The face and musical voice of the quintessential '60s film, Easy Rider, had a mini-reunion in Toronto yesterday.
And judging from the laughter during a free-wheeling interview with Easy Rider star-writer-producer Peter Fonda and Born To Be Wild performer John Kay of Steppenwolf, it's easy to see how they've remained friends for the past 35 years since the iconic movie first premiered in 1969.
In fact, it's Easy Rider's lasting impact that has cemented the relationship of these two characters -- Fonda's funny, if slightly confusing ramblings are in sharp contrast to Kay's witty, charming eloquence.
"He came all the way from Montana and everything to do this," says the Tennessee-based Kay, 60, who will be inducted by Fonda into Canada's Walk of Fame tonight at Roy Thomson Hall (9 p.m., Global).
"We have seen each other periodically over -- whatever it's been -- 35 years or so. The first time was when we were invited to a private screening of Easy Rider to see whether we would want to work something out with respect to the use of our two songs (The Pusher, Born To Be Wild) in the film.
"And subsequent to that we've bumped into each other a couple of times."
Most recently, a few years ago, they hooked up at a Jay Leno celebrity biker benefit in California that Fonda rode in and Steppenwolf played at.
So when Kay, a German immigrant who came to Toronto at age 14, found out about the Walk of Fame honours, Fonda immediately sprang to mind as his desired presenter.
"I am an integral part of John's life as John is of my life," says Fonda, 64, who was a day late arriving in Toronto after he got stuck in Cincinnati due to bad weather.
"For me, it was an honour. To get the Canadian Walk of Fame is huge. I had no idea how big it was. John is going to go as a God d--m rocker. I have to put on the penguin suit."
Will you been wearing your usual biker attire, I ask Kay, who's long favoured black leather pants.
"There will be some leather, but you won't know where," he responds with a chuckle.
Fonda, by the way, is also 20 minutes late making his entrance into this joint -- no pun intended -- to be interviewed with Kay.
As Fonda explains it: "I was having a serious script consultation at Nappy's House. I put on North Woods At Night, which had all kinds of wonderful sounds, and I went right to Nappy's House."
My translation of this was that he was having a nap.
"Do you have any tequila?" he inquires mischievously after a large bottle of water is place before him.
As for how these two wonderful gentlemen first met, Easy Rider star-director-writer Dennis Hopper simply took popular songs from 1968 by the likes of Steppenwolf, Jimi Hendrix, The Band and others, and used them on a rough cut of the film.
Originally, Crosby, Stills and Nash were going to do the film score.
But as soon as everyone saw the movie, including the awesome opening credits with Hopper and Fonda as hippie bikers Wyatt -- a.k.a. Captain America -- and Billy setting out on the open road with Steppenwolf's Born To Be Wild blaring away, there was simply no going back.
"There we are on our motorcycles, 'Get your motor running, get out on the highway,' " says Fonda, quoting Born To Be Wild's opening verse. "That has become now so engendered with my life and with John's, I'm sure, that when I go some place, if I walk into a bar, or I'm taken out to dinner some place where there's a band, or we got to see a band, the band will cut right into Mars Bonfire's Born To Be Wild, doing Steppenwolf's cover of it. This has gone on for years. So John and I have been interlinked."
For Kay, as Easy Rider became hugely successful, it paved the way for Steppenwolf to tour in other parts of the world.
"And of course, the songs, have over the years, been adopted by every successive batch of 14 year olds," he adds.
"You know it's that adolescent rebellion thing."
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