The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown: Song Thirty-Five – Bill from Kingston

Hey, it’s jD, and this week I’m joined by Bill from Kingston — broadcaster, author, moderator of all things Hip, and likely the guy who’s interviewed them more times than any other human walking the earth.

Bill’s Hipstory starts with a first-year college radio gig, a vinyl copy of the EP, and a fortuitous job at MuchMusic just in time to catch Small Town Bringdown flickering across the screen. Since then, he’s been backstage, on tour, in the doc, and, most importantly, always flying the flag for the boys in every room he’s ever walked into.

We talk about Greasy Jungle, naturally, but also: about what it means to know a band deeply — not just musically, but personally. About beer with Paul Langlois, free drinks with Johnny Fay, and turning down a pair of drumsticks in a gesture so noble his buddy Jeff still hasn’t forgiven him.

Bill gets into Gord’s gift for writing — not just the lyrics, but the why behind the phrasing. The curiosity. The poetry. The way a line from Secret Path could come from a conversation about insulation. (Seriously.) We talk about how The Hip gave back long before it was cool or expected, and how growing up in Kingston wasn’t just their origin story — it was their anchor.

🎙️ Next week: Tyler from Etobicoke drops in with a We Are the Same-era pick and a deep appreciation for rediscovery, fandom gaps, and the cassettes that shaped his summer.

💬 Pull Quote

“I’ve seen them in New York, L.A., Cleveland — and every time, it was packed with frenetic, die-hard fans. So yeah… I don’t know who started the ‘they didn’t make it in the States’ myth, but I was there. They did.”

👤 About Our Guest

Bill Wilichka is a longtime broadcaster, Hip advocate, and Kingston local with a front-row seat to four decades of Canadian music history. His autobiography Still Alive in Kingston (yep, he’s starring in the film too) dives into his love for the band, his relationships with the members, and the ways their music weaves into his own story. He’s interviewed Gord, Paul, Rob, Gord S, and Johnny more than anyone else — and has the stories (and cue cards) to prove it.

Check out his work at billwilichka.ca and watch for Still Alive in Kingston coming to a film fest near you.

📬 Get Involved

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📧 Send yer Hipstory: [email protected]

💸 Join the membersHIP & support the cause: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40

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💸 Support ALS Canada

We’re raising $25,000 in memory of Matt Rona — a fan, a friend, and the kind of person who showed up with his whole heart. Every donation helps support ALS research and care across Canada. Join us: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40

Transcript follows below.

The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown

2025-05-23, 6:12 PM

The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown

Artist: jD

Year: 2025

Transcript

[0:00] A member of the DATC Media family. Previously on the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown.

Dave from St. Louis, what is your first memory of Greasy Jungle? Well, you know, I know part of the

thing that you're going for in the podcast, or at least one of the questions you have is what is the

first song that you heard by the hip? And even though that night In May of 95 I didn't know any of

their songs, I'm 99.9% sure That Greasy Jungle was probably The first one that stuck out to me

Purely because I love the, What's the part from the chorus The And I remember that from that night

So that's what sticks out to me is the first time I heard Greasy Jungle was actually the first time I

saw them in concert.

[1:03] Hey, it's JD here, and I'm ready to go. The Tragically Hip Top 40 countdown is now underway.

Week over week, we're going to count down the 40 essential tracks by the hip that you selected

with your very own top 20 ballads. I then tabulated the results. using an abacus and a VHS copy of

Top Gun that keeps rewinding itself to the volleyball scene.

[1:29] Hmm. How will your favorite song fare in the rankings? You'll need to tune in every week to

find out. So there's that. This week, I'm joined by the tragically hip super fan, Bill Wilischka, direct

from Kingston. How the hell are you doing on this hip-tastic day, Bill? Oh, I'm doing great. Always

great to catch up with you and speak to you, though, because like I said before, any chance to

further the boys' legacy, and you're doing a great job with that, I'm all in support of. Yeah, we've

both been flying the flag, because you recently hosted two nights at the Isabel Bader Auditorium,

correct?

[2:08] Yeah, the Performing Arts Theater. They screened the first two episodes of the Hip Doc

series, and Mike Downey was present, Jake Gold, first manager, now present manager, and who

else was there? Well, Gord, Sinclair, Rob Baker, and Paul Langlois were there. And so we

screened it and then, uh, I moderated the Q and a, uh, both nights. It was amazing. That is. And

they raised a hell of a lot of money as well, right? 80 grand for the United way for the Kingston

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area. And that money stays here. How cool is that? Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's one of the things I love

about their boys is that penchant to give back. And they've been doing it from day one, not just

Kingston, but around Canada, around the world. Uh they've lent their name and their time to many

many charitable causes and issues and you gotta love them for that and most of the time they do it

quietly and don't jump up and down saying look what we did they just do it they go in and they do it

quietly i i remember roadside attraction in 93 when the whole lineup put out.

