Burton Cummings!!

September 29/11.

Tonight, I'm going with Sam to see Burton Cummings perform at Massey Hall! It's been a long time since I've seen him LIVE on stage.

Burton in the early days!

Fell in love with his voice the first time I heard The Guess Who and all these decades later, he's still my favourite male singing voice. He's absolutely fantastic. Burton was just 19 when he became lead singer for The Guess Who. Now, he's 63 and sounds better than ever!

I was lucky enough to get to interview him many times during my years in radio, and later, at Global TV.

He knew me by name and was always generous with interview time and had the best rock stories! I remember I got the scoop about Burton's marriage to Cheryl DeLuca and got it on the air exclusively. That was a fun day. After we aired the story, it made headlines everywhere!

Interviewing a gorgeous, young Burton sometime back in my early CFTR (680 News) radio days! Yep, I was in love.

Burton sometimes dropped by the Global studios to chat with the late great Bob McAdorey on the News at Noon or Entertainment Desk, and even played for us!

Burton was a huge fan of Bob's because of his many years as a rock radio D.J. who played the hell out of The Guess Who when he ruled the airwaves at CHUM!! I took this photo during one of Burton's appearances. Bob was always so pleased to see him and blushed when Burton would rave about him on the air! I miss you Bob, so much.

I'm looking forward to hearing all his great songs (both from The Guess Who days and from his solo albums). Let's see - These Eyes, Laughing, No Time, American Woman, Stand Tall, I'm Scared, Break It To Them Gently, Dream of a Child - I hope they're all on the list, but it doesn't matter. ANYTHING he plays will be great.

Best part of the show is when Burton just sits at the piano, plays and sings, full out.

On Saturday, Burton will be inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in a special cermony at the Elgin Theatre. Howie Mandel will host. Congrats Burton! It's about time!!

Earlier this week, Burton's beloved dog, Toast, passed away.

He's tweeted about it, saying:
HE TOUCHED ME SPIRITUALLY IN A WAY I HAD NEVER FELT BEFORE...HE'S A PART OF MY SOUL NOW. I LOVED TOAST WITH EVERY FIBRE OF MY BEING AND EVERY IOTA OF MY SOUL.

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL GUY HE WAS...TOAST...WHEREVER HE IS RIGHT NOW, I'M SURE THERE'S NO PAIN OR HURT...I'VE BEEN CALLED A WORDSMITH OR POET BY MANY, "GOOD WITH WORDS"...RIGHT NOW THE WORDS FAIL ME... TOAST IS GONE.

Maybe Burton will talk about Toast tonight. So sad.

I'm sure he'll sing Sour Suite too. (that's Sam's favourite).

Don’t wanna listen to my telephone ring
Or sing ding-a-ling or talk about a thing ...
Leave me alone this morning.