Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Five, four, three, two, and one. Gracious good afternoon, good morning, good evening, wherever you are. Oh my God, what an exciting day this is. Sarah Burke, my companion of the last year as Caitlin Green, is on mat leave. She's been on mat leave for five years. Anyway...
We are in the same building. We are two feet away from each other. We're in my house in... Thank you for having me. We're in Springbank, Alberta. Springbank, Alberta. Sperm Bank, as the kids used to call us. It's beautiful here. And if there's anything I can tell you, she was not kidding about the garden gnomes. They are everywhere. And who brought me another garden gnome? Sarah and her friends. So to back up a little bit, I think we spoke in the last couple of weeks that Sarah and her three party girls, that's the name of her golf team...
flew out from Toronto to support the Enviros. The Enviros organization, which has a lot of programs, their main program is dealing with young men with addiction, substance abuse, fentanyl, the opioids, the heroin, all the ones that are really freaking hard to kick. So we do a tournament every year. Sarah, they bought...
Green fees and entrances. We did the whole thing. So your friends, tell me a little bit about the people you brought with you. And you flew out on WestJet. Yes, WestJet, we wouldn't mind a sponsor. But yeah, they paid to fly out on WestJet. So yeah, I'm here with my girlfriend, Andrea, who works at a record label.
I'm here with Wendy, who's a fellow radio gal. She works in country radio in Ottawa, so we've got two Torontonians. And then Dani, who left this morning. 4 a.m. she left. Yeah, to drive back to Kimberley, B.C., because they've got a lot of family stuff going on, some fires, wildfires out there. The route was a bit of a question mark, but Dani is a country artist. Dani Strong. Yep. Look her up. She's amazing. Fantastic singer-songwriter. And she also has an artist management company. You guys had some music industry talks, didn't you? Yeah, we did. Yeah.
Yeah, we did. There's a lot of connect. It's really interesting. And I was saying this last night, it's wonderful being in a room with four really strong women that are in the creative entertainment, creator content industry, like whether you're coming at it from artist management or doing radio or doing podcasting. It was so great to see women who are
just doing the stuff that they want to do and that are passionate about it. And it was so great hearing about how the industry has changed, what's happening, all the shifts that are taking place. And you guys are all so...
You're so much more ahead of the curve than I was at your age. No, I'm serious. Like I'm thinking to myself, yeah, I had a record deal at 30 finally, but I was so all over the place. And you guys just seem so rooted in common sense. Yeah, you got relationship stuff. People have got their shit going on, but you guys are going full steam ahead on planning, creating your, what your dream jobs look like.
Yeah, I think we've all accomplished a lot of goals. We've also all over the last year had like maybe some changes where we're rethinking how we do things. And it's really nice being surrounded though by strong women, like you said. And very exciting too to like, you know, for Dani, I know that she has loved your music as an artist forever. And for her to like get a little, just a little touch of Jan Arden advice about staying true to yourself and all that stuff. I know it meant the world to her. Yeah, persistence. It's not always about talent.
It's about staying in the game because the only person that decides it's over is you. It's not some dude smoking a cigar sitting behind an oak desk that tells you, honey, it's not going to happen for you. Yeah, we were talking about age a little bit last night. We were talking about ageism. And the irony for me is I'm 61 years old and I'm looking at you guys in your 30s, maybe a couple of you on the cusp of 40 or just 40 years.
And I'm like, you guys have no idea what these next two decades holds as far as what you value, how you're going to make your way through the world, how much bull crap you are not going to take. And I'm going to let you take it from here. But we read tarot cards last night because Wendy, the Ottawa girl in radio, said,
She brought a whole bunch of different kinds of tarot cards. Like we get to pick decks, but we went through and what a great evening it was being kind of going into the realm of the mysticism. Spiritual, yeah. But it was dead on, wasn't it? And a lot of us picked the same cards, which is weird because there's only one of those cards in that deck. How many cards is in a tarot deck? I don't know. We might have to look it up. We'll look it up later. Only because you and I were like probably... Alexa? Alexa?
How many cards are in a tarot deck? 78. 78 tarot cards. Thanks, Alexa. Wow. And we were picking some of the same ones. There were a few that showed up. Several times. The themes were letting go. There was another theme of trusting intuition. There was a theme of taking care of yourself.
Yeah. We all had similar stuff, but there was some really definitely different things too. It was wild. Like I, it was, Wendy's really great at that. Like reading those cards. She is. And we had a lot of really open conversations about our relationships with alcohol, people around us. Like we had a great talk last night. So many people don't take the time. It almost seems like it's that once a year or twice a year type of thing where you either are sitting in front of a fire or you do take the time. Like you guys are away from home. Yeah.
Those girls are away from their kids. They're away from families. You know, Danny had her husband at home. Wendy has her husband back at home. They're Andrea's kids. She's kind of a new mom and navigating that with her partner. So for you guys to be sitting there having a glass of wine,
Talking about substance abuse. No, I'm kidding. No, it was really cool. And I'm going to bring this up. Okay. You, I didn't know that there was a THC, THC drinks. Unpack that. Do we need a THC sponsor for drink? What's the, what's the drink called? So we were drinking some, some cannabis beverages and you know, some of us like, like what,
What planet am I living on? Is this brand new? No, they've been around. Since like legalization came into play in Canada, you can get these when you go buy your pre-rolls. It's the same sort of thing. But personally, I don't know, like five milligrams, 10 milligrams, by the end of the night, you feel completely in control. Whereas with alcohol, it's a totally different situation. So there's no alcohol in these cannabis drinks. No. It's just, it's a scientific...
