>> Loverboy: Just getting started?

"Loverboy Live. Loverboy Love Songs. Loverboy Heavy Songs. Loverboy Medium-Heavy Songs ..."

According to Mike Reno, these are just some of the best-of titles his former record label packaged together for public consumption over the years.

Of course he's exaggerating a tad, but not much. That's why two summers ago, Reno decided to dust off the ol' handkerchief and start penning some new material. The result is Just Getting Started, a vintage sounding album that will no doubt appeal to the tunnel and bridge crowd who still pay to see Reno kick out his never-ending roster of awesome '80s hits at the local casino.

"I thought of retiring, but I can't even stay home for three days without looking at my suitcase and pacing," says Reno, who sat down with 24 hours at Lugz cafe to discuss his new album, those infamous red leather pants and his incessant need to tour. "I got to keep moving and I got to keep singing. And our fans said, 'If you're going to keep coming to our towns, why don't you play some new songs?' After a while, I just went, 'You know what, they're right.'"

But keeping the fans happy wasn't the only reason. The classic-rock local legend also had some inner turmoil he needed to work through - namely the untimely death of his best friend/Loverboy bassist Scott Smith (1955-2000).

"[When Smith passed away], I felt stranded," says Reno, welling up with emotion as he explains how the album's cathartic kicker, "Stranded" came to be. "I couldn't breath until I wrote that song. It just kind of opened the floodgates and I just started writing the rest of the songs....it just sort of all came out after that."

To cap off our little Q&A sesh, I ask Reno if there's anything he'd like to add. He says yes and proceeds to thank me for not asking about the red leather pants made famous on the Get Lucky album sleeve.

But before I can finish saying you're welcome, he interjects, "...You see, the black ones didn't fit. The white ones were a little white. Yellow: not my colour. Brown was kind of boring. So I tried the red ones on and they fit perfectly. That's the real reason I chose the red leather pants. And if it hadn't been on the album cover, I guess I wouldn't be asked that question so much." <<

This album hasn't been imported to the States through the usual channels, so get it directly from Amazon Canada:



1. Just Getting Started
2. Fade To Black
3. One Of Them Days
4. Back For More
5. Lost With You
6. I Would Die For You
7. The Real Thing
8. The One That Got Away
9. As Good As It Gets
10. Stranded

http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B000VQXTK6/?tag=imwanca-20