By late January I had secured four guests for Season 1, but I was still interested in getting one or two more. I began to think more outside of the box for guests, and I wanted to try and get someone who wasn’t in the music business, but was still a fan. While brainstorming, I remembered I had read Kelly Hrudey’s biography a few years prior, and in that book he talked a lot about his love of music, and some of the famous people he rubbed shoulders with while playing in Los Angeles.
As a huge Calgary Flames fan, I’ve become very familiar with Kelly as he appears as a color commentator for the majority of Flames games on TV. Kelly retired from playing the year I was born, so I’ve only known him through his broadcasting. Reading his book was interesting, because it allowed me to learn about his playing career, but it also allowed me to see hockey from the point of view of a goalie. I’ve always been a skater when I play hockey, so it was great to get a goalie’s perspective of the game. As I mentioned above, I also learned from the book that Kelly was a music fan. Wayne Gretzky and Brent Sutter even gave him the nickname “tunes” because of Kelly’s interest in music.
Once the idea of having him on the show came to me, I knew he would be the perfect guest to have on the podcast, plus he lives in Calgary which makes recording much easier. My agent Eugene Foley, who knew of Kelly as a fan of the New York Islanders, helped me get in touch with Kelly, and from there a recording time was set up. We recorded at my alma mater Mount Royal University, as the library there has a great podcasting studio.
This was the second episode of the show to be done in person, and it’s quite weird how different the experience is between recording in person and over Zoom. Zoom has its perks, as you can talk with anyone in the world from the comfort of your home, but it doesn’t have the same connection you get from an in person conversation. Being able to talk with Kelly in person was a great time, and it felt cool to have an in-depth conversation with him after reading his book and seeing him on TV so much over the years. It was fun to bring albums from my collection that were related to our conversation and see his reactions.
He also had some unbelievable stories. From sitting in on recording sessions with John Wetton of Asia, to meeting Bruce Springsteen in the Kings locker room, to having Glenn Frey tell Kelly that he was a fan of his. Kelly is lucky he got to play in Los Angeles when the Kings became a major attraction with Wayne Gretzky, as it gave him great stories that he shared with us on the podcast. I hope to have on more guests like Kelly in the future, as it’s great to get a musical perspective from someone that comes from a completely different industry. Anyone can be a fan of music, and I want to get as many unique viewpoints on this show as I can.
