I am humbled. Though I had planned this episode as a tribute to the co-hosts and guests, I was gladdened to see record views and a lively comments sections from old friends and new ones too.
This episode was a celebration of the people who help bring Grab A Stack of Rock to life. I was joined by Jex Russell, John Clauser, and the Mad Metal Man himself, Harrison Kopp. Together we too a trip down memory lane, spotlighting highlights from the entire history of the show.
In the comments section, Broadway Blotto himself congratulated us on 100 episodes. It was quite a surprise and I could not be further humbled, but here I am. Thank you Broadway for your support. Your correspondences have been invaluable and the show is only the better for it!
Finally, we showed off some new arrivals in our collections, and did an unboxing. Because that’s our roots and the kind of stuff we used to do!
Join us next week for the return of 50 Years of Iron Maiden!
List of everyone who has ever joined me on Grab A Stack of Rock to date:
I came home from work last Friday to find not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE parcels containing new music! Of course, if you unbox something these days, you have to do it on camera. All of this music will receive a closer look on our annual Good Friday Afternoon Show on Grab A Stack of Rock, tomorrow! However, nothing can top the first look at a musical surprise!
Catch my reaction as I look at:
Six versions of the Darkness’ Dreams On Toast album, which will be discussed in more detail on Friday.
A brand new EP of previously unreleased music by Mystique!
Killer metal from the UK.
A surprise gift of a Japanese import.
A very special gift from Blotto!
All here in this spontaneous and magical unboxing video! Tune in tomorrow for our Good Friday show and a deep dive into all this new music, and much more!
I think one of the greatest reasons that my seasonal affective disorder (S.A.D.) has been non-existent this year is the revelation that I can work from home, and when I do it’s not as bad as I feared it would be. This means if I can avoid driving due to weather, I don’t have to drive. My work has a good policy on working from home that would give me this flexibility. After all, when it comes down to brass tacks, the worst part of winter isn’t the weather. It’s driving in it. Looking at it from inside is actually kind of fun.
Our spring has been warm/cold off and on, but spring is definitely here. That means that a few drivers have prematurely taken off their snow tires. Canadians seem to forget that April can get angry, just when you think it’s all over. I don’t know why they forget this, year after year. Perhaps it’s wishful thinking. Regardless, when that last angry storm hit us on April 3 2025, the lack of snow tires on cars that should know better by now, created an actual perfect storm of traffic chaos.
I was at work that morning, and watched as a wet mix of snow and rain suddenly pelted my car from outside. Although I should have gone home immediately, I ate my lunch and emailed my bosses that I’d be working from home that afternoon. I wish I had left 30 minutes earlier, but if wishes were horses…I’d probably still got stuck in traffic.
I watched as a pickup truck in front of me, on only the slightest incline, began to skid backwards. He veered off to the left, and made a U-turn, unable to go up the slightest hill. Once I crested the hill, I was met with three transport trucks that were completely stuck in the snow and ice. I had to carefully navigate the space between them in order to proceed. The hill got steeper, but I had no problem with my snow tires.
It was nerve wracking and I had my dad on the phone the whole time, keeping him up to date with my progress home; he was so worried.
I saw cars pull over to the side of the road just to brush the accumulating snow off their rear and side windows. I was luckier. With my dad’s help the day before, we just finished installing new windshield wipers on my car. They were more than up to the task.
Lessons learned in the winter of 2025:
Working from home alleviates the anxiety aspect of Seasonal Affective Disorder.
There’s an old saying; I think it goes back to Aristotle. It goes, “Never meet your heroes.”
I think we can prove that wrong, right here.