[3:15] A track for Claquat Sound, like the, I think it was called Land? In BC. In BC, yeah. But that

was done very quietly as well. Like the fact that you had the Tragically Hip and Midnight Oil and

several other bands on, you know, doing one track, I thought that would have been just a monster,

you know? And yet you have to get people scratching their heads to think about it. Well, Rob Baker

told me years ago, and it's a funny story and it sort of deflates, sort of their character. And I'm going

to share it just because I think it's a funny story. But from day one, when they first started

performing at the mansion, which is not the mansion, the manor here in Kingston, which no longer

exists, they were this hot Kingston bar band. They had a big buzz around them. They were packing

the club every night. And of course, a lot of friends and family would show up wanting free tickets.

And the band realized a long time ago that, you know what? We're going to do a benefit. Uh, this

show is going to be a benefit, so no free tickets, everybody pays.

[4:18] And that was sort of the reason where they wanted to give back. And it was an excuse

basically that, okay, no guest lists, no free tickets, everybody pays. Cause where would they draw

the line? that's right here at their their hometown just starting out and so they develop this habit of

giving back with shows whether it's a local food bank they ask people to bring non-perishable food

items, Or, you know, lending their time to Live 8, for instance. There's just, they've had this long

history of doing so, but the oranges of them giving back, it's almost for simplicity reasons.

Everybody pays. It's a benefit.

[5:03] Well, let's go back to your day one. Let's go back and revisit a time before you knew the

Tragically Heap, that day that you discovered them fatefully. What was that all about? First year of

college, 1986. I'm dating myself. What the hell? You can't fight it forever. But first year of college, I

had a radio shift on CRSC. It was our closed circuit Seneca College radio station, campus station.

[5:34] And that year, coming across that first EP and falling in love with it. And then eventually, you

know, getting a job at Much, the week I graduated as an editor in 1988, seeing the videos for Small

Town Bringdown, for Last American Exit, and just, you know, visually putting together with the audio

that I already loved, a little bit of a better picture of this band. Right. And that was, um, the

beginning of my love affair with the hip, which still lasts to this day. And, you know, one of the

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beautiful things about working at much is I had the pleasure of interviewing every person I was ever

a fan of. And of course, learning about new bands that I didn't know and started interviewing the

guys in the mid nineties and probably have interviewed them more than anyone in the world. I

would think, uh, all these years later, looking back, but it wasn't until moving to Kingston 12 years

ago, um.

[6:40] For a television job that I really started to solidify and renew acquaintances and friendships

with all the guys and their families. And it's been very rewarding and I'm humbled by it and I know

I'm very blessed to, you know, call the guys together.

[7:00] Friends and their family's friends, all the while still being a huge hip fan, which is weird

sometimes. That must be a strange dichotomy, right? Like, you know, you're sitting there just

having a chat with Paul over a beer or something like that. And then it dawns on you, holy fuck, I'm

having a beer with Paul Langlois right now. You know, what's funny is, uh, you know, having a drink

with Paul or whoever, you know, noticing that ring that I've seen him for years play, play the guitar

with. And it's like sitting across from, oh, there's that ring that I remember seeing in videos and live

performances. Yeah, that's weird. Yeah. But like little weird little connections like that over the

years. Oh, wow.

[7:42] What were your experiences like once you determined that you were a fan? So obviously you

got to see everything pretty much in real time. At what point did you know that this wasn't your

secret band? Because I have this weird feeling that every Canadian, you know, sort of treasures

them as though they're the biggest fan. And I don't mean that in a, in a negative kind of way at all,

but like everyone really cleaves to them and has their, you know, their own story. As they should.

And not just Canadians, people around the world as well. Absolutely. Yes, you are totally right. Like

I'm going to be interviewing somebody from Scotland for this project. I'm going to be interviewing

somebody from the Netherlands. I believe, if I can lock that one down. So we'll see. It is fascinating

to see. Australia is one. There's one in Australia. Well, it's funny because during the screening,

Jake Gold, who was there from day one, you know, after the screening here in Kingston at the

Isabel Bader, it was the second episode they talked about this.

[8:47] You know, they've been tagged with this thing for years. Oh, you're doing great in Canada.

