Keith Hampshire, singer, actor, TV host

Transcript

Speaker: Hi, it's Dan here for Dusty Dicks Radio and this is the podcast Liner Notes, revealing chats with Canada's retro music makers. Today, I'm very honored to have as my special guest, veteran entertainer extraordinaire, Keith Hampshire. Perhaps best known for his hit songs ah Daytime, Nighttime, and The First Cut is the Deepest, but he has done so much more than that. He's been an active and successful Canadian artist since the 60s, so we'll be talking about his musical adventures and get some insights into the Canadian music scene from someone who's lived it. So thanks for joining me today, Keith. How are you? Well, I'm fine. I'm good. You just ah you you reminded me of, this um you know, we were doing a test there and you wanted to make sure that the mic was working and this, that, the other. You know, back in 1966, I was working on a pirate radio ship in England. um ah I don't know if your listeners know about it, but anyway, um I was working on this pirate radio ship.

Speaker: and they sent me to interview Michael Nesmith of the Monkees. I'd never done a live interview before. They hand me this little portable tape machine, a cassette player, and they said, he's at such and such a hotel, be there at such and such a time. So I yeah i showed up with my tape machine on my lap and and we sat there and I told stories and just sat in the other for a while and a guy came in and he said, okay, next. So I had to leave and I went down to the lobby of the hotel and I pushed the playback and the tape went back and I pushed play. I hadn't recorded a damn thing. So I went back upstairs and I knocked on the door and I said, is there any chance we can do this again? I didn't push the record button.

Speaker: So anyway, ah Michael Nesmith, wonderful guy, ah very graciously said, by all means, come on in. So we did the interview all over again. But all the way through it, he says, you know, I have the strangest feeling of deja vu. That's funny. Well, he was a big star by then, too, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. The monkeys were huge. Yeah. Oh, very cool. yeah Well, yeah it what impressed me know when I do these interviews, I always do some background research and I knew of you, of course, as as most people would. But I was impressed by by the the breadth of what you've done. and And you're one of those guys, it seems to me, that just sort of said yes a lot and just said, okay, sure, I'll try this. I'll try that. And weren't encumbered by your own sort of

Speaker: lack of spirit ah to do things or experience or experience. No, I consider myself the luckiest guy in the world. I never considered myself very talented. I never considered myself ever being very special or anything. But for some reason, the good Lord has smiled on me and all my life I have fallen into, what do they say, a pile of excrement and come up with a mouthful of roses, you know, because, ah I mean, ah my my entire life, um everything seems to have fallen into place. And I have, um with the help of my lovely wife, I've made many of the many of the right choices. And, you know, like I say, I consider myself the luckiest guy in the world. Well, it's cool. And I want to ask you about a bunch of those specifically, but I mean, just, just the overall idea, you know, the the old saying, like, give if you want to get something done, give it to a young person because they don't know what they can't do. And it seems to me you're one of those young guys that didn't know what you couldn't do. You just said, I'll try that. Sure. Sure. Sure. What do you want, man? Sure. Sure. Bounce that off me. Fine. That's pretty good. And, uh, and you did of course really well with it. So, so you were born in England.

Speaker: And then you give you made your way to Calgary. So were you a natural musician when you were growing up? or you Were you a natural guy? or just what was your reason for that That's a crazy question. um I was a natural clown, let's put it that way. um My mother put me in um dance classes when I was four or five, six, something like that in England. And of course, um dance classes are mostly for girls so I was one of the only guys and you know at the end of the year they put on this big huge dance spectacular and all the girls are there and they needed parts for me so I became the ringmaster of the circus I became Georgie Porgie I became you know I played all sorts of different

Speaker: Characters because I was one of the only kids I mean guys doing and that that was sort of my first taste at showbiz Yeah, I okay. I guess I liked it as Georgie Porgie as Georgie Porgie. Yeah, so um That was sort of how things started and and you know really I've just been a I've been a not a screw -up but a ah a class clown all my life. I went to school and I couldn't be bothered with this. I couldn't be bothered with, I was having too much fun doing this, too too much fun doing that. So I was never a great scholar and I mean it really drove my father crazy because I mean he gave up his entire life, his lifestyle, ah his home country, um everything you want to say.

Speaker: and and brought us to Canada so I would have a magnificent future. I could be a doctor, I could be a lawyer, I could be a i could be anything I wanted to be. But oh no, I ended up being, oh no, at first I was a television cameraman and I even screwed that up. But I was i was enough i was enough of a clown that they they moved me into radio and and said, here, push these buttons. So I became a radio operator. And then they gave me the all nice show on the weekend and said, here, push some more buttons here. And then the guy that I was supposedly pushing the buttons, um he said, I'm not doing this anymore. you You do it. So all of a sudden I became a radio announcer, you know. So, you know, yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, it is rather circuitous, I guess you would say, like you you go from one thing, but but that again, with the overarching sort of mentality, it seems like you're bouncing around, but but perhaps not in the grand scheme of things because you're using your your character. I remember studying English and and the professor would say something about your tragic flaws, your best trait and your worst trait. and And when you examine people and probably for you, you know, be in that free spirit, the class clown, whatever that works for you in a lot of ways. I guess so. I guess so. Yeah. Yeah. ah I mean, even though the but the teachers would kick me out of class, they'd say behave Keith, then come back when you can behave. You know, they they were never, you know, really mean and whatever you want to can call it. Well, because you got the sparkle in your personality. So sometimes I'll make the joke and rama remind me why I like you again. I like you and me to remind me. yeah Exactly. Well, it's because I sometimes I make you smile, don't I? oh Yes, of course. Yeah. I love making people smile. I'm making them smile.

Speaker: So you went from England, you ended up in Calgary singing in the church choir. Was that your basic background in singing? Because your voice is excellent. Yeah, that's sort of how I started singing. I'm sorry I entered right into there, but that's sort of how I started singing. And that was again by sheer fluke because my father never went to church, but my mother did. She was a churchgoer and she would always sing in the choir. and So she dragged my sister and I, my sister's two years old and then myself, And she dragged the two of us to church with her. And um one day, I guess the ah but powers that be at the Sunday school said to my mother, um we're having trouble with Keith. He just won't settle down. So she said, fine, give him to me. I'll put him in the choir with me. So all of a sudden, I'm a choir boy. And that was only because my mother could sit behind me in church and poke me on the shoulder and say, settle down, settle down. So that's how I became a singer.

Speaker: But it obviously served you well because then you went on to to, I guess you went to some coffee houses and just sang acapella or you didn't play guitar or any instruments. No, I still don't. i i you know Again, I i can't seem to concentrate. um you know and and In order to be a guitar player, you have to spend hours and hours picking and playing and strumming and tuning and all that other stuff. I just wasn't very good at it. And maybe it's the left hand, right hand ah coordination, left brain, right brain. ah I'm not even sure they're ever in sync. So, um no, i I never did pick up an instrument and

Speaker: um I always kind of relied on my my voice and my my goofy character, I suppose. So um the the choir was was the beginning. And then my mother um they started giving me um they started giving me ah the odd solo in church. I was ah one of the one of the We ring Three Kings of Orientar at the Christmas pageant. night but I remember singing once in Royal David City, going up to the pulpit and singing, one you know, and things like that. And um then my mother said, you know, people in the church are saying, you're you're pretty good at this. Maybe you should have singing lessons. So we found and and an elderly dowager or whatever you want to call her, who lived close by. And I would go to her for singing lessons ah once a week. And um what a wonderful, wonderful experience. Wonderful lady, I can remember.

Speaker: Me no mom, me no mom, me no mom, me no mom, me no mom, me no mom, me no mom, me no mom. Meena ma, meena ma, you know, doing exercises and things like that. And then the next thing you know, she's entering me in Kiwanis music festivals, where you they they give you a song that you have to sing and you have to compete against other like -minded idiots. And, um yeah you know, and they they have adjudicators and they say, well, he he dropped his T's or he he tapped his toe while he was singing or, you know, just nitpicking.

