner in there once and the cockroach was walking across the table.

Seeing which is right. But we used to live near there and I remember going to get takeout from the Swiss Chalet at Young and St. Clair. It was at the back door up the steps. And I mean, you could slide on the floor there. It was so greasy. And one of the kitchen guys walked by on the way

to get some more chickens or something I guess, and he was singing Partyitis, which really sort of freaked me out because you know it's the last song I think on the album. Oh where's my, anyway, wherever it is. But it wasn't a single single so to speak to this extent their second single was don't let me know but But he obviously had the album and I just remember going wow that is deep and he didn't know who I was

Okay, it wasn't he wasn't playing performing for you Organic that was very organic and it's a great glimpse into the world at large and to think that you're part of it is It's a great feeling for sure Amazing so just to let the listenership know if you want to hear how the King sound now. I'm gonna play I'm gonna play Nowhere to go but gone. Okay, and we're gonna talk about it because it sounds amazing, but I did pull a clip. I'm wondering How you got on is just you had a hit so it was easy to get you on Dick Clark's American bandstand like what do you remember about that? And then I'm gonna let you guys relax for a couple of minutes

Cuz I'm gonna I thought it was fascinating when I was watching I was watching you guys talking to dick clerk back in I guess It was 1980 and it's kind of interesting to hear you guys talk and then now that we've been hearing you talk now for an hour So I'm actually gonna play a couple of minutes from that appearance. But what do you remember? No, you don't have to cringe you guys come off pretty good actually considering your young guys from Oakville, Ontario except one guy from Victoria Which is discussed and what do you how'd you get on it? Well again through we had opened up for Jeff Beck in Wow a couple of gates and

Done a few other bigger things and you did Bob Seeger you opened up for Eric Clapton the Beach Boys These are massive American and British bands. Well, we were playing we're on tour in the States and then It came through Randy our manager and the record company, they had the pole. And we went so but they were, they were only gonna play the switch and the glide part of the song which is what they did it and there is like you lip sync to it, the same, the kids are the same kids, they shoot like five shows in one day and so the audience, all the young kids, they bring five changes of clothes.

That's what they do in Jeffrey. Or whatever, yeah, that type of thing. So they shoot it all at once. So it's pretty wacky, because it's like a, the doors are open both coming and going for the bands. And like we saw Cool Room, the gang, we're talking to them and stuff. But it was pretty neat the way that-

Nick Lowe and Rockpile were on the same show As we were we were wow and it was dick Clark Zero and I were getting our makeup on in in the makeup room. It's all big glass in beautiful makeup room zero and I are sitting there looking at the you know, you have getting our getting powdered up and stuff for the and In the mirror as you can see in coming in behind us was Dick Clark with his makeup girl come and sat beside me to my right and zeros on the left and we're all looking at each other in the mirrors.

Yeah. And he just started asking us a few questions about the band and how we're doing and where we came from and how was it being in the States and playing. Quick question before I play the clip. When he says where you come from, you don't say Oakville, right? Like you don't-

I think we say Toronto. Yeah, cause I've always found that interesting. When you're speaking to somebody like a Dick Clark, an American guy, you're suddenly you're from Toronto, right? When you're talking to like Toronto Mike, now you're from Oakville. Cause I can tell you, I know Oakville, but Dick Clark doesn't know Oakville.

He wouldn't know Oakville though. Well, if you're traveling anywhere, you don't say it. But anyway, so when we go out to do the show, in between our two songs, he comes up to do the interview and he asked the same questions as he did in the makeup room. So it just shows how professional he was. He did a pre-interview and knew what to ask right off the bat and he was so he was a great he was such a nice fella and while the you know anyway go ahead and if you play it and they have another side you may have they've never released on YouTube us playing on American Band

Stand but they a couple years ago they did put out the little interview part. Which is where I grabbed it from. So let's hear it now. This is exclusive audio. But it's pretty, I think you come off well. But we'll talk on the other side. Couple of minutes here. Woo hoo hoo!

Woo hoo hoo! Oh, it gets your blood moving. Woo hoo hoo! This is David Diamond. David, do the honors, please. Introduce me to your friends and cohorts. This is Zero. On guitar.

How do you do, sir? And the man behind you. Max Stiles on the drums. Max, nice to see you, sir. And over here on keyboard. That's Mr. Sonny Keys. Sonny, welcome. Are you all from Toronto?