Quick recap: I first heard Blotto’s song “Metal Head” as a young kid. Not sure what to make of these guys, I filed it away as “interesting” but never had the opportunity to hear more through my younger life. I even worked at a used CD store from 1994-2006. You know how many used CDs by Blotto came in during that 12 year span? Zero! Not a one! I started to wonder if they were a real band. Fortunately, along came the internet, confirming that my memory wasn’t playing tricks on me. Some of the core Blotto members first assembled in the early 1970s, as the Star Spangled Washboard Band. They had albums and singles. Yet, up here in Kitchener Ontario Canada, nobody I knew had the record, heard the record, or knew where to buy the record. It was frustrating as hell, but I never forget the name “Blotto” nor the song “Metal Head”. The music video was indelible. The singer had charisma! The band looked unique. One guy was bald (a rarity in 80s rock bands) and one guy had glasses and wore a tie!? What was with that? In the 80s, we had Revenge of the Nerds and I couldn’t help but wonder what this band was about, because visually, that was what I was seeing! A nerd with a guitar? It made no sense to 13 year old me.
But I never forget.
Fast forward to 2018. My pal Aaron and I had this summer ritual of hitting Toronto to go record shopping. This trip almost never happened because Jen’s mom was dying of cancer and we only had so many weekends together left. However, she ordered me: “Mike, go with your friend.” And so, first thing in the morning, we embarked. The first store we hit was BMV and there it was: Combo Akimbo by Blotto, featuring the song “Metal Head”. Flip the record over. There was the bald guy, and the guy with the glasses! I snapped it up immediately. It went under my arm and stayed there until checkout. There was no question I was getting it. The whole trip was documented on video, including this find. In the video, I was delighted to find the guys all had “Blotto” names: Sarge Blotto, Bowtie Blotto, Broadway Blotto, Cheese Blotto, and Lee Harvey Blotto too. I got the gag, and all my hopes were confirmed when I dropped the needle on that record later that night.
Fast forward again. We lost Jen’s mom, and I started writing again. My Blotto reviews were spotted by drummer F. Lee Harvey Blotto himself, who contacted me in gratitude. He even sent me a shirt, while defending their cover of “Stop! In the Name of Love” which I wrote slightly negatively about. “What a cool guy,” I thought to myself.
I wore that Blotto shirt with pride until it pretty much wore out. I also emailed F. Lee in 2019 when Sarge passed away from cancer. What shitty disease it is.
I continued to listen to and love my Blotto albums over the years. I purchased the Collected Works CD which has most of their studio material. The rest of their discography eluded me, at least at prices that Jen won’t smite for me. And finding Blotto, in the wild, in Ontario? Not frequent, or I would have had an album sooner than 2018!
I’ve lost a lot of weight since then!
Fast forward again! It is now 2025, and to my delight, I discovered that a Blotto documentary film was coming! Hello! My Name Is Blotto – The Movie, directed by Rob “Bert Blotto” Lichter will premier April 12 at the Cohoes Music Hall. I asked for any band member to come on my show Grab A Stack of Rock to talk about it.
A day or two later, F. Lee emailed. “Why not!” he said, and offered the whole band and director Bert too.
And so we did the interview, and it was a lot of fun and hopefully gained the band a few new fans. I know that among many of my regulars, particularly in Australia, it was their first time hearing and seeing Blotto.
What was really cool was the pre and post-show chat when we weren’t recording. Bert was first to arrive in the virtual studio, and his passion for Blotto was only exceeded by his feelings of camaraderie with them. We chatted a bit, and then Bowtie arrived. He was curious about me, so I told him I was from about an hour west of Toronto in a place called Kitchener/Waterloo.
Without pause, Bowtie said “We played there as the Star Spangled Washboard Band in the early 1970s. 1975 or so. We also played Guelph and Richmond Hill.”
My jaw must have dropped at that moment. Guelph is pretty obscure even among Canadians. And Bowtie pronounced it right, which most people don’t do on their first try. He said that Broadway Blotto would remember. I speculated that they might have played at the Coronet Club, not far down the street from me. They were known for their regular-hours lunch menu, and strippers and rock bands at night. That was the kind of place that Blotto would have played up here, as Bowtie and Broadway confirmed.
Also confirmed by F. Lee: There are lots of Blotto live collections up on Spotify waiting to be streamed. Lots more music for me to hear, right at my fingertips.