How come you can't make it in the U.S.? Yeah. One of my questions to Jake on stage was like, I

never understood that debate, that issue with the hip. Because there were many assignments over

the years where I'd interview them in Cleveland or New York State or L.A., so many places. And the

places were jammed with crazy, frenetic fans. And I said to Jake, like, I don't understand why we're

still talking about it to this day. And he goes, it's frankly, it's your guys' fault, the media's fault for

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constantly bringing it up. And I said, well, Jake, I never brought it up, but I was a witness to it. And it

really bothered me. It still does all these years that people say, well, you know, you didn't really

make it in the U.S. Holy crap, did they ever make it in the U.S.? Oh, there's fans that would kill to

have their career in the U.S. I've seen them in Chicago and, um, you know, it just blows me away

just to this day. No, they have huge hardcore fan base in the U S and pockets all over the U S

where they do extremely well. And, um, yeah. And I think the band was just sick of it after a few

years hearing from people. Whoa. Like, you know, I think the bare naked ladies dealt for that with

that for years until they had, you know, until one week or no, Brian, Brian Wilson live eventually on

that record. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[10:13] So how many times have you seen them live? Like at this point, like, I mean, I'm guessing

Perks of the Gig, you saw them a number of times, but as a, um. As a fan, every single time. Yeah.

Wow. I want to say, I don't know, maybe 15 times over the years, which is nowhere, nowhere near

some of the numbers. Oh yeah. Some other fans have seen them. Like 40, 50, a hundred. Yeah. 15

is nothing. I thought I was, I'm right around there too, Bill. And I thought I was like a special

individual at one point. And then it's, you meet people. I came to Toronto. I'm from a small town and

I came to Toronto and all of a sudden it was like.

[10:51] It wasn't a secret. The hip were like the biggest band going, but my little small town, it had

barely, you know, um, it's a classic rock radio station. So when Road Amples came out, they played

the hell out of it. But I was, uh, I got turned on to it by a friend up to here. He had seen them at the

forum. I want to say the Ontario place forum. Wow. Yeah. And, uh, he fell in love and yeah, the rest

is history. But, um. It's funny. One of the last times I've seen them, it was the, I think the fully

completely reunion tour where they did the album top to bottom. Yes, yes. And a friend of mine in

Toronto, also a huge hip fan. Anyway, I got his tickets for here in Kingston, then the K-Rock place.

And he's always getting me Chicago tickets when they come to Toronto. I'm a Chicago Blackhawks

fan. So I thought, I'm going to do Jeff a favor. Okay, Jeff, I got his tickets. They're pretty good. As

we're walking up to the venue He looks at these tickets He goes yeah these are good seats give

me a second He takes them walks over to a scalper They talk comes back he goes no these are

good tickets I'm looking at them like front row center Floors, Looking up at them Jeff's like that He's

weird but At the end of the show you know and like Any hip show it's an amusement park ride.

[12:08] It was a Beautiful beautiful night And at the end of the show they come out and they, you

know, stand at the tip of the stage. So basically you're looking up at them like this. And then Johnny

Faye walks over to the edge to hand out his drumsticks and he sees me and he goes, Bill, and he

hands me the two drumsticks. Ah. And the people behind me are like, that's not fair, man. You

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know, that's not fair.

[12:30] What am I going to do? I took the drumsticks and I handed them back to the people behind

me. Oh, what a gentleman. Well, to this day, Jeff says to me, you're such a fucking idiot. I wanted

those drumsticks. It's funny because then we saw Johnny at a pub like two hours later and he sat,

bought us drinks. So I go, okay, Jeff, what would you want more free drinks? From Johnny or his

drumsticks, Jeff says, no, I'd want the drumsticks still. Oh, God. Oh, that's hysterical. Yeah, just

getting to, I've got a chance to chat with each of them, with the exception of Gord Downey. And

yeah, they're all just so lovely, you know? They are beautiful human beings. Like you're waiting to

hear something like a skeleton in the closet or something like that, just because it seems like

everybody disappoints these days at some point, you know, but here we are 40 years in and, uh,

you, like you said, they're family guys and, you know, they moved back or they stayed rather in

some cases, um, to their roots and that community.

[13:39] And that's really special. All the boys come from great families and prominent Kingstonians

in some cases. Of course, Baker's judge. Our father was a judge. They all come from good stock.

And I think that helped them become who they were as people, just beautiful people. I can't say it

any more succinctly than that. And an honor to call them friends. Very cool. Should we flip the

record and listen to the track of the week? Yeah, what is it? Well, we'll find out right after this. Okay,

looking forward to it. Cool. Hey, this is Paul Langlois from The Tragically Hip saying hello. Now on

with the countdown. 35.