We are all from Toronto, except for myself. I'm from the West Coast also, Victoria, BC. See, now, if you were from Toronto, you wouldn't be out of breath doing those split jumps over there. You'd be in better shape. You know, we were talking about the difficulty of crossing the border with music. We share so much in common. Why is it so tough for us to get up there and you to get down here? Well, there's a lot of regulations up in Canada as far as the performing rights. It has to be 30% CRTC.

Yeah, it was just starting then. It would help you, no? Also for us to come down here, our money's worth a lot less, you know? Trades back and forth, I might add. Sometimes I go up there with a lot more. So it costs a lot more money to come down here and tour. So you have to start off with, you know,

initially more money than you would need, say, here. It's great to be here in the States, though. We love it. We're delighted to have you here. Now, after playing bars and saloons and clubs and all that stuff, one day you're in making your own... spending your own money. That's right.

Good fortune strikes on the person of whom? Bob Ezrin, who walked in one day and listened to what we were doing and said, I'd like to mix your album, boys, that you did yourselves. Now, there may be a few people in the world who don't know that This guy is famous and very wealthy screw those guys dick come on. He had just finished No, he had just finished another project. How do you not? That's right the wall by Pink Floyd He just finished that one up. He wanders in and he finds four young Canadian lads spending their money crazily there As well he's from Toronto

Well, you know the thing that would bother me if I had worked that hard spending my own dough and here comes this big guy and he says I want to re-record the whole thing. We did the whole thing over again but it was worth it because he found things you know spots in the album that were a little bit weak not up to his expertise. Yeah. So we redid it all he just made us work more as a rock and roll unit. I thought you came off intelligence. You mean to tell me Zero there wasn't a flash came across your. Did you tell him he was nervous? I thought you came off intelligent. You need to tell me, Zero, there wasn't a flash. I came across your mind you would pick him up bodily. Just because we're talking like this.

We thought we'd gaff our table to the wall, but we didn't do it. I still talk like that. He's a great guy too. Really easy to work with. Tell you what I would like to do. Jan, can give me a shot of those people over there because I want to cover the beginning of this song.

It's tough to get into it, and I promised you I would do that ladies and gentlemen one more time please if you will okay but I thought you guys came up pretty well and what a what great exposure for you guys American man was awesome and the other yeah there's lots of other clips of other bands doing that interview part. Oh yeah. I'm sure that Johnny and the, there's not many Canadian bands that did it.

Honeywood Suite did it, I think, a couple times. And the guest who, The Lover Boy did it? The Lover Boy did it. You know who never did it? Sandy Horn and the Spoon. No, they never really got out of Canada. Take the Lake 10 band.

But anyway, yeah. But all the bands, the first time, they all look like deer in the headlights, as they say. It is, it's like that. There's Dick Clark, and he's right in front of you and asking you, and he's like, whoa, asking you questions, right? And boy, oh boy.

But if you watch our video that we made for This Beat Goes On, Switching to Glide, which just passed 6,100,000 plays on YouTube. There's clips in the Switching to Glide part from American Bandstand, and we got the permission from Dick Clark Productions. And they were very accessible and easy to work with regarding getting that footage.

And, you know, and then we kind of had the idea. Well, when Dick at the beginning of the show, he says, please, these guys have worked so hard and something, something about us. And then he holds up our album and says, please greet the Kings. I thought, you know, that that would be good to get that too. And so we approached again to Clark productions and specifically It went to him. He had to give permission to use that clip and so

He did it did nice and he's not a dick at all He's not a dick at all. No, and you know, you can use that one. Think about who's more famous than him in the 20th century. For music, that's for sure. Perpetual teenager. You know, and it was amazingly affordable too. Because you go, this is going to cost 10 grand or more. Right.

You know, but it was, it wasn't, it was amazing. It was only 10. Amazing. Now I'm itching to play nowhere to go, but gone. Great. Can't wait to, and I want to talk about the new album. Good. But there's one more question before we get to the modern, last question

before we get to the modern dates from Andy cat. He writes, what was it like to follow Elvis Costello at Heatwave? I was there and people were headed to the exit. No offense to the Kings, but the long day felt like it was over. The promoters made them, he felt like it was, they'd set you up to be exit music. He didn't think it was fair. I wasn't there. I shut out, we talked about the the recording of heat wave. You guys I have listened. You guys sounded fantastic. But what can you share with me about heat wave and that experience and in playing after Elvis Costello? Well, he went Elvis went on

and on and on. You went into our. See what you did there. I see what you're doing this guy. But we were ready to play a good half an hour and he just kept going and going and I just remember that and we were all going, what the fuck is he doing here? Right. And so we ended up being playing late and it was a John Brower, the promoter that put on that show who's done so much for music in Canada and put on some of these most iconic festivals. He brought John Lennon and I saw that documentary. Yeah. It's amazing. And, you know, and he did Strawberry Fields up at Mo'sport in 1970.