At the end of the show, the Blotto guys thanked me for my support over the years and said some very kind things about my writing. I’ll tell you, there is nothing better than when someone whose art you admire, tells you that they also like what you do.
Broadway called us “kindred spirits” which I find very flattering, but this is where it gets really cool.
He asked me to choose my own “Blotto name”.
I thought about it, and I played with Hoser Blotto for a little bit. I ultimately decided on “Kitchener Blotto”, because that really identifies me. Maybe there are lots of fellow hosers who are Blotto fans, but I hope when Blotto hears the word Kitchener, they think of me. And the strip club.
Thank you guys.
Don’t meet your heroes? Pfft. Choose your heroes wisely, I say.
As Blotto themselves know, from the making of their new documentary film Hello! My Name Is Blotto – The Movie, sometimes great stuff happens when the tape stops rolling! That happened to me on Tuesday February 25, after finishing up my interview with the band.
During the pre-show chat, Bowtie Blotto told me that they had played my home town of Kitchener, as well as my dad’s city of Guelph. And he asked Broadway Blotto what he remembered of those gigs.
Check out the funny story in the YouTube short below, and check out the full interview if you haven’t already!
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and Blotto Episode 92: Hello! My Name Is Blotto! The Interview
Blotto hit the sand on MTV with “I Wanna Be A Lifeguard”, being among the first 40 videos played on their first morning as a station. Then came “Metal Head”, Metal For Breakfast, and a heck of a lot of gigs. The core members were all named Blotto: Sarge, Cheese, F Lee, Broadway and Bow Tie. Sadly we lost Cheese and Sarge, but for this special interview, F Lee, Broadway and Bow Tie reunited with director Bert Blotto on Grab A Stack of Rock. It’s a Blotto reunion, and a good time was had by all.
The subject is a new movie about to premier on April 12 at Cohoes Music Hall: Hello! My Name Is Blotto! The Movie. Director Rob “Bert Blotto” Lichter has carved this film from many hours of archives, like a sculptor cuts wood. Join the Blotto guys and I, as we check out the movie trailer and hear firsthand stories from the band. There are laughs a-plenty, some serious moments, and some fan geekery. You’ll always hear about the one (hilarious) unreleased track that was never recorded.
It is clear that for Rob, this is a work of passion and pride, as well as hope. Indeed, Blotto deserve a larger audience, for their music still rings true and makes us laugh.
Plus, Bow Tie does the “Dr. Bow” laugh from “Goodbye Mr. Bond” and if that isn’t worth the price of admission, I don’t know what is.
Video premieres at 7:00 PM Eastern.
Thursday February 27 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube.
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and Blotto Episode 92: Hello! My Name Is Blotto! The Interview
Blotto hit the sand on MTV with “I Wanna Be A Lifeguard”, being among the first 40 videos played on their first morning as a station. Then came “Metal Head”, Metal For Breakfast, and a heck of a lot of gigs. The core members were all named Blotto: Sarge, Cheese, F Lee, Broadway and Bow Tie. Sadly we lost Cheese and Sarge, but for this special interview, F Lee, Broadway and Bow Tie reunited with director Bert Blotto on Grab A Stack of Rock. It’s a Blotto reunion, and a good time was had by all.
The subject is a new movie about to premier on April 12 at Cohoes Music Hall: Hello! My Name Is Blotto! The Movie. Director Rob “Bert Blotto” Lichter has carved this film from many hours of archives, like a sculptor cuts wood. Join the Blotto guys and I, as we check out the movie trailer and hear firsthand stories from the band. There are laughs a-plenty, some serious moments, and some fan geekery. You’ll always hear about the one (hilarious) unreleased track that was never recorded.
It is clear that for Rob, this is a work of passion and pride, as well as hope. Indeed, Blotto deserve a larger audience, for their music still rings true and makes us laugh.
Plus, Bow Tie does the “Dr. Bow” laugh from “Goodbye Mr. Bond” and if that isn’t worth the price of admission, I don’t know what is.
Video premieres at 7:00 PM Eastern.
Thursday February 27 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube.