Speaker: So I started doing that for a while. And then um ah the folk music thing was was big back then. And this is the early 60s before the Beatles. And um my buddies and I are are heard about this coffee house in Calgary called the Depression. And so we went down one Sunday night before but you know we had to go to school the next day. And um they said, oh, it's it's amateur night. you know People get up and and perform. And so my buddies go up to the guy who owns the place and said, listen, our our friend here, Keith, he's a singer. um Can he sing some songs? And the owner of the place said, well, yeah, where's his guitar? Oh, you know he doesn't have a guitar. Oh, just does he need ah somebody to play for him?

Speaker: but No, I don't think so. So anyway, he says, OK, well, ah tell the kid to get up there and and and sing three songs. And if I think he's any good to look over at me, I'll be at the at the at the doorway here. And if I think he's any good, he can sing a couple more. So. Sure enough, I get up there and I start singing Peter, Paul, and Mary, or Ian Tyson, or or you know just songs that were um popular at the time. And between and between songs, I'm kibbutz -ing and you know joking around. and And so I look over after three songs. he nods hes So I sang a couple more.

Speaker: And it seemed to go over OK. So he says, come back next week. So I came back next week and sang a few more. And the next thing you know, um the next week, I think he said, listen, Viscount Bennett High School is having a hoot nanny and they're looking for performers. Would you would you go to Viscount Bennett on the such as? Yeah, sure, I'll go. And so on the next thing you know, I'm known as the acapella singer. I had no instrument. Well, it's cool because I mean, number one, it takes a lot of stones to just get up there and just sing because that's all you got. There's nothing to hide behind. But the other thing is it it makes you a better singer. Right. And you have to really craft it. You're being very kind. and You know, when you don't know any different, when you don't know any different and all you do is you'll just love to sing. It's not a big deal. You know, you just get out. and so yeah I mean, I will I will sing at the drop of a hat. I mean, when people say, hey, let's go to a karaoke bar. All right, I'm there.

Speaker: Yeah, I don't have to remember the words. and the The band's there, great band. Just sit there and read the words and all you have to know is the melody. So i'm at I love that stuff. Well, so so that's another good point because, you know, a lot of times I'll ask my guests, you know, how much of what you did was sort of planned or happenstance or just accident. And you just weren't encumbered by anything you didn't think you couldn't do. So you just end up doing it. And then that leads to the next thing, which leads to the next thing. Exactly. Exactly. So I'm at school one day and this this guy comes up to me and he's got blonde hair and he's got a magnificent duck tail. I mean, the duck tail haircut, you know, in those days, yeah yeah to present yeah he had a great tail.

Speaker: Anyway, he comes up to me and he says, hey, I hear you're a singer. And I said, I guess. And he says, well, listen, I got a band. We're looking for a singer. He says, you know any rock and roll? I said, well, yeah, I know a few songs. He said, well, listen, come to my place after school and audition. So I go to his place and I sing Kansas City and Walking the Dog and a couple of old standards, you know, and he goes, yeah, okay, man, you're in the you're in the band. And he hands me a ah the band, Jacket, and it's blue lamé. It comes down to my knees and it's got white lapels. It sparkled. It was po one button right at the navel. So anyway, I took it home and my mother says, what the hell is this? And I said, well, I'm in a band, mom. I'm in a band. Look, I got a jacket. I got a jacket.

Speaker: Yeah. But that was it. We never did play anywhere. We never rehearsed again. But I had the jacket. I gave it back. I gave the jacket back, obviously. But you did end up joining some other musicians and jamming a bit and getting out there, right? Yeah. I did eventually put a band together. The funny thing was, we at the time the British music was happening, so we tried to come up with ah ah an English name, a British name, something that um what you know people know that we sort of did British music. So we called ourselves the Bristol's.

Speaker: So it was Keith and the Bristol's. Well, it was only years later when I went to England and I realized that the cockney for Bristol's means breasts. So it was Keith and the breasts, basically. but yeah But you were none the wiser. yeah We had no idea. we thought it was We thought it was cool. And so later the the next band was keeping the variations and right there was no you know no subliminal connotations there. So along beside that, like you're not the kind of guy that's just doing one thing, you got a lot of balls in the air, right? You want to do some different stuff. You became a cameraman, you got into acting and announcing of all that stuff sort of emerged at the same time. as that

Speaker: well yeah Well, let's put it this way. I was really a screw up in school and I had trouble with math and French, French especially. And um my father ah was really getting fed up with me because I was not performing up to scratch. He could do better if he would just apply himself. so anyway I've been going to summer school every summer I can remember to try and bring my marks up to bring my marks up and finally my father said to me he said son if you don't if you don't get it together you're going in the navy I said oh don't no dad dad give me one more chance give me then give me one one more chance let ah

Speaker: I'll get a job and I'll go to night school and I will i will i' bring my marks up and then I'll go to university. It'll just be for a year, Dad. Give me one more chance." So he says, yeah, okay, so, okay, okay. So I go down to the unemployment office and I ah fill out the form and whatever, and this lady who's interviewing me, she says, oh it says here you sing in a band what kind of band is that i said oh you know it's just a bunch of kids rock and roll it sort of thinks she said oh yeah yeah would you be interested in the job at the local radio television station as an apprentice cameraman know would i yeah so sure enough i get the job but i'm a terrible cameraman terrible i can't focus i can't you know

Speaker: no I mean, not only could I not focus the camera, I can't focus period. So anyway, you're young at the time, too. how Well, yeah, I was 19, maybe 19. So anyway, he um they said, ah we're going to move you into radio, you're going to be an operator. So I became an operator. And that's sort of how I got started in the radio business. Well, yeah, I guess you just immerse yourself in that environment. You get to know what needs to be done and then you gravitate towards what would suit your personality, which is what it sounded like, right? Well, yeah, the other thing was that um because I was singing in the band and we focused on the British music scene, I knew all the bands. I knew all the guys in all the bands. I knew all the songs. And because the radio station that I was working at was a middle of the road station that was playing

Speaker: Andy Williams and Tony Bennett and Peggy Lee and Doris Day and, you know, middle of the road, nice metal kind of stuff. um Every time a record would come in a 45, I mean, most record companies, if they just they send everything to every radio station. right so the librarian is going through all these records and she's going a discard pile we'll keep that one with discard discard and so i'm going through the discard pile and i said can i have this one by brian pool in the tremors oh yeah take whatever you want so i'm taking all this stuff by all these

Speaker: different British bands and I take them back to the group and we learn all kinds of stuff that nobody was hearing over here. But i had i i without knowing it, I became fairly proficient in the British music scene. So years later, that stood me in good stead. Well, yeah, I see that on here too. So not too long after that, you made your way to England. You went over there to get a job as a DJ. That sounds pretty cheeky in itself. Well, i do when I didn't do it on purpose. I didn't do it on purpose. i um I'd sort of come to a um a stalemate, let's put it that way.

Speaker: I was 20 years old, my girlfriend was 18, and we'd been together for a couple of years. Beautiful lady, I love her dearly. ah But she wanted to get married, and I wasn't ready to get married. um And her father wanted me to go to work for him in the oil business, and I didn't want to do that. And um the band I was playing in, we'd sort of reached the peak. We were like number two in Alberta. um But there was a band in Edmonton called West Acus and the Rebels who were professional. They were number one. So if they ever came to Calgary and we had a gig on the same night, we could pretty well plan ah the place would be half full because most people would go and see West Acres and the Rebels. But that that was that was sort of beside the point. We'd been together for a couple of years and the guys didn't sort of want to learn new stuff. We sort of got stale. um okay So I had the girlfriend thing and I had that. And then also in Alberta at the time, you were allowed three speeding tickets.

Speaker: before they took your license away and I had managed to accumulate five. And I knew that it was a matter of time before they came to the door and cut up my yeah my license. So that was another sort of impetus to go to England. And then a buddy of mine comes to me one day and says, listen, I'm going to England, you should come with me. And I thought, Wow, perfect. There's my scapegoat. There's my way out. I said, yeah, I'll go with you. So um a couple of weeks later, um after I booked my tickets and everything, um I run into a friend of mine and I say, hey, listen, did you hear I'm going to England with with our buddy Tony? He said, Tony? And I said, yeah, Tony. He says, you mean Tony from school? I said, yeah, Tony from school. He said he left a week ago.