[14:27] Music.

[18:46] It is the second track and fifth single from the 1992 masterpiece, Fully, Completely. Bill from

Kingston, we are talking about looking for a place to happen. What are your initial thoughts about

this song? A little late to the party, falling in love with this track. It wasn't the week it was released. It

might have been years later. And this is the beautiful thing about the hips catalog. you know good

luck picking your 10 favorite hip songs right problem with that is it changes, constantly changes

there are new songs that you you know i'm on a pigeon camera kick right now and to me it's one of

the greatest songs they've ever done but it didn't really register the first time i heard it wasn't until

years later and this is the beautiful thing about their catalog like i said is you catch moments of

brilliance in every song and sometimes it takes years for it to register but when it does it's like okay

this is why i love this band so much and um looking for a place to happen was like that was a slow

burn and then one day it hit me it was like holy crap you know never mind the musicianship uh it

was gord's lyrics that you know it wasn't wasn't really until, 2016 where we heard gord become

outspoken about indigenous issues but that's right yeah this song.

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[20:06] Shows that it was on his mind for years. It's in the DNA, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I think he

can thank Mike Downey for bringing that to his attention years ago. Right. With the story of Chaney,

Winjack. But looking for a place to happen on one level, it's, you know, it's about Jacques Carchet

discovering Canada. And I love how Gord sort of.

[20:29] Draws a parallel between Jacques Cartier exploring this new land and draws a parallel

between showing up at a party, you know, throw your coat up on the bed like you do at a party, a

house party through here. And what Gore does in the lyrics is reminds people, you know, uh, no,

you're not the first to show. We've been here for God who knows. For God who knows. Yeah.

Talking about the indigenous in Canada way before it was Canada was settled. And it was, it's that

little bit of a glimpse into Gord's psyche, uh, keeping in mind indigenous issues and that they, they

were here before us. But the way he, the way he draws a parallel to showing up at a party. Yes. You

know, just brilliant. And there's, you know, what I take from pigeon camera is he draws a parallel

between, you know, this family getting this bird home and then it flies away. And it doesn't matter

how much training they can give it. It just wanted to fly away. and relating it to a fictitious tale about

one of his sisters. It doesn't matter how much training, she's going to go away. And, you know, and

it just, I love how Gord does that with Sans. He does that in so many ways. He's a brilliant lyricist.

It's really, um, going back to the docuseries for a moment.

[21:47] They really... I've only seen the first two episodes, by the way, so... Oh, I won't give it away.

It's in the first two episodes. But showing Gord's writing process with his notebook, basically, right?

Like just keeping everything in this notebook and like little phrases, little bits, little turns of phrase.

And then, you know, when they're jamming, he consults that. And next thing you know, you've got

looking for a place to happen for God's sake. Well, Mike was telling me a few years ago how Gord

would, you know, he'd be having a conversation with Gord and, you know, his brother. I don't know

what they were talking about. Maybe it was over Thanksgiving dinner. and you know Mike would

say something and Gord would stop and.

[22:28] Wander away and write something down and then Mike said that it's like wow I just got

journaled so cool like you know if you ever had a chance you know not very many people can say

this but talking with Gord Downey and all of a sudden he'll wander away and write something down

might have been a memory that you said that triggered him or something you said that he could

work with unfortunately it's never happened to me but I could understand Mike's joy when he

realized He was journaled. He'd been journaled. We have a, we have an Undiscovering Downey.

We have a lost episode. We interviewed Niles Spencer and Kevin Drew and we never. Oh, Niles

from the bathhouse. That's right. Yeah. And we, we, um, we never released the episode, but there's

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a really fun anecdote in it where, uh, Kevin talks about going to this studio and.

[23:22] There's fiberglass on the outside of the studio, like insulation. And so somebody in the group

says, you know, be careful, don't let that touch you. And then they went into the studio and 10

minutes later, Gord's belting out, don't let it touch you from Secret Path, right? Like he writes that

song.

[23:43] Like what the, like what a talent. That's why he's, you know, singer songwriter almost makes

it sound like an insult. No, he's a poet. He's an artist, you know? Yeah, agreed. His love of words,

his love of connecting things, it fed him for years. I have to guess, like you had some experiences

with him, but I have to guess that he was a curious person. Like somebody that would... Very

thoughtful, you know, very thoughtful, very well read to the point where you were almost

intimidating to... It was intimidating to get into a conversation with him because he was just so far

ahead in terms of where his headspace was at, what he was thinking, what he was trying to relate.