He did the Toronto the other one in 1969 at the varsity stadium as well and anyway he put these some of the people came to us that morning in the hotel and said you know we've got a film crew here and we've got a mobile recording truck Comfort Sound with Doug McClellan and we want to film and record the whole thing. And we went great. Yeah. 16 millimeter film, not video. It was his actual film. Right. Yeah. And then, um, as it turned out the pretenders were on the gig and Elvis Costello and talking

heads and the B 52s. And so, um, and teenage had opened the day. Um, as it turned out, we and teenage head were the only ones who gave permission. These other idiots didn't do it. They said, look at it. We'll put it all in a vault. We'll work out the legal stuff later. Just let us film it. And it could be, you know, quote, a new wave, you know, new wave Woodstock. You know, and it would have been, it would have been awesome. Because all those bands were at the peak, the pretenders, they were all still alive,

they all hadn't died from drug overdoses yet. Right. And Talking Heads was the first time with the big band that they had that they went on with and You know, I was cause Ella was great. The 52s were great, you know, and it was just this really outstanding thing and The Kings were great and we were great. They were fantastic. And so I feel like I was there Well, you've seen the movie we made of it. Yeah leaping around anyway, there's a we we managed to find the the film that got lost for a time and I remember I tracked down this production company that did a lot of TV commercials and stuff and Laurent films and I finally got hold of them and asked them about the heatwave film and

The guy said, you know, we were in the warehouse last week, and we were clearing the place out, and we had dumpsters outside, and we were throwing away all this film, and all the canisters and everything, and we were on the shelf, and we went, pointed at your guy's little film canisters, and said, let's keep that. Keep that, just in case.

It was a week before that it could have gone in the dumpster and he said look it we're never gonna use it so we'll just give it to you so that was great and that turned out to be all the teenage head footage as well it was all the footage that was shot that day and we own it and then we've we've looked up and found Doug McClellan and he was kind enough to give us the audio from the whole thing as well. From the board, yeah. You gotta remember, it was like a silent movie

and you had to sync the sound to the silent movie. Right, and so we managed to do that and then had an early version of it and then just two or three years ago, maybe four years ago, um, went over the whole thing and had it restored. And, um, and we were lucky enough to at the time that was when a teenage head and Doug Aerosmith were making their documentary and, uh,

Doug's a good guy, good filmmaker. And he approached me about, um, you know, can you, would you guys let us use the teenage head footage in the teenage head documentary? And we said, sure. And that's a big part. If you watch their movie, they talk about Heatwave a lot in that.

And the footage of Frank. I saw it on TVO. Yeah, it was on, the show was on the other night. I watched it too. a lot in that and 100% and the footage of Frank. I saw it on TVO. Yeah, it was on, the show was on the other night. Yeah, I watched it too. And then it's just so important for them and how great they were at the time. But mind you, see, we got our audio from Doug McClemmitt

and you know, which was awesome. You know, it was an eight track tape with seven tracks of audio and one timecode. And then, but their audio for Teenage Head disappeared. And so the audio that you hear in that movie, it's, it's kind of overdubbed. Somebody found a tape of it. But they had redone Frank's voice or something on it. That's what you spot, you notice it doesn't, if you look, it doesn't sync up. Interesting. Amazing. Now, quick, quick, quick. But it's still great.

No, it's still great. And, and Gord, Gord was a great guitar player. Yeah, we miss. Tell me, cause what a tragedy that was. When I heard that news, I'm like, this can't be real. Like the way, the way he died, the fact he passed away. He's a Hamilton institution. Talk about Gordon. Well, yeah, I mean, that was when you watch the teenage head documentary.

You know, you realize that the Heatwave show was just when they were peaking, They had some showcase dates set up in New York that were gonna play in the States. The spotlight, the ever-roaming spotlight was focusing on Teenage Head. And they would've cut it. They were the Canadian Ramones. I mean, they were a great band and they had good songs.