Speaker: I said, what? Yeah, he's already gone, man. I thought, oh, great. I got it booked. I'm going by myself. I don't think so. So I ran into another old friend of mine and I told him the story and he said, oh, hell, I'll go with you. I said, really? I said, but you're in first year university. What are you going to do? You're going to drop out of university and come to England with me? Yeah, I'm sure your parents are going to go for that. And he said, no, no, no, I'm sure they will. And sure enough, they did. So anyway, he and I went to England. We bought an old Morris Minor. We drove all over England, Scotland and Wales. We went to all the cathedrals, all the ruins, all the, not all of them, but we, we hit a lot of them and we lived on fish and ships and cider. So you were ah a kid when you moved from England, but you still had a connection there, it sounds like, right? Oh yeah. Well, I still have, you know, I still have a lot of family there and, um, uh,

Speaker: And I made some wonderful, wonderful friends there. I mean, yeah we're you're on a boat. ah People say, so what was it like working on Radio Caroline? Well, OK, picture this. you're ah You're on a boat. You're three and a half miles off the coast. So you're in international waters. So the British government can't really control you. They can't do anything to you. um And you're with the ah the class clown from Liverpool. the class clown from Manchester, the class clown from South Africa, class clown from Australia, the class clown from Canada, that was me, and you know all the all these different fabulous personalities. You throw them on the air, you give them the greatest music in the world, 1966, 1967. Are you kidding me? Motown was hotter than a pistol. Oh, just the music was fabulous. You say, go out there, entertain people, just don't be naughty.

Speaker: Yeah, so explain to our listeners that that might not know it's that you were on a pirate ship. Okay, so the pirate ship works this way. At the time, Britain, ah if you wanted to listen to the radio in England, or even watch television, you had to buy a license. And so consequently, you know, that's how it sort of worked. So there's this enterprising Irishman named Ronan O 'Reilly who um was managing a a singer by the name of um Georgie Fing. And he went into the studio and he recorded Georgie and he went to the BBC and he said, I'd like you to play this record.

Speaker: And they went, oh, no, no, I'm sorry. We don't know. No, we don't do. No, we don't do that. yeah He's not on the right label. And now you kind of know. So he thought, well, my God, what and this is ridiculous. Not only that, at the time, ah BBC would play 45 minutes a week. ah get that a week of popular music. The rest of the time it would be Mantovani, it would be the BBC Light Orchestra, it would be the Weather Report, it would be

Speaker: you know, the big futures or whatever the hell they call them. So it was trying to be everything to everybody, but it was absolutely nothing to young people, absolutely nothing. So he decided to talk to his dad who owned a shipyard in Ireland. He said, hey, dad, can you find me an old boat? And his dad said, yeah, okay, what do you want to do with it? He said, well, I want to put a radio station on this boat, go out into international waters and start my own radio station. That way, we can play music. Well, that one man was responsible for the British invasion. Without the pirate radio stations playing the music of the day, the and you know, the animals, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the lust goes on and on, Manford Man and Wayne Fontana and all these

Speaker: fabulous British groups of the time. If he had not started that radio station, there would have been no place for those groups to be heard. yeah I mean, yeah, the Beatles were starting to roll in Britain at the time, but he started the station um Easter Sunday, 1964. And that's when the Beatles were starting to build momentum without the British, ah without the pirate radio ships. ah Radio Caroline included, they would have had, and nobody would have heard their stuff. And also the other thing is transistor radios were invented. So people, young people didn't need to buy a radio license anymore because they got a transistor.

Speaker: Yeah. And just for context, do you ended up with millions of listeners. This was a small time thing. No, that's for sure. I mean, I remember when I first went out to the ship, my very first day on the ship, I was about to go on the air and the guy that hired me, his name was Tom Lodge. he was from ah He was from England, but he also had worked in Canada. He was the one that hired me. He put his arm over my shoulder and he said, Keith, he said, there's eight million people out there. They're going to love you. Wow. There you go. but I just about dropped my drawers then and there, but um you it's just it was it was quite incredible. But you're living in the moment, I guess, and you're figuring, okay, go on air, let's step up to what it. and Let's do it. And apparently those that heard me said they've never heard anybody talk so fast in their entire life.

Speaker: I just had to turn that damn mic off and get figure out where I was going next. So that ran its course, unfortunately, right? And the British government clamped down and they got rid of pilot ships. They did eventually close us down. So you ended up back in Toronto, but you had all that experience and you had some chutzpah by then too, right? Because you you had some Some so swagger, I guess. I believe it or not, I had some cred. Yes. no they hu um I went to both the ah Chum Radio in Toronto and another station that was owned by Foster Hewitt called CKFH.

Speaker: and they were they were trying to ah beat chum at their own game and they were going to go you know rock and roll 24 hour top 40 radio and um i had a choice of going with either one uh chum wanted me to start in december as a swing shift guy um fh i believe wanted me to start in october november and they would give me a full -time shift and i thought i want to be david the giant killer then uh Goliath. So I went with the, and I don't regret it. It was, it was a great couple of years, a great couple of years, if but I must admit it, it did sort of get the monkey off my back about being on the radio. Yeah. Cause that's a different world too, I guess. But then again, you're multifaceted. So you got back into performing and then you you started singing again. you go igainst music yeah Only because they fired me. I mean, oh okay what happened was they they hired they hired an American program director. He came in and he, he fired all the Canadian guys.

Speaker: and and started hiring his American friends. And don't get me wrong, I mean, they were all very talented guys and they were very good at what they did. um But the guys he fired were pretty good too. And they all bounced back and did very, very well. but So i'm I'm without a job, and I'd just gotten married, ah my beautiful wife. And um I came home and I said, listen, I've been fired. And it was my birthday in November. And she I said, no, what the hell am I going to do? And she said, well, don't worry about it. She said, I'm making good money. She said, I'm teaching. were I'm making 3600 bucks a year. I thought, oh, we're OK. Well, that's what they always say in the music business, right? Marry a woman who's got a government job.

Speaker: ah so she ah ah So she carried me until i i' still I fell into something else. And I just started bouncing around, freelancing, doing this, that and the other. And then, you know, one thing leads to another. and as Again, as I say, I married the right woman. I got it right the first time. And the good Lord smiled down on me and said, here, try this. OK, I'll do that. Well, so so let's let's riff here a little bit. Then how did you end up on the Wayne and Schuster comedy hour? How did that come about? Well, okay. um We were living in a ah part of Toronto called Cabbage Town, which is a funky old part of town, but it it sort of got run down. And um they went and raised our rent. And admittedly, we're only getting $3 ,600 a year. So we didn't have a lot of money to sort of play with. And anyway, the

Speaker: apartment building we were living in raised the rent and so we said we'd better look for something cheaper. So we looked further south into this funky old part of town and we found this old apartment building that it was really run down and hadn't been really well taken care of but it was cheaper. so we moved in there and i said to the landlady i said do you mind if i sand the floors and paint and wallpaper and stuff oh no please do i'll pay for it so i fixed up our apartment and it was terrific and then an apartment became empty downstairs and so i

Speaker: We did the same thing, fixed it up. And um a friend of mine who was an actress, I'd met her through auditions and things. um A lady by the name of Jane Eastwood, a great Canadian actress. Anyway, Jamie moved in downstairs. So um anyway, ah one day, Jane comes to me and she says, what are you doing on Sunday? And I said, ah Nothing. Why? She said, well, there's this um improv ah just down the block. It's about a block from here. um It's run by as a CBC producer and he's looking for performers. You should come with me. So I went with her and we went down and we did improv and I did some funny voices and some funny characters and this, that and the other. Well, there was a guy in the audience, wonderful,

Speaker: brilliant Canadian performer by the name of Don Cullen and Don saw me do my shtick and and he came up to me afterwards and he said listen I'm doing a stage play down at the St. Lawrence Center I'd like you to be in it so who all of a sudden I'm doing theater I'm doing theater darling there you go so yeah um And the the other performers in this production were all -time professionals. I'm the new kid. i've done I've never been, well, I have been on the stage, but not in that theatrical performer. So I'm working with a great old Canadian institution by the name of Jack Duffy, a wonderful singer from the Montreal named Elmita Speaks, and another lady who was um Miss New York or something, Julia Motto. She had her own television show on CTV for a while.

