I'm Peter Tosh.

The Rolling Stones are the greatest rock & roll band of all time.

Period.

Ever since I heard the song 'Satisfaction' for the first time I have loved the Rolling Stones. When I was a teenager I had a few of their little 45’s and I played them over and over on our cheap little portable General Electric solid state record player.

My mother could not stand the sight or sound of Mick Jagger or as she called him 'ugly big lips'. With Keith Richards highly publicized 1977 heroin bust all over the news in Toronto, her distaste for anything to do with the Rolling Stones only became magnified. Surprisingly, my mother never forbade me to play the Rolling Stones while living under her roof. I have no doubt had she ever heard the lyrics from 'Some Girls', every Stones record I owned would have been thrown into our building's incinerator. However, she did ask that I not play their music while she was home.

To which I somewhat obediently obliged.

Once I started working fulltime my first big purchase was a nice stereo. I listened to all of my Stones music through my very expensive Koss headphones instead of through the speakers. I just couldn’t risk my mother ever hearing, ‘Black girls just want to get fucked all night. I just don't have that much jam.’

After Richards February 1977 drug bust, the Stones avoided performing anywhere in Canada for years. With the Royal Canadian Mounted Police responsible for the raid and subsequent arrest of the Stones guitarist, the band snubbed Canada. Well, that is after they performed a couple benefit concerts for the CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) in Oshawa. The concerts were part of Keith’s heroin possession sentence while he avoided the six to twelve months of incarceration that the crown attorney had been seeking.

Finally the Stones returned back to Toronto and within a month after me turning twenty-nine years old, I attended my first Rolling Stones concert. The show was the third of 115 shows that the Stones would be performing worldwide on the 'Steel Wheels' tour which began in August 1989. I went to the first of the two sold out shows at the old CNE Stadium with well over sixty thousand in attendance. After an amazing light show coupled with pyrotechnics, the much anticipated show began with the forty-six year old Jagger prancing onto the stage singing 'Start Me Up'.

It was an unforgettable night as the close to three hour show ended with the Stones usual encore performance of 'Jumping Jack Flash'. The Stones had already been performing for over a quarter of a century when I attended my first concert on that night. I remember even back then questions were already being asked as to whether the 'Steel Wheels' tour would be the Stones final tour.

Many including myself thought so.

Fast forward just over sixteen years later and the Stones are back in Toronto for a single show on the 'A Bigger Bang' world tour. With the exception of the 'Sarsfest' benefit concert two years earlier in 2003, I’d seen all four Stones tours in Toronto since my first show back in ’89. I left each concert feeling that I had indeed seen my favorite band for the last time. Yet as the band got older and with each passing tour, each concert I attended was even better than the one before.

It was like vintage wine and the vintage Stones were getting better as they got older, much older. Drummer Charlie Watts was now 64, Jagger 62, Richards 61 and Ronnie Wood was the youngster at age 58. When I picked up my tickets, I absolutely believed that this show for sure would be my last opportunity to see the Rolling Stones live in concert. And, there was absolutely no way I would be missing my sixth and final Stones concert.

As I left my Muskoka home on that Monday morning, I was with Janine. This would be our second Stones show together after seeing the 'Licks' tour show back in 2002 at the Skydome (now the Rogers Centre).

The first four Stones shows that I attended, I was with my ex-wife Bonnie.

Janine and I were heading down to the city early to do some leisurely shopping before the 7:30 pm show. Beck would be the opening act and neither one of us cared if we saw him perform. The Stones would not be hitting the stage more than likely until after 9 pm. As per our usual plan when heading to the city, we would be parking at the Yorkdale Shopping Mall and taking the subway downtown. It was a beautiful warm sunny day as we exited the subway mid-afternoon at Yonge and Bloor streets.

We were just meandering around after grabbing a late lunch in the Yorkville area.

The Four Seasons Hotel in Yorkville is where anyone who is anyone stays while in Toronto. It is the hotel of choice where all of the big Hollywood stars, celebrities and rock bands including the Rolling Stones stay at. As the afternoon began to turn into early evening, I figured that the Stones if they had not already left would soon be heading over to the Rogers Centre.

“Let’s go hang around in the lobby of the Four Seasons; the Stones should be heading out soon.” I told her.

Janine, who was born in England seemed pretty keen to head over for the chance to see four of her famous countrymen up close. We arrived in the hotel lobby at around 6 pm as we pretended we were tourists visiting Toronto and staying at the hotel. Even in my wildest dreams, I could never imagine being able to afford to stay at such a posh establishment. But, there we were just mingling in the lobby and it was a very busy spot with people coming and going.

