Legendary Canadian musician and author Greg Godovitz, based in Toronto, continues to be an open book with the release of his new book, Up Close And Uncomfortable.
As a member of Fludd, Godovitz held eight Top 10 hits — including SOCAN Hall of Fame inductees with over 100,000+ airplays a-piece,“Cousin Mary,” “Brother and Me,” and “Turned 21.” As a member of Goddo, he released 11 albums while touring extensively; one such concert was front and centre for its 35th anniversary as a big-screen movie, The Return of the Pretty Bad Boys, in 2014. He’s been a member of The Backdoor Blues Band, The Pyggs, Sherman and Peabody, The Mushroom Castle, The Carpet Frogs, The Anger Brothers, and The Pretty Ones:
“I started playing bass guitar in that band in 1964,” he says of the latter, “but I wasn’t very good — until I started practicing.”
He’s got a new group, The Greg Godovitz Coalition; he released a solo album, aMuseMe, in 2019 with Paul Dean (Loverboy) on production; he’s written well over 200 songs, but says “some of them stink,”; he had a weekly radio show, Rock Talk, where guests like Ray Manzarek (The Doors) would hang up on him because he was goofing on them; he’s met two Beatles, three Rolling Stones, two Kinks, and one Virgin Billionaire; he’s set his sights on preserving history, be it through resuscitating the notable iconic venue, the elMocambo, or creating the Toronto Sound Museum.
All this to say, in his 57+ years in the industry, Greg Godovitz has seen it all. And luckily for audiences, he’s thrilled to set his tall tally of tales free.
The first peek behind the curtain came in 2011 thanks to Godovitz’s autobiography, Travels With My Amp. An instant hit, the release went on to become a national best-seller with three printings.
Up Close And Uncomfortable is available now. For more on Greg and his projects, visit websd-greggodovitzcom.webs.com.
