Is It Still the Guess Who? We Asked the Band

Intro whenever I talk to any band which has maybe one original member I seldom talk to bands with no original members it's something that I grapple with that I wonder if I should even bother because if the fans are going to the concert maybe the fans either don't know or they don't care but if they leave the concert and they're having a good time that's cool that's not my bag though I wouldn't go necessarily see a band that has no original members one perhaps and in this case it's Gary Peterson of The Guess Who he's still in the band he's writing a book right now still touring we talked to the drummer and the vocalist from The Guess Who and we ask is it still the Guess Who because Burton Cummings and Randy backman are long gone Interview well speaking of that with the the different sounds the first thing I thought of as all well this doesn't sound like the Guess Who because I was telling this to Pete Agnew of of Nazareth eyes but told him last two times I talked about so I said I like your new stuff and I said but you're heavier now than you've ever been he says yeah I think so and I really really like it because I've always wanted to play something on this Edge but no one was doing it back then and with the Guess Who and we had this conversation with Ray and Smitty quit Trooper oh my God the fans went nuts they're going crazy but when I went on live I went I went on live and I did a thing when they both they they didn't quit they retired and they're allowed to retire people so what's your take when people say well oh God it's not the Guess Who anymore there's been so many versions of The Guess Who number one I mean Gary's better to answer this because he was in all of them but but I don't think there's me there's a lot of bands that people have retired but the guests who really never had one lineup they have in America they know that they know a couple of songs and they associated with that particular lineup but you know I mean Gary you can elaborate on this more so we're just like basically the fifth version of it well I said earlier I'm still learning to be a drummer and so is everybody else in the band whether it's us or the old members of the band and and if you're not going forward you're not going anywhere so we're we're changing as as we get older and as we listen to other music you're always influenced by everything you listen to and hopefully you're getting better the music can never stay the same as it was we can't play No Sugar Tonight now as a record that's not what we're writing that's not what we're feeling we're not even feeling that now that was and it was done yeah and was done and we were 21 years old at the time you know that's different era that's gone we're now in the king and playing the more we're playing these kind of songs and and it's it's very exciting it's great and I hope the fans when they come to see the band they realize exactly what we're doing and how we feel about the music well oddly enough um I'm still learning how to play properly and my my most proud moment on the album is one quarter note on the floor TomTom and I'll let you find somewhere on the album it took me it took me 60 plus years to learn to play that one note I have hair but it's short you still have the air good for you man yeah well anyway okay but I don't know how much time we've got but uh the the new single her pictures show intro to that single very Rocky Horror uh yeah okay is it plant them or is that how I am I saying right uh you're close so how do you say it playing with a smile please play p-l-e-i-n because if it's blown plow is is means map so are you French no yes well I used to be French bulldant my uh my family I was gonna say I'm surprised with a name like that you well my wife's from Montreal and and yes I do speak French not as well as her but um well tell me about the song with this one even though I like the king more uh I I'm like going up I'm doing housework this morning it's with me it's with me tell me about the tune you're not the first person to say that it I've heard this story three times already and and which is a good sign I'll tell you how it started it's it's Gary one Gary liked a song I had written with this fella from Toronto and he said we got to do this song and I was like well it's not you know I didn't I didn't I wasn't 100 convinced with it so I don't know how I remember the whole conversation Gary maybe you can expand on this but I did do a rewrite I did a rewrite of it and I just used the middle section that he wanted to use and I came up with this whole new song now the we had already written the whole record and uh and there was a definite theme to it and we wanted to have this positive message coming out of the dark depths of Hell uh and uh and I thought what a great thing full of love it's like all you need is love but we say it in French and it doesn't sound as goofy well go ahead and really why I wanted to do that song was not so much because of the lyrical content but uh if you listen to the rest of the album This has more of a heavier Edge the middle part of the song and I thought that the album could use that that rock kind of anthem uh feel and that's why I like that song of all the songs Derek had written and which I love yeah I love a lot of his songs he's got great great uh material we we have enough for more many more albums yeah well I will say like I'm staying on the on the same theme so then we started playing this song live like what a month ago Gary maybe it hasn't been that long because it just came out and it you know usually when you're a band like the guest who and you're playing some songs that have been around for so long like 60 years in some cases you know it's kind of weird when you just throw in you know a new song We we've been very successful with that we'd had a little bit of success with haunted and and there's a lot of people that come to our shows that know the new songs but we just threw this one in and I swear to God every time we play it it goes over like and people are saying it by the end of the song so back to what you're saying John is it's stuck in your head I think I think that's a that's a good thing first of all you bothered to listen to it so thank you Conclusion Derek short might not be the original lead singer but man that guy can sing and he's the current singer it has been for quite a few years of The Guess Who and that was of course Gary Peterson as mentioned earlier long gone are Randy backman on guitar and lead vocalist Burton Cummings a lot of folks have problems with the guess who's still going on but a lot of fans still want to go see them we'll have more from Derek and Gary Peterson coming up the next two three days make sure you comment on her video subscribe to our Channel and share our videos make a donation if you want you can join our patreon get early access to our videos this is John Bogan this is Rock history music take care of yourself [Music] thank you [Music] foreign foreign