And so that was their shot. And then just a month later in September, I think, even though in the movie they show the winter scene and what didn't happen in the winter They had a car wreck and brought gourd basically broke his back so they were out of commission for a long time and then You know late moves away. It's probably keeps going and what a funny business. Eh? Yeah, and so I mean is everything it is And so that's what happened there. And then years later, they made this documentary,

and then the spotlight was coming around again to focus on them. And then Gord got murdered by his son. Right. And then, but speaking of Gord, I mean, as a guitar player, and speaking of Gord, I mean, as a guitar player, and my buddy Tim Welsh who plays with Carol Pope, we're both guitar nerds, you know. And we have both agreed that nobody had a better guitar tone

than Gord Lewis from Teenage Head. He had a 56th Junior through 100 Watt Marshall. And that was it. You know, as good as it, I mean that yeah, there's nothing better. There's people, the sound is as good but he had an iconic awesome guitar sound and he was a nice guy. I mean I remember talking to him at the St. Hollywood in Hamilton one night and I said you know we got a song like our songs called I know so which is like let's let's shake yeah those chord patterns I said we got a song that's a lot like that and he says every band you

know you hear let's shake in this tragically hip doc series that just dropped on Prime. So I heard this weekend. Quick listen, I actually want to shout out one last sponsor. Then I want to play brand new The Kings. This is actually a Kings TV commercial. Hi, this is David Diamond of The Kings. Our latest project is an awesome new DVD called Anatomy of a One Hit Wonder. You can find it, how to book The Kings and lots of other really cool stuff on our website,

thekingsarehere.com. So I want to tell the listenership, thekingsarehere.com. That's where you go. That's your one stop shopping for all things The Kings. Well, The Kings Are Here is the name of our first album. It's our website. It's our Facebook page. It's our Facebook page and it's our YouTube channel where we have tons of

videos and fun stuff to see. And so we love it when people comment, we try to answer every one of them. And so please check it out. Now I see a David Diamond has cracked open a premium lager from Gravix Brewery. This is great beer. You act surprised. I'm telling you, do you think I'm going to serve up a crappy beer? This is the only beer I drink to be quite honest. You know we're going to have an open bar here today too. Geez. You weren't properly... I'm a gin and juice guy usually, but this is pretty good stuff. Yeah, you and Snoop Dogg sipping on gin and juice here. He does, that's right.

I forgot about that. Yeah, laid back. Okay, his mind's on his money, his money's on his mind. I'm playing new material from the Kings right now, but first I'm gonna tell you about RecycleMyElectronics.ca because if you guys have a drawer, a room, a closet full of old tech, old electronics that don't work. We all do, don't we?

Don't throw it in the garbage. Those chemicals end up in our landfill. It's bad for the environment. It's bad for everybody. But if you go to recycle my electronics dot C.A. and you put in your postal code, it'll say, hey, Diamond Dave, Dave Diamond, David Diamond, ZZ, zero, Mr. Zero, all of you can go to this location,

drop it off and we'll recycle it properly so the chemicals don't end up in our landfill. So there's a piece of advice for you. You guys ready to rock with some new stuff? Yeah. How about that big box of cables that I got that- They take that, they will recycle the cables too. 100%.

I know we all hold onto cables. Like this is a thing we all do, but tech moves very quickly and very, very, before you know it what those cables are obsolete They're so many obsolete. Yeah, but you're like I might need it one day. You won't need it one day those cables You've had for 25 years. It's time to go to recycle my electronics dot see hey, there's nowhere to go but gone gone. Then I'll stop in Vancouver, turns out towards LA 1200 miles of surfers, waiting far away

There is no trip like a road trip We got road tips Nowhere to go, nowhere to go Nowhere to go but gone Not missing nowhere to go Nowhere to go, nowhere to go but gone And I'll meet a lot of people And drink a lot of booze Firstly, guys, it sounds amazing. Sounds great in the can. This is from the longest story ever told. That's right.

