Episode 0000258: Ted Axe Returns

Count on this! My conversation with singer Ted Axe, the Count Of Rock!! We are talking about his latest music, and latest video for the song 'Isolate', and an interesting celebrity encounter. Ted Axe formerly of the 1977 Canadian punk band "The Action". Enjoy my chat with the Axeman himself! Video of our conversation can be found here: https://youtu.be/MT-_Xd12qPE

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Nobodies are somebodies, This is Nobody'sare Somebody's podcast, and this is me
chadvice. So I was in McDonald'sthe other day because I love eating healthy
and I'm really trying hard to doso, and I noticed they have new
promotional shirts on that they kind ofadvertise on the back of their shirts.

(00:20):
Every McDonald's item that they have forsale, it's all listed there in the
back of their shirt, which tome is perfect because they're always turning their
backs on you anyways, Now there'sa reason that benefits you and me.
This is my conversation with the awesomeand amazing Ted Acts. It's been a
long time coming. Last time Ispoke to Ted it was in I believe

(00:41):
it was September of twenty twenty,so it's been a while. It's been
almost four years since I had caughtup with the Axe Man himself to kind
of check in and see what he'sbeen doing in the last four years,
of course, through the rest ofthe pandemic that we all know about,
and then where his music is gone. He told some stories about some interesting
celebrity encounters that he's had, includingone with Madonna. No spoiler alert,

(01:02):
You're gonna have a listen right now. It's my conversation with Ted Axe.
The acts man based out of Toronto, had an original punk band, I
think one of Canada's or Outawa's,I can't. I always get that wrong
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's original punkband, The Action in nineteen seventy seven.
He's been a solo artist for anumber of decades now, and he's
got a new song out there calledIsolate, which you can hear if you

(01:26):
listen over on mixcloud dot com searchNobody's radio station. You can hear my
conversation with Ted Axe over there withall the music. I play the song
at the end of that show.But here on the Nobody's or Somebody's podcast,
you just get you just get conversation. You just get my voice talking
to Ted's voice. We're gonna dothat now here on Nobody's or Somebody's podcasts
with me chad vice. Now,Ted, you look scary. How are

(01:51):
you doing well? Hi? Backhere, I'm doing pretty good, doing
good. We've been trying to dothis for a while and now we made
it, so I can't wait totalk to you. It's been a while.
It's been a while. The lasttime I talked to you was about
Yeah, horror, sex violence,the album. It was a while ago,
that's true, A long time agonow, twenty nineteen. I think,

(02:12):
jeez, that was a while ago. Do you remember that. I'm
not sure, but I think itmust have been. It was probably before
COVID, Yeah, yeah, justbefore. Yeah, lots has happened to
you since we talked since that time. Tell me about what's going on in
the ax Man ted ax world.Well, you know, we released an

(02:36):
even new EP called The Count ofRock Yeah, and it's got four four
three songs on it. And nowwe're going back into the studio to do
a cover of Born this Way byLady Gaga. Oh wow, and two

(02:57):
original tunes. That's gonna be good. I can't wait for that. What
made you choose that tune? You'vebeen doing it? You know. It's
a bit of a story because whenCanada's Got Talent was looking for people,
I auditioned by submitting a video andthey wrote back the casting company and said,

(03:24):
we like your stuff, but whydon't you try a cover that's kind
of more new, covering somebody's materialthat's newer, like cross Gendre. They
call it. Yeah, while youcross gendres probably mean you know, more
interest on the show. So Ichose that one just because I liked it

(03:46):
more than any of the new ornewer stuff. Did they give you a
less or they just said try tochoose one, and basically yeah, they
I think they said, while youdo ab a Grande's song or something,
and so this is all this crap. Really it is, you know,
the bottom of the mainstream, lestwe forget, is paved with crap.

