This morning Gordon Lightfoot was on WRIF, a rock radio station in Detroit. I missed the start of the interview, but I believe it was to promote upcoming shows, although officially I don't see any scheduled in the Detroit area yet. It may have been from last year or something, but I don't think so.
The choice of this station and program (the Drew & Mike morning drive show) was very peculiar. With the possible exception of November 10 each year, they never play his stuff. The two cohosts are a couple of guys I would describe as irreverent on a good day and totally rude most days. They call people and usually try to bait them into provocactive topics. They constantly play drops of flatulent sounds or celebrities making crude comments over the comments of their guests. After they hang up, they usually criticize or mock what their guest had to say.
So when a friend called to tell me Gordon Lightfoot was on, I was very surprised and thought they would absolutely skewer him.
But he not only survived, after it was over, they commented on how bizarre it was that they interviewed him and how cool he was! They said the morning host of the major adult contemporary station in Detroit would be freaking out over the fact that they had interviewed him.
They also said Lightfoot used a couple of phrases they never thought would be on their show - "my maritime roots" (referring to his family ancestry in England and Scotland), and the "Billboard pop charts".
During the interview they kept playing bits of Norm McDonald, and commented to each other how they thought he and Lightfoot had similar voices. But Gord would pause for a minute, then politely continue what he was saying.
I was impressed with how much they knew about the subject matter. They asked alot about how you write a song about a shipwreck and then it becomes a hit. They also asked about the days with Albert Grossman and whether Bob Dylan was with him at that time. And they asked about why one word that had been changed in If You Could Read My Mind.
They got really interested when he said he had had two ex-wives and six kids. That got them into questioning how hot his Swedish wife was and how wild life on the road was.
After he hung up, they commented that he had the same last name as Edward Lightfoot - a notorious local guy in jail for aggravated stalking of young women! For about five minutes after that, you'd hear good and bad comments interspersed: "Does anybody look creepier than Lightfoot" and "I bet Lightfoot was a real player in the day". Fortunately, it was pretty easy to quickly determine which Lightfoot they were talking about.
Definitely one of the more unconventional Gordon Lightfoot interviews.
They sometimes post recordings of highlights on the station's web site. I don't see anything from this morning's interview, but here is the link:
http://www.wrif.com/drewmike/
Did any of the Michigan people catch this?
Brian