519

519: I was really surprised when I saw
the bill, because Johnny was originally
typecast as a country singer and
he’s beyond that definition. But when
you first see the name, you kinda’
think country.
AC: That’s a normal reaction at first to.
Glass Tiger with a Country artist how
does that work? But honestly, I think it’s
a testament to just songs and when we
sat around Johnny’s kitchen table with
acoustic guitars and a piano. We did
these songs with more of an acoustic
side and added some Celtic instruments
to them. The whole mashing of sounds
is just amazing - the genre of music
doesn’t seem to matter anymore. It’s just
good melodies, great lyrics and a great
feel, that’s how we built the record.
I’ve learned from working with Johnny
that he’s a man with many, many talents
and our record and his new record
have a little old style R&B feel, with the
horns. For Johnny Reid fans, that’s going
to be an interesting turn of events.
So yeah, he’s a very talented guy and it
didn’t seem strange as you many think
it might be - it felt like a perfect fit.
519: I was really surprised at looking at
your website this morning and there
was a piece on there that said you’re
doing your first ever show at Massey
Hall. It’s an iconic place not only for
Toronto, but for Canada and around
the world.
AC: If you mention Canada and venues,
Massey Hall stands out as a leader - it’s
just a classic venue. It’s iconic, but back
in the day, in the mid 80’s, when we
were playing in Toronto it was places
like Ontario Place or Kingswood Music
Theatre - large venues where it would
be like a festival atmosphere. We didn’t
play any soft seat theaters, so we missed
the chance when we were younger. We
never got a chance in our entire 31 years
as a band to play Massey Hall. We can’t
wait to play it and of course it’s closing
next July for some major renovations,
which I’m sure will be terrific, but we really
wanted to say that we played it in
its current classic state. We will finally
get our wish, on June 23 rd , when we host
a full Glass Tiger show at Massey Hall.
519: That’s really cool after 31 years,
there’s still that goal.
AC: Well it’s a big deal, I was nervous because
there’s so many people trying to
get in and perform at Massey leading
up to when it gets shutdown. At the time
we asked, the booking agent said there
were five different acts trying to secure
the same night and we’re just thankful
that they picked us and gave us the
ability to make this happen. It’s terrific
and we have a lot of friends, family, and
fans coming to that show. It’s going to
be such a great night.
519: I look back, I always considered
you guys Canadian Rock Stars, when
you came out everything was so big
at the beginning, so Massey would
have been a smaller venue.
AC: That’s the 80’s right? The songs
were big, the hair was big and everything
in general was big. We had some
great times touring Canada and we had
three nights at Ontario Place that holds
10,000 people a night sitting on the
lawn, so it was terrific. We would never
trade that experience, but there’s something
special about doing these venues
like Massy Hall - theatres that hold
about 3,000 people. We’re about to go
into these smaller theatres with Johnny
on this tour and then in November we’re
going to circle back and headline. Some
of these venues hold 300-400 people -
it’s very up close and personal and we
love that just as much as a big venue.
It’s a different vibe, but it’s a lot of fun to
play the more intimate places as well.
519: You guys were lucky enough to
be able to sing some duets with some
pretty famous people, and here you
are doing it again on 31.
AC: Yeah you know it’s funny we never
started out thinking that every album
should have a duet, but over the course
of our history we have been really fortunate
to have people Rod Stewart,
The Chieftains and Bryan Adams come
out. It was such a compliment to have
Alan Doyle do Our Song and turn it into
a Newfoundland kitchen party. Julian
Lennon, who you don’t hear a lot of
musically anymore, but he’s been such
a friend over the years, we toured with
him in the mid-80’s and we played some
stuff for him and he said ‘Guys I love
Thin Red Line, let’s do this’. We did a First
Nations version of Diamond Sun with
Susan Aglukark where we translated
some of the lyrics into First Nations language
(Inuktitut I think it’s called) and it
as like wow, this is really really cool.
519: Since we’re celebrating your 31 st
anniversary, let’s briefly step back all
the way to the early days - the Tokyo
days and how the band morphed
from Tokyo days to Glass Tiger.
AC: You have to understand Tokyo was
only just a name in the early days. Tokyo
became Glass Tiger and it wasn’t
people joined or left after whatever, it’s
the same group of guys, but we went
from a bar band that was playing clubs
to a signed act to Capitol Records at
the time and the only reason that the
name change really was that the fact
that Tokyo was a name we grabbed really
quickly when we first started out
because we had our own concert coming
up on a Friday night and we needed
something to put on a ticket.
We weren’t really overly attached to the
name; we just said that we have to put
something on this ticket. It was literally
done that casually, but then when we
got signed we started thinking about
this, do we want to be under the name
Tokyo, because once you go with it, it
sticks.
I remember when I first about The Po-