(04:08):
Yeah, not gold gold. Soanyway, I chose that one and we
kind of rocked it up a bitand we added it to our set because
I didn't get in to Canadascar Talentafter all, kept that one. How
far did you get? How fardid you get? Did you get to?
You didn't make it to TV,but how far along? No,

(04:30):
the only the furthest I got wasbeing a person of interest from the casting
company. Yeah, they employ acasting company to get their people, you
know, cattle call, so theyget one hundreds thousands of videos coming across
the ship. So we did arehearsal video of that one in our rehearsal
space, and I think I wastermed a person of interest? Do they

(04:59):
have you come down to a studiosomewhere like or that was just this just
the uh stuff through online. It'sall online now, yeah yeah, yeah,
yeah. So we sent a videoand of us doing Born this way.
Uh. I think I said itto Lady Gaga. I've never got
anything back. She must go thatstuff too, but who knows, Hey,

(05:21):
maybe she'll stumble upon it and soshe'll get it. You never know.
Well, I don't really care.I mean, obviously she probably went,
but uh, her followers. Iwent on her Facebook because I hadn't
been on it before. Her followersare like so fanatical, like they're willing
to give their lives up for her. Yeah. They jump off roofs and
things like that crazy crazy stuff there. Yeah, and you know she she

(05:44):
does right back in that way ofkind of like a grandmotherly type thing.
What do you get the chance whichhas daughter? All these followers? You
know, they think that they takeit. I remember, you know,
like Whomber when I was a kid, and then in the a these we
came across Madonna in a dance magazineand then the next thing you know,

(06:06):
she'd slept with her producer and dida song and she was the wide yeah,
but whatever it takes to make it. I think she was the first
too. Yeah, she was oneof the first. And then they're all
kind of copying her. Yeah,I would say so. I mean from
Britney Spears on down the line.Yeah, they all can owe something to

(06:27):
Madonna. Yeah, but then youknow, I spoke to Lady Gaga could
sing better. Yeah. That's onething about her is that at least with
all this pop stuff that you hear, it's auto tuned or programmed or pre
done. At least with her.From what I've heard, I haven't really
dug into it, but she singslive, She sings for real. She
can actually sing. She has realtalent America exactly exactly right. Yeah,

(06:49):
and sometimes Madonna's a bit jealous,said she's she said, We're glad to
see somebody shorter than me is makingit. Well, that's what she's got.
But I met Madonna once. Imet Madonna once, Yeah, in
LA because I was in Hollywood andit was right near all these casting places

(07:10):
and studios in Hollywood. So shecame into where I was working in the
theater. I was doing sound bitesfor a play. Uh, and in
the up in the is like thelight place where the lights was, and
my little brother came and he wasworking there as well, and he said,

(07:30):
Donna's in the parking lot. Yougot to come. So I think
she was doing deeper and deeper thevideo. She had yellow Mercedes convertible was
featured in that video at one point. Then I was in the parking lot
alone with her, like no security, this Madonna looking at some Victa sets

(07:51):
and me kind of like frozen.What do I do? I was I
didn't leave or something, you know, somebody everybody was supposed to leave.
She was doing a take and Iapproached her and gave her my little demo.
I said, oh, yeah,this is this is a demo I
just did. She didn't take it. I think she took it, and

(08:13):
then she complained to her security guardsthat I was kind of a problem,
and they went, are you stalkingus? I said, not a should
I work here? You know,you guys are in my environment kind of
thing, uh, in my yard. Then my girlfriend came up. I
said, you gotta come up andsee Madonna. She's filming this video.

(08:35):
And a girlfriend came up. Shewas wearing kind of an andy cap hat,
Andy cappat and the next video,Madonna was wearing the same hat.
So I think she takes her oldsuccess is that she took some different you
know, people, people's people she'sencounter from any aspect, Yeah, yeah,

(08:58):
right, and used it Were youdressed like you are? Like kind
of like your style you are now? Were you dressed like that back then?
As ted Os? No, Iwasn't. No, I wasn't,
unfortunately, but because you're going,I just got halfled by youth last night.
I was out at a club byyouths oh kids, yeah, youth.