Like alcohol would be 5% or 6% or 40 proof. Yeah. The cannabis works in a similar way that five milligrams. I wonder how they curate that. No, they regulate it. But so how can you tell if you've had a glass of wine and then you're having a cannabis drink?
The mixing of it. Can you tell any difference? You don't get drunker. No, you don't get drunker. I would say with the cannabis beverage, just like a relaxation sort of like filters in and comes over you. It's not like with alcohol, you have three shots, let's say, and then someone's like buzzing, right? Yeah. With the cannabis drinks, it's like overtime. So like an hour later, you might be like, oh, I feel really relaxed. Time to go to bed, you know? Or there's obviously different kinds of cannabis. Some stimulate you more than others. Some make, I want to clean the whole house. Yeah.
I might clean your house later. You know, I've always wanted to reorganize my bras, but I think I'm just going to call you up, give you a couple of cans of cannabis cocktail. But you don't want to say what the brand name of the drink is, do you? Oh, we had a few different ones in there. Oh, did you? Yeah. We're not, we don't care which one. Like they all do this. Okay. Sorry. Don't worry. We're trying to, uh, you know, get another sponsor from the cannabis. Are you hitting knobs? Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. We're monitoring your levels. We're good. By the way, there's going to be like no editing on this podcast. This is a live situation. It's so weird just to be sitting in front of you because usually we're, I'm in different parts of the world. I think I've talked to you from different places. Yeah, you've been on tour. You haven't always been, but you haven't always been at home either. Yeah, like dog sitting at my cousin's one time. I've done it one time at my mom's house, I think. Yeah.
So, but we did put some special questions aside from our audience. Oh my God. I forgot about those. So yeah. During the, when did you put this up? It was either during the golf tournament. It was like, ask us anything because we're going to be together doing the podcast. Yes. And we got like a ton of questions. So I've saved some stuff from, you know, Twitter and Facebook and let's see, what should we start with? I have an album. I feel so ready. Do I need to eat some chips? No, I'll be okay. We got chips here. I'm all right. Okay. So from...
Edmonton underscore tourist. First question. I'm starting easy. Can Jan see mountains from her treehouse? No. Okay. It's facing the opposite direction. My treehouse faces east. The mountains are west. And further to that, I can't really see them from my house because of the trees. There's so many trees. I have too many trees. Okay. How much do you pay for a haircut? That's a weird one. No, I'm going to tell you right now. Shaggy's world.
I... Sometimes if I do a cut and a color, I'm about... With a tip, I'm about 325. And your hair is shorter than mine. Wow. Yeah, well, I just...
But sometimes she doesn't even charge me for a haircut. And if I'm just getting a color, it's like $2.20. Yeah, I'm about a $2.20, I would say, when I get the full head of highlights. But that's very standard. If I was a man, it would be $8. Can I get a cut and color? That'll be $9.14, please. I don't know what the... That's a huge disparity. Like, what's going on? Yeah, the women are always being charged more. Screw you guys. Once again...
Itch Schnauzer, what a handle, says, with so many social platforms now, how do you keep up with all the replies and DMs to posts? I don't. There's thousands of blue dots in my Instagram. I never see them. And I apologize. People that I know kind of go into a general or a primary category that I can sort of keep, like if it's my pal Lisa or Bev or whatever. But I apologize. I do not read socials.
95% of the stuff that comes through. If you are tweeting or DMing the Instagram account, I see your stuff. That's the best way. So yeah, if you want to DM on the Jan Arden Pod, and that's Twitter. Do we have one on threads? Yeah. We also have Jan Arden Pod on threads, which is the newer, kinder social media platform. So far. If you want to try it out. 140 million users now. Look at that. I think you're going to like this next question. Okay.
So JC Mason 88, is there a plan to have Wendy Williams Watt on the podcast? I'd love to have her on. I think I had a meeting with an MP. Do you want to talk about that? Not really. No, I, Tim Lewis is the member of parliament that is putting forward a private members bill in September. His, his turn has finally come up to present things, issues that are important to him that he wants to change. But this guy is so fantastic. I believe he's in, I'm not going to say where he is.
Tim Lewis, I apologize right now because I'm not sure what your constituency is.
Constituency. Constituency. There we go. We got it. Constituency. That is hard to say. Constituency. No, I got it now. There we go. I got it now. The mushrooms are kicking in. Tim Lewis is his name. He presents in September the banning of live horse exports from Canada to Japan. I think he's Kitchener. Does that make sense? Yes, absolutely. Okay, there we go.
And he's just a fantastic guy and he's putting the bill forward and we had a really great conversation and I think hopefully if he needs me, I'll be able to go and maybe speak to the House. I'm not sure how, he's going to find out more. Because September is when everything... He said you can definitely, you know, probably be sitting in the room because... Fine. And then there's a senator that's also putting a bill forward.
So we've definitely got some traction with the horse shit campaign. And he found out about it through our campaign. Don't you love that? I said, how did you know about live horse exports? And he goes through you guys. Beautiful. So it's the power of persistency and repeating your messaging. So if you're out there trying to do stuff,
trying to move those mountains, you gotta keep at it. Don't give up. If you don't feel like the needle's moving after six months, well, it probably isn't going to, but we're four years in now of messaging every single day. Okay. Our next question, very, very 1984 favorite travel destination. Okay. I'm going to say home, but I'm also going to say there's a couple other places that I absolutely love. Newfoundland being one of them anywhere in Newfoundland. Uh,
Canada in general is so fantastical. Any of the islands off of the West Coast, Bowen Island, Salt Spring Island, you know, going to those places, taking the ferries across, either from Tawasin or Horseshoe Bay. You know, some of these islands have 800 people living on them, but they're just magical. Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island is just...
