April Wine guitarist/ vocalist Brian Greenway is clean, sober, and ready to rock and roll.
“I’ve been clean and sober for the past two years,” said Greenway, turning off his vacuum robot, at home in Montreal.
April Wine plays Whoop Up Days,Wednesday Aug. 23, opening for Southern rockers .38 Special.
April Wine last played Whoop Up Days in 2010 and played the Yates Theatre in 2012.
“All my friends now don’t drink , smoke or do drugs anymore,” he said.
“I want to be able to remember the next 30 years,” he continued.
The Halifax born, Montreal based rock band, who scored numerous hits in the 1970s and ”80s including “ Weeping Widow, “ Sign of the Gypsy Queen,” “ Tonight is a Wonderful Night To Fall in love,” “Roller,” “ I Like to Rock” and You Could Have Been a Lady,” to name a few, doesn’t play more than 50 concert dates a year.
“ We do about 25-30 shows a year, I’d like to do more, but Myles Goodwin, frontman) wanted to retire and only wants to do that many,” Greenway observed, adding many of their shows are bigger outdoor festivals like Whoop up Days.
“ We probably won’t be playing arenas and stadiums again. But I do enjoy playing larger clubs,” he observed, noting they just played a festival for 12,000 people.
April Wine formed in 1969 in Halifax, but Greenway is happy to be celebrating he 40th year with the band, having joined in 1977. Drummer Roy ‘Nip” Nichol joined the band in 2012 and bassist Richard Lanthier joined in 2010. Longtime bassist and songwriter Jim Clench quit April Wine in 2007 and passed away in 2010, while long time drummer Jerry Mercer retired in 2008.
Frontman Myles Goodwin wrote a book about April Wine, but Greenway hasn’t read it, much less thought about writing his own.
“I haven’t read it. I don’t need to, I was there,” he said.
He can’t remember his last Lethbridge show.
“I was also drinking at the time, that may be part of it,” he said.
He noted they plan to play a hit heavy set.
“The set focuses on the three albums “First Glance,’ “Faster… Harder,” and ‘Nature of the Beast.” We’ll be playing ‘Fast Train,’ and I get to sing ‘Oowatanite’ and ‘Weeping Widow,’” he enthused.
“And we also play ‘You Could Have Been a Lady’ and ‘Tonight Is A Wonderful night To Fall in Love,’” he continued, promising a straight ahead, energetic rock show.
“I remember we toured with a laser-like show, but people thought we said laser light show,” he chuckled, noting they used to have laser light show.
“ Now we’re happy to have a lean rock show,” he added.
They are excited to open for .38 Special as well.
“We played with them years ago. They’re a great southern rock band along the lines of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rossington Collins band and of course the Allman Brothers,” he said.
“ We used to get paired with a lot of bands like that. We played with the Blue Oyster Cult and they were a great fit for us,” he said.
Greenway keeps busy with several musical projects when not touring withe April Wine. He plays in Brian Greenway’s Blues Bus with f April Wine alumni Gary Moffet and Attic Dust.
“Brian Greenway’s attic is me playing acoustic guitar with a looping pedal. The Blues Bus is a five piece band. We play a lot of blues, because I’ve always loved the blues. And songs like “Pinball Wizard’ and even some April Wine Songs like ‘Sign of the Gypsy Queen’ and ‘Oowatanite’. Gary Moffet is in that band.
April Wine play on the Grandstand Stage for Whoop Up Days, Aug. 23 at 7 p.m. .38 Special perform at 9 p.m. Tickets are $59 including gate admission.