Um, that, you know, having casual conversations was just, uh, easier to get through in some cases

with court. Um, let alone having to interview him and get into that headspace. Uh, you, you know,

uh, and.

[24:51] Yeah, just probably one of the most intimidating people in terms of an artist, being an artist

that I have ever met. Wow, and you've met a litany of people. Yeah, Bowie. I put Bowie up there on

that level as well. Just something about him. So well-read, so intelligent, giving, passionate, and

brilliant. Yeah. Yeah. That's so grateful. destined to be to go through this life offering a beautiful gift

yeah and i'm i'm so grateful that you know we got to be part of this gift in you know in some small

way uh i mean there's 11 million people that experienced it with us on the national celebration uh

it's quite a few people and that doesn't include the people around the world that we're watching so

yeah and how many new fans did I think immediately after that concert, all your favorites started

selling again. That's right. It charted again for a while. So how many new fans, new generations

picked up on the band's brilliance from that one tour? Well, I know my daughters really loved that

Anne with an E show. That was the CBC show and Netflix, I believe. And it opened. Its opening

credits were ahead by a century. And so they knew that song.

[26:17] Before they knew it was the Tragic Clip, they just knew this. Well, they probably knew the

Tragic Clip before that because I play it a lot. Great. Great. Well, Bell, it's been an absolute blast

talking to you today. Is there anything at all that you would like to plug or have people... Track you

down anywhere on the internet or anything like that? My biography, autobiography came out last

year. And Paul wrote the foreword. Paul Languade did the foreword, yeah. That's right.

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[26:54] I might well up a little bit. That's how much I love the guys. And that's how giving they are.

And that's how beautiful they are as human beings. But yeah, billwalichka.ca for more information

about me. Visitors to Kingston. There's lots of little hip touchstones that you can experience. Most

recently, the hip sign out in front of Slush Puppy Place. They unveiled it at the Isabel Bader a few

weeks ago, the screening. They're like the giant T-H-E-H-P. Don't worry, no one kicked over the

eye. That's where you stand to get your picture.

[27:31] That's new. Rob Baker's always at the Queensgills home football games. I see him every

home game. And, uh, you know, the beautiful thing about Kingston and their, their living in Kingston

is they can go about town and maneuver through town and, you know, no one bugs them.

Everyone's very respectful, very respectful. And, um. And, uh, Rob is in a, there's a, oh man, that

sounds so weird. Um, a Kingston director presented me with a script after my book came out and

he wrote a script loosely based on the book, loosely based on my life. It's called still alive in

Kingston. Uh, so we started filming. Uh, he asked me to play myself in the lead role. I'm not an

actor, man, but the script was just way too funny. You're playing you as well there is you know that's

so i said i said yeah so we've been filming for about five months now um it's called still alive in

kingston you can just google that oh and there's a crowdfunding campaign to see the end to the

film it'll premiere where do people find that uh just google still alive in kingston there's an indiegogo

um crowdfunding and it'll debut at the kingston canadian film festival in february anyway uh there's

a scene which um.

[28:47] I'm interviewing Baker as myself, and he's playing himself. And it was like two pages of

dialogue in the script. And the director says, do you think we can get Rob Baker? I said, I don't

know. Let me email him. He got back and said, yeah, I'll do it. Sounds fun. I'm not an actor, though.

So I had the director prepare cue cards just in case Rob needed to look at them during his lines,

have them ready. He walked in and he nailed the two pages of the script just like that. Like, that's

how professional they are, too. Like, you know, just beautiful human beings. Anyway, that film will

be out in February. Well, that's really cool. Yeah, it's beautiful. And it's, again, it's called Still Alive in

Kingston. Still Alive in Kingston, yeah. Cool. And that's your acting debut. I've done some short

films before. Ah. Some minor things, but this is like a lead. Yeah. But, yeah, Baker, you get to see

his acting chops. He's really good. Damn, is there anything these guys aren't good at?

[29:51] I'm trying to think no pretty much everything they're pretty good at everything yeah all right

man well it's uh like i say it's it's great that you took the time to do this i really appreciate your time

continue success to do what you're doing as well way to go well we're flying the flag right yep that's

right nothing wrong with that and that's what i've got for you this day in February. Hope you enjoyed

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yourself. Please share and subscribe the podcast. Tell your friends so they can enjoy the fun as

well. And hey, make sure you block off October 4th on your calendar. It's going to be a blast.

Thanks for stopping by. Pick up your shit. Thanks for listening to the Tragically Hip Top 40

Countdown. To email us, send an email to tthtop40 at gmail.com We're social. Find us on all the

socials at tthtop40. Duvra!

[31:02] Music.

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