Outrageously wonderful. Where else in the world can you get a chocolate-covered potato chip? It's a really big, weird deal there in Prince Edward Island. They've got more dairy bars than you could ever imagine, but a lot of them have plant-free options now. But the chocolate-covered potato chips, shout out to Prince Edward Island. But yeah, Canada is a great destination. What about outside of Canada? Give us one. I'm going to go Dorset, where my friend Nigel...
His mom's got a cottage there. They've got a cottage there. And I'm there a couple of times a year at least. You fly into London and then usually I'll just take a card or Nigel will pick me up. Dorset, England. Okay.
Oh, go ahead. Jurassic Coast. That's what it's called? Dinosaur stuff. Dinosaur bones. Star Wars was shot there. So many great epic television English shows that deal with Jane Austen-y stuff. Okay, okay. It's always in Dorset. 50 Cents. 50 Cents? I'm saying it like 50 for whatever reason. Okay, all right. 50 Cents 3. Did you know each other before the podcast? How do podcast partners interview? Yeah.
Did you interview for me? No. Caitlin Green, who loves you. Hi, Caitlin. I love her back. She was going, she was pregnant. She was about to head into mat leave and I needed someone to produce the show and keep me in line. Someone for me to talk to. You're really going to have to keep Jan in line, you know, she said. No, I'm kidding. Sarah Burke. So your name, I didn't get.
any other names. It was you. We had like a little zoom one morning. I remember to like kind of, and you had been on my podcast once as a guest, which was lovely. And thank you again for doing that. My women in media podcast. But I think cause I was between jobs, I had some time and it was like a perfect little fit. So that's it. But this is the first time that Sarah and I have seen each other three times in person. Now, uh, once was in the bell building. Uh, Sarah came to a concert with your pal, Andrea Dunn. Yeah. And you're done.
And now here we are. You came out to the dance course. Four times. There's one more. There's one more. It's okay. At Canadian Music Week, I'm going to say maybe like 2016 or 2015.
Oh, for God's sake, Sarah, what were we doing? We just took a photo with like one of my other radio girlfriends. Like we didn't talk really. It was like, oh my gosh, hi, you're Jan. And you were like, hello. And then we had a photo. It was nothing. Oh, wow. I didn't know that. This is the first time you're telling me this. I remember that. And it was in Toronto. I want to say at that hotel where Canadian Music Week usually is. What? I can't remember. And were you getting inducted into something that year? No.
It wasn't the travelogue. Anyway. Okay. These are some fun questions, right? Holiday Inn. Okay. We'll figure that one out. She's cutting me off. She's moving forward. See? Producing Jan. Here we go. She doesn't find me funny. In an older podcast, you said you sang a song in front of your school, Jan. What was it? I wrote a song when I graduated. I don't know what it was called. Probably, thank God, we're out of here.
No, I don't know what it's called. But I borrowed the guitar from the band guy. We were at the Palliser. We rented the Palliser showroom for like 80 people. Well, no, there's 42 grads, their parents. There was probably over a couple hundred people there. But yeah, I sang the song. My parents didn't know that I sang or played guitar. Until this moment. So they were a little shocked in that moment. I didn't even know you liked music, I think my mom said. Yeah.
Okay. Danny on Neil deal breakers in a relationship habits are that are complete turnoffs. Uh, drug addicts would be a top of the list. No, I mean, addiction, alcohol is, is tough. I think to remain in a relationship. And, but guess what? I was the person. Yeah.
You have a lot of empathy, though, because you've been in both sides. I have a lot of empathy. But I think someone who isn't supportive, someone who doesn't see you as a true partner, that sees you as a rival. And I see that in relationships often with young people. You get to go out and I'm home with the kids. Yeah, they deem their partners as some kind of an obstacle to their true happiness where...
you know, it's not like that total support. If someone doesn't make you feel excited, uplifted, just adored and cherished, you know, those are all things. And people say, well, you know, you can't have everything. Yeah, you can. And don't be like people of yesteryear and be in relationships. Well, I knew we probably shouldn't have been married, but you know, I wanted to get out of my parents' house and that's how it was back in the day. And
And so don't guys and gals out there, anybody, whoever humans in general, if, if you're not getting what you need, if you don't feel like it's someone that you can communicate with. I remember my last partner, whenever we'd get into a fight, the reply was like, I'd be trying to have a conversation. Well, why don't you just leave them? Well, that's threatening. But that, that,
That takes away any opportunity to have a conversation. So that was a long answer to that question. But yeah, you just need support, understanding, tolerance. Work ethic for me. I don't want to be with someone who's not motivated to chase their dreams. Yeah. That's a big turnoff for me. If you're just like, not that you can't be happy in the moment, but you got to have some goals and aspirations. That's what I think. Yeah, I know. I get that from you too. And it's hard when you are a person that is...
Going out, trying different things, making moves that are risky, making moves that cause you a little bit of sleepless nights going, should I be doing this? Yeah. And just having someone who doesn't support that journey. It's someone who says to you, it's good. Like, why do you put yourself through that? Just do your job. You're good where you are right now. No. But do you know what I mean? That's people would, if that's what they think support is.