Speaker: Anyway, um ah the that we were the foursome. And because of Jack Duffy, Jack Duffy had always been one of Wayne and Schuster's go -to characters on their television show. okay So yeah Johnny and Frank came to the show. and saw it and saw me in it and came backstage afterwards and said, hey, listen, kid, we need a kid in our cast. Would you come and do the TV show show? Bingo. Again, luckiest guy in the world. Yeah, but you're bringing in and you're that one of those guys, you got more guts than brains probably at some point. Bingo.

Speaker: Bingo. che so Let's go for it. I'm writing a book right now. Maybe I should call it More Guts Than Brains. Exactly. yeah That's not bad. Feel free. That's exactly what it sounds like. So but yeah, of course, you're doing radio and television commercials too, right? And stage work. That sort of started coming along too. And all of a sudden out of nowhere, you know, um at the time you had to be and ah registered with five different agents in the city. So every Monday I put on a suit and tie and, you know, swooshed myself up. And I'd go to each of those five agents and and say, have we got enough pictures? Have we got enough resumes? I'm in town this week. If anything pops up, if you know and everybody who needs this goofy looking face, I'm available sort of thing. And, yeah that never you know, the snowball started to roll, started to roll, started to roll. And I started getting work in in other things besides the theater, darling, which i don't I think it lasted a month.

Speaker: So what did you learn from that experience? What what did that teach you? What experience is that? The theater? um It learned not to upstage myself. If you're talking to somebody, be on the same level. Don't stand behind them. um ah Just, I don't know. I don't know what it taught me. and I do remember a ah critic from one of the newspapers came and saw the show and she she said, I was clever, adorable and funny. yeah And i've I've used that my entire life. Well, the reason I asked that is because, you know, I've done a lot of different things in my life too and I tried different things and I wasn't necessarily great. If I took standup comedy, I thought that'd be a great thing to do. So I took a couple courses in that and did that. And I realized it wasn't my thing. It's not something I want to spend my life doing. So for you, for theater, it's not something you're going to pursue for the rest of your life, but you take the experience and what you learn from it and move on and use that in other contexts, I guess.

Speaker: Yeah, well, I was, i was again, the luckiest guy in the world. hi There was a guy that I sang in a choir and in um in Calgary, and he became, he was very ah he is a very, very talented musician, songwriter, performer, pianist, and he came east and he now lives in Toronto. And his name is David Warwick. And David decided he was going to put on a theatrical production. And I auditioned and he cast me in it. Well, all time sake, I guess. I don't know. Anyway, the show ran for over a year. And um at the time, it was the longest running theatrical production in Canada.

Speaker: and it was a hoops that was was productionop yeah yeah And David, David cast me in that and and that was, you know, that was fun. But, you know, yeah you're working every night and... um Yeah, so again, you're not going to spend your life doing that, right? You're not going to go from one to another. I couldn't see myself doing that for, I mean, I quit after a year, I think. I said, Dave, i yeah and there's only so many ways I can perform this song, you know, or this sketch. you know You try and mix it up, you try and make it different, you try and make it your own, but you know there's only so many different ways you can do it. so you yeah fair enough Yeah. But so then you gravitated back to the music, right? So I'm always curious about that too, because lots of guys try to get in the door, they try to get a record deal, they try to go to a studio, record some serious tunes and stuff. And you were able to do that when a lot of other people weren't. How do how did that come about? Again, bullshit baffles brains. Through my time at

Speaker: the radio station in Toronto. I met a wonderful guy who became my best friend, actually. And he was the original bass player in David Clayton, Thomas and the Shays. And his name was Scott Richards. And he'd gotten into the record business as a promo guy. And um anyway, that's how I first met him. He came into the radio station and and was pitching a bunch of records and stuff. And I got to know him. And like I say, we became best of best of friends. Cool. And um anyway, um We're kibbutzing around and this, that, and the other. And he said, hey, you can sing, man. I like to think I can. And he said, no, no, you are a singer. There's somebody I want you to meet. So he took me down to RCA Studios. He was working for RCA Records at the time. He took me down to RCA Studios, and he introduced me to a fellow by the name of Bill Meisner. And Bill Meisner was the original guitar player or songwriter, et cetera.

Speaker: for the Poppers, who were a big, big band in Toronto and and Eastern Canada at the time. And anyway, Bill left the band for creative differences, but was still a great songwriter and ah and a great guy. Anyway, um Bill heard me sing and he said, wow yeah yeah here listen to this song or listen to it and he played me a whole bunch of the songs and he says do you like any i said are you kidding man i love them all he said well do you want to record something ah you mean make a record yeah so uh that was it that was how it started so uh

Speaker: I recorded two of his tunes. One was called Ebenezer. The other was called um Sing Angel Sing. And RCA signed us and we we promoted it. And um my friend Scott Riches was the promo guy, took me all over Ontario to all these different radio stations. And um so um all of a sudden, I'm ah a recording artist. And I thought, so what year would this have been? who seventy seventy -one seventy -two. and Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, anyway, he um he sort of kicked the door open there and then after the year was up, RCA dropped me.

Speaker: So I thought, oh well, that was fun. and um so But then one day Billy phones me and he says, Bill Meisner phones me up and he says, let's make some more records. I said, Bill, we don't have a deal. He says, it doesn't matter. We'll get a deal. We'll get a deal. I said, oh, OK. What do you want to do? He says, well, I got some new tunes. And i so I met up with him and I said, Bill, listen, man, you know, I love your stuff. I love your tunes. But after working in England, I heard so many great, great songs that have never seen the light of day here in North America.

Speaker: and their hits and yeah you know I think if we record one of those we can get a foot in the door and then people will be more interested in listening to your tunes and he says you know that doesn't make it that sort of makes sense I said okay good I so I played her a bunch of stuff and the one that really stuck out stuck out was daytime nighttime and he says oh my god he said that's a that's a hit song I said yes it's never done pop kiss So um we went in the studio, we did a demo, we came out afterwards and he said, okay, what do you want me to do? We can't go to RCA. I said, hell no. I said, okay. My experience in the radio business, ABC Dunhill was the hottest label. They had Jim Croci, they had the grassroots, they had Three Dog Night, they had and ah ABC Dunhill was the hottest label going. I said, but they don't have a Canadian ah company. They're just distributed in Canada. I said, so,

Speaker: A and &M, they're number two. I go to A and &M, pitch them. So he went to A and &M and Jerry La Courcy was running it at the time. He heard daytime night coming. He says, that's a hit. You're right. Go in the studio, finish that thing. We'll put it out. And, you know, it's one thing to go in the studio and and you're listening to the tune come together and you're listening to the horns and the singers and you're mixing and you're putting it all together and you're thinking, oh, sure, this is pretty good. That's pretty good. But it's another thing again to A, hear it on the radio for the very first time and B, have it hit the charts and C, watch it go up the charts. hold well cra Holy crap. Holy crap. This is a hit record. You know, you' just it blows your mind, blows your mind. And all of a sudden I'm a recording artist.

Speaker: Well, I mean, but it's a fantastic it's a fantastic song, right? Well, yeah. But and great like I say to people all the time, ah a great song that lives forever. And really, it was a great, great song. So a couple of things that struck me about that one is great band. I mean, obviously, they spent they spent some money on it because you got the horns and the voices and it's beautiful production. I mean, yeah that was that's important. It was a great producer. Yeah. Yeah. And then, and your voice is nice because your voice is a little raspy. Like it's not the wispy sort of Peter noon tone. Like you got a little bit more growl in your voice, which I really like. yeah <unk> No, no, I guess not. I mean, i to tell you the truth, it's sort of been a bugbear of mine because um people say, you know, you don't sound the same on the ballads as you do on the, on the hard stuff. And I said, well, ah it just doesn't feel right. It just doesn't,

Speaker: ah ah My voice is kind of a chameleon, I suppose. so yeah um And I think that you know people picked up my first album and thought, well, i I recognize the guy on the first cut, but I don't know who the guy on the second cut is. Well, it's me. I'm just kind of changing my voice a little bit. you know so yeah and But I think that's kind of the kiss of death. I think that's personally, I think that's great because I mean, obviously when you hear Peter Noon or Jerry Marsden, any of those guys, you know exactly right away. you go Well, exactly. That's what I'm saying. So people listen to this and they don't know who the hell it is. Well, it sounds great to me. love back no i I mean, it's so such a fantastic song. And of course, I'm a little bit younger than you. I was born in 1960, but I grew up with those songs and those songs were on the radio when when I was growing up and listening to those songs. And I actually thought for a time that that was or um Blood, Sweat and Tears, but it wasn't really Thomas. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: Well, because you got the same sort of flavor, you know. Well, yeah, I guess so. And, yeah you know, for years I used to say to people, I used to say, oh yeah, well, you know, David comes from England. I'm from England. We sort of went through the same ah background and we were influenced by Sam Cooke and Ray Charles. and da da but And I said, so we come from sort of the same place. And I guess that's why we sort of attack the song the same way. And that's why I sort of sound like him. But then years later, I realized that I had bought a David Clayton Thomas and the Shays album and I had listened to it many, many times. So, ooh, ooh, maybe I was copying them. Well, I mean, with all your voiceover work and stuff, too, you got a really versatile voice, which is, again, something that not everybody has. Some guys are very distinct and that's what they sound like.

