No Sleep 'til Sudbury with Brent Jensen

If you want to have a great chat about music, Montreal-based radio personality, podcaster, and musician Jeremy White is your guy. He's my guest this week on NSTS, and it was a discussion I thoroughly enjoyed.  Jeremy touches on all kinds of topics - how Yngwie Malmsteen almost killed him, the bionic ears of Mutt Lange, why Eddie Van Halen should never be called a shredder, how the 80s impacted KIS...

I haven't seen my pal, former VH1 veejay and current Q104.3 New York on-air personality Ian O'Malley, for more than a year. We decided last week we'd catch up via the show and talk about the songs that have been making his skin vibrate lately given the current times.  O'Malley can always be relied upon to bring some very compelling conversation, and some great stories too - this time around we cha...

Famed music producer Phil Spector died in jail a few days ago, and his legacy begs the question - was he a musical genius who committed murder, or a murderer who happened to be a musical genius?  This week NSTS breaks down the bizarre life of Phil Spector, from the question of his parents being relatives, through his legendary successes as a songwriter and producer, his culture of abuse and cruelt...

Given the interest in NSTS Episode 171, "Bizarre Musical Conspiracy Theories", I elected to return to the territory this week and examine perhaps the greatest rock and roll hoax of them all - the 'Paul is Dead' conspiracy theory.  Such an interesting phenomenon to delve into - the assertion that Beatle Paul McCartney secretly died in a car accident in 1966 and was replaced by a lookalike, with all...

It's my pleasure this week to host Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go's on NSTS from her home in Austin, Texas to chat about her fantastic memoir All I Ever Wanted, and of course, the songs that make her skin vibrate.  Kathy and I have a great down-to-earth discussion about the incredible events she's experienced in life, both good and bad. She also shares what she had really hoped to convey in her book...

Happy New Year everyone, good to be back. We're going to kick the year off with a chat I had with a good friend of mine from England, bestselling author and editor of Bass Player magazine, mister Joel McIver. Joel's writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Classic Rock, and loads of other publications, and in having written more than 30 books on bands like Metallica, Queens of the Stone Age, Motorhe...

I had mentioned earlier that I left Rik's house after taping this year's NSTS Christmas special with almost four hours of material. After considering options, I decided to create THREE episodes, one more than the usual two we produce every year. So technically, we can consider this a bonus episode!    This is just all fun, fantastic content. Laughs, insights, analysis, and intimate acoustic perfor...

Welcome back to No Sleep 'til Sudbury's 2020 Christmas special, live from legendary Triumph frontman Rik Emmett's home studio. In this episode, Rik continues to deconstruct the songs that make our skin vibrate, this week's picks being Lulu's "To Sir With Love", The Beatles' "And I Love Her", and "Planet Caravan" from Black Sabbath. Rik sings and plays them section by section, breaking them down wi...

I am SO excited to share this with you. Legendary Triumph guitarist Rik Emmett is back for his annual NSTS Christmas episodes, but in planning this year's content, we decided we would do something different... Rik told me earlier this year that he had exhausted his list of Christmas songs that make his skin vibrate. But, in keeping with the theme of that special warmth Christmas brings, he propose...

What better way to wrap up the Steam Whistle live on location sessions than with my dear pal, the incredibly gifted Stephen Stanley? In this finale episode, Stephen and I cover a lot of ground - his new record, his new radio show, his new t-shirt...! In addition to sharing some fantastic skin-vibrating songs, Stephen also shares some great stories, like the time when he was introduced as "Steve an...

Friend of the show and one-woman hurricane Suzi Kory drops in this week for episode four of the No Sleep 'til Sudbury Steam Whistle live on location series recorded at the Steam Whistle Roundhouse in downtown Toronto. As she always does, Suzi brings her unique high-energy blend of engagement, inspiration, and lots of laughs. And this time around as an added bonus, she's joined by guitarist Jeff Br...

Back by popular demand, R&B songstress Sandra Bouza returns to the show as my guest for part three of the NSTS Steam Whistle live on location series. Her first appearance on the show got a lot of attention, and now she's back with a new list of songs and another searing acoustic performance. Highlights of our chat include Janis Joplin, her very unique way of forgiving others, Blood on the Tracks,...