They're missing the point entirely. Just keep looking. And you know what? You're better off by yourself.
If you're not getting what you need. Yeah. Because you're single right now. I'm single right now. And I will say that I just got out of the best relationship I've ever been in. But part of that is knowing and understanding that you see things going in a different way than they're going. Right. And trusting your gut when things are feeling like... I was in a long distance relationship. So, I mean, just to share a little bit there. It's like, you know, that's hard to begin with. You have to really want that relationship in order to...
keep commuting, you know, all the hours of driving, all those things. But all my relationships have been long distance. Yeah. It's takes work. No, but let's think about what I'm up to. Do you know that was a really hard thing for me to come to terms with? I have never, and I mean, never,
had a relationship with someone in the same city as me. And I like the break from the partner. I think we talked about this when I was with him, right? Like, you know, I'm good doing my own thing for a week and seeing you on the weekend because I like my own space. And I think you do too. We've talked about this. I will never live with someone. You can't say that. Yes, I can. I will never make room in my closet. They can live in the treehouse. No, they can't. Not even the treehouse. They will never have a drawer here.
And you know, at my age, I can say that with utmost confidence. I'm not saying a person wouldn't have a lover at some point in their life.
But I think that person would also have to be in the state of mind where, yeah, Jan, I'm cool with that because really that's what I want too. I got my life. I travel a lot. I'm doing this, that. And I think that is possible. I do too. I think that's something you can enter into. I'll tell you right now, if you met someone who showed those signs out of the gate that
well, am I ever going to, like, are we ever? No, we're not. Yeah. That's just not ever going to happen. And I know that now I would never lead somebody on. I would be very forthright, you know, right from the get go. And I think that, I think that's a time in my life that's passed. And I did, I used to always want to like move in and do this. And I've been in this house for 16 years and I
I just never pictured myself here with anybody. I totally get it. And I love living alone. Whoopi Goldberg is my muse through all this because I've heard her speak to her relationships a lot over the years. And Whoopi is probably eight, nine years older than I am. I don't think she's 70 yet. Here we go with Alexa again. 67. So she's six years older than me.
And she's had some quite famous lovers over the years. Like who? I don't know. Well, Frank Langella, who people, you have to be a certain age to appreciate this. The original Dracula, not the original in 1936, but he played a really frightening Dracula. Wonderful actor, Frank Langella. Look him up. And Whoopi was with him for a long time. Anyway, she had a few quite high profile boyfriends over the years. She's got a daughter named
Nice smile, Frank. Probably your age. Is Frank still with us? 85 years old. Okay, so there you go. There's the age disparity, right? So she had a partner that was 16, 17 years older than she was. Anyway, she talked about that relationship, but just things that she'd learned on the way...
in her life, she goes, I will never live with someone again. They will never move in with me. And it's the first time as a woman, and I was probably in my late, mid-50s, 56, and I'd never seen anybody speak in those terms. So when you talk about that whole visibility or representation, for me sitting there and having someone say those words...
opened up a whole world for me. Because it's against cultural norms. It is. And she was powerful. She was opinionated, is opinionated. And she let me off the hook. So thank you, Whoopi Goldberg, from the strangest place in the world to have someone say that.
You can have a boyfriend. You can have a girlfriend. I can just picture her, you know, her hair and sitting in that chair saying, you don't have to move in. She goes, I've got the money. I can look after myself. I don't need to split this with anybody. And I was sitting there and I felt released from an expectation. I felt released from an idea of
An ideology that is kind of handed to little girls. Yeah. You're going to get married. And, you know, I went through that whole thing of, hey, do you have a nice boyfriend? Or have you met somebody? I mean, I went through that all through my 20s, 30s, and 40s. When I go to family functions, it's like, oh, so you're not dating anyone? No, I'm not right now. And I'm 100% good.
So I get that. But when you talk about indoctrination of, you know, what you're supposed to be doing. So thank you, Whoopi. And for anyone who's listening, you know, life...
Looks much different than it did even 30 years ago on this planet Expectations how people make their way through the world how women are in the workforce There's still you know so much that needs to change there needs to be so much more Available I think to women and anyway, that's a whole other podcast that will be yes. Yes That's a good answer though. Thank you. What was the question?
It was deal breakers and relationships. Holy. I'm sorry, everybody. I'm sorry. Okay. So I went off. No, no, no. You're allowed to. It's a podcast. Chevy's mom is next. That's the handle. Concerts. Do you care if we take selfies and videos as an artist? I'm one for being in the moment and enjoying it live, but I'm also for going home and reliving the experience. I've heard artists say be in the moment, put the phones down. I've also heard artists asked to be tagged in videos we post. Eh.
You can take as many pictures and videos and selfies as you want to. Who was in the story this week? Miranda Lambert. If I see someone with a camera like trying to, I will make my way over. I will bend down while I'm singing. And be in the photo. You know what? I hear the whole audience cheer that I've gone down kind of on one knee to get in the picture so that they can capture me.
My gratitude for anyone, any one of you guys that have come to see me over the last 40 years, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You can film me and a lot of times venues will say, no flash photography. I don't want a flash going off. That's my only stipulation. Well, it is. It's not only for me. A lot of times I can't see that stuff because I've got...
spotlights shining at my head but for the people around you that can be a bit off-putting so just no flash and you know what you'll get a better picture it's true because you have great lights yeah you'll get a way better picture i please take all the videos you want you don't need to tag me you can tag whoopi goldberg if you want to and please always take selfies
And enjoy it. Just do your thing. Yeah, you don't want to be standing up in front of the person behind you for five minutes. Filming straight five minutes. Kind of feel your vibe out. And thank you, thank you, thank you for that question. That's a good one. Fire away.