(09:20):
Yeah, they weren't teens, butthey were wonderful. Yeah, and
I heard, hey, penguin,where's your umbrella? Like cat calling?
Right exactly. I was like this, outside of the collar, you know
that you look thin? Right,And then the guy goes, uh,
he looks like the undertake. It'slike so then the guy comes running after

(09:45):
me. So I heard these footsteps. Guy goes running after me, and
he goes, I'm in the alley. By this point, he goes,
hey, can I take a selfiewith you? I said yeah, yeah,
right, so and he says,can I hug you? So I
was going a little you know,it's so far so from cat calling to
wanting to hug. It's kind ofhow erotic thing I almost encountered. Yeah,

(10:07):
you know, yeah, you nevercan guess. It's fan inter auctions
that you can never tell what's goingto happen. It's regular people and what
they have in their head, youdon't know. Yeah, they're always a
bit crazy. Uh Like. Ihad an interview with a magazine called Paranormal
Magazine recently out of Salem, Massachusetts, because somebody had heard that I was

(10:28):
a real vampire or sink thought itor something, and they told them,
you know, this guy's a realvampire, should interview him, and they
did. They had interview. Idid a full interview, but I had
to set them straight because it wasa little uncomfortable, you know, but
I think I went along with itinto pre screening just as a joke.

(10:48):
Yeah, but then you have toset them straight during the interview. They
still publish it or right right thenight before, I was going, well,
I like a type, you know, blad, you're as opposed to
be or something, So the interviewis like hilarious. But then I set
them straight and it was called Isaid, why don't you call it?

(11:09):
Interview with the vampire anyway. Yeah, I can't use that. Yeah,
so I have the video I havebeen writing, you know, with pictures.
It's like a little spread in themagazine. Are they going to put
it out? You know? Theyput it out yeah already, Yeah,
amongst their other stories of ghosts,ghost sightings, and we'll freaking see that.

(11:30):
I like to get a link andyeah, send you yeah, please,
thank you. So since we weretrying to connect the last couple of
weeks, but the last thing youwere doing you were in the studio rehearsing.
So is that for some shows,for some new music, for videos?
What are you rehearsing for? What'sgoing on? Well? Actually wears
we rehearsed every week. Uh uh. I'll go to band dedicated guys.

(11:52):
I suppose I'm their leader. It'scalled tet Axe. We don't mean to
call it the tet Axe band becausethat's kind of too you know, whether
to like to tavern like I thinkit's like the ten Ax band appearing from
you know. But so then wedo that every week and now we're just
focusing on the songs we're going tobe going into the studio with like the

(12:16):
Lady garb up to the two neworiginals. One is called the Devil's Candy.
The others it is called America,which is kind of an outright critique
of America. Trump's trumps America,as it were, called Trump's America soon
to be Trump's America. Yeah,you know, like the people who vote

(12:37):
for Trump love that he's accused ofrape because they are as well. So
it goes along and it's all inthe family. Yeah, our president.
Yeah, it's inspiring because of alot of lyrical content that you can get
from that or anywhere pretty much.Right there's there's this Morgas board of stuff

(12:58):
out there right now you can putin the Yeah, you don't want to
be too you don't want to becheap pointed. Like I think it was
Dolly Partner who said, took mea long time to remember that that entertainers
shouldn't be political, and when Iwas di every good feedback. But that's
her, you know, so mmhm, this is me and it's rock
so that you can you can bea little more pointed. We don't go,

(13:20):
you don't go. Don't go asfar as saying, you know whatever,
he's called his nicknames, but itis amazing that you have a criminal
president, and that's the corrupt societyof America is going to get him in
because he's he's far out doing Bidenin the votes right now. Yes,

(13:41):
I've heard. Yeah, it's it'sit's crazy to forgure what's going on.
You know, he's been he's beenin the news. That's the thing.
Like you're in you're in the media. The guy's been in the news every
single day since that's happened. ThatCongress thing. It's too much. He
gets overwhelmed. Character. Yeah,people love characters like I'm a I'm a

(14:03):
bit of a character, the Countof Rock. But it just goes to
show that people really wanted me tobe a real vampire. They really want
you know, they want to lie. They want to believe in what they
think are the image they have ofyou. Yeah, we like kiss,
we like we like kiss. Whenthey were in costume. We didn't like
them when they were out of costumebecause the lie wasn't there anymore. So

(14:26):
so then they went back into makeup after that and became a sex successful
guest. Yeah. When I imaginein Ottawa in two thousand and nine,
when I moved there from from Seattleback to Ottawa, and I was getting
cat called Gene Simmons all the timebecause Gene Simmons was on he was on