Speaker: you got that more chameleon voice, as you said, and and obviously it served you well. um So you you got a hit in the States, too, which is, again, was fairly unusual then most of the Canadian votes. And the thing was, the record went to number 51 on the Billboard charts. And it wasn't until years later that I learned that to get into the top 50 in the United States, money had to change hands. You gotta pay. and who's going to ah You

Speaker: Little Keithy Hampshire from Canada um don't get the kind of loot or the kind of backing or whatever. And maybe A &M thought, you know, this kid's gonna, he can do it on his own. This is a good record. And so they didn't pay the the money that it took to get it in the top 50. I don't know. But so no big deal. You'd have to have a US record deal with the deep pockets and the independent record producer. People think Paola went away, but it really didn't because it was made up one step removed. You had to pay the independent record promoters. I read the book, Hitman, where they explain all that. What I was going to ask is, you got to make a big splash in the US. Did you ever think about moving down there and taking on that market?

Speaker: Well, over the years I've had many opportunities to do that. I hung out with the the Second City Gang, and um yeah John Candy, Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Andrea Martin, and that I hang out with that gang and many of the time they asked me to join their troupe and and go with them and um you know Danny Aykroyd come to New York a Saturday Night Live. um I did a television show for CBC um with Lorne Michaels. He was the producer of the show so Lorne knew my stuff. So I mean the opportunity was there many many times and when later I decided to sort of set back out of the

Speaker: public light or whatever you want to call it. I yeah ah and decided to, um I didn't want to live in the States. A friend of mine, Terry David Mulligan, who lives out west, um he was a well -known spokesman for The Gap in its day and they flew him all over to open new stores and this, that and the other. He moved to San Francisco and he said, I hated it. He said, um every time I went out jogging, he said, I was always looking over my shoulder. And he said, I have to live in a house with bars on the windows. And, you know, he said, you're living in fear all the time. And yeah, well, I was gonna say, like, it's interesting, because obviously, when you when you make a splash in the States, the the the chatter is always, well, let's go down there. Let's take on that market. I mean, Paul Anka, when he was a kid, he just he went to New York, and same as Andy Kim, you know, ah had Andy Kim on the show. And

Speaker: Just said, I just went to the Brill building, man. I didn't care. That's where I wanted to be at the center of the universe. Yes. And other guys are like, meh, I'm not going to, not going to do that. Yeah. So you, you know, you make your choices and, and I don't regret one choice I've made. I do not regret one. Um, no, no, I can't. I can't think of one that I regret because it, uh, like I say, I'm the luckiest guy in the world. Life's been good to me and I married the right lady the first time, which is nice. And I had wonderful kids. I live in a wonderful house. Um, and, um, you know, I'm sorry, but, uh,

Speaker: It's been been too freaking easy for me. Well, no you know what? It's good. I'm happy. like Contentment is being happy with what you already have. And if you can say you're content, it doesn't mean you don't aspire to other things, but you're happy with where you're at. And that's important. I mean, that should be our goal in life. So many people as aspire to things that don't make them happy. No, no, don't don't do it if you don't make you happy. If you have to go to work and you're not happy going to work, you're working you're working in the wrong job. yeah You need to find something else to do. But it strikes me when I look at your trajectory because then you come up with first cut as the deepest. right and that that That's huge. i mean that was and It was a different sort of production. You get the horns and the voices and you do ah ah a more powerful version of that song and it really hit hard.

Speaker: and it's what It was the same gang really, it was the same horn player, same singer, same everything, same studio, same producer, just a different song and I'd heard the song in England and it had been a hit in England and it ah impressed me and I played it for Billy and he said, oh I'm hearing Phil Spector, I'm hearing that wall of sound, yeah yeah me too and we got Gord Fleming to do the arrangements And everybody loved it. And when we were doing it in the studio, i was but it was lot different than it was a lot different than the Cat Stevens version, obviously the acoustic version. A lot different from Cat Stevens. But the they the one that had made the mark in England was by a girl named P .P. Arnold.

Speaker: who was one of the eye cats with Ike and Tina Turner. And she had the hit in England, but she was on the immediate record label, which I don't know if they had North American distribution. So that's why it never, nobody over here ever heard it. you know Interesting. And at the time, Cat Stevens was, but I mean, he wrote that song when he was 16 years old, you know that? Wow. Yeah. Crazy. And it's such a beautiful song. I sing it all the time. I love it. I mean, the big version. but but So then you did big time operator. So what, what struck me is like, you got a trajectory going here. I mean, you know, a lot of guys get to get lucky with one hit and they're like, okay, but you know, you're stacking them up now and, and, and serious efforts. And I'm thinking, okay, if this guy wants to be a, you know, a superstar or at least a medium star, you're, you're well on your way to doing that.

Speaker: Well, ah Jerry LaCorsier again at A and &M, he wanted to hit i mean he wanted he wanted me to be Bryan Adams. And he eventually got Bryan Adams. you know He said Bryan Adams. But that's what he wanted. He wanted to prove to the U .S. company that he knew what he was doing. So um he basically came to me and he said, um I don't hear anything on the album that is as powerful as as First Cut is the deepest. You got anything else? And I said, well, here's Big Time Operator. What do you think of that? He said, yeah, yeah.

Speaker: So I mean, he blew the bundle on that one. we got We got the best arranger in Canada. We got the best players in Canada. And ah we even went down to New York and had it mixed by Phil Ramone, the god of of of recording engineers. He put all his eggs in that basket and and it just didn't pop. It just wasn't the right song at the right time for the United States of America. I mean, it was the hottest ah have a hottest mix you can imagine. That thing almost leaps off the turntable, but you know it it just didn't didn't happen in in an America, which is where he wanted it to. so okay um And then one thing led to another, and eventually we parted ways. and And I decided that I did not want to spend the rest of my life in a bus with a bunch of guys eating at Denny's and McDonald's, traveling across this great nation of ours. And um so I decided to

Speaker: do other things. Yeah. Well, yeah, that's right. Because that that life, you really have to commit to that and chase the hit songs and then go and pound away, come back to the studio, do another album, pound away again. yeah That's the life, right? And hey, my wife was then making more but more than $3 ,600 a year. There you go. We were okay. So then you ended up with a TV show. So the music machine came along and I watched that. I remember watching that. So I really enjoyed victoria sure it was a Again, again, luckiest guy in the world. I mean, they ah come about they auditioned everybody. They auditioned David Clayton Thomas and Grant Smith of Grant Smith and the Power. I mean, every singer who was out there auditioned for the show. um But I got it because I'd done Wayne and Schuster and the guys who were the producers of and writers of the show.

Speaker: They just come back from Los Angeles, just come back from doing the Johnny Cash Show, which was a musical variety show. And that's what they wanted to do, music and comedy. And so um that was the original concept for Music Machine. So they wanted a guy who could not only sing, but a guy who could do comedy. And there there weren't a whole lot of me around. So I got the gig and um After four shows, they decided, well, somebody at CBC decided it wasn't funny, so they dropped the comedy altogether and we went strictly music, which was fine because we we did 50 shows in two years, 50, which is an enormous um number. And the thing is that there are only, I believe, eight shows left on video.