Okay, Kim Ratcliffe. Two questions for Jan. First, if you were not a singer and an actress, what would you want to be doing? Writer. Writer. Yeah. I thought you were going to say English teacher. But, or an archaeologist. Okay. So, and I have been writing more. I'm actually working on my second novel now. My first novel comes out November the 7th. Okay. I'm so excited. We're very excited about it. It's called The Biddle Moors, and it's about...
A lot of really funny stuff. That's her cliffhanger teaser, so buy the book. And it's about... Second question, has an airline ever lost your guitar? Oh my God, many times. What do you do when that happens? Well, sometimes we rent one. Sometimes we'll be in a town and we'll borrow from another artist.
Um, sometimes my guys travel with more than one guitar and I'll use one of the guys guitar. Um, yeah, many, many times my guitar has gone to whimsical fan, you know, fantastic places without you. Uh, but yeah, it hasn't happened for a while. I've downsized my guitar because my neck and my back got so sore from playing my beautiful giant blonde guild guitars. No, okay. I don't name cars. I don't name. Okay.
But I do name bras. No, I don't. I don't name bras. I'm not wearing a bra right now during this podcast. Are you? Yes, I am. I have a sports bra. Oh, she got ready. I did not. I rolled out of bed. I literally rolled out of bed and here I am podcasting. Ladies and gentlemen, you should have seen the back of Sarah's head. Hang on. There's somebody at my gate. Okay. We're going to do a quick pause.
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A cola or a cream soda, root beer, yes indeedy. And they've got their limited edition summer flavor, which will take you right back to the second grade. You got to try the ice pop one. Head to janardenpod.com to find out where the closest place to you is where you can go and buy Cove. Go right now. Okay, and we are back. I forgot that my friend Stu was coming over to...
Lift a giant fake mirror off of my bedroom wall, which behind it hides a flat screen television. So smart. But the Apple TV has crapped the pants. And so the mirror has to be lifted off by two grown men on ladders. You don't think we could have handled it? There's no way in hell. I'm not saying we couldn't, but we're not going to. The mirror is like 100 pounds. Okay, so it's not really a mirror.
Anyway, it has to come off and then that has to be rebooted or something. And I forgot that they were coming. So we have people in the hot tub. You and I are in here. The dog's running around with old plant containers that he just finds and brings in. But anyways, we're all right. We're rolling again. Do you remember where we left off? We were talking. About what you would do if you weren't. Yeah. And archaeology, I've said this before. If there's somebody out there in Greece or Newfoundland or anywhere that you're doing some kind of a dig,
I will fly myself there. I have my own knee pads. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge from the 80s. And I've got trowels because my dad was a concrete guy. You've got it all. They would work. And I will show up. And if someone could just, I'll be a volunteer. I'll put myself up in my own little motel. She's too kind. She's too kind. This is a great question from Janet, who I always see like sending us messages. So thank you for this, Janet.
Is there a skill you don't feel you currently have that you wish you did? I wish I could play piano, like really play piano. Danny played piano in your... Beautiful. It's so nice to... Danny Strong came in and played my piano. And it's out of tune because I haven't had a tuner here since before COVID. I think I would... I don't know if this is a talent, but what I wouldn't do to speak a couple other languages. Which language would you learn? French and Italian. Hmm.
I actually took French until grade 12 in high school. Like, cause you can drop it off after I think grade nine. But I saw you had to write an essay in French and I was like, I'm just going to leave this course. Seemed a little too daunting at the time. Do you regret that now?
I can definitely understand French. They say younger people learn a lot quicker than us oldies. Well, yeah, that too. But I think I can definitely understand a French conversation and I can respond. Limited, but I can respond. So I feel like I got what I needed out of French. It would be beautiful to, like Spanish is a beautiful language. Have you ever had fromage et toi? No. Cheese for three? Oh.
Wait, wait, do you know this one? Ménage à trois, right? Yeah, yeah, I got it. So cheese fromage à trois. I thought that was hilarious. Are you guys laughing at home? Did you have to pull over on the side of the road because you're laughing? How about me cargo a la mer? Do you know what that means? Honey, start the car? Close, but it means I shit in the ocean. Me cargo a la mer. Well, what a special podcast this is. What a beautiful day.
Like, would a person actually... Yes, I guess they would crap in the ocean, wouldn't they? Because they're just morons. Everything is crap in the ocean these days. What movie was it where... I think someone had... It was some camp movie and the kids were all in a pool. Please write us at Jan Arden Pod on one of the messaging services and tell us what movie you think this is where somebody took like an O'Henry bar and floated it across a pool and there was an exodus.
Like these kids wanted to go swimming and there was way too many kids in the pool. So they were like laughing to each other. Oh, they made it look like a poo. And they unwrapped the, it was probably a Babe Ruth bar or something because it was an American movie and they floated that across. I really want to go out there to the girls in my hot tub right now.
If only I had a chocolate bar. We've got a chocolate bar in our little snack bar. Because we could float that across there. Put a little extra chlorine there later tonight. You'll be good. But yeah. Anyways. This is great. You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast and show. I'm here with Sarah Burke. We're in Springbank, Alberta. We're in the same room. Guess who's next? Our guy, Russ Richards. Russ Richards.