Show notes
Rob Lichter’s Hello! My Name Is Blotto – The Movie! Is set to premiere at Cohoes Music Hall on Saturday, April 12. The film spans the origins of the band members starting as The Star-Spangled Washboard Band in the 1970’s, their evolution to Blotto and heyday in the 1980’s, and their long afterlife up to the present.
This film is the brainchild of Rob Lichter, aka Bert Blotto, a multimedia expert and longtime friend of Blotto. 25 years of footage and interviews plus archives going back to 1972! Why a documentary, and why now in 2025? Whose idea was it to create a film? How did this evolve?
Is the film done, edited, finished, ready to roll?
Obviously MTV was important to the success of the band, having been one of the first 40 videos played on the station. MuchMusic in Canada also played a lot of Blotto and I’m wondering what your career was like in Canada.
What were you guys thinking, making music videos before there even was an MTV?
What was that feeling like, seeing your music video on national TV?
Did the Metal For Breakfast compilation album bring “Metal Head” to another level?
When prepping this interview, a friend asked me if Buck Dharma from BOC was on Metalhead and I confirmed. How did you get that to happen?
“Video 45” on VHS from Sony with three videos of Blotto songs that also received wide exposure from airplay on MTV, including “Metalhead,” with Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser from Blue Öyster Cult on lead guitar.” How did this happen?
I was struck by the one quote in the trailer about how some people thought Blotto was making fun of the music they liked. I felt the same way! I didn’t know how to take this band. There was a bald guy and a guy with a tie and glasses! They did look like they were “taking the piss” as the English say.
Each guy in the band had a different look. How did you approach Blotto as a visual band?
Were there any musical genres off limits to you guys?
What about musicianship? Obviously you guys could play. Were there any ideas you had that were beyond your abilities?
I’ve always wondered who is singing lead on HSH? Bowtie?
Any plays for DVD or Blu? Or even a soundtrack album?
We had a lot of fun over the last two weekends. It is very rare we can get that much cottage time all at once. Obviously, it had to be captured on video!
2018 was, shall we put it mildly, an interesting year. It was the summer that wasn’t. The year I spent the best months of the year driving to and from Toronto, at first waiting for a miracle, and then waiting for the inevitable. When my beloved mother in law finally passed away in September of that year, at least she left the pain behind.
Her decline at the end of the summer was rapid. Before she got too sick, she insisted that I still go record shopping with Aaron as we used to do annually. “You go and have a good time.” She had no way to know how important that was. That one record shopping excursion changed everything for Jen and I that summer. A discovery I made on that trip impacted the whole rest of the summer. That discovery was Blotto.
I’ve talked numerous times about how the skillfully comedic sounds of Blotto made the summer driving tolerable. I’ve trumpeted the merits of Blotto ad nauseum, but it cannot be overstated how important that music was to us at that time. And I had no real idea what I was buying. I just knew Blotto had one song in the 80s – “Metal Head” – that I saw on MuchMusic as a kid. But I didn’t think they were a metal band. They had a bald guy and a guy who looked like Revenge of the Nerds. They sported funny names like “Bowtie” and “Cheese”. For the sake of personal musical history, I wanted “Metal Head” in my collection. So there in the basement of BMV, with Aaron at my side, for a mere $8.99, I acquired their important album Combo Akimbo. It was the best decision I made all summer.
What I got was a nine-track comedy-rock album that kept us in positive spirits as we drove up and down Highway 401 all summer. And what is amazing is that I can play the album today and still feel the same things.
The bad memories are still there. They bubble to the surface. I can see myself behind the wheel, stopping and starting again all the way to Toronto. I hear Jen singing along next to me. But the pain is manageable, and the positive feelings outweigh the bad.
Of the nine songs, there was always one that made us laugh the most. That song was “It’s Not You”. Not only is it a catchy song with a cool guitar lick, but the lyrics are hilarious. I’m glad that Blotto was not tainted by the summer of 2018 and I can still enjoy their music with a huge grin on my face. That’s the gift. All too often, because acquires the feelings of the times you hear it, and if those times weren’t good, it’s hard to get around. Fortunately that didn’t happen with Blotto. I feel only good feelings, especially when I play “It’s Not You”. I can’t help but smile, every time.