(14:50):
TV. He had a show,Yeah, family Jewels, Yep, yes,
yes, And I was going,hey, it looks like Gene Simmons.
So everybody went with black hair.It's like black hair. And again
in Ottawa, that's still kind ofan abnominally, you know, it's like
people might look die black hair.You know, it's kind of we used

(15:11):
to call it, you know.And I love Ottawa for different reasons.
I hate it just as much fordifferent reasons. It's kind of love hate
relationship with that town. Because Iwas born in the Civic Hospital. Although
I told people I was born inLondon, England. You know, let
the truth be known. The Countof Rock is from Auto and I did
see a lot of good acts there. And I was able to sneak into

(15:33):
the Civic Center to see incredible actslike all along just by being kind of
dressing like I was in a band. I go and I go in the
garage doors, knock on the door. It's like fifteen year old security card
would come to the door, youknow, I said. Young with the
band, I had little suitcase letme in perfect in. Yeah, but

(15:58):
for other reasons. We we usedto call Bank Street blank Streets and Ridoh
read out. Yeah, we hadnicknames forever everything. But Ottawa had some
places that were amazing, like theRialto Theater which they showed stag movies and
X rated movies. You know,so there's a bit of sleeze there.

(16:22):
Hard to believe, Yeah, rightnow? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
how you been doing doing good?I mean I'm still well, I'm not
in all of them outside there,but it's just been it's just been keeping
busy and trying to get you know, people on this chat thing, but
it's just not been working very well. Well. Yeah, you know,
I'm thinking about doing something else,not Zoom, a different program, Yeah,

(16:45):
because it's letting me down. It'snot it's not connecting properly. Maybe
it's my computer, but I justfind Plus, it only gives me a
forty minute time limit unless I payfor a full feature, which I'm not
gonna do. Sorry fucking out.Yeah, I'm going to look at something
chat. I love talking to people, I love doing it about podcasts.
Not going to quit that, butI'm going to quit the way I do
them. Try them a different way, right, right, right now?

(17:07):
Uh, get my picture here more. Yeah, it's hard to I can
see you again as long as youcan. If you look at yourself too
much, you go crazy because it'shard to figure. It's just a small
screen. I'm doing the same,Yeah, exactly. Yeah, with the
time, maybe maybe nobody likes thethe word nobody's you only have one person

(17:29):
complain about that a long time ago. It's hilarious. She's like, well,
nobody, Yeah, it's funny.Uh. She's like, I don't
really think I'm a nobody. I'mkind of a somebody. I don't think
that really describes who I am.I said, well, it's not a
description. It's not indictment of you. It's just it's it's everybody everything,
like no matter who thinks you know. Of course, not everybody's heard of
everybody, it's it's nobody. It'sinclusive, right, That's why I tried

(17:51):
to say it. But she wasjust like, I mean, that's happened
once out of a million, soI'm not going to complain. I'm not
going to change it. No,of course, not no, no,
no, Well, bands only likefamous people, you know, since I'm
not famous. Well, I don'tget as much. Yeah, you know,
you don't get it's a very shortattention spent because you don't have the
stamp of approval, Like even ifyou have one hundred thousand followers, it's

(18:14):
kind of a stamp of approval thatyou might be somebody to check out.
So that's why everybody. If youask a kid today what they want to
be, they'll say an influencer.No, I know that, I just
want to get followers. I'm sosick of hearing about followers. Do you
think it's because you've been You've beendoing this since well, professionally since seventy
seven for those who don't know,I mean, do you think it's because
you're you've been in this for solong, you've been through so many trends.

(18:37):
You think because of your age?Let's say it like that. That's
why people don't pay attention as muchas they used to, because they write
you off based on that because ofyour history. Well, I'm getting a
lot of attention on uh looking asyoung as I am, for being as
old as I am, and thatgoes along with the vampire thing as well,
So that's good. Yeah, youcan't really hide how old you are.