People can go to your website. They've heard the ad for the website now. They know they got to go there. They can pick up the longest story ever told. That's right. People can go to your website, they've heard the ad for the website now, they know they gotta go there, they can pick up the longest story ever told. We have it on vinyl. What? And CD, is this, are you recording this or what? Here's a copy just for you Mr. Mike. The brand new LP. Mr. Zero, Mr. Mike, I'm loving it, the longest story ever told. Whose dog is this? That's another story. That's another part of the story. The dog is not in any peril It was just sticking its head through the cat door to get food. Well you and the other side Okay, the dog in the

Photography, it's a farm dog named Sadie and we played at this farm gig in 2015, I think. Yeah, and Zero took the picture. The dog happened to be laying there like it is on the cover with its head through the cat door, which is what it usually did. And then, but we didn't, and then we were working on the album. So we had working on this album design with this woman, I'll tell you, but no point in it because she backed out of it. Yeah, no, don't worry about her. And then so I approached my friend Peter Greco in Oakville and we worked on the album cover

together and... I mean Z and I were saying what can we use as an album cover picture because you could be anything. Well, can I thank you guys for not doing what I'm seeing now often in the wild and I don't like it. It's the AI pictures. Okay, this is a real photo, in the wild and I don't like it. It's the AI pictures. Okay. This is a real photo, right? Oh, I took it. Yeah. Yeah. This is a real dog. You took a photo. I'm so, so authentic. There's so much AI photography out there and it drives me nuts. The world is going fake. The dog will be in space or something. Playing

a guitar or whatever. Real shit. You know, know, the, so when I started working on the design with Peter Greco, my friend, who's a great, talented, he just works with us on our videos and stuff, and as our other buddy, Neil McNaughton. But I showed him the picture, I said, you know, I want, see, everything has to be something, right? It has to be something on the cover. You gotta have picture, I said, you know, I won't see everything has to be something, right? And it has to be something on the cover. You got to have something. And so you got a better idea than the dog sticking its head through the frigging cat door?

No. And so let's use that because it has to be something. And so I showed it to Peter and he says, well, you I hope you took the picture from the other side of the dog with their little face through the door. And I said, no, no, no. So I, the next, that day I phoned up our buddy, Doug, um, Bill Bia, who owns the doggy. He's still in near down here, Caledonia in Ontario. He still has got this beautiful house,

this beautiful farm down there. And I said, Doug, is Sadie still alive? Because it was seven years later or something. He says, yeah, she's doing fine. I said, I'm coming down tomorrow. Oh my goodness. So the picture on the back with the head showing the face is seven years after the cover.

That's funny. Isn't that something? That's something here. Now I can't help but notice the producer's last name is Richardson. Yeah, that's true. If you look at the mixers, there's seven different intense songs. Oh, mixed by Garth Richardson. Sorry. We produced it. We did it with our recording engineer Chris Snow in a very little studio. Various studios and then his small... But if you look to see there's seven different people mixing songs, one of which is Bob Ezrin. I see that circle of friends. He only does songs you do that are two songs glued together.

That was kind of the vibe. That's a prerequisite for Bob Ezrin to mix your stuff. He did the first mix and so all the rest of the album sort of had to sound as good as Bob Ezrin's mix. And so Garth Richardson, who mixed Nowhere to Go but Gone, is Jack Richardson's son. That's where I was going with that, yeah. And so he's worked with Rage Against the Machine and all kinds of other bands. And even Chris Snow, hearing that name, you know, Bare Naked Ladies. He's worked with East so really well, yes. So wait, thank you you know, Bare Naked Ladies. He used to work with these. Arkells.

He's doing really well, yes. So wait, thank you, first of all, thank you. I love to put these on. You're very welcome, yeah, have a listen to them. Move over, Junk House. I'm putting them on. Oh yeah, seven in front, yeah, it's like seven Junk House's face, that old dog there.

There's another guy all over this hip, yeah, I think that's right, another guy all over this hip documentary, Tom Wilson, the unofficial mayor of Hamilton, all over the hip documentary, Tom Wilson, the unofficial mayor of Hamilton all over the hip documentary. But that song sounds great. So you mentioned Cancun. If I didn't want to leave the country, will I see the Kings anytime soon? Well, you brought up our friend Ed Sousa earlier. Yeah, okay.

And you didn't see that, by the way, that was an organic mention of Ed Suser. Oh, that was a plan. He's a tireless promoter and lover of Canadian music. Yes. And he- But only if it's from the 80s. Well, yeah. He told me that.

Oh, is that right? In fact, Barney Galeades he hates because I guess of the cusp, but anything from the 90s he has no interest in. Well. Oh, really? But anyway, he's certainly. Moving on.