Speaker: They they erased all of them. That's crazy. sweet I did watch there's some on YouTube. I watched a couple of episodes, actually, and I was the one to put them up there. Oh, I put them. I put them up there because I had the copies. And the quality is bloody awful, but really, the CBC, the performers we had on the show, we had Baldy, we had so many... Yeah, and just a quick... Because I was on a TV show in Vancouver here in 1973 called Talent Breakthrough. I was a young up and coming kid and they put me on there. And I went back years later to get a copy because I wanted to see it. And they said the same thing. They erased it. I said, you're erasing Canadian history. That's right. What are you doing? And they're gone forever now.

Speaker: Yes. But you you came across really well on that show because you were very disarming. I mean, you're funny, but you're also a competent musician. So you had the kind of whatever they were looking for on their resume, you would have checked all those boxes because you could talk to people and you were disarming, you were funny, but you could actually sing too. So when you do your musical segments, it's good, you know, because the old Merv Griffin show where Merv used to come out and do a song and stuff would be like, okay, Merv, you know, we're good. He used to come up and sing, right? Because Murph would sing and then he would talk, so it's... so Yeah. yeah kind of go but But again, the luckiest guy in the world. I don't consider myself the greatest singer by any means. I've worked with some singers in the years in the studio that I've been you know doing commercials and jingles and all that other stuff. You could sing circles around me. And um you know if you don't have the right song at the right time with the right producer, with the right record company,

Speaker: If you don't have all of those ducks in a row, you fall by the wayside. and Well, fair enough. but And it's so true. But you had hit songs. so that like lucky I was lucky. I'd be lucky. so but By the time you did that TV show, you had genuine hit songs, so so you were you were legit for sure. i had Yeah, I had three top 10 records in one year. um I had a number one, first cut is the deepest one to number one. And um i A and &M put me up for a Juno Award for male vocalist of the year. And um

Speaker: ah How do I say this without sounding bitter? um The Canadian Record Industry Association decided to change the criterion that used to be from January to January. They decided the year that I did what I did to change it from January to March or from March to March or something. So I sort of fell ah between the cracks. And so Terry Jacks won for Seasons in the Sun two years in a row. ah okay there you go you know oh well yeah it's never met the man but i'm sure um i would like him very much yes well so you had lots of guests on it and you had the stan peters on there too right did you have a connection with them well yeah because they were from calgary i was from calgary we

Speaker: We used to go and see him play. um yeah um And ah the boys, they sacrificed so much, so much. I mean, there was originally six guys in the band and they they got in an old Cadillac and drove across Canada to Toronto, to the big you know the big city of Toronto. They were going to set the world on fire and they didn't. And they kept playing and trying and trying. and eventually three guys left the band so they left they were left with three that they kept trying they kept rehearsing they kept playing and ah eventually the cream rose to the top you know no they did they did well well the reason i asked about that well i have had kim on a couple times but

Speaker: the ah The lady who's the program director for the station is married to Kim, the drummer. so Oh, is that right? Oh, yeah. yes it a badform me will you That's the connection. So I've had, he was my first guest. Those guys toured all the time. They did hundreds of, they would do two over 200 dates a year for years. Yeah. So he lived, he lived in a bus and eight Denny's and McDonald's, you know. Oh yeah. Yeah. Big time. Yeah. So then the music machine kind of ran its course and you did some more recording. um Yeah I did but I didn't have a deal then. My deal had elapsed at A &M and so i am I came to a crossroads and I decided that I was going to, I had a beautiful wife and a beautiful son and a beautiful farm in the country that was commutable to Toronto um so I could work in Toronto if I needed and um I started freelance everything.

Speaker: And so I fell into doing jingles, commercials. I'm the guy that sold you, you know, it's time you tried McCain Tasty Taters. They're crispy on the outside, tender and golden on the inside, you know, stuff like that. Yeah, perfect. And singing jingles and just anything to make a buck to feed my family, you know. So I had a beautiful son, a beautiful daughter, an idyllic life in the country. I had an agent She'd phone me up and she'd say you got a gig tomorrow afternoon at two o 'clock at such -and -such recording studio so I would get my car at 12 31 o 'clock drive into the city Park the car go into the studio read the script do what I was told leave in an hour Maybe two hours and drive home. Yeah, very nice. Yeah, that's tough. That's tough

Speaker: But again, you'd paid some dues by then and you had that versatility. oh Well, yes. And I think people hired me because because of the records and because of the television show and because, and you know, they could say to the advertiser, you know, we've got Keith Hampshire doing this the voiceover on your toilet paper commercial. And they're, oh, really? Boy, he knows how to sell toilet paper. Yes. Well, there you go. You know, that's an important thing on the resume. so That's cool. and then so You helped out with the A and &R for the record company as well. There was some connection with David Wilcox and Lee Aaron.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. Well, so you dug that up. OK, so um my friend Scott Richards, I told you about and ah my best friend, um who was the one that got me started in the record business. He um rose through the ranks at MCA Records Universal. OK. And um eventually um they decided that he had been promoted beyond perhaps his realm of expertise or whatever you want to call it. So they offered him an incredible retirement package. We think you need to retire, Scott. yeah So he thought, hold on, Dan, I'm going to start my own label. So he started his own label called Freedom Records. And I was one of his first artists as a act matter of fact. But um so

Speaker: When I was in town doing commercials or whatever, I'd drop into his office and we'd shoot the breeze. And um he'd say, hey, what do you think of this group? And I'd listen to it. I'd go, you know, you need to sign those guys. That's a hit. Yeah, that's a market for that. And so, ah yeah inadvertently, I sort of became his A and &R guy. So I got him to sign David Wilcox. I got him to sign Lee Aaron. I got him to sign the arrows. He signed a lot of great musicians. And they were all looking for deals and they couldn't get one, but Scotty had a good ear. And um I just sort of pointed him in that direction. So was he successful with that? Did that work out well for him? No, he didn't. get ah Even though he had great distribution, he was

Speaker: RCA did his distribution and pressing and whatever. ah He just ran out of money because, you know, the hits the hits do pay for the misses. And yeah even though he had good artists, he wasn't having hits yet. So he wasn't selling enough records. Right. Okay. Yeah. Because I think I heard years ago that somebody had mentioned that you only a small percentage of the of the acts that are signed to a record company actually make money for the record. Oh, yeah. brain Well, you know so okay. Here's the case in point. I supposedly, not that I don't know this for a fact, but I was told that I sold three quarters of a million records worldwide.

Speaker: Which is right. o Holy crap. to think good Three quarters of a million people actually went to the record store and put their money down and bought my record when they could have bought anything. It blows my mind. But the the thing i ah point I'm trying to make here is that um I made not a nickel, not a penny. no money at all because all of my royalties or whatever you want to call them were eaten up by promotional copies. So they sent me to New York, they sent me to Washington, D .C., they sent me here, they sent me there to promote my records, of course. And they, you know, they were very kind and very generous and this, that and the other. Little did I know it was coming out of my royalties. There you go. Yeah. You know, that's the way it works.

Speaker: Yeah, you get to you get the ah tour and you get the pat on the back, but you don't get a check at the end of it. You get the seven and a half pound lobster at the Palm Cafe in Washington, D .C. Yeah. So how did the OK Blue Jays thing come? You ended up getting a gold record with that, I guess. that they I got a gold record from that puppy. Well, again, its same same thing. Lucky, lucky, lucky. I got a call from my agent. Listen, this advertising agency is looking for somebody to sing this jingle. For the Blue Jays, they're putting together a promotional ah film and they're okay they want to do some music to go with it. um ah Go to this recording studio at such and such a time and and and see if you can sing this song. So I went and I listened to the track and I thought, geez, that sounds that sort of sounds like a Randy Newman track. You know, I sort of gave it a Randy Newman feel or whatever you want to call it.

Speaker: And um anyway, they like me, I can say, I don't know how many guys they auditioned in 20, 30, 40, 50, it doesn't matter. um they They hired me to do this thing. So they they bring out this um this promotional record, or no, this promotional film, and they send it around to try and drum up advertising and whatever. And then the guys who wrote it, Tony Kozinek and Jack Lenz, they come to me one day and they say, listen, Keith, we're we've got we just made a deal with the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team they're going to let us sell a 45 at the ballgames of the song. and So we'll we'll we'll give you $5 ,000 upfront. And if you if we eventually sell more than 30 ,000 copies, we'll give you the balance. We'll give you another five grand. And I thought, I've never made a penny from anything

Speaker: I mean any record I've ever made so sure I give you the money off you go so they started selling it at the ball games and then damn it all if the Blue Jays don't get in the World Series and everybody's playing the record and everybody wants to buy it so next thing you know I'm sitting in home I'm reading the paper one morning and there's a tiny little thing at the bottom the entertainment section that Canadian Record Industry Association has just certified OK Blue Jays by the Batboys. That's what they call this. The Batboys as gold. And so I got on the phone and I phoned A &M Records, which was my old record company. I phoned them up.