(19:00):
I think for the longest time whenI was in LA, for instance,
I tried to hide my age andI even went under a thousand different
aliases, not tat acts I had. Uh yeah, I had Vincent James
James Vincent. Uh those are twoI remember, but there was a lot
of them, and I think itwas an effort to hide my my past

(19:23):
because again in LA, you suddenlygo, I have a chance to make
it a big time here. Youwant to hide your age, I'll get
a facelift. Yeah. Yeah.If you have a big nose, get
taken in right away. Yeah.Uh you have big you have if you
have teeth, get you have teeth. Yeah, absolutely, So you go
through that, all that face andthen you know you have to go,

(19:45):
I am who I am and so. But the thing with LA was that
there was five bands and ten yearsso that you were in that would break
up because you didn't make it,and then you have a never you're trying
to get people together. The badmy own bats badge I started, Yeah,

(20:08):
because I always had my own material. But uh no, I get
I get a lot of attention,but it's not like I should I should
be getting more, But I justassigned to a record company. Uh,
so we'll see how it goes.You just kind of shut shots. It's
not a big record company. Iwas gonna ask if you can say it,
but you can't say it yet.I think so Robot Records, Robot

(20:33):
Distro Records actually cool. They werethey based out of the stage, but
they did it a write up inRolling Stone, which in my book kind
of makes them legitimate. Yeah,for sure. So this is the first
time you're releasing music under this newlabel? Yeah? And also is this

(20:56):
the first music that I think Iasked you but I'm not sure. Is
this the first time you're really musicsince Horror, Sex Violence? No.
We released an EP called The Countof Rock. Yes, that's right,
Yeah, I had it. Yeah, I missed that. Yeah, and
it has uh four three songs,four songs on it, one with a
synth player keyboard player, which Ihaven't been able to do. But that's

(21:21):
that's very commercial in terms of beingkind of very Bowie esque with the keyboards.
Was that released during COVID or rightafter? Because I'm totally missed.
I'm gonna have to go back andcheck it. Yeah, after, right
after after. I'll send you thesongs. Yeah please, because I totally
missed that period. I didn't yeahyeah, and then I found that I
just included it with my album andtook their dedicated uh band camp down.

(21:49):
You don't want to have to kindof centralize. You don't want to be
too spread around this stage. Yougive yourself in too many places. People
find it hard to find you too. There's all different. Yeah, everything
is the work. Yeah, oh, I know toally, and you have
to create desire for people to wantto see you. I guess the vampire
thing kind of worked in my favoritethat way. And then I find that

(22:14):
my music it being very seventies orientedin a way as opposed to trying to
join a genre like death metal oryou know, with the voice like there
are You're perfect. There's the demo, right you? I know you.

(22:34):
Well, that's the thing is theway you look. You could almost look
like you do industrial or some kindof gothic type rock or something Marilyn Mansony,
Rob Zombie, you know what Imean, based on just your look.
If someone just saw your face orsaw your album cover, like,
okay, I know what sound thatis. That's good. That's not that
I suppose it is kind of ina way in terms of the subject matter,

(23:00):
and there's some kind of black sabbathymoments, but it is also a
mixture of punk and like you said, maybe classic we're all okay and punk
and uh yeah, but it's notit's not really as posten. So I
go to golf industry clubs every weekend, and the big thing about them is

(23:22):
they don't have real drums. Noneof the songs have real drums, So
it becomes much more danceable because it'sa constant drum machine, being constant,
repetitive rhythm that keeps yet yeah,yeah, right, So I was interested
to see that a lot of themdidn't have real drums. Well none of
them really, So I think Japanwas like the only eighties band they had

(23:45):
real drums on their record and DuranDuran sounded, but you know, they
don't play that, but they playlike should I never even heard of so,
yeah, I think it's called Isthat one of them? K M
F M d M. Yeah,that's one of them. Joh. I
met those guys in Seattle. They'reon tour. But yeah, yeah,

(24:07):
I like to the way people sayI met this guy, and I met
this person and I What they usuallymean is they bugged them. Makes the
guy your name dropping. That's okay, yeah, stop name dropping. It's
just kidding. I've been I've beenat the center of name dropping and it's
Hollywood, so I don't want togo there. It's really pathetic. It's

(24:30):
like, Oh, I met youknow so and so and so. Yeah,
you mean you bogged them Because Iwas in a room and Mick Jagger,
David Bowie was as close as youare to me right now, just
like in terms of real distance.Yeah, I just kind of stood there
like looking at them. I didn'tmeet them, you know, because they're
in conversation. Yeah, but yousaw that counts. Yeah, that's like

(24:52):
a meeting. And I tell you, Mick Jagger, he looked at me
and he's like his eyes were talkingto me. If you fucking come up
here, I'll beat you, tearyou apart exactly. He had out of
myself. The thing with Jagger's eyeslike a very kind of yeah, terrifying.