Don't want to see him with that. That's between you and Ed. But he's, I don't know, he owns or manages this bowling alley, classic bowl. Classic bowl. In Mississauga, Ontario. Manages. When I first heard that there was rock bands

being played in the bowling alley, I'm going, huh? Well, it seems to be working. But once a year, he puts on a big concert for charity in his bowling alley, which is a huge place. And it's a three-day event, I think, every spring. Ronald McDonald House. Yeah, and he's raised a lot of money. They fit like a thousand people in there,

watching these great bands of, of Honeymoon Suite we've done, I think every year. And, um, we did it a couple of times and doing it again with the box. The box did it and, uh, Harlequin and Lear and maybe I'm trying to think of who I've seen. She might've, I saw a saga there last time. And that's too bad about Mike Sadler too. Hopefully he's going to recover from his operation. Um, bless him.

Well, we'll be playing there. Yes, we are going to be playing there. We're playing the smaller room off the bowling alley because they have the big in the bowling alley concert. Every played, but we're playing this smaller called the Heineken stage and we're playing there. November 28th. Heineken is good too. November? Not as good playing this smaller. He was called the Heineken stage and we're playing there November 28th. Heineken's good too. November 28th.

Not as good as this beer. This beer here is really good. Heineken, you know, take it back to Amsterdam, okay? We've got Great Lakes here. This is delicious right here. It's awesome. You better tell Ed to do something about it. Let's get this on.

Ed doesn't drink, you know this. Ed won't drink any alcohol. So I don't know what he did with his Great Lakes beer, I gave him, but he didn't consume any himself, but that's his loss. You better leave it for me then at the dressing room. We'll take up the slack for him. Okay.

Well look at me and Todd. So I had mid year on the show and I got to see him at the Elma combo and that was for Ed's birthday. Like this guy threw himself like a 60th birthday party and had a mid year in chalk circle play. Yeah. No, he's incredible. Yeah, I was there.

And he's expanding, he's doing shows in Burlington now too, I think, at the Perform AR Center and he does the Elmo and he does, you know, he's a great, he's an opera serial. He loves CFNY, he told me that, I got the whole origin story when he came over, but he was a huge CFNY fan and and a lot of these ban not all because safe. Why wasn't playing honeymoon sweet? So it doesn't mean you have to know. I think the only version of switching the glide, I was gonna say that the demo, I think that's the only one you just played with David Marsden be reset. That's right. Exactly here next week. Oh, is he? Oh my. And it's been a while since he was here, actually.

No, Q played the Bob Ezum version. He only played the original. Oh, that's Marsden for you. He didn't like it going out of the... Marsbar was at Chum FM maybe when you guys were winning that contest. Was he still there? I don't know, Larry Wilson was the guy.

Larry Wilson was the big DJ there. Which was kind of like meeting the Wizard of Oz. Yeah, yeah. Because you hear this big voice like this and you look at him. What about Brian Master? Was he there? I'm trying to think of these two of them guys. But okay.

But Larry was there and you meet him and he's five foot two and... Yeah, smoked like a stunko cigarette. You know that's a phenomenon where you, because you, before we ever saw these guys in TV ads or internet and stuff, you hear the voice and you picture them in your mind. They all end up, they all look kind of like, I think Tom Rivers looked like a Tom Rivers to me, but I will say most of these D's,

cause I got in the calendar, I see coming up as John Donnaby, okay? He's been everywhere in this city on the radio. And I got to say the picture of John Donnaby based on his voice, cause it's the second time he's been here, when he was at the door, I'm like, oh, where's John? Where's John? It's like and I hear his voice. I'm like, oh you're John and it's like, yeah, you don't know You can't tell you can't tell but gentlemen, I got to say this the Kings are here calm

If you're listening to us right now get your ass over there and buy some merch buy some stuff and get this new album. That song we played. I got to ask you who wrote the lyrics. You wrote the lyrics. Z? I wrote the same thing. You name check Vancouver in the lyrics. Is that because Vancouver was jealous that you name checked Toronto? Maybe I think it was just, well because we've driven to the end of the highway. Yeah. I think I took a picture of Zero at the Zero miles on the...