As I live and breathe. His first question is, Jen, will you marry me? No, we're kidding. But it is. He's laughing though. Being serious though, it doesn't matter what subject you guys talk about. You always make it interesting, fun, and respectable. My real question is, if you didn't live where you do, where would be your favorite place to live? I'm going to say Dorset. Again? Yeah. I'm going to go there. I just, I mean, I can't imagine living anywhere else but here, Russ. I think...
I have anxiety dreams about waking up and someone else is living in my house and I can't get back here. Oh my God, that sounds like a nightmare. Yeah, I have lots of dreams about people coming in and taking all the furniture. Like I wake up and there's people in here and they're shocked that I'm at home and they're moving all my stuff out or that I couldn't pay for something. I have lots of dreams like that here. So I have imposter syndrome for sure.
That I feel like I'm unworthy of where I am. A little bit. I do. Oh my goodness. Yeah, I do a little bit. You're so deserving of all the things that you have. And you're so humble and down to earth. Like, you don't even act like that. What are you talking about? But that's just what's in my heart and mind is that I think I...
Someone's gonna come and take it away from me. Just I mean, I'm being honest. Yeah. Yeah, I don't ever just go haha. Yeah. Oh, yeah That's not me at all. I was raised by very humble super hard-working people that endured a lot of really hard stuff in their lives and I was always made to really appreciate any little thing that I had like to appreciate a buck and
Like my dad worked so hard for his money. When he handed me a fiver, you know, out of his worn out wallet, when he opened that up and fished in there to take out a bill and hand it to me for something, I know what went into him earning that money. Yeah, yeah. So it was pretty amazing to have that. But yeah, Dorset, England, I think near Nigel and...
um, in that part of the world, which is very much countryside. It's near Swanage. So it's on the Southern tip of, of England. And you could practically swim over to the Isle of Wight, but that, that part of the world is gorgeous. This one is from a musician, fellow musician, Jessica Mitchell, um, who I'm proud to call a friend. She says, how does one say fall back in love with creativity? She's good question. Maybe a bit of writer's block.
Don't be hard on yourself. And if it takes a year, if it takes two years, that's what it takes. One day you will just wake up and feel that desire again. I think really, really be easy on yourself. I find reading to be incredibly inspiring.
Sometimes not listening to music for a while can just give yourself a break because I think people can be hypercritical, musicians especially, can hear something and kind of approach it from a wishful point of view. I wish I wrote that. Why am I doing that? You know, there's nothing wrong with taking a break from music for a month or two. Yeah, just take a break from it.
And read books that you haven't had a chance to read for a long time. Like reading, you'll read a sentence that will stir something in your mind. But gentle, gentle, steady as you go. I've had it many, many times in my life where I have done, I haven't written a song in two years. And I don't even, I think I'm busy doing life. I'm busy with my friends. Just take a break. You'll get back to it. What about the places that inspire you? Because you have so many little nooks in the house. Where's your favorite place to write here? I like going into the library.
My dad's got a desk that he refinished years ago that I have. There's a mosquito trying to infiltrate my nostril. There we go. And, oh, I've breathed in so many mosquitoes this year. So my veganism is out the door because I've been eating bugs a lot. But yeah, I like writing in there. It's quiet. There's lots of windows, lots of really beautiful light in the morning. It faces east. Have you ever done like a writing retreat somewhere where you go somewhere to write? No. Because some musicians do that. Well, you know what? I'm lying.
Years and years and years ago, Russ Broom, my dear friend and co-writer, producer, we went out to Banff and they had these little cabins and we were out there and we did some writing and I think he took like an eight track with us. To the woods? It was like back in the day. And yeah, we did some stuff out there. Okay. All right. So there's just a few more. Oh my God, these questions have been incredible. Right? They've been great. Okay. Where are we? Let's see.
Here. Have you ever thought about putting out a box set of previously unreleased music from Debbie Friedman? Yes. Yes? Okay. Have thought about it. I was talking to your friend Wendy last night. Well, you guys, I was just saying that when I lived in June Dyson's house just off of, I lived in the basement of this four-story brick walk-up.
And I wrote probably 200 or 300 really terrible songs. I know there's a huge gap between 200 and 300, but I think I wrote about 250 songs. Terrible. 240 of them were so horrible, but I've got them all on cassettes because I had the double cassette deck, a little thing that I had sitting on this desk.
And they're all in a giant Tupperware container that you would basically picture quilts being folded and put in and sealed up. Do you have to keep those things in like the freezer these days with the weather? I don't know. They're in a box. Maybe mice have eaten through them, but it was pretty sealed up. They're in their plastic cassette cases. Wow. So you'd have to go through the tub. Okay. They're safe. Anyway, I...
Have listened once or twice over the years. I've just randomly grabbed cassettes and put them in a deck and laughed my ass off at how ridiculous and terrible these songs are. What my voice sounded like. I kind of sounded like this. Really? Dear Cantor, do they have... Like I kind of sounded like that. Oh, God. It's like going back and listening to like early radio tapes that I had like demos where you would like to apply for a job, right? You would send a demo. Mm-hmm.
Oh, my mother says, are you at Jan's place? Yes, we are. Should we phone her? Hello, Paula. We can FaceTime her at the end. Okay. I thought I'd save this. I thought this was so funny because we talked about death last week. I have a follow-up for our wrap-up. And you haven't done your will. You haven't even started it. I admitted it right when I... You're flying on planes. You're doing stuff. I know. I admitted to Jan that I didn't have time. As soon as I walked in, I said, I didn't do my will yet. But...