(25:14):
Are they like piercing? Never amet him in person, never even
got close to seeing him, SoI don't know, but I can only
assume from Yeah, I know whenI saw the stones in Montreal, I
was so far up away that he'sjust like stick figures, Yeah, you
go, what's the point to seethem? But that was at the Forum
in Montreal, and there was ariot outside the forum. I think it
was in the seventies with riot policeand everything. That wouldn't be the first

(25:37):
time, right Montreal. There yougo. Yeah, yeah, So with
the time I have with you beforeI before this runs out and I have
to let you go. For thosethat don't know who didn't listen to my
lost Conversation with you, which theyshould, which is on mixcloud dot com
search for Nobody's radio station, theycan find my last conversation with you.
Uh. You were in a bandcalled The Action back in the late seventies

(25:57):
and Ottawa canas first or Outawa's firstpunk band. Tell me more about who
that was or what you did backthen. Yeah, well, you know,
that's all people really care about,and it's kind of a curse in
in a way, but it doesdraw some attention to me now. I
think people are surprised I'm still doingit in fact, because that was literally
fifty years ago. But I've beenI've been in the business five decades,

(26:21):
which is kind of interesting because that'sSeina go from cassette tapes too, whatever
it is. Then back to vinyl, Yeah, back to vinyl. And
but I was ted acts in theaction. I was a singer and you
know the action. It's an interestingstory because the action was really a cover
band playing the Shoddy Air for twoweeks on a stretch in the Shadier Club

(26:45):
in uh and Gat you know yeah, I've heard of that, yeah,
right, and we used to play. There's a lot of bikers there and
stuff, so we played everything likegolden ear ring even gold nearing stones,
all sort the stuff. Rory Gallagher. Uh and I love the time,

(27:11):
right yeah, three minute sets anight. Yeah, and uh, you
know, we found our legs therein terms of dealing with friends and Satan's
choice right there, I had todeal with them as the front man.
So but you know, okay,there's a lot of good experience in a
way, right yeah, yeah absolutely. But so then then I went to

(27:32):
England, went to London. Iwas just breaking out, like the Damned
had the first single on AM radio, Smash it Up. I can't remember
it's called it's actually another band,but yeah, yeah, yeah yeah,
And then you know, the sexPistols all this started, and I saw

(27:53):
the vibrators and all that, andso the vibrators, for instance, were
very violent through the mics to theopposite wall or something like that. So
when I came back, I cameback with how much time do you have
left? I'm got to know aboutten minutes? I think, Okay,
it won't be that long, butsure, well long way back. But

(28:17):
let me tell you, sonny,but way back in the day. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, way back inthe day before phones. Yeah,
before before TikTok. You know,when people went on trips and actually actually
actually had to look out the windowinstead of being on their phone. That's
crazy. Yeah, it's a longtime ago. But so then uh,

(28:40):
I brought the stuff back from Londonand immersed the band in and saying,
this is a good direction. AndI wouldn't say the action were hardcore punks
in that way because we're already accomplishedmusicians and most of the punks that were
just guys from school where it hadn'tbeen in bands, you know, because

(29:02):
the worst you could be, thebetter it could be punk, you know.
Yeah, So then a lot ofpunks were going, I know,
you guys are too good. You'renot punks, you know. And so
luckily then we got in this clubcalled the Rotters Den on Bank Street.

