April Wine, who have been Canadian classic rock icons for 40 years, were just inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the Juno Awards in April.
“How cool is that,” asked April Wine guitarist Brian Greenway over the phone from his Montreal home, where he is taking it easy in between a busy summer full of weekend shows all over the country.
“I feel really good about it. We all do,” he said of their induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, adding the band was beginning to think it wasn’t going to happen.
“It’s a nice award to get, it’s a nice achievement to have. And the fans were there for us, writing letters. It’s nice to share that with so many great entertainers,” he continued adding the ceremony itself was an experience as a lot of the acts couldn’t make it because of heavy fog.
“Bryan Adams couldn’t even make it from Europe because of volcanic ash,” he said adding he is enjoying the current summer tour which mostly consists of weekend festivals and big outdoor shows.
“We just play weekends now. So Thursday through Sunday, we’re traveling. And when we get home there’s just enough time to wash our clothes, see the kids and get ready to go out again. We don’t even see each other. And we’ve been really lucky with the weather,” Greenway said.
The band, who have a string of radio hits including “Just Between You And Me,”,“I Like To Rock,” “Roller,” “Oowatanite,” “Weeping Widow,” “Sign of the Gypsy Queen,” and countless others, play Whoop-Up Days, on Aug. 25.
They are looking forward to playing Whoop-Up Days.
“That’s a funny name,” Greenway laughed.
“We’ll be playing a lot of rock songs, a lot from ‘Nature of the Beast.’ And everyone is going to be featured,” he said.
“I’ve been in the band for 33 years and I love doing it. I love getting the feedback from the audience and the reception after each song. And the excitement of it all. I love what we do. We all feel that way. If you don’t like doing it, you’d better just stop,” said the 58-year-old Greenway, who joined April Wine in 1977 just before they really took off.
The band has undergone several line-up changes in the past few years. Bassist Jim Clench quit in 2007 to be replaced by Breen LaBoeuf and long-time drummer Jerry Mercer retired in 2009 just before he turned 70, to be replaced by Blair Mackay, who has earned a couple of music degrees.
“He’s doing great. He brings a lot of experience to the band. He has a couple of music degrees, so he can translate what we can only hear. He adds new freshness to the band. And with Breen on bass, the rhythm section is so tight,” Greenway continued adding the band shakes up their show by switching songs throughout their tour.
“We have about 63 songs to choose from , but we can’t play all of them so people are going to be disappointed, but we have to play some of them like “Sign of the Gypsy Queen, “I Like to Rock” and “Just Between You and Me,” otherwise people are really disappointed. It’s all about the people. Some of them have never heard us play “Roller,” before so they appreciate hearing it,” Greenway continued adding he doesn’t get tired of playing the same songs over and over again.
“I really like these songs. And sometimes it’s not about the band, it’s about the people who come to see the band and the show,” he said adding the band will rotate songs throughout the years to keep things fresh.
They had a triple guitar attack in the ’80s, with singer/guitarist/ keyboardist Myles Goodwyn, Greenway and Gary Moffet in the early days before Moffet left and was replaced by Steve Segal. They had a several hits featuring the three guitars including “Sign of the Gypsy Queen” and “I Like to Rock,” which features one guitar playing the Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction, and the other playing the Beatles’ “Day Tripper,” while the third plays the main riff of the song.
“Myles and I can handle that pretty easily. Steve plays a lot like Myles and myself, and the three guitars only really work if they have different styles,” Greenway said adding he likes the traditional dual guitar April Wine line-up.
“You can learn a lot from each other. If Gary wanted to do it again , then I would, but I wouldn’t otherwise. I was visiting him and I hadn’t seen him for years. He just plays acoustic guitar now. He’s playing all of this Chet Atkins stuff. And I’m like, ‘wow, can you teach me how to do that,’” Greenway enthused adding singer/ guitarist Myles Goodwin always wrote April Wine’s songs, though the other band members contributed their parts.
“Myles did all the writing, but I came up with guitar parts. With ‘Sign of the Gypsy Queen,’ it was originally a Lorence (William) Hud song (released in 1973— see the video of the original) , except it was much faster and shorter. Myles wrote the middle verse, and we dropped in our guitar solos. I like playing it a lot. And it always gets great reception,” Greenway said.
“Myles and I can easily handle “‘I Like to Rock’ ourselves,” he said adding April Wine plans to work on a new album, but haven’t had the time yet.
“We’ve been looking at doing a new album, but there’ s nothing in the works yet,” he continued agreeing it is difficult to get radio to play new material from “classic rock” bands.
“That’s the case, they only want to play the old stuff, but if you push it hard, you can get radio to play it. I remember a time when they wouldn’t play our music because it had the word ‘rock’ in it. And we’re like ‘What do you mean? That’s what we do. We’re a rock band,’” he reminisced.
“I’m always writing. I’ve got a lot of things that aren’t finished that I should finish,” he said.