Speaker: And you know it's a few years later, of course. I phone them up and I say, hi, this is Keith Hampshire. Yes. I just read in the paper that the Blue Day song has just been certified gold. Well, yes. um Who do I see about getting a gold record? One moment, please. So I must have been transferred five times before I actually found somebody who remembered me from the early 70s. And he said, yeah, yeah, yeah, Keith, give me your, give me your info and we'll send one out to you. So sure enough, about six weeks later, the doorbell rings and there's a delivery guy and I'm beside myself. And I said, I know what this is. He says, that'll be $81 please.

Speaker: She had to buy your own gold record. I had to buy my own gold record. I love it. And then I bring it in. I show it to my wife. She goes, oh, that's nice, dear. Where are you going to hang it? I said, oh, well, where will you let me hang it? She said, behind the toilet in the bathroom. Oh, perfect. That's where it is. Okay, well good. for so So that was kind of a a fluke too, right? because it Exactly. Because you start doing a jingle which turns into a song which turns into a gold record. Yep, and now they play it. I went to the ballgame last night, as a matter of fact. There it is, seventh inning stretch. Everybody's dancing to my song.

Speaker: too funny. yeah That's a blast. That's a blast. Oh, that's cool. Well, so we're we're running out of time, but I'll do a little rapid fire here at the end if that's okay. So you've done lots of stuff like voiceovers characters and are you still doing any of that stuff? You still working? You still acting? No, no. ah ah My agent told me I was a dinosaur. She said, yeah you know, in the olden days, they used to phone up and they asked for you and she said they don't do that anymore. And she said, and the other thing is that you were sort of you weren't really into the king of the soft sell, but you know, you could go in the studio and go, we asked women to give up their regular soap and take the Dove seven day test, you know, stuff like that. She says nowadays they they want to hear, we asked women to give up their regular soap and take the Dove seven day test.

Speaker: You know, and she said, yeah you're a dinosaur. They don't want that anymore. You're too nice. So she says, I think you're retired. So I came home and I told my wife, I said, listen, nany they just told me I'm retired. I always thought that as long as I could still talk, I could still make money. I said, ah are we OK? And she said, We're okay. So for 24 hours though, I was really sweating it. But it's, you know, it's like, again, she says, I'm making $3 ,600 a year, honey. We're okay. We're fine. No, good. Well, it sounds like you're in a good place. So that's, that's more important than anything. And and you obviously made some decisions that you, that you are are happy about. So how do you, when you look back now on the timelines, I mean, we're talking 1974 was 50 years ago, half a century ago. How do you look back on that? Oh, Did you have to do that? Yeah, well, did do have time goes one way. Oh, Lord. I have no regrets. I have not won because I've been so damn lucky because everything has just, I can't say it was easy, but it would, it sure was close.

Speaker: You know, I do not gamble. I do not go to casinos. I do not buy lottery tickets. I do not gamble because I don't, ah to tell you the truth, I used to, not very often, I'd flutter, do a little flutter, but I never won bupkis, ever. So, yeah you know, I don't push my luck. I'm lucky enough. I'm pretty well proud of almost everything I've ever done. yeah So there isn't much you would change. If you could go back and do it again, you wouldn't change too much? No, no, no, no, no, no. how much of what you did, do you think, was a function of the time that you did it in the 60s, 70s? Oh, well, um the the the record thing was ah was so, again, lucky. a Pierre Juno was in Parliament and and in power and put through the Canadian content regulations. From now on,

Speaker: Canadian radio stations are not going to rely on American um record companies. We are going to have our own music industry and that all you guys are going to make records here in Canada. We didn't have recording studios in Canada. We had Mickey Mouse recordings. I'm sorry. If you are the owner of an old recording studio back in the 60s, 50s, 60s, I'm sorry. I did not mean to diss you, but they couldn't compare with what they were churning out. for but That's right. your Your point. All of a sudden.

Speaker: all of a sudden we had recording studios, we had recording engineers and our musicians were were working and working regular and they were great musicians and they became better and so boom and that was my time, that was my time. No. Well, you make a good point, though, because most of the big music was coming out of the States and it was flooding our market. And there was really no way to fight that because it's we and we had to the four lads or the crew cuts or the or the the diamonds and Paul Anka. That was it. I mean, even poor Bobby Cortola was beating his head against the wall.

Speaker: You know? Yeah. Yeah. And Buddy Knox and, you know. Yeah, but he was American. Was he? Because he lived in Canada, didn't he? Did he not? Well, yeah, he eventually moved to Canada because we were we were good to him. We loved his stuff. Yeah. But no, he was from Tennessee, I think. Okay. There you go. i have toate You have a remastered greatest hits CD out now that people can access, right? That's available out there. ah Well, yeah, I do. It's 20th century masters or something, and um yeah we put together a dozen songs that I was actually quite proud of, yeah and we remastered them. and But I remember when it first came out, I was going to every record store I could to find a copy of it. I could never find it.

Speaker: oh yeah crazy it just wasn't there it just wasn't there what's that they available and they're available now though right i think you can buy them online but i i don't think you can buy them and i don't think they're in the stores Okay, well I'll check that because I have a few friends that own record stores out here now. Records are back, I guess. People sell vinyl now more than what they have. ah This never came out on vinyl. This was CD only. Yeah, that's what's what I saw on there. That's a remastered CD. yeah So by default, you're kind of a music historian. Do you ever share that with anybody? Do you ever do any talks or are you ever asked to speak anywhere?

Speaker: Yeah, occasionally. but but But generally, I just talk about the stuff we've just been talking about, you know. um ah Here's a little story. Okay. um When I first started freelancing, um I got a job as an announcer for the Ian Tyson television show. Ian Tyson. So I'm the announcer. So I'm, ladies and gentlemen, the Eason Tyson Show, starring Ian Tyson and the Great Spectral Bird. Tonight, special guest, the Staple Stingers and Sylvia. That was me. yeah So anyway, after I get success with my stuff, Ian Tyson sits back and he goes, wait a minute, that kid was my announcer. And he's got to hit record for God's sake. ah So he goes to A and &M Records and he says,

Speaker: I'm looking for a record deal. Any chance you give me one?" And they said, you can't hear Ian Tyson. He says, okay, great. Ian, may you rest in peace? I love you, brother. um Anyway, he goes to my record company and he agrees to sign with A and &M. And then he says, so ah Keith Hampshire's producer, who is that guy? Bill Meisner. I want him. So which he does every everything because he figured, hell, if my announcer can have a hit record, so can I. And Billy did ah but billy did a great album for him. It was called Ole Eon. And but he just, he wasn't as lucky as I was.

Speaker: Well, I guess, and and I had Sylvia on actually a couple of months ago on the on the podcast and she's still active and recording and stuff too. And Ian's passed on now. But he I think that Four Strong Winds got voted as the number one folk song of Canada. It should be. Yeah. You know, I mean, a great song. Great. Yeah, no, it was really good. And it touches people's soul like you want music to do. And that was, I was going to ask you too, that was another question I had for you was about songwriting. How much did you ever try your hand at songwriting or were you just good at picking them? Yeah, I did. I did try my hand at songwriting. And as a matter of fact, I sat down one day and I I wrote the lyrics out and I had a melody in my head and I thought, well, I don't know how to play an instrument. I can't write the little scribbles on the piece of paper. I don't know how the hell to do that. So I met up with a guy who's a very good friend of mine and I said, listen, if I sing it into a tape machine, can you write it? And he said, yeah, sure. So anyway, I sat down and I sang this song and I gave it to him.