(29:23):
It's like where a Turkish Lebanese restaurant. I was right near the Queen's Way
on Bank Street and they had anight called the Rotters Dead downstairs with Stuart
Smith ran or something and this promoter, and we go out of mileage out
of that, like we're on CarltonRadio Live. Then we got management out

(29:45):
of Montreal. They got us totours, the Ramones twenty City US tour
we got on. That changed everything. Actually actually it looked like it was
going to change everything. And thenthe band broke up like that, you
know, the main leader got leaderguide quit because he wasn't making enough money

(30:06):
or something. The other family.Yeah, he guitar John Fenton. I
think he croaked now a couple ofyears ago. But I assume you haven't
remained in contact. No, well, I do have a paranormal thing going
on, but not ghosts. Idon't talk to ghosts. But and then

(30:33):
the band kind of was doing everythingin its power not to be punk in
it in a sense, like theyhad a slag guitarist who I still know
and talk to Paul Fenton. He'samazing, but he was into Worry Gallagher
more than the sex Pistols. WorryGalla would be the Irish slag guitarist.
A lot of people don't know him, but people so yeah, yeah,

(30:56):
he's amazing and and you know,the Stone. So the common point was
the Stones because everybody thought they weregreat, and I had a kind of
a jagger thing going on, youknow, like hand on the head yea.
Yeah. So so when we playedwith the Ramones, it was kind
of like, are they punk enough? Well, they're fasts, are fast,

(31:18):
but they're too good, you know. And and then you you know,
I was doing this kind of theatricthing and the Ramones were being this
wall of sound. So as soonas the Ramones came on, your sound
like, yeah, it's like cheapTrick opening for Kiss, cheap trick over
for kiss. Their sounds like this, and then Kids came on, I
was like, ah, Colisee hasopened up, you know, yeah,

(31:41):
the dows of spoken kind of thing. Yeah. So but after that,
yeah, so then then it's justbeen kind of like uh, starting over,
starting over, starting over, startingover a million times in different cities.
That's all through the eighties, likelike all through the eighties and into
the nineties. Yeah, yea throughthe in the eighties are starting their bands
or were you just doing it solo. It's funny because when I cut my

(32:05):
hair in the action, suddenly Icut my hair and it's like he cut
his hair, and the eighties werejust started. So then we moved to
Toronto in the back of a cabwith a cat and started this bad Chroma
Key And in Chroma Key, Iwrote the songs and play guitar, and
I kind of, you know,discarded the rock thing for a while and

(32:28):
went all sorts of different influences likeworld music even was in there, punk
kind of would you say, maybegoth and all sort of things. And
my girlfriend at the time, Soma, became a singer and she is very
Grace Jones meets Nana Hagen meets DavidBowie. So he became very kind of

(32:52):
theatric and we got a lot ofgood gigs. We opened for a bunch
of bands in the eighties. Soafter that I went back to the to
the center stage affronting and it's justbeen different bands for like years and years.
Like I said, I was inLa for ten years, five bands

(33:15):
in those ten years, and thenla, you know, you can't get
any attention because it's forty thousand bandsat that time spinning their wheels in the
parking lot trying to get somewhere,kind of like today. Yeah, which
ring is back? Today everybody's inthe world into l Yeah, yeah,
exactly exactly. So with the adventof doing yourself, it's hard to get

(33:35):
any kind of anybody interested. Andif you get somebody interested, as you
know online, suddenly you have topay you do all this thing lesson.
I'm okay, I'm going to applyfor this. It's a big opportunity than
the last page. Oh well,sixty dollars for an interview, ninety dollars
for you know, the escape onexcuse. You have to pay for something,

(34:00):
kids, you know it's not legitimate. As soon as you have to
pay for something, you know it'snot legit. So keep that rule in
because everything everything is like pay toplay. Yeah, just quiet. Yeah,
you know. Clubs are becoming lessand less available now, like the
Bovine Club in Toronto will ask fora fee up front. Well, you

(34:22):
need two fifty to cover the soundmoon and the front door person to fifty.
You gotta be joking, you know, it's like how much are you
going to make? One cent each? So it's like that part of things.
So you know, unless you're gettinglike a big you know money,
it's yeah, if you're filling itout or if people are like line up
outside the street, that's one thing. But if you're just trying to get

(34:44):
your foot in the door, it'snot really cost effective, right right right,
So basically it's like back to backto square one always. Now with
a record company doing it for mesome of the distribution, maybe things will
pick up, you know, Sothat's the past way to Yeah, the
plan well, even though we justsaid that about the live show, do
you plan to go out there andplay any clubs or playing any do any