This is something that’s not easy to do, It will hit you like a bolt from the blue, After last night, I have to tell you we are through.
When we’re alone, everything is OK, But it’s never gonna stay that way, When I take you home, your family has so much to say.
I try and I try, to be cool when they start, But girl, they’re the ones who are tearing us apart.
It’s not you! Don’t blame yourself It’s not you! No-one can help. It’s not you! I can’t be your man. It’s not you! It’s your family that I can’t stand. And it’s driving me crazy!
Your mother wants to know if I am on drugs, Your brother shows me his collection of bugs, Your aunts don’t like me and your uncles are a bunch of thugs.
Your father coughs and blows smoke in my face, He still believes in the superior race, He says if he were president, the world would be a better place.
I try and I try, to ignore them for our sake, But girl, I’m afraid it’s too much for me to take.
It’s not you! Don’t blame yourself It’s not you! No-one can help. It’s not you! I can’t be your man. It’s not you! It’s your family that I can’t stand.
There is no future baby can’t you see, Picture in your mind how it would be, All of us living in relative misery.
I try and I try, to be cool when they start, But girl, they’re the ones who are tearing us apart.
It’s not you! Don’t blame yourself It’s not you! No-one can help. It’s not you! I can’t be your man. It’s not you! It’s your family that I can’t stand.
It isn’t you, It’s only your family, Don’t take it personally, It’s just all those little things, Like when I come over to your house and your father tells me “Don’t park in the driveway, ‘cause your car gets oil on the new white pebbles,” and then when I go inside the house, the cat jumps on my lap, and gets hair all over my shirt and pants, and your grandmother sits the newspaper and gets it so wrinkled and bunched up that I can’t even read it, and your sister brings out her scrapbooks and wants me to look at all of her prom pictures, I mean, who cares! And your brother wants me to help him with his science project, dissecting frogs, ick, what a mess, and I go into the bathroom to wash my hands, and all they have is soft soap, and my hands smell like coconuts, and I can’t dry them on those little guest towels, so I gotta wipe them on my shirt, which is already covered with cat hair, and then when I come outside, your father corners me, and wants to tell me all the jokes he read in Playboy magazine….
Sad news this morning. I’d heard through the grapevine recently that one of the members of Blotto was sick. I had a bad feeling about it and this morning I read that Greg Haymes, aka Sergeant Blotto, has passed away from cancer.
This is particularly bitter for me. I only got into Blotto last year. I was so into them that Blotto became my favourite band of 2018. As we drove to and from Toronto to take care of my sick mother in law, we had Blotto blaring in the car almost every time. “Mum” was dying of cancer, and Blotto helped us forget and just laugh while rocking out.
Now Greg Haymes is gone from the very same, dreadful disease, and I’m pissed off.
Haymes was a writer, a musician, and an artist. I’m sorry I only got to know his music in the last year.
Hopefully Blotto can bring you some of the joy that they brought to me when I needed it. Here’s “I Wanna Be A Lifeguard” featuring Greg “Sarge” Haymes on lead vocals.
I love what we do — talking about the rock that makes us roll!
There are some perks that make it extra-special. A few months ago, I was contacted by Paul Rapp, Esq., known to readers here as F Lee Harvey Blotto! As you’re probably aware, last summer I was on a huge Blotto kick. I raved about the band and began collecting in earnest. Thanks to the magic of the internet, F Lee found my reviews and liked them enough to email me. I learned that while I didn’t care of “Stop! In the Name of Love”, it is one of his favourites! He pointed out that the drums are a terrific homage to Clem Burke on “Heart of Glass”. Perhaps it’ll grow on me!
Mr. Blotto sent me this awesome T-shirt and I wore it to work on casual Friday. Thank you sir for this. Not only is it cool as hell, but I was out of clean laundry too!
What do you think of “Stop! In the Name of Love”? Let me know in the comments below!
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