No Sleep 'til Sudbury with Brent Jensen

In part two of my recent chat with Triumph frontman Rik Emmett live from his home studio, the guitars came out and Rik gives us a sample of exactly what his touring rig sounds like. And it roars.  This episode was recorded about a week before the second leg of the Triumph tour was cancelled. Rik was stoked to get back out on the road, taking me through his detailed notes on the setlist, the challenging routing of the tour dates, and that there would be lasers on this leg. I've spoken with Rik since the cancellation, and the tour will likely resume in 2027. Stay tuned.    

We're live in Eli's Loft, the name of Rik Emmett's home studio, to talk about the current Triumph tour, his poetry books, and whatever else happens to come up. Rik is a fan of just pressing the record button and going from there, and today that's what we did. Another funny, insightful, and enriching conversation with a legendary man who considers himself anything but.  

It was my privilege this week to host Chilliwack singer Bill Henderson on NSTS, and the conversation was a lot of fun.   Bill and I discuss the remaining dates on Chilliwack's current cross-Canada tour, the similarities between Chilliwack and Three Dog Night, why John Lennon sucks air through his teeth during "Girl", Bill's influence on Albert King (great story), his elevator encounter with Ray Charles, and the power within Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors".     

Mojo and Q magazine writer Tom Doyle has written a new book called Ringo: A Fab Life, and this week he joins me to talk about it.  In the book, Tom recounts Ringo's unusual path into The Beatles, but he also sheds light on the many other lives of Richard 'Ringo' Starkey, including the fact that he was also a furniture designer at one time, and that he had Frank Sinatra record a playfully rewritten version of "The Lady Is A Tramp" specifically for his girlfriend as a birthday gift. The book is a fascinating, entertaining read, as is Tom himself during our interview. Fantastic chap. 

My pal Sean Kelly wears a few different hats. He's primarily known as a Juno-nominated guitarist who's played with Nelly Furtado, Lee Aaron, Coney Hatch, Helix, and several other acts. He's also a music teacher, and the author of three books. He joins me today to talk about his newest work, the upcoming book entitled Battle Axes: A Hard Rockin' History of Pointy Guitars. The book examines the cultural and musical evolution of those wildly shaped guitars we've all seen, beginning with Gibson Flying Vs and Explorers, and progressing through later models produced by Hamer, Jackson, Charvel, Dean, and others. Throughout the book, Sean talks to some of the guitarists who helped put these companies on the map - Def Leppard's Phil Collen, GN'R's Gilby Clarke, Triumph's Rik Emmett, Twisted Sister's Jay Jay French, and even Metal Method's Doug Marks! Let the guitar geekery begin.          

One July evening in northern Ontario back in 1994, I had a very unusual liaison with a person from the United States who would appear and then disappear within a span of about 12 hours, never to be heard from again.  Until she reappeared on the No Sleep 'til Sudbury podcast almost 32 years later. 

After listening to last month's NSTS episode featuring the guitarists who auditioned to replace Ace Frehley in KISS, friend of the show and co-host of the Famous Lost Words podcast Tom Jokic dropped by the NSTS studios with a list of other interesting musical substitutions, featuring artists like Dave Grohl, Stevie Nicks, Lenny Kravitz, and The Doors. According to Tom, Eddie Van Halen asked a well-known female singer to join the band before they asked Sammy Hagar, who was asked by The Grateful Dead to replace Jerry Garcia(!). Lots of interesting discussion in this episode.   

When Ace Frehley left KISS in 1982, a lot of guitar players lined up to take his place. Many of them, upon not getting the gig, went on to do great things. Two of those guitarists were Bon Jovi's Richie Sambora and Slash from Guns N' Roses. And, Eddie Van Halen was also rumoured to be in the mix. This week on the show I consider the ramifications of all of this - rock history as we know it would be significantly different. Sambora joining KISS would have prevented Bon Jovi from becoming Bon Jovi, and "Sweet Child o' Mine" could have been a KISS song. All of the bizarre possibilities involving these guitarists and others who auditioned are considered in this episode.     

West coast band 54-40 is a group we all know and love up here in Canada. Last week 54-40 guitarist Dave Genn called in to the show to talk about their new record Porto, which drops this Friday, January 23rd. I've heard it, and so should you – quite honestly, it's really good.     Dave shared some great stories during our chat. Among them: his night out with Ronnie Wood and witnessing a funny Stones soundcheck moment; his piano teacher's icy response to Dave's fondness for Shaun Cassidy; and the very unorthodox way by which he found out that The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" is his favourite song.   

Here's the second half of my chat with Rik and Ian live from Rik's place. We couldn't talk about the upcoming Triumph tour as it hadn't been formally announced yet, and I was sworn to secrecy. But, there was so much more to cover - the retirement of Ian's longtime band Lunch at Allen's, how Ian used to get accosted by women at his shows and the hilarious commentary that ensues, the lyrics Rik and Ian chose to be engraved in their CSHOF awards, Rik's inspiration behind the lyrics of "Fight The Good Fight", and to add a Christmas flavour to this year-end episode, we wrap up with Rik and Ian sharing some Christmas party stories from years past.  Merry Christmas to NSTS listeners everywhere - I sincerely hope you have a wonderful holiday, however you celebrate. Thank you for listening.