There was a rather large crowd standing just outside the front door behind a rope barrier. Unless there was someone else super famous soon to be leaving the hotel, I knew the Stones had not left yet.

Security was everywhere.

There was a lounge in the lobby area and we thought about sitting and having a coffee. It was very crowded and any of the seats available would not allow us a clear view of the lobby. Plus the fact it would cost us twenty bucks for two coffees, made standing around in the lobby our only real option to potentially see the Stones up close. Janine went over to the lobby tuck shop to buy some expensive gum, while I remained in the lobby near the elevators. A gentleman wearing a black suit with a loud voice asked if he could have everyone’s attention.

“We are asking that everyone please clear this immediate area of the lobby between the elevators and the front doors. Thank you,” he said.

I remained standing where I was as the area around me began to clear out; another guy in a black suit with a walkie-talkie approached me.

“Excuse me sir, are you with the band?” He asked me.

“Yes, I am,” I replied like a lying politician.

“What is your name sir?” He politely asked me.

“My name is Peter Tosh,” I said with a straight face.

“Thank you sir.” The man in a black suit walked away while talking into his walkie-talkie.

Janine was now prevented from returning back into the lobby area. She and a few others were being kept away by another guy in a black suit with a walkie-talkie. With the exception of a few guys, myself included the lobby was now clear. Within a matter of minutes, maybe seconds I figured Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts would be exiting the elevators directly right in front of me. They would literally be walking right past me out the front doors into all the waiting black limos.

I should high-five Jagger as he walks past me. No, Mick would probably be all pissed off. Maybe Keith, he would high-five me back for sure. I remember thinking to myself while waiting for the elevator doors to open. There had to be at least ten black limos and Escalades lined up waiting to whisk away the band and their entourage to the Rogers Centre. If I had any balls whatsoever, I would just follow in behind and hop into one of the waiting vehicles with them.

Now that would be a great once in a lifetime story.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see the guy in the black suit who had just been talking with me. He was now talking to an older guy over at the front desk, I could see him pointing over towards me. The older guy at the front desk was shaking his head while laughing. The guy in the black suit began walking back over to where I was standing.

I knew I was busted.

“Excuse me sir, you have to leave the lobby area immediately.” He told me quite sternly.

“Okay,” I answered as I walked over to where Janine was now standing.

Within minutes a couple of the elevator doors opened. A large group of people exited and amongst the group was my favourite Stone Charlie Watts. He was the only Stone who walked through the lobby and into one of the waiting cars as well as everyone else who had gotten off the elevators. Charlie was waving to the group outside who were all chanting his name and taking photos while all the black vehicles turned left onto Avenue Road.

At the exact same time there was another group of Escalades exiting just behind us out onto Yorkville Avenue. They were slowly inching their way through a much smaller crowd that had gathered. Charlie had pulled off the perfect decoy while the Glimmer Twins along with Ronnie Wood were exiting the hotel from the back underground parking ramp.

In one of the Escalades, Ronnie Wood with cigarette in mouth had the window down and was signing autographs. In another Escalade, Keith Richards with cigarette in hand was waving to the few fans that had gathered on the sidewalk. One Escalade with darkened windows just quickly booted it out of the area and I can only assume that Mick was inside that vehicle. Within minutes the Rolling Stones along with their entourage and all the vehicles had just vanished into thin air from the Four Seasons Hotel with almost no fanfare.

My sixth Rolling Stones concert was as usual an incredible show and the best one I had seen to date. As I drove back home that night I mused about our afternoon in the lobby of The Four Seasons Hotel. I still to this very day have no idea why I told that guy in the black suit with the walkie-talkie I was Peter Tosh.

Peter Tosh?

Seriously?

Perhaps, I would have had a better chance of remaining in the lobby that afternoon had I not used the name of a black reggae artist who had been murdered almost eighteen years earlier. It is no wonder the guy at the front desk was laughing and shaking his head while looking at me.

It’s no wonder my sorry ass was kicked out of the Four Seasons lobby that afternoon back on September 26th, 2005.

*Update: The September 26 2005 concert would be the last Stones concert I attended with Janine. We split up in 2011. However, I did attend the '50 And Counting' tour show in 2013 and the 'No Filter' tour show in 2019, my seventh and eighth concerts with Sherry.

*Update: Sadly on August 24 2021 the Rolling Stones would forever lose their beat when my favourite Rolling Stone Charlie Watts passed away at the age of 80.

Rock in Peace Charlie.