When I get back, it's on the list. She said she was leaving me her good microphone. You heard it here. The Shure SM7B. Goes to me. Yeah. And she did leave me some old bananas from this trip. Yeah. So I guess you've fulfilled your obligation to me. And some pepperoni sticks, which, you know, we felt weird walking into Jan's with. I promised I wouldn't bring ham, but we brought pepperoni sticks. So Andrea, who's in the hot tub right now, I thought this was so funny as a follow-up to our conversation on death. We were sitting having drinks at a patio the other day.
And Andrea, just out of nowhere, says, I wrote my own eulogy at work the other day. Did she listen to the podcast? She had no idea we were talking about death last week, but she randomly just shared that she wrote her own eulogy. What does Andrea have now that she didn't have? Two children. Yes. So you haven't been kind of shifted into overdrive because of having kids, right?
she's not wrong. Don't you want to have some control over what your memorial or your service looks like? I find them getting to be
far less religious. They're not leaving it up to a pastor or a priest or a padre, father that they saw once every four years at weddings to control the narrative of them standing there and speaking to someone that they really didn't even know that they saw show up in a congregation. People are doing fantastical things.
with these memorials and and yeah writing your own eulogy friggin awesome you can stand there and tell people how great you are we just thought it was the funniest thing she's ever said out loud because like when you think of a eulogy I personally think about like a friend or a close family member and them you know honoring your memory and bringing up some nice it's like what memories wait till I stuff I say about you if you oh my god I'm going after it
Anyway, so honestly, like... Anyway, she's changed the topic. I have a song called Will You Remember Me off my first record. And it was written as a eulogy. Will you remember me when I'm gone? Will you remember me at all? It was written as a eulogy. I tried to be kind. I tried to be good. Will you remember me? God only knows why we try and fail. Is this heaven on earth or the fires of hell? You know, not hail, hell. Yeah, I wrote it as a eulogy. And I was 29, 28 years old. Oh, my goodness. Yeah.
Will you remember me? I need to go listen to that song again. Okay, our last question is favorite person that you've interviewed. Favorite person that you... Oh, we have one more if we need it. Okay, but you know what? Favorite person that I've interviewed? It's from Debbie as well. And I've got a lot. I've interviewed some amazing, amazing, wonderful people. I'm going to go Anne-Marie. Oh, yeah. That's a big one for you. You know, she really said so many sage things to me. She has, over the years, been such a great friend and a great mentor and...
having the opportunity to get to know Anne and to stay at her home. Obviously, it's the things dreams are made of, and it's very surreal. But she's counseled me. She's cheered me on. She's told me to shut up and get off Twitter. She's told me, you know, things like the show must go on when really bad things have happened. And, you know, you just, you know, just stuff that seems like common sense, but when you have Anne-Marie telling you, it's pretty damned inspiring. Mm-hmm.
I'm like trying to think of all the people have interviewed and like tons of like musicians and that's been great but I
Even like listening to someone like Zaya Tong, right? But this is what I mean. There's so many different. There is. There's so many and so many different. Holly Gallop and, you know, I just, there's just so many people. Who all bring a unique perspective. Yes, that I've had a chance to speak to. But, you know, Anne, I was asked, you know, somebody that was one of my favorites. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
And like even having you on my podcast, I would say like we didn't know each other at all. Like we talked about at the beginning of the podcast. I would love to go back and listen to that podcast. Yeah. Because now we have like what, 48 episodes of us? Maybe not this week, but next week, Sarah, let's, can we pull a clip from Women in Media pod of just maybe a two minute or one minute clip of you and I talking? Because I'd really like to see how the...
You know, before and after our vibe has changed. So funny. Hilarious. I remember being nervous for that interview for sure. I remember. Yep. Yep. Okay. So the last is from Lois. If you could give advice to your 19 year old self and she says three things, but feel free to make it one giant one or three. And that's our final audience question. I know. I just, I feel so heartbroken for 19 year old for the 19 year old me.
What would you tell her? I think I would honestly say, like if I couldn't change the outcome of my life, I'd say, please don't drink so much. Please try and stay away from alcohol. Would I be the person I am now without that? Double-edged sword. Thing in my life. I was so promiscuous. I was so, I didn't think a lot of myself.
And then I did think a lot of myself. It was a paradox of I had an extreme amount of confidence. Like an ego. I didn't have an ego, but I was just one of those young people. I was just hell-bent to just be myself and do stuff, but I hurt myself a lot because of it. I drank a lot earlier in my radio career too. Yeah, you can kind of find those spots, but...
If I could somehow get to 19-year-old me and just say, you don't need to do that. Be gentle on your heart because I had so much heart stuff as I made my way through my young adult life. I was in and out of the hospital and I ended up with a pacemaker when I was 20. It's such a long, complicated story. It's all fine now. Everything's good. That's why you live with so much gratitude now. Oh, I've never felt better than I do now. Mm-hmm.
And I have my will anyway. I just got cut-eyed. But I just would say be gentle with your soul. I've always been grateful. I've always been very, I've always had great friends. But I just think have some self-respect. Value your body. Value your virtue. Value your boundaries.