Speaker: met up with him a while later and I said, how'd you make out of that song? He said, oh you know, it sounded really, really familiar and I thought we'd probably get sued or something. It just sounded too familiar. I said, well, yeah, but it it was a pop song. It was, you know, it was supposed to sound comfortable and easy and whatever. But I don't think I plagiarized anybody. and He said, well, I rewrote it. So he rewrote it. New melody. newentta dehda And we put it on the album and it did nothing. ah but well i mean That's where the money is.

Speaker: Yeah. Well, that's right. I mean, there's a lot of like, for example, George Strait is a good example. He said, I'm not great at writing songs, but I'm great at picking hit songs. And he chose over 20 songs, but they weren't his. He didn't write them. And I want to ask you about that because, you know, you were doing some of the retro British stuff or the, some of the British, he said some of the British stuff that wasn't well known over here, which is really a smart move. Um, but then you don't have to write, you just have to pick. In retrospect, yes. So do you do you wish you'd written more songs or or gone down that road a little bit more? You know, I don't wish for anything to be different. um yeah I'm sorry.

Speaker: Yeah, no, that's good. Because I often ask my guests, you know, what what was your goal when you started? If you said, I want to be, and then you fill in the blank. Yeah. What what would that be for you? Just for exactly what you did? Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm 78 years old of old. yeah No, hang on. You don't need to say old, Keith. 78 years of age. And um I have no regrets. I don't know. Okay. Well, that's good. And did you reach the level of success that you wanted? I guess if you if you just sort of did what you felt you should do at the time, then you get what you get and you are what you are. Well, to tell you the truth, Dan, I made it as far as I needed to. i had Every time I heard one of my um ah commercials on the air, I was chuffed. Every time I heard my song on the radio, I was chuffed. Last night at the baseball game, I heard my song. I was chuffed.

Speaker: I guess I don't know if I'm easily pleased or not, but I mean, I'm never going to be a Billy Joel. I'm never going to be a Bob Dylan. I'm never going to be a Paul McCartney. And I knew that. Yeah. But I mean, those guys were truly, truly gifted myself. I'm just I'm just a schmoe that loves to sing. yeah Well, it worked out pretty well for you. So i like on the things on the business side of it, did you ever get taken advantage of or mistreated or sign a read bad record deal or anything like that? No. No, I don't think I did. Because lots of guys did. I mean, I hear yes to that and at that question all the time. Right. Yeah. A lot of guys got really fleeced and you sound sounds like you kind of found your way. You weaved your way through and didn't get fleeced by anybody. no No, no, no, no. I mean, there was there was a time at A and &M when when big time operator didn't get as big in the States or big in the world as ah Jerry La Courcy at A and &M was concerned. He said, you know, I blew my budget. I blew everything I had on this.

Speaker: And he said, I don't hear a follow up record to this. And I said, well, yeah I've got something in the can here. It's a great song. I think we did a great arrangement. I sang my but back off and um I think it's a perfect follow up to a big time operator. And he says, I don't hear it, man. I said, I'm telling you, this is a hit song. And he said, I'm sorry, I don't hear it. You're going to have to go in the studio and record some more. So um anyway, that particular song just shortly afterwards came out by somebody else who revitalized their entire singing career. The song went to number one in Canada, number one in the US, number one in the world.

Speaker: Wow. And reestablished Linda Ronstad and the song was You're No Good. Now I'm not saying mine would have done what hers did. but And that's when I said to Jerry, if ah you and I are finished, I'm sorry, I i can't record for you anymore. Well, there you go. I mean, that's that's a fairly standard thing. like is that the suits What's the old saying? The suits wreck the music business because of the deals. and Yeah, I guess that's what they say. yeah so how did you Did you avoid the the party times? like You came up in a time where there was lots of drugs and booze and crap around the reckless lifestyle. You managed to avoid all that by being ah a good family guy with a hobby farm.

Speaker: I guess so. I guess so no and i never i mean, I smoked pot a couple of times. I never agreed with me. I'm high on life. yeah you know a Life's been good to me and I've got my health. um yeah i got a bad I got a bad knee from playing pickleball, but um no i oh and i never I never did that stuff. yeah and Hey, call me a square, call me a prude, call me whatever you like. I don't care. Just don't call me late for dinner. Well, good for you because that was a time when that was really prevalent. but you know There were certain guys, like like I asked Andy Kim that question too, he said now ah zero. said I wasn't interested in that scene at all. yeah and just you know i I appreciate you guys that are were able to to sort of skirt all that in the in the midst of, I mean, I've been a professional musician my whole life over four decades. I've seen everything, things I shouldn't have seen. but

Speaker: you know it's not living your best life and i avoided it myself i i just didn't you know we drank a bit and smoked a bit of pot but i wasn't interested in in being a that guy you know yes you don't need a pen yet I don't think it helps. I really don't. Yeah. So how do you see the live music scene now? Like when you look at the landscape out there now, do you shake your head? What do you think? What's your impression? I appreciate live music. I go and see it whenever I can. I all laud them. I applaud them. i I think it's wonderful that they do that. I don't understand a lot of their music. And know and to me, rap ain't music. It's bad poetry put to a drum beat. I'm sorry if you love rap. I'm sorry, but that's how I feel.

Speaker: yeah i'm i'm an old I told you I'm an old man. But the um I really am very sad that the the music industry has changed the way it has. I know there were a lot of things wrong with the music industry, and there were a lot of things that needed to be fixed. But now it must be so difficult to get people to listen to what you do, to your creativity, to your art. It is art. And it must be so difficult to do that. Well, I guess it's saturated out there. I mean, you just deal with the time that you're faced with. And I guess people coming up now, they're dealing with what they're faced with and that's what it is. But I did see ah a stat sheet. It's been a while now, but classic rock is still really popular. Like the golden age of 60s, 70s, even into the 80s.

Speaker: that music is still really vibrant and people are tons of people are listening to it. All those baby boomers and people are listening to that all the time. So I still love listening to your tunes and the old tunes and that they they had a magic that I don't think ah most songs, I think it's fair to say, don't have nowadays. I can't argue with that. I mean, i it could could very well be true. I know that I've got a very good friend named Virgil Scott, who's a wonderful singer and and has been a professional singer his entire life. and he's sort of taken me under his wing and he said hey come on man we're going to a jam session tonight oh yeah okay so we go to a jam session and these guys are playing uh great great players and i'm listening to them jamming and they're just making it up on the spot and they're playing tunes and i'm going god that's a great song i never heard that before oh it was a hit oh really was it wasn't oh i'll be darned

Speaker: um im I'm so out of the loop that way. It's yeah crazy. Fair enough. But you came up at the Golden Time when when all that music was, you were born at the right time for that experience, right? well And i I was, again, lucky in that I was influenced by that Golden Time in 1966, 1967, when I was in Britain and we were playing the hits, yeah greatest the greatest music of all time, in my opinion. and my opinion Yeah, I will fight to the death. My right to have it. Yes, that's right. Well, good. Well, it's it's neat because when I do these interviews, I do, of course, do do a lot of research and I do a lot of reading and stuff. and And the one thing I knew your name and I knew of your stuff. But then sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised when I go through and I saw all the stuff that you did. And I thought, well, I get an opportunity to talk to Keith about the stuff he did. And I was really impressed by that. And I'm really impressed by you. And I really appreciate you coming on.

Speaker: Well, I thank you very much for getting in touch. I thank you for asking me. I must tell you that one of the things I'm most proud about is I sang a song that was written by John Sebastian and I was in the studio with John Sebastian of The Love and Spoonful. He wrote a song for the Care Bears movie, Care Bears Adventures in Wonderland. I won the part of the Mad Hatter. And I got to sing the Mad Hatter song that was written by John Sebastian in front of John Sebastian in the studio. What a thrill. Yeah, that's very cool. And of course, I didn't mention, but you were in a lot of cartoons. You do a lot of voiceovers for cartoons. I did a lot of crazy things. Yeah. Oh, very good. Put food on the table.

Speaker: Many thanks to my guests, Keith Hampshire, for being part of the Llantern Olds podcast, and sharing some insights from as many musical adventures and accomplishments. More information is available at KeithHampshire .com. Great website with lots of information on there. We hope you enjoyed the podcast and invite you to subscribe to it and share it on social media so others can enjoy it as well. And we also invite you to listen to Dusty Discs Radio Tuesdays and Thursdays to hear music from the Canadian artists you're hearing on this show. Until next time, I'm Dan Hare.