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Burton Cummings performs at Casino Rama, in Orillia, Ont. The former Guess Who front man plans to celebrate his upcoming 75th birthday on Dec. 31 with two concerts at the Burton Cummings Theatre in Winnipeg.Kevin Suter/Visit Scotland

“How could you be in Los Angeles for the first time, and not walk up Sunset Boulevard?”

If one goes back in time looking for indications the Guess Who was not built to last, a wild story Burton Cummings likes to tell is one of those signs. In 1969, the Winnipeg band flew to Los Angeles for the first time. Checking into a hotel on Sunset Boulevard in the evening, Cummings wanted to explore the famed street. He was surprised to find that his older bandmates – including Randy Bachman, who would soon convert to Mormonism – weren’t up for the adventure.

“I couldn’t believe they just stayed in their hotel rooms,” Cummings tells The Globe and Mail.

The singer, 21 at the time, went off on his own. What happened that night involved an inebriated Animals’ singer Eric Burdon at the Whisky a Go Go, a party in the Hollywood Hills, an unexpected piano duet, naked people and a wasted Jim Morrison talking physics, existentialism and Edgar Allan Poe while Cummings chauffeured the Doors singer and two women around the city in a Pontiac GTO.

Morrison was as much a musical hero to Cummings as Fats Domino. A year earlier, he and five friends drove from Winnipeg to Minneapolis to see the Doors. “They were at the height of their fame, and Jim was great that night.”

After spending hours with Morrison that night in L.A., Cummings made it back to the hotel in the morning and told his bandmates what happened. They didn’t buy the tale. Even today, Cummings says people find it hard to believe.

“But it’s all true, swear to God.”

The full story, titled “A Night to Remember,” can be found on Cummings’s Facebook page. He’s active on the social-media site, often posting photos and recollections from bygone days. It could be a shot of Elvis Presley or comic books or an old Winnipeg band from the 1960s (the Quid) or a movie poster from the ‘70s (The Sting).

Cummings turns 75 on Dec. 31. To celebrate the occasion, he’s playing a pair of hometown concerts at, where else, the Burton Cummings Theatre, previously known as the Walker Theatre before the building was renamed after Cummings two decades ago. Designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1991, it was an Odeon movie house for many years.

“I think I saw the Beatles film Help! there as a kid,” Cummings says. “Now it’s got my name on it, and I’ve never quite gotten over that.”

Cummings split Winnipeg a long time ago. For many years, he lived in California, but left after a car accident in 2018. Now the Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon singer lives in Moose Jaw, Sask. He spoke to The Globe about his six decades in show business, specifically about the things he misses and the things he does not.

He misses the Guess Who playing the biggest pop festivals: “We were a part of events like the Seattle Pop Festival in 1969. We didn’t play Woodstock, but, to my mind, Seattle Pop had a better lineup. We played with the Doors, the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, the Youngbloods and Led Zeppelin, on their first North American tour. This was Led Zeppelin at the very beginning, before the drugs and the craziness. Robert Plant was singing like a banshee. I’ll never forget the way he could scream.”

He doesn’t miss Los Angeles: “I love the city, but I didn’t want to get old there. Even decades ago, I would say that to myself. It’s a youthful place. Do I miss those days? I’ll say that I miss being younger.”

He misses hippies: “There was a brotherhood and a gentler approach to life. It sounds corny, but I think there was more human love than there seems to be now.”

He doesn’t miss the glory days of MuchMusic and MTV: “I’ve never been a fan of video. I think it really dumbed down the music industry. Before videos, you could close your eyes, listen to the music and have your own images, from your imagination. I don’t want to watch Britney Spears sitting on the top of the Grand Canyon looking into the camera singing that she’s more than a girl but less than a woman. And to be honest, a lot of videos are made by people trying to break into the film industry via a three-minute song.”

He misses the old Winnipeg: “It’s not the same place I grew up in. There’s a lot more violence now. I read that Winnipeg is the murder capital of Canada. I don’t know if that is true but it’s not a title to be sought.”

He doesn’t miss the time before marijuana was legal: “A very close friend of mine got caught with a couple of joints, around 1970 or ‘71. He did six months hard time in Stony Mountain Institution, outside Winnipeg. He was dealing with rapists and murderers and arsonists and bank robbers. This is for a couple of joints. Today, in downtown Moose Jaw, you see teenage girls coming out of the cannabis stores with their little brown paper bag, all ready for the weekend. If you live long enough, you see incredible changes.”

Burton Cummings plays Winnipeg’s Burton Cummings Theatre, Dec. 28 and 31.

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