You know, but the promiscue in the drinking, you see the correlation there. It was all so intertwined because I lost sense of what my boundaries were and I wanted the boys to like me. And I wanted to be one of the boys at the beginning of my career. And now I don't. Exactly. You want to be one of the women, one of the strong women. I want to be me. Yeah. You want to be you. So, yeah, it's hard for me to hear myself say this stuff out loud, but.
I see this same story unfolding all the time when I, you know, for example, the stampede happened in Calgary. It just ended last Sunday. Thank God, right before we got here. And it's 10 days of a lot of alcohol and a lot of people throwing up on buildings downtown, a lot of people...
you know, having sex behind dumpsters. I'm telling you, and people think I'm exaggerating. I am not. There's police everywhere. For context, Danny, who was here, the other musician, she was playing the house band for Stampede, she was saying. At Nashville North. And she was just saying, it doesn't matter what song we sing. They just want something familiar to scream along to. It doesn't even, they don't even know who's on stage. Mm-hmm.
And it's just, it's a lot of excess. So when I think about myself at that age, and I think about how much has not changed, of being young and wanting people to find you attractive, find you interesting, to find you worthy of their time, to find you worthy of a brief conversation in a bar filled with people that a boy or a girl will come up to you and compliment you or say that you're cute or think that you have a nice bum or a nice body and how we're just...
It is a, maybe it's a biological thing, but we are desperate for some kind of accreditation. From others. From other people. Because we cannot seem to give it to ourselves. And so alcohol within that equation or drugs, whatever you want to say. Whatever your vice is. You somehow feel like I am better. I'm more interesting. I'm one of them. I'm fitting in.
When I look at that with so much sorrow because I'm like, you have 20 years to plod through before you find your feet, before you find your worth. I hope it doesn't, I hope that's not the story for everybody, but I think in general, it's very common. And I think there's absolutely women and men my age that are still fighting that fight and looking for...
Just some kind of you're okay from somebody and that could be the internet that a lot of people monetize How many likes they get on a picture? That's their reason for I did look good in that outfit people did like that pants They liked that I was on that boat and I had that beer in my hand and you know Alicia was water skiing and we look like we're having the perfect day But I I know I had such a hard day that way I was so hungover and that took like 48,000 pictures to get that shot and
So I think we're still dealing with that. It's almost exaggerated now. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it is so exaggerated now. But that cycle that you're talking about, it's so funny. Last night, we're like sitting here with the girls, right? Having our...
Our little tarot sesh, tarot cards. And Jan had like paused and we were like, she's about to say something, but you were like taking in the moment. She's like, you guys don't know. You are entering the best frigging years of your life right now. Like you were just like, I remember 20 years ago. I was you. I was you. The best. 20 years ago, you know, just turning 40. I remember I was in Newfoundland. I was at the stadium, the rink there. The lights went out. It was my birthday party.
When is your birthday again? It's the 27th of March. Right. Oh, yeah. March. I just remember thinking, I have so many things to change. It's funny. This...
I have to circle around to this little part of our golf tournament. There was a young man, his name is Steven, and he's an alumni of the Enviro's addictions program where the young men are really pitted against nature, rock climbing, ropes, camping, being out there with yourself, being in nature, being in the trees, getting your feet, getting out of that cityscape. But anyway, Steven was dead many times.
This is a young man that weighed next to nothing. Overdoses. Yeah, he just, he said, I was caught in that place where I didn't want to die, but I didn't want to live. And his speaking really is riveting, but he said something very interesting, I think, that touched all of us. And he said, you know, I said to myself, I've got to change something. What is that? Oh, yeah, everything. And we were talking about that last night, about how Nietzsche, who's not, who has said some ridiculously...
misogynistic, racist things in his life. He was a philosopher that is long since dead. Yeah, Nietzsche. He said, change in order to be effective must be radical. And I remember I used to have that on my little refrigerator. So it's similar to a need to change everything. And that's what I did in my life.
But I did it at 40. I was starting to make that transition, but I do, I look at you guys and, and everyone feels like they know who they are. We're on the right career path. And I said, I hope I live. I hope I live 20 more years that I can sit with these, that this group of women and say, tell me everything. Yeah.
What was 40 to 60 like? Yeah. And what did you do? And how did you reclaim your power? And did you learn to just get rid of toxic people? Did you finally stop being guilty? Did you, like, I don't need anyone telling me that I'm okay. I don't need anyone telling me that I'm cute or beautiful or talented or sexy. I don't need any of that because I know what I am. And I can say that with absolute confidence without a doubt.
I live with the absence of doubt. She definitely does. Yeah. I live with the absence of doubt. I do not doubt. And I think we're starting to. Yeah. But do you see what I mean? So imagine that now magnifying itself on your way to 50 and then on your way to 60 where it does get easier, but you have to choose it.
You have to change everything. The radical change. Yeah. Change everything. But this was a nice way to end the podcast, right? That was a perfect way. Yeah, it is. It's never too late to change everything. It really is. Thank you for listening. Hit that subscribe button. It makes us easier to find week after week. And you can listen to us where you get your favorite podcast, iHeart, Spotify, Vimeo,
iTunes, your mother's car. Wherever you are listening, we're grateful. Wherever you're listening to your podcast. We appreciate it. We appreciate our listeners so much. Thanks for all the questions. You consistently put us...
in in the upper echelons of the podcasting world week after week and we appreciate it was great to have you here in my house so fun thank you for having us here oh my god the best the best host thank you very much okay best dip in town oh my vegan dip i'll put it on my website i stole it from somebody else uh have a great one and be yourself at all times to a lady
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