Sandy Horne and Gord Deppe of The Spoons join me this week for Episode II of the No Sleep 'til Sudbury multi-show series live on location from the Steam Whistle Roundhouse facility in downtown Toronto. Sandy and Gord have both been on the show solo previously, so we thought it would be cool to have them come in together and play, and fool around with the idea of skin vibrating songs. They attempt...

Welcome to the special NSTS five-episode series created in partnership with the Steam Whistle Brewery, recorded live on location at their Roundhouse facility in downtown Toronto. This is a cool project I've been working on for a while, and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.  Steam Whistle is a brand I've always liked, but it wasn't until I learned more about their deep affinity for musi...

This coming Friday, October 30, Glass Tiger will be doing something they've been waiting to do for more than three decades. And in what I believe is a global exclusive(!), Glass Tiger keyboard player Samuel Reid is on No Sleep 'til Sudbury this week to talk about it.  I don't want to ruin the surprise, and if I list the songs Sam brought in, I'd be giving it away. So what are you waiting for? Pres...

If you're a regular No Sleep 'til Sudbury listener, you know that I love hosting up-and-coming artists whom I think are special. And this week, I welcome a very special talent - R&B singer Sandra Bouza.  There's a story behind this episode - one that didn't start out so well, but now has a happy ending. This episode was originally recorded live at The Spoke Club on Friday, December 13, 2019, but f...

As an Edward Van Halen fan from the age of twelve, it was necessary for me to commemorate him on NSTS upon learning of his passing last week. I feel fortunate to have a platform to offer this tribute.       Even though we didn't know each other at all, I felt like I'd lost an old friend. Without him knowing, we made some pretty incredible memories together, Eddie and I. We should be so lucky in ou...

Hey! This is part two of my chat with author and MuchMusic veteran Christopher Ward. We finally get to the songs that make his skin vibrate, and hearing Christopher's take on them was a great experience for me. Highlights of our music geekfest discussion include Bob Dylan's revenge themes, the inspiration behind him writing Alannah Myles megahit "Black Velvet", who "Son of a Preacher Man" was init...

Yes, original MuchMusic VJ, author, and songwriter Christopher Ward and I geeked out gleefully over little-known music facts this week on NSTS. And yes, as a result it's a two-episode series. Hey, we had a lot to talk about! Since his earliest days as part of the Second City troupe befriending an unknown Mike Myers, Christopher has had a lot of stories to tell. He's interviewed Paul and George of...

Remember Wide Mouth Mason? I never forgot 'em - always loved the band, and I listen to them regularly. In November they're celebrating the 20th anniversary of their album Stew by releasing a special version of it on vinyl, and WMM drummer Safwan Javed called into the show to talk to me about it (and of course, the songs that make his skin vibrate).  Safwan is an incredible musician and a great dud...

It's here! The third and final part of the special No Sleep 'til Sudbury Honeymoon Suite series featuring HMS singer Johnnie Dee and guitarist Derry Grehan. It was a real pleasure to be a part of this very laid-back conversation between two legendary musicians who have been in the trenches together for decades.    In this series finale, Johnnie and Derry discuss the music that makes each other's s...

Welcome back to No Sleep 'til Sudbury's three-part Honeymoon Suite musical discussion series. This week is part two, in which fleet-fingered HMS guitarist Derry Grehan joins me to chat about the new single and the songs that make his skin vibrate.  He immediately won me over with his playlist, particularly the Van Halen and Deep Purple picks. There's a song I wasn't expecting in his list but Derry...

In the first of a three-part Honeymoon Suite series, HMS singer Johnnie Dee joins me this week on No Sleep 'til Sudbury to talk about the band's new single, "Find What You're Looking For", and also of course, the songs that make his skin vibrate.  For Johnnie, it's all about lyrics and melody in music. The songs he brings to the show reflect his love for sentimentality and purity in music, and in...

CHUM-FM Morning Show producer and Famous Lost Words cohost Tom Jokic is my guest this week on NSTS. Tom's been in the music industry for decades, and has some great stories from his time spent interviewing some of the biggest names in the business. His Famous Lost Words podcast, which he hosts alongside MuchMusic alumni Christopher Ward, unearths those archived interviews for our listening pleasur...

Following our examination of the conspiracy theory surrounding Kurt Cobain's death, this week on NSTS we look at other music-related conspiracy theories - ranging from the ridiculously far-fetched, through to the maybe kinda believable.  Did Supertramp and the Freemasons try to warn us about the September 11 attacks with clues hidden in their Breakfast in America album cover, 22 years earlier? Did...