There's a Terry Fox statue there. That's in Thunder Bay. That's in Victoria. I'm thinking of Victoria. But there's one at either end of the country. And I got him at mile zero that way, in Victoria. But I just thought, well, the end of the highway kind of ends in Victoria, but it didn't scan right, because Vancouver's three syllables. You go there and then you come back and then you

head south. And then you go south to LA. But, uh, do you guys surf? You have any surfing? I got some on my shirt. I got a surf, some surfwear. See that thing. That's pretty cool.

This is our new, uh, upcoming t-shirt. Yeah. You've got to check out on our YouTube channel. The Kings are here. The video for nowhere to go, but gone. And also the video for YouTube channel the Kings are here the video for nowhere to go but gone and also the video For always off the deep end is the other way to brand with our bubble heads the bobble heads I love it so much again. Shout out to Todd Reynolds. Of course, who's been your drummer since 2007? Yeah, he's the new guy He's the new guy. I know but but other than Todd Reynolds on this new album. You got mr

Zero, okay the man in the basement right now. You have the great, the legend David Diamond. That's me, yes thank you. And of course, not here because he's probably in British Columbia. Sonny Keys. Sonny Keys. We know when you're born with a name like Sonny Keys you have to be on the Keys, right? That's right. That's his real name. Says Mr. Diamond. Guys, first of all, this was amazing, but I want to congratulate you because you guys are in the Canadian songwriter home of fame. We are. Yes, we are. We're very proud of that.

Very proud of that. That's maybe the thing we're most proud of. Did they give you like a pin or something? Actually, they spelled our name. Well, no, they spelled the name of the song wrong on the display in Calgary. It said, The Beat Goes On, which is the Sonny and Cher song. It's been fixed. It's been fixed, but now it's this beat.

So that was our pin. So Canadian, come on. So Canadian. Yeah, you have one job, right? But congratulations. Well deserved. Thank you so much. And I gotta say, ever since I was...

That photo of me and Sandy was gonna be on my... I was gonna print it and put it on my studio table. But some, some asshole photo bomb. You have to do something like that Seinfeld episode where you race the thing in the middle and put a cartoon or something. Who is this asshole? You know, Rob, this Mr. Zero guy, he's an asshole, right? I think he's a good guy.

That's why we call him zero. That's how he got his name. That's right. Zero respect. But thank you guys so much for doing this, man. That was a 90-minute thorough deep dive into you guys. That's great. You're not a one-hit wonder, because as far as I'm concerned, that new jam we just played, that's a hit, man.

Well, thank you so much. It is. We love our new album and we hope you do too. Well, you got nowhere to go but going right right Shout out to Ridley funeral home and then have oh That's that's that's not gonna happen come on, and I'm goofing on you guys and that brings us to the end of our

1554th show You can follow me go to Toronto Mike calm to follow follow me but go to the kings are here. Yeah calm all your kings Do you care if it's Kings or the Kings you can call it whatever you want? We are happy that we're to be here and hello everybody and goodbye everybody Much love to all who made this possible again. That's Great Lakes Brewery. You guys are taking this. Yeah. Thank you to all who made this possible. Again, that's Great Lakes Brewery. You guys are taking something home again.

Yes. Thank you. This is delicious. Home of pasta. I'm not joking, man. In my freezer, these red boxes are empty now, but I'm going to put frozen lasagna in there before you head back to Burlington. Oh, you can use that.

Awesome. Or Oakville or wherever the hell you're going. I go to Burlington. Shout out to Burlington. And happy birthday to Rob Pruse. Yeah, Rob buddy. Happy birthday Rob. Woohoo.

Burlington Rob. Incredible musician in his own self. I would say. Absolutely. He's a prodigy man. He was in the spoons when he was like 15 years old. He was too good looking. Too good looking and too young.

Great hair too. He's got great hair. Recyclemyelectronics.ca, Raymond James Canada, and of course Ridley Funeral Home. These measuring tapes are for you guys. Oh, I was wondering. I thought- Courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home. They're sizing this up here. Well, measure what you wish. I don't need to know. That's between you and your god, okay? Sounds like, they sound like this. Six feet under. That's right. They're seven feet. Six feet under is a great show, man. Oh, they're six inches, see that?

Hey now! On that note, see you all later this week when my special guest is Joel Greenberg. If you don't know the name, you gotta hear this episode. This is a very special man. Tune in for Joel Greenberg's Toronto Mic debut. See you all then. Maybe I'm not and maybe I am.

But here's the time because everything is coming up. See you all then. It's just like mine, it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and green Well I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Shakalakur