(35:07):
live shows coming up next year orthis year? Yeah? Yeah, yeah
right now in the concast, Yeah, we have some booked. A lot
of them are out of town,like around it's about sixty cities around Toronto,
sixty towns all within an hour hourand a half. Like also Eastern
Ontario, Southern Ontario, Southern Ontario. Yeah, so we do a Southern

(35:30):
Ontario tour. Like first off,Oshawa, I went out like this in
Oshawa in the afternoon. It waslike calls the major disturbance, Like all
the drug addicts were like looking atme, Yeah, down, that guy's
got They've had like thirteen we hadoverdoses in the last six months or so.

(35:52):
It's funny, yeah, but yeah, it's hard. Well I want
to say it's hard to believe,but it's not. It was hard to
believe it. And the ship iscut with apparently animal animal tranquilizers. If
it's just kind of like zombies onthe street, but that's mixed with a
very kind of you know, uhcountry bumpkin like uh society where the main

(36:15):
thing is to drive drunk down themain drag. Yes, as fast as
you can late at night. Neverbeen there, but I can imagine anything.
I should be so tough on thembecause the little audiences are good.
But but hopefully it'll show up toyour show, I'm sure hopefully, yeah,
hopefully off the road and come seeyou play. That would be a

(36:36):
lot safer for everybody. Absolutely,you know you're right right, that's a
good actually, and get that stayoff the roads kids, come and see
test at exactly. It's going torock your face off, you know,
to be it's all. It's abit of a joke and always has been.
And as long as I'm out thereplaying, I don't really care.
I mean, to an extent,if something makes it looks makes me look

(36:58):
bad, like, I'm not goingto play it. You know. It's
just like a bunch of bands thatyou've just got on the door, I'm
not gonna play with them because itjust makes me look bad. Try to
promote something like that. So Ihave to keep that in mind as well.
Yeah, you gotta be selective aboutyour shows. I gotta work for
you and work for your band andeverybody. And it's got to be cost
effective. And you're on the roadright, it doesn't. It's not cheap,
so yeah, gotta make it workfor everybody. Yeah, gotta be

(37:22):
fun and profitable. Fun and profitablehard to believe. Yeah yeah, business
with that second word business. Soit's a business, and you know,
Gene Simmons does take it very seriously. In terms of Kiss, I suppose
I should ended with a funny story. I know, we went to see
Kiss. We got two minutes,Okay, this would be a two minute

(37:44):
story. Yeah, two minutes secondsleave everybody with a smile on their face.
On Saturday, we went to tothe Civic Center to see Kiss and
Cheap Trick And afterwards I went tothe loo and this roady those humongous was
talking to my girlfriend. Uh,and I said, what do you say?
Said, We'll invite to a kissparty. So okay, So we

(38:06):
went to the kids party was atthe Talisman Hotel. You know where that
is. Yeah, it was nearQueen. Yeah. So we went in,
went up to the thirteenth floor.The elevators open up. It's all
his kiss roads, kiss and blazingon the T shirts with roukey talkies going
oh yeah, it's okay, she'shere. So we went down there and
no boys allowed. Knocked on thedoor and he says his door. He

(38:29):
went to open the door. Boyfriendwas with her. See her boyfriend was
with her. So you're so that'sa kiss party. Yeah, no no
boys, no boys club. That'sfine. Yeah, allowed the kiss party.
Kids understood. Well, yeah,he depends on who's asking. Yeah.
Yeah, but you know, wehope to come to to Ottawa soon.

(38:51):
Actually, so we hope that maybethis interview will get some interest and
well we'll keep on trying to dothat. Get for sure be come out
I will, and I'd like tosee you live in real life. That'd
be cool too, can't can't sayno to that, and we'll talk again
too, you know. Problem,we'll talk again when you release that record
because I want to like the wholedetail about how it's recorded. That'd be

(39:14):
great. We can get right intoit and we have more time. Okay,
great, great, Thanks so muchfor me man for two for sure.
Ted, good talking to you,and we'll talk again soon. Okay,
okay, thanks very much, noproblem. You've been listening to the
Nobody's or Somebody's podcast with me Chadvice, and this podcast has been voted the
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